P.S. Some of the print books & physical media items may not yet appear in StarCat. So, if you see any title you’d like to check out, but it isn’t in StarCat, send me an email or give me a call and I’ll put your name on the list for it, as soon as it has arrived.
P.S.S. The three digital catalogs are:
The Digital Catalog found online at https://stls.overdrive.com/ and its companion app Libby found in mobile app stores.
The Hoopla Catalog found online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/ and its companion app, also called Hoopla and found in mobile app stores.
Kanopy: The streaming video catalog found online at https://www.kanopy.com/ and its companion app, also called Kanopy, found in mobile app stores.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Before You Were Anne by Emiko Jean
After a woman is killed and her daughter vanishes, detective Chelsey Calhoun uncovers a legacy of violence and survival that spans from Japan to Seattle in this propulsive novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Return of Ellie Black.
A murdered woman. A missing daughter. A truth buried across two continents.
Married, pregnant, and thriving in her career, Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life finally feels whole, until an explosive new case shatters everything. A mother is dead. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Naomi, has disappeared. And the search will awaken questions about Chelsey’s own origins—questions she’s spent a lifetime afraid to ask.
The victim called herself Anne Walker. But she was born Rika Takahashi, and her journey from a remote Japanese farm to suburban Seattle conceals decades of deception. Across Tokyo’s shadowed underworld, an isolated Idaho town, and years of carefully constructed lies, Rika reinvented herself at every turn. But she was always running—from someone, or something.
Now, Chelsey must find Naomi before she becomes the next victim. But the deeper she delves into Rika’s hidden life, the more she discovers: some secrets are worth killing for. And the most dangerous truths may be the ones closest to home.
Told in three interwoven voices, Before You Were Anne is a gripping suspense novel about the lies that bind families and the sins that echo across generations.
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Paper Ghosts by Sarah Addison Allen
Over the generations, the reclusive Wester matriarchs are feared by their neighbors, as they seem to have second sight, knowing personal things about others and using this information to manipulate them. In 1976, Alice Wester is raising her granddaughter Willamena “Wills” Wester and controlling her life, including the man she is supposed to marry, only allowing Wills to choose her friends. When Wills is betrayed by those friends and rebels against Alice by planning to leave, a tragedy occurs, tying Wills to Wester House. Years later, Wills vows not to make the same mistakes with her own granddaughter Bailey, who, along with her father, Wills’s son, comes to live with her when Bailey’s mother dies. However, to protect Bailey, she repeats her grandmother’s mistake, sending Bailey away until Bailey returns and learns the truth about her grandmother’s past and her own life-changing night. Allen slowly reveals secrets, showing the lengths a family will go to protect their own.
VERDICT Allen’s (Other Birds) latest atmospheric, compelling novel is populated with well-drawn characters, including ghosts, and laced with magical realism. It’s sure to please her fans as well as those of Alice Hoffman.–Library Journal Review
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Promised Land by Henry Wise
The mysterious disappearance of Georgia swamp-dweller Lucas “Rainbo” Boon creates a pressure cooker of conflict in Edgar winner Wise’s expert sequel to Holy City. After Rainbo’s truck is found crashed and bloodstained in the Snakefoot swamp, Sheriff Mills launches an investigation with the help of his deputies, Will Seems and Tania Jameson. As the search party—including Rainbo’s troubled teenage grandson, Buck, and Buck’s anxious mother, Diane—plunges into the treacherous swamp, already-strained family bonds among Rainbo’s kin fray further. Eventually, Buck and a local woman named Arlene Davis, both skilled trackers, lead Will to a remote camp where chilling discoveries deepen the mystery. When Rainbo is found gravely wounded and the FBI uncovers his hidden identity, the investigation draws the surrounding community into a web of betrayal and violence that puts Buck in harm’s way. Wise’s vivid evocation of the Southern landscape and nuanced cast of flawed, fully realized characters imbue his sophomore novel with brooding suspense and emotional depth, solidifying him as a formidable voice in literary crime fiction. It’s a home run. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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A Time of Witches by Madeline Martin
Two women, bound by blood and betrayal, must break silence across centuries—or be silenced forever, in the dazzling new novel by New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin.
Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening – plants turn toward her touch, animals linger in her path, and the birthmark on her arm has started tingling. Worse still is her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake.
Her search for answers brings her from Savannah to England, to the decaying Brackenmere Manor where the past blurs with the present. There, Lilith discovers a legacy she never asked for and along with it, the threat of peril. History must be rewritten, or she too will die.
In 1645 Suffolk, Sybil Brantham stands accused as a witch. An educated, wealthy widow, she is branded a threat by men who fear her independence. As arrests begin and suspicion abounds, Sybil must protect her younger sister, even as betrayal takes root within her household.
Across centuries, Lilith and Sybil are bound by blood and by danger. To save themselves, and each other, they must confront the silence that has stolen women’s power for generations—and dare to claim their voices before it’s too late.
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Under Story by Chloe Benjamin
Benjamin (The Immortalists) blends speculative fiction and romance in this sui generis story of an erstwhile couple who discover a parallel universe. Laurel Salter, a mycologist, divorces her physicist husband, Eli, leaves her position at U-W Madison, and takes a job as a dishwasher at the remote McMurdo Station in Antarctica, determined to get as far away as possible from her life. (Benjamin hints early on that Laurel suffered a devastating loss, the details of which are gradually revealed.) One day, researchers discover a coruscating light source, which they dub the Arc. News of the phenomenon draws physicists to the base, including Eli, much to Laurel’s chagrin. Because the Arc gives off inverted neutrinos, Eli thinks it proves his theory that there is a mirror universe, a Duoverse, where time runs backward. Laurel, stirred by Eli’s passion for his theory, persuades him to enter the Arc with her, and they find themselves in another realm where time indeed flows in reverse. Their goal is to stay for three years and undo the tragedy that tore them apart, then return to the known universe. Benjamin holds the reader’s attention with well-conceived depictions of the Duoverse, where people age in reverse from death to birth, but the heart of the story is in Laurel and Eli’s desperate attempt to mend their lives and recover their love. This captivates.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is our streamlined weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
First off the music, this week and album:
Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) by Bob Dylan
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie Safety Last! (1923)
Here is the movie:
About Formats: Safety Last! Can be streamed, obviously on YouTube with a new score; and also by the usual mainstream streaming services and checked out and streamed via the library’s streaming service Kanopy. It may also be purchased on regular or Blu-ray DVD.
About The Movie: Safety Last! (1923) is a silent film classic produced by Elmira native Hal Roach and starring comedian Harold Lloyd.
It is one of the most popular films of the silent film era and includes the iconic scene of Harold Lloyd hanging from a large clock tower clock, while viewers can see the traffic below and the city around him.
The movie’s humor starts with its title Safety Last! – the phrase “Safety First”, being a common phrase of the era that promoted the idea of implementing safety measures to avoid workplace accidents. In the film Lloyd doesn’t put safety first to comedic effect.
About Harold Lloyd: Harold Lloyd was born April 20, 1893, in Burchard, Nebraska to James Darsie Lloyd and Sarah Elisabeth Fraser. Lloyd’s parents divorced when he was a boy and he moved with his father to San Diego, California. Lloyd graduated from high school and then, in keeping with his childhood love of theater; dove right into the performing arts; as a young man he worked for the Edison Film Company. His first appearance in a movie was in the Edison film The Old Monk’s Tale (1914) which saw him portraying an Indian.
During the teens Lloyd met and became friends with filmmaker Hal Roach and his career took off. Inspired by Chaplin’s Tramp character; Lloyd’s and Roach created a humorous, bumbling character named “Lonesome Luke,” for Lloyd to play. The Lonesome Luke shorts were very popular with movie goers; but as the decade went on Lloyd made the decision to move away from that character and instead created an upbeat, enthusiastic, bespectacled every-day type of character, usually referred to as Harold in film credits; who encounters humorous situations, but who isn’t humorous in and of himself. This new character became even more popular than Lonesome Luke and appeared in numerous films including From Hand to Mouth (1919), Captain Kidd’s Kids (1919), Grandma’s Boy (1922), Why Worry (1923) and Safety Last! (1923).
