Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
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The 9th Man by Steve Berry
(Available Formats: Print Book)
From New York Times bestselling author of the Cotton Malone series comes a thrilling, action-packed historical adventure that sends Luke Daniels on an international manhunt for the truth about the assassination of President John Kennedy.
Luke Daniels is in London, between assignments with the Magellan Billet, when he receives a frantic call from an old friend. Jillian Stein is in trouble. She made a mistake and now her life may be in danger. She needs Luke’s help. Immediately. Racing to Belgium Luke quickly finds that she was right. A shadow team of highly-trained operatives are there on the hunt. Intervening, he finds himself embroiled in a war between two determined sides — one seeking the truth, the other trying to escape the past — a war that has already claimed one life and is about to claim more.
Thomas Rowland is a Washington insider, a kingmaker, problem-solver, but also a man with a past. For him everything turns with what happened on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. What history has recorded is wrong. There is more to the story, much more, and Thomas Rowland is at the center of that terrible reality. But forces are working against him, and Rowland will do anything to keep the world from learning what actually happened on that fateful day, including killing Luke, Jillian and anyone else who might be a threat.
In a race from Belgium, to Luxembourg, to the bayous of Louisiana and the Wyoming wilderness, to a final confrontation in the Bahamas, Luke Daniels confronts a series of shocking truths which not only rewrite history but will forever change his own life — as he comes face to face with the ninth man.
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Before She Finds Me by Heather Chavez
(Available Formats: Print Book)
It is move in day at Anderson Hughes College. When the gunshots begin in the courtyard, the first person to react is Julia Bennett, tackling her daughter, Cora, and saving her life. Others near them are not so lucky. Dealing with the aftermath through the lens of her own childhood trauma, Julia starts questioning the events of that day. Was the attack random? Did the shooter miss their intended target? Ren Petrovic is a trained assassin who believes in only eliminating the guilty. She is not responsible for the shooting at Anderson Hughes, but she knows who is: her husband, Nolan. Ren suspects Nolan isn’t being truthful about who hired him, and the more she digs, the more she understands the danger they’re in. Before She Finds Me is intricately plotted and wildly exciting. Despite the inherent rivalry between Julia and Ren, both women are similarly beguiling and flawed characters. The changes in points of view allow for backstory to be revealed while still moving the pace along. Recommended for readers of the gritty, complex thrillers by Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and Gillian Flynn. – Booklist Review
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Dead Man’s Wake by Paul Doiran
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Game Warden Mike Bowditch’s engagement party is interrupted by the discovery of a gruesome double murder in this new thriller from Edgar Award-winning author Paul Doiron.
On the evening of their engagement party, Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch and Stacey Stevens witness what seems to be a hit-and-run speedboat crash on a darkened lake. When they arrive at the scene, their spotlight reveals a gruesome sight: a severed arm floating just beneath the surface. As day breaks, the warden dive team recovers not one but two naked corpses: a dismembered man and the married woman with whom he was having an affair. Mike begins to suspect the swimmers’ deaths were not a senseless accident but a coldly calculated murder.
Meanwhile, the hunt is on for the mysterious boater. Suspects abound on the lake, nicknamed “Golden Pond,” including the violent biker husband of the murdered woman who may have taken vengeance on his wife and her paramour; a strange woman who claims to have witnessed the crash, but then changes her story; a very aggressive realtor and his wife who were determined to catch trespassers; and the lake’s earnest young constable whose eagerness to help may hide darker motives.
Alone among his fellow officers, Mike starts to sense the involvement of a trained marksman, smarter and more dangerous than any enemy he has ever faced before. As Mike and Stacey get closer to identifying the killer, their own lives are suddenly on the line as they confront a lethal killer who plans to silence them forever. The finale is a tour de force of drama and suspense.
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Flags On The Bayou by James Lee Burke
(Available Formats: Print Book)
From New York Times-bestselling author James Lee Burke comes a novel set in Civil War-era Louisiana as the South transforms and a brilliant cast of characters – enslaved and free women, plantation gentry, and battle-weary Confederate and Union soldiers – are caught in the maelstrom
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is retreating toward Texas, and being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom.
When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed—and did—as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle’s plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah. Flags on the Bayou is an engaging, action-packed narrative that includes a duel that ends in disaster, a brutal encounter with the local Union commander, repeated skirmishes with Confederate irregulars led by a diseased and probably deranged colonel, and a powerful story of love blossoming between an unlikely pair. As the story unfolds, it illuminates a past that reflects our present in sharp relief.
James Lee Burke, whose “evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder” (Entertainment Weekly), expertly renders the rich Louisiana landscape, from the sunsets on the Mississippi River to the dingy saloons of New Orleans to the tree-lined shores of the bayou and the cottonmouth snakes that dwell in its depths. Powerful and deeply moving, Flags on the Bayou is a story of tragic acts of war, class divisions upended, and love enduring through it all.
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The Hospital by Han Song
(Available Formats: Print Book)
From acclaimed Chinese author Han Song comes a twisted, experimental narrative of one man’s mysterious illness and his journey through a dystopian hospital system.
When Yang Wei travels to C City for work, he expects nothing more than a standard business trip. A break from his day-to-day routine, a good paycheck, a nice hotel—nothing too extravagant, of course. No fuss, but all the amenities.
But this is where his problems begin. A complimentary bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in sudden and debilitating stomach pain, followed by unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things don’t improve; they get worse. With no explanation, the hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date…just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he’s now circulating through.
Armed with nothing but his own confusion, Yang Wei travels deeper into the inner workings of the hospital and the secrets it’s hiding from the patients. As he seeks escape and answers, one man’s illness takes him on a quest through a corrupt system and his own troubled mind.
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The Merry Widow Murders by Melodie Campbell
(Available Formats: Print Book)
It’s the latter half of the Roaring Twenties and Lady Lucy Revelstoke, the unconventional widow of a young British lord, is once more crossing the Atlantic on a state-of-the-art ocean liner. Rubbing elbows with the era’s elite, Lucy has come a long way from her roots as the daughter of a Canadian mobster. But when a dead man turns up in her stateroom on the first night of the voyage, Lucy wonders if her past has come back to haunt her. Who is this dead man? Is someone from her past trying to send her a message? Lucy doesn’t wait to find out. With her chivalrous friend Lord Tony, and Elf, her pickpocket-turned-maid, she endeavours to throw the body overboard. It does not go as planned. When the body is discovered by authorities on the ship, Lucy must do everything in her power to find the murderer before they look too deeply into her past.
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The Queens of New York by E. L. Shen
(Available Formats: Print Book)
From acclaimed author E. L. Shen comes a sun-drenched, cinematic YA novel about three Asian American girls, their unbreakable bond, and one life-changing summer, perfect for fans of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Best friends Jia Lee, Ariel Kim, and Everett Hoang are inseparable. But this summer, they won’t be together.
Everett, aspiring Broadway star, hopes to nab the lead role in an Ohio theater production, but soon realizes that talent and drive can only get her so far. Brainy Ariel is flying to San Francisco for a prestigious STEM scholarship, even though her heart is in South Korea, where her sister died last year. And stable, solid Jia will be home in Flushing, juggling her parents’ Chinatown restaurant, a cute new neighbor, and dreams for an uncertain future.
As the girls navigate heartbreaking surprises and shocking self-discoveries, they find that even though they’re physically apart, they are still mighty together.
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Sivulliq: Ancestor by Lily H Tuzroyluke
(Available Format: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eBook)
Indigenous writer Tuzroyluke’s stirring debut evokes the beauty of the Arctic and sheds light on a dark corner of U.S. history. In the spring of 1893, a smallpox epidemic devastates Indigenous communities along the north shore of Alaska. After lighting a funeral pyre for the bodies of her husband and immediate family, Kayaliruk heads north in a dog sled with her three children to find other survivors. Along the way, they suffer a violent encounter with Naluagmiut (white men), who kidnap her only daughter. Badly injured and near starvation, Kayaliruk is determined to save her daughter and follows the men’s American whaling ship with her two sons, first to Herschel Island, an outpost in the Beaufort Sea, then to Siberia. The story of Kayaliruk’s journey alternates with that of Ibai, a Black whaler from Massachusetts, whose fate will eventually merge with Kayaliruk’s. Tuzroyluke explores a chapter of American expansion rarely included in history books, illuminating both the rich cultural diversity predating U.S. colonialism in the Arctic and the sordid legacy of whalers who overhunted and spread diseases. The ice is as omnipresent a character as either protagonist: “unpredictable, feared and a living creature” that can shift, crack, and overwhelm. Tuzroyluke’s beautiful novel crackles with a fierce love of her people and their land. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Summer’s Gift: A Novel by Jennifer Ryan
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Bestseller Ryan (Surrendering to Hunt) takes readers on an emotional journey of familial reconciliation in this dramatic contemporary romance. Summer Sutherland, 25, is miserable. She has financial security and privilege thanks to her adoring business mogul grandfather, but she’s never felt a sense of stability or belonging. Due to her flighty, selfish mother, Jessica, Summer’s never known her father and spent her childhood bouncing “from home to home, school to school, and stepfather to stepfather.” All that time, Jessica’s kept a massive secret: she knows exactly who Summer’s father is, and where Summer can find him. When the truth finally comes out, Summer goes looking for him—and finds a whole new family. It’s a whirlwind of revelations, love, and long-simmering resentment. Amid all the chaos, Summer finds refuge in her budding connection with Cody, her father’s business partner whom he’s always treated like a son. Their chemistry is instant and intense—and together they navigate the murky waters of family secrets, past hurts, forgiveness, and new beginnings. The romance is endearing, but it’s the complex and affecting family drama that will really hook readers. Colleen Hoover fans should check this out.
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The Wedding Gift by Carolyn Brown
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eBook)
A bride with cold feet might just make the mistake of a lifetime… Includes two bonus novellas to help you celebrate the seasons!
A week before your wedding is one heckuva time for your ex to ride back into town, stirring up trouble. But that’s exactly the predicament Darla McAdams finds herself in. Darla’s on the verge of breaking up with her fiancé, Will Jackson—only a week before the wedding. Her parents would disown her, but Darla’s sure that her Granny Roxie will understand when Darla tells her that her first love, Andy, has come back to town. Thank goodness for a wise granny’s reminiscences of her own sassy wedding at just the right moment…
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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.
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