Online Reading Challenge – January Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something to remember the Holocaust this month? In January, we focused on International Holocaust Remembrance Day which falls on January 27th. Are you finishing strong? Or do you still have some months to catch up on? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson. When exploring titles to read that relate to the Holocaust, I knew that I wanted to focus on a different country than Germany. When I discovered Our Darkest Night focuses on Italian Jews, I knew I had found the title I wanted to focus on.

Our Darkest Night tells the story of the Mazin family. It’s the autumn of 1943 and Antonina Mazin lives in Venice, Italy with her parents. Her father, a local doctor, was forced to stop treating patients, but he still finds way to help them in secret. Antonina has been helping her father, but with her mother’s illness, she instead spends time visiting her mother at her care home. With Nazi Germany’s invasion of Italy, Antonina works to convince her father that it is time to leave Venice and travel abroad to hopeful safety. Her father has other plans though as there is no way that he will leave his wife who is too sick to travel behind. His plan is to save Antonina alone.

She is to leave Venice and hide in the countryside with a man who is a friend of the family’s priest. She must change her name, her religion, leave her parents behind, and pretend to be this stranger’s loving wife. Will she and this man, this Nico Gerardi, be able to fool his family and friends? Will they be able to convince them of their love? Will Nina, a city girl, be able to survive farm life? A local Nazi official has taken interest in Nico and Nina’s relationship. His suspicions continue to grow during each unannounced visit. Amidst the chaos of farm life, Nico and Nina grow ever closer. Their feelings deepen changing their relationship to something more meaningful and lasting. The danger amps up, leaving the two to wonder what their future will be.

I found Our Darkest Night to be incredibly well-researched. Jennifer Robson has a beautiful writing style. Every single character was very well-written to the point that they felt real and not only in the author’s imagination. What I most appreciated about this novel was that the author put real emotional depth into her writing and characters. The characters in this novel suffered, but they refused to give up hope. This was one of the most healing pieces of World War II fiction that I have ever read.

Next month, we will be reading about Black History Month.

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!

Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“The truth sometimes lies in what we don’t say, rather than what we say.”
― Mary Kubica, Just the Nicest Couple

If you are looking for a gripping, suspenseful thriller, look no further than author Mary Kubica. Kubica keeps me engaged from start to finish with a gripping storyline and intriguing characters. My latest audiobook, Just the Nicest Couple, had me on the edge of my seat, gasping as Kubica whipped through twists through the last page. Solid thriller read.

Affluent surgeon, Jack Hayes, has gone missing. At first, his wife Nina thinks that he is merely cooling off after a bad fight, but the longer he’s gone, the more worried she becomes. After discovering some truly concerning information, Nina reports him missing. However, Nina is concerned that the police aren’t doing enough to find him, so she investigates his disappearance herself.

Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, is there for her to lean on in her time of need. When Christian, Lily’s husband, returns home from work one day to find Nina in a concerning state, he is worried that something has happened to their unborn child. What Lily shares with him will change their lives forever. With Nina digging for clues into Jake’s disappearance, Lily and Christian will do whatever it takes to hide Lily’s dark secret as long as they can.

This title is also available in large print and CD audiobook.

Knights!

- Stephanie Leave a comment

A popular trend I have noticed this year are books about knights! Spanning different genres from science fiction to horror, books featuring knights and medieval times are proving very popular. Below I have gathered a list of recently published knight books. As of this writing, all titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publisher.

The Book of I by David Greig

The years is 825 CE. In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead.

As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them. Told with humor and alive with sharply exquisite dialogue, David Greig deftly lifts the curtain between our world and the past. The Book of I is an entirely unique novel that serves as a philosophical commentary on guilt and redemption, but also humanity, love, and the things we choose to believe in. – Europa Editions

Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards

Aleys is sixteen years old and unusual: stubborn, bright, and prone to religious visions. She and her only friend, Finn, a young scholar, have been learning Latin together in secret—but just as she thinks their connection might become something more, everything unravels. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she doesn’t love, she runs away from home, finding shelter among the beguines, a fiercely independent community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church.

Among these hardworking and strong-willed women, Aleys glimpses for the first time the joys of belonging: a life of song, meaning, and friendship in the markets and along the canals of Bruges. But forces both mystical and political are at work. Illegal translations of scripture, the women’s independence, and a sudden rash of miracles all draw the attention of an ambitious bishop—and bring Aleys and those around her into ever-increasing danger, a danger that will push Aleys to a new understanding of love and sacrifice.

