Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week.
Format Note: Under each book title you’ll find a list of all the different formats that specific title is available in; including: Print Books, Large Print Books, CD Audiobooks, eBooks & Downloadable Audiobooks from the Digital Catalog (Libby app) and Hoopla eBooks & Hoopla Downloadable Audiobooks (Hoopla app).
*More information on the three catalogs is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
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Angels Walking by Karen Kingsbury
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes the first in a brand-new series about second chances—a dramatic story about a washed up baseball player, the love he left behind, and the miracles that might save them both.
When former national baseball star Tyler Ames suffers a career-ending injury, all he can think about is putting his life back together the way it was before. He has lost everyone he loves on his way to the big leagues. Then just when things seem to be turning around, Tyler hits rock bottom. Across the country, Tyler’s one true love Sami Dawson has moved on.
A series of small miracles leads Tyler to a maintenance job at a retirement home and a friendship with Virginia Hutcheson, an old woman with Alzheimer’s who strangely might have the answers he so desperately seeks.
A team of Angels Walking take on the mission to restore hope for Tyler, Sami, and Virginia. Can such small and seemingly insignificant actions of the unseen bring healing and redemption? And can the words of a stranger rekindle lost love? Every journey begins with a step.
It is time for the mission to begin…
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The Essential W. P. Kinsella by W. P. Kinsella
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball’s greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.
In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.
Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indigenous Canadians, and a literary homage to J. D. Salinger.
Alongside the “real” story of the 1951 Giants and the afterlife of Roberto Clemente, are the legends of a pirated radio station and a hockey game rigged by tribal magic.
Eclectic, dark, and comedic by turns, The Essential W. P. Kinsella is a living tribute to an extraordinary raconteur.
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Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)
Insight into the world of biblical excavation in Israel raises Rabbi Klein’s debut novel from a Jewish Da Vinci Code to an emotionally rich story of personal and historical discovery. After a dozen years digging in Megiddo, American archeologist Page Brookstone longs for something new. When an Arab couple propose that Page investigate the haunted ruins under their home, she ignores colleagues’ misgivings and heads to Anatot, just outside Jerusalem. There, the couple, along with Page and her team, uncover murals, artifacts and remains suggesting they have come upon the grave of the prophet Jeremiah, buried with the woman he loved, Anatiya, who also has left a manuscript that parallels the Book of Jeremiah. The discovery ignites an international uproar and violent attacks while Page, affected by the ancient spirits, is attracted to Orthodox Israeli Mortichai Master, despite his connections to an organization opposing her efforts. Rabbi Klein’s most vivid passages depict the meditative tedium of digging, the exultation of discovery and the intricate processes of authentication and preservation, while love stories past and present—and a balanced, compassionate view of both Israeli and Arab traditions—add to the book’s pleasures. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Master Blaster by P. F. Kluge
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
Saipan is the largest island of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a half-hour plane ride from Guam, and a place most Americans probably don’t even realize is an American territory. The island is a muddle of decommissioned WWII- and Cold Warera installations, abandoned garment factories, sleazy strip bars, empty hotels with algae-filled pools, acres of prime beachfront property ripe for development, and a populace eager to fleece new arrivals. On this shabby tropical isle, instead of a ship of fools, Kluge creates an island of fools, as four disparate visitors all experience life-changing eventsnot necessarily for the better. Shady wheeler-dealer Mel Brodie; Dr. Stephanie Warner, a libidinous academic; indentured laborer Khan, from Bangladesh; and George Griffin, a world-weary travel writer, all arrive together one morning, suffering from jet lag and eager for new experiences. Although not the typical genre-fiction page-turner, this title is recommended for large popular collections for its interesting character development, plot twists, and gotcha ending. Booklist Review
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In And Out of Step by Christine M. Knight
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
The past denied and her dance championship dreams discarded. Cassie Sleight leaves home. In the seemingly idyllic coastal town of Keimera, she starts a career on the English staff of the local high school. Contact with Mark Talbut, a man struggling to be modern yet threatened by power shifts in the workplace and in society, causes Cassie to assess her reactions as a women and t teacher. As she does so, the secrets of her past surface. Will that past continue to choreograph Cassie’s present steps? What sort of women does she become?