Lloyd left the Roach company in 1924, founded his own production company; The Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Company; became an independent filmmaker and successfully made the transition to talking films starting with the movie Welcome Danger (1929). In the 1930s he continued to make movies including Feet First (1930), Movie Crazy (1932) and The Cats-Paw (1934). He sold his studio in 1937 and went on to produce movies for Paramount and RKO and host a radio show, The Old Gold Comedy Theater before retiring in 1947.
Harold Lloyd died March 8, 1971 in Beverly Hills, California and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California.
About Hal Roach: In brief, Harold Eugene Roach was born in Elmira, New York on January 14, 1892.
As a youth he showed an adventurous streak traveling solo to Alaska and then down the Pacific Coast to San Diego. Roach landed in Hollywood in 1912 and launched his career by appearing as an extra in silent films. In 1914 he co-founded the Rolin Film Company with Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance, and the following year he produced his first successful short Just Nuts (1915). In 1920, he inherited $3,000 and was able to pursue his passion to create films with enthusiasm by founding the Hal Roach Studios; shortly thereafter he began making the Lonesome Luke shorts with his friend Harold Lloyd and his career took off.
Roach made more than 2,000 shorts during his career; including some of the most successful films of the 1920s and 1930s; among the most popular and influential of these are the Harold Lloyd films, the Our Gang films (aka The Little Rascals), movie shorts starring Will Rogers and films starring Laurel & Hardy.
Hal Roach died in Los Angeles on November 2, 1992 and is buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Barn Gothic: Three Generations and the Death of the Family Dairy Farm by Ryan Dennis
When Ryan Dennis’s father was crushed by heavy machinery on their New York dairy farm, both men accepted the accident as a risk of agricultural life. But it was harder to comprehend being crushed by low milk prices, big banks, and the policies that destroyed America’s family farms.
Even though Ryan grew up watching his father and grandfather struggle to survive, he always thought he would follow in their footsteps and take over the family farm. But as he milked cows and fed calves, the world outside the barn was changing. Between 2003 and 2020, 40,000 dairy farms went out of business in the United States.
Barn Gothic is an elegy for family farmers and an intimate portrait of three generations laboring to be fathers and sons while their livelihood falls apart. Beautifully told with a farmer’s restraint and a poet’s grace, it is a story of personal loss amid corporate corruption and of finding a way forward when everything you know disappears.
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Dey: A Novel by Edwidge Danticat
“Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die?” These questions haunt Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. When she hears gunfire while at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a nearby restaurant, cowering with fellow shoppers and diners. Once she’s safely home, Magnolia keeps this traumatic event from everyone. But given her life back, she begins to see everything clearly: her extraordinary bond with her daughter, Zoë; her nearly broken relationship with Zoë’s father; the challenges of her mentally troubled mother, whose unraveling patterns Magnolia worries she’s spiraling toward herself; and her father’s affair with a woman who has borne him a child. While struggling through the labyrinth of her past, Magnolia must also come to terms with the losses sustained that life-altering day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti.
Can love or family protect us from harm? Does optimism or fear win out in one’s heart? Which side will prevail for Magnolia? Pulled between these questions, each of which involves a high-stakes choice—Miami or Haiti, single or married, mortal or ghost, before or after—Magnolia is a narrator who is “yon pati koukouy, part firefly”: flitting and shimmering between different worlds.
Taking as its title a Haitian Kreyòl word for mourning, Dèy is a profoundly warm and moving novel about the importance not only of sharing grief but also of inseverable family ties. Brave and striking, Dèy is one of Danticat’s most powerful and deeply affecting works yet, told with her signature “unfaltering voice and evocative beauty” (The Boston Globe).
