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.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are usually published on Wednesday; unless yours truly is swamped, and then they are occasionally published on Thursdays, as is the case this week.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 31, 2024.
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1812: The War That Forged a Nation by Watler Borneman
This thoroughly readable popular history of the War of 1812 may exaggerate in its claim that the war forged America’s national identity; after all, there were enough regional identities left lying around after the conflict to cause a national civil war. But otherwise it’s a fine narrative history that traces the major of events of the war, from the preliminary plots by James Wilkinson and Aaron Burr that revealed the ambitions of Westerners for territorial expansion, through New England’s secessionist Hartford Convention to the Battle of New Orleans, which wrapped up the war in 1815. Borneman makes clear that the performance of the American army was mostly disgraceful, that the Canadians can pat themselves on the back for courage and endurance and that the decisive victory of the American navy was not the famous frigate duels but the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814. Borneman (Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land) is also strong in vivid personal portraits (the gigantic Winfield Scott and the diminutive and sickly James Madison) and evenhanded as far as atrocities (too many, by all parties) are concerned. Even the annotation and bibliography of this sound introduction will propel those whose curiosity is piqued to read further in all directions. -Publishers Weekly Review
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Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
The beguiling first installment of a new fantasy trilogy from El-Arifi (The Final Strife) introduces a mystical world filled with conflict. Elves were born of the moon, fae were born of the sun, and humans were born of the earth, or so the myth goes. Now, only elves remain, and all is not well. The Forever War between elven tribes has raged on for as long as sisters Lettle and Yeeran have been alive. Yeeran is a decorated soldier determined to help the Waning Tribe win and thrive. Lettle, a diviner, is repulsed by the conflict but driven to prove her worth to her sister. When one of Yeeran’s command decisions ends in tragedy, she’s exiled to the harsh environment outside of the Elven Lands. Lettle and Rayan, one of Yeeran’s soldiers, follow her by choice, and all three find themselves unexpectedly drawn into the world of the fae, creatures they believed were long extinct. Relying on their scant knowledge from old stories, the sisters and Rayan must navigate this strange, underground world, replete with magic, secrets, and romance beyond their wildest imaginings. The worldbuilding is lush and exciting, and the focus on character development and relationships makes for a cast that readers will be excited to revisit in future installments. El-Arifi is off to a great start. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarrows
Violet Sorrengail wanted to be a scribe rather than join her siblings as dragon riders defending Navarre’s borders, but her mother, a decorated general, had other ideas. She’s forced Violet to enlist as a rider cadet in the Basgiath War College, even though Violet’s hypermobility–a disorder that destabilizes her joints and leaves her easily injured–puts her at a disadvantage. To make matters worse, Violet has been assigned to the Fourth Wing, led by Xaden Riorson, the son of a rebel leader whom her mother executed. Surrounded by dangers in a school designed to weed out the weak, Violet must use her wits and skill to overcome brutal challenges and vicious opponents. The bonds Violet forms with her fellow cadets offset the college’s constant violence, and her slowly developing enemies-to-lovers relationship with Xaden will appeal to fans of the trope. Violet’s hypermobility gives her a unique way of moving through the world, and Yarros (The Things We Leave Unfinished) uses characters’ reactions to thoughtfully explore the ways in which others respond to the lived realities of people with disabilities.
VERDICT A good selection for fans of Naomi Novik’s “Scholomance” series; will fly off the shelves. – Library Journal Review
Reader’s Note: Fourth Wing is the second book in the ongoing Empyrean Series.
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The Fury by Alex Michaelides
Everyone loves movie star Lana Farrar, especially her closest friend, Elliot, who offers charismatic narration twisted with fantasies, Agatha Christie overtones, and self-serving asides. They met when she was a young starlet and were instantly kindred spirits. So, when Lana discovers that her husband, Jason, has been having an affair with her oldest friend, Kate, she turns to Elliot. In drinks-fueled synergy, they concoct a dramatic plan to out the betrayal. Lana persuades Kate, Jason, and her assistant, Agathi, to join her, Elliot, and her son, Leo, for a getaway on their private island. The island seems to sense their tension, whipped to new heights by the Fury, a legendary wind famous for its malicious power. Lana’s inner circle, infected with barely suppressed resentments, gives the plan a new, darker impetus that ends in murder. Michaelides (The Maidens, 2021) again creates an almost tangible blend of tension, manipulation, and obsession. Even veteran crime-fiction readers will fall prey to Michaelides’ craft, nudged into shifting, sympathetic allegiances to the damaged, unlikable characters in this pitch-perfect, classic crime set-up and modern psychological thriller. – Booklist Review
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Mercury by Amy Jo Burns
In the 1990s, a young woman yearns to become part of one big happy family, and thinks she might be. When teenager Marley West arrives in the Pennsylvania town of Mercury in 1990, she falls in love almost immediately. Not with Baylor Joseph, the swaggering athlete who swoops her up, but with Baylor’s family–or at least what Marley thinks his family is. Baylor soon dumps her, and she falls into the arms of his younger brother, sweet, responsible Waylon. Soon Marley is pregnant and she and Waylon are married and living in a tiny apartment in the Josephs’ sprawling Victorian house. The only child of a hard-working single mother, she’s never experienced the clamor and warmth of a big family. She’s charmed by the three sons (the youngest is tender-hearted Shay Baby), and impressed by patriarch Mick Joseph, a damaged Vietnam vet who runs the roofing company that supports the family and employs most of them. But Marley is most enthralled by Elise Joseph, wife and mother, who rules the household with never a hair out of place. Marley doesn’t just want Elise to love her; she wants to be Elise. But Marley will discover deep fractures within the family and the extreme sacrifices Elise makes–not to mention a literal skeleton, not in the closet but in the attic of a local church. Marley forges her own identity, taking over the finances of the roofing company from the profligate Mick and raising her son, Theo, as her marriage wavers. Although by then it’s the mid-1990s and rights for women and gay people are gaining cultural force, they don’t seem to have any impact on small-town Pennsylvania, where Marley feels the same pressure of tradition Elise does, and another character suffers mightily. Though there’s a large cast, Burns brings depth and insight to each member. Well-drawn, engaging characters and a vivid setting make this is a compelling study of family dynamics. – Kirkus Review
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Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge: A Novel by Lizzie Pook
Pook (Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter) delivers a brilliant historical about a woman’s search for the truth behind her sister’s death during an Arctic expedition. After a tantalizing prologue, Constance Horton, 20, disguises herself as a cabin boy to join the Makepeace on its 1849 journey to the Arctic in search of missing explorer Sir John Franklin, who sought the fabled Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Two years later, Constance’s sister, Maude, receives a letter stating only that Constance died by “misadventure.” Maude refuses to accept such a vague explanation, even though the British Admiralty is reluctant to provide her with further details about the accident. Eventually, a clerk surreptitiously hands over the diary that Constance kept while aboard the Makepeace. In it, Maude finds entries that cast suspicion on expedition scientist Edison Stowe. She cozies up to Stowe, accompanying him on a new—and rather grisly—business venture in order to extract whatever details she can about Constance’s death. Pook’s masterful pacing and meticulous attention to historical detail make this sing. Fans of Stuart Tarton’s high seas whodunits will be rapt. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Neon Gods by Katee Roberts
With this deliciously inventive retelling of Greek mythology, the Dark Olympus series launch, Robert (the Bloodline Vampires series) thrusts familiar figures into the present to intoxicating effect. There’s nothing explicitly supernatural here; instead, the gods’ powers are political. When socialite Persephone Dimitriou’s mother, Demeter, tries to force her into a strategic marriage to the much-older, alleged wife killer Zeus, Persephone flees the upper city of Olympus across the River Styx—and straight into the arms of Hades, the infamous ruler of the lower city. Strong, brooding Hades has shouldered the crushing responsibility of protecting the lower city ever since Zeus killed his parents, and very nearly him, when he was a boy. In Persephone he sees an opportunity for revenge—and in Hades, Persephone sees the chance to have an affair so wild and public that Zeus will no longer want her. After agreeing to spend the winter together, Hades introduces Persephone to kink she’s only dreamed of. But as their irresistible erotic connection deepens to love, Zeus will stop at nothing to reclaim his intended wife. Robert brings every element of a must-read dark romance to the table: high stakes, taut pacing, enticing characters, and sizzling chemistry. This red-hot romance is a winner. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
Reader’s Note: Neon Gods is the first book in the, currently, six book with a seventh coming in August, Dark Olympus Series.
