Library Early Closure Notice

All IPDPL locations that are open on Thursday, May 8, 2025, will close at 5:30 PM for a staff in-service training event.  Branches will reopen according to their regular schedules on Friday, May 9, 2025.

We apologize for any inconvenience.


The IPDPL Digital Library is always open!  Manage your online library account, search the catalog, or explore our e-book and audiobook collection from the comfort of your home.  

Hoopla Service Update

Beginning May 1, hoopla checkouts will be limited to 3 per month for IPDPL cardholders.  This small change helps ensure we can continue offering hoopla to our community.  You’ll still have access to the full catalog, plus a wide range of other digital resources, free with your library card.  For complete details, please visit the Library News page.

Spring Bay Bookies

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Program Type:

Book Clubs

Age Group:

Adults
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Program Description

Event Details

Bookies

The Spring Bay Bookies is an adult book club that focuses on literary and women's fiction.  Readers who share a love of books and laughter are always welcome, but be warned - discussions are sure to get off the beaten path from time to time!  

The Bookies meet on the first Monday* of the month at 6:00 pm at IPDPL - Spring Bay.

*Regularly scheduled meetings that fall on holidays when the library is closed are routinely rescheduled to the following Monday.

 

The Great Alone

by Kristin Hannah

Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable.  Unforgiving.  Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man.  When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family.  She is desperate for a place to belong.  Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers.  In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women.  The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture.  Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within.  In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own.  In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska ― a place of incomparable beauty and danger.  The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.