Adventures in Carsonia

- Bill Leave a comment

Reliable, dependable, and comforting when not on prolonged vacations, Johnny Carson tucked a nation of millions in for three decades.  “The Prince” stuffed his hands in his pockets and cornerstoned his career as the impish smirking naughty kid.  He constructed a godlike level of cool, descending from his everyman persona. The key?  His unabashed knack for self-deprecation, routinely forking over his dignity for the audience.  And they revered him for it.  It was funnier when the joke didn’t work, and when he skewered his failed nuptials.  Johnny was in on the joke, contrary to all the prior self-serious talking heads.

When I thought I had enjoyed the definitive tell-all of Johnny, lo and behold Carson the Magnificent came out this past November.   You get to hear the origins of everything….from the pantomimed golf swing to the iconic “heeeeere’s Johnny.”  And then there’s experienced pitchman Ed, gameshow host and emcee with the boisterous guffaw, second only to that Dick Clark kid.  Fun fact: fans expected Johnny to be diminutive, since he always stood next to his 6’ 4” WWII Naval Aviator second banana.

At times the late author Bill Zehme desperately wants you to know he had a high SAT verbal score.  And I guess that’s okay for the New Yorker crowd.  We learn when you get past the starlets and palatial estates he was just a journeyman Nebraska magician with a ca-ca eating grin.  His mother’s cold-hearted cruelty ruined his adult relationships.  After a couple drinks, he inherited this maternal trait.    And when he said he was done, he meant it.

Not to belabor the point, but sample the magic Monday through Friday on antenna tv WQAD 8.2 at 9PM.  And Saturdays at 10p!

Afrofuturism

- Elena Leave a comment

Celebrate Black History Month with Afrofuturism! Afrofuturism is a literary and artistic movement that combines Black history and culture with futuristic and science fiction elements. Check out the following titles available at Davenport Public Library. (Descriptions below provided by the publisher.)

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future. Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind. – Goodreads

How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.

Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story “The City Born Great,” a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis’s soul. – Hachette Book Group

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself–but first she has to make it there, alive. – Macmillan Publishers

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.

Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot—if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war. – Akashic Books

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria. The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky. In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life. Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together. And they’re willing to fight an entire war to get there. – Penguin

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?

Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as the Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere.

But the Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? With extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the ones we love.

During the month of February, look for the “Afrofuturism” display at all three branches for more recommendations.

Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

- Bill Leave a comment

It’s been a quarter-century, and he’s back, with a vengeance.  No, it’s Malcolm Gladwell talking Tipping Points, not Pennywise the Clown.  This part deux of his seminal work feels less positive, hence the “revenge” label.   It’s more of the same fascinating ilk, searching for (this time negative) trends at the intersection of science and culture.  Here we have several compelling case studies how a little yellow snowball can roll downhill to form a sociological avalanche.

He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis.

Gladwell teases qualitative meaning out of a heap of data, actually making statistics, well, interesting.

But there is another goal — tracing why things end up getting turned on their head in an astonishingly short period of time.  We’re talking years, not millenia.  How can we prevent a similar repeat?  And, what does the “overstory” say about us?  It’s disturbingly not so much the butterfly effect as unintended consequences of run-of-the-mill man-made meddling.  We have the power to radically reshape our world (this time NOT for the best) with or without intention.

LEARN A LANGUAGE — Part 2 — SPANISH

- Jill Leave a comment

Last month, we introduced you to some of the more general language learning resources that The Library offers. Take a look at those if you’re not sure what language you want to learn. This month, we’ll focus in on the most commonly spoken foreign language in Davenport, the Quad Cities, and the U.S. – SPANISH!  This is also the language that most people around the world indicate they want to learn.

There are over 493 million native Spanish speakers, making it the second most-spoken language in the world. Including everyone who speaks Spanish as a second language (at least decently), Spanish can be used to communicate with 591 million people around the world! This makes Spanish the third most-spoken language in the world, behind Chinese and English, and on par with Hindi. Spanish is also one of the most-used languages on the internet. The Spanish language continues to grow in traditionally non-Spanish speaking countries as well. In the U.S., 60 million people identified as being of Hispanic origin – about 18% of the population (in 2019). The Spanish language has by far the most native speakers, with 12% of the American population using it as their primary language (2021). And, Spanish is the official language in 20 countries and one U.S. Territory (Puerto Rico) and has widespread use in other regions. Besides Mexico and Spain, Spanish is the official language in many Central and South American nations, including: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It’s even spoken in Equatorial Guinea (in Africa). So, if you are planning on visiting any of these places, learning at least some basic conversational Spanish or common phrases would be helpful.

