Author: Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers available in the Digital Catalog.

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If you have questions about how to access digital content, you can write a comment and post it on the blog, or send me, SSCL Librarian Linda Reimer, questions via email: reimerl@stls.org

 

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FICTION:

28 SUMMERS by Elin Hilderbrand (Downloadable Audiobooks)

A relationship that started in 1993 between Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud comes to light while she is on her deathbed and his wife runs for president.

 

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ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny (Downloadable Audiobook):

The 16th book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. When his billionaire godfather is attacked, Gamache uncovers secrets hidden throughout Paris.

 

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AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins (eBook)

A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.

 

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THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley (Downloadable Audiobook)

A wedding between a TV star and a magazine publisher on an island off the coast of Ireland turns deadly.

 

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LYING LIFE OF ADULTS (eBook) by Elena FerranteIn:

This coming-of-age story, Giovanna seeks her true reflection in two kindred cities.

 

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MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Downloadable Audiobook)

1950s Mexico, a debutante travels to a distant mansion where family secrets of a faded mining empire have been kept hidden.

 

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ROYAL by Danielle Steel (eBook):

In 1943, the 17-year-old Princess Charlotte assumes a new identity in the country and falls in love.

 

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SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen (eBook):

A dead dowager, hungry pythons and occupants of the winter White House shake up the Palm Beach charity ball season.

 

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THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell (eBook):

Ten years after her daughter disappears, a woman tries to get her life in order but remains haunted by unanswered questions.

 

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THICK AS THIEVES by Sandra Brown (eBook):

Arden Maxwell returns home to uncover the truth about her father’s involvement in a heist that went wrong 20 years ago.

 

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THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett (eBook)

The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity.

 

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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (eBook)

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.

 

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NON-FICTION:

BECOMING by Michelle Obama (eBook)

The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent.

 

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BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates (eBook)

Winner of the 2015 National Book Award for nonfiction. A meditation on race in America as well as a personal story, framed as a letter to the author’s teenage son.

 

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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah (eBooks):

A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”

 

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CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson (Downloadable Audiobook):

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today.

 

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HOAX by Brian Stelter (Downloadable Audiobook):

The CNN anchor and chief media correspondent examines the inner workings of Fox News and its relationship with President Trump.

 

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HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi (eBook)

A primer for creating a more just and equitable society through identifying and opposing racism.

 

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JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson (Downloadable Audiobook):

A law professor and MacArthur grant recipient’s memoir of his decades of work to free innocent people condemned to death.

 

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MELANIA AND ME by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (eBook):

The former director of special events at Vogue describes parting ways with the First Lady after being made the scapegoat for inauguration finance irregularities.

 

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TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH by Mary L. Trump (eBook):

The clinical psychologist gives her assessment of events and patterns inside her family and how they shaped President Trump.

 

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle (eBook):

The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.

 

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WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo (eBook):

Historical and cultural analyses on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue.

 

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Be well and read on!

Linda Reimer, SSL

 

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Note: this list contains all the New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that are owned by libraries within the Southern Tier Library System.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, consisting entirely of eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.

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Braised Pork: A Novel by An Yu (eBook)

Beautiful, dreamlike, and utterly intoxicating, Braised Pork is the beguiling debut of an outstandingly talented young writer who is based in China but writes in English

One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband dead. One minute she was breakfasting with him and packing for an upcoming trip, the next, she finds him motionless in their half-full bathtub. Like something out of a dream, next to the tub Jia Jia discovers a pencil sketch of a strange watery figure, an image that swims into Jia Jia’s mind and won’t leave.

The mysterious drawing launches Jia Jia on an odyssey across contemporary Beijing, from its high-rise apartments to its hidden bars, as her path crosses some of the people who call the city home, including a jaded bartender who may be able to offer her the kind of love she had long thought impossible. Unencumbered by a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia travels into her past to try to discover things that were left unsaid by the people closest to her. Her journey takes her to the high plains of Tibet, and even to a shadowy, watery otherworld, a place she both yearns and fears to go.

Exquisitely attuned to the complexities of human connection, and an atmospheric and cinematic evocation of middle-class urban China, An Yu’s Braised Pork explores the intimate strangeness of grief, the indelible mysteries of unseen worlds, and the energizing self-discovery of a newly empowered young woman.

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The Darkest Evening written by Ann Cleeves and read by Janine Birkett (Downloadable Audiobook)

On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in the back seat.

Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s also where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.

As the blizzard traps the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past.

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The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel written by Akwaeke Emezi and read by Yetide Badaki & Chukwudi Iwuji (eBook)

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Electrifying.” — O Magazine

Named one of the year’s most anticipated books by The New York Times, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, BuzzFeed, Refinery29, and more

What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew?

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations—a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.

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Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss by Jenna Bush Hager (eBook)

Jenna Bush Hager, the former first daughter and granddaughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and coanchor of the Today show, shares moving, funny stories about her beloved grandparents and the wisdom they passed on that has shaped her life.

To the world, George and Barbara Bush were America’s powerful president and influ­ential first lady. To Jenna Bush Hager, they were her beloved Gampy and Ganny, who taught her about respect, humility, kindness, and living a life of passion and meaning—timeless lessons that continue to guide her.

In Midland, Texas, Jenna’s maternal grandparents, Harold and Jenna Welch—Pa and Grammee—a home builder and homemaker, lived a quieter life outside the national spotlight. Yet their influence was no less indelible to their granddaughter. Throughout Jenna’s childhood and adolescence, the Welches taught her the name of every star in the sky, the way a dove uses her voice—teaching her to appreciate the beauty in the smallest things.

Now the mother of three young children, Jenna pays homage to her grandparents in this collection of heartwarming, intimate personal essays. Filled with love, laughter, and unforgettable stories, Everything Beautiful in Its Time captures the joyous and bittersweet nature of life itself. Jenna reflects on the single year in which she and her family lost Barbara and George H. W. Bush, and Jenna Welch. With the light, self-deprecating charm of the bestselling Sisters First—cowritten with her twin sister, Barbara—Jenna reveals how they navigated this difficult period with grace, faith, and nostalgic humor, uplifted by their grandparents’ sage advice and incomparable spirits.

In this moving book, Jenna remembers the past, cherishes the present, and prepares for the future—providing a wealth of anecdotes and lessons for her own children and all of us. Poignant and humorous, intimate and sincere, Everything Beautiful in Its Time is a warm and wonderful celebration of the enduring power of family and an exploration of the things that truly matter most.

“As long as I’m alive, my grandparents will not be forgotten. . . . I hear their voices in the letters they sent me and in my memories. They offer comfort, support, and guidance, and I will listen to them always.”

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Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot written and read by Mikki Kendall (Downloadable Audiobook)

Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord, and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?

In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.

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The Immortal City: Magicians of Venice Series, Book 1 by Amy Kuivalainen (eBook)

In the heart of Venice, a woman is sacrificed to a forgotten god, sparking a mystery lost for thousands of years.

