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*
–
Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesday.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.
–
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eAudiobook)
Madeline Martin, owner of an independent bookstore and daughter of Sheriff James Martin, suffers survivor’s guilt and PTSD from events in 2014. She’s reluctant to cooperate when Harley Granger, a successful true-crime author and podcaster, shows up around Christmastime, wanting to talk about Evan Handy. At 17, Madeline was part of a group that had known each other forever–Stephanie Cramer, sisters Ainsley and Samantha Wallace, and Madeline’s best friend Badger. When Evan moved to town, he came with a reputation, but Madeline broke every rule to be with him. It all came crashing down when Stephanie was murdered at a party at Evan’s house; Ainsley and Sam disappeared, and Madeline was left for dead. Sheriff Martin arrested Evan but, convinced there was a second person involved, hunted for that person until suffering a stroke. Now Granger wants to stir everything up. With another girl’s disappearance, Granger points out that five girls have disappeared in the last 10 years. Was Evan innocent?
VERDICT The latest psychological suspense by the author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six emphasizes survivor’s guilt and the inability to move on in this compelling story. – Library Journal Review
–
Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Donut shops that employ skilled killers, young hackers planning revenge, and midnight meetings at rundown cathedrals are typical of this Hammett Award–winning series set in Detroit. Ex-cop August Snow received a $12 million settlement from the city after he was fired and is using the money to restore his beloved neighborhood. While doing that, he’s built a found family, including two elderly neighbors, a young hacker, his godfather, and a Franciscan priest, Father Grabowski, who was beloved by August’s mother and abruptly retired following the hanging death of a young priest in a neighboring suburb. Put the suicide and retirement together with the sudden appearance of a priest who claims to be from the Vatican, and threatening phone calls to the retired priest, and Snow is suspicious. He doesn’t know much about Father Grabowski’s past, but he’ll dig for the truth. He won’t let religious fanatics or the Catholic Church hierarchy take down his friend without a fight.
VERDICT There’s a face-off between organized religion and friendship in Jones’s well-written, compelling sequel to Dead of Winter. It’s a gritty crime novel for fans of Joe Ide’s “IQ” series or David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s Winter Counts. – Starred Library Journal
August Snow Series Reading List:
1. August Snow (2017)
2. Lives Laid Away (2019)
3. Dead of Winter (2021)
4. Deus X (2023)
–
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & eAudiobook)
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.
Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.
Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
The Empyrean Series Reading List:
Book #1 Fourth Wing
Book #2 Iron Flame
–
Midnight Is The Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook, Hoopla Instant Checkout eBook & eAudiobook)
Winstead serves up a sharp meditation on feminism and religious oppression in this atmospheric Louisiana-set thriller. Ruth Cornier, the independent-minded daughter of Pastor James Cornier, is the sole librarian in the small town of Bottom Springs, who takes particular pleasure in works of heretical fiction, including the Twilight novels. One afternoon, Ruth is devastated to learn that a human skull has been found in the swamp next to the library. When Ruth was 17, she was almost raped in the same swamp by itinerant worker Renard Michaels. Ruth’s friend Everett, a local outcast, intervened, and Michaels was killed in the ensuing fight and his body left to sink into the swamp. When the remains are identified as those of another man, Ruth’s worst fears are momentarily averted, but then a bigger problem emerges: might Bottom Springs have a killer on its hands? Alternating between past and present, Winstead movingly fleshes out Ruth and Everett’s friendship without sacrificing pace or surprise as the body count rises. Evocative prose (the setting sun is described as “fighting death, reaching out with grasping fingers of orange and rose against the falling twilight”) is a major plus. Fans of Michael Koryta’s Southern gothic novels, including The Cypress House, will be enchanted. – Publishers Weekly Review
–
Murtagh by Christopher Paolini
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society.
Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems.
In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time…or to joyfully return.
Inheritance Cycle Reading List (Although Murtagh really is a stand alone novel as the main character, Murtagh, is the half-brother of the hero of the original series – Eragon)
Inheritance Cycle
1. Eragon (2001)
2. Eldest (2005)
3. Brisingr (2008)
Eragon’s Guide to Alagaesia (2009)
4. Inheritance (2011)
5. Murtagh (2023)
–
Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt by Charlotte Gray
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A portrait of the mothers who nurtured two prominent politicians. Canadian historian Gray, author of Mrs. King and Sisters in the Wilderness, draws on abundant sources to create an engaging dual biography of Jennie Jerome Churchill (1854-1921), mother of Winston, and Sara Delano Roosevelt (1854-1941), mother of Franklin. The two had markedly different personalities, but “the examples of resilience, acumen, and loyalty that Jennie and Sara set, the initiatives they took, the impressive support that they provided, and the networks they built, helped mold their sons’ characters and careers.” Gray recounts each woman’s family background, childhood, and young adulthood, when each met her husband. Jennie, 19, “shapely and coquettish,” met 24-year-old Lord Randolph Churchill on a yacht where they were guests of the Prince and Princess of Wales; Sara was 26 when she married James Roosevelt, a widower twice her age, whom she had met at a small dinner party. For Jennie, the marriage meant entry into British aristocracy; for Sara, it meant alliance with a prestigious Knickerbocker family, though one not as wealthy as her own. Jennie’s first son was born seven months after the wedding; Sara’s only child–she was advised, after a difficult delivery, to have no more–was born in 1882. “Knowing there would be no more babies, she dedicated herself to protecting the one she had,” writes Gray. “From the day of his birth, her son would be the center of her attention.” Jennie’s marriage, like her husband’s political career, was stormy. The couple was always in debt, due in part to Jennie’s expensive tastes. “Her zest in spending was one of her charms,” a friend commented. Both were widowed in their 40s. While Jennie’s flirtatiousness and three marriages led gossips to call her a “wicked seductress,” Sara’s imperiousness made her daughter-in-law, Eleanor, portray her as “snobbish, domineering, and unkind.” Gray sees those stereotypes as ill-fitting, convincingly portraying her subjects as ambitious, astute, and determined. A sympathetic portrait of formidable women. – Kirkus Review
