FDL Reads: The Annual Migration of Clouds
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian
Suggested Age: Adult, Teen
What is the book about? Reid is a young woman living in a post-climate-disaster world where food is scarce and a mysterious fungal infection afflicts many, including her. When presented with a rare opportunity, will she jump at the chance to leave and live a better life or remain behind to eek out a living with her mother to avoid the guilt of leaving her behind? To assuage her guilt, Reid and her friend, Henryk, join a dangerous hunt that could give her mother the resources she’ll need to survive or relieve Reid of any decision making by ending with her gory death.
My Review: I enjoyed this novella so much, I was craving a continuation of the story. With the brevity of the story, the reader is left without the answers to every question, but I was left with a feeling of hope for Reid’s situation. The enigmatic, semi-sapient fungal infection was definitely something that I would have liked Reid to explore more in the future… before it kills her. This felt a bit like Hunger Games crossed with Divergent yet sprinkled with something new. I look forward to more writings by this author.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Intriguing, Edgy, Engaging
Give This a Try if You Like… The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise
Rating: 4.5/5
About FDL Reads
FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.
The Wide World of Ability
Every kid has hopes and dreams, and every kid achieves those dreams differently from each other. Everyone has different abilities, and no two people are exactly alike! Here are a variety of books where kids make friends, experience new things, and work hard to achieve their goals. Some of these kids are blind, or have Autism, or need sensory accommodations for noisy places. Try out some of these books and explore how you’re similar and different! (Some books are also available from our digital collections.)
Early Readers![](https://fondulaclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/this-beach-is-loud.jpg)
Can Bears Ski? by Raymond Antrobus
Out Into the Big Wide Lake by Paul Harbirdge (Axis 360)
Lucas at the Paralympics and Lucas Makes a Comeback by Igor Plohl
Hello Goodbye Dog by Maria Gianferrari
My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
This Beach is Loud! By Samantha Cotterill
The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin
Older Readers ![](https://fondulaclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/get-a-grip-1.jpg)
El Deafo by Cece Bell (Axis 360, Overdrive)
A Boy Called Bat by Elana Arnold (Axis 360)
Wink: A Novel by Rob Harrell (OverDrive)
Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! By Sarah Kapit
The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker (Axis 360)
The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family by Sarah Kapit (Axis 360)
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling (Axis 360, Overdrive)
True Stories
Unbound: The Life and Art of Judith Scott by Joyce Scott (Axis 360)
Fauja Singh Keeps Going by Simran Jeet Singh
Dark was the Night by Gary Golio
Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson (Axis 360)
Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky (Overdrive)
Brayden Speaks Up by Brayden Harrington
The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca
General Books about Inclusion![](https://fondulaclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/715Z0lB8rdL.jpg)
Lovely by Jess Hong
Bodies are Cool by Tyler Feder
Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor (Axis 360, Overdrive)
Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It) by Carrie Finison (Axis 360)
– Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager
#FDL: 2021 Hugo Awards Winners
2021 Hugo Awards
The Hugo Awards honor the year’s best works in the field of science fiction and fantasy, as voted on by fans. Have you read any of 2021’s winners?
Best Novel
Best Novella
Best Series
Best Related Work
Best Graphic Story or Comic
–Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: Old Man’s War
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Adult Services Assistant
Genre: Science Fiction
Suggested Age: Adults
What is This Book About? John Perry is in the golden years of his life. A widower with little to do, Perry decides to join military service and maybe reclaim some of his youth. He enlists with the Colonial Defense Forces to protect Earth and her colonies within the Colonial Union.
This space-faring military branch of humanity only recruits men and women of a seasoned age. Competing for the scarce habitable planets against monstrous aliens is a never-ending battle and only the wise can fight it. At the end of Perry’s tour, if he survives, the Colonial Union will award him with a new colony planet to settle on, not to mention the rumors of reverse aging being a part of his fighting enhancement.
On Perry’s journey patrolling the frontiers of space, he will witness combat of unparalleled imagination as he comes to cope with the wonders and horrors of the universe.
My Review: This book is a mixture of high-octane, action-packed thrill-rides and interpersonal challenges between comrades and romantic interests. The first book in a series of seven, Old Man’s War can be read as a stand-alone novel or as the beginning installment to a space-faring epic. What’s great about this book is that it does not explicitly rely on action or sci-fi techno wonders to entertain the reader, though both are certainly present.
Its true quality revolves around Scalzi’s ability to be a very readable writer as he tells riveting stories about people rather than the space opera in the backdrop, though there are properties of world-building as well. With all of these elements in Old Man’s War, I was pleasantly surprised by the humor involved. For the first time in years, I found myself chuckling out-loud from reading a book! That’s not to say that this is a straight-up comedy, but it’s certainly a well-rounded novel.
Three Words that Describe this Book: excitement, action, readable
Give This A Try if You Like… Starship Troopers (film and novel), The Forever War, The Expanse Series (tv and books), Orion, Orion Among the Stars, Altered Carbon, The Fifth Element (film)
Rating: 5/5
About FDL Reads
FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.
