Category: Staff Picks

April’s Simply Held Fiction Picks

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Changes are coming to Simply Held starting July 1, 2024, but before that happens we wanted to share our April fiction picks for our patrons that are already signed up! Starting July 1, there will only be four fiction picks for you to choose from: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction. Our fiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for Simply Held through our website!

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected for April from the following categories: Diverse Debuts, Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction, International Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Out of This World, Overcoming Adversity, Rainbow Reads, Stranger Things, and Young Adult.

Diverse Debuts:

Diverse Debuts: Debut fiction novel by a BIPOC author.

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

How much of their lineage is one family willing to unearth in order to participate in the nation’s first federal reparations program?

Every American waits with bated breath to see whether or not the country’s first female president will pass the Forgiveness Act. The bill would allow Black families to claim up to $175,000 if they can prove they are the descendants of slaves, and for ambitious single mother Willie Revel the bill could be a long-awaited form of redemption. A decade ago, Willie gave up her burgeoning journalism career to help run her father’s struggling construction company in Philadelphia and she has reluctantly put family first, without being able to forget who she might have become. Now she’s back living with her parents and her young daughter while trying to keep her family from going into bankruptcy. Could the Forgiveness Act uncover her forgotten roots while also helping save their beloved home and her father’s life’s work?

In order to qualify, she must first prove that the Revels are descended from slaves, but the rest of the family isn’t as eager to dig up the past. Her mother is adopted, her father doesn’t trust the government and believes working with a morally corrupt employer is the better way to save their business, and her daughter is just trying to make it through the fifth grade at her elite private school without attracting unwanted attention. It’s up to Willie to verify their ancestry and save her family—but as she delves into their history, Willie begins to learn just how complicated family and forgiveness can be.

With powerful insight and moving prose, Acts of Forgiveness asks how history shapes who we become and considers the weight of success when it is achieved despite incredible odds—and ultimately what leaving behind a legacy truly means. – Ballantine Books

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Graphic Novel:

Graphic Novel: Fiction novel for adults of any subgenre with diverse characters depicted by color illustrations, sketches, and photographs.

My Picture Diary by Fujiwara Maki, translated by Ryan Holmberg

The wife of Japan’s most lauded manga-ka documents a year in their lives with her own artistry.

In 1981, Fujiwara Maki began a picture diary about daily life with her son and husband, the legendary manga author Tsuge Yoshiharu. Publishing was not her original intention. “I wanted to record our family’s daily life while our son, Shosuke, was small. But as 8mm cameras were too expensive and we were poor, I decided on the picture diary format instead. I figured Shosuke would enjoy reading it when he got older.”

Drawn in a simple, personable style, and covering the same years fictionalized in Tsuge’s final masterpiece The Man Without Talent, Fujiwara’s journal focuses on the joys of daily life amidst the stresses of childrearing, housekeeping, and managing a depressed husband. A touching and inspiring testimony of one Japanese woman’s resilience, My Picture Diary is also an important glimpse of the enigma that is Tsuge. Fujiwara’s diary is unsparing. It provides a stark picture of the gender divide in their household: Tsuge sleeps until noon and does practically nothing. He never compliments her cooking, and dictates how money is spent. Not once is he shown drawing. And yet, Fujiwara remains surprisingly empathetic toward her mercurial husband.

Translated by Ryan Holmberg, this edition sheds light on Fujiwara’s life, her own career in art, writing, and underground theater, and her extensive influence upon her husband’s celebrated manga. – Drawn and Quarterly

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Historical Fiction:

Historical Fiction: Historical fiction novel written by a BIPOC author with BIPOC main character(s).

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

In 1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor for the British on the East African Railway. Far from home, Pirbhai commits a brutal act in the name of survival that will haunt him and his family for years to come.

So begins Janika Oza’s masterful, richly told epic, where the embers of this desperate act are fanned into flame over four generations, four continents, throughout the twentieth century. Pirbhai’s children are born in Uganda during the waning days of British colonial rule, and as the country moves toward independence, his granddaughters, three sisters, come of age in a divided nation. Latika is an aspiring journalist, who will put everything on the line for what she believes in; Mayuri’s ambitions will take her farther away from home than she ever imagined; and fearless Kiya will have to carry the weight of her family’s silence and secrets.

In 1972, the entire family is forced to flee under Idi Amin’s military dictatorship. Pirbhai’s grandchildren are now scattered across the world, struggling to find their way back to each other. One day a letter arrives with news that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure their own place in the world. – Grand Central Publishing

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International Fiction:

International Fiction: Fiction novel originally written in another language with BIPOC main character(s).

