Beyond the Shelves: Pocket-Sized Powerhouses

Beyond the Shelves: A Podcast from the Des Moines Public Library

Sarah and Jess highlight eight short books under 200 pages to power through the DMPL reading challenge bingo, promote the fall author series, discuss a new bookstore in town, and a new app to track your reading.

Show Notes:

What They're Reading

• Kingdom of Claw by Demi Winters
• American Spirits by Anna Dorn
• It's Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage

2025 Reading Challenge: Short books to get BINGO

• The Thee of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams
• The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
• Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells
• Shady Hollow by Juneau Black
• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
• The Vegetarian by Kang Han
• To learn more about the reading challenge click here

Book Bulletin

• Shelf Love, a new romance bookstore opened in Des Moines
• Page Bound is a new book tracking app that combines goodreads and reddit