Jenna Bush Hager August Book Picks

Jenna Bush Hager has selected TWO books for the August #ReadWithJenna book club. She has chosen Here For It by R. Eric Thomas and The Comeback by Ella Berman.

Here for it: or, how to save your soul in America by R. Eric Thomas is her nonfiction selection. This memoir is presented through a series of essays. Check out the following description provided by the publisher:

R. Eric Thomas didn’t know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went–whether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city–he found himself on the outside looking in. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Eric redefines what it means to be an “other” through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents’ house was an anomalous bright spot, and the verdant school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, about the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election as well as the seismic change that came thereafter. Ultimately, Eric seeks the answer to the ever more relevant question: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Eric finds the answers to these questions by re-envisioning what “normal” means, and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story.

The Comeback is her fiction selection. The following description, provided by the publisher, will give you an idea what the book is about.

A deep dive into the psyche of a young actress raised in the spotlight under the influence of a charming, manipulative film director and the moment when she decides his time for winning is over. At the height of her career and on the eve of her first Golden Globe nomination, teen star Grace Turner disappeared. Now, tentatively sober and surprisingly numb, Grace is back in Los Angeles after her year of self-imposed exile. She knows the new private life she wants isn’t going to be easy as she tries to be a better person and reconnect with the people she left behind. But when Grace is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to director Able Yorke–the man who controlled her every move for eight years–she realizes that she can’t run from the secret behind her spectacular crash and burn for much longer. And she’s the only one with nothing left to lose. Alternating between past and present, The Comeback tackles power dynamics and the uncertainty of young adulthood, the types of secrets that become part of our sense of self, and the moments when we learn that though there are many ways to get hurt, we can still choose to fight back.

Want to make sure that Jenna’s picks are automatically put on hold for you? Be sure to join our Best Sellers Club.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys is a young adult historical fiction book that was originally published in 2011. It is the first book written by author Ruta Sepetys that was turned into the 2018 movie ‘Ashes in the Snow‘. Ruta Sepetys writes primarily young adult historical fiction with some romance twists.

Between Shades of Gray tells the story of fifteen-year-old Lina. In 1941, Lina lives with her younger brother Jonas and both of her parents in Lithuania. Everything changes for the family one night with they are pulled from their home in Lithuania by Soviet guards. Separated at a train station, the family doesn’t know where they will end up. Eventually they are sent to Siberia where Lina learns that her father has been sentenced to death in a prison camp. Lina, Jonas, and their mother have to fight for their lives as they struggle to keep their family together. This book tells only one story of a Lithuanian family, but it serves as a catalyst for readers to start their own research into the thousands of families that were affected by this in the 1940s.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Virtual Book Club – ‘The Cabin at the End of the World’ on August 12th

The Virtual Book Club is meeting next Wednesday, August 12th, at 2pm central to discuss The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. We are using GoTo Meeting which will allow patrons to video chat with others about the book. Information about how to join is below!

Curious what the book is about? Check out the following description from the publisher.

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense. Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road. One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.” Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

This book is also available in the following format:

Virtual Book Club
Wed, Aug 12, 2020 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/969823581

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (646) 749-3122

Access Code: 969-823-581

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/969823581

Watch Party – ‘Private Revolutions’ on August 13th

It’s time for a new Watch Party! Every week, Watch Party recommends a show for you to watch using IndieFlix, Qello Concerts, or AcornTV, all available FREE for you to use with your Davenport Public Library card. You have a whole week to watch the show and then join in every Thursday in August at 4p using GoTo Meeting to discuss the show/movie. Be sure to watch the show before the program!

On August 13th, Watch Party will be discussing ‘Private Revolutions’ on IndieFlix. Four young Egyptian women with different social backgrounds smartly fight for their ideals and rights. For almost two years, we follow their everyday lives and their struggle in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Information about how to join the August 13th Watch Party is below. Questions about how to access IndieFlix, Qello Concerts, or AcornTV? Give us a call at 563-326-7832.

Watch Party 
Thu, Aug 13, 2020 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/826671389 

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (312) 757-3121

Access Code: 826-671-389

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/826671389 

Dial H for Hero (volume 1) by Sam Humphries

Vacation goes from boring to thrilling with the not-so-simple ring of the phone in Dial H for Hero by Sam Humphries.

