New Nonfiction for Women’s History Month

- Stephanie Leave a comment

How are you celebrating Women’s History Month? Here at the library, we are busy curating online lists and displays at all three of our locations to celebrate women throughout history! Below you will find a list of new nonfiction titles published in 2025 that, as of this writing, are owned by the Davenport Public Library. This is, by no means, a complete list of all of the women’s history titles owned by the Davenport Public Library. If you’re looking for more or have a specific title in mind, please comment below or contact us at the Davenport Public Library! Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland by Michelle Young

On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans’ final line of defense. Would the museum curator be killed before she could tell the truth—a story that would mean nothing less than saving humanity’s cultural inheritance?

Based on troves of previously undiscovered documents, The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of the key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazi’s art looting headquarters in the French capital. A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, been written out of the annals. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him. She came face to face with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, passed crucial information to the Resistance network, and faced death during the last hours of Liberation Day.

At the same time, a young Free French soldier, Alexandre Rosenberg , was fighting his way to Paris with the Allied forces battling to liberate France. Alexandre’s father was the exclusive art dealer for Picasso, Matisse, George Braque, and Fernand Léger. The Nazis had taken everything from their family—their art collection, their nationality, their gallery, and their home in Paris.

Vivid and atmospheric, this gripping narrative of Paris history moves from the glittering days of pre-War Paris, home to geniuses of modern culture, including Picasso, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, and Frida Kahlo, through the tension-riddled cities of Europe on the eve of war, to the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of France when brave people such as Valland and Rosenberg risked everything to fight monstrous evil.

In the spirit of Hidden Figures, with the sweeping narrative of The Rape of Europa, The Art Spy is an inspiration for us all—an extraordinary tale of courage in a time of violence. – HarperOne

Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth, and Power by Victoria Bateman

How many female entrepreneurs, economic revolutionaries, merchants, and industrialists can you name? You would be forgiven for thinking that, until very recently, there were none at all.

But what about Phryne, the richest woman in ancient Athens, who offered to pay to rebuild the walls of Thebes after the city was razed by Alexander the Great? Or what about Priscilla Wakefield, the writer who set up the first English bank for women and children? And, just as important, what about the everyday women who, paid only a pittance, labored for the profit of others?

From the most successful women of their day to those who struggled to make ends meet, Economica takes you on a journey that begins in the Stone Age and ends in the twenty-first century, spanning the world’s historic centers of prosperity: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Peru, the Indus Valley, the Roman Empire, the Islamic Empire, China, Europe, and the United States. By shining a light on the women whose contributions to the economy have been hidden for far too long, Economica is more than a history of women—it is a more accurate economic history of us all. – Seal Press

The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising by Elizabeth R. Hyman

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of the most storied events of the Holocaust, yet previous accounts of have almost entirely focused on its male participants. In The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto, Holocaust historian Elizabeth Hyman introduces five young, courageous Polish Jewish women—known as “the girls” by the leadership of the resistance and “bandits” by their Nazi oppressors—who were central to the Jewish resistance as fighters, commanders, couriers, and smugglers. They include:

Zivia Lubetkin, the most senior female member of the Jewish Fighting Organization Command Staff in Warsaw and a reluctant legend in her own time, who was immortalized by her code name, “Celina”

Vladka Meed, who smuggled dynamite into and illegal literature out of the Warsaw Ghetto in preparation for the uprising

Dr. Idina “Inka” Blady-Schweiger, a young medical student who became a reluctant angel of mercy

Tema Schneiderman, a tall, beautiful and fearless young woman who volunteered for smuggling and rescue missions across Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe

Tossia Altman, a heroic courier with a poetic soul, who helped bring arms into the Warsaw Ghetto, fought in the Uprising, and ferried communiques to the outside world

Interspersed with the stories of other Jewish women who resisted, The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto rescues these women from the shadows of time, bringing to light their resilience, bravery, and cunning in the face of unspeakable hardship—inspiring stories of courage, daring, and resistance that must never be forgotten. – Harper Perennial

Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time: How Mamie Fish, Queen of the Gilded Age, Partied Her Way to Power by Jennifer Wright

Marion Graves Anthon Fish, known by the nicknames “Mamie” and “The Fun-Maker,” threw the most epic parties in American history. This Gilded Age icon brought it all: lavish decor; A-list invitees; booze; pranks; and large animal guest stars. If you were a member of New York high society in the Peak Age of Innocence Era, you simply had to be on Mamie Fish’s guest list. Mamie Fish understood that people didn’t just need the formality of prior generations — they needed wit and whimsy.

Make no mistake, however: Mamie Fish’s story is about so much more than partying. In Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time, readers will learn all about how Fish and her friends shaped the line of history, exerting their influence on business, politics, family relationships, and social change through elaborate social gatherings. In a time when women couldn’t even own property, let alone run for office, if women wanted any of the things men got outside the home—glory, money, attention, social networking, leadership roles—they had to do it by throwing a decadent soiree or chairing a cotillion.

To ensure people would hear and remember what she had to say, Mamie Fish lived her whole life at Volume 10, becoming famous not by playing the part of a saintly helpmeet, but by letting her demanding, bitchy, hilarious, dramatic freak flag fly. It’s time to let modern readers in on the fun, the fabulousness, and the absolute ferocity that is Ms. Stuyvesant Fish—and her inimitable legacy. – Grand Central Publishing

Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance by A’lelia Bundles

Dubbed the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s” by poet Langston Hughes, A’Lelia Walker was a dazzling cultural icon whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon helped define the Harlem cultural scene.

After inheriting her mother’s pioneering hair care business, A’Lelia became America’s first high-profile Black heiress and a patron of the arts. Joy Goddess takes readers inside her New York homes, where she hosted luminaries including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, and W.E.B. Du Bois—figures who shaped African American history and culture during the Roaring Twenties.

Drawing on extensive research and personal correspondence, A’Lelia Bundles presents a nuanced biography of a woman navigating life as a wife, mother, businesswoman, and patron outside the shadow of her famous mother’s legacy.

With vivid detail, Joy Goddess brings to life A’Lelia’s radiant personality, fashion-forward influence, and role as one of the most important cultural icons of Harlem, offering a fresh and unforgettable portrait of the woman who embodied the spirit of a new Black cultural era. – Scribner

Queen of All Mayhem: The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the most dangerous woman in the west by Dane Huckelbridge

On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley—better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet “Belle Starr”—was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.

