Month: May 2023

Online Reading Challenge – May Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in Ireland that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman. This is the story of three generations of the Gogarty family in Dublin, Ireland. The Gogarty family are all rambunctious people in their own way – full of spunk and the desire to get their own way. All the main characters have issues, but this book is rife with added humor that make the story endearing. They are all ‘good eggs’ looking for second chances.

Kevin Gogarty is frustrated. His eighty-three-year-old mother, Millie, has been caught shoplifting yet again. AGAIN! At a loss of what to do, Kevin hires a caretaker to come into his mother’s house to help take care of her. After all, his wife isn’t home to help. Kevin is currently unemployed, stuck at home managing their full house while his wife travels around the world to exotic locations for work. He’s not bitter at all.

Millie is livid. She’s just fine, thank you very much.  Her nosy son’s plan means that she will have to miss her planned vacation with Jolly Jessica to the States. This new caretaker is destined to be a pain in her side, no matter what they all say. She doesn’t need any help.

Kevin’s daughter Aideen is annoyed. Her parents think she’s sullen and misbehaved, but if they had to deal with her spoiled rotten twin sister, they would act the same way! After one of her outbursts, her parents decide they have had enough and send her to a new boarding school during the school week. She can’t believe she’s been banished. Her troubles escalate even more at the school when Aideen befriends the campus rebel.

Millie’s new home aide, Sylvia, walks right into the Gogarty family mess with a smile on her face. Sylvia is upbeat and nothing seems to phase her. Kevin has high hopes that Sylvia will be able to alleviate the stress his mother causes him on a daily basis. Little do they all know that the addition of Sylvia will tip the family towards their greatest disaster yet.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought that I would. I found myself laughing out loud at some points, as I could definitely picture the hijinks in my head. I was drawn to certain characters and found myself instantly invested in what was going to happen next in each of their lives. All in all, a hilarious romp of a debut novel. I can’t wait to see what Rebecca Hardiman writes next.

In June, we’re headed to Australia!

Otterly Fabulous

- Valerie Leave a comment
Otter – looking at the camera

You may recall that back in April we celebrated International Beaver Day.  Well, now the otter gets its turn.  May 31st, 2023 is World Otter Day.  This holiday always falls on a Wednesday.  So next year, 2024, it will fall on May 29th.

There are thirteen different species of otter (Lontra canadensis):  Sea Otter, North American River Otter, Eurasian Otter, Giant Otter, Asian Small-Clawed Otter, Smooth-Coated Otter, African Clawless Otter, Marine Otter, Neotropical Otter, Spotted-Necked Otter, Hairy-Nosed Otter, Southern River Otter, and Japanese Otter.

The North American river otter’s range includes the Quad-Cities, since they prefer water bordered by woods and wetlands.  They are strong swimmers, using their long body and tail to slide through the water, paddling with their webbed hind feet.  River otters have a transparent inner eyelid (called a nictitating membrane) to protect their eyes while swimming.  They can hold their breath for up to 8 minutes.  They close their nostrils to keep water out during these long dives.

They are considered a fur-bearing animal having the thickest fur of any mammal, with as many as 850,000 hairs per square inch.

River otters are mostly nocturnal.  They feed on crayfish, fish, other small mammals, and aquatic plants.  They are social animals with groups consisting of a female and her juvenile offspring.

These carnivorous mammals tend to weigh 11-30 pounds when fully grown.   They live 8-9 years in the wild.  It is estimated that there are 100,000 North American river otters in the United States and Canada.

Want to learn more?  Check out the following juvenile titles:

Sea otters, by Laura Marsh

Otters under water, by Jim Arnosky

The otter, by Bert Kitchen

Sea Otter Heroes, by Patricia Newman

Otters, by Jane and Doran Whitledge

Odder, by Katherine Applegate

 

Library Closed

- Stephanie Leave a comment

All three Davenport Public Library Branches are closed today, Monday, May 29th in observance of Memorial Day. Normal business hours will resume on Tuesday, May 30th.

Our physical locations may be closed, but you can still visit us virtually!

Your Davenport Public Library card gives you access to FREE digital materials such as e-books, digital audiobooks, magazines, movies, and music online 24/7.

