Hello everyone! Welcome to today's webinar, Summer Picks from OverDrive Librarians.
In this hour-long session, you'll hear at the top summer books from OverDrive Digital Content Librarians. My name is Emma Dwyer and I am a Product Trainer at OverDrive and I will be facilitating today's webinar.
This session is geared towards public library staff involved in selecting, purchasing, and/or reader's advisory. A few items for quick housekeeping before we begin. You will receive a copy of this presentation, a link to the recorded session, and a Marketplace list to shop these titles mentioned as follow up to the webinar.
Check your email around this time tomorrow for something from Zoom.
And we have several members of OverDrive Digital Content Librarian team on Q&A today for any questions that you might have. So please use about Zoom Q&A button for any questions. We also have chat enabled and we cannot wait to hear what books speak to you from this session! Also as we wrap up today, we will also chat out a link to your certificate of attendance and a brief survey about this webinar, if you have some time.
Now for today's session our librarians will share their top picks in these genres.
We also have a round of bonus pics and some takeaways.
I'd love to take a minute to quickly introduce our speakers from our Digital Content Librarian team. First we have Tori Casper. She earned her BA in public history from Baldwin Wallace University and her MLIS from Kent State University.
She started at OverDrive in 2021 on the Content Metadata Services team before she joined the Digital Content Librarian team. Prior to OverDrive she worked in public libraries, academic libraries, and archives.
Next we have Sarah Filiberto. She earned her BS in psychology from Baldwin Wallace University and her MLIS from Kent State.
Before she joined OverDrive in 2023, Sarah spent ten years working in public libraries doing community outreach planning, programs, and a little bit of everything else in between.
And we have Erin Kane. She earned her MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's from Chicago and has a background in publishing, research, and community development.
She's worked at OverDrive since 2018. First on the Metadata team and later moving to the Collection Development team, where she serves Canadian public libraries.
Now that we've gotten to know a little bit about our speakers were going to kick off with the book pics with Erin's first pick.
Hello!
Yes so we are starting off with The Best Hits on the Blues Highway: Nashville to New Orleans on Route 61 by Amy Bizzarri.
I picked this title because anyone that knows me knows that I love to integrate my musical taste with my travel experiences and this book does just that. This book is for road trippers and music-lovers on Root 61, aka the 730-mile-long stretch of Highway connecting several major cities and spanning multiple genres of Music History. One of the things I love about this book is that this author focuses on
Outdoor fun and family adventure. So she covers one hundred notable stops that are good and accessible, not just for solo travels, but for family travels as well. Stops including the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Johnny Cash Museum, the Patsy Cline Museum, Tina Turner's Schoolhouse, and Elvis's booth at the Arcade Restaurant. This book even includes a QR code for a curated Spotify playlist and a list of recommended radio stations to tune into for the full musical experience.
A bit of a step up from just a road trip playlist.
Continuing the destination journey we have 12 Trips in 12 Month by Jen Ruiz, releasing June 4th from Blackstone Publishing.
As someone who wants to travel more, the title for this one was certainly enticing.
In her travel memoir, Jen decides before she hits 30 that she wants to send her 20s out by completing of a fulfilling challenge to take, you guessed it,
Twelve trips in twelve months!
She recounts what ends up being twenty trips, surpassing her goal, and shares the difficulties, joys, and magic of her solo travel.
Her experiences both inspire travel dreams and provide helpful travel tips for
People with work and time off to consider, as well as budget to mind.
Jen took full advantage of extending holiday weekends, taking all of the provided time off from work,
Working remotely teaching English for some extra income and featuring comped travel experiences on her blog and socials.
With a wide array of destinations, everyone will connect with at least some of the wonderful travel experiences that Jen chronicles.
Jen's beginnings with travel blogging and writing, as Jen on a Jet Plane, as well as her earlier books about travel, lend well to her new travelouge that is an enjoyable read while still being helpful to those looking to travel too.
The real travel accounts with both missed and found opportunities show that travel does not always go according to plan, and
That is okay.
Solo travel books have actually been getting a lot more attention and I really kind of love that, but also twelve trips in twelve months sounds like too much for me. Meanwhile I am getting completely ahead of myself because this webinar is obviously called Summer picks and this book is very halloween cored, but I could not help myself! Travels of Terror is written by the hosts of the podcast Horror Rewind, Kelly Florence and Meg Hahfdal. The premise is basically that they rewatch horror movies from their childhood and discuss them to see if they still hold up and it's great. I really recommend it. Unfortunately we're not here to talk about podcasts, but if you're a horror fan and need a new podcast to listen to- you're welcome! This book has a lot of cross- genre appeal for horror fans and true crime fans. I don't necessarily gravitate towards either one of those, but I thought this was really fascinating. So in either one of, each of the twelve featured cities, that range from Salem, Massachusetts to Portland, Oregon to Athens, Ohio, both authors include hidden gems they found on each trip, places you should visit, where to eat and drink, and even drop what spooky movies and books have been set there. In Los Angeles they visited the Hotel Roosevelt where the ghosts of Errol Flynn and Montgomery Clift have been known to haunt. In Austin, Texas they recommended The Glass Coffin, which is a vampire parlor and horror shop where you can pick up souvenirs. And in Portland they grabbed a drink at Raven’s Manor, a horror-themed bar with drinks like the Black Widow, Lilith, and Draught of Asphyxiation. So, this is the perfect mix of pop culture, travel, and true crime, and you can look for this one in August, just in time for Fall AND HALLOWEEN, from Sourcebooks.
