This site offers news and discussion mostly about books, with a sprinkling of information on personal technology and digital literacy.
Hi everyone, here is the latest edition of Library Connections, our weekly readers’, viewers’ and listeners’ advisory videocast.
The next Library Connections video will be posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
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 are our recommended reads for the week.
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).
*More information on the three catalogs is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Tuesday,
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Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander
(Available Formats: Print Book)
This historical fiction account illuminates the extraordinary life of real-estate magnate Josephine “”Jo”” N. Leary, a pioneering woman freed from slavery and always reaching for the stars. After emancipation, Jo Napoleon marries Archer “Sweety” Leary and begins a life of freedom, ambition, and fortitude. Together, the Learys open a barbershop, and Jo kicks off her own goals of owning land and building an empire to pass on to her descendants. They have two daughters, Flora and Florence, whom they raise with the help of family in Edenton, North Carolina. Jo faces blatant racism, sexism, and the cultural expectations of married women in a small town that is still reeling with the new realities of life after the Civil War. She challenges the status quo, though, and demonstrates to her daughters the values of hard work and perseverance in a world intent on keeping her in the home. Her inspiring story transcends one life in the years after emancipation to encompass all women who take the chance to secure their own happiness.
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Death is Hard Work by Mustafa Khalifa
(Available Formats: Print Book, downloadable audiobook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
A dogged, absurd quest through the nightmare of the Syrian civil war
Khaled Khalifa’s Death Is Hard Work is the new novel from the greatest chronicler of Syria’s ongoing and catastrophic civil war: a tale of three ordinary people facing down the stuff of nightmares armed with little more than simple determination.
Abdel Latif, an old man from the Aleppo region, dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus. His final wish, conveyed to his youngest son, Bolbol, is to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya. Though Abdel was hardly an ideal father, and though Bolbol is estranged from his siblings, this conscientious son persuades his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima to accompany him and the body to Anabiya, which is―after all―only a two-hour drive from Damascus.
There’s only one problem: Their country is a war zone.
With the landscape of their childhood now a labyrinth of competing armies whose actions are at once arbitrary and lethal, the siblings’ decision to set aside their differences and honor their father’s request quickly balloons from a minor commitment into an epic and life-threatening quest. Syria, however, is no longer a place for heroes, and the decisions the family must make along the way―as they find themselves captured and recaptured, interrogated, imprisoned, and bombed―will prove to have enormous consequences for all of them.
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Goodbye, Vitamin: A Novel by Rachel Khong
(Available Formats: Print Book)
When Ruth’s mom, Annie, asks her to extend her visit home for Christmas by an entire year, Ruth figures she may as well. She won’t be leaving much behind in San Francisco, besides the still-stinging breakup with her fiance, Joel. Besides, Annie needs help: Ruth’s dad, Howard, has been extra forgetful and was just told he won’t be returning to his job as a university professor. Since Alzheimer’s can’t be diagnosed in a living person, doctors rule out what Howard doesn’t have, and everyone hopes his memory loss might cease, or reverse itself. Annie’s convinced the dementia was caused by aluminum cookware, so they subsist on takeout and vitamins. Ruth’s younger brother, Linus, is wary of Howard, having witnessed family troubles Ruth was too wrapped up in her life with Joel to notice. Ruth’s new preoccupation with memory, in its most concrete form, gives her a different glimpse of her father and family, while they all cope with what they know is a one-way-only illness. In her tender, well-paced debut novel, which spans Ruth’s year at home, Khong (All about Eggs, 2017) writes heartbreaking family drama with charm, perfect prose, and deadpan humor. Starred Booklist Review
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The Harbor by Katrine Engberg
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The disappearance of 15-year-old Oscar Dreyer-Hoff drives Engberg’s engrossing third novel featuring Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner (after 2020’s The Butterfly House). When Oscar’s affluent parents, who own an auction house, find a cryptic, threatening note addressed to them in their kitchen, they’re convinced Oscar is being held ransom. Soon, Oscar’s Danish teacher, Malthe Saether, is found strangled. Convinced that Oscar’s apparent kidnapping and Malthe’s death are tied together, Jeppe and Anette begin their investigation, aided by a large cast of supporting characters, all of whom, like retired academic Esther de Laurenti (who had a lead role in 2019’s The Tenant), are delightfully fleshed out. Meanwhile, Jeppe struggles to maintain an amicable relationship with his girlfriend’s daughters, and Anette becomes attracted to one of the witnesses. The plot takes some unexpected turns as the detectives unearth some shocking secrets involving fraud and pornography en route to the satisfying conclusion. Readers will eagerly await Jeppe and Anette’s next case. Publishers Weekly Review
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The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton
(Available Formats: Print Book)
This shocking debut charts how Betz-Hamilton’s family suffered after falling victim to identity thieves. When Betz-Hamilton was 12 in the early 1990s, her parents stopped receiving their mail, including their bills. The author’s often depressed mother, who was in charge of household finances, concluded that some vindictive person was out to get the family. The author watched as troubles piled on: her parents had their utilities turned off and received a foreclosure notice, her mother was accused of passing bad checks at a store she supposedly never went to, her father learned he had property he never knew existed. “Closed curtains became a hard-and-fast rule in our house,” writes the author, who became paranoid and wary of strangers. When Betz-Hamilton went to college, she learned via a credit report that she’d had her identity stolen, too, at age 11. This discovery, which Betz-Hamilton relays with the tension of a thriller, compelled her to focus her studies on identity theft. It is only after her mother’s death that a cache of incriminating documents is discovered on the family property. Betz-Hamilton then begins an investigation into her mother’s past, a process that leads to jaw-dropping revelations. Astonishing and disturbing, this emotionally resonant book is perfect for true crime fans. Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Little Souls by Sandra Dallas
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
Sandra Dallas’s Little Souls is a gripping tale of sisterhood, loyalty, and secrets set in Denver amid America’s last deadly flu pandemic
Colorado, 1918. World War I is raging overseas, but it’s the home front battling for survival. With the Spanish Flu rampant, Denver’s schools are converted into hospitals, churches and funeral homes are closed, and nightly horse-drawn wagons collect corpses left in the street. Sisters Helen and Lutie have moved to Denver from Ohio after their parents’ death. Helen, a nurse, and Lutie, a carefree advertising designer at Neusteter’s department store, share a small, neat house and each finds a local beau – for Helen a doctor, for Lutie a young student who soon enlists. They make a modest income from a rental apartment in the basement. When their tenant dies from the flu, the sisters are thrust into caring the woman’s small daughter, Dorothy. Soon after, Lutie comes home from work and discovers a dead man on their kitchen floor and Helen standing above the body, an icepick in hand. She has no doubt Helen killed the man—Dorothy’s father—in self-defense, but she knows that will be hard to prove. They decide to leave the body in the street, hoping to disguise it as a victim of the flu.
Meanwhile Lutie also worries about her fiancé “over there”. As it happens, his wealthy mother harbors a secret of her own and helps the sisters as the danger deepens, from the murder investigation and the flu.
Set against the backdrop of an epidemic that feels all too familiar, Little Souls is a compelling tale of sisterhood and of the sacrifices people make to protect those they love most.
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The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post: A Novel by Allison Pataki
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Town & Country
Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds. Marjorie had an insatiable drive to live and love and to give more than she got. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar’s treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood’s biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweather Post lived an epic life few could imagine.
Marjorie’s journey began gluing cereal boxes in her father’s barn as a young girl. No one could have predicted that C. W. Post’s Cereal Company would grow into the General Foods empire and reshape the American way of life, with Marjorie as its heiress and leading lady. Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of high-society wife, mother, and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history in the process. Before turning thirty she amassed millions, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. But it was her life-force, advocacy, passion, and adventurous spirit that led to her stunning legacy.
And yet Marjorie’s story, though full of beauty and grandeur, set in the palatial homes she built such as Mar-a-Lago, was equally marked by challenge and tumult. A wife four times over, Marjorie sought her happily-ever-after with the blue-blooded party boy who could not outrun his demons, the charismatic financier whose charm turned to betrayal, the international diplomat with a dark side, and the bon vivant whose shocking secrets would shake Marjorie and all of society. Marjorie did everything on a grand scale, especially when it came to love.
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Sing Her Name: A Novel by Rosalyn Story
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
Story tells the tales of two African American female singers with nearly a century between them. Celia, based on the real-life Sissieretta Jones, is an operatic phenomenon in New Orleans in the early 1900s but fades into obscurity due to the erasure of racism. Eden is a musically gifted Hurricane Katrina refugee struggling to stay atop of bills and family needs in New York City. The past and present converge when Eden comes upon a box of Celia’s mementos and embarks on her own musical journey while trying to revive appreciation for Celia’s forgotten accomplishments. Readers may wish for more time in Celia’s world and less focus on Eden’s backstory. Nonetheless, Story’s background as a musician and nonfiction writer about African American opera (And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert, 2000) primes her to tell this musical tale of the ghosts of wronged artists and the burdens they pass on, the legacy of place, and how we can forgive others and move on, with or without them. This truly is a novel that sings. Booklist Review
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Unlikely Animals: A Novel by Annie Hartnett
(Available Formats: Print Book)
When Emma Starling returns to Everton, New Hampshire after four years away in order to help her ailing father, she isn’t the successful young healer everyone believed she would be. Instead, she feels lost at home, with an eccentric father who sees hallucinations of animals and the ghost of naturalist Ernest Harold Baynes, a brother overcoming his drug addiction, and a controlling mother trying to hold the family together. Emma hopes to find some direction in her life and get out of town. But when she learns her former best friend has been missing and only Emma’s father is continuing the search, she slowly realizes how much she took her community for granted. She stumbles upon a substitute-teaching job for a fifth-grade class traumatized by losses resulting from the opioid crisis. The longer Emma stays in Everton, the more she must confront her past before, unexpectedly, embarking on a healing journey of her own. As in her debut, Rabbit Cake (2017), Hartnett masterfully balances a story of deep loss with the perfect amount of hilarity and tenderness. Unlikely Animals explores complex family dynamics and the growth that can occur after tragedy, with just a little help. Booklist Review
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The Wrong Victim: A Novel by Allison Brennan
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)
In bestseller Brennan’s busy third Costa and Quinn novel (after 2021’s Tell No Lies), FBI special agent Matt Costa, head of the agency’s Mobile Response Team, and LAPD officer Kara Quinn, who’s on loan to the FBI, travel to Washington’s San Juan Island to investigate the bombing of a private charter boat piloted by retired FBI agent Neil Devereaux. Neil and his eight wealthy passengers died in the explosion, and the FBI is in a quandary about who the intended victim might have been. Was a businessman marked for death by his lovely young widow? Was Neil murdered by a criminal connected to a cold case he was investigating? Was the charter service the target of a domestic terrorist attack? Or is there something else afoot on San Juan Island? The tension rises as a top FBI forensic psychiatrist questions Kara’s assessments of the suspects, as well as Matt’s reasons for including her on the team. Brennan tends to overdo the details of her many characters’ emotional lives, but she keeps readers guessing whodunit to the end as the attraction between Matt and Kara heats up. Romantic suspense fans will be satisfied. Publishers Weekly 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.
The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.
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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 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 published on Sundays and the next New York Times Bestseller list will be published to this blog on Sunday, May 15, 2022.
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FICTION
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THE BAXTERS by Karen Kingsbury
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
A prequel to the Baxter Family series. A storm approaches as Kari is about to marry Tim.