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The Night Hunter by Natalie Moss
Dani and Grace grew up on a game preserve in South Africa, where their mother dedicated her life to her anti-poaching foundation. After a childhood accident leaves Grace permanently disfigured, Dani flees with their father to London. She and Grace become increasingly distant, especially after their mother remarries. When their mother dies, the girls reluctantly agree to honor her by undertaking a safari with friends–a trip that will take them through their mother’s preserve to their old home. But from the moment the safari begins, things go wrong. The group’s vehicle is destroyed, meaning they must trek on foot through the unforgiving African terrain; there are threats from both humans and animals; and murder and violence abound. In this gripping and turbulent saga, the suspense, uncertainty, and danger increase to a heart-palpitating intensity until the end, which brings reconciliation when the two sisters discover their mother’s darkest secrets. Gory, gruesome, terrifying, and action-packed, this book is not for the fainthearted, but those interested in South Africa, wild animals, illegal poaching, and family trauma will relish Moss’ adventure story. – Booklist Review
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There’s Only One Sin In Hollywood: A Novel by Rasheed Newson
Newson’s second captivating novel, following My Government Means to Kill Me (2022), is about a closeted Black fixer’s quest to reveal the truth behind the untimely demise of a queer movie star. As the story unfolds, the author explores Hollywood and queer Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s. Aaron Touissant fell in love with movies as a boy and eventually landed a job as a handler for Skyline Studios’ Black talent. His biggest assignment is rising star Xavier C. Barlow, the studio’s answer to Sidney Poitier and a man willing to take risks for his beliefs. The tension rises as Xavier is cast in a biopic close to Aaron’s heart, and he decides to take over the project. Newson weaves an engrossing story of sex, race, power, and ambition, showcasing a who’s who of Black Hollywood and dropping readers into the midst of pre-Stonewall raids on gay bars and erotic encounters in bathrooms and city parks. Ultimately, this is a tale of how far the powerful will go to protect themselves and whose stories end up on the cutting-room floor. – Booklist Review
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Under an Afghan Sky by Melissa Fung
In October 2008, Mellissa Fung, a long-time reporter for CBC’s The National, was leaving a refugee camp outside of Kabul. Suddenly, she was grabbed by armed men claiming to be Taliban, stabbed, stuffed into the back of a car and driven off into the desert. When the group finally reached a village in the middle of nowhere, her kidnappers pushed her towards a hole in the ground. For twenty-eight days, Mellissa Fung lived in that hole, which was barely big enough to stand up or lie down in, nursing her injuries, praying, writing in her notebook and, as a veteran journalist, interrogating her own captors. Under an Afghan Sky is the gripping tale of Fung’s days in captivity, and a powerful book about survival and the indomitable spirit of one woman in the most perilous of circumstances.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is our streamlined weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
First off the music, this week the album:
Saxophone Colossus (1957) by Sonny Rollins
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is: The Lion in Winter (1968):
And here is the trailer:
Available Formats: The Lion in Winter may be streamed through the usual streaming services and through the library’s streaming video service/app – Kanopy. It also available from the library on DVD.
About The Movie: The movie set in England during the Christmas season of 1183, tells the story of a scheming family consisting of of King Henry II of England (Peter O’Toole), his wife Queen Eleanor (Katherine Hepburn in an Oscar winning role) and their three rebellious sons Prince Richard (Anthony Hopkins), Prince Geoffrey (Nigel Terry) and Prince John (John Castle).
The big question under discussion in the family is which son will succeed the aging Henry as king. King Henry favors Prince John, Queen Eleanor favors Prince Richard and neither parent favors Prince Geoffrey, much to his displeasure. Joining the family for the drama as they argue and plot; are the young French Princess Alais (Jane Merrow), who is King Henry’s mistress and betrothed to Prince Richard; and Alais’s half brother King Phillip of France (Timothy Dalton).
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Background Viewing Stream
Summer Beach Sunset Campfire Escape
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Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Hi everyone, just a quick FYI post – the fall book sale, hosted by the Friends of the Southeast Steuben County Library starts this Saturday, August 22 and is being held at the Union Hall in Corning; which if you’re not familiar with the location – is within walking distance of the library – if you head out the library’s Civic Center Plaza door and walk kitty corner to your right – you’ll run right into the Union Hall!
