New Wellness Books

Looking for new wellness books? The Library has new books covering this topic hitting our shelves every month. Below you will find a list of some of our newest wellness titles!

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

How Not to Get Sick: A Cookbook and Guide to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance, Lose Weight, and Fight Chronic Disease by Benjamin Bikman PhD and Diana Keuilian

Internationally renowned scientist Benjamin Bikman and fitness coach and recipe developer Diana Keuilian translate the latest research into actionable, easy-to-follow steps to help the nearly 9 in 10 American adults affected with insulin resistance.

In this companion guide featuring 70 low-carb and keto-friendly recipes, Bikman has teamed up with the fitness expert and recipe developer Diana Keuilian to help the nearly 9 in 10 American adults affected with insulin resistance. Together, they translate the latest research into actionable, easy-to-follow steps. You can make dramatic improvements in your insulin sensitivity, resist chronic illness, attain a healthy weight, and improve your energy.

In part one, learn how to assess your health and understand the science behind insulin resistance. In part two, discover a three-pronged approach to reversing insulin resistance or maintaining insulin sensitivity, plus meal plans incorporating intermittent fasting. And in part three, get the tools to put the plan into action, with beginner-friendly exercises and more than 70 low-carb and keto-friendly recipes.

Illustrated with stunning full-color photography and chock-full of knowledge and encouragement, How Not to Get Sick is an essential resource for healthy living. – BenBella Books


The New Whole30: The Definitive Plan to Transform Your Health, Habits, and Relationship with Food by Melissa Urban

A modern guide to the Whole30, featuring an updated approach to food freedom, the Original and Plant-Based programs, and over 100 new recipes.

Since its debut in 2009, the #1 New York Times bestselling Whole30 program has helped millions of people radically transform their health, habits, and relationship with food and discover lasting food freedom. Grounded in nutrition and behavior change science and 15 years of clinical evidence, the Whole30 has been praised by countless doctors and dietitians and is supported by thousands of glowing testimonials.

Inspired by her community, the newest research, and the ever-changing food landscape, Whole30 co-founder Melissa Urban has expanded the program to be even more accessible, supportive, and effective. In The New Whole30, you’ll find completely updated rules, language, and success strategies for every phase of your journey.

In her signature direct and empathic style, Melissa distills more than a decade of expert knowledge and experience into the essential resource for Whole30 alumni and first timers alike. The New Whole30 is sure to be your ultimate guide to success. – Rodale Books


Plantifully Simple: 100 Plant-Based Recipes and Meal Plans for Health and Weight-Loss (a Cookbook) by Kiki Nelson

Reclaim your health with Kiki Nelson’s all-new super simple plant-based recipes and a 28-day meal plan that will kickstart new habits and enable you to maintain your health and weight loss.

Whether you want to prevent diabetes and stroke, sleep better, heal PCOS, resolve any number of health concerns associated with weight, are trying to shed those last ten pounds, or you are simply in a maintenance stage, Plantifully Simple is for you.

Kiki Nelson, who lost seventy pounds on a plant-based diet and eliminated her risk for diabetes and stroke, shares the recipes, meal plans, plate-building, and mindset she adopted to reclaim her health—and keep off the weight. Here, she offers 100 all-new recipes that are as delicious as they are satisfying: they depend on luscious fruits and vegetables as well as comforting and satisfying carbs so you will never be bored or hungry—or feel restricted. Kiki knows that to lose weight you need a plan, and here she offers two foolproof plans. Both can deliver results, and offer freedom and peace of mind when it comes to making food choices. – S&S / Simon Element


Take Control of Your IBS: The Step-By-Step Guide That Actually Works by Kirsten Jackson

Take Control of Your IBS is the road-tested, practical guide that will change your life. Offering simple, fad-free professional advice, it will help you diagnose issues, bring comfort and reduce symptoms and flare-ups.

With so much misinformation out there for those of us with irritable bowel syndrome, it can be hard to know where to start. Drawing on scientific research and personal experience, consultant dietitian Kirsten Jackson guides you through each step.

