Batavia Public Library

FULLY VACCINATED patrons – face-coverings optional - NOT FULLY VACCINATED patrons – face-coverings expected

Batavia Public Library
10 S. Batavia Ave. Batavia, IL 60510
(630) 879-1393

LIBRARY HOURS:
Mon.–Thurs: 9am–9pm
Fri.–Sat.:        9 am–5 pm
Sun.:                1–5pm (June–August)

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Join us for March Madness during the Tournament of Books. A Sweet Sixteen of books suggested by Batavia Public Library patrons and staff will contend for the top spot in playoff-style brackets.
Each weekday, beginning March 8, we’ll post a match between two fiction titles published in 2020. The winner, determined by your votes, will move on. After the semi-final round, two eliminated titles will return to challenge the semi-finalists in the Zombie Round. At the end of the month, one title will emerge victorious.
Batavia readers can participate in the tournament by voting each day for their favorite on Facebook.  We’ll post daily results on the Library’s Facebook page. The winning title will be announced on March 31.

2021 Batavia Public Library Tournament of Books 

Book Events

2021 Sweet 16 printable list

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

The Vanishing Half  by Britt Bennett

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Searcher by Tana French

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 

2021 Book Selections

Past Tournaments

2020 Batavia Public Library Tournament of Books Champion

 

Love, Hate & Other Filters
by Samira Ahmed

Runner Up

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and rounding out the final four are:
The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

2020 Sweet 16 printable list

2020 Book Selections

Cussy Mary Carter is the last of her kind. As a member of the Pack Horse Library Project, Cussy delivers books to the hill folk of Troublesome, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times.
Daisy is a girl coming of age in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most.
Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date.
In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside.
Seventeen-year-olds Stella and Will, both suffering from cystic fibrosis, realize the only way to stay alive is to stay apart, but their love for each other is slowly pushing the boundaries of physical and emotional safety.
A novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate, and the secrets of making a world-class beer.
Dark, suspenseful, and deeply atmospheric, The Lost Man is the highly anticipated book from the bestselling and award-winning Jane Harper, author of The Dry and Force of Nature.
Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes a strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
Funny, wicked and remorseful, Mrs. Kitteridge is a compelling life force, a red blooded original. When she's not onstage, we look forward to her return.
At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, this book is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius--his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House.
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing.
Alicia Berenson, is a famous painter married to a fashion photographer. One evening, her husband, returns home late from work, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins discovers a rare book. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood.
Four siblings experience the drama, intrigue, and upheaval of a summer when everything changed
Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions -- doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela.

2019 Batavia Public Library Tournament of Books Champion

 

Love, Hate & Other Filters
by Samira Ahmed

Runner Up

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
and rounding out the final four are:
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn
The Outsider by Stephen King

2019 Sweet 16 printable list

2018 Batavia Public Library Tournament of Books Champion

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman

Runner Up

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
and rounding out the final four are:
Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

2018 Sweet 16 printable list

2017 Batavia Public Library Tournament of Books Champion

A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles

Runner Up

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
and rounding out the final four are:
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty      
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

2018 Sweet 16 printable list