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 published on Wednesdays.
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And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, November 1, 2023.
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America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Once a promising journalist with Pulitzer potential, Boyd Halverson finds himself in reduced circumstances and even lower expectations. As store manager at Penney’s, Boyd attends Kiwanis meetings and drinks too much, a shadow of his former life when he was married to the beautiful Evelyn, daughter of billionaire shipbuilder Dooney. Years earlier, Boyd’s planned expose of Dooney’s shipbuilding malfeasance was dead in the water when Dooney preemptively destroyed Boyd’s career by revealing Boyd’s fictional academic and military record. Boyd is set on retribution when he holds up a small-town bank and takes diminutive spitfire bank teller Angie Bing along for the ride. So begins O’Brien’s farcical satire that blends fierce social commentary and a searing indictment of our post-fact culture into a nonstop joyride. The resulting road trip is rich with colorful characters while Angie, the loquacious lilliputian, a devout Christian with selective morality, provides comic relief. The fantastical comedy of errors, the lauded O’Brien’s first novel in many years, blends rom-com, caper, and buddy story into a relentless, skewering tale of greed, capitalism, betrayal, and ultimately, redemption. A sound bet for Elmore Leonard fans.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: National Book Award-winning O’Brien’s return to fiction and the rollicking nature of this sharply comic tale will stir avid interest. – Booklist Review
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Germany 1923: Hyperinflation, Hitler’s Putsch, and Democracy in Crisis by Volker Ullrich & Jefferson Chase
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eAudio)
A fine history of a pivotal year in world history. “The year 1923 started with a bang,” writes Ullrich, a prizewinning German historian and author of a widely acclaimed two-volume biography of Hitler, when French troops marched into the industrial Ruhr Valley. The author reminds readers that, after months of violence following its November 1918 surrender, Germany settled down under the democratic Weimar Republic. Poorer than in prewar years but physically undamaged (unlike France), it was obligated under the Treaty of Versailles to deliver enormous reparations in gold, industrial products, and resources such as coal and timber. To rebuild and to repay its war debt to the U.S., France demanded payment from Germany and sent in the army when it was slow arriving. This produced national outrage but little action besides passive resistance and strikes. Troops remained until 1925, and the occupation proved a crushing drain, with Germany losing production as well as revenue. Printing money was a poor substitute for taxes, so hyperinflation followed. By mid-April, the mark had dropped to 25,000 to the dollar; by the end of July, to 1 million. By August, when a new administration began banking reforms, $1 was worth 3.7 million marks. “Calls for a strongman, a savior to lift Germany out of misery and desperation,” writes Ullrich, “had been constant since the collapse of the Wilhelmine German Empire in 1918,” and “they grew louder…in the initial, chaotic postwar years.” The author delivers a lively account of Hitler’s unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch, emphasizing that it was only one of many efforts by right-wing circles to “bring down the Weimar political system and institute an authoritarian regime.” In addition, writes Ullrich, the fact that Weimar survived another decade is a good argument that it was not condemned to failure from its onset, although the events of 1923, especially the hyperinflation, poisoned the national spirit. An exemplary book of history with no lack of uncomfortable lessons for today. – Starred Kirkus Review
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Julia by Sandra Newman
(Available Formats: Publication Date: October 24, 2023 & coming soon to our library!)
This brilliant novel by the author of The Men (2022) and The Heavens (2019) is about as ambitious as you can get: a retelling of George Orwell’s 1984 from the point of view of the protagonist’s love interest, Julia, who plays a key supporting role in Orwell’s dystopian classic. Here, Julia is an ideal citizen of Oceania, the fictionalized surveillance state Orwell dreamt up, who becomes unmoored when she falls for a colleague, Winston Smith (and Orwell’s lead). The novel closely follows the original story, but also expands on it, opening up new corners of the world to make it even darker, more vividly real. Although it never feels like Newman is imitating Orwell’s writing style, the novel has the same texture, and in scenes providing Julia’s take on passages from the original, Newman reproduces Orwell’s original dialogue verbatim. This is not a rewriting of 1984; it’s a faithful, respectful retelling of a familiar story from a fresh new angle. Wonderful. – Starred Booklist Review
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Libra by Don Delillo
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eAudio)
From the author of White Noise (winner of the National Book Award) and The Silence, an eerily convincing fictional speculation on the events leading up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy
In this powerful, unsettling novel, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald’s odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When “history” presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the president will galvanize the nation against communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.
