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, April 12, 2023.
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Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Acclaimed Vietnamese activist and best-selling writer Quế Mai (The Mountains Sing, 2020) draws for her second novel on interviews and research to explore the lasting effects of the Vietnam War, particularly on the children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women. Abandoned at birth and ostracized as a dark-skinned Amerasian, Phong is desperate to prove his parentage so that his wife and children will qualify for immigrant visas and a better life in the U.S. Meanwhile, American veteran Dan has reluctantly returned to Vietnam with his wife, who hopes the trip will help with his debilitating PTSD. Dan undertakes a clandestine search for Kim, a Vietnamese bar girl whose pregnancy he knew about but never acknowledged. Quế Mai adeptly balances these contemporary narratives with Phong’s early experiences and the wartime story of sisters Trang and Quynh, who seek jobs in Saigon but are quickly ensnared in the shadowy world of nightclubs and sex work. There are no clear heroes or villains here as characters’ actions and choices are shaped by their circumstances and the war’s legacy. – Booklist Review
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I Am the Storm: Inspiring Stories of People Who Fight Against Overwhelming Odds by Janice Dean
(Available Formats: Print Book)
New York Times bestselling author Janice Dean shares the journeys and lessons she’s learned from everyday heroes taking on long odds.
After her acclaimed memoir, Mostly Sunny, Janice Dean figured she was done trying to survive or bring down awful men. Then she found herself taking on Governor Andrew Cuomo on social media and then at rallies. What at first seemed like a futile fight ended with Cuomo’s historic resignation. But it caused Janice to wonder: What fuels someone’s resolve to go up against a powerful opponent? And how can ordinary people make the world a better place?
In I Am the Storm, Janice shares the stories of others who stood like David against Goliath, choosing to fight for what was right rather than take the easy path. In the book, she shares stories from ordinary people doing extraordinary things, such as:
* a California chef who went up against the government to help restaurants and restaurant workers
*an American college hockey team that beat Soviet champions
*a mother taking on the opioid crisis after her daughter dies
*a gymnast working to reform a broken and abusive system
*a courageous southern nurse who headed to NYC at the height of the pandemic
These and other true stories will reveal what it takes for real people to go through life’s storms. And sometimes, those storms leave permanent damage. You may need a box of tissues as you read about a veteran who lost his hearing and sight to an IED, or a Minnesota mom who took up the fight against the opioid epidemic after losing her own daughter. But even in our darkest seasons, Janice shows, we can still have hope, resilience, and perseverance. I Am the Storm is an uplifting call to be brave like David no matter what Goliaths we face.
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The Journey Prize Stories 33: The Best of Canada’s New Black Writers selected by David Chariandy, Esi Edugyan & Canisia Lubrin
(Available Formats: Print Book)
This much-anticipated, game-changing special edition of Canada’s premier annual fiction anthology celebrates the country’s best emerging Black writers.
For over thirty years, The Journey Prize Stories has consistently introduced readers to the next generation of great Canadian writers. The 33rd edition of Canada’s most prestigious annual fiction anthology proudly continues this tradition by celebrating the best emerging Black writers in the country, as selected by a jury comprising internationally acclaimed, award-winning writers David Chariandy, Esi Edugyan, and Canisia Lubrin.
An eagle-eyed mother and a hungry child contend with the aftereffects of an unusual multi-course meal. Both the debts of the past and the promise of the future hover over two siblings as they debate what to do with an unexpected windfall. A pesky but beloved baboon looms large in the memory of a daughter whose family has been forced to move to a new town. Unclear boundaries and cheerful hypocrisy dominate a woman’s whirlwind romance with a photographer. A schoolgirl contends with complicated emotions as she awaits the return of her long-absent mother. News of a hunter’s death reverberates throughout his family, travelling across oceans and phonelines to trouble his cousin’s already-shaky relationship. An office worker joins a lost grandmother on an unexpected pilgrimage. After years away, a woman journeys back to Jamaica—and back to the sister who refused to leave with her—stirring up insecurities, laughter, and wounds unhealed by time. All the instructions in the world cannot protect a family from the impacts of grief. The only Black girls in school experiment with what it means to be a lady when you’re not yet a woman.
