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 Wednesday.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
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And here are our recommended reads of the week:
Argylle: A Novel by Elly Conway
The globe-trotting spy thriller that inspired the upcoming action blockbuster Argylle (February 2024), featuring a star-studded cast including Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Cena, and directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kingsman trilogy fame
A luxury train speeding towards Moscow and a date with destiny.
A CIA plane downed in the jungles of the Golden Triangle.
A Nazi hoard entombed in the remote mountains of South-West Poland.
A missing treasure, the eighth wonder of the world, lost for seven decades.
One Russian magnate’s dream of restoring a nation to greatness has set in motion a chain of events which will take the world to the brink of chaos.
Only Frances Coffey, the CIA’s most legendary spymaster, can prevent it. But to do so, she needs someone special.
Enter Argylle, a troubled agent with a tarnished past who may just have the skills to take on one of the most powerful men in the world. If only he can save himself first…
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The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel by Shubnum Khan
Trying to cope with the loss of her mother, Sana and her father move from the farm she grew up on to the coast of South Africa and into the manor house Akbar Manzil. The dilapidated manor house, now converted into apartments, is inhabited by eccentric tenants, abandoned rooms, and secrets lurking behind locked doors. While her father navigates his grief, fifteen-year-old Sana is left to her own devices. The manor is like a living thing, full of curiosities just waiting for Sana to discover them. Interspersed with chapters that tell the story of how the house came to be are stories of the people who lived there and the ghosts of the past that have left deep footprints, like memories the house cannot forget. Sana roams the house uncovering artifacts of the past owners and their mysteries, but Sana has secrets of her own, ghosts that haunt her just as the past haunts this house. Beautifully written with intriguing characters and a story line that spans time, this subtle fantasy novel mixes historical fiction with dark fairy tales.- Booklist Review
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The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
Excited to have moved to a quaint village with partner Joe and expecting their first child, Alice is upended when a dead body is discovered at her prenatal class and she and her classmates are deemed suspects. So they join forces (along with Alice’s rambunctious dog, Helen) to discover the culprit. Cotswolds-based Ailes, who works in publishing as an editor, was short-listed for the Comedy Women in Print Prize for the opening chapters of this debut. – Library Journal Review
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Goodbye Girl: A Novel by James Grippando
Florida defense lawyer Jack Swyteck hasn’t changed much since we last saw him in 2021’s Twenty. He’s still a tough-as-nails crusader, and his latest case is a doozy. In a conflict that resembles the discord over ownership rights between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun, a pop musician is embroiled in a dispute over money with her ex-husband, and to make sure her ex doesn’t get a dime, she encourages her fans to pirate her music. Now the dispute has escalated. She and her ex are accusing each other in the unsolved murder of her former lover, and Jack must figure out who’s telling the truth. This is the eighteenth Swyteck novel since The Pardon, and it’s just as good as the rest. Grippando, who practiced law for several years before becoming a novelist, keeps coming up with complex and timely cases, and this one is first-rate. – Booklist Review
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The Night of the Storm: A Novel by Nishita Parekh
August 25, 2017. Jia Shah has moved to Houston, Texas, after a recent divorce. An immigrant from India, she is coping with single parenthood, a new job, and an ex-husband who wants custody of their teenage son, Ishan. As Hurricane Harvey heads for Houston, Jia gets an evacuation order and heads to her sister’s house in the upscale suburb of Sugarland. Her sister, Seema, enjoys the privileges of wealth while her husband, Vipul, behaves inappropriately with Jia. When Vipul’s brother, Raj, and his white wife, Lisa, show up, things get even more complicated. Grandma, the authoritarian matriarch, plays favorites with her sons and their wives, and everyone considers Jia a problem because she is divorced. As the storm becomes more destructive and two people die mysteriously at the house, the situation becomes dire. Who is the murderer? Will they survive the storm? Parekh’s impressive debut combines a variation on the locked room mystery with social commentary on the immigrant experience and the role of women in Indian culture. – Starred Booklist Review
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Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock, MD
Physician and healthcare consultant Blackstock skillfully blends biography and advocacy in this passionate debut memoir. Blackstock’s mother, Dale, was a pioneering Black doctor in Brooklyn who headed a coalition of Black women physicians in the 1980s. Her example inspired Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, to follow in their mother’s footsteps. When the sisters were undergraduates at Harvard, Dale died of leukemia at age 47; the siblings went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School in the 2000s as the school’s first Black mother-daughter legacies. After she was matched with Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, Blackstock, like her mother, persevered in the face of prejudice from patients and colleagues. Dedicating herself to fighting racial healthcare inequities, she formed Advancing Health Equity in 2019 to help improve care for patients of color. Blackstock’s inspiring account—which also covers her own health struggles (a misdiagnosis of her appendicitis nearly kills her) and her devastating divorce—is enhanced by her concrete diagnoses of the healthcare industry’s shortcomings and the firm, actionable steps (including engaging Black children in medical education as early as preschool) she provides to fix them. It’s a sobering and knowledge study of medical discrimination from someone with a lifetime of experience.
