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, June 14, 2023.
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Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time by Samantha Friedman
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A revelatory new volume on the American modernist’s lesser-known works on paper, reuniting many serial works for the first time
Recalling a charcoal she made in 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe later wrote, “I have made this drawing several times―never remembering that I had made it before―and not knowing where the idea came from.” These drawings, and the majority of O’Keeffe’s works in charcoal, watercolor, pastel and graphite, belong to series in which she develops and transforms motifs that lie between observation and abstraction. In the formative years of 1915 to 1918, she made as many works on paper as she would in the next 40 years, producing sequences in watercolor of abstract lines, organic landscapes and nudes, along with charcoal drawings she would group according to the designation “specials.” While her practice turned increasingly toward canvas in subsequent decades, important series on paper reappeared―including charcoal flowers of the 1930s, portraits of the 1940s and aerial views of the 1950s.
Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, this richly illustrated volume highlights the drawings of an artist better known as a painter, and reunites individual sheets with their contextual series to illuminate O’Keeffe’s persistently sequential practice.
Born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) first received critical attention when her breakthrough charcoal drawings were exhibited in New York in 1916. Two years later, she moved to the city to work full time on her art. Beginning in 1929, O’Keeffe spent summers in New Mexico, where she would relocate in 1949. The most famous female artist of her age, she thought of herself not as “the best woman painter” but as “one of the best painters.”
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Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay
(Available Format: Print Book)
Barclay (Look Both Ways) nails this riveting standalone thriller about a washed-up writer’s search for his long-lost parent. In a wrenching prologue, nine-year-old Jack Givins is separated from his father, who enters witness protection with blunt parting words: “Your dad’s not a good person. Your dad killed people, son.” In the present, Givins is a broke novelist hungry for whatever writing work he can get. After an offer to edit advertorial magazines falls through, he gets an even more lucrative opportunity when he’s approached by the U.S. Marshals Service to create fictional backstories for individuals in the federal Witness Security Program. The position gives Givins the idea to seek out his father’s whereabouts after decades of silence between the two. His efforts coincide with some high-profile disappearances, and he soon discovers the authorities have lost track of his father, sending Givins blindly on his trail. Barclay expertly knits the strands together and constructs a fully realized everyman in Givins. Crafty plotting and rich characters make this a winner. Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Jalaluddin’s delightful latest (after Hana Khan Carries On) puts a rom-com spin on Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Nada Syed works hard to launch the “Ask Apa” app, designed to offer sisterly advice to Toronto’s Muslim community, but a dishonest business partner undermines her efforts, forcing her to return to an engineering job she hates. As she approaches her 30th birthday, Nada is grappling both with this professional disappointment and with mounting parental pressure to find a spouse. To lift her spirits, Nada’s best friend, Haleema, takes her to Deen&Dunya, an annual Muslim convention (“like Comic-Con, except with hijabs”), for the weekend. There, Nada will finally meet Haleema’s fiancé, Zayn, and grudgingly participate in a speed-dating event. Upon arriving, however, Nada’s shocked to learn that Zayn’s brother is Baz Haq, whom she’s known since grade school and with whom she had an intense on-and-off relationship in college. As Nada navigates the convention, she and Baz try to conceal their romantic history from their loved ones while grappling with their unresolved emotions and simmering sexual tension. Jalaluddin makes their rekindling romance positively swoonworthy, and interfering family members and rich cultural detail add to this romance’s power. Austenite or not, readers will be swept away. Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: of Eastern and Central North America by Sam Thayer
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Eastern North America is one of the richest foraging landscapes in the world, with a wild abundance of fruits, berries, nuts, roots, tubers, shoots, flowers, seeds, and leafy greens. This guide is the key to unlocking the nutritional and culinary secrets of the natural bounty around us. As the most comprehensive regional guide ever written, it contains detailed descriptions, range maps, and sharp color photos of 700 edible species as well as some of our most troublesome toxic plants. Sam Thayer’s Field Guide pioneers a novel identification system using everyday language accessible to beginning and advanced foragers alike, designed to stand alone or work with phone-based identification apps to confirm positive ID before a plant is eaten. Readers will also learn about the plant’s habitat, conservation, edible parts, seasons of harvest, and methods of preparation. Destined to become the new standard in foraging field guides.