Grounded in the little-told stories of medieval women—mystics, saints, anchoresses, and beguines—and introducing a major new talent, Canticle is a luminous work of historical fiction, vividly evoking a world on the verge of transformation. – Spiegel and Grau

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side. – Tor Books

This title is also available in large print.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself. – Tor Books

This title is also available in large print.

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

In an England fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes.

Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen’s court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other?

As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them.

But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch? – Orbit

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god. – Orbit

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself. – Harper Voyager

Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

Both sweeping and intimate, a majestic novel of love and war that brilliantly evokes the drama and turbulence of medieval France

Thierry Villar is a well-known—even notorious— tavern poet, familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power. He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be caught up in the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies.

But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane. And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as political struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction.

As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one. He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king—and help his forces in war. A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story.

A new masterwork from the internationally bestselling author of All the Seas of the World, A Brightness Long Ago, and Tigana, Written on the Dark is an elegant tour de force about power and ambition playing out amid the intense human need for art and beauty, and memories to be left behind. – Ace

NEW LIBGUIDE FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCES

- Jill Leave a comment

If you’d like to learn a foreign language you’ve come to the right place! Perhaps you have always wanted to learn a specific language related to your family heritage or to prepare for a long-awaited bucket list trip?  Or, maybe you want to communicate better with others in our diverse community? The Library has an array of language learning resources from complete courses (including an online program) to phrasebooks for travelers, visual dictionaries, and bilingual short stories. We have what you need to get started on your foreign language learning or ESL path. We even have Sign Language learning resources and instructional materials to assist teachers of ESL/EFL.

This new LibGuide highlights resources for each of the top 6 most popular languages to learn (Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Korean), as well as the most commonly spoken foreign languages in the Davenport Area and Quad Cities Region which includes some crossover (Spanish, Vietnamese, German, French, and Chinese).  ESL and Sign Language resources are also in this LibGuide, along with a page of Other Foreign Language resources and Community Resources.

New Fiction about Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Books about books! What could be better? How about a list of new fiction available for checkout? Below you will find a list of fiction books about books all owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Fiction

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Debut sensation Tessa Calloway is on a whirlwind book tour for her instant bestseller, All This Could Be Yours. In a different city every night, Tessa receives standing ovations from adoring fans while her husband Henry and their two children cheer her on from their brand-new dream house.

But there’s a chilling problem with Tessa’s triumphant book tour—she soon discovers she is being stalked by someone who’s obsessed not only with sabotaging her career, but also with destroying her perfect family back home.

Tessa fears the fallout from an impossible decision she once made—what felt like a genuine deal with the devil—appears to be coming due. And she’s realizing that every high-stakes bargain comes with a high-stakes price. If Tessa can’t untangle who’s threatening to expose her darkest secrets, she’ll lose her career, her family—and possibly her life. – Minotaur Books

The Devil is a Southpaw by Brandon Hobson

Milton Muleborn has envied Matthew Echota, a talented Cherokee artist, ever since they were locked up together in a dangerous juvenile detention center in the late 1980s. Until Matthew escaped, that is.

A novel within a novel, we read here Milton’s dark, sometimes comic, and possibly unreliable account of the story of their childhood even as, years later, he remains jealous of Matthew’s extraordinary abilities and unlikely success. Milton reveals secrets about their friendship, their families, and their nightmarish, surreal, experience of imprisonment. In revisiting the past, he explores the echoing traumas of incarceration and pride. – Ecco

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

June, 1975.

The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she’s offered a job to ghostwrite her father’s last book. What she doesn’t know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it’s not another horror novel he wants her to write.

After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975. – Sourcebooks

This title is also available in large print.

L.A. Women by Ella Berman

After a steady descent from literary stardom, Lane Warren is back. She’s secured a new book deal based off the life of her sometime friend and, more often, rival Gala Margolis. Lane’s only problem is that notorious free spirit Gala has been missing for months.

Ten years earlier, Gala was a charming socialite and Lane was a Hollywood outsider amidst the glittering 1960s L.A. party scene. Though they were never best friends, Lane found Gala sharp and compelling. Gala liked that Lane took her seriously. They were both writers. They were drawn to each other.

That was until Gala’s star began to rise, and Lane grew envious. Then Lane did something that she wouldn’t ever be able to take back…changing the trajectories of both their lives.

Bold, dazzling, and crackling with tension, L.A. Women plunges readers into the legendary parties and unparalleled creativity of iconic Laurel Canyon, while exploring the impossible choices women face when ambition collides with intimacy. At what cost does great art emerge? And who pays the price? – Berkley

This title is also available in large print.

