Tag: nonfiction

New Documentary DVDs

- Elena Leave a comment

It’s time for Nonfiction November! Did you know that Davenport Public Library has a robust nonfiction DVD selection? Here are a few critically acclaimed documentaries that are new to the Davenport Public Library shelves. (Descriptions below provided by the publisher.)

Four Daughters
The riveting exploration of rebellion, memory, and sisterhood reconstructs the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, unpacking a complex family history through intimate interviews and artful reenactments to examine how the Tunisian woman’s two eldest were radicalized by Islamic extremists. Casting professional actresses as the missing daughters, along with acclaimed Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabri as Olfa, award-winning director Kaouther Ben Hania (The Man Who Sold His Skin) restages pivotal moments in the family’s life. These scenes are interwoven with confessions and reflections from Olfa and her younger daughters, offering the women agency to tell their own stories and capturing moments of joy, loss, violence, and heartache. Winner of four prizes including L’Oeil d’Or (Best Documentary) when it screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Four Daughters is a compelling portrait of five women and a unique and ambitious work of nonfiction cinema that explores the nature of memory, the weight of inherited trauma, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

Mambar Pierrette
Over the past decade, Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam has distinguished herself for her quietly observational documentary portraits of African women. With Mambar Pierrette, her feature narrative debut, Mbakam turns her documentarian’s eye to the eponymous Pierrette, a gifted & beloved neighborhood seamstress who works to support her young children and mother. As a rainstorm threatens to flood her workshop, one of many misfortunes, Pierrette will have to stay afloat.

 

In San Pedro Amuzgos, Mexico, ‘the town of the spinners’ where the director grew up, children are raised beneath the loom. While Zoila weaves, she listens to her son’s first existential questions. Through the warp of their conversation, we weave three threads: that of Zoila herself, that of Donato, the most famous violinist in the town, and that of Lorenzo, his heir. These are stories of songs and dances, of children and parents, and of the threads that might snap–or bind an indigenous community closer together.

 

Shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project is a beguiling documentary portrait that follows poet and activist Nikki Giovanni as she approaches 80. The film explores Giovanni’s Afrofuturist-feminist philosophical outlook as well as her poignant relationship with her family, her political audacity, and her poetic eloquence, all knit together with a constant eye and ear for its subject’s own aesthetic verve. Looking back at a personal life and history cast in the long shadow of American racism, and forward to hopeful, possible futures, Giovanni acts as our guide and narrator, with refreshingly unorthodox filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michl̈e Stephenson refraining from traditional chronologies or talking-head conventions. Going to Mars is fueled by constant intellectual engagement and radical imagination in the search for emotional and political fulfillment in a world of disenfranchisement.

Adrian Russell Wills, a Wonnarua man, and Gillian Moody, a Wodi Wodi woman, share an undeniable bond. Both were Aboriginal children adopted by white families and, later in life, they each shared similar desires to reconnect with their bloodlines. In this moving documentary, Wills and Moody recount their emotional searches for belonging, providing an intimate journey into isolation and identity.

Kindred explores the importance of discovering your place in the world and realizing that home and love truly can be found in the people and places your heart connects to. This intimate film is a continuation of the ongoing conversations between Wills and Moody, documenting their emotional searches for belonging and how their abiding friendship has offered solace in turbulent times.

During the month of November, look for the “Nonfiction November” display at the Fairmount and Eastern branches for more nonfiction DVD recommendations.

New Gardening Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Whether you’re an experienced gardener or a newbie gardener, the Davenport Public Library has books for you! We have many new gardening books that have hit the new shelves recently. Below are a few of our newest ones. These books are all owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions have been provided by the publishers.

Container Gardening – The Permaculture Way: Sustainably Grow Vegetables and More in Your Small Space by Valery Tsimba

Anyone, anywhere can grow fresh, healthy produce, foster biodiversity, and reconnect with nature by using the permaculture approach—no matter your space or experience.

Permaculture—rooted in centuries-old techniques for growing food with care for the Earth—is the key to producing a bigger harvest than you ever thought possible on your balcony, patio, driveway, deck, and anywhere in between!

With sustainability as her guiding principle, Valéry Tsimba enthusiastically instructs home gardeners of all skill levels and backgrounds in her proven container gardening methods, from start to finish.

