Transform Your Midwest Yard into a Breathtaking Oasis with Natural and Prairie Garden Techniques
Forget mowing! Plant a prairie garden to replace wasteful grass and benefit local wildlife.
10 Delicious Burrito-Sized Books to Eat (or Read) on National Burrito Day
Please don't eat these books, as tempting as it may be.
Cooking and Storytelling Unite: Discover the Most Entertaining Cookbooks on the Shelves
The Library has so many cookbooks it can be hard to keep up! We have so much more than the usual famous chefs and social media empire offerings.
Brewing Knowledge: 10 Must-Read Books About Kombucha
Dive into the world of kombucha with books that offer a blend of beginner-friendly insights and expert techniques. Uncover the secrets to mastering the art of fermentation and crafting your perfect batch of probiotic goodness.
10 Books to Elevate Your Cooking with Beans
Beans, beans, the musical fruit...no, we're not at the playground singing songs about flatulence, we're in the kitchen and we're cooking with the incredibly versatile bean.
10 Delicious Vegan Cookbooks to Get You Cooking for Veganuary
These vegan cookbooks can set you up for success on your Veganuary journey.
10 Cookbooks to Help You Make An Award Winning Pie
These 10 cookbooks will help you wow everyone with your dessert (or dinner!) pie at your next event!
5 Books to Help You Navigate Your Child’s Health
These books about children's health aim to support and nurture the well-being of the youngest generation.
5 Books to Help You Save Money, Eat Healthy, and Pack Your Lunch
We round up some of the best books to help you pack your own lunch.
Rachel Recommends: What to Read and Watch This Autumn
"I'm so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers." - L.M. Montgomery
5 Books About Coffee, Just in Time for Pumpkin Spice Latte Season
Don't read this before you've had your first cup of coffee for the day.
5 Books About Breakfast for People Who Might Not Always Eat Breakfast
If breakfast is less of a meal and more of a quick snack, these books might help you reintroduce the first meal of the day into your life.
A lot of Avocado Recipes to Celebrate National Avocado Day
Go beyond avocado toast and guacamole with these avocado cookbooks and magazines.
The Only Thing Better Than These Books About Ice Cream is Actual Ice Cream
Face it, every time you get a scoop of ice cream you sing that song in your head about screaming for it.
10 Books To Boost Your Grilling Game
July is National Grilling Month. Find a new recipe or technique in one of these suggested books.
Rachel Recommends: What to Read and Watch This Summer
Summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowin' through the jasmine in my mind.
All Pizza is the Best Pizza, But Today We Honor Detroit Style
Is your favorite pizza from Detroit?
10 Books to Make Sure Your Summer Cooking Season is the Best it Can Be
It's officially summer, and if you're looking for a great summer cookbook, the Library has it!
5 Cookbooks To Help Spice Up Your Rotisserie Chicken Meals
June 2 is National Rotisserie Chicken Day. Pick up a bird and make an easy meal using one of these cookbooks.
5 Books to Help You Start Composting
Celebrate Learn How to Compost Day!
10 Great Books for Wine (and Grape) Enthusiasts
These books are Dionysus-approved.
10 Books to Help Your Vegetable Garden Planning and Planting
May 19th is Plant a Vegetable Garden Day. Check out these books for some inspiration.
SPAM: 5 Books to Celebrate an Asian-American Tradition
SPAM has roots in many Asian-American kitchens, and it has an interesting connection to Toledo.
Five Cookbooks to Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month
During April, we honor Arab Americans and their many contributions.
Get Ready to Grow, Lucas County!
We'd love to see how things are growing! Tag @ToledoLibrary and show us your plant friends.
5 Books to Improve Your Floral Design and Arrangement Skills
Celebrate National Floral Design Day with books and bouquets.
5 Chili Cookbooks To Help You Prepare For National Chili Day
Celebrate National Chili Day with a new chili recipe.
When the Books Hit Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie
Some will celebrate National Pizza Day by eating pizza, and some will celebrate by reading about pizza. Just kidding, nobody's going to do that second thing.
