Nine Books for Bike to Work Week

The annual celebration of the average bicyclist is coming! Are you ready for Bike to Work Week (May 16-20)? The Dubuque Bike Coop is coming to Carnegie-Stout Public Library to answer your questions about biking and give you the basics on bike care. We hope to see you there on Monday, May 9 at 6 p.m.

In the meantime, we've put together a short reading list for cycling enthusiasts:

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
(YA Fiction Dessen) When Auden impulsively goes to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister the summer before she starts college, all the trauma of her parents' divorce is revived, even as she is making new friends and having new experiences such as learning to ride a bike and dating.

Around the World on Two Wheels by Peter Zheutlin
(Biog Londonderry) For more than a century, the story of the audacious and charismatic Annie Kopchovsky and her attempt to circle the world by wheel has been lost to history. Who was this mysterious young woman on a bike? How did she manage, in the 1890s, to make a trip around the world by bicycle?

Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne

(796.64 BYR) Since the early 1980s, renowned musician and visual artist David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Byrne's choice was initially made out of convenience rather than political motivation, but the more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation, exhilaration, and connection it provided.

Gold by Chris Cleave

(Fiction Cleave) Cyclists Zoe and Kate are friends and athletic rivals for Olympic gold, while Kate and her husband Jack, also a world-class cyclist, must contend with the recurrence of their young daughter's leukemia.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
(Fiction Joinson) In 1923, devout Eva English and her not-so-religious sister Lizzie embark on a journey to be missionaries in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar.

Lanterne Rouge by Max Leonard
(796.62 LEO) Shares the lesser-known stories of last-place finishers in the Tour de France, recounting the inspirational and occasionally absurd events that shaped their efforts.

Life is a Wheel by Bruce Weber
(917.3 WEB) Riding a bicycle across the United States is one of those bucket-list goals that many dream about but few fulfill. In 2011 at the age of fifty-seven, New York Times obituary writer Bruce Weber made the trip alone and wrote about it as it unfolded mile by mile.

The Lost Cyclist by David Herlihy
(Biog Lenz) Herlihy's gripping narrative captures the soaring joys and constant dangers accompanying renowned high-wheel racer and long-distance tourist Frank Lenz in the days before paved roads and automobiles.

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury
(YA Fiction Bradbury) When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating and only one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened.