Are you a 1980s movie fanatic? Test your knowledge of the decade's classics with our quiz from Jennifer, Kimberly, Nalleli, Jason and Annie.

This season’s One Book, One Chicago theme is “Eat, Think, Grow” and this year’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, tells the story of Barbara Kingsolver and her family as they plant a garden and grow their own food for a year. If you’re thinking of starting a garden, but you’re not quite the traditional type, here are some reads you may enjoy.

Did you know that you can grow fruit from pits in pots? Plants From Pits will teach you how you can enjoy avocados, mangos or apples that you grow from their pits, as houseplants in your home.

If like many people, you’ve taken up home brewing as a hobby, your garden can help make your beer even more local. The Homebrewer's Garden takes you through the process of growing the freshest hops, malts and herbs for your special brews.

Raised bed gardening is growing in popularity for many reasons. It allows you to grow in dirt you choose, it may increase your yield, and it is much easier for children, seniors, and people with physical disabilities to participate in. Raised Bed Revolution will get you started.

Your landscape can be beautiful and useful, when you hide edibles with plants and flowers. Gardening Like A Ninja shows you how to integrate herbs and plants into your landscape, providing curb appeal for your home and delicious food too.

You can’t eat them, but they might be a fun thing to plant along the fence by your nosy neighbors, or to grow with the children in your life. The Savage Garden is a comprehensive guide to popular insect-eating plants.

Finally, you’ll be the hero of your neighborhood when you plant a garden in those little random patches of land on the corners of streets or alleys. Hellstrip Gardening provides inspiration from people around the country who have made their communities more beautiful with plants.

Do you have an unusual or non-traditional garden? Share your tips in the comments!

This season’s One Book, One Chicago theme is “Eat, Think, Grow” and this season's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, tells the story of Barbara Kingsolver and her family as they plant a garden and grow their own food for a year. If you love stories about food, you may enjoy watching these food-related documentaries.

Just Eat It tells the story of Jen and Grant, a couple who decide to reduce the amount of food they waste by only eating food that has been discarded. For six months, they scour dumpsters for their meals, and discover just how much food is wasted. At the end of their experiment, they share ways we all can help waste less food.

In Defense of Food [videorecording], based on Michael Pollan's hit book, shares his simple philosophy -  "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."  Is our obsession with nutrition actually ruining our health? Pollan thinks a return to common sense and thoughtfulness can help us.

Would you travel to another country just for a meal? In Jiro dreams of sushi we see the legendary Jiro Ono, and maybe begin to understand the siren call of sushi lovers around the globe, as we take a look inside one of the most famous sushi restaurants.

Running a restaurant is a bit like balancing Spinning Plates, the title of this documentary that tells the stories of three very different restaurants in America.

For a story of a family that tries to emulate Kingsolver's, watch Food Patriots, made by local Chicago area filmmakers Jeff and Jennifer Spitz. They begin growing their own produce and raising their own chickens, and in the process learn about the local food movement, joining millions of Americans who are trying to change the way food is produced and consumed.

Do you have a favorite food-related documentary? Share it in the comments!

Chicago's City Farmers Market season starts in May! If you're ready to embrace Barbara Kingsolver's ethics of eating locally, as demonstrated in the 2016-2017 One Book, One Chicago book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, here are some ways to get started.

First, check the schedule of farmers markets in Chicago! There are many markets, and there's probably at least one located near your home, work or school.

Next, get ready to cook! If you're someone who goes to the farmers market and buys a lot of vegetables, but isn't quite sure what to do when you get them home, these books are for you.

One of the first things available at Chicago farmers markets are leafy greens and vegetables. Take advantage of the many varieties of lettuce and pack a Salad in A Jar for lunch.

Those tables of carrots and beets and potatoes look beautiful lined up at the farmers market stalls, but what to do with them when you get them home? Roots will give you lots of recipes, plus more information on these superfoods.

