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 27, 2024.
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Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher
The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person . . . Cher herself.
After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir.
Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center.
She is a lifelong activist and philanthropist.
As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship.
With her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century.
Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono—and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart.
Cher: The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar.
It is a life too immense for only one book. – Publisher description
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Guilt and Ginataan by Mia P. Manansala
Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms—the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and…dead bodies?
The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town’s biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest—but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze…and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.
The body is discovered to be a local politician’s wife, and all signs—murder weapon included—point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn’t have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha…
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The Mirror by Nora Roberts
Sonya MacTavish will do whatever it takes to make sure Hester Dobbs doesn’t win the battle for Lost Bride Manor. Soon after moving into the beautiful Victorian mansion on the coast of Maine, Sonya discovers its tragic history. Over the years, seven Poole brides have died, all victims of a curse cast by the vengeful witch, Hester Dobbs. Recently a mirror has appeared in the mansion, which offers Sonya a glimpse into the past. Will this prove to be the key Sonya needs to shatter the curse? Picking the story up right where she left off in the first title in the Lost Bride trilogy, The Inheritance (2023), best-selling and magically creative and prolific Roberts continues to cast her own spell over readers with this bewitching story. With plenty of chills and thrills, this paranormal romantic suspense tale also brilliantly celebrates the importance of family, friends, and love. – Booklist Review
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Now or Never by Janet Evanovich
She said yes to Morelli. She said yes to Ranger. Now Stephanie Plum has two fiancés and no idea what to do about it. But the way things are going, she might not live long enough to marry anyone.
While Stephanie stalls for time, she buries herself in her work as a bounty hunter, tracking down an unusually varied assortment of fugitives from justice. There’s Eugene Fleck, a seemingly sweet online influencer who might also be YouTube star Robin Hoodie, masked hero to the homeless, who hijacks delivery trucks and distributes their contents to the needy. She’s also on the trail of Bruno Jug, a wealthy and connected man in the wholesale produce business who is rumored to traffic young girls alongside lettuce and tomatoes. Most terrifying of all is Zoran—a laundromat manager by day and self-proclaimed vampire by night with a taste for the blood of pretty girls. When he shows up on Stephanie’s doorstep, it’s not for the meatloaf dinner.
With timely assists from her stalwart supporters Lula, Connie, and Grandma Mazur, Stephanie uses every trick in the book to reel in these men. But only she can decide what to do about the two men she actually loves. She can’t hold Ranger and Morelli at bay for long, and she’s keeping a secret from them that is the biggest bombshell of all. Now or never, she’s got to make the decision of a lifetime.
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The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
While picking serviceberries among singing birds doing the same, Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist, professor, MacArthur fellow, and writer renowned for Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), envisions a new take on a traditional way of living in sync with nature. Serviceberries, she explains, sustain numerous animals and insects and have long been prized by Indigenous people for being delicious, nourishing, and medicinally beneficial. When her farmer neighbors invite people to pick their serviceberry harvest for free, Kimmerer found herself musing over how the Anishinaabe people are guided by gratitude and respect for nature’s sustaining abundance and reciprocity. In a “gift economy” based on sharing “the sustenance that the land provides,” and in which “all flourishing is mutual,” there would be “no such thing as waste.” Gracefully elucidating these resonant concepts, Kimmerer contrasts the imperative to share and an abiding respect for nature with our economy’s harsh focus on commodification, scarcity, and competition. She writes about how using “”the living world” as a model for “human ways of living” could decrease economic inequity and environmental destruction. Accompanied by John Burgoyne’s vibrant line drawings, Kimmerer’s deeply rooted, wise, and inspiring reflections coalesce into a fresh approach to connecting ecology, economics, and ethics, beginning with achievable grassroots endeavors in the hope of gradually widening the circle. – Starred Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Information on the three library catalogs
The Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 