Containers make gardening more accessible for everyone. Whether you live in an apartment, have a disability or chronic illness, have never gardened before, or are an experienced gardener new to permaculture, Container Gardening—The Permaculture Way brings sustainable gardening within reach. – The Experiment Publishing

Shade Garden: Essential Know-How and Expert Advice for Gardening Success by Zia Allaway

Discover how to assess, grow, and maintain a shady garden.

Ideal for first-time gardeners, Grow Shade Garden contains everything you need to create a flourishing garden full of color, texture, and scent in a shady space. Learn how to grow and care for various shade-loving plants with tips on selecting the right site and varieties. Once you understand different types of shade and have assessed your space, select the best plants for your garden with the help of handy directories that profile different shrubs, perennials, bulbs, and trees and provide key growing information. Projects on tree planting, container displays, and creating a fernery also get you started on planting techniques and ideas to make the most of a shaded space.

Whether you are an avid gardener or want to create an easy-to-maintain garden, this book can guide you and answer important questions like how plants react to shade. And How do I check my soil and climate? – DK

How to Grow Flowers in Small Spaces: An Illustrated Guide to Planning, Planting, and Caring for Your Small Space Flower Garden by Stephanie Walker

Take your gardening to the next level…with flowers! After learning how to manage their houseplants and grow their own food, this highly stylized, fully illustrated, modern guidebook teaches reluctant green thumbs to brighten up their gardens with flowers.

Did you know that begonias can be dug up in the fall, stored indoors in the winter, and be ready to be planted and bloom again in the spring? That daylilies need to be divided every three to four years to produce more blooms? Or that marigolds can be both a beautiful and helpful addition to a vegetable garden as a natural deterrent to common garden pests?

Whether you’re a first-time gardener or an experienced green thumb looking to learn more about flowers, this book is your must-have guide! 

No more trips to the florist—with How to Grow Flowers in Small Spaces, your home and garden will be bursting with color to keep you healthier and happier than ever. From peonies and marigolds to snapdragons and foxgloves, grab your gloves and get to gardening! – Adams Media

The Container Garden Recipe Book: 57 Designs for Pots, Window Boxes, Hanging Baskets, and More by Lana Williams

Over 50 step-by-step recipes for stunning outdoor planters of all shapes and sizes, in Artisan’s bestselling flower recipe book format.

We’re taking the Recipe Book series outside! In the Container Garden Recipe Book, Lana Williams of the Oakland-based Tender Gardener offers readers dozens of step-by-step recipes for lush outdoor planters, from classic terra-cotta pots to window boxes, urns, bowls, and more. There are recipes specifically designed to adorn your porch or patio (a rustic birdcage-cum-hanging basket, a stately Japanese maple planted in a painted terra-cotta urn) and others that are perfect for backyard entertaining (an elegant tabletop trough of succulents, a concrete water garden that’s sure to be a conversation starter). And with Lana as their guide, readers’ yards will never be bare thanks to creative designs for all seasons, from urns bursting with spring bulbs to a summer trough brimming with fresh herbs and an heirloom pumpkin converted into the perfect home for fall blooms.

And recreating these stunning designs couldn’t be simpler! Each recipe includes a detailed ingredients list and step-by-step instructions, along with hundreds of photos showing where and how to place each plant. Also included is foundational information on planting techniques, care instructions, choosing the right container, as well as plant spotlights highlighting foolproof options for all climates and seasons, from spring bulbs to evergreens. – Artisan

The Propagation Handbook: A Guide to Propagating Houseplants by Hilton Carter

In The Propagation Handbook, plant stylist Hilton Carter reveals how to grow and increase your own plant family by propagating existing plants.

Not only a plant lover, Hilton is passionate about propagation, the process of growing a brand new healthy and happy plant from part of an existing one. In this, his fifth book, Hilton talks us through the process of propagation and explains all the necessary techniques, from the very simplest to more complex methods, such as air layering and grafting. He describes exactly which method to use for different types of plant, and lists the tools essential for the process. In Hilton’s own words: “You hear so much about plant ‘parenthood’, but knowing how to propagate and then watching as your little plant takes shape and develops into a full-grown plant is the very definition of this.” – CICO Books

The Fragrant Flower Garden: Growing, Arranging & Preserving Natural Scents by Stefani Bittner

Make your garden and home look and smell heavenly with this accessible gardening guide that explains how to grow fragrant flowers outdoors and bring natural scents indoors by creating floral arrangements, scented beauty products, and more.

