Category: Staff Picks

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Did you know that Investigation Discovery has a book club? Working with Random House, the ID Book Club was formed as a way for fans of Investigation Discovery to read more about crime and justice. To see a list of past book club selections, check out their website!

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown was one of the ID Book club’s selections and my introduction to the club. This mystery novel weave together the stories of two very different women. Although they grew up in wildly different circumstances, their life decisions lead back to a handful of similar life-forming moments that they both shared.

All Nina ever hoped for was a decent childhood and to live a life that was different than her mom’s. Nina’s mother is a con artist who hustled throughout Nina’s entire childhood in order to hopefully give her daughter a better life. Moving constantly and trying to make new friends was hard for Nina until Nina and her mom ended up in Lake Tahoe. That year living in Lake Tahoe changed Nina’s life forever, introducing her to her closest friend and first love. That year of tranquility came crashing down around them and ended with Nina and her mom running from the town in a cloud of shame. Nina worked hard and went to college, graduating with a liberal arts degree that she hoped would lead her to a legitimate career. When she gets a call saying that her mom is sick and needs her help, Nina leaves everything behind and rushes home to help her. She ends up putting her life on the line and starts pulling scams with her Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina promised herself she wouldn’t turn into her mom, but what did she expect: she learned from the best and to deny the tricks she grew up learning from her mother doesn’t make sense anymore.

Vanessa is privileged. A young heiress who has had anything and everything in life handed to her, Vanessa wants to leave her mark in the world. She wants to do better than her parents. When her plans don’t turn out quite like she hoped, Vanessa becomes an Instagram influencer. Traveling around the globe, posing for pictures in exotic locations, and being showered in free clothes and products as long as she posts pictures of herself using them has become Vanessa’s life. Being an Instagram influencer quickly overtakes and becomes her entire life. Based on her Instagram, it looks like Vanessa leads a perfect and immensely covetable life. She shouldn’t be wanting for anything. Behind that facade however, Vanessa’s life is full of tragedy. The catalyst proves to be a broken engagement, which sends Vanessa, in desperate search of solitude, to her family’s estate, Stonehaven. This sprawling mansion on Lake Tahoe is full of dark secrets that haunt Vanessa and her family.

Lake Tahoe and Stonehaven sing a siren call to Vanessa and Nina, luring both women back to the site where their lives intertwine even tighter, leading to a twisting confrontation full of revenge, deceit, duplicity, and destruction.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Virtual Book Club – ‘The Underground Railroad’ on August 26th

- Stephanie Leave a comment

On Wednesday, August 26th, at 2pm, Virtual Book Club will be discussing The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Join in and talk about a popular book with one of our librarians. We are using GoTo Meeting which will allow patrons to video chat with the librarian about the book! Information about how to join is listed below.

Curious what The Underground Railroad is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher:

A magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. Their first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Virtual Book Club
Wed, Aug 26, 2020 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/720337645

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (224) 501-3412

Access Code: 720-337-645

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/720337645

Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo

- Ann Leave a comment

Guest post by Kim C

I have found that this year, with all of the uncertainty in the world, has been a perfect time for some self-improvement. If you can’t change the way the world is going, at least you can work on changing yourself, right? Following up on a recommendation from a friend, I checked out Marie Forleo’s Instagram account for inspiration. Forleo stars in MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast and runs a business training program to help entrepreneurs and business leaders achieve their goals.

And now she has written a book, Everything is Figureoutable. Forleo is from New Jersey and is proud of her heritage. She attributes this heritage to her motivational style; which is compassionate and friendly but also very direct and no-nonsense! This is not a book for anyone who is looking for excuses or permission to continue the status quo of his/her life. As the title says, and as Forleo repeats time after time throughout the book, everything is figureoutable and nothing should be allowed to stand in the way if you really want to achieve something.

While this is a catchy phrase and she encourages readers to adopt it as a mantra to keep them motivated, Forleo also illustrates her points with research, real-life examples, and her own experiences. This is a fact-based, actionable guide intended to instill optimism and determination in readers who are looking to make changes and meet goals.

Forleo has a very engaging writing style and the included written exercises are a must-do if you want to really benefit from this book. Everything is Figureoutable is the inspirational, optimistic book I needed this year. It might just be for you, as well.

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

- Stephanie Leave a comment

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is a crime novel that quickly draws you into the story and has you looking closely at how far you would be willing to go to help a family member.

Korrede is just sitting down to dinner when she gets a frantic phone call from her sister, Ayoola, desperately needing her help. Rushing out of the house, Korrede hopes that her sister hasn’t done what she thinks she has done. Ayoola, Korrede’s younger sister, has a rather inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. She always draws Korrede into the mess, asking her to help her cover up the crime.

Korrede is bitter. Ayoola is her younger sister and clearly her mother’s favorite. Ayoola is beautiful and can get any man to love her. Men flock to Ayoola and she always has a next man lined up.

Helping her sister through all her problems, Korrede is still hopeful that eventually Ayoola will stop and change. Korrede’s saving grace is her job as a nurse at a local hospital. While some of the people that she works with get on her nerves, Korrede looks forward to working with the kind and very handsome doctor who treats her as an equal. She hopes that one day he will realize that they are perfect together.

All of Korrede’s hopes are shattered the day that Ayoola stops by the hospital uninvited and catches the attention of the doctor. They instantly connect and Korrede is forced to deal with Ayoola’s past. She needs to figure out what to do before Ayoola slips and attacks the doctor.

This book is also available in the following format:

Virtual Book Club – ‘The Night Tiger’ on August 19th

- Stephanie Leave a comment

On Wednesday, August 19th, at 2pm, Virtual Book Club will be discussing The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo. We are using GoTo Meeting which will allow patrons to video chat with the librarian about the book! More information about how to join is listed below.

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

Ji Lin is an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dance-hall girl to pay her mother’s mahjong debts. When one of her dance partners leaves behind a gruesome souvenier, Ji Lin plunges into a world of secrets and superstitions. Eleven-year-old Chinese houseboy Ren is trying to find his master’s severed finger and bury with his body, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever. As both young people go on their quests, unexplained deaths plague their district in 1930s colonial Malaysia.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Virtual Book Club
Wed, Aug 19, 2020 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/160996525

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

Access Code: 160-996-525

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/160996525

Jenna Bush Hager August Book Picks

- Stephanie Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

- Stephanie Leave a comment

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

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

This book is also available in the following formats:

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

- Stephanie Leave a comment

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

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

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

This book is also available in the following format:

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

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

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

Access Code: 969-823-581

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

Watch Party – ‘Private Revolutions’ on August 13th

- Stephanie Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

Access Code: 826-671-389

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

Dial H for Hero (volume 1) by Sam Humphries

- Beth Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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