Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
First the songs & this week we’re taking a look at music from the 1930s:
Putin’ on the Ritz composed by Irving Berlin & performed by Harry Richman (1930)
Originally from the Soundtrack” Puttin’ On The Ritz (1930); currently unavailable on any album.
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When You’re Smiling by Louis Armstong (1930)
Found on the Album: The Definitive Collection (2006)
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All of Me by Billie Holiday (1931)
Found on the Album: The Essential Billie Holiday: The Columbia Years (2010)
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Someday I’ll Find You by Noel Coward (1931)
Originally from the Soundtrack to: Private Lives (1930).
Found on the Album: Noel and Cole (2019)
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Stormy Weather by Ethel Waters (1933)
Found on the Album: Stormy Weather (2017)
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You’re The Top by Ethel Waters (1934)
From the soundtrack to the original production of: Anything Goes (1934)
Currently Found on the Album: N/A
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Cheek to Cheek by Fred Astaire (1935)
Originally from the soundtrack to the film: Top Hat (1935)
Currently Found on the Album: N/A (although you can listen to the song if you watch the movie which is available on DVD & to stream.
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Lullaby of Broadway by Bob Crosby with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (1935)
Originally from the film: The Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
Can be downloaded as an MP3; not currently available on an album.
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Over The Rainbow by Judy Garland (1939)
Found on the Album & Originally from: The Wizard of Oz soundtrack (1939)
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Body & Soul by Coleman Hawkins (1939)
Found on the Album: Body & Soul (1939)
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Second The videos:
A new title available through one of the usual U.S. streaming services, followed by a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.
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Stream from a mainstream service:
Freakier Friday (2025) (Disney+)
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Kanopy Stream of the Week
(All you need is a library card to access the Kanopy catalog.)
Great Migrations (2025) with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu
Julia Z did not have a happy childhood. Then, as a teenager, she came across the hacking collective, Cartographers Obscura. She had always been good with computers, and with the group, she learned much more about coding and soldering. It was all the family she needed–until it fell apart. Years later, she is approached by a lawyer, Piers, whose wife, Elli, has disappeared. Elli was a famous oneirofex, a vivid dream performer who created shared dreams with large audiences. Like Julia, Elli was a virtuoso with technology and appears to have gotten into trouble with the Prince, a powerful international criminal. The Prince wants something back from her, and Piers inadvertently involves Julia in the case just by visiting her. Julia will have to use all her skills in cybersecurity to avoid the hired thugs following them. Worse, the Prince has it out for her, and she needs help from her former family to strike back at him. Best-selling author Liu (The Speaking Bones, 2022) begins a series reminiscent of Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield books, with superb characterizations and intense pacing. Readers will root for Julia as she is drawn into a dangerous game in this gripping sf thriller. – Starred Booklist Review
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Evensong: A Novel by Stewart O’Nan
An intimate, moving novel that follows the Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of women of a certain age who band together to help one another and their circle of friends in Pittsburgh as they face the challenges of their golden years.
The Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors’ appointments, they have to pick up the slack.
Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they’ve pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty Club represents the power of community and chosen family.
Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O’Nan revisits beloved characters from his past work—most notably Emily Maxwell—to fashion a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm, and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.
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Exit Strategy by Lee Child & Andrew Child
Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for. The page-turning new Jack Reacher thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child.
Don’t miss the hit streaming series Reacher!
First—a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing around. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing.
Second—a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climates. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.
Third—wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more.
Reader’s Note: Exit Strategy is the thirtieth book in the Jack Reacher Series. If you’d like to start reading from the beginning of the series, check out book one: Killing Floor.
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Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.
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The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II by David Nasaw & Malcolm Hillgartner
Best-selling historian Nasaw (The Last Million, 2020) deepens the usual approach to WWII’s Greatest Generation by examining the real-world costs and sacrifices made by veterans, their families, and society at large. He focuses on the unseen wounds–neuropsychiatric symptoms previously understood as shell shock or battle fatigue and that are now known as post-traumatic stress disorder–and how their symptoms, including nightmares, headaches, irritability, and alcoholism, affected veterans and their loved ones. In parallel, Nasaw tracks the complicated processes of demobilization and reintegration of veterans through the many provisions and programs of the GI Bill of Rights of 1944, which, however imperfectly executed, was light-years ahead of the chaos surrounding the endings of previous wars. Nasaw covers the inequities of the transition from military to civilian life, the uneven distribution of benefits, and, despite myriad sham schools taking advantage of veterans’ educational programs, how the GI Bill produced a large middle class of educated and professional homeowners. Richly informative and compelling, The Wounded Generation is an important history of the tragedies of war and the triumphs of a democratic society that fully supports veterans’ well-being. – Booklist Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
1. THE BLACK WOLF by Louise Penny: The 20th book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. After thwarting a terrorist attack, an injured Gamache leads a covert investigation.
