Strategic Planning: Focus Groups
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the Community Survey! The next phase of our strategic planning process is to gather feedback from community members through a series of focus group sessions – and YOU are invited! The 60-minute sessions will be facilitated by our consulting team from Fast Forward Libraries.
Interested in joining a focus group? Sign up using the links!
In-person sessions at the library on March 9: calendly.com/fast-forward-libraries/fdl-focus-group-in-person?month=2023-03
Virtual sessions via Zoom on March 14: calendly.com/fast-forward-libraries/fdl-focus-group-virtual?month=2023-03
Feedback from the focus groups will be summarized in a report that Trustees and staff members will use during planning sessions in a few months. Your input will help us shape the future of the library!
#FDL: Book Giveaway!
Queenie may be one of the fiercest mobsters you’ve never heard of! Enter the drawing below to win a copy of this cool graphic novel Queenie: Godmother of Harlem, inspired by the life of Harlem’s legendary racketeer and civil rights advocate Stephanie Saint-Clair.
Read a little more about it here:
“Queenie follows the life of Stephanie Saint-Clair — the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, Saint-Clair left the island in 1912 and headed for the United States, eager to make a new life for herself. In New York she found success, rising up through poverty and battling extreme racism to become the ruthless queen of Harlem’s mafia and a fierce defender of the Black community.
A racketeer and a bootlegger, Saint-Clair dedicated her wealth and compassion to the struggling masses of Harlem, giving loans and paying debts to those around her. But with Prohibition ending, and under threat by Italian mobsters seeking to take control of her operation, she launched a merciless war to save her territory and her skin. In an America still swollen by depression and segregation, Saint-Clair understood that her image was a tool she could use to establish her power and wield as a weapon against her opponents.”
– Annotation from the publisher
Giveaway
Enter your name here for a chance to win of this book. One entry per person. Drawing will be held approximately 7 days after this post.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: A Memory Called Empire
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Reference Assistant
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Suggested Age: Adults
What is This Book About? Mahit Dzmare is a new ambassador to the light of the universe. A massive urban planet that acts as capital for human civilization’s largest power, the Teixcalaanli Empire. Mahit represents a small republic, headquartered on Lsel Station, which is innovated in advanced technology, but small in numbers as their major space station only houses thirty-thousand citizens. The Teixcalaanli Empire is rife with military prowess and culture, but also plagued with political instability, riots, and terrorism. With military demagogues threatening to stage coups, the emperor is considering war with Lsel to focus the public’s attention and annex the mighty space station under Teixcalaanli rule. Mahit needs to figure out how her predecessor managed to hold off a Teixcalaanli invasion for decades prior. And how he died in the first place.
My Review: This was certainly an interesting space opera to read. With that said, it is also a very heavy read. It creates a culture as complex as Elf culture from Lord of the Rings and has a cloak and dagger plotline as seen in Dune and Dune Messiah. There are also some technological oddities that span the novel and offer great philosophical debate about the totality of civilization and technology. This book was extremely rich in detail and complex in the world building and culture building the author has invented. Based on some of the cultural nuances, I would imagine the author took a great deal of inspiration from Roman and Byzantine history (she is a historian of the Byzantium, after all.) With all that being said, the novel also has a thrilling twist that I did not see coming. If you enjoy richly-crafted space operas like Dune and Foundation, I would highly recommend this book.
Three Words that Describe this Book: sci-fi, space opera, political intrigue
Give This A Try if You Like… Dune, Dune Messiah, Foundation, Winter’s Orbit, The First Sister, The Collapsing Empire, The Lord of the Rings
Rating: 4/5
Holly Jolly Writing Contest Winners!
We’re excited to announce the winners for the Holly Jolly Writing Contest!
1st Place – The Silver Staff by Brandon Oliger
2nd Place – A Christmas Past by Judy Dahlman
3rd Places – Home for the Holidays by Megan McCoy
Congratulations to each of them, and thanks to everyone who submitted an entry! Follow the links below to read the winning stories. Our judges panel had a hard time selecting from the submissions we received, so keep writing and stay tuned for another writing contest this summer!
The Silver Staff by Brandon Oliger
FDL Reads: Our Woman in Moscow
Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
Reviewed by: Dawn Dickey
Genre: Historical Fiction/Thriller
Suggested Age: Adult
What is the book about?: When Our Woman in Moscow opens in August 1952, Ruth Macallister is on a plane somewhere above Northern Europe, at the height of the Cold War, on her way to the Soviet Union to visit her twin sister Iris. Iris has been living in Moscow for a number of years with her children and husband – a former US government employee with communist leanings who fled to the Soviet Union with his family some years before. Although the twin sisters have not spoken or seen each other in twelve years, Iris has reached out to her twin sister with an urgent request to come as soon as possible to be with Iris as she delivers her fourth child. Because Iris’ previous deliveries have been quite difficult, Ruth feels compelled to obey the urgent summons. Little does Ruth know that she is about to enter a terrifying, life-threatening, cat-and-mouse situation.
My Review: With its Cold War spies and lies and subterfuge, this suspenseful tale might well have been taken from the pages of history. Author Beatriz Williams, whose work frequently appears on bestseller lists, quickly draws the reader in with this page-turning plot that smoothly transitions from the present day Cold War into the characters’ past. Williams deftly builds the characters’ back stories so the reader understands exactly what circumstances and character flaws have led these naïve, brave and sometimes hapless people into the dangerous situations they all face. I couldn’t wait to read what happened to these people and was only sorry when the book ended because I wanted the adventures to continue!
Three Words That Describe This Book: Suspenseful, Intriguing, Intense
Give This a Try if You Like… Spy thrillers such as The Courier (film), The Secrets We Kept by Laura Prescott, Transcription by Kate Atkinson, or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film)
Rating: 5/5
#FDL: New Historical Fiction for Black History Month
Discover your next favorite author with these buzzworthy new releases – the perfect historical fiction stories to get lost in during Black History Month!
In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
– Canada, Civil War, Underground Railroad
In the 1800s in Dunmore, a Canadian town settled by people fleeing enslavement in the American south, young Lensinda Martin works for a crusading Black journalist. One night, a neighboring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman who recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before she can be condemned for the crime. But the old woman doesn’t want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal an interwoven history of Black and Indigenous peoples in a wide swath of what is called North America.
– Good Morning America Book Club pick, Caribbean plantations, 1830s
Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah
– Mississippi, 1960s to 1980s alternating narrative
Eleven-year-old Ella lives in the racially divided town of Ricksville, Mississippi, not far from where the Freedom Summer Murders occurred. Too smart for her own good, she loves God, Mr. Macabe, and Nate, the tough owner of the local diner. To her perpetually irritated Ma, and Leroy, her mother’s lover, Ella is an unwanted nuisance. But Ella pays them no mind. She has a precious secret, and she isn’t telling. One day, a sharply dressed, well-to-do white woman appears on Ella’s street, looking for the girl. Like Ella, Ms. St. James has secrets–knowledge she keeps in a black notebook filled with scribbled pages. Secrets that will ultimately come out with devastating consequences.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.