Month: October 2024

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, November 6, 2024.

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The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins 

The fourth novel from Hawkins, of The Girl on the Train fame, following A Slow Fire Burning (2021), begins when a sculpture on display at the Tate Gallery by the late artist Vanessa Chapman is found to contain a human bone. This is the same Vanessa Chapman whose notoriously unfaithful husband went missing without a trace 20 years ago. James Becker, curator at the Fairburn Foundation, the recipient of Chapman’s artwork, sets off to isolated Eris Island in Scotland, where the reclusive artist lived, to meet with her companion, Grace. All the while plagued by issues at the Fairburn, Becker comes and goes, and the narrative unfolds in multiple forms, including diary entries, phone texts, and perplexing conversations. Grace is evasive and releases Vanessa’s story erratically through time. It is a very complex story and very sad. Unfolding slowly, it is fraught with angst and full of foreboding and comes to a frightening end. Though some readers may find the pace and plethora of unlikable characters frustrating, Hawkins has created a perfectly formed gothic tale that admirers of Daphne du Maurier will adore. – Booklist  

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: There’s no stopping Hawkins’ fans. 

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The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski 

DEBUT The Crescent Moon Tearoom, run by the triplet Quigley sisters, dispenses tea, sympathy, and fortune-telling to the well-to-do ladies of early 20th-century Chicago. The tea is magical, the sympathy is real, and the fortunes all true, as the sisters are magically gifted seers. Then they find their peace and prosperity under threat by a mysterious curse intended to separate them–and Coven leadership is determined to hasten the process. At least that’s what it seems like, as the formerly united Quigleys chase after separate paths to happiness, leaving each other behind, just as the curse intends. Unless they’ve been utterly mistaken and the future they imagined was not what was meant to be. This cozy fantasy leads the sisters and readers down a primrose path of fear and foreboding–revealing villains around every corner–only to turn delightfully on its heel and magically change into a story of love and hope and a sisterhood that will endure as fate takes the hand it was meant to in each of their paths.  

VERDICT Readers who fell hard for Hazel Beck’s “Witchlore” series and Ann Aguirre’s “Fix-It Witches” books will be thrilled with these turn-of-the-century sister-witches in Sivinski’s debut. – Starred Library Journal Review  

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The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny  

Numerous phone calls disrupt Armand Gamache’s Sunday morning, but he refuses to pick up. As head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, he returns to work on Monday to find the entire department upset about a package that has just been delivered to him. The bomb squad clears it, but the notes and raincoat inside lead to a bigger bombshell for Gamache’s team. The contents of the package then draw Gamache and his team to a small caf  where, even though he’s surrounded by police, he can’t prevent a murder. Clues left behind by the victim hint at terrorism, compelling Gamache and his closest coworkers to work quietly. He and two trusted officers cross lakes and oceans to stop a terrorist whose target is the country’s infrastructure.  

VERDICT Penny’s follow-up to A World of Curiosities plays on readers’ fears as she launches a new story arc that is completed in this installment but presents a cliffhanger. It’s a frightening novel of duality, of good versus evil, with an allegorical tale for today’s world, as only Penny can write. – Starred Library Journal Review  

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Murder at King’s Crossing by Andrea Penrose 

Penrose maintains a brisk pace in her finely wrought eighth Regency-era adventure for the Earl of Wrexford and his cartoonist wife, Charlotte Sloane (after Murder at the Merton Library). At the outset, the couple has offered their country home for the wedding of their friends Christopher Sheffield and Lady Cordelia Mansfield. The festivities take a grim turn when police discover the body of Lady Cordelia’s childhood friend, mathematician Jasper Milton, beneath a nearby bridge, with her cousin Oliver’s invitation in his pocket. Cordelia enlists Wrexford and Charlotte to investigate, and the sleuths quickly become entangled in a Gordian knot of international intrigue involving Milton’s groundbreaking mathematical theories about bridge construction. Penrose elegantly weaves insights about the period’s politics and technological innovations into a splendid mystery that offers a peek at the darker corners of Eton, the elite British boys’ school, which becomes crucial to Wrexford and Charlotte’s investigation as they learn of Milton’s connections to the school. This reliable series continues its winning streak. – Publishers Weekly Review  

Reader’s Note: Murder At King’s Crossing is the eighth book in the Wrexford and Sloan Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Murder on Black Swan Lane.  

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The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Pros 

Molly the Maid has a whole new mystery to solve in this heartwarming novella from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest. 

“[Molly is] the most interesting (and endearing) main character in a long time.”—Stephen King, on The Maid 

Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s mofinst joyful yet. 

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince? 

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all. 

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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.

–

Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.

If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by the library, or give us a call – please do!

Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713

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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays. And the next NYT blog post will be posted on Sunday, November 3, 2024.

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THE BESTSELLERS

FICTION

1. THE WAITING by Michael Connelly: The sixth book in the Ballard and Bosch series. Bosch’s daughter, Maddie, becomes a new volunteer on the cold case unit.

2. THE BOYFRIEND by Freida McFadden: A series of recent deaths causes Sydney Shaw to become suspicious of the handsome doctor she started dating.

3. FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros: Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.

4. COUNTING MIRACLES by Nicholas Sparks: A man in search of the father he never knew encounters a single mom and rumors circulate of the nearby appearance of a white deer.

5. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.

6. THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah: In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.

7. IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.

8. A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas: After killing a wolf in the woods, Feyre is taken from her home and placed inside the world of the Fae.

9. IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse; the basis of the film.

10. INTERMEZZO by Sally Rooney: After the passing of their father, seemingly different brothers engage in relationships and seek ways to cope.

11. THE HOUSEMAID’S SECRET by Freida McFadden: The second book in the Housemaid series. The sound of crying and the appearance of blood portend misdeeds.

12. HOW MY NEIGHBOR STOLE CHRISTMAS by Meghan Quinn: A fake relationship and a Christmas contest may lead to unexpected consequences.

13. THE HOUSEMAID IS WATCHING by Freida McFadden: The third book in the Housemaid series. Dangers lurk in a quiet neighborhood.

14. A CHRISTMAS DUET by Debbie Macomber: A woman on a solo holiday retreat encounters complications with a small town’s main store proprietor.

15. HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty: Passengers on a short and seemingly unremarkable flight learn how and when they are going to die.

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NON-FICTION

1.WAR by Bob Woodward: The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist looks at our contentious time through battles in Ukraine and the Middle East and for the American presidency.

2. FRAMED by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey: Our criminal justice system viewed through the struggles of 10 wrongfully convicted people to achieve exoneration.

3. FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough: Presley’s memoir, completed by her daughter, explores her relationships and challenges.

4. THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates: The author of “Between the World and Me” travels to three locations to uncover the dissonance between the realities on the ground and the narratives shaped about them.

5. MELANIA by Melania Trump: The former first lady describes her work as a fashion model, marriage to Donald Trump and time in the White House.

6. BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS by Ina Garten: A memoir by the cookbook author and Food Network host known as the Barefoot Contessa.

7. REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell: Through a series of stories, Gladwell explicates the causes of various kinds of epidemics.

8. WHAT I ATE IN ONE YEAR by Stanley Tucci: The actor and author of “Taste” documents meals he had in a variety of settings and contexts.

9. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.

10. SONNY BOY by Al Pacino: The multiple award-winning actor traces his steps from the South Bronx to avant-garde theater in New York to the creation of his iconic roles.

11. CONFRONTING THE PRESIDENTS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard: The conservative commentator evaluates the legacies of American presidents.

12. CATS OF THE WORLD by Hannah Shaw and and Andrew Marttila: Stories and photographs of cats in 30 countries around the world.

13. TOXIC EMPATHY by Allie Beth Stuckey: The conservative podcast host argues against the framing of positions on certain issues made by progressives.

14. HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance: The Yale Law School graduate and 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.

15. BLIND SPOTS by Marty Makary: The author of “The Price We Pay” examines the ways modern medicine might cause harm.

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ABOUT THE CATALOGS:

There are currently three catalogs available to Southeast Steuben County Library patrons online, that you can access to search for and request New York Times Bestsellers, and other popular books and materials in a variety of formats, i.e. print books, eBooks, streaming videos.

All you need is a library card to get started!

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THE CATALOGS:

Catalog 1: StarCat

StarCat is the catalog of physical materials including print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. StarCat is available to all patrons of all public libraries in the Southern Tier Library System*

Starcat can be found online at: https://starcat.stls.org/

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Catalog 2: The Digital Catalog

The Digital Catalog (and its companion app Libby) offers all Southern Tier Library System member library patrons access to eBooks, eAudiobooks & eMagazines via a lending model known in Library-ese as “one copy/one user;” that library speak means that eBooks & eAudiobooks found in The Digital Catalog/Libby are like print books found on library shelves, only one patron can check out a copy of a title at a time.

Exception: Magazines found in the digital catalog are available via a different lending model known as simultaneous access. And that fancy library speak means that magazines are available for all patrons to check out at the same time, i.e. if you and all your family and friends wish to read the latest digital edition of Newsweek, all of you can check out the e version of the magazine and read it at the same time.

The Digital Catalog/Libby checkout limit is 5 titles a time.

The Digital Catalog is found online at: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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Catalog 3: Hoopla

The Hoopla Digital Catalog (and its companion app, also called Hoopla) offers Southeast Steuben County Library patrons access to a second digital catalog with an on-demand lending model. In library speak, this lending model, like The Digital Catalog/Libby’s magazine lending model, is known as “simultaneous access.” The difference is, the Hoopla catalog offers access to more formats: eBooks, eAudiobooks, eComics, digital albums, TV shows & movies – and all items, in all those formats, are available  for patrons to checkout immediately. The Hoopla check out limit is ten titles per month.

Hoopla Formats: All Hoopla content can be accessed on a computer or mobile device, and TV shows and movies can be accessed on computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and media streaming players, i.e. Roku or  Apple TV.

The Hoopla Catalog is found online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, October 25, 2025.