While today’s household names like Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane had dubious criminal bona fides, Belle’s were not in any doubt. This notorious gunslinger led a gang of horse thieves (a very serious crime in an era when horses were often the basis of one’s livelihood); was romantically involved with two of the West’s most legendary outlaws, Cole Younger and Jim Reed (her first husband); and participated in stickups and robberies across present-day Texas and Oklahoma. When Reed was murdered, Belle crossed into the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory, where she assimilated into the Cherokee tribe, a matrilineal society, and soon married Sam Starr, a direct descendant of Nanye’hi, the greatest female warrior in Cherokee history.

Dane Huckelbridge, acclaimed author of No Beast So Fierce, probes a life rich in contradictions and intrigue. Why did a woman who had considerable advantages in life—a good family, a decent education, solid marriage prospects, a clear path to financial security—choose to pursue a life of crime? The life of Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen, is one of almost endless trauma: the horrors of the Civil War, which destroyed her hometown and killed her beloved brother, Bud; the untimely deaths of her first two husbands, both of them murdered; a stint in Detroit’s notorious women’s prison. Her career coincided with those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and yet Belle Starr was a very different sort of feminist icon. – William Morrow

The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the empress Russia never had by Helen Rappaport

In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip—not to mention her brute of a husband, who was tender one moment and violent the next. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so.

Desperate for love, Julie allegedly sought consolation in the arms of others. Finally, Tsar Alexander granted her permission to leave in 1801, even though her husband was now heir to the throne. Rootless in Europe, Julie gave birth to two—possibly three—illegitimate children, all of whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Despite entreaties from Constantine to return and provide an heir, she refused, eventually finding love with her own married physician.

At a time when many royal brides meekly submitted to disastrous marriages, Julie proved to be a woman ahead of her time, sacrificing her reputation and a life of luxury in exchange for the freedom to live as she wished. The Rebel Romanov is the inspiring tale of a bold woman who, until now, has been ignored by history. – St. Martin’s Press

The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck by Lynne Olson

Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror for those with knowledge of this infamous all-women’s concentration camp, better known since it became the setting of Martha Hall Kelly’s bestselling novel, Lilac Girls. Particularly shocking were the medical experiments performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80 percent of its inmates were political prisoners, among them a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance.

Already well-practiced in sabotaging the Nazis in occupied France, these women joined forces to defy their German captors and keep one another alive. The sisterhood’s members, amid unimaginable terror and brutality, subverted Germany’s war effort by refusing to do assigned work. They risked death for any infraction, but that did not stop them from defying their SS tormentors at every turn—even staging a satirical musical revue about the horrors of the camp.

After the war, when many in France wanted to focus only on the future, the women from Ravensbrück refused to allow their achievements, needs, and sacrifices to be erased. They banded together once more, first to support one another in healing their bodies and minds and then to continue their crusade for freedom and justice—an effort that would have repercussions for their country and the world into the twenty-first century. – Random House

The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit, and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty by Tracy Borman

In the long and dramatic annals of British history, no transition from one monarch to another has been as fraught and consequential as that which ended the Tudor dynasty and launched the Stuart in March 1603. At her death, Elizabeth I had reigned for forty-four turbulent years, facing many threats, whether external from Spain or internal from her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. But no danger was greater than the uncertainty over who would succeed her, which only intensified as her reign lengthened. Her unwillingness to marry or name a successor gave rise to fierce rivalry between blood claimants to the throne—Mary and her son, James VI of Scotland, Arbella Stuart, Lady Katherine Grey, Henry Hastings, and more—which threatened to destabilize the monarchy.

As acclaimed Tudor historian Tracy Borman reveals in The Stolen Crown, according to Elizabeth’s earliest biographer, William Camden, in his history of her reign, on her deathbed the queen indicated James was her chosen heir, and indeed he did become king soon after she died. That endorsement has been accepted as fact for more than four centuries. However, recent analysis of Camden’s original manuscript shows key passages were pasted over and rewritten to burnish James’s legacy. The newly uncovered pages make clear not only that Elizabeth’s naming of James never happened, but that James, uncertain he would ever gain the British throne, was even suspected of sending an assassin to London to kill the queen. Had all this been known at the time, the English people—bitter enemies with Scotland for centuries—might well not have accepted James as their king, with unimagined ramifications.

Inspired by the revelations over Camden’s manuscript, Borman sheds rare new light on Elizabeth’s historic reign, chronicling it through the lens of the various claimants who, over decades, sought the throne of the only English monarch not to make provision for her successor. The consequences were immense. Not only did James upend Elizabeth’s glittering court, but the illegitimacy of his claim to the throne, which Camden suppressed, found full expression in the catastrophic reign of James’ son and successor, Charles I. His execution in 1649 shocked the world and destroyed the monarchy fewer than fifty years after Elizabeth died, changing the course of British and world history. – Atlantic Monthly Press

Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger during World War II by Becky Aikman

They were crop dusters and debutantes, college girls and performers in flying circuses-all of them trained as pilots. Because they were women, they were denied the opportunity to fly for their country when the United States entered the Second World War. But Great Britain, desperately fighting for survival, would let anyone-even Americans, even women-transport warplanes. Thus, twenty-five daring young aviators bolted for England in 1942, becoming the first American women to command military aircraft.

In a faraway land, these “spitfires” lived like women decades ahead of their time. Risking their lives in one of the deadliest jobs of the war, they ferried new, barely tested fighters and bombers to air bases and returned shot-up wrecks for repair, never knowing what might go wrong until they were high in the sky. Many ferry pilots died in crashes or made spectacular saves. It was exciting, often terrifying work. The pilots broke new ground off duty as well, shocking their hosts with thoroughly modern behavior.

With cinematic sweep, Becky Aikman follows the stories of nine of the women who served, drawing on unpublished diaries, letters, and records, along with her own interviews, to bring these forgotten heroines fully to life. Spitfires is a vivid, richly detailed account of war, ambition, and a group of remarkable women whose lives were as unconventional as their dreams. – Bloomsbury Publishing

Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line by Elizabeth Lovatt

With warmth and humour, Elizabeth Lovatt reimagines the women who called and volunteered for the Lesbian Line in the 1990s, whilst also tracing her own journey from accidentally coming out to disastrous dates to finding her chosen family. With callers and agents alike dealing with first crushes and break-ups, sex and marriage, loneliness and illness, this is a celebration of the ordinary lives of queer women.

Through these revelations of the complexities, difficulties and revelries of everyday life, Lovatt investigates the ethics of writing about queer ‘sheros’ and the role living-history plays in the way we live today. What do we owe to our lesbian forebears? What can we learn from them when facing racism, transphobia and ableism in the community today?