There is nothing like the beauty and scent of a flower-filled garden and home. The Fragrant Flower Garden shows you how to grow flowers that are a feast for the nose as well as the eyes, from a naturally perfumed carpet of sweet alyssum and the warm, spicy scent of gardenia to the heavenly aroma of lilacs.

A beautiful garden is one where you can find joy in every sense—literally. The Fragrant Flower Garden makes this dream a reality with garden design guidance for a year’s worth of flowers, foliage, and fragrance. Then, reap the wellness benefits of your fragrant flowers through DIY projects such as making floral arrangements, perfumes, tub soaks, and tinctures.

Whether you prefer the smell of classic lavender or something more adventurous like chocolate cosmos, The Fragrant Flower Garden opens the door to creating a scented flower garden that is a delight for all. – Ten Speed Press

More New Gardening Books:

October’s Simply Held Nonfiction Picks

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Four nonfiction picks are available for you to choose from: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime. Our nonfiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for Simply Held through our website!

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected for October from the following categories: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime.

Biography pick

Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life by Eric Weiner

New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, mining his life for inspiring and practical lessons in a book that’s part biography, part travelogue, part personal prescription.

Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency, Franklin was a founder, statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, humorist, and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment, but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment, Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived.

Not a conventional biography, Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the Internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.

At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us. – Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

Cookbook pick

The Feel Good Foodie Cookbook: 125 Recipes enhanced with Mediterranean flavors by Yumna Jawad

During her childhood in Lebanese communities in Sierra Leone and Michigan, Yumna Jawad grew up eating home-cooked meals and learned time-saving shortcuts from her mother to prepare traditional, Middle Eastern recipes. As an adult, she started her blog Feel Good Foodie to make healthy cooking easy and helped fuel the “Baked Feta Pasta” trend that took over the internet. Now, in her first cookbook, she shares many more unfussy, healthy meals that are enhanced by Middle Eastern flavors.

These recipes will teach you exactly what her mom taught her: how to build savvy kitchen know-how that gives you the confidence to cook consistently for yourself and others. Be inspired by White Zucchini Pizza with Garlicky Labneh, Tomato Rice Pilaf, Harissa-Grilled Shrimp Skewers, Seven Spice Roast Chicken & Pomegranate Potatoes, Tahini-Glazed Cauliflower, perfect Crispy Falafel, Three-Ingredient Mango Sorbet, Zaatar Manakeesh, and Olive Oil Cake, which you can enjoy alongside bright green Mint-Basil Lemonade or a homemade Rose Latte.

Jawad loves simple ingredients, fresh flavors, and finding the balance between tradition and a little innovation. But, more than anything, she loves food that makes you exclaim this phrase after one bite: “So good!” – Rodale Books

Social Justice pick

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally by Emily Ladau

An approachable guide to being a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more inclusive place

People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us—disabled and nondisabled alike—don’t know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. What are the appropriate ways to think, talk, and ask about disability? Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about, including:

  • Recognizing and avoiding ableism (discrimination toward disabled people)
  • Practicing good disability etiquette
  • Ensuring accessibility becomes your standard practice, from everyday communication to planning special events
  • Appreciating disability history and identity
  • Identifying and speaking up about disability stereotypes in media

Authored by celebrated disability rights advocate, speaker, and writer Emily Ladau, this practical, intersectional guide offers all readers a welcoming place to understand disability as part of the human experience. – Ten Speed Press

True Crime pick

Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story by Max Marshall

A brilliant young investigative journalist traces a murder and a multi-million-dollar drug ring, leading to an unprecedented look at elite American fraternity life.

When Max Marshall arrived on the campus of the College of Charleston in 2018, he hoped to investigate a small-time fraternity Xanax trafficking ring. Instead, he found a homicide, several student deaths, and millions of dollars circulating around the Deep South. He also opened up an elite world hidden to outsiders. Behind the pop culture cliches of “Greek life” lies one of the major breeding grounds of American power: 80 percent of Fortune 500 executives, 85 percent of Supreme Court justices, and all but four presidents since 1825 have been fraternity members. With unprecedented immersion, this book takes readers inside that bubble.

