Tag: science fiction

2024 Goodreads Choice Awards Winners

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Goodreads has announced the 16th Annual Goodreads Choice Awards! This year, there are 15 separate categories that netted 300 nominated books in total. The fifteen categories are fiction, historical fiction, mystery & thriller, romance, romantasy, fantasy, science fiction, horror, debut novel, audiobook, young adult fantasy & sci-fi, young adult fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and history & biography. You’ll notice several returning winning authors to this list as well as some brand new debuts. Check out the list below and add a new title to your to-read list today!

Descriptions have been provided by the publishers or authors.

Fiction Winner

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us. – Henry Holt & Co.

This title is also available in large print and as a Playaway Audiobook.

Historical Fiction Winner

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era. – St. Martin’s Press

This title is also available in large print, CD audiobook, and Playaway audiobook.

Mystery & Thriller Winner

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet. – Riverhead Books

This title is also available in large print.

Romance Winner (ALSO the Audiobook Winner!)

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right? – Berkley

This title is also available in large print, CD audiobook, and Playaway audiobook.

Romantasy Winner

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she’s going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that’s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he’s in the Asteri’s dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce’s fate. He’s desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri’s leash, his hands are quite literally tied. – Bloomsbury Publishing

Fantasy Winner

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.  – Tor Books

This title is also available in large print.

Science Fiction Winner

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future. – Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

Horror Winner

You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man” asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it. – Scribner

This title is also available in large print, CD audiobook, and Playaway audiobook.

Debut Novel Winner

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except…

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present. – Avon

Young Adult Fantasy Winner

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

The epic conclusion to the intensely romantic and beautifully written story that started in Divine Rivals.

Two weeks have passed since Iris Winnow returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over. Roman is missing, and the city of Oath continues to dwell in a state of disbelief and ignorance. When Iris and Attie are given another chance to report on Dacre’s movements, they both take the opportunity and head westward once more despite the danger, knowing it’s only a matter of time before the conflict reaches a city that’s unprepared and fracturing beneath the chancellor’s reign.

Since waking below in Dacre’s realm, Roman cannot remember his past. But given the reassurance that his memories will return in time, Roman begins to write articles for Dacre, uncertain of his place in the greater scheme of the war. When a strange letter arrives by wardrobe door, Roman is first suspicious, then intrigued. As he strikes up a correspondence with his mysterious pen pal, Roman will soon have to make a decision: to stand with Dacre or betray the god who healed him. And as the days grow darker, inevitably drawing Roman and Iris closer together…the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war. – Wednesday Books

Young Adult Fiction Winner

Heartstopper: Volume 5 by Alice Oseman

Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They’ve finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick’s house … But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper encompasses all the small moments of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references. – Hachette Children’s Group

Nonfiction Winner

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life. – Penguin Press

Memoir Winner

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop

Kelly Bishop’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy.

Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.

Full of witty insights and featuring a special collection of personal and professional photographs, The Third Gilmore Girl is a warm, unapologetic, and spirited memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades and has no plans on slowing down. – Gallery Books

History & Biography Winner

The Bookshop: The History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, the Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over the course of more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them. – Viking

How many of these have you read? Do you have any favorites from this list? Let us know in the comments!

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“everything we fear finds us eventually, so there’s no point trying to outrun it.”
― Stuart Turton, The Last Murder at the End of the World

Stuart Turton’s latest novel, The Last Murder at the End of the World, is a genre-bending murder mystery that contains elements of science fiction, crime thrillers, and dystopia.

An island in the middle of the ocean holds what is left of humanity. A fog swept the world, killing anyone and everything it touched. Thanks to the work of three scientists living on the island, a security system is in place keeping the fog at bay. 122 villagers live with the scientists, fishing and farming, supplying the island with what they need to survive.

Their idyllic lives are shattered when, upon waking one morning, they discover one of the scientists dead in a burning building. They quickly learn that the death triggered the security system to lower, bringing the fog closer and closer to the island. With only hours left before the fog destroys the island and kills them all, they must figure out what happened to the scientist. Obstacles repeatedly pop up during the investigation, leading the villagers chasing leads all over the island. The truth will be hard to figure out, but the clock is ticking. If they don’t solve this mystery, the fog will wipe their problems, and their lives, away.

This is a book that is hard to talk about without giving too much away. Let me start by saying that the beginning of this book gives off very much ‘hippie commune thrown for a loop by a crime’ vibes. I love that. The rest of the book is chock full of twists and turns as they try to solve the crime. This was a very quick read, but I found it to be difficult to follow at times in the audiobook as two of the characters’ accents were only *slightly* different. Overall, The Last Murder at the End of the World was intriguing and had me hooked to the very end.