Steeped in pop culture references and feminist and queer theory, Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line is a timely and vital exploration of how lesbian identity continues to remake and redefine itself in the 21st century, and where it might lead us in the future. – Legacy Lit

When We Spoke to the Dead: How Ghosts gave American Women Their Voice by Ilise S. Carter

Ghosts spoke. Women listened. Everything changed.

It began with whispers in a dimly lit room. In the 1840s, the Fox Sisters—and the legions of mediums they inspired—ignited the Spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian parlors and presidential campaigns alike. Contacting the dead wasn’t merely a parlor trick: It was a political statement, a declaration of self that still echoes. Séances attracted suffragists and scientists, skeptics and charlatans, giving women a voice in a society that often refused to hear them. But as Spiritualism surged, it also blurred the lines between faith, fraud, feminism, and financial opportunity, drawing figures as varied as Harry Houdini, Victoria Woodhull, and even modern self-help gurus into its ever-expanding orbit.

From wartime séances to the rise of televangelists, from Victorian ghosts to goop-approved wellness rituals, When We Spoke to the Dead unearths the forgotten roots of today’s obsession with manifestation, mysticism, and the power of belief. Exploring America’s deep-seated hunger for the unseen—whether through politics, personal empowerment, or grief—this book traces how the supernatural, once condemned as heresy, became the ultimate commodity.

Step inside the séance room. The spirits have been waiting. – Sourcebooks

Picture Books about Gardening

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If you’re looking for a brain break, I recommend you check out a stack of picture books and get lost in the illustrations. Picture books about gardening have some of my favorite detailed and colorful illustrations. Below you will find a list of said gardening picture books that are all owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

All That Grows words and pictures by Jack Wong

On their neighborhood walks together, a boy learns from his older sister all about the plants they see — magnolias that smell like lemon cake, creeping weeds that used to be planted for decoration, and even how dandelion greens can be eaten with spaghetti! But what makes a plant a flower, vegetable or weed, anyway? How can his sister tell, and how does she know so much?

The boy’s head spins as he realizes how vast the universe is and how much there is to learn … until he resolves to let his knowledge grow in its own way and time, just like the mysterious plants he has decided to nurture in the garden. – Groundwood Books Ltd

Beansprout written and illustrated by by Sarah Lynne Reul

What happens when you do everything right and it just doesn’t work out?
It’s seed-planting time in Ms. Greene’s classroom! One of the kids has big predictions for their mystery seed and does everything just so to make sure it grows. But as all the other seeds start to sprout, theirs . . . doesn’t.

So they proclaim they’ll never try to grow another seed again! But when they learn the leftover seeds will be thrown out, they start to think about second chances and enlists their classmates to help plant a beautiful garden for all to enjoy.

A fantastic social-emotional learning book that’ll inspire conversations about handling disappointment and one’s emotions, while leaving readers with an encouraging and hopeful ending. – Charlesbridge

Benjamin Grows a Garden written by Melanie Florence, illustrations by Hawlii Pichette

Readers follow along step-by-step as Benjamin plants and cares for his garden and imagines the harvest to come.

Benjamin loves springtime. The grass grows bright green, the birds sing sweet songs and, best of all, Benjamin and his mother start their garden. In just the right order, they plant mahtâmin (corn), pîmiciwacis (beans), and osawipak (squash) for Three Sisters Soup. They plant strawberries to serve with bannock, then zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers. Benjamin and his mom lovingly tend to the garden and watch it grow into a plentiful harvest with enough to share. Throughout the whole summer, Benjamin dreams about the fall, when they’ll have all the ingredients for a feast – and everyone will be invited!

In this heartwarming story, award-winning author Melanie Florence evocatively portrays the pleasures and rewards of growing and sharing food. The steps of the gardening process – digging holes, planting seeds, watering – are carefully described, and the yearly cycle of growing, harvesting, eating and then starting again the next year is emphasized. Special attention is paid to the tradition of planting corn, beans and squash together so that each plant by its nature helps the others grow. Benjamin and his mother use Cree words throughout the story, and a pronunciation guide is included at the back of the book for further inquiry. Vivid illustrations by Hawlii Pichette make this a perfect follow-up to the author and illustrator duo’s previous book, Benjamin’s Thunderstorm. – Kids Can Press

Every Peach is a Story written by David Mas Masumoto and Nikiko Masumoto, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki

In this poignant debut picture book from authors and farmers Nikiko Masumoto and David Mas Masumoto, with illustrations by award-winning artist Lauren Tamaki, little Midori discovers that every peach on her Japanese American family’s farm is a sweet reminder of those who’ve come before

Poetic and powerful, Every Peach Is a Story is a journey of discovery through all of life’s seasons.

One spring day, little Midori asks Jiichan, her grandfather, if the peaches on her family’s farm are ripe yet. To her surprise, he asks, “Does it taste like a story? That’s when you know it is ripe.”

As Jiichan teaches her about her Japanese American heritage and her family’s deep connection to this land, Midori begins to realize the patience, hard work, and endurance that allowed their roots to grow. – Abrams Books for Young Readers

Grandma’s Roof Garden written and illustrated by Tang Wei, translated by Kelly Zhang

Granny may be old, but she’s certainly not feeble – or idle! She’s built a splendid vegetable garden from scratch on the rooftop of her Chengdu apartment building.

She collects thrown-away produce to feed her animals or make compost for the garden.

She waters, weeds, and shows the neighborhood kids how to care for her plants: with love, patience, and pride.

Come harvest time, Granny gathers her fresh produce and cooks up a delicious feast for her friends and family. She even sends them off with extra bags of goodies so people can make their own yummy, healthy meals at home!

Debut author/illustrator Tang Wei creates a love letter to an indomitable grandma of the city, inspired by her own childhood and a beloved relative. Combining a fun, rhythmic text reminiscent of Chinese folk nursery rhymes with earthy, vibrant colored pencil drawings, Wei shows how one person can create a beautiful green space in the heart of the concrete jungle and bring together an entire community. – Levine Querido

Here are the Seeds written by JaNay Brown-Wood, illustrated by Olivia Amoah

This delightfully rhythmic story follows two children as they grow a garden from seeds.

Author and poet JaNay Brown-Wood’s cumulative tale, similar to “The House That Jack Built,” starts promisingly: “Here are the seeds that we will sow to help our garden grow.” But as time passes, the children quickly learn that things rarely go as planned in the garden. Plants will droop without enough sun and wilt without enough water. Suddenly, “OH NO!” becomes the children’s repeated refrain. Eventually, the pair come to see that nature itself provides everything a magnificent garden needs to flourish!