2. THE WIDOW by John Grisham: When Simon Latch, a lawyer in rural Virginia, is accused of murder, he goes in search of the real killer.
3. BONDS OF HERCULES by Jasmine Mas: The second book in the Villains of Lore series. Seduction and danger put Hercules in a tough spot.
4. THE SECRET OF SECRETS by Dan Brown: As he searches for the missing noetic scientist he has been seeing, Robert Langdon discovers something regarding a secret project.
5. THE PROVING GROUND by Michael Connelly: The eighth book in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Mickey Haller enlists a journalist to help his lawsuit against an A.I. company.
6. THE DEFENDER by Ana Huang: The second book in the Gods of the Game series. A professional athlete and the coach’s daughter, who is a sports nutritionist, share a flat.
7. THE TIN MEN by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille: The third book in the Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor series. An investigation into the death of a military scientist surfaces troubling technology.
8. GONE BEFORE GOODBYE by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben: When a mysterious man disappears, the former combat surgeon giving him medical assistance goes on the lam.
9. ALCHEMISED by SenLinYu: After the war, an imprisoned alchemist is sent to a necromancer to recover her lost memories.
10. REMAIN by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan: A New York architect moves to Cape Cod, where he enters a relationship that brings up a lot of questions.
11. MATE by Ali Hazelwood: To help stave off her enemies, Serena Paris, a Human-Were hybrid, forms a partnership with Koen Alexander.
12. TWICE by Mitch Albom: Alfie Logan, who was gifted with the ability to live any moment a second time but must accept the outcomes, makes a risky love decision.
13. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
14. THE INTRUDER by Freida McFadden: During a rough storm, Casey puts herself in danger when she lets a girl, who is covered in blood, into her cabin.
15. WRECK by Catherine Newman: Shifts in circumstances affect Rocky and her family.
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NON-FICTION
1. NOBODY’S GIRL by Virginia Roberts Giuffre: The late activist and advocate for sex-trafficking survivors describes her time with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
2. HOW TO TEST NEGATIVE FOR STUPID by John Kennedy: The Republican senator from Louisiana shares stories about politics in Washington, D.C., and in his home state.
3. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin: The New York Times journalist and CNBC host looks at the fight between Washington and Wall Street that fueled a historic crash of the stock market.
4. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
5. THE UNCOOL by Cameron Crowe: The journalist and Academy Award-winning filmmaker shares real-life events that inspired “Almost Famous.”
6. THAT’S A GREAT QUESTION, I’D LOVE TO TELL YOU by Elyse Myers: A collection of stories and illustrations by the comedian and content creator.
7. TO RESCUE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT by Bret Baier with Catherine Whitney: The Fox News Channel’s chief political anchor chronicles the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt.
8. RETRIBUTION by Jonathan Karl: The chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and author of “Tired of Winning” chronicles President Trump’s return to the White House.
9. 107 DAYS by Kamala Harris: The former vice president recounts her abbreviated campaign to become president in 2024.
10. UNDER SIEGE by Eric Trump: The executive vice president of the Trump Organization shares his belief that attacks on his family are attacks on America.
11. POEMS & PRAYERS by Matthew McConaughey: The actor and author of “Greenlights” explores elements of belief and reason that make up our lives.
12. RIGHT WING REVOLUTION by Charlie Kirk: The late founder of Turning Point USA prescribes ways to defeat woke ideology.
13. EXPENSIVE BASKETBALL by Shea Serrano: The author of “Hip-Hop (and Other Things)” celebrates moments in basketball that are hard to quantify; illustrated by Ian Klarer.
14. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
15. CONFRONTING EVIL by Bill O’Reilly and Josh Hammer: O’Reilly and Hammer profile some of history’s nefarious characters.
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Have a great Sunday!
Linda
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
Hi everyone, this new weekly post will combine and replace our Suggested Listening and Suggested Viewing posts, into one entertainment post, published on Fridays, just in time for the weekend. These posts will feature ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
First the songs, this week we’re focusing on the music of musicians who were born in November:
Women by Wise by Sippie Wallace (Born November 1, 1898)
Found on the Album: Women Be Wise (1994)
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Nobody Knows Me by Lyle Lovett (Born November 1, 1957)
Found on the Album: Greatest Hits (2017)
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Beat Girl by John Barry (Born November 3, 1933)
Found on the Album: Hits, Misses, Beat Girls & 007s (2019)
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Run To You by Bryan Adams (Born November 5, 1959)
Found on the Album: Reckless (1984)
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Urge for Going by Joni Mitchell (Born November 7, 1943)
Found on the Album: Hits (1996)
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Guilty by Bonnie Raitt (Born November 8, 1949)
Found on the Album: Takin’ My Time (1973)
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Aberdeen Mississippi Blues by Bukka White (Born November 12, 1906)
Found on the Album: Aberdeen Mississippi Blues (2021)
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Two Trains Running by John P. Hammond (Born November 13, 1942)
Found on the Album: John Hammond (1963/2006)
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Saint Louis Blues by W. C. Handy (Born November 16, 1873)
Found on the Album: N/A
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Sway by Diana Krall (Born November 16, 1964)
Found on the Album: Turn Up The Quiet (2017)
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Better Be Good To Me by Tina Turner (Born November 26, 1939)
Found on the Album: All The Best: The Hits (1989)
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Second The videos:
One from a Mainstream Service:
Death By Lightning (2025) (Netflix)
And one from Kanopy, the library’s streaming service:
The Holocaust, 80 Years On with Simon Schama (2025)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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The Black Swan Mystery by Tetsuya Ayukawa
THE JAPANESE CRIME FICTION CLASSIC: A prize-winning railway murder mystery set in 1960s Japan—for fans of Agatha Christie and Seicho Matsumoto!
Full of devious twists and turns, this brilliant puzzle mystery is considered to be one of the greatest alibi deconstruction mysteries ever written
Early one morning, the owner of a local mill is found lying next to the railway tracks just outside of Kuki Station. Suspicion initially falls on the workers’ union, with whom the man had been embroiled in a labour dispute, then on a new religious sect that has been gaining followers recently.
Chief Inspector Onitsura and his assistant Tanna are called in to investigate, and soon set off in a journey across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, and finally to the island of Kyūshu, in a hunt for the killer.
But as they investigate, the killer strikes again, and again. Will they be able to catch the murderer before even more people are slain?
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Cry Havoc by Jack Carr
1968. A time of division. A time of civil unrest. A time of war.
Just before the Tet Offensive, before President Johnson announces he will not run for reelection, before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, as riots and protests rage across the nation, a spy ship is captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea.
The crew thought they had destroyed everything of intelligence value. They were wrong.
As a KGB “illegal” elicits information from a high-ranking NSA official, and teams of special operators infiltrating into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam disappear without a trace, an ambitious Soviet advisor launches an ingenious plan that could forever alter the world balance of power.
Tom Reece, a SEAL operator attached to the highly classified and shadowy MACV-SOG is about to be thrust into a bloody battle to discover the truth.
From the Kremlin to the White House, from the streets of Saigon to the rugged A Shau Valley, along the paths of Ho Chi Minh Trail and into the secret war in Laos, Navy SEAL Tom Reece has an official mission assigned by Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, but it’s his unofficial mission that might get him killed.
From “master novelist” (Ballistic) Jack Carr comes a fast-paced and brutally realistic thriller, one that will make you question all you thought you knew about Vietnam, pressing “emotional buttons that other writers wouldn’t dare explore” (The Real Book Spy).
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Denied Access by Don Bentley
Don Bentley completes the trilogy begun with American Assassin by taking Mitch Rapp back to his fledgling assassin days, picking up where Kill Shot ended, on a mission to save the woman he loves amid a CIA showdown with the Russian intelligence services in a new thriller from the author of Vince Flynn’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.
The Central Intelligence Agency is in crisis.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Congress is questioning the organization’s necessity. Interim CIA director Thomas Stansfield must fight for his agency’s survival while explaining why the previous candidate for his job was found murdered in a French hotel—surrounded by booze, cash, and dead men. Worst yet, a brilliantly run sting operation in Moscow has resulted in the arrest of America’s most prized Russian asset and the expulsion of his CIA handler.