Under the live oaks and Spanish moss of Travel + Leisure’s “Most Beautiful Campus in America,” Marshall traces several “C of C” boys’ journeys from fraternity pledges to interstate drug traffickers. The result is a true-life story of hubris, status, money, drugs, and murder—one that lifts a curtain on an ecstatic and disturbing way of life. With expert pacing and a cool eye, he follows a never-ending party that continues after funerals and mass arrests.

An addictive and haunting portrait of tomorrow’s American establishment, Among the Bros is nonfiction storytelling at its finest. – Harper

Join Simply Held to have any of the new nonfiction picks automatically put on hold for you four times a year.

New Mental Health Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

If you’re looking for nonfiction books that discuss mental health, start with this list! Here we have gathered a list of nonfiction mental health books that are new to the Davenport Public Library shelves. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you are looking for more titles on this subject.

These titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions have been provided by the publisher.

All in Her Head: How Gender Bias Harms Women’s Mental Health by Misty Pratt

This provocative, deeply personal book explores how women experience mental health care differently than men—and lays out how the system must change for women to flourish.

Why are so many women feeling anxious, stressed out, and depressed, and why are they not getting the help they need? Over the past decade, mood disorders have skyrocketed among women, who are twice as likely to be diagnosed as men. Yet in a healthcare system steeped in gender bias, women’s complaints are often dismissed, their normal emotions are pathologized, and treatments routinely fail to address the root causes of their distress. Women living at the crossroads of racial, economic, and other identities face additional barriers. How can we pinpoint what’s wrong with women’s mental health, and what needs to change?

In All in Her Head, science writer Misty Pratt embarks on a crucial investigation, painting a picture of a system that is failing women on multiple levels. Pratt, who shares her own history of mental illness, explores the stereotypes that have shaped how we understand and treat women’s distress, from the Ancient Greek concept of “hysteria” to today’s self-help solutions. Weaving together science and women’s personal stories, All in Her Head debunks mental health myths and challenges misconceptions, addressing the following questions:

  • When did normal emotions become symptoms of a disorder?
  • What are specific risk factors for common mental disorders that disproportionately affect women?
  • How did “burnout” become a women’s disease?
  • What can we do to make peace with our moods and embrace the gifts of our emotions?

Pratt also tackles the thorny topic of medication, taking a nuanced and evidence-based approach. Women who present at their doctor’s office with depression, anxiety, or stress are often prescribed antidepressants as a first-line treatment: at least one in four American women are now taking these medications. Antidepressants have a real effect that can be helpful for some individuals; however, Pratt persuasively argues that our current approach ignores the underlying causes of most women’s depressive symptoms.

Today, a rising movement of women is demanding better when it comes to mental health treatment. Armed with the latest science, insight from those who have been through the therapeutic system, and enough humor to lighten the load, All in Her Head provides women with hope and courage to reframe and reclaim their mental health. – Greystone books

Devout: A Memoir of Doubt by Anna Gazmarian

In this revelatory memoir, Anna Gazmarian tells the story of how her evangelical upbringing in North Carolina failed to help her understand the mental health diagnosis she received, and the work she had to do to find proper medical treatment while also maintaining her faith.

When Anna is diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2011, she’s faced with a conundrum: while the diagnosis provides clarity about her manic and depressive episodes, she must confront the stigma that her evangelical community attaches to her condition. Over the course of ten years, we follow Anna on her journey to reframe her understanding of mental health to expand the limits of what her religious practice can offer.

In Devout: A Memoir of Doubt, Anna shows that pursuing our emotional health and our spiritual well-being is one single mission and, in both cases, an act of faith. – Simon & Schuster

Give Me Space But Don’t Go Far: My Unlikely Friendship with Anxiety by Haley Weaver

A tender, funny, illustrated memoir about anxiety and self-acceptance from the artist behind @haleydrewthis

Anxiety has been glued to Haley Weaver’s side since she was a child. Like most people, Weaver saw the constant what-ifs and worst-case scenarios that Anxiety whispered in her ear as an obstacle to her happiness. Maybe she could dump her anxiety at her therapist’s office, or send it on a trip far, far away—anything to get rid of it for good. But over time she realized anxiety’s true intention: to keep her safe. Could she learn to let it do its job but also figure out how to live without constant worry and fear?

