Suggested Reading Five: October 21, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is our third batch of recommended reads that complement the Autumn season – enjoy! 

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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 

Hell. We were always alone. Born alone. Die alone, says Olive Kitteridge, redoubtable seventh-grade math teacher in Crosby, Maine. Anyone who gets in Olive’s way had better watch out, for she crashes unapologetically through life like an emotional storm trooper. She forces her husband, Henry, the town pharmacist, into tactical retreat; and she drives her beloved son, Christopher, across the country and into therapy. But appalling though Olive can be, Strout manages to make her deeply human and even sympathetic, as are all of the characters in this novel in stories. Covering a period of 30-odd years, most of the stories (several of which were previously published in the New Yorker and other magazines) feature Olive as their focus, but in some she is bit player or even a footnote while other characters take center stage to sort through their own fears and insecurities. Though loneliness and loss haunt these pages, Strout also supplies gentle humor and a nourishing dose of hope. People are sustained by the rhythms of ordinary life and the natural wonders of coastal Maine, and even Olive is sometimes caught off guard by lifes baffling beauty. Strout is also the author of the well-received Amy and Isabelle (1999) and Abide with Me (2006). Booklist Review  

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Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf 

In this last novel written before his death in November 2014, acclaimed novelist Haruf (Benediction) captures small-town life to perfection in his signature spare style. Addie Moore and Louis Waters have been neighbors in the eastern Colorado farming town of Holt for over 40 years. Now, alone except for visits from their grown children, Addie has asked Louis to come over every evening and to stay with her in bed, just to get through the lonely nights. Louis is not a risk taker, but he’s lonely, too, and so begins their companionable routine, as they talk not only about trivial matters but also about important things in the past: his affair with a local teacher, her daughter’s death at age 11. Unfortunately, Addie’s bullying son Gene interferes. After leaving his son Jamie with Addie for the summer, during which time the troubled boy’s behavior improves markedly, Gene sees what is going on and issues an ultimatum that forces Addie to make a difficult choice.

VERDICT Haruf gives a delicate touch to Addie and Louis, their enjoyment of simple pleasures, their disappointments and compromises. Poignant and eloquent, this novel resonates beyond the pages. Don’t miss this exceptional work from a literary voice now stilled. – Starred Library Journal Review

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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender 

Taking her very personal brand of pessimistic magical realism to new heights (or depths), Bender’s second novel (following An Invisible Sign of My Own) careens splendidly through an obstacle course of pathological, fantastical neuroses. Bender’s narrator is young, needy Rose Edelstein, who can literally taste the emotions of whoever prepares her food, giving her unwanted insight into other people’s secret emotional lives—including her mother’s, whose lemon cake betrays a deep dissatisfaction. Rose’s father and brother also possess odd gifts, the implications of which Bender explores with a loving and detailed eye while following Rose from third grade through adulthood. Bender has been called a fabulist, but emerges as more a spelunker of the human soul; carefully burrowing through her characters’ layered disorders and abilities, Bender plumbs an emotionally crippled family with power and authenticity. Though Rose’s gift can seem superfluous at times, and Bender’s gustative insights don’t have the sensual potency readers might crave, this coming-of-age story makes a bittersweet dish, brimming with a zesty, beguiling talent. –Publishers Weekly Review

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The Secret Life of Bees  by Sue Kidd Monk

The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl’s journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings


Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted Black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

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The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt 

A theatrically manic poet turns heartbreak into an intellectual endeavor in Hustvedt’s intellectually spry latest (after The Sorrows of an American). Fresh out of the hospital at age 55 following a breakdown brought on by her husband’s departure for a young colleague referred to as “The Pause,” award-winning poet and Columbia professor Mia Fredricksen flees Brooklyn to spend the summer in her Minnesota hometown. There she is in the company of her mother and four other feisty old ladies, the young mother next door, and the seven hormone-addled pubescent girls enrolled in her poetry class at the local arts guild. Mia sorts out her agony as only a scorned woman with a Ph.D. in comparative literature can—by pouring it through a sieve of poets, philosophers, and critical theorists. At times these references eclipse the presence of the narrator herself, but even this absence becomes the basis for philosophical rumination, as Mia corresponds online with the anonymous—and at times abusive—Mr. Nobody. Though initially trapped in a claustrophobic cerebral solitude, Mia opens up, and, in so doing, lets in some much needed air to a constricted narrative, so that instead of being another novel of a woman on the brink, this becomes an adroit take on love, men and women, and girls and women. – Publisher’s Weekly 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.

