Author: Linda Reimer

I am a librarian at The Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York, where we love books, technology and life-long learning for patrons and ourselves too!

Suggested Listening July 27, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions* and one recommended album on CD.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you’re interested in!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

The Tree (2018) by Lori McKenna (Genre: Folk, Singer-Songwriter):

The Tree is the new and ninth album by the talented singer songwriter Lori McKenna. McKenna’s songs have been covered by a host of country artists including Faith Hill, Mandy Moore, Vance Gilbert and Tim McGraw.

McKenna’s truly a modern folk songwriter. Her songs remind me of Woody Guthrie’s songs in that they are based upon everyday things going on now and experienced by many people.

My favorite song on the LP is People Get Old, which, despite it’s title, is charmingly humorous and hopeful.

Other songs on the album include: A Mother Never Rests, Young and Angry Again, The Fixer, The Tree, Happy People and the Lot Behind St. Mary’s.

Get Your Groove (2018) by Bruce Katz Band (Genre: Blues, Blues-Rock):

Pianist Bruce Katz was a child prodigy and is best known as a member of the blues band Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters. He’s played great jazz and blues music over the years and is a retired professor of music who taught at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

In addition to Katz himself, the Bruce Katz Band features Christ Vitarello on guitar and vocals and Ray Hangen on drums.

Special guest on this LP is percussionist Jaimoe – an original member of the Allman Brothers band.

Americas (1992) by Strunz & Farah (Genre: International, Jazz, Flamenco Guitar, Acoustic):

Strunz & Farah is a guitar playing duo that consists of Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah.

The duo offers great up-tempo music that conjures up mental images of rain forests, moonlight waters and natural landscapes in general.

This is a perfect album for background music on the weekend, during dinner, while reading or just whenever you want to unwind!

Songs on the LP include: Luna Suave (Soft Moon) Alas del Sur (Wings of the South), Gypsy Earrings, Selva and Americas.

And if you like this classic LP by Strunz & Farah – then check out their brand new album, Tales of Two Guitars, too – it is also available through Freegal.

The Coolest Songs in the World! Vol. 1 by Various Artists presented by Little Steven’s Underground Garage:

The “Little Steven” of the title is Steven Van Zandt who has played in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band for years.

This is a collection of rough, traditional garage band music in the vein of the Kingsmen’s Louie, Louie.

Artists and songs on the LP include: Can’t Stand It by The Greenhorns, My Kind of Girl by The Forty-Fives, Lost My Motto by Cotton Mather, I Woke UP This Mornin’ by The Mooney Suzuki and You’re My Favorite by Caesars.

Recommended CD of the Week:

United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas (2018) by the Wynton Marsalis Septet (Genre: Jazz, Vocal):

This collection features some cool live performances the trumpeter and his friends gave at Lincoln Center between 2003 and 2007.

The friends playing with Wynton include Blind Boys of Alabama, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Natalie Merchant, John Meyer, Audra McDonald and Eric Clapton.

The collection features 16 songs including: It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (with Bob Dylan), My Baby Don’t Tolerate (with Lyle Lovett), Please Baby Don’t (with John Legend), Empty Bed Blues (with Carrie Smith) and Fool’s Paradise (with Jimmy Buffett).

Videos of the Week:

People Get Old by Lori McKenna:

Hesitation Blues by Bruce Katz Band:

Americas by Strunz & Farah:

On The Airwaves by The Shazam:

Layla by Eric Clapton & Wynton Marsalis:

I’m Not Rough by Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton:

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

*A library card is required to use the Freegal Music Service. If you live in the service area of the Southern Tier Library System, which consists of the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Alleghany counties in New York State, you can get a library card for free at your nearest public library – including our own Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York. The Freegal Music Service is free for all Southern Tier Library System member libraries library card holders to access.

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

Links to the desktop versions of the catalogs for the library system – apps for each are available in your app store:

Digital Library Catalogs:

Freegal offers streaming and downloadable music

OverDrive allows you to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and handful of streaming videos

RB Digital is the place you go to check out magazines – on demand – and you never have to return them!

The Traditional Library Catalog:

You can search for and request books, DVDs, music CDs, audiobooks on CD and other physical format items through StarCat – it is the modern day card catalog!

New Summer Cookbooks

Linda Reimer

In the midst of summer here are some new cook books whose recipes will compliment the season!

Alaska from Scratch Cookbook: Seasonal. Scenic. Homemade. by Maya Wilson:

Based on a wildly popular blog of the same name, this gorgeous and cozy cookbook showcases the beauty and seasonal ingredients of Alaska. While the book showcases Alaska’s famous wild berries, salmon, halibut, and even moose, all the recipes are designed to be simple and adaptable – Maya Wilson provides substitutions that can be found everywhere.

Black Girl Baking: Wholesome Recipes Inspired by a Soulful Upbringing by Jerrelle Guy:

Growing up sensitive and slightly awkward in a race-conscious space, Guy decided early on that good food is the most powerful way to connect, understand, and heal. She leads readers on a sensual baking journey, using the fives senses, as she retells food memories with ingredients that involve whole flours, less refined sugar, and vegan alternatives.

Campout Cookbook: Inspired Recipes for Cooking Around the Fire and Under the Stars by Marnie Hanel: 

Finally, here’s a cookbook that complements the magic of gathering around a campfire and sharing a meal with friends. From the IACP Award-winning authors of The Picnic, which brought taste and style to eating outdoors (in the daytime), comes its companion, for leaving civilization behind and dining under the stars. A mix of dishes to make ahead and meals to cook on-site, The Campout Cookbook includes more than 75 recipes for wood-fired skillet pizzas; backcountry stews and chilies; fire-roasted vegetables and cast-iron breads; unexpected dips, jerkies, and high-energy bars; breakfasts to satisfy that yawning hunger that comes from sleeping in the fresh air; s’mores, of course (including Vanilla Bean Dream Marshmallows & Co. and Dark Chocolate Raspberry Caramel Fire-Ban S’mores); and cocktails, coolers, warm libations for chilly nights, and a Blood Orange Bug Juice.

Chinese Soul Food: A Friendly Guide for Homemade Dumplings, Stir-Fries, Soups, and More by Hsiao-Ching Chou:

Chinese food is more popular than any other cuisine and yet it often intimidates North American home cooks. Chinese Soul Food draws cooks into the kitchen with recipes that include sizzling potstickers, stir-fries that are unbelievably easy to make, saucy braises, and soups that bring comfort with a sip. These are dishes that feed the belly and speak the universal language of “mmm!”

Great Tastes: Stories & Recipes from Morning to Midnight by Danielle Kosann:

Founders of popular website The New Potato mix food with lifestyle in this trendy, healthy cookbook: funny anecdotes, celebrity run-ins, and a healthy serving of fashion. Now, their debut cookbook brings together those antics and anecdotes with 85 original recipes that anyone can make, as long as they’re hungry and have a kitchen. Lime-Blueberry Pancakes? Stack ‘em. Sweet Pea Carbonara? Give it a twirl. Then finish the night off with a Bourbon Chai. Pull up a chair, have a bite, and get ready for some great stories on the side.

Healthy Make-Ahead Cookbook: Wholesome, Flavorful Freezer Meals the Whole Family Will Enjoy by Robin Donovan:

Make ahead meals have always been convenient. Now, with The Healthy Make Ahead Cookbook, these hassle-free meals are wholesome and nutritious, too!

Instant Pot Italian: 100 Irresistible Recipes Made Easier Than Ever by Ivy Manning:

The Instant Pot has made getting dinner on the table easier than ever. And Italian food is a perfect partner for your Instant Pot, think rich and meaty braises, one-pot pastas, risotto, stuffed artichokes, and more. This authorized Instant Pot cookbook offers 100 delicious, sure-to-please recipes for weeknight cooking and beyond.

Just Cook It!: 145 Built-To-Be-Easy Recipes That Are Totally Delicious by Justin Chapple:

Justin Chapple may have trained at the French Culinary Institute, but he knows how people really cook at home. He grew up with a large family, first learning kitchen tricks from his grandmother who made do with whatever they had, and she made the food delicious. Now Justin is the host of Food & Wine’s award-nominated Mad Genius Tips video cooking series, and appears regularly on TODAY and other television shows as their resident kitchen hack expert. Now he is putting all of his expertise to good use in Just Cook It!, a collection of 125 mouthwatering recipes like Avocado Pizza with Dukka and Stovetop Mac-n-Cheese with Bacon Breadcrumbs, with Justin’s signature time-saving tips and hacks throughout

Margaritaville: The Cookbook: Relaxed Recipes for a Taste of Paradise by Carlo Sernaglia:

Warm sun, cool drink, and the clock set to island time — that’s Margaritaville! Recipes such as Cheeseburgers in Paradise, Shrimp Mofongo al Ajillo, and Baby Back Ribs with Guava Barbecue Sauce, along with Frozen Watermelon and Mint Margaritas, bring the flabor of island living and the spirit of Jimmy Buffett’s iconic song straight into your home.

Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South by Virginia Willis:

“In Secrets of the Southern Table, award-winning chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis takes you on a tour of today’s South a region rich in history and cultural diversity. With her signature charm and wit, Virginia shares many well-known Southern recipes like Pimento Cheese Tomato Herb Pie and “Cathead” Biscuits, but also some surprising revelations drawn from the area’s many global influences, like Catfish Tacos with Avocado Crema, Mississippi-Style Char Siu Pork Tenderloin, and Greek Okra and Tomatoes.

Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy by Michael Matthews:

If you want to know how to build muscle and burn fat by eating healthy, delicious meals that are easy to cook and easy on your wallet … It’s 282 pages of practical dietary wisdom backed by over 115 scientific studies (all referenced, of course!) and decades of anecdotal evidence.

Simply Vibrant: All-Day Vegetarian Recipes for Colorful Plant-Based Cooking by Anya Kassoff:

With everyday recipes inspired by the seasons and practical preparations, Anya Kassoff leads the way to colorful, internationally-flavored foods that delight the palate and the eyes. This book offers a modern way to eat, breaking the boundaries between sweet and savory with intuitively nourishing foods. Start your day with Creamy Steel Cut Oats with Rainbow Chard and Pine Nuts, throw together a rainbow-colored salad for lunch or make black rice sushi for a quick snack, and later, feed your sweet tooth and your body with Sweet Potato Chocolate Brownies. This is fresh, fun, delightful whole food.

Story of Food: An Illustrated History of Everything We Eat by Josephine Bacon: 

This glorious visual celebration of food in all its forms reveals the extraordinary cultural impact of the foods we eat, explores the early efforts of humans in their quest for sustenance, and tells the fascinating stories behind individual foods. With profiles of the most culturally and historically interesting foods of all types, from nuts and grains, fruits and vegetables, and meat and fish, to herbs and spices, this fascinating culinary historical reference provides the facts on all aspects of each food’s unique story.

Vbq–The Ultimate Vegan Barbecue Cookbook: Over 80 Recipes–Seared, Skewered, Smoking Hot! By Nadine Horn:

Calling all vegans: it’s your turn at the grill!

BBQ, make way for VBQ: smoky, succulent, and completely plant–based barbecued fare. Nadine Horn and Jörg Mayer have transformed the art of grilling into a veggie lover’s feast—complete with Grilled Bok Choy and Peppered Tofu Steak and everything in between. Here are over 80 recipes to satisfy every craving for food that’s fresh and fiery:

• BBQ classics: Eggplant Hot Dogs, Cauliflower Cutlets, Pulled Mushrooms Sandwiches

• Savory sides and sauces: Crunchy Coleslaw, Grilled Potato Salad, Cashew Sour Cream

• Global inventions: Eggplant Gyros, Tandoori Tofu Skewers, Vietnamese Pizza

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Suggested Reading Week of July 23, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’d like to request or check out)

Digital Suggestions Of The Week:

Death by Espresso, Bookstore Cafe Mystery by Alex Erickson:

Bookstore-café owner Krissy Hancock has plenty to keep her occupied outside business hours, like preparing for her best friend’s wedding and solving a murder . . .

Krissy is meeting Vicki’s parents at the Pine Hills, Ohio, airport—it’s the least she can do as maid of honor, even if her relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Patterson is a bit strained. Besides, her own dad is coming in on the same flight. But there are a few additional arrivals, too. Her father’s brought a date—and the Pattersons, both actors, seem to have an entire entourage trailing behind them.

Uninvited guests are a headache—especially when one turns out to be, allegedly at least, the most important wedding planner in all the world. Though Vicki and Krissy have already made arrangements for a small, simple party, Vicki’s snobby drama queen mother has her own ideas. Cathy the wedding planner is raring to go, possibly energized by the chocolate-covered espresso beans she compulsively munches. But while the caffeine keeps her awake, it doesn’t keep her alive—and after Cathy chokes on an espresso bean after being hit in the head, Krissy has to find out who ended her supposedly stellar career . . .

Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (downloadable audiobook) written by Michiko Kakutani & read by Tavia Gilbert:

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic comes an impassioned critique of America’s retreat from reason
We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.

How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America? This decline began decades ago, and in

The Death of Truth, former New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani takes a penetrating look at the cultural forces that contributed to this gathering storm. In social media and literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the trends—originating on both the right and the left—that have combined to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values. And she returns us to the words of the great critics of authoritarianism, writers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt, whose work is newly and eerily relevant.

With remarkable erudition and insight, Kakutani offers a provocative diagnosis of our current condition and points toward a new path for our truth-challenged times.

Last Voice You Hear: Oxford Investigations Series, Book 2 by Mick Herron:

Oxford private investigator Zoë Boehm struggles with the aftereffects of her violent past as she hunts for a killer–or has she become the hunted?

Zoë Boehm has harbored a distinct aversion to death ever since she shot the man intent on killing her. So when Caroline Daniels takes a deadly fall in front of a train and her lover fails to turn up at the funeral, Zoë wants nothing to do with the case. But Caroline’s boss is persistent, and as Zoë attempts to unlock the secrets of a woman she’s never met while in search of a man who could be anywhere, she starts to wonder if he’s found her first. And if he has, will that make her the next victim, or prove to be her salvation from a paralyzing fear?

The Ranger: Quinn Colson Series, Book 1 by Ace Atkins:

THE FIRST NOVEL IN ACE ATKINS’ NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING QUINN COLSON SERIES.
“In Quinn Colson, bestselling author Ace Atkins has created an American hero in a time when we need him.”—C. J. Box

After years of war, Army Ranger Quinn Colson returns home to the rugged, rough hill country of northeast Mississippi to find his native Tibbehah County overrun with corruption, decay, meth runners, and violence. His uncle, the longtime county sheriff, is dead. A suicide, he’s told, but others—like tomboy deputy Lillie Virgil—whisper murder.
In the days that follow, it’s up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and himself. And once it’s discovered, there’s no going back for this real hero of the Deep South.

Summer in Sonoma by Robyn Carr:

They’ve been best friends since seventh grade. But this summer, on the threshold of thirty, four women are going to need each other more than ever.

Cassie has sworn off romance. Yet deep down, she’s still looking for Mr. Forever. A long-haired biker doesn’t figure into her plans, so where’s the harm in touring the back roads of Sonoma on a Harley with Walt Arneson?

Julie married her high school sweetheart–who can get her pregnant with a mere glance–too young and now wonders how her life became all about leaky faucets and checkbook balances. Maybe love isn’t enough to sustain the hottest couple in town.

Marty’s firefighter husband has forgotten all about romance, and an old flame begins to look mighty tempting.

Beth, a doctor trapped in a body that’s betrayed her yet again, is becoming a difficult patient and a secretive friend.

Life can change in an instant…or a summer. And having friends to lean on can only up the chances of happily ever after.

Print Suggestions Of The Week:

The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel by Paul Tremblay:

“A tremendous book―thought-provoking and terrifying, with tension that winds up like a chain. The Cabin at the End of the World is Tremblay’s personal best. It’s that good.” — Stephen King

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door.

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety by Donald Hall:

New essays from the vantage point of very old age, once again “alternately lyrical and laugh-out-loud funny,”* from the former poet laureate of the United States. –New York Times

Donald Hall lived a remarkable life of letters, one capped most recently by the New York Times bestseller Essays After Eighty, a “treasure” of a book in which he “balance[s] frankness about losses with humor and gratitude” (Washington Post). Before his passing in 2018, nearing ninety, Hall delivered this new collection of self-knowing, fierce, and funny essays on aging, the pleasures of solitude, and the sometimes astonishing freedoms arising from both. He intersperses memories of exuberant days—as in Paris, 1951, with a French girl memorably inclined to say, “I couldn’t care less”—with writing, visceral and hilarious, on what he has called the “unknown, unanticipated galaxy” of extreme old age.

“Why should a nonagenarian hold anything back?” Hall answers his own question by revealing several vivid instances of “the worst thing I ever did,” and through equally uncensored tales of literary friendships spanning decades, with James Wright, Richard Wilbur, Seamus Heaney, and other luminaries.

Cementing his place alongside Roger Angell and Joan Didion as a generous and profound chronicler of loss, Hall returns to the death of his beloved wife, Jane Kenyon, in an essay as original and searing as anything he’s written in his extraordinary literary lifetime.

Confessions of the Fox: A Novel by Jordy Rosenberg:

A love story set in the eighteenth-century London of notorious thieves and queer subcultures, this genre-bending debut tells a profound story of gender, desire, and liberation.

“Resonant of George Saunders, of Nikolai Gogol, and of nothing that’s ever been written before . . . irreverent, erudite, and not to be missed.”—Booklist (starred review)

Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found.

Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript—a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. Dated 1724, the book depicts a London underworld where scamps and rogues clash with the city’s newly established police force, queer subcultures thrive, and ominous threats of the Plague abound. Jack—a transgender carpenter’s apprentice—has fled his master’s house to become a legendary prison-break artist, and Bess has escaped the draining of the fenlands to become a revolutionary.

Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? Dr. Voth obsessively annotates the manuscript, desperate to find the answer. As he is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them all.

Confessions of the Fox is, at once, a work of speculative historical fiction, a soaring love story, a puzzling mystery, an electrifying tale of adventure and suspense, and an unabashed celebration of sex and sexuality. Writing with the narrative mastery of Sarah Waters and the playful imagination of Nabokov, Jordy Rosenberg is an audacious storyteller of extraordinary talent.

Corpse at the Crystal Palace: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery by Carola Dunn:

A casual outing to the Crystal Palace in London takes a mysterious and murderous turn in The Corpse at the Crystal Palace, the latest mystery in Carola Dunn’s beloved Daisy Dalrymple series.

April 1928: Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is visited in London by her young cousins. On the list of must-see sites is the Crystal Palace. Discovering that her children’s nanny, Nanny Gilpin, has never seen the Palace, Daisy decides to make a day of it―bringing her cousins, her 3-year-old twins, her step-daughter Belinda, the nurserymaid, and Nanny Gilpin. Yet this ordinary outing goes wrong when Mrs. Gilpin goes off to the ladies’ room and fails to return. When Daisy goes to look for her, she doesn’t find her nanny but instead the body of another woman dressed in a nanny’s uniform.

Meanwhile, Belinda and the cousins spot Mrs. Gilpin chasing after yet another nanny. Intrigued, they trail the two through the vast Crystal Palace and into the park. After briefly losing sight of their quarry, they stumble across Mrs. Gilpin lying unconscious in a small lake inhabited by huge concrete dinosaurs.

When she comes to, Mrs. Gilpin can’t remember what happened after leaving the twins in the nurserymaid’s care. Daisy’s husband, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the murdered nanny. Worried about her children’s own injured nanny, Daisy is determined to help. First she has to discover the identity of the third nanny, the presumed murderer, and to do so, Daisy must uncover why the amnesic Mrs. Gilpin deserted her charges to follow the missing third nanny.

The Subway Girls: A Novel by Susie Orman Schnall:

From the author of The Balance Project comes a dual-timeline narrative featuring a 1949 Miss Subways contestant and a modern-day advertising executive whose careers and lives intersect.

“Schnall has written a book that is smart and timely…Feels perfect for fans of Beatriz Williams and Liza Klaussmann.” ―Taylor Jenkins Reid, acclaimed author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“A fast-paced, clever novel filled with romantic possibilities, high-stakes decisions, and harsh realities. Perfect for fans of Fiona Davis’s The Dollhouse, this engrossing tale highlights the role that ambition, sexism, and true love will forever play in women’s lives.” ―Amy Poeppel, author of Small Admissions

In 1949, dutiful and ambitious Charlotte’s dream of a career in advertising is shattered when her father demands she help out with the family business. Meanwhile, Charlotte is swept into the glamorous world of the Miss Subways beauty contest, which promises irresistible opportunities with its Park Avenue luster and local fame status. But when her new friend―the intriguing and gorgeous fellow-participant Rose―does something unforgivable, Charlotte must make a heart-wrenching decision that will change the lives of those around her forever.

Nearly 70 years later, outspoken advertising executive Olivia is pitching the NYC subways account in a last ditch effort to save her job at an advertising agency. When the charismatic boss she’s secretly in love with pits her against her misogynistic nemesis, Olivia’s urgent search for the winning strategy leads her to the historic Miss Subways campaign. As the pitch date closes in on her, Olivia finds herself dealing with a broken heart, an unlikely new love interest, and an unexpected personal connection to Miss Subways that could save her job―and her future.

The Subway Girls is the charming story of two strong women, a generation apart, who find themselves up against the same eternal struggle to find an impossible balance between love, happiness, and ambition.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

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.

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Suggested Listening July 20, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions* and one recommended album on CD.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you’re interested in!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

The Essential Joshua Bell (Genre: Easy Listening, Classical):

Violin virtuoso Joshua Bell hails from Bloomington, Indiana and is a Grammy award winner who has a solo career and also conducts the Academy in the Fields Orchestra.

This collection features notable classical works and some popular songs as well, including Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act III: Danse russe, Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. posth (Arranged for Violin & Orchestra), Songs without Words, Op. 62, No. 1: May Breezes (Arranged for Violin & Orchestra)I Got Rhythm , Ladies in Lavender and I. Cremona, The Red Violin.

Best of Cowboy Junkies (2001) by Cowboy Junkies (Genre: Traditional Folk, Rock):

The AllMusic bio of the Cowboy Junkies is spot on! Author Steve Huey describes the band thus “Canada’s Cowboy Junkies’ create a music grounded in traditional country, blues, and folk, filled with languid guitars and ethereal vocals courtesy of Margo Timmins.” And that well sums it up! This is a great band and the albums have a uniformly excellent quality to them – always in an ethereal way.

This greatest hits collection features some of their best songs from the eighties and nineties including: I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Sweet Jane, Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning, Misguided Angel, Cold Tea Blues and Hard to Explain.

This is a perfect collection for relaxing weekend listening!

Greensleeves: Folk Music of the British Isles (2016) by Armonico Consort, Christopher Monks (Genre: a cappella , Classical, Folk):

I don’t usually include an entire AllMusic review in my posting; however, this review, written by James Manheim, is rather amusing and offers a good reason to listen to the set even if you’re not a classical music fan. The review starts off with a long quote by Armonico Consort Director Christopher Monk:

“I first began my fascination with folk melody whilst a music scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where the choir would often sing arrangements to entertain the hoards of inebriated dons after feasts,” writes director Christopher Monks.

“These arrangements — often brilliant, eye opening, and sometimes little gems of genius — were written by my director of studies, Dr. Geoffrey Webber. Quite simply, he took on the work of Vaughan Williams and gave it a new harmonic language inspired by music from the late 20th century.”

Webber is the author of the largest number of folk song arrangements here (all are a cappella); others come from various composers including Monks himself. The title track is elegant, but a better place to start sampling to get a feel for the tonality of the music is perhaps Sweet Kitty (track six), another Webber arrangement. Several pieces, by Stanford, Thomas Morley, and Robert Pearsall, are not folk songs, but are familiar enough to be such, and they function nicely as little touchstones in a program that is far from the set of folk favorites you might imagine. Monks and his ten-voice Armonico Consort achieve a precise sound that brings out the small details that make these arrangements interesting. A rather specialized release, perhaps one for enthusiasts who love the tradition of British choral singing, but one that may also be recommended to all.”

If you enjoy vocal music – check this collection out!

The Message (2018) by The Stanley Clarke Band (Genre: Jazz):

The Message, is the brand new album by Jazz bassist Stanley Clarke whose first album, Children Of Forever, was released in 1973. Clarke has a distinct and innovated slapping style of bass playing and he is at the top of his form on this LP.

Songs in the set include: After the Cosmic Rain/Dance of the Planetary Princesss. The Rugged Treat, The Message, Lost in a World and Alternative Facts.

Recommended CD of the Week:

Live at the Fillmore East 1968 (2018) by The Who:

Live At The Fillmore East is the 50th anniversary of these legendary unreleased recordings from the Fillmore East, New York City, Friday April 5 & Saturday April 6, 1968. Features stunning extended versions of My Generation, A Quick One…, Shakin’ All Over and two ripping versions of Eddie Cochran numbers – Summertime Blues and C’mon Everybody (the latter unavailable elsewhere). The 2 CD version comes in a deluxe edition 6-panel digipak with a 12-page booklet including new liner notes and rare photos.

Additional songs in the set include: I Can’t Explain, Happy Jack, I’m A Boy &, Boris The Spider,

Videos of the Week:

She Moved Through The Fair by Armonico Consort

Eleanor Rigby by Joshua Bell

Maybe So by Joshua Bell

Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning by Cowboy Junkies

Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies

Lost in a World by Stanley Clarke Band

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat by Stanley Clarke Band

My Generation by The Who

Summertime Blues by The Who

Summertime, Summertime by The Jamies

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

*A library card is required to use the Freegal Music Service. If you live in the service area of the Southern Tier Library System, which consists of the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Alleghany counties in New York State, you can get a library card for free at your nearest public library – including our own Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York. The Freegal Music Service is free for all Southern Tier Library System member libraries library card holders to access.

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

Links to the desktop versions of the catalogs for the library system – apps for each are available in your app store:

Digital Library Catalogs:

Freegal offers streaming and downloadable music

OverDrive allows you to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and handful of streaming videos

RB Digital is the place you go to check out magazines – on demand – and you never have to return them!

The Traditional Library Catalog:

You can search for and request books, DVDs, music CDs, audiobooks on CD and other physical format items through StarCat – it is the modern day card catalog!

Suggested Reading Week of July 16, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’d like to request or check out)

Digital Suggestions Of The Week:

The Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands:

Ever since an accident turned her into a knockout vamp, Elvi Black’s been catching her z’s in a coffin, staying out of the sun, and giving up garlic. She knows there’s more to being undead than what she saw in Dracula, but she can’t very well ask her mortal friends about proper biting etiquette. But when her neighbors placed a personal ad for her in the local paper, she never imagined she’d meet Victor Argeneau, a vampire who could have his pick of any woman—dead or alive.

Rich, powerful, and drop—dead gorgeous, Victor’s the perfect man for a novice neck—biter like Elvi. He’s willing to teach her everything he knows, but he’ll have to do it fast. Someone’s out to put a stake through her new vamp life, and only Victor can keep her safe—and satisfied—for all eternity.

The Argeneau Family Series, Book 7

Cottage by the Sea: A Novel by Debbie Macomber:

A seaside town helps one young woman reclaim the light after darkness in a brand-new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber.

“Romantic, warm, and a breeze to read—one of Macomber’s best.”—Kirkus Reviews

Annie Marlow has been through the worst. Rocked by tragedy, she heads to the one place that makes her happy: Oceanside in the Pacific Northwest, the destination of many family vacations when Annie was a teenager.

Once there, Annie begins to restore her broken spirit, thanks, in part, to the folks she meets: a local painter, Keaton, whose large frame is equal to his big heart—and who helps Annie fix up her rental cottage by the sea; Mellie, the reclusive, prickly landlord Annie is determined to befriend; and Britt, a teenager with a terrible secret. But it is Keaton to whom Annie feels most drawn.

His quiet, peaceful nature offers her both comfort and reprieve from her grief, and the two begin to grow closer.

Then events threaten to undo the idyll Annie has longed for. And when the opportunity of a lifetime lands in her lap, she is torn between the excitement of a new journey toward success and the safe and secure arms of the haven—and the man—she’s come to call home.

In this heartwarming tale, Annie finds that the surest way to fix what is damaged within is to help others rise above their pain and find a way to heal.

The Desperate Witness: The Zero Hour Series, Program 1 – Rod Serling Radio Show (downloadable audiobook):

Description: “Rest your eyes, and listen here….I’m Rod Serling, and this is The Zero Hour.” From 1972 to 1974, The Zero Hour brought potent thrillers to the radio waves, edge-of-your-seat original radio dramas from best-selling mystery novels, featuring stars from radio’s Golden Age and popular television personalities. Rest your eyes and experience a provocative episode from this legendary radio program. Featuring original music, sound effects, and a full cast of characters, this is theater for the mind.

Guest stars include: Richard Crenna, Julie Adams, & Keenan Wynn.

Down Cemetery Road: Oxford Investigations Series, Book 1 by Mick Herron:

CWA Gold Dagger winner Mick Herron’s debut novel introduces Sarah Tucker, whose search for a missing child unravels a murderous conspiracy.

When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker—a young married woman, bored and unhappy with domestic life—becomes obsessed with finding her. Accustomed to dull chores in a childless household and hosting her husband’s wearisome business clients for dinner, Sarah suddenly finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew as her investigation reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead. What begins in a peaceful neighborhood reaches its climax on a remote, unwelcoming Scottish island as the search puts Sarah in league with a man being hunted down by murderous official forces.

Murder at Midnight by Avi:

The tantalizing prequel to Avi’s bestselling MIDNIGHT MAGIC is now in paperback!

A plot to overthrow King Claudio is brewing in the Kingdom of Pergamontio.

Scholarly Mangus the magician-along with his street—smart and faithful new servant boy, Fabrizio—have been marked as easy scapegoats for the traitor lurking within the king’s court. Together, these two unlikely partners must gather clues to solve the mystery and prove their innocence before the stroke of midnight…or face death!

Intricate plotting, surprise twists, and lively prose make for another suspenseful page-turner that stands alone or sets the stage for MIDNIGHT MAGIC!

Print Suggestions Of The Week:

All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth:

“This is going to be big.” -Entertainment Weekly

“Juicy, clever, and beguiling.”- Cecily von Ziegsar, author of the Gossip Girl novels

A young woman haunted by a family tragedy is caught up in a dangerous web of lies and deception involving a secret society in this highly charged, addictive psychological thriller that combines the dishy gamesmanship of Gossip Girl with the murky atmosphere of The Secret History.

One summer day, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions.

Years later, seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s “it” crowd.

Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s—the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood.

As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.

A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo:

A deadly fire exposes the dark side of Amish life in A Gathering of Secrets, a harrowing new thriller in the New York Times bestselling series (July 2017) by Linda Castillo.

When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside―burned alive―Kate suspects murder. Who would want a well-liked, hardworking young Amish man dead? Kate delves into the investigation only to find herself stonewalled by the community to which she once belonged. Is their silence a result of the Amish tenet of separation? Or is this peaceful and deeply religious community conspiring to hide a truth no one wants to talk about? Kate doubles down only to discover a plethora of secrets and a chilling series of crimes that shatters everything she thought she knew about her Amish roots―and herself.

As Kate wades through a sea of suspects, she’s confronted by her own violent past and an unthinkable possibility.

The Lido by Libby Page: 

WE’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS—OR TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Rosemary Peterson has lived in Brixton, London, all her life but everything is changing.

The library where she used to work has closed. The family grocery store has become a trendy bar. And now the lido, an outdoor pool where she’s swum daily since its opening, is threatened with closure by a local housing developer. It was at the lido that Rosemary escaped the devastation of World War II; here she fell in love with her husband, George; here she found community during her marriage and since George’s death.

Twentysomething Kate Matthews has moved to Brixton and feels desperately alone. A once promising writer, she now covers forgettable stories for her local paper. That is, until she’s assigned to write about the lido’s closing. Soon Kate’s portrait of the pool focuses on a singular woman: Rosemary. And as Rosemary slowly opens up to Kate, both women are nourished and transformed in ways they never thought possible.

In the tradition of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, The Lido is a charming, feel-good novel that captures the heart and spirit of a community across generations—an irresistible tale of love, loss, aging, and friendship.

Rainy Day Friends by Jill Shavis:

Following the USA Today bestseller, Lost and Found Sisters, comes Rainy Day Friends, Jill Shalvis’ moving story of heart, loss, betrayal, and friendship.

Six months after Lanie Jacobs’ husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain and loss. But then Lanie discovers she isn’t the only one grieving his sudden passing. A serial adulterer, he left behind several other women who, like Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife.

Rocked by the infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be able to trust another person? Can she even trust herself?

Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan.

Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Green changes all that. The fresh-faced twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.

The Book in Room 316 by ReShonda Tate Billingsley:

#1 national bestselling and award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley delivers another moving, evocative, and timely novel about how a small seed of hope can change the course of one’s life.

Savannah Graham thought she had the perfect marriage…until grief drove her husband into the arms of his best friend’s wife. Now, she believes revenge is the only way her heart can heal from the betrayal.

For fifty-two years, Ollie Moss lived side by side with the love of his life, his wife Elizabeth. But now that she’s gone, so is his desire to live, despite the love from his children, and his beloved grandson Samuel. Can anything save Ollie’s life?

Anna Rodriguez just wants to work and provide for her three children by any means necessary. But her decision to break the law in order to get a job is threatening life as she knows it.
Trey Brown is known in his neighborhood as a hustler, so much so that the gangs want him to join their ranks…but there’s a reason the nineteen-year-old does what he does—he’s the only one left who can save his little brother.

Different circumstances lead each of them to The Markham Hotel, where they hope to find solace, comfort, and answers. Told from multiple perspectives, The Book in Room 316 will renew your strength and faith that there is always a way forward.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

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.

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Suggested Listening July 13, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions* and one recommended album on CD.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you’re interested in!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

My first recommendation for this week is actually an album set issued as one single collection on CD but broken up into two streaming albums by Freegal. The related titles are “America’s Greatest Hits 1957, Volume 1” and “America’s Greatest Hits 1957, Volume 2. And the two streaming collections feature all 120 of the songs to hit the top ten on the Billboard Pop Chart in 1957!

The two album collection offers us a cool listen to a mixture of what today we’d deem vocal and easy listening music, which was the main popular music of the day, and songs in the emerging style of Rock N’ Roll.

America’s Greatest Hits 1957, Volume 1 (1957, 2018) (Genre: Pop, Rock, Classic Rock):

America’s Greatest Hits 1957, Volume 2 (1957, 2018) (Genre: Pop, Rock, Classic Rock):

Songs in the double album streaming collection include: Signing the Blues by Guy Mitchell, The Green Door by Jim Lowe, Butterfly by Andy Williams, Love Me Tender, All Shook Up and Jailhouse Rock by Elvis, Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino and Hey Jealous Lover by Frank Sinatra.

This is a great collection for summer!

Behind The Shade (2018) by James Williamson and the Pink Hearts (Rock, Punk):

Former Stooges guitarist James Williamson steps out with a brand new album. And despite the years that have elapsed since he played with the Stooges – Williamson has retained his fierce in-your-face style of guitar playing.

