Month: August 2016

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Friday, August 5, 2016

Linda Reimer

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Sweet Sound

How Sweet the Sound by Vanessa Miller:

Shar Gracey wants nothing more than to sing the Lord’s praises, so she jumps at the chance to join a traveling choir led by the father of black gospel music, Thomas A. Dorsey. Better yet, the opportunity will give her money to pay for her ailing mother’s medical care. While on tour she falls under the tutelage of gospel great Mahalia Jackson—and falls for the handsome but not-so-great Nicoli James, whose desires for Shar are fueled by his own greed. Shar would do anything for Nicoli—and he knows it—so when his life is threatened after a night of gambling, Shar agrees to help pay Nicoli’s debt, only to have her faith and dreams shattered. Reeling from the betrayal, Shar loses her voice and she believes that she will never sing again. She has no place to run except back home to her seriously ill mother—and the man she left behind, who would move heaven and earth to make Shar’s pain go away. Even if it means he has to let her go . . . again.

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2696295

And our print book suggested read for today is:

Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow:

Arbus Photographer

The definitive biography of the beguiling Diane Arbus, one of the most influential and important photographers of the twentieth century, a brilliant and absorbing exposition that links the extraordinary arc of her life to her iconic photographs

Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer brings into focus with vividness and immediacy one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. Arbus comes startlingly to life on these pages, a strong-minded child of disconcerting originality who grew into a formidable photographer of unflinching courage. Arbus forged an intimacy with her subjects that has inspired generations of artists. Arresting, unsettling, and poignant, her photographs stick in our minds. Why did these people fascinate her? And what was it about her that captivated them?

It is impossible to understand the transfixing power of Arbus’s photographs without exploring her life. Lubow draws on exclusive interviews with Arbus’s friends, lovers, and colleagues; on previously unknown letters; and on his own profound critical insights into photography to explore Arbus’s unique perspective and to reveal important aspects of her life that were previously unknown or unsubstantiated. He deftly traces Arbus’s development from a wealthy, sexually precocious free spirit into first, a successful New York fashion photographer and then, a singular artist who coaxed secrets from her subjects. Lubow reveals that Arbus’s profound need not only to see her subjects but to be seen by them drove her to forge unusually close bonds with these people, helping her discover the fantasies, pain, and heroism within each of them, and leading her to create a new kind of photographic portraiture charged with an unnerving complicity between the subject and the viewer.

Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer brushes aside the clichés that have long surrounded Arbus and her work. It is a magnificently absorbing biography of this unique, hugely influential artist.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/YA34Xq

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc.  http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Thursday, August 4, 2016

Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats.

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Creeping Siamese

Creeping Siamese and Other Stories: Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Later Years, Volume 1

by Dashiell Hammett, Richard Layman, Julie M. Rivett et al.            

“Whether chasing hoodlums or solving impossible murders, Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op is one of the toughest detectives in the history of crime fiction

The Continental Op is going over his expense reports when a raw-boned man staggers through the door of his office, stretches out his arms, and dies. As the stranger falls to the floor, he utters a final word: Hell. It’s apt, because this man’s death will drag the Op right into the inferno. The contents of the man’s pockets are enough to send the Op off in search of his identity, his connection to San Francisco, and the treacherous underworld dealings of both the victim and his killers.

The Continental Op made his name taking punches and dodging bullets, but unraveling “The Creeping Siamese” is the kind of mystery that will baffle even him. This story, along with “The Big Knock-Over” and “$106,000 Blood Money,” is a testament to the enduring genius of Dashiell Hammett.”

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2697441

And our print book suggested read for today is:

Castle of Kings

The Castle of Kings by Oliver Potzsch:

An epic tale of murder, treachery, bravery, and love

In 1524, in what is now Germany, hundreds of thousands of peasants revolted against the harsh treatment of their aristocratic overlords. Agnes is the daughter of one of these overlords, but she is not a typical sixteenth-century girl, refusing to wear dresses and spending more time with her pet falcon than potential suitors. There is only one suitor she is interested in: Mathis, a childhood friend who she can never marry due to his low birth status. But when a rogue knight attacks Agnes and Mathis shoots the knight to save her, the two are forced to go on the run together, into the midst of the raging Peasants’ War.