Dr. Penelope Bryne is ridiculed by the academic community for her quest to find the remnants of Atlantis, but when an ancient and mysterious script is found at a murder site, she flies to Venice determined to help the police before the killer strikes again.

Penelope has spent her entire life trying to ignore the unexplainable and magical history of Atlantis, but when she meets the enigmatic Alexis Donato, everything she believes will be challenged. Little does she know, Alexis has spent the last three years doing his best to sabotage Penelope’s career so doesn’t learn the truth—Atlantis had seven magicians who survived, and who he has a duty to protect.

As Alexis draws her into the darkly, seductive world of magic and history, Penelope will have to use her heart as well as her head if she is to find the answers she seeks.

With the new MOSE system due to come online, and Carnivale exploding around them, Penelope and Alexis will have to work together to stop the killer and prevent dark magic from pulling Venice into the sea.

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One by One written by Ruth Ware and ready by Imogen Church (Downloadable Audiobook)

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Turn of the Key and In a Dark Dark Wood returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.

Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.

When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.

As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one.

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A Question of Betrayal: An Elena Standish Novel Anne Perry (eBook)

On her first mission for MI6, the daring young photographer at the heart of this thrilling new mystery series by bestselling author Anne Perry travels to Mussolini’s Italy to rescue the lover who betrayed her.

Britain’s secret intelligence service, MI6, has lost contact with its informant in northern Italy, just as important information about the future plans of Austria and Nazi Germany is coming to light. And young Elena Standish, to her surprise, is the only person who can recognize MI6’s man—because he is her former lover. Aiden Strother betrayed her six years before, throwing shame on her entire family. Now, with so much to prove, Elena heads to Trieste to track down Aiden and find out what happened to his handler, who has mysteriously cut off contact with Britain.

As Elena gets word of a secret group working to put Austria in the hands of Germany, her older sister, Margot, is in Berlin to watch a childhood friend get married—to a member of the Gestapo. Margot and Elena’s grandfather, the former head of MI6, is none too happy about the sisters’ travels at this tumultuous time, especially when a violent event at home reminds him that even Britain is growing dangerous. As his own investigation collides with his granddaughter’s, what’s at stake on the continent becomes increasingly frightening—and personal.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Europe, New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry crafts a novel full of suspense, political intrigue, and the struggle between love and loyalty to country.

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Shadows in Death by J. D. Robb (eBook)

At the start of bestseller Robb’s excellent 51st Eve Dallas novel set in mid-21st-century New York City (after Golden in Death), a call to a murder scene takes Eve, a New York Police and Security Department lieutenant, and her husband, Roarke, to Washington Square Park, where Galla Modesto, an heir to the Modesto Wine and Spirits company, has been stabbed to death. Amid the onlookers, Roarke spies Lorcan Cobbe, an assassin he recognizes from his time growing up in Dublin, and is convinced Cobbe is the killer. Cobbe, who flees the scene, hates Roarke, because Roarke’s father refused to acknowledge Cobbe as his son. Roarke acts as a consultant to Eve and her team, who soon determine that Galla’s jealous husband may have hired Cobbe to kill Galla because she was having an affair. The NYPSD officers work tirelessly to find Cobbe before he strikes again. The investigation takes a number of twists and turns before it reaches its explosive conclusion. Robb’s many fans will be enthralled. Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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When No One Is Watching: A Thriller by Alyssa Cole (eBook)

“I was knocked over by the momentum of an intense psychological thriller that doesn’t let go until the final page. This is a terrific read.” – Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author

Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning…

Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block—her neighbor Theo.

But Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised.

When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear?

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.

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StarCat

The catalog of physical library materials, i.e. print books, audiobooks on CD, DVDs etc.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers available in the Digital Catalog.

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If you have questions about how to access digital content, you can write a comment and post it on the blog, or send me, SSCL Librarian Linda Reimer, questions via email: reimerl@stls.org

 

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FICTION:

1ST CASE by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts (Downloadable Audiobook)

After getting kicked out of M.I.T., Angela Hoot interns with the F.B.I. and tracks the murderous siblings known as the Poet and the Engineer.

 

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28 SUMMERS by Elin Hilderbrand (Downloadable Audiobooks)

A relationship that started in 1993 between Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud comes to light while she is on her deathbed and his wife runs for president.

 

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AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins (eBook)

A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.

 

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THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley (Downloadable Audiobook)

A wedding between a TV star and a magazine publisher on an island off the coast of Ireland turns deadly.

 

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IF IT BLEEDS by Stephen King (eBook):

Four novellas:  “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” “The Life of Chuck,” “Rat” and “If It Bleeds.”

 

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LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (eBook)

An artist upends a quiet town outside Cleveland.

 

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MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Downloadable Audiobook)

1950s Mexico, a debutante travels to a distant mansion where family secrets of a faded mining empire have been kept hidden.

 

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MIDWIFE MURDERS by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo (Downloadable Audiobook):

A single mom teams up with an N.Y.P.D. detective to solve a case involving misdeeds at a university hospital.

 

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NEAR DARK by Brad Thor (eBook)

The 19th book in the Scot Harvath series. With a bounty on his head, Harvath makes an alliance with a Norwegian intelligence operative.

 

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THE ORDER by Daniel Silva (eBook)

The 20th book in the Gabriel Allon series. The art restorer and spy cuts his family’s vacation short to investigate whether Pope Paul VII was murdered.

 

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ROYAL by Danielle Steel (eBook):

In 1943, the 17-year-old Princess Charlotte assumes a new identity in the country and falls in love.

 

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SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (eBooks):

Theo Faber looks into the mystery of a famous painter who stops speaking after shooting her husband.

 

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THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell (eBook):

Ten years after her daughter disappears, a woman tries to get her life in order but remains haunted by unanswered questions.

 

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THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett (eBook)

The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity.

 

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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (eBook)

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.

 

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NON-FICTION:

ANSWER IS …  by Alex Trebek (Downloadable Audiobook) 

Who is the Canadian-American who got his break on American TV by hosting the game show “The Wizard of Odds” and whose pronunciation of the word “genre” has been shared widely on social media?

 

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BECOMING by Michelle Obama (eBook)

The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent.

 

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BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates (eBook)

Winner of the 2015 National Book Award for nonfiction. A meditation on race in America as well as a personal story, framed as a letter to the author’s teenage son.

 

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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah (eBooks):

A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”

 

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CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson (Downloadable Audiobook):

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today.

 

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EDUCATED by Tara Westover (eBook)

The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.

 

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EVIL GENIUSES by Kurt Andersen (eBook):

The author of “Fantasyland” looks at the economic, cultural and political forces to which he ascribes the undermining and dismantling of the American middle class.