By laying strong foundations in your mental well-being, sleep optimisation, movement and nutrition as well as finding the right treatment, you can get back to the things you enjoy in life.

  • Find out how to get the right tests for your symptoms
  • Learn the tried-and-tested process that has been used in practice with thousands of IBS sufferers
  • Hear real-life experiences from people who have improved their lives

The good news is – it is possible to manage your IBS. This book shows you how. – Bloomsbury Publishing


The Smart Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: 101 Brain-Healthy Recipes to Protect Your Mind and Boost Your Mood by Serena Ball

Boost your brain power, protect your memory, and balance your mood with the sunny flavors and proven benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

Following the bestselling success of The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook and The Sustainable Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, Serena Ball and Deanna Segrave-Daly share more than 100 recipes specifically formulated with your brain and mood in mind.

With recipes that provide “food for thought,” from breakfast to dessert, as well as snacks, sides, and small plates, you’ll reach for this book again and again—whether you’re cooking a family dinner or a meal for a large gathering. Dishes include Mediterranean Sun Gold Granola, Berry Smart Seeded Dressing Over Greens, Green Falafel Fritters with Red Pepper Sauce, Sizzling Shrimp and Peppers with Cilantro, Moroccan Spiced Hot Chocolate, and more.

Eating a Mediterranean diet is one of the most effective ways to protect and enhance your brain health, halt inflammation, improve symptoms of depression, and help to reduce daily stress. Research shows results in less than two months—but good nutrition only works if you want to eat the food.

That’s where The Smart Mediterranean Diet Cookbook comes in. Serena and Deanna’s smart recipes are layered with enticing Mediterranean flavors and the most potent brain-boosting ingredients. This book solves the dilemma of “what’s for dinner” while enhancing your brain and mood with every dish. – BenBella Books


The Young Forever Cookbook: More Than 100 Delicious Recipes for Living Your Longest, Healthiest Life by Mark Hyman

The companion cookbook to Dr. Hyman’s #1 New York Times bestseller Young Forever, featuring more than 100 delicious recipes to support a long, youthful life.

Dr. Mark Hyman’s revolutionary book Young Forever revealed how to reverse the biological hallmarks of aging through easy and accessible dietary, lifestyle, and longevity strategies. In this companion cookbook, Dr. Hyman shares more than 100 satisfying recipes to help you eat your way to a longer life.

Rooted in the latest science, the recipes in The Young Forever Cookbook feature good fats, quality proteins, nutrient-dense vegetables, leafy greens, and a variety of other ingredients proven to support longevity. You’ll find a range of meals and snacks designed to fight inflammation, boost your immune system, and promote healthy aging, including:

  • Roasted Red Pepper and Zucchini Frittata
  • Thai Turkey Larb Lettuce Wraps
  • Braised Pomegranate Lamb Shanks
  • Roasted Rhubarb-Strawberry Coconut Crumble
  • And many more

With mouthwatering options for every lifestyle and diet, The Young Forever Cookbook is your guide to maintaining a healthy life—and creating a healthier future. – Little Brown Spark

Why We Love Football

Why We Love Football is so much more than a compilation of great plays in no particular order.   Hard to accept, but in some ways, this product is superior to mere screen viewing.  In fact, you probably saw half of these historic moments live without knowing what lie behind those X’s and O’s.  There’s “The Catch”, the “Helmet Catch”, and the “Immaculate Reception”.  As this work makes clear, you only viewed the tip of the iceberg.

Posnanski frames each of these iconic football moments within their proper historical context, teaching us about all the principal characters involved and their formative influences.  Where did these scrappy upstarts come from?  What propelled them to that moment?  What formidable odds were they up against?   More than once I had to log into Youtube to see them again with fresh eyes.  Give it a shot, what else are you doing between now and the draft?

New Books on Environmentalism

Curious about how you can help the environment? Check out these new books about environmentalism available at the Davenport Public Library! From practical ways to make your kitchen zero waste to learning about climate change, these titles cover a wide variety of topics related to environmentalism. If you’re looking for other similar topics, feel free to contact us today!

