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, April 2, 2025.
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A Century of Poetry in the New Yorker: 1925-2025
Edited by the magazine’s poetry editor, Kevin Young, a celebratory selection from one hundred years of influential, entertaining, and taste-making verse in The New Yorker
Seamus Heaney, Dorothy Parker, Louise Bogan, Louise Glück, Randall Jarrell, Langston Hughes, Derek Walcott, Sylvia Plath, W. S. Merwin, Czesław Miłosz, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Strand, E. E. Cummings, Sharon Olds, Franz Wright, John Ashbery, Sandra Cisneros, Amanda Gorman, Maggie Smith, Kaveh Akbar: these stellar names make up just a fraction of the wonderfulness that is present in this essential anthology.
The book is organized into sections honoring times of day (“Morning Bell,” “Lunch Break,” “After-Work Drinks,” “Night Shift”), allowing poets from different eras to talk back to one another in the same space, intertwined with chronological groupings from the decades as they march by: the frothy 1920s and 1930s (“despite the depression,” Young notes), the more serious ’40s and ’50s (introducing us to the early greats of our contemporary poetry, like Elizabeth Bishop, W. S. Merwin, and Adrienne Rich), the political ’60s and ’70s, the lyrical ’80s and ’90s, and then the 2000s’ with their explosion of greater diversity in the magazine, greater depth and breadth. Inevitably, we see the high points when poems spoke directly into, about, or against the crises of their times—the war poetry of W. H. Auden and Karl Shapiro; the remarkable outpouring of verse after 9/11 (who can forget Adam Zagajewski’s “Try to Praise the Mutilated World”?); and more recently, stunning poems in response to the cataclysmic events of COVID and the murder of George Floyd.
The magazine’s poetic influence resides not just in this historical and cultural relevance but in sheer human connection, exemplified by the passing verses that became what Young calls “refrigerator poems”: the ones you tear out and affix to the fridge to read again and again over months and years. Our love for that singular Billy Collins or Ada Limón poem—or lines by a new writer you’ve never heard of but will hear much more from in the future—is what has made The New Yorker a great organ for poetry, a mouthpiece for our changing culture and way of life, even a mirror of our collective soul.
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Elphie: A Wicked Childhood by Gregory Maguire
Hot on the heels of the first part of the film adaptation of the musical Wicked, a new prequel about Elphaba’s childhood is on its way (dedicated to Idina Menzel, Cynthia Erivo, and all the Elphabas in between). We know some of the green-skinned witch’s childhood from the rest of the volumes in Maguire’s Wicked Years series, but this edition fills in gaps, writing of her mother’s death in a humid jungle, her strained relationship with sister, Nessarose, her discovery of Animals, glimmers of her someday powers, and the characters who recognized that her sharp intelligence had potential. While some would argue that the foray is indulgent, fans of Elphaba and of Maguire’s work will be thrilled to once again venture into Oz and discover new characters, cities, and adventures besides. Readers who enjoy the musical or who have only read Wicked will be able to appreciate this as a stand-alone prequel, while fans of the series will eat up the Easter eggs and origin stories. Taken on its own, Elphie is an emotional coming-of-age story that thrums with injustice, regret, and the complicated characters who made a young girl into the serious, stubborn witch destined to take on all of Oz.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The recent surge in Wicked’s popularity will mean a flurry of interest in this prequel to the musical’s source material. – Starred Booklist Review
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Girl Anonymous by Christina Dodd
As an employee for Saint Rees Fine Arts Movers, Maarja Daire tries to remain as invisible as possible on the job. She intends to be exceedingly careful working for Mrs. Raine Arundel, but an explosion at the Arundel mansion forces Maarja into the spotlight as she tries to save her employer. Maarja’s courageous actions bring her to the attention of Raine’s son, Dante Arundel, who has inherited control of his crime family’s empire. The question now is whether Dante will recognize Maarja from an incident more than two decades ago, when Maarja’s mother and Dante’s father, a cruel mob boss, were both killed in another explosion at this same location. Given the explosive plot of her latest addictively readable tale, Dodd (Forget What You Know, 2023) cleverly ratchets up her usual exciting mix of suspense and romance to incendiary levels by successfully marrying a wildly imaginative story line involving an ancient feud, a Mafia clan straight out of La Cosa Nostra, and a rare artifact, with plenty of crackling sexual chemistry and a few love scenes guaranteed to scorch readers’ fingers as they turn the pages. – Starred Booklist Review
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Isola by Allegra Goodman
Young, orphaned Marguerite, curious and unruly, is the sole heir to a sizable French estate and a gloriously compelling narrator. Cared for by her loving nurse, Damienne, Marguerite is at the mercy of her mercurial and impervious guardian, Roberval, a voyager, warrior, and, as it turns out, thief. He is supposed to oversee her estate and make a good match for her once she’s of age, but instead he loots and sells her property. When she turns 20, he takes her with him when he sails across the ocean to New France, with loyal Damienne. Also onboard is Auguste, Roberval’s handsome, smart, and sensitive secretary, whom Roberval threatens to kill if he seeks Marguerite’s company. In a bravura departure for Goodman (Sam, 2023), she time-travels to the sixteenth century, bringing forth Marguerite’s opulent first world and the severe deprivation that follows with dramatic sensory detail. There’s no denying the passion between her and Auguste, and no escape from Roberval’s diabolical cruelty as he abandons the lovers and Damienne on a small island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They display heroic fortitude and ingenuity, but the perils are many, their resources paltry. Based on a scantly documented true story, Goodman’s lush and enthralling castaway tale of betrayal and love, suffering and strength is magnificent in its beauty, mystery, fury, and redemption. – Starred Booklist Review
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Realm of Ice and Sky Triumph, Tragedy, and History’s Greatest Arctic Rescue by Buddy Levy
Levy continues his literary foray into the far north with this intriguing look into aerial exploration of the North Pole. After a brief overview of nineteenth-century “polar mania,”” including the famously doomed Franklin and Greely expeditions, he focuses on the period from 1900 to 1928, when hot air balloons and aircraft joined the international frenzy to reach the Pole. While readers will likely be familiar with Roald Amundsen, whose disappearance and assumed death make for a significant part of the narrative, it is the travails of lesser-known American journalist Walter Wellman and Italian balloonist Umberto Nobile that will likely spark acute reader interest and discussion (this is an excellent choice for book groups). Levy writes not only of the key events impacting these men as they competed to win the pole, he also considers their fears and excitements, their failures and disappointments, and, for Nobile in particular, the implications of a crushing loss. Levy excels at writing vivid history about the polar regions and exploration, and he’s written another winner. – 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 four library catalogs
The Digital Catalog aka Libby: 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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Kanopy Catalog: https://www.kanopy.com/en
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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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 