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Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
The latest from Willingham (All the Dangerous Things) is a cunning if somewhat implausible campus thriller. As Margot nears the end of her achingly lonely freshman year—a far cry from the adventurous one she’d imagined with her bestie, Eliza, who had died under suspicious circumstances weeks after their high school graduation—at South Carolina’s Rutledge College, she can’t fathom why Lucy Sharpe, one of the school’s most popular coeds, would invite her to room with her and her wingwomen in the historic off-campus house they’re renting for the summer. Still, Margot leaps at the offer, plunging into what turns out to be a maelstrom of secrets, mind games, and possibly murder. Despite her natural reserve, Margot clicks with the uninhibited Lucy, sliding into a sidekick role similar to the one she played with Eliza. However, as the summer’s booze-soaked partying with the neighboring fraternity winds on, Lucy’s darker side emerges, especially after the arrival of prospective frat pledge Levi Butler—Eliza’s old boyfriend, who was reportedly the last person to see her alive. Flash forward several months: Levi’s dead, Lucy has disappeared, and Margot’s narration has become increasingly unreliable. Though the twisty narrative grows far-fetched as it nears the climax, Willingham’s prose remains evocative, and her deep dive into the thorny nature of female friendship rings true. Though this doesn’t rank among the author’s best work, it’s still a gripping ride. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Random In Death by J. D. Robb
This sturdy entry in Robb’s long-running procedural series featuring New York City police lieutenant Eve Dallas (after Payback in Death) again takes place in the recognizable future of the 2060s. This time around, Dallas and her team are on the hunt for a cunning killer who’s targeting Manhattan teenagers. His first victim is nascent songwriter Jenna Harbough, who’s injected with a cocktail of drugs at the trendy downtown Club Rock It and dies in the alley behind the venue. A short time later, another teenager dies under similar circumstances. Dallas is assigned to the cases and comes to the disturbing conclusion that the killer’s victims were chosen at random. Interwoven throughout the murder investigation are long sections depicting Eve’s idyllic marriage to the sexy, supportive, and ultrawealthy Roarke, including descriptions of the “castle he’d built in the heart of New York City” for the pair to inhabit. These envy-inducing segments can feel more frisky than the rote procedural beats, but Dallas’s final confrontation with the killer has some heat. Series fans will get what they came for. – Publishers Weekly Review
Random In Death is the fifty-eight book in the In Death series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: Naked In Death.
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Sanctuary of the Shadow by Aurora Ascher
Harrow is a Seer, an Elemental who uses water magic to discern dreams and signs. Ever since her entire Seer tribe was annihilated by the fire queen’s mythical wraiths, Harrow has been hiding out in an Elemental circus pretending to be a human fortune teller. When she comes across a caged man with fiery eyes in the circus, the Water tells her this man is important. He calls himself Raith because he’s believed to be one. Harrow doesn’t believe he is, because wraiths never take human form. The Water compels her to save Raith, and together they escape the circus. Once alone, they explore their unbridled desire for each other and plan a future together. But when Raith’s ties to her past are revealed in a dream, Harrow learns the truth behind his fiery eyes that may be their undoing. Ascher’s latest is a fantasy romance that has everything nice–a hot love interest, a relatable main character, female friendship–and plenty of (consensual) spice. Fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Sarah J. Maas will enjoy this one. – Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
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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/download content to 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 instant 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 App is available for Android or Apple 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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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.
New York Times Bestsellers can be requested through StarCat (for print books) & The Digital Catalog/Libby for eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks. Select titles may also be checked out, on demand, through the Hoopla Catalog.
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are published on Sundays.
And the next New York Times blog post will be posted on Sunday, January 28, 2024.
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FICTION
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ATLAS COMPLEX by Olivie Blake
The third book in the Atlas series. The ethics of the six Society recruits are tested by the possibility of gaining limitless power.
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A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas
The fifth book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Nesta Archeron is forced into close quarters with a warrior named Cassian.
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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.
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THE EXCHANGE by John Grisham
In a sequel to “The Firm,” Mitch McDeere, who is now a partner at the world’s largest law firm, gets caught up in a sinister plot.
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FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston
A woman who works for a mysterious boss takes on a new identity to dig up information on someone.
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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.
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THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride
Secrets held by the residents of a dilapidated neighborhood come to life when a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well.
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HOLMES, MARPLE & POE by James Patterson and Brian Sitts
Three private investigators working in New York City draw the attention of an N.Y.P.D. detective.
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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.
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HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas
Passion arises between Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar as they seek to avenge the deaths of Bryce’s friends.
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HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH by Sarah J. Maas
The second book in the Crescent City series. Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar must choose to fight or stay silent.
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ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace
Anastasia might need the help of the captain of a college hockey team to get on the Olympic figure skating team.
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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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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse.
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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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THE LITTLE LIAR by Mitch Albom
The actions of an 11-year-old boy help facilitate the delivery of Jewish residents, including his family, to Auschwitz.
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REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt
A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.
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SANCTUARY OF THE SHADOW by Aurora Ascher
When Harrow takes an interest in a winged beast new to the area, old enemies turn up to get their revenge on her.
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TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett
Three daughters, who return to their family orchard in the spring of 2020, learn about their mother’s relationship with a famous actor.
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TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin
Three daughters, who return to their family orchard in the spring of 2020, Two friends find their partnership challenged in the world of video game design.
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TWISTED LOVE by Ana Huang
The first book in the Twisted series. Secrets emerge when Ava explores things with her brother’s best friend.
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UPSIDE DOWN by Danielle Steel
When they encounter strains in their romantic relationships, a Hollywood actress and her plastic surgeon daughter seek solace in each other.
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NON-FICTION
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AN IMMENSE WORLD by Ed Yong
The Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer explains the sensory perceptions and ways of communication used by a variety of animals.
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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk
How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
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THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown
The story of the American rowers who pursued gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games; the basis of the film.
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ELON MUSK by Walter Isaacson
The author of “The Code Breaker” traces Musk’s life and summarizes his work on electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence.
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EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE by Dolly Alderton
The British journalist shares stories and observations; the basis of the TV series.
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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry
The late actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.
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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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GREENLIGHTS by Matthew McConaughey
The Academy Award-winning actor shares snippets from the diaries he kept over 35 years.
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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by David Grann
The story of a murder spree in 1920s Oklahoma that targeted Osage Indians, whose lands contained oil.
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KILLING THE WITCHES by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
The 13th book in the conservative commentator’s Killing series gives a portrayal of the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Mass.
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THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY by Tim Alberta
The author of “American Carnage” looks at divisions within the American evangelical movement.
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MY EFFIN’ LIFE by Geddy Lee with Daniel Richler
The musician known for his work with the band Rush chronicles his life as the child of Holocaust survivors and his time in the limelight.
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MY NAME IS BARBRA by Barbra Streisand
The EGOT winner chronicles her journey in show business and reveals details about some of her personal relationships.
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OATH AND HONOR by Liz Cheney
The former congresswoman from Wyoming recounts how she helped lead the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6. Attack on the United States Capitol.
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OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford
A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
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PREQUEL by Rachel Maddow
The MSNBC host and co-author of “Bag Man” details a campaign to overthrow the U.S. government and install authoritarian rule prior to and during our involvement in World War II.
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THE WAGER by David Grann
The survivors of a shipwrecked British vessel on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain have different accounts of events.
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THE WOMAN IN ME by Britney Spears
The Grammy Award-winning pop star details her personal and professional experiences, including the years she spent under a conservatorship overseen by her father.
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Search for and request books online!
eBooks & Audiobooks Through The Digital Catalog & Libby
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access
StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries throughout the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs, you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Telephone Number: 607-936-3713.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
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.
–
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.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesday.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
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Baumgartner by Paul Auster
Auster (The Brooklyn Follies) offers a profound character study of a man whose advancing years are shaped by mourning and memory. Sy Baumgartner is a 70-year-old philosophy professor at Princeton who, at the novel’s outset, has spent the past decade grieving his beloved wife Anna’s death in a swimming accident. Though he attends to a banal domestic routine, writes scholarly books, and even proposes marriage to a divorced colleague, Sy is so surrounded by effects of his old life with Anna (including manuscripts of her poetry, a book of which he shepherded into print posthumously) and so steeped in his reminiscences of her that at one point he becomes convinced she’s called him over a long-ago disconnected phone line to assure him “that the living and the dead are connected, and to be as deeply connected as they were when she was alive can continue even in death.” Sy lives simultaneously in both the present and the past, and Auster navigates these two narrative tracks nimbly: an uncovered box of Anna’s postgraduate papers leads to a reverie about her and Sy’s courtship decades earlier; a present-day moment of absentmindedness conjures recollections of Sy’s multigenerational family. The effect builds to a beautiful approximation of memory’s fluidity and allure. This is one to savor. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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A Cold Day For Murder by Dana Stabenow
The Edgar Award-winning introduction to private investigator Kate Shugak, A Cold Day for Murder is the first in Dana Stabenow’s critically acclaimed Kate Shugak mysteries.