If you’re a Stooges fan – check out this new release!

Songs on the LP include: Riot on the Strip, Pink Hearts Across the Sky, You Send Me Down, Miss Misery and Revolution Stomp.

Hotel Transylvania Score (Genre: Score, Classical):

Composer Mark Mothersbaugh has created a great score for the films in the Hotel Transylvania series. The score is upbeat, cheerful, majestic and just plain fun.

Songs include: Through The Roof, Battle with Bela, The Mummy Arrives, Monster Festival, Chasing Quasimodo and Dragon Tail/Grandpa Van Helsing.

Complete 1950-1954 Studio-Issued Recordings (with the Stan Kenton Orchestra) by Four Freshmen (Genre: Classic Pop, Easy Listening, Barbershop, Vocal, Big Band):

The original Four Freshmen band formed in 1948 and consisted of brothers Don and Ross Barbour, Bob Flanigan and Hal Kratzsch. In 1950 the group was singing in the Esquire Lounge in Dayton, Ohio when they were heard by big band leader Stan Kenton. Kenton was very impressed by the group and urged his record company, Capital Records, to sign them. The group was indeed signed by Capital Records and their first single, Mr. B’s Blues was released later that year.

The group’s heyday was in the early to mid-fifties when they released hit singles and were one of the front and center pop groups of the day. By the late fifties, as Rock N’ Roll was starting to gain in popularity, vocal groups like the Four Freshman started taking a back seat to new acts like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. Having said that, the group has remained popular throughout the years and although the last original member of the band, Bob Flanigan, retired in the 1990s the group continues to perform.

This 29 song set includes some of the best songs released by the group in their heyday.

Songs in the set include: Then I’ll Be Happy, Mr. B’s Blues, It’s a Blue World, Tuxedo Junction, The Day Isn’t Long Enough and Seems Like Old Times.

Recommended CD of the Week:

The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie (1962) by Stevie Wonder:

This album was recorded when Stevie Wonder was only 11. And boy, what a genius! The young Stevie showed off his prodigious skill by playing piano, harmonica, percussion instruments and by writing several of the songs on the album.

Wonder is very energetic on this LP and it is a very upbeat album – check it out!

Songs on the album include: Fingertips, The Square, Soul Bongo, Manhattan At Six, Some Other Time and Wondering.

Videos of the Week:

Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino

Party Doll by Buddy Knox

Singing The Blues by Guy Mitchell

Heartbreak Hotel & All Shook Up by Elvis

Round and Round by Perry Como

Jenny Jenny by Little Richard

Behind The Shade by James Williamson and the Pink Hearts

The Wedding, Hotel Transylvania Score Composed by Mark Mothersbaugh

Poinciana by Four Freshmen

Fingertips by Stevie Wonder

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

*A library card is required to use the Freegal Music Service. If you live in the service area of the Southern Tier Library System, which consists of the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Alleghany counties in New York State, you can get a library card for free at your nearest public library – including our own Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York. The Freegal Music Service is free for all Southern Tier Library System member libraries library card holders to access.

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

Links to the desktop versions of the catalogs for the library system – apps for each are available in your app store:

Digital Library Catalogs:

Freegal offers streaming and downloadable music

OverDrive allows you to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and handful of streaming videos

RB Digital is the place you go to check out magazines – on demand – and you never have to return them!

The Traditional Library Catalog:

You can search for and request books, DVDs, music CDs, audiobooks on CD and other physical format items through StarCat – it is the modern day card catalog!

Suggested Reading Week of July 9, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’d like to request or check out)

Digital Suggestions Of The Week:

And I’m going to start off our weekly suggested titles with a bonus!

In celebration of summer there is new Big Read title!

And if you’re not familiar with it – Big Read titles, when they appear on the Digital Catalog homepage, are on-demand titles! So everyone who has a Southern Tier Library System member library card — can read Big Read titles at the same time!

The current Big Read title is:

Cowboy Pride by Lacy Williams and it is available now!

“Everyone knows a rancher in possession of a large spread needs a wife.”

First impressions count. Liza Bennett has two missions in life: keep the family’s shop afloat, and ensure her shy sister finds love. Sparks fly when she meets rancher Rob Darcy at a town dance, but when she overhears him insult her, she vows to put the man out of her mind. Rob Darcy is instantly attracted to the vivacious Liza but a lack of social graces and the promise he’s keeping ruin his chances of winning her.

Once jilted, Janie Bennett is appropriately gun-shy of falling in love again. But she doesn’t seem to be able to help herself when she meets charming Nathan Bingley. Bingley desperately wants a wife and family of his own. Can he trust that Janie returns his feelings?

When Janie is injured in a spring storm, she and Liza are sequestered on Nathan’s ranch. Hearts and emotions get tangled, but will first impressions prove true, or false?

Cowboy Pride is a Wild West version of Pride and Prejudice with dual love stories.

Cowboy Pride is the third book in the Wild Wyoming Hearts Series.

As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling by Anne Serling:

“A haunting and beautifully written memoir about the creator of The Twilight Zone.” –Robert Redford

“Beautifully written. . .I laughed and I cried. I plan to read it again once I catch my breath.” –Carol Burnett

In this intimate, lyrical memoir about her iconic father, Anne Serling reveals the fun-loving dad and family man behind the imposing figure the public saw hosting The Twilight Zone each week. After his unexpected, early death, Anne, just 20, was left stunned. But through talking to his friends, poring over old correspondence, and recording her childhood memories, Anne not only found solace, but gained a deeper understanding of this remarkable man. Now she shares her discoveries, along with personal photos, revealing letters, and scenes of his childhood, war years, and their family’s time together. A tribute to Rod Serling’s legacy as a visionary, storyteller, and humanist, As I Knew Him is also a moving testament to the love between fathers and daughters.

Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton:

You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. To protect my unborn children, I have turned my back on the crown, choosing exile in the human world with my beloved Frost and Darkness. Yet I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. But now I realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

Merry Gentry Series, Book 8.

Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories by Frederik Pohl:

Frederik Pohl, the bestselling author of The Boy Who Would Live Forever, is famous for his novels, but first and foremost, he is a master of the science fiction short story. For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction.

Now, for the first time, he has gathered together the best of his many stories. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world . . .

Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people you’ll love, some you’ll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. That’s some trick. Not everyone can do that . . . but that’s why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, “Fermi and Frost” and “The Meeting” (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful “The Gold at the Starbow’s End” and “The Greening of Bed-Stuy,” and stories such as “Servant of the People,” “Shaffery Among the Immortals,” and “Growing Up in Edge City,” all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other wonderful tales, like “The Mayor of Mare Tranq” and the provocative “The Day the Martians Landed” and many others.

Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats!

Stay Hidden (downloadable audiobook) written by Paul Doiron & read by Henry Leyva:

A supposed hunting accident becomes a dangerously complicated murder investigation in Stay Hidden, the intricately-plotted new thriller from Paul Doiron featuring Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch.

A woman has been shot to death by a deer hunter on an island off the coast of Maine. To newly promoted Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch, the case seems open and shut. But as soon as he arrives on remote Maquoit Island he discovers mysteries piling up one on top of the other.

The hunter now claims he didn’t fire the fatal shot and the evidence proves he’s telling the truth. Bowditch begins to suspect the secretive community might be covering up the identity of whoever killed the woman, known as Ariel Evans. The controversial author was supposedly writing a book about the island’s notorious hermit. So why are there no notes in her rented cottage?

The biggest blow comes the next day when the weekly ferry arrives and off steps the dead woman herself. Ariel Evans is alive, well, and determined to solve her own “murder” even if it upsets Mike Bowditch’s investigation and makes them both targets of an elusive killer who will do anything to conceal his crimes.

Mike Bowditch Mystery Series, Book 9

What Happened That Night: A Novel by Sandra Block:

She doesn’t remember that night. But she will never be the same.

One moment, Dahlia is a successful Harvard student; the next, she wakes up from a party, the victim of a brutal assault. Her life veers into a tailspin, and what’s worse ― her memory of the attack has been ripped away, leaving a cold rage in its wayke.

Now, years later, Dahlia is a tattooed paralegal suffering from PTSD and still haunted by that night. Until one day, a video surfaces online, and Dahlia sees her attack for the first time.

Now she knows what happened to her. And she knows who is to blame. Her rage is no longer cold, but burning, red hot.

And she is about to make everyone pay.

Print Suggestions Of The Week:

Best Beach Ever by Wendy Wax:

Forced to rent out or lose their beloved Bella Flora after the loss of their renovation-turned-reality-TV show Do Over, Maddie, Nikki, Avery, Kyra, and Bitsy move into cottages at the Sunshine Hotel and Beach Club believing the worst is over. Only to discover just how uncertain their futures really are.