The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes by Chanel Cleeton

London, 2024: American expat Margo Reynolds is renowned for her talent at sourcing rare antiques for her clients, but she’s never had a request quite like this one. She’s been hired to find a mysterious book published over a century ago. With a single copy left in existence, it has a storied past shrouded in secrecy—and her client isn’t the only person determined to procure it at any cost.

Havana, 1966: Librarian Pilar Castillo has devoted her life to books, and in the chaotic days following her husband’s unjust imprisonment by Fidel Castro, reading is her only source of solace. So when a neighbor fleeing Cuba asks her to return a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar will risk everything to protect the literary work entrusted to her care. It’s a dangerous mission that reveals to her the power of one book to change a life.

Boston, 1900: For Cuban school teacher and aspiring author Eva Fuentes, traveling from Havana to Harvard to study for the summer is the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a whirlwind adventure that leaves her little time to write, but a moonlit encounter with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. The story that pours out of her is one of forbidden love, secrets, and lies… and though Eva cannot yet see it, the book will be a danger and salvation for the lives it touches. – Berkley

The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly

2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving after her mother’s death as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Devereaux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Devereaux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.

1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late? – Ballantine Books

This title is also available in large print.

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins

Is it time to renew love or start a new chapter?

Ingrid Dahl, a cheerful twenty-nine-year-old librarian in the cozy mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement to a woman she’s only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They’ll take a one-month break to date other people, then they’ll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind: her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she’s secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they’re not ready to resume their relationship—and Ingrid’s harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated.

Overdue is a beautiful, slow-burn romance full of lust and longing about new beginnings and finding your way. – Saturday Books

This title is also available in large print.

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin

You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society…

London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club—a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood, and the courage to rewrite their stories.

Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother suffocating under the tyranny of her husband. Rose Wharton, a transplanted American dollar princess struggling to fit the mold of an aristocratic wife. Lavinia Cavendish, an artistic young woman haunted by a dangerous family secret. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands’ untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder.

As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts, and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent, but when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything. – Hanover Square Press

Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian

When two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student’s searing thesis project.

Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. According to Simone and Ethan, and everyone on campus, their marriage is perfect. That is, until Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, and the couple’s faith in their flawless relationship is rattled.

Simone, meanwhile, has secrets of her own. While Ethan’s away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie” Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple—or so she believes. Behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may—or may not—be the truth. – Little, Brown and Company

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery.

2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early twenty-first century as he chases the ghost of one poem, ‘A Corona for Vivian’. How wild and full of risk their lives were, thinks Thomas, as he pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.

What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force, a love story about both people and the words they leave behind, a literary detective story which reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost. – Knopf

This title is also available in large print.

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Because he knew, we both knew, that our friendship had always held the capacity for more. The air hummed thicker between us. It startled us with intermittent and unpredictable sparks. This wasn’t the one-way charge of seeing somebody attractive; the charge was striking in both directions.”
― Stephanie Perkins, Overdue

The cover of Overdue by Stephanie Perkins caught my eye from across the library – gorgeous wildflowers with a due date envelope on it screamed bookish romance. Upon starting this read, I knew I was right. This is a grumpy x sunshine, slow-burn romance about finding your way while looking for new beginnings. Ingrid Dahl is a cheery, happy librarian in the mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina. Dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for the last eleven years, the two are content with how life is going. When Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement, their peace shatters. The two find themselves on a one-month break where they plan to spend that month dating other people with the understanding that after that month ends, they will restart their relationship and then get married! Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?!

Well, Ingrid isn’t sure how she will survive this month break, but she knows that she wants to spend this time with one specific person: Macon Nowakowski. Macon is the grumpy coworker who has sat next to her at the library for years (and who she has a secret crush on). Determined to win Macon over, she sets her plan in action. An awkward moment occurs, sending Ingrid spiraling. What was she thinking? How could Macon ever like her? What about Cory? This month break has the power to change Ingrid’s entire life forever, not just her relationship.

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins was a beautiful love story of two librarians: she is sunshine and happiness, while he’s grumpy and closed off. This book could have been predictable, but the author instead decides to break the book into separate months, highlighting how each character matures. While this is a love story, the author doesn’t just focus on romantic love. She brings in family, friends, and others to show how love can change. The characters were also incredibly mature while dealing with real life issues (they actually TALKED to each other to solve their problems). Solid four star read.

This title is also available in large print.

2026 Grammy Nominees @ DPL

- Paige Leave a comment

Every year for the Grammy Awards, artists from various genres come together to celebrate what was noteworthy and impactful this past year in terms of performance, composition, production, and more. The nominees are vast so unfortunately, we’re not able to have every nominee, but we still have a great selection for you here at Davenport Public Library!  Here are the nominees we have available to check out before the big show this year!