Kate Shugak is a native Aleut working as a private investigator in Alaska. She’s five foot, one inch tall, carries a scar that runs from ear to ear across her throat, and owns a half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. Resourceful, strong-willed, defiant, Kate is tougher than your average heroine – and she needs to be to survive the worst the Alaskan wilds can throw at her.
Somewhere in twenty million acres of forest and glaciers, a ranger has disappeared: Mark Miller. Missing six weeks. It’s assumed by the National Park Service that Miller has been caught in a snowstorm and frozen to death: the typical fate of those who get lost in this vast and desolate terrain. But as a favour to his congressman father, the FBI send in an investigator: Ken Dahl. Last heard from two weeks and two days ago.
Now it’s time to send in a professional. Kate Shugak: light brown eyes, black hair, five foot one with an angry scar from ear to ear. Last seen yesterday…
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The Getaway List: A Novel by Emma Lord
Two best friends come together after being separated for several years, tackling long-anticipated items on their Getaway List. Riley was turned down by all 10 colleges she applied to, and she’s not upset about it, which concerns her–and really bothers her mother. With her history of joining childhood bestie Tom in good-natured troublemaking, Riley has spent the past few years of high school since getting suspended overwhelmed by the extracurriculars and jobs her mother sets up for her. Now that Riley’s graduated, she realizes that she has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Against her mother’s wishes, she travels from Virginia to New York City, back into the life of Tom, who moved there after ninth grade. What starts as a weekend away turns into a summer of discovery and adventure for the two 18-year-olds as they hang out with a quirky group of friends and work to complete the list of activities they started making after Tom’s move. Together, Riley and Tom navigate the intricacies of self-discovery and their changing feelings for one another. This is a beautiful story of family, friendship, romantic love, and personal growth. Riley is a witty, reflective narrator, and the supporting characters are well formed and likable, keeping the humor and engagement high. Riley and Tom are cued white. An entertaining friends-to-lovers story that will have readers laughing and reflecting in equal measure. – Kirkus Review
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In The Shadow of Fear: America and the World in 1950 by Nick Bunker
In the years following World War II, the United States’ economic and industrial output were unmatched. President Harry S. Truman hoped to build on FDR’s New Deal legacy with his Fair Deal: a broad set of liberal reforms, including higher taxes for new infrastructure, education, and a national healthcare plan. Historian Bunker (Making Haste from Babylon) details the months between September 1949 and June 1950 when several crises, domestic and foreign, rocked the Truman administration. Strikes by the mine workers and steelworkers, demanding higher wages and job stability, threatened the United States’ economic boom and coal supply during the winter months. Communists solidified control of China and later signed a pact with the Soviet Union, expanding communism over much of Asia, while in the U.S., Democrats maintained control of the House and Senate, but emboldened conservatives advocated for reduced budgets and lower taxes, derailing many of Truman’s proposals. VERDICT Based on extensive primary research, this highly readable account highlights these critical months when the U.S. enjoyed its prosperity, and part of the world descended into violence. An important read for those interested in postwar American history, both domestic and abroad. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Murder In Williamatown by Kerry Greenwood
The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her elegant eyebrows in mystery once again!
Awakening unusually early one morning, Phryne Fisher finds herself with a rare stretch of free time to fill. After dropping her daughters off for their school-sponsored charity work at the Blind Institute, she visits a university professor whose acquaintance she’d made—and admired—on a prior case. At lunch, the smitten professor invites Phryne to dine at his home in Williamstown later that week.
Bookending her pleasant dinner with her new friend Jeoffrey, Phryne makes two disturbing discoveries: first, a discarded opium pipe in the park, and later the body of a Chinese man on the beach—cause of death not apparent, yet ultimately ruled a homicide. Shortly thereafter, the teenaged sister-in-law of Phryne’s longtime lover Lin Chung disappears from her home. But when one of Jeoffrey’s colleagues is murdered in front of a houseful of guests at a Chinese-themed party he is hosting, Phryne can’t help but wonder—are the incidents all related somehow? And who on earth has been leaving notes in her letterbox, warning her to “REPENT” and that “THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH”—?
In addition to the formidable and fashionable Phryne, this clever mystery once again features Phryne’s three wards with their own mysteries to solve: Ruth and Jane, tracking an embezzler at the Institute, and Tinker, whose help Phryne enlists to uncover the author of the threatening missives.
Murder In Williamstown is the twenty-second book in the Phryne Fisher Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book 1 titled Cocaine Blues and, also in a different edition, Death by Misadventure.
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My Effin’ Life by Geddy Lee
The thunderous bassist and vocalist for the prog rock band Rush tells all. “It’s a common mistake to assume that when a kid (or an adult for that matter) is quiet, he must be some sort of deep thinker. In my case I’m afraid it was simply that I didn’t have much to say.” So writes Lee, born Gershon Eliezer Weinrib in 1953 to Holocaust-survivor immigrants to Canada. It turns out that he has plenty to say. Part of this mostly good-natured memoir is an account of growing up as a “nerdy Jewish kid” in the Toronto suburbs. Like other budding musicians, Lee found a turning point when Ed Sullivan aired the Beatles, though he was less impressed by the Fab Four than his sister was. Forming a band with schoolmates, he picked up the bass after drawing a literal short straw, which “was fine by me–it had fewer strings.” Eventually falling in with drummer Neil Peart and guitarist Alex Lifeson, he formed Rush, opening for the likes of Kiss before becoming a headliner act. Lee is full of good humor as he recounts his experiences on the road: “Rock Star Lesson #1: Do NOT drop psychedelics before an interview.” “Rock Star Lesson #2: Famous people can be dicks.” The author is testier when he writes about his personal politics, and he has high praise for Canada’s social safety net. “Sure, we pay more taxes than many others do,” he writes, “but I prefer to live in a world that gives a shit, even for people I don’t know.” Lee also has choice words for those who criticize his histrionic, high-pitched vocal delivery: “Don’t like the way I sing? Well then, I invite you to fuck the fuck off and move along to something more suitable to your sensitive tastes.” A grand entertainment for fans of Rush and classic rock. – Kirkus Review
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On The Plus Side: A Novel by Jenny L. Howe
Everly Winters is perfectly happy to navigate life like a good neutral paint color: appreciated but unnoticed. That’s why she’s still a receptionist instead of exploring a career in art, why she lurks but never posts on the forums for her favorite makeover show, On the Plus Side, and why she’s crushing so hard on her forever-unattainable co-worker. When no one notices you, they can’t reject you or insist you’re too much.
This plan is working perfectly until someone secretly nominates Everly for the next season of On the Plus Side. Overwhelmed by the show’s extremely extroverted hosts and how much time she’ll have to spend on screen, she finds comfort in a surprising friendship with the grumpy but kind cameraman, Logan. Soon Everly realizes that he’s someone she doesn’t mind being noticed by. In fact, she might even like it.
But when their growing connection is caught on camera, it sends the show’s ratings into a frenzy. Learning to embrace all of herself on national TV is hard enough; can Everly risk heartbreak with the whole world watching?
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The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
In 1950 Jim Crow-era Florida, kids Gloria Stephens and Robbie Stephens Jr. are left behind after their mother dies from cancer and their activist father is forced to flee northward. For Gloria and Robbie, like for other Black residents of the county, life is hard, but Gloria and Robbie’s presence in particular makes white people think of their “troublemaker” father. When Robbie kicks a white boy to protect his older sister, he is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory with a notorious history. Told in the alternating perspectives of Gloria and Robbie, Due’s novel follows the action as Gloria works to set Robbie free. The history of the horror that imprisons Robbie has a long tail–but the ghosts who live on the reformatory’s grounds are unwilling to wait for justice any longer. The writing here is spectacular; the pacing, engrossing; the setting, heartbreaking but honest; and the characters are given a nuance and depth rarely seen. VERDICT American Book Award winner Due (The Wishing Pool and Other Stories) has written a masterpiece of fiction whose fear actively surrounds its readers, while the novel speaks to all situations where injustice occurs and compels its audience to act. For fans of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, The Trees by Percival Everett, and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. – Starred Booklist Review
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Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman
Rabbi Small returns in this New York Times–bestselling novel to investigate a mysterious death on the Day of Atonement
The day before Yom Kippur, the synagogue sound system is on the blink, the floral arrangements are in disarray, and a member of Rabbi David Small’s congregation—in the Massachusetts town of Barnard’s Crossing—is terribly concerned with how much a Torah weighs. The rabbi is determined not to let these mundane concerns ruin his day of prayer and contemplation. But the holiest day of the Jewish year is interrupted when a member of the congregation is found dead in his car.
