This site offers news and discussion about technology, books, digital library content, media items, online library resources and free tech assistance patrons can acquire at the library!
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are now published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.
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52 Ways to Walk The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The newest work by fiction and nonfiction author Streets (who also writes under the name Annabel Abbs) continues her research on walking that began in Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women. Her new book takes readers through a year’s worth of intentional walks, one week at a time. Streets here encourages readers to plan walks in advance and focus on either external factors (e.g., landscape) or internal factors (e.g., spiritual direction), in order to recontextualize walking: the walk itself should be the goal, instead of a means of going from point A to point B. Walks themed around sounds or smells challenge readers to think about sensory perception or reengage with surroundings. Walkers are encouraged to think about both comfort and safety prior to stepping out; Streets acknowledges privilege, stating that walking is not necessarily a safe activity for all. Each short chapter encompasses a bit of science as a framework and ends with a list of tips to help readers maximize their experiences.
VERDICT Recommended for walkers looking to add more variety to their routines, as well as readers looking for motivation to get outside and move. – Library Journal Review
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And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling Meacham’s expert biography enlarges the view of Lincoln’s life by vividly rendering mood and setting. Readers will feel menace hovering over Lincoln as he travels to Washington, D.C., for his first inauguration and imagine that they are in the crowd, mud, and sudden burst of sunlight at his second. Meacham’s portraits of Lincoln’s family and contemporaries include a more balanced view of Mary Lincoln than is usually offered and startling and unsettling examples of Andrew Johnson’s racism and drunkenness. Meacham’s clear, compelling, and detailed accounts of Lincoln’s childhood and the campaign for the 1864 election illuminate key aspects of his life that are not always covered. Meacham also greatly emphasizes Lincoln’s religious beliefs at every stage and shares some Lincoln witticisms not found elsewhere. The book is well-researched and up-to-date, and its informatively captioned maps, paintings, and photographs enhance the narrative. In the epilogue, Meacham traces Lincoln’s legacy to the present and concludes this fresh and revealing addition to the vast Lincoln canon with some of the best last words in any book. – Booklist
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The Best Short Stories 2022: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Valeria Luiselli
(Available Formats: eBook)
This impressive anthology, the first in the series to include work in translation, is a showcase for Luiselli’s keen eye for literary quality. Many speak to the pandemic’s new normal. In the opener, “Screen Time” by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, the parents of a two-year-old boy resolve to keep his early childhood free of screens. Later, when the family’s in lockdown, the couple reconsiders and discusses sharing their world of television and movies with their son. Daniel Mason’s “The Wolves of Circassia” follows an older couple and their care worker, Seini, who moves in with them during the lockdown, along with the couple’s son and grandson. As Seini grows isolated from her own family and fatigued from her increased responsibilities, the household’s uneasy balance is threatened. Politics feature in the uncanny “Where They Always Meet” by Christos Ikonomou, translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich, in which a journalist meets a woman who claims to be the granddaughter of Stalin, her existence covered up by the state; and in the wildly inventive and fantastical “Dengue Boy” by Michel Nieva, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer, featuring a class-conscious pubescent boy who’s bullied for being half mosquito. These stories surprise and illuminate. – Publishers Weekly Review
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A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Young’s (Much Ado About You) latest is an emotional contemporary romance. The digital files that event planner Hallie Goodman receives from her new bride-to-be’s inspiration portfolio include not only mood boards but also some very personal messages from the bride’s ex, Captain Christopher Ortiz, a Mexican American astronaut, recorded during his months aboard the International Space Station. Hallie wasn’t planning on watching the videos and reading NASA’s golden boy’s transmissions, but when her return email bounces back, she begins to pen her own diary-like letters, thinking she is sending them into the void. When NASA IT actually forwards Hallie’s messages to Chris, he begins to fall for the pink-haired woman via her confessions of family strife, work woes, and hope for the future. Both Hallie and Chris fall in love with the idealized person captured in their transmissions, but when they meet they must mesh their out-of-space expectations with their messy realities back on Earth.
