Author: Linda Reimer

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 now published on Wednesdays.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 18, 2023

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At Day’s Close: Night In Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch

(Available Format: eBook)

Engrossing, leisurely paced and richly researched, this history finds Ekirch reminding us of how preindustrial Westerners lived during the nocturnal hours, when most were plunged into almost total darkness. By describing how that darkness spelled heightened risk—of stumbles, drowning, fires and other dangers—Ekirch accounts for the traditional association of nighttime with fear and suspicion, illuminating the foundations of popular beliefs in satanic forces and the occult. He also describes how the night literally provided a cloak of darkness for crimes and insurrections, and how fear of the night sometimes led to racist blame and accusation. A professor of history at Virginia Tech, Ekirch ranges across the archives of Europe and early colonial America to paint a portrait of how the forces of law and order operated at night, and he provides fascinating insight into nocturnal labor—of masons, carpenters, bakers, glassmakers and iron smelters, among many others. The hardest nocturnal workers were women, Ekirch writes, doing laundry after a full day’s domestic work. Ekirch also evokes benign nighttime activities, such as drinking and alehouse camaraderie; the thrill of aristocratic masquerades; the merrymaking of harvest suppers and dances. A rich weave of citation and archival evidence, Ekirch’s narrative is rooted in the material realities of the past, evoking a bygone world of extreme physicality and preindustrial survival stratagems. – Publishers Weekly

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Bruno’s Challenge: And Other Stories of the French Countryside by Martin Walker

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Fans of The Coldest Case and Walker’s other novels set in the little French market town of St. Denis will savor this inviting story collection featuring Bruno Courrèges, the town’s genial chief of police. As St. Denis is in the Périgord, the culinary heartland of France, a thread of gastronomy and bonhomie plays a significant part in all 14 tales. Walker smoothly integrates recipes into the text, beginning with the title story, which finds Bruno throwing together a golden wedding anniversary feast for friends on short notice and includes easy to follow instructions on how to prepare Poulet à l’estragon. Prehistoric cooking methods figure in “Boeuf Neanderthal,” as Bruno prepares a menu for the Société Historique et Archéologique du Périgord. “The Green Army” describes biodynamic viticultural techniques, and “Sugar Lumps” reveals the proper way to drink absinthe. The area’s rich history and traditions are explored at every turn. Any crimes are relatively minor—nasty anonymous letters, spates of vandalism—and are resolved by cooperation, conviviality, and Bruno’s clever intervention. Culinary mystery aficionados won’t want to miss this one. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Code Name Wren: The True Story of America’s Most Dangerous Female Spy—and the Sister She Betrayed by Jim Poplin

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout audiobook; Print Book coming soon!)

Investigative journalist Popkin’s engrossing debut tells the story of Ana Montes, an intelligence analyst for the U.S. government who, probably before she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1985, was spying for Cuba. In 1998, the efforts of her sister, Lucy, an FBI analyst, to bring down a Cuban spy ring in Miami led to clues about a highly placed U.S. citizen working for Cuba. The FBI and DIA spent more than two years investigating, but came up short due to a lack of cooperation between the agencies. It wasn’t until they finally shared information that they identified the spy as Montes. She was arrested 10 days after 9/11, which explains the lack of headlines her capture received. Montes pleaded guilty to one count of espionage, receiving 25 years in prison. Popkin thoroughly explores her upbringing—an abusive father divorced her mother—but never really explains why she became an ardent supporter of Fidel Castro to the extent that she risked her high-level position at the DIA and ultimately her freedom. This is a must-read for espionage fans. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Even This I Get To Experience by Norman Lear

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook & eBook)

This is, flat out, one of the best Hollywood memoirs ever written. In most Hollywood bios, we skip through a lot of sections, waiting to get to the good stuff, but here it’s all good stuff. Lear, the creator of the classic TV series All in the Family and Maude (among many, many others), had numerous jobs before he fell into television writing: he was a PR man, a door-to-door salesman, an inventor, a radio operator aboard a B-17 bomber, and each of these stages of his early life easily could be a book unto itself, so entertainingly does Lear write about them. And the story of how he came to be one of television’s top producers reads like the script for a really good movie: Lear teams up with a buddy to write comic songs; they parlay this into a gig writing sketches and routines for Danny Thomas, which leads to writing full-time for legends like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, which leads (for Lear, anyway) to writing movie scripts, which leads to Lear’s changing the landscape of television in the 1970s with his truly revolutionary approach to the types of characters and themes that could appear on the small screen. Now in his nineties, Lear writes about his own life with a sort of can you believe it? approach, and at times you can see him opening new doors in his own memory (as, for example, when he realizes that he’s spent most of his life trying to whitewash the truth about his father, who was a fraud and a liar but also a pretty likable guy). An absolute treasure. Starred Booklist Review

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A Few Days Full of Trouble: Revelations on the Journey to Justice for My Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till

(Available Formats: eBook)

Parker is the last living witness to the abduction of his cousin Emmett Till, whose 1955 lynching in Mississippi lent momentum to the Civil Rights movement. Here, with the help of Benson, a lawyer and former features editor for Ebony, he recalls the event, the impact on his family, and efforts over the decades to secure justice for Till. – Library Journal Review

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Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Right by various authors, published by Amnesty International USA

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Thirty-six authors ranging widely in nationality have contributed to this tribute to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With an introduction by Archbishop Desmond Tutu discussing literature as an expression of humanity and a moving epilog by Henning Mankell, this compilation includes stories inspired by each of the declaration’s 30 articles. The writers, who include Joyce Carol Oates, Walter Mosley, David Mitchell, Ariel Dorfman, Banana Yoshimoto, Yann Martel, Paulo Coehlo, Nadine Gordimer, and Rohinton Mistry, among many others, interpret the articles as they consider culture, government, religion, law, gender, race, and media in relation to human rights. For instance, in “The Kind of Neighbor You Used To Have,” James Meek writes effectively of a man detained without habeas corpus and confronted by a neighbor who himself has been taken in to custody to persuade the detainee to confess to his crime. Kate Atkinson’s satirical and frightening “The War on Woman” focuses on an apolitical woman whose mundane existence is altered by an increasingly aggressive enforcement of a law against women.

VERDICT The stories here are impressive in scope and show that The Universal Declaration of Human Rights can apply to many aspects of the human experience. Valuable reading. – Library Journal Review

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The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & Hoopla instant check out eBook)

Shifting effortlessly between the last days of WWII on the Eastern front and modern day Oslo, Norwegian Nesbø spins a complex tale of murder, revenge and betrayal. A recovering alcoholic recently reassigned to the Norwegian Security Service, Insp. Harry Hole begins tracking Sverre Olsen, a vicious neo-Nazi who escaped prosecution on a technicality. But what starts as a quest to put Olsen behind bars soon explodes into a race to prevent an assassination. As Hole struggles to stay one step ahead of Olsen and his gang of skinheads, Nesbø takes the reader back to WWII, as Norwegians fighting for Hitler wage a losing battle on the Eastern front. When the two story lines finally collide, it’s up to Hole to stop a man hell-bent on carrying out the deadly plan he hatched half a century ago in the trenches. Perfectly paced and painfully suspenseful, this crime novel illuminates not only Norway’s alleged Nazi ties but also its present skinhead subculture. Readers will delight in Hole, a laconic hero as doggedly stubborn as Connelly’s Harry Bosch, and yet with a prickly appeal all his own. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

Reader’s Note: The Readbreast is the third book in the Harry Hole Mystery Series.

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The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique by Samantha Vérant

(Available Formats: eBook)

No matter how small the dish or how simple the preparation, cooking always harnesses Kate’s senses. The feel of pliable dough, the smell of fresh herbs, the sound of sizzling -butter–all of it lights up her every neuron and emotion. Now opening her very own restaurant in Paris’ trendy tenth arrondissement, Kate can channel her love of food to the wider world–or at least her little canal-side corner of it. But when Bistro Exotique threatens to crumble around her, Kate will have to rely on more than her senses to bring her dream restaurant back to its full strength. Vérant brings her signature style to Kate’s story, infusing it with sensuality, romance, and a genuine love of the culinary arts. No mere background player, the City of Lights itself is present in every fish market, chic café, and floury boulangerie that Kate sets foot in on her culinary adventures. Fans of Mary Simses and Kerry Anne King will adore the interplay between food and romance, snobbery and appreciation, and critique and acclaim. – Booklist Review

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Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

In mid-1970s Belfast, 24-year-old Cushla’s name (from the Irish endearment, “”the pulse of my heart””) instantly marks her as part of the Catholic minority. A teacher at the local parochial school and part-time barmaid in her family’s pub, she occupies a precarious middle ground. Some of the pub’s Protestant regulars won’t acknowledge her family on the street, and her seven-year-old students are on intimate terms with the violence they report on each morning during current events. When Michael, an older, married Protestant lawyer who frequents the pub, asks Cushla to teach him and his friends the Irish language, the two quickly begin an affair. When the father of one of her students is brutally assaulted, Cushla helps the boy’s family. Cushla tries to keep the various strands of her life separate, but eventually they become tangled, culminating in a violent act with lasting repercussions. Kennedy (The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac, 2021) draws on her personal experiences growing up Catholic in Northern Ireland in this debut novel that will appeal to fans of Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain (2020). – Booklist Review

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Waypoints: My Scottish Journey by Sam Heughan

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

The male lead of the TV series Outlander takes us on a long Scottish hike while recounting the travails of stage and screen. “I’m not hyperactive, I crave down time, but I feel guilty if I’m not…pushing myself in some capacity,” writes Heughan, who, sidelined by Covid-19 after shooting an abbreviated sixth season of Outlander, decided to walk the West Highland Way. Running from just north of Glasgow along Loch Lomond and up the U.K.’s tallest mountain, Ben Nevis, before ending along Scotland’s west coast, the trail is not for the faint of heart. Neither, writes Heughan, is acting: He chronicles his unsuccessful auditions for many much-wanted roles–e.g., hoping to bring the James Bond trademark back home, he was beaten out by Daniel Craig. Being hammered by rain and cold and pained by blisters and sore muscles are perhaps no less dispiriting than losing a role, but Heughan writes with generally good humor of his experiences, in which, on the trail, he plays the part of the hapless newbie. Still, he enjoys the bucolic solitude, as when he notes, “There isn’t a single soul around, unless you count a few hardy sheep in the distance bracing themselves against the gusts.” If you want to read solely about tramping around Britain, Robert Macfarlane is the writer you want, but if you have any interest in the art and craft of acting along the way, Heughan offers plenty of notes. “The key to Shakespeare, I learned, is to allow the text to live,” he writes. “It’s the punctuation and poetry that guides the actor, which makes breathing key to delivery.” For all that, it’s a treat, after a winding narrative that ranges from exultant to melancholic, to see Heughan on top of Ben Nevis at last. A pleasure for fans of the author, whisky, and Scotland. – Kirkus Review

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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

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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.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is the latest edition of Library Connections, our weekly readers’ and listeners’ advisory videocast.

The next Library Connections video will be posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.

Library Connections videos may also be accessed via the Southeast Steuben County Library’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SESTEUBENCOLIBRARY

Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL

Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.

Each title is followed by a listing of which formats it is available in for check out within the three catalogs: StarCat (Print, Large Print & CD Audiobook), The Digital Catalog (eBook & Downloadable Audiobook) and the Hoopla Catalog (Hoopla instant checkout eBook & Hoopla Audiobook).

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.And the next New York Times blog post will be published Sunday, January 15, 2022

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FICTION

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BABEL by R.F. Kuang

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

In 1828, Robin Swift studies at Oxford University’s Royal Institute of Translation and faces a choice when Britain pursues a war with China.

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THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

Two childhood friends follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which puts them on opposite sides of the law.

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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.

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DESERT STAR by Michael Connelly

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

Ballard and Bosch bury old resentments as they go after two killers.

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DREAMLAND by Nicholas Sparks

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)

Musicians from different backgrounds are attracted to each other and a mother flees with her son from an abusive husband.

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FAIRY TALE by Stephen King

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

A high school kid inherits a shed that is a portal to another world where good and evil are at war.

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GOING ROGUE by Janet Evanovich

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

The 29th book in the Stephanie Plum series. The man who abducted the office manager at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds demands a mysterious coin in exchange for her.

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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)

A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse.

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IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book)

In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.

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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.

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MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

After returning to her hometown, Olivia McAfee’s son gets accused of killing his crush.

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THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT by Maggie O’Farrell

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

In 1550s Florence, the future of the third daughter of the grand duke seems uncertain after she is thrust into a marriage.

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THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Nora Seed finds a library beyond the edge of the universe that contains books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could have lived.

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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.

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THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

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

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TOM CLANCY: RED WINTER by Marc Cameron

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

The 22nd book in the Jack Ryan series. Ryan goes behind the Berlin Wall in 1985 to investigate an East German defector.

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TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Two friends find their partnership challenged in the world of video game design.

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TRIPLE CROSS by James Patterson

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

Detective Alex Cross and the true-crime author Thomas Tull search for a serial killer known as the Family Man.

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UGLY LOVE by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

Tate Collins and Miles Archer, an airline pilot, think they can handle a no strings attached arrangement. But they can’t.

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VERITY by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Lowen Ashleigh is hired by the husband of an injured writer to complete her popular series and uncovers a horrifying truth.

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A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES by Louise Penny

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The 18th book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. When an attic room that was sealed off 160 years ago is opened, an old enemy returns.

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NON-FICTION:

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AND THERE WAS LIGHT by Jon Meacham

(Available Formats: Print Book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer portrays the life of Abraham Lincoln.

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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.

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CINEMA SPECULATION by Quentin Tarantino

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

The filmmaker shares his love of cinema with special attention given to key American films of the 1970s.

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CRYING IN H MART by Michelle Zauner

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The daughter of a Korean mother and Jewish-American father, and leader of the indie rock project Japanese Breakfast, describes creating her own identity after losing her mother to cancer

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FINDING ME by Viola Davis

(Available Format: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The multiple award-winning actress describes the difficulties she encountered before claiming her sense of self and achieving professional success.

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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.

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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy

(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)

The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.

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AN IMMENSE WORLD by Ed Yong

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer explains the sensory perceptions and ways of communication used by a variety of animals.

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JANUARY 6 REPORT by the House January 6th Committee

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

The final report of the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6. Attack on the United States Capitol; with a foreword by Ari Melber. (Harper Press)

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JANUARY 6TH REPORT by the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6. Attack on the United States Capitol

with a preface by David Remnick and epilogue by Representative Jamie Raskin. (Celadon Press)

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THE LIGHT WE CARRY by Michelle Obama

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)

The former first lady shares personal stories and the tools she uses to deal with difficult situations.

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MYTH OF NORMAL by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The potential ways in which trauma and stress from modern-day living can affect our physical health.

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PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG by Bob Dylan

(Available Formats: Print Book)

In a collection of more than 60 essays, the musician and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature explores the nature of popular music.

 

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THE REVOLUTIONARY by Stacy Schiff

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer details Samuel Adams’s contributions to the American Revolution.

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SONG OF THE CELL by Siddhartha Mukherjee

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author chronicles the discovery of cells and describes how modern medicine uses them.

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STARRY MESSENGER by Neil deGrasse Tyson

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium delves into subjects including politics, religion, gender and race.

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SURRENDER by Bono

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The lead singer of the Irish rock band U2 offers details of his life, career and activism.

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WHAT IF? 2 by Randall Munroe

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The creator of the web comic “xkcd” and former NASA roboticist looks into hypothetical and oddball scenarios.

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSL

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*Information on the Three Catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

The Digital Catalog has two companion apps, Libby & OverDrive. Libby is the app for newer devices and the OverDrive app should be used for older devices and Amazon tablets.

All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant check outs of eBooks, downloadable audiobook, comic books, albums and streaming videos. Patron check out limit is 4 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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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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 Tel: 607-936-3713

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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our streaming recommendations for the month ahead of us.

The next Suggested Viewing post will be out the first Saturday, in February – Saturday, February 4, 2023.

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The Adam Project (Netflix) (Debut Date: 2022)

Adam Reed is a pilot from the year 2050, a dystopian future where time travel is more or less commonplace.
Adam’s wife disappears in the past, and he attempts to travel to the year 2018 to find her but inadvertently ends up in the year 2022, in his own childhood backyard. Now Adam will need to rely on the help of his younger self to find his wife and save the future. “The Adam Project” is a funny, lighthearted adventure through time that just about anyone will have fun watching. – Looper Description

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The Fablemans (Debut Date: 2022)

(Can be rented/purchased from Amazon, Apple or Google Play and is playing in theaters now) (Debut Date: 2022)

Rediscover the magic of movies in Steven Spielberg’s coming-of-age story about a young man’s love of film and the power it has to reveal the truth in ourselves and others

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The Woman King (2022)

(Can be rented/purchased from Amazon, Apple or Google Play) (Debut Date: 2022)

Inspired by true events, Viola Davis stars in an action-packed story of an elite all-female unit of warriors determined to defend their nation. Amazon Description

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Kaleidoscope (Netflix) (Debut Date: January 1, 2023)

DESCRIPTION: This heart-pounding Netflix Original action crime-drama series is an absolute must-watch for 2023.

Follow along as a master thief and his crew try to carry out an extremely elaborate and ambitious heist worth a whopping $7 billion dollars. Unsurprisingly, an effort this big comes with its own share of problems that include betrayals, greed, vengeance, and more threats that seek to undermine their mission. See it all go down Kaleidoscope this month, only on Netflix. – Decider Description

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+) (Debut Date: January 4, 2023)

The series is about a team of clone mercenaries navigating the galaxy after the fall of the Republic. -Marketwatch

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The Pale Blue Eye (Netflix) (January 6, 2023)

Christian Bale headlines this 1830-set mystery as world-weary detective Landor, who’s called to West Point to investigate the gruesome murder of a young cadet. Stonewalled by the academy’s code of silence, he enlists the help of one of their own. The eccentric cadet has no love for military life but a true passion for poetry. His name is Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling). Together, Landor and Poe pursue the case, all while the detective struggles with grief over his dead wife. Meanwhile, Poe is intrigued by Lea (Lucy Boynton), the sister of a cadet who becomes a suspect. – Kelly Woo, Tom’s Guide

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The Rig (Amazon Prime Video) (January 6, 2023)

A group of workers on a remote Scottish oil rig are due to return to the mainland when a mysterious fog enshrouds them and supernatural forces take hold. Buzzfeed Description

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Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (AMC) (Debut Date: January 8, 2023)

AMC is all in on Anne Rice. The network has ordered a second season of its Interview With a Vampire reboot, and now it’s unveiling a series based on the author’s bestselling trilogy, Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Alexandra Daddario stars as Rowan, an intuitive neurosurgeon who discovers she’s the heir to a family of witches. As she comes to terms with her heritage and her newfound powers, she must also contend with the sinister spirit that has haunted her family for generations. – Kelly Woo, Tom’s Guide

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Night Court (NBC) (January 17, 2023)

Revivals and reboots are a trend that’s here to stay. The latest classic TV show to come back to life is Night Court, a sequel/continuation of the 1980s sitcom. The original starred Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone, who presided over the night shift at a Manhattan courthouse. Now, more than 30 years later, his daughter, Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) is wielding the gavel. Anderson passed away in 2018, so he’ll only be present as a beloved memory. But John Larroquette is reprising his role as prosecutor Dan Fielding. He’ll be one of many oddballs and cynics that the second Judge Stone must bring to order. – Kelly Woo, Tom’s Guide

Lockwood & Co. (Netflix) (January 27, 2023)

DESCRIPTION: This brand new Netflix Original supernatural thriller based on Jonathan Stroud’s book series of the same name takes place in London, where the most skilled ghost-hunters engage in nightly battles with dangerous spirits. Setting themselves apart from all the adult-run ghost-hunting agencies are the three teens behind Lockwood & Co., a small startup determined to investigate the deadly spirits haunting their city. – Decider Description

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Hoopla Streaming Pick of the Month

Because We’re Done (2022) (Genre: Comedy)

A married man going through a mid life crisis believes that the fate of his marriage rest solely in his hands.

Only to learn that the ultimate decision will be made by his wife.

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Have a great weekend,

Linda

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References

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 13, 2023.

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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Black Nights by Lowell Fulsom (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: Soul (1966)

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Blues With A Feeling by The Butterfield Blues Band (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: The Butterfield Blues Band (1965)

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Cedar’s Blues by Rufus Reed Trio with the Sirius Quartet (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: Celebration (2022)

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Days Beyond Recall by Bunk Johnson (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: Bunk’s Blues (2009)

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Gonna Live The Life by Josh White Jr. (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: House of the Rising Son (1999)

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If I Do Nothing by Colleen Kattau (Genre: Folk)

Recorded live in 2016. Colleen Kattau is a professor at Cortland University.

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I Stand And Wonder by Sam Chatmon (Genre: Blues)

From The Albums: I Have To Paint My Face (1960) by Sam Chatmon & Classic Delta and Deep South Blue from Smithsonian Folkways (2018) by Various Artists

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Peace Piece by Bill Evans (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: Everyone Digs Bill Evans (1959)

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A Pillow of Winds by Pink Floyd (Genre: Rock, Classic Rock)

From The Album: Meddle (1971)

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Ten Long Years by B.B. King & Eric Clapton (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: Riding With The King (2000)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

In Defense of My Own Happiness (2021) by Joy Oladokun (Genre: Folk)

And from the album, the song:

In My Younger Days by Joy Oladokun

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Have a great weekend,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

–

The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

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

–

The Libby App

Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.

–

Hoopla

A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.

–

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

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*

–

Weekly Suggested Reading postings are now published on Wednesdays.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 11, 2023.

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Age of Vice: A Novel by Deepti Kapoor

(Available Formats: eBook, Print Book coming soon!)

A poor boy joins up with a ruthless rich family in this fast-paced thriller. Kapoor’s sprawling second novel opens with a horrific scene: five day laborers lying dead on a New Delhi street, killed after being struck by a Mercedes early in the morning. When the police arrive, they find Ajay, a young man, at the wheel, an empty bottle of scotch nearby. Ajay, we learn, comes from a “poor, less than poor” family in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; his family are members of a socially disadvantaged caste. When he was a boy, his father was beaten to death by a group of strongmen; his mother sold him to pay for the money she borrowed for her husband’s medical bills. Ajay worked for the farmer who bought him until the man died, then found work in a backpacker cafe where he met Sunny Wadia, the de facto leader of a band of “young, rich, and glamorous Indians, not afraid to show it, not afraid to slum it, welcome everywhere, welcomed by themselves.” Sunny, a flashy playboy, offers Ajay a job working for him in Delhi; the young man accepts, becoming a valet, butler, bodyguard: “the beating heart of Sunny’s world. Wordless, faceless, content.” Ajay soon learns that the Wadia family, entrenched in a feud, is more sinister and dangerous than he thought and that he’s being made to take the fall for a crime he didn’t commit. Kapoor switches points of view and timelines throughout the book to great effect; it doesn’t take long for the reader to become invested in the Mario Puzo-esque drama of the Wadia family and their associates. Her dialogue shines, and although the novel is a bit too long, it’s certainly gripping. Fans of crime novels will find much to admire in this quite entertaining book. A bit too long-winded but a whole lot of fun. – Kirkus Review

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Bandit Queens: A Novel by Parini Shroff

(Available Formats: eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Shroff’s debut is a darkly hilarious take on gossip, caste, truth, village life, and the patriarchy. Geeta’s abusive drunk of a husband disappeared five years ago, leaving her alone and destitute in a small village in India, where rumor has it that she did him in. Her reputation as a woman who “removed her own nose ring” protects her from various unpleasant attentions, and it’s not long before other women in her microloan group seek her assistance removing their nose rings. Inspired by Phoolan Devi, “the Bandit Queen,” who fought for the rights of women in India, Geeta engages the help of a handsome widower (and black-market liquor purveyor) and takes on a gangster from whom she steals a dog. Geeta inadvertently manages to facilitate a couple of husband disposals before her own spouse reappears, hoping to reconcile with her. As one of her beneficiaries tries to blackmail her and her long-estranged, childhood best friend becomes a source of support, Geeta endeavors to take her life back. A perfect match for fans of Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer (2018) and clever, subversive storytelling. – Booklist Review

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Brotherless Night: A Novel by V. V. Ganeshananthan

(Available Formats: eBook)

In 1980s civil war–shattered Sri Lanka, 16-year-old Sashi works as a medic at a field hospital for the Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland. When the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers bring further atrocity, Sashi joins a dangerous underground project to document human rights violations in her country. From the author of Love Marriage, which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize. – Library Journal Review

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Checkout 19: A Novel by Claire-Louise Bennett

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Bennett’s (Pond, 2016) kaleidoscopically imaginative, word-enthralled, working-class English narrator reenters the consciousness of her younger selves and tracks how books, reading, and writing shaped each phase of her life, her syntax, vocabulary, and tone evolving as she matures. As a misfit child she learns to take out one book at a time from the library rather than the stack she covets because the other books distract her while she attempts to read. Hyper-observant, she fidgets in school, has a crush on a teacher who encourages her to write, and, with increasing cynicism, becomes cognizant of society’s different expectations for men and women. She works for years on a story that stoked the precariousness of her relationship with a poet, a poignant, metaphysical, and wryly witty tale featuring wealthy Tarquin Superbus in “long-ago” Venice who discovers that his vast library contains books with blank pages. When she works in a grocery store during college, the Russian man who always stands in her checkout line eventually presents her with Nietzche’s Beyond Good and Evil. Incandescent, surreal, mordantly funny, wrenching, and exhilarating, Bennett’s enrapturing paean to literature echoes Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector, Lynne Tillman, and Lucy Ellmann, pays direct homage to myriad writers, traces the nexus of literature and life, and maps a book-besotted woman’s search for meaning. – Booklist Review

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Dangerous Business: A Novel by Jane Smiley

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Pulitzer Prize winner Smiley (Perestroika in Paris) spins a remarkable story of the California gold rush and a pair of sex worker sleuths who track down the culprit behind a series of disappearances. After 21-year-old Eliza Cargill Ripple’s husband is killed in a bar brawl, she goes to work in the efficiently run and well-guarded brothel of beneficent madam Mrs. Parks. It’s Mrs. Parks who says the “risky business” of prostitution is a “dangerous” one, but so is, for these characters, simply being a woman. Eliza’s customers are a mix of the young and old, wandering sailors, adulterous husbands, judges, and lawyers. One day, Eliza establishes what she terms her life’s “ first true friendship” with Jean MacPherson, a colleague who services “reticent” women and often dresses as a man. Most of the characters are transplants from back east who’ve landed in town with new names and new identities, and when several of them—all women—disappear, Eliza and Jean become a formidable duo of amateur sleuths whose deductive skills were gained by reading Edgar Allan Poe (especially “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”). Harnessing’s Poe’s character Dupin’s “train of logic,” the women suss out the most likely culprit and hatch a cleverly devised trap. The vivid historical details and vibrant characters bring Smiley’s setting to glorious life. This seductive entertainment is not to be missed. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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The Darkest Game by Joseph Schneider

(Available Formats: eBook, Hoopla instant checkout eBook & Audiobook)

Good thing Joseph Schneider is a crackerjack crime novelist. As readers of his quirky first novel, One Day You’ll Burn (2020), know, he writes more asides, mini-essays, and one-liners into his fiction than the chattiest Victorian ever dared. And they’re usually fascinating enough to keep plot-centered mystery readers from abandoning ship. Learn the origin of the word “”buccaneer.”” Ponder the possibility that brain scans can reveal sociopathy. And enjoy the story. LA homicide detective Marcus Jarsdale of Burn is back, this time tackling two murders at a prestigious library, art museum, and garden. His interrogations of staffers have an unusual layer, as arty types with strong sense of self-importance encounter a cop who’s a former classics professor and can correct their misinformation about Emperor Vespasian. There’s gunplay, too, along with misdirection and facts presented as clues that may be just . . . facts. (Watch out for that blue chip and that H.G. Wells novel lying about.) Above all, relish the beautiful writing, as when water is described as “”the dazzling blue of a gas flame.”” And ponder the distinction between “”acronyms”” and “”initialisms. – Booklist Review

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Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun by The Countess of Carnarvon

(Available Formats: eBook & CD Audiobook)

You may not know Lady Fiona Carnarvon, but you know her country home, Highclere Castle, where the sensationally popular Downton Abbey is filmed. Here she draws on Highclere’s archives to chronicle the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, financed by her forebear George Herbert, an antiquities collector and the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Just in time for the centennial. – Library Journal Review

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Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries: Book One of the Emily Wilde Series by Heather Fawcett
(Available Formats: eBook)

DEBUT Known for her middle grade and YA titles, Fawcett (The School Between Winter and Fairyland) makes her adult fiction debut with this story told in the form of a journal. Emily Wilde is a faerie folklore researcher setting off for field work in Hrafnsvik, a small town with few amenities. She is a genius researcher with meticulous practices, the very opposite of her colleague Wendell Bambleby. Wendelle is a leading researcher with many accolades, but who is he really? Emily has many suspicions about him, and their field work will bring them closer than ever, as Wendell shows up unexpectedly in Hrafnsvik. What’s more, faeries are abducting and harassing humans, which forces Emily and Wendell to team up in order to help the locals and so that Emily can finish her research. VERDICT While the pacing starts off slow, Fawcett grabs readers’ attention by drawing them into the folklore as well as the surrounding world. She does a fantastic job building complex characters, and the academic-prose style of Emily’s journal entries works well for the story. A great read for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Erin Morgenstern. – Starred Library Journal Review

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Ghost 19 by Simone St. James

(Available Formats: eBook)

A woman moves to a town where she becomes obsessed with watching the lives of her neighbors while stuck in a house that refuses to let her leave in this first ever short story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.

Is there something wrong with Ginette Cox? It’s what everyone seems to think. When a doctor suggests that what she might need is less excitement, she packs up and moves from New York City to a house in suburban NY: 19 Howard Ave.

The town offers Ginette little in the way of entertainment in 1959, but at least she has interesting neighbors. Whether it’s the little girl with her doll or the couple and their mother-in-law, Ginette watches them from her window and makes up names and stories for them.

But it’s not all peaceful in suburbia. Ginette finds it hard to sleep in her new house. There are strange and scary noises coming from the basement, and she is trapped, either by a ghost or her own madness.

But when Ginette starts to think a murder has taken place and a mysterious man starts making terrifying appearances outside her window, it’s clear she must deal with whatever isn’t allowing her to escape this house…

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Heretic Royal: An Action Packed Novel of High Fantasy by G.A. Aiken

(Available Formats: eBook & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

In this riveting, feminist tale perfect for fans of Katee Robert and Nalini Singh, two sisters battle for a single throne, warring factions take up arms, a land is divided, and uncertain allies become very certain lovers. With subtle commentary on today’s political polarization, this riveting epic celebrates strong female characters and champions the underdog with diverse, expert world building.
Gods save the queen!

Ainsley Farmerson has always planned to break free of the family business—and the family drama. But what was once farming, smithworking, and bickering over the dinner table has turned into open warfare between sisters. Sides have been taken, lives are on the line, and Ainsley has no doubt which sister must be queen. She’ll do whatever is necessary to take down the soulless Beatrix. Even if that means joining forces with angry battle nuns, irritating monks, and overbearing centaurs.
Gruffyn of the Torn Moon Clan has no time for human beings.

And yet . . . there is something about the uncontrollable princess that he can’t ignore. Maybe it’s the way her eldest sisters underestimate her. Or her bravery facing down dragons and mad queens from distant lands. Whatever the reason, Gruff is willing to fight by this human’s side. Not only for the entertainment value, but because she’s right. Beatrix must never be queen. So whatever he has to do, whoever he has to destroy, Gruff will battle beside Ainsley. Fast. Hard. And with absolutely no mercy .

“The action speeds along and the dialogue pings among sarcastic dragons, earnest fathers and obnoxious siblings.”– Bookpage

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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

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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.

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 6, 2023.

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And here are our recommended songs of the week!

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Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians (Genre: Easy Listening)

From The Album: Auld Lang Syne (2006)

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Auld Lang Syne Boogie by Freddie Mitchell (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: The Chronological Freddie Mitchell 1949-1950 (2002)

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Bringing In A Brand New Year by Charles Brown (Genre: R&B, Blues)

From The Album: Cool Christmas Blues (1994)

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Celtic New Year by Van Morrison (Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk)

From The Album: Magic Time (2005)

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Happy New Year by Judy Garland (Genre: Vocal)

From The Album: Alone (1957)

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Let’s Start The New Year Right by Bing Crosby (Genre: Vocal)

From The Soundtrack: Holiday Inn (1942)

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My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) by Peggy Lee (Genre: Pop, Vocal)

From The Album: Christmas With Peggy Lee (2006)

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New Year’s Eve by Joe Walsh (of the Eagles)

From The Soundtrack: The Waterboy (2007)

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New Year’s Resolution by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas (Genre: R&B, Vocal)

From The Album: King And Queen (1967)

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Nothin’ New for New Year by Harry Connick Jr. & George Jones (Genre: Vocal, Jazz & Country)

From The Album: Harry For The Holidays (2003)

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Peace by Norah Jones (Genre: Vocal)

From The Album: First Sessions (2001)

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Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From The Album: The Innocent Age (1981)

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This Will Be Our Year by The Zombies (Genre: Classic Rock)

From The Album: Odessey and Oracle (1968)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

This Time I’m Swingin’ (1960) by Dean Martin (Genre: Vocal, Easy Listening)

 

And from the album, the song:

On The Street Where You Live by Dean Martin

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Have a great weekend,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

–

The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

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

–

The Libby App

Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.

–

Hoopla

A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.

–

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

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*

–

Weekly Suggested Reading postings are now published on Wednesdays.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, January 4, 2023.

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American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild

(Available Formats: Print Book)

President Woodrow Wilson’s call for the U.S. to enter WWI to make the world “safe for democracy” ironically set the stage for an unprecedented attack on Americans’ civil liberties, according to this expert and eye-opening account. Historian Hochschild (Rebel Cinderella) notes that increasing numbers of immigrants from Italy, Eastern Europe, and Russia during the early 20th century provoked nativist resentments and violent attacks from Americans whose Protestant ancestors came from England and northwestern Europe. Even more common, however, was violence against coal miners, steel workers, and other laborers attempting to unionize. Hochschild documents how new laws ostensibly passed to protect America’s national security, including the Espionage and Sedition Acts, were weaponized against the foreign born, labor activists, and pacifists. Though few records remain, Hochschild cites claims by one lawyer that between 1917 and 1921, 462 men and women were jailed by the federal government for a year or longer for their written or spoken words. He also documents outbreaks of racial violence, anarchist bombings, and the 1919 Palmer raids, which targeted the Union of Russian Workers. Meticulously researched, fluidly written, and frequently enraging, this is a timely reminder of the “vigilant respect for civil rights and Constitutional safeguards” needed to protect democracy and forestall authoritarianism. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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The Book Lovers by Emily Henry

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Henry’s latest is a witty, rapidly unfolding novel set in New York’s publishing world, where literary agent Nora Stephens is known as a shark. Scary, precise, and organized, she works tirelessly. She is someone people can count on, whether they’re her clients, her colleagues, or her sister, with whom she’s spending August in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. Charlie Lastra is a talented editor with a reputation for brusqueness, broodiness, and acerbic editorial comments. He craves complete honesty at all times. While wanting to understand how things work in the world, he has learned not to trust it. They meet over Nora’s client’s book, which Charlie badly wants to edit after rejecting her former book. He, too, is in Sunshine Falls, and as they work together, their initial hostility sparks romance. They are both true big-city workaholics who appreciate each other’s ethics and brilliance, but both struggle with insecurities and the sense that they will always be watching life from the outside. Like Henry’s two previous runaway bestsellers, People We Meet on Vacation (2021) and Beach Read (2020), Book Lovers is poised to capture readers’ hearts and minds. – Booklist Review

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A Book of Days by Patti Smith

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Rock star Smith (Year of the Monkey) unfurls a vibrant photo scrapbook created during the Covid-19 pandemic and inspired by the “exploding collage” of social media culture. The photos include selections from Smith’s personal archive, as well as cellphone snapshots and Polaroids. There is one photo for each day of the year, and the short accompanying text often references cultural figures, whether William S. Burroughs or Greta Thunberg. Smith also recounts moments from her own life, including riding her first bike as a child and outtakes from her 1970s punk heyday. Recurring figures include her late partner, Robert Mapplethorpe, and her daughter, Jesse, who encouraged Smith to join Instagram. The captions often take the form of straightforward descriptions (“The desk of the great writer Jorge Luis Borges lives in the National Library in Buenos Aires”), but Smith’s personal photos provide moments for deeper introspection (“This is my thinking chair. I sit and let it take me where it will, as if it were a small wooden ship”). Below a photo of One World Trade Center, Smith writes, “A city of burning days and consecrated nights, utterly transformed from the New York I once knew.” Wrapped in a nostalgic glow, this will be an inspiration for Smith’s fans. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Two years after returning home to Napa, CA, Margot Noble still feels a strong need to prove her worth as co-owner of her family’s winery. Margot’s hard work has left little time for pleasure, but her best friend convinces her to explore the instant connection she feels with Luke Williams. At a crossroads in his tech career, Luke views the job he spontaneously took at Noble Family Vineyards as something interesting to do while pondering his future. Neither knows who the other is when they hook up. Although Luke wants more than one night, Margot is torn, but their working relationship gives them the chance to get to know each other. Their professional scenes crackle with sexual tension and, once they are free to be together, it’s a pleasure to witness them be each other’s refuge. Still, the clandestine nature of their relationship’s beginning colors how they interact and leads to some momentous revelations about themselves and their families. VERDICT Guillory’s (By the Book) latest, imbued with her signature heat, wit, and scene-stealing secondary characters, is sure to be popular. -Starred Library Journal Review

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Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Entertainment reporter Chani Horowitz is ecstatic and nervous when she is assigned to interview gorgeous movie star Gabe Parker. She is instantly charmed, and a whirlwind weekend ensues but ends with an awkward parting. Chani writes a flattering article about Gabe that goes viral, solidifying her writing career. A week later, Gabe elopes with his costar Jacinda, while Chani ends up marrying her boyfriend and leaving Los Angeles for New York. Ten years after their first encounter, both Chani and Gabe are divorced, and Gabe is trying to revive his acting career after getting sober. Hoping to recreate the magic of that first article, Gabe’s agent arranges for him to be interviewed once more by Chani. Sparks fly when Gabe and Chani meet again, but there’s a decade of hurt and misunderstandings in the way.

VERDICT After writing YA novels (Drawn That Way; Stray; Burn), Sussman makes her adult fiction debut with a smart and sexy tale of second-chance love. The story thoroughly satisfies on a romantic level and packs an emotional punch with genuine characters. -Starred Library Journal Review

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Lessons by Ian McEwan

(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)

After experimenting with forms and genres in his last three books (Nutshell, 2016; Machines Like Me, 2019; The Cockroach, 2019), McEwan returns to his forte, the sweeping family drama. This novel focuses on Roland Baines, who was born in Libya and then sent to boarding school in rural England at age 11. This traumatic separation from his family is compounded by his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, becoming infatuated with him. The effects of these personal experiences and relentless, dramatic global events lead to Roland’s peripatetic existence: he is, like the places he is drawn to–Berlin before the wall fell and Northern Ireland during the Troubles–struggling to reconcile the many parts of himself. After meeting Alissa, he believes he has settled down, but the opening scenes focus on the aftermath of Alissa’s sudden abandonment of Roland and their son, Lawrence. McEwan is reflecting on his life; like Julian Barnes’ The Only Story (2018) and Jonathan Franzen’s ambitious tomes, this is a tale focused on a few characters that reveals much about the way the world has changed in McEwan’s lifetime. It is a rapturously enjoyable journey and one that demonstrates why McEwan is still one of the most engaging writers around.

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: McEwan’s many fans will be thrilled to learn of his return to the saga, one stretching from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic.- Booklist Review

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Nightwork by Nora Roberts

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Harry Booth learned very early in life that he couldn’t afford to play by the rules. To help his mother pay a never-ending avalanche of medical bills, Harry began picking pockets, gradually promoting himself to nightwork, relieving wealthy households of a valuable bauble or two. After his mother’s death, Harry begins roaming around the U.S., changing his name to fit each geographic location. While indulging in his surprising penchant for higher learning, Harry meets professor’s daughter Miranda Emerson and begins seriously thinking of leaving his old life behind. But a sociopathic former client has a different plan in mind for Harry. Ever-popular Roberts’ (Legacy, 2021) latest protagonist may reinvent himself to blend in with his latest locale, but the queen of romance remains true to the traits that consistently work for her, using her immersive storytelling capabilities to create captivating characters and ensnare readers in a carefully crafted plot that splendidly showcases her signature brand of spine-chilling suspense and stylish romance.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: While there are very few sure things in life, readers can bet Roberts’ latest stand-alone will land at the top of best-seller lists everywhere. – Booklist Review

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Now Is Not The Time To Panic by Kevin Wilson

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

If the Coalfield Panic were to happen today, it would dominate the news cycle for 10 minutes before it got subsumed by another, more sensational story. In middle-of-nowhere Tennessee in 1996, Frankie Budge and her new friend, Zeke, create a poster and plaster it all over town as performance art. Unfortunately, the poster catches people’s imagination for all the wrong reasons, and it stays in the larger public consciousness for longer than Frankie and Zeke ever wanted. The signature slogan is Frankie’s, “The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.” To the two teenage misfits in Coalfield, the writing sounds subversive yet safe. But once the narrative gets out of control, it creates serious and lasting damage, enough to cast a long shadow on Frankie’s adult life. Wilson (Nothing to See Here, 2020) has developed a story that is a precise capture of adolescence and of two vibrant teens whose everyday dilemmas, weaknesses, and triumphs are utterly endearing. If the denouement feels a little pat, it is more than made up for by the crisp dialogue and the zipping story line that takes us there.- Booklist Review

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People Person by Candice Carty-Williams

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Cyril Pennington’s five adult children met as kids when their fun-loving, mostly absent father introduced them all over ice cream so that they wouldn’t ever “”fall in love or have sex or any of dem tings.”” Since then it’s been touch and go (mostly go). Carty-Williams’ second London-set novel follows the whole family, giving the most airtime to sensitive thirty-year-old middle child Dimple, a would-be influencer who opens the story panicking over the dead body of her (recently) ex-boyfriend and, not knowing what else to do, calls uber-competent oldest sibling Nikisha. Soon all five siblings are gathered, but to say much more would be saying too much. Even as relative strangers, Cyril’s kids share something inarguably innate, which leads to consternation, closeness, and, eventually, growth. Combining relationship fiction, dark comedy, and domestic thriller, People Person is ultimately about how Cyril’s absence plays out for each of his kids. As she did so shrewdly in her stellar debut, Queenie (2019), Carty-Williams also weaves astute sociocultural commentary into the Penningtons’ story and their crackling, near-constant dialogue.

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Queenie was such a hit, readers are primed for Carty-Williams’ return. – Booklist Review

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Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Journalist Hari (Lost Connections) explores a growing “crisis”—people’s inability to focus their attention for extended periods—in this provocative study. He presents data that suggests students switch tasks once every 65 seconds, while adults in offices tend to remain focused on one thing for just three minutes. There are costs to this decrease in attention span, he suggests, from both an intellectual and a productivity perspective, as studies have shown that workers’ IQ dropped by an average of 10 points when they faced frequent “technological distraction” in the form of emails and phone calls. Hari lays out a wide array of environmental factors at play in this decline: technology companies promote innovations to keep people glued to their screens; there’s a large-scale sleep deprivation issue (40% of Americans are chronically sleep-deprived); and overall stress levels have increased—meanwhile, “deteriorating diets and rising pollution” do little to help. Although Hari addresses some actions that readers can take (such as locking phones up in a safe and taking six months off social media), he concludes that the issue is beyond individuals and is a regulatory problem—but his call that people need to band together to build “a movement to reclaim our attention” feels somewhat nebulous. Still, it’s a comprehensive and chilling lay of the land.- Publishers Weekly Review

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Have a great day!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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

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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.

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, December 30, 2022.

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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Brave by Sarah Bareilles (Genre: Vocal, Pop-Rock)

From The Album: Brave (2013)

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Flying Home by Lionel Hampton (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: Flying Home (1956)

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Good Times by Chic (Genre: R&B)

From The Album: Risqué (1979)

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Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From The Album: Escape (1981)

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Happy Together by The Turtles (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From The Album: Happy Together (1967)

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I’m A Believer by Neil Diamond (Genre: Singer-Songwriter)

From The Album: All Time Greatest Hits (2014)

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John Henry by Big Bill Broonzy (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: The Blues (2009)

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One O’Clock Jump by Count Basie (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: The Complete Decca Recordings (1992)

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Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: The Essential Duke Ellington (2007)

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Shout by the Isley Brothers (Genre: Vocal, R&B)

From The Album: The Essential Isley Brothers (2004)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

A Sense of Place (1989) by John Mayall (Genre: Blues)

And from the album, the song:

I Can’t Complain by John Mayall

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Have a great weekend,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

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The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

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 now published on Wednesdays.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, December 28, 2022.

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30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Nina Mistry would be the first to tell you that she’s a bit of a mess. She just broke off her engagement, her friend group may be ghosting her, and she’s celebrating her thirtieth birthday alone. After she runs out to get a much-needed birthday treat, through a series of events Nina finds herself instead spending her birthday in jail. Despondent at hitting rock bottom, Nina asks for some reading material to distract her and is given a self-help book about self-love and fixing your life. Thinking it can’t get any worse, Nina decides to take the book’s advice. As she navigates life’s ups (viral fame, new friends) and downs (family drama, viral infamy), with the book as a guide, Nina learns to love herself and her life. Sanghani’s latest (after Not That Easy, 2015) is a sweet and funny contemporary novel about learning to embrace yourself, flaws and all. Discussions on racism and depression add depth, keeping the tone from becoming saccharine. Readers will be inspired to create their own self-love lists. -Booklist Review

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The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Carlota, the beautiful and brilliant daughter of Dr. Moreau, lives on an isolated estate on the Yucatan Peninsula in the 1870s, where her life revolves around her father’s hybrid human-animal creatures. Montgomery, a troubled man running away from his past, was hired as Moreau’s new overseer by his patron, the wealthy Lizalde, when Carlota was 14. Six years later, he is a vital part of their grotesque utopian “family.” But outside the walls of the estate, instability and violence rule as colonial powers, the Mexicans of Spanish descent, and the Mayans are vying for control of the country, and an unexpected visit by the handsome son of Lizalde brings the turmoil of the outside world in. Told from Carlota and Montgomery’s points of view and clearly inspired by H. G. Wells, this wholly new novel paints a vivid picture that is as alluring as it is unsettling, filled with action, romance, and monsters. However, it is Moreno-Garcia’s ability to mesh the unease of the scientifically created beasts with the real-life terrors of a life on the margins and the horror of colonialism that elevates this story. Readers will fall into this tale immediately, enchanted. -Booklist Review

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The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Guardian columnist Freedland debuts with a harrowing account of Rudolf Vrba’s escape from Auschwitz and his quest to hold Jewish leaders accountable for failing to prevent more people from dying in the Holocaust. Born Walter Rosenberg in Czechoslovakia (present-day Slovakia) in 1924, Vrba was sent to Auschwitz at age 17. Hoping to escape and prevent more Jews from passively boarding trains to their death, he kept a mental tally of arriving transports and how many people were selected for forced labor or sent directly to the crematorium. In April 1944, Vrba and another prisoner escaped by hiding in a wood pile for three days and nights (using gasoline-soaked tobacco to mask their scent from guard dogs), then crawling underneath a wire fence. After a harrowing journey to Žilina, they met with leaders of the Slovak Jewish Council and compiled a report including transport numbers, estimated deaths, maps, and the names of S.S. officers. Unfortunately, delays in translating and distributing the report resulted in the failure to save hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews who were deported to Auschwitz in May 1944. Vrba, who blamed Hungarian Jewish leader Rezső Kasztner and other Jewish officials for the delays, became a controversial figure, often ignored in histories of the Holocaust. Drawing on interviews with family members and former colleagues, Freedland presents a warts-and-all portrait of Vrba, and vividly captures the horrors of Auschwitz. The result is a noteworthy contribution to the history of the Holocaust.- Publishers Weekly Review

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Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Dark (Think of England) celebrates women’s friendships and artistic mentorship in this expansive yet intimate novel. At the age of 80 in the year 2000, Agnes Lee is thinking about her legacy, especially following her third breast cancer diagnosis. While celebrated for writing a series of feminist children’s books centered on a plucky character named Nan, Agnes is also secretly the author of a literary series for adults, published under a pseudonym. The fifth volume is due, but she’s suffering from writer’s block. Meanwhile, Agnes seeks support from her lifelong best friend, Polly, on her mission to donate a valuable stretch of land along the Maine coast held jointly by their families, rather than pass it to the next generation and risk it falling into the hands of developers. Blunt and self-reliant Agnes, who has no children, finds herself at loggerheads with Polly, who has several—and who, much to Agnes’s everlasting frustration, invariably defers to her husband. The families and their grudges and grievances fill a broad canvas, and within it Dark delves deeply into the relationships between Agnes and her work, humans and the land, mothers and children, and, most indelibly, the sustenance and joy provided by a long-held female friendship. It’s a remarkable achievement. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Half American by Matthew F. Delmont

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The persistence of white supremacy in the U.S. means that the nation was not fully victorious in WWII, according to this revelatory history. Highlighting the Pittsburgh Courier’s “Double Victory” campaign, which sought “victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home,” Dartmouth history professor Delmont (Black Quotidian) documents the harassment of the 94th Engineer Battalion by white police officers and citizens in Guron, Ark., among other episodes of racial intimidation and violence, and details the role Black newspapers played in warning about the dangers of fascism and celebrating the achievements of African American soldiers. Delmont also profiles the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, an all-volunteer force that fought in “racially integrated units” against Nationalist troops in Spain, and the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black pilots who helped capture the Italian islands of Pantelleria and Sicily, only have their combat performance unfairly questioned by their white commander. Throughout, Delmont makes clear how Black soldiers’ experiences stoked their commitment to fighting for racial justice, noting, for instance, how the preferential treatment of German POWs at U.S. military bases revealed that “Jim Crow segregation and the Nazis’ master-race theory were two sides of the same coin.” The result is an eloquent and essential corrective to the historical record.

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It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Best-selling Hoover’s latest valiant and compelling new-adult novel packs her trademark emotional punch in a story of romance derailed by abuse. Lily is starting her dream of owning a flower shop in Boston and tries to forget the sexy doctor she met on a rooftop one evening. When he turns out to be her new assistant’s brother, it seems like fate, and they fall in love. When he hits her the first time, she struggles with her memories of her father hitting her mother. She finds a diary from her teens and remembers the homeless teen she fell for then, and how her father beat him to a pulp. She runs into that person, now a chef, at a nearby restaurant. She returns to her boyfriend and tries to have a normal life and marriage, only to realize that her situation can’t last. The power and pain of the relationship will stay with readers even as Hoover offers hope.

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Learning To Talk: Stories by Hilary Mantel

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Two-time Booker winner Mantel explores the landscapes of her childhood in this collection, first published in Britain in 2003. The six stories, set in 1950s-70s industrial northern England, read like personal reminiscences but are filtered through a fictional lens. Mantel calls them “autoscopic” rather than autobiographical. The narrators closely observe their young lives amidst adult tensions, including marital scandals and class, racial, and religious differences. Neighborhood conflicts become a microcosm of Protestant-Catholic frictions, and two girls’ experience of getting lost in a junkyard induces musings on emotional rootedness. Standouts are the title story, about elocution lessons for social mobility, and “The Clean Slate,” which delves into the mutability of historical memory through reflections on a drowned village. Mantel carves beauty and meaning out of bleakness, crafting brilliant metaphors with penetrating human insights. “The country through which they move is older, more intimate than ours,” she writes, describing children’s innate knowledge and ability to deduce truths about their world. Read this collection alongside her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost (2003), for more understanding of her life and exceptional creative process. -Booklist Review

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Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

Cooking is chemistry. When Elizabeth Zott enters a relationship with the brilliant Calvin Evans, she cooks him meals in exchange for sharing his home. They are both scientists at a California research institute in the 1960s, and although she has to fight for basic supplies like beakers, he is celebrated for the funding his work generates. When their relationship is tragically cut short, she turns to cooking and lands a job as the chef of a television show, allowing her to support her daughter, Madeline. Stymied in her scientific career by the misogynistic attitudes of her colleagues, Elizabeth nevertheless persists in this unflinching examination of the hurdles women of the era had to overcome to be valued similarly to men in the workplace. With the help of a forthright neighbor, a loyal TV producer, and an astute dog, Elizabeth forges a path that includes an unexpected hobby as a rower and her no-nonsense cooking show, in which she draws on her knowledge of chemistry. Indefatigable and formidable, Elizabeth pushes the bounds of how women and their work are perceived in this thoroughly engaging debut novel.- Booklist Review

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The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?

Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness.

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The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD Audiobook)

From the author of The Hunting Party (2019) and The Guest List (2020) comes this exceedingly clever new novel. Jess arrives at her brother Ben’s apartment in Paris to find that Ben seems to have disappeared. She talks to the other residents of the small apartment building, but no one seems to know what might have happened to him, although we know, from chapters written from the residents’ points of view, that something is not quite right. What’s especially interesting about the novel, apart from the deft characterizations and the overall feeling of dread, is the way Foley is cagey about exactly what kind of story this is. Could it be a riff on the Agatha Christie abundance-of-suspects theme? Could it be a twist on the traditional locked-room mystery? Could it be a psychological thriller? Could we be dealing with an unreliable-narrator? Who, exactly, is Ben? What kind of man is he? What is he capable of? The author keeps Jess and the reader guessing right up to the end. A fine suspenser from a writer who consistently delivers the goods.- Booklist Review

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Have a great day!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

–

Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

–

StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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.

–

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).

–

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

–

Have questions or want to request a book?

Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.