Details emerge that suggest the man may have killed himself, but the rabbi’s wife suspects murder. Which is it? Rabbi Small kicks into high detective gear to find out. His search for the culprit among the small town’s cast of eccentric characters leads to nail-biting suspense in this highly entertaining and engrossing mystery.
Reader’s Note: Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry is the second book in the Rabbi Small Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one: Friday, The Rabbi Slept Late.
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Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank: A Short Story by Elle Cosimano
From New York Times bestselling author Elle Cosimano, comes Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank—a hilarious short story diving into Finlay Donovan’s partner-in-crime Vero’s past.
Anyone can spot a window of opportunity, but not everyone can manage to fall straight through one.
Veronica Ruiz is on the run for the first time in her life—though certainly not the last. After being falsely accused of stealing money from her college sorority, she packs up and heads to her cousin Ramón’s apartment, planning to change her name and start over, away from backstabbing girls and university drama (and far, far away from her arrest warrant in Maryland).
At the local bank on the first morning of her new life, it occurs to Vero that she’d be a better bank teller than most of the current employees; she may not have much money, but what little she does have, she knows how to manage. Unfortunately, the only available position is a cleaning job and so, desperate for a fresh start, she takes the bank manager’s offer.
But nothing in Vero’s world has ever been simple so of course, shortly after she begins work, she overhears a conversation between her new boss and a security guard: someone who works there has been stealing. Seeing a window of opportunity, Vero sets out to find the identity of the thief, present the evidence, and then push for the perfect job. All of which would be easier if her irresistibly infuriating childhood crush Javi wasn’t living in the same damn town.
Offering the insight that readers have been craving into fan-favorite Vero’s past and a closer look at the moment Finlay and Vero first meet, Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank is a can’t-miss addition to the Finlay Donovan series.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
–
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/download content to 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 instant 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 App is available for Android or Apple 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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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.
New York Times Bestsellers can be requested through StarCat (for print books) & The Digital Catalog/Libby for eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks. Select titles may also be checked out, on demand, through the Hoopla Catalog.
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are published on Sundays.
And the next New York Times blog post will be posted in two weeks on Sunday, January 21, 2024.
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FICTION
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A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas
The fifth book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Nesta Archeron is forced into close quarters with a warrior named Cassian.
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THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese
Three generations of a family living on South India’s Malabar Coast suffer the loss of a family member by drowning.
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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.
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THE EXCHANGE by John Grisham
In a sequel to “The Firm,” Mitch McDeere, who is now a partner at the world’s largest law firm, gets caught up in a sinister plot.
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FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston
A woman who works for a mysterious boss takes on a new identity to dig up information on someone.
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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.
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THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride
Secrets held by the residents of a dilapidated neighborhood come to life when a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well.
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HOLLY by Stephen King
The private detective Holly Gibney investigates whether a married pair of octogenarian academics had anything to do with Bonnie Dahl’s disappearance.
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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.
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HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas
Passion arises between Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar as they seek to avenge the deaths of Bryce’s friends.
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ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace
Anastasia might need the help of the captain of a college hockey team to get on the Olympic figure skating team.
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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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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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THE LITTLE LIAR by Mitch Albom
The actions of an 11-year-old boy help facilitate the delivery of Jewish residents, including his family, to Auschwitz.
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NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah
Two sisters are separated in World War II France: one in the countryside, the other in Paris.
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NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell
After meeting a woman who shares the same birthday, Alix Summer becomes the subject of her own true crime podcast.
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REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt
A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.
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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.
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TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett
Three daughters, who return to their family orchard in the spring of 2020, learn about their mother’s relationship with a famous actor.
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TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin
Three daughters, who return to their family orchard in the spring of 2020, Two friends find their partnership challenged in the world of video game design.
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TWISTED LOVE by Ana Huang
The first book in the Twisted series. Secrets emerge when Ava explores things with her brother’s best friend.
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UPSIDE DOWN by Danielle Steel
When they encounter strains in their romantic relationships, a Hollywood actress and her plastic surgeon daughter seek solace in each other.
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WILDFIRE by Hannah Grace
The second book in the Maple Hills series. Two summer camp counselors who previously had a one-night stand may run afoul of the camp’s rules.
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NON-FICTION
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AN IMMENSE WORLD by Ed Yong
The Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer explains the sensory perceptions and ways of communication used by a variety of animals.
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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk
How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
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THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown
The story of the American rowers who pursued gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games; the basis of the film.
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ELON MUSK by Walter Isaacson
The author of “The Code Breaker” traces Musk’s life and summarizes his work on electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence.
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EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE by Dolly Alderton
The British journalist shares stories and observations; the basis of the TV series.
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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry
The late actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.
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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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GREENLIGHTS by Matthew McConaughey
The Academy Award-winning actor shares snippets from the diaries he kept over 35 years.
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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by David Grann
The story of a murder spree in 1920s Oklahoma that targeted Osage Indians, whose lands contained oil.
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KILLING THE WITCHES by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
The 13th book in the conservative commentator’s Killing series gives a portrayal of the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Mass.
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THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY by Tim Alberta
The author of “American Carnage” looks at divisions within the American evangelical movement.
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MY EFFIN’ LIFE by Geddy Lee with Daniel Richler
The musician known for his work with the band Rush chronicles his life as the child of Holocaust survivors and his time in the limelight.
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MY NAME IS BARBRA by Barbra Streisand
The EGOT winner chronicles her journey in show business and reveals details about some of her personal relationships.
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OATH AND HONOR by Liz Cheney
The former congresswoman from Wyoming recounts how she helped lead the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6. Attack on the United States Capitol.
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OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford
A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
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PREQUEL by Rachel Maddow
The MSNBC host and co-author of “Bag Man” details a campaign to overthrow the U.S. government and install authoritarian rule prior to and during our involvement in World War II.
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THE WAGER by David Grann
The survivors of a shipwrecked British vessel on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain have different accounts of events.
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THE WOMAN IN ME by Britney Spears
The Grammy Award-winning pop star details her personal and professional experiences, including the years she spent under a conservatorship overseen by her father.
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Search for and request books online!
eBooks & Audiobooks Through The Digital Catalog & Libby
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access
StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries throughout the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs, you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Telephone Number: 607-936-3713.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!
Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, January 19, 2024.
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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!
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Finest Lovin’ Man by Bonnie Raitt
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Higher Love by Steve Winwood
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It’s A Lovely Day Today by Ella Fitgerald
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It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue by Bob Dylan
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Let It Rain by Eric Clapton
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Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight & The Pips
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Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra
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Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman
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Take The A Train by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
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Witchy Woman by The Eagles
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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week
And this week, I ran out of week – have a great long weekend & check out the Hoopla catalog where you’ll find many cool albums to listen to, over the long weekend!
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 recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesday.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
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And here are our recommended reads of the week:
Argylle: A Novel by Elly Conway
The globe-trotting spy thriller that inspired the upcoming action blockbuster Argylle (February 2024), featuring a star-studded cast including Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Cena, and directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kingsman trilogy fame
A luxury train speeding towards Moscow and a date with destiny.
A CIA plane downed in the jungles of the Golden Triangle.
A Nazi hoard entombed in the remote mountains of South-West Poland.
A missing treasure, the eighth wonder of the world, lost for seven decades.
One Russian magnate’s dream of restoring a nation to greatness has set in motion a chain of events which will take the world to the brink of chaos.
Only Frances Coffey, the CIA’s most legendary spymaster, can prevent it. But to do so, she needs someone special.
