This site offers news and discussion mostly about books, with a sprinkling of information on personal technology and digital literacy.
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!
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
This blog post includes all the new titles that have been ordered by the library for October 2024.
Some of these titles have arrived and can be requested through StarCat; other titles are not yet published and/or are not yet ready to circulate (and thus are not yet found in StarCat).
So, if you see a book you’d love to read, but don’t find it listed in StarCat, send me an email and let me know which title you’d like to read; and I will place it on hold for you, when it is ready to circulate.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
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The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates presents three blazing essays on race, moral complicity, and a storyteller’s responsibility to the truth. Coates evokes his father’s struggle with the wretched narrative legacy of Jim Crow. He travels to South Carolina, where school districts seek to ban his work for suggesting that America was “fundamentally racist,” or any other “divisive concept.” Coates concludes that “it is neither ‘anguish’ nor ‘discomfort’ that these people were trying to prohibit. It was enlightenment.” Finally, he connects the dots between the self-justifying narratives of European and American racism and Palestinian oppression in Israel. Going to Palestine is like time traveling back to Jim Crow: IDF soldiers with “sun glinting off their shades like Georgia sheriffs” harass Palestinians at checkpoints, proving that “as sure as my ancestors were born into a country where none of them was the equal of any white man, Israel was revealing itself to be a country where no Palestinian is ever the equal of any Jewish person anywhere.” Dehumanization is essential to exploitation, whether the targets are serfs in medieval Europe, African slaves and their descendants in America, or Palestinians on the West Bank. Coates exhorts readers, including students, parents, educators, and journalists, to challenge conventional narratives that can be used to justify ethnic cleansing or camouflage racist policing. Brilliant and timely. – Starred Booklist Review
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Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The aptly titled follow-up to The Plot (2021) focuses on Anna Williams Bonner, now the widow of the much-lauded author, Jacob Finch Bonner. Anna decides to pen her own novel, largely based on the story she shared with the world about how Jacob died, which she works on at writing retreats described in cringe-inducing and hilarious detail. The Afterword manages to be both critically acclaimed and a best-seller, but mysterious excerpts of the novel cribbed by her late husband and originally penned by her late brother, start to arrive in her mail, hinting that she has left a loose end somewhere and that her many lies, deceptions, and crimes will perhaps be exposed. While Anna is a deeply unsympathetic antihero, Korelitz so expertly depicts how Anna is convinced of her own righteousness and that her being deeply wronged justifies heinous acts that Anna’s flimsy justifications are almost convincing. Korelitz presents a compelling and worthy sequel, another rip-roaring thriller full of very amusing scenes of delusional writers and their awful prose and many twists and turns. – Booklist Review
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See Me Rolling: On Disability, Equality and Ten-Point Turns by Lottie Jackson
Disability activist Jackson uses her debut book (BISAC’ed as memoir, though it could also fit in social sciences) to illustrate ways society devalues, undervalues, or marginalizes people with disabilities. The book combines personal experience, blunt honesty, and occasional humor with research from primary sources like Disability News Service, New York Times, Financial Times, The Nation, the CDC, and the BBC. The topics of the book’s eight stand-alone essays range from the practical (visiting a department store that turns out to be scooter-inaccessible) to philosophical (removing ableism from the bedroom), and they redefine terms such as “recovery.” This book thoroughly discusses the various ways the public perceives visible and invisible disabilities. Jackson demonstrates what it means to be disabled, and she pushes for changes in public attitudes and access. The book includes eye-opening statistics, as well as quotes about disability from Margaret Atwood, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Immanuel Kant (all fully identified in the endnotes). VERDICT This gripping title will appeal to readers interested in how the lives of people with disabilities are impacted by architecture, access, clothing, employment, transportation, and mobility. It will also interest people working with or providing services as caregivers, social workers, think tanks, and more. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Triangle by Danielle Steel
A Paris gallery owner finds herself in danger when a mysterious man begins leaving her messages, in #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel’s thrilling new novel.