This full-color, illustrated memoir stars Haley and Anxiety (as themselves) and showcases their complicated but ultimately uplifting relationship. It also introduces readers to the helpful (and not-so-helpful) coping mechanisms Haley relies on to soften the edges of her mental health issues. There’s the Distractor, who wears a bright red boa and encourages Haley to avoid uncomfortable feelings by scrolling the Internet, the Liar, who teaches Haley the pillars of a good fib in order to survive at the middle school lunch table, and even the Partier, who gives Haley a social life in college but also lands her in the ER. From detailing her first unsupervised birthday party as a preteen to exploring the overwhelming life transitions as an adult, Give Me Space but Don’t Go Far brings to life the pivotal moments of Haley’s life and illuminates the lesson she’s learned: With care, practice, and sound strategies, we can learn to coexist with our anxiety—and maybe even love it. – Avery

How to Find a Four-Leaf Clover: What Autism Can Teach Us about Difference, Connection, and Belonging by Jodi Rodgers

A powerfully moving read from beloved Love on the Spectrum star and disability rights advocate Jodi Rodgers, sharing lessons from her work within the autistic community that can help create a more inclusive society for us all.

In How to Find a Four-Leaf Clover, Jodi Rodgers gives us inspiring, heartwarming stories from her years of experience as a teacher and counselor supporting autistic people. While acknowledging our differences, these stories invite us to expand our empathy and compassion for the neurodivergent people in our lives. Throughout, Rodgers explores the powerful impact of embracing neurodiversity and forming meaningful connections with those around us. Each chapter highlights a different story and an aspect of human behavior, including:

  • How we perceive the world, and our own unique experience of thinking, sensing, and feeling
  • How we communicate our perspective to others, understand one another, and express ourselves
  • How we can better connect with one another

With dozens of moving stories, How to Find a Four-Leaf Clover will give readers a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the neurodiverse community around them. Above all, it will inspire a profound sense of belonging, revealing that we’re much more similar than we think. – Little Brown Spark

How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living by Vincent Deary

Drawing on cutting-edge science and intimate personal stories, an essential and paradigm-shifting book for readers struggling with fatigue, burnout, stress, and trauma—and for all of us who sometimes feel like we have been pushed past our breaking point.

In How We Are, the health psychologist and author Vincent Deary explored the process of habit and change in everyday life. In How We Break, a deeply compassionate and illuminating exploration of suffering, he examines what happens when we are pushed to our limit.

Deary is a practitioner health psychologist who also works in a fatigue clinic and specializes in interventions that help people cope with whatever life has thrown at them. The big traumas in life, he points out, are relatively rare. Much more common is when too many things go wrong at once, or we are exposed to a prolonged period of difficulty or precarity. When we are subjected to too much turbulence—when the world shrinks to nothing but our daily coping—we become unhappy, worried, hopeless, exhausted. In other words, we break. Breaking, he shows us, is embodied, as our physical and mental distress are linked, and happens when the same systems that enable us to navigate through life become dysregulated. But if we understand how the turbulence and overwhelm of life affects us, then we have a better chance of overcoming the challenges.

Drawing on clinical case studies, trailblazing scientific research, intimate personal stories, and illuminating references from philosophy, literature, and film, How We Break offers a consoling and deeply felt new vision of everyday human struggling, and it makes a bold case for the power of rest and recuperation. – Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Situation Room

- Bill Leave a comment

You might not think it possible, but after the botched Bay of Pigs invasion some people in Washington started pointing fingers.  One of many digits were levelled at a dearth of current and accurate tactical information.  In addition, there was a need to consolidate secure hotline communication anywhere in the world and to foreign governments.  To that end, John F. Kennedy ordered the creation of such a White House apparatus in 1961.  For $35,000, a former Truman-era bowling alley was renovated into a 24-7 complex synthesizing second-by-second global intelligence.  Think the executive branch crossing a surgical theater with NASA’s Mission Control.

Narrated by Stephanopoulos himself, this is the story of the “sit room” and its inhabitants — from Presidents to intrepid overnight duty officers.   George throws a microphone on staff who were at the table during our nation’s most harrowing hours, and tosses in chilling anecdotes from heightened threat levels.  In fact, with the audio version you get to hear authentic audio such as during JFK’s assassination a mere two years after the Situation Room’s founding.  Other highlights include Vietnam, The Cold War, Reagan assassination attempt, 9-11, Operation Neptune Spear (Bin Laden raid), and January 6th, 2021.