According to US Census Bureau data in 2022, the Hispanic population of Davenport, Iowa was at just over 9% or 9,200 people. When expanded to include the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL communities, the total number of people identifying as non-white Hispanic rose to 9.31% or 35.6K people. In Iowa, nearly 216K people self-identified as Hispanic or Latino (about 6.8% of Iowa’s total population, according to a 2022 report from the State Data Center of Iowa – a program of The State Library of Iowa.) Currently, 128K Iowa residents age 5 and older speak Spanish at home. Of this number, over 21K are Spanish speaking English Language Learners in Iowa’s public schools (2021- 2022). This represents a 240% increase from the previous year (Iowa Department of Education). Based on growth over the last 20 years, the projected total Latino population of Iowa as of July 1, 2050 will be around 518K (about 14.8% of the total state population). The numbers are even greater for Illinois, where some schools are even offering Dual Language Immersion Programs.

Hispanic businesses are on the rise nationwide, growing 8.2% from 2019-2020 (US Census Bureau). Hispanic-owned businesses yielded about $472.3 billion in annual receipts and employed about 2.9 million workers. According to the Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, this is reflected in the Quad Cities as Latino owned business are on the rise, along with Hispanic cultural enterprises such as Mercado on Fifth, an outdoor summer market in Moline, IL which had a record 115 vendors and almost $600K in revenue in 2022. The chamber also indicated that immigrants and refugees are among the biggest drivers of the population and economic gains in the Quad Cities. Newcomers to the region tend to be of working age (between the ages of 25 and 64). Immigrants also are more likely to open and operate their own businesses and employ others than U.S.-born Quad-Citians.

Learning Spanish will undoubtedly give you an edge in the Quad Cities Job Market. Being bilingual in a market where the Spanish language speaking population is growing can be a major asset. Many employers are actively looking to hire people who can communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking customers, colleagues, and community members. Having at least a working knowledge of Spanish in your skill set can open up job opportunities you might not have otherwise. From healthcare, hospitality, and customer service to manufacturing, Spanish proficiency enables workers to engage with the area’s Hispanic community. Increasing the number of Spanish speakers in the workforce will facilitate everything from better patient communication to more targeted marketing and improved workplace collaboration across language barriers. Salaries also tend to be higher for bilingual employees. Studies show the “bilingual bonus” can lead to thousands more in annual pay, providing not just a practical communication benefit, but also a financial one. A growing number of job postings now list Spanish as a requirement or preferred qualification, but even a baseline conversational ability will give you an advantage. As the Hispanic community continues to rapidly expand across the Quad Cities area, mastering the Spanish language will only become more valuable to employers across diverse job sectors. For those entering the workforce, as well as experienced professionals, the ability to communicate and work effectively in both English and Spanish can give you the competitive edge.

Will you consider learning a foreign language?  If you’d like to get started learning Spanish, here are just a sampling of some of the FREE resources offered by The Library. See our online catalog or ask a Librarian for more resources.

FOR A QUICK INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGE:

15-minute Spanish : learn in just 12 weeks by Ana Bremón

Spanish in 3 months : your essential guide to understanding and speaking Spanish by Isabel Cisneros

Spanish in 100 days.

 

FOR A MORE LAID-BACK APPROACH:

    

Spanish for the rest of us by William C. Harvey

Drive time Spanish. Beginner level.

#Language hacking Spanish : a conversation course for beginners by Benny Lewis

Becoming a bilingual family : help your kids learn Spanish (and learn Spanish yourself in the process) by Stephen G. Marks

50 Spanish coffee breaks : short activities to improve your Spanish one cup at a time

Teach your dog Spanish by Anne Cakebread

 

IF YOU ARE A VISUAL LEARNER:

 

Merriam-Webster’s Spanish-English visual dictionary

Spanish English illustrated dictionary by Thomas Booth

Spanish visual dictionary for dummies.

Bilingual visual dictionary. Spanish English.

 

COMPLETE LANGUAGE COURSES:

   

Berlitz Spanish all-in-one

Complete Spanish step-by-step : the fastest way to achieve Spanish mastery by Barbara Bregstein

Spanish complete edition

Basic Spanish by Dorothy Devney Richmond

Instant Immersion Spanish deluxe v3.0

And, a Davenport Public Library cardholder, you have FREE access to the language learning program, Mango Languages.