Over the next two years, as Agnes and Mathis travel the countryside, they are each captured by and escape from various factions of the war, participate in massive battles, make new friends both noble and peasant, and fall in love. Meanwhile, Agnes’s falcon finds a mysterious ring, and Agnes begins having strange, but seemingly meaningful dreams. Dreams that lead the two lovers to revelations about their place in the world and in the emerging German states. With The Castle of Kings, Oliver Pötzsch has written a historical yarn that calls to mind Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth and Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/PqGK1q

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc.  http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats.

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Daughter Sword

Daughter of the Sword by Jeanne Williams:

A beautiful woman, desired by two very different brothers, fights for the freedom of others in this spellbinding saga set during “Bleeding Kansas.”

The daughter of abolitionists whose isolated cabin on the Kansas–Missouri border serves as a stop on the Underground Railroad, Deborah Whitlaw is devastated when pro-slavery marauders murder her parents. Yet she can no more extinguish the flame of justice that burns inside her than she can forget her mother and father. She vows to continue their fight, no matter the cost, and joins forces with a runaway black woman and a mission-educated Shawnee girl to spirit many fugitives northward.

Deborah’s fiery personality attracts two aristocratic English brothers. Rolf Hunter is violent and indomitable; he wants to capture Deborah and bend her to his will. Dane is the polar opposite of his sibling. Honest, gentle, and idealistic, he wins Deborah’s heart, but their tender romance faces staggering obstacles in a state and nation lurching toward civil war. For a blessed interval, Deborah finds solace with Conrad, a German nobleman who has brought his peace-loving Mennonite tenants to Kansas to found a colony. But Rolf, now the head of a gang of pro-slavery bushwhackers, soon shatters Deborah’s idyll. Can she keep him from crushing not only her, but also her friends and the abolitionist cause they’ve risked their lives to support?

A magnificent tale of love and honor, danger and destiny, Daughter of the Sword takes readers on a thrilling journey into the darkest chapter of American history and pays tribute to the brave men and women who led the nation back into the light.

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2697442

And our print book suggested read for today is:

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

Dark Matter: A Novel by Blake Crouch:

 Dark Matter

A brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/4X2Y2O

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc.  http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats!

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Commander in Chief

Commander in Chief: FDR’s Battle with Churchill, 1943 by Nigel Hamilton: “In the next installment of the “”splendid memoir Roosevelt didn’t get to write”” (New York Times),  Nigel Hamilton tells the astonishing story of FDR’s year-long, defining battle with Churchill, as the war raged in Africa and Italy.

Nigel Hamilton’s Mantle of Command, long-listed for the National Book Award, drew on years of archival research and interviews to portray FDR in a tight close up, as he determined Allied strategy in the crucial initial phases of World War II. Commander in Chief reveals the astonishing sequel — suppressed by Winston Churchill in his memoirs — of Roosevelt’s battles with Churchill to maintain that strategy.  Roosevelt knew that the Allies should take Sicily but avoid a wider battle in southern Europe, building experience but saving strength to invade France in early 1944. Churchill seemed to agree at Casablanca — only to undermine his own generals and the Allied command, testing Roosevelt’s patience to the limit. Churchill was afraid of the invasion planned for Normandy, and pushed instead for disastrous fighting in Italy, thereby almost losing the war for the Allies. In a dramatic showdown, FDR finally set the ultimate course for victory by making the ultimate threat. Commander in Chief shows FDR in top form at a crucial time in the modern history of the West.”

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2287322

And our print book suggested read for today is:

The Arm

Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports by Jeff Passan: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers—five times the salary of all NFL quarterbacks combined. Pitchers are the lifeblood of the sport, the ones who win championships, but today they face an epidemic unlike any baseball has ever seen.

One tiny ligament in the elbow keeps snapping and sending teenagers and major leaguers alike to undergo surgery, an issue the baseball establishment ignored for decades. For three years, Jeff Passan, the lead baseball columnist for Yahoo Sports, has traveled the world to better understand the mechanics of the arm and its place in the sport’s past, present, and future. He got the inside story of how the Chicago Cubs decided to spend $155 million on one pitcher. He sat down for a rare interview with Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, whose career ended at 30 because of an arm injury. He went to Japan to understand how another baseball-obsessed nation deals with this crisis. And he followed two major league pitchers as they returned from Tommy John surgery, the revolutionary procedure named for the former All-Star who first underwent it more than 40 years ago.

Passan discovered a culture that struggles to prevent arm injuries and lacks the support for the changes necessary to do so. He explains that without a drastic shift in how baseball thinks about its talent, another generation of pitchers will fall prey to the same problem that vexes the current one.

