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 24, 2024.
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Baumgartner by Paul Auster
Auster (The Brooklyn Follies) offers a profound character study of a man whose advancing years are shaped by mourning and memory. Sy Baumgartner is a 70-year-old philosophy professor at Princeton who, at the novel’s outset, has spent the past decade grieving his beloved wife Anna’s death in a swimming accident. Though he attends to a banal domestic routine, writes scholarly books, and even proposes marriage to a divorced colleague, Sy is so surrounded by effects of his old life with Anna (including manuscripts of her poetry, a book of which he shepherded into print posthumously) and so steeped in his reminiscences of her that at one point he becomes convinced she’s called him over a long-ago disconnected phone line to assure him “that the living and the dead are connected, and to be as deeply connected as they were when she was alive can continue even in death.” Sy lives simultaneously in both the present and the past, and Auster navigates these two narrative tracks nimbly: an uncovered box of Anna’s postgraduate papers leads to a reverie about her and Sy’s courtship decades earlier; a present-day moment of absentmindedness conjures recollections of Sy’s multigenerational family. The effect builds to a beautiful approximation of memory’s fluidity and allure. This is one to savor. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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A Cold Day For Murder by Dana Stabenow
The Edgar Award-winning introduction to private investigator Kate Shugak, A Cold Day for Murder is the first in Dana Stabenow’s critically acclaimed Kate Shugak mysteries.
Kate Shugak is a native Aleut working as a private investigator in Alaska. She’s five foot, one inch tall, carries a scar that runs from ear to ear across her throat, and owns a half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. Resourceful, strong-willed, defiant, Kate is tougher than your average heroine – and she needs to be to survive the worst the Alaskan wilds can throw at her.
Somewhere in twenty million acres of forest and glaciers, a ranger has disappeared: Mark Miller. Missing six weeks. It’s assumed by the National Park Service that Miller has been caught in a snowstorm and frozen to death: the typical fate of those who get lost in this vast and desolate terrain. But as a favour to his congressman father, the FBI send in an investigator: Ken Dahl. Last heard from two weeks and two days ago.
Now it’s time to send in a professional. Kate Shugak: light brown eyes, black hair, five foot one with an angry scar from ear to ear. Last seen yesterday…
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The Getaway List: A Novel by Emma Lord
Two best friends come together after being separated for several years, tackling long-anticipated items on their Getaway List. Riley was turned down by all 10 colleges she applied to, and she’s not upset about it, which concerns her–and really bothers her mother. With her history of joining childhood bestie Tom in good-natured troublemaking, Riley has spent the past few years of high school since getting suspended overwhelmed by the extracurriculars and jobs her mother sets up for her. Now that Riley’s graduated, she realizes that she has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Against her mother’s wishes, she travels from Virginia to New York City, back into the life of Tom, who moved there after ninth grade. What starts as a weekend away turns into a summer of discovery and adventure for the two 18-year-olds as they hang out with a quirky group of friends and work to complete the list of activities they started making after Tom’s move. Together, Riley and Tom navigate the intricacies of self-discovery and their changing feelings for one another. This is a beautiful story of family, friendship, romantic love, and personal growth. Riley is a witty, reflective narrator, and the supporting characters are well formed and likable, keeping the humor and engagement high. Riley and Tom are cued white. An entertaining friends-to-lovers story that will have readers laughing and reflecting in equal measure. – Kirkus Review
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In The Shadow of Fear: America and the World in 1950 by Nick Bunker
In the years following World War II, the United States’ economic and industrial output were unmatched. President Harry S. Truman hoped to build on FDR’s New Deal legacy with his Fair Deal: a broad set of liberal reforms, including higher taxes for new infrastructure, education, and a national healthcare plan. Historian Bunker (Making Haste from Babylon) details the months between September 1949 and June 1950 when several crises, domestic and foreign, rocked the Truman administration. Strikes by the mine workers and steelworkers, demanding higher wages and job stability, threatened the United States’ economic boom and coal supply during the winter months. Communists solidified control of China and later signed a pact with the Soviet Union, expanding communism over much of Asia, while in the U.S., Democrats maintained control of the House and Senate, but emboldened conservatives advocated for reduced budgets and lower taxes, derailing many of Truman’s proposals. VERDICT Based on extensive primary research, this highly readable account highlights these critical months when the U.S. enjoyed its prosperity, and part of the world descended into violence. An important read for those interested in postwar American history, both domestic and abroad. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Murder In Williamatown by Kerry Greenwood
The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her elegant eyebrows in mystery once again!