Enter Argylle, a troubled agent with a tarnished past who may just have the skills to take on one of the most powerful men in the world. If only he can save himself first…
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The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel by Shubnum Khan
Trying to cope with the loss of her mother, Sana and her father move from the farm she grew up on to the coast of South Africa and into the manor house Akbar Manzil. The dilapidated manor house, now converted into apartments, is inhabited by eccentric tenants, abandoned rooms, and secrets lurking behind locked doors. While her father navigates his grief, fifteen-year-old Sana is left to her own devices. The manor is like a living thing, full of curiosities just waiting for Sana to discover them. Interspersed with chapters that tell the story of how the house came to be are stories of the people who lived there and the ghosts of the past that have left deep footprints, like memories the house cannot forget. Sana roams the house uncovering artifacts of the past owners and their mysteries, but Sana has secrets of her own, ghosts that haunt her just as the past haunts this house. Beautifully written with intriguing characters and a story line that spans time, this subtle fantasy novel mixes historical fiction with dark fairy tales.- Booklist Review
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The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
Excited to have moved to a quaint village with partner Joe and expecting their first child, Alice is upended when a dead body is discovered at her prenatal class and she and her classmates are deemed suspects. So they join forces (along with Alice’s rambunctious dog, Helen) to discover the culprit. Cotswolds-based Ailes, who works in publishing as an editor, was short-listed for the Comedy Women in Print Prize for the opening chapters of this debut. – Library Journal Review
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Goodbye Girl: A Novel by James Grippando
Florida defense lawyer Jack Swyteck hasn’t changed much since we last saw him in 2021’s Twenty. He’s still a tough-as-nails crusader, and his latest case is a doozy. In a conflict that resembles the discord over ownership rights between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun, a pop musician is embroiled in a dispute over money with her ex-husband, and to make sure her ex doesn’t get a dime, she encourages her fans to pirate her music. Now the dispute has escalated. She and her ex are accusing each other in the unsolved murder of her former lover, and Jack must figure out who’s telling the truth. This is the eighteenth Swyteck novel since The Pardon, and it’s just as good as the rest. Grippando, who practiced law for several years before becoming a novelist, keeps coming up with complex and timely cases, and this one is first-rate. – Booklist Review
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The Night of the Storm: A Novel by Nishita Parekh
August 25, 2017. Jia Shah has moved to Houston, Texas, after a recent divorce. An immigrant from India, she is coping with single parenthood, a new job, and an ex-husband who wants custody of their teenage son, Ishan. As Hurricane Harvey heads for Houston, Jia gets an evacuation order and heads to her sister’s house in the upscale suburb of Sugarland. Her sister, Seema, enjoys the privileges of wealth while her husband, Vipul, behaves inappropriately with Jia. When Vipul’s brother, Raj, and his white wife, Lisa, show up, things get even more complicated. Grandma, the authoritarian matriarch, plays favorites with her sons and their wives, and everyone considers Jia a problem because she is divorced. As the storm becomes more destructive and two people die mysteriously at the house, the situation becomes dire. Who is the murderer? Will they survive the storm? Parekh’s impressive debut combines a variation on the locked room mystery with social commentary on the immigrant experience and the role of women in Indian culture. – Starred Booklist Review
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Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock, MD
Physician and healthcare consultant Blackstock skillfully blends biography and advocacy in this passionate debut memoir. Blackstock’s mother, Dale, was a pioneering Black doctor in Brooklyn who headed a coalition of Black women physicians in the 1980s. Her example inspired Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, to follow in their mother’s footsteps. When the sisters were undergraduates at Harvard, Dale died of leukemia at age 47; the siblings went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School in the 2000s as the school’s first Black mother-daughter legacies. After she was matched with Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, Blackstock, like her mother, persevered in the face of prejudice from patients and colleagues. Dedicating herself to fighting racial healthcare inequities, she formed Advancing Health Equity in 2019 to help improve care for patients of color. Blackstock’s inspiring account—which also covers her own health struggles (a misdiagnosis of her appendicitis nearly kills her) and her devastating divorce—is enhanced by her concrete diagnoses of the healthcare industry’s shortcomings and the firm, actionable steps (including engaging Black children in medical education as early as preschool) she provides to fix them. It’s a sobering and knowledge study of medical discrimination from someone with a lifetime of experience.
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Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence by Yaroslav Trofimov
The aggression and atrocities of Putin’s invasion are matched by the stalwart bravery of Ukrainian resistance. Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and a veteran war reporter, traveled across his homeland to talk with the soldiers, civilians, and leaders enduring the violence of the Russian war machine. This in-depth report of his findings offers a detailed picture of the destruction and suffering caused by Russian bombing and shelling. Just as important, Trofimov conveys the will to fight of Ukrainians, in uniform and out, and their determined hopes for victory and Ukraine’s independence. The author does an excellent job placing the unprovoked attack within the historical context of Ukrainian resistance to Russia and Russia’s equal insistence on dominating Ukraine. Trofimov also demonstrates the power of words in war as he examines the slogans, memes, and speeches that Ukrainians rally behind, contrasted with the empty and often ridiculous Russian propaganda used to justify and rationalize Putin’s invasion. This tour de force covers the first year of war in Ukraine and a solid second draft of history, as the author intended. We can hope for a second volume that will be the last, chronicling a truly independent Ukraine. – Starred Booklist Review
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The Sign of Four Spirits by Vicki Delany
Delany’s ninth mystery featuring Cape Cod bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Gemma Doyle (after 2023’s The Game Is a Footnote) is the series’ best yet. London, Mass., is hosting a new psychic fair that has attracted many visitors to the town, and to the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. During the event, Doyle is invited by her friend, Bunny, a former teenage pop star whose daughter, Ashleigh, assists Doyle in running the store, to a séance held by a medium named Madame Lavalier. Despite Doyle’s skepticism about the supernatural, she agrees to attend. When she joins the small gathering, however, Madame Lavalier excludes Doyle from the locked library where the group will attempt to contact the dead, citing the bookseller’s skepticism. The evening ends tragically, when one of the 12 people in the room is killed by a hatpin inserted precisely at the base of their skull. After elbowing her way into the police inquiry, Doyle utilizes her Sherlockian attention to detail to crack the case. The closed-circle setup is brilliantly executed, and will appeal to golden age mystery fans and Holmes fans alike. Delany’s series has plenty of gas left in the tank. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Waters: A Novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Place is key to Campbell’s resounding novels and short stories, including Once upon a River (2011) and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters (2015). In this tour de force, this intricate, visceral fairy tale, place is the thrumming heart. The Waters is a fertile Michigan swamp, home to generations of women healers, with the indomitable Hermine “Herself” Zook now reigning supreme. She has raised three daughters, Primrose, a lawyer in California; Maryrose, a nurse who lives nearby; and “lazy and beautiful” Rose Thorn. Adored by all and in epic love with farmer Titus, Rose Thorn returns from an ambiguous absence with a baby girl who is not his. Named Dorothy for Rose Thorn’s love of the Oz books and called Donkey for the animal who saved her life, she reaches the age of 11 as an exceedingly tall, curious, and courageous prodigy enthralled by both nature and mathematics. As Rose Thorn holds tight to the anguished secret of Donkey’s violent origins, Herself is mysteriously injured, and Donkey protects a fearsome rattlesnake. Campbell’s intimate knowledge of this vital wetland and the wonders of its plants and creatures infuses every vibrant, bewitching, and wrenching scene as she entwines the struggles of her passionate characters with the creeping decimation wrought by pollution and climate change. This is a verdant, gripping, and clarion saga of home, family, and womanhood, of meaningful work and metamorphosis, of poisons and antidotes, and the urgent need for us to heal and sustain the imperiled living world that heals and sustains us.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers cherish Campbell’s fiction and word is out about her magnificent new novel. – Library Journal Review
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Wild And Distant Seas: A Novel by Tara Karr Roberts
Roberts’ sweeping debut novel, a reimagining of Moby-Dick, tells the story of four generations of women. It begins on Nantucket in 1849 with Evangeline Hussey, a young widow who is content running her inn and making her chowders. One day, she is caught off guard by the arrival of a cheerful man who introduces himself as Ishmael. His stay is short-lived; he soon sets sail on the doomed Pequod with Captain Ahab. But his legacy will ripple through the years. In his own way, he is the white whale for Evangeline’s descendants, and their journeys span the globe, taking them from Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Italy, and Idaho. Each of the women–Evangeline, Rachel, Mara, and Antonia–possesses a touch of magic, each using her own unique ability to her advantage in some way. The magic is subtle, woven seamlessly into the narrative, so it does not feel out of place in this otherwise traditional work of historical fiction. Each woman’s story builds to a beautiful conclusion, and the themes of love, motherhood, and the quest to find one’s purpose in life resonate throughout. Fans of Christina Baker Kline’s The Exiles (2020) and Julie Gerstenblatt’s Daughters of Nantucket (2023) will flock to Roberts’ tale. – Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
–
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 download titles from The Digital Catalog to a PC. And The Digital Catalog has a companion app, Libby, which you can utilize to download content to 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 instant 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 App is available for Android or Apple 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.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are links to the list of New York Times Bestsellers.
New York Times Bestsellers can be requested through StarCat (for print books) & The Digital Catalog/Libby for eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks. Select titles may also be checked out, on demand, through the Hoopla Catalog/app.
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are usually published on Sundays; although the new New York Times Bestseller Lists come out, and are accessible for free through the NYT website, on Thursdays.
For this week; due to holidays closings and vacations, I’m going to provide the direct links to the New York Times Bestseller lists so you can access the bestseller lists and see what new books are popular anytime during the rest of the holiday season.
Our regular New York Times Bestsellers blog posts will resume next Sunday, January 13, 2024.
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The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller Bestsellers
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access
StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries throughout the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs, you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Telephone Number: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesday.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
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Here is our baker’s dozen of twenty two “some of the best of 2023” recommended non-fiction reads!
And next Wednesday, we’ll resume our usual recommended reads postings.