Our story begins with young Miguel Montez being rescued by Superman after a swimming pool accident. He spends the rest of his childhood chasing the adrenaline rush, which makes his teen years working in his uncle’s mayonnaise-themed food truck a real drag. In the mist of a dirt bike stunt, Miguel stumbles across a new way to save himself — dial H on the rotary phone falling next to him.

Fellow adrenaline junkie Summer soon joins Miguel — in a stolen food truck, no less — in chasing the rush of being a superhero for one hour every time the H-Dial is activated. Hot on their heels are villains and fellow civilians alike, all wanting to play the superhero fantasy. The catch is, no one has any control over what type of superhero they’ll turn into. Sometimes they are save-the-day archetypes such as Monster Truck or Lo Lo Kick You. Other times, they spend the hour as comically bad superheros, such as  Summer becoming Chimp Change, a pistol-toting, fishnet stocking and high heel clad chimpanzee. Miguel is transformed into “Lil’ Miguelito,” a character reminiscent of a Family Circus cartoon.

Miguel and Summer quickly find themselves in over their heads and they take on a new mission: Get the H-Dial back to the one hero they trust — Superman!

Dial H for Hero volumes 1 and 2 are available now through the Davenport Public Library.

Reese Witherspoon August Book Pick

Every month Reese Witherspoon releases a new pick for the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine book club. She has just announced her August pick: Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat.

If you want to make sure that you don’t miss any celebrity book club picks, join our Best Sellers Club and have those automatically put on hold for you.

From the best-selling author of Claire of the Sea Light and Brother, I’m Dying, a long-awaited return to fiction: a gorgeous collection of stories about community, family and love; about the forces that pull us together or drive us apart–a book rich with vividly imagined characters, hard-won wisdom, and humanity. In these eight stories by widely acclaimed, prizewinning author Danticat–some of which have appeared The New Yorker–a romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends; a marriage ends for what seems like noble reasons, but leads to irreparable consequences; a young woman holds on to an impossible dream, even as she fights for her life, two lovers reunite after the biggest tragedy in their country and in their lives. Vividly set in places from Miami to Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, these beautiful and moving stories showcase one of the world’s most renowned voices at her absolute best.

 

Book Club @ Night – August 12

Are you missing book clubs? We are! Lucky for all of us, the Davenport Public Library has book club options available! On Wednesday, August 12th at 6:30p, Book Club @ Night will be meeting virtually to discuss Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Information about how to join in and discuss this book is listed below. Copies of the book are available at the Eastern Avenue Library. Stop at the desk to pick up a copy to borrow and read for the book club.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly is a young adult fiction book published in 2010. Jennifer Donnelly is a best selling author with fifteen published books. Want to know what Revolution  is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher:

An angry, grieving seventeen-year-old musician facing expulsion from her prestigious Brooklyn private school travels to Paris to complete a school assignment and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help a tortured, imprisoned little boy–Louis Charles, the lost king of France.

Book Club @ Night

August 12th – ‘Revolution’ by Jennifer Donnelly

Book Club @ Night
Wed, Aug 12, 2020 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/301873461 

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (872) 240-3212

Access Code: 301-873-461

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/301873461 

Virtual Book Club – ‘The Wife Stalker’ on August 5th

Virtual Book Club will be discussing The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine on Wednesday, August 5th at 2pm. Information about how to join is listed below. We are using GoTo Meeting which will allow patrons to video chat about the book!

Curious what The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher:

The bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish returns with a psychological thriller, filled with chilling serpentine twists, about a woman fighting to hold onto the only family she’s ever loved—and how far she’ll go to preserve it. Named one of the most anticipated thrillers of the year by Goodreads, Bustle, SheReads, and Library Journal Breezing into the tony seaside paradise of Westport, Connecticut, gorgeous thirtysomething Piper Reynard sets down roots, opening a rehab and wellness space and joining a local yacht club. When she meets Leo Drakos, a handsome, successful lawyer, the wedding ring on his finger is the only thing she doesn’t like about him. Yet as Piper well knows, no marriage is permanent. Meanwhile, Joanna has been waiting patiently for Leo, the charismatic man she fell in love with all those years ago, to re-emerge from the severe depression that has engulfed him. Though she’s thankful when Leo returns to his charming, energetic self, paying attention again to Evie and Stelli, the children they both love beyond measure, Joanna is shocked to discover that it’s not her loving support that’s sparked his renewed happiness—it’s something else. Piper. Leo has fallen head over heels for the flaky, New Age-y newcomer, and unrepentant and resolute, he’s more than willing to leave Joanna behind, along with everything they’ve built. Of course, he assures her, she can still see the children. Joanna is devastated—and determined to find something, anything, to use against this woman who has stolen her life and her true love. As she digs deeper into Piper’s past, Joanna begins to unearth disturbing secrets . . . but when she confides to her therapist that she fears for the lives of her ex-husband and children, her concerns are dismissed as paranoia. Can she find the proof she needs in time to save them?

This book is also available in the following formats:

Virtual Book Club
Wed, Aug 5, 2020 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/540763365

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (646) 749-3112

Access Code: 540-763-365

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/540763365

Watch Party – ‘The Whole Gritty City’ on August 6th

It’s time for a new Watch Party movie discussion!  Every week, Watch Party recommends a show for you to watch using IndieFlix, Qello Concerts, or AcornTV, all available FREE for you to use with your Davenport Public Library card. You have a whole week to watch the show and then join in every Thursday in August at 4p using GoTo Meeting to discuss the show/movie. Be sure to watch the show before the program!

On August 6th, Watch Party will be discussing ‘The Whole Gritty City’ on Qello Concerts. The Whole Gritty City is a unique, fascinating window into the little-known world of New Orleans school marching bands. The documentary is a dramatic, music-filled story of children struggling to reach adulthood in one of America’s most impoverished and violent cities. The film follows kids in three bands as the directors get them ready to perform in the Mardi Gras parades, and teach them to succeed and to survive. Navigating the urban minefield through moments of setback, loss, discovery, and triumph, these children and their adult leaders reveal the power and resilience of a culture.

Information about how to join in is below! We hope to see you there. Questions about how to access IndieFlix, Qello Concerts, or AcornTV? Give us a call at 563-326-7832.

Watch Party 
Thu, Aug 6, 2020 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/553780573 

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (571) 317-3122

Access Code: 553-780-573

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/553780573 

Online Reading Challenge – August

Hello Again Fellow Readers!

Here it is August – can you believe it? Time for a new Challenge. This month our film inspiration is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, that iconic Western starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

[Please note: a lot of Western fiction has themes of racism, genocide, sexism and slavery to some degree. Unfortunately, it’s part of what makes up this genre. Please choose carefully and read with caution.]

There is no shortage of great books set in the American West from classic Western authors (Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey) to classic American novels (such as Willa Cather’s My Antonia) to modern favorites (like Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry or News of the World by Paulette Jiles, both of which I highly recommend)

There is also all kinds of great non-fiction such as Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, The Pioneers by David McCullough and Dreams of El Dorado: a History of the American West by H. W. Brands.

Interested in reading about some of the bad boys of the West? Try Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West by Thomas Clavin. Or would you like to delve into the gritty world of the cowboy? Then check out Cattle Kingdom: the Hidden History of the Cowboy West by Christopher Knowlton.

Do you like mysteries? If so, I highly recommend C.J. Box’s series about Joe Pickett, a game warden in modern day Wyoming.

And, for extra credit (not that anyone is counting!), the Figge Art Museum has a exhibit currently running that should be of interest: “Magnetic West: the Enduring Allure of the American West” which will run through September 20. Please note: the Figge is open again but due to COVID-19 they are limiting the number of people that can be in the building and requiring the purchase of a timed ticket which you can do online. Totally worth the extra step!

As for myself, I plan to read Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose about the Lewis and Clark’s journey. OK, I admit, I’m cheating here a bit – I had started reading this a few months ago and had to set it aside before finishing. I do want to finish it though, and figure this would be the perfect time!

So, there are a smattering ideas for you – what do you plan to read? Remember, all three of our buildings are open again (limited to 30 minute visits), and curbside pick-up is available at Main and Eastern as is the drive-up window at Fairmount.

Have a great reading month!

 

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