Month: May 2025

Online Reading Challenge – May Wrap-Up

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Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read a graphic novel? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. (Actually this was a re-read for me.) Personally, I feel Persepolis should be required reading for all people as it deals with difficult subjects, but also bears witness to history that should never be ignored.

Marjane Satrapi is the daughter of radical Marxists and the great-granddaughter of Iran’s last emperor. Her childhood is threaded through with the history of her country, Iran. Satrapi grew up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. In Persepolis, she talks about the Iranian experience from the 1950s through the late 1970s. The overthrow of Mossadeq and the seating and unseating of the Shah take place during this time. She also witnesses the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the effects of war with Iraq. Satrapi’s parents aren’t afraid to sit her down to give a lesson on history especially when she asks questions or says something that catches them off guard. In addition to the history talks, Satrapi details daily life in Iran and the many contradictions between her home life and public life.

Persepolis is told in black-and-white comic strip images which add to the harshness of her stories and to the seriousness of war and political repression. The first time I read this book, I remember being struck by the vivid descriptions of her childhood and her family. This graphic novel was first published in English in 2003, so I was just starting my teens when I read it for the first time. I was close in age to Satrapi (she is ages six to fourteen in this book), but our childhoods were incredibly different. It’s difficult for me to distill my feelings about Persepolis into a couple paragraphs. Please pass this graphic novel to someone in your life. Maybe they’ll get something out of it that will change their lives just like it changed mine.

Next month, we will be reading queer fiction!

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!

Books about Divorce

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Books about divorces are trending right now. Whether it is a nonfiction memoir or an autofictional novel, the representation of divorce in these books is varied. Below you will find a list of nonfiction and fiction books about divorce published recently that are all owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Nonfiction

This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by Lyz Lenz

Studies show that nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women—women who are tired, fed up, exhausted, and unhappy. We’ve all seen how the media portrays divorcées: sad, lonely, drowning their sorrows in a bottle of wine. Lyz Lenz is one such woman whose life fell apart after she reached a breaking point in her twelve-year marriage. But she refused to take part in that tired narrative and decided to flip the script on divorce.

In this exuberant and unapologetic book, Lenz makes an argument for the advantages of getting divorced, framing it as a practical and effective solution for women to take back the power they are owed. Weaving reportage with sociological research and literature with popular culture along with personal stories of coming together and breaking up, Lenz creates a kaleidoscopic and poignant portrait of American marriage today. She argues that the mechanisms of American power, justice, love, and gender equality remain deeply flawed, and that marriage, like any other cultural institution, is due for a reckoning. A raucous argument for acceptance, solidarity, and collective female refusal, This American Ex-Wife takes readers on a riveting ride—while pointing us all toward a life that is a little more free. – Crown

The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates

Transitions are moments in which we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape—a space that, for many people, is shadowed by confusion, fear, and indecision. The Next Day accompanies readers as they cross that space, offering guidance on how to make the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning and how to move forward into the next day when the ground beneath you is shifting.

In this book, Melinda will reflect, for the first time in print, on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.

Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are in life, is headed toward transitions of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda candidly shares stories of times when she was in need of wisdom and shines a path through the open space stretching out before us all. – Flatiron Books

No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce by Haley Mlotek

An intimate and candid account of one of the most romantic and revolutionary of relationships: divorce

Divorce was everything for Haley Mlotek. As a child, she listened to her twice-divorced grandmother tell stories about her “husbands.” As a pre-teen, she answered the phones for her mother’s mediation and marriage counseling practice and typed out the paperwork for couples in the process of leaving each other. She grew up with the sense that divorce was an outcome to both resist and desire, an ordeal that promised something better on the other side of something bad. But when she herself went on to marry—and then divorce—the man she had been with for twelve years, suddenly, she had to reconsider her generation’s inherited understanding of the institution.

Deftly combining her personal story with wry, searching social and literary exploration, No Fault is a deeply felt and radiant account of 21st century divorce—the remarkably common and seemingly singular experience, and what it reveals about our society and our desires for family, love, and friendship. Mlotek asks profound questions about what divorce should be, who it is for, and why the institution of marriage maintains its power, all while charting a poignant and cathartic journey away from her own marriage towards an unknown future.