Blues

Country

Latin

Jazz

Pop

Rap

R&B

Religious

Rock

Soundtrack

Anyone you’re rooting for this year or wish were nominated? Let us know in the comments! 

Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Sometimes we get so tied up in our idea of what we think we want that we miss out on the amazingness of what we could actually have.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

First in series, Lynn Painter’s Better Than the Movies is a fun romp through classic romantic comedies as experienced by a hopeless romantic high school senior trying to win over her childhood crush. Liz Buxbaum’s childhood crush, Michael, has moved back to their hometown! Convinced that he is her soulmate and determined to make him her prom date, she enlists the help of her next-door neighbor, Wes, to grab his attention. Wes may be her nemesis, but he’s friends with Michael. Having grown up watching many classic romantic comedies, Liz hatches a fantasy plan straight from one of her movies involving Wes that will hopefully lead Michael to become her prom date. Downside: she’ll have to spend a lot more time with the boy who has tormented her since childhood. Upside: she discovers that spending time with Wes isn’t actually that bad. Has she misjudged him? Her feelings about this whole situation are changing and she isn’t sure what that means for her, Wes, or Michael.

Better Than the Movies was absolutely adorable. Liz is obsessed with her first love, Michael, but her relationship with Wes had me squealing as they grew closer and closer. I also loved the romantic comedies that Liz, the hopeless romantic, has been obsessed with since she was little. It was something her mom loved before she died, so Liz frequently watches the same movies that her mom enjoyed. Liz talks about many of the movies throughout this book, which I enjoyed (and want to watch again!).

Movies series

  1. Better than the Movies (2021)
  2. Nothing Like the Movies (2024)

Interested in this book? Better than the Movies is the February See YA Book Club pick. We will be discussing this book on Wednesday, February 4th at 6:30pm at our Eastern Avenue branch. For more information about future See YA book picks, visit our website.

See YA Book Club

Join our adult book club with a teen book twist. See why so many teen books are being turned into movies and are taking over the best seller lists.

Registration is not required. Books are available on a first-come, first-serve basis at the Eastern Avenue library. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at Eastern at 6:30pm. Stop by the service desk for more information.

Wednesday March 4th session will be meeting in the Story Room.

February 4 – Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter

March 4 – The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

April 1 – Looking for Smoke by KA Cobell

May 6 – If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang

June 3 – Shut Up, This is Serious by Carolina Ixta

New Children’s Nonfiction

- Stephanie Leave a comment

When I want to read nonfiction, I gravitate towards the children’s section. Children’s nonfiction titles help develop a deeper knowledge of the world and serve as a great introduction to new topics. Nonfiction has always been difficult for me to read, but I have found that children’s nonfiction utilizes informational writing in such a way that doesn’t feel like a chore to read (at least to me). Below you will find a list of new children’s nonfiction that has just hit the shelves at the library.

As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers. These titles were published in 2025.

Dawn written and illustrated by Marc Martin

With gorgeous artwork and a spare text, an award-winning picture-book creator gently celebrates the natural world through the lens of a sunrise.

As the sun slowly rises, many things happen in a small window of time. The world comes alive with the actions of animals, plants, clouds, and sky. A deer drinks, an owl wakes, a dandelion shimmers in the light. A ladybug climbs, a fish jumps, birds call in a chorus. Geese fly away in formation. A flower blooms. Beautifully illustrated with glowing imagery and written with a charming simplicity holding appeal for new readers, Marc Martin’s ode to the slow-blooming beauty of a sunrise and the life that unfolds in its radiance narrows the lens to show the wonder of time passing. – Candlewick Studio

The Friendship Train: A True Story of Helping and Healing after World War II by Debbie Levy

An impeccably researched, touching true story of the kindness of strangers around the world following World War II from a bestselling author and award-winning illustrator.

On one side of the ocean, a war had ended, leaving many in Europe without enough food.
On the other side of the ocean, Americans asked, How can we help?

The need was too great for any one person to fill-but what could people do if they joined together?

The answer was the Friendship Train, which ran from the West Coast to the East collecting good food for hungry bellies. Americans of all ages gave what they could. Especially children! They donated their allowances, sold newspapers, collected food from neighbors, loaded packages onto trucks and boxcars-all for strangers across the sea.

And in return, those strangers asked themselves How can we say “thank you”? Still recovering from the war, they didn’t have a lot to give, but they found a way-their own train full of ways-to express their gratitude.