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1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific by Taína Caragol & Kate Clarke Lemay
A revealing look at U.S. imperialism through the lens of visual culture and portraiture
In 1898, the United States seized territories overseas, ushering in an era of expansion that was at odds with the nation’s founding promise of freedom and democracy for all. This book draws on portraiture and visual culture to provide fresh perspectives on this crucial yet underappreciated period in history.
Taína Caragol and Kate Clarke Lemay tell the story of 1898 by bringing together portraits of U.S. figures who favored overseas expansion, such as William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, with those of leading figures who resisted colonization, including Eugenio María de Hostos of Puerto Rico; José Martí of Cuba; Felipe Agoncillo of the Philippines; Padre Jose Bernardo Palomo of Guam; and Queen Lili‘uokalani of Hawai‘i. Throughout the book, Caragol and Lemay also look at landscapes, naval scenes, and ephemera. They consider works of art by important period artists Winslow Homer and Armando Menocal as well as contemporary artists such as Maia Cruz Palileo, Stephanie Syjuco, and Miguel Luciano. Paul A. Kramer’s essay addresses the role of the Smithsonian Institution in supporting imperialism, and texts by Jorge Duany, Theodore S. Gonzalves, Kristin L. Hoganson, Healoha Johnston, and Neil Weare offer critical perspectives by experts with close personal or scholarly relations to the island regions.
Beautifully illustrated, 1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific challenges us to reconsider the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, and the annexation of Hawai‘i while shedding needed light on the lasting impacts of U.S. imperialism.
Published in association with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
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The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
In this masterful true crime account, Finkel (The Stranger in the Woods) traces the fascinating exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who stole more than 200 artworks from across Europe between 1995 and 2001, turning his mother’s attic into a glittering trove of oil paintings, silver vessels, and antique weaponry. Mining extensive interviews with Breitwieser himself, and several with those who detected and prosecuted him, Finkel meticulously restages the crimes, describing the castles and museums that attracted Breitwieser and Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, his accomplice and romantic partner; the luminous oils and sculptures that caught Breitwieser’s eye; and the swift, methodical actions he took to liberate his prizes. According to Breitwieser, his sole motive was aesthetic: to possess great beauty, to “gorge on it.” Drawing on art theory and Breitwieser’s psychology reports, Finkel speculates on his subject’s addiction to beauty and on Anne-Catherine’s acquiescence to the crimes. The account is at its best when it revels in the audacity of the escapades, including feats of misdirection in broad daylight, and the slow, inexorable pace of the law. It’s a riveting ride. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State by Kerry Howley
In this wide-ranging, often chilling survey, Howley meditates on the ways in which data collected by U.S. government agencies can be used to invade and destroy the lives of citizens. At the heart of her expos is Reality Winner (“Her real name, let’s move past it now”). Winner served as a linguist and surveillance expert with a high security clearance in the U.S. Air Force, and then as a consultant in a firm from which she leaked a document about possible Russian interference in the U.S. elections–a leak that earned her the longest sentence ever handed down for an Espionage Act conviction. In a sometimes rambling but always provocative narrative, which also covers “American Taliban” member John Walker Lindh and others accused of espionage, Howley makes a convincing argument that Winner was convicted less for the leak than for misleading evidence from old social media posts and personal texts, written playfully but interpreted as serious, and suggests that we all might be subject to danger from the same sort of posts, preserved without our knowledge in government databases. – Booklist Review
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Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara
In this tour-de-force exposé, Kara (Modern Slavery), a professor of human trafficking and modern slavery at Nottingham University, uncovers the abuse and suffering powering the digital revolution. Explaining that cobalt is “an essential component to almost every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today,” and that the Katagana region in the Democratic Republic of Congo “holds more reserves of cobalt than the rest of the planet combined,” Kara describes young children and pregnant women mining the metal by hand for a dollar a day. Predatory middlemen then sell the cobalt to foreign- and state-owned mining operations, who supply the materials for Apple, Samsung, and Tesla products. The details are harrowing: young men and boys are crushed in tunnel collapses, women and girls work in radioactive wastewater, villages are razed, and 14-year-olds are shot for seeking better prices. While corrupt government officials siphon the profits from the cobalt industry, ordinary Congolese “eke out a base existence characterized by extreme poverty and immense suffering.” “Here,” says the widow of one artisanal miner, “it is better not to be born.” Throughout, Kara’s empathetic profiles and dogged reporting on the murkiness of the cobalt supply chain are buttressed by incisive history lessons on the 19th-century plunder of the Congo for ivory and rubber, the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of democratically elected president Patrice Lumumba in 1960, and more. Readers will be outraged and empowered to call for change. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma Kindle Edition by Mustafa Suleyman
Amid the flood of optimism about artificial intelligence, the significant dangers must be understood and assessed. Suleyman might seem like a strange person to write a book about the dangers of AI. He is the CEO and co-founder of Inflection AI, and, before that, he co-founded DeepMind (now owned by Alphabet), a company working at the leading edge of AI research. As the author shows, however, it is precisely because he is an expert that he knows enough to be fearful. He believes that within a few years, AI systems will break into the broad public market, placing enormous computing power in the hands of anyone with a few thousand dollars and a bit of expertise. Suleyman recognizes that this could bring remarkable benefits, but he argues that the negatives are even greater. One frightening possibility is a disgruntled individual using off-the-shelf AI to manufacture a deadly, unstoppable virus. Other scenarios range from disrupting financial markets to creating floods of disinformation. Suleyman accepts that the AI genie is too far out of the bottle to be put back; the questions are now about containment and regulation. There is a model in the framework established by the biomedical sector to set guidelines and moral limits on what genetic experiments could take place. The author also suggests looking at “choke points,” including the manufacturers of advanced chips and the companies that manage the cloud. The key step, however, would be the development of a culture of caution in the AI community. As Suleyman admits, any of these proposals would be extremely difficult to implement. Nonetheless, he states his case with clarity and authority, and the result is a worrying, provocative book. “Containment is not, on the face of it, possible,” he concludes. “And yet for all our sakes, containment must be possible.” An informative yet disturbing study and a clear warning from someone whose voice cannot be ignore. Starred Kirkus Review
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Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
In this captivating outing, science writer Goldfarb (Eager) explores the negative impact roads have on wildlife. Discussing the danger vehicle collisions pose to animals, he notes that 10,000 garter snakes were fatally hit in one season in Manitoba and that deer need intervals of approximately a minute or longer between passing cars to safely cross. Other harms are less obvious; the difficulty of traversing roadways leads to genetically inbred clusters (“A flightless European beetle disperses so feebly that biologists once found a genetically distinct population encircled by a highway exit loop”), and noise can disrupt ecological checks and balances (chaffinches in Portugal’s oak woodlands avoid loud streets, “allowing unchecked insects to kill roadside trees”). Profiles of individuals working on mitigation strategies are as enlightening as they are encouraging. Among them, Goldfarb highlights biologist Tony Clevenger’s research confirming the effectiveness of wildlife overpasses for enabling grizzly bear populations in Alberta’s Banff National Park to intermingle and ecologist Sarah Perkins’s efforts with Project Splatter to learn more about animal movement patterns by soliciting civilians to report roadkill. Humor leavens the frequently grim subject matter, as when Goldfarb notes that a plan to reduce Dall sheep’s anxiety around vehicles in Denali National Park “runs 428 turgid pages and reliably cures insomnia.” This one’s a winner. Photos. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
Reckless ambition, ruthless drive, and psychic demons swaddle the soul of a wounded child in this sweeping biography of the celebrated industrialist. Biographer Isaacson (Steve Jobs) paints Musk as a tech visionary who wants to colonize Mars with his rocket company SpaceX, decarbonize transportation with his Tesla electric cars, and guarantee freedom of speech on the internet (as long as said speech doesn’t personally offend him) by buying Twitter. He portrays Musk as an innovator who embraced risk-taking both for better (he replaced a standard, $3-million cooling system on his rockets with a commercial home air-conditioning system costing $6,000) and worse (his decision to leave out a part designed to keep fuel from sloshing caused a rocket to explode in mid-flight). Musk is a callous, volatile boss, raging at underlings and forcing them to work round-the-clock. (“You have ninety days to do it. If you can’t make that work, your resignation is accepted” went a typical pep talk.) And he’s a monumental head case—as a boy, a loner abused by his father and beaten bloody by bullies; as a man, a manic-depressive drawn to chaos in business, romance, and any number of ill-considered Tweets. Isaacson shadowed Musk for two years and conjures a richly detailed, evocative portrait that nails his impulsive personality. The result is an illuminating study that demonstrates why Musk is the most captivating of today’s plutocrats. – Starred Kirkus Review
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Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland by Scott Shane
Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Shane (Objective Troy) has deftly woven this historical account about Thomas Smallwood, born in enslavement but who bought his freedom and became a contributor in the success of the Underground Railroad. Smallwood, who ran a small shoemaking establishment (circa 1840s) within sight of the White House, helped freedom seekers in Baltimore and Washington, DC. He recruited Charles T. Torrey, a young, white activist/minister/journalist, to help him. Torrey wrote satirical newspaper columns that documented their efforts and mocked enslavers, traders, and people who thought it their right to keep people enslaved. Smallwood and Torrey’s partnership forms the basis of this book and serves as a wonderful introduction for readers unaware of all that went on before the Civil War. VERDICT An exceptionally well-written book that takes readers into the life and political development of Smallwood. General readers and all types of libraries will need to add this book to their to-be-read lists and collections. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Freedom from Fear: An Incomplete History of Liberalism by Alan S. Kahan
A provocative new history of liberalism that also provides a road map for today’s liberals
Freedom from Fear offers a striking new account of the dominant political and social theory of our time: liberalism. In a pathbreaking reframing of the historical debate, Alan Kahan charts the development of Western liberalism from the late eighteenth century to the present. Examining key liberal thinkers and issues, Kahan shows how liberalism is both a response to fear and a source of hope: the search for a world in which no one need be afraid.