Here are my top five favorite digital content resources! Check these out and we’ll see you again on Tuesday, May 30th when the library opens.

Libby – All you need to access e-books, digital audiobooks, and digital magazines is your Davenport Public Library card. We recommend downloading the Libby app for best performance.

Freegal – Freegal Music gives you access to millions of songs from over 40,000 labels. Stream 24-hours a day. Download up to 5 songs per week.

TumbleBooks – Both children and their parents will enjoy this online collection of animated, talking picture books that teach kids the joys of reading in an exciting, new format they will love.

QC Beats – Built in partnership with Davenport Public Library, River Music Experience and St. Ambrose University, QC Beats is an online streaming audio collection of original music of Quad Cities musicians and artists.

Kanopy – Provides a variety of popular and classic movies, documentaries, and foreign films to stream. Kanopy Kids offers parental controls.
The Great Courses present a wealth of learning.

We Served the People: My Mother’s Stories by Emei Burell

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Documenting family history is incredibly important. If you don’t, your family’s history will disappear and you may never discover what happened or what led you to where you are in life. Emei Burell examines her mother’s past in We Served the People: My Mother’s Stories, a graphic history of life during China’s Cultural Revolution and the impact it had on lives after it ended.

At the beginning of this graphic biography, Burrell notes that this is the story of her mother’s experience and is her mother’s story – her story doesn’t speak for everyone. She was an adolescent at the time, just 14-years old, about to graduate from 7th grade when her life suddenly and drastically changed. First her school was shut down with the teachers forced to stay in the school and not allowed to return home. She and her fellow students still had to come to school, but there was no actual learning taking place. Flash forward to 1968 when Mao ZeDong launched the Down to the Countryside Movement. That meant that all educated youth were forced to go to the countryside to be reeducated by the poorest  lower and middle peasants so they could learn what China really is. They didn’t have a choice not to go, but she avoided leaving until 1969 when she ended up in Yunnan and was stuck there for ten years until the end of the Cultural Revolution. Her mother was officially a rusticated youth in Yunnan.

Throughout this book, Burell pairs her drawings with her mother’s words and photographs from that time. Those photographs add a connection to the story that readers may not have otherwise had with the drawings alone. Her mother’s stories depict how she ended up as one of the few truck-driving women during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Her life growing up in mid-1960s Communist China was rough, yet she managed to survive and thrive while living in a time of massive political upheaval. Determined to get her fair share, she wasn’t afraid to fight for what she wanted. She found ways to work the system, get an education, and eventually leave China like she always planned.

I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic biography. The Cultural Revolution in China was not something I had much knowledge of before I started reading this, but this book has pushed me down a rabbit hole to learn more about this time period and the millions of lives that were lost.

New Nonfiction: Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

- Claire Leave a comment

One of my favorite aspects of my job is purchasing books for the 200s section of our nonfiction collection–Religion. The number of memoirs and essay collections about people’s religious experiences are vast, passionate, and endlessly fascinating.  

I recently purchased Daniella Mestyanek Young’s memoir Uncultured. Young’s story details her childhood in the religious cult, The Children of God, also known as The Family, and the extreme lengths the community goes to to mold their followers into fervent, unquestioning believers. 

The memoir is anything but light as Young describes the seemingly endless physical and sexual abuse that the leaders of The Family claimed was “godly discipline and love.” The child abuse that is described in Young’s story is abundant, making the book difficult to read at times, but also quite straightforward. Young conveys the details of her traumatic upbringing in a very to-the-point manner, only veiling the most gruesome details for her own privacy. 

When Young turned fifteen, she escaped The Children of God. She moved to Texas to live with a half-sister (of which she has many, due to the sharing of women amongst male cult members), enrolled in high school (her first time in “Systemite” school), finished college, and eventually joins the military and works her way up to a role as an intelligence officer. 

At the end of her time enlisted, Young reckons with her life and choices in a way that she hasn’t been able to before. She originally joined the military to find another community to belong to and a group with a shared goal to work towards. Without realizing it, she essentially joined another cult-like group. Just as in The Children of God, the group mentality and abuse of women were integral to the functionality of the system.

