Still using the old OverDrive app? The time is upon you to switch to the newer Libby app.
The old OverDrive app will become inactive at the end of April. Downloading the Libby app takes just a few minutes. There is no impact to your account. The items that you have checked out and on hold will be there in the Libby app.
To use on a mobile device, you may need to update your Smartphone software. Ensure your device is running at least:
Android 4.4+ (you’ll also need Chrome, not the stock Android web browser)
Enter your App Store password to install the app on your device.
The app will ask you to associate your account with a library. Search for “Davenport” or “RiverShare.” (Be careful. Be certain to select Davenport, IOWA.)
Enter your library card number into the app.
After that, you should be good-to-go!
If you use a laptop or desktop to access OverDrive, you may still use OverDrive Read in your favorite browser. OverDrive Read is compatible with: Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari.
The end of April is fast approaching. Spend the time today to ensure you’ll be able to checkout in May!
Did you know that April 7th is International Beaver Day? Yes, we have an entire day to celebrate the joy and wonder of the Castor canadensis, the North American beaver, and the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber).
Beavers are known for many things. For example, they transform their surroundings building dams to create pools of water. These dams typically are 32 feet to 100 feet long, although one dam was measured to be over 2800 feet long. These dams create ponds of water behind them. And in these ponds beavers will often build a home called a lodge, with entrances below water, and a roof above water, creating a nice, homey, dry space on the inside.
Beavers originally populated the Quad-City area, and can still be seen today in our area. One day last summer as I was walking on Sylvan Island I encountered a beaver running along the levee. He was faster than I was, but I followed his path and found his lodge built in the river abutting the levee. I looked and looked for any sign of him, but he was gone. Probably, inside his lodge, I thought. As I walked on I did notice the stumps of trees that he had created, pointing skyward.
Interested in learning more about beavers? Then check out these titles:
Please enjoy this guest blog by Jeff Collins, Library Director:
Even now, after her passing last summer at age 85, beloved children’s librarian Rochelle A. Murray is helping Davenport kids fall in love with reading.
“Miss Rochelle,” as she was known to generations of children, bequeathed to the Library a generous gift, which will help kids discover the fun of reading for many years to come.
Rochelle was a longtime children’s librarian, and although she had long since retired by the time I began my tenure as director, I have seen her touch throughout the Library and in the community. Now, her legacy will be indelibly marked, as Davenport Public Library embarks on an audacious $1.08 million-dollar private-donor funded project to bring vibrant new activities to the children’s areas at all three of our libraries: | Main | Fairmount | Eastern.
Davenport Public Library will add interactives, kiosks, wall panels, and more to our children’s areas in the coming year, helping kids to develop the early literacy skills so vital to their success in school and life. These vivid new spaces will allow children to engage in fun, multi-sensory activities that support early literacy and include letters and words, gears, magnetic pieces, song lyrics, varying textures, and other elements that are perfect for hands-on play. And of course, we will incorporate plenty of cozy nooks where children and their parents/caregivers can read books together!
Educational Learning Spaces
These enhanced spaces are educational and based on Every Child Ready to Read®, a research-based series of practices developed by the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children. Designed to help kids develop essential literacy skills and get on the right path to school readiness and student success, this program is based on two core concepts: 1) Reading begins at birth; and 2) Parents are a child’s first and best teacher. Every Child Ready to Read® focuses on emergent and early literacy development in the five practices of talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. Public libraries provide opportunities for young children and their parents/caregivers to develop these skills in safe, non-commercial environments, with free access for everyone in the community. Davenport Public Library already utilizes Every Child Ready to Read® practices in our early literacy programming, including storytimes, 1000 Books Before Kindergarten, parent education workshops, and supporting materials to help parents/caregivers prepare children for reading.
Access to these free, educational spots, gives everyone living in Davenport a strong start in early literacy to ensure that they are ready for kindergarten and beyond. Each newly designed children’s area will reflect the theme of nature, with each library branch featuring aspects of its local ecosystem:
| Main will feature a water/riparian habitat due to its proximity to the Mississippi River.
| Fairmount will feature woodlands/wetlands due to the Duck Creek watershed.
| Eastern will feature a prairie theme as it is situated at Prairie Heights Park.
Help us reach our goal!
So, while we are deeply saddened by the loss of Rochelle Murray, it is with enormous gratitude that we honor her legacy by embarking on this mission to bring opportunities to play and learn at the Library.
We welcome the participation of all citizens in this campaign. As of March 31, 2023, this project is 58% funded, but we still need $450,000 to bring it to success. Gifts of all sizes are welcome. Anyone interested in making a gift can do so online, or gifts can be mailed to FRIENDS of the Davenport Public Library (321 Main Street, Davenport, IA 52801). Please designate your gift as for “Children’s Areas”. Donations of $5,000 or more will receive mention on a plaque at each library.
We need everyone in our community to help. Please join us in making early literacy a reality for Davenport children!
Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia’s graphic novel Ballad for Sophie is, for lack of a better word, a masterpiece. A truly and completely stunning masterpiece.
The story is set in two worlds, one in 1933 and one in 1997, and follows a young journalist on a quest to unearth the questionable history of retired world famous pianist Julien Dubois. Through a series of sit-down interviews with the reclusive musician, the journalist extracts an epic story of fame, rivalries, loss, and music.
What I found to be so striking about Melo and Cavia’s book is the way the illustrations seemed to leap off the page and hug me. They’re warm, both in color and in what they depict. Melo is a masterful storyteller, his narrative sending readers back and forth in time and wonderfully building tension and suspense at all the right moments. Alongside the language, Cavia’s illustrations are pungent with emotion, texture, and pigment. Coursing through the story are splashes of gold that give the often depressing story an atmosphere saturated with warmth.
