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, August 14, 2024.
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Business Casual by B.K. Borison
Charlie Milford, of the three-piece suits and spreadsheet wizardry, was always just the too-handsome and oh-so-flirty accountant (and champion) of Nova Porter’s new Inglewild tattoo parlor, not someone who Nova would ever think of dating. But just maybe, after some drinks at Charlie’s sister’s wedding, they can get their mutual attraction out of their systems. One night turns into many, as New York City resident Charlie stays in Inglewild to run his sister’s farm while she honeymoons. Charlie and Nova were supposed to keep things business-casual around the tattoo parlor, not fall for each other. The way Borison softly weaves together a friends-with-benefits and opposites-attract romance, while also incorporating Charlie’s ADHD and people-pleasing and Nova’s perfectionism, will keep readers starry-eyed as they imagine visiting the beloved small town of Inglewild.
VERDICT This final and fourth book in the “Lovelight” series, after Mixed Signals, is a knockout. Keep the entire series stocked to keep up with demand. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Deep Reading by Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, Rachel M. De Smith Roberts, et al.
This book helps readers develop practices that will result in deep, formative, and faithful reading so they can contribute to the flourishing of their communities and cultivate their own spiritual and intellectual depth.
The authors present reading as a remedy for three prevalent cultural vices—distraction, hostility, and consumerism—that impact the possibility of formative reading. Informed by James K. A. Smith’s work on “the spiritual power of habit,” Deep Reading provides resources for engaging in formative and culturally subversive reading practices that teach readers how to resist vices, love virtue, and desire the good.
Rather than emphasizing the spiritual benefits of reading specific texts such as Dante’s Divine Comedy or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the authors focus on the practice of reading itself. They examine practices many teachers, students, and avid readers employ—such as reading lists, reading logs, and discussion—and demonstrate how such practices can be more effectively and intentionally harnessed to result in deep reading.
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The Lost Coast by Jesse Kellerman and Jonathan Kellerman
In the fifth Clay Edison novel, a seemingly straightforward case gets uncomfortably convoluted. It’s been about a year since Clay left the police force as a deputy coroner. He’s a private investigator now, enjoying the relative simplicity of the cases he works on. When a client presents him with what appears to be a typical case of land fraud, Clay doesn’t anticipate any serious problems in the investigation. Turns out he’s wrong–dead wrong. The Kellermans, father and son, have done a fine job with this series, introducing Clay Edison in 2017’s Crime Scene as a principled, determined man who has an unerring sense of when the circumstances surrounding a death are suspicious. It was a smart move to take Clay out of the coroner’s office, broadening the range of cases he might investigate and making sure the series doesn’t devolve into increasingly improbable stories, like some other series have. Readers will thoroughly enjoy this novel, and should probably settle in for many more Clay Edison mysteries. – Booklist Review
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The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Moreno-Garcia is known for her richly imagined supernatural tales, such as The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (2022) and Silver Nitrate (2023). Here she turns to historical fiction, delving into the glamour and the seediness of 1950s Hollywood with dazzling results. When beautiful young Mexican actress Vera Larios is plucked out of obscurity to star in the epic film, The Seventh Veil of Salome, she unwittingly draws the ire of Nancy Hartley, a white actress who has been struggling and failing to make it big. Despite this, Nancy is convinced that Vera stole her star-making role, and her ire only grows when Vera starts dating a handsome aspiring musician who briefly dated Nancy but broke things off when she got violent with him. As their story unspools, so does that of Salome, the ambitious princess who is torn between her head and her heart when she falls in love with a fiery young preacher who runs afoul of her uncle. Moreno-Garcia is a gifted storyteller, vividly rendering both the intrigue and dangers of the ancient world Salome inhabits and the allure and ugliness (ingrained sexism and racism) of Golden Age Hollywood while spinning a thoroughly captivating, thrilling tale. – Starred Booklist Review
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A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Cordelia’s mother is an evil, murderous, self-centered sorceress who has decided to entrap a rich squire and set them up in style so that Cordelia can trap an even richer husband with her magic. But the sorceress has picked the wrong mark, and it will be her downfall. It’s not the squire she’s up against–it’s his sister. Hester sees right through the sorceress, with some surprising assistance from an increasingly desperate Cordelia. Together, they marshal their forces in the hopes of defeating the sorceress and winning freedom. This is another one of Kingfisher’s marvelous works (like the Hugo-winning Nettle & Bone) that takes elements of fairy tales, myths, and legends and blends them into a story that feels both familiar and new at the same time while subtly weaving a novel where women play the parts that men traditionally filled, and men serve as helpmeets, sidekicks, and love interests. Even better, the middle-aged heroine both saves the day and gets her happily-ever-after.
VERDICT Highly recommended for readers who enjoy reimagined legends. – 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 