 

FOR THOSE WHO PLAN TO TRAVEL:

 

Spanish: Rough Guides Phrase Book

Rick Steves’ Spanish phrase book & dictionary  by Rick Steves

Mexican Spanish phrase book & dictionary

Fast talk Latin American Spanish : guaranteed to get you talking.

 

NEXT MONTH…  LEARN A LANGUAGE — Part 3 — FRENCH

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Ruta Sepetys’s latest book, The Bletchley Riddle, is a middle grade historical fiction written with Steve Sheinkin. The cover caught my eye, but the description hooked me even further.

It’s summer 1940 and fourteen-year-old Lizzie Novis has found herself in a quandry. Her grandmother is determined to ship Lizzie from London back to Ohio to live with her, but Lizzie has other plans and believes her nineteen-year-old brother Jakob can help her. They have a shared love of puzzles and riddles, something that Lizzie believes is the key to her current problem.

Jakob is working at Bletchley Park, one of Britain’s codebreaking factories. He is currently working to crack Germany’s Enigma cipher, which isn’t going well. When he is summoned to pick up Lizzie, Jakob is not pleased. When he discovers that Lizzie will also be working at Bletchley Park, he is even more concerned as Lizzie isn’t one to follow rules and the Official Secrets Act binds everyone at Bletchley. Jakob is right to be concerned as Lizzie is determined to solve her own problem: the disappearance of their mother. They have been told that their mother died in Poland, but that story doesn’t seem believable to her at all. When codes and messages start arriving addressed to Jakob and Lizzie, she actively begins searching. Add in a mysterious investigator who is threatening Jakob and Lizzie and her hackles are up. Someone isn’t telling the truth and Lizzie isn’t having any of that. Jakob and Lizzie soon start deciphering codes at work and outside of work as they race to find answers.

What hooked me is that The Bletchley Riddle is told from both Jakob and Lizzie’s points of view. Having dual points of view showcases the emotions each character is feeling as well as their motivations for behaving the way they do. Given the differences in age, gender, and interests between the two characters and this book certainly lends itself relatable and readable to readers of all types! This is one title that I would love to see made into a series! The ending certainly leads itself that way.

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

Online Reading Challenge – February

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on mystery. Our main title for February is The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Inspired by a haunting true story, a gorgeous and atmospheric novel about the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote tower miles from the Cornish coast–and about the wives who were left behind.

What strange fate befell these doomed men? The heavy sea whispers their names. Black rocks roll beneath the surface, drowning ghosts. And out of the swell like a finger of light, the salt-scratched tower stands lonely and magnificent.

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1972, when a boat pulls up to the Maiden Rock lighthouse with relief for the keepers. But no one greets them. When the entrance door, locked from the inside, is battered down, rescuers find an empty tower. A table is laid for a meal not eaten. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a storm raging round the tower, but the skies have been clear. And the clocks have all stopped at 8:45.

Two decades later, the keepers’ wives are visited by a writer determined to find the truth about the men’s disappearance. Moving between the women’s stories and the men’s last weeks together in the lighthouse, long-held secrets surface and truths twist into lies as we piece together what happened, why, and who to believe.

In her riveting and suspenseful novel, Emma Stonex writes a story of isolation and obsession, of reality and illusion, and of what it takes to keep the light burning when all else is swallowed by dark. – Penguin Books

Looking for some other books that are mysteries? Try any of the following.

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

Online Reading Challenge – January Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read a literary fiction title that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. This book had been on my radar for awhile, but I knew it would not be one that I would pick up on my own, hence its selection for the Online Reading Challenge!

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is Ocean Vuong’s debut novel. The speaker, Little Dog, is writing a letter to his mother who cannot read English. When the letter starts, Little Dog is in his late twenties and is laying out his family’s history from long before he was born all the way through present day. He spans from Vietnam all the way to the United States and details the lives of many different members of his family and his friends. In his letter, Little Dog also shares parts of his life that his mother was previously not aware of, and with her inability to read, will probably always not know about. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a twisted love letter of sorts, talking about the tense love between Little Dog and his mother, a single mother trying to do her best by her son and her own mother. He talks about how trauma, violence, and addiction have impacted them all and how masculinity, class, and race shape their relationships with others and with themselves. This isn’t a linear story, but is instead the story of people caught between worlds, struggling to find where they truly belong.

