Category: Staff Picks

Checked In: A Davenport Public Library Podcast July Recap

- Brittany Leave a comment

Each month, we release a new episode of Checked In: A Davenport Public Library Podcast. In this blog post, I will give you helpful links to area resources, Library resources, and links to the books discussed in our episode!

Favorite Audiobook Narrators to Celebrate World Listening Day on July 18th 

To celebrate World Listening Day, the hosts came up with a list of some of their favorite audiobook narrators!

Stephanie’s Picks:
Julia Whelan
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Zachary Webber 
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez
The Happy Ever Playlist by Abby Jimenez
Vikas Adam
Evander Mills Series by Lev AC Rosen
Jim Dale
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Cassandra Campbell
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Full Cast Narrators
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstren
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Sadie by Courtney Summers
One of Us is Dead by Jeneva Rose
American Gods by Neil Gaiman 

Brittany’s Picks
Read by the Author
Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Zeno Robinson
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

Beth’s Picks
Full Cast Audiobooks
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff
Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

woman laying in the sun readingLibby App

Are you struggling to find time to squeeze in a Library visit or to read a physical book? Libby has you covered! Download the Libby App to access thousands of Audiobooks and e-books for free with your Davenport Public Library card! All items will check out for up to 21 days and will automatically return. Place holds on up to 10 titles and check out 5 items at a time to ensure that you are never short on content to read! Download the App today!

National Parks and Recreation Month Interview

During this segment, Brittany and Claire interviewed Becca Niles from Davenport Parks and Recreation about some of their amazing projects. During the interview, they also discussed partnerships between The Library and Parks currently in progress and for those occurring in the future. If you are interested in Parks programming, follow this link to visit their website!

Many Ways to Listen

There are many ways to enrich your life through listening with your Davenport Public Library Card, below are a few of our favorites!

QC Beats
QC Beats is an online streaming audio collection of original music featuring Quad Cities musicians and artists. QC Beats is built in partnership with Davenport Public Library, Bettendorf Public Library, and St. Ambrose University Library.

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.

Physical Items
The Library has music CD’s, audiobooks on CD, and playaways to check out to listen through your stereo or headphones. By clicking the link above, you can begin searching for your next great listen!

If you are looking for a program to join, consider looking into our Audiophiles Walking Club beginning in August!

three women sitting near podcasting equipment

What Our Hosts Read In June

Beth’s Reads:
If You Would Have Told Me by John Stamos
The Boys in the Cave: Deep Inside the Impossible Rescue in Thailand by Matt Gutman

Stephanie’s Reads:
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
Poppy Done to Death (book 8 in the Aurora Teagarden mystery series) by Charlaine Harris
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White
Full of Myself: A Graphic Memoir About Body Image by Siobhan Gallagher
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor (book 1 in Irish Village Mystery series)
The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson (book 2 in The Agathas Mystery series)
Puzzled: a memoir about growing up with OCD by Pan Cooke
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

Brittany’s Reads:
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

If you would like to listen to our episode, it can be found wherever you get your podcasts. If you prefer listening on the web, it can be found here!

We love hearing from our listeners, please feel free to comment on this blog post, on our socials, or email us at checked.in@davenportlibrary.com.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“I had a theory that we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we are looking for- adventure, excitement, emotion, connection-we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we’re struggling with- sometimes ones so deep, we don’t even really know we’re asking them- we look for answers in stories.”
― Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

Emma Wheeler wants to be a screenwriter. She has spent her life studying and watching movies, obsessing over different screenwriters, and, most importantly, writing many many romantic comedies. Emma is also the sole caretaker for her dad, who needs full-time care, which cuts into her screenwriting time. However, Emma is able to secure jobs with the help of a friend. When said friend reaches out with a new job, Emma is shocked! She has the chance to rewrite a script for the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates, who is her absolute hero. Emma drops everything, arranges for her younger sister to step in and take care of their dad, and moves to L.A. for six weeks to help Charlie rewrite this script.