Brilliant, funny, and unflinchingly honest, No Fault is a kaleidoscopic look at marriage, secrets, ambitions, and what it means to love and live with uncertainty, betrayal, and hope. – Viking

Fiction

All Fours by Miranda July

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive. – Riverhead Books

Liars by Sarah Manguso

A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I’d always known that. But I’d never suspected how easily I’d fall into one anyway.

When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including—a few years later—all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.

As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.

Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes. – Hogarth

Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn

The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started…

It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.

But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs?
Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself. – G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Crush by Ada Calhoun

When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both—sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible

She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life—a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose.

Using the author’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it’s possible to love—friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world’s good books, and most of all one’s own deep sense of purpose. – Viking

Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

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Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia must solve a murder and plan a wedding in Rachel Ekstrom Courage’s new book, Murder by Cheesecake, book 1 in the Golden Girls Cozy Mystery series.

Rose is preparing to fly to St. Olaf for her young relative’s wedding when she receives a devastating phone call. There’s been a fire at the venue and the young couple have decided to elope! Desperate to make sure that all the St. Olaf traditions are adhered to, Rose offers to host the wedding in Miami. She quickly enlists the help of Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia to help her pull off all the wedding planning in just a week and making sure the St. Olaf wedding week guidelines are met.

The Girls have their dedicated tasks, but Dorothy has one that falls outside of Rose’s list: she needs a date to the wedding. She decides to try the new VHS dating service that her daughter recommended, but her date ends up being less than desirable. Disappointed, Dorothy resigns herself to a lonely wedding.

Despite a few hiccups with the groom’s family and with the St. Olaf relatives, Rose is determined that the kickoff event will be perfect. Everything is running smoothly until a body is discovered in the kitchen freezer, face-down dead in a cheesecake. Every guest at the kickoff event is a suspect, the groom’s family is angry, and Dorothy thinks she might know the dead person. The Girls must find the real killer while planning the wedding. The happy couple doesn’t need the stress of murder and a dead body to destroy their day, so Rose, Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia search for clues and push for the truth.

This was a fun cozy mystery read. I enjoyed seeing all of the connections between the book and the television series. This is full of references to life in the 1980s. Murder by Cheesecake is a delightful cozy mystery read that you can devour in one weekend. The character development was realistic, the mystery was believable, and the story is full of surprises. PLUS there’s a cheesecake recipe at the end of the book!

New Short Story Collections

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Looking for something to read that may not take much time? Try a short story collection. Every one I have read has been incredibly different in terms of format and writing rhythms, plus they have been a great way to read new-to-me authors. For this list, I gathered titles that were published in 2025 and that are currently owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. If you have a favorite short story collection, let us know in the comments! Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu

Seven struggling customers are given the unique opportunity to take home a “blanket cat” . . . but only for three days, the time it’ll take to change their lives.

A peculiar pet shop in Tokyo has been known to offer customers the unique opportunity to take home one of seven special cats, whose “magic” is never promised, but always received. But there are rules: these cats must be returned after three days. They must eat only the food supplied by the owner, and they must travel to their new homes with a distinctive blanket.

In The Blanket Cats, we meet seven customers, each of whom is hoping a temporary feline companion will help them escape a certain reality, including a couple struggling with infertility, a middle-aged woman on the run from the police, and two families in very different circumstances simply seeking joy.

But like all their kind, the “blanket cats” are mysterious creatures with unknowable agendas, who delight in confounding expectations. And perhaps what their hosts are looking for isn’t really what they need. Three days may not be enough to change a life. But it might just change how you see it. – G.P. Putnam’s Sons

The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein

There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew The Giant in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

These are their stories.

In “My Name Is Ellie” a young girl uncovers disturbing secrets hiding in the walls of her beloved grandmother’s home. An unassuming box, built with reclaimed wood, connects a grieving widower with his late wife’s lingering spirit in “Hector Brim.” In “Detour” a father, desperate to return home, finds himself trapped in a dizzying maze, haunted by stories of lurking monsters that live off the remains of weary travelers.

