Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles, eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.
DIGITAL CATALOG RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Accidental Pallbearer by Frank Lentricchia (Format: eBook):
Introducing a gritty new detective series set in the bleak hinterlands of upstate New York
Washed-up private investigator Eliot Conte would rather be teaching American literature and listening to opera than taking pictures of spouses in flagrante delicto. But he flamed out of an academic career when he hung the Provost of UCLA out a window, and he had to come home —- to bleak Utica, New York, where his aging father, Silvio Conte, a political kingmaker, is still cutting deals and hustling appointments, and his all-but-in-blood brother Antonio Robinson is the city’s first black Chief of Police.
But now Antonio’s asking him for a favor that, to Eliot, doesn’t seem like the kind of thing a police chief should ask for … especially as he begins to uncover a trail of evidence leading back to the most sensational hit in local Mafia history. In a Utica marked by economic devastation and racial tensions, Eliot picks up one strand after another, weaving his way through a web of allegiances, grudges, and his own dark demons. Who is the spider at the center of it all?
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Leviathan Wakes: The Expanse Series, Book 1 written by James S. A. Corey and read by Jefferson Mays (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):
The first book in the revolutionary New York Times bestselling Expanse series, a modern masterwork of science fiction. Leviathan Wakes introduces Captain James Holden, his crew, and Detective Miller as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl. Now a Prime Original series.
Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
“Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written.” – George R. R. Martin
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A Long Petal of the Sea: A Novel by Isabel Allende (Format: eBook):
From the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.
“Isabel Allende is a legend and this might be her finest book yet.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Saints for All Occasions
In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.
A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.
Praise for A Long Petal of the Sea
“Both an intimate look at the relationship between one man and one woman and an epic story of love, war, family, and the search for home, this gorgeous novel, like all the best novels, transports the reader to another time and place, and also sheds light on the way we live now.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Saints for All Occasions
“This is a novel not just for those of us who have been Allende fans for decades, but also for those who are brand-new to her work: What a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time. She knows that all stories are love stories, and the greatest love stories are told by time.”—Colum McCann, National Book Award–winning author of Let the Great World Spin
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Treason: Stone Barrington Series, Book 52 written by Stuart Woods and read by Tony Roberts (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):
Stone Barrington takes on a scheming rebel in this latest action-packed thriller from #1 New York Times-bestselling author Stuart Woods.
Upon returning to New York City after a whirlwind British excursion, Stone Barrington is notified of a delicate situation within the country’s administration. A close friend requires his expertise and subtlety to eradicate a destructive presence in a classified agency—only it soon becomes clear that this renegade was sent by a rival Stone has encountered before.
From the City of Light to the rocky Maine coastline, Stone will need to summon all his wit and daring to halt the audacious plots threatening to reveal confidential intel, and catch the evasive traitor at last. This enemy may be equipped with unlimited resources and devious schemes, but if Stone remains vigilant, justice may finally prevail. . . .
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You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance by Chani Nicholas (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):
From beloved astrologer Chani Nicholas comes an essential guide for radical self-acceptance.
Your weekly horoscope is merely one crumb of astrology’s cake. In her first book You Were Born For This, Chani shows how your birth chart—a snapshot of the sky at the moment you took your first breath—reveals your unique talents, challenges, and opportunities. Fortified with this knowledge, you can live out the life you were born to. Marrying the historic traditions of astrology with a modern approach, You Were Born for This explains the key components of your birth chart in an easy to use, choose your own adventure style. With journal prompts, reflection questions, and affirmations personal to your astrological makeup, this book guides you along the path your chart has laid out for you.
Chani makes the wisdom of your birth chart accessible with three foundational keys:
The First Key: Your Sun (Your Life’s Purpose)
The Second Key: Your Moon (Your Physical and Emotional Needs)
The Third Key: Your Ascendant and Its Ruler (Your Motivation for Life and the Steersperson of Your Ship)
Astrology is not therapy, but it is therapeutic. In a world in which we are taught to look outside of ourselves for validation,
You Were Born for This brings us inward to commit to ourselves and our life’s purpose.
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PRINT RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple:
“In August 1756 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army–what we would now call an act of involuntary privatization. The East India Company’s founding charter authorized it to ‘wage war’ and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional international trading corporation dealing in silks and spices and became something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. In less than four decades it had trained up a security force of around 200,000 men–twice the size of the British army–and had subdued an entire subcontinent, conquering first Bengal and finally, in 1803, the Mughal capital of Delhi itself. The Company’s reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London. The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting book to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.”—From the Publisher
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Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion by Ingrid Newkirk:
This earnest volume from Newkirk, cofounder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Stone (Eat for the Planet, coauthor) is a fascinating look at animal behavior, as well as a treatise against cruelty toward animals. Divided into two halves, it begins by focusing on “who animals are—their many talents, languages, and complex cultures.” Ants, for example, have strong collective instincts; each has “a specific role within a group, and each group has a distinct purpose.” The coauthors also discuss how birds navigate and hone a sense of direction that would “put even the most deft human explorers to shame.” The second half focuses on how humans can improve animals’ lives—not least by abstaining from cruelty. Descriptions of the experiments done on animals including mice, rabbits, monkeys, and dogs in order “to study toxic chemicals, drugs, or diseases” get graphic quickly. As do discussions about animals “routinely killed and skinned for their fur” or crocodiles and alligators “slaughtered for leather.” Newkirk and Stone’s informative survey effectively nudges readers to think twice about their own use of products sourced, perhaps less than ethically, from the animal kingdom. – Publishers Weekly
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The Auguries by Francis Cottam:
“The sudden sinking of a Thames passenger craft with no survivors is seen simply as freak, unexplained accident. But when the male statues of London start crying blood and a choking fog descends causing a passenger plane to crash into the Thames Barrier, the country panics. Is London under a terrorist attack – or is something else at work? Professor Juliet Harrington suspects these unexplained incidents are related to ‘The Almanac of Forbidden Wisdom’, a book said to contain the most potent charms and curses. These events are referred to as The Auguries, which signal the world being out of balance. With each spell cast the world becomes more unstable, and Juliet is in a race against time to find who has the book and how to counteract the spells before it is too late”— From the Publisher
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Jazz by Toni Morrison:
In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse. This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.
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Bryant & May: The Lonely Hour: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler:
“When a man is found hanging upside down inside a willow tree on Hampstead Heath, surrounded by a baffling assortment of occult objects, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. Was this a botched Satanic ritual pulled off by bored teenagers, a gang initiation, or the work of a mastermind with grander intentions? Bryant and May set off for answers and soon discover that London is a city steeped in blood and magic. When another body is pulled from the river in the early morning light, it becomes clear that a killer lurks in the night. To catch him, the PCU switches to graveyard shifts, but the team still comes up short. As they explore a night city where the normal rules do not apply, they’re drawn deeper into a case that involves murder, arson, kidnapping, blackmail, loneliness, and bats. May takes a technological approach, while Bryant goes in search of academics and misfits for help, for this is becoming an investigation that reveals impossibilities at every turn. How do you stop a killer who appears not to exist? Luckily, impossibilities are what the Peculiar Crimes Unit does best” – From the Publisher
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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StarCat
The catalog of physical library materials, i.e. print books, audiobooks on CD, DVDs etc.
ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:
You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.
For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/
If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
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