As she approaches the milestone birthday of forty, delicate blond beauty Amanda Delanoe finds joy in running a chic contemporary art gallery in the City of Light. The only child of a French businessman and an American model, both now deceased, Amanda lives well and adores her dog, Lulu, but so far the love of her life has eluded her.
Then she meets Olivier Saint Albin, a dashing publisher. At the same time, she reconnects with Tom Quinlan, an old boyfriend from her days at NYU twenty years ago, now a lawyer on sabbatical who has come to Paris to devote himself to writing a thriller.
Charming Olivier is a master at the art of flirtation, but as Amanda feels herself falling for him, she learns he is married. Providing counsel and support is her friend and co-owner of the gallery, fun-loving bachelor Pascal Leblanc. When Amanda begins to receive threatening phone calls late at night, it is Pascal she turns to. Then someone breaks into her apartment on the Left Bank, and it’s all too clear she is in real danger. But from whom? An old love, a new love, or a stranger? As love enters her life, so does terror. . . .
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The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker by Amy Reading
Readers enamored of the New Yorker and its history will recognize White as a legendary editor yet know little about her. Reading fills in the blanks, explaining precisely why, from the moment White arrived in 1925 to her retirement in 1961, she was essential to the magazine’s identity and success. Reading recounts White’s demanding life, from her mostly motherless New England girlhood as a “promiscuous reader” to her literary adventures at Bryn Mawr and her marriage to lawyer Ernest Angell, which brought two children and endless heartaches. She helped her second husband, writer E. B. White, contend with debilitating disorders so that he could create the works that made him famous as they had a son and lived in New York and Maine. White performed phenomenal amounts of exacting editorial work, cajoling and advising writers in discursive “personal-editorial letters,” battling with fellow editors, and fine-tuning the magazine’s mission, appeal, and significance, even while gravely ill. Reading’s fine-tuned chronicling of White’s work with writers such as Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Bishop, Mary McCarthy, John Cheever, and Vladimir Nabokov illuminates the diligence, brilliance, and vision of this “magnificent editor,” whose son, Roger Angell, also became a New Yorker fiction editor. With profound understanding of and appreciation for the full extent of White’s achievements, Reading’s in-depth, ardently and expertly written biography is a literary landmark. – Starred Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
–
The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
–
Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.
If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by, or call, the library – please do!
Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays. And the next NYT blog post will be posted on Sunday, October 6, 2024.
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THE BESTSELLERS
FICTION
1. FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros: Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.
2. WE SOLVE MURDERS by Richard Osman: When a dead body and a bag of money turn up on a remote island, Amy Wheeler reaches out to her retired father-in-law to help investigate.
3. THE BUTCHER GAME by Alaina Urquhart: The second book in the Dr. Wren Muller series. A serial killer wants to settle a score with a forensic pathologist.
4. IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse; the basis of the film.
5. THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah: In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
6. HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty: Passengers on a short and seemingly unremarkable flight learn how and when they are going to die.
7. A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas: After killing a wolf in the woods, Feyre is taken from her home and placed inside the world of the Fae.
8. IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
9. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
10. THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM by Laura Dave: Estranged siblings look into the death of their hotel magnate father and uncover a family secret.
11. IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.
12. DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver: Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
13. TELL ME EVERYTHING by Elizabeth Strout: As a murder casts a pall on a town in Maine, Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess share stories and seek meaning.
14. A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas: The second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Feyre gains the powers of the High Fae and a greater evil emerges.
15. THE PERFECT COUPLE by Elin Hilderbrand: A body is found in Nantucket Harbor hours before a picture-perfect wedding.
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NON-FICTION
1. SOMETHING LOST, SOMETHING GAINED by Hillary Rodham Clinton: The former secretary of state reflects on private and public moments from her life.
2. THE THIRD GILMORE GIRL by Kelly Bishop with Lindsay Harrison: The dancer and actress, who appeared in “A Chorus Line,” “Dirty Dancing” and “Gilmore Girls,” imparts insights on career longevity.
3. CONFRONTING THE PRESIDENTS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard: The conservative commentator evaluates the legacies of American presidents.