Maddie struggles with the challenges of dating a rock star whose career has come roaring back to life while Nikki faces the daunting realities of mothering twins at forty-seven. Avery buries herself in a tiny home build in an attempt to dodge commitment issues, and Kyra battles to protect her son from the Hollywood world she once dreamed of joining. And Bitsy is about to find out whether the rewards of seeking revenge will outweigh the risks.

Luckily, when the going gets tough, the ladies of Ten Beach Road know that their friendship–tried and tested–can chase away the darkest clouds and let the sun shine in…

Ten Beach Road Series, Book 6.

The Devil’s Reward: A Novel by Emmanuelle de Villepin:

Three generations of women untangle a complex family history that spans both world wars and reveals unexpected insights about marriage and fidelity.

Christiane, eighty-six years old with a vibrant sense of humor, lives alone in a large apartment in the heart of Paris. Her daughter, Catherine, could not be more different; sullen and uptight, she resents her unfaithful Milanese husband. After discovering yet another affair, Catherine takes refuge in Paris at her mother’s home, accompanied by her own daughter, Luna. Christiane, who in spite of occasional dalliances lived a beautiful love story with her late husband, uses all of her freethinking charm to try to wean Catherine of her rigid self-pity.

While listening to her mother and grandmother, Luna becomes increasingly curious about Christiane’s aristocratic Catholic background, prompting Christiane to tell the story of her father’s war experiences and the devastating love affair that brought chaos to the whole family. As memories resurface, the present takes on a different dimension.
With a keen, lighthearted wit, The Devil’s Reward shows that life may be complicated and often painful, but if conventional morals prevail, it becomes unbearable.

Holly Jolly Summer by Tiffany Stewart:

Four huge disasters,

Three months of tourists,

Two gorgeous boys,

And a partridge in a palm tree

In this lighthearted beach read about family, friendship, and fa-la-la, it’s up to lovestruck teen Darby to save the spirit of a Southern town called Christmas.

Christmas, Kentucky, is a summer tourist destination known for its holiday-themed shops, ornament-sprouting potted palms, giant Snow Globe display, and cheerful residents―including the mayor’s daughter, fifteen-year-old Darby Peacher. But as Darby stumbles her way into a job at the town’s run-down amusement park, Holly Jolly Land, her summer quickly goes from merry to miserable: the boy of Christmas present is absent, a boy of Christmas past is her supervisor, and the town seems to be losing its cheer as it strives to become more commercial. As she tries to sort out her love life, Darby grows positively Scroogey until she gets wrapped up in reinventing Holly Jolly Land―and the town―as the wonderlands they once were.

Tiffany Stewart’s debut novel Holly Jolly Summer is brimming with humor, heart, and a sprinkling of summer romance.

To The Moon and Back: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes a brand-new love story in the Baxter Family collection about two people who lost their parents in the same national tragedy—two people desperate to find each other and the connection they shared for a single day…a day that changed everything.

Brady Bradshaw was a child when the Oklahoma City bombing killed his mother. Every year, Brady visits the memorial site on the anniversary to remember her. A decade ago on that day, he met Jenna Phillips, who was also a child when her parents were killed in the attack. Brady and Jenna shared a deep heart connection and a single beautiful day together at the memorial. But after that, Brady never saw Jenna again. Every year when he returns, he leaves a note for her in hopes that he might find her again.

This year, Ashley Baxter Blake and her sister Kari Baxter Taylor and their families take a spring break trip that includes a visit to the site to see the memorial’s famous Survivor Tree. While there, Ashley spots a young man, alone and troubled. That man is Brady Bradshaw. A chance moment leads Ashley to help Brady find Jenna, the girl he can’t forget.

Ashley’s family is skeptical, but she pushes them to support her efforts to find the girl and bring them together. But will it work? Will her husband, Landon, understand her intentions? And is a shared heartache enough reason to fall in love?

Deeply emotional and beautifully romantic, To the Moon and Back is an unlikely love story about healing, redemption, hope and the belief that sometimes a new tomorrow can grow from the ashes of a shattered yesterday.

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse:

“Someone please cancel Supernatural already and give us at least five seasons of this badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” —The New York Times

“An excitingly novel tale.” —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series and Midnight Crossroads series

“Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.” —Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper and Star Wars: Last Shot

“[C]rafts a powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling postapocalyptic landscape.” —Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Black Wolves

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.
Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive.
Welcome to the Sixth World.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

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.

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Suggested Listening July 6, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions* and one recommended album on CD.

And since we celebrated the 4th of July this week – I’m focusing on traditional Americana music this week! I’ll jump back into recommending modern music next week.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you’re interested in!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

Stephen Foster by RKO Orchestra:

Despite the bland album cover this is a great collection of songs by the old movie studio – RKO’s orchestra. The collection  features a chorus and orchestra on some songs – others are instrumentals. I can find nothing about this collection online. Freegal lists this LP as having been released by RKO in 2011 this despite the fact that RKO studios, a big player during the Golden Age of Hollywood, was sold to the Disney company in the late fifties.

Having said that, I would guess this collection of songs was probably recorded during the 1940s, and the collection features great songs that have become woven into the American culture tapestry including: Beautiful Dreamer, My Old Kentucky Home, Oh Susanna, Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair and Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.

Freedom: A History Of US – Original Soundtrack Recording:

This is the soundtrack to the PBS series based upon the Joy Hakim book which chronicles American history from 1776 to 2001.

Songs on the soundtrack include: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free by Nina Simone, Because All Me Are Brothers by Peter, Paul & Mary, The Star Spangled Banner by Duke Ellington, Chimes of Freedom by Bruce Springsteen, America the Beautiful by Keb’ Mo’ , Hard Times by James Taylor and Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland.

Civil War Songs by Traditional Brass Band:

This album was released in 2013 and as with the RKO Stephen Foster collection, I haven’t found any additional information on the album online. What I can tell you is that it offers a nice collection of U.S. Civil War era brass band music. The LP includes the songs: Light Cavalry Overture, Honor to Our Soldiers, Salutation to America, Louisa Polka, Home Again and Martha Quickstep.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (O.S.T – 1942) by Various Artists:

This album is the 1942 RKO soundtrack to the James Cagney film Yankee Doodle Dandy. The film is a fictionalized account of the life of popular entertainer and Broadway musical composer George Cohen of “Born on the 4th of July” fame.

Cohen wrote a number of classic American song including: Over There, Give My Regards to Broadway, You’re a Grand Old Flag and The Yankee Doodle Boy.

Songs on the soundtrack include: Yankee Doodle Dandy, Keep Your Eyes Upon Me, Harrigan, I Was Born in Virginia and Give My Regards to Broadway.

The film Yankee Doodle Dandy has been much less popular in recent years than it once was, probably because it was filmed in black and white. However, if you’ve never seen it – you should check it out as it is fun.

The Movie Yankee Doodle:

Americana (2009) by Various Artists: 

Here’s another neat collection of vintage American songs – some of these go back to the Revolutionary War era; and as with the RKO and Brass Band albums, I didn’t find any relevant details on who is playing the music via online searches, However, this too is a neat collection of classic American folk songs and, overall, ones earlier in vintage than the ones on the other albums I’m recommending this week.

Songs in this collection include: Revolutionary Fife & Drum by James Reichert, Election Eve by Frank Talley, Revolutionary War Tune 1 by Arnold Freed, Allegheny Morning by Eugene Cines, Cowboy Campfire by James Cohn, Dixieland Hop by Christopher Norton and more.

Recommended CD of the Week:

American Masters: Classical Favorites by Various Orchestras & Conductors:

This Time Life collection was originally released via mail order in 1993. The collection features some great twentieth century American music including songs composed by Gershwin, Bernstein and Copland. Songs in the set include: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue & Catfish Row, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story & Candid Overture and Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring. Various orchestra and conductors are featured.

Videos of the Week:

Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free

Because All Men Are Brothers by Peter, Paul & Mary

America the Beautiful by Keb’ Mo’ (Live 2016)

Fanfare for the Common Man, New York Philharmonic, James Levine

Light Calvary Overture by Traditional Brass Band

Episode at Bunker Hill by Eugene Sines

Revolutionary Fife & Drum by James Reichert

Arizona Trail by Ray Davies

Yankee Doodle Dandy by James Cagney from the film Yankee Doodle Dandy

Rhapsody In Blue written by George Gershwin, performed by the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein conducting (1976)

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

*A library card is required to use the Freegal Music Service. If you live in the service area of the Southern Tier Library System, which consists of the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Alleghany counties in New York State, you can get a library card for free at your nearest public library – including our own Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York. The Freegal Music Service is free for all Southern Tier Library System member libraries library card holders to access.

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

Links to the desktop versions of the catalogs for the library system – apps for each are available in your app store:

Digital Library Catalogs:

Freegal offers streaming and downloadable music

OverDrive allows you to check out eBooks, downloadable audiobooks and handful of streaming videos

RB Digital is the place you go to check out magazines – on demand – and you never have to return them!

The Traditional Library Catalog:

You can search for and request books, DVDs, music CDs, audiobooks on CD and other physical format items through StarCat – it is the modern day card catalog!

Suggested Reading Week of July 2, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’d like to request or check out)

Digital Suggestions Of The Week:

The Book Club: A Women’s Fiction Novel about the Power of Friendship by Mary Alice Monroe:

Mary Alice Monroe invites you to meet five remarkable characters as she explores the power of friendship with tenderness, honesty and understanding.

On the surface, it is a monthly book club. But for five women, it is so much more. For Eve Porter, whose husband’s sudden death cheats her of every security she had planned on, the club is a place of sanctuary. For Annie Blake, a brilliant attorney intent on starting a family late in life, it is the chance to finally let down her guard and dream of other possibilities. For Doris Bridges, it is her support group as she acknowledges her dying marriage and finds the ultimate freedom in her husband’s betrayal. For Gabriella Rivera, the “perfect” wife, mother and friend who offers support to everyone but is afraid to ask for it herself, it is a sense of community. And for Midge Kirsch, an artist who has always lived her life against the grain, it is a haven of acceptance.

They are five women from different walks of life, embracing the challenge of change. And as they share their hopes and fears and triumphs, they will hold fast to the true magic of the book club—friendship.

Liar, Liar by Lisa Jackson:

In this riveting page-turner from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson, a woman searches for the mother she hasn’t seen in twenty years, and uncovers a nightmare of greed and deception . . .

In death, Didi Storm is finally getting the kind of publicity that eluded her in life. Twenty years ago, the ex-beauty queen worked the Vegas strip as a celebrity impersonator, too busy trying to make it big to spare much time for her daughter, Remmi. Shortly before she leaped from a San Francisco building, Didi’s profile was rising again, thanks to a tell-all book. To Detective Dani Settler, it looks like a straightforward suicide, or perhaps a promotional stunt gone wrong. But Remmi knows the truth isn’t so simple. Because though the broken body on the sidewalk is dressed in Didi’s clothes and wig, it isn’t Didi.

Remmi was fifteen when she last saw her mother. Their parting came in the aftermath of a terrible night in the Mojave desert when Remmi—who’d secretly stowed away in Didi’s car en route to meet her crush, Noah Scott—instead became witness to a mysterious rendezvous. Didi handed over one of her newborn twins to a man Remmi didn’t recognize. Subsequently, Didi disappeared, as did Remmi’s other half-sibling. Remmi has pleaded with the authorities to find them, but there have been no clues. Yet she’s always had the sense that someone is watching her . . .

If the victim isn’t Didi, who is it—and what’s the connection? Remmi is shocked when Noah resurfaces. He was also in the desert that night, and now runs his own PI firm. He too believes it’s time to find out what really happened. As they and Detective Settler dig deeper, the truth about Remmi’s missing family begins to emerge . . . a story of ruthless ambition and twisted lies that someone will kill again and again to keep hidden . . .

Murder in Paradise (downloadable audiobook) by James Patterson & Doug Allyn with multiple readers:

3 pulse-pounding stories from the world’s #1 bestselling writer in one book! THE LAWYER LIFEGUARD with Doug Allyn: Are you the lawyer who got blown up with his girlfriend? Defense lawyer Brian Lord survived the car bomb that killed his fiancee. Out of work and out of his mind, he takes on a lifeguard job at the beach. But there’s one wave he’ll never see coming… THE SHUT-IN with Duane Swierczynski: A woman who has solar urticaria, an uncommon allergy to the sun, watches the outside world through a flying drone as she is confined to her studio apartment. But when her high-tech toy records a vicious murder, she’s determined to track down the killer—a killer who knows she’s being watched. THE DOCTOR’S PLOT with Benjamin Percy: Abi Brenner is the new medical examiner in the Napa Valley, a dream job in a dream location. But her fairy tale will take a terrifying turn when she uncovers a series of murders —with one sinister thing in common.

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America (downloadable audiobook) by Alissa Quart & read by Carly Robins:

“Brilliant—a keen, elegantly written, and scorching account of the American family today. Through vivid stories, sharp analysis and wit, Quart anatomizes the middle class’s fall while also offering solutions and hope.”— Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

Families today are squeezed on every side—from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible.

Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects—from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses—have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite.

Interlacing her own experience with close-up reporting on families that are just getting by, Quart reveals parenthood itself to be financially overwhelming, except for the wealthiest. She offers real solutions to these problems, including outlining necessary policy shifts, as well as detailing the DIY tactics some families are already putting into motion, and argues for the cultural reevaluation of parenthood and caregiving.

Written in the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich and Jennifer Senior, Squeezed is an eye-opening audiobook. Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, it casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. It will make listeners think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors.

Wild Wicked Scot: The Highland Grooms Series, Book 1 by Julia London:

Wicked intrigue unfolds as an unlikely marriage leads to a path of risky desire in the lush, green Scottish Highlands

Born into riches and groomed in English luxury, Margot Armstrong didn’t belong in a Scottish chieftain’s devil-may-care world. Three years ago she fled their marriage of convenience and hasn’t looked back—except to relive the moments spent in wild, rugged Arran McKenzie’s passionate embrace. But as their respective countries’ fragile unity threatens to unravel, Margot must return to her husband to uncover his role in the treachery before her family can be accused of it.

Red-haired, green-eyed Margot was Arran’s beautiful bride. Her loss has haunted him, but her return threatens everything he has gained. As the Highland mists carry whispers of an English plot to seize McKenzie territory, he must outmaneuver her in games of espionage…and seduction. But even as their secrets tangle together, there’s nothing to prevent love from capturing them both and leading them straight into danger.

Print Suggestions Of The Week:

Hiking Waterfalls in Pennsylvania: A Guide to the State’s Best Waterfall Hikes by Johnny Molloy:

Hiking Waterfalls in Pennsylvania includes detailed hike descriptions, maps, and color photos for some of the state’s most scenic waterfall hikes. Hike descriptions include history, local trivia, and GPS coordinates. Hiking Waterfalls in Pennsylvania will take you through state and national parks, forests, monuments and wilderness areas, and from popular city parks to the most remote and secluded corners of the area to view the most spectacular waterfalls.

How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel (audiobook on CD) written by Allison Pearson and read by Poppy Miller:

Look, I was doing OK. I got through the oil spill on the road that is turning forty. Lost a little control, but I drove into the skid just like the driving instructors tell you to and afterwards things were fine again, no, really, they were better than fine.

Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time―and their money―on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it’s left to Kate to go back to work.

Companies aren’t necessarily keen on hiring 49-year-old mothers, so Kate does what she must: knocks a few years off her age, hires a trainer, joins a Women Returners group, and prepares a new resume that has a shot at a literary prize for experimental fiction.

When Kate manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she founded, she finds herself in an impossible juggling act: proving herself (again) at work, dealing with teen drama, and trying to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her 50th birthday. Then, of course, an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.

Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?

Hilarious and poignant, How Hard Can It Be? brings us the new adventures of Kate Reddy, the beleaguered heroine of Allison Pearson’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller I Don’t Know How She Does It.

The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah:

“If you enjoyed Sarah’s Key and Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, then this wonderful book by Ann Mah is for you.” — Tatiana de Rosnay

Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II.

To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last chance. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife, Heather, who now oversee day-to-day management of the grapes. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a talented young winemaker and her first love.

At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of World War II and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great–half aunt who was a teenager during the Nazi occupation.

As she learns more about her family, the line between resistance and collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?

The Melody: A Novel by Jim Crace:

From the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Harvest, Quarantine, and Being Dead, a tender new novel about music, celebrity, local intrigue, and lost love–all set by the Mediterranean Sea

Aside from his trusty piano, Alfred Busi lives alone in his villa overlooking the waves. Famed in his town for his music and songs, he is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days, occasionally performing the classics in small venues–never in the stadiums he could fill when in his prime. On the night before receiving his town’s highest honor, Busi is wrested from bed by noises in his courtyard and then stunned by an attacking intruder–his hands and neck are scratched, his face is bitten. Busi can’t say what it was that he encountered, exactly, but he feels his assailant was neither man nor animal.

The attack sets off a chain of events that will cast a shadow on Busi’s career, imperil his home, and alter the fabric of his town. Busi’s own account of what happened is embellished to fan the flames of old rumor–of an ancient race of people living in the surrounding forest–and to spark new controversy: something must finally be done about the town’s poor, the feral vagabonds at its edges, whose numbers have been growing. All the while Busi, weathering a media storm, must come to terms with his wife’s death and decide whether to sing one last time.

In trademark crystalline prose, Jim Crace portrays a man taking stock of his life and looking into an uncertain future, all while bearing witness to a community in the throes of great change–with echoes of today’s most pressing social questions.

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin:

Jen Beagin’s quirky, moving, “frank and unflinching” (Josh Ferris) debut novel introduces an unforgettable character, Mona—almost twenty-four, emotionally adrift, and cleaning houses to get by. Handing out clean needles to drug addicts, she falls for a recipient she calls Mr. Disgusting, who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways.

In search of healing, Mona decamps to Taos, New Mexico, for a fresh start, where she finds a community of seekers and cast-offs, all of whom have one or two things to teach her—the pajama-wearing, blissed-out New Agers, the slightly creepy client with peculiar tastes in controlled substances, the psychic who might really be psychic. But always lurking just beneath the surface are her memories of growing up in a chaotic, destructive family from which she’s trying to disentangle herself, and the larger legacy of the past she left behind.

The story of Mona’s journey to find her place in this working-class American world is at once hilarious and wonderfully strange, true to life and boldly human, and introduces a stunningly one-of-a-kind new voice in American fiction.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

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.

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Did You Know…John Adams & William Daniels!

Linda Reimer

Here is our Did You Know…posting for July and it features two likely July characters, President John Adams and his shadow, actor William Daniels!

I’m sure everyone knows John Adams was the second president of the United States. He followed George Washington who, unquestionably, was a hard act to follow. And there are volumes of tomes and tomes (another great word!) you can read on John Adams – but many of them are a bit weighty and more accessible to history fans and scholars than to regular readers.

So this Did You Know…posting is going to focus on some accessible and fun materials you can check out to learn more about John Adams and his family without having to wade through thousand page books on the subject!

And if you’re scratching your head and wondering…

“What on earth does an actor named William Daniels have to do with John Adams?”

Wonder no more!

William Daniels is an American actor who has portrayed John Adams numerous times on the stage and screen and this posting will offers some fun suggestions about those performances – namely where you can find them on DVD (Hint – your local public library!)

And without further ado, here we go!

Firstly regarding John Adams…

Did you know that the HBO mini-series John Adams is based upon the bestselling, and easy to read, biography, of John Adams written by David McCullough?

It is!

The Book John Adams written by David McCullough:

The HBO Mini-Series John Adams based upon the McCullough book:

David McCullough wrote the book John Adams which was published in 2001, and in 2008 HBO released a mini-series based upon the book – starring Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams.

The mini-series opens just before the Boston Massacre and ends with John Adams’s death in 1826; and in-between those two events Adams defended the British soldiers who shot into the crowd during the Boston Massacre (and got them off!), he attended the Continental Congresses, signed the Declaration of Independence, was the first U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain after the Revolutionary War (bet that was fun!), was George Washington’s vice president for two terms, president for a term and then an intellectual gardener who wrote Thomas Jefferson dozens of letters from his home in Quincy, Massachusetts – and more! He was a rather busy individual during his life time!

And now, linking the historical figure John Adams to the career of the actor William Daniels…

Did you know that William Daniels portrayed John Adams in the musical play 1776 both on stage and screen?

He did!

The play 1776 was written by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone. William Daniels starred in the Tony Award Winning play while it was on Broadway and then reprised his role for the 1972 film version.

The 1776 story opens in Philadelphia in May of 1776 where the second continental congress is meeting. John Adams (William Daniels) is the first character introduced and he demands of Ben Franklin, when does he think the congress is ever going to get around to declaring independence anyway!

Adams goes on to say he can’t make a proposal for colonial independence to the congress because he is “obnoxious and disliked.” And Franklin notes, that some new delegates have just arrived and perhaps they should have a talk with them on the subject of declaring independence. And lo and behold, one of the delegates just happens to be Thomas Jefferson of Virginia! Shortly thereafter another Virginia delegate, Richard Henry Lee, rides home to get approval from the colonial Virginia Assembly to put forth a motion for independence to the Congress. Lee returns, puts the proposal in front of Congress, Adams seconds it and the musical debate begins!

Some of the other actors/actresses in the film include: Howard DaSilva as Ben Franklin, Blythe Danner as Abigail Adams, Ken Howard (White Shadow) as Thomas Jefferson, John Cullum (Northern Exposure) as John Dickinson and David Ford (Dark Shadows) as John Hancock

Songs include: Piddle, Twiddle & Resolve, The Lees of Old Virginia, The Egg, He Plays the Violin, Cool Considerate Men and Is There Anybody There?

If you haven’t seen the film – it is great fun and a perfect DVD for July viewing!

And did you further know…

That in addition to appearing in the both the Broadway and film versions of 1776, that William Daniels went on to portray John Quincy Adams, son of John & Abigail Adams in the PBS mini-series The Adams Chronicles?

He did!

The Adams Chronicles video mini series was played on PBS in the 1970s and can now be checked out of the library:

As can the Jack Shepherd book of the same name on which the miniseries is based:

The story of the Adams Family is fascinating and fun! And the Emmy Award Winning miniseries, was indeed based upon the book The Adams Chronicles: Four Generations of Greatness written by Jack Shepherd and published in 1976. The story opens in the last 1750s and follows as a young John Adams as he finishes law school, starts a law practice and begins to court the love of his life Abigail Smith. The story takes viewers through the lives of family members during the colonial era, focusing first on John Adams – his time in the Continental Congress, through his diplomatic missions in Europe to his time as vice-president, then president and then the main focus switches to the covering the life of John Quincy Adams (William Daniels). And John Quincy Adams had quite a life! He was, among other things, Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary, a U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State, President of the United States (and a skinny dipping president at that!) and, the only president to-date, to go back into government after he left office. John Quincy Adams, who initially retired after he was defeated for a second presidential term in 1828, was elected to Congress in 1830. John Quincy was a an erudite individual, a passionate speaker, and, decidedly against slavery. And his great debating skills earned  him a nickname bestowed upon him by his fellow congressmen – “Old Man Eloquent.” J. Q. Adams suffered a stroke while in the House of Representatives in 1848 and died hours later. He is also the earliest president we have a photo of – his photo was taken in 1843, the year Adams turned 76.

After John Quincy’s death the mini-series goes on to follow John Quincy’s son Charles Francis Adams during his time  in Massachusetts state government, his time as a U.S. Congressman and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom during the American Civil War. The fourth generation followed in the series consists of the six children of Charles Francis and his wife Abigail Brown Brooks –the children included Civil War soldiers John Quincy Adams II and Charles Francis Adams Jr. and the historian Brooks Adams and you get the idea – it is the story not just of individuals but of a family too.

And on a final did you know note…

Going full-circle and back to John Adams…

You probably already know the third most famous thing about John Adams, after the fact that he was President of the United States and signed the Declaration of Independence – is that he died on the same day as his friend, the third President of the United States – Thomas Jefferson and on the fiftieth anniversary of the singing of the Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1826.

But did you know that after both men left the presidency and went into retirement the former friends, turned political rivals, became friends again and wrote dozens of letters to each other in their retirements?

They did!

After a bitter falling out in the 1790s they actually never spoke to each other again!

However, in 1812 a mutual friend, and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, urged Adams to write to Jefferson – and he did!

Thus friends once more, the two men wrote dozens of letters to each other in the last 14 years of their lives. Both men were exceptionally well read and – and there is, as David McCullough observed “great charm in the letters.” It is apparent in reading the letters that the men both knew they were writing, not just to each other – but to posterity.

As an example consider this Adams – Jefferson Letter:

“1812, January 21: Jefferson to Adams_____________ A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port.”

The Adams Jefferson Letters are compiled in a book – should you wish to request it!

And on a final William Daniels note – you may recognize the actor from some of the many other roles he has had during the years. He is an excellent actor and whichever character his is portraying – his is worth watching! Along with his wife he was regular on St. Elsewhere portraying the grouchy Dr. Mark Craig, he portrayed Benjamin Braddock, the husband of Dennis Hoffman’s Mrs. Robinson in the Graduate, appeared as Howard in the Jack Finney and Audrey Hepburn movie Two for the Road and was the voice of KITT the car in the David Hasselhoff Knight Rider series. And the library has all the aforementioned videos (I love that word too — “aforementioned” –  a great word!)

And here are few related neat and fun video clips to watch!

From The HBO Series John Adams – Scenes showing the Adams Jefferson correspondence 

David McCullough on the Adams Jefferson Letters

Have a great month and a Happy Fourth of July!

Linda, SSCL

References

About the Adams-Jefferson Letters:

Full Title: The Adams-Jefferson letters; the complete correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams – Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848.

The collection, which you can check out of the library as a print book or eBook contains 380 letters

Their complete correspondence, which contains 380 letters written between 1777 and 1826, is known as the Adams-Jefferson Letters. The collection also includes a number of letters written before their post-Revolutionary War political falling out. However, the best of the letters, in the opinion of this humble history fan, are the ones they wrote between 1812 and 1826.

From The Correspondence of John Adams & Thomas Jefferson on Life, Religion, and the Young Republic

Click to access adamsjeffersoncor.pdf

John Adams. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Online. Accessed June 29, 2018.

https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/john-adams

The John Adams LIbrary at the Boston Public Library. John Adams Historical Society. Online. Accessed June 29, 2018.
http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/john-adams-library/

Plain Speaking Review (2001, May 27). The New York Times. Accessed June 29, 2018.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/05/27/reviews/010527.27maiert.html?mcubz=2