Here is the listing of the dates and times of the sale:
Kudos to the Friends for all their hard work in setting up and hosting the sale and in creating this terrific map of where items are located!!
You’ll find great books and other items at the sale – mysteries, romances, local interest books, biographies, audiobooks, DVDs, puzzles and more!
Have a great day and see you at the book sale!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
P.S. Accepted payment methods for the book sale: If you’re like me you probably make electronic payments, debit or card cards etc., while you’re out and about and don’t use cash – and I think a lot of us do that today – so be aware that the book sale does not accept digital payments – they’ll take cash or a check – just FYI so you can be prepared and take your check book with you!
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Freight: A Novel by Ryan Lowell
DEBUT Lowell’s debut features a dynamic cast of characters who are all struggling to lead their best lives despite flaws and deeply held secrets that keep each of them perpetually on the brink of disaster. Curtis, an overnight dispatcher for Maine-based trucking company Hart Logistics, is teetering toward alcohol addiction and trapped in a deteriorating marriage. He views his job as beneath him, even though he is one mistake away from being fired. Theo, one of his drivers, is trying to start a family, but things are complicated in no small part by his affair with Sarah, a local woman desperate for attention and currently accompanying Theo on a long-haul run to Quebec. Another driver, Phil, is seeking refuge on the road after his wife left him, even if it means violating safety protocols by pushing well beyond his legal driving limit. And Billy Trask is looking to use them all, whatever the cost, to pull off the heist of a lifetime.
VERDICT A fast-paced caper steeped in grim humor with characters who aren’t just carrying baggage; they’re hauling full-scale emotional freight. Will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen, Lou Berney, and Joe Ide.–Library Journal Review
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God’s Country by William Kent Krueger (Cork O’Connor Series, No. 22)
Cork O’Connor, preparing for a family trip into the Boundary Waters, is troubled by ominous visions about his future. Ignoring the warnings, he uncovers signs of violence while searching for his missing friend, Cordell Bishop. Soon, he is forced to negotiate with dangerous criminals, the Kennedy brothers, who are seeking their late father’s hidden stash.
Facing escalating danger and difficult choices, Cork grapples with his darkest instincts as he helps others escape and eventually takes justice into his own hands. God’s Country is an action-packed thrill ride that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
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Our Marriage Is Murder by Carol Goodman
In Goodman’s (Writers and Liars) latest, husband-and-wife writing team Fred and Thea Morgan-Lane are attending a mystery-writers’ conference at an Italian castle that was the setting for the couple’s first book, Death Takes the Castle. Their series “Death Takes a Holiday” is up for an award at the conference, but after 20 books and 20 years of marriage, things are falling apart personally and professionally for Fred and Thea. Before the award winner can be announced, the conference coordinator dies, having drunk a cocktail meant for Thea. Thea, who earlier told Fred she wants to end the series and their marriage, wonders if she is worth more to him dead than alive. Despite the tragedy, the conference continues and so does the scheduled treasure hunt. As attendees scour the castle grounds for clues, more deaths occur. It soon becomes clear that the killer is drawing on Death Takes the Castle. With their relationship on shaky ground, Fred and Thea must work together to stop someone from using their book as a guide to murder.
VERDICT Goodman’s entertaining plot is a great combination of adventure and suspense. Recommended for fans of Frances and Richard Lockridge’s classic “Mr. and Mrs. North” mysteries.–Library Journal Review
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A Moment in the Sun: Black Manhattan Before the Civil War by Shane White
A Moment in the Sun dispels the pernicious narrative that in New York City, slavery was followed by a hundred years of poverty and destitution.
Dispelling the persistent narrative that abject poverty followed the end of slavery in New York City, acclaimed historian Shane White finally sets the historical record straight. A Moment in the Sun, a revisionist and immersive retelling of antebellum Manhattan, depicts a long-forgotten, nineteenth-century era when ordinary Black men and women, now free, “stood a brief moment in the sun” (W. E. B. Du Bois), ushering in a roughly half-century period when New York City bulged and thrummed with Black creativity and achievement nearly a hundred years before the storied Harlem Renaissance.