Freedom from Fear reveals how liberal arguments typically rely on three pillars: freedom, markets, and morals. But when liberals ignore one or more of these pillars, their arguments generally fail to persuade. Extending from Adam Smith and Montesquieu to today’s battles between liberals and populists, the book examines the twists and turns of the “incomplete” or unfinished liberal tradition while demonstrating its fundamental continuity. It combines fresh accounts of familiar figures such as Tocqueville and Rawls with discussions of less-famous but pivotal thinkers such as A. V. Dicey and Jane Addams, and explores how liberals have dealt with crucial issues, from debates over male and female suffrage to colonialism and liberal anti-Catholicism.
By transforming our understanding of the history of liberal thought and practice, Freedom from Fear provides a new picture of the political creed today: the paths liberals need to follow, the questions they need to answer, and the dead ends they must avoid—if they are to win. – Publisher Description
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Fire Weather: A True Story From A Hotter World by John Vaillant
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION • ONE OF TIME’S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A stunning account of a colossal wildfire that collided with a city, and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind from the award-winning, best-selling author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce • Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
“Grips like a philosophical thriller, warns like a beacon, and shocks to the core.” —Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of Underland
“Riveting, spellbinding, astounding on every page.” —David Wallace-Wells, #1 bestselling author of The Uninhabitable Earth
In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event, but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world.
Fire has been a partner in our evolution for hundreds of millennia, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously unimaginable ways.
With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America’s oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. John Vaillant’s urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun. – Publisher Description
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How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
In this chatty, charming volume, conservative NY Times commentator Brooks (The Road to Character, 2015) synthesizes the findings of psychologists and philosophers recent and past to make a case for the value of friendship and offer practical suggestions on how to connect more deeply with both old friends and new acquaintances. Acknowledging his own “certain aloofness,” he illustrates his points with personal anecdotes from his life (including a wrenching one about the death by suicide of a close friend and earnestly told experiences on discussion panels) and those of others (including novelist and theologian Frederick Buechner and former president George W. Bush). Seeking to confront the “epidemic of loneliness” in the United States, Brooks recommends “tenderness, receptivity, and active curiosity,” and suggests that we should all strive less to be heroes than to be “illuminators”–in other words, people who are “social, humble, understanding, and warm.” His advice may not be revolutionary, but it’s certainly down-to-earth and entertaining. – Booklist Review
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King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Award-winning biographer and journalist Eig (Ali: A Life) turns his lens on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68). Mining a trove of materials–many only recently available–augmented with voluminous archival work and hundreds of interviews for personal insights, Eig advances the already appreciable quantity of first-rate biographies and intensive scholarship on King. He also recovers the man, foibles and all, from the too often hollowed-out, sainted symbol that competing ideologies have sanitized for national observance. His 45 engrossing chapters depict King from his enslaved family’s history in antebellum Georgia, his stern father’s high expectations, and his soothing mother’s calm warmth, through his April 1968 assassination in Memphis. The ambitious, anxious, contemplative, depressed, fun-loving, uncertain private King gets equal attention to the determined, eloquent, fearless public person in the spotlight. From his decrying state-sanctioned and vigilante violence to his stance against the U.S. war in Vietnam and his Poor People’s Campaign, Eig notes it all and paints a thorough picture of King.
VERDICT A must for readers interested in moving beyond cliched catchphrases to see a more complete and complex King, the context of his charisma, and the creation and content of his character. – Library Journal Review
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Leg: The Story Of A Limb And The Boy Who Grew From It: A Memoir by Greg Marshall
A man born with cerebral palsy reflects on his life. Essayist Marshall recounts his childhood in 1990s Utah as the middle sibling of five “in a rowdy family where someone was always almost dying or OD-ing.” His father managed a small community newspaper group, and his mother wrote an inspirational column called “Silver Linings” while enduring debilitating cancer treatments and years of remissions and recurrences. Marshall walked with a perpetual limp, documented in his mother’s columns, and he underwent numerous therapies, surgeries, and recovery bouts in wheelchairs. In an effort to somehow shield their son from ridicule, however, his parents kept his cerebral palsy diagnosis a secret throughout his childhood, calling his chronic limp a nagging case of “tight tendons.” In a zesty, forthright series of humorous, heartfelt, and often wincingly oddball anecdotes, Marshall shares how his hypochondriacal family “leaned into” all of “life’s curveballs.” Brotherly boyhood shenanigans involving a back massager introduced him to masturbation, and at the same time, he nurtured a simmering fondness for other boys and struggled with HIV/AIDS education (“Did everyone know I was gay? Was this lesson for me? These other assholes weren’t going to get AIDS, but I was”). In the second half, Marshall chronicles his coming out as a disabled gay man, acknowledging life with CP, and navigating the nuances of first impressions, intimacy, and forgiveness for his parents. Marshall was 30 when he accidentally confirmed his CP diagnosis after uncovering one of his mother’s columns exposing “the Watergate tapes of my childhood, revealing both crime and cover-up.” The author, who confesses that “my cerebral palsy has made me see my life, and my leg, with renewed appreciation,” displays a natural storytelling ability, and he writes with a good dose of self-effacing humor, exposing the murky consequences of secrets, even when they’re kept with the best intentions. A sparkling portrait of personal discovery and a celebration of family, forgiveness, and thriving with a disability. – Kirkus Review
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My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Streisand’s long-anticipated debut memoir doesn’t disappoint. Utilizing her own journals, her mother’s scrapbooks, and interviews with colleagues and friends, the decorated singer and actor delivers a thoroughly enjoyable survey of her life and career that—even at nearly 1,000 pages—never overstays its welcome. Streisand begins with her teenage adventures fleeing her emotionally distant mother and stepfather’s Brooklyn apartment for Manhattan, where she and a friend went to see Broadway plays and where she eventually moved and got her first taste of showbiz success singing in nightclubs. From there, she dives deep into her key projects and famous relationships, writing of being booted off the Billboard top two by the Beatles (“Their sound was sensational, so I had no complaints”), developing stage fright during her star-making turn in the Broadway musical Funny Girl, and falling in love with leading men from Elliott Gould to James Brolin. The tone throughout is delightfully garrulous, often verging on conspiratorial: Streisand offers detailed descriptions of not only who she rubbed elbows with, but what everyone ate, what they wore, how the room was decorated, and what she really thought about it all (at one point, she returns a dress Phyllis Diller bought her so she can use the money to purchase fabric for a custom design). That combination of fastidiousness and looseness, mixed with Streisand’s natural humor, makes for a deliriously entertaining autobiography that gathers heft from the sheer breadth of its author’s experiences and achievements. This is a gift. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” by Héctor Tobar
“”What do we pass on to our children when we call ourselves Latino?”” This question of legacy is central to Tobar’s (The Last Great Road Bum, 2020) eye-opening investigation into Latin American heritages, whether identified as Latinx, Latin@, Latine, or otherwise. As the son of Guatemalan immigrants, the question is personal for Tobar, who treats this inquiry with the same rigor and care that enlivens his journalistic nonfiction and historical fiction. In his quest for answers, Tobar travels from Los Angeles to his childhood home in Guatemala, dials back time to encounter imperialist and colonial exploits, and speaks with immigrants, neighbors, and family. Each chapter extends the notion of Latinidad by centering around a different theme. In “”Empire,”” Tobar quotes dialogue from Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) that equally applies to the lived experiences of Central and South American peoples, “The outsiders ravage our lands in front of our eyes. Their cruelty to my people is all I’ve known.” In “”Secrets,”” Tobar sees in Frida Kahlo a figure of “”German-Jewish and Oaxacan-Indigenous descent [who] wears huipiles and Tehuantepec headdresses,”” and he traces the complicated implications of Kahlo’s commodification and absorption into mainstream commercial culture. Timely, intelligent, and generous, this is a must-read from Pulitzer Prize-winner Tobar. – Booklist Review
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Poverty, By American by Matthew Desmond
Sociologist and MacArthur fellow Desmond follows up his Carnegie Medal-winning Evicted (2016) with a brilliantly researched and artfully written study of how the U.S. has failed to effectively address the issue of poverty. Grounding his thesis in statistics that defy easy analysis and show that the ebb and flow of the problem continues regardless of political leadership, recession, or economic boom, he provides readers with unforgettable images–“if America’s poor founded a country . . . [it] would have a bigger population than Australia or Venezuela”–and pointed truths about how individual states failed to allocate funds to assist their poor. For example, Oklahoma spent tens of millions in federal poverty funds on the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative. Arizona used millions on abstinence-only education. Maine supported a Christian summer camp, and Mississippi officials committed fraud on a scale that has led to multiple indictments. Thankfully, as Desmond reveals the frustrating ways in which private and public systems designed to help the poor have fallen short, he also uses his knowledge of the subject to explore what works and identify potential solutions that merit further consideration. This thoughtful investigation of a critically important subject, a piercing title by an astute writer who is both passionate and fearless, is valuable reading for all concerned with affecting positive change. – Booklist Review