–
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & eAudiobook)
Dynamo defense attorney Mickey Haller is back in Connelly’s latest (following The Law of Innocence). He’s still working out of his Lincoln Town Car, but this time he’s riding the high of having gotten an innocent man released from prison. Now he’s on the hunt for another wrongful conviction to appeal, while his half-brother, retired LAPD detective Harry Bosch, serves as Mickey’s driver and part-time investigator. Harry identifies a potential job for Mickey in the case of Lucinda Sanz, a woman sentenced to 11 years in prison for the murder of her police deputy ex-husband. While studying the autopsy photos in the Sanz case, Harry recognizes a tattoo on the deceased officer that marks him as a member of a sheriffs gang. Inconsistencies in the case, along with the incompetent counsel who advised Lucinda to plead no contest, are enough to convince Mickey to pursue a petition of habeas corpus. Then he learns that Lucinda’s ex may have been an FBI informant. Suddenly, it looks more and more likely that Lucinda was set up. VERDICT Another solid series installment from Connelly. This Lincoln Lawyer/Harry Bosch crossover is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats as Mickey absorbs each legal setback. A brief appearance by Renee Ballard, as well as a few other familiar faces from the Harry Bosch universe, will delight fans. – Library Journal
Lincoln Lawyer Series Reading List:
1. The Lincoln Lawyer (2005)
2. The Brass Verdict (2008)
3. The Reversal (2010)
4. The Fifth Witness (2011)
5. The Gods of Guilt (2013)
5.5. The Crossing (2015)
6. The Law of Innocence (2020)
The Lincoln Lawyer: A Mysterious Profile (2022)
7. Resurrection Walk (2023)
–
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination—even because of it—women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives.
They were unlikely spies—and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives—first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda—though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.
After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape—an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound.
Propelled by the same meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling that infused Code Girls, The Sisterhood offers a riveting new perspective on history, revealing how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age, and how their silencing made the world more dangerous.
–
Wandering Through Life: A Memoir by Donna Leon
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eBook)
Although celebrated crime writer Leon describes herself as “feckless and unthinking by nature,” she is anything but in the pages of her sprightly memoir, where she focuses the same keen eye for detail and backstory that infuses her beloved, long-running Venetian mystery series featuring Guido Brunetti. From a rural New Jersey childhood filled with farm escapades, vibrant relatives, and character-defining rites of passage, Leon’s zesty, adventurous spirit presented early on and was honed through college and its aftermath with the acceptance of teaching positions in locations as disparate as Iran, China, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia. It was Venice that captured her heart as the cultural center for all the things she loved the most, from opera to cappuccino to the stealth strategies of grocery-hunting grandmothers. Leon is coy and discerning in the anecdotes she selects to chronicle her 80 years on Earth, whether lamenting Venice’s environmental degradation or reveling in the works of Handel. Though fans will bask in these candid glimpses, one need not be a devoted Brunetti aficionado to appreciate Leon’s delightfully spirited account of a life well lived. – Booklist Review
–
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation by Tiya Miles
(Available Formats: Print Book & eAudiobook)
How women discovered themselves in nature. Harvard historian Miles, a MacArthur fellow and National Book Award winner for All That She Carried, offers a sensitive examination of the lives of women–primarily Black and Native American–for whom the natural world served as an “imagination station and training ground.” For women such as escaped slave Harriet Tubman, Indigenous explorer Sacagawea, and science fiction writer Octavia Butler, the natural world provided “a space to discover who they were and what they were capable of.” Tubman, who labored largely in fields, farms, and forests, learned how “to listen to, forage, and navigate the woods,” skills that enabled her to successfully liberate dozens of slaves. Similarly, Harriet Jacobs, who was formerly enslaved, saw “trees and woods as places of relief, restoration, secrecy, and refuge.” For Tubman, Jacobs, and white abolitionist Laura Smith Haviland, “nature’s classroom” made them acutely aware of societal and political subjugation and oppression. Miles connects love of nature with a celebration of “wild freedom” in the works of Louisa May Alcott, a self-proclaimed tomboy who loved to romp in the woods, escaping the strictures of Victorian girlhood; and in the writings of Native American poet Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, for whom the “uncomfortable realities of colonial intimacies” underlay her lyrical depictions of beloved landscapes. When Native American children were forcibly sent to government boarding schools, wrenched from their natural surroundings, many rebelled against the cultural and physical confinement they endured. Among 20th-century women whose lives were indelibly shaped by their outdoor experiences, Miles includes Chinese American activist Grace Lee Boggs and Mexican American labor activist Dolores Huerta. The author’s own reverence for nature intensified during the pandemic, when her backyard became a place of solace and beauty. Acknowledging the privilege that affords her this space for herself and her family, she makes a compelling plea for fostering “outside equity” to allow everyone to partake of nature’s gifts. A fresh, graceful contribution to women’s history. – Kirkus Review
–
Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
–
Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
–
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.
–
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.
–
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.
–
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).
–
Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 