The End of August by Yu Miri; translated by Morgan Giles

From the National Book Award winning author, an extraordinary, ground-breaking, epic multi-generational novel about a Korean family living under Japanese occupation.

In 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea, Lee Woo-cheol was a running prodigy and a contender for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. But he would have had to run under the Japanese flag.

Nearly a century later, his granddaughter is living in Japan and training to run a marathon herself. She summons Korean shamans to hold an intense, transcendent ritual to connect with Lee Woo-cheol. When his ghost appears, alongside those of his brother Lee Woo-Gun, and their young neighbor, who was forced to become a comfort woman to Japanese soldiers stationed in China during World War II, she must uncover their stories to free their souls. What she discovers is at the heart of this sweeping, majestic novel about a family that endured death, love, betrayal, war, political upheaval, and ghosts, both vengeful and wistful.

A poetic masterpiece that is a feat of historical fiction, epic family saga, and mind-bending story-telling acrobatics, The End of August is a marathon of literature. – Riverhead Books

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Juvenile Fiction:

Juvenile Fiction: Fiction chapter book with diversity, equity, or inclusion subject matter written for children 7-11

Green by Alex Gino

Green is lucky. They’ve got a supportive dad, friendly neighbors, and good friends. They’ve figured out a lot of things . . . but they can’t figure out what to do about Ronnie.

Ronnie’s a boy who’s been in Green’s class for awhile. He’s sweet. Funny. And lately, Green’s heart has raced a little faster whenever he’s around.

Green is pretty sure about their own feelings. But they have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how Ronnie feels.

When Green doesn’t get a part in the school musical – a very untraditional version of The Wizard of Oz – they join the crew to work alongside Ronnie.

Is this a good idea?

Green’s about to find out. . . . – Alex Gino

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Out of this World:

Out of this World: Science fiction novel written by a BIPOC author with BIPOC main character(s).

Counterweight by Djuna; translated by Anton Hur

On the fictional island of Patusan—and much to the ire of the Patusan natives—the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevator’s “spider cable” taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LK’s former CEO, the control of which will determine the company’s—and humanity’s—future.

Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novel’s narrator and LK’s chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LK’s Security Division. They’re all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implants called Worms, and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan’s sovereignty.

Originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade, Counterweight is part cyberpunk, part hard-boiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects. – Pantheon

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Overcoming Adversity:

Overcoming Adversity: Fiction novel with diversity, equity, or inclusion subject matter written for people 14 and older.

The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis

Two bold, utopic communities are at the heart of Ayana Mathis’s searing follow-up to her bestselling debut, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Bonaparte, Alabama – once 10,000 glorious Black-owned acres – is now a ghost town vanishing to depopulation, crooked developers, and an eerie mist closing in on its shoreline. Dutchess Carson, Bonaparte’s fiery, tough-talking protector, fights to keep its remaining one thousand acres in the hands of the last five residents. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, her estranged daughter Ava is drawn into Ark – a seductive, radical group with a commitment to Black self-determination in the spirit of the Black Panthers and MOVE, with a dash of the Weather Underground’s violent zeal. Ava’s eleven-year-old son Toussaint wants out – his future awaits him on his grandmother’s land, where the sounds of cicada and frog song might save him if only he can make it there.

In Mathis’s electrifying novel, Bonaparte is both mythic landscape and spiritual inheritance, and 1980s Philadelphia is its raw, darkly glittering counterpoint. The Unsettled is a spellbinding portrait of two fierce women reckoning with the steep cost of resistance: What legacy will we leave our children? Where can we be free? – Knopf

This title is also available in large print.

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Rainbow Reads:

Rainbow reads: Fiction novel with LGBTQ+ main character(s).

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

Both a page-turner and literary tour de force, it is a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men.

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—and they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Yet against all odds, they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his big brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. And when several months later Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland with two strange men whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need to summon all his inner strength and courage to try to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.

Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the literary world, Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much. – Grove

This title is also available in large print.

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Stranger Things:

Stranger Things: Horror novel written by a BIPOC author with BIPOC main character(s).

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her.

Nor can they see what Alejandra sees. In times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, the apparition of a crying woman in a ragged white gown.

When Alejandra visits a therapist, she begins exploring her family’s history, starting with the biological mother she never knew. As she goes deeper into the lives of the women in her family, she learns that heartbreak and tragedy are not the only things she has in common with her ancestors.