Suggested Listening & Viewing: October 16, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is our 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! 

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First off the music, this week the album:

Waltz for Debby (1962) by The Bill Evans Trio

The album opens with the song:

My Foolish Heart

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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie:

Hidden Figures (2016)

Available Formats: The movie is available from the library on DVD and may be streamed through the usual online streaming services, i.e. Apple, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube etc.

About The Movie: The movie is based on the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly; and follows three female African American mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan. The film opens in the late fifties, during the space race era, with the trio working at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Initially the women are seen as entry level human computers and assigned simply to do calculation without being told why. Eventually, overcoming racial discrimination, all three advance in their careers at NASA. Jackson goes on to become NASA’s first female African American engineer; Vaughan becomes NASA’s first female African American supervisor and Johnson works on the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions.

The film stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst & Jim Parsons.

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Background Viewing

(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)

You’re Sitting by a Lake Campfire

Have a great weekend!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)

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. 

And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.  

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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 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.  

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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. 

Have questions about any of the catalogs?

Give us a call!

You can reach us at 607-936-3713 or visit our website at https://ssclibrary.org/

Suggested Reading Five: October 14, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!

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The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Well 

Veteran narrator Ivey is magnificent in her performance of Wells’s sprawling, delicious novel of lifelong female friendship and mother-daughter tension and reconciliation. When Siddalee Walker, a successful theater director, accidentally lets slip in an interview some less-than-flattering truths about her mother, Vivi, the ever-dramatic Vivi declares

“You are dead to me!” But when Sidda reads Vivi’s scrapbook detailing seven decades of friendship with her lifelong pals, the irrepressible Ya-Yas, she begins to understand her vivacious, unconventional, often difficult but never boring mother in ways she never has before. Ivey creates distinctive voices for each one of the multitude of characters—not an easy task, since most of them are female and Southern. There’s the four Ya-Yas, both as young, giggly girls and then as elderly women; Sidda as a child and a woman; and a plethora of relatives, siblings and friends. Ivey performs each character with conviction and emotion. Through her performance, listeners can see the characters, colorful events and the tangle and friction of close-knit, complicated relationships. – Publisher’s Weekly Review of the audiobook of this title, narrated by Judity Ivey; which the library has on CD as well as digitally in both Libby and Hoopla catalogs.  

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Empire Falls by Richard Russo 

Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts and feuds provided by lifelong friends and neighbors and who find humor and hope in the most unlikely places, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo. 

 Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself. 

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows 

Winding up her book tour promoting her collection of lighthearted wartime newspaper columns, Juliet Ashton casts about for a more serious project. Opportunity comes in the form of a letter she receives from Mr. Dawsey Adams, who happens to possess a book that Julia once owned. Adams is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – no ordinary book club. Rather, it was formed as a ruse and became a way for people to get together without raising the suspicions of Guernseys Nazi occupiers. Written in the form of letters (a lost art), this novel by an aunt-and-niece team has loads of charm, especially as long as Juliet is still in London corresponding with the society members. Some of the air goes out of the book when she gets to Guernsey; the humorous tone doesn’t quite mesh with what the islanders suffered. But readers should enjoy this literary soufflé’ for the most part, and curiosity about the German occupation of the British Channel Islands will be piqued. – Booklist Review  

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The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods 

The thing about books,’ she said, ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’ The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets. – On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found… For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems. Readers have fallen in love with The Lost Bookshop: ‘Beautifully written and captures the wonder and awe that a story can bring to its reader…a delightful story for any book lover…an ode to storytelling and the connections that books can make! –  overview from the publisher  

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The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bival 