As soon as Emma lands in L.A. though, her dreams are dashed. Charlie had no idea she was coming and absolutely, positively doesn’t want to write with anyone, especially not a screenwriter that no one has heard about. Ugh. The kicker: the script that Charlie has written is a romantic comedy so incredibly terrible that Emma isn’t sure there’s even a glimmer of anything good in it. The even bigger kicker: Charlie doesn’t care about the script. He’s only writing it so that someone else will green-light a different script that he actually cares about.

Emma refuses to give up her chance to work with Charlie Yates. She is determined to stand up for romantic comedies everywhere and teach Charlie what is so important about these love stories. She’ll do whatever it takes to get this project off the ground, even if it means she has to kiss Charlie to prove her point. What happens after is anyone’s guess.

This book had me laughing, crying, arguing, cringing, and wishing for more. I listened to the audiobook which was beautifully read and only enhanced the written novel. While this isn’t my favorite Katherine Center book, it was sweet, endearing, and reminded me to be grateful and to focus on the positives. I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

This title is also available in large print and as a Playaway audiobook.

July’s Simply Held Nonfiction Picks

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Four nonfiction picks are available for you to choose from: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime. Our nonfiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for Simply Held through our website!

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected for July from the following categories: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime

Biography pick

In True Face: A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked by Jonna Mendez with Wyndham Wood

The bestselling coauthor of The Moscow Rules and Argo tells her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the height of the Cold War

Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a “contract wife” performing secretarial duties for the CIA as a convenience to her husband, a young officer stationed in Europe. She needed his permission to open a bank account or shut off the gas to their apartment. Yet Mendez had a talent for espionage, too, and she soon took on bigger and more significant roles at the Agency. She parlayed her interest in photography into an operational role overseas, an unlikely area for a woman in the CIA. Often underestimated, occasionally undermined, she lived under cover and served tours of duty all over the globe, rising first to become an international spy and ultimately to Chief of Disguise at CIA’s Office of Technical Service.

In True Face recounts not only the drama of Mendez’s high-stakes work—how this savvy operator parlayed her “everywoman” appeal into incredible subterfuge—but also the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. This is the story of an incredible spy career and what it took to achieve it. – PublicAffairs

Cookbook pick

Start Here: Instructions for becoming a better cook by Sohla El-Waylly

A practical, information-packed, and transformative guide to becoming a better cook and conquering the kitchen, Start Here is a must-have master class in leveling up your cooking.

Across a dozen technique-themed chapters—from “Temperature Management 101” and “Break it Down & Get Saucy” to “Go to Brown Town,” “All About Butter,” and “Getting to Know Dough”—Sohla El-Waylly explains the hows and whys of cooking, introducing the fundamental skills that you need to become a more intuitive, inventive cook.

A one-stop resource, regardless of what you’re hungry for, Start Here gives equal weight to savory and sweet dishes, with more than two hundred mouthwatering recipes, including:

Crispy-Skinned Salmon with Radishes & Nuoc Cham
Charred Lemon Risotto
Chilled Green Tahini Soba
Lemon, Pecorino & Potato Pizza
Fruity-Doodle Cookies
Masa & Buttermilk Tres Leches

Packed with practical advice and scientific background, and an almost endless assortment of recipe variations, along with tips, guidance, and how-tos, Start Here is culinary school—without the student loans. – Knopf

Social Justice pick

The Injustice of Place: uncovering the legacy of poverty in America by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, and Timothy J. Nelson

Three of the nation’s top scholars ­– known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America – turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there.

This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, poring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and corrupt government officials, the “internal colonies” in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse.