Culling a narrative from thousands of fragmentary sources gathered over three decades of research, White conjures the distant world of these Black New Yorkers, from the streets where dandies flaunted their signature style to a rollicking dance cellar on a Friday night in the Five Points neighborhood. “In a city still rife with racism and violence,” White writes, “ordinary African New Yorkers―among them oystermen, petty entrepreneurs, fortune-tellers, and ‘confidence men’―brought into being a free urban Black culture.” Along the way, White introduces us to a notable parade of characters who helped transform Gotham into a booming urban metropolis, among them Thomas Downing, the “Oyster King of New York”; Mary Thompson, who ran a cookshop out of her cellar; and Cato Alexander, whose tavern provided cocktails and carriage races to a diverse clientele.
As these people, languages, and cultures mixed in the so-called amalgamated city, racial tensions heightened and often exploded, but this friction helped facilitate a cultural melding that was extensive. To a startling degree, White reveals the myriad ways this first attempt at integration in New York City actually worked.
A triumph of historical reclamation, A Moment in the Sun paints a pointillist portrait of this time in New York history, one that presents an entirely different story that was waiting to emerge from the archive. And in bringing to vivid life these Black New Yorkers and their eponymous moment in the sun, this shimmering history preserves their memory and, in the words of Caleb Gayle, “takes us into the experiment in freedom whose possibilities could have and should have lasted generations.”
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Plant Lady by Minyoung Kang
This addictive South Korean import is part horror story, part noir mystery, and part women’s revenge tale. In the quiet neighborhood of Dosan-gu, Yoohee opens the Plant Shop, where she has a loving relationship with each plant. The shop becomes a popular attraction both in the city and on the web. After architect Hoyoung consults with Yoohee on a new project, the two fall in love. When Hoyoung mindlessly pulls leaves off her beloved plants, Yoohee gets rid of him, literally. Yoohee soon discovers that the young women who wander into her store are being mentally and physically abused by the men in their lives. She resolves to help these women take their revenge. Yoohee’s ingenious methods make the men disappear. When police Inspector Dokyung investigates a number of cases of missing men, the only connection seems to be the Plant Shop, but he doesn’t see how the mousy Yoohee fits in. When her childhood abuser comes into her shop, Yoohee must deal with him while playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the detective and the reader. This atmospheric, twisty, and darkly humorous novel has a strong message about men’s abuse of women. Readers of relationship fiction will be cheering for Yoohee and her plants. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is the our second newly streamlined weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
First off the music, this week the album:
In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning (1955) by Frank Sinatra
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie:
The Kid (1921).
Here is the trailer:
About Formats: You can request a DVD of the film via StarCat https://starcat.stls.org or stream it through the library’s streaming video service Kanopy either online at https://www.kanopy.com or by downloading the Kanopy app from your app store.
About The Movie: Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin and starring Charlie Chaplin (1889 – 1977) and a cute kid – then child actor Jackie Coogan (1914 – 1984); who later appeared in the memorable role of Uncle Fester in the 1960s Addams Family TV series. The Kid was Chaplin’s first full-length movie and told the tale of an unwed mother leaving her infant son, with a note, in an expensive car, only for thieves to steal the car and the child to wind up being recused by Chaplin’s character.
About Charlie Chaplin: Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889, in London, England, the son of actor parents Charles Chaplin & Hannah Hill. Charlie had a rough childhood; his father died when he and his older half-brother Sydney were young boys; and their mother’s mental health challenges saw her committed to an asylum leaving the brothers to face the world on their own.
As a youth Chaplin worked as a Vaudeville performer and in 1910 traveled to New York, to tour as a member of the Fred Karno Company. In 1913, he was hired by the Keystone Film Company for $150 a week.; and it quickly became apparent that Chaplin was a natural in the newly emerging field of (silent) filmmaking. Between 1915 and 1917 Chaplin worked for several film companies making humorous short films and introducing his signature character The Tramp, a lovable a young man with a mustache in a suit and bowler hat who frequently finds himself in humorous situations.