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And here are our recommended songs of the week; and this week, as Halloween is quickly approaching, we’ve got a collection of classic spooky tunes!

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Dark Shadows Theme by The Robert Colbert Orchestra 

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(Ghost) Riders In The Sky by Vaughn Monroe

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The Goblin Band by Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra

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Graveyard Blues by John Lee Hooker 

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The Haunted House by Jumpin’ Gene Simmons

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The Headless Horseman by Bing Crosby 

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Hell’s Bells by Art Kessell & His Orchestra

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I Put A Spell On You by Nina Simone

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Jeepers Creepers by Louis Armstrong 

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Love Potion No. 9 by The Clovers  

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Mr. Ghost Goes To Town by Louis Prima 

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Nightmare by Artie Shaw  

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Ride The Midnight Special by The Munsters 

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Skeleton In The Closet by Nat Gonella & His Georgians 

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The Skeleton Rag (1912) 

Album: N/A

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Spooky by Dusty Springfield 

From The Album: Dusty… Definitely (1968)

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Swingin’ At The Seance by Glenn Miller 

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That Old Black Magic by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra with Skip Nelson & The Modernaires  

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Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (From Disney’s Fantasia)  

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Trick Or Treat by Chuck Berry  

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Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra 

 

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Have a great weekend,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.

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The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.

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The Libby App

Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.

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Hoopla

A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.

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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

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, October 30, 2024.

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In To Deep by Lee Child  

The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child 

Reacher had no idea where he was. No idea how he had gotten there. But someone must have brought him. And shackled him. And whoever had done those things was going to rue the day. That was for damn sure. 

Jack Reacher wakes up alone, in the dark, handcuffed to a makeshift bed. His right arm has suffered some major damage. His few possessions are gone. He has no memory of getting there. 

The last thing Reacher can recall is the car he hitched a ride in getting run off the road. The driver was killed. 

His captors assume Reacher was the driver’s accomplice and patch up his wounds as they plan to make him talk. 

A plan that will backfire spectacularly . . . 

Reader’s Note: In To Deep is the twenty-nineth book in the Jack Reacher series. If you’d like to binge read, from the beginning, check out book one: Killing Floor. 

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The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak 

Lavish lakeside nuptials threatened by deadly secrets and the unlikely attendance of the bride’s decidedly lower-class family feature in in Rekulak’s latest (after Hidden Pictures, 2022). Frank’s relief in reconnecting with his daughter is fleeting as he readies for her upcoming destination wedding to the son of a Boston tech scion. Tagging along are his sister and her awkwardly earnest foster kid (slathered in lice-controlling mayo), providing moments of levity in the suspense that haunts the enclave. The wedding features an uninterested groom, his mysteriously absent mother, an aged sugar daddy, random rich kids, and a friendly, strangely generous father-in-law. Frank quickly becomes involved in the hunt for a missing local girl, befriends another outsider (who winds up dead), and realizes that his family is now in the crosshairs. Noble UPS driver Frank is determined to do the right thing, crusading in a world where power runs amok. But Rekulak slyly reminds us that money isn’t the only thing that blinds us to bad behavior with a unique combination of class commentary and thrills. – Booklist Review  

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Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino 

From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full 

To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. 

But Pacino was in his midthirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe.  

Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference. 

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The Troubling Death of Maddy Benson by Terry Shames  

The small-town Texas rumor mill is less help than usual in the death of a newly arrived woman. Jarrett Creek police chief Samuel Craddock gets a phone call from the sister of Maddy Benson, who might be in trouble. Maddy answered her sister’s call from a deserted spot far from her home and was vague about why she was there. When Craddock and his deputy, Maria Trevino, go to check on her, they find Maddy shot dead on a private road. Maddy was a widow who moved to town with her son and daughter-in-law, both of whom are authors. Josh Benson writes scholarly tomes, and his wife, Krista, bestselling romance novels. Krista’s affair has put their marriage on the rocks, but Maddy had hoped they would reconcile. Craddock has to dig deep into Maddy’s life to find a motive for her death. She was independent, and Josh and Krista don’t seem to know what she did with her time or why she had a go-bag. Although homicides in small towns are ordinarily the business of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the DPS seems willing to let Craddock investigate, and at length he turns up the information on Maddy that may have made her a target. The wife of the local Baptist preacher gives Craddock an earful about Maddy, who she claims was an abortionist who deserved to die. Maddy was working with a secretive group that helps women who need abortions get to out-of-state providers. Now Craddock has to figure out whether her murder was a result of her activism or a more personal motive. A hot take on the state of abortion access since the demise of Roe v. Wade. – Kirkus Review 

Reader’s Note: Death of Maddy Benson is the eleventh book in the Samuel Craddock Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading the series at the beginning, check out book one A Killing At Cotton Hill.  

