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, July 3, 2024.
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15 Summers Later by RaeAnne Thayne
Madi, self-conscious about her physical differences resulting from a brain injury, is nonetheless working full speed to make the no-kill animal shelter she has established in a small Idaho mountain town sustainable. She feels betrayed by her sister, Ava, who wrote a book detailing their captivity and harrowing escape as teenagers when their widowed father joined a survivalist cult in the wilderness. Madi is horrified and furious that Ava’s book, an international best-seller, is exposing the worst time in her life to not only her community but the whole world. Ava’s husband has left her, hurt and angry that she had never shared her traumatic past with him. Their escape and the tragic death of a rescuer linked the sisters to the Gentry family for life. Veterinarian Luke Gentry provides medical care for the animals at the shelter, and his sister is Madi’s best friend and roommate. Readers can always depend on Thayne (Cafe at Beach End, 2023) to provide a compelling story with lots of heart, featuring endearing characters and serious real life issues. — Booklist Review
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The Great River: The Making And Unmaking Of The Mississippi
Draining American land from the Rockies to the Appalachians, the mighty Mississippi River and its tributaries sluice 140 cubic miles of water annually into the Gulf of Mexico. This massive surge is vital to the nation’s history, ecology, and commerce. Nature writer Upholt relates the history of the river from a social and technological perspective. He writes lyrically and poignantly of the Indigenous civilizations that built remarkable earthworks in places like Cahokia near the river’s banks. Later, Spanish and French explorers of the Mississippi set the stage for newly independent American states to initiate their push westward. At the river’s mouth, New Orleans was a critical entrepôt through the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The advent of the steamboat revealed the importance of keeping the Mississippi navigable and protecting the agricultural lands bordering it. Engineering projects funded by Congress changed the river’s course, but limited understanding of the wild water’s power cured one problem only to create more chaos up- and downstream; twentieth-century industry and urban development threatened complex ecosystems. Upholt introduces readers to people dependent on the Mississippi. Combining their stories with the watershed’s economic, political, geological, and biological underpinnings, he offers an insightful living portrait of America’s heartland. – Booklist Review
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Resurrection by Danielle Steel
#1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel returns with an irresistible novel about a woman whose seemingly perfect life comes crashing down—and learns to find joy in rising above.
Darcy Gray is a successful influencer with her blog, The Gray Zone, trusted by more than a million followers for her integrity and taste. At forty-two, she has the life she wants in many ways. Darcy and her husband, department store magnate Charles Gray, are a power couple in Manhattan and on the international stage. Their beloved twin daughters are each enjoying their junior year abroad, Penny in Hong Kong and Zoe at the Sorbonne in Paris.
To celebrate twenty years of marriage, Darcy impulsively flies to Rome to surprise Charlie, who is tending to business interests there. Instead, she gets the shock of her life, which upends her whole world.
Still reeling, Darcy flees to Paris to see Zoe. But a rapidly escalating worldwide health crisis forces her to remain indefinitely in France. Suddenly thrust into a gray zone of her own, her forced separation from Zoe and the rest of her family feels like too much to bear . . .
Until Darcy finds a welcoming refuge in the home of the aging French movie star Sybille Carton. There, she meets a widowed American engineer and former Marine who is also stranded. Bill Thompson is kind and courteous but also carries an air of mystery about him. In this shared confinement, and despite worries about her girls, Darcy begins to see glimpses of new possibilities.
In Resurrection, Danielle Steel poignantly shows how the hardest of times can give birth to a beautiful new life.
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Some Murders In Berlin by Karen Robards
Just as Nazi Germany is tightening its grip on Denmark in September 1943, Elin Lund is summoned to Berlin to help solve a serial-killer case. It is her second visit to the city; the first was as a teenager with her father, also a serial-killer specialist, and her mother, killed in a hit-and-run during the trip. Upon arrival, Elin is paired with Kriminalinspektor Kurt Schneider, who also has shadows in his past. He was an up-and-coming officer until reassigned to the Russian front. Wounded badly, he is now back in his former role and trying to make his mark, but he is under scrutiny by his higher-ups. As Elin and Kurt seek patterns at the crime scenes and in the evidence, they suspect that the killer identifies his victims at speakeasies frequented by the Nazi elite. They also see that the killer seems to have a schedule, and the next murder is looming. With much of the investigation taking place in the Nazi underworld, there is a darkness here which is lightened by the romance Robards weaves into the plot. – Booklist Review
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The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams
Adams’s delightful sophomore novel (after The Reading List) revolves around a garden shared by two London houses and the relationships formed by the tenants who tend to it over several decades. In 2018, 30-something Winston lives alone at No. 79 Eastbourne Road, heartbroken after his lover and roommate, Lewis, moved out. Winston is also troubled by the steady noise of renovation projects next door at No. 77, and develops a grudge against his haughty neighbor Bernice, whom he dubs “The Queen of Sheba.” The garden long ago went to seed, but over the course of their yearlong feud, they begin receiving mysterious letters and photos of previous residents posing in the plot during its prime. Eventually, they forge a plan to resurrect the garden together. A parallel narrative beginning in 1972 follows No. 79 tenants Maya and Prem, who move in as newlyweds, and their brusque neighbor, Alma, who softens after Maya gives birth to her daughter, Hiral, and the women bond over keeping up the garden. (Maya and Alma are pictured together in the photos received by Winston and Bernice.) The simple story is carried along by seamless time shifts and insights into the rewards of unexpected friendship. Gardeners will be especially pleased. – Publishers Weekly
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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 