#FDL: Gear up for Gardening Season
If you’re feeling inspired by the change in seasons, check out these newer books about planting flowers, vegetables, and caring for house plants.
Veg Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Creating Your First Vegetable Garden by Heather Rodino
Gardening expert Heather Rodino teaches the basics of growing your own vegetables, such as how to choose the right plants for a climate and guarding the crop from hungry critters. Included are 30 profiles of beginner-friendly vegetables and herbs with detailed instructions on where to grow, when to harvest, as well as their sunlight, watering, and soil needs.
The Creative Vegetable Gardener by Kelly Smith Trimble
With The Creative Vegetable Gardener, lifestyle editor and master gardener Kelly Smith Trimble encourages readers to widen their focus, be playful, and imagine a vegetable garden that reflects their own unique aesthetic and offers a meditative sanctuary as well as a source of fresh, homegrown food.
Holistic Homesteading: A Guide to a Sustainable and Regenerative Lifestyle by Roxanne Ahern
Ahern’s book guides new and seasoned homesteaders in improving personal and environmental health. The Happy Holistic Homestead is geared toward people who are interested in pursuing intentional lifestyles and organic farming methods. It is both for those who have access to land and those who are interested in retrofitting urban and suburban lifestyles and landscapes to shift towards sustainability. Learn about permaculture design, holistic nutrition, and sustainable farming in rural and urban settings.
100 Plants to Feed the Birds: Turn Your Home Garden into a Healthy Bird Habitat by Laura Erickson
The growing group of bird enthusiasts who enjoy feeding and watching their feathered friends will learn how they can expand their activity and help address the pressing issue of habitat loss. Readers will learn about plants they can add to their gardens and cultivate, such as early-season pussy willow and late-season asters, as well as wild plants to refrain from weeding out, like jewelweed and goldenrod.
The Unkillables: 40 Resilient House Plants for New Plant Parents by Jo Lambell
In The Unkillables, Jo Lambell shares her houseplant knowledge so that even the biggest plant serial killers can have an abundant indoor garden.
-Annotations from the publishers
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: The Door of No Return
The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander 
Reviewed by: Chelsea Bunton, Youth Services Assistant
Genre: Historical Fiction
Suggested Age: Middle School (6th-8th grade)
What is this book about? Kofi is a young boy living in the Asante kingdom of Africa around the year 1860. The story follows his daily life, learning the “Queen’s” English at school, swimming with his friends, and getting embarrassed in front of his crush, Ama. As with his other middle grade novels, Alexander uses verse-poetry to tell the story, interspersed with free-written chapter beginnings to set the tone of each section. The author states that he wanted to tell an African history story that started from the beginning, not the “middle,” which he considers to be slavery. The book accomplishes that as we follow a young boy living a rich culture before ultimately being captured. Kofi’s story is one of vibrant lifestyle, heartbreak, and the harrowing journey of a young boy who feels very real and easy to connect with.
My Review: “…until the lions tell their side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always celebrate the hunter…”
This book was a very compelling tale of the life lived BEFORE slavery. I agree with the author, that too often historical accounts focus on slavery when there is so much rich history that happened before. Especially in this case, where we get to see an individual’s life before captivity- it is humanizing, heartbreaking, and engrossing. I actually wasn’t sure if this was a story leading to slavery throughout much of the book- and I think that was the correct assumption as it is simply a vignette into a culture and a story of a boy coming of age. I enjoyed the writing style as well- books written in verse are a nice break from prose every once in a while. It is nice to move through the pages quickly, while still feeling like you are absorbing and perceiving the right things. This was a quick read that feels essential to a comprehensive understanding of lives lived before enslavement.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Poignant, Authentic, Passionate
Give This a Try if You Like… Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You by: Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, Books written in verse (like The Crossover or The One and Only Ivan), Stella by Starlight by: Sharon M. Draper, It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime by: Trevor Noah
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: African Town
African Town by Irene Latham and Charles Waters
Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Genre: Historical Fiction
Suggested Age: Teen, Adult
What is the book about? In 1860, the importation of enslaved people into the United States had been illegal for decades. However, that year 110 men, women, and children were bought and smuggled from Africa to Alabama. They were hidden in swampland and secretly divided up to work on plantations. After the Civil War, these newly-freed people established a community of their own: Africatown, USA (near Mobile, Alabama). Originally hoping to buy passage back to their homelands, they created a unique society for that time and place, the South in the late 19th century. This book tells their story in fourteen distinct voices, including that of the ship they sailed on through the Middle Passage, the Clotilda.