Are you one of the many Chicagoans who spends a lot of time training for races and other athletic events during the summer months? There's a special book just for you: Run Fast, Eat Slow, which provides healthy recipes designed with runners and athletes in mind, utilizing ingredients you'll find at your farmers market.

Few summer afternoons are more enjoyable than those spent grilling with family and friends. If you're planning on hosting a summer party, you need to check out The Summer Table's fantastic recipes just for the flavors and holidays of this season, including many healthy dishes with lots of fruits and veggies.

Finally, take some advice from a famous fan of Chicago farmers markets, Oprah Winfrey. Her new cookbook, Food, Health and Happiness, has over a hundred recipes, plus stories and memories from Oprah.

Do you have a favorite summer recipe to share, or a great tip on shopping at the farmers market? Let us know in the comments!

Throughout the 2016-2017 season of One Book, One Chicago, we've been exploring Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. As the season draws to a close with the season finale event featuring Barbara Kingsolver on May 18 at Harold Washington Library Center, test your knowledge of this season's book with our quiz!

Test your expertise with our quiz by Monday, May 22, and you'll enter a drawing for a grand prize of a bag of books and an autographed copy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

July brings hot sun, warm breezes, fireworks, barbecues and sandy beaches. As things heat up this summer, we caught you reading some cool summer reads.

Heating up the grill at Foster Beach over the Independence Day weekend, we spied several readers devouring more than just hot dogs and burgers. Underneath the shade of a tree in the grass, you were reading Look at Me, a quirky tale set in Rockford, Ill., of a model recovering after a devastating car crash. Lying on your beach blanket in the sand, you were reading The Circle, a satiric novel that explores the dangerous side of the technological world. A film adaptation of The Circle was recently released.

Up on the Gene's Sausage rooftop, taking in the cooler-by-the-lake breeze, we caught you reading A Man Called Ove, a novel about a grumpy old man and his new neighbors. (If you liked A Man Called Ove, we recommend these readalikes.)

Riding the Red Line down to a White Sox game, we caught you reading the wonderful play Fences by August Wilson. Part of Wilson's "20th Century Cycle" telling the stories of African-American life, the play depicts the struggles of a former Negro League baseball player after Major League Baseball was integrated in the 1950s. Fences was recently made into an award-winning film starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

Lounging in the grass in between bands at Pitchfork Music Festival, we caught you reading Can't Stop, Won't Stop, a history of the hip-hop generation. At the festival's book tent, we caught you perusing The First Collection of Criticism by A Living Female Rock Critic by local author Jessica Hopper.

What else are you reading this summer, Chicago? Let us know in the comments!

Greg Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune since 1990 and is the co-host of the nationally syndicated public radio show Sound Opinions on WBEZ-FM 91.5.

He has written several books, including this year's One Book, One Chicago selection, I'll Take You There, as well as Ripped and Wilco. He co-authored The Beatles Vs. the Rolling Stones.

His essays and criticism have appeared in books on Johnny Cash, George Harrison, the Velvet Underground, R.E.M. and Nirvana, among others. Kot has written for Encyclopaedia Britannica and is a longtime contributor to numerous publications, including Rolling Stone and the BBC website.

He is also a confirmed hoops junkie who coaches and co-owns a Chicago-based youth travel basketball program (OTEhoops.com). Kot co-authored two bestselling editions of Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Basketball.

I'll Take You There, this year's One Book, One Chicago selection, is the untold story of living legend Mavis Staples—lead singer of the Staple Singers and a major figure in the music that shaped the civil rights era.

Honing her prodigious talent on the Southern gospel circuit of the 1950s, Mavis and the Staple Singers went on to sell more than 30 million records, with message-oriented soul music that became a soundtrack to the civil rights movement—inspiring Martin Luther King, Jr. himself.

Critically acclaimed biographer and Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot cuts to the heart of Mavis Staples’ music, revealing the intimate stories of her 60-year career. From her love affair with Bob Dylan, to her creative collaborations with Prince, to her recent revival alongside Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, this definitive account shows Mavis as you’ve never seen her before. Written with the complete cooperation of Mavis and her family, this fascinating biography illuminates a legendary singer and group during a historic period of change in America.