Wow, Sarah is just adding both to my podcast to be listened to list and my TBR list. In keeping with strangers usual kind of off the beaten track...
Off the beaten path travels, we have Atlas of Forgotten Places: Journeys to Abandoned and Deserted Destinations Around the Globe by Travis Elborough, coming out June 18th, from Quarto Publishing. This is a reference and travel ideas book about abandoned, deserted, mysterious sites across the world. These overlooked sites are teeming with history and buzzing with mystique. My favorite story covered in this book
Is the location of Plymouth, Montserrat in the West Indies. It's a little town on a little island that used to be home to the major music recording studio AIR. I told you guys I do like music with my travel so here we are again.
However in 1995 shortly after the island recovered from a major hurricane the formerly dormant volcano there suddenly became active for the first time in three hundred and fifty years. after the volcano's eruption, the island became largely uninhabitable and that was the end of the recording business there.
Acts that had recorded their included Elton John, Michael Jackson, The Police, Jimmy Buffett, Rolling Stones - pretty much everyone you know and it's unaccessible now so if you like stories that ask and answer the question "what happened that drove away all the previous residents?" this is the book for you. I could also see that being the type of book I would hand off to a creative writing group for prompt material and lastly, it is a part of the Unexpected Atlases reference series so if your readers do like this book they have even more to look forward to.
I can appreciate all this music with travel personally I love mature with my travel so I was instantly drawn to the cover for this next one
Three Keys by Laura Pricthett releasing july sixteenth from random house publishing
This literary contemporary women's fiction is a journey personal and physical and full of travel
Ammalie is a wife mother and waitress, who loves her job.
But when she loses her three keys-
Her husband passes, her son moves out and on,
Where she works burns down,
She feels lost.
She's also surprised to find herself in middle age
Which makes her feel invisible to those around her.
Though not all of her endeavor are shall we say legal so perhaps being invisible is not the worse
When he finds three literal key to passed travel destinations she decides to travel the west to revisit shared memories
And visit places her late husband talked about but she has not yet experienced
Not all of these places are scheduled approved stays
An empty house and an entry key is pretty close
One bit from this book that I love is when Ammalie explains that tourists should read a book that takes place where they are visiting, as I completely agree.
The people she meets along her travels add to Ammalies life, sometimes in unexpected ways.
There's also a tidbit about doing a happy dance upon seeing a beautiful bird,
And same! been there!
Full of incredible destinations unique people and exciting adventure
Three Keys offers unique armchair travel for readers.
Okay okay but hear me out. Is it really an unannounced visit if you have a key?
But then again that might be why her visits are kind of illegal and everything so
Dont take my advice! we're going to switch gears a little bit and talk about
Big in Sweden by Sally Franson coming july second from HarperCollins this book won me over as soon as I saw that it was picked as a feminist Ted Lasso and as soon as I started reading it I absolutely saw the similarities. it's a great feel good optimistic perfect for summer read. I think a lot of people can use that right now. our main character Paulie Johannsen is not very family centric she has a complicated relationship with her own family she's kind of out of sorts with her long term boyfriend right now she just feels like everything is kind of like drifting for her. so one night she goes out drinking with her best friend Gemma as you do and gets convinced to enter a reality show that's based in Sweden, where the prize is a reunion with your Swedish relatives. She kind of semi-reluctantly agrees and makes a drunken video submission with Gemma on the spot and lo and behold wins a spot on the show.
So she does what any
Person would do in that situation. She grabs her Polaroid, a copy of her favorite book, Pippi Longstocking, and hops on a plane to Sweden to explore her family heritage. my favorite part personally of this was just all of the character development. Pualie is really a relatable character shes like really loud and joyful like a happy person sometimes she's also kind of selfish and annoying, but those are all like very real traits that we can relate to. So ultimately the way that she grows in the book didn't make it feel like she became a totally different person. Even the supporting characters were a lot of fun her best friend is really supportive and very much like a girl boss and kind of the opposite of her and her boy friend is really sweet and well meaning, but he's just like completely out of touch with everything. The challenges they put the contestants through in the contest were
Just bizarre and kitschy and like a mix of great british bake off and renaissance festival and overall this was just a really fun read and I learned a lot about Sweden in the process and kind of want to go there now.
Yes and reality tv is so trending in fiction right now so that's really exciting another big trend we've been seeing in fiction is
Stories set in the music business. This is probably from the success of daisy jones and the six and the Britney Spears bombshells autobiography last year. so in sitting with that trend we're going to look at The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer. This is an author who is primarily a journalist in Jewish and feminist spaces, but this is her first fiction debut and its coming out august six from Macmillan. In this dual perspective dual timeline novel we meet Judie and Emma Cantor. Judie was Judie Zingerman, AKA Judie Singer of the Singer Sisters a 1960s folk legend musician, who became increasingly reclusive eventually withdrawing from public life altogether. In 1996, Emma is her rebellious daughter who has deferred her admission to Brown to embark on a tour with her ska band. I did mention this with set in nineteen ninety six so yes we are looking at a ska band. What emma can't understand though is why her mother and father, who's also a folk music legend in his own right encouraged her brother Leon's musical career but won't support her musicianship. Why doesn't Emma's mother want her to be like her? Why is she so cold toward her? When Emma's performances bring her to the brink of stardom, she's faced with a choice that could further endanger her relationship with her mother. This book takes us through 90s music festivals and 60s folk clubs and is perfect for anyone that attended, or wishes they'd attended Lilith Fair. The author has even created a Pinterest board, an Instagram mood board, and an Apple Music playlist to encompass the books inspiration.
Playlists for authors have really become a bigger thing lately and I really like that you really get to kind of see what they're like feeling while they're writing it. Anyway jumping into other trends that have been kind of going strong lately- books about books. I don't think those are ever going to go away and as a librarian I almost feel kind of obligated to throw this in there but
The first thing that for me to that drew me to The Bookshop Sisterhood by Michelle Lindo-Rice was this amazing cover admittedly. I'm a sucker for a good illustrated cover so I
Automatically loved this, but once I read the story I was even sold sold even more so The Bookshop Sisterhood is about four best friends, Celeste, Yasmeen, Toni, and Leslie, who decided to open a book store cafe together they are all wildly different people but they've always bonded over their love of books so they decide what better way to share that with their community than open a bookstore to celebrate the stories that they love but then as it usually does life kind of gets in the way and before they even really have a chance to cut the ribbon and open their store each of them kind of get news that unravels their worlds in one way or another and it really forces them to lean on one another and to kind of test those bonds of sister hood that are so prevalent in the book this was a great found family book and I really enjoyed how flawed the characters are which I know might seem like a weird thing to say but they all tried to present themselves as perfect and obviously none of them are which admittedly when you're reading the book it can be frustrating and they'll make you want to throw the book at points but it's only because you want what's best for them. ultimately the way the author treats each of them with so much love is what kept me invested the entire time.
As an aside they also throw at out a lot of book references throughout the story which surprise surprise a book about books so if you need books to add your TBR your welcome and if you have too many on your list already sorry not sorry.
Sometimes you need that rollercoaster ride of emotion in your reading too
So to continue that we have The Wedding People by Alison Espach Releasing July 30 from Macmillan
I am here for the wedding fiction this season because I'm in a wedding later this month and I'm letting all the eventful wedding things happen in the fiction world and hopefully not the real world
Arriving in Rhode island at the beautiful seaside inn Phoebe has been eager to visit for years, she finds the inn is packed with wedding guests, all there and ready for the various wedding events
There for very different reasons, Phoebe has decided to end her life
and wants to do so at the gorgeous inn of her dreams
Upon her arrival, Phoebe is mistaken for a wedding guest. She encounters Lila, the bride
and Lila almost immediately starts confiding in Phoebe.
Lila does not have to “on” in the role of bride around Phoebe and feels she can be honest and real with her.
Meanwhile, Phoebe is trying to figure out her own role in life
with a recent divorce, feeling discontent with her work, and losing her beloved cat.
The two women keep turning to each other during the week long, yes week long, wedding event
Sharing feelings, providing perspective and advice, Lila quickly brings Phoebe into the wedding fold.
What would have easily been a heavy book has a lightness to it as the tender honesty between these women lends to a feeling of freedom to be one’s self.
Highlighting complex women along twists and turns to unexpected results, this enticing read full of humor and heart will have you feeling invested in the festivities and where these women's lives will go.
Agreed Tori, a week long wedding celebration event type situation is also not for me! But some more wedding ish fiction. We're gonna talk about The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster by Shauna Robinson. This is the acclaimed author of The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks and Must Love Books and it comes out July 2 from Sourcebooks. We meet Mae Townsend, who is wine-drunk at her future in-law’s winery. She should be wedding planning but is instead emotional and physically keeping her distance from her fiancé's white family, lest they get too comfortable around her and accidentally let slip any microagressions, the way that her mother's side of the family does. when hiding in the bathroom she starts to miss her deceased father. He and Mae were often the only black people at any gathering on her white mom's side. Then she starts to daydream about the relationship she wished she could have had with her dad's black side of the family before his death. Specifically, she’s imagining the family-famous annual Townsend barbecue that her dad would attend religiously but for some reason, always without her.
Later on, when she receives word that her paternal grandmother has passed away, she feels like it's her last chance to connect with the Townsend family. So she travels to North Carolina to meet them. Unfortunately, they are not quite the harmonious family she dreamt about all those years. Instead, May encounters: a family in chaos, an intense and long-standing grudge, and even a long-lost Mac & Cheese recipe. Un-swayed by these absurdities, Mae takes matters into her own hands and decides to throws the infamous family barbecue herself. This heartfelt read is perfect for book clubs and cookbook clubs as it is full of recipes and humor.
I have to jump in and say that I love The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks so I am so excited for this but also I love that you use it as a recommendation for a cook book club because I feel like we don't get a lot of those um I'm jumping away from the mac and cheese... the lost mac and cheese recipe though just
As a total aside and talking about The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Muhtwo. If you recognize Jennifer Muhtwo’s name, it might be because you’ve read her YA novel Moxie OR watched its adaptation on Netflix. She has written over half a dozen YA novels, but this is her first foray into adult fiction, and it did not disappoint.
The Faculty Lounge takes place in Baldwin High School and is, surprise, centered around its faculty. When we start the story one of the substitutes at the school, Mr. Lehrer, is found dead in the teacher’s lounge. I'm going to follow that by saying it’s not a spoiler, I promise. A few weeks later, after things have semi returned to normal, the principal decides to honor his wishes by scattering his ashes...on the campus of the school. What I wasn’t expecting, but really enjoyed, was how this was almost more of a collection of short stories about each of the faculty members and how their lives led them to teaching, with Mr. Lehrer being the thread that connected them all together. It was also a great reminder of how human teachers are and how many burdens they carry with them, especially today. A lot of current issues are discussed like Covid, CRT, book bans, and standardized testing just to name a few. It made the distinctions between the faculty who really cared for and appreciated their students, and others who maybe weren’t as enthusiastic, that much more realistic. If you’ve been a teacher or know one in your life, this book is definitely for them. And you can look for this one in July by Penguin Random House.
It sounds like a very impactful collection of stories and if we want to continue on with spreading ashes in choice places we have Best, First, and Last by Amy T Matthews Releasing June 25 from Kensington Books.
If you’ve ever traveled with family, you will find some comradery in these pages
but also some relief, because it could be worse, as these women show us
Three generations of women, each struggling in their own way, find themselves on a true adventure
Grandmother Bonnie has lost her third husband,
mom Sandy is going through a divorce
and Heather has broken up with her boyfriend, yet again.
At the request- and insistence and badgering- of Bonnie, all three women set out to hike Machu Picchu. As one does, right? Inpromptu trips of great physical feat are for anyone?
With differing travel preferences and some big surprises along the way, these women are in for quite the journey.
As they set out for Machu Picchu, they learn more about each other through shared stories and secrets, all carrying with them their own emotional baggage
while Bonnie is literally carrying her husband in a box around with her everywhere she goes.
Alternating between current ventures and tales of past loves, we get to know each woman on their own, as well as together.
The connected but unique individuals bring the relationships of these women to life.
There is also romance throughout but secondary to the women's relationships.
Beautiful and descriptive setting allows the reader to explore along with these women
We discover that moving through life does not have to be about where you are running from but can be about what you are running to.
If you like reading about family drama
This ones for you.
Just have to say there is a darth of llama covers in publishing right now so I'm really excited to see that one in here.
I was just going to say that we also keep coming back to travel books a lot, but yet i'm here for the llamas on book covers. frankly I think we need more of it.
Um we are gonna do a total one eighty now and talk about our mystery picks starting with A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd coming in june from lighting source this might have been my favorite book that
I read for this entire presentation and this is a detailing of romeo and juliet which as you may know is the story of a young couple who meet and fall in love you might know the version of the story that really did not end well like at all, but in Christina Dodd's version romeo and juliet are not only alive and well but living in Verona with their six kids and including our main character their twenty year old daughter, Rosie.
Or Rosaline. And yes, she’s named after THAT Rosaline. Which if you remember the story you'll know why that's kind of weird.