This book was gorgeous. It was incredibly well-written and left me reeling when I finished. The author is brutal in their honesty when it came to discussing class, masculinity, race and how those factors affect people of all ages. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous spans decades, ripping into sections of life that may be tender, but need to be discussed. While I reveled in the writing, I did find myself needing to take breaks. Ocean Vuong is clearly a masterful storyteller and poet, but their ability to write poetry made this debut novel a bit much for me. They are an exquisite writer, but instead of pulling me in, their beautiful writing instead didn’t allow me to fully connect with the book. I loved the style of the book, but felt like it was lacking substance, that it was lacking the meat of the story for me to hold on to. However, I’m still glad I picked it up to read!

Next month, we will be reading a mystery!

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!

January 2025 QCL (Quad Cities Live) Book Club Selections

- Brittany Leave a comment

In December, Morgan and I were unable to meet due to circumstances outside of our control. The title that we were slated to read was The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah in honor of Thank a Soldier Week the week of Christmas. Below is a short synopsis of the book provided by Goodreads!

The year is 1974, Ernt Allbright decides to uproot his family to live off the grid in America’s last true frontier, Alaska. Once in Alaska, the family is taken in by generous locals but as the days grow shorter, Ernt’s mental health declines leaving his family to have to fend for themselves.

Morgan and I have a very exciting lineup of book options for January. Below are our 4 options including our winning title: The Last Love Note! Feel free to check them out from Davenport Public Library! 

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (In Honor of Global Family Day on January 1st)  

Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.

A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls , but with murder.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy   coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always depend on each other.– provided by Goodreads

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle (In Honor of Science Fiction Day on January 2nd)

Dani has it all, a great apartment, a great boyfriend, and a job interview for her dream position. Everything is going according to plan until she wakes up five years in the future in an unfamiliar apartment with an unfamiliar man who is not her new fiancé. What went wrong? Can she fix the future?

I really liked this book but was not prepared for the devastating turn of events. If you read this, please go gently, it is beautifully written but something that hit me hard.– personal review

 

 

 

The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll (In Honor of Morgan loving a Thriller) 

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE. As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve. But Ani has a secret. There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything. With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that’s bigger than it first appears. The question will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?– provided by our Goodreads

 

 

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey (In Honor of National Handwriting Day on January 23rd)

You may never stop loving the one you lost. But you can still find love again.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who’s determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?

The Last Love Note will make listeners laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.– provided by Goodreads

If you are interested in any of these titles, or have read them, I want to talk about them! Please consider leaving a comment!  

Want to converse with other QCL Book Club followers? Consider joining our Goodreads Group!  

You can also access our recorded interviews by visiting the QCL Book Club Page! 

If you missed the segment, you can watch it here!

New Career and Job Hunting Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Are you looking for a new career? Are you unsure how to begin job hunting? Lucky for you the Library has many books to help you with your new career and job hunt. Below you will find a sample of our newest books. If you’re looking for more, contact us today! These titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. All descriptions have been provided by the publishers.

Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling: How LGBTQ+ People Can Thrive and Succeed at Work by Layla McCay

A compelling look at the challenges facing LGBTQ+ professionals as they navigate their careers – with advice from many senior figures who have smashed their own rainbow ceilings.

There are currently only four LGBTQ+ CEOs across all Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies who are out at work, and just 0.8% of Fortune 500 board positions are filled by LGBTQ+ people. This deficit, occurring across sectors and around the world, reveals a diversity gap playing out in today’s workplace: LGBTQ+ people are less likely to reach the top jobs. But what is holding LGBTQ+ people back at work – and what can be done?

Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling explores the hidden differences that cause LGBTQ+ people to be underrepresented at the most senior levels of professional life. Combining data with personal insights from over 40 prominent LGBTQ+ trailblazers, from CEOs to Ambassadors, Layla McCay reveals the challenges that LGBTQ+ people commonly encounter as they find their way in work environments, and provides the practical strategies that can help empower LGBTQ+ people to reach their full professional potential.

The book explores how everyone – from boards, CEOs, managers, HR professionals and colleagues, through to LGBTQ+ people navigating their own career paths – can recognize and address the barriers, achieve their career goals, and build a more inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and succeed. – Bloomsbury Publishing

I Hate Job Interviews: Stop Stressing. Start Performing. Get the Job You Want. by Sam Owens

Go into your next job interview with confidence, ready to knock any question they throw at you out of the park!