Greg Kot is the author of the 2017-2018 One Book, One Chicago selection, I'll Take You There. We asked Greg to reflect on what inspired him to write the book in this guest blog.

AM pop radio of the ‘70s introduced me to Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers. Their deep harmony vocals, full of ancient mystery that only a family group could conjure, mesmerized 14-year-old me. And yet their songs were as direct as a news bulletin: “Respect Yourself,” “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me),” “I’ll Take You There.”

A few years later while in college, I caught a midnight showing of a then-new movie, The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s documentary of The Band’s farewell concert. Up until then, I had only seen images of the Staple Singers smiling from album covers with their ‘70s Afros and hip clothes. So Scorsese’s camera provided an introduction of sorts as it slowly panned the room while the Staples merged their voices with the Band’s. Sisters Mavis, Cleotha and Yvonne projected a serene joy as they sang with their father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, and traded verses with the Band. Their voices melded and then flew free, Mavis bringing it home with a fervor that made everything else in the movie recede. As the song fades, Mavis offers a blessing. “Beautiful,” she says.

I was hooked after that and began digging into the group’s history. As potent as the ‘70s AM radio hits were, they sounded slick next to unadorned classics from the ‘50s and early ‘60s such as “Uncloudy Day,” “Too Close” and “On My Way to Heaven.” The group’s early music is haunting, downright spooky, like the mist rolling off a cotton field at midnight. It was performed with little more than a guitar and four voices. Cleotha’s down-sloping soprano floats atop the mix and Mavis’ robust contralto roams up from the bottom while Pops’ guitar plays the blues as taught to him by Charley Patton. No wonder that artists across the generations like Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Aretha Franklin, Prince and Neko Case have been enthralled by it.

When I became the music critic at the Chicago Tribune in 1990, the Staples no longer had a record deal, but they would occasionally perform in their hometown, sometimes as an opening act for artists of lesser stature. It wasn’t until after Pops died in 2000 and Mavis reinvented herself as a solo artist in 2004, self-financing the recording sessions, that the Staples' music slowly re-emerged into a public view.

I was fortunate to interview Mavis and her family a number of times over those years, and had dreamed of writing a book about them and their remarkable rise: sharecropper’s kids singing timeless songs in Southside churches that eventually became gospel hits; providing a soundtrack for the civil rights movement while serving as Martin Luther King’s chosen singing group; championing the music of Bob Dylan before anyone outside the folk movement did; walking away with a movie ostensibly about the Band, and on and on.

Yet when I first pitched the idea more than a decade ago, publishers weren’t interested in a book on the Staples. That changed when artists like Ry Cooder and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy began working with Mavis, and she started appearing on national TV talk shows, her talent and charisma reviving a conversation about her family that felt increasingly timely. She was no longer perceived as a has-been but as an all-time great enjoying a victory lap fired not just by decades-old hits, but by of-the-moment songs that spoke to the times we live in. “You Are Not Alone” felt as necessary in 2010 as “Freedom Highway” had in 1965.

A Staple Singers biography presented a daunting task, with multiple storylines. But here’s the most important one: Implicit in every word that Mavis and her family sang since the ’40s is that black lives not only matter, they are essential to the idea of America as an idea and an ideal. It’s a voice that says to all of us, “I’ll take you there,” no matter what gets in the way.

Did you know 253 million people in the world have a visual impairment? World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. World Sight Day 2017 is October 12.

Here are five articles to help you learn more about visual impairment and blindness. You can read these articles using CPL's Online Resources.

"Amazing Electronic Glasses Help the Legally Blind See, But They Are Costly" by Andrew Zaleski
CNBC.com, September 20, 2017
Smart technology advances have made it possible for people with low vision to see more and become more independent. But the cost of the technology means it may be out of reach for most people who could use it.