Checked In: A Davenport Public Library Podcast September Recap

- Brittany Leave a comment

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

Sci-Fi Reads

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

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

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

Check Out Video Games from Davenport Public Library!

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

Self-Improvement Month

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

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

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

Self Help Books Helped or Tanked?

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

Beth
Helped:
   –The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
   –How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis
   –The Lazy Genius Podcast 
Tanked:
   –The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
   –The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusso

Stephanie
Helped:
   –Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard
   –By the Book Podcast hosted by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer (Renamed: How To Be Fine Podcast)
Tanked:
   –Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside Out by Phil McGraw

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

Celebrate Banned Books Week!

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

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

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

New Merch!

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

What Our Hosts Read In August

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

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

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

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

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

ESCAPE FROM REALITY

- Jill Leave a comment

According to scientific research, “getting lost in a book” is very good for you. Immersing yourself in a story actually makes you more empathetic and creative, and it’s an escape that can reduce stress. People who are absorbed in someone else’s world – even a fictional one – aren’t spending as much time worrying about their own personal concerns. Of course, ignoring real world problems isn’t the solution, but spending too much time thinking about things that are out of your control isn’t good either.

For some, a quick-moving plot is critical to being drawn into a story, while others need engaging characters in order to become fully immersed. Or, perhaps you prefer a specific genre such as romance or mystery, or the artistic style of a book, such as one that uses magical realism. If you can identify with a character or plot line in some way, you have a chance to live a different life for a short time and temporarily forget the anxieties of the real world.

So, whether you’re a reader who tears through a new book every week or one who is slowly working your way through a bestseller that a friend recommended ages ago, find a book that captures your interest and carve out some time to read. Psychological research indicates that your time is well spent. So, the next time you feel stressed, use it as a good excuse to pick up a book that can help you escape from reality – at least for a short while.  Experts give many reasons as to what “transportation” – or the act of losing yourself in a book – can do for you. Here are just a few:

  • helps with mood management
  • provides enjoyment and pleasure
  • provides escape from boredom or stress
  • gives us a sense of belonging and makes us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves
  • helps us better understand, interact, and connect with other people
  • expands our world views: making us think and feel in new and different ways
  • helps us grow as individuals into the kind of people we want to be
  • bolsters all sorts of social skills & abilities, including empathy
  • improves cognitive skills that can prevent cognitive decline

Here are some books to help you escape from reality for a little while:

A Stroke of the Pen : The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett
“These rediscovered tales were written by Terry Pratchett under a pseudonym for British newspapers during the 1970s & 1980s. The stories have never been attributed to him until now. As Neil Gaiman writes in his introduction, “through all of these stories we watch Terry Pratchett becoming Terry Pratchett.” Though none of the short works are set in the Discworld, all are infused with Pratchett’s trademark wit, satirical wisdom, and brilliant imagination, hinting at the magical universe he would go on to create. Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and embark on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork. A Stroke of the Pen is an essential collection from the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett, a “master storyteller” (A. S. Byatt) who “defies categorization” (The Times); a writer whose “novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies” (Independent UK)”

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
“Meet Julian Jessop, a chronically lonely artist who is fed up with the fakeness of everyday life. After struggling to really connect with people, he decides to take a stand by writing the real truth about himself in a green journal, which he then leaves in a local coffee shop for others to find. Soon, others find the notebook and add their own stories, creating both a catalog of lives and a chain of events Julian couldn’t have expected. Happiness comes out of the truth for many, leaving readers with a joyous and empowering story of what it means to be authentic.”

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
“Vampires, vaqueros, and star-crossed lovers face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters–her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind. When the US invades Mexico in 1846, the two are brought together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he doesn’t marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor, a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers & vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion–and Nena’s rage at Néstor for abandoning her long ago–is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. Unless they work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn”

How to Date Men When You Hate Men
by Blythe Roberson
“Blythe Roberson’s debut is half-dating guide and half-philosophy book, as she takes her reader on a journey to understand her own romantic trials and tribulations. Every page is filled with hilarious and painfully realistic thoughts on what it’s like to have crushes, how texting changes the way we date, and why connecting with others can be so hard to do. Essays like ‘Real Interviews With Men About Whether Or Not It Was A Date’ will make you laugh and cringe, offering an escapist read that will remind you of talks you’ve had with friends over wine”.

