Flights of Imagination Picks for Adults

Adventure is in the air! This summer, let your imagination soar with a citywide reading challenge, fun-filled events, fantastic prizes and unexpected literary journeys. Spread your wings, turn the page and take flight—your adventure awaits at CLP! Check out these books all about flight – real or imagined.  


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Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel

The color of one’s skin and passport have long dictated the conditions of travel. For Shahnaz Habib, travel and travel writing have always been complicated pleasures. Habib threads the history of travel with her personal story as a child on family vacations in India, an adult curious about the world, and an immigrant for whom roundtrips are an annual fact of life. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla.


The Big Hop: The First Non-Stop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean and Into the Future

In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in “the Big Hop”: an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying sixteen-hour flight, made it to Ireland. 


The Bird Book: the Stories, Science, and History of Birds

This book explores: Both the natural history of birds and that deep cultural connection. From their evolution and anatomy to their behavior and diversity. Hawks, finches, swans, or birds of paradise, moving the focus away from a predictable species-by-species account and allowing for truly global coverage. 


Birding with Benefits

Newly-divorced, almost-empty-nester Celeste is finally seeking adventure and putting herself first, cliches be damned. So when a friend asks Celeste to “partner” with his buddy John for an event, Celeste throws herself into the role of his temporary girlfriend. But quiet cinnamon roll John isn’t looking for love, just birds-he needs a partner for Tucson’s biggest bird-watching contest if he’s ever going to launch his own guiding business 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby 


Dragon Rider

Jai lives as a royal hostage in the Sabine court ever since his father, Rohan, leader of the Steppefolk, led a failed rebellion and was executed by the emperor whom Jai now serves. When the emperor’s son and heir is betrothed to Pricess Erica of the neighboring Dansk Kingdom, she brings with her a dowry: dragons. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla and in eAudio on Hoopla. 


The Improvisers: A Murder and Magic Novel

Velma Frye is many things. A pilot, a former bootlegger, a well-seasoned traveler, a jazz pianist…and a wielder of celestial magic. She’s also a member of the mystical Rhodes family as well as an investigator for arcane oddities for a magic rights organization, dealing with both simple and complicated cases. And when a pocket watch instigates a magical brawl after one of her flight shows, things become very complicated. 


Kinning

“Kinning,” the sequel to Nisi Shawl’s acclaimed debut novel “Everfair,” continues the stunning alternate history where barkcloth airships soar through the sky, varied peoples build a new society together, and colonies claim their freedom from imperialist tyrants. The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes’ stories are far from done.

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla. 


Lonely Planet Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories

Explore 50 of the most unique libraries located in unknown spaces across the world in this book for travel-loving bibliophiles. From China’s lonely library on a secluded beach to a roving military tank filled with 900 novels in Buenos Aires, this inspirational guide celebrates the great lengths humans will go to to assure access to books. 


My Pisces Heart: A Black Immigrant's Search for Home Across Four Continents

Jennifer Neal was born in the United States to a family that moved continuously for their own survival and well-being–from the Great Migration to the twenty-first century. As an adult, she has continued to travel the world as a Black queer woman, across two decades and four countries–from Japan to the US and then Australia to Germany, where she has settled for now.  


Ocean's Godori

Ocean Yoon has never felt very Korean, even if she is descended from a long line of haenyeo, Jeju Island’s beloved female divers. She doesn’t like soju, constantly misses cultural references, and despite her love of the game, people still say that she doesn’t play Hwatu like a Korean. Ocean’s also persona non grata at the Alliance, Korea’s solar system-dominating space agency, since a mission went awry and she earned a reputation for being a little too quick with her gun 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla. 




The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West

In 1987, when she inherits a piece of land, Emma finds a small plane in disrepair and her great uncle’s journal that tells the story of Livy Jones, the woman who piloted his plane when he fell ill, and, with new purpose, works to secure Livy’s place in the aviation hall of fame. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby, eBook on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Hoopla.  


Water Moon

A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets–and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.