9 Soul Food Cookbooks to Feed Your Belly and Your Soul
Get your soul right with some soul food.
Rachel Recommends: What to Read and Watch This Winter
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is time for home." - Edith Sitwell
5 Books to Help Celebrate National Hot Tea Day
5 books celebrating the history of tea, with some recipes thrown in too.
How to Be a Plant Parent: 15 Books to Help You Raise Houseplants
Happy National Houseplant Day!
C is for Cookie: Baking and Decorating Ideas to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth
Om Nom Nom Nom. Let’s bake some cookies!
Best Books to Give as Gifts: Nonfiction Titles
A selection of nonfiction titles that will make great gifts.
Yelp Reviews From the Top 10 Worst Meals in Literature
Cooking during the holiday season can be stressful. But look on the bright side: nothing you make will be anywhere near as bad as the food the characters eat in these books.
Five Outside the Box Cookbooks for Thanksgiving
If you are looking to get outside the box with your Thanksgiving preparations, here are some cookbooks to help you explore.
Eating at SAME Café: A Delicious and Important Main Library Destination
SAME Cafe is open at Main Library! Learn about this non-profit with the mission of "so all may eat."
10 Offbeat Cookbooks That Have Nothing to Do With Turkey
Let's face it: lots of people do cranberries and stuffing. Pull a Thanksgiving meal out of one of these cookbooks instead and your family will talk about it for years.
5 Books to Read for Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Indigenous People's Day.
Celebrate National Taco Day
National Taco Day is October 4.
Rachel Recommends: What You Need to Make Your Fall Season the Coziest
October, baptize me with leaves! swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” Rainbow Rowell, attachments
6 Tasty Fall Cookbooks for Sweater Weather and Pumpkin Spice
Looking for fresh ideas on how to prepare all the delicious fall food? Look no further, here are some of our newest choices!
10 Books to Read If You Love The Bear on Hulu
Can't get enough of Hulu's The Bear? Here are ten foodie books to tide you over until season 2.
Rachel Recommends: 6 New(ish) Must Read Books for Summer 2022
I’ve curated a little selection of books you might want to add to your beach bag when you feel like skipping town. Isolate yourself in a hammock and get reading!
6 Books to Celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month
June is Immigrant Heritage Month - commemorate the rich history of immigration with these books written by and about immigrants.
Children’s Library & Teen Recommends – Summer 2021
Youth Services Librarians love to read, too! Check out what your favorite Children’s and Teen Librarians at Main Library are reading, whether it be a picture book about penguins, a middle grade adventure in a treehouse, vampires in Louisiana, or a time-traveling phone booth!
Reduce Waste Through Sustainable Living Practices
Explore ways to reduce waste, repurpose, reuse, and adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Create a Beautifully Sustainable Garden
Learn how to create an eco-friendly garden that's affordable and sustainable.
The Great Outdoors
Resources and ideas for having a great summer close to home.
Red or White?
Unfortunately, this blog is not about Italian Chianti or Chardonnay. It is about Mother's Day.
Container Gardening for Small Spaces
Container gardening is a simple way to enjoy nature’s bounty without the struggle and trouble of digging up a yard.
Grow Your Own Food at Home
Creating a kitchen garden is not only a fun hobby, but can provide your home with fresh produce all year long.
Learn about Birds
In the spring, warblers, a tiny, colorful classification of songbirds, fly through our area on their journey of thousands of miles between Central and South America, and the Caribbean, on their way to Northern North America.
Kent Branch Recommends
Recommendations from your Kent Branch Library.
You Grow, Green!
Need a way to brighten your home this winter? Get some houseplants! Studies have shown that keeping houseplants have many benefits. Among them are improving your mood, reducing fatigue, and boosting healing and pain tolerance. They also improve air quality, releasing oxygen and moisture. Here are some titles that will help you start going green.
A Happiness Reading List
Here are a few books that may help you keep a lookout for the small moments, practices, and words in life to lift spirits and find the wonder in the world around us.
New Year’s Intention: Get Organized
Want to leave 2020 in the dust? Set an intention this new year to declutter! A home or workspace in disarray can cause added stress and anxiety that chips away at our mental health.
