Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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The Book Tour by Emily Ohanjanians
DEBUT Ohanjanians debuts with a solid rivals-to-lovers story that will resonate with anyone who has felt compelled to prove themselves to their family and community. The book follows podcaster-turned-author Ana Movilian, daughter of Armenian immigrants, on the tour for her first self-help book. She’s thrilled to spread her message of self-worth to audiences around the country, but her excitement turns to dread when she finds out that sexy literary snob Ryan Grant has been assigned to accompany her on the tour as her publicist. As they get to know each other as colleagues, friends, and, eventually, lovers, Ana and Ryan start to see that they are both struggling with familial expectations and the stress of caring for their families, to the point that it’s negatively affecting their lives. They begin to fall in love, in a relationship that inspires them to embrace their dreams and become better people. Fans of relationship fiction as well as romance readers will find a lot to enjoy here. VERDICT A sweet, sexy, and heartfelt novel about finding oneself through the power of love. – Library Journal Review
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The Faith of Beasts by James S. A. Corey
The human moiety (last seen in The Mercy of Gods, 2024) has adapted surprisingly well to their imprisonment on the Carryx world, proving their usefulness and even making their prison something like a home. The conspirators continue to wait for the right moment, and potential new allies are revealed. A handful of humans sent out into the wider galaxy make discoveries that radically alter their understanding of what underlies the never-ending galactic conflict. This entry in the Captive’s War series feels more intimate than its predecessor. With less world building to do, the focus has shifted more toward exploring the characters, including their relationships and complexity, as well as the ways they adjust to their new circumstances, offering an examination of how people acclimate even during horrific upheaval. Readers also learn more details about the society of the Carryx. While it’s somewhat less propulsive than The Mercy of Gods, The Faith of Beasts is a wonderful set-up for whatever is next. Fans of the series should be satisfied here and excited for the next installment. –Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: The Faith of Beasts it the third book in the Captive’s War series; if you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: The Mercy of Gods.
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London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Reefe
In November 2019, Londoners Rachelle and Matthew Brettler’s 19-year-old son Zac jumped from the fifth-floor balcony of an elite condo building on the Thames; his body was found the next morning. The Brettlers soon discovered Zac, a privileged teen whose behavior had changed in later adolescence, had been posing in certain powerful circles as the son of a Russian oligarch and the inheritor of billions. Exactly who he had been consorting with, and the nature of his jump from the balcony–suicide or survival?–became the Brettlers’ obsession as London’s police force kept leaving them unsatisfied, giving up too soon on far too many leads. Wary of the British press, the Brettlers kept their story private until they were introduced to Keefe, whose 2024 New Yorker article about Zac’s death would launch their private loss into public conversation. Based on Keefe’s years of communications with the Brettlers and exhaustive research into Zac’s life and death and London’s criminal underworld, this tour de force of staggering yet sensitive reportage also brings in England’s colonial past, the history of the banking industry, and the stories of Zac’s Holocaust-survivor grandfathers. Ultimately, Keefe arrives at a relatively simple (and sad, and sordid) conclusion. As Rachelle told Keefe, “”It’s been eye-opening. This whole world we did not know about, this underworld that exists on our doorstep.””
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Particularly after the popular streaming adaptation of Keefe’s Say Nothing (2019), readers recognize him as a go-to author of riveting narrative nonfiction, and this contemporary story is sure to spark interest. – -Starred Booklist Review
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No Matter What: A Novel by Cara Bastone
Bastone’s latest, following Promise Me Sunshine (2025), is a heartfelt, heart-wrenching tale of people becoming their best selves in the tasks and routines of everyday life following a cataclysmic accident. Roz, who works for an NYC food rescue organization, her husband Vin, and his brother (and her best friend) Raff have their lives as they know them destroyed by an accident. A year later, it looks like they’re all going their separate ways. Roz finds an apartment lease on the kitchen counter, indicating Vin is planning to leave both their apartment and their marriage. He’s following Raff, who found his own apartment weeks before. When Roz visits the building on the lease, she stumbles into a life-drawing class and joins in, finding respite in drawing as well as having an epiphany about trauma and art. There is much love–familial, collegial, and romantic–throughout this leisurely paced, comforting story of healing and rediscovering the magic of caring and connection. – Library Journal Review
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Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh
There’s nary a dull moment in bestseller Cavanagh’s electrifying latest legal thriller featuring con-man-turned-attorney Eddie Flynn (after The Trial). Elly Parker is a young influencer known for filming random acts of kindness. One night, she returns to her Manhattan apartment in the middle of a livestream and discovers, in front of 132 million viewers, that James, her husband of six months, has been having an affair with her best friend. When James and his mistress die by poisoning a short time later, suspicion falls on Elly, and she’s charged with their murders. Insisting on her innocence, she hires Flynn, whose considerable talents are tested by the prosecution’s strong case. Meanwhile, Flynn tries to protect his ex-wife, Christine, and his 16-year-old daughter from con man Arthur Cross, who’s targeting Christine’s new husband with physical threats and menacing letters. Cavanagh shrewdly braids the two main plot threads together, alternating perspectives between Flynn, his legal assistants, Elly, and a sociopathic killer who’s lurking in the background. With relentless surprises and surprisingly sharp commentary on social media narcissism, this is sure to win Cavanagh new fans. — Starred Library Journal Review
Reader’s Note: Two Kinds of Stranger is the nineth book in the Eddie Flynn series; if you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: The Defense.
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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 