 

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HOAX by Brian Stelter (Downloadable Audiobook):

The CNN anchor and chief media correspondent examines the inner workings of Fox News and its relationship with President Trump.

 

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HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi (eBook)

A primer for creating a more just and equitable society through identifying and opposing racism.

 

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SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE by Ijeoma Oluo (Downloadable Audiobook):

A look at the contemporary racial landscape of the United States.

 

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SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson (eBook):

An examination of the leadership of the prime minister Winston Churchill.

 

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TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH by Mary L. Trump (eBook):

The clinical psychologist gives her assessment of events and patterns inside her family and how they shaped President Trump.

 

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle (eBook):

The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.

 

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THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS by Isabel Wilkerson (eBook):

An account of the Great Migration of 1915-70, in which nearly six million African-Americans abandoned the South.

 

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WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo (eBook):

Historical and cultural analyses on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue.

 

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Be well and read on!

Linda Reimer, SSL

 

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Note: this list contains all the New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that are owned by libraries within the Southern Tier Library System.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Our Suggested Listening postings focus on the music of the past, with a few new songs mixed in for good measure.

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Suggested Listening postings come out weekly, on Fridays, and next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, September 11, 2020.

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Anat Cohen And Marcello Gonçalves: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert (Genre: Jazz, International)

Anat Cohen (clarinet) and Marcello Gonçalves (seven string guitar) play a mini concert for NPR and us!

Songs in the set include:
Waiting for Amalia
Valsa do Sul (Waltz of the South)
In the Spirit of Baden

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Blues for the Weepers by Bettye LaVette (Genre: Jazz)

Blues for the Weepers is from Bettye’s new album Blackbirds (2020).

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Council of Elrond (2001) by Howard Shore & Enya (Genre: Soundtrack/Film Score) 

Council of Elrond is from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack; the song is also known as Theme for Aragorn and Arwen and it is a lovely, ethereal and majestic song!

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Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac (Genre: Rock)

Don’t Stop is from their smash 1977 album Rumors (1977), and this version was recorded live with University of Southern California Band.

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Downbound Train (1957) by Chuck Berry (Genre: Rock N’ Roll)

Downbound Train is a terrific early rock gem from the great Chuck Berry; from the Rock n Roll masters debut album After School Sessions (1957).

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Hideaway by Freddie King (Blues, Guitar)

The song Hideaway, a guitar classic, is from Freddie landmark album Let’s Hide Away & Dance Away (1961).

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Bonus: Hideaway by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (1965)

Listen to a young and energetic pre-Cream Eric Clapton playing guitar on this cover version of the Freddie King classic –  from the album John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (1965).

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I’m Your Kingpen by Manfred Man (Genre: Classic Rock, R&B, Jazz)

I’m Your Kingpen is from Manfred Mann’s debut album, The Five Faces of Manfred Mann (1964).

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Old Five And Dimers Like Me (1973) by Billy Joe Shaver (Genre: Country)

This song is the title track from Shaver’s 1973 debut LP of the same name – Old Five And Dimers Like Me.

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Our Love Comes Back by James Blake (Genre: Soothing, Easy Listening)

Our Love Comes Back is from Blake’s second album Overgrown (2013).

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Traversées by Ablaye Cissoko and Constantinople (Genre: International, Jazz)

Traversées is a wonderfully upbeat song; from the album Jardins Migrateurs (2020).

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The Wilbury Twist by the Traveling Wilburys (Genre: Rock, Classic Rock)

A festive song and video; from the album The Traveling Wilburys, Volume 3 (1990)

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS: Libby & RBDigital:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the Libby and/or the RBDigital app, to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and on-demand magazines, from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, consisting entirely of eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

–

Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.

–

The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming written by James Lawrence Powell and read by multiple narrators (Downloadable Audiobook)

This vivid, terrifying, and galvanizing novel reveals our future world after previous generations failed to halt climate change—perfect for fans of The Drowned World and World War Z.

2084: Global warming has proven worse than even the direst predictions scientists had made at the turn of the century. No country—and no one—has remained unscathed. Through interviews with scientists, political leaders, and citizens around the globe, this riveting oral history describes in graphic detail the irreversible effects the Great Warming has had on humankind and the planet.

In short chapters about topics like sea level rise, drought, migration, war, and more, The 2084 Report brings global warming to life, revealing a new reality in which Rotterdam doesn’t exist, Phoenix has no electricity, and Canada is part of the United States. From wars over limited resources to the en masse migrations of entire countries and the rising suicide rate, the characters describe other issues they are confronting in the world they share with the next two generations. Simultaneously fascinating and frightening, The 2084 Report will inspire you to start conversations and take action.

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Aria: A Novel by Nazanine Hozar (eBook)

An extraordinary, cinematic saga of rags-to-riches-to-revolution that follows an orphan girl coming of age in Iran at a time of dramatic upheaval

It is the 1950s in a restless Iran, a country rich in oil but deeply divided by class and religion. The government is unpopular and corrupt and under foreign sway. One night, an illiterate army driver hears the pitiful cry of a baby abandoned in an alley and menaced by ravenous wild dogs. He snatches up the child and takes her home, naming her Aria—the first step on an unlikely path from deprivation to privilege. Over the next two decades, the orphan girl acquires three mother figures whose secrets she will learn only much later: reckless and self-absorbed Zahra, who abuses her; wealthy and compassionate Fereshteh, who adopts her; and mysterious Mehri, whose connection to Aria is both a blessing and a burden.

A university education opens a new world to Aria, and she is soon caught up in the excitement and danger of the popular uprising against the Shah that sweeps through the streets of Tehran. The novel’s heart-pounding, explosive finale sees the Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime seize power—even as Aria falls in love and becomes a mother herself.

Nazanine Hozar’s stunning debut gives us an unusually intimate view of a momentous time, through the eyes of a young woman coming to terms with the mysteries of her own past and future.

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Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel by S. A. Cosby (eBook)

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner…And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi.

“Sensationally good—new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended.” —Lee Child

Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he’d left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can’t-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver’s seat.

And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.
Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland…or die trying.

Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

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A Dance with Fate by Juliet Marillier (eBook)

A young woman who is both a bard—and a warrior—seeks to repay her debts and settle scores in this thrilling historical fantasy series.

The young warrior and bard Liobhan has lost her brother to the Otherworld. Even more determined to gain a place as an elite fighter, she returns to Swan Island to continue her training. But Liobhan is devastated when her comrade Dau is injured and loses his sight in their final display bout. Blamed by Dau’s family for the accident, she agrees to go to Dau’s home as a bond servant for the span of one year.

There, she soon learns that Oakhill is a place of dark secrets. The vicious Crow Folk still threaten both worlds. And Dau, battling the demon of despair, is not an easy man to help.

When Liobhan and Dau start to expose the rot at the center of Oakhill, they place themselves in deadly danger. For their enemy wields great power and will stop at nothing to get his way. It will take all the skills of a Swan Island warrior and a touch of the uncanny to give them a hope of survival. . . .