A gripping, masterful blend of fact and fiction, alive with meticulously portrayed characters both real and created, Libra is a grave, haunting, and brilliant examination of an event that has become an indelible part of the American psyche.
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Murder And Mamon by Mia Manansala
(Available Formats: Published in September 2023, and coming soon to our library!)
Lila Macapagal should have enough on her hands with her partnership in the Brew-ha Cafe. But her extended Filipino American family often demands her help. This time, her godmothers April, Mae, and June, the Calendar Crew, are opening a new laundromat next door to June’s dry-cleaning service. It’s scheduled to open the day of the town’s big spring clean. While Lila and her aunties are at a morning chamber of commerce meeting, someone smashes up the laundromat and graffities it with “Mind Your Business.” The Calendar Crew has certainly stirred up trouble with their gossip, but who would go to the lengths of vandalizing their new business? April’s visiting niece is put to work at the laundromat, but the aunties also ask her to do some spying. When someone ends up dead and another family member lands in the hospital, the family turns to Lila and a former police detective to investigate.
VERDICT The sequel to Blackmail and Bibingka celebrates various food cultures in a mystery that emphasizes the importance of family, anti-bullying, and the search for justice for victims of crime. – Library Journal
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The Night House by Jo Nesbo
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In mystery writer Nesbo’s (Killing Moon) first foray into horror, 14-year-old Richard Elauved, sent to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents’ deaths, feels trapped in sleepy, rural Ballantyne. He quickly earns a reputation as the angry city kid who lashes out at the slightest provocation. When a classmate goes missing, all eyes are on Richard, who was the last person to see him alive. What Richard can’t get anyone to believe is that Tom was sucked into the receiver while making a prank call in a telephone booth on the edge of the woods. After another classmate disappears, Richard discovers a house in the forest that holds a dark past. With help from his friend Karen and the local librarian, Richard must prove his innocence–though he may not be as reliable a narrator as he seems.
VERDICT Nesbo deftly guides readers on a journey much larger than many will expect from the slim volume. Reminiscent of Joe Meno’s The Boy Detective Fails, initial expectations of genre, setting, and mood are subverted as a simple horror novel unfolds into a story that encompasses grief, mid-life crises, and more. Give this one to fans of Grady Hendrix or adults nostalgic for the “Goosebumps” series. – Library Journal Review
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Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business by Roxane Gay
(Available Formats: Just published & coming soon to our library!)
Renowned essayist and cultural critic Gay has penned insightful and thought-provoking essays for numerous publications throughout the years and this latest collection of her work highlights the best from the past decade. In her engaging introduction, Gay writes about how she was inspired to openly express her opinions by her mother’s confidence, wit, and intellect. She also parses out her enlightening and sometimes fraught experiences as an opinionated and widely read writer in a time of social and cultural upheaval. The essays that follow touch on a breadth of topics and are grouped by subjects, including identity and politics, cultural commentary, and some of her advice columns written for the New York Times. The sections are largely arranged chronologically by publication date, a format that offers a holistic experience of Gay’s work and evolution as a writer. The profiles, though the author admits that celebrity profiles are not a “favorite genre of writing,” are standouts and enjoyable to read. This is a must-read for not only fans of Gay’s work, but for everyone interested in reading intellectual, accessible, and important takes on timely topics. -Booklist
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The United States of English: The American Language from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century by Rosemarie Ostler
(Available Formats: Print Book, Hoopla Instant Checkout eAudio)
The story of how English became American — and how it became Southern, Bostonian, Californian, African-American, Chicano, elite, working-class, urban, rural, and everything in between By the time of the Revolution, the English that Americans spoke was recognizably different from the British variety. Americans added dozens of new words to the language, either borrowed from Native Americans (raccoon, persimmon, caucus) or created from repurposed English (backwoods, cane brake, salt lick). Americans had their own pronunciations (bath rhymed with hat, not hot) and their own spelling (honor, not honour), not to mention a host of new expressions that grew out of the American landscape and culture (blaze a trail, back track, pull up stakes). Americans even invented their own slang, like stiff as a ringbolt to mean drunk. American English has continued to grow and change ever since. The United States of English tells the engrossing tale of how the American language evolved over four hundred years, explaining both how and why it changed and which parts of the “mother tongue” it preserved (I guess was heard in the British countryside long before it became a typical Americanism). Rosemarie Ostler approaches American English as part of the larger story of American history and culture, starting with what we know about the first colonists and their speech. Drawing on the latest research, she explores the roots of regional dialects, the differences between British and American language use, the sources of American slang, the development of African American English, current trends in political language, and much more. Plentiful examples of the American vernacular, past and present, bring the language to life and make for an engaging as well as enlightening read.
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The Vaster Wilds by Laurne Groff
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD Audiobook)
Groff’s extraordinary latest (after Matrix) tracks the life of an adolescent servant girl who flees a Jamestownesque settlement in colonial America and sets out across the wilderness. Traveling in winter, the unnamed narrator sustains herself by hunting and gathering. Despite the harsh conditions, she delights in the natural scenery, which Groff depicts with wrenching beauty (“she saw in the dim and silvery light the wind lifting lighter snow and sculpting it into a shining city with rooftops and chimneys and a steeple and even the smoke of fires merrily ascending from the chimneys toward heaven”). Through the girl’s memories, the reader learns she was adopted at four from a parish poorhouse in England by a well-off woman and her husband and was tormented by the couple’s older son. Several years later, the husband dies and the woman marries an ambitious minister. They force the girl to accompany them to the New World and care for their newborn baby. The colony turns out to be a godforsaken place wracked by illness, lack of food, and violent confrontations with Indigenous people. There are many exciting episodes—the narrator encounters a bear, a wolf, and an unruly former Jesuit priest who also subsists in the wild—and the staggering ending reveals the details surrounding her escape. Groff builds and maintains suspense on multiple levels, while offering an unflinching portrayal of her heroine’s desperation and will to survive. This is a triumph. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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The Witch of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire
(Available Formats: Print Book)
As the third and final volume of the Another Day series begins (after The Oracle of Maracoor, 2022), Rain is finishing up her last pieces of business before heading back to her homeland of Oz in order to track down old friends and resolve old grievances. This book will be most intriguing for those familiar with the full sweep of Maguire’s Wicked Years saga (starting with Wicked, 1995), pulling from the old relationships and storylines that powered Rain’s life before the Another Day trilogy began–from Rain’s old love Tip, who turned out to be the heir to the throne Ozma in disguise, to her father and their old homestead, including a new dragon pet. This character-driven story ties up old loose ends while introducing small pathways to new stories for Maguire to explore and dive into in the future–it’s quite possible that Rain’s story is not fully complete. Readers who picked up Maguire’s books for the first time with The Brides of Maracoor (2021) might lose their footing with this one, but fans of the Wicked saga and Maguire’s rich, multifaceted world will enjoy the references, heartaches, and conclusions. – Booklist Review
Another Day Trilogy
1. The Brides of Maracoor (2021)
2. The Oracle of Maracoor (2022)
3. The Witch of Maracoor (2023)
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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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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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Information on the three library 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, 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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Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
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