Use the library and your TV for a workout!

- Beth Leave a comment

Watching videos doesn’t automatically make you a couch potato. If your New Year’s resolution is to work on your health and fitness, the Davenport Public Library has some options that may inspire you to start a new routine in your living room, off of your couch.

On DVD, an Afro-Caribbean Step routine is available on Debra Bono Dance Explosion! From the publisher: As a dancer, Debra kept the Afro-Caribbean choreography in mind and you’ll feel at home on the floor or on the step. Enjoy! Contains an 8-minute warm-up, a full 46-minute step workout, a 5-minute conditioning segment, and a 5-minute cool down.

 

If high-intensity interval training is more your style, try 30 Minutes to Fitness on DVD. From the publisher: This  is an interval workout that is designed to burn fat, increase muscle definition and improve overall fitness level. The four different workout principals include low impact cardio, boxing, bodyweight exercises, and compound moves.

 

As Richard says: “SWEATIN’ TO THE OLDIES is the original, and it’s still the best way to get your heart pounding and your blood pumping! Sing along to these great songs as you sweat your way to a healthier and happier you. Now let’s work out!! — xoxo Richard Simmons”

Our video streaming service Kanopy is packed with fitness crazes of yore. Richard Simmons passed away in July of 2024, but his enthusiasm for fitness can be seen in Richard Simmons: Sweatin’ to the Oldies, Vol. 1-4.

Jane Fonda’s 1980s workout videos are remastered and available on Kanopy for streaming.

Another classic on Kanopy is 1982’s Jane Fonda’s Original Workout. From the publisher: This is the program that started it all and became the top VHS tape of all time. This program will give you total body aerobic, strength, and flexibility workout, while building and maintaining cardiovascular health. Three more remastered workouts round out Joan Fonda’s offerings on Kanopy.

Girl Forgotten by April Henry

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Just like I know that the stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance, or whatever – don’t come in a neat order. Sometimes they return over and over, like waves that alternate between pulling you under and spitting you back onto the shore”
― April Henry, Girl Forgotten

When I don’t know what to read, I turn to award lists. One of my favorites is the Edgar Award winners list, which honors the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published in the previous year. While looking at the 2024 Edgar Award winner list, I found that Girl Forgotten by April Henry won for Best Young Adult. I adore April Henry and have read many of her books already, so I decided to try this one.

Girl Forgotten is a young adult thriller that dives into podcasting, true crime, and how far you are willing to go to keep your past hidden. Seventeen-year-old Piper Gray’s life has been thrown upside down. After her life explodes, Piper moves in with her father, stepmother, and their two children, starts at a new high school, and deals with the fallout of events in her past. Shortly before school starts, Piper stumbles upon a seventeen-year-old unsolved murder cold case whose victim was a seventeen-year-old girl names Layla Trello. Layla attended the same high school that Piper is set to attend. When Piper learns that, as a senior, she is required to do a senior passion project, she decides to start a true crime podcast investigating Layla’s murder. With the help of classmate Jonas, Piper learns how to podcast and how to investigate! As she digs into the past, Piper receives anonymous threats warning her to back off or what happened to Layla might happen to her too. That doesn’t derail Piper’s investigation though because she is determined to get justice for Layla and her family. The killer has been living free for years. Piper will find them and bring them to justice. She has to.

This book contains many of my favorite elements: podcasting, true crime and true crime fans, citizen detectives, and unsolved mysteries. An element of standing up to authority also runs through this book. I wish I would have been able to find Girl Forgotten as an audiobook because this story is told through newspaper articles, podcast transcripts, and first person narratives. I would have liked to hear the podcast sections in audio, as well as the news-type reading of the newspaper articles. This book is compared quite frequently to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, so I think that will be a 2025 read for me!

New SciFi Movies

- Elena Leave a comment

January 2nd is National Science Fiction Day. Celebrate the genre with a new science fiction movie from Davenport Public Library. (Descriptions below provided by publisher.)

Godzilla Minus One
A disgraced kamikaze pilot returns to his obliterated house after witnessing an unbelievable attack on Odo Island. Rebuilding his home and life out of the detritus of the city, he takes in a displaced baby and the woman who found her, creating a family that gives him the courage to bring his neighbors together to fight when the monster returns to Japan while the citizens are already at their lowest point.

Slingshot
A psychological thriller starring Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne, Slingshot follows an elite trio of astronauts aboard a years-long, possibly compromised mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. As the team gears up for a highly dangerous slingshot maneuver that will either catapult them to Titan or into deep space, it becomes increasingly difficult for one astronaut to maintain his grip on reality.

