Episode 811 A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid

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Welcome to Reading With Libraries!

Thank you for joining us on the eighth season of our book group and Reader’s advisory podcast! 

Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we work with all types of libraries. Schools, public, academic, history centers, and more! We are here to support you and to bring you new knowledge to inform your library work. 

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. This week we are looking at the prompt from the 2022 PopSugar reading challenge: A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid.

Beverages:

This is, of course, a book group. And every book group needs to have beverages, so you really get the feel for your reading! 

When people have a disability and need a mobility aid, it adds another layer of things to consider as they go about their day. So, we are enjoying drinks with layers this week! These beverages, and many more with layers, can be found on the website Yummly. 

Three Layered Smoothie

Ingredients

4 SERVINGS

1/4 cantaloupe (cut into small pieces)

1 mango (cubed)

4 kiwi (peeled and cut into pieces)

1 cup strawberries

1/2 cup blueberries

Instructions 

  1. Blend cantaloupe and mango in a blender, pour into two glasses.
  2. Blend the kiwis, pour on the mango mixture gently using a spoon.
  3. Blend strawberries and blueberries and pour on the kiwi layer using a spoon.
  4. Serve immediately.

Layered Spiderman Cocktail

Ingredients

1 SERVINGS

watermelon

1 ounce blue curacao

1 ounce lime juice

2 ounces water

1 ounce grenadine

crushed ice (Plenty of)

1.5 ounces vodka

Instructions                   

  1. Put a tall glass in the freezer for about a minute or 2.
                                                   
  2. While the glass is chilling, take a ball spoon, scoop out 2 half balls of watermelon. Place the 2 half balls together to make 1 ball of watermelon, then stick a toothpick through them and place in the freezer. Or you cut just cut the watermelon into small cubes, stick a toothpick through them and place in the freezer.                                                        
  3. Mix the blue Curacao, lime juice and water together in another glass or a ramekin.
                                       
  4. Once your tall glass is nice and chilled, take it out of the freezer and then add your grenadine.                                                        
  5. Fill the glass all the way up with your crushed ice.                                                        
  6. Add the vodka very slowly.                                                        
  7. Add the blue Curacao mixture very slowly.                                                        
  8. Garnish with the watermelon and then serve with a straw.
                                                           

Genre Discussion:

This is a new prompt in the PopSugar challenge. Each year they do recycle some prompts, but they expand into some book genre ideas that haven’t traditionally been really popular in mainstream reading. As soon as a genre becomes part of the challenge, the books that fit that prompt become really popular across the internet. Building up some book ideas we may not even have thought about is a great way to introduce new books for all of us! This is a topic that would lend itself well to a library display, or a library program. Most people either suffer from a disability themselves, or know someone who does; bringing in books that reflect the real lives of people is always the best way to promote books with your community.

The blog Lovely Audiobooks has an entry about romance books – always a popular topic. “Many Romance readers – me included – have some form of chronic illness or disability, and reading a love story is an even better experience when you can identify with the characters. Romance as a genre offers the kind of hopeful escapism that many unwell readers crave. During periods of time when I was home- or even bedbound, I needed positive and uplifting stories for my mental well-being. And I wanted to read about people who dealt with disabilities or chronic conditions and how they carried on with their lives and found happiness.”

This is a genre with a lot of books, for all ages and interests. Share some with your community, and enjoy some yourself!

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it! 

Always Only You, by Chloe Liese

Ren

The moment I met her, I knew Frankie Zeferino was someone worth waiting for. Deadpan delivery, secret heart of gold, and a rare one-dimpled smile that makes my knees weak, Frankie has been forbidden since the day she and I became coworkers, meaning waiting has been the name of my game—besides, hockey, that is.

I’m a player on the team, she’s on staff, and as long as we work together, dating is off-limits. But patience has always been my virtue. Frankie won’t be here forever—she’s headed for bigger, better things. I just hope that when she leaves the team and I tell her how I feel, she won’t want to leave me behind, too.

Frankie

I’ve had a problem at work since the day Ren Bergman joined the team: a six foot three hunk of happy with a sunshine smile. I’m a grumbly grump and his ridiculously good nature drives me nuts, but even I can’t entirely ignore that hot tamale of a ginger with icy eyes, the perfect playoff beard, and a body built for sin that he’s annoyingly modest about.

Before I got wise, I would have tripped over myself to get a guy like Ren, but with my diagnosis, I’ve learned what I am to most people in my life—a problem, not a person. Now, opening my heart to anyone, no matter how sweet, is the last thing I’m prepared to do.

Always Only You is an opposites-attract, forbidden love sports romance about a nerdy, late-blooming hockey star, and his tough cookie coworker who keeps both her soft side and her autism diagnosis* to herself. Complete with a meddling secretary, tantric yoga torture, and a scorching slow burn, this standalone is the second in a series of novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

*This is an #OwnVoices story for its portrayal of autism by an autistic author.

Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope, by Berkeley Breathed

OPUS AWAKENS!

In 2015, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed began (without warning!) producing ALL-NEW Bloom County strips—for the first time in more than 25 years! Breathed released the new Bloom County strips exclusively through his Facebook page, to the cheers of devoted and delighted fans everywhere. These brand new strips have NEVER before been available in print—until now! All the wit, charm and biting satire that are trademarks of Bloom County and Berkeley Breathed are clearly on display and evident in this handsome new volume. Featuring all your favorite characters: Opus, Milo, Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, Cutter John, and many more. Bloom County has come home… and it’s about time!

Sick Kids in Love, by Hannah Moskowitz

Isabel has one rule: no dating.

It’s easier―

It’s safer―

It’s better―

―for the other person.

