Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Death of a Wild Swimmer by Peter Boland
Still waters run deep in this baffling new case for the Charity Shop Detective Agency!
Wild swimming in February? No, thank you. It sounds like torture to Fiona, Daisy and Partial Sue, the retired ladies behind the counter at Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop.
Still, no one ever died of plunging into the icy waters around the sleepy little English town of Southbourne.
Until now.
The body of Colin Barclay, retired PE master and wild-swimming fanatic, washes up in a secluded cove.
Days later, a shifty new customer comes calling at Dogs Need Nice Homes. Is this where you solve murders? She asks, her eyes darting wildly round the shelves of bric-a-brac. I think I have one . . .
This woman belongs to Colin’s swimming club — and she’s convinced his death was no accident. It was murder.
She just needs the ladies to dive in and help her prove it . . .
Fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood, Janice Hallett, Simon Brett, Ian Moore and Sarah Yarwood-Lovett will adore this exciting new talent in cozy crime.
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Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Blooms, Shadows, and Stars by Cathy Haynes
A celebration of circadian rhythms. British curator, artist, and educator Haynes, who has served as timekeeper in residence at University College London’s Petrie Museum, makes an engaging book debut with a naturalist’s view of marking time. Ranging widely around England, Scotland, and Iceland, Haynes becomes newly attentive to the ways plants and animals respond to changes in light and seasons. She listens to layers of song that build as birds join the dawn chorus, and to the sounds of owls and bats at night. She notices the regular unfolding of flowers–the primrose in the evening, and many flowers, including the daisy, at predictable times during the day. Linnaeus and other scientists tried to create floral clocks based on the movement of petals, most recently at the Botanical Garden in Bern, Switzerland. The Cambridge University Botanic Garden Circadian Beds are planted with flowers that give off scents, half in the morning, half in the evening, possibly an adaptation for attracting pollinators. Sundials have served as rudimentary clocks since ancient times: a stick in the turf or a spike stuck into a wall with lines scratched beneath could suffice to mark time by the movement of shadows. Humans contrived ways both to ascertain time and keep time: In northern Scotland, Haynes hears songs and chants sung by weavers, millers, and knitters to accompany their work. Assuming that sunlight was of primary importance in telling time, Haynes is surprised to discover the colors and qualities of twilight, which have given rise to three gradations: civil twilight, when it is too dim to read and the brightest stars emerge; nautical twilight, when the atmosphere is too dark to see the horizon; and astronomical twilight, when the faintest stars appear. Curiosity and enthusiasm impel a foray into the natural world. – Kirkus Review
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In Stormy Weather: A Novel by Chelsea Curto
Quincy Monroe has a PhD in atmospheric sciences, a successful weather show online, and millions of followers on social media–and she still gets grief from men questioning her credentials. When her dream job opens up at the National Weather Service, she quashes her doubts and submits an application. Nothing can stop her now, except maybe Sebastian Dunn. Sebastian is a New York City TV weatherman with his own set of fans–and Quincy’s best friend’s brother, who’s been Quincy’s academic and professional rival since high school. Back in their hometown to film a documentary on the hurricane season, he shows up everywhere Quincy does, chasing the same storms as well as the same NWS job. As they endure record-breaking storms together, Quincy begins to question everything she thought she knew about Seb. Is it possible he’s not the self-absorbed clout chaser she thought he was? Does it even matter, if they’re both trying for the same prestigious job?
VERDICT Curto’s (“D.C. Stars” series) first traditionally published book is a page-turner, sure to appeal to fans of Ali Hazelwood’s women-in-STEM books, as well as those who enjoy antagonists-to-lovers romances.–Starred Library Journal Review
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Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson
Jackson (Pineapple Street) offers sharp social commentary on millennials navigating middle age, set in a close-knit Massachusetts beach town. Caroline, an outsider, narrates much of the story, with other voices offering their perspectives. The daughter of a bestselling author, Caroline is determined to forge her own literary identity. After publishing a story in the New Yorker, she quits her publishing job and wins a prestigious writing fellowship that comes with a stay in a seaside cottage once owned by a legendary local writer. There she meets Van, a passionate environmentalist, and is drawn into his circle of longtime friends. As she immerses herself in their world–and falls in love with Van–initially guarded relationships soften. Everything shifts when one of Van’s friends reveals she is pregnant with his child. Though Caroline and Van navigate the pregnancy, things change after the baby’s birth, and Caroline lashes out the only way she knows how: through her writing. Her thinly veiled short story, based on Van’s friends, detonates the small town. Hidden truths surface, relationships fracture, and everyone is forced to reckon with what they’ve been avoiding.
VERDICT Fueled by humor, sex, and drugs, this pointed, character-driven novel will appeal to fans of Emma Straub or Taffy Brodesser-Akner.–Starred Library Journal Review
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Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins
The Mojave Desert is Watkins’ muse and the setting for her spiky novels. In her third, following I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness (2021), Rose has returned to the pitiless Nevada desert after the demise of her marriage and the painful decision to have her daughter live on the East Coast with her father during the school year. Rose has been working for the Sierra Club but feels like “a flunky for the nonprofit-corporate-industrial complex.”” She prefers the scrappy eco-activists occupying Yellow Pine, an enormous commercial solar installation on public land that is causing the deaths of desert tortoises, among other abominations. After her first love reappears, Rose wants a second child, but he balks. Both are deep thinkers tormented by crimes against the planet and humanity. How to keep from plunging into despair? How to cultivate hope and love? Churning with Rose’s ethical, profane, furious, funny, and cosmic reflections and forays into desert geology, ancient goddess cultures, and numerous books, Watkins’ keen and righteous novel wrestles with myriad paradoxes, spirituality, and how ecocide does “deep, grievous injury to the collective soul.” — Booklist 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.
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Information on the four library catalogs
The Digital Catalog aka Libby: https://stls.overdrive.com/
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.
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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
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.
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Kanopy Catalog: https://www.kanopy.com/en
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).
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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org
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.

