Because the crying woman was with them, too. She is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. And she will not leave until Alejandra follows her mother, her grandmother, and all the women who came before her into the darkness.

But Alejandra has inherited more than just pain. She has inherited the strength and the courage of her foremothers—and she will have to summon everything they have given her to banish La Llorona forever. – Del Rey

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Young Adult Fiction:

Young Adult Fiction: Fiction chapter book with diversity, equity, or inclusion subject matter written for children 14 and older.

This Town is On Fire by Pamela N. Harris

A lot is up in the air in Naomi Henry’s life: her spot as a varsity cheer flier, her classmates’ reaction to the debut of her natural hair, and her crush on the guy who’s always been like a brother to her. With so much uncertainty, she feels lucky to have a best friend like Kylie to keep her grounded. After all, they’re practically sisters—Naomi’s mom took care of Kylie and her twin brother for years.

But then a video of Kylie calling the cops on two Black teens in a shopping store parking lot goes viral. Naomi is shaken, and her town is reeling from the publicity. While Naomi tries to reckon with Kylie, the other Black students in their high school are questioning their friendship, and her former friends are wondering where this new “woke” Naomi came from. Although Naomi wants to stand by her best friend, she now can’t help but see everything in a different light.

As tensions in her town escalate, Naomi finds herself engaging in protests that are on the cusp of being illegal. And then a bomb explodes, and someone is found dead. Will Naomi be caught in the center of the blast? – Quill Tree Books

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Join Simply Held to have the newest Fiction picks automatically put on hold for you every quarter.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

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“In Garfield’s experience, education was salvation. It had freed him from grinding poverty. It had shaped his mind, forged paths, created opportunities where once there had been none. Education, he knew, led to progress, and progress was his country’s only hope of escaping its own painful past.”
― Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

For some readers, nonfiction can be dense, hard to get through, and a way to guarantee a nap. For others, they devour every piece of nonfiction they can get their hands on. They find it riveting, engaging, and can’t wait to share little tidbits they learn with others. I find myself in the middle of those two camps, forever searching for narrative nonfiction, nonfiction that reads like fiction and pulls you into the story from the start. Author Candice Millard writes narrative nonfiction, as evidenced in her 2011 book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President.

James Abram Garfield’s rise to the presidency was extraordinary. He was born into abject poverty, becoming a scholar, Civil War hero, and then eventually a reformist congressman. Garfield was actually nominated for president against his wishes and eventually became president. The story of James Abram Garfield’s presidency is short. Four months after his inauguration, he was shot in the back at a train station by a deranged man named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the gunshots, but died two months later.

After Garfield was shot, the nation was destroyed. Battles were happening throughout the country and in the government. His opponents in government were fighting for control of the presidency and the future of the nation. Medical professionals were fighting over the president’s medical care. In the medical world, strides were being made in antiseptic care. This was highly controversial and sadly Garfield’s medical team weren’t believers in antiseptic care. In addition to fighting over who was in charge of his care, his team provided archaic and outdated treatments.

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was desperate to help the president, as he was working on a new device that he believed would have the capability to find the bullet still lodged within Garfield’s body. However Garfield’s doctor did not trust Bell enough to examine Garfield on his own, instead saying Bell could only examine a certain part of Garfield where the team believed the bullet to be lodged. Garfield survived for 80 days after he was shot undergoing tortuous medical treatment with nary a complaint before he died of sepsis. The stunning revelation after Garfield died: his wounds were survivable if only he had received better medical care.

Millard weaves multiple threads into Destiny of the Republic: the story of the would-be assassin, the medical science, and the story of Bell’s new device among many others. The power struggles, the medical history, and the lives of those involved were intriguing. The author has clearly done her research, examining Guiteau and his motives, detailing Garfield and his family, and laying out all of the missteps the doctors took in their care. This book was well-written, weaving many threads together into a coherent story detailing many of those involved with Garfield before and after he was shot.

This title is also available in large print, Playaway audiobook, CD audiobook, a book club kit, and as single book club books.

Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang

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Betty C. Tang’s latest middle grade graphic novel, Parachute Kids, is a mix of fiction and memoir, combining fiction, her family’s first experiences in America, as well as the stories she was told by fellow immigrants she has met. The Lin family’s story is not meant to represent the story of all parachute kids and their families, but is instead meant to introduce readers to the concept of parachute kids, to show their struggle, and to encourage people to share their own stories.