Equal parts medical thriller and cautionary tale, The Arm is a searing exploration of baseball’s most valuable commodity and the redemption that can be found in one fragile and mysterious limb.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/mDL74c

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc.  http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Upcoming Personal Technology Programs @ The Library August 2016

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, this post contains a listing of our Digital Literacy Programs for August.

And if you prefer a PDF that you can print simply click on the following link:

SSCL Digital Literacy Services Programs August 2016 Rev 7 29 16

 

Cell Phone Basics @ Corning Senior Center

Do you have a cell phone and have questions about how to us it? Drop in and we’ll walk you through the basic cell phone usage steps. Bring your questions! We’ll answer your questions too!

This program is co-hosted with the Corning Senior Center.

To register for this program call the Senior Center at: 607-962-8000.

Dates: August 11 & August 25, 2016/ Times for both programs: 11:00 a. m. – 12:00 p. m.

 

What to Read Next!

Drop in at the library any time between 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. to find out what’s new at the library this month.  Acquisition Librarian, Linda Reimer will provide you with lists of all the new books in print, e-books, downloadable audiobooks, DVDs, CDs, digital magazines, and streaming videos added to the library’s collection in the last month, broken down by General Fiction & Literature, Mysteries, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy and Non-Fiction, and including a description for each item. Browse the lists while you’re at the library or take them home with you to peruse at your leisure. Bring your smartphone or tablet along if you would like, and Linda will be happy to show you how to check out digital library materials. You’ll be able to request titles on the spot, and even enjoy a free cup of coffee.

Date/Time: Monday, August 8, 2016/10:00 a. m. – 12:00 p. m.

 

One-On-One Personal Technology Appointments:

You can make an appointment with a member of our staff as an individual or for 2-4 people to learn how to use a new computer,  e-reader, tablet, smartphone, email, The Internet and more at a variety of times throughout each month. This is a free service the library offers! To make an appointment call: 607-936-3713

 

About Creation Station:

Creation Station: The SSCL Makerspace is a place to go to create things! Creation Station features a 3 D Printer, creation software, a Cricut Electronic Cutting Machine, scanners that allow you to digitize photos, slides and documents, a binding machine, a laminating machine, a drawing kit, sewing machines, a sewing serger, a wide format printer and more – check it out! Patrons must be trained to use select equipment ask staff for details.

All library programs are sponsored by the Friends of the Library, SSC.

The library is handicapped accessible. If you require special accommodations contact us in advance: (607) 936-3713.

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Monday, August 1, 2016

Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats!

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Ink & Bone

Ink And Bone by Lisa Unger:

An instant page-turner (Lisa Gardner) that straddles the line between thriller and horror…sure to appeal to a wide range of readers, including Stephen King fans. (Booklist, starred) A young woman’s mysterious gift forces her into the middle of a dangerous investigation of a little girl’s disappearance.

Twenty-year-old Finley Montgomery is rarely alone.  Visited by people whom others can’t see and haunted by prophetic dreams, she has never been able to control or understand the things that happen to her. When Finley’s abilities start to become too strong for her to handle – and even the roar of her motorcycle or another dazzling tattoo can’t drown out the voices – she turns to the only person she knows who can help her: her grandmother Eloise Montgomery, a renowned psychic living in The Hollows, New York.

Merri Gleason is a woman at the end of her tether after a ten-month-long search for her missing daughter, Abbey.  With almost every hope exhausted, she resorts to hiring Jones Cooper, a detective who sometimes works with psychic Eloise Montgomery.  Merri’s not a believer, but she’s just desperate enough to go down that road, praying that she’s not too late.  Time, she knows, is running out.

As a harsh white winter moves into The Hollows, Finley and Eloise are drawn into the investigation, which proves to have much more at stake than even the fate of a missing girl.  As Finley digs deeper into the town and its endless layers, she is forced to examine the past, even as she tries to look into the future.  Only one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what.

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2461047

And our print book suggested read for today is:

All Is Not Forgotten

All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker:

It begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where everything seems picture perfect.

Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, struggles to pretend this horrific event did not touch her carefully constructed world.

As Tom and Charlotte seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town – or perhaps lives among them – drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/BpUqxv

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

And just a reminder to all the Harry Potter fans out there – the 8th story in the series, which is actually the script for the play Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, was published yesterday! So you can request the e-book through the Digital Catalog or the print book through StarCat – I read the whole thing twice yesterday and it was fun!

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc.  http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.