As luck would have it, the day Sara arrives in Broken Wheel, IA, from Sweden to meet her book-loving pen pal Amy, the townsfolk are just leaving Amy’s funeral. Tourists are rare in this tiny, depressed town and the residents gather around Sara, sharing their stories of their departed friend. Sara stays in Amy’s house, surrounded by her huge collection of books, and is comforted by the warmth of this quirky community. There’s not much to do and Sara has little drawing her back to Sweden, so she decides to take Amy’s books and open a cozy bookstore in a derelict downtown storefront. With little money to buy books, Sara simply begins sharing Amy’s books with her friends. Gradually, the good citizens of Broken Wheel realize that a bookstore and Sara are what they need. How they go about ensuring that Sara can stay and the store can thrive is at the core of this heartwarming and utterly charming debut novel by Swedish author Bivald.  

VERDICT This gentle, intelligent Midwestern tale will captivate fans of Antoine Laurain’s The Red Notebook, Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop, and Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. An ideal book group selection, it reminds us why we are book lovers and why it’s nice to read a few happy endings. –  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.

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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.

Suggested Listening & Viewing: October 9, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is our 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! 

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First off the music, this week, in honor of the man and his music on the 86th anniversary of John Lennon’s birth, our musical recommendation is the album: 

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles  

 

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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is a movie that nicely complements the autumn season:

October Sky (1999) 

 

About the Movie: October Sky is set in the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia in 1957 and tells the story of high school student Homer H. Hickam Jr., the son of the local mine manager, who watches the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite and is inspired to design and launch his own rockets. He recruits three friends to his rocket making team, and they create and test a variety of rockets, getting better at building and launching them through research, trial and error and with the help of their teacher Miss Riley. After Homer’s father is injured in an accident at the mine; he temporarily quits school to work in the mine and help support his family. Eventually, Homer goes back to school, returns to making rockets, and his team enters a rocket in their high school science fair. 

The movie is based upon the life of the real Homer H. Hickam Jr. and if you want to know how the boys made out with their science fair entry you can watch the movie, or Google Homer Hickam Jr. 

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Chris Owen & Laura Dern. 

Available Formats: The movie can be checked out at the library on DVD; and streamed from the usual online streaming stores.  

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Background Viewing

(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)

October Autumn Serenity  

 

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And as Halloween is this month and there are only so many evenings and weekends in the month for us to watch movies – here is a list of classic horror films that you might find entertaining – these are classic Universal and Hammer films with a few others included to spice up the mix – enjoy!

A Selection of Classic Horror Films of 1930s & 1940s

Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi

Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff

The Mummy (1932) with Boris Karloff

The Old Dark House (1932) with Boris Karloff & Melvyn Douglas

Murder in the Rue Morgue (1932) with Bela Lugosi

The Invisible Man (1933) with Claude Rains

The Black Cat (1934) with Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Boris Karloff & Elsa Lanchester

Son of Frankenstein (1939) with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi

The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr.

The Uninvited (1944) with Ray Millan and Ruth Hussey

Dead of Night (1945) with Mervyn Johns & Michael Redgrave

A Selection of Classic Horror Films of the 1950s & 1960s with a few from the 1970s

House of Wax (1953) with Vincent Price

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with Richard Carlson

The Curse of Frankenstein (1958) with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee

Dracula (1958) (AKA The Horror of Dracula) with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee

The Mummy (1959) with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) with Oliver Reed

The Innocents (1961) with Deborah Kerr

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) with Vincent Price

Carnival of Souls (1962) with Candace Hilligoss

The Birds (1963) with Rod Taylor & Jessica Tandy

The Haunting (1963) with Julie Harris

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Horror Express (1972) with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee & Telly Savalas

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 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. 

And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.  

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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 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.  

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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. 

Have questions about any of the catalogs?

Give us a call!

You can reach us at 607-936-3713 or visit our website at https://ssclibrary.org/

Suggested Reading Five: October 7, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, at the Southeast Steuben County Library we order books on a 10-month calendar, from January through October; and in October we pre-order upcoming releases by popular authors who have new books coming out during October, November & December and we do not place another book order until January.

With that in mind, the pre-ordered titles we’ll be receiving for you to check out this fall, are listed in the post New Books Coming Your Way for October 2026 – you can find that list on the blog.

And our Suggested Reading Five titles for the months of October, November & December will be themed collections; for October we’ve got books that complement the autumn season with falling leaves, personal reflections, colder weather, wool sweaters etc., and featuring stories that incorporate family sagas into the mix.  

Enjoy! 

Linda Reimer, SSCL  

P.S. I’ll let you know what the themes are for our Suggested Reading Five posts, for November & December, just as soon as I figure that out! 

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The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver  

Feisty Marietta Greer changes her name to “Taylor” when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Ill. By the time she reaches Oklahoma, this strong-willed young Kentucky native with a quick tongue and an open mind is catapulted into a surprising new life. Taylor leaves home in a beat-up ’55 Volkswagen bug, on her way to nowhere in particular, savoring her freedom. But when a forlorn Cherokee woman drops a baby in Taylor’s passenger seat and asks her to take it, she does. A first novel, The Bean Trees is an overwhelming delight, as random and unexpected as real life. The unmistakable voice of its irresistible heroine is whimsical, yet deeply insightful. Taylor playfully names her little foundling “Turtle,” because she clings with an unrelenting, reptilian grip; at the same time, Taylor aches at the thought of the silent, staring child’s past suffering. With Turtle in tow, Taylor lands in Tucson, Ariz., with two flat tires and decides to stay. The desert climate, landscape and vegetation are completely foreign to Taylor, and in learning to love Arizona, she also comes face to face with its rattlesnakes and tarantulas. Similarly, Taylor finds that motherhood, responsibility and independence are thorny, if welcome, gifts. This funny, inspiring book is a marvelous affirmation of risk-taking, commitment and everyday miracles. – Publishers Weekly Review  

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The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni 

Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends. 

Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls. 

Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design―especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open―bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters. 

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The Help by Kathryn Stockett  

Set in Stockett’s native Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s, this first novel adopts the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. A century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black maids raised white children and ran households but were paid poorly, often had to use separate toilets from the family, and watched the children they cared for commit bigotry. In Stockett’s narrative, Miss Skeeter, a young white woman, is a naive, aspiring writer who wants to create a series of interviews with local black maids. Even if they’re published anonymously, the risk is great; still, Aibileen and Minny agree to participate. Tension pervades the novel as its events are told by these three memorable women. Is this an easy book to read? No, but it is surely worth reading. It may even stir things up as readers in Jackson and beyond question their own discrimination and intolerance in the past and present. – Starred Library Journal Review 

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Plainsong by Kent Haruf 

It’s a good thing young Ike and Bobby Guthrie are close, because they’re in for a spell of loss and radical change. Victoria Roubideaux, 17, is too, but she has no sibling to stand beside her during bouts of morning sickness, or when her mother throws her out of the house. Haruf, author of “The Tie That Binds” (1984), alternates between the Guthrie boys’ adventures and Vicky’s quest to find a safe place for herself and her baby, but the two story lines soon entwine because all lives converge in the small Colorado town of Holt, which he so adroitly portrays. The Guthrie boys are often on their own after their mother leaves, while their nearly overwhelmed father, Tom, a high-school teacher, is distracted by the threats of a violent student. Vicky goes to Maggie Jones, a colleague of Tom’s, for help. Unable to provide her with the sanctuary she needs, Maggie delivers Vicky to the elderly McPheron brothers, farmers as tightly connected as Tom’s sons. Vicky revolutionizes their staid lives, and they provide her with her first true home, and the resulting familial love seems to set the entire countryside aglow. Haruf’s narrative voice is spare and procedural, and his salt-of-the-earth characters are reticent almost to the point of mannerism until it becomes clear that their terseness is the result of profound shyness and an immensity of feeling. Haruf’s unforgettable tale is both emotionally complex and elemental, following, as it so gracefully does, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. – Booklist Review  

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The Shipping News by Annie Proulx 