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The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke 

Clarke, the Hugo Award-winning author of the beloved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, and Piranesi, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, returns with a short story set in the world of Jonathan Strange. It features Merowdis Scot, who finds herself at a crossroad between desire and magical possibility. The story is brief, but what Clarke does well–conjure mood through evocative language and story suggestion–is on rich display. Highly atmospheric, this winter tale is set in a wood and navigates the line between a Grimms’ fairy tale and a feminist manifesto. Talking animals as well as a sentient tree all play a role, as Merowdis decides what she wants and somehow makes it so. The story is illustrated with pen and ink drawings and specially designed text, giving the entire package the feeling of a manuscript found in a castle on the edge of some wild moor. Don’t miss Clarke’s note at the end. VERDICT Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell nods towards Jane Austen, but this short story leans towards the Brontës. Clarke’s many fans will not be disappointed, other than in the story’s brevity. – 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.

–

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.

All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.

If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by, or call, the library – please do!

Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713

–

New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays. And the next NYT blog post will be posted on Sunday, October 27, 2024.

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THE BESTSELLERS

FICTION

1.THE BOYFRIEND by Freida McFadden: A series of recent deaths causes Sydney Shaw to become suspicious of the handsome doctor she started dating.

2.COUNTING MIRACLES by Nicholas Sparks: A man in search of the father he never knew encounters a single mom and rumors circulate of the nearby appearance of a white deer.

3.THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.

4.IDENTITY UNKNOWN by Patricia Cornwell: The 28th book in the Kay Scarpetta Series. Scarpetta investigates the death of a former lover.

5.FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros: Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.

6.THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah: In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.

7.IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.

8.A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas: After killing a wolf in the woods, Feyre is taken from her home and placed inside the world of the Fae.

9.THE STARS ARE DYING by Chloe C. Peñaranda: Astraea must decide whether to sneak in as a substitute in the trials that will determine the safety of her kingdom.

10.INTERMEZZO by Sally Rooney: After the passing of their father, seemingly different brothers engage in relationships and seek ways to cope.

11.IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse; the basis of the film.

12.DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver: Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.

13.THE LAST ONE AT THE WEDDING by Jason Rekulak: Frank Szatowski finds himself in a tricky spot when his estranged daughter invites him to her wedding to the son of a tech billionaire.

14.LIES HE TOLD ME by James Patterson and David Ellis: An act of heroism by an Illinois pub owner may lead to his undoing.

15.THE HOUSEMAID’S SECRET by Freida McFadden: The second book in the Housemaid series. The sound of crying and the appearance of blood portend misdeeds.

NON-FICTION

1. MELANIA by Melania Trump: The former first lady describes her work as a fashion model, marriage to Donald Trump and time in the White House.

2. FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough: Presley’s memoir, completed by her daughter, explores her relationships and challenges.

3. BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS by Ina Garten: A memoir by the cookbook author and Food Network host known as the Barefoot Contessa.

4. THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates: The author of “Between the World and Me” travels to three locations to uncover the dissonance between the realities on the ground and the narratives shaped about them.

5. REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell: Through a series of stories, Gladwell explicates the causes of various kinds of epidemics.

6. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.

7.HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance: The Yale Law School graduate and 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.

8. CONFRONTING THE PRESIDENTS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard: The conservative commentator evaluates the legacies of American presidents.

9. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.

10. BLACK SATURDAY by Trey Yingst: The Fox News war correspondent gives an account of events on Oct. 7, 2023.

11. NEXUS by Yuval Noah Harari: The author of “Sapiens” delves into how societies and political systems have used information and gives a warning about artificial intelligence.

12. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.

13. PLAY NICE by Jason Schreier: The author of “Press Reset” gives an account of the rise and fall of the video game company Blizzard Entertainment.

14. COUNTDOWN 1960 by Chris Wallace with Mitch Weiss: The CNN anchor portrays the presidential election of 1960 and draws parallels to the 2024 race.

15. THE DEMON OF UNREST by Erik Larson: The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War.

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ABOUT THE CATALOGS:

There are currently three catalogs available to Southeast Steuben County Library patrons online, that you can access to search for and request New York Times Bestsellers, and other popular books and materials in a variety of formats, i.e. print books, eBooks, streaming videos.

All you need is a library card to get started!

–

THE CATALOGS:

Catalog 1: StarCat

StarCat is the catalog of physical materials including print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. StarCat is available to all patrons of all public libraries in the Southern Tier Library System*

Starcat can be found online at: https://starcat.stls.org/

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Catalog 2: The Digital Catalog

The Digital Catalog (and its companion app Libby) offers all Southern Tier Library System member library patrons access to eBooks, eAudiobooks & eMagazines via a lending model known in Library-ese as “one copy/one user;” that library speak means that eBooks & eAudiobooks found in The Digital Catalog/Libby are like print books found on library shelves, only one patron can check out a copy of a title at a time.

Exception: Magazines found in the digital catalog are available via a different lending model known as simultaneous access. And that fancy library speak means that magazines are available for all patrons to check out at the same time, i.e. if you and all your family and friends wish to read the latest digital edition of Newsweek, all of you can check out the e version of the magazine and read it at the same time.

The Digital Catalog/Libby checkout limit is 5 titles a time.