All of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. The descriptions are provided by the publisher.

Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life by Ferris Jabr

A vivid account of a major shift in how we understand Earth, from an exceptionally talented new voice. Earth is not simply an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather a planet that came to life.

One of humanity’s oldest beliefs is that our world is alive. Though once ridiculed by some scientists, the idea of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into a cosmic oasis—a planet that breathes, metabolizes, and regulates its climate.

Acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr reveals a radical new vision of Earth where lush forests spew water, pollen, and bacteria to summon rain; giant animals engineer the very landscapes they roam; microbes chew rock to shape continents; and microscopic plankton, some as glittering as carved jewels, remake the air and sea.

Humans are one of the most extreme examples of life transforming Earth. Through fossil fuel consumption, agriculture, and pollution, we have altered more layers of the planet in less time than any other species, pushing Earth into a crisis. But we are also uniquely able to understand and protect the planet’s wondrous ecology and self-stabilizing processes. Jabr introduces us to a diverse cast of fascinating people who have devoted themselves to this vital work.

Becoming Earth is an exhilarating journey through the hidden workings of our planetary symphony—its players, its instruments, and the music of life that emerges—and an invitation to reexamine our place in it. How well we play our part will determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come. – Random House


Before It’s Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America by Jonathan Vigliotti

Discussion of the climate crisis has always suffered from a problem of abstraction. Data points and warnings of an overheated future struggle to break through the noise of everyday life. Deniers often portray climate solutions as inconvenient, expensive, and unnecessary. And many politicians, cloistered by status and focused always on their next election, do not yet see climate as a winning issue in the short run. But climate change is here whether we want to pay attention or not.

CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti has personally witnessed that crisis unfold, spending nearly two decades reporting across the United States (and the world) documenting the people, communities, landmarks, and traditions we’ve already surrendered. Vigliotti shares with urgency and personal touch the story of an America on the brink.

This “page-turning tour de force” (Steve Brusatte, New York Times bestselling author) traces Vigliotti’s travels across the country, taking him to the frontlines of climate disaster and revealing the genuine impacts of climate change that countless Americans have already been forced to confront. From massive forest fires in California to hurricanes in Louisiana, receding coastlines in Massachusetts and devastated fisheries in Alaska, we learn that warnings of a future impacted by climate are no more; the climate catastrophe is already here. – Atria / One Signal Publishers


The Age of Melt: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us about Climate, Culture, and a Future Without Ice by Lisa Baril

A thought-provoking scientific narrative investigating ice patch archaeology and the role of glaciers in the development of human culture.

Glaciers figure prominently in both ancient and contemporary narratives around the world. They inspire art and literature. They spark both fear and awe. And they give and take life. In The Age of Melt, environmental journalist Lisa Baril explores the deep-rooted cultural connection between humans and ice through time.

Thousands of organic artifacts are emerging from patches of melting ice in mountain ranges around the world. Archaeologists are in a race against time to find them before they disappear forever. In entertaining and enlightening prose, Baril travels from the Alps to the Andes, investigating what these artifacts teach us about climate and culture. But this is not a chronicle of loss. The Age of Melt explores what these artifacts reveal about culture, wilderness, and what we gain when we rethink our relationship to the world and its most precious and ephemeral substance—ice. – Timber Press


The Burning Earth: A History by Sunil Amrith

A brilliant, paradigm-shifting global history of how humanity has reshaped the planet, and the planet has shaped human history, over the last 500 years.

In this magisterial book, historian Sunil Amrith twins the stories of environment and Empire, of genocide and eco-cide, of an extraordinary expansion of human freedom and its planetary costs. Drawing on an extraordinarily rich diversity of primary sources, he reckons with the ruins of Portuguese silver mining in Peru, British gold mining in South Africa, and oil extraction in Central Asia. He explores the railroads and highways that brought humans to new terrains of battle against each other and against stubborn nature. Amrith’s account of the ways in which the First and Second World Wars involved the massive mobilization not only of men, but of other natural resources from around the globe, provides an essential new way of understanding war as an irreversible reshaping of the planet. So too does this book reveal the reality of migration as consequence of environmental harm.