This engaging read-aloud doubles as a child-friendly lesson on what plants need in order to grow. Olivia Amoah’s vivid artwork brings the story to life, particularly on the spreads featuring the refrain (“OH NO!”), where readers can look at the illustrations to try to figure out what went wrong in the garden. The story covers the key elements of what makes a healthy garden, such as soil, sun, bugs, water, mushrooms and worms – and shows how balance is necessary for plants to survive. The back matter includes brief explanations of each of these key elements. This picture book offers excellent life science curriculum connections to the needs of living things, growth and changes in plants and plant life cycles. – Kids Can Press

The Last Stand written by Antwan Eady, illustrated by Jarrett & Jerome Pumphrey

Every stand has a story.
This one is mine.

Saturday is for harvesting. And one little boy is excited to work alongside his Papa as they collect eggs, plums, peppers and pumpkins to sell at their stand in the farmer’s market. Of course, it’s more than a farmer’s market. Papa knows each customer’s order, from Ms. Rosa’s pumpkins to Mr. Johnny’s peppers. And when Papa can’t make it to the stand, his community gathers around him, with dishes made of his own produce.

Heartwarming illustrations complement the lyrical text in this poignant picture book that reveals a family’s pride in their work, and reminds us to harvest love and hope from those around us. – Knopf Books for Young Readers

Miss MacDonald has a farm written by Kalee Gwarjanski, illustrated by Elizabet Vuković

In this female-forward spin on the traditional children’s song “Old MacDonald”, readers can join Miss MacDonald on her vegetable farm and see all the work that goes into growing healthy and delicious produce.

“Miss MacDonald has a farm,
She loves things that grow!”

E-I-E-I-GROW! With a “weed-weed” here and a “pick-pick” there, young readers can follow Miss MacDonald as she tends to her vegetable farm. It’s a rollicking, rhyming read-aloud that ends in a community feast and celebrates themes of healthy eating, plant-based meals, local produce, gardening, seasons, and female farmers. – Doubleday Books for Young Readers

Over in the Garden written by Janna Matthies, illustrations by Tisha Lee

Over in the garden, in the weeds, in the sun,
bent a brave little gardener with her little shovel ONE.

In this clever and lively remix of the children’s rhyme, little gardeners come together one by one to tend to a community garden. Young readers will enjoy scenes of digging, weeding, planting, composting, and harvesting, illustrated in lush, detailed scenes full of cozy outdoor joy.

In additional to its gardening theme, it’s also a counting book, and your littlest readers will enjoy counting along from one to ten as all the gardeners come together for a celebration at the finale. There’s so much to love in this exquisite and educational book. – Doubleday Books for Young Readers

Picking Tea with Baba written by Bin Xu, illustrated by Yu Yin, translated by Shan Chen

Usually Baba goes to the tea garden by himself. It’s a special treat to join him.
A young boy and his brother travel with their parents up the mountainside to their tea garden for a day of work.

They delight in the animals they see, compete to see who can pick the most tea leaves, take a lunch break, and weather an unexpected rainstorm. At the end of the day, they trek back down the mountain to sell the leaves before going home.

In this gorgeous picture book that awakens the senses, young kids experience a faraway cultural tradition while feeling the familiarity of family and togetherness. – Charlesbridge

Prunella written by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Claire Keane

When Prunella is born with a purple thumb instead of a green one like her parents, everyone’s stumped. What could it mean? Before long, they find out. Prunella prefers corpse flowers to carnations, fungi to ferns, and poison ivy to petunias. The stickier and scarier the plant, the more Prunella loves it.

And if her poisonous and noxious garden keeps the other neighborhood kids away, it’s probably for the best. But then one day, a curious weed of a different sort pops up…

Should prickly Prunella uproot this tentative new friendship or allow it to flower? – Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Secret Gardeners: Growing a Community and Healing the Earth written and illustrated by Maija Hurme

When three children stumble into an overgrown city yard, they end up elbows-deep in an urban gardening project that replenishes the earth and unites a community.

With the mentorship of Amy, a neighbor who is well-versed in no-dig gardening, Luna, Bianca, and Billy set to work mixing manure, spreading mulch, and sowing seeds. After a few weeks of hard work, the yard is transformed into a sustainable community garden, and more and more people are showing up to grow herbs, mushrooms, vegetables, and fruit. Just when everyone is beginning to harvest their hard-earned local food, they learn that the property is going to be cleared for a parking lot. Will this be the end of their secret garden? Or can the children rally their community to save the day?

In Secret Gardeners, journalist and beekeeper Lina Laurent collaborates with author and illustrator Maija Hurme to tell a story of community solidarity and ecological stewardship. Woven among the dreamlike illustrations are informative notes about soil life, composting, seed starting, beekeeping, wild pollinators, and more. An exquisite blend of fiction and nonfiction that will equip readers with all the information and inspiration they need to begin their own no-dig garden…and maybe even their own community project. – Pajama Press

Mystery Reads: Book Retreat Mystery series by Ellery Adams

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“There were books everywhere. Hundreds of books. Thousands of books. There were books of every size, shape, and color. They lined the walls from floor to ceiling, standing straight and rigid as soldiers on the polished mahogany shelves, the gilt lettering on their worn spines glinting in the soft light, the scent of supple leather and aging paper filling the air.”
― Ellery Adams, Murder in the Mystery Suite

When searching for a new-to-me cozy mystery, I discovered Ellery Adams’ Book Retreat Mystery series. The first in this series, Murder in the Mystery Suite, published in 2014, is an introduction to Jane Steward and Storyton Hall, a storybook resort owned by her family. This was an absolutely beautiful ode to book lovers and the stories that define their lives.

Storyton Hall is a storybook resort tucked in the rolling hills of rural western Virginia. Resort manager Jane Steward is tasked with keeping the resort and its staff happy and its guests eager to come back for additional stays. Determined to boost Storyton Hall’s bookings, Jane decides to host a Murder and Mayhem week. Fans of all things mystery will gather together for role-playing, fantasy, games, and parties. During one of the first events, a scavenger hunt, Jane is surprised to find so many of the guests incredibly invested in winning the prize, a valuable book (but Jane doesn’t think it’s quite as valuable as some of the guests are making it out to be). Her suspicions are proved false when death befalls the winner of the scavenger hunt. Did he die of natural causes? Or is one of Jane’s guests a murderer?

This series introduction is full of delightfully quirky characters, beautiful surroundings, and oh so many book recommendations. Murder in the Mystery Suite has turned the traditional cozy mystery into a more modern version that could become a favorite for years to come.

This title is also available in large print.

Book Retreat Mystery series

  1. Murder in the Mystery Suite (2014)
  2. Murder in the Paperback Parlor (2015)
  3. Murder in the Secret Garden (2016)
  4. Murder in the Locked Library (2018)
  5. Murder in the Reading Room (2019)
  6. Murder in the Storybook Cottage (2020)
  7. Murder in the Cookbook Nook (2021)
  8. Murder on the Poet’s Walk (2022)
  9. Murder in the Book Lover’s Loft (2023)

Slice-of-Life Graphic Novels

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If you’re looking for a cozy, emotional, and feel-good read, I recommend you try a slice-of-life graphic novel. These graphic novels tell the stories of everyday moments, the small moments and realistic routines that are relatable to readers. Below you will find a list of juvenile slice-of-life graphic novels. As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Almost Sunset written and illustrated by Wahab Algarmi

It’s almost sunset, and Hassan has been dreaming about eating since the sun came up. The month of Ramadan has begun, and not eating until sundown intensifies his already busy days full of homework, soccer, and gaming. And since his teachers and friends at school barely understand Ramadan and its traditions, it’s easier to just…not mention it.

As the month stretches on, Hassan’s family and community grow closer together. They wake up before sunrise every morning, feast when the sun goes down, and attend mosque in the evenings. Can Hassan balance it all during the hectic holy month—faith, tradition, school, and fun, too? – HarperAlley

Band Nerd written by Sarah Clawson Willis, illustrated by Emma Cormarie, lettering by Lor Prescott

For twelve-year-old Lucy Carver, music isn’t just a way of life, it’s an escape from homework and home life with her alcoholic father. When Lucy starts seventh grade at Windley School of the Arts, with its high academic standards and even higher artistic expectations, it becomes much harder to keep everything in tune.

As things spiral out of control with her parents and her schoolwork, Lucy grows desperate for a win and focuses all her energy on beating snobby Tolli Claybourne for first chair flute. But just when she thinks she’s hitting all the right notes, an accident leaves Lucy unable to play, and her mother threatens to withdraw her for poor grades. Now Lucy must choose: sabotage Tolli or give up on her dream. – Harper Alley

Carousel Summer by Kathleen Gros

With her best friend away at camp, tons of chores to do, and her dad always on her case for being such a tomboy, Lucy is dreading summer. That is, until Milforth’s plan to revive an old carousel for the town’s 150th anniversary brings artist Ray and her daughter, Anaïs, to town.

Anaïs is smart, funny, and easy to talk to, and Lucy—who’s used to being judged for her looks and interests—finally feels at ease in her own skin. And she thinks she may feel something for Anaïs, too.

Leading up to Milforth’s big birthday, tensions begin rising with locals, thanks to a shifty development company trying to overrun the town. Things also come to a breaking point at home, when Lucy butts heads with her dad over how she wants to express herself as a girl.

Can Lucy find the courage to be true to who she is? She’s got the whole summer to find out… – Quill Tree Books

Chickenpox written and illustrated by Remy Lai, color b Ninakupenda Gaillard

This hilarious and heartwarming contemporary middle-grade graphic novel is about eldest sister Abby, who is sick of being trapped at home with her FOUR younger siblings as they all suffer from the chickenpox.

All big sister Abby wants is to spend more time with her friends, far away from the sticky fingers and snooping eyes of her annoying brothers and sisters. But when a case of the chickenpox leaves the Lai kids covered in scratchy red spots and stuck at home together for two weeks of nonstop mayhem, Abby thinks this might be the end . . . of her sanity. Yet she feels responsible for the situation since her best friend was Patient Zero and brought chickenpox into their home.

Will the itch to escape her siblings overwhelm Abby or will she realize being a big sister isn’t all bad? Full of heart and hijinks, Chickenpox showcases what gets us through good times and bad: family. – Henry Holt and Co.

Dear Jackie written by Jessixa Bagley, illustrated by Aaron Bagley

Jackie and Milo have been best friends since they were born. Whether they’re reading comic books in their tree house hideout, playing video games, or spying on their neighbors using walkie talkies and code names, it’s always been the two of them versus the world. But in middle school, things are changing. Milo joins the soccer team and starts hanging out with a new crew. Jackie gets taken under the wing of Adelle, who wants to give her a total makeover and find her a crush. Suddenly, it seems like there are certain acceptable ways to be a girl or a boy, and Jackie starts to feel like everything about her is wrong.

In an effort to get Adelle and her new friends off her back, Jackie sends herself an anonymous love letter. But her plan backfires, and soon Jackie’s secret admirer is all anybody at school can talk about. Now she’s wondering: Dear Jackie, how are you going to get out of this? – Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Don’t Cause Trouble written and illustrated by Arree Chung

Twelve-year-old Ming Lee hopes middle school will be the fresh start he needs.

But stepping into school with the same bowl haircut his mom insists on giving him, and wearing the extra-discounted thrift shop clothes she buys him doesn’t quite make for the first day of his dreams. Things only get worse when he’s placed in an ESL class despite English being his first (and only) language. The journey ahead is full of awkward, painful, and downright embarrassing moments.

Ming’s dad always tells him, “Get good grades! Don’t cause trouble!” But with two new friends by his side, and a few tricks up his sleeve, Ming is determined to make some changes.

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft, Don’t Cause Trouble is a funny, warmhearted graphic novel that will resonate with readers who are looking for a place to belong. – Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks

Dream On written by Shannon Hale, illustrated by Marcela Cespedes, colors by Lark Pien

Something is missing from Cassie’s life.

Her parents don’t have much money, she has to share her bedroom (and bed!) with her sisters, and her family never seem to have time for her. To make matters worse, her best friend Vali is always busy with a new friend.

When Cassie gets a letter from a magazine sweepstakes with the words “YOU’RE THE WINNER” stamped on the front, she thinks it’s the answer to all her problems.

She could buy new furniture to replace their shabby old sofa. Or maybe a car so her family doesn’t have to take two trips to go places. Or maybe she can make Vali her best friend forever by taking her on a fabulous vacation. The possibilities are endless, like an all-you-can-eat buffet!

But will prizes really solve Cassie’s problems?

And what will she lose if she doesn’t win anything at all?

With bright and charming illustrations by Marcela Cespedes and coloring by Lark Pien, Dream On is a joyful story filled with imagination, big dreams, and wonder. This book is perfect for readers who want to enjoy a gentle and accessible story, as well as anyone looking for SEL themes about empathy, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.