New Year’s Intention: Get Organized
Inspiration to organize and declutter your home and workspaces!
National Bathtub Party Day
December 5th is National Bathtub Party day, yes you heard me: Bathtub party.
Thanksgiving Movies and TV Shows
Thanksgiving is a time to count our blessings. And besides family, friends, health, good fortune, coffee and pizza, is there anything we're more thankful for than stuff we can watch on TV?
Get Your Spooky On
Ditch some of that screen time with these Spooktacular Halloween festivity books!
Toledo Heights Harvest
There is one tasty service that not everyone knows about: our community garden.
Food Holidays in September
The only thing I talk about more than music is food (which is why I'm, quite possibly, the most annoying person ever).
Christmas in July
Yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute!
Shopping as We Know It
What was it like to shop in a store in the year 1919?
Kindness Matters
Spread joy and happiness through small acts of kindness.
Library Staff De-Stresses with Cooking
The Locke Library staff shared some healthy meals to cook this summer with each other, and now we are passing them on to you!
Shoe Recycling
Where do all of our shoes go when we throw them out? Is it possible to repurpose or recycle them?
Fresh Titles to Inspire Spring Cleaning! And Maybe Fixing that Thing You’ve Been Meaning to Fix
Get your home in order ... books on cleaning, organization and home repair.
Longing for April Showers to Get the Gardens Going!
Find inspiration with these colorful and informative gardening guides.
5 Books to Inspire Your Spring Home Decor Refresh
If the changing seasons have you ready to change up the decor in your home, read on for a selection of books that provide tips as well as inspiration to get you started.
Plan and Plant a Bee-Friendly Garden
Learn how to create a beautiful flower garden that will attract bees, butterflies and birds.
Great Cookbooks for Lazy and/or Impatient People
After the usual holiday gorge-fest, most of us are ready to get back to healthier, or at least healthy-ish, eating habits. This blog post includes some really great cookbooks for lazy and/or impatient cooks as well as tasty recipes for people who hate to cook, but love to eat good food.
Meal Plan To Save Time and Money
Short on time and money? Meal planning can help.
Looking for an Outstanding, Holiday Appetizer? Create a Charcuterie Board!
Charcuterie is all about putting a creative spin on what goes on a serving board. This blog post includes tips, tricks and resources to help you with your entertaining needs this holiday season and beyond.
Make Your Own Natural Homemade Gifts
Make your own natural, homemade beauty products and cleansers - they make great gifts too!
Handmade Gift Ideas for People Who Love Crocheting, Knitting and Stitching
Crochet, knit and sew heartfelt gifts year-round.
Handy Handmade Gifts
Crafty projects to help inspire your creative spirit. Have fun designing and creating unique gifts year-round.
5 Party Ideas for Mixing Drinks
Mix up your party and say cheers to these simple, yet amazing cocktail ideas.
More Herbs, Less Salt
Learn a variety of ways to use herbs in your everyday life.
Yes You Can: Simple Fruit Jams
Preserve the sweetness of the season with your own jar of happiness. Follow simple steps to try your hand at canning homemade jam.
A Blog About Baking in Winter…in Summer
If you enjoy watching food shows and looking at pictures of food made by someone other than yourself, this blog post is for you! If you have confidence in your ability to make cream puffs, let’s talk!
Ohio Native Lawn Replacements
Learn more about a wide variety of native Ohio plant species that are perfect for your next gardening or landscaping project.
Great for Grilling
Super helpful cookbooks and recipes sure to appeal to the grill-master in everyone.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
We’ve got oodles of gardening books with tips and ideas for growing new and traditional plants, improving designs and what to do with what grows.
Free Eggs? 5 Things to Know Before You Start a Backyard Chicken Flock
Free range, organic eggs, raised in your backyard sound heavenly? Let your Library help you gather some relevant facts, before you make an eight year commitment to raising chickens.
Yakking in a Pond
A celebration of the sport of kayaking and the trials of married life.