This heartwarming nonfiction picture book from Debbie Levy and Boris Kulikov shows how small acts of kindness can grow, healing lives and helping turn strangers into friends. – Bloomsbury Children’s Books

The History of We by Nikkolas Smith

Fossil records show that the first humans were born in Africa. Meaning, every person on Earth can trace their ancestry back to that continent. The History of We celebrates our shared ancestors’ ingenuity and achievements and imagines what these firsts would have looked and felt like.

What was it like for the first person to paint, to make music, to dance, to discover medicine, to travel to unknown lands? It required courage, curiosity, and skill.

The History of We takes what we know about modern human civilization and, through magnificent paintings, creates a tale about our shared beginnings in a way that centers Black people in humankind’s origin story. – Kokila

Hurricane written and illustrated by Jason Chin

Caldecott and Sibert Medalist Jason Chin charts the thrilling saga of an island community’s brush with a category three hurricane, and the cutting-edge science that helps them prepare.

It’s a beautiful day on Hatteras Island, North Carolina. But while all seems calm now, a hurricane is barreling across the Atlantic, and everyone is wondering when it will hit the U.S. coast. And where.

Night and day, meteorologists use satellites to monitor the storm. Brave pilots fly directly into the tempest, dodging lightning bolts to gather crucial data. Back on the island, families board up windows, drag furniture upstairs, and stock survival kits to prepare for what may come.

From its dramatic opening, Hurricane alternates between striking maps charting the hurricane’s progress and daily life on the island.

Hurricane is at once a fascinating view into a natural disaster and a reassuring survey of the tools we use to mitigate the damage. As climate change makes hurricanes ever more destructive, this engaging and rigorous book is perfect for classrooms, and for families making their own safety plans. – Neal Porter Books

Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham written by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu

A picture book biography of the iconic photographer Imogen Cunningham by National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Partridge.

Imogen Cunningham loved to observe the world. She noticed the colors in the woods outside her house and how light and shadows moved between the trees. She tried to capture this beauty on paper with pencils, but something was missing. One day she read about a woman in Paris who earned a living as a photographer, and she knew she was meant to do the same. With the support of her loving father, she then began her journey to become one of the most important photographers in America.

The life of iconic photographer Imogen Cunningham is brought vividly to life by National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Partridge, who also happens to be Cunningham’s granddaughter. With stunning illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Yuko Shimizu, Imogen captures the passion of the creative process with a unique and intimate perspective. – Viking Books for Young Readers

In the World of Whales written by Michelle Cusolito, illustrated by Jessica Lanan

Plunge deep into the awe-inspiring true story of a freediver’s encounter with a newborn sperm whale and its family.

When a freediver (one who dives without the benefit of oxygen) slips underwater, he encounters a pod of sperm whales so close he can almost touch them. When he sees blood in the water, he wonders if there’s been an injury. When he comes even closer, what he finds instead is a moments-old calf, skin wrinkly and tail fluke still folded from the womb.

The calf’s family nudges it up to breathe; nudges it toward each member of the pod, by way of introduction; and then it happens—the mother nudges her child toward the diver, inviting him, too, to share in the family moment.

Told from the vantage point of Belgian freediver Fred Buyle, who with his diving partner Kurt Amsler are the only people known to be present at the birth of a sperm whale, In the World of Whales features lyrical-yet-precise text by Michelle Cusolito and dreamlike illustrations by Jessica Lanan, creator of the Sibert Honor book Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider. Any child who dreams of speaking to animals will adore this proof of humanity’s bond with the wild world. At the end of the story, find more information about freediving and whales. – Neal Porter Books

Making Light Bloom: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps written by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Julie Paschkis

The untold story of Clara Driscoll, a nature lover with the mind of a creative innovator and the unsung genius who designed and engineered the iconic Tiffany lamp

Drawing inspiration from her childhood gardens, Clara Driscoll created designs for Louis C. Tiffany’s stained glass windows. Clara had such a flare for glass that Tiffany put her in charge of a special workroom, staffed with women—called the Tiffany Girls. But Clara wanted more. She wanted to create a three-dimensional work that would make light bloom. So she figured out how to engineer a lamp—how to shape and bend glass and light it so that her designs sprung to colorful, vivid life.

Today, we all recognize Tiffany lamps, but we almost forgot the woman who created them. Extensive back matter features more information about Clara Driscoll, her letters, and her design and manufacturing process, as well as bibliography and sources. – Peachtree

Malcolm Lives!: The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers by Ibram X Kendi

National Book Award–winning and #1 New York Times–bestselling author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi brings a global icon to life in the first major biography of Malcolm X for young people in more than thirty years–perfect for fans of blockbuster hit STAMPED: A REMIX with Jason Reynolds.