The imperial, globe-spanning pursuit of profit, joined with new forms of energy and new possibilities of freedom from hunger and discomfort, freedom to move and explore, has brought change to every inch of the Earth. Amrith relates in gorgeous prose, and on the largest canvas, a mind-altering epic—vibrant with stories, characters, and vivid images—in which humanity might find the collective wisdom to save itself. – WW Norton & Company


The Nature of Our Cities: Harnessing the Power of the Natural World to Survive a Changing Planet by Nadina Galle

In the tradition of Elizabeth Kolbert and Michael Pollan, The Nature of Our Cities is a stirring exploration of how innovators from around the world are combining urban nature with emerging technologies, protecting the planet’s cities from the effects of climate change and safeguarding the health of their inhabitants.

We live in an age when humanity spends 90% of its time indoors, yet the nature around us—especially in America’s cities—has never been more vital. This distancing from nature has sparked crises in mental health, longevity, and hope for the next generation, while also heightening the risks we face from historic floods, heatwaves, and wildfires. Indeed, embracing nature holds untapped potential to strengthen and fortify our cities, suburbs, and towns, providing solutions spanning flood preparation, wildfire management, and promoting longevity. As ecological engineer Dr. Nadina Galle shows in The Nature of Our Cities nature is our most critical infrastructure for tackling the climate crisis. It just needs a little help.

A fellow at MIT’s Senseable City Lab and selected for Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, Galle is at the forefront of the growing movement to fuse nature and technology for urban resilience. In THE NATURE OF OUR CITIES, she embarks on a journey as fascinating as it is pressing, showing how scientists and citizens from around the world are harnessing emerging technologies to unlock the power of the natural world to save their cities, a phenomenon she calls the “Internet of Nature.” Traveling the globe, Galle examines how urban nature, long an afterthought for many, actually points the way toward a more sustainable future. She reveals how technology can help nature navigate this precarious moment with modern advances such as:

  • Laser-mapping that identifies at-risk neighborhoods to fight deadly health disparities
  • A.I.-powered robots that prevent wildfires from reaching urban areas
  • Intelligent water gardens that protect cities from floods and hurricanes

Advanced sensors that achieve 99% tree survival in dry, hot summers
Optimistic in spirit yet pragmatic in approach, Galle writes persuasively that the future of urban life depends on balancing the natural world with the technology that can help sustain it. By turns clear-eyed and lyrical, THE NATURE OF OUR CITIES marks the emergence of an invigorating, prescient new talent in nature writing. – Mariner Books


101 Tips for a Zero-Waste Kitchen by Kathryn Kellogg

Forty percent of all food produced in the US is wasted—the author of 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste is here with solutions!

Kathryn Kellogg is taking her accessible tips for a zero-waste lifestyle and focusing on the heart of the house. Our kitchens can produce a shocking amount of waste and, even though food scraps may seem harmless, they can’t properly decompose in a landfill. What’s more: wasting food can strain your wallet. The average American family of four will lose $1,500 annually on food waste. It’s time to turn things around!

101 Tips for a Zero Waste Kitchen is your guide to reducing waste in your kitchen. Kathryn will teach you how to buy in bulk, avoid unnecessary packaging, upcycle jars, and more. Plus, she’ll give you recipes that make use of your scraps: preserve your lemon peels for extra flavor, create simple syrup from strawberry tops, and revive shriveled mushrooms. With a little work and Kathryn in your corner, you’ll have the tools you need to reach the ultimate goal: no produce left behind! – WW Norton & Company

New Spirituality Books

If you’re looking for a book about spirituality, you may be surprised at all the different types of books that fall under this category. If you’re unsure where to start, I recommend you look at our new spirituality books. Below you will find a list of new spirituality books that have just hit our new shelves. If you’re looking for more, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask!