VERDICT Recommended for readers who appreciate exploring complicated family dynamics and a search for identity along with a romance arc. Library Journal Review
Gil decides to walk from Manhattan to Arizona. “He had nowhere to be and no one who needed him.” Millet follows her climate-crisis drama, A Children’s Bible (2020), with an intriguing portrait of a lonesome man trying to do good in a grim world. The sorrowful heir of immense wealth, bruised and confused by the abrupt end to a love affair, Gil heads to the desert hoping for a new orientation to life. He buys a castle-like house bordering public lands with one neighboring home in view made of glass, its alluring occupants unwitting actors on an exposed domestic stage. Psychotherapist Ardis is beautiful and kind. Ted travels a lot for his global infrastructure projects. Teen Clem is “glued to her phone,” and young Tom longs for companionship. Gil volunteers at a woman’s shelter, keeps Tom company, and becomes fascinated with birds, feathered “descendants of dinosaurs.” Intricate conflicts and conundrums develop at a meditative pace as patient, generous Gil tries to suss out the feelings of others while contending with his own painful memories. Anguish and tenderness mesh with piquant humor as Millet, empathic and imaginative, reveals her humble hero’s Batman-like backstory. Birds, bats, humans, and many other creatures may be facing extinction, but the desert is an ongoing marvel and love still thrives. – Booklist Review
When 36-year-old Alice’s father dies, she discovers he has left her the family estate, Evertell, which the two had abandoned more than 20 years earlier when Alice’s mother died. Thinking to sell the property, which lies eight miles from Savannah, Alice travels there with her 13-year-old daughter, Penn, and finds the estate maintained by its caretaker, Sonder, whom Alice has known since they were teenagers. To her delight, Alice discovers in Evertell’s family chapel the lost book of Eleanor Dare, one of two survivors of the lost colony of Roanoke. The nearly 400-year-old commonplace book has passed through generations of Eleanor’s female descendants (Evertell heirs, it is said, could always find their way home). But is Evertell to be home to heirs Alice and Penn, and what of the emerging relationship between Alice and Sonder? Though sometimes slow paced and, arguably, too long, this romantic novel is redeemed by its characters and their search for their identity and heritage. Expect the book to attract an eager audience of readers who enjoy women’s fiction. – Booklist Review
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The Mountain In The Sea: A Novel written by Ray Nayler, read by Eunice Wong
Eunice Wong narrates a fascinating thriller in which humanity confronts a potential intellectual equal. Dr. Ha Nguyen jumps at the opportunity to study a new species of octopus said to have achieved hyperintelligence. She is ushered to a remote archipelago populated only by the octopuses, a security agent, and a degrading android. Wong complements the narrative wonderfully with consistent and distinct characters and a steadfast delivery of the narrative. The story is tightly focused, and the narration keeps it feeling both entertaining and contemplative. The theme of the nature of consciousness is equal parts intriguing, thrilling, and eerie. Best of all, it’s always compellingly narrated, making for a performance that’s difficult to pause. – AudioFile Review
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Our America: A Photographic History by Ken Burns
(Available Formats: Print Book)
From one of our most treasured filmmakers, a pictorial history of America—a stunning and moving collection of some of Ken Burns’s favorite photographs, with an introduction by Burns, and an essay by longtime MoMA photography curator Sarah Hermanson Meister
Burns has been making documentaries about American history for more than four decades, using images to vividly re-create our struggles and successes as a nation and a people. As much as anyone alive today, he understands the soul of our country.
In Our America, Burns has assembled the images that, for him, best embody nearly two hundred years of the American experiment, taken by some of our most reknowned photographers and by others who worked in obscurity. We see America’s vast natural beauty as well as its dynamic cities and communities. There are striking images of war and civil conflict, and of communities drawing together across lines of race and class. Our greatest leaders appear alongside regular folks living their everyday lives. The photos talk to one another across boundaries and decades and, taken together, they capture the impossibly rich and diverse perspectives and places that comprise the American experience.