As a youth, Malcolm endured violence, loss, hunger, foster care, racism, and being incarcerated. He emerged from it all to make a lasting impact. As a Black Muslim. As a family man. As a revolutionary. Malcolm’s life story shows the promise of every human being. Of you!

To trace Malcolm’s childhood and adult years, Kendi draws on Malcolm’s stirring oratory style, using repetition and rhetoric. Short, swift chapters echo Malcolm’s trademark fast walk. An abundance of never-before-published letters, notes, flyers, photos, extensive source notes, and more give young readers a front-row seat to his life.

One hundred years after his birth in 1925, Malcolm’s antiracist legacy lives on in this thoughtful and accessible must-read for all people. For you!

Just like history, Malcolm lives. – Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma & His Gifts to the World written by James Howe, illustrated by Jack Wong

“I’ve been asking myself all my life, ‘What is the purpose of music?’” –Yo-Yo Ma

4 starred reviews! “Will move some readers to tears and make them think about the special gifts each person possesses.” (Kirkus)

At a young age, Yo-Yo Ma discovered a remarkable gift for the cello, playing Bach from memory by age four. His technique was far beyond his years, but even as he grew and became a world-class musician—studying at Juilliard, performing at Carnegie Hall at a young age, even playing on television before the president of the United States—he wanted to use his gift for something deeper, something bigger.

As he asked question after question, trying to understand his place in the world, he discovered something that every culture has in common: music.

Ma decided that he would spend his life not only performing for others, but learning from other cultures’ musical traditions and finding ways to unite people. Even as he dedicated himself to humanitarian work around the world, Ma also dedicated himself to teaching a new generation of young cellists to play with their whole hearts, bodies, and souls, like he does—how to find the music inside themselves.

From James Howe, bestselling author of Bunnicula, and Jack Wong, award-winning author/illustrator of When You Can Swim, comes the story of legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who is special not only because of his unmatched talent but also his curious mind and compassionate heart. Powerfully told and stunningly illustrated, this biography will inspire readers to discover the gifts inside us all.

Back matter includes an author’s and an illustrator’s note, a timeline of Ma’s life, and resources to learn more about his life and work. – Abrams Books

Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll!: The Inventive Rube Goldberg: A life in Comics, Contraptions, and Six Simple Machines written by Catherine Thimmesh, illustrated by Shanda McCloskey

Award-winning author Catherine Thimmesh’s irresistibly engaging text and artist Shanda McCloskey’s energetic, cartoon-style artwork introduce readers to the life and creative legacy of Rube Goldberg, the world-famous inventor of crazy contraptions. A rollicking educational kids’ book that is part biography, part inspiration, and part physics how-to, Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll! posits the ultimate question … why do anything the simple way? (Especially if, for instance, there is a catapult option?)

Because, of course, there are lots of things you can do the simple way:
Set an alarm,
flip a switch,
open a door,
toast some bread . . .

But what if, instead, you did things the Rube Goldberg way?
Endlessly entertaining,
needlessly complex,
and achieving a delicate balance of physics, humor, and excitement!

The book includes an overview of the six simple machines that power most of Goldberg’s inventions and puts the tools for making real-life Rube Goldberg machines right into readers’ hands. It’s the perfect thing to spark the imaginations of budding inventors, artists, and thinkers of all ages—because the most promising relationships with science start not with a textbook but with the willingness to break stuff and ask silly questions! – Chronicle Books

This is Orange: A Field Trip Through Color written by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Julie Morstad

Prepare your senses for a delicious shock of orange in all its glory and variety—in a playful color tribute destined to wow art and design enthusiasts of all ages.

Look closely. The color orange is all around you, not only in the natural world—from fruit and foxes to minerals and mushrooms—but in the human-engineered world, too, from works of art to religious ceremonies to astronaut survival suits. Ranging through time and circumnavigating the globe, witty stream-of-consciousness text and jaunty illustrations explore color through surprising social, historical, cultural, and artistic lenses. With more than thirty vivid examples and a gentle introduction to color theory, this eye-opening voyage into the heart of orange is a clever appeal to experience other colors—and the world at large—with an open and expansive mind. – Candlewick

The Sky Was My Blanket: A Young Man’s Journey Across Wartime Europe by Uri Shulevitz

Born in the tumult of World War I, a young Jewish boy named Yehiel Szulewicz chafes at the borders of his hometown of Żyrardów, Poland, and at the rules set in place by his restrictive parents. Brimming with a desire for true adventure, he leaves home at fifteen-and-a-half years old to seek his future elsewhere. Little does Yehiel know, he’ll never see his parents again.