Shining a Light: New Nonfiction – December Giveaway
Nonfiction narratives show us the state of our societies, test the truth of our convictions, and teach us about the courage in our hearts by shining a light in the dark corners of our humanity. Enter the giveaway below to win a free copy of one of these new nonfiction releases.
The Least of Us by Sam Quinones
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal
Sam Quinones traveled from Mexico to main streets across the U.S. to create Dreamland, a groundbreaking portrait of the opioid epidemic that awakened the nation. As the nation struggled to put back the pieces, Quinones was among the first to see the dangers that lay ahead: synthetic drugs and a new generation of kingpins whose product could be made in Magic Bullet blenders. In fentanyl, traffickers landed a painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine. They laced it into cocaine, meth, and counterfeit pills to cause tens of thousands of deaths-at the same time as Mexican traffickers made methamphetamine cheaper and more potent than ever, creating, Sam argues, swaths of mental illness and a surge in homelessness across the United States.
Quinones hit the road to investigate these new threats, discovering how addiction is exacerbated by consumer-product corporations. “In a time when drug traffickers act like corporations and corporations like traffickers,” he writes, “our best defense, perhaps our only defense, lies in bolstering community.” Amid a landscape of despair, Quinones found hope in those embracing the forgotten and ignored, illuminating the striking truth that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable.
Weaving analysis of the drug trade into stories of humble communities, The Least of Us delivers an unexpected and awe-inspiring response to the call that shocked the nation in Sam Quinones’s award-winning Dreamland.
Volunteers: Growing Up in the Forever War by Jerad W. Alexander
As a child, Jerad Alexander lay in bed listening to the fighter jets take off outside his window and was desperate to be airborne. As a teenager at an American base in Japan, he immersed himself in war games, war movies, and pulpy novels about Vietnam. Obsessed with all things military, he grew up playing with guns, joined the Civil Air Patrol for the uniform, and reveled in the closed and safe life “inside the castle,” within the embrace of the armed forces, the only world he knew or could imagine. Most of all, he dreamed of enlisting — like his mother, father, stepfather, and grandfather before him — and playing his part in the Great American War Story.
He joined the US Marines straight out of high school, eager for action. Once in Iraq, however, he came to realize he was fighting a lost cause, enmeshed in the ongoing War on Terror that was really just a fruitless display of American might. The myths of war, the stories of violence and masculinity and heroism, the legacy of his family — everything Alexander had planned his life around — was a mirage.
Alternating scenes from childhood with skirmishes in the Iraqi desert, this original, searing, and propulsive memoir introduces a powerful new voice in the literature of war. Jerad W. Alexander — not some elite warrior, but a simple volunteer — delivers a passionate and timely reckoning with the troubled and cyclical truths of the American war machine.
The Redemption of Bobby Love by Bobby & Cheryl Love
Bobby and Cheryl Love were living in Brooklyn, happily married for decades, when the FBI and NYPD appeared at their door and demanded to know from Bobby, in front of his shocked wife and children: “What is your name? No, what’s your real name?”
Bobby’s thirty-eight-year secret was out. As a Black child in the Jim Crow South, Bobby found himself in legal trouble before his 14th birthday. Sparked by the desperation he felt in the face of limited options and the pull of the streets, Bobby became a master thief. He soon found himself facing a thirty-year prison sentence. But Bobby was smarter than his jailers. He escaped, fled to New York, changed his name, and started a new life as “Bobby Love.” During that time, he worked multiple jobs to support his wife and their growing family, coached Little League, attended church, took his kids to Disneyland, and led an otherwise normal life. Then it all came crashing down.
With the drama of a jailbreak story and the incredible tension of a life lived in hiding, The Redemption of Bobby Love is an unbelievable but true account of building a life from scratch, the pain of festering secrets in marriage, and the unbreakable bonds of faith and love that keep a family together.
– 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.
Best Books of 2021
As 2021 draws to a close, let’s reflect on all the awesome books that were published this year. Check out the links below to see what critics believe were the best of 2021. Give us a call to see whether we own copies you are interested in or search our catalog and place a hold online. Remember that we can place holds on books from other libraries and you can pick them up here at FDL.
NPR’s Books We Love: Our Guide To 2021’s Great Reads
Every year, NPR’s staff curates a collection of the year’s best books. Formerly known as NPR’s Book Concierge, this year’s roundup contains more than 300 titles. Use the filters on the left to narrow down the list by genre, hover over each cover to see a preview of what reviewers had to say about a book, and follow the links for full reviews.
Perhaps the largest online community for readers, Goodreads lists its award winners for 2021.
Kirkus: The Best Books of 2021
Kirkus Reviews is a weekly magazine and a website that highlights upcoming book releases. Many libraries rely on their reviews when deciding what to purchase for their collections.
Amazon’s Best Books of the Year
Amazon’s editors picked their top books for 2021. Browse this list or search by category to narrow it down to topics of interest or age group.
–Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.