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Last Seen In Lapaz by Kwei Quartey
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Quartey’s intriguing third Emma Djan investigation (after 2021’s Sleep Well, My Lady) finds the Ghanaian PI, an operative for the Sowah Private Investigators Agency, leading the search for Ngozi Ojukwu, a prominent diplomat’s 18-year-old daughter, who was about to start law school and disappeared from her parents’ house in Lagos, Nigeria, months earlier under suspicious circumstances. Ngozi’s parents believe she ran off with 28-year-old Femi Adebanjo, the Ghanaian Nigerian manager of a hotel and high-class brothel in Accra. The stakes rise when Femi turns up murdered in his upscale home with Ngozi nowhere to be found. It turns out Femi was engaged in human trafficking, and Emma subsequently goes undercover as a sex worker to get a lead on Ngozi’s fate. The somewhat leisurely paced investigation builds to a satisfactory resolution. Well-defined characters complement the clever narrative structure, and dialogue in West African pidgin dialect (for which a glossary is provided) adds realism. Not just those looking for a detailed picture of modern West African life, the book’s main strength, will be rewarded. – Publishers Weekly
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The Long and Faraway Gone: A Novel by Lou Berney
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, Hoopla instant check out eBook & audiobook)
Edgar Award finalist Berney (Whiplash River) will raise a lump in the throats of many of his readers with this sorrowful account of two people’s efforts to come to terms with devastating trauma. In 1986, Wyatt Rivers worked at an Oklahoma City movie theater that was hit by gun-wielding robbers who massacred the staff, but, for some reason, let Wyatt live. A month later, 12-year-old Julianna Rosales attended the Oklahoma State Fair, where her older sister, Genevieve, walked off into the night, never to return. In 2012, those tragedies still preoccupy Wyatt and Julianna. Wyatt, now a PI, gets a case that takes him back to Oklahoma City, where he can’t help reliving the night of the massacre. Meanwhile, Julianna, now a nurse, is obsessed with pursuing any possible lead to her sister’s fate, and gets new hope of a breakthrough when someone posts online an image from the last evening she saw Genevieve. The leads’ struggles are portrayed with painful complexity, and Berney, fittingly, avoids easy answers.- Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook by Alison Roman
(Available Formats: Book Print)
Food writer Roman (Nothing Fancy), who parted ways with the New York Times after her criticism of Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen, has returned with a new cookbook focused on baking. Roman is known for her viral recipes and millennial hipster aesthetic, which come through vividly in this cookbook’s writing style and photography. Whether or not readers appreciate her vibe, they will likely be drawn in by the interesting and approachable recipes. Pies, tarts, and galettes comprise the first and longest chapter and include both sweet and savory offerings, from the caramelized maple tart to the creamy cauliflower galette; many call for Roman’s recipe for “The Only Pie Crust.” Next up are cakes, such as her famous raspberry ricotta cake, which first appeared in Bon Appétit. There are also chapters on “things called pudding,” “frozen things,” cookies (mostly shortbread variations), fruit, breakfast, and staples. While the instructions are clear, some readers might wish the light-orange font of the ingredient lists were easier to read.
