Mystery Takes Flight this October!
Embark on a shared journey of conversation and discovery with Trumbull County Reads, our annual countywide reading initiative. An engaging series of special events, book discussions, expert speakers, and more activities centered around the featured books and their themes of history, mystery, and aviation are planned throughout the fall!
Trumbull County Reads is a collaboration of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, Newton Falls Public Library, McKinley Memorial Library, Kinsman Free Public Library, Hubbard Public Library, Girard Free Library, and Bristol Public Library.
Pick up an events flyer at any of the participating libraries.
2026 Featured Books
To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower
December 1903: While Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine is quite literally taking off
in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with its historic fifty-seven second flight, their sister Katharine
is back home in Dayton, Ohio, running the bicycle shop, teaching Latin, and looking after
the family. A Latin teacher and suffragette, Katharine is fiercely independent, intellectual,
and the only Wright sibling to finish college. But at twenty-nine, she’s frustrated by the
gender inequality in academia and is looking for a new challenge. She never suspects it will
be sleuthing…Returning home to Dayton, Wilbur and Orville accept an invitation to a
friend’s party. Nervous about leaving their as-yet-unpatented flyer plans unattended, Wilbur
decides to bring them to the festivities . . . where they are stolen right out from under his
nose. As always, it’s Katharine’s job to problem solve—and in this case, crime-solve.
About Author Amanda Flower
Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and three-time Agatha Award-winning author of over 50 mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she has been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World.
Her first Emily Dickinson Mystery, Because I Could Not Stop for Death, was an Agatha Award winner and Mary Higgins Clark Nominee. Her first mystery featuring the Wright Brothers, To Slip the Bonds of Earth, was an Agatha Award and Ohio Book Award winner.
A former librarian, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their adorable cats.
Companion Nonfiction Selection
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun- with the first heavier-than-air powered machine carrying a pilot. Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did? McCullough tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Special Event at Warren Library
History, Mystery, and Inspiration with Author Amanda Flower
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 20th at 6pm
Warren Library
444 Mahoning Ave N.W., Warren, OH 44483
330-399-8807
Bestselling author Amanda Flower will be speaking live and in person at 6 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 20, at the Warren Library (registration is required).
Her presentation will also be livestreamed to the Cortland Library and the Liberty Library.
Flower is an award-winning author of over 50 mystery novels, including the Trumbull County Reads 2026 featured book, To Slip the Bonds of Earth.
Members of Library Friends’ groups from libraries throughout Trumbull County are invited to the Warren Library for a brief welcome reception with Flower at 4:30 p.m. prior to the author’s presentation. Membership to the Warren Library Friends group will be available for purchase at the door.