At twenty years old Rosie is very much the spinster in her parents eyes. they try to set her up with any and every suitor they can and each time Rosie uses her intelligence and maybe a little manipulation to find them a better suitor and then romeo and juliet finally put both of their feet down and announce to Rosie that they've bethrothed her to a man named Duke
This wouldn't be that bad if she didn't know that he was responsible for the murder of his last several wives so for once Rosie really can't find a way out of the situation and she's kind of resigned herself to having to marry this absolutely horrible man and then the night of their bethrothal ball comes and there's a lot of stabbing
And long story short he dies and everyone's pointing the finger at Rosie.
So
This is really
Kind of like Knives Out meets Bridgerton, if you need me to sell you on this anymore. the mystery kept me on the edge my seat until the very end of the story. Rosie is
A very wild intelligent and ahead of her time she constantly breaks the fourth wall which I absolutely love and this just has a lot of crossover appeal for fans of romance historical fiction mystery regency. Take your pick the best part is that this is the first in a series so Rosie is absolutely gonna be back with more adventures and I cannot wait for it.
This sounds like kind of everything bagel of a book which means im stoaked about it. And talking about falling in love with wonderful protagonist im going to talk to you about Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne. This is a tender-hearted book about Lenny Marks. Lenny Marks is comfortable with routine. She bikes home at the same time every day, eats the same meals every week, and shops only at one store. She re-watches friends, plays Scrabble against herself as Monica Gellar, and had to watch Buffy to understand the local grocer's attempts at conversation. She owns no less than 36 copies of the Hobbit rearranging them every once in a while. She is an elementary school teacher and has, at her foster mother's insistence, begun to try to 'get a life'.
But life comes to find her when she receives a letter from the parole board asking for her input regarding her stepfather inmate. Lenny begins to unravel in the overwhelm. Her routines fall apart, her peace is broken by ups and downs of happiness and despair, but worst of all starts to remember. Remember how her mother and grandmother left her all those years ago. This book will have you rooting for Lenny and laughing and crying along-side her as she stars in her own episode of Friends 'The One where Lenny Gets a Life.’
I think Lenny might be... Just hearing about it I'm ready to root for her as well
Also ready to root for her. I think she is like right up there with Rose as far as lovable lovable characters go
And next we have The Plus One by S.C. Lalli releasing august thirteen from HarperCollins
Time for another wedding book
but this time with murder.
(Remember, we are keeping the wedding events in the fiction word)
THE wedding event for two well-known and big business names is quickly derailed when the bride and groom- Rhadika and Raj- are found murdered at the luxury resort in Cabo that was meant to host their elaborate wedding events-
Once again a week long wedding, which I do not need to keep seeing, but let's try it down a little
As the guest of best man Caleb, Shay is certainly an outsider to the wealth and influence these families have
They are surrounded by secrets, including ulterior motives for Shay herself.
So of course, Shay dives on in and works to figure out who killed the bride and groom, and why.
Unfortunately there are quite a few possibilities
She is feeling the pressure to not only solve the crime, but do so before her secrets are uncovered.
Wading through an ocean of secrets, while trying to keep her own, is not without danger,
especially since the limited access means someone close to the bride and groom is the guilty party.
Jumping between before and after the murder, we untangle the lives of the couple and those closest to them and delve into what could have led to murder.
An enthralling read with complex characters and a few mysteries to solve. This one hooks you early and is hard to put down until you have all the answers.
So if you take anything from this webinar maybe don't subject people to week on wedding celebrations and also keep an eye out for shady characters at your wedding because
They could be plotting. Although speaking of murder, The Bang Bang Sisters kind of follow in the same vain minus the wedding. You can look for this in july from HarperCollins
Books involving music again are really still trending especially this summer. And The Bang Bang Sisters honestly was a ride. The title gave me Daisy Jones and the Six vibes, but then I started reading it and thought oh...this is kind of more like John Wick. I know that's a reach but trust me we'll get there. The Bang-Bang Sisters are Brea, Flo, and Jessie. Most of the time they travel the country in their van and perform at bars and clubs.
And then when they're not doing that, they’re a band of vigilantes who take contracts over the dark web for an organization called The Trace. Because
everyone needs a side hustle right now.
When they’re given a lead on a notorious serial killer who calls himself “The Wren” they find themselves in Reedsville, Alabama, which also happens to be the scene of their first “job” they ever took and the first murder they ever
Completed. And then chaos pretty much erupts. The most powerful mobster in town has been waiting for them and he has his own agenda. Voilence ensues. And the three of them are
Pretty much stuck in a game of survival where only one of them can survive
This is very much a 70s Hollywood noir vibe with some modern day elements that really did remind me of John Wick, you thought I was joking didn’t you? The story basically hits the ground running from page one and will leave you on the edge of your seat. This is the book I couldn’t put down because I needed to know how it ended, and it didn’t disappoint.
You just described my new favorite book so that's really exciting for me. Just feeling my tbr list collapse beneath me
And we'll go from one book about sisters to another. There's a little different vibe though
So if you like the menacing vibes of the creepy teenage Blackwoods sisters in Shirley Jackson's classic We Have Always Lived in the Castle then Smothermoss by Alisa Alering is for you. This is their debut novel and it comes out July sixteenth from W. W. Norton
Yes and I love this cover I cant get enough of it. Highly recommend taking a look at the authors twitter/X account because it's animated its very cool. But away enough about the cover. This is a claustrophobic thriller about two sisters living in rural Pennsylvanian Appalachia. The girls are outcasts at school. 17-year-old Sheila has nightmares about rabbit doctors and nurses and has a noose around her neck that no one else can see. 12-year-old Angie is always lost in her daydreams about the Cold War and dresses up like Rambo with a dirty dishcloth when she's not busy drawing monsters on her index cards. Which, by the way, communicate with her, not unlike Tarot cards. Their great Aunt Thena, whose home they live in, likes to tell stories about magical stone men from the mines and their mother works at the nearby asylum. When 2 female hikers are found brutally murdered on the nearby Appalachian trail, and the culprit yet to be found, no one seems to be able to talk about anything else. Angie finds evidence of
The two girls, who are constantly at each other's throats anyway, must rely on each other and their mountain to keep them safe.
The end of this novel will have you asking, "What did I just read?" in the best way possible.
Definitely agree that the cover is beautiful and it also sounds like it just has a wonderful setting throughout the title as well.
Another cover that I loved as soon as I saw it. It is beautiful, in a different way than the last one. Almost nostalgic.
The Night the River Wept by Lo Patrick releasing july second from Sourcebooks
This slow burn, southern small town mystery is a great read for those long summer evenings.
Arlene lives in a small Georgia town with her husband as they look to start a family.
Grieving after a miscarriage and wanting more to distract her from her housewife days, Arlene gets a job at the local police station bagging and tagging evidence,
In a small town there is not much work to be done
In her extra time at the station, Arlene looks over cold case files and she comes across a case that peaks her interest.
Years ago, three boys were murdered and found on the river bank of their small town.
Shortly thereafter, the main suspect committed suicide and the case remains open, going cold.
Arlene decides she is going to reopen the case herself and she starts investigating with the help of some new friends and some very interesting characters these new friends are
She is determined to find out what really happened
With multiple perspectives
Of line herself as well as journal entries from someone close to one of the victims and uniquely one perspective being that of the killer
The book is at times intense and haunting
Exploring trauma and healing alongside a cold case crime,
this amateur sleuth mystery will have you puzzling over who done it until the very end.
And for a different tune kicking off romance yes still me
We have Birding with Benefits by Sarah T Dubb releasing june forth from Simon & Schuster
I am a birder so I was immediately on board and super excited for this one. There's not uhh
Too many burning books out there for the fiction world.
The author’s debut novel, a fake dating romance, is a true delight, and not just for birders.
Celeste shows up at a park to meet John.
She is there to fill in as a fake date.
He is there for a partner for a birding contest.
John’s friend had let some wires cross when this got set up.
But with John’s ex competing in the contest too, perhaps they can fake date and win a birding contest, right?
John teaches Celeste about birding and they start checking off birds from their list, while also enjoying the discovery and the activity of birding itself.
It is not only all about the competition for them.
I really love the descriptions of the birds in this book. It is not just naming or mentioning birds, but describing them, their habitat, and their activities.
But no worries, it is not overly done in case anyone is not into birds, whoever that may be.
There were even times where they would describe a bird and kind of alta hang there because it was also about the discovery and i'm sitting her going, "Oh I know exactly which one that is." So there's definitely a lot of appeal if you're interested in that. but again it's not
Were growing the book
I also appreciate that this romance has adults communicating about their feelings and relationship, as Celeste and John are unique individuals with different needs from a partner.
I also really appreciate the great friends that both main characters have and how they support each other.
With beautiful settings and realistic characters, this is such a fun read for anyone interested in romance, in birds and nature, in some competition, or, why not, all of the above.
Yes mature conversations about relationship was so nice to hear.
So refreshing honestly I love it
Before I get into The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos I am going to just mention that this is the third cover in a row with this kind of peach fuzz cover which means we are on trend according to Pantone's 2024 color of the year. This was not intentional but I do love it. Besides the cover of this book with a willful woman playing hard to get, we have a great story here. This is by Melissa De La Cruz who is primarily known for Witches of East End and Blue Bloods and it comes out July 9th from from Union Square & Co.
Persian American Evan Saatchi, who works as a writer at a travel app company called Overnight is gunning for the Urban Asia Senior Editor promotion. But when he comes back from a work-trip in Paris, he finds that an outside hire from Manila, Philippines, Dalisay Ramos has been given the position instead.
