Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu
Julia Z did not have a happy childhood. Then, as a teenager, she came across the hacking collective, Cartographers Obscura. She had always been good with computers, and with the group, she learned much more about coding and soldering. It was all the family she needed–until it fell apart. Years later, she is approached by a lawyer, Piers, whose wife, Elli, has disappeared. Elli was a famous oneirofex, a vivid dream performer who created shared dreams with large audiences. Like Julia, Elli was a virtuoso with technology and appears to have gotten into trouble with the Prince, a powerful international criminal. The Prince wants something back from her, and Piers inadvertently involves Julia in the case just by visiting her. Julia will have to use all her skills in cybersecurity to avoid the hired thugs following them. Worse, the Prince has it out for her, and she needs help from her former family to strike back at him. Best-selling author Liu (The Speaking Bones, 2022) begins a series reminiscent of Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield books, with superb characterizations and intense pacing. Readers will root for Julia as she is drawn into a dangerous game in this gripping sf thriller. – Starred Booklist Review
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Evensong: A Novel by Stewart O’Nan
An intimate, moving novel that follows the Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of women of a certain age who band together to help one another and their circle of friends in Pittsburgh as they face the challenges of their golden years.
The Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors’ appointments, they have to pick up the slack.
Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they’ve pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty Club represents the power of community and chosen family.
Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O’Nan revisits beloved characters from his past work—most notably Emily Maxwell—to fashion a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm, and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.
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Exit Strategy by Lee Child & Andrew Child
Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for. The page-turning new Jack Reacher thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child.
Don’t miss the hit streaming series Reacher!
First—a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing around. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing.
Second—a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climates. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.
Third—wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more.
Reader’s Note: Exit Strategy is the thirtieth book in the Jack Reacher Series. If you’d like to start reading from the beginning of the series, check out book one: Killing Floor.
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Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.
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The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II by David Nasaw & Malcolm Hillgartner
Best-selling historian Nasaw (The Last Million, 2020) deepens the usual approach to WWII’s Greatest Generation by examining the real-world costs and sacrifices made by veterans, their families, and society at large. He focuses on the unseen wounds–neuropsychiatric symptoms previously understood as shell shock or battle fatigue and that are now known as post-traumatic stress disorder–and how their symptoms, including nightmares, headaches, irritability, and alcoholism, affected veterans and their loved ones. In parallel, Nasaw tracks the complicated processes of demobilization and reintegration of veterans through the many provisions and programs of the GI Bill of Rights of 1944, which, however imperfectly executed, was light-years ahead of the chaos surrounding the endings of previous wars. Nasaw covers the inequities of the transition from military to civilian life, the uneven distribution of benefits, and, despite myriad sham schools taking advantage of veterans’ educational programs, how the GI Bill produced a large middle class of educated and professional homeowners. Richly informative and compelling, The Wounded Generation is an important history of the tragedies of war and the triumphs of a democratic society that fully supports veterans’ well-being. – 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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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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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 