Proulx has followed Postcards , her story of a family and their farm, with an extraordinary second novel of another family and the sea. The fulcrum is Quoyle, a patient, self-deprecating, oversized hack writer who, following the deaths of nasty parents and a succubus of a wife, moves with his two daughters and straight-thinking aunt back to the ancestral manse in Killick-Claw, a Newfoundland harbor town of no great distinction. There, Quoyle finds a job writing about car crashes and the shipping news for The Gammy Bird , a local paper kept afloat largely by reports of sexual abuse cases and comical typographical errors. Killick-Claw may not be perfect, but it is a stable enough community for Quoyle and Co. to recover from the terrors of their past lives. But the novel is much more than Quoyle’s story: it is a moving evocation of a place and people buffeted by nature and change. Proulx routinely does without nouns and conjunctions–“Quoyle, grinning. Expected to hear they were having a kid. Already picked himself for godfather”–but her terse prose seems perfectly at home on the rocky Newfoundland coast. She is in her element both when creating haunting images (such as Quoyle’s inbred, mad and mean forbears pulling their house across the ice after being ostracized by more God-fearing folk) and when lyrically rendering a routine of gray, cold days filled with cold cheeks, squidburgers, fried bologna and the sea. –  Publishers Weekly 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.

–

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.

It’s Banned Books Week!

Linda Reimer

Banned Books Week is October 4 – 10, 2026. And you might well be wondering about the specifics of it; it is about Banned Books, but what is the history behind it?

So here from the American Library Association’s Banned Books site is a good explanation:  

“Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. Held in the last week of September or first week of October, the annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.”

To learn more, check out either of the links below, which will take you to one of two American Library Associate sites, to learn more:

https://www.ala.org/bbooks

Home

And celebrate your right to read this week by reading any book you find interesting!

And if you haven’t been there in a while, visit your local public library as today’s libraries offer more than just print books and are definitely worth checking out!

And if visiting the library is challenging with your busy schedule, just know that if you don’t already have a library card, you can obtain a digital one to use in checking out digital content – the only criteria is you have to live in the area that encompasses the Southern Tier Library System, that is one of the following N.Y. counties: Steuben, Chemung, Yates or Schuyler, to get a digital card; and with that card you can stream videos from Kanopy or Hoopla and check eBooks and digital audiobooks from Libby.

Here is the link to the STLS site where you can obtain a digital library card

https://stls.libguides.com/digitalresources/DigitalLibraryCard

Note: If you already have a library card – you don’t need the digital card – you can access all digital content with the card you already have!

Suggested Listening & Viewing: October 2, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is our 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! 

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First off the music this week the album:

Astral Weeks (1968) by Van Morrison 

 

About The Album: Astral Weeks is singer-songwriter Van Morrison’s second album and blends elements of folk, jazz, classical music and rock and has an almost mystical quality to its eight songs – it is a mellow, reflective album and perfect listening for this first weekend in October.  

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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie:

Coherence (2013) 

 

Available Formats: Available for request as a standard DVD, also available to stream from the library via Kanopy or Hoopla, and may be streamed from the usual online sources.  

About The Movie: A small dinner party is being held in a typical neighborhood on a night when a comet flies close by the earth; during the festivities the power goes out, and cell phones stop working. One of the partygoers walks to a nearby house, the only one in the immediate vicinity that has lights on, to see if the people there have a working phone – only to see the members of the dinner party at the house he just left – having dinner in that house.  

As the film unfolds the people at the dinner party realize that the comet has impacted space time and created local alternate realities; the people from these realities, are the same people seen at the dinner party at the beginning of the film, but the alternate versions of the partygoers when they meet the initial partygoing group is different, sometimes subtlety so and sometimes more overtly so, because those people made different decisions earlier in the evening.  And one of the partygoers decides she’d like to replace herself in one of the other realities, one where the evening has gone well for her – thinking she’ll have a better life. She discovers towards the end of the film, which does have an opened-ended ending; meaning in this case, that not all the questions are answered –  she discovers that she may be wrong in thinking this new reality will be a good fit for her. 

This is one of those neat mind-bending “what if” films for those that like that style of film.  

And as a bonus, if you haven’t already seen it, I also recommend the series Dark which also features alternate realities and time travel; it is set in a small town, following four connected families and explores how the past, present and future are connected; it was super in its first two seasons, if a bit rushed to complete the story in its third.  

Here is the trailer for the TV series: 

Dark (2017 – 2020) 

 

Note: Dark is only available via Netflix & should have English dialogue although it was originally done with German dialogue and that version too was accessible on Netflix the last time I had a subscription.  