"Looking Good" by Clare Wilson
New Scientist, 2017 Special Issue
You mom was right—eating veggies may be good for your eyesight. Exercise, spending time outside and using new technology are a few of the other ways you can improve your vision.

"A Look Inside the Blackhawks Blind Hockey Team" by Steve Reaven
Chicago Tribune, August 9, 2017
Learn about blind athletes who are winning big right here in Chicago.

"Blind Artist and Engineering Students Team Up to Create a Unique Cane" by Amy Dockser Marcus
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2017
One blind artist is using his cane to create music and disrupt the way people see disability, with the help of some engineers.

"With Artificial Intelligence, Facebook Helps the Blind to Know What's in the Pictures" by Diego Graglia
Braille Forum, June 2016
As social media has become such a major way people connect with their friends and family, people who cannot see well have had trouble participating fully in the social networks. Now Facebook is taking steps to become more accessible.

Want to take action in honor of World Sight Day? You can donate your old eyeglasses to be recycled and reused by someone in need with Lions Clubs International's eyeglass recycling program. Check the website to find a donation site near you.

We've learned a lot about the Staples family through this season's One Book, One Chicago selection, I'll Take You There. From their humble beginnings singing on the living room floor to their rise to becoming one of the most important groups in the civil rights movement, the book tells the story of their journey and all the triumphs and tragedies in between. 

But Pops, Mavis, Cleotha, Pervis and Yvonne aren't the only people who got a family band together! How well do you know these famous musical families? 

Silver bells, sleigh bells and jingle bells are ringing out of every radio and speaker this time of year. As we celebrate the sounds of the holiday season, how well do you know holiday music? Take our quiz and find out.

Have you vowed to take better photos this year? Whether you've just received a new gadget or you're a selfie superstar, there are many ways to improve your skills.

Check out these five articles on taking better photos. You can read these articles using CPL's Online Resources.

"47 Tips for Better Photos (on a Camera or Smartphone)"
Travel & Leisure, October 2017
Choose just a few things to do from this comprehensive list of tips from the editors of Travel & Leisure magazine, and your photos will be sure to wow in the coming year.

"How to Shoot a Great Dog Photo" by Allen St. John
Consumer Reports, April 4, 2017
Get down on the floor with your furry friend and capture cute, artistic and fun photos of dogs.

"Tips for Taking Better Photos of Your Garden and Wildlife" by Melissa Kossler
St. Louis Post, Dispatch, July 16, 2017
Make your backyard or the local park your photography studio and capture animals, flowers and all creatures in nature with these tips.

"Five Photography Errors to Stop Making Right Now" by Linda Maki and Steve Wild
The Macleod Gazette, March 8, 2017
Learn simple tips on where to stand, why the sun's position matters and more to quickly improve your photos.

"This 52-Week Challenge Will Improve Your Photography Skills in 2018" by Michael Zhang
PetaPixel, December 27, 2017
Join this ongoing challenge for inspiration on what to shoot, and connections with other photographers.

Want to explore more? You can also check out issues of photography magazines, including Popular Photography and Shutterbug, using RBDigital Magazines.

This season of One Book, One Chicago, we're celebrating the theme of Music: The Beat of Our City through Greg Kot's book I'll Take You There. As we explore Chicago's rich musical heritage, we want to know, how well do you know Chicago Landmarks? Take our quiz, written by librarian Mary from the Municipal Reference Collection at Harold Washington Library Center, and find out!

Throughout February, we celebrate African American History Month. While you’re probably familiar with The Staple Singers, as we’ve been reading this season’s One Book, One Chicago selection I'll Take You There, we wanted to test your knowledge of other Chicago African American music makers. Take our quiz and find out how much you know!

The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Games begin March 8! While you're cheering on the United States Paralympic Team as they compete for the gold in up to 80 different events, celebrate the achievements of other United States Paralympians through these books. 