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The Exiles: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline (eBook)

Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.

During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel—a skilled midwife and herbalist—is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors.

Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.

In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

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The Heatwave written by Kate Riordan and read by Miranda Raison (Downloadable Audiobook)

Under the scorching French sun, a tense homecoming unearths a long-buried family secret in this deliciously propulsive beach read of a mother’s greatest fear brought to life.

Elodie was beautiful. Elodie was smart. Elodie was manipulative. Elodie is dead.

When Sylvie Durand receives a letter calling her back to her crumbling family home in the South of France, she knows she has to go. In the middle of a sweltering 1990’s summer marked by unusual fires across the countryside, she returns to La Reverie with her youngest daughter Emma in tow, ignoring the deep sense of dread she feels for this place she’s long tried to forget.

As memories of the events that shattered their family a decade earlier threaten to come to the surface, Sylvie struggles to shield Emma from the truth of what really happened all those years ago. In every corner of the house, Sylvie can’t escape the specter of Elodie, her first child. Elodie, born amid the ’68 Paris riots with one blue eye and one brown, and mysteriously dead by fourteen. Elodie, who reminded the small village of one those Manson girls. Elodie who knew exactly how to get what she wanted. As the fires creep towards the villa, it’s clear to Sylvie that something isn’t quite right at La Reverie… And there is a much greater threat closer to home.

Rich in unforgettable characters, The Heatwave alternates between the past and present, grappling with what it means to love and fear a child in equal measure. With the lush landscape and nostalgia of a heady vacation read, Kate Riordan has woven a gripping page-turner with gorgeous prose that turns the idea of a summer novel on its head.

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The Lying Life of Adults written Elena Ferrante and translated by Ann Goldstein (eBook)

Soon to be a NETFLIX Original Series.

A POWERFUL NEW NOVEL set in a divided Naples by ELENA FERRANTE, the New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter.

“There’s no doubt [the publication of The Lying Life of Adults] will be the literary event of the year.”—Elle

Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is.

Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves from one to the other in search of the truth, but neither city seems to offer answers or escape.

Named one of 2016’s most influential people by TIME Magazine and frequently touted as a future Nobel Prize-winner, Elena Ferrante has become one of the world’s most read and beloved writers. With this new novel about the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, Ferrante proves once again that she deserves her many accolades. In The Lying Life of Adults, readers will discover another gripping, highly addictive, and totally unforgettable Neapolitan story.

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One for the Books: Library Lover’s Mystery Series by Jenn McKinlay (eBook)

Wedding bells are ringing in the latest page-turning Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Word to the Wise.

Love is in the air in Briar Creek as library director Lindsey Norris and boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully’s plan for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon attending the event of the year.

When Lindsey and her crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body washed up on the rocky shore. Even worse, Lindsey recognizes the man as the justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate her wedding ceremony. When it becomes clear he was murdered, Lindsey can’t help but wonder if it had to do with the wedding. Now she has to book it to solve the mystery before it ends her happily ever after before it’s even begun….

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Riviera Gold–A Novel: Mary Russell Mystery Series written by Laurie R. King and read by Jenny Sterlin (Downloadable Audiobook)

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes turn the Riviera upside-down to crack their most captivating case yet in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.” It’s summertime on the Riviera, where the Jazz Age is busily reinventing the holiday delights of warm days on golden sand and cool nights on terraces and dance floors. Just up the coast lies a more traditional pleasure ground: Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and hidden away. So when Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes happen across the Côte d’Azur in this summer of 1925, they find themselves pulled between the young and the old, hot sun and cool jazz, new friendships and old loyalties, childlike pleasures and very grownup sins…

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Winter Counts: A Novel written by David Heska & Wanbli Weiden and read by Darrell Dennis (Downloadable Audiobook)

An addictive and groundbreaking debut thriller set on a Native American reservation and hailed by CJ Box as “a hell of a debut”

“Winter Counts is both a propulsive crime novel and a wonderfully informative book.” —Louise Erdrich

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.

They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

Winter Counts is a tour-de-force of crime fiction, a bracingly honest look at a long-ignored part of American life, and a twisting, turning story that’s as deeply rendered as it is thrilling.

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.

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StarCat

The catalog of physical library materials, i.e. print books, audiobooks on CD, DVDs etc.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Our Suggested Listening postings focus on the music of the past, with a few new songs mixed in for good measure.

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Suggested Listening postings come out weekly, on Fridays, and next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, September 4, 2020.

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Classical Gas by Mason Williams (Genre: Guitar, Folk, Pop)

A great, sweeping guitar instrumental and William’s biggest hit from his 1968 album, Mason William’s Phonograph Album (1968). And in this clip Mason is accompanied by the great harpist Deborah Henson-Conant – and boy can she play that harp!

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Don’t Give Up On Us Baby by David Soul (Genre: Pop, Folk)

The biggest hit by the actor and singer best known for his role as Hutch in the original Starsky and Hutch TV series; from his 1976 debut LP – David Soul.

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I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor (Genre: R&B, Pop, Seventies Pop)

An ode to the seventies disco scene and Gaynor’s biggest hit; from her album Love Tracks (1979). Gloria survived her break-up and we will survive the current pandemic!

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Love Gets Me Every Time by Shania Twain (Genre: Country)

A energetic blast from the 90’s, from Shania’s third album, Come On Over (1997).

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Memphis Blues by W. C. Handy (Genre: Jazz, Classic Jazz, Pre-World War II Jazz)

A classic horn-centric early jazz recording by the early Twentieth century jazz cornetist.

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Needles and Pins by Jackie DeShannon (Genre: Folk, Pop-Rock)

From DeShannon’s classic album Breaking It Up On The Beatles Tour (1964). The album, despite the title, contains tracks recorded in the studio and released as singles. DeShannon did open for the Beatles during their 1964 tour though – thus the title of the album.

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Summer Rain by Johnny Rivers (Genre: Pop/Rock)

Johnny River’s lovely ode to summer and all the possibilities it brings; from his album Realization (1968).

 

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Waiting for Tain by Branford Marsalis (Genre: Jazz)

A great song from Branford’s debut album Scenes For The City (1984).

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We’re Gonna Have A Good Time by Rick Springfield (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From Rick’s cheerful and upbeat classic seventies album Mission Magic (1974).

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Winter by Tori Amos (Genre: Pop/Rock, Vocal)

From Amos’s debut LP Little Earthquakes (1992).

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS: Libby & RBDigital:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the Libby and/or the RBDigital app, to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and on-demand magazines, from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, consisting entirely of eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.

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And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Stephanie Marie Thornton (eBook)

An intimate portrait of the life of Jackie O…

Few of us can claim to be the authors of our fate. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy knows no other choice. With the eyes of the world watching, Jackie uses her effortless charm and keen intelligence to carve a place for herself among the men of history and weave a fairy tale for the American people, embodying a senator’s wife, a devoted mother, a First Lady—a queen in her own right.

But all reigns must come to an end. Once JFK travels to Dallas and the clock ticks down those thousand days of magic in Camelot, Jackie is forced to pick up the ruined fragments of her life and forge herself into a new identity that is all her own, that of an American legend.

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Cold Welcome, Vatta’s Peace Series, Book 1 by Elizabeth Moon (eBook)

Nebula Award–winning author Elizabeth Moon makes a triumphant return to science fiction with a thrilling series featuring Kylara Vatta, the daring hero of her acclaimed Vatta’s War sequence.

After nearly a decade away, Nebula Award–winning author Elizabeth Moon makes a triumphant return to science fiction with this installment in a thrilling new series featuring the daring hero of her acclaimed Vatta’s War sequence.

Summoned to the home planet of her family’s business empire, space-fleet commander Kylara Vatta is told to expect a hero’s welcome. But instead she is thrown into danger unlike any other she has faced and finds herself isolated, unable to communicate with the outside world, commanding a motley group of unfamiliar troops, and struggling day by day to survive in a deadly environment with sabotaged gear. Only her undeniable talent for command can give her ragtag band a fighting chance.

Yet even as Ky leads her team from one crisis to another, her family and friends refuse to give up hope, endeavoring to mount a rescue from halfway around the planet—a task that is complicated as Ky and her supporters find secrets others will kill to protect: a conspiracy infecting both government and military that threatens not only her own group’s survival but her entire home planet.

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Deeper Than the Dead, Oak Knoll Series, Book 1 by Tami Hoag (Downloadable Audiobook)

When three children stumble on a shallow grave in 1984, an idyllic California community is rocked to its core. The victim is a young woman, her eyes and lips sealed closed, a blind and silent witness to an unspeakable crime. The third victim in two years’ time, it’s clear that a serial killer has come calling.

As a member of the FBI’s fledgling criminal profiling unit, Special Agent Tony Mendez knows serial killers. It quickly becomes apparent that the See-No-Evil killer is no ordinary psychopath. The profile paints a portrait of a man easily trusted, well respected, and intelligent—a man no one would suspect.

Dr. Peter Crane fits the bill. A pillar of the community, he volunteers at a center for disadvantaged women—a center the victims had all attended. Crane is also a beloved husband and father to a ten-year-old son, Tommy, who was one of the three children to discover the grave. Needing insight into Peter Crane’s world, Mendez asks Anne Navarre, Tommy’s fifth-grade teacher, to find out what she can. It’s a request Anne finds both intriguing and unethical—much like Mendez himself.

Then a new victim leads to a different suspect—a man whose son was another of the three children to find the grave but a man whose position in the community is also above reproach, a sheriff’s deputy. As the connections between the two families become increasingly tangled, it seems clear that one of these children holds the key to a serial killer’s double life . . . and a revelation of evil so dark, so deep, no one may survive.

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East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter (eBook)

“Gorgeous writing and page-turning suspense.”—Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Surfside Sisters

“A brilliant firecracker of a book…beautiful, heartfelt, and life-affirming.”——Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
They share countless perfect memories—and one they wish they could forget.

Childhood friends Hannah, Maya, Blue and Renee share a bond that feels more like family. Growing up, they had difficult home lives, and the summers they spent together in Montauk were the happiest memories they ever made. Then, the summer after graduation, one terrible night changed everything.

Twelve years have passed since that fateful incident, and their sisterhood has drifted apart, each woman haunted by her own lost innocence. But just as they reunite in Montauk for one last summer escape, hoping to find happiness once more, tragedy strikes again. This time it’ll test them like never before, forcing them to confront decisions they’ve each had to live with and old secrets that refuse to stay buried.

“Readers of Elin Hilderbrand and J. Courtney Sullivan will devour this book.”—Brenda Novak, New York Times bestselling author of One Perfect Summer

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The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (eBook)

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

“A page turner…An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis. “—The New York Times Book Review

A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed author Rebecca Makkai

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself.

Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.

Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.

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Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein (eBook)

Named a best beach/summer read by O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Parade, PopSugar, Marie Claire, Bustle, and more!

From the author of the Love at First Like and Playing with Matches, an electrifying rom-com set in the high stakes world of competitive gymnastics, full of Hannah Orenstein’s signature “charm, whimsy, and giddy romantic tension” (BuzzFeed).

The past seven years have been hard on Avery Abrams: After training her entire life to make the Olympic gymnastics team, a disastrous performance ended her athletic career for good. Her best friend and teammate, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion, then committed the ultimate betrayal by marrying their emotionally abusive coach, Dimitri.

Now, reeling from a breakup with her football star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where new coach Ryan asks her to help him train a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Despite her misgivings and worries about the memories it will evoke, Avery agrees. Back in the gym, she’s surprised to find sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering effects not only for the sport but also for Avery and her old friend Jasmine.

Perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jasmine Guillory, Head Over Heels proves that no one “writes about modern relationships with more humor or insight than Hannah Orenstein” (Dana Schwartz, author of Choose Your Own Disaster).

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Joyland by Emily Schultz (eBook)

Welcome to 1984 and the town of South Wakefield. Chris Lane is 14 and he’s sure that he can see the future, or at least guess what’s inside of Christie Brinkley’s mind. But he can’t foresee the closing of Joyland, the town’s only video arcade. With the arcade’s passing comes a summer of teenage lust, violence, and a search for new entertainment. Never far away is Chris’s younger sister, Tammy, who plays spy to the events that will change the lives of her family and town forever. Joyland is a novel about the impossibility of knowing the future. Schultz bring the Cold War home in a novel set to the digital pulse of video games and the echoes of hair metal. Joyland is illustrated throughout by graphic novelist Nate Powell, whose work has been praised by Sin City creator Frank Miller as “observant, intimate cartooning [that] surgically cuts to the bone.”

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The Lehman Trilogy: A Novel by Stefano Massini and Richard Dixon (eBook)

Magnificent in scope, internationally lauded, and transcendent, the novel in verse that inspired the sensational West End and Off-Broadway play of the same name. The Lehman Trilogy follows the epic rise and fall of three generations of that infamous family and through them tells the story of American ambition and hubris.

After leaving his native Bavaria, Henry Lehman arrives in America determined to make a better life. Sensing opportunity in the Deep South, he opens a textile shop in Alabama, laying the foundation for a dynasty that will come to dominate and define modern capitalism. Emanuel and his brother Mayer begin investing in anything and everything that will turn a profit, from cotton to coal to railroads to oil to airplanes—even at the expense of the very nation that forged them.

Spanning three generations and 150 years, The Lehman Trilogy is a moving epic that dares to tell the story of modern capitalism through the saga of the Lehman brothers and their descendants. Surprising and exciting, brilliant and inventive, Stefano Massini’s masterpiece—like Hamilton—is a story of immigration, ambition, and success; it is the story of America itself from a daring and original perspective.