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Sing Her Down: A Novel by Ivy Pochoda
(Available Formats: Print Book)
This devastating thriller from Pochoda (These Women) examines the brutal politics inside an Arizona women’s penitentiary and the bleak mid-Covid landscape outside it. The first section focuses on three inmates: Kace, who is haunted by voices of the dead; Florida, a wealthy young white woman who was an accessory to murder, driving the getaway car while high; and Dios, Florida’s former cellmate, who’s determined to make Florida admit she’s no better than anyone else in their situation. Due to the strain of the pandemic, Florida and Dios are released from their sentences early and flee parole on a bus to Los Angeles. On the way, the pair makes one bad decision after another, garnering the attention of Lobos, a detective who wrestles with her own guilt and rage after surviving domestic violence; their explosive interplay takes up the back half of the action. In muscular prose, Pochoda plumbs the psychological depths of her fascinating characters and extracts high drama from their shifting allegiances. This searing, accomplished page-turner deserves a wide audience. Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Ballingrud, author of the short story collection Wounds (2019) and winner of two Shirley Jackson awards, sets his debut novel on Mars in 1931, where a fledgling human colony struggles to survive on the stark Martian terrain after losing touch with Earth a year prior. Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp’s mother returned to Earth to care for her dying mother just before communication was lost, leaving Anabelle and her father, Sam, with just a recorded cylinder of her voice to cling to while they continue to run their family diner. Anabelle’s world is turned upside down when thieves attack the diner, taking with them the precious cylinder among other loot. Things go from bad to worse when another incident at the diner leaves a man dead and Anabelle’s father in prison. Anabelle sets off on her own, with only the family’s robot helper, Watson, to find the thieves, recover the cylinder, and take her revenge. Rife with literary references, from True Grit (1968) to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Ray Bradbury, Ballingrud’s tale offers a visceral portrait of the haunting Martian landscape and of the unflinching pioneers who populate it in a gorgeously textured sf western full of action, danger, and heartbreak. – Booklist Review
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The Survivor by Iris Johansen
(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)
Eve Duncan and Riley Smith must solve their most exciting puzzle since A Face to Die For when asked to uncover the mysterious secret hidden on a remote island.
When archeologist Riley Smith comes to ask Eve Duncan for help, Eve has to say no. Traveling halfway around the world on a dangerous quest is not her expertise as a forensic sculptor. But Eve is intrigued by the prospect of an isolated island that holds a secret locked in time.
Traveling to Southeast Asia, Riley is aware of the threat from treasure hunters who are already searching and have no qualms about killing to get what they want. When she successfully evades them and finds the perfectly preserved body of a female warrior, it is just what she needs to entice Eve to help unlock the mystery.
As these two strong women seek answers about this extraordinary past life, Riley makes a living, breathing discovery that will change history. If she can escape the island and survive long enough to share it with the world.
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That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Garland Moore is running late for her honeymoon when she meets a man named Mason at the airport and has a vision of them together in the future. Cut to a few years (and an unexpected divorce) later, when she runs into Mason again at a summer camp for adults that she’s attending with her sister. Then she also runs into Mason’s sister Stevie–literally. Garland is left trying to figure out what the signs all mean, and if she cares what the universe is trying to tell her anymore. While she attempts to navigate her love life, Garland also takes part in a number of traditional summer-camp activities and builds friendships with a strong cast of supporting characters. VERDICT If readers don’t mind the instalove timeframe or singular first-person narrative, they’ll find a lot to like in the latest from Morrissey (A Thousand Miles). It tells a story of emotional healing and an adult’s discovery of her bisexuality; there are also strong sibling connections and a fun camp setting. – Library Journal Review
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The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television by Koren Shadmi
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
A biographical tale that follows Hollywood revolutionary Rod Serling’s rise to fame in the Golden Age of Television, and his descent into his own personal Twilight Zone.
We recognize him as our sharply dressed, cigarette-smoking tour guide of The Twilight Zone, but the entertainment business once regarded him as the “Angry Young Man” of Television. Before he became the revered master of science fiction, Rod Serling was a just a writer who had to fight to make his voice heard. He vehemently challenged the networks and viewership alike to expand their minds and standards—rejecting notions of censorship, racism and war. But it wasn’t until he began to write about real world enemies in the guise of aliens and monsters that people lent their ears. In doing so, he pushed the television industry to the edge of glory, and himself to the edge of sanity. Rod operated in a dimension beyond that of contemporary society, making him both a revolutionary and an outsider.
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Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The three adult Linwood children lived in Sir Lawrence Linwood’s shadow, and their father always challenged them. More challenges await them when they return home to Linwood Hall in 1921 for his funeral. They learn Linwood was bludgeoned to death beyond recognition. Each of them had been promised the estate. Instead, the will reads they are to split the estate, unless one of them can find Linwood’s killer, to the satisfaction of the police. The child who can identify the killer will inherit everything. Detective Inspector Clarence Mowbray is not happy that the Linwoods are poking into his investigation. But Alan, Roger, and Caroline, with the help of Roger’s girlfriend Iris, are the only ones who can piece together the truth about their pasts and their father. It’s a puzzle that’s been in the works for a quarter of a century. VERDICT Like Huang’s A Gentleman’s Murder, his latest mystery is a puzzle worthy of Golden Age detective fiction. Fans of historical mysteries and 1920s novels will welcome this twisted, complex story. – Starred Library Journal 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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