The Animal Kingdom
In a visionary new thriller that drops viewers into an extraordinary world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures, François does everything he can to save his wife, who is affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile, their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with help from a local police officer.

Borderlands
Lilith, an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas, the universe’s most powerful SOB. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland, a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina, a feral preteen demolitionist; Krieg, Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis, the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap, a wiseass robot. Together, these unlikely heroes must battle an alien species and dangerous bandits to uncover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. The fate of the universe could be in their hands; but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other.

Omni Loop
A quantum physicist finds herself stuck in a time loop, with a black hole growing in her chest and only a week to live. When she meets a gifted student, they team up to save her life and to unlock the mysteries of time travel.

 

 

During the month of January, look for the “National Science Fiction Day” displays at the Fairmount and Eastern branches for more DVD recommendations.

The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer

- Stephanie Leave a comment

I have noticed an uptick in historical fiction about music bands, something that I attribute to the popularity of Daisy Jones & The Six, both the book and television show. The latest band historical fiction hitting the new shelves is The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer. This dual timeline follows Emma Cantor in 1996 and her mother Judie in the 1960s.

Emma is an alt-rocker desperate to make her name known on tour. She wants a record deal, but also struggles with performing against the legacy of the other famous singers in her family: her mother, aunt, and father(and her brother a little bit). Her mother Judie knows how hard it is to be on the road and wants to save Emma the heartbreak that path will bring, but Emma is determined to figure things out on her own, so she ignores her mother’s advice and heads out singing.

Flashback to the 1960s. Judie and her sister, Sylvia, want to have their own musical careers without their parents’ interventions. Eventually the two, with help from some others, become the famous Singer Sisters, a folk band that traveled, played, and wrote music everywhere.

Jodie and Emma’s relationships with each other and other members of their family and friend group shift throughout the years. Betrayals abound, family secrets are revealed, and loyalties are tested. While the premise of this book was great, I found myself not connecting to the characters as much as I expected. I finished The Singer Sisters because I wanted to see how each character ended up and was slightly invested, but there wasn’t much that pulled me in. Hopefully it’s a better experience for you all!

LEARN A LANGUAGE — Part 1

- Jill Leave a comment

Happy New Year!
¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!
Alles Gute Zum Neuen Jahr!
Bonne Année!
新年快乐! (xīnniánkuàilè!)

Did you know that there are over 41 different languages spoken by students in Scott County, Iowa?  The top 6 languages are represented above: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, German, French, and Chinese. Across the state, over 177 languages are spoken (according to the 2022 report by the Iowa Department of Human Rights and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach). This is a nearly 60% increase in the foreign language speaking population since the last report in 2010. All languages (other than English) spoken in Scott County account for over 9,200 speakers – which is more than 6%. Spanish speakers account for greater than 3% of that. And combined, Vietnamese, German, French, and Chinese, add up to another 1.68% of speakers, leaving 1.44% to account for another 35 languages. These are roughly the same numbers when you compare Scott County with the State of Iowa as a whole.

While English is the most commonly spoken language in the United States, according to a 2019 U.S. Census Bureau Report about 22 percent of the US population (308.8 million at the time) speaks a language other than English when at home. Roughly 62% of these individuals speaks English “very well” such that they can be identified as fluently bilingual. According to the Journal of Neurolinguistics, 43% of the world’s population is bilingual, using two languages daily. 40% is monolingual, and the remaining 17% are multilingual.

Among U.S. students studying a foreign language, roughly 72% are studying Spanish, 14% French, 4.5% German, 2.5% Latin, and almost 1% Japanese. And, according to a 2021 report from the language learning app, Duolingo, the top 6 most popular languages to learn around the world (after English, which ranks #1) are: Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Korean. The 5 most commonly spoken languages in the world in order are English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish and French.

Would you like to learn a foreign language to communicate better with others in our diverse community?  Perhaps you have always wanted to learn a specific language of your family heritage or to prepare for a long-awaited bucket list trip? The Library has an array of language learning resources. From complete courses (including an online program), to phrasebooks for travelers, visual dictionaries, and bilingual short stories, we have what you need to get started on your foreign language learning or ESL path. We even have Sign Language learning resources!