The unfolding revelation in The Injustice of Place is not about what sets these places apart, but about what they have in common—a history of raw, intensive resource extraction and human exploitation. This history and its reverberations demand a reckoning and a commitment to wage a new War on Poverty, with the unrelenting focus on our nation’s places of deepest need. – Mariner Books

True Crime pick

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost. – Vintage

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

Here’s Johnny

- Bill Leave a comment

Is one a poseur to be nostalgic for a time period in which they didn’t exist?  Does it count if you were in a diaper?  Then sit back and hear about the 70’s Hollywood scrapes of a skinny charismatic kid born in Iowa (yes, we get the credit).  When we first meet Johnny, he is getting fleeced on multiple fronts from shoddily-crafted contracts and hemorrhaging business deals.  In one such Faustian pact,  William Morris demanded a larger percentage than Johnny’s actual take-home pay.  Enter the author, Henry Bushkin, Esq., Carson’s longtime consigliere, attorney, tennis partner, drinking buddy and personal fixer.   Eventually his fortunes reversed, inking in 1981 a $25 million annual contract for 37 three-day workweeks per year.  This lead us to the unforgivable sin of Jay Leno, but that is neither here nor there.

Johnny kept Bushkin so busy he became his sole client.  Matrimony be damned, Johnny liked the ladies and they liked him right back.  For example, husband Carson was caught flirting with a high-class dame at one of his elite watering holes unaware she was the mistress of mob boss Joseph Colombo.   Johnny called in sick a few days.  Phone calls were made.  Eventually the contract on Johnny’s life was lifted.  However, though a notoriously gifted womanizer and bar hopper, Carson quixotically revered the title of married man.  Occasionally he’d marry one and seek the author’s wise counsel for the costly reverse procedure.

Spiteful, cruel, and mercurial, Johnny contained multitudes.  He was gregarious, yet incredibly guarded in his privacy.  Generous to his friends, Johnny regularly practiced pettiness and self-absorption.  Bushkin covers it all in this unvarnished portrayal, Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin, written after the attorney-client privilege expired along with Johnny in 2005. However if you were expecting any anecdotes about Ed McMahon or Doc Severinsen, this book is not for you.

Consider this an open invitation to watch the reruns on WQAD 8.2 at 9PM M-F (10PM Saturdays)….if you can stay up that late.

Space Opera Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Did you watch Dune: Part Two and want more space operas in your life? If so, this post is for you! Space opera books are melodramatic futuristic fantasy adventures that are character driven and mostly set in space. Space operas also typically focus more on relationships than other science fiction books whose emphasis is generally more exploration and technology.

I have gathered a list of space opera books published in 2023 and 2024. Note: this is not a complete of all space opera books. Contact the library for more titles if interested! These titles are all owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions are provided by the publisher or author.

Cascade Failure by L. M. Sagas (book 1 in Ambit’s Run series)

There are only three real powers in the Spiral: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union’s labor’s leverage. Between them the Guild tries to keep everyone’s hands above the table. It ain’t easy.

Branded a Guild deserter, Jal “accidentally” lands a ride on a Guild ship. Helmed by an AI, with a ship’s engineer/medic who doesn’t see much of a difference between the two jobs, and a “don’t make me shoot you” XO, the Guild crew of the Ambit is a little . . . different.

They’re also in over their heads. Responding to a distress call from an abandoned planet, they find a mass grave, and a live programmer who knows how it happened. The Trust has plans. This isn’t the first dead planet, and it’s not going to be the last.

Unless the crew of the Ambit can stop it. (Tor Books)

Meru by S.B. Divya

ONE WOMAN AND HER PILOT ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE THE FUTURE OF THE SPECIES IN AN EPIC SPACE OPERA ABOUT ASPIRATION, COMPASSION, AND REDEMPTION.

For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations.

For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual.

As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail?

Against all odds, hope is human, too. (S.B. Divya)

Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft

The sun is dying…and it’s happening way too damn fast.

With the clock ticking, the Nine Planets’ only hope of survival rests on a fancy space station and the alien artifact it’s carrying. Which is why it really sucks when some jackass doesn’t want the universe saved and blows that station up—while you’re still on it.

So if your only choices are flaming death or stealing a flying hunk of space junk—you pick that busted-ass spaceship. Even if it leaves seven strangers with deadly secrets trapped together: a princess, a prisoner, a con artist, a warrior, a priestess, a mercenary, and an asshole in charge of us all.

Now every faction in the galaxy is hunting this ship—from the Sisterhood to the Corporation, and the rebellion’s joining in on the fun, too. We just need to stop drinking, fighting, and screwing long enough to evade them all and save the freaking universe…somehow.

Because apparently the only thing standing between a dying sun and ultimate salvation is seven unlikely misfits…ahem, heroes. (Red Tower Books)

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. When Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to Nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr escapes from everything she’s known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined. (Tordotcom)

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital. There, she learns just how far she is willing to go to exact vengeance, free her sibling, and perhaps even secure her homeland’s freedom. (S&S / Saga Press)

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (book one in The Kingdom Trilogy)

A dangerous cat-and-mouse quest for revenge. An empire that spans star systems, built on the bones of a genocide. A carefully hidden secret that could collapse worlds, hunted by three women with secrets of their own. This is an explosive space opera debut from one of the most powerful new voices in science fiction.

On a dusty backwater planet, occasional thief Jun Ironway has gotten her hands on the score of a lifetime: a secret that could raze the Kindom, the ruling power of the galaxy.

A star system away, preternaturally stoic Chono and brilliant hothead Esek— the two most brutal clerics of the Kindom—are tasked with hunting Jun down.

And tracking all three across the stars is a ghost from their shared past known only as Six. But what Six wants is anyone’s guess. It’s a game of manipulation and betrayal that could destroy them all. And they have no choice but to see it through. (Orbit)

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn’t “optimal behavior”. It’s the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in the celebrated Imperial Radch universe. (Orbit)

More Space Opera books

Big Library Read: Twilight Territory by Andrew X. Pham

- Stephanie Leave a comment

It’s time for a new Big Library Read title! Available in Libby with no waitlists or holds, you can participate in this free, global digital book club. Twilight Territory by Andrew X. Pham is available from July 11 – July 25, 2024. Join the discussion through the Big Library Read website.

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

The peak of the hot season, 1942: The wars in Europe and Asia and the Japanese occupation have upset the uneasy balance of French Indochina. In the Vietnamese fishing village of Phan Thiet, Tuyet ekes out a living at a small storefront with her aunt Coi, her cousin Ha, and her two-year-old daughter, Anh. She can hardly remember her luxurious life in the city of Saigon, which she left just two years ago.

The day Tuyet meets Japanese major Yamazaki Takeshi is inauspicious and stifling, with no relief from the sand-stirring wind. But to her surprise, she feels not fear or wariness, but a strange kinship. Tuyet is guarded, knowing how the townspeople might whisper, yet is drawn to Takeshi’s warmth all the same. A wounded veteran with a good heart, Takeshi grows to resent the Empire for what it has taken—and the promises it has failed to keep. As the Viet Minh begin to battle the French and Takeshi risks his life for the Resistance, Tuyet and her family are drawn into the conflict, with devastating consequences.

A lushly panoramic novel, by turns gritty and profoundly moving, Twilight Territory is at once a war story and a love story that offers a fascinating perspective on Vietnam’s struggles to break free of its French colonial past. At its heart is one woman’s struggle for independence and her country’s liberation. – W.W. Norton & Company

This title is also available in print.

July’s Simply Held Fiction Picks

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Four fiction picks are available for you to choose from: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction. Our fiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for Simply Held through our website!

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected for July from the following categories: Diverse Debuts, Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction, and International Fiction.

Diverse Debuts:

Diverse Debuts: Debut fiction novel by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community.

No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben

A shocking and unsettling tale of murder that is at times funny, at times erotic, always outspoken and iconoclastic. A genre-breaking novel from a powerful new African voice.

How do you begin a murder story starring a curious foreigner and an opportunistic local without giving away the entire plot-who died and why? You start with the obvious villain.

2019, The Year of Return. It has been exactly 400 years since the first slave ships left Ghana for America. Ghana has now opened its doors to Black diasporans, encouraging them to return and get to know the land of their ancestors.

Elton, Vincent, and Scott arrive from America to visit preserved sites from the transatlantic slave route, and to explore the country’s underground queer scene. Their activities are narrated by their two combative guides: Kobby, their way into Accra’s privileged circles; and Nana, the voice of tradition and religious principle. The pair’s tense relationship sets the tone for what becomes a shocking and unsettling tale of murder that is at times funny, at times erotic, yet always outspoken and iconoclastic. – Europa Editions

Graphic Novel:

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

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush—part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can’t find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.

Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people. – Drawn and Quarterly

Historical Fiction:

Historical Fiction: Historical fiction novel written by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community, with main character(s) from a marginalized community.

The Secret Keeper of Main Street by Trisha R. Thomas

Acclaimed author Trisha R. Thomas delivers a masterful new tale of scandal and intuition. In 1950s oil-rich Oklahoma, Bailey Dowery, a dressmaker with the gift of “second sight,” reluctantly reveals the true loves and intentions of her socialite clients, making her a silent witness to a shocking crime.

1954: In the quaint town of Mendol, Oklahoma, Bailey Dowery is a Black dressmaker for the wives and daughters of local oil barons. She earns a good living fitting designer gowns and creating custom wedding dresses for the town’s elite. But beyond her needle and thread lies a deeper talent, one passed down from her mother: the gift of insight. With just a fleeting touch or brush against the skin, Bailey has sudden flashes of intuition— witnessing the other person’s hopes, dreams, and nightmares, as well glimpses of their past and future. To protect herself, she wears gloves to keep from grazing the skin of her clients as she pins them into their gowns.

Brides have whispered that Bailey can see if their true love is faithful, or if their marriage will be a success. Her aunt Charlene has always warned her, “It’s safer to stay out of White folks’ business.” But Bailey will reluctantly provide a reading during a fitting, as long as the bride promises to be discreet.

Now Elsa Grimes, daughter of one of the richest oil men in Oklahoma, has come to the Regal Gown as the least joyful bride Bailey has ever seen. Elsa’s big society wedding is imminent and her gown is gorgeous, but what Bailey’s intuition uncovers when she touches Elsa’s hand horrifies her. Against her better judgment, she’s determined to help Elsa in whatever way she can. But when the son of a prominent family turns up dead on the eve of Elsa’s wedding, and the bride-to-be is arrested for his murder, Bailey is suddenly at the center of a firestorm that threatens to overtake her and everyone she loves. – William Morrow

International Fiction:

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

Fury by Clyo Mendoza; translated by Christina MacSweeney

In a desert dotted with war-torn towns, Lázaro and Juan are two soldiers from opposing camps who abandon the war and, while fleeing, become lovers and discover a dark truth. Vicente Barrera, a salesman who swept into the lives of women who both hated and revered him, spends his last days tied up like a mad dog. A morgue worker, Salvador, gets lost in the desert and mistakes the cactus for the person he loves. Over the echoes of the stories of these broken men—and of their mothers, lovers and companions—Mendoza explores her characters’ passions in a way that simmers on the page, and then explodes with pain, fear and desire in a landscape that imprisons them.

After winning the International Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Poetry Prize, Clyo Mendoza has written a novel of extraordinary beauty where language embarks on a hallucinatory trip through eroticism, the transitions of conscience, and the possibility of multiple beings inhabiting a single body. In this journey through madness incest, sexual abuse, infidelity, and silence, Fury offers a moving questioning of the complexity of love and suffering. The desert is where these characters’ destinies become intertwined, where their wounds are inherited and bled dry. Readers will be blown away by the sensitivity of the writing, and will shudder at the way violence conveyed with a poetic forcefulness and a fierce mastery of the Mexican oral tradition. – Seven Stories Press

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

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua

- Michelle Leave a comment

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua is an historical mystery and thriller that perfectly combines the world’s events at the end of World War with the struggles and issues in the northern California community of Berkeley.  The plot centers around Homicide Detective Al Sullivan, who is enjoying an after dinner drink at the famed Claremont Hotel, when in an upstairs suite, a presidential candidate, Walter Wilkinson, has two assassination attempts on his life within an hour.  The second attempt proves fatal.  The candidate was despised by many and when Sullivan heads up the case, there are a number of suspects and theories that rise to the top of his list.

More than a decade earlier, another scandal at the Claremont Hotel was the talk of the town.  This scandal involved the death of a seven year old child from the renowned Bainbridge family, whose wealth and status were at the peak of San Francisco society.  While investigating the current case of Wilkinson, Detective Sullivan finds clues at the crime scene that harken back to the Bainbridge incident, linking the cases back to the surviving heiresses of the family.

After Wilkinson’s death, another murder occurs that has Sullivan perplexed as to how these events could be tied together and how they may impact the United States national security in the future.  The triangle of evidence grows even more complex when Sullivan discovers an extremely close relationship between Wilkinson and the first lady of China, who has taken up residence in the area just blocks away from the crime scene.  Red herrings abound with Sullivan confident that the case is solved and then being thrown a curveball that makes him question everything he has investigated.  After Sullivan gets a second break in the case all the pieces start to come together yet again or is this another false lead?

Chua takes multiple storylines and weaves an extraordinary plot together that addresses the uncertainties of the time, the difference in social classes and a series of crimes that shocked the community.  I cannot remember another book with such a unique plotline as The Golden Gate.  As in most historical fiction, it perfectly captures the history, struggles and realism of the era.  I particularly enjoyed the historical context and the internal struggles of Homicide Detective Al Sullivan, who tries to come to terms with his childhood while trying to navigate his future.  The Golden Gate also provides a fascinating glimpse at the United States immediately following World War II.  This is Chua’s first fiction novel and I am hopeful that The Golden Gate is the first of many by this author!

 

Summer Romance Reads

- Stephanie Leave a comment

It’s summer! With the hot weather and vacations on the way, we wanted to highlight some 2024 romances that have the word ‘summer’ in the title. You may remember the Summer Fiction Reads list we posted in June, but this list is all romances. Do you have a favorite summer romance read? Let us know in the comments.

These titles are all owned by Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions are provided by the publisher.

Effie Olsen’s Summer Special by Rochelle Bilow

Effie Olsen thought she’d never live on the tiny Maine island where she grew up, but she’s returning from sixteen years as a professional chef in far-flung countries for one summer and one summer only. Her hometown boasts one of the best restaurants in the US, and lucky for her, Brown Butter needs a sous chef. Effie’s eager for a chance at redemption after her last job went up in flames, but reluctant to set down roots in a place that reminds her of the ghosts of her past.

Until, that is, she runs into Ernie Callahan, her onetime best friend who now works in the very same restaurant. Early morning swims and late-night games of truth or dare with Ernie remind her of what she’s been missing while traveling the world. He knows her better than anyone, and it doesn’t hurt that his smile lights her up brighter than the lighthouses dotting the craggy coastline.

But their restaurant has a secret that’s bursting at the seams, and if Effie doesn’t keep it, her job will vanish into the foggy Maine air. As summer draws to a close, her dream job and the perfect guy are both within reach. Her salty seaside hometown might be the key to Effie’s sweet ending…if she can learn to let her heart lead the way in time. – Berkley

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together? – Forever

Revisiting Summer Nights by Ashley Bartlett

In their twenties, PJ Addison and Wylie Parsons were hot young actors. Their iconic performances as the final girls in Dangerous Summer Nights launched a slasher franchise, and their real-life relationship only made their characters’ romance—and the film—more popular. But young love rarely lasts, and the Hollywood machine is brutal.

A decade later they are called back to the most recent Dangerous Summer Nights installment. Their days of shifting cultural paradigms are long past. It’s hard enough just to maintain Hollywood careers and pseudo happy lives. PJ’s a director, finally making a name for herself that isn’t attached to having been a sexy starlet. Wylie is on marriage number three and most days doesn’t even mind that she’s a cliché.

Their job is simple: pretend to be wildly in love on film again. Like professionals. But the more they fake it, the more they realize their feelings are anything but an act. – Bold Strokes Books

Summer After Summer by Lauren Bailey

Olivia Taylor’s marriage is in a death spiral when she agrees to come home to the Hamptons to help her father and sisters pack up the family estate. If it looks like she’s running away from her soon-to-be ex, Wes, and New York City, well, she is. But someone has to take care of things and that’s always been Olivia’s role in the family. After years of financial trouble, someone’s finally bailing them out with a huge offer to buy their beachfront property, which is a good thing, although it means losing the home she grew up in, where her mother died, and where she first met Fred, the love of her life.

