Upcoming Events
Join us for an evening of spells, strategy, and socializing!
Disclaimer(s)
Food Allergies
We cannot guarantee that food served at this program has not come into contact with tree nuts, soy, or other allergens.
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Join us for a magically creative evening where green is definitely the new black! Channel your inner Elphaba or Galinda and paint the town Emerald at our Wicked-Themed Paint Night!
Disclaimer(s)
Food Allergies
We cannot guarantee that food served at this program has not come into contact with tree nuts, soy, or other allergens.
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Brett Roberts
The Colors of Kindness Bubble Show with Brett Roberts teaches tolerance, the science of bubbles, and anti-bullying behavior. It's a show of bubbles, on bubbles, on bubbles with features of crayons, magic, and puppets. Fun for the whole family!
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program.
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Brett Roberts
The Colors of Kindness Bubble Show with Brett Roberts teaches tolerance, the science of bubbles, and anti-bullying behavior. It's a show of bubbles, on bubbles, on bubbles with features of crayons, magic, and puppets. Fun for the whole family!
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program.
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Calling all Elphabas and Glindas!
Disclaimer(s)
Food Allergies
We cannot guarantee that food served at this program has not come into contact with tree nuts, soy, or other allergens.
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Benbrook Bound is a free delivery service for patrons who are unable to visit the library due to a temporary or extended illness or disability.
Applications are available at the information desk, or by emailing our Adult Services Librarian.
The library is proud to offer a collection of circulating technological devices. All devices circulate for a period of three weeks. Borrowers of devices must be resident or non-resident Benbrook Public Library cardholders 18 years of age or older. A signed technology agreement will need to be on file before items are checked out, please see our information desk for assistance.
Public computers are available in the main area, teen room, and children's area of the library. You may use your Benbrook Library Card to gain access, or see the information desk to obtain a guest pass.
There is a two-hour limit on computers. If you need additional time, and nobody is waiting for a computer, please see the information desk to extend your time.
Items available for purchase:
USB Drives: $3.00
Ear Buds: $2.50
Prints and Copies (Letter or legal size only)
Black & White: $.10 page (single-sided), $.20 page (double-sided)
Color: $.25 page (single-sided), $.50 page (double-sided)
Wireless Printing
Pick up your prints at the Information Desk. Send prints as attachments to reference@benbrooklibrary.org.
Faxing
We offer fax services to local and toll-free numbers free of charge.
Interlibrary loan (also known as ILL) service is a system that libraries nationwide participate in. It allows Benbrook cardholders (resident or non-resident) to borrow items from a larger network and obtain items that are not owned by Benbrook Public Library or one of our MetroShare partners. Another library will loan our library materials, and we will loan it to you. This allows you to get your hands on harder to find materials.
The Library of Things is a collection of kits of items that facilitate a variety of educational, recreational, and practical activities. Most kits contain books and other materials that provide instruction and guidance on the activity each kit supports.
Library of Things kits are available to resident and non-resident Benbrook Public Library cardholders ages 18 and up and may be borrowed for a three-week checkout period. Kits are limited to one per borrower.
The Makerspace is a space built just for you to dream, plan, and create – all ages are welcome. We have variety of innovative tools available for in-house use at the Library.
Use of the Makerspace is by appointment and there will be a library staff member to provide guidance while leaving the vision and execution of the projects to you. Please use the Makerspace Calendar to reserve an appointment for use of our 3D printers and laser engraver. If you would like to make an appointment to print a poster, use the Poster Printer Calendar.
Benbrook Public Library has commissioned notaries public on staff ready to help you get your documents notarized.
For more information on our notary services, you can view our notary page here.
Para la información en español haga clic aquí.
*If you need legal advice, please consult an attorney. The notary public is prohibited from helping you to prepare, complete, or understand legal documents.
Notarizations at Benbrook Library are by appointment only. This is to ensure that we have a notary available for you that can perform the requested service.
To schedule your notary appointment, you can email us at notary@benbrooklibrary.org or you can call us at (817) 249-6632.
*If you need legal advice, please consult an attorney. The notary public is prohibited from helping you to prepare, complete, or understand legal documents.
We are excited to share our new collection, our seed library! It has a variety of fruit, vegetable, and flower seeds that can be "checked out."