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Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (eBook)

With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, “My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist,” author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man’s deception, a family’s complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon’s two families—the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed “one of the most important writers of her generation” (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

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Sister Mine by Tawni O’Dell (eBook)

Shae-Lynn Penrose drives a cab in a town where no one needs a cab—but plenty of people need rides. A former police officer with a closet full of miniskirts, a recklessly sharp tongue, and a tendency to deal with men by either beating them up or taking them to bed, she has spent years carving out a life for herself and her son in Jolly Mount, Pennsylvania, the tiny coal-mining town where she grew up.

Two years ago, five of Shae-Lynn’s miner friends were catapulted to media stardom when they were rescued after surviving four days trapped in a mine. As the men struggle to come to terms with the nightmarish memories of their ordeal, along with the fallout of their short- lived celebrity, Shae-Lynn finds herself facing harsh realities and reliving bad dreams of her own, including her relationship with her brutal father, her conflicted passion for one of the miners, and the hidden identity of the man who fathered her son.

When the younger sister she thought was dead arrives on her doorstep, followed closely by a gun-wielding Russian gangster, a shady New York lawyer, and a desperate Connecticut housewife, Shae-Lynn is forced to grapple with the horrible truth she discovers about the life her sister’s been living, and with one ominous question: Will her return result in a monstrous act of greed or one of sacrifice?

Tawni O’Dell’s trademark blend of black humor, tenderness, and a keen sense of place is evident once again as Shae-Lynn takes on past demons and all-too-present dangers.

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.

–

StarCat

The catalog of physical library materials, i.e. print books, audiobooks on CD, DVDs etc.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers available in the Digital Catalog.

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If you have questions about how to access digital content, you can write a comment and post it on the blog, or send me, SSCL Librarian Linda Reimer, questions via email: reimerl@stls.org

 

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FICTION:

1ST CASE by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts (Downloadable Audiobook)

After getting kicked out of M.I.T., Angela Hoot interns with the F.B.I. and tracks the murderous siblings known as the Poet and the Engineer.

 

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28 SUMMERS by Elin Hilderbrand (Downloadable Audiobooks)

A relationship that started in 1993 between Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud comes to light while she is on her deathbed and his wife runs for president.

 

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AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins (eBook)

A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.

 

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CAMINO WINDS by John Grisham (eBook)

The line between fact and fiction becomes blurred when an author of thrillers is found dead after a hurricane hits Camino Island.

 

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CHOPPY WATER by Stuart Woods (eBooks):

The 54th book in the Stone Barrington series. Things get rough for Stone as he goes after criminals in New York City and Key West.

 

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THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley (Downloadable Audiobook)

A wedding between a TV star and a magazine publisher on an island off the coast of Ireland turns deadly.

 

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IF IT BLEEDS by Stephen King (eBook):

Four novellas:  “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” “The Life of Chuck,” “Rat” and “If It Bleeds.”

 

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LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (eBook)

An artist upends a quiet town outside Cleveland.

 

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LUSTER by Raven Leilani (eBook):

A young Brooklyn artist is invited to live with a New Jersey couple who have an open marriage and an adopted daughter.

 

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MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Downloadable Audiobook)

1950s Mexico, a debutante travels to a distant mansion where family secrets of a faded mining empire have been kept hidden.

 

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MIDWIFE MURDERS by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo (Downloadable Audiobook):

A single mom teams up with an N.Y.P.D. detective to solve a case involving misdeeds at a university hospital.

 

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NEAR DARK by Brad Thor (eBook)

The 19th book in the Scot Harvath series. With a bounty on his head, Harvath makes an alliance with a Norwegian intelligence operative.

 

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THE ORDER by Daniel Silva (eBook)

The 20th book in the Gabriel Allon series. The art restorer and spy cuts his family’s vacation short to investigate whether Pope Paul VII was murdered.

 

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A PRIVATE CATHEDRAL by James Lee Burke (eBook):

The 23rd book in the Dave Robicheaux series. Rival Louisiana crime families and a time-traveling superhuman assassin bring up Robicheaux’s personal demons.

 

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SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (eBooks):

Theo Faber looks into the mystery of a famous painter who stops speaking after shooting her husband.

 

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SILENT WIFE by Karin Slaughter (eBook):

The 10th book in the Will Trent series. Investigations of two crimes force Trent to call on his girlfriend’s expertise as a medical examiner

 

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THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell (eBook):

Ten years after her daughter disappears, a woman tries to get her life in order but remains haunted by unanswered questions.

 

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THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett (eBook)

The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity.

 

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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (eBook)

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.

 

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NON-FICTION:

ANSWER IS …  by Alex Trebek (Downloadable Audiobook) 

Who is the Canadian-American who got his break on American TV by hosting the game show “The Wizard of Odds” and whose pronunciation of the word “genre” has been shared widely on social media?

 

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BECOMING by Michelle Obama (eBook)

The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent.

 

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BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates (eBook)

Winner of the 2015 National Book Award for nonfiction. A meditation on race in America as well as a personal story, framed as a letter to the author’s teenage son.

 

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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah (eBook):

A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”

 

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BREATH by James Nestor (Downloadable Audiobook):

A re-examination of a basic biological function and a look at the science behind ancient breathing practices.

 

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CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson (Downloadable Audiobook):

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today.

 

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EDUCATED by Tara Westover (eBook)

The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.

 

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FINDING FREEDOM by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand (eBooks):

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s journey from courtship to their decision to step away from their royal lives.

 

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HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi (eBook)

A primer for creating a more just and equitable society through identifying and opposing racism.

 

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THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED by John Bolton (eBook)

The former national security advisor gives his account of the 17 months he spent working for President Trump.

 

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SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE by Ijeoma Oluo (Downloadable Audiobook):

A look at the contemporary racial landscape of the United States.

 

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SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson (eBook):

An examination of the leadership of the prime minister Winston Churchill.

 

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TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH by Mary L. Trump (eBook):

The clinical psychologist gives her assessment of events and patterns inside her family and how they shaped President Trump.

 

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THE TRUTHS WE HOLD by Kamala Harris (eBook):

A memoir by the daughter of immigrants who is now a California senator and the 2020 Democratic candidate for vice president.

 

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle (eBook):

The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.

 

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WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo (eBook):

Historical and cultural analyses on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue.

 

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Be well and read on!

Linda Reimer, SSL

 

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Note: this list contains all the New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that are owned by libraries within the Southern Tier Library System.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Our Suggested Listening postings focus on the music of the past, with a few new songs mixed in for good measure.

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Suggested Listening postings come out weekly, on Fridays, and next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, August 28, 2020.

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Autumn Leaves by Cannonball Adderley (Genre: Jazz)

From the classic jazz album Something Else (1958).

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Desperados Waiting For A Train by Guy Clark (Genre: Country, Folk)

From Guy’s 1975 debut LP, Old Number 1.