And as both those video recommendations are a bit on the dark side, I’m also going to recommend a screwball comedy from Hollywood’s Golden Age, for those looking for a humorous film this weekend: 

Bringing Up Baby (1938)  

Directed by Howard Hawkes and starring Kathryn Hepburn & Cary Grant 

 

Available Formats: You can request a copy of the DVD from the library or stream the movie via Kanopy. The movie is also available to stream through the usual online stores.  

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Background Viewing

(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)

Crackling Fireplace ambient sounds 

 

And on a upcoming programs note, “upcoming” in this case meaning this afternoon! We’re showing a matinee of the comedy/mystery classic film:

Murder by Death (1976)

The film stars Peter Falk, Peter Sellers, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Alec Guinness, James Coco, Truman Capote and Elsa Lancaster.

So if you’ve got nothing on deck this afternoon, join us for the matinee which starts at 2:00 p.m. and runs 94 minutes.

Everyone is welcome & snacks will be provided

Have a great weekend!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)

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. 

And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.  

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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 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.  

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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). 

– 

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. 

Have questions about any of the catalogs?

Give us a call!

You can reach us at 607-936-3713 or visit our website at https://ssclibrary.org/

New Books Coming Your Way: October 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is a list of all the new print books and Libby eAudios & eBooks coming to the Southeast Steuben County Library in October, with a few print titles coming in November & December, as we’re at the end of our ordering year for print books.

New Books Coming Your Way: October (and November & December) 2026:

New Books Coming Your Way October 2026Download

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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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.

Suggested Reading Five: September 30, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!

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Disappearers by Marlon James 

Booker Prize-winner James’ (Moon, Witch, Spider, King, 2022) latest captivating and epic novel is about a group of gay men in late twentieth-century Kingston, Jamaica, in the aftermath of a brutal and traumatic attack. When eight disparate men gather to begin rehearsals for a play in 1988, their community is a dangerous and deadly place for queer people. One night, the group is the target of a murderous mob’s violence that leaves one of them dead and the survivors coping with the devastating repercussions. James follows these characters through their lives and relationships as they grapple with the many ways in which people can disappear when they live on the margin of a society that is hostile to their existence. Told through multiple perspectives and with scenes of graphic violence and sex, the often harrowing stories of these unforgettable characters are about struggle and survival, longing and reconciliation. James renders his characters’ tumultuous inner lives with striking imagery and energy; their dialogue is rapid, keen, and hard-hitting. In all, a gritty, powerful, and gripping read.–Booklist Review  

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Galinda: A Charmed Childhood by Gregory Maguire 

This sister volume to Elphie (2025) continues Maguire’s exploration of the Oz myth, this time telling the backstory of Galinda. As a young girl, she watches with some befuddlement as her family deals with forces within and without: her father is a businessman whose success is suspicious to many in town, as her older brother Hamm slowly discovers, and her mother is never home. Galinda is preoccupied with succeeding at her dance lessons and hopefully going on to get a prestigious prize, but spends many of her days ignored, lonely, and talked-down-to. This novel has somewhat less bite than the one on Elphaba’s childhood, despite the similarities Maguire does his best to draw out–both girls had a difficult father whose love they yearn for, both girls often feel lonely. Galinda, however, is slightly harder to root for, as her character development promises to wait until she’s at school at Shiz. Nevertheless, fans of the Wicked Years series will enjoy this insight into an iconic character, as will new fans of the Wicked films.  

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A Librarian’s War: The Man Who Fought World War II with Books and Brought the Joy of Reading to Millions by Mollyi Guptill Manning 

Movies, dances, and USO shows often come to mind as popular activities for American soldiers on the front during World War II. However, as historian Manning (When Books Went to War) illustrates in her biography of U.S. Army Chief Librarian Ray Trautman, books, comics, and periodicals were also in high demand among troops. These materials offered service members a sense of connection to home or an escape from both the horrors and boredom of war. Books boosted morale and played a vital role in the war against fascism. After earning a master’s degree in librarianship, Manning, then in the U.S. Army Reserves, was called up to active duty and selected to serve as chief librarian. During his tenure, he established an extensive library network and book distribution system. By visiting the men at the front–even serving during the Battle of the Bulge–Trautman’s determination, hard work, and empathy helped connect servicepeople to the books they wanted to read. Working with influential publishing houses, he even innovated the Armed Service Edition, a small book format that fit in uniform pockets. VERDICT This engaging biography will delight history readers and inspire future library students.–Starred Library Journal Review  

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Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros 

The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza. This breathtaking collectible is available only in the US and Canada while supplies last. 

