Categories
Reading Recommendations

What We’re Reading – June

Are you looking for your next great read? We can help! Visit us in person, explore reading recommendations online, join an in-person or online book discussion, get recommendations on Facebook, tune in to our televised book club segments, and more. Get started here!

Sunday Nights on Facebook
Join us on Sunday nights at 8:30pm on Facebook for Currently Reading. Enjoy this hour during which book enthusiasts share favorite books and offer suggestion about what to read next. Find out about the books that have everyone talking.

Wednesday Mornings – Indy Now Book Club
The Library helps host a ‘book club’ on the Indy Now Morning Show with Ryan and Jillian on Fox59. Tune in at 10 a.m. every other Wednesday. Catch book recommendations and IndyPL program highlights from your own local librarians. Re-watch segments you have missed and see book lists of the books mentioned in each segment.

In-Person & Online Book Discussions
Do you love talking about books? Join one of our book discussions or book clubs available both in-person and online.

Online Reading Recommendations
NovelList and NovelList K-8 are online services that offer reading recommendations. Browse both fiction and nonfiction, read-alike suggestions, series information, reviews, and lists of recommended and award-winning books for adults, teens and kids. Learn how to start on this video tutorial. Also try Book Connections which includes a “find the right book for you” feature.

Recommendations from Our Staff – June 2023

Would you prefer one-on-one help? Call or ask a Library staff member at any of our locations or call, text, or email ask-a- librarian.

Make a selection from one of the book lists below created by our staff of avid readers. After that follow featured lists here or check our staff’s most recently published lists on the library catalog home page. Don’t miss our If You Like… suggestions that cover all the favorite genres like science fiction, graphic novels, romance, and more. Finally, don’t miss What We’re Reading Teens and What We’re Reading Kids.

When Writers Talk About Writing

Several revered, and some not so well-known, authors share their insights on the craft of writing.

Be sure to check out the writing workshops this summer and fall; and mark your calendar for Meet an Author, Be an Author on October 21, 2023 at Central Library for more writing workshops and connections with local authors and writers. 

Title - The Writing LifeTitle - Zen in the Art of WritingTitle - The Writing LifeTitle - Body Work

Sapphic Romance Novels

This list is not exclusive to characters that identify as lesbian, but instead features Sapphic, or w/w, relationships. Some of the novels cross over into other genres – each genre is listed in the description.

Title - AfterloveTitle - This Is How You Lose the Time WarTitle - She Gets the GirlTitle - Honey Girl

Voices from the AIDS Crisis

By 1981, clusters of patients with similar symptoms appeared in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. What followed was years of stigma, feelings of abandonment, fear, anger, and tens of thousands of deaths. Here are memoirs and histories that describe the AIDS crisis. Their stories are full of pain, anger, and loss that eventually turn into hope. These firsthand accounts from survivors, partners, activists, caregivers, medical professionals, and community leaders show the power of organizing and working together to affect positive change in the face of adversity and loss.

Title - Let the Record ShowTitle - To Make the Wounded WholeTitle - The StormTitle - After Silence

Romances Like Loving V. Virginia

In honor of the upcoming anniversary of Loving V. Virginia (June 12, 1967) here is a compilation of multiracial romances to show how love knows no bounds or race.

Title - Get A Life, Chloe BrownTitle - Do You Take This ManTitle - The Wedding DateTitle - American Royalty

What Lurks Below

Summer means swimming, and as someone who loves the water, summer is the best! My favorite place to swim is in the ocean. The salt water, the waves, the sun, all of it is my happy place. But I also know that I’m a mere human in a vast sea of the unknown. Here are some titles that help keep me in check.

Title - MegTitle - Into the PlanetTitle - Below the Edge of DarknessTitle - How Far the Light Reaches

History of African American Gospel Music

June is African American Music Appreciation Month. Celebrate by exploring the rich history of African American gospel music and spirituals.

Title - Rejoice and ShoutTitle - IsnTitle - Peace Be StillTitle - On My Journey Now

Intersections of Queerness and Disability

Queer disabled people have long highlighted the similarities between the fight for queer liberation and the fight for disability justice. Both movements challenge our understandings of what is normal for our bodies, for our sex lives, and for our communities. These 10 books explore these intersections more in depth, from examining how they shape definitions of masculinity in American literature to showing how they inform our understandings of care work.

Title - Crip TheoryTitle - Peculiar PlacesTitle - Exile and PrideTitle - Qda

Summer Road Trips

We’ve got all the travel guidebooks you’ll need to help you plan for your next summertime highway getaway. North America edition.

Title - Road TripTitle - The Complete Guide to Indiana State ParksTitle - Little IndianaTitle - Backroads & Byways of Michigan

The Autistic Experience by Autistic Authors

Autistic children become autistic adults. Often books on autism are targeted at the parents of autistic children, and are written from an allistic(non autistic) perspective. This is a list of books by autistic authors sharing both personal experiences and scientific, research based perspectives.

Title - Title - Unmasking AutismTitle - Different, Not LessTitle - We

Wild & [maybe] Free – Foraged Food

Forage through this list for guides, recipes, prose, and photography all focused on finding food in the not-so-wild urban setting.

Join Greg Monzel of Persimmon Herb School for a walking class to learn about what is in season, what is safe to eat, and what to consider when foraging in urban areas. You won’t be able to look at “‘weeds” the same way again! Register for one of our Foraging Walk
What is edible? What should I avoid? classes
.

Title - Backyard ForagingTitle - Family ForagingTitle - The PrepperTitle - The Joy of Weeds

Weddings Gone Wrong

June brides – don’t read these books!

Title - Four Aunties and A WeddingTitle - A BrideTitle - Murder at A Scottish WeddingTitle - Till Death Do Us Port

Nonfiction Books on the History of the Disability Justice Movement

The attached list contains books that help define disability, and disability pride. There are also books that help describe the struggle for the basic rights to education, housing, and employment for disabled persons.

Title - The Fight for Disability RightsTitle - ADA and your Rights at School and WorkTitle - All the Way to the TopTitle - We Want to Go to School! : The Fight for Disability Rights

IndyPL Recommends: Juneteenth Reads

Juneteenth is celebrated annually on the 19th of June to commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger’s reading of federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, proclaiming all slaves in Texas were now free. This event took place almost two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth celebrations began in 1866 with small church festivals but have since grown to include neighborhood and city-wide celebrations and became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. The day is often celebrated with food, the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and by reading the works of prominent Black authors. Below, we have selected reads on the history of Juneteenth, emancipation and freedom, reconstruction, and celebration.

Title - Hidden Black History : From Juneteenth to RedliningTitle - JuneteenthTitle - On JuneteenthTitle - Juneteenth