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


Finding God’s Will for Your Life: Discovering the Plans God Has for You by Joyce Meyer

Did you ever dream about what you would be when you grew up? We think naturally about our purpose because God tells us that He created us to do great things. But how do we know when we have truly found God’s calling for our lives? Many people live most of their lives striving to find and follow God’s will but still wondering whether they’ve gotten it right. The many pressures, expectations, and distractions we experience can create confusion and anxiety and cause us to doubt whether we are following God’s will or if He even has a plan for us at all.

Beloved Bible teacher Joyce Meyer invites us on a journey to confidence, freedom, and peace through exploring the wisdom of what the Bible tells us about God’s character and about His love and purpose for us. She also offers practical steps to discovering how to build your trust in God, seek His guidance, and overcome the fear of missing out on His best for you.

If you’re struggling to have confidence that you can hear God’s voice and know what He’s created you to be and do, Finding God’s Will for Your Life will leave you with more peace and more confidence to live joyfully in God’s love and walk the path He has for you. – FaithWords


In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by Sebastian Junger

A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm.

For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,” his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.” That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived.

This experience spurred Junger—a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical—to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions?

In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery. – Simon & Schuster


Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart by Brian D McLaren

A deeply insightful exploration of how to live with wisdom, resilience and love in our turbulent times

For the last quarter-century, author and activist Brian D. McLaren has been writing at the intersection of religious faith and contemporary culture. In Life After Doom, he engages with the catastrophic failure of both our religious and political leaders to address the dominant realities of our time: ecological overshoot, economic injustice, and the increasing likelihood of civilizational collapse. McLaren defines doom as the “un-peaceful, uneasy, unwanted feeling” that “we humans have made a mess of our civilization and our planet, and not enough of us seem to care enough to change deeply enough or quickly enough to save ourselves.”

Blending insights from philosophers, poets, scientists, and theologians, Life After Doom explores the complexity of hope, the necessity of grief, and the need for new ways of thinking, becoming, and belonging in turbulent times. If you want to help yourself, your family, and the communities to which you belong to find courage and resilience for the deeply challenging times that are upon us — this is the book you need right now. – St. Martin’s Essentials


The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy by Jim Wallis

It is time says Jim Wallis, to call out genuine faith—specifically the “Christian” in White Christian Nationalism—inviting all who can be persuaded to reject and help dismantle a false gospel that propagates white supremacy and autocracy. We need–to raise up the faith of all of us, and help those who are oblivious, stuck, and captive to the ideology and idolatry of White Christian Nationalism that is leading us to such great danger. Wallis turns our attention to six iconic texts at the heart of what genuine biblical faith means and what Jesus, in the gospels, has called us to do. It is time to ask anew: do we believe these teachings or not?

This book isn’t only for Christians but for all faith traditions, and even those with no faith at all. When we see a civic promotion of fear, hate, and violence for the trajectory of our politics, we need a civic faith of love, healing, and hope to defeat it. And that must involve all of us–religious or not. Learning to practice a politics of neighbor love will be central to the future of democracy in America. And more than ever, the words of Jesus ring, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – St. Martin’s Essentials


More New Spirituality Books

Adventures in Carsonia

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

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

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

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

Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

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

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

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

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

New Career and Job Hunting Books

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

– HarperCollins Leadership


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

January’s Simply Held Fiction and Nonfiction Picks

It’s a new quarter and that means new fiction and nonfiction picks have been selected for you courtesy of Simply Held! Four fiction picks are available for you to choose from: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction. Four nonfiction picks are available for you to choose from: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime. Our fiction and 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 January from the following categories in ficiton: Diverse Debuts, Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction, and International Fiction and the following categories in nonfiction: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime.

FICTION PICKS

Diverse Debuts:

Diverse Debuts: Debut fiction novel by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community.

