Welcome to #FDL! #FDL is an update with book recommendations to help you find your next great read! Lists are curated based on popular authors and novels, trending topics, seasons, and holidays. And don’t miss our occasional book giveaways!
#FDL: LGBTQ+ Books
Finish out Pride Month with one of these LGBTQ+ book recommendations from our library!
Delilah Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Blackmail, My Love by Katie Gilmartin
Bodies of Water by T. Greenwood
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Let’s Get Back to the Party by Zak Salih
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan
Between Perfect and Real by Ray Stoeve
Nightcrawlers by Bill Pronzini
Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
#FDL: Juneteenth Reading List
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond. All too aware of the stories of cowboys, ranchers, and oilmen that have long dominated the lore of the Lone Star State, Gordon-Reed—herself a Texas native and the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas as early as the 1820s—forges a new and profoundly truthful narrative of her home state, with implications for us all.
“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.” But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period–and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history.
Details the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that re-subjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind. The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked a new birth of freedom in Lincoln’s America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s America? In this new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the nadir of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.
A “choral history” of African Americans covering 400 years of history in the voices of 80 writers, edited by the bestselling, National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Last year marked the four hundredth anniversary of the first African presence in the Americas–and also launched the Four Hundred Souls project, spearheaded by Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Antiracism Institute of American University, and Keisha Blain, editor of The North Star. They’ve gathered together eighty black writers from all disciplines — historians and artists, journalists and novelists–each of whom has contributed an entry about one five-year period to create a single-volume history of black people in America.”
-Annotations from the publishers
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
#FDL: Fantasy – June Giveaway
From the barest hint of magic realism to an amazingly detailed epic fantasy with extraordinary world-building, the fantasy genre has a wide spectrum of magic and mysticism. Here are some new and upcoming titles that demonstrate this variety.
The Silverblood Promise by James Logan
Published: 04/25/24
Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and―thanks to a duel that ended badly―the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away. When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death.
His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow. For in Saphrona, everything has a price―and the price of truth is the deadliest of all.
Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
Expected Publication: 07/09/24
In Navola, a bustling city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family—merchant bankers with a vast empire—has nurtured tendrils that stretch to the farthest reaches of the known world. And though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth has bought cities and toppled kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will be expected to take the reins of power from his father and demonstrate his mastery of the games of Navolese knowing who to trust and who to doubt, and how to read what lies hidden behind a smile. But in Navola, strange and ancient undercurrents lurk behind the gilt and grandeur—like the fossilized dragon eye in the family’s possession, a potent symbol of their raw power and a talisman that seems to be summoning Davico to act.
As tensions rise and the events unfold, Davico will be tested to his limits. His fate depends on the eldritch dragon relic and on what lies buried in the heart of his adopted sister, Celia di Balcosi, whose own family was destroyed by Nalova’s twisted politics. With echoes of Renaissance Italy, The Godfather , and Game of Thrones , Navola is a stunning feat of world-building and a mesmerizing depiction of drive and will.
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Expected publication: 07/16/24
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Expected publication: 07/09/24
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.
When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.
In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.
-Annotations from the publishers
–Post by Melissa Friedlund, Adult Services Specialist
Giveaway 
Enter your name here for a chance to win ARCs of the books mentioned in this post. One entry per person. Drawing to be held approximately 7 days after this post.
ARCs are “advanced reading copies.” These are free copies of a new books given by a publisher to librarians and other reviewers before the book is printed for mass distribution.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.
Books for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. During this month we celebrate the contributions that Asian and Pacific Islanders have made to our history and culture.
Check out one of these books or place a hold today!
This is Paradise: stories by Kristiana Kahakauwila
The House of Doors Tan Twan Eng
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
The Perfumist of Paris – by Alka Joshi
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Intimacies by Katie M. Kitamura
The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon
Paper Names by Susie Luo
A Place For Us: A novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Daughters of Madurai Rajasree Variyar
Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner
The Bad Muslim Discount: a novel by Syed Masood
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Farm : A novel by Joanne Ramos
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
Run Me To Earth by Paul Yoon
Monstress by Marjorie Liu
Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
The God of Small Things by Roy Arundhati
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
–Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
#FDL: Artfolds Book Giveaway for Mother’s Day
Do you enjoy book art? Book folding is a great way to upcycle and transform an old book into a lovely piece of décor.
Enter the giveaway below to win a copy of The Magic of Mom, an ArtFolds book. An ArtFolds book is a hardcover book that is transformed into a unique paper sculpture merely by folding pages. Follow the folding instructions, and transform the book into a lovely paper sculpture of the word “Mom.”
Giveaway
Enter your name here for a chance to win the book in this post. One entry per person. Drawing to be held approximately 7 days after this post.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.
#FDL: Science Fiction & Fantasy – April Giveaway
Not constrained by current scientific knowledge or imagination, science fiction and fantasy can offer an otherworldly escape from the day-to-day grind. Here are three new & upcoming titles in this genre.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Expected publication: 05/07/24
An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks the universal What happens if you put a disaffected millennial and a Victorian polar explorer in a house together?
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 machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined.
Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future.
Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares
Expected Publication: 03/12/24
A sweeping, psychedelic romance of two men caught in a looping world of artificial realities, edited memories, secretive cabals and conspiracies to push humanity to the next step in its evolution. For fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Ubik, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Evangelion.
Fox is a memory editor – one of the best – gifted with the skill to create real life in the digital world. When he wakes up in Field of Reeds Center for Memory Reconstruction with no idea how he got there, the therapists tell him he was a victim in a terrorist bombing by Khadija Banks, the pioneer of memory editing technology turned revolutionary. A bombing which shredded the memory archives of all its victims, including his husband Gabe.
Thrust into reconstructions of his memories exploded from the fragments that survived the blast, Fox tries to rebuild his life, his marriage and himself. But he quickly realizes his world is changing, unreliable, and echoing around itself over and over. As he unearths endless cycles of meeting Gabe, falling in love and breaking up, Fox digs deep into his past, his time in the refugee nation of Aaru, and the exact nature of his relationship with Khadija. Because, in a world tearing itself apart to forget all its sadness, saving the man he loves might be the key to saving us all.
Expected publication: 05/28/24
The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.
As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.
But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.
Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…
Annotations from the publishers
-Post by Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Giveaway
Enter your name here for a chance to win ARCs of the books mentioned in this post. One entry per person. Drawing to be held approximately 7 days after this post.
ARCs are “advanced reading copies.” These are free copies of a new books given by a publisher to librarians and other reviewers before the book is printed for mass distribution.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.