Evan is so taken by her beauty and charm that he's not even mad about it, in fact, he might just ask her out on a date instead. Evan introduces himself to her in the breakroom and proceeds to immediately ask her out. Dalisay, who is more traditional in her dating life outright rejects him for being so bold and brash. She says she rejects American hook-up culture.
But, he's soooooooooo cute. So she decides to give him another chance,
Kind of. She wagers with him that he doesn't have what it takes to complete the Five Stages of Courtship, a Filipino dating tradition. What's the catch? He's not allowed to know the stages before he starts them! Once he's completed one stage, to her satisfaction, she will give him instructions on the next phase. Never one to turn down a bet, even when odds aren't in his favor, Evan accepts.
Okay but also love the fact that this actually integrated like the legitimate five stage of courting and that you actually learn about the culture in it too. Yes it is very cool. Yeah I appreciate that
Keeping with things that are on trend this year were looking at sports romances. And If you've seen all the hockey romances popping up over the last few years you know sports romance is going STRONG, and this one is Olympics centered so it’s even MORE timely this year. This is Rufaro Mazarura's debut novel and she’s crushed it. It’s the 2024 Athens Olympic Games and the lives of our two main characters, Olivia and Zeke, are about to literally collide. Olivia is checking boxes off of her five year plan, which includes an internship at the Olympics that she’s been dreaming of her entire life. Unfortunately, she gets completely knocked off course when she gets there and finds out her space has been pulled because of nepotism. And so instead of responding and getting labeled as the “angry black girl” she takes a volunteer position instead. Then on the first day of the games she meets Zeke. And by meet, I mean she collides headfirst with him.
You know how it goes
Zeke is
Very much like Olivia checking off his own boxes but he also deal with a lot of family pressure and anxiety and mental health issues. And I love that even though this is very clearly a romance the story wasn't defined by that
Both characters had really strong personalities, and culture was also integrated here too because Zeke is Zimbabwean, so you learn a lot about their traditions and how their families interact. It had great themes of family, culture, mental health, and diversity, and it’s just all around a great summer read. If you’re looking for something to kind of get you in the mood for the olympics and also just kind of really cute wholesome romance this is definitely it
And the timing couldn't be any better with the olympics this year so definitely add to tbr
And to keep trying travel into many of our picks adding to romance as well we have Frequent Fliers by Noué Kirwan releasing August thirteen from Harlequin
We all needed yet another wedding book right?
Good, because here we go again.
Flying can sometimes hold surprises. Will you find yourself in a row to yourself,
next to a chatty pal, ahead or behind schedule?
For Lanie, she is surprised when she and her seatmate Ridley seem to have a connection and meet on frequent flights.
Lanie is on her way from New York City to London to visit family and friends.
This trip, though, continues the surprises for Laine as, come to find out, her cousin and her former boy-next-door crush are engaged.
To pile it on, they want her to be their best mate- that is maid of honor and best man, at their wedding.
The flight back and forth for wedding prep, which I guess zoom wasn't good enough, so just flying back and forth from new york to london for most of the book,
Has her on frequent flights along with Ridley, who is traveling for work.
So they keep meeting time and again
A bit of forced proximity romance, I enjoyed the alternating perspectives that highlight both main characters and show the strengths, flaws, conflicts, and growth of both.
Seeing real family struggles and finding room for love again after loss, added more layers to the story.
Sprinkled with light, travel fun,
this romance features some great character development, despite the less than supportive friends and family surrounding Lanie and Ridley.
This slow burn romance is another great pick for fans of drama-filled storylines.
And much like Tori's pick I'm going to talk about Just Some Stupid Love Story which is also very travely. This is written by Katelyn Doyle. She writes historical fiction romance under the name Scarlett Peckham but this is her first rom com novel. This is coming out june fourth from Macmillan. Like my previous pick in this genre we are looking a wager-centric novel like all the best rom-coms of the early 2000s. But instead of a teen movie set in high school like She’s All That and 10 Things I Hate About You, we have former teen lovebirds Molly & Seth see each other for the first time in over a decade at their 15th High School reunion.
Back then, misanthropic, and utterly serious Molly dumped golden-retriever type Seth unceremoniously the night before graduation and never looked back. She went on to become a big name in rom-com screenwriting and he ended up in Chicago as one of the best divorce attorneys in the region. Molly doesn't believe in fated soulmates, in fact 'sentiment makes her squeamish' in her words. Seth believes in The One with a capital T and capital O. For him, Molly was the one that got away and he never quite got over it. As they fall into old habits, philosophical debates accompanied with dirty dancing to Sir Mix-a-Lot and NSYNC, the sparks between them are rekindled.