The Paralympic Games, first taking place in 1960 in Rome, were developed out of a post-World War War II movement to assist injured veterans of the war. Today's Paralympians include veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts who have put their military skills to work as athletes after injuries. One of the first came in 2008 when Kortney Clemons, a combat medic who lost his leg to a roadside bomb, became the first Iraq veteran to qualify for the United States Paralympic team. He recounts his mission to represent his country in a new way in his memoir Amped.

Fire in My Eyes is another servicemember's memoir: Lieutenant Brad Snyder, a Navy Seal who was blinded while serving in Afghanistan. Exactly one year later, he was standing on the podium receiving a gold medal in swimming at the 2012 Paralympic Games. He went on to win an additional gold and silver in 2012, as well as three golds in 2016. He holds several world and Paralympic records. 

Years after a childhood cancer resulted in his leg being amputated, Josh Sundquist started to ski. His hilarious and heartwarming book Just Don't Fall tells the story of his childhood and teen years, and how he ended up representing the United States in skiing at the Paralympic Games. After retiring from professional skiing, he became a comedian and author, most recently releasing the teen book Love and First Sight, about a blind teen who undergoes experimental surgery to regain his vision.

Mark Zupan is one of the stars of the documentary Murderball, which chronicled the United States wheelchair rugby team as they vie with the Canadian team in the lead-up to the 2004 Paralympic Games. Zupan, who was on the bronze medal-winning team in 2004 and gold medal-winning team in 2008, wrote Gimp about his life after he became a quadriplegic in a car accident as a teenager. 

Finally, don't miss Imperfect, the biography of baseball great Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand. Before he went on to pitch 10 seasons in Major League Baseball, Abbott was first a star at the University of Michigan. He was recruited for the U.S. 1988 Summer Olympics baseball team, where he pitched the final game and helped the team win a gold medal. Although there's no baseball event at the Paralympics, baseball will again be an exhibition event at the 2020 Tokyo Games and may be added to a future Paralympics. 

Good luck, Team USA!

This season of One Book, One Chicago, we're celebrating the theme of Music: The Beat of Our City through Greg Kot's book I'll Take You There. As we explore Chicago's rich musical heritage, we want to know, how well do you know Chicago music trivia? Take our quiz and find out, and if you want to learn more, be sure to attend one of our One Book, One Chicago events! 

This season of One Book, One Chicago, we explore the theme Music: The Beat of Our City through I'll Take You There. But have you ever wondered why music affects us the way it does? 

Ever since the late neurologist and music lover Oliver Sacks published his popular book Musicophilia in 2007, people have been interested in the way music can affect our brains. From putting on a pump up the jams playlist when you're at the gym, to singing a child a lullaby before bed, music is a part of our daily lives and can set the mood and tell our brains what to do or how to feel. If you're interested in how your brain interacts with music, we recommend these top picks.

Have you ever been moved to tears when you heard a song come on the radio? When you feel sad, does playing a favorite tune immediately cheer you up? Physicist and composer John Powell explores why this is in Why You Love Music. John is also the author of an earlier book on the topic, How Music Works. 

You may think that your love of the latest pop hit is because of your own taste, but as John Seabrook explores in The Song Machine, it may actually be because the song was designed to appeal to the "bliss point" of your brain. 

Musician, Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame inductee and co-founder of Talking Heads David Byrne explores his life's passion in How Music Works, recently updated in 2017 to include a new chapter on digital curation. Byrne even suggests that his creative accomplishments may be related to his self-diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome. 

After slipping into a coma following a surgery for pancreatic cancer, Andrew Schulman was not expected to survive. He was a guitarist and lover of music, so his wife played him Bach's St. Matthew Passion through ear buds in the hospital. Miraculously, his vital signs stabilized and he soon recovered, as he shares in the memoir  Waking the Spirit. He now works in the hospital where he almost died, playing music for other critically ill patients. 

Do you have a favorite book on music and the brain? Share it in the comments.

Throughout the 2017-2018 One Book, One Chicago season, we've been exploring the theme "Music: The Beat of Our City" through the book I'll Take You There by Greg Kot.

