Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
A Piece of My Heart, Blessings, Georgia Series, Book 4 by Sharon Sala:
“Sharon Sala is a consummate storyteller. If you can stop reading, then you’re a better woman than me.”—DEBBIE MACOMBER, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Welcome to Blessings, Georgia, the best small town in the South.
No, there aren’t many secrets kept there. And yes, everybody knows your business. But when bad things happen, good people come to your rescue.
Growing up in a troubled foster home, Mercy Dane knew she could never rely on anyone but herself. She’s used to giving her all to people who don’t give her a second glance, so when she lands in Blessings, Georgia, she’s flabbergasted when the town opens its arms to her. She never dreamed she’d ever find family or friends—or a man who looks at her as if she hung the stars.
Police Chief Lon Pittman is getting restless living in sleepy little Blessings. But the day Mercy Dane roars into his life on the back of a motorcycle, practically daring him to pull her over, he’s lost. There’s something about Mercy’s tough-yet-vulnerable spirit that calls to Lon, and he will do anything in his power to make her realize that home isn’t just where the heart is—home is where their heart is.
Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:
A large-hearted and optimistic novel, Extraordinary Adventures is the latest from the New York Times bestselling Daniel Wallace.
Edsel Bronfman works as a junior executive shipping clerk for an importer of Korean flatware. He lives in a seedy neighborhood and spends his free time with his spirited mother. Things happen to other people, and Bronfman knows it. Until, that is, he gets a call from operator 61217 telling him that he’s won a free weekend at a beachfront condo in Destin, Florida. But there’s a catch: the offer is intended for a couple, and Bronfman has only seventy-nine days to find someone to take with him.
The phone call jolts Bronfman into motion, initiating a series of truly extraordinary adventures as he sets out to find a companion for his weekend getaway. Open at last to the possibilities of life, Bronfman now believes that anything can happen. And it does.
You can also request items 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 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.
Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
City of Miracles, Divine Cities Series, Book 3 by Robert Jackson Bennett:
Revenge. It’s something Sigrud je Harkvaldsson is very, very good at. Maybe the only thing.
So when he learns that his oldest friend and ally, former Prime Minister Shara Komayd, has been assassinated, he knows exactly what to do—and that no mortal force can stop him from meting out the suffering Shara’s killers deserve.
Yet as Sigrud pursues his quarry with his customary terrifying efficiency, he begins to fear that this battle is an unwinnable one. Because discovering the truth behind Shara’s death will require him to take up arms in a secret, decades-long war, face down an angry young god, and unravel the last mysteries of Bulikov, the city of miracles itself. And—perhaps most daunting of all—finally face the truth about his own cursed existence.
Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:
A young American woman arrives in Florence from Boston, knowing no one and speaking little Italian. But Hannah is isolated in a more profound way, estranged from her own identity after a bout with starvation that has left her life and body in ruins. She is determined to recover in Florence, a city saturated with beauty, vitality, and food―as well as a dangerous history of sainthood for women who starved themselves for God.
Hannah joins a local rowing club, where Francesca, a welcoming but predatory Milanese, and Luca, a seemingly steady Florentine with whom she becomes involved, draw her into Florence’s vibrant present: the complex social dynamics at the club, soccer mania, eating, drinking, sex, an insatiable insistence on life. But Hannah is also rapt by the city’s past―the countless representations of beauty, the entrenched conflicts of politics and faith, and the lore of the mystical saints, women whose self-imposed isolation and ecstatic searches for meaning through denial illuminate the seduction of her own struggles.
Both sides pull Hannah in: challenging her, defeating her, lifting her up. And when a figure from her past life in Boston reappears, threatening the delicate balance of her present, Hannah’s feverish personal excavation becomes caught up with the long history of women’s contention with body and spirit, desire and death.
A vivid, visceral debut echoing the novels of Jean Rhys, Elena Ferrante, and Catherine Lacey, Florence in Ecstasy gives us an arresting new vision of a woman’s attempt to find meaning―and find herself―in an unstable world.
Here’s a link to the StarCat request page for the book:
You can also requests books simply 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 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.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for today.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
Woman No. 17: A Novel by Edan Lepucki:
New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki’s Woman No. 17 “reads like a Hollywood HIlls film noir.” — Seattle Times
High in the Hollywood Hills, writer Lady Daniels has decided to take a break from her husband. Left alone with her children, she’s going to need a hand taking care of her young son if she’s ever going to finish her memoir. In response to a Craigslist ad, S arrives, a magnetic young artist who will live in the secluded guest house out back, care for Lady’s toddler, Devin, and keep a watchful eye on her older, teenage son, Seth. S performs her day job beautifully, quickly drawing the entire family into her orbit, and becoming a confidante for Lady.