Small-Space Gardening
Small-Space Gardening is an activity everyone can enjoy with just a little creativity! With specialized small-space garden kits available commercially at local home stores for do-it-yourselfers, this can be done in even the smallest spaces with some ingenuity.
Never Too Early To Think Spring!
Think spring gardens, warm sunshine, blossoms, sprouts, and gentle breezes.
A Minimalist Approach to Living
What would your life be like with less stuff?
Organizing Your Life: Home Edition
Clear out the clutter, tidy up, and get organized!
Massaging Kale, Fair Trade Chocolate, and the French Kitchen: A Short Quest in Sugar Detox
Ever think about giving up sugar? Okay, I’m here for you. For your entertainment, I decided that the only way I could begin to tackle this subject, was to give up sugar myself.
The Paleo Diet: A Whole Foods Approach to Better Health
Learn more about the Paleo diet and explore a variety of cookbooks from Paleo basics, to cuisine for the discerning foodie.
A Year Of …
How much can one person accomplish in the span of a year - continue reading to find out.
Resolve To Be Lazy
Aim low in 2018 and achieve great results!
Celebrating the Holidays Vegan Style
Learn how to make just about anything vegan-style for your next get together.
Book, Humbug!
The new movie The Man Who Invented Christmas purports to tell all about Charles Dickens and his most famous creation. But there's more to it than that.
A Salute to Christmas Novelty Songs
Holiday novelty songs are so fun.
Late Summer Comfort Food
Easing into autumn is a great time to get back into appreciating comfort food and the joy of cooking for friends and loved ones.
Using Archival Content to Affordably Decorate Your Home
Explore ways to use DPLA to affordably decorate your home.
Celebrate Lesser Known Holidays This Summer
Celebrate a few lesser known holidays and enjoy a selection of good books this summer.
DIY Natural Cleaning Products
Learn more about the benefits of making your own household cleaners.
What’s Really In Your Beauty Products (and How to Make Your Own)?
Try your hand at making your own beauty and spa products.
Eat Your Way Through All 20 Toledo Lucas County Public Library Locations
Have you ever visited a Toledo library and wondered where to go for a bite to eat? Well, look no further!
Kids in the Kitchen
Featuring library and web resources to help you and your family with creative culinary creations.
Compost Your Way to a Better Garden
Composting made easy with the aid of library resources.
Fabulously Frugal
Explore a variety of resources designed to help you save money and live a fabulously frugal lifestyle.
Soup’s On: Delicious Broths, Soups, Chowders and Stews
January is National Soup Month! We have a variety of cookbooks to inspire your next cooking adventure featuring broths, soups, stews, chowders and chili.
Gluten-Free – What’s All The Fuss About?
Gluten-free is all the buzz lately. Is it just trendy or is there something behind the diet craze?
Eat Local
Learn more about the local food movement, CSAs and sustainable agriculture.
Always Hungry? Explore Diets At Your Library
So what if all you’ve been taught about dieting is wrong? Continue reading to learn more about popular diet trends.
Put Up and Eat Up: Canning and Food Preservation
Learn more about food preparation, preservation, canning, and drying.
Homemade Ice Cream
Have you ever tried making your own ice cream at home? Continue reading for some sweet summer inspiration.
Viva La Vegan!
Veganism is hot, but how much do you really know about the vegan lifestyle?
‘Tis the Season for Summertime Cooking
Summertime and cookouts go hand in hand. Whether your planning your next family get together or simply want to try out a few new grilling techniques, your local library can help.
Make Your Snack and Eat It Too
Whether you love Oreos, can’t stop eating Cheez-Its, or adore Fig Newtons, now you can enjoy homemade versions of your favorite store-bought treats.
Great Expectations: Books on Pregnancy
Resources on conceiving, fertility, pregnancy, nutrition and parenting.
2016’s Color(s) of the Year
It’s that time of year again–Pantone has announced their Color of the Year for 2016! This year’s selection is especially exciting because for the first time, Pantone selected not one, but two shades: Rose Quartz, a warm and subtle pink, and Serenity, a cool and serene blue.
Plant-Based Diet
Resources to explore the benefits of adopting a plant-based diet.