4. LUCKY LOSER by Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig: The New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters detail the fortunes and failures behind Donald Trump’s wealth.
5. ON FREEDOM by Timothy Snyder: The author of “On Tyranny” articulates practices and attitudes related to the concept of freedom and the ways it can be misunderstood.
6. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
7. NEXUS by Yuval Noah Harari: The author of “Sapiens” delves into how societies and political systems have used information and gives a warning about artificial intelligence.
8. WANT by Gillian Anderson: A collection of sexual fantasies and confessions submitted anonymously by women from around the world.
9. BLIND SPOTS by Marty Makary: The author of “The Price We Pay” examines the ways modern medicine might cause harm.
10. LOVELY ONE by Ketanji Brown Jackson: The first Black woman ever confirmed to the Supreme Court traces her family’s history and her personal ascent.
11. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
12. WHO COULD EVER LOVE YOU by Mary L. Trump: The author of “Too Much and Never Enough” and “The Reckoning” portrays the dynamics within her family.
13. HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance: The Yale Law School graduate and 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.
14. A RETURN TO COMMON SENSE by Leigh McGowan: The social media and podcast host prescribes ways to reinvigorate American principles.
15. CONNIE by Connie Chung: The first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News describes the sexism she encountered during her trailblazing career.
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ABOUT THE CATALOGS:
There are currently three catalogs available to Southeast Steuben County Library patrons online, that you can access to search for and request New York Times Bestsellers, and other popular books and materials in a variety of formats, i.e. print books, eBooks, streaming videos.
All you need is a library card to get started!
–
THE CATALOGS:
Catalog 1: StarCat
StarCat is the catalog of physical materials including print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. StarCat is available to all patrons of all public libraries in the Southern Tier Library System*
The Digital Catalog (and its companion app Libby) offers all Southern Tier Library System member library patrons access to eBooks, eAudiobooks & eMagazines via a lending model known in Library-ese as “one copy/one user;” that library speak means that eBooks & eAudiobooks found in The Digital Catalog/Libby are like print books found on library shelves, only one patron can check out a copy of a title at a time.
Exception: Magazines found in the digital catalog are available via a different lending model known as simultaneous access. And that fancy library speak means that magazines are available for all patrons to check out at the same time, i.e. if you and all your family and friends wish to read the latest digital edition of Newsweek, all of you can check out the e version of the magazine and read it at the same time.
The Digital Catalog/Libby checkout limit is 5 titles a time.
The Hoopla Digital Catalog (and its companion app, also called Hoopla) offers Southeast Steuben County Library patrons access to a second digital catalog with an on-demand lending model. In library speak, this lending model, like The Digital Catalog/Libby’s magazine lending model, is known as “simultaneous access.” The difference is, the Hoopla catalog offers access to more formats: eBooks, eAudiobooks, eComics, digital albums, TV shows & movies – and all items, in all those formats, are available for patrons to checkout immediately. The Hoopla check out limit is ten titles per month.
Hoopla Formats: All Hoopla content can be accessed on a computer or mobile device, and TV shows and movies can be accessed on computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and media streaming players, i.e. Roku or Apple TV.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
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Counting Miracles: A Novel by Nicholas Sparks
Tanner Hughes is a retired military officer traveling across the country to visit the families of individuals who have died during or after their service. His mother died in childbirth, and Tanner didn’t know his father’s identity until his grandmother, on her death bed, gave him a name, Dave Johnson, and a place, Asheboro, North Carolina. Once there, Tanner, like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, comes to the rescue of a teenage girl who is getting bullied at a restaurant and, predictably, meets her divorced mother, Kaitlyn, the local doctor. The attraction is immediate, but Tanner plans to leave for Africa in a few weeks, still needs to find his father, and isn’t looking for a permanent relationship. But could his father be one of Kaitlyn’s patients, Jasper, a mysteriously burned man who lives in a remote cabin and carves animals out of wood? No one reads Sparks for his plot twists, and this tale is pretty straightforward. But the romance between Tanner and the doctor sizzles, and Sparks is a master at creating fully developed, sympathetic characters with complete and compelling backstories. Readers will be drawn into this touching story of hope, faith, and love, and Sparks’ many fans will find just what they’re looking for. – Starred Booklist Review
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The Night We Lost Him: A Novel by Laura Dave
Dave follows up her blockbuster, The Last Thing He Told Me (2021), with another compelling, family-driven mystery. Nora is still grieving the sudden death of her mother when the hotel-magnate father she’s kept at arm’s length falls to his death from the cliffs by his California cottage. The last thing Nora expects is for her younger half-brother Sam to come to her with his belief that their father’s death wasn’t accidental. Nora is skeptical, but she agrees to travel with Sam from New York to California to investigate, in part to put some space between her andthe fiancé she is desperately afraid of losing.