VERDICT Those who like a more casual, carefree approach to baking will appreciate this, where the aim is for a delicious, not perfect, result.-
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Two Wars And A Wedding by Lauren Willig
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Inspired by a trailblazing woman she researched for her previous novel, Band of Sisters (2021), Willig tells the tale of an American archaeologist turned war nurse at the dawn of the twentieth century who finds herself caught up in two foreign wars. In 1896, fresh from graduating Smith college, heiress Betsy Hayes travels to Athens to study Greek archaeology only to be derided by her male classmates. She finds a safe haven lodging with a wealthy Greek woman, but soon her heart and life are in jeopardy when she falls in love with an older, married French archaeologist and throws herself into volunteer work as a nurse in the Greek fight for independence from Turkey. Willig jumps back and forth between 1896 and 1898, when Betsy once again volunteers as a wartime nurse, this time in the conflict between Spain and Cuba, with the hope of saving her estranged friend, Ava, from the horrors of war. Willig delivers yet another engrossing historical yarn, replete with surprising twists and compelling romances. – Booklist Review
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The Unfortunates: A Novel by J K Chukwu
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Chukwu’s inventive debut explores the isolation of a queer Black woman at an elite university. The narrative is framed as an honors thesis (the narrative begins, “Dear Thesis Committee,/ It has come to my attention that smoking kills, along with police, loner white boys, and looks”), and it includes footnotes, a table of contents modeled on a playlist, and zine-inspired collage illustrations, all from college sophomore Sahara. She’s struggled with depression and self-harm for years, dubbing depression her “Life Partner” and having imagined arguments with it. At her university, however, incessant microaggressions, institutional hypocrisy, healthcare inequities, and a relentless trend of other Black students dropping out, disappearing, or dying by suicide (the “Unfortunates” of the title) lead the troubled Sahara into disordered eating, binge drinking, and suicidal ideation. Sahara is clearly bright—her narration is playful even at its angriest—and a little bored by her coursework; depression clouds her ability not only to excel but also to clearly see those who would gladly support her if given the chance (especially her longtime best friend, called “Ride or Die”). Though the prevalence of code names for secondary characters verges on overkill, Sahara’s voice is formidable, and her story powerful. This blistering anthem brims with rage and hope. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook
Once again, best friends Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis tackle a strange murder together. A woman discovers her boyfriend, billionaire’s son Donny Klement, lying in bed with three bullet holes in his chest. Det. Milo Sturgis asks psychologist Alex Delaware to work with him for the psychological insights he can bring to this oddball murder. The vic was about to give a one-man show of his photography, a project he’d called the Wishers: He dressed up homeless people as the successes they wished they were, photographed them, paid them $500 each, and let them go back to their lives on the street. Donny had felt that homelessness created unnatural histories, and he wanted to show what his subjects’ lives might have been like if they’d been luckier. But how did the homeless people react to the whole experience? Did someone return to whack him? “The Wishers project itself–bringing strangers with troubled histories into his home–seemed potentially explosive,” Delaware muses. And the vic’s family is strange: Rich dad Viktor’s M.O. in life is to marry a beautiful woman, impregnate her, then leave her. He’s done it six times, creating a batch of loosely connected half siblings: “technically a family, but really a collection of strangers.” (Donny isn’t a nickname for Donald, by the way, but for Adonis.) More murders follow in this complicated and unusual plot, and the characters and clever lines make the story fun. Milo is a smart cop who believes that “stupidity is the fertile soil [he] farm[s],” and the big guy sure loves to eat. A woman backs away from him, “as if there was only so much space to go around and he’d just taken a second helping.” And Delaware doesn’t think much of his friend’s taste in ringtones: “As we waited, Milo’s phone played something that could have been extracted from Chopin’s nightmare.” Kellerman’s legion of fans will eat this up like his detective eats bear claws. – Kirkus Review
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What Have We Done: A Novel by Alex Finlay
(Available Formats: Print Book & Downloadable Audiobook)
In the prologue of this top-notch mystery thriller from Finlay (The Night Shift), five kids from Savior House, a group home for troubled teens—Jenna, Nico, Donnie, Benny, and Arty—take turns firing a gun into a shallow grave. Twenty-five years later, aging rocker Donnie is forced over the side of a cruise ship at gunpoint; an explosion traps gambling addict and reality show producer Nico in a coal mine shaft; and ex-assassin Jenna, the book’s action hero, is activated again to hit Arty, now a tech billionaire. Benny, a federal judge, has already been murdered in Chestertown, Pa., near the now-abandoned Savior House. The person who gave Jenna her assignment turns on her when Jenna intentionally botches the job. Eventually, Jenna, Nico, and Donnie—each a distinct, original character despite drawing on genre tropes—reunite to discover who’s trying to kill them and why. Amid multiple red herrings, Finlay slowly reels out his protagonists’ combined backstories. Readers will eagerly follow the maze-like plot, with its many twists and turns, to the exciting conclusion. This isn’t to be missed. – Starred 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.
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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.
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