Many thanks to Michelle Lee, of NYPL's Riverside Library, who tells us about their Grow Up Work Fashion Lending Library!

Can you please tell us a bit about the Grow Up Work Fashion Lending Library? What is it? To whom is it available?

This program lets any teen or adult who has a New York Public Library card with low (below $15) or no fines borrow a tie, briefcase or handbag for job interviews, prom, graduation or other special events. Items may be borrowed once for a three-week loan period, and must be returned in-person to the Riverside Library staff. The late fee is $.25 a day per item. The replacement fee for ties is $25 and varies for briefcases and handbags.

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Many people think of book clubs as meeting in people's homes, but the book club world is much more diverse. In fact, according to BookBrowse's research, only 55 percent of in-person book clubs meet in a home.

So, where will you find the rest?

Overall, 17% meet in public libraries, 14% meet in restaurants or cafes, 6% in community rooms, 4% in places of worship, 2% in bookstores and a further 2% at work. You can see the breakdown below:

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The voices and stories of Syrian refugee experiences are not the only thing drowned out by the international news agencies' overwhelming focus on conflict, war, and death tolls. Underneath the tragedy, now literally buried beneath the rubble in many cases, is a cultural legacy that has spanned centuries and empires. The empires that ruled over and influenced Syria from the ancient to the modern period included the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines, with the Ottoman empire ruling from 1516 to 1918. Religious, art, music, and food cultures are the legacy left behind that vary both according to cultural differences and regional differences, as well as a number of UNESCO World Heritage site designations for places of archeological importance across human history such as Damascus, Aleppo, Bostra, Palmyra, Krak des Chevaliers, and Qal'at Salāh al-Din.

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When you hear the term "book club" what image comes to mind? Many readers not in one see them as social groups more interested in gossiping than discussing the book at hand, an impression that is often perpetuated in the media at large.

BookBrowse has been researching readers and book clubs for more than 15 years, so we knew that this perception wasn't accurate, but we didn't have hard numbers to prove the case. So, over the past 18 months we set out to find out exactly what's going on in book clubs, gathering responses from over 5,000 people through two surveys. We've recently published the findings in a report which we've titled "The Inner Lives of Book Clubs" because it's the first report to really get to the heart of the book club experience. And what it shows is that the perception that many have of book clubs is vastly different to reality.

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Truth may be stranger than fiction, but that is not all. It is also, at times, more harrowing, more exhilarating, and more remarkable than fiction too. We've gathered six nonfiction titles that evoke all of those feelings and so many more.

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Women & Power by Mary Beard is labeled a manifesto, which comes from the Latin word manifestus, meaning "to manifest, to clearly reveal, or to make real." It is a broad term for a public statement of intent, belief, or a call to action issued by an organization or an individual.

Most nonprofit and political groups have a manifesto of some sort which states their purpose – why they exist and what they hope to accomplish. This allows them to frame the organization's goals succinctly, be able to communicate those aims, and recruit others to the cause. These declarations are also meant to inspire, to share a vision and excite others. For this reason, some corporations are ditching their mission statements – which have a dry static connotation – for the more dynamic manifesto form.

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