Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Bumble Bee Season by Eileen Garvin
In this much-clamored-for sequel to Garvin’s The Music of Bees (2021), former troubled teen with paraplegia Jake Stevenson has turned the Hood River honey farm he established with widow Alice Holtzman into an unqualified success. But Alice is away during harvest time, and with ICE agents conducting stealth raids on local immigrant communities, Jake can’t find reliable workers. Then one day, while checking on remote hive locations, Jake encounters 14-year-old migrant Flaco Lopez, impoverished and malnourished after walking hundreds of miles from his border crossing in California. Despite the risks, Jake takes Flaco in, and while the teen quickly becomes a welcome extra pair of hands, he’s not enough. Another fortuitous hive check puts Jake in touch with Abigail Plue, a university grad student conducting field research on bumblebees, whose team members rally to Jake’s rescue. Amidst threats of deportation raids, habitat destruction, and wildfire devastation, the trio overcome cultural and behavioral differences to form unlikely bonds. Undoubtedly inspired by her own experiences as an Oregon beekeeper, Garvin is a master at creating hive-like communities vibrating with characters readers will enthusiastically embrace. Like Jake and Alice, Flaco and Abigail deserve to return to the page some day, shining in stories of their own. – Starred Booklist Review
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Mad Mabel: A Novel by Sally Hepworth
Melbourne octogenarian Elsie is comfortable being the grouch of Kenny Lane, and she fills the role beautifully when she clambers her neighbor Ishaan’s fence, determined that he stop hiding from his turn answering the relentless questions of the street’s only child, Persephone. Instead, she finds Ishaan’s body and must answer police officers’ relentless questions. Elsie assumes that 93-year-old Ishaan succumbed to natural causes, but the police become suspicious after discovering Elsie’s past. She’s Mabel Elsie Waller, aka Mad Mabel, Australia’s youngest murder convict. Hounded by police and protesters, Elsie takes documentarians Libby and Adeel up on their offer to help her tell her story on her own terms. Through flashbacks, Elsie reveals a lonely, abusive childhood, the deaths of her toddler sister, her mother, her favorite teacher, and a series of violent accidents laid at Mad Mabel’s feet. Then Persephone’s abusive father shows up, and Elsie doesn’t hesitate to act. Hepworth balances heartbreak with Elsie’s delicious snark and strong suspense, but readers will be hard-pressed to resist feeling something here as allies emerge to defeat Elsie’s resigned loneliness. Arguably Hepworth’s best, this is a must-read for fans of Helene Tursten’s Elderly Lady series and Christopher Bollen’s Havoc (2024).
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Hepworth gets more inventive and more incisive with each thriller, winning the attention of ever more readers. – Starred Booklist Review
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A Violent Masterpiece: A Novel by Jordan Harper
Jake Deal prowls the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles while his rapt audience on social media awaits his view of the chaos and carnage he finds in the City of Angels. In addition to this “Creepy Crawl” livestream, Jake sells photos of the crime scenes he comes across to a local media outlet for a tidy sum. One of his media contacts now offers Jake a lucrative opportunity, but Jake is wary of how deeply into depravity it would require him to plunge. Across the city, Kara Delgado works for Sub-Rosa, a concierge service catering to the eccentric needs of the uber-wealthy. She has witnessed hedonistic behavior that compares to ancient Rome, and she is approaching burnout. There’s also Doug Gibson, a veteran defense attorney whose new client is a disgraced Hollywood director with a story to tell that could send seismic waves through Los Angeles. Bringing these Angelenos together, Harper’s latest (after The Last King of California) displays his sublime storytelling talents. VERDICT Uniting three disparate lost souls in a case of blackmail, human trafficking, and murder involving the glitterati and power brokers, this novel is perfect for fans of James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler. – Starred Library Journal Review
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This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone: A Novel by Catherine Mack
Dead bodies disrupt a weekend writers’ retreat memorably narrated by a disgruntled author. Cynical sleuths are no strangers to mystery fiction, but Eleanor Dash takes snark to an uncomfortable new level. Everything is a source of grievance to the bestselling author: her ex-boyfriend, Connor Smith; her sister/assistant, Harper, whom she’s itching to fire; her insufficiently attentive editor, Vicki Morgan; her former best friend, Sandrine, who dumped her; the outdated decor at the Bahamian resort hosting the retreat; the prospective authors she mentors, who rarely write to her standards; and the reviewers of her books, who sometimes wish she’d write better herself. Even the corpse on the floor of her hotel suite seems like a personal affront, causing an irksome encounter with Bahamian police and necessitating a change of rooms. It isn’t until a second death hits even closer to home that Eleanor shows much interest in finding the culprit. Mack’s trademark self-referential style is unique, and her teasing of a staggering number of possible solutions to the puzzle is awe-inspiring. But Eleanor’s relentless sense of victimization is too much of a downer to overlook. Bonding through a shared sense of grievance is increasingly popular these days but can be corrosive in ways Mack may not recognize. When Mack allows her heroine a flash of empathy, as when Eleanor shares a moment with a veteran writer who recognizes that her best days are over, she can be incandescent. Letting in more light would provide a welcome balance to Mack’s quirky style and offbeat sense of humor. An oxymoron perhaps emblematic of the moment: a discontent cozy. – Kirkus Review
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A Woman’s Place by Danielle Steel
In April 1912, twenty-three-year-old Lady Victoria Oldbrooke is traveling with her beloved father from England on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. But when the ship strikes an iceberg and lifeboats are lowered with women and children first, Lord Alfred gives his place to another, and they are separated. Before he goes down with the ship, he asks his friend Bert Banning, a mill owner from Manchester, to promise he’ll marry his daughter and care for her.
Devastated by the loss of Lord Alfred, Victoria and Bert take comfort in their growing friendship. Bert accepts his role as her guardian but, as friendship turns to deeper feelings, hesitates to propose. Not only is he forty years her senior, but her marrying an industrialist will cause Victoria to be ostracized by the aristocratic world she comes from. But she marries Bert and—cruelly shunned by everyone she knows, even family friends—moves to his home in Manchester.
Isolated from her familiar universe and peers, she becomes fascinated by Bert’s business and learns all she can about it. When he meets a tragic end, she steps into his shoes and applies everything she has learned, in spite of opposition from all sides. Taking on the risks, the hard decisions, and the responsibilities, Victoria has the sheer grit that it takes to make a difference in a man’s world and change the limitations women have had to face and defy for centuries.
A stirring portrait of a strong woman who carves out her own place against all odds, this is a novel that will linger long after the final page is turned.
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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 