But in the heat of the summer, S’s connection to Lady’s older son takes a disturbing, and possibly destructive, turn. And as Lady and S move closer to one another, the glossy veneer of Lady’s privileged life begins to crack, threatening to expose old secrets that she has been keeping from her family. Meanwhile, S is protecting secrets of her own, about her real motivation for taking the job. S and Lady are both playing a careful game, and every move they make endangers the things they hold most dear.
Darkly comic, twisty and tense, this mesmerizing new novel defies expectation and proves Edan Lepucki to be one of the most talented and exciting voices of her generation.
Here’s a link to the check out/request page in the Digital Catalog:
Intrepid journalist Kitty Weeks returns in the second book in this acclaimed WW1-era historical mystery series to investigate the death of a boarding school student.
When Kitty’s latest assignment for the New York Sentinel Ladies’ Page takes her to Westfield Hall, she expects to find an orderly establishment teaching French and dancing-but there’s more going on at the school than initially meets the eye.
Tragedy strikes when a student named Elspeth is found frozen to death in Central Park. The doctor’s proclaim that the girl’s sleepwalking was the cause, but Kitty isn’t so sure.
Determined to uncover the truth, Kitty must investigate a more chilling scenario-a murder that may involve Elspeth’s scientist father and a new invention by a man named Thomas Edison.
For fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Rhys Bowen, Murder Between the Lines combines true historical events with a thrilling mystery.
You can always request books 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 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.
Hi everyone, just FYI, courtesy of Barnes & Noble, the library has a new display for brand new DVDs & CDs. And as many our regular postings relate to new and recommended items, including DVDs and CDs – I thought it timely to share a photo of the new display — which is located right next to the New Book Section in the library.
So here it is!
(Click on the photo for a larger view)
Have a good day,
Linda, SSCL
P.S. Thank you Barnes & Noble for thinking of us when you updated your displays and were ready to pass this one on!
Hi everyone, this week we’re kicking off a month long look, at the American music that was influenced by, and came just after, the first British Invasion that began with The Beatles appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
As a reminder, our weekly music postings feature the following sections:
I. Links to AllMusic Biographies of the Artists/Groups of the Week
II. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week (streaming music)
III. CD Music Recommendations Of The Week
IV. Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups
V. References (for those who’d like to know a bit more about the artists of the week).
And this week we’ll check out the music of three of the most popular American bands of the mid-sixties: The Beach Boys, The Monkees and The Grass Roots.
I. Links to AllMusic Biographies of the Artists/Groups of the Week:
II. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week (streaming music)
The Beach Boys:
The Beach Boys originally hailed from Hawthorne, California and consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis & Mike Wilson their cousin Mike Love and mutual friend Al Jardine. Bruce Johnson joined the group in the mid-sixties after the band’s songwriter Brian Wilson retired from touring. The Beach Boys played Surf Music to begin with and then transitioned into playing great sixties era rock music until Brian Wilson, the creative genius behind the group, became ill and retired from the group for the remainder of the sixties. Brian eventually regained his health and later returned to playing music.
The early Beach Boys albums, and they released five albums in the U.S. before the arrival of The Beatles, are great Surf Rock albums. And by the time they released 1965’s Today! album they really had transformed into playing great sixties rock with Brian Wilson’s top notch songwriting as a base.
The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys
The Freegal Music Catalog doesn’t feature any original studio albums by The Beach Boys. However, they do have an interesting collection of their songs, some recorded live, on an album released by the Piros/Send label and titled simply The Beach Boys. I would describe their early music as having the combo theme of being Surf and “it’s cool to be young” style of music – and those are the types of songs that are dominant in this collection. This collection includes the songs: Surfin’ Safari, Surfer Girl, I Get Around, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, and Ride The Wild Surf.
The album also contains one song, Good Vibrations, in which you can hear the beginnings of the blossoming creativity the group found in the mid-sixties under the songwriting and musical production guidance of Brian Wilson. And as that lone song is from their more creativity period – I’ll save the suggestions for their later songs for the CD section of this posting – as we there are a variety of great Beach Boys albums available for request in StarCat.
The Monkees were a band put together directly in response to The Beatles! Specifically, they were put together in response to The Beatles success with their 1964 film A Hard Days Night. The band consisted of Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz. The group had their own zany TV show, which was certainly inspired by A Hard Days Night, and released some great pop-rock music. And they actually get something of a bum rap as being nothing more than a Beatles knock off band. However, if you listen to their music it does hold up as solid upbeat pop-rock music.