The Lin family is leaving Taiwan to visit the United States for vacation. They have big plans to travel California, hitting all the sites. Unbeknownst to the three Lin siblings, their parents are planning to leave them in the United States while they return to Taiwan. Their parents will return to Taiwan to work while the kids stay behind for better opportunities and schooling. When the parents announce their plans to the kids, big emotions come out: blame, anger, sadness, and more. Once the parents leave and the siblings are left on their own, they are forced to become resilient. They fight, struggle to maintain the household, and are unsure what to do. All they know is they need to stay under the radar since they are without parental guidance and are living as undocumented immigrants with expired visas.

I really enjoyed this book. The author uses different colors to show the change between languages throughout the book, which I appreciated. This book is written for a middle grade audience, but is accessible for adults as well. Tang explores the relationships between the siblings, allowing for growth and struggle to push through. Readers are also allowed a tiny glimpse into the parents’ lives, but this story predominantly takes place from the siblings’ points of view. Parachute Kids doesn’t end with all questions answered, instead leading towards realism with hope for the future. This isn’t the experience of every parachute kid, but there is something in this story to which everyone can relate.

April’s Simply Held Nonfiction Picks

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Changes are coming to Simply Held starting July 1, 2024, but before that happens we wanted to share our April nonfiction picks for our patrons that are already signed up! Starting July 1, there will only be four nonfiction picks for you to choose from: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime. Our nonfiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for Simply Held through our website!

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected for April from the following categories: biography, body mind spirit, cookbook, poetry, social justice, strength through struggle, and true crime.

Biography pick

John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community by Raymond Arsenault

For six decades John Robert Lewis (1940–2020) was a towering figure in the U.S. struggle for civil rights. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned for his unshakable integrity, indomitable courage, and determination to get into “good trouble.”

In this first book-length biography of Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis’s upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism as a Freedom Rider and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, his championing of voting rights and anti-poverty initiatives, and his decades of service as the “conscience of Congress.”

Both in the streets and in Congress, Lewis promoted a philosophy of nonviolence to bring about change. He helped the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders plan the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial. Lewis’s activism led to repeated arrests and beatings, most notably when he suffered a skull fracture in Selma, Alabama, during the 1965 police attack later known as Bloody Sunday. He was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in Congress he advocated for racial and economic justice, immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, and national health care.

Arsenault recounts Lewis’s lifetime of work toward one overarching goal: realizing the “beloved community,” an ideal society based in equity and inclusion. Lewis never wavered in this pursuit, and even in death his influence endures, inspiring mobilization and resistance in the fight for social justice. – Yale University Press

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Body, Mind, Spirit pick

An apothecary of art: to soothe your soul by Ravenous Butterflies

Take a transformative journey to improve your mental wellbeing with this sumptuous collection of 80 paintings and uplifting quotes.

Ravenous Butterflies is the online brainchild of artist Lisa Azarmi and was designed to provide a safe sanctuary for emotional wellbeing. An Apothecary of Art is a soothing blend of 80 beautiful paintings and inspiring, comforting and uplifting quotes to lift the spirit, calm the mind and heal the soul.

The contents page is artfully divided into 24 emotional journeys that suggest routes in which to navigate the book to explore different feelings along the way, and to provide comfort and solace in difficult times. Within these pages you will find both the works of world-renowned masters and the paintings of lesser-known talents paired with uplifting thoughts from great poets, writers and thinkers. A biographical section on the featured artists will provide context on your new favourite finds.

This inspiring debut collection from Ravenous Butterflies features 80 exquisite works of art from the likes of Modigliani, Hasui Kawase, and Thomas Cooper Gotch with accompanying quotes from inspirational voices including Sappho, Pablo Neruda and Harriet Tubman. This illumination of the power of art as a source of wellbeing is modern yet timelessly beautiful – the perfect book to dip into to lift your spirits. – Batsford

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Cookbook pick

The Comfort Food Cookbook: Over 100 Delicious Recipes That Taste Like Home by the Coastal Kitchen

Over 100 tasty recipes that bring comfort to your kitchen.

Relive old family traditions with meals that bring warmth to the table. These nostalgic and cozy recipes are sure to become family favorites. Whether you’re looking for quick and easy family recipes, a way to placate picky kids, dishes for dinner parties, or just want a meal that tastes like home, these comfort classics will hit the mark and soothe the soul every time.

