September QCL Wrap-Up

In August, Morgan and I read White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson in honor of Friday the 13th. Below is a short synopsis of the book and what I thought of it! 

Marigold’s mom gets a chance in a lifetime sending her blended family from California to the Midwest. Once arriving, to their new home, the town is not what the family had expected. Their new home is the only inhabited home in their neighborhood and the rest look as if they had been set ablaze and abandoned for years.

Marigold begins noticing weird things about her house and the whispers from her classmates sends her searching for answers!

I jumped feet first out of my comfort zone to read this and am so glad that I did! Jackson does an amazing job writing about tough topics spinning a web that untangles at the end. I don’t ever read horror but really, really liked this one!


Morgan and I have a very exciting lineup of book options for October, below are our 4 options including our winning title! Feel free to check them out from Davenport Public Library! 

Two doors, one yellow, one red. The Switch by Beth O’Leary (In Honor of International Day of the Elderly on October 1st) 

“Leena is too young to feel stuck. Eileen is too old to start over. It’s time for the switch. Ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, Leena escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Newly single and about to turn 80, Eileen would like a second chance at love. But her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen. So Leena proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love and Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with a rabble of unruly OAPs to contend with, as well as the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – local schoolteacher, Leena learns that switching lives isn’t straightforward. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours and with the online dating scene. But is her perfect match nearer to home than she first thought? – provided by our catalog 

Woman dropping a bouquet of flowers out of a window near a man. You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle (In Honor of Evaluate Your Life Day on October 19th) 

“For fans of The Hating Game, a debut lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy about two unhappily engaged people each trying to force the other to end the relationship–and falling back in love in the process.– provided by our catalog 

 

 

 

Woman holding a fork, a man holding a plate of food. For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa (In Honor of International Chef’s Day on October 20th) 

“They go together like water and oil… All chef Nina Lyon wants is to make a name for herself in the culinary world and inspire young women everywhere to do the same. For too long, she’s been held back and underestimated by the male-dominated sphere of professional kitchens, and she’s had enough. Now, as co-host of the competitive reality TV series The Next Cooking Champ!, she finally has a real shot at being top tier in the foodie scene. Too bad her co-host happens to be Hollywood’s smarmiest jerk. Restaurateur Leo O’Donnell never means to get under Nina’s skin. It just seems to happen, especially when the cameras are rolling. It’s part of the anxiety and stress he has come to know all too well in this line of work. So nothing prepares him for the fallout after he takes one joke a smidge too far and Nina up and quits–on live TV. To make matters worse, the two are caught in what looks like a compromising situation by the paparazzi…and fans of the show go absolutely nuts. Turns out, a “secret romance” between Nina and Leo may just be what their careers need most. Now all they have to do is play along, without killing each other…and without catching feelings. Easy as artisanal shepherd’s pie. Right?” – provided by Goodreads.com 

Puritan woman facing away with a white cap and red dress. **October Book Club Book** Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian (In Honor of Halloween and Spooky Season)  

“From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ‘The Flight Attendant,’ the enthralling story of a young Puritan woman who marries the wrong man and soon finds herself caught up in the violence and hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. – provided by our catalog 

 

 

 


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! 

Checked In: A Davenport Public Library Podcast September Recap

In this blog post, I will give you helpful links to area resources, Library resources, and links to the books discussed in our September episode!


Sci-Fi Reads

In honor of Star Trek Day on September 8th, Stephanie shared a list of new and old Science Fiction reads. Below are the titles that were discussed in our episode!

New Sci-Fi Reads
   –The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Mieville
   –The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
   –Dragons of Eternity by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
   –The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
   –To Turn the Tide by S.M. Stirling
   –Storm Furies by Wen Spencer
   –Rebel by David Weber and Richard Fox
   –Overcaptain by L.E. Modesitt 

Old Sci-Fi Reads
   –Dune by Frank Herbert
   –1984 by George Orwell
   –The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
   –Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
   -Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
   –Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
   –The Time Machine by HG Wells
   –The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin


Check Out Video Games from Davenport Public Library!

This month, Beth, Brittany, and Stephanie interviewed one of our newest Librarians, Elena! Elena is in charge of purchasing our video game collection! Did you know that you can check out video games from The Library for free?! We have video games for PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox1, Xbox 360, Xbox X games, Switch, Wii, DS, and 3DS! To learn more about our HUGE collection, we have a helpful Libguide for you! You can also place holds and check availability by visiting our online catalog!


Self-Improvement Month

September is self-improvement month and The Library is here to help with some of our newer resources! 

The Library now has LinkedIn Learning: Login with your library card number and password for your account to access 16,000+ expert-led courses presented in seven languages. Course subjects include: small business and entrepreneurship, web development, Microsoft Office, Google docs, photography, video editing, public speaking, sales, marketing, and many more. 

Have you been meaning to learn a new language or polish those sophomore year Spanish skills? Mango language has you covered! This language-learning resource offers instructional courses for over 70 languages. Begin to develop or build upon your listening and speaking skills in one or more foreign languages. Includes ESL (English as a Second Language) for over 20 languages. 