The Digital Catalog is found online at: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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Catalog 3: Hoopla

The Hoopla Digital Catalog (and its companion app, also called Hoopla) offers Southeast Steuben County Library patrons access to a second digital catalog with an on-demand lending model. In library speak, this lending model, like The Digital Catalog/Libby’s magazine lending model, is known as “simultaneous access.” The difference is, the Hoopla catalog offers access to more formats: eBooks, eAudiobooks, eComics, digital albums, TV shows & movies – and all items, in all those formats, are available  for patrons to checkout immediately. The Hoopla check out limit is ten titles per month.

Hoopla Formats: All Hoopla content can be accessed on a computer or mobile device, and TV shows and movies can be accessed on computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and media streaming players, i.e. Roku or  Apple TV.

The Hoopla Catalog is found online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week; this week, in celebration of today being the 98th anniversary of the birth of Rock & Roll pioneer Chuck Berry, we’ve got a collection featuring some of his best songs, enjoy!

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Downbound Train by Chuck Berry 

From The Album: The After School Session (1957)

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Havana Moon by Chuck Berry

From The Album: The After School Sessions (1957)

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I’m Talking About You 

From The Album: New Juke Box Hits (1961)

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Johnny B. Goode 

From The Album: Chuck Berry Is On Top (1959)

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Let It Rock 

From The Album: Rockin’ At The Hop (1961)

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Maybelline 

From The Album: Chuck Berry Is On Top (1959)

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Night Beat 

From The Album: Chuck Berry In London (1964)

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No Particular Place To Go 

From The Album: St. Louis To Liverpool (1964)

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Promised Land 

From The Album: St. Louis To Liverpool (1964)

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Rock & Roll Music by Chuck Berry

From The Album: One Dozen Berrys (1958)

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Too Much Monkey Business by Chuck Berry

From The Album: The After School Session (1957)

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Wonderful Woman by Chuck Berry 

From The Album: Chuck (2017)

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You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry 

From The Album: St. Louis To Liverpool (1964)

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And for fun, one more song!

A video clip from the celebratory Chuck Berry 60th Birthday Concerts in 1986; released the following year as the music doc Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll. The concerts were organized by Keith Richards and feature several other prominent guests including pianist Johnnie Johnson who played with Berry during his Chess recording days, Robert Cray, Etta James, Roy Orbison, Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Linda Rondstadt and Julian Lennon who joins Berry & Richards on this clip of:

Johnny B. Goode  

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Hoopla Album of The Week

Not at Chuck Berry album – but a related title, a greatest hits LP from Chess Records, the label Berry recorded his classic tunes for!

Chess Pieces: The Very Best of Chess Records by Various Artists 

And from the album the song:

Juke by Little Walter  

 

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Have a great weekend,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.

–

The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.

–

The Libby App

Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.

–

Hoopla

A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.

–

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

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, October 23, 2024.

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Death by Misadventure: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander 

In the latest installment of Tasha Alexander’s New York Times bestselling series, Lady Emily must solve a string of high stakes “accidents” while trapped in a lavish villa in the Bavarian Alps. 

In the winter of 1906, Lady Emily and husband Colin are invited to the opulent home of Baroness Ursula von Duchtel in the Bavarian alps. Outside is a mountainous winter wonderland with a view of Mad King Ludwig’s fairy tale castle. Inside, the villa hosts a magnificent but eclectic art collection—as well as an equally eclectic collection of fellow guests, among them a musician, an art dealer, a coquette from the demi-monde, and Kaspar, the Baroness’ boorish son-in-law, whom, it begins to appear, someone wants dead. 

Almost forty years earlier, Niels, a young German lord, sings to himself in the forest surrounding those same alps, capturing the attention of a not-yet-mad King Ludwig. Niels and the king become fast friends, their relationship deepening into something more as their time together stretches on. But while King Ludwig is content to live out a fantasy where their responsibilities don’t matter and the outside world doesn’t affect them, Niels knows that their bliss cannot last forever… 

Decades later, Emily continues to investigate Kaspar’s increasingly lethal “mishaps” when tragedy strikes, ensnaring the guests in a web of fear and suspicion. It’s up to Emily to sift through old secrets and motivations, some stretching far into the past, to unmask the killer. 

Reader’s Note: Death by Misadventure is the eighteenth book in the Lady Emily series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one And Only to Deceive. 

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Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey 

Bestseller Grisham (The Exchange) teams up with Centurion Ministries founder McCloskey (When the Truth Is All You Have), whose nonprofit works to exonerate wrongly accused individuals, to tell 10 such stories in this gripping account. In alternating chapters, Grisham and McCloskey cover cases with a variety of stakes and backgrounds—some involve forced confessions, others faulty forensics. Most chilling is the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man convicted of killing his three daughters by setting fire to their house, who was executed in 2004, just before a new forensics report went public, confirming that the lethal fire wasn’t arson. Not all the stories are so bleak: Grisham opens with a detailed account of the “Norfolk Four,” Navy sailors who were given nearly $5 million by the Virginia government in 2017 after their wrongful convictions for a rape and murder. Elsewhere, McCloskey traces the decades-long saga of soldier Mark Jones and his friends, who were exonerated of a murder that took place on the night of Jones’s 1992 bachelor party. Grisham’s narrative gifts come in handy—his chapters are slightly more propulsive than Jones’s—but both men deliver a series of thoroughly researched spellbinders. The results are equal parts fascinating and infuriating. – Publishers Weekly Review  

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From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley 

Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough. 