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Two Old Broads: Stuff You Need to Know That You Didn’t Know You Needed to Know by Dr. M. E. Hecht & Whoopi Goldberg
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Retired orthopedic surgeon and aging expert Hecht and actress/The View host Goldberg (author of Is It Just Me?) submit a series of reminders for self-care and preventative-care as well as spirited living. These self-defining two “old broads” who became friends later in life offer alternating perspectives on creating a world full of zest and sparkle in the senior years. Hecht and Goldberg combine their wits and bold life experiences to invite women to live with as much inventiveness as possible. Practical tips such as how to work with doctors and discuss difficult issues with family members are juxtaposed against lifestyle approaches such as accentuating the positive, indulging in artistic dates, and hiring some help. The coauthors also urge readers to actively defy age exclusion and pursue social connections and continuous learning. A good life may be as simple as laughing more and checking for hearing loss.
VERDICT While this advice is not new, it is a fun, often sassy reminder that no one is just a number. For all public libraries. – Library Journal Review
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A World Of Curiosities by Louise Penny
(Available Formats: eBook, Downloadable Audiobook, Print Book & CD audiobook)
Note: This title will be published on Tuesday, November 29 – but you can place a hold for the digital copy, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook, now!
Bestseller Penny’s virtuoso 18th novel featuring Chief Insp. Armand Gamache of the Québec Sûreté (after 2021’s The Madness of Crowds) blends nuanced characterization with nail-biting suspense. Siblings Fiona and Sam Arsenault return to Three Pines more than a decade after Gamache investigated the bludgeoning murder of their mother, Clotilde. His inquiry revealed that Clotilde had prostituted her children, then 13 and 10, at the time of the killing. During the case, he met his future number two and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who came to a different conclusion than his own. Gamache stayed involved in Fiona’s life, even aiding her graduate studies in engineering. The Arsenaults’ arrival coincides with several murders, which seem connected to an unusual painting found concealed in a hidden room in Three Pines. It first appears to be a duplicate of The Paston Treasure, a cryptic 17th-century assemblage of items known as A World of Curiosities, but anachronistic elements, such as a digital watch, have been added. Penny adds crucial details about Gamache’s backstory and satisfactorily resolves a plotline tease from earlier in the series. This tale of forgiveness and redemption will resonate with many. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
Reader’s Note: If you’re new to this series, and would like to start reading it from the beginning check out book one – Still Life.
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.
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.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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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).
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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.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.
Each title is followed by a listing of which formats it is available in for check out within the three catalogs: StarCat (Print, Large Print & CD Audiobook), The Digital Catalog (eBook & Downloadable Audiobook) and the Hoopla Catalog (Hoopla instant checkout eBook & Hoopla Audiobook).
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are usually published each Sunday.
However, as the Southeast Steuben County Library is closed for Thanksgiving, and annual cleaning from Thursday, November 24 – Sunday, November 27, the next New York Times blog post will be published on Sunday, December 4, 2022.
And on a related note, the New York Times Bestseller lists are actually available for free to anyone who would like to read them; and accessible via the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/
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FICTION
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THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
Two childhood friends follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which puts them on opposite sides of the law.
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THE CLOISTERS by Katy Hays
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A woman assigned to the Met Cloisters discovers a 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might help predict the future.
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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
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DESERT STAR by Michael Connelly
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
Ballard and Bosch bury old resentments as they go after two killers.
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DREAMLAND by Nicholas Sparks
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
Musicians from different backgrounds are attracted to each other and a mother flees with her son from an abusive husband.
A high school kid inherits a shed that is a portal to another world where good and evil are at war.
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GOING ROGUE by Janet Evanovich
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
The 29th book in the Stephanie Plum series. The man who abducted the office manager at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds demands a mysterious coin in exchange for her.
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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)
A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse.
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IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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LONG SHADOWS by David Baldacci
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)
The seventh book in the Memory Man series. Decker works with a new partner to investigate a double homicide.
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MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
After returning to her hometown, Olivia McAfee’s son gets accused of killing his crush.
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NO PLAN B by Lee Child and Andrew Child
(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)
The 27th book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher goes after a killer but is unaware of the bigger implications.