Self Help Books Helped or Tanked?

Beth, Brittany, and Stephanie ran through some Self-Help books that both helped their lives and some that completely tanked. Below are their favorites and least favorites in this category!

Beth
Helped:
   –The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
   –How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis
   –The Lazy Genius Podcast 
Tanked:

   –The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
   –The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusso

Stephanie
Helped:
   –Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard
   –By the Book Podcast hosted by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer (Renamed: How To Be Fine Podcast)
Tanked:

   –Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside Out by Phil McGraw

Brittany
Helped:
   Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Stephen R. Covey, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan,  & Al Switzler
   –Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard
   –The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
Tanked:
   –Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis


Celebrate Banned Books Week!

Every year, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from reports filed by library professionals and community members, as well as news stories published throughout the United States. Below are last year’s 10 Most Challenged Books:

  1. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
  2. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson 
  3. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson 
  4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 
  5. Flamer by Mike Curato 
  6. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 
  7. TIE – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews 
  8. TIE – Tricks by Ellen Hopkins 
  9. Let’s Talk About it: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan 
  10. Sold by Patricia McCormick 

To read more about Banned Books Week visit the ALA Banned Books Page!


New Merch!

Exciting news! We now have an online Threadless Store featuring custom designs by our marketing coordinator Tessa! Order apparel to show off your love of our library! A portion of all sales goes to our FRIENDS who support our programming and other special projects! Take a look at a wide array of options from kids t-shirts, adult apparel, notebooks, and more! Visit our Threadless Store today to make a purchase!


What Our Hosts Read In August

Stephanie’s Reads:
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
Peking Duck and Cover by Vivien Chien (book 10 in Noodle House Mystery series)
The Davenports by Krystal Marquis
The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (book 1 in the Assistant to the Villain series)
The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (book 1 in The Grandest Game series)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson 

Brittany’s Reads:
The Flight Attendant by Chris Bojalian Narrated by Erin Spencer, Grace Experience, and Mark Deakins
Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
The Wedding People by Alison Espach Narrated by Helen Laser
The Break-up Pact by Emma Lord Narrated by Natalie Naudus
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney Illustrated by Anita Jeram
Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino Narrated by Helen Laser

Beth’s Reads:
Where the Children Take Us: How One Family Achieved the Unimaginable by Zain Asher
At Least You Have Your Health by Madi Sinha


If you would like to listen to our episode, it can be found wherever you get your podcasts. If you prefer listening on the web, it can be found here!

We love hearing from our listeners, please feel free to comment on this blog post, on our socials, or email us at checked.in@davenportlibrary.com.

Full Cast Audiobooks

Have you ever listened to a full-cast audiobook? Full-cast narration means that multiple voice actors are used to play different roles within the book, instead of only one person narrating the book and changing their voice. Sometimes full-cast audiobooks also have theme or background music, in addition to noises (like a smack or bang, etc). Below I have gathered my favorites, plus some that are on my to-listen list. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Read By Neil Gaiman, Dennis Boutsikaris, George Guidall, Ron McLarty, Daniel Oreskes, Sarah Jones

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.

But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. Soon Shadow learns that the past never dies . . . and that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing–an epic war for the very soul of America–and that he is standing squarely in its path.

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Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Read by Judy Greer, Pablo Schreiber, Jennifer Beals, & Benjamin Bratt

Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

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The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Read by Mitch Albom, Roger McGuinn, Ingrid Michaelson, John Pizzarelli, Paul Stanley, George Guidall, Mike Hodge, Robin Miles, Christian Baskous, Tony Chiroldes, Kevin O’Neil, Adriana Sananes, Ken Brown, and Sarab Kamoo.

Narrated by the voice of Music itself, the story follows Frankie Presto, a war orphan born in a burning church, through his extraordinary journey around the world. Raised by a blind guitar teacher in Spain and gifted with a talent to change people’s lives—using six mysterious blue strings—Frankie navigates the musical landscape of the twentieth century, from the 1950s jazz scene to the Grand Ole Opry to Elvis mania and Woodstock, all the while searching for his childhood love.

As he becomes a famous star, he loses his way, until tragedy steals his ability to play the guitar that had so defined him. Overwhelmed by his loss, Frankie disappears for decades, reemerging late in life for one spectacular yet mystifying farewell.

Part love story, part magical mystery, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is Mitch Albom at his finest, a Forrest Gump-like epic about one man’s journey to discover what truly matters and the power of talent to change our lives.

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Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Read by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, George Saunders, and a full cast (featuring 166 narrators)

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.

Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

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Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

Read by Grace Experience, Saskia Maarleveld, Danny Campbell, Cassandra Campbell, Arthur Morey, Mark Deakins, Julia Whelan, Kaleo Griffith, Kirby Heyborne, Rebecca Lowman, Mark Bramhall

A young Puritan woman—faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul—plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense.

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary’s hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life.

But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary—a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony—soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary’s garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.

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Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Read by full cast of 87 narrators.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history.

Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness.

This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present.

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Do you have a favorite full cast audiobook? Share in the comments below!