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Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence by Yaroslav Trofimov
The aggression and atrocities of Putin’s invasion are matched by the stalwart bravery of Ukrainian resistance. Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and a veteran war reporter, traveled across his homeland to talk with the soldiers, civilians, and leaders enduring the violence of the Russian war machine. This in-depth report of his findings offers a detailed picture of the destruction and suffering caused by Russian bombing and shelling. Just as important, Trofimov conveys the will to fight of Ukrainians, in uniform and out, and their determined hopes for victory and Ukraine’s independence. The author does an excellent job placing the unprovoked attack within the historical context of Ukrainian resistance to Russia and Russia’s equal insistence on dominating Ukraine. Trofimov also demonstrates the power of words in war as he examines the slogans, memes, and speeches that Ukrainians rally behind, contrasted with the empty and often ridiculous Russian propaganda used to justify and rationalize Putin’s invasion. This tour de force covers the first year of war in Ukraine and a solid second draft of history, as the author intended. We can hope for a second volume that will be the last, chronicling a truly independent Ukraine. – Starred Booklist Review
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The Sign of Four Spirits by Vicki Delany
Delany’s ninth mystery featuring Cape Cod bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Gemma Doyle (after 2023’s The Game Is a Footnote) is the series’ best yet. London, Mass., is hosting a new psychic fair that has attracted many visitors to the town, and to the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. During the event, Doyle is invited by her friend, Bunny, a former teenage pop star whose daughter, Ashleigh, assists Doyle in running the store, to a séance held by a medium named Madame Lavalier. Despite Doyle’s skepticism about the supernatural, she agrees to attend. When she joins the small gathering, however, Madame Lavalier excludes Doyle from the locked library where the group will attempt to contact the dead, citing the bookseller’s skepticism. The evening ends tragically, when one of the 12 people in the room is killed by a hatpin inserted precisely at the base of their skull. After elbowing her way into the police inquiry, Doyle utilizes her Sherlockian attention to detail to crack the case. The closed-circle setup is brilliantly executed, and will appeal to golden age mystery fans and Holmes fans alike. Delany’s series has plenty of gas left in the tank. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Waters: A Novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Place is key to Campbell’s resounding novels and short stories, including Once upon a River (2011) and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters (2015). In this tour de force, this intricate, visceral fairy tale, place is the thrumming heart. The Waters is a fertile Michigan swamp, home to generations of women healers, with the indomitable Hermine “Herself” Zook now reigning supreme. She has raised three daughters, Primrose, a lawyer in California; Maryrose, a nurse who lives nearby; and “lazy and beautiful” Rose Thorn. Adored by all and in epic love with farmer Titus, Rose Thorn returns from an ambiguous absence with a baby girl who is not his. Named Dorothy for Rose Thorn’s love of the Oz books and called Donkey for the animal who saved her life, she reaches the age of 11 as an exceedingly tall, curious, and courageous prodigy enthralled by both nature and mathematics. As Rose Thorn holds tight to the anguished secret of Donkey’s violent origins, Herself is mysteriously injured, and Donkey protects a fearsome rattlesnake. Campbell’s intimate knowledge of this vital wetland and the wonders of its plants and creatures infuses every vibrant, bewitching, and wrenching scene as she entwines the struggles of her passionate characters with the creeping decimation wrought by pollution and climate change. This is a verdant, gripping, and clarion saga of home, family, and womanhood, of meaningful work and metamorphosis, of poisons and antidotes, and the urgent need for us to heal and sustain the imperiled living world that heals and sustains us.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers cherish Campbell’s fiction and word is out about her magnificent new novel. – Library Journal Review
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Wild And Distant Seas: A Novel by Tara Karr Roberts
Roberts’ sweeping debut novel, a reimagining of Moby-Dick, tells the story of four generations of women. It begins on Nantucket in 1849 with Evangeline Hussey, a young widow who is content running her inn and making her chowders. One day, she is caught off guard by the arrival of a cheerful man who introduces himself as Ishmael. His stay is short-lived; he soon sets sail on the doomed Pequod with Captain Ahab. But his legacy will ripple through the years. In his own way, he is the white whale for Evangeline’s descendants, and their journeys span the globe, taking them from Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Italy, and Idaho. Each of the women–Evangeline, Rachel, Mara, and Antonia–possesses a touch of magic, each using her own unique ability to her advantage in some way. The magic is subtle, woven seamlessly into the narrative, so it does not feel out of place in this otherwise traditional work of historical fiction. Each woman’s story builds to a beautiful conclusion, and the themes of love, motherhood, and the quest to find one’s purpose in life resonate throughout. Fans of Christina Baker Kline’s The Exiles (2020) and Julie Gerstenblatt’s Daughters of Nantucket (2023) will flock to Roberts’ tale. – Booklist Review
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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, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can download titles from The Digital Catalog to a PC. And The Digital Catalog has a companion app, Libby, which you can utilize to download content to your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks 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, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 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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