Awakening unusually early one morning, Phryne Fisher finds herself with a rare stretch of free time to fill. After dropping her daughters off for their school-sponsored charity work at the Blind Institute, she visits a university professor whose acquaintance she’d made—and admired—on a prior case. At lunch, the smitten professor invites Phryne to dine at his home in Williamstown later that week.
Bookending her pleasant dinner with her new friend Jeoffrey, Phryne makes two disturbing discoveries: first, a discarded opium pipe in the park, and later the body of a Chinese man on the beach—cause of death not apparent, yet ultimately ruled a homicide. Shortly thereafter, the teenaged sister-in-law of Phryne’s longtime lover Lin Chung disappears from her home. But when one of Jeoffrey’s colleagues is murdered in front of a houseful of guests at a Chinese-themed party he is hosting, Phryne can’t help but wonder—are the incidents all related somehow? And who on earth has been leaving notes in her letterbox, warning her to “REPENT” and that “THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH”—?
In addition to the formidable and fashionable Phryne, this clever mystery once again features Phryne’s three wards with their own mysteries to solve: Ruth and Jane, tracking an embezzler at the Institute, and Tinker, whose help Phryne enlists to uncover the author of the threatening missives.
Murder In Williamstown is the twenty-second book in the Phryne Fisher Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book 1 titled Cocaine Blues and, also in a different edition, Death by Misadventure.
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My Effin’ Life by Geddy Lee
The thunderous bassist and vocalist for the prog rock band Rush tells all. “It’s a common mistake to assume that when a kid (or an adult for that matter) is quiet, he must be some sort of deep thinker. In my case I’m afraid it was simply that I didn’t have much to say.” So writes Lee, born Gershon Eliezer Weinrib in 1953 to Holocaust-survivor immigrants to Canada. It turns out that he has plenty to say. Part of this mostly good-natured memoir is an account of growing up as a “nerdy Jewish kid” in the Toronto suburbs. Like other budding musicians, Lee found a turning point when Ed Sullivan aired the Beatles, though he was less impressed by the Fab Four than his sister was. Forming a band with schoolmates, he picked up the bass after drawing a literal short straw, which “was fine by me–it had fewer strings.” Eventually falling in with drummer Neil Peart and guitarist Alex Lifeson, he formed Rush, opening for the likes of Kiss before becoming a headliner act. Lee is full of good humor as he recounts his experiences on the road: “Rock Star Lesson #1: Do NOT drop psychedelics before an interview.” “Rock Star Lesson #2: Famous people can be dicks.” The author is testier when he writes about his personal politics, and he has high praise for Canada’s social safety net. “Sure, we pay more taxes than many others do,” he writes, “but I prefer to live in a world that gives a shit, even for people I don’t know.” Lee also has choice words for those who criticize his histrionic, high-pitched vocal delivery: “Don’t like the way I sing? Well then, I invite you to fuck the fuck off and move along to something more suitable to your sensitive tastes.” A grand entertainment for fans of Rush and classic rock. – Kirkus Review
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On The Plus Side: A Novel by Jenny L. Howe
Everly Winters is perfectly happy to navigate life like a good neutral paint color: appreciated but unnoticed. That’s why she’s still a receptionist instead of exploring a career in art, why she lurks but never posts on the forums for her favorite makeover show, On the Plus Side, and why she’s crushing so hard on her forever-unattainable co-worker. When no one notices you, they can’t reject you or insist you’re too much.
