NEW THIS WEEK
Featured Highlights:
  • All library branches will be CLOSED 12/24- 12/27
  • Remembering Bell Hooks
  • Check out our Most Checked Out Books of 2021?
  • FulcoLibrary launches One Book, One Read with Caste
  • Audiobooks by DriveTime for Holiday Travel
  • Help Us Shape Our Next Strategic Plan
  • Review Most Popular No-Wait Electric Resources of 2021 with Digital Resources
  • Final Month of I'll Be Gone in the Dark with Online Book Club
  • Daily Digital Programs for All Ages
  • New Staff Book Reviews
Hello everyone. 

I can truly say, in the words of the great Carol Burnett’s closing theme song, "I’m so glad we had this time together." The time we’ve had together is the year 2021. I am glad because we made it through many shared experiences. It has been such a year of challenges, changes, losses, renewals, breakthroughs, and yes, some laughter and some fun. Now we come to the final chapter of this sometimes perplexing year, December. This month brings with it the real start of winter, the promise of joy, family traditions, and lots of things wrapped in bows! 

It is my hope that December kick starts fun, food, and fancy that will help all of us glide into the end of the year as if sliding on snow. Hot cocoa, warm sweaters, boots, mittens, a great book, family, friends, and our pets, will help us find our way into 2022. 
Poet, feminist, and professor, Bell Hooks' writing focused on race, gender, and class.
Her poetry and feminist scholarship changed the cultural commentary and influenced countless readers.

Click HERE to enjoy some of Bell Hook's Influential work.

MOST CHECKED OUT BOOKS OF 2021
And the most checked out books of 2021 are … (drum roll please)

The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah
The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
The Guest List, by Lucy Foley
A Time for Mercy, by John Grisham
The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave
American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins
A Gambling Man, by David Baldacci
Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
STOP BY A BRANCH & CHECK OUT OUR BOOK DISPLAYS
FULTON COUNTY LIBRARY BRANCH COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS
Help us shape the Fulton County Library System's next strategic plan!

Step 1: Participate in our Thought Exchange and share your ideas for what would make your community a thriving one where people connect, learn, and create. Click here to participate in the Thought Exchange.

Step 2: Join us for a virtual community conversation and share your ideas on how the library can support a thriving community. Please register using the links found here to receive the meeting invitation for the library branch conversation of your choice.  
Did you know that many of Fulton County Library's online resources have absolutely no wait times at all for our patrons? It's true! Of the five most popular electronic resources offered by our library system, only Overdrive and the Libby app have wait times - all due to the amazing popularity of Overdrive's content.

Below are the top picks of Fulton County Library System patrons in 2021 on the most popular platforms other than Overdrive. Next week the top ten titles circulated on Overdrive and the Libby app will be posted, along with titles of the past year our librarians think you will love, but might have missed.
Although Hoopla offers eBooks, video, and music, all titles in the top ten for Hoopla in 2021 are downloadable audiobooks. If you're curious about why downloadable audiobooks are so popular, why not try one yourself? We even have instructions for listening in your car.
The streaming service Freegal doesn't offer a count of individual titles or songs our patrons enjoyed in 2021, but it does rank the genre of music by number of tracks accessed.
In the first few months of Kanopy use in 2019, children's titles were popular. Now that the kids are back in school, horror films have dominated the top ten films circulated on this platform, though Kirosawa's most famous film makes a surprise showing as number ten.
While Universal Class continued to hold a spot in the top five most popular electronic resources this year, it may be eclipsed by LinkedIn Learning next year - still, with a simple interface, a link in the Libby App, and long term name recognition with out patrons, Universal Class continues to offer the self-paced educational content Fulton County Library Patrons need and want.
TAKING A ROAD TRIP THIS HOLIDAY SEASON? CHECK OUT THESE AUDIOBOOKS LISTED BY DRIVE TIME.
Atlanta to Macon and back (about ninety minutes each way)
Atlanta to Augusta and back (approximately three hours each way)
Atlanta to Savannah and back (approximately four hours each way)
Atlanta to Brunswick/Golden Isles and back (approximately six hours each way)
Kids in the Car - Atlanta to Brunswick/Golden Isles and back (approximately six hours each way)
Kids in the Car - Atlanta to Savannah and back (approximately four hours each way)
Kids in the Car - Atlanta to Augusta and back (approximately three hours each way)
Kids in the Car - Atlanta to Macon and back (approximately ninety minutes each way)
'TIS THE SEASON TO ENJOY THESE DIGITAL RESOURCES.
KANOPY & HOOPLA
JOIN THE ONLINE BOOK CLUB

The fall selection is almost complete with our Online Book Club! The book selection for Oct 2021 - Dec 2021 is I'll Be Gone In the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Please take a moment to join the Online Book Club, it's not too late to jump into I'll Be Gone In the Dark and join the conversation. We look forward to exploring I'll Be Gone In the Dark. 

If you have not been able to join us before now, please take a moment now to sign up for the Online Book Club.
STAFF REVIEWS
A RECOLLECTION AND MUSINGS ON THE GONE-AWAY WORLD
Brazos Price, Technical Services Administrator
I find myself during these pandemic days and nights thinking often of The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. The novel was published in 2008 and I must have read it in or around 2012 when the world did not in fact end.

The Gone-Away World is a dystopia, one where a pipe, which is for all intents and purposes the size of the world and as important to the world as the sky, is on fire. The pipe consumes to make a substance that keeps the gone-away world at bay. The pipe is on fire and the gone-away world is getting closer day by day. Read more
Fulton County Library System