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir. 

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved. 

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world. 

To make her mother known. 

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon. 

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Small Rain: A Novel by Garth Greenwell 

A gay poet struggles with a mysterious and agonizing pain in Greenwell’s intense latest (after Cleanness). Wracked with debilitating agony that stretches through the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the unnamed narrator is urged by his partner, L, to see a doctor. After waiting for hours in the emergency room, he endures a battery of examinations and tests. Eventually, he receives a shocking diagnosis of life-threatening aortic tearing. Weeks of hospitalization and grueling procedures follow, and over the course of his slow recovery, the narrator juxtaposes raw depictions of his vulnerability and helplessness with excoriating critiques of the healthcare industry’s inequities and inefficiencies and the alienation he feels among the “relentlessly heterosexual” staff. The narrator also reflects on his dysfunctional family history; meeting L as a creative writing student in Iowa City, where he’s remained after graduating seven years earlier; and the negotiations he and L have gone through to find happiness and fulfillment in their shared living space. The virtuosic first-person narration, devoid of dialogue, places the reader front and center in the narrator’s bracing account of his grueling ordeal (“The pain defied description, on a scale of one to ten it demanded a different scale”), serving as a palpable reminder to never take one’s health for granted, and it builds to a cathartic and unforgettable conclusion. It’s a luminous departure from Greenwell’s spare and erotic earlier work. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review 

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The Waiting by John Connolly  

At the start of Connelly’s unputdownable sixth crime thriller costarring Renée Ballard (after Desert Star), the LAPD detective’s badge and gun are stolen from her car while she’s surfing. In the process of getting them back, she uncovers evidence that an extremist group is planning a terrorist attack in Malibu and enlists her friend Harry Bosch—still recovering from cancer—and the FBI to thwart it. Meanwhile, Ballard handles a number of high-stakes cases as leader of the LAPD’s cold case unit. First, her team of volunteers finds a DNA match that opens the door to solving a string of sexual assaults, dating back 20 years, by the “Pillowcase Rapist.” Then Harry’s daughter, Maddie, a patrol officer, joins Ballard’s team after stumbling on some explosive evidence related to the 1947 Black Dahlia killing, “the most famous unsolved murder in the history of Los Angeles.” As always, Connelly brilliantly renders the ins and outs of these investigations, all while adding layers to Ballard’s backstory—including a moving subplot about her missing mother—and delivering white-hot suspense guaranteed to please his fans. This ranks with Connelly’s best. – Starred Publishers Weekly 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.

All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.

If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by, or call, the library – please do!

Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713

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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays. And the next NYT blog post will be posted on Sunday, October 20, 2024.

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THE BESTSELLERS

FICTION

1. THE BOYFRIEND by Freida McFadden: A series of recent deaths causes Sydney Shaw to become suspicious of the handsome doctor she started dating.

2. COUNTING MIRACLES by Nicholas Sparks: A man in search of the father he never knew encounters a single mom and rumors circulate of the nearby appearance of a white deer.

3. FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros: Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.

4. DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver: Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.

5. LIES HE TOLD ME by James Patterson and David Ellis: An act of heroism by an Illinois pub owner may lead to his undoing.

6. WHEN THE MOON HATCHED by Sarah A. Parker: An assassin named Raeve is imprisoned by the Guild of Nobles and encounters someone who seems oddly familiar.

7. INTERMEZZO by Sally Rooney: After the passing of their father, seemingly different brothers engage in relationships and seek ways to cope.

8. TRIANGLE by Danielle Steel: A woman who runs an art gallery in Paris falls for a publisher who is married and reconnects with an old college boyfriend.

9. THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah: In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.

10. A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas: After killing a wolf in the woods, Feyre is taken from her home and placed inside the world of the Fae.

11. IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse; the basis of the film.

12. BEACH READ by Emily Henry: A relationship develops between a literary fiction author and a romance novelist as they both try to overcome writer’s block.

13. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.

14. HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty: Passengers on a short and seemingly unremarkable flight learn how and when they are going to die.

15. IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.

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NON-FICTION

1. BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS by Ina Garten: A memoir by the cookbook author and Food Network host known as the Barefoot Contessa.

2. REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell: Through a series of stories, Gladwell explicates the causes of various kinds of epidemics.

3. THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates: The author of “Between the World and Me” travels to three locations to uncover the dissonance between the realities on the ground and the narratives shaped about them.

4. BLACK SATURDAY by Trey Yingst: The Fox News war correspondent gives an account of events on Oct. 7, 2023.

5. HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance: The Yale Law School graduate and 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.

6. CONFRONTING THE PRESIDENTS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard: The conservative commentator evaluates the legacies of American presidents.

7. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.