Nora and Sam have never been close, thanks to their father’s compartmentalization of each of the families his three marriages brought him, but as they look into the circumstances surrounding his death and uncover the truth about the great love of his life, Nora comes to realize she and Sam have much more in common with each other and with their father. Dave should have another hit on her hands with this involving tale.
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On The Hunt by Iris Johansen
The prolific Johansen’s stock-in-trade throughout multiple action-thriller series has been the introduction of strong-willed, uniquely talented female protagonists who bristle with courage and conviction but are also vulnerable to romantic entanglements, often at the least opportune moments. Kira Drake is no exception to this rule. A forensics tracker sought after by international search-and-rescue agencies, Drake’s distinctive talents lie in a veterinary practice in which exceptional animal longevity and unconventional interspecies communications collide. Accompanied by her canine partner Mack to the site of a devastating bombing in Paris, Drake finds herself drawn into the lengthy and deadly feud between Nobel Prize-winning scientist-entrepreneur Jack Harlan and Joseph Taylor, the man who murdered his brother and who is the mastermind behind the Paris attack. As is often the case with Johansen’s heroines, Drake prefers to use her skills to pursue Taylor on her own but reluctantly accepts assistance and attention from Harlan. In seeking both revenge and justice, Drake, Harlan, and Taylor become embroiled in a high-stakes battle of wits and words. – Booklist Review
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Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty by Hillary Rodham Clinton
What would it be like to sit down for an impassioned, entertaining conversation with Hillary Clinton? In Something Lost, Something Gained, Hillary offers her candid views on life and love, politics, liberty, democracy, the threats we face, and the future within our reach.
She describes the strength she draws from her deepest friendships, her Methodist faith, and the nearly fifty years she’s been married to President Bill Clinton—all with the wisdom that comes from looking back on a full life with fresh eyes. She takes us along as she returns to the classroom as a college professor, enjoys the bonds inside the exclusive club of former First Ladies, moves past her dream of being president, and dives into new activism for women and democracy.
From canoeing with an ex-Nazi trying to deprogram white supremacists to sweltering with salt farmers in the desert trying to adapt to the climate crisis in India, Hillary brings us to the front lines of our biggest challenges. For the first time, Hillary shares the story of her operation to evacuate Afghan women to safety in the harrowing final days of America’s longest war. But we also meet the brave women dissidents defying dictators around the world, gain new personal insights about her old adversary Vladimir Putin, and learn the best ways that worried parents can protect kids from toxic technology. We also hear her fervent and persuasive warning to all American voters. In the end, Something Lost, Something Gained is a testament to the idea that the personal is political, and the political is personal, providing a blueprint for what each of us can do to make our lives better.
Hillary has “looked at life from both sides now.” In these pages, she shares the latest chapter of her inspiring life and shows us how to age with grace and keep moving forward, with grit, joy, purpose, and a sense of humor.
