Celebrate Women’s History Month and the month of Ohio’s statehood
March’s “Leisure Reads” celebrates Women’s History Month as well as the month of Ohio’s statehood by featuring women authors and illustrators who have called Ohio home. Ohio officially became a state on March 1, 1803, when the state legislature met for the first time. We are proud to recognize these Ohio women authors and illustrators during Women’s History Month. All titles available from the MSJ Library, OhioLINK, or Interlibrary Loan for requesting & borrowing. Many thanks to MSJ librarian Ruth Monnier for curating the titles in this month’s bibliography!
Resources on Ohio Authors:
Alphabet under Construction by Denise Fleming (Toledo, Ohio)
“Mouse is hard at work constructing each letter of the alphabet. He dyes the D, erases the E, and folds the F. Mouse works his way right through to Z, constructing an alphabet that surpasses even the wildest artistic imagination. A bright, beautiful concept book from best-selling picture book Denise Fleming.” – Publisher’s Summary
Aunt Erma's Cope Book by Erma Bombeck (Bellbrook, Ohio)
“As far as Erma can tell, her life is going well. Her children speak to her, her husband smiles at her, and she's capable of looking in a mirror without screaming. But her friends know better. No matter how happy Erma thinks she is, she's in need of help, and the only way to fulfillment is a ten-foot stack of self-improvement books. From Sensual Needlepoint to Fear of Buying, Erma will try them all. One book recommends bringing roleplay into the bedroom, so she dresses up in her son's football pads. She tries to meditate but gets stuck in the lotus position. She spends more time in the kitchen but only succeeds in melting her son's retainer. No matter how hard she tries to improve her family life, her schemes keep backfiring. As she soon learns, you may not always be able to fix what's not broken—but with enough self-help books, you can break anything you want.” – Publisher’s Summary
Binti: the complete trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Himba girl with the chance of a lifetime: to attend the prestigious Oomza University. Despite her family's concerns, Binti's talent for mathematics and her aptitude with astrolabes make her a prime candidate to undertake this interstellar journey. But everything changes when the jellyfish-like Medusae attack Binti's spaceship, leaving her the only survivor. Now, Binti must fend for herself, alone on a ship full of the beings who murdered her crew, with five days until she reaches her destination.” – Publisher’s Summary
Dirt Songs by Kari Gunter Seymour (Athens County)
“In her third full-length collection, Dirt Songs, Kari Gunter-Seymour's poems are full-throated, raw, deceptively simple, and rippling with candor, providing readers an insider's lens into the larger questions surrounding the many aspects of Appalachian culture, including identity, the impact of poverty, generational afflictions, and the brunt of mainstream America's skewed regard for the region. Readers will discover a musicality of language, a stoic sense of honor, a richly detailed tapestry of experiences, and an inspiring display of humility and courage. Throughout the book there is an overarching determination to endure, to be the last truth teller left standing, arm raised in solidarity with the land and its people. Dirt Songs does what journalists and mainstream media have failed to do: provide a uniquely intimate look at landscape and family generated from within Appalachia, recognizing that one story cannot accurately represent a region or its people.” – Publisher’s Summary
Dust by Alison Stine (raised in Mansfield, Ohio)
“After her father has a premonition, Thea and her family move to the Bloodless Valley of southern Colorado, hoping to make a fresh start. But the rivers are dry, the crops are dying, and the black blizzards of Colorado have returned. Much like the barren land, Thea feels her life has stopped growing. She is barely homeschooled, forbidden from going to the library, and has no way to contact her old friends―all due to her parents’ fear of the outside world’s dangerous influence. But to make ends meet, Thea is allowed to work at the café in town. There, she meets Ray, who is deaf. Thea, who was born hard of hearing, has always been pushed by her parents to pass as someone who can hear. Now, with Ray secretly teaching Thea how to sign, she begins to learn what she’s been missing―not just a new language but a whole community and maybe even a chance at love.” – Publisher’s Summary
Funny Story by Emily Henry (Cincinnati, Ohio)
“Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra. Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak. Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them? But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?” – Publisher’s Summary
Her Stories by Virginia Hamilton (Yellow Springs, Ohio)
“Gracefully told by Newbery Medalist Virginia Hamilton, this collection of 19 stories focuses on the magical lore and wondrous imaginings of Black women. Vibrant paintings by Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon glow with the drama and mystery of each tale while reflecting the warmth and beauty of the people who first told them.” – Publisher’s Summary
Jazz by Toni Morrison (Lorain, Ohio)
“From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner, a passionate, profound story of love and obsession based on the hopes, fears, and deep realities of Black urban life. With a foreword by the author. In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Cleveland, Ohio)
“On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?” – Publisher’s Summary