Inside you’ll find:

  • Over 100 hassle-free recipes for cozy breakfasts, satisfying snacks and appetizers, hearty dinners, and delectable desserts
  • Quick-fix dinners for weeknights and rich meals for Sunday dinners and potlucks
  • A variety of recipes ready in 30 minutes or less that are perfect for families and busy people

Serve food you can be sure you and your family will love. Indulge your cravings with Chicken Noodle Soup, Creamy Mac N’ Cheese, Meatloaf, Lasagna, Southern Fried Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas, Roasted Sausage with Peppers and Onions, Chicken Pot Pie, Borscht, Baked Pasta, Roasted Beef Brisket, Chicken and Dumplings, Mushroom Risotto, Pad Thai, and the best Grilled Cheese Sandwich you’ll ever have. Gather your family and friends around the table with wholesome dishes you’ll cherish with The Comfort Food Cookbook. – Cider Mill Press Book Publishers

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Poetry pick

You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves edited by Diana Whitney

Created and compiled just for young women, You Don’t Have to Be Everything is filled with works by a wide range of poets who are honest, unafraid, and skilled at addressing the complex feelings of coming-of-age, from loneliness to joy, longing to solace, attitude to humor. These unintimidating poems offer girls a message of self-acceptance and strength, giving them permission to let go of shame and perfectionism.

The cast of 68 poets is extraordinary: Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, who read at Joe Biden’s inauguration; bestselling authors like Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sharon Olds, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Mary Oliver; Instagram-famous poets including Kate Baer, Melody Lee, and Andrea Gibson; poets who are LGBTQ, poets of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, poets who sing of human experience in ways that are free from conventional ideas of femininity. Illustrated in full color with work by three diverse artists, this book is an inspired gift for daughters and granddaughters—and anyone on the path to becoming themselves. – Workman Publishing Company

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Social Justice pick

Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class by Rob Kim Henderson

Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. When he was adopted into a loving family, he hoped that life would finally be stable and safe. Divorce, tragedy, poverty, and violence marked his adolescent and teen years, propelling Henderson to join the military upon completing high school.

An unflinching portrait of shattered families, desperation, and determination, Troubled recounts Henderson’s expectation-defying young life and juxtaposes his story with those of his friends who wound up incarcerated or killed. He retreads the steps and missteps he took to escape the drama and disorder of his youth. As he navigates the peaks and valleys of social class, Henderson finds that he remains on the outside looking in. His greatest achievements—a military career, an undergraduate education from Yale, a PhD from Cambridge—feel like hollow measures of success. He argues that stability at home is more important than external accomplishments, and he illustrates the ways the most privileged among us benefit from a set of social standards that actively harm the most vulnerable. – Gallery Books

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Strength Through Struggle pick

A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

From the bestselling author of ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW comes a searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptive parents led, the life she forged as an adult, and the lives she’s lost.

In this country, unless you attain extraordinary wealth, you will likely be unable to help your loved ones in all the ways you’d hoped. You will learn to live with the specific, hollow guilt of those who leave hardship behind, yet are unable to bring anyone else with them.

Nicole Chung couldn’t hightail it out of her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown fast enough. As a scholarship student at a private university on the East Coast, no longer the only Korean she knew, she found community and a path to the life she’d long wanted. But the middle class world she begins to raise a family in – where there are big homes, college funds, nice vacations – looks very different from the middle class world she thought she grew up in, where paychecks have to stretch to the end of the week, health insurance is often lacking, and there are no safety nets.

When her father dies at only sixty-seven, killed by diabetes and kidney disease, Nicole feels deep grief as well as rage, knowing that years of precarity and lack of access to healthcare contributed to his early death. And then the unthinkable happens – less than a year later, her beloved mother is diagnosed with cancer, and the physical distance between them becomes insurmountable as COVID-19 descends upon the world.

Exploring the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy, A Living Remedy examines what it takes to reconcile the distance between one life, one home, and another – and sheds needed light on some of the most persistent and grievous inequalities in American society. – Ecco

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True Crime pick

Behold the monster: confronting America’s most prolific serial killer by Jillian Lauren

New York Times best-selling author Jillian Lauren’s personal, haunting account of confronting serial killer Samuel Little, and her determination to lift up the voices of his victims for the first time.

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she asked LAPD homicide detective Mitzi Roberts about the case she was most proud of. It was when she put Samuel Little, the now deceased serial killer, behind bars for killing three women in Los Angeles. In fact, Little had murdered approximately ninety women over six decades, but many were cold cases and Mitzi didn’t have enough evidence (or jurisdiction) to prove it.