Americans aren’t the only ones to use the Situation Room.  In fact, to defuse the brinksmanship of the Cuban Missile crisis the Kremlin announced on Radio Moscow in hopes it would reach Kennedy quicker than through diplomatic channels.  We’re still here because Kruschev was correct.  The Situation Room is always on top of the situation, even when the president has been, ahem, overserved.  The sit room has had several massive renovations — the last to the tune of $50 million in 2023.  But really, it’s more emblematic to envision the brain trust convening in a broom closet to watch bin Laden meet his maker over Skype.  Simplicity on the surface, but deadly effective one you get past the wood veneer.  And you thought you had a killer office.

Inaugural Inside Literary Prize: South to America by Imani Perry

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Winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry has been selected as the inaugural Inside Literary Prize. This is the first major US book prize that is judged exclusively by incarcerated people.

Want to learn more about South to America? The description has been provided by the publisher.

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America

We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.

This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.

Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line. – Ecco

This title is also available in large print and as an eAudiobook.

Hold the Line

- Bill Leave a comment

“I‘ve got one of them…Shoot him with his own gun!”  Michael Fanone was one of dozens holding off thousands in a key Capitol access tunnel.  For his trouble, he found himself frog-marched through the horde, speared with a Blue Lives Matter flag, tased repeatedly at the base of his skull, and beaten within an inch of his life.   He suffered a heart attack, traumatic brain injury, and lasting PTSD.  Bear spray inhalation damaged his lungs for months, but the most injurious and lasting remnant of the day were proclamations from half the still-living Congresspeople calling January 6th rioters…peaceful tourists.

Shocking to no one, the Trump and Obama voter Fanone marches to his own drummer.  The DC punk turned Virginia backwoods huntsman is known as  “Spiderman” by perps due to his neck tattoo and proclivity for tackling fleeing drug dealers from above.  Looking like the kind of guy who enjoys recreational narcotics, Michael spent the majority of his law enforcement career in the undercover vice sector.  His best friend was his transgender sex worker drug informant, Leslie.  Now he chats with Nancy Pelosi at 3am, dines with Sean Penn, and maintains a lasting friendship with Don Lemon.  When the curtain was drawn on his MPD career, he spent his last months ostracized behind a desk after speaking truth about the event which left 140 officers injured and five dead.

You astute newshounds have likely read anecdotes from January 6th.  Pass the popcorn, however, when Hold the Line recounts FBI interviews of suspects who assaulted him that day apprehended by surveillance cameras and their own sagely social media posts.  In today’s Washington climate of macho posturing theatre, there are a few examples of legit tough-guys.  After self-deploying to the Capitol on January 6th to back up fellow officers, the author of Hold the Line, Michael Fanone and his compatriots stand as the sole reason the former are still in one piece.

New Sports and Recreation Books

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The ‘Sports and Recreation’ section in nonfiction covers a wide variety of topics ranging from football to hiking to puzzles. Here we have a list of new sports and recreation books that have just hit the new shelves at the Davenport Public Library! Stop by our locations today and find more books on this topic!

These titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions are provided by the publisher.

Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods by Bob Harig

Bob Harig’s latest deep-dive into Tiger Woods’ thrilling career, as seen through his iconic 2019 Masters comeback and win.

In April of 1997, the world of golf was forever changed. At the age of 21, a young Tiger Woods won the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, the Masters, by a record of 12 strokes. Woods became the youngest golfer ever to win the Masters and the first African or Asian-American player to win a major. History had been made – and would continue to be made over the next 15 years.

Woods transformed the game, turning golf geeks into keen observers, casual golf fans into ardent followers and even indifferent sports fans into curiosity mavens. He will undoubtedly be known for the raw numbers: 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major championships, and according to Forbes, a billionaire who amassed more than $110-million in official PGA Tour earnings. Woods has proven to be a complicated figure through his decades in the spotlight. Plagued by marital scandal, a DUI arrest, and severe back injuries that resulted in what even he believed would be a career-ending spinal fusion surgery in 2017, Woods’ career finally seemed to be coming to an end. That all changed through 2018 and into 2019 as Woods returned slowly from the surgery. In 2019, on the same course where he won for the first time in 1997, Tiger Woods made history once again, winning the Masters one final time. The 2019 Masters brought together all the qualities that ultimately make up someone who has been an enduring figure for 30 years.