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BEAUTIFUL by Danielle Steel
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
A supermodel deals with the effects of a terror attack at an airport in Brussels on her life and appearance.
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BETTER OFF DEAD by Lee Child and Andrew Child
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
The 26th book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher helps an F.B.I. agent look for her missing brother and takes on a foe named Dendoncker.
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DREAM TOWN by David Baldacci
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
he third book in the Archer series. Archer, Dash and Callahan search for a missing screenwriter who had a dead body turn up in her home.
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GOOD LEFT UNDONE by Adriana Trigiani
(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)
The matriarch of the Cabrelli family, who is near the end of her life, shares her mother’s love story with her family.
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THE INVESTIGATOR by John Sandford
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
Letty Davenport, the adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport, looks into oil thefts in Texas.
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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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KAIKEYI by Vaishnavi Patel
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A reimagining of the life of the queen from the Indian epic the Ramayana.
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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY by Amor Towles
(Available Formats: Print Book, Libby eBook & audiobook)
Two friends who escaped from a juvenile work farm take Emmett Watson on an unexpected journey to New York City in 1954.
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THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig
(Available Formats: Print Book, Libby eBook & 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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NOVEMBER 9 by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBoolk & downloadable audiobook)
Is Ben using his relationship with Fallon as fodder for his novel?
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ONE ITALIAN SUMMER by Rebecca Serle
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
During a summer trip in Italy, Katy’s late mother reappears as a 30-year-old woman.
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THE PARIS APARTMENT by Lucy Foley
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
Jess has suspicions about her half-brother’s neighbors when he goes missing.
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RUN, ROSE, RUN by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook, downloadable audiobook & through Hoopla – Dolly Parton companion album also titled Run Rose Run.)
A singer-songwriter goes to Nashville seeking stardom but is followed by her dark past.
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THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Emily St. John Mandel
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
A detective investigating in the wilderness discovers that his actions might affect the timeline of the universe.
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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & Libby eBook & audiobook)
A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.
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SHADOW FIRE by Christine Feehan
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The seventh book in the Shadow Riders series. Elie Archambault decides to marry a woman he has never met.
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UGLY LOVE by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
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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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by Lisa Scottoline
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & CD audiobook)
A brush with members of a drug-trafficking organization ushers a suburban family to go into the witness protection program.
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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.
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NON-FICTION:
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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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BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook, downloadable audiobook & Hoopla instant checkout eBook & audiobook)
A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.
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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 Formats: Print Book & 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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FREEZING ORDER by Bill Browder
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The author of “Red Notice” tells his story of becoming Vladimir Putin’s enemy by uncovering a $230 million tax refund scheme.
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FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH by Arthur C. Brooks
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
A columnist for The Atlantic espouses ways to shift priorities and habits to overcome waning abilities in later life.
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HELLO, MOLLY! by Molly Shannon with Sean Wilsey
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
The comedic actor shares stories of family tragedy and her years as a star of “Saturday Night Live.”
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I’LL SHOW MYSELF OUT by Jessi Klein
(Avaialable Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)
A collection of comedic essays on motherhood and middle age by the Emmy Award-winning writer and producer.
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JUST TYRUS by Tyrus
(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)
A memoir by the pro wrestler and Fox News political commentator.
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PALACE PAPERS by Tina Brown
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobooks)
This follow-up to “The Diana Chronicles” details how the royal family reinvented itself after the death
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PLAYING WITH MYSELF by Randy Rainbow
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A memoir by the three-time Emmy-nominated comedian known for his online musical and political satires.
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START WITHOUT ME by Gary Janetti
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A collection of comedic stories by the writer and producer best known for his work on “Family Guy
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UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN by Jon Krakauer
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
Two brothers who subscribed to a fundamentalist version of Mormonism killed a woman and her daughter; the basis of the TV series.
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UNMASKED by Paul Holes
(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalogs)
A memoir by a former cold case investigator who worked on several notable cases, including the identification of the Golden State Killer.
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THE WAR ON THE WEST by Douglas Murray
(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)
An associate editor of The Spectator and Fox News contributor makes his arguments against anti-Western rhetoric.life and death.
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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.
The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.
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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, 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, May 13, 2022.
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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!
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At Midnight by George Winston (Genre: Piano, New Age)
From The Album: Night (2022)
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The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel (Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk-Rock)
From The Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
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East of the Sun by Toots Thielemans (Genre: Jazz, Harmonica)
From The Album: Man Bites Harmonica! (1958)
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King Porter Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton (Genre: Jazz)
From The Album: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings (2006)
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Let The Good Times Roll by Louis Jordan & His Orchestra (Genre: Jazz)
From The Album: Let The Good Times Roll: The Anthology 1938 – 1953 (2007)
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Papa Was A Rolling Stone by The Black Crowes (Genre: Rock, R&B)
From The Album: 1972 (2022)
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Puttin’ On The Ritz by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra with Lew Reisman on vocals (Genre: Jazz)
From The Album: Puttin’ On The Ritz – Timeless Recordings From The King Of The Sweet Bands (2007)
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Runaway by Del Shannon (Genre: Rock)
From The Album: Runaway With Del Shannon (1961)
And as a bonus, since it is a great song, here’s Bonnie Raitt with her version!
Runaway by Bonnie Raitt (Genre: Rock, Blues-Rock)
From The Album: Sweet Forgiveness (1977)
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Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond (Genre: Singer-Songwriter)
From The Album: All-Time Greatest Hits (2014)
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Sweet Thing by Van Morrison (Genre: Singer-Songwriter)
From The Album: Astral Weeks (1968)
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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week
Lionel Richie (1982) by Lionel Richie (Genre: R&B, Pop)
And from the album the song
Truly
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Have a great weekend,
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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REFERENCES:
Print References
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn
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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.
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).
*More information on the three catalogs is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.
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The African Equation by Yasmina Khadra
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
A giant of francophone writing, Algerian author Yasmina Khadra uses current events as a lens to examine narratives of Africa and the West.
‘A skilled storyteller working at the height of his powers’ Times Literary Supplement
Frankfurt MD Kurt Krausmann is devastated by his wife’s suicide. Unable to make sense of what happened, Kurt agrees to join his friend Hans on a humanitarian mission to the Comoros. But, sailing down the Red Sea, their boat is boarded by Somali pirates and the men are taken hostage.
The arduous journey to the pirates’ desert hideout is only the beginning of Kurt’s odyssey. He endures imprisonment and brutality at the hands of captors whose failings are all too human.
As the situation deteriorates, it is fellow prisoner, Bruno, a long-time resident in Africa, who shows Kurt another side to the wounded yet defiant continent he loves.
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The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)
On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There’s no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues.
But that’s just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still…?
No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world’s great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself…
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Dark Night: A Mystery by Paige Shelton
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)
A traumatized woman slowly works through her personal issues while solving crimes in a remote Alaskan town. Famous novelist Elizabeth Fairchild fled to Benedict after a hazardous escape from her kidnapper, which left her with a large scar and white hair. Calling herself Beth Rivers, her birth name, she runs a small newspaper and has made many friends, but only Gril, the police chief, knows her real identity. Beth’s world is turned upside down by the sudden appearance of her mother, Mill, who’s wanted by the police for shooting, though not killing, her daughter’s kidnapper, Travis Walker. Beth gets more directly involved when wife-beater Ned Withers is found stabbed after yet another incident with his wife, Claudia. Ned’s been hiding his sister, Lucy, who’s also wanted by the police. Another wild card is Doug Vitner, supposedly a census man snooping around the area. Beth is both pleased and shocked by her mother’s visit. Mill’s been searching for years for both the husband who deserted her and for Walker, who as it turns out was dealing drugs with her husband and another missing man. But Beth begins to suspect that Mill has ulterior motives. Things get complicated as she and her friends search for a killer and try to track down Beth’s kidnapper. A character-driven mystery in a near-mystical setting, a land of stark contrasts and self-reliant denizens. – Kirkus Review
Readers’ Note: This is the third book in the Alaska Wild Series, if you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one, Thin Ice.
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The Hotel Neversink by Adam O’Fallon Price
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)
A 2020 Edgar Award Winner!
“A gripping, atmospheric, heart-breaking, almost-ghost story. Not since Stephen King’s Overlook has a hotel hiding a secret been brought to such vivid life.” —Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State
Thirty-one years after workers first broke ground, the magnificent Hotel Neversink in the Catskills finally opens to the public. Then a young boy disappears.
This mysterious vanishing—and the ones that follow—will brand the lives of three generations. At the root of it all is Asher Sikorsky, the ambitious and ruthless patriarch whose purchase of the hotel in 1931 set a haunting legacy into motion. His daughter Jeanie sees the Hotel Neversink into its most lucrative era, but also its darkest. Decades later, Asher’s grandchildren grapple with the family’s heritage in their own ways: Len fights to keep the failing, dilapidated hotel alive, and Alice sets out to finally uncover the murderer’s identity.
Told by an unforgettable chorus of Sikorsky family members—a matriarch, a hotel maid, a traveling comedian, the hotel detective, and many others—The Hotel Neversink is the gripping portrait of a Jewish family in the Catskills over the course of a century. With an unerring eye and with prose both comic and tragic, Adam O’Fallon-Price details one man’s struggle for greatness, no matter the cost, and a long-held family secret that threatens to undo it all.
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How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be by Marissa R. Moss
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Nashville journalist Moss argues that women performers are never seen as “country enough” for a genre that has been dominated by the “good ol’ boys” ever since President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which resulted in conglomerates making decisions about who got played on radio airwaves. Still, Moss notes, women have continued to claw their way onto the country music scene and to lead the way for the next generation of singers. Her book explores the careers of many female country singers but zeroes in on three in particular: Maren Morris (“The Bones”; “I Could Use a Love Song”), Mickey Guyton (“Black Like Me”; “Better Than You Left Me”), and Kacey Musgraves (“Follow Your Arrow”; “Rainbow”). Moss illustrates how these artists have carved out spaces for women, including women of color and LGBTQIA+ people, who are even less represented in the country music field. Moss’s clear and accessible writing is a delight, deftly capturing the lyricism of the genre. VERDICT A must for anyone interested in country music and how the genre reflects on the United States as a whole. – Starred Library Journal Review
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The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Provence
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The modern Middle East emerged out of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, when Britain and France partitioned the Ottoman Arab lands into several new colonial states. The following period was a charged and transformative time of unrest. Insurgent leaders, trained in Ottoman military tactics and with everything to lose from the fall of the Empire, challenged the mandatory powers in a number of armed revolts. This is a study of this crucial period in Middle Eastern history, tracing the period through popular political movements and the experience of colonial rule. In doing so, Provence emphasises the continuity between the late Ottoman and Colonial era, explaining how national identities emerged, and how the seeds were sown for many of the conflicts which have defined the Middle East in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This is a valuable read for students of Middle Eastern history and politics.
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Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets, translated by Eugene Ostashevsky
(Available Formats: eBook)
Belorusets, a documentary photographer and activist, captures the extraordinary lives of ordinary Ukrainian women in her arresting fiction debut, a story collection. The brief entries survey lives upended by the political and military turmoil over the past two decades: “that’s the kind of country we have, okay? The unprotected kind,” recounts the eponymous narrator of the excellent “Lena in Danger,” about a woman who leaves Ukraine for Germany in the 2000s. Some have a magical or fantastical element, such as “The Woman Who Caught Babies into a Mitt,” in which a powerful witch places curses on whole buildings. As the war in the Donetsk region begins in 2014, many of the women disappear—in “The Florist,” a woman spends all her time in her flower shop (“it was only inside her store,” the narrator says of her, “that she knew how to exist”), until she and the shop disappear. In “A Woman at the Cosmetologist’s,” another woman finds comfort visiting her cosmetologist, who gives massages and fulfills the role of a therapist. As suicide rates increase, the characters’ despair becomes palpable in a series of standout stories, namely “The Stars” and “The Crash.” Two of Belorusets’s photo series supplement her writing, but her words speak for themselves. The combination makes for a powerful exercise. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Three distinctive women unknowingly fall in love with the same man in this captivating romance from bestseller O’Leary (The Road Trip). Life coach Siobhan Kelly meets charismatic Joseph Carter in London and falls hard after a passionate night together. Miranda Rosso, a free-spirited professional tree surgeon, also feels committed to Joseph despite suspecting that he’s keeping secrets. And shy, bookish Jane Miller is determined to keep her flirtatious relationship with Joseph platonic, though deep down, she wishes they were something more. When Joseph doesn’t show up to his Valentine’s dates with any of the three women, his erratic behavior casts doubt on his relationships, and his partners wonder if there’s more to Joseph than he’s letting on. O’Leary pulls off an impressive balancing act, unraveling each woman’s backstory while meticulously drawing connections between them and celebrating them for their differences. The attention to detail adds depth to each character—even Joseph will win readers over—and the twisty plot keeps readers both guessing what will happen next and rooting for happy endings across the board. This is a knockout. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Vilified in the United States for that long list of grievances constituting the bulk of the Declaration of Independence, King George III had to endure intrigue and controversy within his home realm. Biographer Roberts rescues this ill-fated monarch from a lot of myth. Thanks to Queen Elizabeth II’s recent opening of royal archives, new facts have appeared that make George III appear much more enlightened. As a young prince, George had a good education not only in history and politics, but also in the arts, particularly in music and theater. He came to the throne in an era of intense strife within British society. Foreign wars proved costly, and the rise of Napoleon after the French Revolution threatened Britain’s security. On a personal level, George was blessed with an apparently very happy marriage to Charlotte and their fifteen children. Roberts details the king’s frequently difficult relations with his prime ministers and the disastrous effects of his bipolar disorder on both the nation and the king’s family. Roberts here renders George III a figure more tragic than malicious. – Booklist Review
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Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
The murder of a gas station attendant in West Windsor, N.J., propels this outstanding debut novel from Nicieza, the co-creator of the comic book superhero Deadpool. Andrea Stern—mother of four with a fifth on the way—stumbles across the victim while looking for a bathroom for her kids. The perpetually exhausted Andrea, who gave up her dreams of becoming an FBI profiler when she first became pregnant, decides to investigate and, after finding glaring inconsistencies in the sloppy police work, vows to track down the killer. Meanwhile, disgraced investigative reporter Kenneth Lee is attempting to resurrect his career with a story that uncovers the criminal behind the first murder in the West Windsor–Plainsboro area in more than 30 years. Together Andrea and Kenneth uncover a grand-scale conspiracy driven by racism and institutional bigotry that has lasted generations and continues to plague the township. Nicieza delivers a wildly entertaining blend of high-octane snark and brass-knuckle social commentary, but it’s the courageous Andrea and her group of soccer moms, whom she privately dubs the Cellulitists, who steal the show. Mystery fans looking for something different won’t want to miss this quirky crime novel. – Starred Publishers Weekly 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.
The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.
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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’, viewers’ and listeners’ advisory videocast.
The next Library Connections video will be posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.
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 published on Sundays and the next New York Times Bestseller list will be published to this blog on Sunday, May 8, 2022.
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FICTION
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BEAUTIFUL by Danielle Steel
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
A supermodel deals with the effects of a terror attack at an airport in Brussels on her life and appearance.
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THE CANDY HOUSE by Jennifer Egan
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
In a follow-up to “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” a new technology gives the potential to save and share every memory one has ever had.
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DEATH OF THE BLACK WIDOW by James Patterson and J.D. Barker
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)
Detective Walter O’Brien is obsessed with an escape artist who bludgeoned her kidnapper and avoided police custody.
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THE DIAMOND EYE by Kate Quinn
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
In 1937 Ukraine, a history student transforms into a hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death and is sent to America on a goodwill tour.
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DREAM TOWN by David Baldacci
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
he third book in the Archer series. Archer, Dash and Callahan search for a missing screenwriter who had a dead body turn up in her home.
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THE INVESTIGATOR by John Sandford
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)
Letty Davenport, the adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport, looks into oil thefts in Texas.
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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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KINGDOM OF BONES by James Rollins
(Available Formats: eBook)
The 16th book in the Sigma Force series. An unknown force is putting people in a catatonic state in a village in the Congo.
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THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME by Laura Dave
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
Hannah Hall discovers truths about her missing husband and bonds with his daughter from a previous relationship.
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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY by Amor Towles
(Available Formats: Print Book, Libby eBook & audiobook)
Two friends who escaped from a juvenile work farm take Emmett Watson on an unexpected journey to New York City in 1954.
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THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN by Janelle Monáe et al
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A companion collection of stories to Monáe’s 2018 album “Dirty Computer.” Jane 57821 pushes back against the few who have the power to control or erase memories.
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THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig
(Available Formats: Print Book, Libby eBook & 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 PARIS APARTMENT by Lucy Foley
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
Jess has suspicions about her half-brother’s neighbors when he goes missing.
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RUN, ROSE, RUN by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook, downloadable audiobook & through Hoopla – Dolly Parton companion album also titled Run Rose Run.)
A singer-songwriter goes to Nashville seeking stardom but is followed by her dark past.
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THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Emily St. John Mandel
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
A detective investigating in the wilderness discovers that his actions might affect the timeline of the universe.
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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & Libby eBook & audiobook)
A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.
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UGLY LOVE by Colleen Hoover
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
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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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by Lisa Scottoline
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & CD audiobook)
A brush with members of a drug-trafficking organization ushers a suburban family to go into the witness protection program.
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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.
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NON-FICTION:
1619 PROJECT edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman and Jake Silverstein
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Viewing America’s entanglement with slavery and its legacy, in essays adapted and expanded from The New York Times Magazine.
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ALL ABOUT LOVE by bell hooks
(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
The late feminist icon explores the causes of a polarized society and the meaning of love.
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BITTERSWEET by Susan Cain
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The author of “Quiet” suggests ways to embrace loss and suffering within ourselves and others.
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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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BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook, downloadable audiobook & Hoopla instant checkout eBook & audiobook)
A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.
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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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DEAF UTOPIA by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The actor and reality TV personality shares his story of being half of a pair of deaf twins born to a multigenerational deaf family.
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FREEZING ORDER by Bill Browder
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The author of “Red Notice” tells his story of becoming Vladimir Putin’s enemy by uncovering a $230 million tax refund scheme.
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FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH by Arthur C. Brooks
(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
A columnist for The Atlantic espouses ways to shift priorities and habits to overcome waning abilities in later life.
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GREENLIGHTS by Matthew McConaughey
(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
The Academy Award-winning actor shares snippets from the diaries he kept over the last 35 years.
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HELLO, MOLLY! by Molly Shannon with Sean Wilsey
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)
The comedic actor shares stories of family tragedy and her years as a star of “Saturday Night Live.”
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LEFT ON TENTH by Delia Ephron
(Available Formats: Print Book)
The author and screenwriter describes losing her sister and husband to cancer, finding love again and receiving a leukemia diagnosis.
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PANDORA’S JAR by Natalie Haynes
(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)
A re-examination of Greek myths and their female characters through a woman’s perspective.
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PLAYING WITH MYSELF by Randy Rainbow
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A memoir by the three-time Emmy-nominated comedian known for his online musical and political satires.
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RECESSIONAL by David Mamet
(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright lambastes liberal politics, cancel culture and other things he finds objectionable.
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THE STORYTELLER by David Grohl
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
A memoir by the musician known for his work with Foo Fighters and Nirvana.
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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audibook, Large Print, eBook & downloadable audiobook)
The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.
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WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
(Available Formats: eBook & downloadable audiobook)
An approach to dealing with trauma that shifts an essential question used to investigate it.
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WHAT WE WISH WERE TRUE by Tallu Schuyler
(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)
Quinn Reflections by the late founder of the Nashville Food Project on the themes of life and death.
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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.
The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.
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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, 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, May 6, 2022.
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And here are the “baker’s” 10 recommended songs of the week!
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Be Bop A Lula by Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps (Genre: Rockabilly, Rock)
From The Album: Capital Collector’s Series (1990)
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Collect Caller by Tomberlin (Genre: Pop-Rock)
From The Album: i dont know who needs to hear this… (2022)
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Hikky-Burr by Quincy Jones with the great Carole Kaye on bass; also featuring Jimmy Smith, Milt Jason, Eddie Harris, Les McCann, Ernie Watts, Arthur Adams, Ray Brown & Monty Alexander (Genre: Instrumental, Jazz, Soundtrack)
From The Album: The Original Jam Sessions (1969)
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I’m Bringing Home Good News by Eli “Paperboy” Reed (Genre: R&B)
From The Album: Down Every Road (2022)
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Let’s Have A Party by Wanda Jackson (Genre: Rockabilly)
From The Album: Queen Of Rockabilly: The Best of the Rockabilly Years (2000)
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Mr. Spaceman by The Byrds (Genre: Rock, Folk-Rock)
From The Album: Fifth Dimension (1966)
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Sit Down I Think I Love You by Buffalo Springfield (Genre: Rock, Classic Rock)
From The Album: Buffalo Springfield (1966)
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Suzie-Q by Dale Hawkins (Genre: Rockabilly)
From The Album: Oh! Suzie-Q (1958)
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Turn Back the Hands of Time by Tyrone Davis (Genre: R&B)
From The Album: Turn Back The Hands Of Time (1970)
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Wandering Spirit by Miranda Lambert (Genre: Country)
From The Album: Palomino (2022)
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And in honor of May Day, both the traditional May Day, celebrating the advent of summer, and the more modern May Day that highlights workers’ rights, here are two songs:
May Day Carol by Magpie Lane (Genre: Folk)
From The Album: Jack-In-The-Green (2016)
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Union Burying Ground by Woody Guthrie
From The Album: Struggle (1941)
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Goodnight Irene by The Weavers (Genre: Folk)
From The Album: The Weaver’s Greatest Hits (1984)
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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week
Seasons Of Love (2022) by Lani Hall featuring Herb Alpert (Genre: Vocal, Jazz, Easy Listening)
And from the album the song
Happy Woman
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Have a great weekend,
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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REFERENCES:
Print References
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn
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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.
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).
*More information on the three catalogs is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
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Addis Ababa Noir edited by Maaza Mengiste
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Few of the 14 stories in this solid Akashic noir anthology qualify as classic noir, but they all contain many of the classic elements such as desperation, greed, desire, and death. In Meron Hadero’s memorable “Kind Stranger,” the narrator literally trips over a stranger who’s lying on the ground at a construction site. The narrator sits down with the stranger, who proceeds to tell a fraught tale about a woman who rebuked his advances and how he took revenge on her during a time of political turmoil. Another strong entry is Girma T. Fantaye’s “Of the Poet and the Café,” in which a poet sets out to get rid of every copy of his one published book, only to find that it’s not just words that can be erased from the world. Solomon Hailemariam’s pointed “None of Your Business” examines life under a tyrannical regime where a simple school assignment can have dire consequences for one small boy and his family. Each contributor embraces day-to-day life in Ethiopia, and fills each story with a rich sense of time, place, and character. The authors reveal much about a culture unfamiliar to many American readers. Publishers Weekly Review
Readers’ Note: Maaza Mengiste’s short story, Dush, Ash, Flight which was published in the collection Addis Ababa Noir, won the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.
Readers’ Note Too: If you’re not familiar with them, The Edgars are awarded annually to outstanding mysteries within mystery sub-genres – i.e. best short story! And if you’d like to check out the listing of Edgar winners, here is a link to the official Edgar Award website:
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Daughters of a Dead Empire by Carolyn Tara O’Neil
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In 1918 Russia, czarist Anna and communist Evgenia form a tentative alliance to escape a ruthless Bolshevik commander. Seventeen-year-old Anna is the sole survivor after her family is assassinated in Ekaterinburg. Her only hope of safety is finding her cousin who is stationed with the White Army. She offers 16-year-old peddler Evgenia a diamond in exchange for a ride on her old horse wagon. Evgenia, who’s a communist, agrees to help the bedraggled yet seemingly bourgeois Anna (whose true identity readers familiar with Russian history may divine before it is revealed in the narrative) because she’s desperate to afford a doctor to treat her injured soldier brother. Their journey is dangerous from the start but turns deadly when Evgenia’s branded a traitor and a Bolshevik secret police commander becomes set on killing both girls. Well-researched and accessible, this alternate history immerses readers in the Russian Revolution and the competing, equally bloodthirsty factions hoping to control the country’s destiny. A kind officer from the Czechoslovak Legion introduces a different perspective and the barest hint of romance. But Anna and Evgenia’s hard-earned friendship forms the heart of the tale and reinforces the importance of crossing class, political, and religious lines to find the humanity in all. A riveting reimagining of a historical legend as a pulse-pounding thriller. – Kirkus Review
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Good Intentions: A Novel by Kasim Ali
(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)
In the story of Nur and Yasmina’s promising relationship, and the troubling reality of unresolved racial dynamics, debut novelist Ali offers striking social insights and a peek into the life of the British Pakistani community in Birmingham. Nur, a British Pakistani man, and Yasmina, a British Sudanese woman, meet and fall in love as college students and subsequently move in together. But their relationship is under a dark cloud, as Nur doesn’t introduce Yasmina to his family, or even talk to them about her. Convinced that his family will have difficulty accepting his Black girlfriend, Nur is caught between familial and cultural concerns and his desire for a future built on love. As Ali tackles the difficult reality of racism within ethnic groups tied to assumptions of solidarity, he succinctly delineates memorable characters and complex interactions. The narrative’s leaps back and forward in time can be challenging, even as they serve to escalate the tension of Nur’s damaging choices. In all, a vitally important exploration of deep-rooted prejudice, and the disconnect between understanding and the genuine practice of inclusiveness. Booklist Review
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Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Edgar Award Winner: This lively account of the director’s battles with the Code Office is “an essential addition to any Hitchcock shelf” (Mystery Scene Magazine).
From 1934 to 1968, the Motion Picture Production Code Office controlled the content and final cut on all films made and distributed in the United States. Code officials protected sensitive ears from standard four-letter words, as well as a few five-letter words like tramp and six-letter words like cripes. They also scrubbed “excessively lustful” kissing from the screen and ensured that no criminal went unpunished. Thus, throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock had to deal with a wide variety of censors attuned to the slightest suggestion of sexual innuendo, undue violence, toilet humor, religious disrespect, and all forms of indecency, real or imagined.
During their review of Hitchcock’s films, the censors demanded an average of 22.5 changes, ranging from the mundane to the mind-boggling, on each of his American films. Code reviewers dictated the ending of Rebecca, absolved Cary Grant of guilt in Suspicion, edited Cole Porter’s lyrics in Stage Fright, decided which shades should be drawn in Rear Window, and shortened the shower scene in Psycho.
In Hitchcock and the Censors, John Billheimer traces the forces that led to the Production Code and describes Hitchcock’s interactions with code officials on a film-by-film basis as he fought to protect his creations, bargaining with code reviewers and sidestepping censorship to produce a lifetime of memorable films. Despite the often-arbitrary decisions of the code board, Hitchcock still managed to push the boundaries of sex and violence permitted in films by charming—and occasionally tricking—the censors and by swapping off bits of dialogue, plot points, and individual shots (some of which had been deliberately inserted as trading chips) to protect cherished scenes and images. By examining Hitchcock’s priorities in dealing with the censors, this work highlights the director’s theories of suspense as well as his magician-like touch when negotiating with code officials.
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Kingdom of Women by Rosalie Morales Kearns
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
In a slightly alternate near-future, women are forming vigilante groups to wreak vengeance on rapists, child abusers, and murderers of women. Averil Parnell, a female Catholic priest, faces a dilemma: per the Golden Rule she should advise forgiveness, but as the lone survivor of an infamous massacre of women seminarians, she understands their anger.
Her life becomes more complicated when she embarks on an obsessive affair with a younger man and grapples with disturbing religious visions.
She had wanted to be a scholar, before the trauma of the massacre. Later, all she wanted was a quiet life as a parish priest. But now she finds she has become a mystic, and a central figure in the social upheaval that’s gathering momentum all over the world.
The novel taps into a tradition of works that explore the inner lives of religious mystics (such as Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow; Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy; Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory), but also engages broad social/political issues, similar to wide-ranging literary epics like The Poisonwood Bible and Midnight’s Children.
Kingdom of Women spans decades and delves into multiple points of view, not only highlighting the personal evolution of a complex, troubled individual but also exploring larger themes like the ethical implications of the use of violence against oppression, and the tension between justice and mercy, revenge and forgiveness.
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Left On Tenth: A Second Chance At Life: A Memoir by Nora Ephron
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In her new memoir, Ephron will make readers feel, and with her short sentences and matter-of-fact voice, she’ll make readers laugh, swoon, cringe, and cry, sometimes all within the same section of writing. The novelist, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter (she wrote the film You’ve Got Mail with sister Nora) begins this memoir with the story of her husband’s death, from his time in hospice, to her grieving afterwards; she also introduces all the people who helped her through mourning. While trying to disconnect her late husband’s phone line, she has a bad experience that she writes about in the New York Times. The essay sparks interest in a man from her past who reaches out to her via email; Ephron includes this correspondence, among many others, in the book. The events kick off a new love story that is the focus of the first part of the memoir; Ephron’s leukemia is the theme of the second half. Through her own recollections and through emails, readers get to see the hope and positivity of Ephron’s friends, as well as the despair she felt during her illness. VERDICT With poetic writing, strong characterization, and a powerful love story, Ephron’s memoir takes readers on a journey of loss, pain, hope, and perseverance.-Starred Library Journal Review
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The Ladies’ Lending Library by Janice Keefer
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla instant checkout eBook)
Canada in the 1960s is the setting for Keefers melancholy tale of a group of Ukrainian immigrants whose lives are conspicuously connected by blood or circumstance. For the principal characters, the excitement of relocation to the Great White North has faded into a steady, at times numbing rhythm made up of raising families and going to work. Their one escape is summers spent at an idyllic lakeside resort, where the women read and discuss racy books, and their children begin to explore the mysteries of the opposite sex. (The husbands only come up on weekends, disrupting the women’s scandalous literary pursuits.) Sasha Plotsky is the ringleader of the reading group, the envy of many of the women because she always says just what she thinks. But her best friend, Sonia Martyn, a former model trapped in a lackluster marriage, is the novels driving force, spending the summer trying to keep the peace among a cluster of passionate personalities. Readers of Gilmores Golden Country (2006) will find much to like in this poignant saga of real life and unrealized dreams. – Booklist Review
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Man On Fire: A Novel by Stephen Kelman
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Bibhuti Bhushan (BB) Nayak has never met an extreme sports challenge that he could resist, the more extreme the better. From his first attempt at a Guinness Book record–43 kicks to his unprotected groin–BB lusts after sports immortality. To the consternation of his increasingly fretful wife, BB continually puts himself in harm’s way, believing that a strict training regime, along with proper diet, correct breathing, meditation, and prayer will help him achieve his goals. His exploits eventually attract the interest of John Lock, an Englishman disappointed in life and lately diagnosed with cancer. Faking his death to spare his wife the worry and care of his illness, Lock travels to Mumbai, determined to assist BB in his quest for a new record: to withstand 50 baseball bats smashed against his body. With the book narrated alternately by Lock from BB’s hospital bedside and by BB himself, it’s hard to know whether BB is a true sportsman or an insane masochist. VERDICT With its unlikely subject for such an emotionally rich and imaginatively told tale, this second novel easily fulfills the promise of Kelman’s much-admired and Man Booker short-listed Pigeon English. Astonishingly, most of this “fictional biography” is true. Starred library Journal Review
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How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Winner of the Booker Prize: “A work of marvelous vibrance and richness of character.”—New York Times Book Review
One Sunday morning in Glasgow, shoplifting ex-con Sammy awakens in an alley, wearing another man’s shoes and trying to remember his two-day drinking binge. He gets in a scrap with some soldiers and revives in a jail cell, badly beaten and, he slowly discovers, completely blind. And things get worse: his girlfriend disappears, the police question him for a crime they won’t name, and his stab at disability compensation embroils him in the Kafkaesque red tape of the welfare bureaucracy. Told in the utterly uncensored language of the Scottish working class, this is a dark and subtly political parable of struggle and survival, rich with irony and black humor.
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Small Mercies: A Novel by Eddie Joyce
(Available Formats: Print Book)
An emotionally rich debut novel about family dynamics in the wake of tragedy. If Staten Island were Asbury Park, this former lawyer-turned-novelist could be its literary Springsteen. He was born and raised in the borough, which one of his characters calls “the servants’ quarters of the city,” and he has a deep affinity for the ethnic assimilations, class struggles, marital discontents and larger ambitions of those who share his roots. Though the novel flirts with sentimentality and occasionally succumbs to cliche, depth of character trumps plot melodrama here. In the seven days leading to the birthday of Bobby Jr., the son of a firefighter who was a casualty of 9/11, every member of the family has flashbacks and reminiscences that suggest the variety of knots the plot must untangle. Bobby Sr. became a firefighter like his father, Michael, who strongly resisted becoming a butcher like his own immigrant father, thus depriving his family of some security. Gail continues to resent her husband and mourn her son 10 years after his death. She has little relationship with her oldest son, Peter, the one who escaped the borough to become a successful lawyer and marry a WASP but who will find his life crumbling through the most conventional of complications. Middle son Franky is the family’s black sheep, an alcoholic who’s never been the same since his brother died. And Bobby’s widow, Tina, with whom Gail is very close, has finally become involved with another man, introduced to her by Peter, and she wants to bring him to Bobby Jr.’s birthday party. Will Franky cause a drunken scene? Will Gail be civil? Will Peter reconcile with his family? The novel unpacks a lot of emotional baggage (even without the 9/11 references), but readers will get to know these characters and care about them to the very last page. – 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.
The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.
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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’, viewers’ and listeners’ advisory videocast.
The next Library Connections video will be posted on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
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
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 