After doing more digging, Lauren, the New York Times best-selling author of two memoirs and a novel, was obsessed. Following months of exchanging letters with Little, Lauren finally got a face-to-face meeting. In the hundreds of hours of interviews that followed, Little confessed to dozens of murders for the first time. Lauren knew this harrowing journey was taking its toll, both psychologically and legally—but still, she couldn’t stop.

Little gave Lauren a powerful and terrifying window into the psyche of a serial killer, and as she delved deeper, she realized she needed a way to survive these encounters. To balance out his darkness, she would illuminate the lives of the women he killed, making sure they would be remembered as more than mere props in the drama of his life. She excavated their lives—visiting their hometowns, talking to their families, investigating all they left behind.

Harrowing, insightful, and extraordinarily adept at giving Little’s victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time–including those of the four who survived–this is a truly unforgettable read. – Jillian Lauren

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Join Simply Held to have any of the new nonfiction picks automatically put on hold for you four times a year.

She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright, illustrated by Eva Bee

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She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright with illustrations by Eva Bee is a short book packed full of information about women killers spanning hundreds and hundreds of years. This book is a collection of macabre short stories divided into different sections of women killers.

The women in this book have murdered for a wide variety of reasons: necessity, love, revenge, or pleasure being the main four presented here. In most tales, men are expected to be the killers with women as their dainty victims. Women are hardly ever portrayed as killers, those who haunt the streets looking for victims. In fact it took years for people to even recognize that women could be serial killers. She Kills Me presents the stories of female murderers from across centuries and shows that they are messy, angry, impulsive, and deadly. We might feel icky for being pulled into their stories, but they’re fascinating. In this book, readers learn about 40 women who have murdered for a wide variety of reasons they were able to justify.

This book was a palette cleanser for me, which feels weird to say as it’s about murder. She Kills Me is by no means a complete history of these women.  As it is full of short stories, it doesn’t take much time to read, but gives just enough information if readers want to look up more about the women on their own. The author does add her own commentary, which can be distracting, but overall this serves as a good starting point and introduction to these women and their crimes.

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn

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If you don’t know what to read, what is your go-to? I gravitate towards cozy mysteries starring elderly people. My latest read was Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, the first book in the new Mrs. Plansky series written by Spencer Quinn, a pseudonym used by author Peter Abrahams. Spencer Quinn is most known for his Chet and Bernie Mystery series that started in 2009, starring Chet the dog and his human partner PI Bernie Little.

Mrs. Loretta Plansky has been dealing with a lot lately: her husband has just died, her retirement in Florida is mired with dealing with her cantankerous 98-year-old father, and her children and grandchildren are constantly asking her for money. As a recent widow in her seventies, Loretta just wants to spend her day playing tennis and enjoying her new hip!

Mrs. Plansky receives a phone call in the middle of the night from her grandson, Will, saying that he has been arrested and needs ten thousand dollars. After asking some questions, she decides to give him the money. She sends him her bank details, delighted to receive another phone call a short while later saying that Will has the money and has been released. She heads back to sleep, happy that Will is safe.

Loretta wakes up the next morning and phone calls start pouring in. She is shocked to discover that she has lost everything. Her bank and her financial advisor call to say that she drew her accounts down to zero the night before, millions of dollars gone in the blink of an eye. Loretta soon finds herself in meetings with law enforcement who inform her that her life savings are gone and unfortunately there isn’t much they can do to help her. The scammers are gone, their heist complete, and Loretta is left with nothing. After processing her emotions, she decides to start investigating on her own, following the only clue that she has to a small village in Romania. Mrs. Plansky wants her money back. She isn’t a fool and won’t be taken advantage of anymore.

This was a good introduction to a new series, enough to have me hoping that the subsequent books in the series will be more entertaining. Typically cozy mysteries have a main character with a quirky sidekick, but this book popped back and forth between two view points: 1) Mrs. Plansky and 2) the scammers in Romania. Mrs. Plansky spend the majority of the book by herself with no relief or help. The story focused instead on her forgetfulness as a character, which was distracting. Thankfully about 80% of the way through, some helpers popped into Mrs. Plansky’s life, adding some comic relief to the story. Hopefully these characters are also present in the next books.

This title is also available in large print.

Celebrate National Library Week with These Great Picture Books!

- Brittany Leave a comment

Every year, the American Library Association and libraries throughout the nation celebrate National Library Week in April. This year, National Library Week will be held  April 7th-13th and the theme this year is “Ready, Set, Library!”. To celebrate with your young people about the importance of books and libraries, I have compiled some fun reads!