This plan is working perfectly until someone secretly nominates Everly for the next season of On the Plus Side. Overwhelmed by the show’s extremely extroverted hosts and how much time she’ll have to spend on screen, she finds comfort in a surprising friendship with the grumpy but kind cameraman, Logan. Soon Everly realizes that he’s someone she doesn’t mind being noticed by. In fact, she might even like it.
But when their growing connection is caught on camera, it sends the show’s ratings into a frenzy. Learning to embrace all of herself on national TV is hard enough; can Everly risk heartbreak with the whole world watching?
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The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
In 1950 Jim Crow-era Florida, kids Gloria Stephens and Robbie Stephens Jr. are left behind after their mother dies from cancer and their activist father is forced to flee northward. For Gloria and Robbie, like for other Black residents of the county, life is hard, but Gloria and Robbie’s presence in particular makes white people think of their “troublemaker” father. When Robbie kicks a white boy to protect his older sister, he is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory with a notorious history. Told in the alternating perspectives of Gloria and Robbie, Due’s novel follows the action as Gloria works to set Robbie free. The history of the horror that imprisons Robbie has a long tail–but the ghosts who live on the reformatory’s grounds are unwilling to wait for justice any longer. The writing here is spectacular; the pacing, engrossing; the setting, heartbreaking but honest; and the characters are given a nuance and depth rarely seen. VERDICT American Book Award winner Due (The Wishing Pool and Other Stories) has written a masterpiece of fiction whose fear actively surrounds its readers, while the novel speaks to all situations where injustice occurs and compels its audience to act. For fans of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, The Trees by Percival Everett, and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. – Starred Booklist Review
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Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman
Rabbi Small returns in this New York Times–bestselling novel to investigate a mysterious death on the Day of Atonement
The day before Yom Kippur, the synagogue sound system is on the blink, the floral arrangements are in disarray, and a member of Rabbi David Small’s congregation—in the Massachusetts town of Barnard’s Crossing—is terribly concerned with how much a Torah weighs. The rabbi is determined not to let these mundane concerns ruin his day of prayer and contemplation. But the holiest day of the Jewish year is interrupted when a member of the congregation is found dead in his car.
Details emerge that suggest the man may have killed himself, but the rabbi’s wife suspects murder. Which is it? Rabbi Small kicks into high detective gear to find out. His search for the culprit among the small town’s cast of eccentric characters leads to nail-biting suspense in this highly entertaining and engrossing mystery.
Reader’s Note: Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry is the second book in the Rabbi Small Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one: Friday, The Rabbi Slept Late.
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Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank: A Short Story by Elle Cosimano
From New York Times bestselling author Elle Cosimano, comes Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank—a hilarious short story diving into Finlay Donovan’s partner-in-crime Vero’s past.
Anyone can spot a window of opportunity, but not everyone can manage to fall straight through one.
Veronica Ruiz is on the run for the first time in her life—though certainly not the last. After being falsely accused of stealing money from her college sorority, she packs up and heads to her cousin Ramón’s apartment, planning to change her name and start over, away from backstabbing girls and university drama (and far, far away from her arrest warrant in Maryland).
At the local bank on the first morning of her new life, it occurs to Vero that she’d be a better bank teller than most of the current employees; she may not have much money, but what little she does have, she knows how to manage. Unfortunately, the only available position is a cleaning job and so, desperate for a fresh start, she takes the bank manager’s offer.
But nothing in Vero’s world has ever been simple so of course, shortly after she begins work, she overhears a conversation between her new boss and a security guard: someone who works there has been stealing. Seeing a window of opportunity, Vero sets out to find the identity of the thief, present the evidence, and then push for the perfect job. All of which would be easier if her irresistibly infuriating childhood crush Javi wasn’t living in the same damn town.
Offering the insight that readers have been craving into fan-favorite Vero’s past and a closer look at the moment Finlay and Vero first meet, Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank is a can’t-miss addition to the Finlay Donovan series.
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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 use your library card and checkout/download content to a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on 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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