It’s been five years since the last time things blew up between Olivia and Fred, but much longer since the first time. At this point, Olivia fears it was never meant to be, so there’s no reason to feel butterflies in her stomach at the idea of seeing him again. They’ve already tried, and tried again…and again…but she’s newly single, and she isn’t the same person she was the last time–and Fred has changed too.

This time, things will be different. Maybe, just maybe, the fifth time’s the charm. – Alcove Press

Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

Benefits of a summer romance: It’s always fun, always brief, and no one gets their heart broken.

Ali Morris is a professional organizer whose own life is a mess. Her mom died two years ago, then her husband left, and she hasn’t worn pants with a zipper in longer than she cares to remember.

No one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring and puts on pants with hardware—overalls count, right?—she meets someone. Or rather, her dog claims a man for her…by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right—like he likes what he sees. He looks at her like she’s a younger, braver version of herself. The last thing newly single mom Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there’s no harm in a little summer romance. Is there? – G.P. Putnam’s Sons

The Summer Book Club by Susan Mallery

The rules of summer book club are simple:
No sad books
No pressure
Yessssss, wine!

Besties Laurel and Paris are excited to welcome Cassie to the group. This year, the book club is all about fill-your-heart reads, an escape from the chaos of the everyday—running a business, raising a family, juggling a hundred to-dos. Even the dog is demanding (but the bestest boy).

Since Laurel’s divorce, she feels like the Worst Mom Ever. Her skepticism of men may have scarred her vulnerable daughters. Cassie has an unfortunate habit of falling for ridiculous man-boys who dump her once she fixes them. Paris knows good men exist. She’s still reeling after chasing off the only one brave enough—and foolish enough—to marry her.

Inspired by the heroines who risk everything for fulfillment, Laurel, Paris and Cassie begin to take chances—big chances—in life, in love. Facing an unwritten chapter can be terrifying. But it can be exhilarating, too, if only they can find the courage to change. – Canary Street Press

This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune

This summer they’ll keep their promise. This summer they won’t give into temptation. This summer will be different.

Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.

It’s easier said than done.

Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.

If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.

When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is. – Berkley

More 2024 Summer Romance Reads! on-order

Puzzled: A Memoir about Growing Up with OCD by Pan Cooke

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Readers looking for insight on what it’s like growing up with undiagnosed OCD should read Puzzled: A Memoir about Growing Up with OCD by Pan Cooke. Pan shares his story from different stages of childhood with a pop-in from adult Pan at the end. This was a lovely, openminded read about one person’s journey growing up with OCD.

Pan is ten years old when the anxious thoughts start to take over. They rule his brain like puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together or ones that are missing entirely. Pan has become an impossible puzzle that he can’t figure out. As he works to find answers to the swirling thoughts in his brain, he is bombarded by repeating questions and fears that can only be pacified through repeated rituals that take time to go through. His compulsions being to impact his ability to do his normal tasks. His friendships start fading, his anxiety ratchets up, and Pan is left at a loss of what to do.

After living for years with no answers, Pan learns that he has obsessive compulsive disorder. His anxious thoughts, missing puzzle pieces, and his attempts to solve the mess he feels are all evidence that he has OCD. This middle grade graphic memoir shows Pan’s journey from living with OCD to learning about OCD and what he can do to help quiet his thoughts.

While I enjoyed this middle grade graphic memoir, I was left wanting more. Many of my favorite graphic memoirs that discuss mental health list resources and sources of information in the back. While I understand that this is a graphic memoir for kids, I still would have liked some resources, websites, or organizations presented. Even though these were absent, Pan’s evolving relationships with his friends, family, doctors, and therapist all modeled changing ties between others, as well as positive and negative relationships. Showing Pan working through his thoughts on his own, while trying to find paths that worked for him and help, was very realistic. All in all, I’m glad I decided to pick up this book as Pan was incredibly candid and open about his mental health.