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Minglewood Blues by the Cannon’s Jug Stompers featuring Gus Cannon (Genre: Blues)

Great acoustic blues music, recorded in the 1920s and 1930s, from the album The Best of Cannon’s Jug Stompers.

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On And On by Gladys Knight & the Pips (Genre: R&B, Pop)

From the Claudine (1974) soundtrack, all songs composed by Curtis Mayfield and performed by Gladys Knight & The Pips.

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I Think I Love You by The Partridge Family (Genre: Pop)

From the debut album, The Partridge Family (1970), of the made-for-television band, featuring David Cassidy and Shirley Jones – happy music for this strange year we’re living in!

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I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart by Patsy Montana (Genre: Classic Country, Country)

Patsy’s biggest hit, from 1935, available on the album The Best of Patsy Montana (Collector’s Choice label).

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Reaching Out To You by Snow Patrol (Genre: Pop, Rock)

Introspective pop from the band’s 2020 release Fireside Sessions.

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Rondo alla Mambo by Sarah Willis (Classical)

From French horn player Sarah Willis’s new album Mozart Mambo (2020) – upbeat and dance-able!

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Sealed With A Kiss by Bryan Hyland (Genre: Pop, Vocal)

A classic song of summer, originally released in 1962 and available on the album Bryan Hyland’s Greatest Hits.

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Tecumseh Valley by Townes Van Zandt (Genre: Country, Folk)

From one of Van Zandt’s best albums, Live At the Old Town Quarter (1977).

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS: Libby & RBDigital:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the Libby and/or the RBDigital app, to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and on-demand magazines, from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, consisting entirely of eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.

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The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season: A Novel by Molly Fader (eBook)

“A stunning story about family and hope that unfolds unexpectedly but beautifully, like a Michigan summer sunset over an orchard.” —Viola Shipman, bestselling author of The Heirloom Garden and The Summer Cottage

In cherry season, anything is possible…

Everything Hope knows about the Orchard House is from the stories of her late mother. So when she arrives at the northern Michigan family estate late one night with a terrible secret and her ten-year-old daughter in tow, she’s not sure if she’ll be welcomed or turned away with a shotgun by the aunt she has never met.

Hope’s aunt, Peg, has lived in the Orchard House all her life, though the property has seen better days. She agrees to take Hope in if, in exchange, Hope helps with the cherry harvest—not exactly Hope’s specialty, but she’s out of options. As Hope works the orchard alongside her aunt, daughter and a kind man she finds increasingly difficult to ignore, a new life begins to blossom. But the mistakes of the past are never far behind, and soon the women will find themselves fighting harder than ever for their family roots and for each other.

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Buzzard’s Bluff by William W. Johnstone & J.A. Johnstone (eBook)

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WILDER THAN EVER.

Welcome to the Lost Coyote Saloon. Saddle up to the bar and order a whiskey. Play a few hands of poker. But don’t make any trouble. The new owner is savage. Ben Savage. Once a Texas Ranger, he’s always cocked and ready for some fool to come looking for payback . . .

EAT, DRINK, AND BE WARY

When Ben Savage receives a telegram informing him that an old friend died—and left him his saloon—he’s not sure what to think. Western saloons are as wild as it gets, full of rowdy ranchers and cocky cowboys, high-stakes gamblers and low-life drifters, hard liquor and easy women. Then there’s the occasional outlaw gang. But when Savage travels to Buzzard’s Bluff, Texas, to check out his inheritance, he meets the saloon’s lovely manager, Rachel Baskin, and has a change of heart. As an experienced lawman, he figures he can run a decent establishment. Keep things friendly, peaceful, and orderly. There’s just one problem: a rival saloon owner wants Savage out of the way so he can control all the vice in town. And some of his men are bound to turn up in his saloon—thirsty for whiskey . . . and killing . . .

Live Free. Read Hard.

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Collected Memoirs: Ahead of Time, Haven, and Inside of Time by Ruth Gruber (eBook)

Three poignant and powerful memoirs from the award-winning journalist, human rights advocate, and “fearless chronicler of the Jewish struggle” (The New York Times).

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for her biography of the pioneering Israeli nurse, Raquela Prywes, Ruth Gruber lived an extraordinary life as a foreign correspondent, photographer, humanitarian, and author. This collection is comprised of three of her most gripping memoirs, covering many of the most significant historical events in the first half of the twentieth century.

Ahead of Time: At the tender age of eighty, the trailblazing journalist looked back on her remarkable first twenty-five years: growing up in a Brooklyn shtetl; entering New York University at fifteen; becoming the world’s youngest person to earn a PhD at nineteen in Cologne, Germany; being exposed to Hitler’s rise to power; and becoming the first American to travel to Siberia at the age of twenty-four, reporting on Gulag conditions for the New York Herald Tribune, in this “beautifully crafted” memoir (Publishers Weekly).

“Ruth Gruber’s singular autobiography is both informative and poignant. Read it and your own memory will be enriched.” —Elie Wiesel

Haven: In 1943, nearly one thousand European Jewish refugees were chosen by President Roosevelt to receive asylum in the United States. Working for the secretary of the interior, Gruber volunteered to shepherd them on their secret route across the Atlantic from Italy. She recorded the refugees’ dangerous passage, along with the aftermath of their arrival, which involved a fight to stay in the US after the war ended. The “remarkable story” was made into a TV miniseries starring Natasha Richardson as Gruber (Booklist).

“[A] touching story . . . [Ruth Gruber] has put us into the full picture and humanized it.” —The New York Times

Inside of Time: Unstoppable at ninety-one, Gruber, “with clarity, insight and humor,” revisited the years 1941 to 1952, recounting her eighteen months spent surveying Alaska on behalf of the US government, her role assisting Holocaust refugees’ emigration from war-torn Europe to Israel, and her relationships with some of the most important figures of the era, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Golda Meir (Publishers Weekly).

“Gruber bore witness, spoke bluntly, galvanized public opinion, inspired people to action.” —Blanche Wiesen Cook, Los Angeles Times

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Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team by Elise Hooper (eBook)

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE SUMMER BY POPSUGAR, FROLIC, PARADE, TRAVEL & LEISURE, SHE KNOWS, and SHE READS!

NAMED A REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF 2020 (SO FAR).

“Fast Girls is a compelling, thrilling look at what it takes to be a female Olympian in pre-war America…Brava to Elise Hooper for bringing these inspiring heroines to the wide audience they so richly deserve.”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and The House Girl

Acclaimed author Elise Hooper explores the gripping, real life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women’s Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. Perfect for readers who love untold stories of amazing women, such as The Only Woman in the Room, Hidden Figures, and The Lost Girls of Paris.

In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago’s Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women’s delegation in track and field. Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America’s Golden Girl until a nearly-fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything.

Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes, one of the few black girls in her town, sees competing as an opportunity to overcome the limitations placed on her. Eager to prove that she has what it takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic team.