Is Ben using his relationship with Fallon as fodder for his novel?
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OUR MISSING HEARTS by Celeste Ng
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner goes on a quest to find his mother, a Chinese American poet whose work he was taught to disavow.
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THE PASSENGER by Cormac McCarthy
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The first of a two-volume story. Bobby Western discovers things have gone missing from a jet in an underwater crash site, including the 10th passenger.
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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)
A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.
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TRIPLE CROSS by James Patterson
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
Detective Alex Cross and the true-crime author Thomas Tull search for a serial killer known as the Family Man.
The late movie star’s memoir reveals intimate details about his personal relationships and professional rivalries; compiled and edited by David Rosenthal.
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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.
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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy
(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)
The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.
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KILLING THE LEGENDS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The conservative commentator’s Killing series profiles Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Muhammad Ali.
The Digital Catalog has two companion apps, Libby & OverDrive. Libby is the app for newer devices and the OverDrive app should be used for older devices and Amazon tablets.
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features instant check outs of eBooks, downloadable audiobook, comic books, albums and streaming videos. Patron check out limit is 4 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.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs; you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Tel: 607-936-3713
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
–
The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
–
Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are now published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.
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Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Grifiths
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A reunion of the class of 1998 at London’s posh Manor Park school, “where trendy lefties send their kids,” provides the backdrop for this stunning standalone from Edgar winner Griffiths (The Postscript Murder). One attendee, Det. Sgt. Cassie Fitzherbert, believes she pushed a classmate to his death on the rails of an abandoned underground tube station 21 years earlier, but could her memory be faulty? At Manor Park, Cassie was close friends with members of the Group, who used to meet in the attic of the home of Garfield Rice, now a Conservative MP. Every Group member has since had a successful career, except for EFL teacher Anna Vance, who’s “definitely hiding something.” Past crushes, jealousies, and buried passions surface, culminating in Rice’s “unexplained” death in the loo, traces of cocaine on his lips. The stabbing murder of another MP at a dining club in Bleeding Heart Yard, a courtyard in Holborn, raises the stakes. Jaw-dropping red herrings, headbanging twists and turns, and Rashomon-like alternating narratives add to the briskly paced plot, which builds to a reconstruction of the original crime and a bombshell revelation. Donna Tartt fans won’t be able to put this one down.
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Distant Thunder by Stuart Woods
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
Published not quite three months after his death, this is Woods’ sixty-third Stone Barrington novel (but possibly not the last, as at least one more appears to be in the pipeline). Cop turned private investigator/attorney Barrington has a problem: a dead man has washed up onto his property after a big storm. Who is the man? Well, that’s the question that will cause Barrington much consternation and see him going up against U.S. government agents and foreign elements. When a series runs as long as this one has (it launched in 1991, with sometimes as many as four books published in a single year), there usually comes a point when it begins to feel tired. Not so with the indefatigable Stone Barrington. The series always followed something of a formula, with the superwealthy Barrington cavorting and romancing his way around the globe, but somehow Woods managed to keep the characters fresh, the escapist plots interesting enough, and the villains intriguing. This one checks all the boxes. Booklist Review