Those Beyond The Wall by Micaiah Johnson
“In Ashtown, a rough-and-tumble desert community, the Emperor rules with poisoned claws and an iron fist. He can’t show any sign of weakness, as the neighboring Wiley City has spent lifetimes beating down the people of Ashtown and would love nothing more than its downfall. There’s only one person in the desert the Emperor can fully trust–and her name is Scales. Scales is the best at what she does: keeping everyone and everything in line. As a skilled mechanic–and an even more skilled fighter (when she needs to be), Scales is a respected member of the Emperor’s crew, who leeps things running smoothly. But the fragile peace Scales helps maintain is fractured when a woman is mangled & killed before her eyes. Even more incomprehensible: There doesn’t seem to be a murderer. When more bodies turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause–and putting an end to it by any means necessary. To protect the people she loves, she teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner from Ashtown and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist from the city, delving into both worlds to track down an invisible killer. The answers Scales finds are bigger than she ever could have imagined, leading her into the brutal heart beneath Wiley City’s pristine facade and dredging up secrets from her own past that she would rather keep hidden. If she wants to save the world from the earth-shattering truths she uncovers, she can no longer remain silent–even if speaking up costs her everything.”

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
“From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a firey passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose Tamlin forever”.

 

Quick Links:

A Stroke of the Pen : The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

How to Date Men When You Hate Men by Blythe Roberson

Those Beyond The Wall by Micaiah Johnson

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Historical Fantasy Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

As a selector, I spend a lot of time researching genre trends. One that has caught my eye lately is historical fantasy because of the many different types of books that can fall under this broad umbrella. Historical fantasies combine elements of historical fiction and fantasy into a new genre of book! These books can take place in different time periods with the two most prominent being an alternate historical reality or a time past in our current reality. The fantasy comes through when magical creatures and magic pop up. Short version: fantasy elements in a more realistic historical world.

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

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart. – Del Rey

The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller

There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier—a bit of glass to find something lost, a cup of milk for better layers in the chicken coop.

Much of that old wisdom was lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at mills and factories. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find a lost shoe and to ensure dry weather on her sister’s wedding day.

When Delphine confides her new husband is not the man she thought he was, Alaine will stop at nothing to help her sister escape him. Small bargains buy them time, but a major one is needed. Yet, the price for true freedom may be more than they’re willing to pay. – Redhook

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Set in the Spanish Golden Age, during a time of high‑stakes political intrigue and glittering wealth, The Familiar follows Luzia, a servant in the household of an impoverished Spanish nobleman who reveals a talent for little miracles. Her social‑climbing mistress demands Luzia use her gifts to win over Madrid’s most powerful players but what begins as simple amusement takes a dangerous turn. Luzia will need to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even the help of Guillén Santángel, an immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both. – Flatiron Books

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur. – Henry Holt and Co.

The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry

In the early 1900s, a young woman is caught between two worlds in H. G. Parry’s cozy tale of magic, miracles, and an adventure of a lifetime.Off the coast of Ireland sits a legendary island hidden by magic. A place of ruins and ancient trees, sea salt air, and fairy lore, Hy-Brasil is the only home Biddy has ever known. Washed up on its shore as a baby, Biddy lives a quiet life with her guardian, the mercurial magician Rowan. A life she finds increasingly stifling.

One night, Rowan fails to return from his mysterious travels. To find him, Biddy must venture into the outside world for the first time. But Rowan has powerful enemies—forces who have hoarded the world’s magic and have set their sights on the magician’s many secrets.

Biddy may be the key to stopping them. Yet the closer she gets to answers, the more she questions everything she’s ever believed about Rowan, her past, and the nature of magic itself. – Redhook

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies. – Del Rey

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, drenched to the bone in the bitter cold and able to speak barely a word of English.

Although Jean is the only midwife for miles around, she’s at a loss for who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume that she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to multiply. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?

Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean that she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life? – Dell

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Shadow of the Leviathan book 1)

In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect. – Del Rey

Older Historical Fantasy Books

Space Opera Books

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Did you watch Dune: Part Two and want more space operas in your life? If so, this post is for you! Space opera books are melodramatic futuristic fantasy adventures that are character driven and mostly set in space. Space operas also typically focus more on relationships than other science fiction books whose emphasis is generally more exploration and technology.

I have gathered a list of space opera books published in 2023 and 2024. Note: this is not a complete of all space opera books. Contact the library for more titles if interested! These titles are all owned by the Davenport Public Library at the time of this writing. Descriptions are provided by the publisher or author.

Cascade Failure by L. M. Sagas (book 1 in Ambit’s Run series)

There are only three real powers in the Spiral: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union’s labor’s leverage. Between them the Guild tries to keep everyone’s hands above the table. It ain’t easy.

Branded a Guild deserter, Jal “accidentally” lands a ride on a Guild ship. Helmed by an AI, with a ship’s engineer/medic who doesn’t see much of a difference between the two jobs, and a “don’t make me shoot you” XO, the Guild crew of the Ambit is a little . . . different.

They’re also in over their heads. Responding to a distress call from an abandoned planet, they find a mass grave, and a live programmer who knows how it happened. The Trust has plans. This isn’t the first dead planet, and it’s not going to be the last.

Unless the crew of the Ambit can stop it. (Tor Books)

Meru by S.B. Divya

ONE WOMAN AND HER PILOT ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE THE FUTURE OF THE SPECIES IN AN EPIC SPACE OPERA ABOUT ASPIRATION, COMPASSION, AND REDEMPTION.

For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations.

For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual.

As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail?

Against all odds, hope is human, too. (S.B. Divya)

Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft

The sun is dying…and it’s happening way too damn fast.

With the clock ticking, the Nine Planets’ only hope of survival rests on a fancy space station and the alien artifact it’s carrying. Which is why it really sucks when some jackass doesn’t want the universe saved and blows that station up—while you’re still on it.

So if your only choices are flaming death or stealing a flying hunk of space junk—you pick that busted-ass spaceship. Even if it leaves seven strangers with deadly secrets trapped together: a princess, a prisoner, a con artist, a warrior, a priestess, a mercenary, and an asshole in charge of us all.

Now every faction in the galaxy is hunting this ship—from the Sisterhood to the Corporation, and the rebellion’s joining in on the fun, too. We just need to stop drinking, fighting, and screwing long enough to evade them all and save the freaking universe…somehow.

Because apparently the only thing standing between a dying sun and ultimate salvation is seven unlikely misfits…ahem, heroes. (Red Tower Books)

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. When Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to Nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr escapes from everything she’s known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined. (Tordotcom)

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital. There, she learns just how far she is willing to go to exact vengeance, free her sibling, and perhaps even secure her homeland’s freedom. (S&S / Saga Press)

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (book one in The Kingdom Trilogy)

A dangerous cat-and-mouse quest for revenge. An empire that spans star systems, built on the bones of a genocide. A carefully hidden secret that could collapse worlds, hunted by three women with secrets of their own. This is an explosive space opera debut from one of the most powerful new voices in science fiction.

On a dusty backwater planet, occasional thief Jun Ironway has gotten her hands on the score of a lifetime: a secret that could raze the Kindom, the ruling power of the galaxy.

A star system away, preternaturally stoic Chono and brilliant hothead Esek— the two most brutal clerics of the Kindom—are tasked with hunting Jun down.

And tracking all three across the stars is a ghost from their shared past known only as Six. But what Six wants is anyone’s guess. It’s a game of manipulation and betrayal that could destroy them all. And they have no choice but to see it through. (Orbit)

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn’t “optimal behavior”. It’s the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in the celebrated Imperial Radch universe. (Orbit)

More Space Opera books

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books with a bit of Mystery

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Are you looking for a new science fiction or fantasy book to read? I have found a list of science fiction and fantasy titles that also have a bit of mystery running through them. If you’re like me and sometimes find sci-fi and fantasy books overwhelming, these titles may help ease you into this genre. You can even think of them as mysteries set in science fantasy worlds! If you have read something that fits with the below titles, let us know in the comments!

Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect. – Del Rey

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My Murder by Katie Williams

What if the murder you had to solve was your own?

Lou is a happily married mother of an adorable toddler. She’s also the victim of a local serial killer. Recently brought back to life and returned to her grieving family by a government project, she is grateful for this second chance. But as the new Lou re-adapts to her old routines, and as she bonds with other female victims, she realizes that disturbing questions remain about what exactly preceded her death and how much she can really trust those around her.

Now it’s not enough to care for her child, love her husband, and work the job she’s always enjoyed—she must also figure out the circumstances of her death. Darkly comic, tautly paced, and full of surprises, My Murder is a devour-in-one-sitting, clever twist on the classic thriller. – Riverhead Books

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The Helm of Midnight by Marina J Lostetter

In a daring and deadly heist, thieves have made away with an artifact of terrible power—the death mask of Louis Charbon. Made by a master craftsman, it is imbued with the spirit of a monster from history, a serial murderer who terrorized the city.