Uncultured is clear-cut and determined: Young responsibly takes her readers through the painful but necessary revelations of a global group that has claimed a faith that allows women and children to only exist in service of perverse men. Eye-opening is just one word to describe this exposé on religious cults and the human destruction they ensue. 

This title is also available in large print.

 

Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling : and other feminist fairy tales : a parody by Laura Lane and Ellen Haun

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Lately I have been wanting to read a book of fairy tales, but not the sanitized versions or the Brothers Grimm ones. Walking the stacks at work, I found a sassy alternative, Cinderella & the Glass Ceiling : and other feminist fairy tales : a parody by Laura Lane and Ellen Haun, illustrated by Nicole Miles. While I found the fairy tales in this book to be humorous, these are ones you will probably want to read yourself before reading to your children (just a word of caution). The language is quite frank, but the authors definitely get their point across with each tale they rewrite.

In this book, readers will find feminist retellings of the Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Mulan, Peter Pan, Beauty & the Beast, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, and Goldilocks. These are definitely not the sanitized nice version of the fairy tales. There are plenty of parodies, puns, and jokes throughout this book, though definitely irreverent ones.  This book is also beautifully illustrated by Nicole Miles. Their illustrations add an extra pop to the stories that I enjoyed. The stories are sarcastic and humorous, plus relevant to today. The authors have taken the societal standards present in each story, ramped them up to an extreme, which in turn led to each story being hilarious and full of empowerment. It left me rethinking the sanitized versions of fairy tales I read when I was younger and how those specific ones relate stories of womanhood and relationships. This was a sneaky read that left me thinking about the issues presented for way longer than it took me to read the actual book.

The Miracle of Flexibility by Miranda Esmonde-White

- Brenda Leave a comment

At 459 pages and 2.4 pounds, The Miracle of Flexibility by Miranda Esmonde-White is worth more than its weight in gold. But that’s just my opinion. Check it out and decide for yourself.

The book’s full title is The Miracle of Flexibility: a Head-to-Toe program to Increase Strength, Improve Mobility, and Become Pain Free. It is an illustrated, hardcover guide to the moves that comprise Essentrics, the strength and flexibility routine that former ballerina Esmonde-White developed to help people of all ages maintain mobility and prevent and heal injuries. If you have never heard of Essentrics, I would encourage you to check out additional materials on this topic available in Rivershare. Esmonde-White will tell you first-hand about how she developed the program after suffering a career-ending injury as a ballerina with National Ballet of Canada, and about how strong and flexible she is now.

The movements may seem simple, but don’t be fooled. They are as effective as they are efficient. This guide describes the how and why of each, with mini lessons about human anatomy along the way.  I chuckled as I read one Amazon reviewer’s comment that nerds will like this book. It is very informative. If you are new to Essentrics, however, I would encourage you to watch one of the routines either via one of the library’s DVDs, on the Essentrics subscription streaming service online (which offers a free two week trial), or currently airing at 6am weekdays on IPTV.  Watching them will give you a better idea of how to carry out the moves illustrated in the book. Once you get the hang of them, you can commit some to memory and do them throughout the day, from nearly anywhere. It can be life-changing and has been for several people I know personally who once suffered from ailments such as joint pain and plantar fasciitis.

Esmonde-White’s other books which you can check out from the library include Forever Painless: End Chronic Pain and Reclaim Your Life in 30 Minutes a Day, available on audiobook through RiverShare and Aging Backwards: Fast Track : 6 Ways in 30 Days to Look and Feel Younger on audiobook. There is also the 278-page Aging Backwards: Reverse the Aging Process and Look 10 Years Younger in 30 Minutes a Day.

I’d love to read your comments! Please share if you’ve checked any of these materials out and what you liked or did not like about them. Even if you didn’t check any of them out, I’d be curious to know what kept you from trying.

 

Look Again: A Memoir by Elizabeth A. Trembley

- Stephanie Leave a comment

‘Trauma can make truth hard to find.’ – Look Again: A Memoir  by Elizabeth A. Trembley

Trauma dominates Elizabeth A. Trembley’s graphic memoir, Look Again. She talks about the impact trauma has on your experiences, to the effect that what you swear is the truth may not be what actually happened.