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Essential: How The Pandemic Transformed The Long Fight For Worker Justice by Jamie J, McCallum
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The Covid-19 pandemic inaugurated a rare national conversation on justice for the working class, according to this enlightening analysis. Sociologist McCallum (Worked Over) highlights the tragic experiences of blue-collar workers caught in the grips of the pandemic, including a Houston mother of four forced to live out of her car after the local eviction moratorium ended, and a Burmese immigrant who fell sick while working 15-hour days at a Colorado meatpacking plant and slipped into a fatal coma soon after her grandson was born. According to McCallum, these and other calamities sparked an “awakening” that united essential workers across industries. Amazon workers formed the first labor union in the company’s history; Massachusetts nurses picketed for 301 days to end cost-cutting staff furloughs and mandatory overtime; Chicago teachers refused to return to overcrowded, poorly ventilated classrooms. McCallum delves into the long-festering tensions behind these actions, including the “tectonic shift” in risk distribution across society, as corporations and governments raised employee healthcare premiums while simultaneously increasing work hours. His solutions include continued labor actions, passage of the Green New Deal, and shorter work hours. Interweaving deeply affecting personal stories with whip-smart structural analysis, this is a revealing diagnosis of America’s ills and an invigorating call for change. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland
(Available Formats: Print Book)
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been”–George Eliot . . . or Melissa Levin-Levine, depending on who you’re asking. When Melissa graduated from Bellport Academy in 1997, she was voted “Most Likely to Win the White House.” Twenty-five years later, the only thing she’s winning is a game of virtual Scrabble, if that. Her friend Tara isn’t having the success she thought she would either, teaching children to cook instead of owning a Michelin-starred restaurant. Priya is a doctor but hasn’t cured cancer and is struggling to find work-life balance. The only one out of their friend group to find their destined success is Suki, with a makeup company that has landed her on the Forbes 400 list. But when the group (minus Suki) reunites at their twenty-fifth high-school reunion, they realize dreams don’t have to have a shelf life. Friedland’s latest (after Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, 2021) is a novel that touts the message “success is what you make it.” Funny, heartwarming, and relatable, The Most Likely Club proves to be another success for Friedland. – Booklist Review
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The Pasta Queen: A Just Gorgeous Cookbook: 100+ Recipes And Stories by Caterina Munno
(Available Formats: Print Book)
TikTok star Munno, whose Italian ancestors were dried pasta makers as far back as the 1880s, shares a mix of go-to classics and family recipes in her luscious debut. Before getting to the recipes, Munno provides a brief history of pasta and lays out some helpful cooking tips (“Treat the recommended cooking time on a box of dried pasta as a guide, not law, to tell you when the pasta is al dente”), and novices will appreciate the detailed directions for making from-scratch pasta (the explanation for how to shape tortellini runs to multiple paragraphs). Classic recipes include spicy penne all’arrabbiata, and spaghetti all’amatriciana with guanciale and Pecorino Romano. Easy everyday recipes make use of leftover pasta, such as timballo di pasta (baked pasta) with salami, ham, or sausage. The American-inspired recipes—silky mac and cheese, penne with creamy salmon—offer nourishing comfort food. Those who want to put their skills to the test can try their hands at one of the recipes that encourage experimentation, such as a lemony pesto that calls for lemon, mint, and pistachios, the proportions of which can be changed based on flavor preferences and what one has on hand. Thorough and infectiously jubilant, this spirited celebration of Italy’s most famous food is a winner. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber Logan
(Available Formats: Large Print)
Cracked doesn’t always mean broken.
Grieving her mother’s death, Mari Lennox travels to Kyoto, Japan to take photographs of Yanagi Inn for a client. As she explores the inn and its grounds, her camera captures striking images, uncovering layers of mystery shrouding the old resort—including an overgrown, secret garden on a forbidden island. But then eerie weeping no one else in the inn seems to hear starts keeping her awake at night.
Despite the warnings of the staff, Mari searches the deep recesses of the old building to discover the source of the ghostly sound, only to realize that her own family’s history is tied to the inn, its mysterious, forlorn garden… and the secrets it holds.