This story also features children experiencing high sensitivity, big emotions, and feelings of sadness, making it a helpful tool to spark conversations and connections with young readers. – Roaring Brook Press

Fresh Start written and illustrated by Gale Galligan, color by K Czap

Ollie Herisson’s dad is a diplomat, which means her family moves around a lot. She has already lived in Singapore, Korea, France, and the United States. When Ollie starts at a new school, she doesn’t worry about making a good impression because she knows that when her family inevitably moves again, she’ll get a fresh start somewhere else. A complete reset. It doesn’t matter if her classmates think she’s weird for pretending that she lives in the world of an imagined anime, or if she makes an enemy out of the most popular girl in her class, or ifshe does something hugely embarrassing! And it definitely doesn’t matter that all her mom wants is for Ollie to be more of a proper Thai daughter.

But after moving from Germany to Virginia and having a mortifying first day at her new school, Ollie is shocked to learn that her parents are going to buy a house so that Ollie and her sister, Cat, can finish grade school in one place. Can Ollie figure out how to both be herself and make real friends when she can’t run away from her life? – Graphix

Miss Camper written and illustrated by Kat Fajardo, color by Jose Garibaldi and K Czap

Sue is heading to Camp Willow this summer! She’s looking forward to hiking, archery, and making comics in the fresh air. She’s especially excited about LARPing (live-action role-playing) and can’t wait for the freedom of being away from home. But she won’t be far from family because her big sister, Carmen, is a camp counselor and her little sister, Ester, is a fellow camper and won’t give her any space! All Sue wants is to make memories with her friends, but they’re assigned to only a few of the same activities. To make matters even worse, her best friend, Sam, has a best camp friend named Marisol? And Sue’s good friend Izzy has a crush on Sue?! This summer isn’t at all going as planned! – Graphix

Mixed-up written by Kami Garcia, art by Brittney Williams, lettering by Comicraft’s Tyler Smith

Stella knows fifth grade will be the best year ever. Her closest friends, Emiko and Latasha, are in her class and they all got the teacher they wanted. Then their favorite television show, Witchlins, announces a new guidebook and an online game!

But when the classwork starts piling up, Stella struggles to stay on top. Why does it take her so long to read? And how can she keep up with friends in the Witchlins game if she can’t get through the text-heavy guidebook? It takes loving teachers and her family to recognize that Stella has a learning difference, and after a dyslexia diagnosis she gets the support and tools she needs to succeed.

Bestselling author Kami Garcia was inspired to write this special book by her daughter’s dyslexia journey; her own neurodivergent experience; and the many students she taught over the years. With subtle design and formatting choices making this story accessible to all readers, Mixed-Up shows that our differences don’t need to separate us. – First Second

Winging It written by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter, with color by Dominique Ramsey

Twelve-year-old Luna never wanted to move from California to Virginia, even if it is near historic Washington, DC, and no matter how excited her dad is to introduce her to the area where her late mother grew up. And she definitely doesn’t want to live with a very formal grandmother she barely knows. But during a visit to the National Museum of Natural History, the rarely seen luna moth for which Luna was named sparks her curiosity. Using her mother’s old naturalist notebooks as a guide, Luna, who has always preferred the indoors, endeavors to see a real luna moth with her own eyes. Learning more about nature just might help her make a new friend, figure out how to feel at home in her new life, and understand the mother she never got the chance to know. – Graphix

February Celebrity Book Club Picks

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Bestsellers Club is a service that automatically places you on hold for authors, celebrity picks, nonfiction picks, and fiction picks. Choose any author, celebrity pick, fiction pick, and/or nonfiction pick and The Library will put the latest title on hold for you automatically. Select as many as you want! Still have questions? Click here for a list of FAQs.

It’s a new month which means that Jenna Bush Hager and Reese Witherspoon have picked new books for their book clubs! Oprah has also recently announced a new pick. Reminder that if you join Bestsellers Club, you can choose to have their selections automatically put on hold for you.

Jenna Bush Hager has selected One & Only by Maurene Goo for her February pick.

Curious what One & Only is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

She knows what her happily ever after looks like. And it’s not him.

Cassia Park believes in soul mates. Fated love stories. It’s her family business, after all—for centuries, from Korea to Los Angeles, Park women have peered into clients’ past lives to find their one true love, their fated. This magical secret is why One & Only Matchmaking has a 100% guarantee…for everyone but Cassia.

For ten years, Cass has been searching for her fated, a man named Daniel Nam. But he’s still nowhere to be found.

And so, on the eve of her 40th birthday, Cass decides to do something for herself. She impulsively has a fling with Ellis. He’s twenty-eight, indecently handsome, and not destined to be the love of her life. But she’s surprised by their connection and their fling feels like something more—up to the moment he introduces her to his boss…Daniel Nam.

As she battles between fate and chance, head and heart, a family secret is revealed that will make her question everything she’s ever known. Cassia will have to decide if she’ll follow her fate…or make her own. – G.P. Putnam’s Sons

This title is also available in large print.

Reese Witherspoon has selected In Her Defense by Philippa Malicka for her February pick.

Curious what In Her Defense is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

As a sensational celebrity libel trial unfolds, a young woman at the periphery secretly wields the power to make or break the case. But with her own hidden past, will she dare to speak up?

Everyone is watching. Only one person knows the truth.

The whole country has been riveted by the trial: Beloved TV star and national treasure Anna Finbow, standing in court, accusing her daughter’s therapist Jean Guest of brainwashing her daughter Mary for her own financial gain. Jean insists Mary’s traumatic memories arise from her upbringing and her time studying at a prestigious art school in Rome; wounds only Jean’s therapy can heal. But as the trial unfolds, it’s Augusta “Gus” Bird, Anna’s former employee—a seemingly insignificant bystander, a nobody—who holds the key to unraveling the tangled web of lies and deceit.

What really happened to Mary in Rome? And if her memories can’t be trusted, how will they ever uncover the truth behind her estrangement? Twisty and propulsive, In Her Defense is a compulsively readable debut for fans of Lucy Foley and Laura Dave. – Scribner

Oprah Winfrey has selected Kin by Tayari Jones for her latest pick.

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

Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother’s death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life.

A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South, Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, unforgettable work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction.

This title is also available in large print.

Join Bestsellers Club to have Oprah, Jenna, and Reese’s adult selections automatically put on hold for you!

March is National Nutrition Month

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Did you know that March is National Nutrition Month? Celebrated every March since 1973, the campaign has the purpose of promoting informed food choices and the development of healthy eating and physical activity habits. Presented by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, it’s an opportunity for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) to reach out to the public to remind them of the importance of nutrition education. This year’s theme is “Discover the Power of Nutrition” and communicates the idea that nutrition holds the power to help individuals and communities thrive. The program emphasizes that food choices impact not only our health and well-being, but also our communities and the environment, and stresses the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle.