In this captivating and emotional portrait of one of the most famous figures in sports, Bob Harig brings readers the true story of the grit and perseverance of Tiger Woods in the final years of his career. Drive will show that Woods’ true legacy is one of resolve and redemption. – St. Martin’s Press

The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos by Armen Keteyian

Two of the nation’s most respected sports journalists team up for a vital, hard-hitting investigation into the tumultuous state of big-time college football.

We are living in the Wild West of college sports. Name, Image and Likeness endorsements, the transfer portal, collectives, conference realignment, the powerful influence of media companies have all rendered the notion of amateur athletics a quaint relic of the past, replaced by a Brave New World where money and self-interest rule.

The Price is a sweeping, in-depth, thought-provoking look at an inflection point in big-time college football. Six time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian and award-winning national college football reporter John Talty conducted more than two hundred wide-ranging interviews with head coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, administrators, politicians, power brokers, agents and media executives from one corner of the sport to the other. They reveal never-before-reported details on major players such as Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, and Lane Kiffin. Keteyian and Talty’s reporting also lays bare the machinations that destroyed the historic conference that was the Pac-12, purely in the name of greed.

As the sport’s premier coaches race for the exits, Keteyian and Talty reveal deep, dark truths about a beloved game under siege—and the financial, physical, emotional and psychological toll taken on everyone whose dreams and fortunes often depend on the final score on a Saturday afternoon. – Harper

The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle by Anna Shechtman

Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest.

The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, helped to spearhead the The New Yorker’s popular crossword section. Working with a medium often criticized as exclusionary, elitist, and out-of-touch, Anna is one of very few women in the field of puzzle making, where she strives to make the everyday diversion more diverse.

In this fascinating work—part memoir, part cultural analysis—she excavates the hidden history of the crossword and the overlooked women who have been central to its creation and evolution, from the “Crossword Craze” of the 1920s to the role of digital technology today. As she tells the story of her own experience in the CrossWorld, she analyzes the roles assigned to women in American culture, the boxes they’ve been allowed to fill, and the ways that they’ve used puzzles to negotiate the constraints and play of desire under patriarchy.

The result is an unforgettable and engrossing work of art, a loving and revealing homage to one of our most treasured, entertaining, and ultimately political pastimes. – HarperOne

Thruhikers: A Guide to Life on the Trail by Renee Miller and Tim Beissinger

Explore the outdoors in a whole new way with this comprehensive guide to hiking, camping, and backpacking, from @thruhikers Renee and Tim

Renee Miller and Tim Beissinger, also known as @thruhikers, share their experiences exploring the outdoors—hiking, backpacking, canoeing, and camping—with millions of people. They break down every aspect of their adventures—trail routes, gear, recipes, and more—and share stories from their time out on the trail.

Their first book is packed with advice, techniques, gear recommendations, and troubleshooting tips for beginner and experienced outdoorsy people alike. They take you through the entire experience: before the trail, on the trail, and after the trail. Plus, they include over 20 plant-based dehydrated recipes, like Curry Rice and Cold-Soaked Shepherd’s Pie, to bring on your adventures.

Learn how to plan your trip, pack your gear, deal with animals and leave no trace, eat and drink safely, avoid and care for injuries, pass the time, navigate all types of weather, get over the post-trail blues, and more. With this guide, you’ll be prepared for anything. – DK

Wild Wisdom: Primal Skills to Survive in Nature by Donny Dust

Survive anything nature throws your way with these survival tips and wilderness philosophy from renowned outdoorsman and now beloved TikTok star Donny Dust.

Donny Dust is a US Marine Corps veteran who now owns and operates Colorado’s premier survival and wilderness self-reliance school. He’s amassed two decades worth of primitive living skills everywhere from the jungles of Asia to the mountains of North America. He’s appeared on reality TV series like History Channel’s Alone and hosted USA Channel’s Mud, Sweat & Beards. Now, Donny brings all he’s learned to Wild Wisdom. He teaches you how to be more observant to help avoid danger, problem-solve, prioritize finding shelter, and to be flexible and creative when you need the right supplies for a task. He also focuses on essential gear, sheltering, building fire, staying hydrated, food, foraging, and trapping. Beautiful and instructive illustrations throughout make this is must-carry for anyone venturing into nature.