Now Charbon is loose once more, killing from beyond the grave. But these murders are different from before, not simply random but the work of a deliberate mind probing for answers to a sinister question.

It is up to Krona Hirvath and her fellow Regulators to enter the mind of madness to stop this insatiable killer while facing the terrible truths left in his wake. – Tor Books

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The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.

But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake—going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven—the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.

Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for a case that will test every spell, skill, and odd magical artifact in their considerable bag of tricks. – Orbit

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The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.

Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together. – Tordotcom

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The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again. – Tor Books

Anime Movies

- Elena Leave a comment

April 15th is National Anime Day. National Anime Day celebrates anime, a style of animation that originated in Japan and became popular with viewers worldwide. With its wide variety of animation styles and stories, anime has something to offer for everyone! Check out these award-winning anime films owned by Davenport Public Library. (Descriptions below provided by publishers.)

Ponyo: During a forbidden excursion to see the surface world, a goldfish princess encounters a human boy named Sosuke, who gives her the name Ponyo. Ponyo longs to become human, and as her friendship with Sosuke grows, she becomes more humanlike. Ponyo’s father brings her back to their ocean kingdom, but so strong is Ponyo’s wish to live on the surface that she breaks free, and in the process, spills a collection of magical elixirs that endanger Sosuke’s village.

 

Weathering With You: The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky…

 

The Boy and the Beast: When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he’s taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who’s been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But the unlikely pair will be put to the ultimate test; a final showdown.

 

Belle: Suzu is a shy, everyday high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters “U”, a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a gorgeous and globally-beloved singer. One day, her concert is interrupted by a monstrous creature chased by vigilantes. As their hunt escalates, Suzu embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of this mysterious “beast” and to discover her true self in a world where you can be anyone.

 

The Night is Short, Walk On Girl: As a group of teens go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as ‘The Girl with Black Hair’ experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife, all the while unaware of the romantic longings of Senpai, a fellow student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her, in an effort to win her heart.

 

Miss Hokusai: As all of Edo flocks to see the work of the revered painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently, creating the paintings sold under her father’s name. Shy in public, in the studio O-Ei is brash and uninhibited. Seeking to come into her own as an artist, O-Ei sets out into the bustling city of Edo (present-day Tokyo), where she encounters spirits, dragons, con-men and traders.

 

During the month of April, look for the “National Anime Month” display at the Fairmount branch for more anime film recommendations.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

- Stephanie Leave a comment

I’m a sucker for an intriguing cover and offbeat book description. When I saw the cover of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy on the new shelves at the library, it was like it called to me. Add in one of the review quotes and I was done for: “A uniquely charming mixture of whimsy and the macabre that completely won me over. If you ever wished for an adult romance that felt like Howl’s Moving Castle, THIS IS THAT BOOK.” —Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient. Whimsy AND macabre?! Done. Let’s talk about this utter delight of a book.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is the first book in the Hart and Mercy series by Megan Bannen. Hart is a marshal who patrols alone in Tanria, on the lookout for bodies gone astray. It’s a lonely job that leaves him with ample time to think. Mercy has been keeping her family’s business, Birdsall & Son Undertakers, alive by herself for years, waiting for the day her younger brother comes home from school to help out.

From the very first time Mercy and Hart met, it was like mixing oil and water. When he drops off bodies, it always seems to be when Mercy is at the end of her rope. The two push each others’ annoyance buttons just right, leaving them both cranky and exasperated after every encounter. After his last drop-off, Hart is so frustrated that he writes an anonymous letter and sends it out in the universe addressed to “A Friend”. Not expecting a reply, he’s surprised when he actually gets a response. The two begin writing back and forth, finding comfort in being able to share their secrets to each other.

The secret? Hart is sharing his secrets with Mercy, the person he hates the most. The two grow closer the longer they write to each other. This tentative friendship can only last for so long. As chaos starts to erupt in Tanria and their small town, their relationship deepens. How will the two react when their identities are revealed?

The only reason why I give this book four stars instead of five is that I wanted more world building. The explanations of the world were there, but they took place in large chunks that were difficult to follow (this might also be due to the fact that I listened to an audiobook version and had to rewind multiple times to make sure I understood). Regardless, I still loved this book. The characters were adorable and cranky, the family dynamics were realistic, and the twists were devastating. It’s full of magic and demigods and culinary masterpieces and small-town drama. I remain hopeful that the next book in the series will be just as good.

