Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday,May 8, 2024.
–
A Calamity Of Souls by David Baldacci
It’s easy to forget that best-selling Baldacci was a practicing attorney before he turned to writing fiction. His experience as a trial lawyer comes in handy here; his presentation of the wrangling between lawyers and judges feels entirely realistic. So does the setting, Virginia in the late 1960s, a time and place the author knows intimately, having grown up in Richmond then, witnessing the racism that permeates the novel. This is a gripping story about a Black man accused of murdering two white people, whose attorney, a white man, teams up with a Black lawyer to fight for his client’s life. Readers will care about some characters and despise others. The language, attitudes, and beliefs may offend some readers, but Baldacci is striving for historical accuracy, and he certainly seems to have achieved it. Yes, there’s a message here, but it’s nothing so simple as “racism is bad.” Instead, this is a nuanced portrait of a time and place, brought to vivid life by a writer at the top of his game.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Ever-popular Baldacci at his best will have his legions of readers flocking. – Booklist Review
–
A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins
Best-selling novelist Gibbins (Inquisition, 2018) returns to his passion for archeology in this examination of 12 sunken vessels ranging from a Bronze Age wreck off England’s Dover coast to a WWII merchant ship sunk off the coast of Ireland. Each of these dozen shipwrecks in some way reflects the state of the world at the time the ships went down. The Bronze Age wreck’s cargo shows that international trade flourished even in prehistoric times; copper cargo from the Uluburun shipwreck found off Turkey’s shore gives similar evidence of thriving commerce in the eastern Mediterranean. A sunken vessel from the sixth century CE held marble columns clearly intended for a Byzantine church. The remains of Henry VIII’s renowned flagship, Mary Rose, tells much about Tudor seamanship and England’s nascent ability to colonize so much of the world. As Gibbins notes, none of this history would be available today save for the invention of scuba technology, allowing underwater archeology to flourish. Gibbins’ remarkable research will grant both maritime and general historians a deeper perspective on how our world developed. -Booklist Review
–
Real Americans: A Novel by Rachel Khong
In 1999, New York City college student Lily is scraping by with an unpaid internship when she meets the impossibly handsome, unfathomably wealthy Matthew. She abruptly cuts off their romance when their class differences overwhelm her, but fate intervenes. They marry and have a son, who appears to have none of Lily’s Chinese American heritage, looking like blond-haired, blue-eyed Matthew. Narrating the novel’s second part, teenage Nick doesn’t know his father’s identity or why he isn’t in their lives, and, pushed by his best friend, endeavors to find out. The book’s final and most staggering third is voiced by May, the scientist mother Lily has been estranged from since a shocking revelation following Nick’s birth. And so readers learn what Lily may never: the story of May’s life, beginning in a rural Chinese rice farm, surviving famine and worse, and achieving her goal of attending university in Beijing until Mao’s Cultural Revolution forced her to make an impossible choice. While in many ways a far cry from Khong’s wonderfully spare debut, Goodbye Vitamin (2017), this plot-rich, spiraling, multigenerational epic possesses the same heartrending humanity and deceptively subtle portrayal of characters’ unseen depths–so impossible to relate, so essential to everything. As in life, the love is in the details. – Starred Booklist Review
–
The Summer We Started Over by Nancy Thayer
Eddie Grant leads a fabulous life in New York City as assistant to best-selling romance writer Dinah Lavender. But her sister Barrett calls her home to Nantucket to help take care of their father, who has buried himself in writing a book about romantic poets ever since their brother Stearns died, and their mother deserted them. Their rambling farmhouse, complete with an ornery horse, is bursting with books, so the sisters decide to open a used book store in the barn for the summer, while Barrett opens her posh boutique in town. They contract Jeff, Eddie’s ex, to build the bookshelves, and he brings salt-of-the-earth carpenter Paul along. Barrett is instantly smitten, but she’s also contending with the attentions of a summer person, Drew. Then Dinah shows up, fleeing a stalker in the city, and a woman from Stearns’ past arrives with a secret. Thayer’s latest Nantucket confection, after All the Days of Summer (2023), is breezy, awash in details about books, stocking a small boutique, cooking a family meal, and the simple pleasures of the island. – Booklist Review
–
Wait for Signs by Craig Johnson, audiobook narrated by George Guidall
Twelve short stories featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire and the regular Absaroka County cast previously released separately have now been gathered together on audio–along with one new story–fittingly delivered by George Guidall, who narrates the Longmire novels. Guidall’s stellar insight into the characters and their motivations continues to grow with each new production. Every time he seems perfect he tops himself as he keys into the delicate balance of spiritual concerns, compassion, humor, and social commentary. These elements come through in each story, but especially so in “Ministerial Aid.” Guidall embodies Walt’s concern for his citizens, his amusement at a character’s belief that he’s Jesus, and his shock at the fury rained on an abusive husband. Every story is an aural treat delectable enough to revisit. J.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award – AudioFile Review
Listener’s Note: The audiobook version of this title is available on CD Audiobook and as an eAudiobook from The Digital Catalog online, the Libby app and via the Hoopla app.
Reader’s Note: Wait For Signs is also available as a print book & is book 10.5 in The Longmire Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading The Longmire series from the beginning check out book one: The Cold Dish.
–
Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
–
Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
–
Information on the three library catalogs
The 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 content on 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.
–
Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand 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 companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile 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.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 