Required Rhody Reading for September
Back-to-school season is the perfect time to tuck into these books written by local authors.
Illustration via IStock/Getty Images Plus/Mykola Syvak
September marks the beginning of fall, of “sweatah weathah” and crisp temperatures ideal for whiling the day away with a warm cup of cider and a good book (or two!). Here are some of our favorite new titles penned by local authors to add to your TBR pile.
Book cover courtesy of author and publisher.
Searching for Peter Palagi: America’s First Ice Cream Man and Father of the Ice Cream Truck
By Alejandro Arteaga
Alejandro Arteaga, who started working at Palagis Ice Cream Company at age twenty, shares the firm’s history in this heartwarming tale. From Italian immigrant Pietro (Peter) Palagi’s humble beginnings selling ice cream via horse and wagon in 1896 to Arteaga, a Colombian immigrant, buying the business in 1998, he looks at all aspects of the sweet, homegrown legacy and its trucks that still manage to make children, anywhere, stop in their tracks. Stillwater River Publications, May 2025, $16.
Book cover courtesy of author and publisher.
100 Birds of Rhode Island: An Illustrated Guide
By JooHee Yoon
For two years, Providence-based illustrator and designer JooHee Yoon traversed the state — from Swan Point Cemetery to the Norman Bird Sanctuary and places
in between — studying and sketching birds along the way. Her self-published 100 Birds of Rhode Island: An Illustrated Guide is the result of all that crisscrossing — a portable, colorful tome full of the feathered friends who visit Rhode Island and where to view them. You can buy the book from her website: jooheeyoon.bigcartel.com. JooHee Yoon, 2025, $40.
Edgar Allan Poe: The Master of the Macabre
By Levi Lionel Leland
Just in time for Halloween comes a look at OG emo boy — and temporary Providence resident during his courtship of poet Sarah Helen Whitman — Edgar Allan Poe. Author Levi Lionel Leland, a Poe expert who leads a walking tour of Poe’s Providence, rounds out the biography with excerpts of the author’s haunting tales, anecdotes and quotes about the brooding genius. Adams Media; Sept. 23; $16.99.
Book cover courtesy of author and publisher.
the ice stayed but the water left
By Chad Weeden
The debut poetry collection by Rhode Island Monthly contributing photographer Chad Weeden delves into themes of loss, relationships and the mundane moments that make up our lives. “Chad is a poet sensitive to nature in all her vicissitudes, sensitive also to sound and image,” writes Lori Baker Martin, poetry editor of The Midwest Quarterly. “His poems sometimes whisper, sometimes scream.” Broken Tribe Press, January 2025, $12.
Book cover courtesy of author and publisher.
USA Stars & Lights: The Edge of Darkness
By David Zapatka
Since 2013, North Kingstown resident David Zapatka has been snapping atmospheric pictures of lighthouses at night. His latest photographs chronicle the beacons’ eerie and ethereal beauty, from Washington’s North Head Light to Jamestown’s Beavertail Lighthouse. Available at local bookstores and at stars-lights.myshopify.com. United States Lighthouse Society, 2025, $59.99.