During the month of March, you are encouraged to learn about how to make informed food choices and to develop healthy eating and physical activity patterns in your life. Whether you’re looking at nutrition headlines or searching for nutritious options, the campaign is designed to motivate you and boost your confidence when it comes to food and health and to help you discover how food and beverage choices can help you “power your day”. A registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) or nutrition and dietetics technician can use their expertise to guide you with information driven by science. They can give you tips for accessing healthy foods in your area and assist you in building healthy daily habits to improve your overall health and well-being.

The campaign is divided into four weeks of focus:

“Week 1: Power Your Day with Nutrition.

  • Choose healthful foods from all food groups.
  • Alternate your food choices for a variety of nutrients.
  • Avoid fad diets that promote unnecessary restrictions.

Week 2: Find Advice Backed by Science.

  • Find accurate sources for nutrition information.
  • Meet with an RDN who specializes in your unique needs.
  • Receive personalized nutrition information from an RDN to meet your health goals.

Week 3: Stay Nourished on Any Budget.

  • Learn cooking and meal preparation skills that work with the resources you have.
  • Locate community resources such as SNAP, WIC and local food banks.
  • Advocate for nutrition policies that serve you, your family and community.

Week 4: Feel Good with Healthy Habits.

  • Reduce the risk of foodborne illness with home food safety.
  • Plan in advance to avoid mealtime stress.
  • Include physical activity in ways that work for you.”

Below are some books to help you make the most of National Nutrition Month. Become empowered to be an advocate for your own health by equipping yourself with information:

 

How to eat : a simple, balanced approach for optimal wellness

The new Whole30 : the definitive plan to transform your health, habits, and relationship with food

How to eat : all your food and diet questions answered

Fuel your body : how to cook and eat for peak performance

Foodwise : a fresh approach to nutrition with 100 delicious recipes

Eat Yourself Healthy: Food to Change Your Life

This is what you’re really hungry for : six simple rules to transform your relationship with food to become your healthiest self

Nutrient-dense meal prep : quick and easy recipes to heal your gut, balance your hormones and help you adopt a healthier diet and lifestyle

Healthy foods for healthy kids : 120 simple, nourishing, gluten- and dairy-free recipes your whole family will love

Live longer, live better : lessons for longevity from the world’s healthiest zones

Genius foods : become smarter, happier, and more productive while protecting your brain for life

Change your habits, change your life : a proven plan for healthy living

Healthy habits suck : how to get off the couch & live a healthy life… even if you don’t want to

How to be well : the six keys to a happy and healthy life

An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

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“Sincerity, my research had taught me, was often seen as a vulnerability. To earnestly express a feeling was a weakness. It was part of the reason people—including, but not limited to, Professor Christian Fisher—liked to hang shit on romance novels. There was something inherently earnest at their heart: a sincere love and hope and joy that readers often reacted to with the same feelings, a delicate flower that provoked some people to want to crush it.”
― Jodi McAlister, An Academic Affair

What do you know about the cutthroat world of academia? Personally, I know next to nothing, but a new romance, and start to a new series, by Jodi McAlister called An Academic Affair discusses the lengths that people go through in order to secure an academic job. If you’re interested in a marriage of convenience or a rivals to lovers romance, I recommend you give this title a read!

Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher, English professors and academic rivals, have been fighting since they first met as undergraduates almost fifteen years ago. While they have been battling about almost anything and everything, they have had stalemates over the years. Teaching part-time and both dreaming of a full-time secured job, the two are shocked when a new teaching opportunity comes available that they are both qualified for. Obviously they are both going to apply for it and obviously their rivalry is going to reach untold heights.

Sadie and Jonah have their own reasons for wanting this job. For Sadie, she would finally have a full-time teaching position and the financial security and freedom that comes along with said job. The same is also true for Jonah, plus this job is in the same town as his recently separated sister, thus allowing him to help her and her children. Only one of them can get this job though.

After the hire is announced, Sadie discovers that the job offers partner hire. This may be a way for them both to secure full-time employment! Sadie proposes a legal marriage of convenience to Jonah. What could possibly go wrong? The positives far outweigh the negatives, but when the two spend more and more time together, their opinions of each other change. Maybe they could actually be friends? Or something more?

Let me be honest: I checked this book out based purely on the cover! This is a marriage of convenience, rivals to lovers, and open door romance that had me kicking my feet and giggling as the characters grew. The relationship between Sadie and Jonah was incredibly genuine and felt like it could have actually happened. Jodi McAlister is releasing a sequel called A Study in Sparkling which should be publishing in July 2026, starring some of the side characters from An Academic Affair. I can’t wait.

Literary Lovers (or Love Notes) series

  1. An Academic Affair (2025)
  2. A Study in Sparkling (2026)

Online Reading Challenge – March

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Welcome Readers!

Our 2026 Online Reading Challenge is … KNOW YOUR HISTORY! Each month we will be reading about a different observance month and highlighting a main title about that month.

For March, we will be reading books that commemorate the role of women in history and society. Our main title for March is Code Girls: The Untold History of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment. – Grand Central Publishing

Looking for some other books that commemorate the role of women in history and society? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – February Wrap-Up

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How did your reading go this month? Did you read something that reflected on the legacy and contributions of African Americans? In February, we focused on Black History Month. The 2026 theme per the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the ASALH, is ‘A Century of Black History Commemorations’. What does that mean for us? Well, that means the Online Reading Challenge is focused on making sure we are telling an accurate and inclusive history through the books we recommend. I want to know what you chose to read this month. Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. Freshwater was unlike anything that I have ever read before. It was messy, introspective, yet incredibly ferocious. This autobiographical debut novel focuses on mental illness and what it’s like to live as a fractured self. A young Nigerian woman, Ada, was born ‘with a foot on the other side’. As a result, she develops separate selves within her. How did those separate selves come to be? Well, this novel attempts to explain. Ada was always a source of deep concern for her family since she was born in Nigeria as a troubled baby. Her childhood is splintered between her parents, leading her to become volatile and moody. When she moves to America, her other selves become more prominent to the point that Ada fades into the background more and more frequently. Her life spirals out of control leading down a dangerous road. Told from multiple points of view, Freshwater highlights the many struggles the character goes through with her mental illness, sexual identity, and what makes them feel ‘other’.

Next month, we will be reading about Women’s History Month.

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!

Road Trip Fiction

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If you’re wanting to take a vacation, but can’t at the moment, why not check out some of these road trip fiction titles? Spanning genres from fiction to horror to romance to science fiction, the characters in these novels

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

Bad Nature by Ariel Courage

Armed with a terminal diagnosis, a grudge, and a rental car, Hester sets out to fulfill her lifelong dream of killing her father in this brilliantly subversive and bleakly funny debut novel.

When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. With no friends or family tying her to the life she’s built in New York City, she quits her wildly lucrative job in corporate law and starts driving west. She hasn’t made it far when she runs into John, an environmental activist in need of a ride to different superfund sites across the United States. From five-star Midwestern hotels to cultish Southwestern compounds, the two slowly make their way across the country. But will the revelations they experience along the way dissuade Hester from her goal?

Ragingly singular and surprisingly moving, Bad Nature is a story of stunning detours and twists until its final destination. Part road-trip novel, part revenge tale, part lament for our ongoing ecological crisis, it’s ultimately a deft examination of the indulgence of holding grudges, moral ambivalence, and the eternal possibility of redemption. – Henry Holt and Co.

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

It’s the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon, is all sleet and neon. Duane Minor is back home after a tour in Vietnam, a bartender just trying to stay sober; save his marriage with his wife, Heidi; and connect with his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, now that he’s responsible for raising her. Things aren’t easy, but Minor is scraping by.

Then a vampire walks into his bar and ruins his life.

When Minor crosses John Varley, a killer who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon, Varley brutally retaliates by murdering Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. What’s left of their splintered family is united by only one desire: vengeance.

So begins a furious, frenzied pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From grimy alleyways to desolate highways to snow-lashed plains, Minor and Julia are cast into the dark orbit of undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men transfixed by Varley’s ferocity. Everyone’s out for blood.

Gritty, unforgettable, and emotionally devastating, Coffin Moon asks what will be left of our humanity when grief transmutes into violence, when monsters wear human faces, and when our thirst for revenge eclipses everything else. – Random House

Fun at Parties by Jamie Harrow

In this swoony estranged-friends-to-lovers romance, a celebrity spin instructor and her longtime crush take a spontaneous cross-country road trip that turns into an unexpected but epic party hop, and end up en route to love.

When online cycling instructor Quinn Ray has a mid-class meltdown after a bad breakup—dramatically off-brand for someone whose vibe is sunshine and rainbows—her boss orders her to take a few weeks off work. And that’s fine. In fact, a quiet road trip through America’s most tranquil scenery is exactly what she needs.

But then Nate Reed, who’s barely spoken to Quinn since their friendship imploded two years ago, asks to hitch a ride so he can reunite with their chaotically lovable pal Logan to discuss something important. Unfortunately, Logan seems to be dodging them on purpose. Meanwhile, the internet rallies so strongly behind Quinn post-breakup that her boss orders her to seize the opportunity to rebrand herself as everyone’s favorite emblem of fun, empowered singledom.

So Quinn and Nate put aside the awkwardness between them and follow Logan 450 miles to a Las Vegas nightclub. And then chase him to a rooftop rager . . . baby shower? . . . in Denver. A rain-soaked country-western music festival in Kansas. A rowdy Nashville bachelorette party. As Quinn’s peaceful road trip becomes a tour of America’s biggest party spots with the guy she didn’t know she still wanted, she realizes Nate might just be the silver lining she never thought to look for. – Dutton

Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E Smith

The four Endicott siblings—Gemma, Connor, Roddy, and Jude—were once inseparable, a bond created by the absence of their dazzling, mercurial mother, who would return for a few weeks each summer to whisk them off on sprawling road trips around the country.

Decades later, the unthinkable has happened: the Endicotts haven’t spoken in years . . . until an out-of-the-blue text arrives from Jude, now a famous actress, summoning them to a small town in North Dakota. They’re each at a crossroads: Gemma, who put her own ambitions aside to raise the others, now isn’t sure if she wants to be a mother herself; Connor, a celebrated novelist, is floundering after his recent divorce and suffering from an epic case of writer’s block; and Roddy, at the tail end of a professional soccer career, is dangerously close to losing his future husband for the chance at one last season.

Jude is the only Endicott who seems to have it all together—but appearances can be deceiving. As the weekend unfolds, and the siblings wrestle with their shared past and uncertain futures, they’ll discover that Jude has been keeping three secrets . . . each of which could change everything.

A captivating journey and an ode to forgiveness that takes readers across all fifty states, Fun for the Whole Family brims with heart and resonates long after the final page. – Ballantine Books

Hot Wax by M.L. Rio

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul. – Simon & Schuster

Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Four housemates, looking for a fifth, the ad read. Queer preferred (we all are).

This is how Bernie, a film photographer, meets Leah, a writer, and from opposite sides of a thin bedroom wall in West Philadelphia, the two become closer than they ever could have imagined. When Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie on a road trip to settle a complicated inheritance, what ensues is an unexpected journey into the heart of America as the duo try to make sense of the times they are living in—falling in love with each other and rediscovering the power of making art along the way.

With humor, warmth, and beautifully observed characters, and told through two generations of queer artists reflecting on the question of how a person should be, Housemates is a glorious celebration of creativity, body liberation, chosen family—and of finding your place in an uncertain world. – Hogarth

Idolfire by Grace Curtis

On one side of the world, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she’s determined to prove every last one of them wrong.

On the other, Kirby of Wall’s End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she’ll have to leave everything behind.

Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead — or waiting for a spark to light it anew…

A character-driven science-fantasy road trip book with sword fights and a slowburn romance, Idolfire delves into the vastness of history and the terrifying power of organized faith. – DAW

Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom

An electrifying debut about a nonbinary corporate burnout embarking on a road trip from Chicago to Arkansas to find their conspiracy-theorist father, who has gone missing

The newly nameless narrator of Make Sure You Die Screaming has rejected the gender binary, has flamed out with a vengeance at their corporate gig, is most likely brain damaged from a major tussle with their now ex-boyfriend, and is on a bender to end all benders.

A call from their mother with the news that their MAGA-friendly, conspiracy-theorist father has gone missing launches the narrator from Chicago to deep red Arkansas in a stolen car. Along the way, the narrator and their new bestie—a self-proclaimed “garbage goth” with her own emotional baggage (and someone on her tail)—unpack the narrator’s childhood and a recent personal loss that they refuse to face head-on.

An unflinching interrogation of class rage, economic (im)mobility, gender expression, and the rot at the heart of capitalism, Make Sure You Die Screaming is the loud, funny, tragic, suspenseful road trip novel of our times. – Flatiron Books

Red River Road by Anna Downes

Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?

And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.

Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory. – Minotaur Books

This title is also available in large print.

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also thinks he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter who’s adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a fresh shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it. – Ballantine Books

This title is also available in large print.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely, she sometimes admits, and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future. – Ecco

This title is also available in large print.

When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await. – S&S / Saga Press

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