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Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Pahlka
The founder of Code for America digs into the pitfalls of government technology. Beginning with “I’m Just a Bill,” an animated musical introduction to the American legislation system from Schoolhouse Rock!, Pahlka, the deputy chief technology officer during the Obama administration, delivers an eye-opening and accessible examination of why online interactions with government in America work–or, often, do not. The author provides numerous examples of failures, including a form for Veterans Affairs health insurance that only really worked on certain computers with certain versions of software; the development of healthcare.gov, where “the full set of rules governing the program they were supposed to administer wasn’t finalized until the site was due to launch”; or an “application for food stamps that requires answering 212 separate questions.” Through these and many other illustrative cases, Pahlka effectively shows that “when systems or organizations don’t work the way you think they should, it is generally not because the people in them are stupid or evil. It is because they are operating according to structures and incentives that aren’t obvious from the outside.” Indeed, by tracing the requirements of any technology developed by or for the government, it becomes increasingly apparent that simply adding new laws or throwing money at the problems fails to alleviate the confusion or waste. Throughout this empowering book, the author makes compelling, clear arguments, revealing inefficiency, bureaucracy, and incompetence, whether it stems from legislators, administrators, or IT professionals. “The good news is that software and the US government have something very important in common: they are made by and for people,” writes Pahlka. “In the end, we get to decide how they work.” Anyone dealing with the implementation of technology in government should pay attention to the author’s suggestions. An incredibly readable look at the fraught intersection of technological innovation and government bureaucracy. – Starred Kirkus Review
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The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk
“American Indians were central to every century of U.S. historical development,” argues Yale historian Blackhawk (Violence over the Land) in this sweeping study. He begins with the arrival of Spanish explorers in Mexico and Florida in the 16th century, before shifting to French and British colonization efforts in the Northeast and the Ohio River Valley. In both instances, Native communities endured extreme violence and devastating epidemics, while employing fluid survival strategies (fighting, relocating, converting to Christianity, trading, intermarrying) that influenced imperial ambitions and behavior. Blackhawk also makes a persuasive case that in the wake of the Seven Years’ War and the expulsion of French forces from the interior of North America, “the growing allegiances between British and Indian leaders became valuable fodder in colonists’ critiques of their monarch,” helping to lead to the Revolutionary War. In Blackhawk’s telling, “Indian affairs” remained a potent political and social issue through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the New Deal and Cold War eras, as the removal of more than 75,000 Native children to federally funded boarding schools between the 1870s and 1920s and the dispossession of nearly a hundred million acres of reservation land during the same time period gave rise to a new generation of activists whose efforts to regain Native autonomy reshaped U.S. law and culture. Striking a masterful balance between the big picture and crystal-clear snapshots of key people and events, this is a vital new understanding of American history. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization by Harold James
A leading economic historian presents a new history of financial crises, showing how some led to greater globalization while others kept nations apart
“[A] fascinating book.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times, “Best Books of 2023—Economics”
The eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into “good” crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and “bad” crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world. Examining seven turning points in financial history—from the depression of the 1840s through the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Covid-19 crisis—James shows how crashes prompted by a lack of supply, like the oil shortages of the 1970s, lead to greater globalization as markets expand and producers innovate to increase supply. By contrast, crises triggered by a lack of demand—such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008—result in less globalization as markets contract, austerity measures are imposed, and skepticism of government grows.
By considering not only the times but also the observers who shaped our understanding of each crisis—from Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes to Larry Summers—James shows how the uneven course of globalization has led to new economic thinking, and how understanding this history can help us better prepare for the future. – Publisher Description
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Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance by Jeremy Eichler
In this profoundly moving book, the Boston Globe’s chief classical music critic Eichler examines how four modernists coped with the trauma of World War II and the Holocaust by composing transcendent pieces of music: Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar), and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. The book starts in 1827, when German poet Goethe sat under an oak tree in Ettersberg and ate a sumptuous breakfast, while enthusing on the goodness of life. In 1937, the forest was cleared away to build the Buchenwald concentration camp. A beech remained inside but now in a world of horror. The author also recounts listening to a 1929 recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, played by father and daughter Arnold and Alma Rose. Alma died in Auschwitz in 1944, and her father, a broken man, lived until 1946. This book is about how music bears witness to history, crosses time, and has the power to heal divided souls. It can connect people across ages in ways other memorials can’t. VERDICT An absorbing read for serious music lovers that may well become a classic in music criticism. – Starred Library Journal Review
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To Free The Captives by Tracy K. Smith
Former U.S. poet laureate Smith digs into her personal history to come to terms with our current social and political climate in her elegant new memoir. Through research, personal memories, and examination of spiritual practices, she searches for understanding and guidance through the painful and tumultuous present as the country grapples with persistent and insidious racism against Black Americans. She begins with her father’s early years–“my father’s experience will assure him that his people are stewards not solely of the known creature that is family, but of a larger animal called History”–and explores this inextricable link throughout the book. The reality of not only surviving America’s “centuries-long war” but thriving, exemplified by her family, is told through poetic and engaging turns of phrases. Smith is adept at looking backwards while expressing an urgency that grounds the reader in the present, writing “History arrives? Better to accept that it is never gone despite our insistence to file much of it safely away, out of sight and mind.” The juxtaposition of her family’s stories with the Black experience in the U.S. feels like a journey toward a greater understanding, one readers are lucky to be invited to take. – Booklist Review
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The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
A new account of the Wager Mutiny, in which a shipwrecked and starving British naval crew abandoned their captain on a desolate Patagonian island, emphasizes the extreme hardships routinely faced by eighteenth-century seafarers as well as the historical resonance of the dramatic 1741 event. On a secret mission to liberate Spanish galleons of their gold, the 28-gun HMS Wager was separated from the rest of its squadron rounding Cape Horn in a massive storm. Beset by typhus, scurvy, and navigational problems, the ship struck rocks, stranding its beleaguered crew on a remote island in Chilean Patagonia. In the months that followed, harsh conditions and meager provisions would test storied British naval discipline. Captain David Cheap, who had spent a lifetime at sea but was new in his rank, ruthlessly managed the group’s larder. A dispute with gunner John Bulkley over a risky plan to sail a makeshift craft back home through the Strait of Magellan turned violent. A few bedraggled sailors would find their way back to civilization, prompting high-stakes courts-martial and sensational accounts in the British press. Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon, 2017) vividly narrates a nearly forgotten incident with an eye for each character’s personal stakes while also reminding readers of the imperialist context prompting the misadventure. HIGH-
DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Grann is a top nonfiction author, and the drama of this tale along with an in-the-works major film adaptation, reportedly to be directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will inspire even more interest. – Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have questions or want to request a book?
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, Downloadable Audiobooks, digital magazines and a handful of streaming videos. The catalog, which allows one to download content to a PC, also has a companion app, Libby, which you can download to your mobile device; so you can enjoy eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
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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Format Note: Under each book title you’ll find a list of all the different formats that specific title is available in; including: Print Books, Large Print Books, CD Audiobooks, eBooks & Downloadable Audiobooks from the Digital Catalog (Libby app) and Hoopla eBooks & Hoopla Downloadable Audiobooks (Hoopla app).
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Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 