Masquerade by Mike Fu

Newly single Meadow Liu is house-sitting for his friend, artist Selma Shimizu, when he stumbles upon The Masquerade, a novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai. The author’s name is the same as Meadow’s own in Chinese, Liu Tian—a coincidence that proves to be the first of many strange happenings. Over the course of a single summer, Meadow must contend with a possibly haunted apartment, a mirror that plays tricks, a stranger speaking in riddles at the bar where he works, as well as a startling revelation about a former lover. And when Selma vanishes from her artist residency, Meadow is forced to question everything he knows as the boundaries between real and imagined begin to blur.

Exploring social, cultural, and sexual identities in New York, Shanghai, and beyond, Mike Fu’s Masquerade is a skillfully layered, brilliantly interwoven debut novel of friendship, queer longing, and worlds on the brink, asking how we can find ourselves among ghosts of all kinds, and who we can trust when nothing—and no one—is as it seems. – TinHouse


Graphic Novel:

Graphic Novel: Fiction novel for adults of any subgenre with diverse characters depicted by color illustrations, sketches, and photographs.

The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

A delicate, timeless, and breathtaking coming-of-age classic, reimagined

Critically acclaimed and award-winning cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim returns with a stunning addition to her body of graphic fiction rooted in Korean history. Adapted from Park Wan-suh’s beloved novel, The Naked Tree paints a stark portrait of a single nation’s fabric slowly torn to shreds by political upheaval and armed conflict. Fleshing out the characters in fresh, imaginative ways, and incorporating the original author into the story, Gendry-Kim breathes new life into this Korean classic.

The year is 1951. Twenty-year-old wallflower Lee Kyeonga ekes out a living at the US military Post Exchange where goods and services of varying stripes are available for purchase. She peddles hand-painted portraits on silk handkerchiefs to soldiers passing through. When a handsome, young northern escapee and erstwhile fine artist is hired despite waning demand, an unlikely friendship blossoms into a young woman’s first brush with desire against the backdrop of the Korean War at its most devastating.

Gendry-Kim brings a masterpiece of world literature to life with bold, expressive lines that capture a denuded landscape brutally forced into transition and the people who must find their way back to each other within it. The Naked Tree is exquisitely translated by award-winning expert Janet Hong. – Drawn & Quarterly


Historical Fiction:

Historical Fiction: Historical fiction novel written by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community, with main character(s) from a marginalized community.

Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen

A stunning, deeply moving autobiographical novel about growing up in Beijing in the 1970s and 80s and taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests.

It is Beijing in the 1970s, and Lai lives with her parents, grandmother and younger brother in a small flat in a working-class area. Her grandmother is a formidable figure ‒ no-nonsense and uncompromising, but loving towards her granddaughter ‒ while her ageing beauty of a mother snipes at her father, a sunken figure who has taken refuge in his work.

As she grows up, Lai comes to discern the realities of the country she lives is: an early encounter with the police haunts her for years; her father makes her see that his quietness is a reaction to experiences he has lived through; and an old bookseller subtly introduces her to ideas and novels that open her mind to different perspectives. But she also goes through what anyone goes through when young ‒ the ebbs and flows of friendships; troubles and rewards at home and at school; and the first steps and missteps in love.

A gifted student, she is eventually given a scholarship to study at the prestigious Peking University; while there she meets new friends, and starts to get involved in the student protests that have been gathering speed. It is the late 1980s, and change is in the air…

A truly remarkable novel about coming to see the world as it is, Tiananmen Square is the story of one girl’s life growing up in the China of the 1970s and 80s, as well as the story of the events in 1989 that give the novel its name: the hope and idealism of a generation of young students, their heroism and courage, and the price that some of them paid. – Swift Press


International Fiction:

International Fiction: Fiction novel originally written in another language with main character(s) from marginalized communities.

Greek Lessons by Han Kang

“Now and then, language would thrust its way into her sleep like a skewer through meat, startling her awake several times a night.”

In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.

Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence.