Playing with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief, Sam Rebelein returns upstate to unravel the mysteries of Renfield. But regardless of what started the trouble, there’s one thing of which we can be certain: for those living here, the nightmare is far from over. – William Morrow Paperbacks

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters

In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.

In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.

Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In “The Chaser,” a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, “The Masker,” a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.

Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights. – Random House

The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux

The stories in Paul Theroux’s fascinating new collection are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form. – Mariner Books

Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters

In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place—from contact with the first European settlers, to the forced removal of Indigenous children, to the present-day fight for the right to clean water

In this intimate collection, Amanda Peters melds traditional storytelling with beautiful, spare prose to describe the dignity of the traditional way of life, the humiliations of systemic racism and the resilient power to endure. A young man returns from residential school only to realize he can no longer communicate with his own parents. A grieving mother finds purpose and healing on the front lines as a water protector. And a nervous child dances in her first Mawi’omi. The collection also includes the Indigenous Voices Award-winning and title story “Waiting for the Long Night Moon.”

At times sad, sometimes disturbing but always redemptive, the stories in Waiting for the Long Night Moon will remind you that where there is grief there is also joy, where there is trauma there is resilience and, most importantly, there is power. – Catapult

Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

- Beth Leave a comment

In Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su, 23-year-old Vi has dropped out of college and is working a dead-end job as a front desk attendant at a hotel. She was dumped by her boyfriend six months ago and just can’t seem to get over it.

Things start to change when she finds, and takes home, a gelatinous blob she finds next to a garbage can. From Vi’s couch, this blob starts to absorb bits of cereal and junk food. It develops beady black eyes. Then blinking eyelids. It turns out it is a living, maybe alien creature. It starts to obey Vi’s commands to move, stay and grow an arm. From there, Vi continues to play sorcerer and develops it into a good-looking, if socially clueless, boyfriend named Bob.

Sounds like a change for the better, right? You’d be wrong. Instead of growing together to be an on-the-town couple, Vi holds the Bob hostage, limiting who and when he interacts with any other living creature. But by now, Bob has developed a curiosity about the world and the people in it. He breaks out of Vi’s apartment and complicates her life significantly.

Readers may find Vi’s embodiment of ennui frustrating. She gets in her own way on almost every desire to be social with her coworkers or (human) romantic interests, re-enroll in college, or look for any type of more fulfilling job. Vi likes the idea of a boyfriend but puts no effort into being in a couple with Bob beyond her apartment walls. Even the perfect boyfriend she has developed from a blob outgrows her in a matter of weeks.

Supporting characters from co-workers to parents fill in some other gaps about Vi and why she is the way she is. If you are up to suspending your belief in reality, the story will make you reflect on loving and letting go and what it means to be a young adult in the 2020s.

Baseball Romances

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In November 2023, I wrote about an increase in sports romances. While researching new titles to purchase, I kept running across new baseball romances! While I’m no stranger to popular baseball movies (Bull Durham, Jerry Maguire, For the Love of the Game, 42, 61*, The Rookie, A League of their Own, Fever Pitch, to name a few), I will admit that I can’t name as many baseball books, specifically romances. To remedy this, here is a list of five baseball romances all published in either 2024 or 2025.

As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions have been provided by the publishers.

The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson

Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize . . . but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message.

Chris doesn’t usually respond to random fans on social media, but he’s grieving and fragile after an emotionally turbulent few months. When a DM from “Duckie” catches his eye, he impulsively messages back. Duckie is sweet, funny, and seems to understand him in a way no one else does.

Daphne isn’t sure how much longer she can keep lying to Chris, especially as she starts working with the team in real life and their feelings for each other deepen. When he finds out the truth, will it be three strikes, she’s out? – Berkley

Heavy Hitter by Katie Cotugno

Taylor and Travis. Jennifer and A-Rod. Marilyn and Joe. When a professional athlete and a megawatt star fall in love, the world is obsessed . . .

With four chart-topping albums, Lacey Logan is a superstar whose life no longer feels like her own. Her every move is photographed, videoed, and dissected online, and her carefully curated Instagram feed studied by fans worldwide. To maintain her privacy, Lacey skillfully controls her narrative, showing fans and paparazzi what she wants them to see.