With the CIA’s Moscow Station now paralyzed by the catastrophic intelligence failure, Stansfield seeks help from Mitch Rapp, a newly minted assassin in the secretive Orion program. But Rapp has problems of his own: when his Swiss girlfriend Greta’s grandfather receives a box containing the head of a former Cold War comrade along with a note promising that Greta’s head will be next, Rapp finds himself on the frontlines in a war between the American and Russian intelligence services. To protect the woman he loves and save the CIA from destruction, Rapp must be willing to risk everything.
Reader’s Note: Denied Access is the twenty-fourth novel in the Mitch Rapp series, initially written by Vince Flynn and taken over since his passing by Don Bentley. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: American Assassin by Vince Flynn.
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My Beloved by Jan Karon
Father Tim’s wife, Cynthia, wants just one thing for Christmas: a letter. So he pours his heart out through his pen, declaring his love and baring his soul, sticking the letter in a book of Billy Collins poems. Only, the book, and the letter, go missing. It ends up in the hands of nonogenarian former mayor Esther Cunningham, who is sure her husband didn’t write it and who sets it out with the recycling. Then, through acts of thrift and generosity, piano teacher (and spinster) Helene Pringle finds it, reads it, and has to take to her bed. Surely Harley Welch, a simple mountain man if there ever was one, didn’t write it to her. As the holidays approach, Tim and Cynthia’s adopted son, Dooley, and his wife, Lace, deal with familial and financial pressures, not the least of which is where Harley and his partner-in-crime Willie will live when they “”retire.”” It’s been a while since Karon’s last novel set in western North Carolina, To Be Where You Are (2017), so her many readers will be eager for further dispatches from Mitford. They will not be disappointed with this tender, spiritual tale of family and the boundless love that exists in community. – Starred Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: My Beloved is the fifteenth book in the Mitford Series, if you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: At Home in Mitford.
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Sharp Force by Patricia Cornwell
Fans of the Kay Scarpetta series will enjoy this crime-laced Christmas installment (a sequel to Identity Unknown), in which the medical examiner teams up with her husband and other series regulars to track down another serial killer. The Phantom Slasher disables his victims’ internet before attacking them in their beds and exsanguinating their bodies with a mysterious sharp weapon. Cornwell is at her best when narrating moments in the mortuary and at the crime scenes rather than in some of the technology-forward subplots here. Still, her command of the form and her characters’ complexity, their relationships, and the multilayered story showcase the author and her investigator at the top of their games. There’s family tension and romance, but not so much that it bogs down the plot, and enough forensic science to keep crime junkies satisfied.
VERDICT With Cornwell’s expert pacing and psychologically nuanced and complex characters, this novel offers a reliable read for longtime fans of the forensic series, but it also includes enough backstory and detail to get newcomers up to speed. – Library Journal Review
Reader’s Note: Sharp Force is the twenty-ninth book in the Kay Scarpetta Series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: Postmortem.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
1. THE WIDOW by John Grisham: When Simon Latch, a lawyer in rural Virginia, is accused of murder, he goes in search of the real killer.
2. THE PROVING GROUND by Michael Connelly: The eighth book in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Mickey Haller enlists a journalist to help his lawsuit against an A.I. company.
3. THE THINGS GODS BREAK by Abigail Owen: The second book in the Crucible series. Escaping Tartarus demands overcoming trials and breaking rules.
4. THE SECRET OF SECRETS by Dan Brown: As he searches for the missing noetic scientist he has been seeing, Robert Langdon discovers something regarding a secret project.
5. GONE BEFORE GOODBYE by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben: When a mysterious man disappears, the former combat surgeon giving him medical assistance goes on the lam.
6. ALCHEMISED by SenLinYu: After the war, an imprisoned alchemist is sent to a necromancer to recover her lost memories.
7. REMAIN by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan: A New York architect moves to Cape Cod, where he enters a relationship that brings up a lot of questions.
8. MATE by Ali Hazelwood: To help stave off her enemies, Serena Paris, a Human-Were hybrid, forms a partnership with Koen Alexander.
9. KING SORROW by Joe Hill: After a college student is forced to steal rare books, his friends summon a dragon to help him, but find themselves in worse trouble.
10. GOOD SPIRITS by B.K. Borison: The ghost of Christmas Past Nolan Callahan gets assigned to haunt Harriet York and they uncover why they were brought together.