The key to landing that dream job or big promotion often comes down to how you perform in the job interview. After bombing some interviews early in his career, Sam Owens vowed that would never happen to him again and began work on a system to ensure he was ready for even the most oddball questions in future interviews. The system he developed proved so successful, Sam built a career coaching business around teaching it to others and has now coached thousands of people on how to prepare for interviews.

In I Hate Job Interviews, Sam shares his proven methodology and provides simple frameworks and demonstrations on how to answer any type of job interview question. Using this proven system, job candidates will gain confidence in answering introductory, behavioral, hypothetical, opinion, personal, think-on-your-feet, salary, and self-awareness questions. You will learn:

  • How to craft “power” examples to show how your skills align perfectly with the job you are applying for.
  • To conduct practice interviews so you are ready when the big day arrives.
  • To make a big first impression with that first question.
  • To tell compelling stories that clearly demonstrate your abilities.
  • Simple strategies and frameworks to nail hypothetical and scenario questions.
  • Salary negotiation skills to maximize your job offer.

– HarperCollins Leadership

Where’s Your Buffalo?: A Recruiter’s Guide to Getting the Career You Want, Earning What You’re Worth, and Doing What You Love by Tom Johnston

A veteran recruiter helps create a business plan for your career.

Where’s Your Buffalo? is a career management guide for any age and any career stage. It’s a timely framework for finding, pursuing, and achieving employment that enables any reader to meet their professional and personal life goals. It’s a practical path to help readers choose a career, get the job they want, earn what they are worth, and do what they love (or at least genuinely like).

Where’s Your Buffalo? shares the methodology that author Tom Johnston has developed over 35 years as a search consultant at some of the world’s most influential firms. This book will help readers identify their perfect career (their “Buffalo”) and chart a course to reach it, including how to:

  • Better understand your skills and talents
  • Articulate what is important to you in a job and why
  • Identify industries that will support what is important to you
  • Determine your target destination (we can adjust course as conditions change)
  • Research and understand the companies that can provide you with a path
  • Build a targeted network to help you along the way
  • Learn how to hunt for the job you want

Only 1% to 2% of people in the world will have the chance to be coached by an executive recruiter. Where’s Your Buffalo? is your chance. – Peakpoint Press

The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work by Simone Stolzoff

A challenge to the tyranny of work and a call to reclaim our lives from its clutches.

From the moment we ask children what they want to “be” when they grow up, we exalt the dream job as if it were life’s ultimate objective. Many entangle their identities with their jobs, with predictable damage to happiness, wellbeing, and even professional success.

In The Good Enough Job, journalist Simone Stolzoff traces how work has come to dominate Americans’ lives—and why we find it so difficult to let go. Based on groundbreaking reporting and interviews with Michelin star chefs, Wall Street bankers, overwhelmed teachers and other workers across the American economy, Stolzoff exposes what we lose when we expect work to be more than a job. Rather than treat work as a calling or a dream, he asks what it would take to reframe work as a part of life rather than the entirety of our lives. What does it mean for a job to be good enough?

Through provocative critique and deep reporting, Stolzoff punctures the myths that keep us chained to our jobs. By exposing the lies we–and our employers–tell about the value of our labor, The Good Enough Job makes the urgent case for reclaiming our lives in a world centered around work. – Portfolio

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“I stop myself from apologizing-because what would I even be sorry for? Existing too loud?”
― Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Ace of Spades

Niveus Private Academy has ways of making and breaking students’ careers. If you’re able to gain admittance to the school, you’ll discover the students are perfect with scholarly brilliance and wealthy families behind them. If you’re selected to be a prefect, even better. That’ll really make your college applications shine and also give you an edge at becoming valedictorian.

Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo are hoping their senior year will go smoothly. With their individual selections as senior prefects, they have high hopes. A mysterious figure begins a campaign of alienation and destruction shortly after their selections. Someone going by Aces is sending anonymous text messages to the students at Niveus, revealing secrets about both Devon and Chiamaka that have power to destroy their futures (and their presents). As Aces ramps up their attacks, they become more dangerous. Devon and Chiamaka hatch a plan to out Aces, but will they be successful?

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé has written a gorgeous debut novel. Ace of Spades grabs hold of an incredible amount of issues and shoves them at readers in ways that it is impossible to ignore. This book deals with issues of racism, bullying, homophobia, classism, and so much more. Highly recommend.

“I hate how they have the power to kill my future, kill me. They treat my Black skin like a gun or a grenade or a knife that is dangerous and lethal, when really it’s them. The guys at the top powering everything.”
― Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Ace of Spades

This title is also available in large print, CD audiobook, and as part of our book club collection.

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