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.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
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The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Ruffin, author of the terrifying racial dystopia We Cast a Shadow (2019), re-creates the slave narrative in this imaginative Civil War-era meta novel. Ady, an enslaved young girl, has been sold along with her mother, Sanite, to planter John Du Marche. Sanite is a woman of ingenious talents skilled in carpentry, fishing, herbalism, orienteering, and combat, which become increasingly necessary survival skills as she and Ady make various attempts to escape. Recaptured and separated from her mother and her baby brother Emmanuel, Ady finds herself trapped in “the open-air prison of New Orleans,” where she discovers the free colored Creole aristocracy. Invited to work at the Mockingbird, an inn run by the coy and mysterious Lenore, Ady is gradually drawn into the American Daughters, an underground network of Black women and girls working to undermine the Confederacy from within. As her relationship with Lenore deepens, Ady must decide whether to devote her life to the sisterhood’s mission and fulfill her mother’s destiny. Ruffin creates added resonance with “historical” documents: bills of sale, “wanted” posters, research reports, and a poignant interview with the elderly Emmanuel, who was never able to reconnect with his lost family. A sobering yet liberatory portrayal of American slavery and of the courage, determination, and intelligence required to survive it. – Booklist Review
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The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller
DEBUT Miller enters the cozy-mystery arena with this offering set amid the illegal antiques market. Freya Lockwood, feeling at loose ends with her life, is suddenly summoned by her Aunt Carole back to the quaint English village where she grew up. Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and Freya’s former mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. A trail of clues left by Arthur leads Freya and Carole to an old manor house filled with antiques and populated by various mysterious guests, all of them with hidden agendas and exuding varying degrees of menace. The author, daughter of Judith Miller (Miller’s Antique Price Guide), draws on her own knowledge of antiques to develop the backdrop of the mystery. Though the plot and characters are a bit confusing at times, the overall storyline is solid. VERDICT Miller bears watching. Readers will look forward to more adventures with Freya and Carole in the intriguing world of antiques. – Library Journal Review
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The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Choo (The Night Tiger) draws on Japanese folklore for a rich detective story involving fox spirits. In 1908 Manchuria, a fox spirit named Snow assumes a human form during her search for Bektu Nikan, a photographer responsible for her child’s death in a hunt he’d orchestrated. She takes a job as a servant for the matriarch of a medicine shop, whose grandson, Bohai, and his medical school friends have spent time with Bektu. One of the friends, Shirakawa, is also a fox and claims that Bektu fled to Japan. Bohai’s grandmother agrees to accompany Snow and the students there, unaware of the journey’s real purpose. Meanwhile, retired teacher and detective Bao Gong, who has a supernatural ability to discern lies and is fixated on fox spirits, is hired to identify a woman found dead in an alley. His investigations unveil links between the unidentified woman, Bektu, and a beautiful woman rumored to be a fox. As Bao unravels the threads of the mystery, Snow faces danger in Japan when she crosses paths with another fox she has long avoided. Choo’s writing is lush and the slow revelation of complicated relationships and reunions hum with tension. This is a treat. -Publishers Weekly Review
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Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond
Dani Poissant has led an unconventional life, being the daughter of famed art thief Maria Poissant–not to mention the Poissant legacy of magic. The duo performs heist upon heist together, until there is a betrayal, sending Maria to prison and leaving Dani utterly alone. Ten years later, a mysterious figure from Dani’s past approaches her to do the ultimate heist–stealing a portrait from an ultraprivate collection famously known as the Fortress of Art. Dani’s reward: reuniting with her mother. Hesitant but wanting to be a good daughter, Dani says yes. With only a week to pull off the job, Dani must recruit the crew who iced her out and finagle her way into the Fortress of Art. But upon learning the truth behind the painting she’s about to steal, Dani needs to decide if the reward is greater than the cost. More than a heist novel, romance author Bond’s latest (after Mr. and Mrs. Witch, 2023) is also a contemporary fantasy about the fraught relationships between mothers and daughters as well as regret and forgiveness. Fans of the author will enjoy. – Booklist Review
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Girls With Bad Reputations by Xio Axelrod
Axelrod’s spirited second the Lillys rock and roll romance (after The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes) turns the spotlight onto the eponymous indie band’s drummer, Kayla Whitman. Raised by a controlling mother who made her feel like a constant disappointment for being too loud and boisterous, Kayla’s lifeline growing up was her older brother, Zach, who gave Kayla her first pair of drumsticks. After Zach died, Kayla clung to his love of music to cope with her grief, joining a local indie girl band. Now the Lillys have blown up and embark on their first national tour. It’s a different beast than the local gigs Kayla’s used to, and with her mother still calling to berate her about how she needs to “get her life together,” she worries she’ll crack under the pressure. Comfort comes from tour bus driver Ty Baldwin, a strong and silent type with whom Kayla discovers an unexpected spark. This sweet couple find a rhythm as the tour goes on, but Kayla’s still torn between pursuing music and packing it up for a safer life. Bolstering both the slow-burning love story and Kayla’s personal growth is the charming chosen family she finds with her bandmates. Readers are sure to be entertained. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Hammer Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor by Hamilton Nolan
Over the past few years, a wave of high-profile trade union actions in the United States has brought labor organizing to the forefront of the collective consciousness of the nation. Journalist Nolan, in his first book, offers a new and fresh perspective on the recent evolution of labor movements in the United States. In largely separate but thematically overlapping chapters, the book alternates between unraveling the histories of large and small unions across the country and following Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (an affiliate of the AFL-CIO), as she rises through the ranks of her union and navigates political obstacles. This important book shows how unions in a wide range of industries can utilize their inherent power and explores the complicated and necessary relationship between labor and politics, encouraging readers to examine how one affects the other.