8. NEXUS by Yuval Noah Harari: The author of “Sapiens” delves into how societies and political systems have used information and gives a warning about artificial intelligence.

9. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.

10. TRUTHS by Vivek Ramaswamy: The entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate shares his opinions on a variety of issues.

11. THE SMALL AND THE MIGHTY by Sharon McMahon: A former high school government and law teacher profiles lesser-known Americans who made an impact.

12. SOMETHING LOST, SOMETHING GAINED by Hillary Rodham Clinton: The former secretary of state reflects on private and public moments from her life.

13. AMERICA’S DEADLIEST ELECTION by Dana Bash with David Fisher: The CNN chief political correspondent considers the election of 1872 and draws parallels to today’s politics.

14. TARGETED: BEIRUT by Jack Carr and James M. Scott: An account of the attack of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983.

15. ABORTION by Jessica Valenti: The author of “Sex Object” examines attacks on women’s bodies and freedom in post-Roe America.

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ABOUT THE CATALOGS:

There are currently three catalogs available to Southeast Steuben County Library patrons online, that you can access to search for and request New York Times Bestsellers, and other popular books and materials in a variety of formats, i.e. print books, eBooks, streaming videos.

All you need is a library card to get started!

–

THE CATALOGS:

Catalog 1: StarCat

StarCat is the catalog of physical materials including print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. StarCat is available to all patrons of all public libraries in the Southern Tier Library System*

Starcat can be found online at: https://starcat.stls.org/

–

Catalog 2: The Digital Catalog

The Digital Catalog (and its companion app Libby) offers all Southern Tier Library System member library patrons access to eBooks, eAudiobooks & eMagazines via a lending model known in Library-ese as “one copy/one user;” that library speak means that eBooks & eAudiobooks found in The Digital Catalog/Libby are like print books found on library shelves, only one patron can check out a copy of a title at a time.

Exception: Magazines found in the digital catalog are available via a different lending model known as simultaneous access. And that fancy library speak means that magazines are available for all patrons to check out at the same time, i.e. if you and all your family and friends wish to read the latest digital edition of Newsweek, all of you can check out the e version of the magazine and read it at the same time.

The Digital Catalog/Libby checkout limit is 5 titles a time.

The Digital Catalog is found online at: https://stls.overdrive.com/

–

Catalog 3: Hoopla

The Hoopla Digital Catalog (and its companion app, also called Hoopla) offers Southeast Steuben County Library patrons access to a second digital catalog with an on-demand lending model. In library speak, this lending model, like The Digital Catalog/Libby’s magazine lending model, is known as “simultaneous access.” The difference is, the Hoopla catalog offers access to more formats: eBooks, eAudiobooks, eComics, digital albums, TV shows & movies – and all items, in all those formats, are available  for patrons to checkout immediately. The Hoopla check out limit is ten titles per month.

Hoopla Formats: All Hoopla content can be accessed on a computer or mobile device, and TV shows and movies can be accessed on computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and media streaming players, i.e. Roku or  Apple TV.

The Hoopla Catalog is found online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, October 18, 2024.

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This week, for something a little different, our suggested listening recommendations are, sans the Hoopla pick, all from musicians and singers born in October.

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I Could Have Danced All Night by Julie Andrews (born October 1, 1935) 

From The Album: My Fair Lady: Original Broadway Cast (1956)

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Fields Of Gold by Sting (born October 2, 1951) 

From The Album: Ten Summoner’s Tales (1993)

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Small Town by John Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951) 

From The Album: Scarecrow (1985)

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There! I’ve Said It Again by Vaughnn Monroe (born October 7, 1911) with his Orchestra 

From The Album: Vaughn Monroe’s Greatest Hits (2016)

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Imagine by John Lennon (born October 9, 1940) 

From The Album: Imagine (1971)

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How Lucky by John Prine (born October 10, 1946) 

From The Album: Pink Cadillac (1979)

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Once In A While by Art Blakey (born October 11, 1919) & Clifford Brown  

From The Album: Live At Birdland, Volume 1 (1954)

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Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon (born October 13, 1941)

From The Album: Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)

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Con Alma by Jimmy Heath (born October 25, 1926) 

From The Album: Love Letter (2020)

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Angeline Is Always Friday by  Tom Paxton (born October 31, 1937) 

From The Album: Six by Tom Paxton (1970)

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Hoopla Album of the Week 

Up-Tight (1966) by Stevie Wonder

(Stevie Wonder was not born in October! Instead he celebrates

his birthday on May 13!)

And from the album, the song:

Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby

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Have a great weekend,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.

–

The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.

–

The Libby App

Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.

–

Hoopla

A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.

–

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

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, October 16, 2024.