But when Lacey discovers her boyfriend is hiding two devastating secrets—a bad cocaine habit and a pregnant girlfriend—she begins to lose confidence and control of her own story. Then big-shouldered baseball player Jimmy Hodges, a former Rookie of the Year when Lacey was in high school, walks into the bar where she’s venting to a friend. With his shaggy beard and unfashionable button-down, Jimmy is the opposite of the picture-perfect guy Lacey thinks she wants. Soon, sparks fly and inhibitions go out the window when Lacey dares to take some chances.

Lacey and Jimmy are polar opposites. But could this be the forever after they both need? – Harper Perennial

No Ordinary Love by Myah Ariel

Ella Simone’s popstar life is what dreams are made of. Her eight year marriage to renowned music producer, Elliot Majors, has helped garner the hits, awards, and adoring fans to prove it. But when Ella tires of Elliot’s many infidelities, she decides to fight for her independence despite the ironclad prenup that threatens her career.

To help her case, Ella is under strict orders to stick to The Plan: no headlines, no rumors, no rocking the boat. But this strategy is thrown a curveball after an awards show wardrobe snafu and quick rescue by Miles Westbrook, MLB’s most eligible player, sends the tabloids into a frenzy. Amid tricky divorce proceedings, Ella’s magnetic connection with the charismatic pitcher might just be her downfall.

Now the pressure is on to turn a scandal into an opportunity and give their teams what they want: a picture-perfect performance that will shore up both Ella and Miles’ reputations. But as the lines between reality and PR begin to blur, Ella will either stick to the choreographed life she knows so well, or surrender to a love that could set her free. – Berkley

The Prospects by KT Hoffman

Minor leagues. Major chemistry.

Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of—that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life.

Gene and Luis can’t manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, they begrudgingly rediscover a comfortable rhythm. As the two grow closer, the tension between them turns electric, and their chemistry spills past the confines of the stadium. For every tight double play they execute, there’s also a glance at summer-tan shoulders or a secret shared, each one a breathless moment of possibility that ignites in Gene the visceral, terrifying kind of desire he’s never allowed himself. Soon, Gene has to reconcile the quiet, minor-league-sized life he used to find fulfilling with the major-league dreams Luis inspires.

This triumphant debut romance reveals what’s possible when we allow ourselves to want something enough to swing for the fences. – Dial Press Trade Paperback

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

An emotional, slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine, queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, about grief and found family, between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first season—set in the same universe as We Could Be So Good.

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.

Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough. – Avon

The Editor

- Lynn Leave a comment

The Editor by Sara Franklin is an exhaustive biography of Judith Jones.  For over 60 years, she was the ground-breaking editor of authors such as Anne Tyler, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath.  She also worked with a murderers’ row of cookbook authors – Julia Child, Madhur Jaffrey, Edna Lewis, and James Beard.

Jones led a Forrest Gump-like life – from postwar Paris where she came across a manuscript by Anne Frank and she “rescued [it] from the reject pile” and then throughout the years she spent at Knopf. For example, she worked with philosophers and poets, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Langston Hughes,

The latter part of the book is devoted to how Jones virtually invented a new genre – that of the literary cookbook. The years Jones spent in France were critical to her success with Child, and Jones also became an expert in the cuisine of India and the Middle East through her work with Jaffrey and Claudia Roden.

It’s a story of sexism – neither Blanche Knopf nor Jones were as well known or compensated (in Jones’ case)  as their male counterparts. It’s a fascinating history of the heyday of big publishing houses in New York, when authors and books had almost unlimited time and attention from their publishers and editors. Franklin goes into minute detail about every stage of the process – from how books and authors are shopped around to how cover art and book titles were chosen. With Child, Jones revolutionized how books were promoted by creating the publicity tour.  These geeky details were perhaps my favorite part of The Editor.

The Korean Wave: K-pop

- Elena Leave a comment

Have you heard the term “hallyu?” “Hallyu,” also called the “Korean Wave,” refers to the increasing global popularity of South Korean pop culture, including music, film, television, and comics.