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Syndicate by Felix Francis
Life isn’t safe even for a syndicate manager in the upper echelon of British horse racing. Chester Newton is worried how Potassium, the current star of his syndicate, Victrix Racing, will run in the Epsom Derby. When Potassium wins by a nose, Chester breathes a sigh of relief and turns to the party planned for the 25th anniversary of his wedding to Georgina; the 21st birthday of their son, James; and the 19th birthday of their daughter, Amanda. That’s where signs of trouble pop up. Darren Williamson, the undesirable older boyfriend Amanda’s brought to the party, reports that she’s gone missing after a row, and DS Christine Royle, of the Thames Valley Police, doesn’t share Chester’s anxiety about her return. Royle turns out to be right, sort of, since Amanda is shortly found doped with ketamine, unable to remember anything about how she disappeared. The punchline–a phone call from an anonymous person with a squeaky voice who points out how easy it would be to snatch Amanda again–sets the plot in motion, as Squeaky Voice repeatedly calls Chester to demand that several of Victrix’s favorites, including Potassium, lose their races. Chester can’t figure out what the motive for these calls is, who’s behind them, whether he should do their bidding, or how he can fix the races if he decides to give in. His nondecision to play it by ear, taking each threat as it comes, and his seduction by younger American Toni Beckett make each step in the story less predictable, and the customary insider details about the racing scene set up the denouement with commendable precision. Perhaps the strongest installment of this venerable franchise since Francis took the reins from his jockey father. – Starred Kirkus Review
Reader’s Note: Syndicate is the thirteenth book in the Dick Francis Novels series by Felix Francis. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one Gamble.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.
If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by, or call, the library – please do!
Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
THE BESTSELLERS
FICTION
1. SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE SEA by TJ Klune: The second book in the Cerulean Chronicles series. The headmaster of a strange orphanage seeks to protect the magical children who reside there.
2. HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty: Passengers on a short and seemingly unremarkable flight learn how and when they are going to die.
3. TELL ME EVERYTHING by Elizabeth Strout: As a murder casts a pall on a town in Maine, Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess share stories and seek meaning.
4. IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse; the basis of the film.
5. THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah: In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
6. IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
7. THE PERFECT COUPLE by Elin Hilderbrand: A body is found in Nantucket Harbor hours before a picture-perfect wedding.
8. A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas: After killing a wolf in the woods, Feyre is taken from her home and placed inside the world of the Fae.
9. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
10. DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver: Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
11. IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.
12. VINCE FLYNN: CAPTURE OR KILL by Don Bentley: The 23rd book in the Mitch Rapp series. In 2011, operations take place to prevent a looming war in the Middle East.
13. A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas: The second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Feyre gains the powers of the High Fae and a greater evil emerges.
14. THE GAMES GODS PLAY by Abigail Owen: Gods enlist mortals to fight in their stead to determine who will sit on the throne in Olympus.
15. THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE by Matt Haig: A retired math teacher who inherits a run-down house on a Mediterranean island from a friend goes in search of answers.
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NON-FICTION
1. CONFRONTING THE PRESIDENTS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard: The conservative commentator evaluates the legacies of American presidents.
2. NEXUS by Yuval Noah Harari: The author of “Sapiens” delves into how societies and political systems have used information and gives a warning about artificial intelligence.
3. WHO COULD EVER LOVE YOU by Mary L. Trump: The author of “Too Much and Never Enough” and “The Reckoning” portrays the dynamics within her family.
4. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
5. LOVELY ONE by Ketanji Brown Jackson: The first Black woman ever confirmed to the Supreme Court traces her family’s history and her personal ascent.
6. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
7. HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance: The Yale Law School graduate and 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.
8. THE DEMON OF UNREST by Erik Larson: The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War.
9. GHOSTS OF HONOLULU by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll Jr.: The story of a Japanese American naval intelligence agent, a Japanese spy and events in Hawaii before the start of World War II.
10. THE ART OF POWER by Nancy Pelosi: The representative from California chronicles her journey in politics, including her time as the first woman to serve as speaker of the House.
11. I USED TO LIKE YOU UNTIL…by Kat Timpf: The co-host of “Gutfeld!” and Fox News analyst shares her opinions on binary thinking.
12. REAGAN by Max Boot: A biography of the 40th president of the United States.
13. THE HIGHEST CALLING by David M. Rubenstein: Conversations with journalists, historians and former presidents on the American presidency.
14. IMMINENT by Luis Elizondo: The former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program shares insights on unidentified anomalous phenomena.
15. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
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There are currently three catalogs available to Southeast Steuben County Library patrons online, that you can access to search for and request New York Times Bestsellers, and other popular books and materials in a variety of formats, i.e. print books, eBooks, streaming videos.
All you need is a library card to get started!
–
THE CATALOGS:
Catalog 1: StarCat
StarCat is the catalog of physical materials including print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. StarCat is available to all patrons of all public libraries in the Southern Tier Library System*
The Digital Catalog (and its companion app Libby) offers all Southern Tier Library System member library patrons access to eBooks, eAudiobooks & eMagazines via a lending model known in Library-ese as “one copy/one user;” that library speak means that eBooks & eAudiobooks found in The Digital Catalog/Libby are like print books found on library shelves, only one patron can check out a copy of a title at a time.
Exception: Magazines found in the digital catalog are available via a different lending model known as simultaneous access. And that fancy library speak means that magazines are available for all patrons to check out at the same time, i.e. if you and all your family and friends wish to read the latest digital edition of Newsweek, all of you can check out the e version of the magazine and read it at the same time.
The Digital Catalog/Libby checkout limit is 5 titles a time.
The Hoopla Digital Catalog (and its companion app, also called Hoopla) offers Southeast Steuben County Library patrons access to a second digital catalog with an on-demand lending model. In library speak, this lending model, like The Digital Catalog/Libby’s magazine lending model, is known as “simultaneous access.” The difference is, the Hoopla catalog offers access to more formats: eBooks, eAudiobooks, eComics, digital albums, TV shows & movies – and all items, in all those formats, are available for patrons to checkout immediately. The Hoopla check out limit is ten titles per month.
Hoopla Formats: All Hoopla content can be accessed on a computer or mobile device, and TV shows and movies can be accessed on computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and media streaming players, i.e. Roku or Apple TV.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, September 25, 2024.
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Entitlement: A Novel by Rumaan Alam
Thirtysomething Brooke Orr is hoping for a career reboot as program coordinator for the Asher and Carol Jaffee Foundation. A billionaire many times over, Asher wants to give away his money before he dies and Brooke’s job is to help find causes worthy of financial support. Brooke decides that a local New York City children’s art nonprofit is deserving of charity, even if its Black owner remains unconvinced. When her best friend and younger brother begin to settle into comfortable lives, Brooke wonders: Can Asher Jaffee rescue her too, while he’s at it? After all, as one character questions, “what we were taught–get a job, work hard, save, be prudent, buy a little place of your own, contribute to the goddamn economy, do the thing that makes the world go round–is that even possible for us?” Alam follows his best-selling Leave the World Behind (2021) with this visceral and absolutely mesmerizing novel of power plays and capitalism. He gives a shout-out to Sylvia Plath, who once said, “How we need that security. How we need another soul to cling to.”” Brooke, however, doesn’t quite buy that argument. She knows we can find security through other paths, even if we risk flying too close to the sun. – Booklist Review
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Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals – A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food [A Cookbook] by Dolly Parton
Legendary singer-songwriter Parton (Behind the Seams) teams up with her sister, debut author George, for this cheery guide to entertaining. The sisters provide 12 themed menus, each devoted to one month of the year, with recipes for drinks, appetizers, mains, sides, and desserts. July’s menu, inspired by Fourth of July cookouts, starts with sweet tea and hot wing dip with celery sticks, features barbecue spare ribs as the main, includes grilled corn with spicy mayo and layered salad as the sides, and ends with apple pie with crumb topping. Throughout, the authors share endearing anecdotes (“This is one of Dolly’s favorite dishes, so I usually make it for her birthday,” George writes of the rustic chicken and dumplings) and family recipes, including their mother’s banana pudding and their sister Willadeene’s witches’ brew cider. Instructions are uncomplicated, with prep times and cook times listed to help readers plan ahead and sidebars with handy tips: for the watermelon fruit salad, they suggest adding the dressing (made of citrus, herbs, and champagne) to individual servings instead of the entire bowl to help leftovers last longer. This tasty and heartfelt outing is a gift for Parton’s fans. – Publishers Weekly Review
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I Dreamed of Falling: A Novel by Julia Dahl
After suffering severe postpartum depression, yoga instructor Ashley Lillian has just gotten back on her feet when she’s found dead, plunging her already-dysfunctional family into a maelstrom of grief, guilt, and recriminations, in this moving psychological thriller from Dahl (The Missing Hours). As police in the tiny Hudson Valley town of Adamsville, N.Y., investigate how Ashley’s body ended up on the slope below the home where she’d been partying with her estranged ex-lover, Bella Abernathy, Ashley’s current partner, Roman Grady—the sole reporter for the local newspaper—can’t help but start asking questions of his own. Roman, who spent the fateful night in Manhattan, wonders when Ashley reconnected with Bella, what happened to her phone, and what accounts for a bizarre discrepancy in the cash-strapped couple’s finances. As Roman takes a fresh look at the people in his orbit—including his domineering mother, Tara, with whom he and Ashley had been living—he begins to fear he may not have known them at all. Dahl’s gift for suspense will keep readers flipping pages, but in the end, it’s her finely wrought characters they’ll remember. It’s an impressive leap forward from the author’s previous, more plot-driven efforts.