From Missouri, Helen Stephens, awkward, tomboyish, and poor, is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success. Her aspirations appear impossible until a chance encounter changes her life.

These three athletes will join with others to defy society’s expectations of what women can achieve. As tensions bring the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war, Betty, Louise, and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

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The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin (eBook)

Assassin priests, mad kings, and the goddess of death collide in the first book of the Dreamblood Duology by NYT bestselling and three time Hugo-Award winning author N. K. Jemisin.

The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.

In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.

But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru – the most famous of the city’s Gatherers – must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess’ name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh’s alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill – or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.

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Little Wonder: The Fabulous Story of Lottie Dod, the World’s First Female Sports Superstar by Sasha Abramsky (eBook)

Lottie Dod was a truly extraordinary sports figure who blazed trails of glory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dod won Wimbledon five times, and did so for the first time in 1887, at the ludicrously young age of fifteen. After she grew bored with competitive tennis, she moved on to and excelled in myriad other sports: she became a leading ice skater and tobogganist, a mountaineer, an endurance bicyclist, a hockey player, a British ladies’ golf champion, and an Olympic silver medalist in archery.

In her time, Dod had a huge following, but her years of distinction occurred just before the rise of broadcast media. By the outset of World War I, she was largely a forgotten figure; she died alone and without fanfare in 1960.

Little Wonder brings this remarkable woman’s story to life, contextualizing it against a backdrop of rapid social change and tectonic shifts in the status of women in society. Dod was born into a world in which even upper-class women such as herself could not vote, were restricted in owning property, and were assumed to be fragile and delicate.

Women of Lottie Dod’s class were expected not to work and to definitely get married. Dod never married and never had children, instead putting heart and soul into training to be the best athlete she could possibly be. Paving the way for the likes of Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, and other top female athletes of today, Dod accepted no limits, no glass ceilings, and always refused to…

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Memoirs and Misinformation: A Novel by Jim Carrey & Dana Vachon (eBook)

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“None of this is real and all of it is true.” —Jim Carrey

Meet Jim Carrey. Sure, he’s an insanely successful and beloved movie star drowning in wealth and privilege—but he’s also lonely. Maybe past his prime. Maybe even . . . getting fat? He’s tried diets, gurus, and cuddling with his military-grade Israeli guard dogs, but nothing seems to lift the cloud of emptiness and ennui. Even the sage advice of his best friend, actor and dinosaur skull collector Nicolas Cage, isn’t enough to pull Carrey out of his slump.

But then Jim meets Georgie: ruthless ingénue, love of his life. And with the help of auteur screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, he has a role to play in a boundary-pushing new picture that may help him uncover a whole new side to himself—finally, his Oscar vehicle! Things are looking up!

But the universe has other plans.

Memoirs and Misinformation is a fearless semi-autobiographical novel, a deconstruction of persona. In it, Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon have fashioned a story about acting, Hollywood, agents, celebrity, privilege, friendship, romance, addiction to relevance, fear of personal erasure, our “one big soul,” Canada, and a cataclysmic ending of the world—apocalypses within and without.

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Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer (eBook)

Well-heeled travelers from around the world flock to the Mena House Hotel—an exotic gem in the heart of Cairo where cocktails flow, adventure dispels the aftershocks of World War I, and deadly dangers wait in the shadows…

Egypt, 1926. Fiercely independent American Jane Wunderly has made up her mind: she won’t be swept off her feet on a trip abroad. Despite her Aunt Millie’s best efforts at meddling with her love life, the young widow would rather gaze at the Great Pyramids of Giza than into the eyes of a dashing stranger. Yet Jane’s plans to remain cool and indifferent become ancient history in the company of Mr. Redvers, a roguish banker she can’t quite figure out . . .

While the Mena House has its share of charming guests, Anna Stainton isn’t one of them. The beautiful socialite makes it clear that she won’t share the spotlight with anyone—especially Jane. But Jane soon becomes the center of attention when she’s the one standing over her unintentional rival’s dead body.

Now, with her innocence at stake in a foreign country, Jane must determine who can be trusted, and who had motive to commit a brutal murder. Between Aunt Millie’s unusual new acquaintances, a smarmy playboy with an off-putting smile, and the enigmatic Mr. Redvers, someone has too many secrets. Can Jane excavate the horrible truth before her future falls to ruin in Cairo . . . and the body count rises like the desert heat?

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Summer Darlings by Brooke Lea Foster (eBook)

Set during the splendid summer days of 1960s Martha’s Vineyard, this page-turning debut novel pulls back the curtain on one mysterious and wealthy family as seen through the eyes of their nanny—a college student who, while falling in love on the elegant island, is also forced to reckon with the dark underbelly of privilege.

In 1962, coed Heddy Winsome leaves her hardscrabble Irish Brooklyn neighborhood behind and ferries to glamorous Martha’s Vineyard to nanny for one of the wealthiest families on the island. But as she grows enamored with the alluring and seemingly perfect young couple and chases after their two mischievous children, Heddy discovers that her academic scholarship at Wellesley has been revoked, putting her entire future at risk.

Determined to find her place in the couple’s wealthy social circles, Heddy nurtures a romance with the hip surfer down the beach while wondering if the better man for her might be a quiet, studious college boy instead. But no one she meets on the summer island—socialite, starlet, or housekeeper—is as picture-perfect as they seem, and she quickly learns that the right last name and a house in a tony zip-code may guarantee privilege, but that rarely equals happiness.

Rich with the sights and sounds of midcentury Martha’s Vineyard, Brooke Lea Foster’s debut novel Summer Darlings promises entrance to a rarefied world, for readers who enjoyed Tigers in Red Weather or The Summer Wives.

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Wicked As You Wish: A Hundred Names for Magic Series, Book 1 by Rin Chupeco (eBook)

Combining legends, myths, fairy tales, and classic children’s literature from Oz to Neverland, Chupeco (The Bone Witch) creates an enchanting story that is both a feast for the senses and a unique spin on the hero’s journey. Tala Warnock is a Makiling, a spellbreaker, living with her Scottish and Filipino family in the Royal States of America, where ICE hunts refugees from other magical lands. Tala’s best friend, Prince Alexei, is the hidden heir to Avalon, a world of advanced spelltech that is unbreachable after the Wonderland Wars against the Snow Queen. When Alex turns 18 and a firebird appears to guide him back to Avalon, Tala joins a gang of Banders sworn to protect him and fight the Snow Queen’s powers. As Tala learns more about her family and her own strengths, she discovers a fate in Avalon she never expected. Chupeco’s novel teems with exhilarating wizardry, from ice wolves to a marsh king in the form of a giant toad. Though the beginning is heavily weighted with background information, the pace quickens into a nail-biting quest that introduces a gripping new series. Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.

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StarCat

The catalog of physical library materials, i.e. print books, audiobooks on CD, DVDs etc.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.