Hart and Mercy series

  1. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (2022)
  2. The Undermining of Twyla and Frank (2024)

Want more dragon books?

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Over the last couple of months, I have noticed an increase in fiction books about dragons at the library. The increase in interest for dragon books is prevalent at book stores and on social media as well. While some of this can be attributed to the release of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros in May 2023 (book one in the Empyrean series), this interest in dragons has been around for decades. Below I have gathered a list of fiction books about dragons for adults and young adults that I hope you will enjoy!

This is by no means a complete list of dragon books that the Davenport Public Library owns, but none of these titles have been talked about on the blog before. These titles are all first books in the series. All titles are also owned by the Davenport Public Library as of the date of this writing. The descriptions are provided by the publisher or author.

If you have a favorite piece of dragon fiction, let us know in the comments!

Adult Fiction

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam – book one in the Dragon Scales series

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the “gods” remember, and they do not forgive.

Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact’s magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.

The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely–body, mind, and soul—and then kill them.

Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter. – DAW

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The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey – collects the first three books in The Dragonriders of Pern series (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon)

Finally together in one volume, the first three books in the world’s most beloved science fiction series, The Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey, one of the great science fiction writers of all time: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon. Those who know these extraordinary tales will be able to re-visit with Lessa, F’lar, Ruth, Lord Jaxon, and all the others. And for those just discovering this magical place, there are incomparable tales of danger, deceit, and daring, just waiting to be explored – Ballantine Books

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Ebony Gate by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle – book one in the Phoenix Hoard series

Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.

The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.

What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead? – Tor Books

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The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter – book one in the Burning series

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable war for almost two hundred years. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war.

Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He’s going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn’t get the chance.

Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He’ll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him. – Orbit

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The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – book one in the Chorus of Dragons series

When destiny calls, there’s no fighting back.

Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, a thief and a minstrel’s son raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself at the mercy of his new family’s ruthless power plays and political ambitions.

Practically a prisoner, Kihrin discovers that being a long-lost prince is nothing like what the storybooks promised. The storybooks have lied about a lot of other things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he isn’t the hero after all. For Kihrin is not destined to save the world.

He’s destined to destroy it. – Tor Books

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To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose – book one in the Nampeshiweisit series

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.

Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.

For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.

Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it. – Del Rey

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Young Adult Fiction

Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz – book one in the Blazewrath Games series

Experience the World Cup with dragons in this debut fantasy, set in an alternate contemporary world, in which riders and their steeds compete in an international sports tournament.

Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner―the only player without a dragon steed―is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.

But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire―a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form―the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport. – Amparo Ortiz

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Eragon by Christopher Paolini – book one in the Inheritance Cycle

When fifteen-year-old Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and, gifted with only an ancient sword, a loyal dragon, and sage advice from an old storyteller, Eragon is soon swept into a dangerous tapestry of magic, glory, and power. Now his choices could save—or destroy—the Empire. – Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Fireborne by Rosaria Munda – book one in the Aurelian Cycle

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone–even the lowborn–a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs. – Penguin Books

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Rebelwing by Andrea Tang – book one in the Rebelwing series

Things just got weird for Prudence Wu.

One minute, she’s cashing in on a routine smuggling deal. The next, she’s escaping enforcers on the wings of what very much appears to be a sentient cybernetic dragon.

Pru is used to life throwing her some unpleasant surprises–she goes to prep school, after all, and selling banned media across the border in a country with a ruthless corporate government obviously has its risks. But a cybernetic dragon? That’s new.

She tries to forget about the fact that the only reason she’s not in jail is because some sort of robot saved her, and that she’s going to have to get a new side job now that enforcers are on to her. So she’s not exactly thrilled when Rebelwing shows up again.

Even worse, it’s become increasingly clear that the rogue machine has imprinted on her permanently, which means she’d better figure out this whole piloting-a-dragon thing–fast. Because Rebelwing just happens to be the ridiculously expensive weapon her government needs in a brewing war with its neighbor, and Pru’s the only one who can fly it.

Set in a wonderfully inventive near-future Washington, D.C., this hilarious, defiant debut sparkles with wit and wisdom, deftly exploring media consumption, personal freedoms, and the weight of one life as Pru, rather reluctantly, takes to the skies. – Razorbill

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So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole – book one in the Divine Traitors series

Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world. – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers