Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
When Staybehind and his fellow robots wake up after a mysterious shutdown, they find the restaurant is flooding. And worse, the owners of their shop are on the lam after running a crypto scam. But after conferring, the assorted robots, living in a postwar San Francisco in a future where California is liberated from the U.S. and robots have a first wave of basic civil rights, decide that if humans can run a restaurant, so can they. In a daring move, they reopen as Authentic Noodle, a shop that serves biang biang-style noodles. But when a robophobic group begins to flood their site with one-star reviews, they’ll have to fight to remain open. This sweet, heart- (and stomach) warming novella is a certified cozy read, rich with meaning for queer readers, enjoyably familiar to San Francisco lovers. Perfect for fans both of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes (2022), this book is silly and poignant in turns, shifting from an octopuslike robot’s first hand-pulling attempts to an ex-military bot’s difficult past memories. Newitz (The Terraformers, 2023) has gifted sf readers with a hopeful, postapocalyptic found-family tale. – Starred Publisher’s Weekly Review
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Desi Arnaz The Man Who Invented Television by Todd S. Purdum
Purdum (Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution) successfully celebrates the vision and talent of Cuban-born actor Desi Arnaz, most famous for playing the straight man opposite Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy from 1951 to 1957. Purdum makes the case that Arnaz’s remarkable foresight single-handedly transformed television in numerous ways. Arnaz spent his childhood in the lap of luxury until the 1933 Cuban revolution forced him to flee to Miami, where he formed his band and helped to popularize the conga in the United States. When filming the 1940 movie Too Many Girls, he met Ball, who would later become his wife and muse, sparking a tumultuous relationship. A decade later, in an effort to save both their relationship and their stalling film careers, Arnaz and Ball moved to the new medium of television and created the iconic sitcom I Love Lucy. Purdum gives Arnaz his due credit for setting the gold standard for television comedy by utilizing three cameras and filming live in front of an audience. Purdum does not shy away from Arnaz’s tragic and destructive inner demons, his developing alcohol-use disorder, and his lifelong penchant for marital infidelity. VERDICT Purdum’s access to the Arnaz family and unpublished records allows him to essentially fact-check the memoirs written by Arnaz and Ball, and his honest reflection of a complicated man is poignant and heartfelt. – Starred Library Journal Review
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The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen
Was it…
Bitter, all-consuming jealousy?
Pathological sibling rivalry?
Pure insanity?
Whatever the cause—and everyone has a theory—it’s the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family.
Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister Amanda visits are, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.”
Amanda doesn’t trust Georgia, but she can’t abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that’s so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?
Nothing is as it seems in Sarah Pekkanen’s The Locked Ward, a shocking psychological thriller about the complex bonds of sisterhood—and what happens when they are stretched to the breaking point.
Some doors in the Locked Ward should never be opened.
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House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama
Debut author Fama blends Filipino folklore, occult rituals, and political unrest in this unsettling gothic-horror novel set in 1986 against the backdrop of the People Power Revolution. Eleven years ago, Josephine del Rosario’s family was murdered as a political statement. Now 26, her only surviving relative, brother Alejandro, is in Manila, where revolution brews, while she struggles to maintain their family’s home in Carigara. Josephine is enticed by an invitation from beloved childhood friend Hiraya Ranoco, whose family is said to be witches, to visit their estate and play a familiar game, a family ritual Hiraya claims will ensure the winners the future they desire. Josephine joins Alejandro and their friend Gabriella at the dizzyingly decorated, confusingly labyrinthine Ranoco home, where their childhood game of tagu-tagu (hide and seek) takes on an ominous new intensity. Fama creates an oppressive atmosphere of simmering dread as Hiraya’s secrets are slowly revealed, and the story explodes into a terrifying hunt through increasingly nightmarish environments. Themes of political oppression, intergenerational trauma, and feminine power reflect in both the real-world and supernatural horrors Josephine must survive. This is a sharp, scary read perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic (2020).
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Too Old For This by Samantha Downing
In Downing’s (A Twisted Love Story) wryly funny and clever new novel, 75-year-old Lottie Jones’s quiet, retired life is suddenly upended when journalist Plum Dixon arrives on her doorstep. Plum is determined to tell Lottie’s story of being wrongly accused in the deaths of multiple people many years ago. There’s a small problem, though: Lottie wasn’t wrongly accused, and she would rather not reopen that can of worms. She’d prefer to keep her previous life as Lorena Mae Lansdale in the past. She’ll do anything to keep her old crimes from being dredged up, including, perhaps, killing again. But murder is messy in more ways than one, and Lottie isn’t as mentally or physically agile as she once was. Now she’s scrambling to keep the past from catching up with her as the consequences of her actions create more problems.
VERDICT Downing’s impressive ability to have readers rooting for her anti-heroes is on full display in this propulsive cat-and-mouse thriller.-Library Journal Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
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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 