Greek Lessons tells the story of two ordinary people brought together at a moment of private anguish—the fading light of a man losing his vision meeting the silence of a woman who has lost her language. Yet these are the very things that draw them to each other. Slowly the two discover a profound sense of unity—their voices intersecting with startling beauty, as they move from darkness to light, from silence to breath and expression.

Greek Lessons is the story of the unlikely bond between this pair and a tender love letter to human intimacy and connection—a novel to awaken the senses, one that vividly conjures the essence of what it means to be alive. – Hogarth

NONFICTION PICKS

Biography pick

From the Reservation to Washington : the rise of Charles Curtis by Debra Goodrich

The first person of color to serve as vice president, Charles Curtis was once a household name but has become a footnote in American history. As a mixed-race person who became a public figure in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his story is more relevant today than ever. He was constantly forced to choose whether to be Indian or white. Society would not let him be both. When his temper flared it was his “savage nature” coming through; when he presided over the United States Senate with an unprecedented knowledge of the rules and procedures, it was evidence of his “civilized” ancestry.

Charles Curtis was born into Bleeding Kansas and came of age during the most turbulent of times. His father participated in the violence, as a Kansas Redleg avenging the actions of Missouri bushwhackers. As Civil War evolved into the Plains Indian Wars, Curtis was an eyewitness as his own people were starving and even the most powerful of tribes were confined to reservations. These forces shaped his philosophy and perspective. To this day he holds the distinction of being the only person of Native American heritage to be elected the second highest office in the land. He served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under Herbert Hoover. Private and pragmatic, he became a respected statesman championing citizenship for Native Americans and rights for women. But his path of inclusion was perceived by others as destroying tribal sovereignty. Perhaps he realized that. But in his experience the most powerful force on earth was the federal government, and he learned to play the government game and to be better at it than almost anyone else. – TwoDot


Cookbook pick

Italian American Forever : classic recipes for everything you want to eat by Alexandra Guarnaschelli

Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli may be a French-trained chef, an Iron Chef, and a short-order-chef to her daughter, Ava, but at her core, she’s an Italian American home cook. Her mom’s heritage was Sicilian and her dad’s people were from Bari; she pledged allegiance to her father’s marinara on weekdays and to her mom’s on the weekend and grew up eating at many of the red-checked-tablecloth trattorias throughout New York City. She still stops in to chitchat with the shop owners in Little Italy, where she buys the milkiest fresh mozz, the most thinly sliced prosciutto, and the crunchiest biscotti.

These are the recipes that are favorites for so many of us, whether your family is from Italy or not. From Fettuccine Alfredo, Whole Chicken alla Diavola, and Carmella Soprano’s Lasagna (yes, that Carmella Soprano) to Stuffed Artichokes so big and bursting that they’re a main course unto themselves, these 120 recipes and 115 stunning photos are a celebration of garlic and tomatoes, Parmesan, pesto, and all the meatballs, sausages, and tiramisu in between. There are both simple weeknight suppers and slowly simmered Sunday sauces, and they represent the food we make to celebrate, commiserate, and just to be—it’s Italian, it’s American, it’s all of us. – Clarkson Potter


Social Justice pick

Year of the tiger : an activist’s life by Alice Wong

In Chinese culture, the tiger is deeply revered for its confidence, passion, ambition, and ferocity. That same fighting spirit resides in Alice Wong.

Drawing on a collection of original essays, previously published work, conversations, graphics, photos, commissioned art by disabled and Asian American artists, and more, Alice uses her unique talent to share an impressionistic scrapbook of her life as an Asian American disabled activist, community organizer, media maker, and dreamer. From her love of food and pop culture to her unwavering commitment to dismantling systemic ableism, Alice shares her thoughts on creativity, access, power, care, the pandemic, mortality, and the future. As a self-described disabled oracle, Alice traces her origins, tells her story, and creates a space for disabled people to be in conversation with one another and the world. Filled with incisive wit, joy, and rage, Wong’s Year of the Tiger will galvanize readers with big cat energy. – Vintage


True Crime pick

This house of grief : the story of a murder trial by Helen Garner

On the evening of Father’s Day, 2005, separated husband Robert Farquharson was driving his three young sons back to their mom’s house when the car veered off the road and plunged into a dam. Farquharson survived the crash, but his boys drowned. Was this a tragic accident, or an act of revenge? The court case that followed became a national obsession—a macabre parade of witnesses, family members, and the defendant himself, each forced to relive the unthinkable for an audience of millions.