She’s got issues. She’s got secrets. She’s got rheumatoid arthritis.

But then she meets another sick kid.

He’s got a chronic illness Isabel’s never heard of, something she can’t even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who’s a doctor.

He’s gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her.

Isabel has one rule: no dating.

It’s complicated―

It’s dangerous―

It’s never felt better―

―to consider breaking that rule for him.

Booked for Murder (Vigilante Magical Librarians Book 1), by R.J. Blain 

Life as a bodyguard and driver for the rich, famous, and powerful is dangerous on a good day, and after sustaining a crippling injury while on duty, Janette’s left with few options. Having signed a ‘for life’ contract but unable to work, she uses her skills to disappear.

Her new life as a librarian suits her. Nobody cares she limps and sometimes requires a cane to walk. She’s wanted for her knowledge, not her lethal magic. She’s surrounded by books, a woman’s best friend. But when her former employer’s best friend is murdered on the steps of her library, old loyalties and secrets might destroy her—or set her free.

Teaming up with her co-workers to find the killer might keep her from being booked for murder, but unless she’s careful, she’ll find out exactly how far her ex-boss will go to reclaim what is rightfully his.

The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen

When Jessica is told she’ll never run again, she puts herself back together—and learns to dream bigger than ever before. The acclaimed author of Flipped delivers a powerful and healing story.

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She’s not comforted by the news that she’ll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

As she struggles to cope, Jessica feels that she’s both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don’t know what to say act like she’s not there. Jessica’s embarrassed to realize that she’s done the same to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she’s missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her.

With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that’s not enough for her now. She doesn’t just want to cross finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her.

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Published in 1911, its main character, a young girl called Mary, befriends Colin a wheelchair user who never goes outside and is treated as an ‘invalid’. But, with the help of Mary, he is soon integrated into daily life.

Mary Lennox starts her life as an unhappy victim of circumstance. After the loss of her parents, she moves to rural Yorkshire to live with a distant uncle where she resents the wildness of the countryside. At first, she struggles to find a place in this new existence. Although unsure about her surroundings and its occupants, through the gentle guidance of the maid she gradually becomes interested in the story of Mrs Craven who apparently used to spend her time in a garden at the house, the key to which has vanished. Mary makes it her quest to find and explore the possibilities it holds. Her journey sees her change, befriending a host of loveable characters as the garden begins to cast its spell on her.

1222, by Anne Holt [Nodic noir genre]

1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens of iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. But Hanne has no wish to get involved. 

She has learned the hard way that truth comes at a price and sometimes that price just isn’t worth paying. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine. Trapped in a wheelchair, trapped by the killer within, trapped by the deadly storm outside, Hanne’s growing unease is shared by everyone in the hotel. Should she investigate, or should she just wait for help to arrive? And all the time rumours swirl about a secret cargo carried by train 601. Why was the last carriage sealed? Why is the top floor of the hotel locked down? Who or what is being concealed? And, of course, what if the killer strikes again?

The Chance to Fly, by [middle grade reader]

Thirteen-year-old Nat Beacon loves a lot of things: her dog Warbucks, her best friend Chloe, and competing on her wheelchair racing team, the Zoomers, to name a few. But there’s one thing she’s absolutely OBSESSED with: MUSICALS! From Hamilton to Les Mis, there’s not a cast album she hasn’t memorized and belted along to. She’s never actually been in a musical though, or even seen an actor who uses a wheelchair for mobility on stage. Would someone like Nat ever get cast?

But when Nat’s family moves from California to New Jersey, Nat stumbles upon auditions for a kids’ production of Wicked, one of her favorite musicals ever! And she gets into the ensemble! The other cast members are super cool and inclusive (well, most of them)— especially Malik, the male lead and cutest boy Nat’s ever seen. But when things go awry a week before opening night, will Nat be able to cast her fears and insecurities aside and “Defy Gravity” in every sense of the song title?

The Drawing of the Three (Book II in the Dark Tower series), by Stephen King

“The book begins less than seven hours after the end of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger after The Man in Black has described The Gunslinger’s fate using tarot cards. Roland wakes up on a beach, and he is suddenly attacked by a strange, lobster-like creature, which he dubs a “lobstrosity.” He kills the creature, but not before losing the index and middle fingers of his right hand and most of his right big toe. His untreated wounds soon become infected. Feverish and losing strength, Roland continues north along the beach, where he eventually encounters three doors. Each door opens onto New York City at different periods in time (1987, 1964 and 1977, respectively). As Roland passes through these doors, he brings back the companions who will join him on his quest to the Dark Tower.”

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby

In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young children, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem.

After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book.

By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father’s voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an “inexhaustible reservoir of sensations,” keeping in touch with himself and the life around him.

Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book is a lasting testament to his life.

The Midnight Lock (Lincoln Rhyme #15), by Jeffery Deaver

A woman awakes in the morning to find that someone has picked her apartment’s supposedly impregnable door lock and rearranged personal items, even sitting beside her while she slept. The intrusion, the police learn, is a message to the entire city of carnage to come. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to investigate and soon learn that the sociopathic intruder, who calls himself “the Locksmith,” can break through any lock or security system ever devised. With more victims on the horizon, Rhyme, Sachs and their stable of associates must follow the evidence to the man’s lair… and discover his true mission.

Their hunt is interrupted when an internal investigation in the police force uncovers what seems to be a crucial mistake in one of Rhyme’s previous cases. He’s fired as a consultant for the NYPD and must risk jail if he investigates the Locksmith case in secret.

The Midnight Lock is a roller-coaster read that takes place over just a few days’ time, features surprise after surprise and offers a fascinating look at the esoteric world of lockpicking.

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries! 

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Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!