Over the next months, we will highlight resources for each of the top 6 most popular languages to learn: *Spanish, *French, *German, Japanese, Italian, and Korean. And, we will also include the most commonly spoken foreign languages in the Quad Cities Region: *Spanish, Vietnamese, *German, *French, and Chinese. ESL and Sign Language will also be included.
*We’ll only cover Spanish, German, and French once as they appear on both lists.

First, we’d like to point you to resources that will assist you in any language you want to learn. You can browse the online catalog for a specific language:  Davenport Public Library Catalog.  If you don’t see what you’re looking for there, reach out and let us know what language you’d like to learn or what resources you need.

As a Davenport Library card holder, you have FREE access to the language learning program Mango Languages found on our Online Resources page. Mango offers instructional courses for over 70 languages and ESL (English as a Second Language) courses for over 20 languages.

We also have these books that would be helpful no matter which language you choose to learn:

Fluent forever : how to learn any language fast and never forget it by Gabriel Wyner

Fluent in 3 months : how anyone at any age can learn to speak any language from anywhere in the world by Benny Lewis

How to speak any language fluently by Alex Rawlings

Bilingual families : a practical language planning guide by Eowyn Crisfield

 

Finally, you might find these two books useful as you begin planning your language learning adventure:

 

The first 20 hours : how to learn anything … fast by Josh Kaufman

Limitless : upgrade your brain, learn anything faster, and unlock your exceptional life by Jim Kwik

Stay tuned over the next months for language learning resources for specific languages!  First up, next month:  LEARN A LANGUAGE — Part 2 — SPANISH.

Online Reading Challenge – January

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

New year means new reading challenge! I’m so excited to tell you that the theme for the 2025 Online Reading Challenge is … GENRES! Each month we will be reading a different genre. I will pick a main title for us to read together if you would like, but feel free to read anything set in that genre for the month! I can’t wait to start reading with you all.

This month the online reading challenge genre is literary fiction. What is literary fiction? According to NoveList, a readers’ advisory resource that you can access through the Davenport Public Library, literary fiction is character-driven, usually involves social commentary, uses stylish writing language, and can sometimes have ambiguous endings. The plot is not the main focus in literary fiction, which allows writers to instead place their energies on the language used and character development.

Our main title for January is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years. – Penguin Books

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

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

Coming Soon! Online Reading Challenge 2025

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome to the 2025 Online Reading Challenge!

Get ready for our tenth year of reading recommendations with our super-casual, low-stress reading club! For anyone who doesn’t know (or remember!) the Online Reading Challenge is run online through the Davenport Library’s reference blog Info Café and through the Beanstack app!

Each month we read books centered around a theme. Each year is a little different, but the unchanging main principle of this book club is: No Pressure! There is no sign-up, no meetings to attend (although you’re welcome to add any comments to the blog posts), no shame in not finishing a book, or skipping a month (or two). You can read one of the suggested titles or something different or none at all! Read at your own pace, read what interests you, try something out of your usual reading zone or stick with what you like best. In other words, create a personalized book club with a bit of encouragement from the Reading Challenge!

Our theme for 2025 is Genres!

Each month we will read a different genre and highlight a main title that takes place in that genre. Besides the main title, we’ll have suggestions for books from the same genre as well as many more on display at each of our buildings. You can choose to read the main book or alternate titles or even something else completely! As always, we’ll have an introductory blog post at the beginning of the month and a wrap-up blog post at the end. At the end of the month, I’ll write about the main title, pose some questions, and invite you to comment your observations about the title you read.

Of course, as always, you may do as you please – there are no Library Police! If you wish to skip a month or read more than one book in that month or read a book from a different month, go for it! No one will drag you off to Library Jail if you choose your own path!

The 2025 Online Reading Challenge begins on Thursday, January 2nd. Be sure to follow the Info Café reference blog or Beanstack for more information and updates!

Online Reading Challenge – December Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

It’s the final month of the 2024 Online Reading Challenge! How did your reading go this month? Did you read something that was dual timelines that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Without meaning to, I also read a couple other dual timeline books, but The Great Believers was the best of those recent reads.

Splitting between 1985 Chicago and 2015 Paris, Rebecca Makkai weaves these two timelines into a cohesive story that pulls at the lives of many individuals across time and space. Yale Tishman is working as the developmental director for an art gallery in 1985 Chicago. He is working hard to bring a collection of 1920s paintings in as a gift to the gallery, but egos both inside the gallery and outside the gallery are affecting his ability to secure this gift. As Yale’s professional life takes off, his personal life is fracturing. The AIDS epidemic is destroying the lives of people around him. His friends are dying one by one, and after the funeral of his friend Nico, the virus starts to come closer to Yale than ever before. Yale turns to Nico’s little sister, Fiona, for help, guidance, and solidarity.

Flash forward to 2015 and Fiona is a wreck. She lost contact with her daughter Claire years ago, but a friend recently sent her a video of who she thinks is Claire on a bridge in Pairs. Determined to rescue Claire from the cult she disappeared into, Fiona heads to Paris. Once arrived, she stays with an old friend who documented the Chicago AIDS crisis, forcing Fiona to reckon with the feelings, emotions, and actions that the crisis thrust onto her life all those years ago. Her time spent in Paris is time spent examining her past and all the ways AIDS changed her life and her relationship with those around her, specifically her daughter.

Makkai expertly weaves Yale’s life from 1985 with Fiona in 2015, diving back and forth between the two, teasing just enough information from one to help inform the other and vice versa. What set this book apart for me was the narrator and his ability to pull me into the story from the start. While the timelines were inextricably linked together, the author still gave equal importance to both places in time, while also acknowledging how the past impacts the present both directly and indirectly.

In January, we’ll be starting the 2025 Online Reading Challenge with a brand new theme! I can’t wait to share this with you.

2024 Decade Challenge – That’s a Wrap!

- Brittany Leave a comment

In 2022 I was listening to an episode of the podcast, What Should I Read Next? with Anne Bogel – if you have not listened to this podcast, you should! So much content to add to your TBR! Anne was interviewing a guest about setting reading goals. The guest shared that her goal was to read 100 books that year – each title belonging to a year in the past century. Knowing that I could not commit to 100 books, I did want to give this goal a try in my own way! Thus began my commitment to reach 100 years of books by decade – 11 books each year! Below are the titles that I chose and the years that they were released! This has been such a fun goal and I am really getting the opportunity to read books that have broadened my horizons!

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (audiobook through Audible)
Poirot and Hastings set out and solve 14 crimes in this compilation of short stories. Among the crimes solved include: missing pearls, dead counterparts, and a mother trying to do the right thing.

I always enjoy a good Christie novel!

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (audiobook through Libby)
Join the Banks children as they go on many adventures with a nanny like no other! The Banks children have recently run their Katie Nana away and are in need of a new nanny. In blows Mary Poppins to turn their world upside down.

As a little girl, I watched Julie Andrews bring to life the delightful and eccentric Mary Poppins. As an adult, it was an absolute joy to listen to the audio on Libby and compare the differences between the book and the movie adaptation.

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (hard copy)
Wanda has an interesting name and lives in Boggins Hollow where the poorest families live. One day on the playground, Wanda whispers that she has 100 dresses in her closet all lined up. The children laugh at her because there is no way her family could afford that many dresses. Now, it has been a few days since Wanda has been seen at school. One of the girls, Maddie is worried and begins to feel remorse for not standing up for Wanda.

This classic tale teaches such a great lesson to young people, first, never judge a book by its cover and second, always be kind.

Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss (hard copy)
One day while cooling off in the pool, Horton hears a noise coming from a speck of dust leading to an unexpected friendship. Led by a mother kangaroo, the jungle animals begin mocking Horton and threaten the safety of the people on the tiny speck.

I loved sharing this classic tale with my kids! Horton is such a sweet and gentle character, it was fun to see how much my kids got into it!

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (hard copy)
A tree and a little boy love each other. As the little boy grows, the tree does everything within her power to help him.

Such a powerful message on love and the effects of one-sided relationships. My kids loved this book and it was nice to have a discussion on what it means to be a good friend!

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (hard copy)
Tish has loved Fonny for most of her life. Just as they are beginning to start a life together, Fonny is accused of a crime that he did not commit. Baldwin created complex characters navigating very real and unimaginable horrors. If Beale Street Could Talk is about the power of love and its ability to conquer all.

This was a beautifully heartbreaking story with an ending that I had hoped for!

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (hard copy)
Happy 40th Birthday to “The House on Mango Street”!! What a beautiful book that was completely unputdownable. Loosely related to the life of the author, this beautiful work of art follows the young Esperanza as she grows up on Mango Street. Told is short stories, that somehow speak beyond their words, I feel as if I have an intimate relationship with each character especially Esperanza.

Loved, loved, loved this so much and am so glad that I chose this as my 1984 read!!