My Review: I listened to the audiobook version of this book and found it to be very engaging and informative. These people who remembered their lives in Africa and knew who their ancestral people were had a unique frame of reference when it comes to slavery and the post-Civil War era in the United States. I liked how the different perspectives were examined and portrayed throughout the story. Since this is historical fiction, there are some parts of the story that were altered for a more cohesive narrative. Those changes are detailed in an appendix at the end, which I found to be a very conscientious choice for the authors to make.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Poignant, Heartbreaking, Compelling
Give This a Try if You Like… Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi, The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: The Marriage Portrait
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Reviewed by: Beth Weimer, Communications Specialist
Genre: Historical/Literary Fiction
Suggested Age: Adults
What is the Book About?: In a Florentine gallery, there still hangs a small but intense oil painting of a young girl, the duchess Lucrezia de’Medici, painted by Bronzino in the 1550s… Lucrezia enjoys a sheltered childhood within the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio, but when she is 15, Lucrezia’s sister Maria dies suddenly, and Lucrezia is married off to the broody Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, in her sister’s stead. Lucrezia is a free spirit ensnared in a web of palatial politics and power, and within a year, the young duchess is also dead – perhaps murdered by her duke. The mystery surrounding her death during the heart of the Italian Renaissance is said to be the inspiration for Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess,” and Maggie O’Farrell’s novel breathes new life into the mythology of her fate.
My Review: For me, this is peak historical fiction. Maybe I just encountered it at precisely the right time, but O’Farrell’s writing is so luxurious and intimate, full of fierce emotion and fascinating minutiae. Maybe it was partially due to the audiobook narrator’s (Genevieve Gaunt) voice, but listening to this story put a serious spell on me. The author deftly adds layers of life, mystery, and a twist ending to the few basic facts actually known of Lucrezia, and the use of the portrait and painting (and hints of the underpainting) as the vehicle for the story is masterful. The depth of O’Farrell’s imagination is breathtaking, and pulling out of the story, you can’t help but wonder if Lucrezia’s reality was more fraught, mundane, or a thousand shades in between. I loved it so much, I immediately had to read Hamnet, which has been on my list but never a priority. Hamnet is equally lush and magical, the astonishing story of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, and family (he himself is never named), but the death of a child makes it much heavier reading. Both novels are highly recommended.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Vivid, Alluring, Compelling
Give This a Try if You Like… Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Matrix by Lauren Groff, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Rating: 5/5
Central Illinois Reads
FDL is proud to partner with Bradley University, Chillicothe Public Library, Dunlap Public Library District, Methodist College, Morton Public Library, Neighborhood House, Pekin Public Library, and Peoria Public Library to celebrate every individual’s Freedom to Read!
With the marked increase in book challenges nationwide, Peoria Public Library invited Central Illinois libraries to come together to encourage everyone to exercise their intellectual “Freedom to Read” what they choose.
Learn more at peoriapubliclibrary.org/central-illinois-reads/.
Upcoming Central Illinois Reads Events:
Tuesday, September 12 — Central Illinois Reads Presents: Talking About Trauma
6 p.m. — Methodist College, 7600 N. Academic Dr.
Free and open to all. Refreshments provided.
FDL Reads: Welcome Home
Welcome Home: A Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Round by Myquillyn Smith
Reviewed By: Rebecca Cox, Business Manager
Genre: Non-Fiction
Suggested Age: Adults
What is This Book About? Welcome Home is a decorating guide for those who are ready to free themselves from a consumer-driven lifestyle and have a simple home that is always ready to welcome guests. Myquillyn Smith or “The Nester” as she is known takes you through each of the four seasons and gives you a step by step purposeful process to help you cultivate a space that you will love! The Nester doesn’t believe in having bins and bins of factory-made décor or in breaking the bank to have a home that looks festive. Her ideas, accompanied by photos and how-tos, help you to “usher in the seasons with more style and less stuff.”
My Review: I came across this book somewhat by accident from a scroll on Instagram and I am hooked on The Nester’s “cozy minimalist” ideas! As a recovering thriftaholic, I had bins and bins of stuff in my house but it never felt tidy and put together and definitely not seasonal. The Nester breaks down each season and has you look at each of them from both a consumer and a creator standpoint. She helps you to focus on specific areas and bring the seasons in using your senses, instead of using knick knacks from Hobby Lobby. The Nester has you consider the sounds, smells, and tastes that make you think of each season, instead of just the visual cues that we all focus on when we bring home different tchotchkes. The best part about this book is that I read it all the way through the first time but then I find myself coming back at the beginning of each season and re-reading just that season’s chapters to help me maintain the mindset and calm my urges to go out and spend money. As we are thinking of spring cleaning with the warm seasons ahead, I whole-heartedly recommend that you check out Welcome Home for some inspiration!
Three Words that Describe this Book: Inspiring, Informative, Beautiful
Give this a try if you like… The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi, The Home Edit Life: The No-Guilt Guide to Owning What You Want and Organizing Everything by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith
Rating: 5/5