To become a member of the seed library, simply fill out a membership card, which can be found next to our seed cart.
Donations are welcome! If you save seeds or have extra to donate, please feel free to share them with our seed library.
New Non-Fiction
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The Choi of Cooking
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Culinary icon, founder of the Kogi food truck, New York Times bestselling author of L.A. Son, and star of Netflix's The Chef Show shares 100 flavor-packed recipes that empower you to eat healthy—or, at least, healthier—without ditching your go-to favorites.
Built on a foundation of balance and compassion, The Choi of Cooking is Roy Choi’s magnum opus, reflecting his personal journey of cooking, living, and learning from mistakes. When Choi realized that falling victim to his greasy cravings was not sustainable, he began to eat more nutritious foods—but he did it his way, to build a more realistic lifestyle not based on extreme dieting or deprivation. This equates to vegetable-forward recipes, with plenty of pit stops of comfort along the way, and tons of flavors layered in every single bite.
The Choi of Cooking focuses on foods that fuel your body, and Choi meets readers wherever they are, recognizing that eating healthy isn’t all or nothing. Yes, that Kimchi Philly Cheesesteak recipe is real, and exactly as good as it sounds. But Choi also can make vegetables the star of the meal with Calabrian Chile Broccoli Rabe and Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Harissa and Garlic Herbed Butter. And there are comforting, naturally vegetable-heavy rice and noodle bowls like Cold Bibim Noodle “Salad” and Veggie on the Lo Mein Spaghetti. Since this book is about taking steps, not leaps, there’s also plenty of inspiration for when you’re craving something indulgent, like Crispy Mashed Potatoes, but with "Power Up" modifications to make it healthier when you're ready.
Reaching for healthier foods is like flexing a muscle, and the work begins with having the confidence to cook at all. To encourage readers to take those first steps in the kitchen, Choi shares his culinary philosophy, including bits of wisdom and stories that expand on his approach to food. The Choi of Cooking is more than a collection of recipes; it’s a guide to creating a more balanced life. -
Breaking the Patterns That Break You
Experience lasting healing and real hope as you learn to break free of destructive patterns in your life.
At some point everyone finds themselves wondering...
Why do I keep falling into the same patterns that leave me feeling broken
Will I ever move past the pain and experience healing
Is there something wrong with meIn Breaking the Patterns That Break You, bestselling author Tori Hope Petersen shares the profound ways she finally found relief and healing from the pain of her past, and how you can too. Tori gently shows you why it's important to recognize the destructive personal, relational, and generational patterns in your life so you can finally find freedom. As Tori weaves together vulnerable storytelling, therapeutic insights, and biblical teaching, you will feel as though she's sitting across from you, holding your hands, and inviting you into a journey that changed her life and can change yours. You will learn how to:
- Identify and disempower destructive cycles
- Dismantle codependent tendencies in order to gain and maintain healthy relationships
- Feel less alone in your inevitable human brokenness
- Rebuild a truer perspective of self
Breaking the Patterns That Break You will give you the hope and tools you need to get unstuck and find healing that lasts. If you are willing to do the hard work, it's possible to break the patterns that have broken you and see yourself for who you truly are--good, safe, and loved.
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Thirty Below
The gripping story of a group of female adventurers and their treacherous pioneering ascent of Denali.
Excerpted in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Men's Journal, andnamed one of the most noteworthy books of the month by the Washington Post
Cassidy Randall draws on extensive archival research and original interviews to tell an engrossing, edge-of-the-seat adventure story about a forgotten group of climbers who had the audacity to believe that women could walk alone in extraordinary and treacherous heights.
Grace Hoeman dreamed of standing on top of Denali. The tallest peak in North America, the fierce polar mountain loomed large in many climbers' imaginations, and Grace, a doctor in Alaska, had come close to the top, only to be turned back by altitude sickness and a storm that took the lives of seven fellow climbers in one remorseless blow.
Other expeditions denied her a place because of her gender, and when a letter arrived from a climber in California named Arlene Blum, who'd also been barred from expeditions--unless she stayed in base camp and cooked for the men, Grace got a defiant idea: she would organize and lead the first-ever all-female ascent of the frozen Alaskan peak.