His journey takes him beyond Polish borders, to Austria, Croatia, France, and Spain. With no money and no ID papers, he often sleeps under the stars, with only the sky as his blanket. But even wayfaring Yehiel can’t outrun the evil spreading across Europe in the years leading up to World War II. As the fascists and Nazis rise to power, Yehiel soon finds himself a member of the Spanish Republican Army and then the Jewish Resistance in Vichy France, fighting for freedom, his friends, and his very life.

Inspired by the true story of Uri Shulevitz’s uncle and stunningly illustrated by the author, The Sky Was My Blanket is a unique and riveting account of one man’s courage and resilience amidst one of the darkest periods in global history. – Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Cold Weather Reads

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Cold weather is fine to watch from inside, but going out in it can be a chore. For those of us who would rather stay inside, I have gathered a list of cold weather reads! As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Black Woods, Blue Sky written by Eowyn Ivey, botanical illustrations by Ruth Hulbert

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well.

Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains, on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic and she can picture a happily ever after: Together they catch salmon, pick berries, and climb mountains so tall it’s as if they could touch the bright blue sky. But soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have ever imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.

Black Woods, Blue Sky is a novel with life-and-death stakes, about the love between a mother and daughter, and the allure of a wild life—about what we gain and what it might cost us. – Random House

This title is also available in large print.

Coram House by Bailey Seybolt

On a blistering summer day in 1968, nine-year-old Tommy vanishes without a trace from Coram House, an orphanage on the shores of Lake Champlain. Fifty years later, the opportunity to investigate his disappearance and the orphanage’s sinister history is just the break that struggling true crime writer Alex Kelley needs.

Arriving in Vermont for research, Alex grows obsessed with Tommy’s disappearance, then her investigation takes a harrowing turn with the discovery of a woman’s body in the lake. Alex is convinced this new death is somehow connected to Coram House’s dark past, even if Officer Russell Parker thinks she’s just desperate for a story. As the body count rises, Alex must prove that the key to finding the killer lies in a decades-old murder—or else she risks becoming the next victim herself. – Atria Books

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

December 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them.

On the farm nearby lives Irene’s mirror image: witty but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer’s wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget.

When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. There is still affection in both their homes; neither marriage has yet to be abandoned. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way—ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory—so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.

An exquisite, page-turning examination of relationships, The Land in Winter is a masterclass in storytelling—proof yet again that Andrew Miller is one of the most dazzling chroniclers of the human heart. – Europa Editions

The Lost House by Melissa Larsen

In Melissa Larsen’s The Lost House comes the mesmerizing story of a young woman with a haunting past who returns to her ancestral home in Iceland to investigate a gruesome murder in her family.

Forty years ago, a young woman and her infant daughter were found buried in the cold Icelandic snow, lying together as peacefully as though sleeping. Except the mother’s throat had been slashed and the infant drowned. The case was never solved. There were no arrests, no conviction. Just a suspicion turned into a certainty: the husband did it. When he took his son and fled halfway across the world to California, it was proof enough of his guilt.

Now, nearly half a century later and a year after his death, his granddaughter, Agnes, is ready to clear her grandfather’s name once and for all. Still recovering from his death and a devastating injury, Agnes wants nothing more than an excuse to escape the shambles of her once-stable life—which is why she so readily accepts true crime expert Nora Carver’s invitation to be interviewed for her popular podcast. Agnes packs a bag and hops on a last-minute flight to the remote town of Bifröst, Iceland, where Nora is staying, where Agnes’s father grew up, and where, supposedly, her grandfather slaughtered his wife and infant daughter.

Is it merely coincidence that a local girl goes missing the very same weekend Agnes arrives? Suddenly, Agnes and Nora’s investigation is turned upside down, and everyone in the small Icelandic town is once again a suspect. Seeking to unearth old and new truths alike, Agnes finds herself drawn into a web of secrets that threaten the redemption she is hell-bent on delivering, and even her life—discovering how far a person will go to protect their family, their safety, and their secrets.

Set against an unforgiving Icelandic winter landscape, The Lost House is a chilling and razor-sharp mystery packed with jaw-dropping twists that will leave you breathless. – Minotaur Books

Nothing Ever Happens Here by Seraphina Nova Glass

Nothing ever happens in small towns…

When Shelby Dawson survives a harrowing attack that should have left her dead, she tries to move past it—for herself, and for her family. Fifteen months later, with the help of her best friend, Mackenzie, she finally feels safe again in the snowy Minnesota town she calls home. But when an anonymous note appears on her windshield bearing the same threats her attacker made, Shelby realizes that her nightmare has only just begun.