As we end this season of musical exploration, we are pleased to share a guest blog from one of our presenters, urbanologist Max Grinnell. You may have seen one of Max's history lectures, or been on one of our music-themed walking tours he has led this year. Today, Max shares his memories of the beginning of his love of Chicago music. 

Jazz, Showcased by Max Grinnell

My Chicago musical education began on September 24, 1994.

It was then I stepped into Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, located immediately off the lobby inside the Blackstone Hotel at the corner of Balbo and Michigan in the South Loop.

The next day I would start my education at the University of Chicago as a first year in the College. One could not enter the dormitory (in my case, a former grand hotel-turned-abode-for-precocious-juveniles) until September 25, which necessitated an overnight stay.

So here I was, sweating profusely with my two dirt brown valises, as a bellhop handed me what appeared to be a churchkey, all while heaving my worldly possessions onto a luggage cart while saying “Oooh, you’re new to town, huh?”

There was no denying it, and I replied with “Yup, starting college tomorrow. Excited, I guess. Hungry, too”

“I’m Dave, you’re at the Blackstone Hotel and I go to DePaul. I’m from Western Springs”

Three proper nouns I could parse out, but what was a ‘Western Springs’?

The name sounded like a type of resort for people under the grip of consumption or perhaps a mountain resort way out west in the undulating hills near Galena. 

Scratch that last speculation. I didn’t know Galena from Coal City when I was eighteen. 

I nodded to show I and he said “Well, you should clean up and get downstairs to the Showcase. $10 for students. I think tonight there’s a pianist. Maybe a trio with a pianist. Or could just be a pianist. Not sure.”

This fellow collegian’s casual attitude towards musical ensembles irked me a great deal. As a recent graduate of the James A. Garfield High School Orchestra and occasional ensemble member of Seattle’s least-known jazz quartet (The Mustard Seeds, if you must know), I took umbrage at the way an ensemble could just be assembled through any-old-instruments-that-are-just-lying-around-in-the-back-take-a-few-out-this-reed-works-mouthpiece-on-okay-go.

After depositing my bags and ironing my only pair of dress pants, I made my way back to the lobby. All of the action centered around a dark opening at the far corner. In front, a sign read “Tonight at the Jazz Showcase: MCCOY TYNER FOR THREE NIGHTS”.

I spent a moment questioning their typographic decisions, then wondered “How much does it cost?”

As a young person on a budget, it was an important consideration. My mind flashed back to my father’s feats of word-play and occasional outright chicanery that gained my family admittance to Seattle’s Demitriou’s Jazz Alley numerous times to see Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, and other jazz luminaries.

Approaching the entrance, I started to clear my throat, asking the gent positioned near the entrance “How mu-

“10 dollars for students tonight”, he replied. 

I fumbled through my pants pocket, fingers moving over a moldering corsage from my prom, and then over to what felt like a bill, yes that’s it, pull it out, hand it to him and see if-

“That’s 20, so here’s a 10 back. Spend the rest on drinks.”

I took the 10 from him and made for the bar, where I sat though three entire sets, not once getting up from my seat. After all, maybe there was a reseating fee? Or perhaps I was in a reserved seat already? 

These things passed through my mind as McCoy Tyner and his ensemble made their way through a range of standards. I remembered a few nods to his time with John Coltrane in the second set. Other than that, I just remembered feeling like I was a bit more of an adult after the entire experience.

Here I was sitting in a grand space, surrounded by people who also enjoyed jazz, while surrounded by luxurious trappings, all while other people were out enjoying their own Chicago nightlife experience in all directions.

I knew Chicago and its musical landscape had much to teach me.

And the Jazz Showcase? It’s still around, just a few blocks away inside the former Dearborn Station.

I can still visit its former location inside the Blackstone Hotel, but the aural texture inside has changed quite a bit.

That space is now a men’s and women’s bathroom. 

July is Disability Awareness Month! Throughout July, we celebrate and learn about the rich history of people with disabilities. To get you started, try out this quiz about disability history!