Everyone told the "Denali Damsels," as the team called themselves, that it couldn't be done: Women were incapable of climbing mountains on their own. Men had walked on the moon; women still had not stood on the highest points on Earth. But these six women were unwilling to be limited by sexists and misogynists. They pushed past barriers in society at large, the climbing world, and their own bodies.
And then, when disaster struck at the worst time on their expedition, they could either keep their wits and prove their mettle, or die and confirm the worst opinions of men. -
America, Let Me in
A hilarious and satirically accurate introduction to the United States immigration system from comedian and writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Felipe Torres Medina
"A funny, empathetic, and formally inventive guide to the U.S. immigration system." (Kirkus) / "A funny book about immigration and sexy centaurs." (Stephen Colbert)
Born in Colombia, Felipe Torres Medina moved to the US at the age of 21 and has spent over ten years of his life both navigating the chaos and confusion of the immigration system and explaining that craziness to the clueless Americans around him. There are few subjects that Americans have stronger opinions on. And there are few subjects that they know less about.
So, like many immigrants before him, Torres Medina sets out to do the job American-born citizens won't: make the US immigration process accessible, relatable, and, hey, a little bit funny. With an outsider's eye, an insider's affection, and a biting, humorous flair, Torres Medina invites readers from all passport lines to explore the multiple paths and potholes of moving to America, and experience just how many choices it takes to choose a new home.
In this laugh-out-loud book, you will be taken down a multitude of possible immigration stories that range from the kafkaesquely silly to an uproarious good time. Some of them are real things that happened to Felipe--like discovering in an immigration interview that he shares a name with several criminals--and some of them are totally invented and will make you question your sanity.
By the end of this handy guide, you'll learn all you need to know about visas like the H-1B work visa, the infamous 90-day fiancé visa, the so-called Einstein visa, and many more. Remember, the fate of each character's journey is all in your hands. So choose at your own risk. -
If You Were My Daughter
From bestselling children's author Marianne Richmond comes a powerful memoir about overcoming a mother's emotional neglect and finding the courage to reclaim the story of your life.
"In her beautiful memoir, Richmond bravely finds her way through a legacy of emotional trauma, pulling us into her courageous, tender heart while bringing us closer to our own...a stunning story."--Kelly McDaniel, LPC, author of Mother Hunger
At nine years old, Marianne Richmond's life is upended when she collapses on her kitchen floor with full-body convulsions. "Pinched nerve," says the ER doctor, a baffling explanation. But when one episode becomes many, it's clear something is wrong. Afraid to be at school, in her body and in her life, Marianne desperately hopes for help and healing. But her emotionally unavailable mother--still reeling from her own past trauma--refuses medication on Marianne's behalf, preferring to try prayer and homeopathy.
At age 18, a full-body seizure in Marianne's dorm room leads her to a diagnosis, medication, and--at long last--neurological intervention. Physically, Marianne feels "fixed," but emotional healing proves more elusive. In the years to come, Marianne becomes a parent herself, and writes a new story for her life. She authors children's books that touch millions of lives, each of them celebrating a mother's unconditional love for her children. A love her own heart still longs to know. When her mother becomes ill, Marianne has a choice to make: will she be present for the mother who rarely felt present to her?
If You Were My Daughter is a story of learning to hear your own voice, of one daughter's return to wholeness, and ultimately, a story of accepting that, despite all hope and longing, a mother's "best I could" can still fall far too short. Most of all, Marianne Richmond illuminates how the stories we're born into shape the ones we tell about ourselves--and reminds us that we have the powerful permission to develop a new relationship with what is difficult in our lives, to fully choose and embody who we are meant to be.
New Fiction
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Summer Light on Nantucket
A touching novel about parenthood, first love, family bonds, and rekindled relationships from the New York Times bestselling author and beloved Nantucket storyteller Nancy Thayer.
Blythe Benedict is content. Her life didn’t end when her marriage did. In fact, she’s more than happy living in her comfortable house in Boston, working as a middle school teacher, and raising four wonderful children. With three of her kids in the throes of teenagerhood and one not too far behind them, Blythe has plenty of drama to keep her busy every single day.
But no amount of that drama could change the family’s beloved annual summer trip to Nantucket. Blythe has always treasured the months spent at her island home-away-from-home, and has fond memories of her children growing up there. But this summer’s getaway proves to be much more than she bargained for.