As new evidence surfaces, and a group of well-meaning senior citizens accidentally makes the case go viral online, the situation quickly goes from bad to worse. And with suspicious accidents targeting those closest to her happening all over town, Shelby can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched. Fighting to stay one step ahead of disaster, she finds herself asking the question on everyone’s lips: Who attacked her that night?

But Shelby isn’t the only one with questions. Mackenzie’s husband, Leo, vanished without a trace on that terrible night, and over a year later, no one knows why. Until a deep dive into his finances reveals a history of debts, mismanaged funds, and hidden accounts—one of which is still active. Their suspicion that Leo is still alive only complicates things further, though, and when another person connected to Shelby goes missing, she’s caught in a race against time before her attacker becomes a killer. – Graydon House

Our Winter Monster by Dennis Mahoney

Chilling holiday horror about an unhappy couple running from their problems and straight into the maw of a terrifying beast, perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay and Sara Gran

For the last year, Holly and Brian have been out of sync. Neither can forget what happened that one winter evening; neither can forgive what’s happened since. Tonight, Holly and Brian race toward Pinebuck, New York, trying to outrun a blizzard on their way to the ski village getaway they hope will save their relationship. But soon they lose control of the car—and then of themselves.

Now Sheriff Kendra Book is getting calls about a couple in trouble—along with reports of a brutal and mysterious creature rampaging through town, leaving a trail of crushed cars, wrecked buildings, and mangled bodies in the snow.

To Kendra, who lost another couple to the snow just seven weeks ago, the danger feels personal. But not as personal as it feels to Holly and Brian, who are starting to see the past, the present, and themselves in a monstrous new light . . .

Mahoney’s exhilarating story moves like an avalanche, but its desperate characters, claustrophobic setting, and shocking displays of gore will stay with you long after the snow has melted. Our Winter Monster captures the horrifying moments that test if we’re strong enough to weather the worst—and asks who we might survive the storm with. – Hell’s Hundred

Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell by Gillian French

A page-turning, compelling thriller about a woman who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth behind her sister’s disappearance.

Shaw Connolly is no stranger to trauma. As a fingerprints analyst, she’s one of the first on-site for crimes, including murder scenes and a mysterious string of arsons popping up throughout the rural Maine community her department serves. But the tragedy of her little sister’s disappearance sixteen years ago has always weighed on her the most; Thea is never far from her thoughts or dreams, and Shaw knows that her obsession with finding the truth about Thea is driving her husband away and impacting her two boys. Still, she can’t let it go and has even started taking disturbing calls from a man named Anders Jansen who all but claims to have committed the crime.

Anders taunts Shaw with hints and innuendo about what supposedly happened all those years ago. His calls go to the next level as he reveals just how much he knows about Shaw’s personal life, like her stalled career and ruined marriage. As his stalking escalates to threats on her and her family’s lives, he begins to show just how dangerous he might be. Shaw is too desperate for answers to hang up now, just when she’s getting close to finding proof. The only question left is what she must lose to learn the truth.

A taut, atmospheric thriller from Edgar Award-finalist young adult author Gillian French, Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell introduces a compelling new voice in adult suspense fiction. – Minotaur Books

The Unveiling by Quan Barry

Striker isn’t entirely sure she should be on this luxury Antarctic cruise. A Black film scout, her mission is to photograph potential locations for a big-budget movie about Ernest Shackleton’s doomed expedition. Along the way, she finds private if cautious amusement in the behavior of both the native wildlife and the group of wealthy, mostly white tourists who have chosen to spend Christmas on the Weddell Sea.

But when a kayaking excursion goes horribly wrong, Striker and a group of survivors become stranded on a remote island along the Antarctic Peninsula, a desolate setting complete with boiling geothermal vents and vicious birds. Soon the hostile environment will show each survivor their true face, and as the polar ice thaws in the unseasonable warmth, the group’s secrets, prejudices, and inner demons will also emerge, including revelations from Striker’s past that could irrevocably shatter her world.

With her signature lyricism and humor, Quan Barry offers neither comfort nor closure as she questions the limits of the human bonds that connect us to one another, affirming there are no such things as haunted places, only haunted people. Gripping, lucid, and imaginative, The Unveiling is an astonishing ghost story about the masks we wear and the truths we hide even from ourselves. – Grove Hardcover

We Do Not Part by Kang Han, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris

One winter morning in Seoul, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at the hospital. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn’t yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into darkness that awaits her at her friend’s house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully brings to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable pain—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be. – Hogarth

This title is also available in large print.

Bad Behavior has blocked 18044 access attempts in the last 7 days.