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Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Mallory Viridian has found herself involved in murder cases throughout her life. Being surrounded by death has made her a suspect and an outcast, so when she receives the opportunity to take sanctuary on the sentient space station Eternity, she takes it. However, the station then agrees to allow more humans aboard, and Mallory knows her time is up. After the Earth shuttle arrives, humans and aliens begin to die, and the station itself is in jeopardy. Mallory must yet again solve the murders before others perish, but maybe this time she can finally figure out why she has been the nexus for so much death. Mallory’s loneliness and desire for peace make her an interesting protagonist as she looks for connections and answers. The time jumps in the story add interest as well and slowly unwrap the truths until the final reveals. The aliens are well-developed and lend both complexity and humor to this thrilling puzzle. VERDICT Lafferty (Hugo-nominated for Six Wakes) creates a clever and suspenseful sci-fi mystery, with intriguing characters and attentive worldbuilding. – Starred Library Journal Review
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The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
Fair-play whodunits don’t come much funnier than bestseller Horowitz’s brilliant fourth mystery featuring a fictionalized version of himself as the bumbling sidekick to former detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne (after 2021’s A Line to Kill). Hawthorne had convinced Horowitz to write three books chronicling some of Hawthorne’s private investigations. With that contract fulfilled, Horowitz declines his partner’s request to write another. Later, following the London debut of Horowitz’s comic thriller play, Mindgame, theater critic Harriet Throsby pens a savage review, threatening the production’s prospects. When she’s found fatally stabbed in her home with a dagger given to Horowitz by the play’s producer that bears Horowitz’s fingerprints, he’s arrested. The damning evidence mounts as his hair is found on Throsby’s blouse, and video footage shows someone fitting his description near the crime scene right before the stabbing. When Horowitz is released while the investigation proceeds, he persuades Hawthorne to join him in probing the possible guilt of those involved in staging Mindgame. Clues are adroitly hidden in plain sight. This humorous homage to golden age closed-circle mysteries is not to be missed. – Starred Publishers Weekly
Set during the 1940s with occasional flashbacks, McMorris’ latest (after Sold on a Monday, 2018) introduces the reader to Fenna Vos, who works with fellow stage musician Charles in a traveling show that pays homage to Houdini with daring escapes from locked items. The power struggle between the two of them soon comes to a head. An unusual offer from an audience member entices Fenna to take a chance at something new as an unconventional wartime civil servant in London working for MI9. Her choice sets her on the path for an unusual and personally fraught future where she is forced to come to a reckoning with all the parts of her past that she has hidden from others, but most of all from herself. Readers will be drawn into Fen’s frustrations, anger, terror, joy, and constant drive to innovate when new challenges are put in her way. This is no fairy tale, and the ending is satisfying rather than happy, as befits a story set during wartime. Readers interested in historical fiction, Houdini’s illusions, Depression-era United States, wartime London, and the Nazi Resistance in Holland will be quickly captured by the realistic characters and situations. – Booklist Review
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The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin
(Available Formats: Print Book)
This follow-up to 2020’s The City We Became picks up where the that volume left off, with the various avatars of New York City and its boroughs settling into their new powers while maintaining a watchful eye on the alien city that almost destroyed them. The avatars discover that despite her dependence on Aislyn, the traitorous Staten Island avatar, the Woman in White has resumed her attack on the city via a xenophobic candidate for mayor, hoping to weaken it enough for her to resume her all-out assault. While Neek (the primary avatar of New York City) and the other borough avatars work to combat this new assault, Aislyn begins to have doubts about her alliance with her new “”friend”” as the alien city’s presence begins to affect her family, her neighbors, and the borough itself. Jemisin brings her living-city saga to a satisfying conclusion, maintaining a sense of energy and excitement throughout, even as she sketches in more of the multiverse of multiverses underpinning her urban (in a more literal sense than usual) fantasy setting. – Booklist Review
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.
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.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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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).
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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.
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.
Each title is followed by a listing of which formats it is available in for check out within the three catalogs: StarCat (Print, Large Print & CD Audiobook), The Digital Catalog (eBook & Downloadable Audiobook) and the Hoopla Catalog (Hoopla instant checkout eBook & Hoopla Audiobook).
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are usually published on Sundays. And the next post will be up on Sunday, November 20, 2022.
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FICTION
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THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
Two childhood friends follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which puts them on opposite sides of the law.
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THE CLOISTERS by Katy Hays
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A woman assigned to the Met Cloisters discovers a 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might help predict the future.
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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
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DREAMLAND by Nicholas Sparks
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
Musicians from different backgrounds are attracted to each other and a mother flees with her son from an abusive husband.
A high school kid inherits a shed that is a portal to another world where good and evil are at war.
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FIRE AND BLOOD by George R.R. Martin
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
Set 300 years before the events of “A Game of Thrones,” this is the first volume of the two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.