In This House of Grief, celebrated writer Helen Garner tells the definitive and deeply absorbing story of it all, from crash to final verdict. Through a panoply of perspectives, including her own as a member of the public, Garner captures the exacting procedure and brutal spectacle of Australia’s criminal justice system. The result is a richly textured portrait—of a man and his broken life, of a community wracked by tragedy, and of the long and torturous road to closure.

Considered a literary institution in Australia, Helen Garner’s incisive nonfiction evokes the keen eye of the New Journalists. Brisk, candid, and never dismissive of its flawed subjects, This House of Grief is a masterwork of literary journalism. – Vintage


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Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases

Most famous for his work on Laci Peterson, Jaycee Dugard, and the Golden State Killer, cold case investigator Paul Holes goes deep on the cases he couldn’t shake and the personal toll of internalizing others’ trauma in Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases.  If you’re the family of a victim, you’d pray your manila folder ends up on his desk.  But if you were in Holes’ family, you were just hoping he’d leave that selfsame cubicle.  Every now and then Holes blows a long-dormant case wide open, but it comes at significant psychic cost. Side effects of delayed justice include divorce, night sweats, and increased bourbon consumption.  Family members wondered if they even knew the man muttering case details to himself.

The forensic vigilante’s obsessions additionally found him at odds with his superiors when reaching out of jurisdiction.  Call it cliché, but Holes is a loose cannon who doesn’t do things by the book.  So, he turned in his badge after 27 years, today working as a  strong proponent of DNA sequencing, resurrecting lost causes with fresh eyes and fresher technology.  Not sold yet?  Just pen a letter to Joseph DeAngelo for a testimonial.

Brothers

Entertain the Nazis, join them, or die.  Those were the options presented to professional clarinet and saxophone player Jan Van Halen during the German occupation of Holland. If he hadn’t opted for oom pa pa, his genetics tragically wouldn’t have propagated.  Post war, the Dutchman moved to colonial Indonesia for greener musical pastures.  His nascent family began with Eugenia before the two trekked to California with a shred of English and two grade school boys in tow.

America was not the touted land of plenty for Alex and little Edward. The patriarch perpetually struggled to make ends meet outside of the occasional gig. Decades before becoming gazillionaires, the family subsisted on his dishwashing and janitor shifts.  Eddie was initially the drummer of the duo while Alex opted for guitar in their hardscrabble Pasadena upbringing. The two found their musical grounding in the form of an exacting four-foot-tall piano instructor called “mom.” Listen to their biggest hit, “Jump” and you’ll see it paid off. The immigrants couldn’t afford cool effects pedals, so Eddie had to engineer sounds the old fashioned way…with his fingers and thousands of hours of practice. A few short months into budget guitars, Dave was already sanding down six-strings – mixing and matching components on the way to his first Frankenstrat.

So which version of the band is your poison? Dave or Sammy? Both? Does it even matter? Van Halen’s meteoric rise to stardom was strapped on the back of Eddie’s blinding speed and virtuoso innovation. Sorry, Dave.  This trajectory was accompanied by the usual occupational hazards – alcoholism, addiction, relapses, divorces, and death. Alex walks us through all 65 years’ worth.  Brothers had the proper amount of tawdry rock and roll tell-all without cheapening the work. The title says it all. The only lasting component of the forty-plus year musical ensemble was the nucleus of namesake Dutch-Indonesian immigrant boys, 6 and 8.  Alex and Ed were thick as thieves, around the world, from the cradle to the grave.  Or, as Ed said, they “fight more than anyone I know, but also get along better than anyone I know.”  Even their former lead singers would agree we’re better for it.