Little Fires Everywhere: Reese's Book Club by Celeste Ng (raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio)
“In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.” – Publisher’s Summary
Moving Beyond Words by Gloria Steinem (Toledo, Ohio)
“From Simon & Schuster, Moving Beyond Words is a collection of essays by influential feminist Gloria Steinem. In the book, Steinem examines the state of the women's movement in the 1990s and offers possibilities for the future, focusing on such issues as economic empowerment, women politicians, and life affirmations that affect women today.” – Publisher’s Summary
“After receiving a call from her friend Helen Corning, Nancy agrees to help solve a baffling mystery. Helen's Aunt Rosemary has been living with her mother at the old family mansion, and they have noticed many strange things. They have heard music, thumps, and creaking noises at night, and seen eerie shadows on the walls. Could the house be haunted? Just as soon as she hangs up the phone, a strange man visits Nancy's house to warn her and her father that they are in danger because of a case he is working on buying property for a railroad company. This warning leads Nancy and her father Carson to search for the missing Willie Wharton, a landowner, who can prove he signed away his land to the railroad and save the railroad from a lawsuit. Will Nancy be able to find the missing landowner and discover how these mysteries are related?” – Publisher’s Summary
On Drowning Rats by Rachel Richardson; Cami Roth Szirotnyak (Toledo, Ohio)
“[Ninety percent] of people who experience sexual harassment in the workplace never report it. When community advocates and writers Rachel Richardson and Cami Roth Szirotnyak were sexually harassed by the same man, they devised a plan to take down their harasser. With the help of female advisors, mentors, and a small but incredibly mighty following of supporters, they brought public disgrace for their harasser as well as inspired his eventual resignation. On Drowning Rats: How Two Women Took Down Their Harasser and How You Can Too demystifies what to do when you're sexually harassed at work or in the boardroom. Rachel and Cami discuss the personal and professional struggles they dealt with coming forward, the challenging conversations they had with their peers and family members, and the inevitable scrutiny from a community eager to keep the status quo. They deliver levity and humor alongside a well of compassion and righteous anger as a way to connect to the generations of women and people impacted by all forms of harassment.” – Publisher’s Summary
On My Journey Now by Nikki Giovanni (raised in Cincinnati, Ohio)
“Ever since she was a little girl attending three different churches, poet Nikki Giovanni has loved the spirituals. With the passion of a poet and the knowledge of a historian, she paints compelling portraits of the lives of her ancestors through the words of songs such as ‘Go Down, Moses’ and ‘Ain’t Got Time to Die,’ celebrating a people who overcame enslavement and found a way to survive, to worship, and to build.” – Publisher’s Summary
Playlist for the Apocalypse by Rita Dove (Akron, Ohio)
“In her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America's, and the world's, experiments in democracy. Whether depicting the first Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice or Black Lives Matter, this extraordinary poet never fails to connect history's grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives—the simmering resentment of an elevator operator, an octogenarian's exuberant mambo, the mordant humor of a philosophizing cricket. Audaciously playful yet grave, alternating poignant meditations on mortality and acerbic observations of injustice, Playlist for the Apocalypse takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to apocalyptic failures of the human soul.” – Publisher’s Summary
Stay and Fight by Madeline ffitch (Athens, Ohio)
“Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy―her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss―and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust must end. So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her―they’ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family. Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system.” – Publisher’s Summary
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper (Cincinnati, Ohio)
“Tigers don’t cry—or do they? After the death of his longtime friend and fellow Hazelwood Tiger in a car accident, Andy, the driver, blames himself and cannot get past his guilt and pain. While his other friends have managed to work through their grief and move on, Andy allows death to become the focus of his life. In the months that follow the accident, the lives of Andy and his friends are traced through a series of letters, articles, homework assignments, and dialogues, and it becomes clear that Tigers do indeed need to cry.” – Publisher’s Summary
This Is the Rope by Jacqueline Woodson (Nelsonville, Ohio)
“During the time of the Great Migration, millions of African American families relocated from the South, seeking better opportunities. The story of one family’s journey north during the Great Migration starts with a little girl in South Carolina who finds a rope under a tree one summer. She has no idea the rope will become part of her family’s history. But for three generations, that rope is passed down, used for everything from jump rope games to tying suitcases onto a car for the big move north to New York City, and even for a family reunion where that first little girl is now a grandmother.” – Publisher’s Summary