Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
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First Frost by Craig Johnson
It’s the summer of 1964, and recent college graduates Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear read the writing on the wall and enlist to serve in the Vietnam War. As they catch a few final waves in California before reporting for duty, a sudden storm assaults the shores and capsizes a nearby cargo boat. Walt and Henry jump to action, but it’s soon revealed by the police who greet them ashore that the sunken boat carried valuable contraband from underground sources.
The boys, in their early twenties and in the peak of their physical prowess from playing college football for the last four years, head out on Route 66. The question, of course, is how far they will get before the consequences of their actions catch up to them—the answer being, not very.
Back in the present day, circa 2014, Walt is forced to speak before a Judge following the fatal events of The Longmire Defense. With powerful enemies lurking behind the scenes, the sheriff of Absaroka County must consider his options if he wishes to finish the fight he started.
Going back and forth between 1964 and the present day, Craig Johnson brings us a propulsive dual timeline as Walt Longmire stands between the crossfire of good and evil, law and anarchy, and compassion and cruelty at two pivotal stages in his life.
Reader’s Note: First Frost is the twentieth book in the Longmire Mystery Series. If you’d like to binge read, from the beginning, check out book one: A Cold Dish.
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Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau
Lau (The Stand-Up Groomsman) delivers a heartfelt and hilarious rom-com about a woman whose insecurities and assumptions blind her to the good intentions of the people around her. Now that both of Emily Hung’s younger sisters have gotten hitched, her mother has turned the full focus of her matchmaking onto Emily—and the 33-year-old writer-slash-barista doesn’t know how much more she can take. At her sister’s wedding, Emily’s mother pushes her at sweater vest–wearing family friend Mark Chan, forcing the two to make awkward small talk. Though Emily acknowledges that Mark, a successful engineer, is handsome, she insists, through snarky first-person narration, that he’s not her type and, because he scrolls through his phone during their conversation, she assumes he’s uninterested and judging her career choices and chaotic lifestyle. Despite this rocky meeting, Emily’s mother is still determined to set the two up, and Emily, who just wants to focus on writing, realizes the only way to satisfy her is to make her believe her matchmaking has been successful. Emily presents this fake-dating plan to Mark, who agrees with surprisingly little fuss—but the deception becomes complicated when Emily’s mother’s prying leaves them no choice but to actually go on the dates they’re lying about. The result is a funny and addictive take on a favorite trope complete with sincere family dynamics and a heroine who, while sometimes painfully un-self-aware, still proves easy to root for. Lau brings the goods. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Look On The Bright Side by Kirstan Higgins
Bestseller Higgins (Pack Up the Moon) proves her mastery of the romance genre in this emotional tour de force. Lark Smith fell in love with her late fiancé, Justin, in kindergarten. Now, seven years after his death, she doesn’t believe she’ll ever love again and pours all her passion into her work as an oncology resident. That’s why she’s so disappointed when she’s demoted to the ER due to her overly emotional reaction to the death of her favorite patient. So when universally despised surgeon Lorenzo Santini (aka Dr. Satan) asks her to pose as his girlfriend at a family wedding to placate his grandmother, Lark reluctantly agrees in exchange for 25 grand and Santini’s promise that he can get her back in oncology. While Dr. Satan lives up to his nickname, Lark falls in love with his welcoming Italian family—especially his brother Dante, who has a surprising tie to her past. Braided into this central romance plot are the stories of Lark’s mother, Elsbeth, and her landlady, Joy. When Elsbeth discovers that her husband has had an emotional affair, Joy, who’s spent a lifetime recovering from her father’s psychological abuse, offers her a place to stay and the women heal together. Higgins balances tear-jerking moments with happiness and hope, and crafts strong female characters worth cheering for. Readers should have tissues at the ready. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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A Southern Man by Greg Illes
The latest Penn Cage novel is set a decade and a half after the events of Iles’ spectacular Natchez Burning trilogy. Cage, the attorney, author, and former mayor of Natchez, is feeling at odds with himself. Virtually everyone he has ever loved is gone; he is alone and withdrawn from the world. When the neighboring cities of Natchez and Bienville are rocked by a mass shooting (white cops, Black victims) and the deliberate destruction of pre-Civil War homes, Cage is forced to put his personal struggles aside. This astonishingly good novel is very much a product of its time, a story of violence and racial unrest in the aftermath of the Trump presidency in which one of the central characters, Robert E. Lee White, a war hero running as an independent for the nation’s highest office, seizes on the country’s post-Trump disarray as a way to catapult himself into the White House. Reluctantly, Cage finds himself doing what he’d swore he’d never again do: step into the line of fire and shine a light into the darkness. Politically charged and written in rich, visually evocative prose, this is Iles at his reader-thrilling best. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Iles is a powerhouse and gains more readers with each book. – Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: A Southern Man is the seventh book in the Penn Cage Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: The Quiet Game.
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The Call to Serve: The Life of an American President, George Herbert Walker Bush: A Visual Biography by Jon Meacham
Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer who has written about Abraham Lincoln, John Lewis, and Thomas Jefferson, returns to the subject of George H.W. Bush, after Destiny and Power. To mark the 100th anniversary of Bush’s birth, Meacham delivers a 450-photo-rich text that mines Destiny but adds a new introduction and commentary throughout. – Starred Library Journal 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 