Yes, there are sunny days enjoyed at the beach. But Blythe must contend with teenage angst, her ex-mother-in-law’s declining health, and a troubling secret involving her ex-husband. Meanwhile, Blythe reconnects with her first love, her former high school sweetheart Aaden. But their second-time-around romance becomes complicated when another intriguing man enters the picture.
It’s all a bit out of Blythe’s comfort zone. This particular island summer may not be as relaxing as Blythe had hoped, but she’s never felt that life has given her more than she can handle—especially when she has the love and support of her family around her. -
Broken Souls and Bones
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!
Together they’ll restore a divided kingdom—or burn it down—in this new romantasy from USA Today bestselling author and TikTok sensation LJ Andrews.
Lyra Bien intended to live a quiet life to avoid the attention of the magic-obsessed king in the fortress of Stonegate. Until Roark Ashwood—the prince’s silent guard and rumored killer for the crown—invades her village and uncovers the truth behind the silver scars in her eyes. To save her best friend from death, she’s forced to reveal her abilities, and is immediately claimed by the crown as the next melder.
To be the King’s melder is to be revered and feared in equal measures, but above all it is a slow death sentence. Lyra is determined to find a way to free herself and her friends from bondage. But first she must get more information from the silent, brooding sentry who first took her captive: Roark.
As Lyra gets closer to Roark, she soon learns he’s nothing like she assumed—and in fact everything she needs. The more they work as allies, the harder it becomes to ignore the growing passion between them. After a sinister truth is revealed, Roark and Lyra must choose to stand against all they know, or accept their dark destiny. -
Going Home in the Dark
When hometown horrors come back to haunt, friendship is salvation in a novel about childhood fears and buried secrets by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams--and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don't they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke...didn't they?
After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie's obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.
For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it's a chance to have the "four amigos," as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.
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Nightshade
Introducing Detective Stilwell: a cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Stilwell has been "exiled" to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor--a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.
Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as "Nightshade." Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.
Propulsive and atmospheric, Nightshade launches a brand new character into the Connelly universe, and proves without question that Michael Connelly is "the undisputed master of the modern crime novel" (Real Book Spy). -
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic. Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater. So the bloody messes don't really bother Cora--she's more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can't be sure what's real and what's in her head. She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can't ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women. As Cora will soon learn, you can't just ignore hungry ghosts. For fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Gretchen Felker-Martin, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a wildly original, darkly humorous, and subversive contemporary novel from a striking new voice in horror.
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The Missing Half
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.
“Sharp, slick, and chilling, with a whiplash ending you’ll never see coming.”—Jeneva Rose, author of Home Is Where the Bodies Are
Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.
On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold.
Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known. -
The Amalfi Curse
Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse...
Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven's arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?
As Haven searches for her father's sunken treasure, she begins to unearth a centuries-old tale of ancient sorcery and one woman's quest to save her lover and her village by using the legendary art of stregheria, a magical ability to harness the ocean. Could this magic be behind Positano's latest calamities? Haven must unravel the Amalfi Curse before the region is destroyed forever...
Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea. -
My Friends
A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Goodreads • USA TODAY • Marie Claire • BookPage • Literary Lifestyle • Book Riot • Sunset Magazine • Totally Booked with Zibby Owens
#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later.
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art. -
The Sirens
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • #1 LibraryReads Pick • Indie Next Pick
A spellbinding novel about sisters separated by centuries, but bound together by the sea, from the author of the runaway New York Times bestseller Weyward
2019: Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover’s throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister’s house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack—but Jess is nowhere to be found.
As Lucy awaits her return, the rumors surrounding Jess’s strange small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women’s voices on the waves. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister’s adolescent diary.
1999: Jess is a lonely sixteen-year-old in a rural town in the middle of the continent. Diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, she has always felt different, until her young, charming art teacher takes an interest in her drawings, seeing a power and maturity in them—and in her—that no one else has.
1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been torn from their loving father in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. For their entire lives, they’ve feared the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were just girls. Yet as the boat bears them further and further from all they know, they begin to notice changes in their bodies that they can’t explain, and they feel the sea beginning to call to them...
A breathtaking tale of female resilience and the bonds of sisterhood across time and space, The Sirens captures the power of dreams, and the mystery and magic of the sea.