Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Carry Me To My Grave by Christopher Golden
It’s 1956, and Malcolm, a Korean War veteran, youngest child of narcissistic Maggie, is in a race against time to get the body of his recently deceased mother from Elkhart, IN, to an island in Maine and buried safely in the ground before the sun rises in two days. It seems that the local lore about Maggie being a witch was not too far off base, as there are very real monsters who have been awakened by her death and will do whatever it takes to stop Malcolm and his family. Moving from trains to fire trucks to a VW Bus, readers are on this terrifying, desperate ride, following the point of view as it alternates between characters, good and evil, supernatural and human, allowing them to develop fully. The motivations of the ancient evil are intriguing; when balanced with the family members and their own complicated histories, the story blossoms from an average chase novel into a moving portrait of undying love.
VERDICT Intense, violent, nuanced, heartbreaking, and fun to read, Golden’s (The Night Birds) latest gives readers everything they could want in a thrilling horror story; for fans of Tananarive Due’s The Good House and Nat Cassidy’s When the Wolf Comes Home. — Library Journal
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Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Professor Nick Navarro is less than enthused when he discovers that the recently retired mega pop-star Ramona Wilder (the idol of his young niece) will be a student in one of his psychology classes at UCLA. Handling a celebrity’s ego while managing his own turmoil about his recent divorce is not how Nick wanted to start the new school year. Nick vows to treat Ramona like any other student but soon discovers that he can’t. He learns that there’s far more to Ramona than the persona she shared on stage and in the media, and he is absolutely flustered and enchanted by her wit and flirting. Ramona lived under a microscope as a child actor and star and has only recently been able to cut her overbearing stage mother and toxic ex-partners out of her life. She enjoys her interactions with Nick, but how can she trust that the feelings are real? Having both been hurt in the past, Ramona and Nick must navigate their histories before they can find a path forward together.
VERDICT Solomon’s (What Happens in Amsterdam) latest will suit readers looking for academia-set romances such as Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis. – Library Journal
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The Masala Chai Mystery Club by MJ Soni
A retired New England librarian takes on a case the local police have been too quick to close. Forced into early retirement by a board looking to replace her with someone younger and cheaper, Neeti Shah is bored. She misses both her late husband, Ravi, and the stimulating contact with the book-loving public she got from her job. She’s pleased to be able to provide a stable home for her niece, Myra, whose parents abandoned her when she made it clear she had no intention of marrying Shane, the shiftless father of her own son, Ved, now 5 years old. So the death of her neighbor, Rohit Solanki, in what the police insist was a slip-and-fall, provides her the perfect opportunity to put her research skills to work proving them wrong. Author Soni provides Neeti with a colorful, multinational cast of collaborators and coconspirators in her quest. This series kickoff has some problems with pacing: It takes a painfully long time to reveal the backstory of Neeti’s prior relationship with Rohit, as Soni drops the same hints over and over again. And the characters are often jarringly cartoonish, especially when they’re being mean or stupid. Sometimes there’s more than one way to handle a dilemma. A bit more nuance and a more careful approach to the solution would have made this debut a worthy addition to the cozyverse. – Kirkus Review
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Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body: A Novel by Jennifer Holdich
Daisy is a complicated woman. She was bullied in school as an outcast who was raised by a poor single mother who dressed her in homemade clothes. For the past 20 years, however, Daisy has been married to James Dixon, a billionaire. She is now Lady Langley, overseeing a crumbling manor in the English countryside of Upper Iffley. Holdich’s (Julie Tudor Is Not a Psychopath) novel details James and Daisy’s plots to destroy each other as their relationship sours. After leaving a fundraiser, Daisy and James are involved in a pedestrian accident where Daisy injures a beloved TV personality whom James then strangles to death. James points to Daisy during the subsequent police investigation. Then Daisy uncovers James’s Ponzi investment schemes. The novel includes a humorous social media Greek chorus of neighbors who comment and speculate when two bodies are found in the river near Langley Hall after a torrential rainstorm. A key secondary character is Lady Langley’s housekeeper, Mrs. Billings, a kleptomaniac who pockets the tchotchkes left out for her to steal. VERDICT Holdich’s out-of-the-ordinary, cozy-adjacent novel is recommended for readers who enjoy marriage revenge stories with eccentric characters.–Library Journal Review
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The Oxford Detective Society by Faith Martin
Oxford biographer Lyssa Moore is delighted to be commissioned to write about Amelia ‘Monty’ Montrose, the 1960s music icon who died mysteriously at her birthday party in 1966. But as Lyssa delves into Monty’s past, she discovers the wild child portrayed by the press was hiding far more than anyone knew.
And someone is taking a very keen interest in Lyssa’s research. Her flat has been broken into, her phone is acting strangely, and she has a feeling she is being followed. Is Lyssa getting too close to a dangerous truth―was there more to Monty’s death than a tragic accident?
With the help of her cat Bibbie and her Oxford friends, who form the Oxford Detective Society, Lyssa must uncover what really happened sixty years ago. Because in Oxfordshire’s country houses and picture-perfect gardens, the past refuses to stay buried…
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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.






