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Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by Jess Kidd
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Bridlemere, in West London, is a house filled with secrets, lost souls, mountains of hoarded rubbish, dozens of cats, and one cantankerous old man. No government caseworker has been able to prevail over the eccentric Cathal Flood and his haunted estate; even the agency’s geriatric whisperer lasted only three days. That is, until his case is assigned to Maud Drennan. Undaunted by Flood’s harsh peculiarities, Maud arms herself with bleach and traverses Flood’s wall of National Geographic magazines in search of clues. Bridlemere holds the secrets of Flood’s lost family, with treasures and ghostly spirits standing on guard. Surrounded by filth and the supernatural, Maud forges a bond with Flood that’s very real. When their friendship comes to a tragic end, Maud realizes she must return to reality and finally confront the secrets of her own past. Kidd’s (Himself, 2017) compelling second novel weaves love, betrayal, and forgiveness with humor, mystery, and a bit of magic. This absorbing mix of paranormal tragedy and heartfelt triumph will appeal to a broad swath of readers. Booklist Review
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Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A mother’s love propels this latest work from the award-winning author of Mister Pip. In Tunisia, a young woman who works as a hotel maid falls in love and has a baby, but the baby’s father steals him, and the penniless mother makes a harrowing trip to Berlin to find her child. What’s most original about this novel is the structure. More than half of it is narrated by individuals encountered by the main character (whom we come to know as Ines) during her journey and her time in Berlin. These people are mostly kind but sometimes cruel, and their narratives read almost like short stories as they reveal glimpses not only of Ines but also of themselves and their loneliness. The injustice of Ines’s situation is heartbreaking, and the cruelty and selfishness of the child’s father is maddening–perhaps the novel’s one shortcoming, for he is a more important but less realized character than others. Ines finally tells her own story, and we get a slightly different take on some of those she met on her way–a pleasure of multiple viewpoints. VERDICT An absorbing work recommended for fans of Peter Carey, whose novels (such as Oscar and Lucinda) have a similar dreamy, shifting quality. Library Journal Review
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Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge
(Available Format: Print Book)
The first in the Black London series, this dark tale takes Kittredge’s supernatural shadows to the next level. At 16, Pete Caldecott witnessed the apparent death of punk rocker Jack Winter after he raised an ancient spirit. Twelve years later, Det. Insp. Caldecott has followed in her dead father’s footsteps at Scotland Yard. She follows a tip about a missing child and finds Jack, now a heroin junkie claiming intimate knowledge of a parallel realm called the Black. As Jack detoxes and more children disappear, he joins Pete’s quest to find them, teaching her to use hexes and spells as well as her physical abilities in the fight against a rising dark power. Kittredge (the Nocturne City series) knows how to create a believable world, and her fans will enjoy the mix of magic and city grit. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In 1940, San Francisco is filled with outcasts and tourists seeking excitement, home to Chinatown and the World’s Fair. A group of six bohemian women enjoy a safe harbor in each other’s company: Franny and Babs work together to test the limits of location magic; Helen practices law and works as a nightclub dancer in a Chinese cabaret; Polly is a scientist and exile from an England at war; and pulp-cover artist Haskel falls in love with Emily, a nightclub singer. Focusing on Haskel and Emily, Klages deftly weaves each thread to a climax both bittersweet and empowering while demonstrating historical knowledge and immense fondness for her subjects and setting. For fans of speculative fiction with a strong sense of place. – Booklist Review
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Villa America by Liza Klaussmann
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Klaussmann’s second novel (after Tigers in Red Weather) chronicles a real-life couple whose titular villa was the nucleus of 1920s American social life. After an unconventional courtship that spans Gerald’s service in World War I, upper-crust Americans Sara and Gerald Murphy make their home at Cap d’Antibes in the south of France, where Gerald pursues an art career and their frequent summer parties on the Riviera draw much attention. Though Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and the Fitzgeralds are guests, the Murphys’ favorite is Owen Chambers, an attractive young cargo pilot from rural New England who becomes a fixture in Sara and Gerald’s guest house and a close confidant of both Murphys, but especially Gerald, whose relationship with Owen throws his entire life into a tailspin. Propelled by the drama-filled foibles of nearly every prominent lost generation figure a history buff could wish for, Klaussmann’s atmospheric prose contains a treasure trove of trivia for fans of the era. Though the central conflicts and emotions are relatively slow to emerge and seem a little buried under lavish descriptions of the Murphys’ opulent digs, readers who are looking for a trip back in time will find this an ideal beach read. Publishers Weekly Review
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer
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*Information on the Three Catalogs*
Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, digital magazines and a handful of streaming videos. The catalog, which allows one to download content to a PC, also has a companion app, Libby, which you can download to your mobile device; so you can enjoy eBooks and downloadable audiobooks 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 instant checkouts of eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla App is available for Android or Apple devices and most smart TVs & media streaming players.
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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.
The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
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