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!
Hi everyone, this new weekly post will combine and replace our Suggested Listening and Suggested Viewing posts, into one entertainment post, published on Fridays, just in time for the weekend. Enjoy!
Our Enjoy The Weekend posts will contain ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
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This week we are turning the musical spotlight on Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Duane Eddy and giving a listen to ten of his great songs.
As you may know, Eddy was born in Corning and spent his first thirteen years living in our region. And on Saturday, The Corning Duane Eddy Circle & friends will unveil a historic marker to celebrate the man, his music and his connection to our region.
Here are the details:
What: The unveiling of the new Duane Eddy historic marker. The ceremony will be attended by Duane Eddy’s widow Deed, other family members and several local dignitaries and is open to the public – everyone is welcome!
Where: Riverfront/Centennial Park in Corning, across the street from the clock tower in Centerway Square, just off of East Tioga Ave., at the edge of the walk that leads over the Centerway Walking Bridge.
When: Saturday, September 20, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.
To learn more about Duane Eddy & the new historic marker, check out the Corning Twang website found at: https://www.corningtwang.com/
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And here are ten great songs by Duane Eddy!
Rebel Rouser
Found on the Album: Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel (1958)
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Because They’re Young
Found on the Album: $1,000,000 Worth of Twang (1960)
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Peter Gunn
Found on the Album: Especially For You (1959)
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Night Train To Memphis
Found on the Album: Twangs The Thang (1959)
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The Lonely One
Found on the Album: Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel (1958)
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High Noon
Found on the Album: Twangy Guitar – Silky Strings (1962)
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A Satisfied Mind
Found on the Album: Twang A Country Song (1963)
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The Son of Rebel Rouser
Found on the Album: Twang A Country Song (1963)
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Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
Found on the Album: Duane Does Dylan (1965)
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The Trembler
Found on the Album: Duane Eddy (1987)
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Second The videos:
A new title available through one of the usual U.S. streaming services, this week available for free via YouTube and a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.
Duane Eddy did a bit of acting and appeared in several films including the following classic western, which is our general streaming recommendation of the week:
A Thunder of Drums (1961)
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And our Kanopy recommendation for this week, which is the lone non-Duane Eddy title recommended this week, is:
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand
In her newest novel, bestselling Hilderbrand (Swan Song) teams up with her teenage daughter, Cunningham, to explore a drama-filled year at an elite New England boarding school. It opens with a surprising boost in the school rankings for Tiffin Academy, a seemingly average institution now shining under the national spotlight. But as the school year unfolds, secrets spill and reputations crumble thanks to a mysterious gossip app called ZipZap. The characters are wide-ranging, from a glamorous influencer to a guarded transfer student to a young, unsure teacher, as the novel navigates shifting alliances and personal revelations, all set against the school’s deceptively idyllic setting. While the plot is packed with potential, the overly descriptive writing tends to slow the narrative’s pace. This style may appeal to fans of immersive detail but could be challenging for those looking for a brisk, engaging read.
