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 22, 2024.
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The Heist by Jack Du Brul
Du Brul’s dizzying latest Isaac Bell swashbuckler (after The Chase) finds the intrepid detective under fire from a barrage of potentially connected crises. The year is 1914, and Bell is attending a meeting of the newly minted Federal Reserve onboard a yacht with his father, Ebenezer, and President Woodrow Wilson. Shortly after Wilson is called away on an emergency, a mysterious aircraft attempts to bomb the boat. Bell shoots at the bomber until it flees and plans to begin an investigation into the incident. But first, he’s pulled into two seemingly unrelated cases. Socialite Jackson Pickett—a friend of Bell’s boss, Joseph Van Dorn—has been arrested for the murder of his wife, heiress Fedora Scarsworth-Pickett. Then the Federal Bureau of Engraving is robbed to the tune of nearly a billion dollars. Finding the money and ferreting out the cause of Fedora’s death takes plenty of first-class sleuthing, and Bell begins to suspect that the bombing, murder, and robbery are the work of a master criminal hoping to bring America to its knees. This entry provides a welcome contrast to Bell’s often cartoonish and predictable antics, indicating that the long-running hero may be evolving into a more sophisticated protagonist. Here’s hoping the series has more adventures like this one in store. – Publishers Weekly Review
Reader’s Note: The Heist is the fourteenth book in the Issac Bell series. If you’d like to start reading from the beginning, check out book one: The Chase written by the series’ founding writer Clive Cussler.
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Last House: A Novel by Jessica Shattuck
Nick and Bet raise their children, Harry and Katherine, in 1950s America. Nick, strictly raised Mennonite, is a WWII veteran, attorney for American Oil, and kind, honest, and patriotic, the definition of conscientious. Bet is a Vassar grad nursing regrets as a housewife. Carter Weston, with the newly formed CIA, involves Nick in returning the shah to power in Iran, which benefits American oil interests. Years later, Katherine, willful and selfish, pulls her gentle brother into a countercultural campaign that will devastate the entire family. When the narrative switches to Katherine’s perspective and that of her descendants, readers will find the same talking points shaping today’s news. Shattuck’s (The Women in the Castle, 2017) evocative novel really shines in its presentation of authentic voices for all the generations and their viewpoints born of different life experiences and ideals. Everything here is convincing, from the sense of place in various time periods and locations (New England, the Middle East) to the adept portrayal of the characters’ feelings and motivations. Shattuck channels complex history through the saga of a single family. – Booklist Review
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The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore
Gilmore (The Lonely Hearts Book Club) is back with another charming, book-themed story. When librarian Chloe Sampson finds a rare edition of a banned book, her first thought is to see if she can sell it and complete some much-needed home repairs with the proceeds. But Chloe becomes intrigued after a closer examination reveals a decades-old flirtatious conversation conducted within its margins. When her next-door neighbor, the cantankerous elderly man who regularly steals her younger siblings’ Frisbees, offers to buy the book from her with a blank check, she is flabbergasted. And when yet another library book turns up with similar markings, she suddenly has a new mission: to figure out who the star-crossed literary lovers are and what happened to them. It’s a quest that will bring her a friendship she never expected and possibly a love of her own.
VERDICT This dual-timeline novel is a bookish love letter to anyone who has ever found solace between the pages of a book. This romantic story of found families and learning to accept help from others is sure to have wide appeal. – Library Journal Review
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Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking—How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age by Caroline Paul
Homebodies, head outside. Paul (The Gutsy Girl, 2016) and her friends may be more adventurous than most sixtysomethings. But women who will never choose to plummet from a plane will nonetheless benefit from reading tales of derring-do and feeling inspired to spend more time in the awe-inducing outdoors. Paul makes a strong case for how a positive attitude about getting older can lead to a longer, healthier life. At 84, her mom says, “What I would give to be 60 again.” As journalist and long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad said, “You are never too old to chase your dreams.” Paul, who was one of the first women fire fighters in San Francisco, encourages other women to stay active and intrepid in their postmenopausal life, profiling older women who surf, hike, scuba dive, and explore. She recommends taking empowering walks in astonishing places like the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. Women don’t have to give in to age’s changes; there’s a big world out there to engage with and gain strength and pleasure from. Here’s to being old, “game,” and down for adventure. – Booklist Review
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Village Weavers: A Novel by by Myriam JA Chancy
Chancy follows What Storm, What Thunder (2021) with an ambitious novel that explores the intertwining of the personal and the political through the lives of two childhood friends, Sisi and Gertie, who meet in Port-au-Prince in 1941. Their stories traverse three continents and six decades. Through the ups and many downs of their relationship, Chancy signals the ways human beings create boundaries for themselves. Family, country, ethnicity, skin color, and sexuality all become limiting definitions of the self, and it takes a powerful desire to connect and to love, to see and move past these roadblocks. This tale of two friends whose lives take them from Haiti to Paris, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S. has a powerful cast of supporting characters, but it is in the evolution of Sisi and Gertie and their relationship that Chancy builds her beautiful narrative, masterfully capturing the unspoken nuances within social structures and in the way families interact with their heritage. A compelling and satisfying read that acknowledges the bitter truths of history and dares to imagine a path forward. – Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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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
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.
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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.
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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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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.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 