In 1917, Chaplin decided to become an independent filmmaker in order to gain greater creative control over his work. After producing several more short films, he released The Kid (1921), widely regarded as his first feature-length film and one of his masterpieces. He followed it with a remarkable series of films that are also considered classics of the silent era, including A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), and Modern Times (1936). In 1940, he released his first “talkie” or talking film, The Great Dictator. During this period, Chaplin became one of the most celebrated and influential actors and filmmakers in the world.
Chaplin was one of the brightest and most influential stars of the silent film era; but by the early 1940s films, that era had passed as movie making technology had advanced to offering films with recorded sound; and that combined with Chaplin being involved in two sensational public controversies, a false paternity suit with a subsequent acrimonious trial; and his fourth marriage to an 18-year-old actress, Oona O’Neill; daughter of the famous playwright Eugne O’Neill – saw Chaplin’s popularity as filmmaker sharply decline in the 1940s.
In 1952 Chaplin was traveling from the U.S. to Europe and learned that he was going to be denied reentry to the U.S. upon his return. So, Chaplin, O’Neill and their growing family; which eventually included eight children, moved to Switzerland and Chaplin continued making films until shortly before he died in 1977.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
Cozy London Cafe
Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Dominion by Jean Kwok
Rubi Morningtail has no memories from before the Annihilation that destroyed her home and forced her to migrate to the Silver Tyger Dominion. Making her way with her ribbon-dancing and a little singing magic, Rubi and her guardian Edith are barely getting by. When a raging battle tyger appears on her doorstep and Rubi wounds her, the metal mage Blake Axefire has Rubi thrown into the Bonding, where tygers bond with their riders and slaughter everyone else. Surprisingly, Rubi survives and is bonded with the tyger she once hurt. Now Rubi prepares with Blake’s elite group to join other Dominion warriors to reseal the Anchors that keep the demon realm closed. Escaping demons and rebel uprisings are the least of Rubi’s problems, because she must discover the truth about her past and her power, and figure out if the attraction she has for Blake is worth changing her future.
VERDICT Kwok (The Leftover Woman) launches a romantasy trilogy with an intricately crafted magic system and a romance that will keep readers clamoring for the next in the series. – Library Journal Review
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Hot Girls Murder Club: A Novel by Ashley Winstead
Ten years ago, when her younger sister Georgia was brutally murdered, and the Los Angeles police were unable to bring her killer to justice, Sage Scout realized if she wanted justice she would need to deliver it herself. Since then, Sage has become a famous singer/songwriter while simultaneously collecting a circle of friends, all equally talented and driven women, around her. The group soon earns the sobriquet “Hot Girl Murder Club” when, one after another, powerful individuals who have up until now evaded justice suddenly get their karmic comeuppance. However, what begins as a joke quickly becomes very real when LA Police Detective Grey Holloway charges Sage with murder. From this ingenious premise, Winstead (The Future Saints) fashions a wickedly clever novel that not only delivers all the jaw-dropping twists readers crave but also offers up a thoughtful exploration of the costs that can come from taking justice into one’s own hands.
VERDICT Written with a razor-sharp sense of humor and graced with a memorable cast of relatably messy characters, this sleekly plotted novel of suspense is simply superb. – Library Journal Review
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A Summer of Stars by Liana Cincotti
Fake relationship terms and conditions: do not fall in love. After a messy breakup, it feels like the entire world hates tennis superstar Luna Aldridge. With her reputation ruined and her career at risk, the only way to repair it is a PR stunt: fake-dating Hollywood’s golden boy, Kieran Alexander. There’s just one problem … Luna can’t stand him. For Kieran, the feeling is mutual. He’s about to lead a big-screen love story, but his dating history is jeopardizing the film’s success. His team believes the world needs to see him wildly in love. And who better than Luna, the person he loathes most?