VERDICT A juicy mix of scandal and coming-of-age moments. Fans of Hilderbrand’s signature ensemble dramas and readers who enjoy stories about secrets in privileged worlds will likely appreciate this buzzy take on boarding-school life. – Library Journal Review
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The Belles by Lacy N. Dunham
Freshmen at an exclusive Southern women’s college bond, and their swings between obedience and recklessness lead to long-term trauma. Alumnae of Bellerton College should be able “to hold our own during conversations on both politics and literature, and we would also know how to arrange excellent charcuterie. We might be smarter than our husbands, but at Bellerton we would have learned the necessary tact to never point this out.” It’s 1951, and in the Old Dominion State, young women are expected to graduate with both B.A. and M.R.S. degrees, flaunting engagement rings even before mortarboards are donned. Deena Evangeline Williams knows this before she arrives at her room in South Hall. Despite her background–she was raised by her housecleaner grandmother–Deena hopes to learn her peers’ ways while she keeps a secret that might ruin her chances for a Bellerton-approved future. If this territory has been mined by other writers, it doesn’t matter much as debut novelist Dunham juggles gothic elements including a nasty poetry professor, a drunken misery of a housemother, and glimpses of ghosts in the campus trees. Queen Bee Ada May Delacourt; closeted Winifred (Fred) Scott and her bestie, Sheba Wyatt; Nell Lawton-Peters; and Prissy Nicholson from Texas at first hew so closely to the expectations of Mrs. Tibbert, the wife of the college’s president, that she declares them the Belles of their class. But small things start to go missing from the girls’ rooms and as they snipe at each other, they also discover how good it feels to be bad, brandishing their signature hair ribbons like battle standards and roaming the woods at night, damn the consequences. Deena begins to encounter the apparition of a 19th-century student, Mary Burden, and wonders why only she can see her; even if readers guess, they’ll already be under the spell of this isolated school. As the Belles prepare for their 50th reunion in 2002, their 21st-century lives offer bitter commentary on the real lessons they learned. Both a time capsule, and a ticking bomb, of womanhood repressed in service of societal conformity. – Kirkus
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Gray Dawn by Walter Mosely
Easy Rawlins hasn’t been taking cases since readers last saw him in Farewell, Amethystine (2024), preferring to pass them along to his WRENS-L detective agency partners. But when Santangelo Burris shows up simmering with rage Easy knows too well, he’s reminded of his early PI days when he took cases to help poor Blacks whose plights rarely concerned police. Burris wants somebody to find his mother, Lutisha James, claiming that his grandmother wants to hear from her, and Easy accepts. It turns out, though, that card shark Lutisha has a reputation so deadly that Fearless Jones insists on watching Easy’s back. Meanwhile, Easy’s son Jesus is being hunted by federal agents who allege he’s been trafficking drugs from Mexico, and Easy’s dangerous lost love Amethystine has returned, determined to reclaim his affection. This would overwhelm most detectives, but even after Lutisha’s trail leads to a triple murder and a depraved powerbroker, Easy weaves together a plan that punishes predators and redraws the boundaries of his family. Mosley’s moving author’s note implores readers to see this work as a reminder of the ongoing toxicity of segregation, lynchings, and generations of casual hatred. In Mosley’s masterful hands, this is a portal to Los Angeles streets and their vastly different worlds, communities born of disadvantage, and mysteries that highlight universal truths.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Easy Rawlins fans are primed as this epic series hones its edge.
Reader’s Note: As mentioned in the review, Gray Dawn is the seventeenth book in the Easy Rawling’s series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Devil In A Blue Dress.
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History Matters by David McCullough
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past. McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.” A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives. – Kirkus Review
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Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff
DEBUT Azrael Hart has been in love with Victoria Starnberger, his best friend and the girl next door, since they were children, but he never dared to risk their friendship. When they both return to their hometown after tragedy strikes, the universe and a meddling younger sister keep pushing them back together and into their old friendly rhythms. Azrael struggles with his lingering feelings for Vickie, and the recent loss of his parents compounds it as she takes over his mother’s beloved tea shop. Vickie’s parents cut her off when she refuses to do their bidding and leave her with the debt they made with a handsome devil to give her the power to summon spirits. With Az back in the picture, she turns to him as a witch and a friend for help with the mysterious warnings she keeps getting from ghosts and her pending devilish debt. Can they solve the mystery of what is rotten in Hallowcross before their second chance at love goes up in flames?
VERDICT Ruoff’s debut is a magical rom-com full of hijinks, featuring an eclectic cast of characters in a quirky small town and a slow-burn romance to savor. – Library Journal Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
1. FRAMED IN DEATH by J.D. Robb: The 61st book of the In Death series. Eve Dallas investigates the murder of a woman found in the doorway of two gallery owners’ home.
2. THE HALLMARKED MAN by Robert Galbraith: The eighth book in the Cormoran Strike series. A dismembered corpse found in a silver shop sets off an investigation.
3. KATABASIS by R.F. Kuang” A pair of rival graduate students descend into the underworld to save their late professor and secure his recommendation.
4. THE SURROGATE MOTHER by Freida McFadden: Abby’s personal assistant, who offers to be her surrogate, also carries an unspeakable secret.
5. BILLION-DOLLAR RANSOM by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski: Five members of a billionaire’s family are simultaneously kidnapped.
6. BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: Consequences created by a secret forged between members of two families in a small Ohio town affect a new generation.
7. WILD REVERENCE by Rebecca Ross: In a novel written for adults that is set in the world of “Divine Rivals,” a goddess named Matilda is faced with making a great sacrifice.
8. APOSTLE’S COVE by William Kent Krueger: The 21st book in the Cork O’Connor mystery series. Cork runs into trouble as he reinvestigates a decades-old closed case.
9. TOM CLANCY: TERMINAL VELOCITY by M.P. Woodward: The 14th book in the Jack Ryan Jr. series. A terror group returns with a new leader.
10. THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman: Four septuagenarian friends, who meet to discuss unsolved crimes, find themselves taking on their first live case.
11. QUICKSILVER by Callie Hart: Saeris is transported to a dangerous land of ice and snow, where she must contend with a Fae warrior who has suspect agendas.
12. PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir: Ryland Grace awakes from a long sleep alone and far from home, and the fate of humanity rests on his shoulders.
13. DEADLY STORMS by Christine Feehan: A woman with a troubled past may have more in store.
14. THE COLOR OF DEATH by Trey Gowdy with Christopher Greyson: After a tragedy strikes his family, an assistant district attorney investigates the murder of a young woman.
15. LEAVE ME BEHIND by K.M. Moronova: A candidate for a Special Ops team has a one-night stand with a mysterious man who turns out to be her immediate superior.
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NON-FICTION
1. SISTER WIFE by Christine Brown Woolley: Known for her appearances on the reality TV series “Sister Wives,” Woolley chronicles how she moved away from polygamy.
2. LIONS AND SCAVENGERS by Ben Shapiro: A co-founder of The Daily Wire and conservative podcast host shares his views on inequality.
3. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
4. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
5. CHASING EVIL by John Edward and Robert Hilland with Natasha Stoynoff: A psychic medium and a former F.B.I. agent portray their partnership.
6. ON POWER by Mark R. Levin: The Fox News host considers various facets of power and its effect on history.
7. BLACK AF HISTORY by Michael Harriot: A columnist at TheGrio.com articulates moments in American history that center the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.
8. MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME by Arundhati Roy: The author of “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” ruminates on her relationship with her late mother.
9. THEY ALL CAME TO BARNEYS by Gene Pressman: How three generations of the Pressman family developed the business of the luxury department store Barneys.
10. FRAMED by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey: Our criminal justice system viewed through the struggles of 10 wrongfully convicted people to achieve exoneration.
11. EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green: The author of “The Anthropocene Reviewed” chronicles the fight against the deadly infectious disease tuberculosis.
12. WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR by Paul Kalanithi: A memoir by a physician who received a diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36.
13. BREAKNECK by Dan Wang: An examination of rapid growth and political repression in China and how it compares to the United States.
14. THE FORT BRAGG CARTEL by Seth Harp: An Iraq war veteran and investigative reporter delves into unsolved murders connected to drug trafficking at the Special Operations base.
15. BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer: A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.
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Have a great Sunday!
Linda
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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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For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
Hi everyone, this new weekly post will combine and replace our Suggested Listening and Suggested Viewing posts, into one entertainment post, published on Fridays, just in time for the weekend. Enjoy!
Our Enjoy The Weekend posts will contain ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
First the songs:
This week we are focusing on artists that helped set down the foundation of Rock & Roll, those who recorded for Sun Records in the 1950s.
Precursor:
1951
Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
(The Delta Cats consisted of Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm band)
Note: this song was recorded in Memphis by Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, before Sun Records was established in 1952.
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1953
Someone Told Me by Little Milton
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Feeling Good by Little Juniors Blue Flames
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1954
I’ll Never Stand In Your Way by Elvis Presley
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Straighten Up Baby by James Cotton
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Rockin’ Chair Daddy by Harmonica Frank
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That’s Alright by Elvis Presley with Scotty & Bill
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1955
Red Hot by Billy The Kid Emerson
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Cry! Cry ! Cry ! by Johnny Cash
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Mystery Train by Elvis Presley with Scotty & Bill
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1956
Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins
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Ooby Dooby by Roy Orbison
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I Need A Man by Barbara Pittman
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Ten Cats Down by The Miller Sisters
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I Won’t Be Rockin’ Tonight by Jean Chapman
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1957
Flyin’ Saucers Rock and Roll by Billy Lee Riley
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Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Second The Videos:
A new title available through one of the usual U.S. streaming services, followed by a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.
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Only Murders In the Building, Season 5 (2025) (Hulu)
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Kanopy Streaming Pick of the Week (A title available to library card holders)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Clown Town by Mick Herron
A series of mounting complications leads to yet another fight to the death between the discarded intelligence agents of Slough House and the morally bankrupt head of MI5. As Jackson Lamb’s motley crew on Aldersgate Street struggles to cope with the deaths of River Cartwright’s grandfather and mentor, intelligence veteran David Cartwright, and their dim, beloved colleague Min Harper, new troubles are brewing. Diana Taverner, who runs the British Intelligence Service from Regent’s Park, is being blackmailed by former MP Peter Judd to do his bidding. Nothing untoward about that, of course, but this time, Judd’s demands, backed by a compromising tape recording, are more pressing than usual. So Diana reconvenes the Brains Trust–Al Hawke, Avril Potts, Daisy Wessex, and their ex-boss Charles Cornell Stamoran–whose last assignment was to serve as the contact for psychopathic IRA informant Dougie Malone while turning a blind eye to his multiple rapes and murders, which were really none of the Crown’s business. Taverner’s new assignment for the Brains Trust is the assassination of Judd. Since all these developments are filtered through the riotously cynical lens of Herron’s imagination, nothing goes as planned, and when the smoke clears, the fatalities don’t include Judd. Now that Judd knows he has as much reason to fear Taverner as she does to fear him, Lamb offers to broker a peace meeting between them which Slough House computer geek Roddy Ho will keep secret by knocking out 37 security cameras around Taverner’s dwelling. What could possibly go wrong? The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence. – Kirkus Review
Reader’s Note: Clown Town is the nineth book in the Slough House series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Slow Horses.
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It Was the Way She Said It Short Stories, Essays, and Wisdom by Terry McMillan
The best part of reading this entertaining collection of published and unpublished fiction, sketches, and nonfiction is the sheer delight of immersing yourself in the works of a writer who has plenty to say and has never been afraid to say it. Author of 1990s megahits like Waiting To Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, McMillan has been chronicling the hopes, dreams, and defiance of Black women for decades, examining relationships between men and women, friends, neighbors, and family with hard-won wisdom and a rebellious authenticity. In these stories, economic woes figure prominently in the lives of her characters. Most of the protagonists are women, but in “The End,” published in 1976, a weary worker at the Ford Motor Co. confronts his dull days and the myriad factors that trap and isolate him. In “Reconstruction,” a man loses his job, and a couple’s relationship deteriorates into physical violence and sexual abuse. In “Ma’Dear (for Estelle Ragsdale),” a scrappy elderly widow survives by taking in boarders she’s not supposed to have. There are also characters struggling with love and its fallout–pregnancy scares, anger, regret, loneliness and loss–proving that McMillan has never shied away from frank assessments of sex and its power. In one of the best stories, “Can’t Close My Eyes to It,” a young girl spends time with her beloved grandmother and learns hard lessons about life. Even McMillan’s quick sketches are so immediately absorbing that you wish she’d fleshed them out into full-blown stories. You won’t want to skip the nonfiction pieces, which range from essays to a commencement speech, because the author’s voice is always engaging. But it’s through her fiction that McMillan shines brightest. “She reads the times we’re living through,” author Ishmael Reed writes in the foreword, a truth evident on every page. An entertaining reminder of McMillan’s storytelling abilities and unflinching honesty. – Starred Kirkus Review
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A Land So Wide: A Novel by Erin A. Craig
Greer Mackenzie has always dreamed of seeing the world beyond the borders of her settlement of Mistaken, and her work as a mapmaker only adds to that desire. However, she and everyone else who lives in Mistaken are trapped there by the Warding Stones that surround their tiny community. These stones also keep out the monsters, known as the Bright-Eyed, that live in the woodlands beyond Mistaken’s borders. Greer makes plans with her childhood love, Ellis Beaufort, to find each other during the Hunt (a hide-and-seek courting game that pairs up couples to marry), but when the Hunt begins, she is shocked to see Ellis walk through the boundary of the Warding Stones and be hunted by a creature. Determined to save Ellis, Greer discovers that the history of their town is not what its residents have been told. She and Mistaken have mysterious origins, and all will come to light as the Bright-Eyed face the travelers. The novel starts off at a slow pace, but the second half quickly sets up an action-filled sequence of events.
VERDICT Craig’s (The Thirteenth Child) adult debut pulls from Scottish folklore to explore a woman’s desire to be free. – Library Journal Review
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Please Don’t Lie by Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt
In this stylish, twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and award-winning author Anne Burt, a young woman heads to the Adirondacks with her new husband for a fresh start—but the past won’t let her go.
Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family’s tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation.
But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined.
Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends—a free-spirited couple living on the property—can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off.
As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous. – from the publisher
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Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
The world’s most celebrated thriller writer and author of The Da Vinci Code returns with his most stunning novel yet—a propulsive, twisty, thought-provoking masterpiece that will entertain readers as only Dan Brown can do.
Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon—a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague’s most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, Langdon desperately searches for Katherine . . . and for answers. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, he uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind.
The Secret of Secrets is the sixth book in the Robert Langdon series, if you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one: Angels & Demons.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
–
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
1. KATABASIS by R.F. Kuang: A pair of rival graduate students descend into the underworld to save their late professor and secure his recommendation.
2. THE SURROGATE MOTHER by Freida McFadden: Abby’s personal assistant, who offers to be her surrogate, also carries an unspeakable secret.
3. THE COLOR OF DEATH by Trey Gowdy with Christopher Greyson: After a tragedy strikes his family, an assistant district attorney investigates the murder of a young woman.
4. QUICKSILVER by Callie Hart: Saeris is transported to a dangerous land of ice and snow, where she must contend with a Fae warrior who has suspect agendas.
5. ATMOSPHERE by Taylor Jenkins Reid: In the summer of 1980, Joan Goodwin begins training with a group of candidates for NASA’s space shuttle program.
6. PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir: Ryland Grace awakes from a long sleep alone and far from home, and the fate of humanity rests on his shoulders.
7. THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman: Four septuagenarian friends, who meet to discuss unsolved crimes, find themselves taking on their first live case.
8. THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah: Two sisters are separated in World War II France: one in the countryside, the other in Paris.
9. MY FRIENDS by Fredrik Backman: A young woman looks into the story behind a painting that was made 25 years ago and a small group of teens depicted in it; translated by Neil Smith.
10. 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.
11. KISS THE VILLAIN by Rina Kent: In the same world where the Legacy of Gods series is set, a dark game is pursued by a law student and a criminal who is his new law professor.
12. BROKEN COUNTRY by Clare Leslie Hall: Beth must confront her past when the man she once loved as a teenager returns to the village with his son.
13. PUCKING STRONG by Emily Rath: The fourth book in the Jacksonville Rays series. A fake marriage between a hockey player and a physical therapist could become a public relations nightmare.
14. ONYX STORM by Rebecca Yarros: The third book in the Empyrean series. As enemies gain traction, Violet Sorrengail goes beyond the Aretian wards in search of allies.
15. DO NOT DISTURB by Freida McFadden: Quinn Alexander goes on the run after committing a crime and winds up at a motel with a dark past.
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NON-FICTION
1. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
2. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
3. BREAKNECK by Dan Wang: An examination of rapid growth and political repression in China and how it compares to the United States.
4. THE IDAHO FOUR by James Patterson and Vicky Ward: Investigations into the murders of four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022.
5. ON POWER by Mark R. Levin: The Fox News host considers various facets of power and its effect on history.
6. FRAMED by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey: Our criminal justice system viewed through the struggles of 10 wrongfully convicted people to achieve exoneration.
7. EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green: The author of “The Anthropocene Reviewed” chronicles the fight against the deadly infectious disease tuberculosis.
8. BLACK AF HISTORY by Michael Harriot: A columnist at TheGrio.com articulates moments in American history that center the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.
9. THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED by John Bolton: The former national security advisor gives his account of the 17 months he spent working for President Trump during his first administration.
10. ABUNDANCE by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson: A New York Times opinion columnist and a staff writer at The Atlantic evaluate obstacles to American progress.
11. ON TYRANNY by Timothy Snyder: Twenty lessons from the 20th century about the course of tyranny.
12. BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah: A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the former host of “The Daily Show.”
13. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
14. THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls: The author recalls how she and her siblings were constantly moved from one bleak place to another.
15. BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer: A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.
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Have a great Sunday!
Linda
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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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For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
Hi everyone, this new weekly post will combine and replace our Suggested Listening and Suggested Viewing posts, into one entertainment post, published on Fridays, just in time for the weekend. Enjoy!
Our Enjoy The Weekend posts will contain ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
First the songs:
This week we’re enjoying music by artists born in September.
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That’ll Be The Day by Buddy Holly (Born September 7, 1936)
Found on the Album: The Chirping Crickets (1957)
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Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders with Chrissie Hynde (Born September 7, 1951)
Found on the Album: The Singles (1987)
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Try A Little Tenderness by Otis Redding (Born September 9, 1941)
Found on the Album: The Best of Otis Redding (2020)
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Mercy Fell Like Rain by Rosie Flores (Born September 10, 1950)
Found on the Album: A Simple Case of the Blues (2019)
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Three O’Clock Blues by B. B. King (Born September 16, 1925)
Found on the Album: Singin’ the Blues (1956)
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I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams Sr. (Born September 17, 1923)
Found on the Album: 20 of Hank Williams Greatest Hits (1990)
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I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll by Joan Jett (Born September 22, 1958)
Found on the Album: I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll (1981)
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Let The Good Times Roll by Ray Charles (Born September 23,1930)
Found on the Album: The Genius of Ray Charles (1959)
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Give It Up by Barbara Dennerlein (Born September 25, 1964)
Found on the Album: Barbara Dennerlein Takes Off (1995)
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Second The videos:
A new title available through one of the usual U.S. streaming services, followed by a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.
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Highest To Lowest (2025) (Apple TV+)
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Kanopy Streaming Pick of the Week (A title available to library card holders)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History by Dana
Bash, CNN’s congressional correspondent, and coauthor Fisher chronicle the 1872 gubernatorial race in Louisiana and the effects it had on Louisiana politics, Reconstruction, and civil rights. The race pitted Democrat and former Confederate officer John McEnery against Republican William Pitt Kellogg who advocated for racial equality instead of white supremacy. Tensions between white Southerners and freedmen were exacerbated when both candidates’ supporters used imaginative techniques to rig the election for their candidate. A fragile system to count ballots and resolve voting disputes could not resolve disputes. Then McEnery’s supporters armed themselves and confronted Kellogg’s government by force, with widespread, often horrific violence, including a massacre of African Americans in rural Colfax and a battle in Liberty Place in New Orleans. Although generally well-written, the book’s often confusing structure and digressions make for a challenging read. Yet Bash and Fisher reveal capably and in a timely manner that election fraud, voter intimidation, and violence have deep roots in American politics and require doses of powerful medicine to ensure that the government delivers prosperity and equality to all. – Booklist Review
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The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
A dismembered corpse is discovered in the vault of a silver shop. The police initially believe it to be that of a convicted armed robber – but not everyone agrees with that theory. One of them is Decima Mullins, who calls on the help of private detective Cormoran Strike as she’s certain the body in the silver vault was that of her boyfriend – the father of her newborn baby – who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
The more Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott delve into the case, the more labyrinthine it gets. The silver shop is no ordinary one: it’s located beside Freemasons’ Hall and specializes in Masonic silverware. And in addition to the armed robber and Decima’s boyfriend, it becomes clear that there are other missing men who could fit the profile of the body in the vault.
As the case becomes ever more complicated and dangerous, Strike faces another quandary. Robin seems increasingly committed to her boyfriend, policeman Ryan Murphy, but the impulse to declare his own feelings for her is becoming stronger than ever.
A gripping, wonderfully complex novel which takes Strike and Robin’s story to a new level, The Hallmarked Man is an unmissable read for any fan of this unique series.
Reader’s Note: The Hallmarked Man is the eight novel in the Cormoran Strike Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out booke one: The Cuckoo’s Calling.
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Framed in Death by J. D. Robb
Death imitates art in the brand-new crime thriller starring homicide cop Eve Dallas from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author J.D. Robb.
Manhattan is filled with galleries and deep-pocketed collectors who can make an artist’s career with a wave of a hand. But one man toils in obscurity, his brilliance unrecognized while lesser talents bask in the glory he believes should be his. Come tomorrow, he vows, the city will be buzzing about his work.
Indeed, before dawn, Lt. Eve Dallas is speeding toward the home of the two gallery owners whose doorway has been turned into a horrifying crime scene overnight. A lifeless young woman has been elaborately costumed and precisely posed to resemble the model of a long-ago Dutch master, and Dallas plunges into her investigation.
Reader’s Note: Framed In Death is the sixty-first novel in the Eve Ducan Mystery Series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: Naked In Death.
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Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola
The bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick Honey and Spice returns with a sexy, hilarious, and heartfelt standalone novel starring Kiki Banjo, a young woman who hosts a podcast about modern love, even though her own love life is a hot mess. When her ex comes back into the picture, Kiki must decide whether she’s ready to risk it all—or let her heart burn again.
Twenty-eight-year-old Kiki Banjo hosts the popular podcast The HeartBeat, solving romantic conundrums and dishing out life advice. Behind the scenes, though, career setbacks and a devastating breakup have left her hanging on by a thread. As she’s preparing to be the Maid of Honor in her best friend’s wedding, everything starts to unravel, and Kiki is left wondering if she ever had the answers.
Then Kiki finds herself face-to-face with the Best Man, her ex-boyfriend, Malakai—the smooth-talking, absurdly handsome, annoyingly perceptive man who stole her heart and then shattered it. While Kiki’s approaching rock bottom, Malakai’s been on the rise as a filmmaker, and now they have no choice but to play nice until the wedding is over. Both are hell-bent on ignoring the smoldering chemistry between them, but as they navigate the chaos of wedding plans, career ambitions, and Kiki’s growing fears about the future, they can’t ignore the spark that’s only getting hotter.
They just have to get through the summer. So why does it feel like playing with fire?
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To The Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage
One young woman’s relentless quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut will irrevocably alter the fates of the people she loves most in this tour de force of a debut about ambition, belonging, and family.
My mother took my sister and me, and she drove through the night to a place she felt a claim to, a place on earth she thought we might be safe. I stopped asking questions. I picked little glass pieces from my sister’s hair. I watched the moon.
Steph Harper is on the run. When she was five, her mother fled an abusive husband—with Steph and her younger sister in tow—to Cherokee Nation, where she hoped they might finally belong. In response, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.
Spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph’s turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her: her sister Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, and whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph’s college girlfriend Della Owens, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla’s mother, who has held up her family’s tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her children, all the while keeping her own past a secret.
In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women to the point of breaking, at once betraying their love and generosity, and forcing them to reconsider their own deepest desires in her shadow. Told through an intricately woven tapestry of narrative, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths to which one woman will go to find space for herself.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
P.S. Some of the print books & physical media items may not yet appear in StarCat. So, if you see any title you’d like to check out, but it isn’t in StarCat, send me an email or give me a call and I’ll put your name on the list for it, as soon as it has arrived.
P.S.S. The three digital catalogs are:
The Digital Catalog found online at https://stls.overdrive.com/ and its companion app Libby found in mobile app stores.
The Hoopla Catalog found online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/ and its companion app, also called Hoopla and found in mobile app stores.
Kanopy: The streaming video catalog found online at https://www.kanopy.com/ and its companion app, also called Kanopy, found in mobile app stores.
Hi everyone, here are our streaming recommendations for the week.
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The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, Season 1 (Netflix) (August 27)
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Kanopy Pick of the Week
Winter Sleep (2014)
Trailer
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Have a great day!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Suggested Viewing posts are published on Tuesdays, and consist of two streaming recommendations, one general recommendation from a variety of sources (i.e. Apple TV+, Peacock, Hulu, Amazon, PBS etc.) and the other from the library’s streaming service Kanopy.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access digital library content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios & streaming videos)?
Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 