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, Illustrated by Anita Jeram (hard copy)
This beauty that was on personal bookshelf as a child turns 30 this year! My 40th read is #guesshowmuchiloveyoubook and it is my 1994 read for my year decade challenge. Truth be told, I had intended to read a different title and it was just too dry and heavy for me!

Follow 2 rabbits (father and child) as they proclaim their love for one another. If you have little ones or just want a little nostalgia, consider picking this book up!

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (hard copy)
This book was recommended to me in 2006. Now, I finally finished this title for my 2024 decade challenge and completely understand why it was recommended to me!

Macy has to say goodbye to her boyfriend Jason, her lifeline after the passing of her father, for the summer. Stuck filling in for Jason at the library with girls that she is pretty sure hate her, Macy is dreading her summer. All of this changes when her workaholic mom hires a caterer for a party and Macy steps in to help. Finding new friends and herself along the way, Macy struggles with being true to herself and what forever really means.

This book was so cute! Each supporting character had depth and were integral to the structure of the story. There were so many times that I was rooting for Macy and was so excited when she found her footing and stood up for herself!

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler (audiobook through Audible)
Dive into the world of 1920’s glam and elaborate parties with this title. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald is a fictionalized account told in Zelda’s point of view.

As a fan of F. Scott’s works, I was excited and nervous to pick up this title but can say that it was so totally worth it! What a remarkably heartbreaking life of the life of one of the most famous writers.

Brought to life by one of the best audio narrators yet, this title made me cry and wish that I could have known Ms. Fitzgerald, she was truly a remarkable woman in a time where women were beginning to make names for themselves!

Summertime Punchline by Betty Corrello (hard copy)
Holy buckets!!! My heart is so unbelievably sad that I have finished this book. As many do, I put my hat in the ring for all of the giveaways on my TBR. Who doesn’t love a FREE BOOK? Somehow, I was lucky enough to be a winner of this charming and heartbreakingly funny title by Betty Corrello.

Delfina is about to have the chance of a lifetime, she has been selected for a coveted spot in Brainwave, the most prestigious event for aspiring comedians. When she is on the cusp of greatness, Del finds herself homeless and driving her friend’s car home to Evergreen, NJ. Del’s whimsical grandmother Nan welcomes her home with a surprise: she is buddies with someone from her past that she has tried very hard to forget.

What an honor it was to read this title and I thank Avon Books for the opportunity to read it and offer a review. I very much look forward to more reads by Corrello!

I’m excited to share what I am planning to read next year!

The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“What didn’t kill me didn’t make me stronger; what didn’t kill me made me into a victim. But I made me stronger. I made me into a survivor.”
― Tess Sharpe, The Girls I’ve Been

Nora is in a bit of a mess. First off, her ex-boyfriend and best friend Wes walked in on Nora and her current girlfriend Iris making out. Wes knew they were friends, but not that they were dating. To make matters more awkward, the three have to meet up the next morning to deposit money at the bank that they earned as the result of a fundraiser. Nora just wants to get in and out of the bank as quickly as possible to minimize the awkwardness. The day has other plans, because as soon as the trio walks into the back, two bank robbers walk in and take everyone hostage.

This situation is concerning to Nora, but for different reasons than it is for the others. Nora is the daughter of a con artist. Her mother has moved her around the country, targeting criminal man. Nora grew up as a lot of different girls, becoming whomever her mother needed her to be for the con she was running. Nora’s life changed when her mom ended up falling for her mark. She knew she needed to escape, which resulted in the ultimate con and eventually landed Nora where she currently lives.

It’s been five years since Nora escaped, but these two bank robbers have the ability to destroy what little stability she has managed to grab for herself. If she isn’t careful, the robbers could learn Nora’s secrets and upend her life. Nora has plans though. They have no idea all that she is capable of.

I listened to the audiobook version of The Girls I’ve Been and loved it. This book is intricately plotted, yet quickly paced. The characters are strong, opinionated, and sassy. Heads up that this book does alternate between different timelines, so you need to pay attention! This book is definitely set up as the first book in a series as not everything is solved in the end and readers are left wanting to know more about the characters and their backgrounds. I have high hopes that my questions will be answered in book 2!

Girls I’ve Been series

  1. The Girls I’ve Been (2021)
  2. The Girl in Question (2024)

“There is no normal. There is just a bunch of people pretending there is. There’s just different levels of pain. Different stages of safe. The biggest con of all is that there’s a normal.”
― Tess Sharpe, The Girls I’ve Been

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