Millions of people now follow Donny Dust on TikTok to watch him craft objects from nothing but what he finds in the wilderness. Even the tools he uses to do the crafting are made from scratch, whether it’s a saw, chisel, hammer, or cordage. He’s made bows, arrows, axes, rope, sandals, backpacks, bowls, swords, and of course, fire—lots of fire—but Wild Wisdom offers so much more. Written by one of the country’s foremost experts, it’s a book for almost anyone, whether you’re a longtime outdoorsperson hoping to hone your skills and deepen your appreciation and understanding of the wilderness, or a newcomer looking to take your first adventures in nature. – S&S / Simon Element

While Idaho Slept

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It was your typical bucolic Sunday off the rural small town campus as local police stretched caution tape around a crime scene so sinister it would captivate global attention — a grisly and senseless crime of rage still lacking in reasonable motive.  Police arrested serial killer fanboy Bryan Kohberger six weeks later at his parents’ home on the other side of the country.  Investigators linked Kohberger to the crime scene with surveillance videos, cellphone data, and damning DNA evidence.   A couple years later, there is still no logical motive or psychological workup on the alleged killer.  As such, the vast majority of While Idaho Slept is the lives of the victims and their families.

If you’re looking for new insights about this case before it undoubtedly becomes a Netflix series starring Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, this is not the book for you.  However, there are a few revelations to impart before we portray Bryan Kohberger as a bargain-basement Hannibal Lecter.  In stark contrast to his beanpole mugshot, Kohberger’s weight topped 300 pounds in high school.  That is, before he took a few gap years to become a heroin addict.  He was still profoundly frustrated with women, no doubt due in part to his social detachment.

Pseudo-authority as a doctoral student in Criminology didn’t assuage those feelings of inadequacy.  In fact, Washington State University was in the process of terminating Bryan from his graduate assistant position for repeated raging at his faculty advisor.  Maybe hamhandedly committing a crime at a different University against the brand of pretty girls who wouldn’t speak to him would provide needed self-validation?  At least then one could inject oneself into the web discussion surrounding the case and play know-it-all.

At the time of his 1:30am arrest, authorities discovered Kohberger wearing latex gloves in the kitchen and placing trash in Ziploc bags. Evidence isn’t looking so circumstantial.  And that’s where things stand as of this pre-trial publication.  Will this be the last professionally-written book on this case?  No, but it was one of the first and best so far.  That’s a nice place to be in if Kohberger pleas out a la Golden State Killer.  But, unfortunately for the taxpayers of Idaho, he probably fancies himself a brilliant legal mind as well.

Red Harvest: A Graphic Novel of the Terror Famine in 1930s Soviet Ukraine by Michael Cherkas

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Have you checked out our new shelves lately? If not, you’re missing out! A bunch of new graphic novels have just hit the shelves! I cannot wait to read the stack of new nonfiction ones on my desk. My newest nonfiction graphic novel read is heavy: Red Harvest: A Graphic Novel of the Terror Famine in 1930s Soviet Ukraine by Michael Cherkas.

Holodomor. Before reading Red Harvest, I had no idea what this was. This terror famine was incited when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin brought war to the Soviet peasantry. Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine, killed at least four million Ukrainians during the fall and winter of 1932-1933. The ruling Communist Party with Stalin’s directives brought forced large-scale collectivization of individual farms and farmers to the Soviet Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union. Red Harvest focuses on events that happened in these places between 1929-1933, specifically focusing on Mykola Kovalenko and his family. Mykola was the only member of his family to survive the famine. The horrors of what happened to his family and fellow villagers are laid bare for readers to see.

Red Harvest by Michael Cherkas is heartbreaking. The author’s decision to focus on Mykola Kovalenko, a Ukranian immigrant to Canada, and his family brings into focus the true terror this famine brought to millions of people in such a short amount of time. Mykola tells his story through a series of flashbacks as he prepares to visit the Ukraine for the first time in decades. I highly recommend you read this graphic nonfiction and then do more research on the Holodomor as their stories should never be forgotten.