We’ve previously introduced Korean pop music (aka K-pop) in this 2021 blog post. But did you know that you can now listen to K-pop music on Freegal with your Davenport library card? With unlimited streaming and up to 5 song downloads per week, your K-pop listening is covered! If you aren’t sure where to start, I’ve put together An Introduction to K-pop playlist for everyone to enjoy. Or, if you still prefer listening to music the old-fashioned way, check out these recent K-pop CDs available at the library.

During the month of May, look for the “Hallyu: The Korean Wave” displays at all three branches for more Korean pop culture recommendations.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“You know, if mankind has one universal superpower, it’s gaslighting women into thinking they’re the problem.”
― Ally Carter, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Have you ever read a book that you’re not quite sure which genre it falls into? Such was my last read, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter. (Did you know that Ally Carter is the pen name for author Sarah Leigh Fogelman? I sure didn’t until I read this book.)

Maggie Chase has hated Ethan Wyatt for as long as she’s known him. She’s a cozy mystery writer, while he is a thriller writer known for his leather jackets. The two mix like oil and water, especially when Maggie overhears Ethan make a comment about her at a holiday party. When her agent hands Maggie an invitation to her biggest fan’s home for the holidays, Maggie reluctantly agrees and boards the plane. Maggie realizes she wasn’t the only author invited, but is trapped until the plane touches down. More people are there than she expected, plus her anonymous fan seems to be hiding secrets. Day two of the trip takes a turn when someone goes missing from a locked room in the midst of a brutal winter storm. Maggie spots clues and starts wondering if something bigger is happening behind the scenes. Who can she trust? How did the missing person disappear? Is she trapped in a mansion with a killer?

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is described as Knives Out with a rom-com twist, and honestly I’ve never read anything more apt. I absolutely adored this book. Seeing Maggie and Ethan’s relationship progress over the years through flashbacks and from both of their points-of-view was a breath of fresh air. Romance tropes, plus mystery elements, abound in this novel. Rivals-to-lovers AND a locked room mystery? My favorites! There were some plot points that I still have questions about, but I’ll have to let them go as this is a standalone. Four of five stars!

This title is also available in large print.

“so . . . Summers were the worst. Or the best?” She honestly didn’t know. “Because I had two things: a library card and time.”
― Ally Carter, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Science Fiction Fantasy Books about Reincarnation

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Have you ever discussed a topic that has stuck with you for months, leading you down a research hole to learn more? At one of the Library’s Death Cafe programs, we had discussed reincarnation. Fascinated with the topic, but wanting to look into some fiction representations before I went the nonfiction route, I started compiling a list of science fiction and fantasy books about reincarnation. Below are some of these titles. As of this writing, these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions have been provided by the publisher.

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

“What if I told you that the feeling we call love is actually the feeling of metaphysical recognition, when your soul remembers someone from a previous life?”

In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor—but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue.

In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead.

And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before.

Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly tested by the worlds around them.

As their many lives intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love—a power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both. – MIRA

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera

Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story.

Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages. No world can hold them, no life can bind them, and they’ll never leave each other behind.

Tracing two souls through endless lifetimes, Rakesfall is a virtuosic exploration of what stories can be. As Annelid and Leveret reincarnate ever deeper into the future, they will chase the edge of human possibility in a dark science fiction epic unlike anything you’ve read before. – Tordotcom

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

First we live. Then we die. And then . . . we get another try?

Ten thousand tries, to be exact. Ten thousand lives to “get it right.” Answer all the Big Questions. Achieve Wisdom. And Become One with Everything.

Milo has had 9,995 chances so far and has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn’t make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to fall forever into the arms of Death. Or Suzie, as he calls her.

More than just Milo’s lover throughout his countless layovers in the Afterlife, Suzie is literally his reason for living—as he dives into one new existence after another, praying for the day he’ll never have to leave her side again.

But Reincarnation Blues is more than a great love story: Every journey from cradle to grave offers Milo more pieces of the great cosmic puzzle—if only he can piece them together in time to finally understand what it means to be part of something bigger than infinity. Darkly enchanting and wisely hilarious, Michael Poore’s Reincarnation Blues is the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking. – Del Rey