Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
–
The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand
In her newest novel, bestselling Hilderbrand (Swan Song) teams up with her teenage daughter, Cunningham, to explore a drama-filled year at an elite New England boarding school. It opens with a surprising boost in the school rankings for Tiffin Academy, a seemingly average institution now shining under the national spotlight. But as the school year unfolds, secrets spill and reputations crumble thanks to a mysterious gossip app called ZipZap. The characters are wide-ranging, from a glamorous influencer to a guarded transfer student to a young, unsure teacher, as the novel navigates shifting alliances and personal revelations, all set against the school’s deceptively idyllic setting. While the plot is packed with potential, the overly descriptive writing tends to slow the narrative’s pace. This style may appeal to fans of immersive detail but could be challenging for those looking for a brisk, engaging read.
VERDICT A juicy mix of scandal and coming-of-age moments. Fans of Hilderbrand’s signature ensemble dramas and readers who enjoy stories about secrets in privileged worlds will likely appreciate this buzzy take on boarding-school life. – Library Journal Review
–
The Belles by Lacy N. Dunham
Freshmen at an exclusive Southern women’s college bond, and their swings between obedience and recklessness lead to long-term trauma. Alumnae of Bellerton College should be able “to hold our own during conversations on both politics and literature, and we would also know how to arrange excellent charcuterie. We might be smarter than our husbands, but at Bellerton we would have learned the necessary tact to never point this out.” It’s 1951, and in the Old Dominion State, young women are expected to graduate with both B.A. and M.R.S. degrees, flaunting engagement rings even before mortarboards are donned. Deena Evangeline Williams knows this before she arrives at her room in South Hall. Despite her background–she was raised by her housecleaner grandmother–Deena hopes to learn her peers’ ways while she keeps a secret that might ruin her chances for a Bellerton-approved future. If this territory has been mined by other writers, it doesn’t matter much as debut novelist Dunham juggles gothic elements including a nasty poetry professor, a drunken misery of a housemother, and glimpses of ghosts in the campus trees. Queen Bee Ada May Delacourt; closeted Winifred (Fred) Scott and her bestie, Sheba Wyatt; Nell Lawton-Peters; and Prissy Nicholson from Texas at first hew so closely to the expectations of Mrs. Tibbert, the wife of the college’s president, that she declares them the Belles of their class. But small things start to go missing from the girls’ rooms and as they snipe at each other, they also discover how good it feels to be bad, brandishing their signature hair ribbons like battle standards and roaming the woods at night, damn the consequences. Deena begins to encounter the apparition of a 19th-century student, Mary Burden, and wonders why only she can see her; even if readers guess, they’ll already be under the spell of this isolated school. As the Belles prepare for their 50th reunion in 2002, their 21st-century lives offer bitter commentary on the real lessons they learned. Both a time capsule, and a ticking bomb, of womanhood repressed in service of societal conformity. – Kirkus
–
Gray Dawn by Walter Mosely
Easy Rawlins hasn’t been taking cases since readers last saw him in Farewell, Amethystine (2024), preferring to pass them along to his WRENS-L detective agency partners. But when Santangelo Burris shows up simmering with rage Easy knows too well, he’s reminded of his early PI days when he took cases to help poor Blacks whose plights rarely concerned police. Burris wants somebody to find his mother, Lutisha James, claiming that his grandmother wants to hear from her, and Easy accepts. It turns out, though, that card shark Lutisha has a reputation so deadly that Fearless Jones insists on watching Easy’s back. Meanwhile, Easy’s son Jesus is being hunted by federal agents who allege he’s been trafficking drugs from Mexico, and Easy’s dangerous lost love Amethystine has returned, determined to reclaim his affection. This would overwhelm most detectives, but even after Lutisha’s trail leads to a triple murder and a depraved powerbroker, Easy weaves together a plan that punishes predators and redraws the boundaries of his family. Mosley’s moving author’s note implores readers to see this work as a reminder of the ongoing toxicity of segregation, lynchings, and generations of casual hatred. In Mosley’s masterful hands, this is a portal to Los Angeles streets and their vastly different worlds, communities born of disadvantage, and mysteries that highlight universal truths.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Easy Rawlins fans are primed as this epic series hones its edge.
Reader’s Note: As mentioned in the review, Gray Dawn is the seventeenth book in the Easy Rawling’s series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Devil In A Blue Dress.
–
History Matters by David McCullough
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past. McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.” A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives. – Kirkus Review
–
Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff
DEBUT Azrael Hart has been in love with Victoria Starnberger, his best friend and the girl next door, since they were children, but he never dared to risk their friendship. When they both return to their hometown after tragedy strikes, the universe and a meddling younger sister keep pushing them back together and into their old friendly rhythms. Azrael struggles with his lingering feelings for Vickie, and the recent loss of his parents compounds it as she takes over his mother’s beloved tea shop. Vickie’s parents cut her off when she refuses to do their bidding and leave her with the debt they made with a handsome devil to give her the power to summon spirits. With Az back in the picture, she turns to him as a witch and a friend for help with the mysterious warnings she keeps getting from ghosts and her pending devilish debt. Can they solve the mystery of what is rotten in Hallowcross before their second chance at love goes up in flames?
VERDICT Ruoff’s debut is a magical rom-com full of hijinks, featuring an eclectic cast of characters in a quirky small town and a slow-burn romance to savor. – Library Journal Review
–
Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
–
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
–
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.
–
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.
–
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).
–
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.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 