–

Bad Liar: A Novel by Tammy Hoag  

Det. Annie Broussard and Lt. Nick Fourcade return in Hoag’s gripping third case for the Partout Parish, La., investigative duo (after The Boy). At the outset, Nick responds to a call about the discovery of a body in a rural, marshy area, with a face so pulverized it’s nearly impossible to identify the victim. Annie, meanwhile, returns to the sheriff’s office after recovering from PTSD and a concussion she sustained during a previous investigation, and immediately encounters a distraught woman named B’Lynn Fontenot. B’Lynn’s son, Robby, has gone missing in the nearby town of Bayou Breaux, but police there refuse to take his disappearance seriously given his history of drug use. B’Lynn is certain that Robby’s kicked the habit, and Annie agrees to investigate. She links up with Nick to determine whether the body in the marsh might be Robby, or if it’s Marc Mercier, a well-liked local businessman who’s recently gone missing. Hoag sketches Robby, Marc, and B’Lynn with remarkable depth and sensitivity, and keeps the plot moving at a brisk clip through many twists and turns. This will please series fans and newcomers alike. – Publisher’s Weekly Review 

Reader’s Note: Bad Liar is the third book in the Broussard and Fourcase Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one A Thin Dark Line. 

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Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten 

In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table. 

Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose. 

From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens. 

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John Lewis: A Life by David Greenberg 

This massive, heavily detailed biography of iconic civil rights hero John Lewis portrays him as a man of strong principles. Uncompromising in his commitment to nonviolence–which he saw as a Christian, morally based way of life rather than a mere tactic–he faced down the worst that segregationist America had to throw at him with the quiet courage of “soul force.” Verging on hagiography, Greenberg chronicles how Lewis, a national leader in his early twenties, led student sit-ins for integration in Nashville, Freedom Rides in Alabama, and voter registration drives across the South. The youngest organizer and speaker at the “I Have a Dream” March on Washington, Lewis collaborated, and often clashed with, the titans of the Black Freedom Struggle, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Diane Nash, Thurgood Marshall, Bayard Rustin, and Stokely Carmichael. As the “conscience of Congress,” he was committed to nonviolence, yet opposed to defunding the police; he stood up for immigrants and the LGBTQ community (a courageous stance for a Black minister). Throughout the harsh Trump-era backlash against voting rights, Lewis remained hopeful, firmly convinced that love was the only way to achieve the “beloved community.” Greenberg captures Lewis’ life, achievements, and times with heart-stopping precision.  

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Greenberg’s foundational Lewis biography, a passionately researched and defining portrait of an American hero, will receive avid attention. – Starred Booklist Review  

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The Mighty Red: A Novel by Louise Erdrich 

Crystal hauls sugar beets from field to processing plant deep into the night in the Red River Valley in North Dakota. She’s hoping her daughter, Kismet, a high-school senior, will attend college. But Gary, whose family owns the area’s largest beet farm and who is tormented by the deaths of two of his football teammates, is begging Kismet to marry him. Smart and sensitive Hugo, Gary’s opposite, is also in love with Kismet. Homeschooled, he helps his mother in her bookstore. Gary’s mother worries about their use of dangerous agricultural chemicals. It’s 2008 and money it tight. Hugo, entranced by deep time and geology, plans to make his fortune in the oil fields. Martin, Kismet’s theater teacher father, seems to have absconded with looted funds. The story of the land, from holistic family farms to the decimation of the “joinery of creation” by industrial agriculture, shapes Erdrich’s finely woven tale of anguish and desire, crimes and healing. With irresistible characters, dramatic predicaments, crisp wit, gorgeously rendered settings, striking ecological facts, and a cosmic dimension, Erdrich’s latest tale of the plains reverberates with arresting revelations. 

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers will seek Erdrich’s newest take on the land and communities she knows so intimately. – Booklist Review  

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Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell 

A quarter-century on, Gladwell revisits his best-known book and examines some of its assumptions and conclusions. RereadingThe Tipping Point, Gladwell writes, made him realize “that I still do not understand many things about social epidemics.” Thetip point of real estate parlance–it refers to things such as the ethnic composition of a neighborhood when, once a percentage in the growth of racex is reached, members of racey will move up, on, or otherwise out–explains only so much. Often, he writes, “social contagions,” a metaphor used to describe how ideas spread like viruses, can be traced back to just a handful of innovators (or viral superspreaders, for that matter): What matters thereafter is how the ideas (or viral loads) are received and dealt with. For example, why does Illinois have a low rate of opioid abuse relative to Indiana? Because Indiana, like many states, doesn’t require monitoring, which explains why swarms of Big Pharma salespeople descended on those states to push OxyContin and other drugs to epidemic levels. Illinois, by contrast, is one of the states that require triplicate prescriptions: one copy goes to the pharmacist, one to the patient’s records, one to a regulatory agency. That three-tiered pharmaceutical pad, Gladwell writes, “evolves into an overstory,” or governing idea, “a narrative that says opioids are different, spurring the physician to pause and think before prescribing them.” Refining and deepening his and our understanding of the spread of customs, mores, and practices, Gladwell emphasizes those overstories, illustrating them with twisting and turning tales of, for example, how the wordholocaust came into general usage (surprisingly, via TV), how the idea of gay marriage gained acceptability, and how widespread social engineering “has quietly become one of the central activities of the American establishment.” Fans of the original will learn much from Gladwell’s thoughtful, carefully written reconsideration. – Starred Kirkus 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.