While walking her dogs in the woods years ago, Elizabeth found a dead body. That traumatic, grief-stricken moment of utter confusion overwhelmed her so much that what she looked back at that time all she remembered was shattered images flashing through her mind. In an effort to process, Elizabeth relays, in this graphic memoir, six variations of that same event. Each variation changed when seen through different lenses at different points in her life. She acknowledges that her route to track down the truth was convoluted, much like what other trauma survivors experience in their lives.

This graphic memoir was very well written, smart, enlightening, while also managing to be funny and relatable. Readers are able to walk with Elizabeth through her life as she works through what happened that morning in the woods. How Elizabeth chooses to deal with her trauma is clearly reflected in her words and drawings. Readers see when she is finally able to examine why she behaved the way she did – in a sense, readers grow along with her as the story evolves.

This book shook me, as it had me thinking about events in my past and how my memories may be skewed. Her research into trauma was enlightening. Seeing how she was able to find some answers in her research, as well as how learning more opened up her mind, really impacted and made me want to do more research of my own. At the end of her book, the author has a list of selected resources that helped her learn about her experiences (I’ve already snagged a few to read myself!).

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper

- Stephanie Leave a comment

As a lover of cozy mysteries, true crime, and Lifetime original movies, I like to think that I pay attention to my surroundings (my family may disagree…). Whenever I’m reading or watching something where someone is trying to solve a murder (or a new person comes to a mysterious town), I frequently find myself mumbling, ‘Don’t do that! That’s not going to end well…’ Imagine my curiousity when I found Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village written by Maureen Johnson and illustrated by Jay Cooper. This is a guidebook full of dark and sarcastic humor all about how to avoid a gruesome death in innocent-looking bucolic English villages, or ‘English Murder Villages’ as the book calls them.

First off, let’s talk about the illustrations. They are absolute perfection, an Edward Gorey-esque set of drawings with only red pops of color to draw your eye to elements of death and murder. Without these illustrations, the book wouldn’t be complete. The illustrations and text perfectly compliment each other.

This book is written from the perspective of an author who wants to warn people of the dangers of visiting English Murder Villages. She wants you to not stray from the big towns as venturing off the beaten path will lead to your inevitable and premature death. As a way to help you survive, she has compiled lists of people and locations to be careful of in the village and the manor.  There’s really no safe space, but forewarned is forearmed. This book is full of nods to classic British crime tropes, which I adored. If you have seen/read any Miss Marple, Murder She Wrote, Agatha Christie, or watched/read any cozy mysteries, you may enjoy this death-laden trip through the English countryside (and may pick up some handy tricks to stay alive along the way)!

Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for their Rights by Mikki Kendall

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Do you want to learn more about women’s rights, but aren’t sure where to start? I recommend Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: a Graphic History of Women’s Fight for their Rights by Mikki Kendall. This graphic history is gorgeously drawn and covers a wide range of topics, years, and issues. I would treat this book as a primer on women’s rights as readers are introduced briefly to hundreds of different women, but since short descriptions are given of each, you’ll undoubtedly want to learn more! I took notes the whole time I was reading of women I wanted to look up. Definite recommendation from me!

As the title states, this graphic history talks about amazons, abolitionists, and activists and their fight for rights. It’s told from the viewpoint of an AI robot teaching a history class in the future. They grow frustrated with the lack of knowledge and transport the class through time all over Earth to learn about the numerous women and their struggle for basic rights. Traveling from antiquity through to the modern era, readers will learn about different key figures and events such as fighting for the right to vote, work, own property, exercise your own bodily autonomy, getting an education, and so much more. What I enjoyed is that the women covered range all races, jobs, and era: the history of amazons, freedom fighters, queens, warrior women, spies, all the way to supreme court justices and activists fighting today. Readers will learn about the many movements that women have fought in, how they overlapped, yet sometimes stayed separate.  Kendall covers suffrage, abolition, civil rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ liberation, labor, and many other movements. I enjoyed the snippets provided about each woman, movement, and fight. It’s a fascinating look at the past, present, and future of the fight for various different women’s rights.