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The Library Thief: A Novel by Kuchenga Shenjé
In Victorian London, Florence Granger is the daughter of a bookbinder and a bookbinder herself. After spending years learning the trade at her father’s feet, she is sent to the house of Lord Francis Belfield, whose library is in a state of extraordinary disrepair. Upon her arrival, Florence’s presence is rejected and then reluctantly accepted. What Lord Belfield doesn’t know is that Florence is Jamaican, passing as a white woman, and that the secrets hidden in his library will change this bookbinder’s life and viewpoint permanently. Fans of Kate Morton’s books and Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale (2006) will devour this novel easily. What makes the book unique, however, is the shifting perspective of the main character, who walks a thin line as a woman trying to build a life for herself despite and because of her hidden identity. In her debut novel, The Library Thief: A Novel by Kuchenga Shenjé rightfully joins a distinguished line of authors who love books and secrets and know exactly how to combine the two.
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A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg
Attenberg sets up her entertaining and empathic eighth work of fiction around a Scrabble board in the Chicago suburbs in 1971. “”This whole family was nervous.”” Teenage sisters Nancy and Shelly Cohen are formidable players, but their mom, Frieda, plans to win and knows Shelly is her only competition. Dad Rudy just wants everyone to have fun. Then it’s 1976 and Rudy, after already surviving so much, including the Holocaust, is gone from cancer. With Frieda’s drinking out of control and Nancy away at college, Shelly can’t wait to escape, too, and with her brain it won’t be a problem. The novel advances like this, years at a time, as Nancy gets pregnant and marries her college boyfriend; Shelly gets a Seattle tech job working on newfangled cellular phones; and Frieda moves to Miami with a friend. Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours, 2019) knows how to imperil her characters and love them at the same time. Quite a lot happens–careers begin and flourish, love affairs start and end, addictions meet their match–and, as time ticks up to the late aughts, those little phones start to change everything. But much remains the same, too, and readers will happily sit with these women through it all. – Starred Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.
If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by, or call, the library – please do!
Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713
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There are three catalogs available to Southeast Steuben County Library patrons online, that you can access to search for and request New York Times Bestsellers, and other popular books and materials in a variety of formats, i.e. print books, eBooks, streaming videos.
All you need is a library card to get started!
Links to the catalogs are found after the list of New York Times Bestsellers.
New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays. And the next NYT blog post will be posted on Sunday,
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THE BESTSELLERS
FICTION
1. PASSIONS IN DEATH by J.D. Robb: The 59th book of the In Death series. Bad memories come up for Eve Dallas at a crime scene.
2. VINCE FLYNN: CAPTURE OR KILL by Don Bentley: The 23rd book in the Mitch Rapp series. In 2011, operations take place to prevent a looming war in the Middle East.
3. IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse; the basis of the film.
4. IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
5. WILD EYES by Elsie Silver: The second book in the Rose Hill series. A country singer who recently had some bad press decides whether to take a chance with a horse trainer.
6. THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah: In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
7. THE GAMES GODS PLAY by Abigail Owen: Gods enlist mortals to fight in their stead to determine who will sit on the throne in Olympus.
8. A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas: After killing a wolf in the woods, Feyre is taken from her home and placed inside the world of the Fae.
9. DAYDREAM by Hannah Grace: The third book in the Maple Hills series. A college student with writer’s block offers to tutor the captain of the hockey team.
10. THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE by Matt Haig: A retired math teacher who inherits a run-down house on a Mediterranean island from a friend goes in search of answers.
11. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
12. THE PERFECT COUPLE by Elin Hilderbrand: A body is found in Nantucket Harbor hours before a picture-perfect wedding.
13. DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver: Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
14. THE CURSED by Harper L. Woods: The second book in the Coven of Bones series. Feelings of betrayal and revenge put things in a precarious place.
15. IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.
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NON-FICTION
1. LOVELY ONE by Ketanji Brown Jackson: The first Black woman ever confirmed to the Supreme Court traces her family’s history and her personal ascent.
2. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
3. HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance: The Yale Law School graduate and 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.
4. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
5. IMMINENT by Luis Elizondo: The former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program shares insights on unidentified anomalous phenomena.
6. THE DEMON OF UNREST by Erik Larson: The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War.
7. AMERICA’S DEADLIEST ELECTION by Dana Bash with David Fisher: The CNN chief political correspondent considers the election of 1872 and draws parallels to today’s politics.
8. AT WAR WITH OURSELVES by H.R. McMaster: The author of “Battlegrounds” and former national security adviser assesses his time in the Trump White House.
9. THE ART OF POWER by Nancy Pelosi: The representative from California chronicles her journey in politics, including her time as the first woman to serve as speaker of the House.
10. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
11. UPWORTHY: GOOD PEOPLE by Gabriel Reilich and Lucia Knell: A collection of stories highlighting human kindness from the social media platform Upworthy.
12. BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer: A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.
13. NUCLEAR WAR by Annie Jacobsen: The author of “Operation Paperclip” portrays possible outcomes in the minutes following a nuclear missile launch.
14. WHAT’S NEXT by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack: Two cast members of “The West Wing” share insights into the creation and legacy of the series.
15. GHOSTS OF HONOLULU by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll Jr.: The story of a Japanese American naval intelligence agent, a Japanese spy and events in Hawaii before the start of World War II.
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THE CATALOGS:
Catalog 1: StarCat
StarCat is the catalog of physical materials including print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. StarCat is available to all patrons of all public libraries in the Southern Tier Library System*
The Digital Catalog (and its companion app Libby) offers all Southern Tier Library System member library patrons access to eBooks, eAudiobooks & eMagazines via a lending model known in Library-ese as “one copy/one user;” that library speak means that eBooks & eAudiobooks found in The Digital Catalog/Libby are like print books found on library shelves, only one patron can check out a copy of a title at a time.
Exception: Magazines found in the digital catalog are available via a different lending model known as simultaneous access. And that fancy library speak means that magazines are available for all patrons to check out at the same time, i.e. if you and all your family and friends wish to read the latest digital edition of Newsweek, all of you can check out the e version of the magazine and read it at the same time.
The Digital Catalog/Libby checkout limit is 5 titles a time.
The Hoopla Digital Catalog (and its companion app, also called Hoopla) offers Southeast Steuben County Library patrons access to a second digital catalog with an on-demand lending model. In library speak, this lending model, like The Digital Catalog/Libby’s magazine lending model, is known as “simultaneous access.” The difference is, the Hoopla catalog offers access to more formats: eBooks, eAudiobooks, eComics, digital albums, TV shows & movies – and all items, in all those formats, are available for patrons to checkout immediately. The Hoopla check out limit is ten titles per month.
Hoopla Formats: All Hoopla content can be accessed on a computer or mobile device, and TV shows and movies can be accessed on computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and media streaming players, i.e. Roku or Apple TV.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 