The Freegal Catalog doesn’t feature any of The Monkees studio albums; however, two of their best-known songs can be found in the catalog – the Neil Diamond classic I’m A Believer and the theme from their TV Show “Hey, hey, we’re the Monkeys and people say we monkey around, but where too busy singing to put anybody down” – very catchy!
And on to the streaming suggestions!
I’m A Believer from the various artists LP Sugar Sugar
This is the original song from a various artists album with a super long title: Sugar Sugar: The Very Best Pop Golden Oldies of the 1960s by the Ronettes, Sonny & Cher, The Monkees, And More
Just a pre-listening note: This album features a few original recordings, including I’m A Believer, some re-record version of popular songs and a few songs credited simply to “Various Artists.” Nevertheless, the album contains a solid collection of upbeat pop-rock and is perfect listening to whilst sitting around the pool!
The Grass Roots formed in Los Angeles in the mid-sixties and consisted of Rob Grill on vocals and bass, Wayne Entner & Creed Barrington on guitars and Rick Coonce on drums. The group was guided by the classic rock songwriting team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri who wrote a number of their songs.
The Grass Roots recorded some great songs that complimented the mid-to late sixties era including: Where Were You When I Needed You, Let’s Live For Today, Things I Should Have Said, Temptation Eyes and Midnight Confessions.
And the Freegal Music Catalog features a number of greatest hits style collections by the band, however, they all feature re-recorded versions of their music – so I recommend you skip them, check out the YouTube videos by the band further along in this posting and request a CD by the group through StarCat!
III. CD Music Recommendations Of The Week
The Beach Boys:
Five Classic Albums:
This multi-disc set features five of the band’s early albums: Little Deuce Coupe, Surfin’ USA, All Summer Long, Summer Days (And Summer Nights) and Pet Sounds. This five album, five disc set, contains more than fifty songs. To my ears the first two albums Little Deuce Coupe and Surfin’ USA find the band playing solid Surf rock but still finding their musical footing while their songs/playing on the last three albums All Summer Long, Summer Days and Pet Sounds are really solid as if they did indeed find their footing and were beginning to creatively blossom as a band.
The songs on this set include: Surfin’ U.S.A., Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe, I Get Around, Wendy, All Summer Long, Help me Rhonda, California Girls, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, God Only Knows and many more.
In 1966 The Beach Boys, under direction of their primary songwriter and musical director Brian Wilson began working on the album SMiLE which Wilson intended to be a seminal work of progressive pop rock with psychedelic roots. Many, many hours of studio recordings were made but the album, which the rest of the band and their record label – Capital didn’t think was a commercial enough project put pressure on Wilson to finished it or abandon the project – so abandon the project they did. And in the decades that follow this unreleased album took on an almost mythical reputation as the greatest rock album never released. The album was finally released on CD in 2011 and the music is very cool! This is no Surf or youth orientated album – and if you are already a Beach Boys fan you should enjoy this set – if however, you’re new to listening the band in an in-depth way – you might want to skip this album and check out Pet Sounds or the classic greatest hits collection Endless Summer.
This collection includes the songs: Our Prayer, Heroes And Villains, I’m in Great Shape, Child is Father Of The Man, The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow), Good Vibrations, You’re Welcome, Cool Cool Water and more – 40 songs in all.
This is a 1995 album released by the great Rhino Records and it includes The Monkees (TV Theme), Last Train To Clarksville, I’m A Believer, (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone, A Little Bit Me, A LIttle Bit You, Daydream Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday.
Believe it or not, there isn’t a single album by The Grass Roots available through out the entire Southern Tier Library System – so we’re rectifying that musical travesty and have one on order! The LP is titled The Complete Original Dunhill/ABC Hit Singles and features all 24 of the hits they had in their mid-sixties heyday including: Mr. Jones (Ballad of a Thin Man), Where Were You When I Needed You, Let’s Live for Today (Both Censored & Uncensored Versions), Things I Should Have Said, Midnight Confessions, Temptation Eyes, Glory Bound and Anyway The Wind Blows.
The album should be available in StarCat soon!
IV. Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups:
The Beach Boys – three performances from the Ed Sullivan Show
Wendy
I Get Around
Good Vibrations
The Monkees
Last Train To Clarksville
Pleasant Valley Sunday
I’m A Believer
The first episode of Monkees TV series:
The Grass Roots:
Midnight Confessions
Temptation Eyes
Let’s Live For Today
VI. Print References:
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)
Sixties Rock: A Listener’s Guide by Robert Santelli (Contemporary Books. Chicago. 1985.)
P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713.
