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, May 7, 2025.
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Eleven Percent by Maren Uthaug
From powerful priestesses to witchy convents, Eleven Percent vividly portrays a women-dominated world that is unrecognizable but also uncannily familiar in its depiction of gendered disenfranchisement. Danish author Uthaug’s first novel to be translated into English follows four characters working to fulfil their roles in this rigid, defensive, but also mystical society–one that protects women from the dangers of testosterone by only keeping 11 percent of males alive for reproductive purposes. With innovative world building, such as rooting Christianity to a matriarchal faith, and provocative discussions about women’s sexual pleasure, Uthaug’s narrative skillfully balances religious, philosophical, realist, and scientific tones–not only bringing this shocking world alive but also the complex emotions of its inhabitants. A refreshing highlight of Eleven Percent is indeed its open treatment of sexual organs and processes, including menstruation and masturbation, to reclaim women’s sexuality. Emotionally enthralling and intellectually stimulating, Eleven Percent unpacks the connection between power and fear, exploring how gendered othering creates an insatiable curiosity about those who are othered as well as about one’s own nature. – Booklist Review
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The Road to Wisdom On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust by Francis S. Collins
Former National Institute of Health director Collins (The Language of Life) interweaves sociopolitical commentary, popular science, and theology in this smart study. Citing how distrust of Covid vaccines cost an estimated 230,000 American lives even as the scientific community celebrated “one of the greatest medical achievements in human history,” Collins describes an America so deeply fractured by hyperpartisan politics that it can be repaired only by returning to the “solid ground” of truth, science, faith, and trust. Unpacking each value, he writes that faith is vital to bridging “division and animosity” and offers truths beyond science’s reach, while the scientific community must learn from its stumbles in communicating with the public during the pandemic to address such pressing social issues as climate change. Suggestions include repairing seemingly “irreconcilable” differences through a focus on shared values—family, freedom, love—rather than statistics. Despite some wearying truisms (people should respect each other, because there is “nothing more un-American than hating fellow Americans”), the author’s expertise and lucid writing impress. This has plenty to offer. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Stag Dance: A Novel And Stories by Torrey Peters
Award-winning Peters’s latest book is a daring collection of four short pieces that resist easy categorization. The opening story, “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones,” is a dystopian fantasy in which a vengeful trans woman has brought on a gender apocalypse through a hormonal pandemic, while the last tale, “The Masker,” is an erotic horror set in Las Vegas. In “The Chaser,” the book’s most affecting piece, an illicit affair between roommates at a Quaker boarding school leads to brutal consequences. Finally, the title piece, the longest and most esoteric of the collection, is a gloriously demented fable starring bandit lumberjacks who are invited to attend a dance as women, hoping to be courted by their fellow loggers. The implications are more challenging to unpack in this work than in Peters’s previous novel, Detransition, Baby, but this collection hums with the same level of blazing insight and proves that she is an author of ferocious talent and range.
VERDICT A provocative and recommended addition to collections. – Library Journal Review
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Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara
In his first solo book, Guidara (Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook) focuses on the evolution of his fine dining hospitality philosophy. It starts with lessons he learned as a student at Cornell and moves through his career as general manager of Eleven Madison Park, voted World’s Best Restaurant in 2017. This is a fast-paced, memoir/managerial treatise, with chapters headed by pithy phrases encapsulating nuggets of managerial wisdom. At the heart is the idea of unreasonable hospitality, an over-the-top customer service solution to the problem of how to become the best, most memorable restaurant. This involves providing personalized experiences, while ensuring that employees are well cared for and empowered. Guidara focuses on dining room dynamics, building a team capable of innovation and excellence, and directing resources. Given broader discussions about harassment and toxic climates often found in the restaurant industry, it is somewhat surprising to see these issues only hinted at in a few brisk anecdotes. The author stays firmly in the realm of the positive, even when describing the various setbacks and personnel issues that arose as he and his restaurant made their way to the top.
VERDICT Recommended for those interested in managerial success, the restaurant industry, or inspirational memoirs. – Library Journal Review
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When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter
Carter, longtime editor of Vanity Fair, has written a chronicle of his life in publishing that is a microcosm of the last 50 years of upscale American magazines. Opening with an excellent chapter on working for the Canadian railway as a teenager, the book details how he left college and started The Canadian Review in 1973. He wrote for Time and Life before cocreating the satirical and biting Spy in the 1980s, eventually becoming the very successful editor of Vanity Fair for 25 years. He chronicles the industry and its people with deep love and affection, and it’s a story of discovering one’s passion, persistence, and undeniably being in the right place at the right time. A book about magazines and publishing requires a healthy amount of name-dropping, and Carter does not disappoint. As one would expect, his writing is engaging and entertaining, yet while there is absolutely nothing wrong with being successful or excelling in one’s field, the book often feels like it was written for his wealthy friends. One feels a certain type of assumed privilege has always surrounded him.
VERDICT An engaging book for lovers of glossy magazines and the people who make them. – 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 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 