As if this book was lacking in atmospheric elements, Filipe Melo wrote an original piece for Ballad for Sophie that beautifully accentuates the ending of the story. You can listen to it on Spotify.
The visual experience of this graphic novel is refrshing; I often find that while a graphic novels’ images may be high quality, the story they depict is not. That is not the case with Ballad for Sophie. Also, it’s being adapted into a television series, so get your hands on it before they release the show!
Nothing can ruin a book like a disappointing ending while nothing can make it more memorable than a fabulous last line. What follows is a sampling of some of the best last lines from beloved books. Some are poignant, some are funny but all are powerful reminders of that literary world you just experienced.
“I wish you all a long and happy life.” –The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby, F.Scott Fitzgerald
“After all, tomorrow is another day.” – Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
“But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” –The House At Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne
“Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.” – Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
“But I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.” – The Color Purple, Alice Walker
“That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.” – Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this.” –Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
“I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran.” –The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
“And the tale I have to tell is so ludicrous, so incredible, that you’ll never believe a word of it, and yet” – she taps the end of his nose – “it’s true.” – Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
“This is the happiest day of my life.” – The Martian, Andy Weir
“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” –Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
Now it’s my turn. After more than 1800 blog posts, thousands of dollars spent purchasing books for the library, countless reference questions answered and over 34 years working at the Davenport Library, I am heading off on the new adventure of retirement. It has been an honor and a pleasure.
This month the Online Reading Challenge travels to sunny California, the land of gold and dreams! Think sunny beaches and glamourous Hollywood for inspiration. Our Main title is the excellent Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher.
Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over 24 hours, their lives will change forever.
Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer, and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over, especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.
The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud, because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.
As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!
How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in Ancient Greece that you enjoyed? Let us know in the comments!
I read our main title, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This is a devastating book – beautifully written, heartbreaking, part love story, part cautionary tale on the perils of pride, this is a story that will stay with you long after finishing.
Patroclus is the son of a minor king in the Greek territories. He is a constant disappointment to his father. When he makes a fatal mistake he is exiled from his home and is sent to the kingdom of Phthia, ruled by the powerful King Peleus. There he meets the king’s son Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks”. That this golden boy and an outcast should become friends is unexpected, but soon they are inseparable. Patroclus blossoms in Achilles’ reflected glory and Achilles gains a true friend. When Achilles’ father sends him to study under Chiron, the wisest and most skilled of the centaurs, Patroclus follows. Together they learn many skills from Chiron, happy to be together and becoming more than friends.
Their idyll is ruined when word of the kidnapping of Helen reaches them. Achilles, hungry for fame and glory, joins the fight to retrieve her from Troy and Patroclus refuses to be left behind. What follows is the brutality of war, full of violence, cruelty and male egos. The fallout from Achilles pride is devastating and heart wrenching.
I was surprised at the violence of the scenes of the Trojan War and frustrated by Achilles and his refusal to compromise. In many ways Patroclus is the true hero, and a lesson to all. A fascinating look at the culture and customs of Ancient Greece as well as a story of love and sacrifice.
Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett investigates a mysterious death at a secret remote high-tech facility in Storm Watch by C.J. Box.
When a prominent University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped. That is, until Joe Pickett makes two surprising discoveries while hunting down a wounded elk on his district as an epic spring storm descends upon him. First, he finds the professor’s vehicle parked on a remote mountainside. Then Joe finds the professor’s frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by federal agents, extremists, and Governor Colter Allen.
Nate Romanowski is rebuilding his falconry company—and financing this through crypto mining with the assistance of Geronimo Jones. He’s then approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists that is gaining in power and influence, and demanding that Wyoming join other western states and secede from the union—by force, if necessary. They ask Nate to throw in with them, but he’s wary. Should he trust them, or is he being set up?
As a storm of peril gathers around them, Joe and Nate confront it in different ways—and maybe, for the first time, on opposite sides. (from the publisher)
I’m a big fan of CJ Box’s books. There is a lot of action, eccentric characters and twisty mysteries. Box’s ability to describe the beauty of the American West is unparalleled – without flourishes or unnecessary description, he is able to transport you to the land, it’s weather and it’s wildlife effortlessly. Centering the entire series is Joe Pickett with his unshakeable morals and sense of fairness. Highly recommended.
In addition to eBooks and eAudio titles OverDrive offers a wealth of magazines that are available to you 24/7.
That’s right, with our OverDrive magazine subscription our patrons have access to over 4,000 magazine titles, many with three years of back issues. You’ll be able to see the magazines just as they appeared in print. All the images and all the advertisements, viewable right on your device’s screen.
Magazines do not count toward your OverDrive title limit, so check out as many as you want. You could have 5 eBooks/eAudio items checked out and, say, 30 magazines. You also can determine your own loan period, 7, 14, or 21 days.
You will likely never need to wait to check out a title, because issues can be used by multiple simultaneous users.
OverDrive has titles for young and old on topics such as: sports, new & current events, finance & business, home & garden, celebrities & gossip, and much more.
Seeking non-English language titles? OverDrive has them.
Practice your French with Vogue France, L’Ami des Jardins, Closer France, or Marie Claire Maison.
How about Spanish? OverDrive offers ¡Hola!, Maxim Mexico, Horoscopos, and TvNotas. And that is just to name a few!
Magazines can be viewed by using OverDrive Read in your favorite browser or in the Libby app.
Give it a try! Check out the eMagazine section the next time you are using OverDrive (Libby).
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Still using the old OverDrive app? The time is upon you to switch to the newer Libby app.