Soon, Luna and Kieran spend the summer posing for cameras, sharing red carpets and flying around the world for the tennis circuit. But the more they pretend, the more they question if they can keep their hearts, and their careers, together. Especially with everyone watching …
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We Will See You Bleed: A Novel by Ron Currie
This prequel to The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne (2025) answers a lot of questions readers may have had about how the fictional character, Babs, a stalwart town supporter and grandmother, came to run a drug empire in the Little Canada neighborhood of Waterville, Maine (the neighborhood and town are real). Currie takes us back to 1984, when Babs was a struggling but strong young woman. Times are hard. A strike at the paper mill, the lifeblood of the small town, has been going on for more than a year (the strike is loosely based on the strike around this time in nearby Jay, Maine). Drug dealers and strikebreakers swoop in. The women, led by Babs, are the strong organizers against these forces. Currie often over-describes, and his use of second person singular for Babs’ thoughts and actions (for example, “And so you sat swatting bugs in the heat”) is a confusing and strained literary device. Nevertheless, this novel is a good character study and historical crime story for the patient reader. – Booklist Review
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The Wild Beneath: A Novel by Kelly Anderson
Annie MacLeod always knew she was different, growing up on a sailboat in the Pacific Northwest, navigating by stars and swimming with sea creatures alongside her parents and best friend Evan. But when a tsunami shatters her world, Annie is stranded on land and forced to confront how eccentric she is. In the wreckage, she rescues a wordless man named Walker, who emits a hum only she can hear.
Their connection is instant, electric. Walker’s touch gives Annie visions of the ocean’s hidden world, a life she’s never known but feels inexplicably drawn to. Yet even as she is pulled toward him, Evan—the steadfast love who has always been there—remains on dry land, offering the stability she may have to leave behind. Annie is torn between Evan’s grounding presence and Walker’s magnetic secrets. But then, Walker vanishes, along with the answers she needs about who she really is.
Six years later, Annie has left the sea and buried the past—until Walker’s otherworldly sound returns, pulling her back toward the ocean and the life she abandoned. The truth under the water is more ancient than she ever could have known, and Annie must confront a choice that will test her heart and determine her future.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is the first of our newly streamlined weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one suggested album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading etc. Enjoy!
First off the music, this week and album:
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band: The Complete Set (1923) by King Oliver & his Jazz Band featuring Louis Armstrong (Genre: Jazz/Ragtime)
About King Oliver: Cornetist and bandleader King Oliver was born Joseph Nathan Oliver on December 19, 1881, in Aben, Louisiana. As a young man, he moved to New Orleans, where he performed with dance bands in the city’s famous Storyville district. During the 1910s, he co-founded and led a band with trombonist Edward “Kid” Ory, establishing himself as one of the leading figures in early jazz.
In the 1920s, Oliver relocated to Chicago and formed King Oliver and His Creole Jazz Band. With this ensemble, he made his landmark 1923 recordings—the recommended listening for this week—a collection which contains some of the most influential recordings in jazz history.
The Great Depression, combined with declining health, left Oliver living in poverty during his later years. He died in 1938, but his remarkable recordings and lasting influence on jazz continue to be celebrated today.
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the classic mystery:
The Thin Man (1934) starring William Powell & Myrna Loy
The Thin Man Trailer
About The Movie: The Thin Man (1934) is based upon the Dashiell Hammett book of the same name. The film protagonists are a married couple, Nick & Nora Charles. Nick is a retired detective who married Nora, the scion of a wealthy family; and they enjoy a rich social life with frequent cocktails and dinner parties and a terrific dog named Asta. And when they have time, they solve mysteries. In this first film in the five-film series, the couple is vacationing in New York City during the holiday season and Nick runs into young Dorothy Wynant, the daughter of inventor Clyde Wynant; Clyde being an acquaintance of Nick. Dorothy is concerned because her father left on a business trip three months ago and has not returned nor been heard from since; and the plot unfolds, culminating with a classic unveiling of the murderer at a dinner party. If you’ve never seen it – this is a light, fun film! This film can be streamed from the usual streaming services and is also available to be checked out through the library on regular & Blu-ray DVDs.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
Reading by the Fire in Summer
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Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 