Stanley’s Library by William Bee
Our favorite hamster takes you through a day in the life of a Librarian. Help friends find books in the Library and visit the community in the Library’s book van delivering books to people where they are. This book is an adorable and short read!

No T. Rex in the Library by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa 
It is Tuesday morning and Tess is out of control in the library. Mama tells Tess that “bestie behavior is not allowed in the library.” While taking some “quiet time”, Tess knocks over a book cart and out pops a rather rambunctious T. Rex. This is a title that I love to share with young people, it is so fun!

No Cats in the Library by Lauren Emmons
Clarisse is a curious cat with a love for books but only books with pictures, she doesn’t understand them when they just have black squiggly lines. Once she discovers a magic place full of books, she simply must get in! After sneaking into the Library, a child find Clarisse and reads her story to her. The keeper of the books finds Clarisse and offers her a chance of a lifetime. This is such a beautiful and sweet story!

Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman and illustrated by Andy Elkerton
When you visit the library, remember to be kind to the books and respect the rules. Most importantly, Do. NOT. BRING. YOUR. DRAGON. TO. THE. LIBRARY! Written in rhyme, this title is an absolute delight for all ages!

 

Library Babies by Puck and illustrated by Violet Lemay
Puck introduces young readers to the library! With adorable illustrations, this board book is a great read for littles!

 

Dinosaur vs. the Library by Bob Shea
Dinosaur faces off with a series of different animals until he meets his ultimate opponent, the library! Will he be a match for the librarian leading storytime? You have to read to find out! This is a very cute book full of roars!

 

Construction by Sally Sutton and illustrated by Brian Lovelock
Follow a construction crew as they build a very special place!

 

Library Books are Not for Eating! By Todd Tarpley and illustrated by Tom Booth
Ms. Bronte is a beloved storyteller, one problem, she eats the books!

The Best Train Journeys in the World by Franco Tanel

- Michelle Leave a comment

The Best Train Journeys in the World by Franco Tanel is a lush travel guide highlighting the unique experience of train travel accompanied with full color itineraries and logistics for those readers who are inspired to plan their next journey.  The book is organized by geographic location and offers the most historic and stunning train trips for each area of the world.  Author and photographer Tanel showcases 40 train adventures over 6 continents.  The trips represented are a variety of lengths, accommodations and terrain for those on a budget or those planning a once in a lifetime experience.

For each journey, Tanel provides historic information as to how each route was established and its historic significance.  Also included are little known facts about the train, route and economics that made the routes needed and enjoyable today.  Practical tips include maps of each route, the best scenery along the way, websites for reservations and more information, unique elements of the train and journey and the nuts and bolts of pricing and options.

Some highlighted trains and routes include :

Rocky Mountaineer  (Canada) – With a choice of four different itineraries, passengers travel for a total of 2-3 days per route in the Canadian Rockies on the Rocky Mountaineer.  At the end of each day, passengers spend the night in luxury hotels along the way so the beauty of the terrain is not missed overnight.  The most popular route cuts through Banff National Park and Lake Louise on the way to Vancouver, where the journey completes.

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (Colorado) – The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad route was opened in 1882 to haul silver and gold ore and makes the 45 mile trek between Durango and Silverton (Colorado) roundtrip in 9 hours.  Never traveling faster than 18 miles per hour, the steam train tracks are at a high altitude and built along sheer cliffs above the river in which a slower pace is needed.

Madaraka Express (Kenya) – Making the trek between Nairobi and Mombasa, the Madaraka Express in Kenya completes the journey in approximately 5 hours.  Much of the scenic railway, which was developed in 2017, is built on viaducts above cities in order to allow the natural landscape to remain below.  Along the way travelers pass through both the Nairobi National Park followed by the famous Tsavo National Park so all the stunning wildlife can be seen from the train’s oversized picture windows.

The Jacobite (Scotland) – As part of the journey was made famous in the Harry Potter movies, The Jacobite steam train is a tourist service that begins in Glasgow passes through Fort William and finishes up in Mallaig and returns in 4-6 hours depending on the time of day.  Much of the terrain can only be viewed on this train line, especially  the long stretches between the small stations of Rannoch Moor and Corrour, making The Jacobite the best way to take in the breathtaking views of the Scottish Highlands.

The Orient Express (Italy and France) – Reimagined from its heyday in the 1920s, this new rendition of The Orient Express travels from Paris and makes it way to Venice over the course of two days.  The original Orient Express began in 1883 and continued running (with some breaks during wartime) until May of 1977.  The original route stretched from Paris to Istanbul.  The new Orient Express train has all the majesty of the 1920s – glass panels, intricate woodcarvings and rich fabrics.  Passengers have the option of three dining cars per meal and travelers follow a strict dress code while being served by international chefs.  The Orient Express is a luxurious step back in time!

If you are a adventurous armchair traveler or are planning the trip of a lifetime, The Best Train Journeys in the World will open up a world of train traveling possibilities!

QCL Book Club March Wrap-up and Introduction to April Reads!

- Brittany Leave a comment
woman with pearls with a salmon background

In March, Morgan and I read The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict to celebrate Women’s History Month. Below is a short synopsis of the book and what I thought of it! 

woman with pearls with a salmon backgroundThe Only Woman in the Room is a fictionalized first-person account of famous actress, Hedy Lamarr. From her time starting out as an aspiring actress in Austria, to a marriage to a powerful gentleman known as The Merchant of Death, Hedy faced many trials pre-war. Leaving acting to be a wife, Hedy spends many evenings hosting dinner parties with her husband and honing in on her acting abilities to hide her true feelings towards her husband and his colleagues. Often the only woman in the room, Hedy found herself learning the horrors of war and the power that her husband’s business acquaintances held. Afraid for her life, Hedy flees to America to find refuge but cannot escape the horrors of her past decisions and the events affecting her loved ones back in Austria.

Once in America, Hedy uses her influence and a key confidant to develop technology to end the war and redeem her for the decisions of her past.

This book had such an interesting premise and was such a great read to celebrate Women’s History Month!

 

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Morgan and I have a very exciting lineup of book options for April, below are four titles including our winning read! Feel free to check them all out from Davenport Public Library! 

**April Pick!
Someone We Know by Shari Lapeña (In Honor of National Letter Writing Month) 

It’s a quiet suburb in upstate New York, until anonymous letters start to arrive. “My son broke into your home recently while you were out.” Into their homes, and into their computers as well. Learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too. When a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they’re telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets? — adapted from back cover   

 

 

Sunrise on Half Moon Bay by Robyn Carr (In Honor of National Siblings Day on April 10th) 

 Adele and Justine have never been close. Born twenty years apart, Justine was already an adult when Addie was born. The sisters love each other but they don’t really know each other. When Addie dropped out of university to care for their ailing parents, Justine, a successful lawyer, covered the expenses. It was the best arrangement at the time but now that their parents are gone, the future has changed dramatically for both women. Addie had great plans for her life but has been worn down by the pressures of being a caregiver and doesn’t know how to live for herself. And Justine’s success has come at a price. Her marriage is falling apart despite her best efforts. Neither woman knows how to start life over, but both realize they can and must support each other the way only sisters can. Together they find the strength to accept their failures and overcome their challenges. Happiness is within reach, if only they have the courage to fight for it. — adapted from back cover

 

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle (In Honor of Lovers Day on April 23rd) 

Maybell Parrish prefers living in her own mind than socializing with others. When Maybell inherits a stately old Tennessee manor from her eccentric Great Aunt Violet, she realizes it’s the perfect opportunity to escape. After Maybell arrives at her new home, the manor is practically falling apart around her. Enter the handsome yet reclusive groundskeeper, Wesley Koehler who seems to want nothing to do with her. Beneath Wesley’s brooding exterior lies an anxiety that exceeds her own, she realizes they might have more in common than Maybell ever dreamed. — adapted from back cover 

 

 

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult (In Honor of Tell a Story Day on April 27th)

Sage Singer becomes friends with an old man who is particularly beloved in her community after they strike up a conversation at the bakery where she works. Josef Weber is everyone’s favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day he asks Sage for a favor, to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses, but then he tells her he deserves to die. Once he reveals his secret, Sage wonders if he is right. Can someone who has committed a truly heinous act ever redeem themselves with good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you are not the party who was wronged? And most of all, if Sage even considers his request, is it murder, or justice? What do you do when evil lives next door? — adapted from back cover 

 

If you are interested in any of these titles, or have read them, I want to talk about them! Please consider leaving a comment! Want to converse with other QCL Book Club followers? Consider joining our Goodreads Group! Our next QCL Book Club segment will be held May 6th during Quad Cities Live at 3pm on KWQC TV6!

Online Reading Challenge – April

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1940s. Our Main title for April is The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.

Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner’s full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita.

Sally Horner’s story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic. – Ecco/Harper Luxe

Looking for some other books set in the 1940s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!