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The Vanished Sister by Sherry Thomas 

Growing up as Joanna Redmayne, Mrs. Joanna Watson could not have been closer to her older sister, Justina. However, that sibling bond was fractured when Justina cut her out of her life after Joanna decided to pursue an acting career. So Joanna could not be more surprised when Justina, now Mrs. Everett Carstairs, attempts to repair relations by inviting Joanna to a house party celebrating the engagement of Justina’s son, Charles, to Miss Philana Newell. Things seem to be going well until the party ends, and Justina is nowhere to be found. When the body of a woman is found in the nearby Bristol Channel, everyone assumes the worst, until Everett Carstairs insists it is not his wife. To discover what really happened to her sister, Joanna Watson turns to her dear friend and business partner, Charlotte Holmes, for help. Fans of Thomas’ Lady Sherlock mysteries, including A Ruse of Shadows (2024), will savor the exquisitely plotted ninth addition to this ingenious series while simultaneously reveling in the author’s witty writing, impeccably evoked historical settings, and flair for crafting intriguing characters with a welcome depth. –Starred Booklist Review  

Reader’s Note: The Vanished Sister is the ninth book in the Lady Sherlock Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: A Study In Scarlet Women.  

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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.

–

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.

–

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).

–

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.

–

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.

Suggested Listening & Viewing: September 25, 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is our 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! 

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First off the music, this week an album which complements the Americana vibe of the movies; it is the soundtrack to the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War.

The Civil War Soundtrack (1990)

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Moving on to our suggested viewing titles of the week; this week I couldn’t pair it down to just one movie – so we have two historical drama recommendations:

Shenandoah (1965)

About Formats: This movie is available in the both the streaming & DVD formats; you can request a standard DVD of this film from the library.

About The Movie: Shenandoah stars Jimmy Stewart and an ensemble cast including Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne & Katherine Ross. The film is set in Virginia during the Civil War and tells the tale of widowed farmer Charlie Anderson and his family, which includes six sons, a daughter and daughter-in-law. Charlie opposes slavery but does not support the Union either saying that the conflict is not his business and insisting his family members stay out of it. Despite Charlie’s best efforts his family is unable to stay out of the conflict; his daughter Jennie marries a Confederate soldier and his youngest son, who he refers to as “Boy,” is out hunting one day and is captured by Union soldiers who believe he is a rebel. Charlie and most of his family go out in search of Boy, leaving one son, his wife and infant daughter at home. And the story unfolds further from there —

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Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

About Formats: This movie is available in streaming and DVD formats; and may be checked out of the library in standard DVD format.

About The Movie: The film stars Henry Fonda & Claudette Colbert and featured Edna May Oliver, Ward Bond and John Carradine; it is set in the 1770s and tells the story of Gilbert Martin (Fonda) who marries Lana Borst (Colbert) and takes her to live on his small farm, located in the Mohawk Valley in central New York, which was then on the western frontier. The duo and their neighbors work to clear the land and build lives for themselves; and then the American Revolution breaks out. Martin joins the patriot army; there are encounters with Native American and loyalist troops and residents have to leave their homes and flee to nearby Fort Schuyler for safety. To sum it up, although the film is set during a war – it isn’t really about the war, instead it is about the everyday people living through the conflict  – John Ford style of course, as he directed the film.

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Background Viewing

(Perfect to have on while having dinner, hanging out at home, reading etc.)

11 Hours of Enchanting Autumn Scenes

Have a great weekend!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)

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. 

And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.  

– 

Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/ 

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.  

– 

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). 

– 

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. 

Have questions about any of the catalogs?

Give us a call!

You can reach us at 607-936-3713 or visit our website at https://ssclibrary.org/