As they banter back and forth about which of them is really the true love expert, the rom-com writer who knows that all this romance stuff is fluff, and the divorce attorney who can tell when people are going to reconcile and when they need to go off and find their actual true love, Seth challenges her to a bet. They pick 5 couples at the reunion and each place a wager on which ones will still be together in 5 years at the 20-year reunion.
When he says that they will be couple number 5 and that he will be her date to the next reunion, she is skeptical and confident in her judgement. Telling him they will not be a couple by then. Afterall, she knows the second-chance romance trope is just that, a trope. So, she accepts.
I love seeing these high-achieving women playing hard-to-get and keep high expectations for their men to pursue to earn their interest. And this book spans 5 years which is a wonderful way to watch these characters grow and develop and find out whether or not they do attend the 20th high school reunion as an item.
Your books also have the theme of fives in them. Both of the romance. And I'm not sure if that's an unintentional theme that we've come across. Five is trend. Of if that's just your lucky number and you don't know it
Also had the peach fuzz cover too kind of. And so did Tori's.
Anyway I don’t know how much selling this really needs, because if you’ve read The Dead Romantics or The Seven Year Slip you know how good Ashley Poston’s books are. This is a romance with a little bit of magical realism and fantasy thrown in, which follows the themes of her previous books, and I was all in on this one. Eileen Merriweather loves a good happily ever after,
at least the fictional kind, because men don’t leave you at the alter in those. They make her feel safe and at home and comfortable, and who can’t relate to that? And so she decides to throw herself out of her comfort zone, after things in life get a little rough, and go on her book club’s annual retreat, because she needs good friends, cheap wine, and happily ever afters.
Instead, she takes a wrong turn, her car breaks down, leaving her kind of stranded in a town that
Actually seems like it’s straight out of one of her favorite romance novels. Probably because it is. And now she’s stuck in a manuscript that the author couldn’t finish...because the author actually died two years ago. I could go on too long about this, but if you like slow burn romance with a little fantasy mixed in, and something that will also just make you feel cozy, this is the book for you. It’s also kind of a love letter to romance readers, and as someone who (admittedly) has not been reading romance for that long, I appreciated it and it made me feel included. So, look for this coming in June from Penguin Random House.
Okay so next we're going to do a little bit of bonus picks. We are not as on a lot of time on these but it's really difficult to ask three librarians to pick only eight books to talk about each. So we wanted to just show the covers to you and say a tiny a bit about what we're excited about. On this page it's more of the same trends a lot of wedding a lot of travel a lot of music especially with all the summers in between there
Some greek retellings those aren't going anywhere anytime soon. If we go to the next slide we'll see a lot of variety here for any of your summer plans
And let's see the next one
Is a few more traditional thrillers and some big releases. And you'll notice the cliffs on the cover here on The Nature of Disappearing. And if we go to the last slide you'll see even more cliffs. One for almost every genre we covered. Apparently that is a cover trend right now. But besides all that these books are genuinely good. Bot just the covers the plots are excellent. And yeah so that's everything from us your Digital Content Librarians. Thanks so much for listening to us talk about books and I'll hand it back over to Emma to wrap up
Thank you so much Erin, Tori, and Sarah for those excellent picks. There is a little bit of everything there for every reader. I added about twenty of these to my tbr list already. So with all of those pics now in your pocket we wanted to talk about a few next steps. So we make sure you review the pdf of today's presentation to make sure all of these titles are top of mind for summer or you can watch the recording. All of these resources will be sent to you after the session sometime tomorrow. Also make sure that you are shopping these titles in Marketplace. Our Digital Content Librarian team has made it very easy by making a list of all of these titles for you to review in Marketplace. And if you need any further recommendations or you have any questions you can reach out to your Digital Content Librarian. They would obviously be happy to talk books with you you can find their contact information in Marketplace under the support tab
Now and our remaining few minutes I do want to thank you for join joining us for this session and remind you that we have some upcoming sessions as well and we'd love to see you there. Next week on Tuesday, April 16th you can join us at 1 PM EST for a live panel discussion about using comics and magazines in your digital library. Then, in May, we return to our staple session, Getting Started with Libby. You'll have a complete walk through of Libby, the library reading app on Tuesday, May 14th at 11:00 AM ET. You'll see how to search, browse, borrow a title in libby and you'll have a chance to ask our Libby experts any questions you may have about the libby app
Now as we wrap up I wanted to stay once again thank you so much for spending your afternoon with us. We really appreciate you being here. At the end of the webinar when you go to leave Zoom, we would love to hear from you if you have a moment. A survey link will pop up and it only take a few minutes to complete
At this time we will also make sure we put the certificate of attendance link into the webinar chat. But don't worry you will receive the link to the certificate and to that survey in the follow up materials if you don't have time to get to those today. With that we are going to end the audio and visual portion of our webinar now but we can stay on or just a few more minutes to answer any remaining chat or questions that you may have. Happy reading!