*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and including our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York. Library cards are free and at our library you can obtain one by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features both your name and your current address.
Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles for today.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict:
In the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe, The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein’s enormous shadow. It is the story of Einstein’s wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her own profound and very personal insight.
Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.
And just a quick note about this book – it is the current Big Read title! And that means that it is available to everyone who wants to read it – on demand! You don’t have to request because it is available now!
Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:
Magical storyteller Neil Jordan steps into the realm of fantasy–for fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.
It looked like any other carnival, but of course it wasn’t. The boy saw it from the car window, the tops of the large trailer rides over the parked trains by the railway tracks. His parents were driving towards the new mall and he was looking forward to that too, but the tracery of lights above the gloomy trains caught his imagination . . .
Andy walks into Burleigh’s Amazing Hall of Mirrors, and then he walks right into the mirror, becomes a reflection. Another boy, a boy who is not Andy, goes home with Andy’s parents. And the boy who was once Andy is pulled–literally pulled, by the hands, by a girl named Mona–into another world, a carnival world where anything might happen.
Master storyteller Neil Jordan creates his most commercial novel in years in this crackling, cinematic fantasy–which is also a parable of adolescence, how children become changelings, and how they find their own way.
You can also request items 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 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.
Just a reminder, the library is closed today, Friday, June 9, 2017 for staff training.
We’ll re-open our normal hours of 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, June 10, 2017.
And without further ado, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats!
Our digital suggestion for today is the streaming video:
Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music:
Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule—until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongos. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream. Inspired by the childhood of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba’s traditional taboo against female drummers, Drum Dream Girl tells an inspiring true story for dreamers everywhere.
Here’s a link to the checkout/request page in the Digital Catalog:
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: A Novel by Hannah Tinti:
A coming-of-age novel and a literary thrill ride about the price we pay to protect the people we love most.
“A father-daughter road trip you won’t soon forget.”—Richard Russo
Samuel Hawley isn’t like the other fathers in Olympus, Massachusetts. A loner who spent years living on the run, he raised his beloved daughter, Loo, on the road, moving from motel to motel, always watching his back. Now that Loo’s a teenager, Hawley wants only to give her a normal life. In his late wife’s hometown, he finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at the local high school.
Growing more and more curious about the mother she never knew, Loo begins to investigate. Soon, everywhere she turns, she encounters the mysteries of her parents’ lives before she was born. This hidden past is made all the more real by the twelve scars her father carries on his body. Each scar is from a bullet Hawley took over the course of his criminal career. Each is a memory: of another place on the map, another thrilling close call, another moment of love lost and found. As Loo uncovers a history that’s darker than she could have known, the demons of her father’s past spill over into the present—and together both Hawley and Loo must face a reckoning yet to come.
You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:
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 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.
Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz:
“Magpie Murders is a double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don’t often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers.” –Janet Maslin, The New York Times
From the New York Times bestselling author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.
Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.
Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.
Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:
A sweeping historical novel of the American West that follows the dramatic life of Daytime Smoke, Nez Perce son of explorer William Clark.
The Coming is an epic novel of native-white relations in North America, intimately told through the life of Daytime Smoke–the real-life red-haired son of William Clark and a Nez Perce woman. In 1805, Lewis and Clark stumble out of the Rockies on the edge of starvation. The Nez Perce help the explorers build canoes and navigate the rapids of the Columbia, then spend two months hosting them the following spring before leading them back across the snowbound mountains. Daytime Smoke is born not long after, and the tribe of his youth continues a deep friendship with white Americans, from fur trappers to missionaries, even aiding the United States government in wars with neighboring tribes. But when gold is discovered on Nez Perce land in 1860, it sets an inevitable tragedy in motion.
Daytime Smoke’s life spanned the seven decades between first contact and the last great Indian war. Capturing the trajectory experienced by so many native peoples–from friendship and cooperation to betrayal, war, and genocide–this sweeping novel, with its large cast of characters and vast geography, braids historical events with the drama of one man’s remarkable life. Rigorously researched and cinematically rendered, The Coming is a page-turning, heart-stopping American novel in a classic mode.
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 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.
Hi everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended titles in print or media and digital formats.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
Cold Earth, Shetland Island Mystery Series, Book 7 by Ann Cleeves:
From Ann Cleeves, winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger Award, comes Cold Earth.
In the dark days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea.
At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of mud and water smash through a house in its path. Everyone thinks the home is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez soon becomes obsessed with tracing her identity and realizes he must find out who she was and how she died.
Cold Earth is the seventh book in the beloved Shetland series, which is now a major success for the BBC.
Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:
When fifteen-year-old Lucy Willows discovers that her father has a child from a brief affair, an eight-year-old boy who lives in her own suburban New Jersey town, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her home and her life. How could Lucy’s father have betrayed the entire family? How could her mother forgive him? And why isn’t her sister rocked by the news the way Lucy is?
As her father’s secret becomes her own, Lucy grows more and more isolated from her friends, her family, and even her boyfriend, Simon, the one person she thought understood her. When Lucy escapes to Maine, the home of her mysteriously estranged grandfather, she finally begins to get to the bottom of her family’s secrets and lies.
Just Fly Away is a debut novel about family secrets, first love, the limits of forgiveness, and finding one’s way in the world from an award-winning writer, actor, and director.
Here’s a link to the StarCat request page for the book:
You can also requests books simply 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 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.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for today.
Our digital suggestion for today is the e-book:
Dragon Teeth: A Novel by Michael Crichton:
Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park, returns to the world of paleontology in this recently discovered novel—a thrilling adventure set in the Wild West during the golden age of fossil hunting.
The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.
Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and William’s newfound resilience will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which pits him against some of the West’s most notorious characters.
A page-turner that draws on both meticulously researched history and an exuberant imagination, Dragon Teeth is based on the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Cope and Marsh; in William Johnson readers will find an inspiring hero only Michael Crichton could have imagined. Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted, this enormously winning adventure is destined to become another Crichton classic.
Here’s a link to the checkout page in the Digital Catalog:
Threads of Suspicion (An Evie Blackwell Cold Case) by Dee Henderson:
Evie Blackwell’s reputation as a top investigator for the Illinois State Police has landed her an appointment to the governor’s new Missing Persons Task Force. This elite investigative team is launched with plenty of public fanfare. The governor has made this initiative a high priority, so they will have to produce results–and quickly.
Evie and her new partner, David Marshal, are assigned to a pair of unrelated cases in suburban Chicago, and while both involve persons now missing for several years, the cases couldn’t be more different. While Evie opens old wounds in a close-knit neighborhood to find a missing college student, David searches for a private investigator working for a high-powered client.
With a deep conviction that “justice for all” truly matters, Evie and David are unrelenting in their search for the truth. But Evie must also find answers to the questions that lie just beneath the surface in her personal life.
Bonus Print Recommend Reads/Views:
In honor of today being the seventy third anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy in 1944, here’s are two suggested reads and one suggested view that focus on World War II.
Book 1:
Normandy: From D-Day to the Breakout: June 6-July 31, 1944
by Dominique Francois:
This coffee-table book, packed with prints and photographs covering the Allies’ June 1944 invasion of France is clearly a labor of love by French military historian François. A preinvasion bombing killed his grandfather, a Norman farmer, and barely missed his father, age 10 at the time. Chapter one offers family photographs as well as posters and photos of the 1940–1944 German occupation. Even better is an epilogue of before-and-after photographs juxtaposing images of locations like Omaha Beach in 1944 and 60 years later. In between, the pages teem with images of the massive Allied buildup in England, the invasion itself and the battles in Normandy interspersed with sidebars on generals and soldiers awarded medals for their bravery. Readers familiar with the iconic Normandy photographs will not find them; among the myriad of images in the archives, François’s choices emphasize modest soldierly activity and civilian miseries. The extensive text delivers a conventional, undistinguished history of events, so readers will lose little by skimming. Picture books on the Normandy invasion would fill a substantial shelf, but this one offers some modestly unusual features. 100 color and 400 b&w photos. – Publishers Weekly Review.
Here’s a link to the StarCat request page for the book:
Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE
by Gordon Thomas and Greg Lewis:
They were told that the only crime they must never commit was to be caught. Women of enormous cunning and strength of will, the Shadow Warriors’ stories have remained largely untold until now. In a dramatic tale of espionage and conspiracy in World War II, Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE unveils the history of the courageous women who volunteered to work behind enemy lines.
Sent into Nazi-occupied Europe by the United States’ Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), these women helped establish a web of resistance groups across the continent. Their extraordinary heroism, initiative, and resourcefulness contributed to the Allied breakout of the Normandy beachheads and to the eventual victory over Hitler. Young and daring, the female agents accepted that they could be captured, tortured, or killed, but others were always readied to take their place. So effective did the female agents become in their efforts, the Germans placed a price of a million francs on the heads of operatives who were successfully disrupting their troops.
Here’s a link to the StarCat request page for the book:
Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII’s D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller’s men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name “Ryan” stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. The film’s historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and the incident is based on a true occurrence in Ambrose’s 1994 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944.
Here’s a link to the StarCat request page for the DVD:
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 