VERDICT Well researched and reported, with a propulsive storytelling style. Nolan’s outstanding book will interest readers who follow news about equality efforts but might not be familiar with the complex world of labor organizing. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Shades Of Milk And Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
In this alternate history of a Regency England, a lady’s chance at a good match improves with her every talent: good taste in the arts, a deft hand at pulling images from the ether, and proper conduct in polite society. Miss Jane Ellsworth was born with gifts of a keen artistic eye and creating mesmerizing glamours, but her sister, Melody, was born with the gift of physical beauty. In the end, which is truly the more desirable? A series of romantic misunderstandings, poorly expressed feelings, and purposeful deception lead Jane and Melody into a better understanding of their own views on the topic. VERDICT Readers will be disappointed only when they finish this enchanting story, which is suffused with genteel charm. The author’s judicious and effective changes to aspects of daily life clearly communicate how similar but different this world is from ours. With the grace of Sense and Sensibility, a touch of classic fairy tale magic, and an action-packed ending, this debut novel by an award-winning fantasy short story writer will appeal to fans of Jane Austen, Jane Yolen, Patricia Wrede, Susannah Clarke, and even Jasper Fforde. – Library Journal
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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale) blends a meticulously researched WWI epic, an eloquent family saga, and a touch of the supernatural in this breathtaking historical fantasy. Nurse Laura Iven returns home to Halifax, Nova Scotia, after being wounded on the Western Front and honorably discharged from the medical corps. When she learns in early 1918 that her soldier brother Freddie—her last living family member—is missing and presumed dead, she’s overwhelmed with questions, so she volunteers to return to Belgium, where she’ll work at a private hospital and seek answers in her limited spare time. The narrative shifts between Laura’s perspective and Freddie’s own, a year prior, as he falls in with a mysterious and potentially mystical new friend, adding captivating depth and tension to an already intriguing premise. Arden’s carefully constructed plot makes each unexpected twist feel as inevitable as it is shocking. Through resonant prose, she literalizes the apocalyptic qualities of WWI while dwelling in moral complexity and delivering vibrant, fully fleshed-out characters. The interwoven supernatural elements lend the historical details greater weight. The result is a powerful page-turner. – Publishers Weekly Review
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What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher
In the haunting second installment of Hugo and Nebula Award winner Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier series (after What Moves the Dead), reluctant, battle-damaged hero Alex Easton, who uses the pronouns ka and kan, returns to kan childhood home in the grim and Gothic countryside of Gallacia. It should be a routine, even boring, visit to the Easton family hunting lodge. Instead, Alex arrives to find the old caretaker has died, and the village buzzing with rumors that the supposed lung disease that killed him was in fact something far more sinister. To Alex, a practical old soldier, the villagers’ tales seem fanciful, the kind of thing one might tell to scare a child—until the new housekeeper’s son falls ill the same way, and Alex begins to have strange nightmares. Something has awoken in the Easton hunting lodge, and it wants to steal the very breath from all of the inhabitants’ lungs. Moving away from the Edgar Allan Poe story that inspired the first entry in the series, this sequel offers more surprises and just as many moments that will haunt readers’ dreams. Kingfisher’s winning formula of creepy folklore, affable protagonists, familiar Gothic tropes, and truly unsettling horror imagery makes this sing. – Publishers Weekly
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The Wind Blows In Sleeping Grass by Katie Powner
In remote Montana, a trash collector with anger issues who likes poetry and converses mostly with his potbellied pig is an unlikely hero. But Powner (Where the Blue Sky Begins) has readers rooting for Pete the garbageman from page one. The small town of Sleeping Grass is on the Hi-Line, where the land and the people are being slowly eroded by the wind and the harsh winters. Pete grew up here, before the bottom fell out and he was shuttled through a series of foster homes; he is only back now because it was the one place willing to overlook his past mistakes and give him a living wage. He meets a cast of characters, including a debt-ridden octogenarian and a grieving Siksika man, who help heal the hurts of the past and teach him how to live, but his new friends have problems and secrets of their own.
VERDICT Powner’s real-life experience as a seasoned foster mother shines through in this tale of finding treasure in the people and things that others have cast aside. The secondary characters are funny, flawed, and so unusual that readers will be clamoring for more. – Starred Library Journal 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 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 mobile devices, PCs, Macs*, 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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*You must have an active Internet connection to access Hoopla content on a Mac.
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