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GOING ROGUE by Janet Evanovich
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
The 29th book in the Stephanie Plum series. The man who abducted the office manager at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds demands a mysterious coin in exchange for her.
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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)
A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse.
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IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
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LIVID by Patricia Cornwell
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The 26th book in the Kay Scarpetta series. Scarpetta becomes a star witness in a televised murder trial and the judge’s sister is found dead.
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LONG SHADOWS by David Baldacci
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)
The seventh book in the Memory Man series. Decker works with a new partner to investigate a double homicide.
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MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
After returning to her hometown, Olivia McAfee’s son gets accused of killing his crush.
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NO PLAN B by Lee Child and Andrew Child
(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)
The 27th book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher goes after a killer but is unaware of the bigger implications.
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OUR MISSING HEARTS by Celeste Ng
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner goes on a quest to find his mother, a Chinese American poet whose work he was taught to disavow.
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THE PASSENGER by Cormac McCarthy
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The first of a two-volume story. Bobby Western discovers things have gone missing from a jet in an underwater crash site, including the 10th passenger.
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RACING THE LIGHT by Robert Crais
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
The 19th book in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series. A search for a missing podcaster involves corrupt politicians and business cartels.
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TRIPLE CROSS by James Patterson
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
Detective Alex Cross and the true-crime author Thomas Tull search for a serial killer known as the Family Man.
The late movie star’s memoir reveals intimate details about his personal relationships and professional rivalries; compiled and edited by David Rosenthal.
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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.
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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy
(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)
The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.
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JUSTICE CORRUPTED by Ted Cruz
(Available Formats: Hoopla instant check out audiobook)
The Republican senator from Texas gives his take on the justice system.
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KILLING THE LEGENDS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The conservative commentator’s Killing series profiles Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Muhammad Ali.
The Digital Catalog has two companion apps, Libby & OverDrive. Libby is the app for newer devices and the OverDrive app should be used for older devices and Amazon tablets.
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features instant check outs of eBooks, downloadable audiobook, comic books, albums and streaming videos. Patron check out limit is 4 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.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs; you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Tel: 607-936-3713
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!
Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, November 18, 2022.
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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!
(This week, a “baker’s ten!”)
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Autumn In New York by The Modern Jazz Quartet (Genre: Jazz)
From The Album: The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige & Pablo Recordings (2003)
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Autumn Serenade by John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman (Genre: Jazz, Vocal)
From The Album: John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman (1963)
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Early Autumn by Stan Getz (Genre: Jazz)
From The Album: Stan Getz & Strings (1961)
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Early Morning Rain by Gordon Lightfoot (Genre: Folk/Singer-Songwriter)
From The Album: Complete Greatest Hits (2006)
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Great Big House by Sean Breen (Genre: Folk)
This one is a traditional folk song; and this version does not appear on any album – just this educator’s YouTube page – but it is a fun autumn song! Enjoy —
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Great Pumpkin Waltz by The Vince Guaraldi Trio (Genre: Instrumental, Jazz)
From The Soundtrack: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965/2012)
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Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Callin’ You by Jimmy Castor (Genre: R&B)
From The Album: The Definitive Collection (2022)
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John Barleycorn Must Die by Steven Winwood (Genre: Rock, Vocal, Folk)
Studio Version From The Album: John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic (1970)
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Shine On Harvest Moon by Rosemary Clooney (Genre: Vocal, Jazz)
From The Album: Rosie Solves the Swingin’ Riddle! (1961)
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Stormy Weather by Etta James (Genre: Vocal, Jazz)
From The Album: At Last! (1961)
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Sweet Dollar Bill by Louis Philippe (Genre: Pop/Rock)
From The Album: Sean O’Hagan Presents: The Sunshine World of Louis Philippe (2022)
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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week
Harvest Home (1999) by Jay Ungar & Molly Mason (Genre: Folk)
And from the album:
The Harvest Home Suite: Autumn
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Have a great weekend,
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Online Catalog Links:
StarCat
The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 