{"id":47057,"date":"2023-04-05T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=47057"},"modified":"2023-03-11T10:11:44","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T16:11:44","slug":"aprils-simply-held-fiction-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/aprils-simply-held-fiction-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"April’s Simply Held Fiction Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you joined Simply Held<\/a>? If not, you\u2019re missing out! Four times a year, we choose fiction titles for Simply Held members to read from multiple categories: Graphic Novel, Diverse Debuts, Rainbow Reads, Overcoming Adversity, Historical Fiction, Out of this World, Stranger Things, International Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, and Juvenile Fiction. Join Simply Held to have any of the new picks automatically put on hold for you.<\/p>\n

Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have picked for April.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Diverse Debuts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diverse Debuts: Debut fiction novel by a BIPOC author.<\/p>\n

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>by Sidik Fofana<\/p>\n

From a superb new literary talent, a rich, lyrical collection of stories about a tight-knit cast of characters grappling with their own personal challenges while the forces of gentrification threaten to upend life as they know it.<\/em><\/p>\n

At Banneker Terrace, everybody knows everybody, or at least knows of them. Longtime tenants\u2019 lives are entangled together in the ups and downs of the day-to-day, for better or for worse. The neighbors in the unit next door are friends or family, childhood rivals or enterprising business partners. In other words, Harlem is home. But the rent is due, and the clock of gentrification\u2014never far from anyone\u2019s mind\u2014is ticking louder now than ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

In eight interconnected stories, Sidik Fofana conjures a residential community under pressure. There is Swan, in apartment 6B, whose excitement about his friend\u2019s release from prison jeopardizes the life he\u2019s been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, waitressing at Roscoe\u2019s and doing hair on the side. And Quanneisha B. Miles, in apartment 21J, is a former gymnast with a good education who wishes she could leave Banneker for good, but can\u2019t seem to escape the building\u2019s gravitational pull. We root for the tight-knit cast of characters as they weave in and out of one another\u2019s narratives, working to escape their pasts and blaze new paths forward for themselves and the people they love. All the while we brace, as they do, for the challenges of a rapidly shifting future.<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Graphic Novel:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Graphic Novel: Fiction novel for adults of any subgenre with diverse characters depicted by color illustrations, sketches, and photographs.<\/p>\n

Shubeik Lubeik<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Deena Mohamed<\/p>\n

A brilliantly original debut graphic novel that imagines a fantastical alternate Cairo where wishes really do come true. Shubeik Lubeik\u2014a fairy tale rhyme that means \u201cyour wish is my command\u201d in Arabic\u2014is the story of three people who are navigating a world where wishes are literally for sale.<\/em><\/p>\n

Three wishes that are sold at an unassuming kiosk in Cairo link Aziza, Nour, and Shokry, changing their perspectives as well as their lives. Aziza learned early that life can be hard, but when she loses her husband and manages to procure a wish, she finds herself fighting bureau\u00adcracy and inequality for the right to have\u2014and make\u2014that wish. Nour is a privileged college student who secretly struggles with depression and must decide whether or not to use their wish to try to \u201cfix\u201d this depression, and then figure out how to do it. And, finally, Shokry must grapple with his religious convictions as he decides how to help a friend who doesn\u2019t want to use their wish. Deena Mohamed brings to life a cast of characters whose struggles and triumphs are heartbreaking, inspiring, and deeply resonant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although their stories are fantastical\u2014featuring talking donkeys, dragons, and cars that can magically avoid traffic\u2014each of these people grapples with the very real challenge of trying to make their most deeply held desires come true.<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Historical Fiction:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historical Fiction: Historical fiction novel written by a BIPOC author with BIPOC main character(s).<\/p>\n

Woman of Light<\/i><\/b><\/a> by Kali Fajardo-Anstine<\/p>\n

There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

Luz \u201cLittle Light\u201d Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors\u2019 origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine\u2019s singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love\u2014filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.<\/em><\/p>\n

This title is also available in the following formats:<\/p>\n