11. TWICE by Mitch Albom: Alfie Logan, who was gifted with the ability to live any moment a second time but must accept the outcomes, makes a risky love decision.
12. THE INTRUDER by Freida McFadden: During a rough storm, Casey puts herself in danger when she lets a girl, who is covered in blood, into her cabin.
13. LIGHTS OUT by Navessa Allen: As Aly and Josh live out their dark fantasies, someone with sinister intentions impinges on them.
14. MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU FILTHY ANIMAL by Meghan Quinn: The second book in the How My Neighbor Stole Christmas series. Things get messy between a man and a woman running rival Christmas tree farms.
15. FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros: Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.
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NON-FICTION
1. NOBODY’S GIRL by Virginia Roberts Giuffre: The late activist and advocate for sex-trafficking survivors describes her time with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
2. TO RESCUE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT by Bret Baier with Catherine Whitney: The Fox News Channel’s chief political anchor chronicles the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt.
3. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin: The New York Times journalist and CNBC host looks at the fight between Washington and Wall Street that fueled a historic crash of the stock market.
4. GIVING UP IS UNFORGIVABLE by Joyce Vance: The former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama contextualizes our current political moment and advocates for citizen engagement.
5. UNDER SIEGE by Eric Trump: The executive vice president of the Trump Organization shares his belief that attacks on his family are attacks on America.
6. HOW TO TEST NEGATIVE FOR STUPID by John Kennedy: The Republican senator from Louisiana shares stories about politics in Washington, D.C., and in his home state.
7. FINDING MY WAY by Malala Yousafzai: The Nobel laureate describes private difficulties she encountered after the Taliban’s attack on her life thrust her into public life.
8. HEART OF A STRANGER by Angela Buchdahl: A memoir by the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi.
9. THE COLLEGE SCAM by Charlie Kirk: The late founder of Turning Point USA accuses academia of not having credibility.
10. THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER by Harper Lee: A posthumous collection of stories and essays by the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Go Set a Watchman.”
11. 107 DAYS by Kamala Harris: The former vice president recounts her abbreviated campaign to become president in 2024.
12. HOSTAGE by Eli Sharabi: Sharabi, who spent 491 days in Hamas captivity, recounts his story of survival.
13. POEMS & PRAYERS by Matthew McConaughey: The actor and author of “Greenlights” explores elements of belief and reason that make up our lives.
14. CONFRONTING EVIL by Bill O’Reilly and Josh Hammer: O’Reilly and Hammer profile some of history’s nefarious characters.
15. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
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Have a great Sunday!
Linda
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
Hi everyone, this new weekly post will combine and replace our Suggested Listening and Suggested Viewing posts, into one entertainment post, published on Fridays, just in time for the weekend.
The new posts, which were briefly called “Enjoy The Weekend,” will feature ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
First The Songs:
Come, Witches, To The Dance Land Isadora with Lord Pan
Found on the Album: The Witching Hour : 25th Anniversary Collection (2009)
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Graveyard Rock (1959) by Tarantula Ghoul and Her Gravediggers
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The Headless Horseman by Bing Crosby
From the Disney film The Adventures of Ichabod And Mr. Toad (1950)
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Nightmare by Artie Shaw
Found on the Album: The Essential Artie Shaw (2005)
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Skeleton Rag by The Hoosier Hot Shots
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St. James Infirmary Blues by Cab Calloway
Found on the Album: Hi De Ho Man (1974)
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That Old Black Magic by The Glenn Miller Orchestra with Skip Nelson & Modernaires, vocal
Found on the Album: The Complete Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (1938 – 1942) (1991)
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Werewolf by The Frantics
Found on the Album: The Complete Frantics on Dolton (2004)
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Second The Videos:
A new title available through one of the usual, mainstream U.S. streaming services, followed by a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.
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It: Welcome to Derry’ Season 1 (HBO/Max) (2025)
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Kanopy Streaming Pick of the Week (A title available to library card holders)
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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6:40 to Montreal: A Novel by Eva Jurczyk
Jurczyk’s new novel (after That Night in the Library) is an intense, claustrophobic nod to the Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express. Writer Agatha’s husband Teddy has bought her a ticket on the Toronto to Montreal train. The six-hour trip will take them through areas with limited satellite connection; Teddy hopes that this will offer Agatha uninterrupted time to work on her next novel. Agatha has been struggling to write due to health issues, and she isn’t sure that this will work, but she agrees to the trip for her own reasons. Her hope of a peaceful journey is soon dashed when she sees a woman who’s been stalking her in the car. Then, after just a couple hours of travel, the train stops abruptly. As Dorcas, the only staff person in the first-class car, tries to keep the passengers calm, they soon discover that they’re trapped, one of the passengers is dead, and that any of the rest of them could be the killer.
VERDICT The slow build, as each choice and event makes their situation more dire, gives the novel an intense pace that will keep readers turning pages. For readers of Gillian McAllister and Lisa Lutz.–Library Journal Review
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Black Wolf by Louise Penny
The 20th Chief Inspector Gamache novel picks up mere weeks after the events of The Grey Wolf (2024); Gamache and his team are still catching their breath after barely stopping a domestic terrorist attack in Montreal. The mastermind, a man Gamache had called the Black Wolf, is behind bars. But, as this excellent novel opens, Gamache is having second thoughts: what if the man in prison is not the Black Wolf? What if he’s still out there, planning something just as terrifying as what might have taken place in Montreal? Penny is one hell of a writer: her Gamache novels, and the political thriller she co-wrote with Hillary Clinton (State of Terror, 2021), are tightly plotted and beautifully written. This one’s a bit different, though; while normally a gentle, thoughtful man, Gamache appears to be under more internal pressure here than we’ve seen before, as though he’s demanding something of himself that he might not be able to deliver: absolution for letting the Black Wolf get away. An absolute must-read. –Booklist Review
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The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon
Remembering the Mighty Fitz, half a century later. Bacon, author of The Great Halifax Explosion, offers a superb education in geography, seamanship, and history to tell the story of the gigantic Great Lakes ore carrier that sank in a 1975 storm, killing all 29 crew members. He opens with an overview of the Great Lakes, whose waves and currents turn out to be as nasty as those in salt water. Between 1875 and 1975, they claimed at least 6,000 ships and 30,000 sailors–averaging one shipwreck a week. As Bacon writes in arresting prose, “These freighters battled waves twenty feet or more, faced eighty-mile-per-hour winds, and crashed into lighthouses, ports, piers, bridges, shoals, jagged shores, and each other. They faced fires and explosions onboard, hundreds of tons of ice weighing their ships down, water flooding into their pilothouses and cargo holds, and fog, the one element that could make even the most seasoned mariner stop in his tracks, praying for luck.” Narrowing his focus, Bacon describes the mines of Minnesota and Wisconsin that required massive carriers to transport their ore south to refineries in Chicago and Buffalo and points in between. The carriers were designed primarily for profit (carrying the maximum load) and to pass through narrow locks leading from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. Designers paid less attention to their ability to handle the Great Lakes on bad days. Since no crewman survived, details of the disaster are spotty, but Bacon makes the most of them, delivering biographies of crewmen, their duties, descriptions of the storm, increasingly fraught messages from the Fitzgerald before they ceased, interviews with victims’ families, and a discussion of the lessons learned. The author makes theFitzgerald the centerpiece of a broad account of Great Lakes shipping, the careers and daily lives of the crews–and the industries, cities, and bars that feed them–and tales of other sinkings. A gripping account of a maritime disaster. –Kirkus Review
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The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong
When Samantha Payne’s grandfather dies, she figures she won’t even get a mention in the will. After all, she hasn’t seen him in fourteen years, not since her father took his own life after being accused of murdering a child at their lakefront cottage. Her grandfather always insisted her father was innocent, despite Sam having caught him burying the child’s body, his clothing streaked with blood.
But when she does attend the reading of the will at the behest of her aunt, she discovers that her grandfather left her the very valuable lakefront property where the family cottage sits. There’s one catch: Sam needs to stay in the cottage for a month. To finally face the fact she was wrong and her father was innocent, in her grandfather’s words.
Traveling to Paynes Hollow, Sam is faced with the realities of her childhood and the secrets kept hidden in the shadows of her memories. When her aunt goes missing a couple days into their stay, Sam begins to question everything again. Plagued by nightmares and paranoia, she begins hearing sounds in the forest and seeing shapes crawling from the water as the rippling waves of the lake promise something unspeakably dark lurking just below their surface.
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Slowly Dying Cause by Elizabeth George
In her twenty-second Inspector Lynley book since the series began in 1988 (most recently, 2022’s Something to Hide), George again delivers a winner. At its heart, it’s a murder mystery, but there’s lots more here: family unity and disintegration, love, hatred, sex, lies, suspicion, guilt, and infidelity. Michael Lobb, owner of a tin-and-pewter business in Cornwall, is found stabbed to death in his workshop. The underresourced local cops have plenty of potential suspects–particularly Lobb’s much-younger current wife, his ex-wife, and his kids. But they quickly uncover damning evidence pointing to Goron Udy, a simple-minded young man who worked for Lobb. Udy is quick to confess, saying only that “it needed to be done.” Inspector Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers are visiting Lynley’s Cornish estate and quickly find themselves involved in the investigation, turning up new evidence that lends an even more tragic note to the already heartrending case. This is vintage Lynley, the supremely clever detective whose gentle humanity is always quietly present. Despite the sheer number of characters, subplots, and twists and turns, this is George at her best; she delivers a stunning must-read for Lynley fans new and old. –Booklist
A Slowly Dying Cause is the twenty-second book in the Inspector Lynley Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one: A Great Deliverance.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
1. GONE BEFORE GOODBYE by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben: When a mysterious man disappears, the former combat surgeon giving him medical assistance goes on the lam.
2. REMAIN by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan: A New York architect moves to Cape Cod, where he enters a relationship that brings up a lot of questions.
3. MATE by Ali Hazelwood: To help stave off her enemies, Serena Paris, a Human-Were hybrid, forms a partnership with Koen Alexander.
4. THE SECRET OF SECRETS by Dan Brown: As he searches for the missing noetic scientist he has been seeing, Robert Langdon discovers something regarding a secret project.
5. ALCHEMISED by SenLinYu: After the war, an imprisoned alchemist is sent to a necromancer to recover her lost memories.
6. RED RISING by Pierce Brown: Darrow, a member of the lowest rung of a society on Mars in the future, mixes in with humanity’s overlords in the hopes of taking them down.
7. THE INTRUDER by Freida McFadden: During a rough storm, Casey puts herself in danger when she lets a girl, who is covered in blood, into her cabin.
8. LIGHTS OUT by Navessa Allen: As Aly and Josh live out their dark fantasies, someone with sinister intentions impinges on them.
9. MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU FILTHY ANIMAL by Meghan Quinn: The second book in the How My Neighbor Stole Christmas series. Things get messy between a man and a woman running rival Christmas tree farms.
10. TWICE by Mitch Albom: Alfie Logan, who was gifted with the ability to live any moment a second time but must accept the outcomes, makes a risky love decision.
11. THE PICASSO HEIST by James Patterson and Howard Roughan: A recently discovered $100 million painting piques the interest of a variety of people.
12. FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros: Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.
13. BOLEYN TRAITOR by Philippa Gregory: Jane Boleyn employs multiple tactics to survive in the Tudor court.
14. THE ACADEMY by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham: Harmful rumors cause trouble for the students and staff at a New England boarding school.
15. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
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NON-FICTION
1. UNDER SIEGE by Eric Trump: The executive vice president of the Trump Organization shares his belief that attacks on his family are attacks on America.
2. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin: The New York Times journalist and CNBC host looks at the fight between Washington and Wall Street that fueled a historic crash of the stock market.
3. HOW TO TEST NEGATIVE FOR STUPID by John Kennedy: The Republican senator from Louisiana shares stories about politics in Washington, D.C., and in his home state.
4. 107 DAYS by Kamala Harris: The former vice president recounts her abbreviated campaign to become president in 2024.
5. HOSTAGE by Eli Sharabi: Sharabi, who spent 491 days in Hamas captivity, recounts his story of survival.
6. POEMS & PRAYERS by Matthew McConaughey: The actor and author of “Greenlights” explores elements of belief and reason that make up our lives.
7. LAST RITES by Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres: The late heavy metal icon charts his health difficulties and his return for the Back to the Beginning concert.
8. FUTURE BOY by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry: The actor recalls simultaneously playing the roles of Alex P. Keaton in “Family Ties” and Marty McFly in “Back to the Future” in 1985.
9. VAGABOND by Tim Curry: The Tony Award-nominated actor gives insights into the creation of some of his roles on stage and screen.
10. SITTING WITH DOGS by Rocky Kanaka: The pet rescue advocate shares stories of dogs in need finding forever homes.
11. CONFRONTING EVIL by Bill O’Reilly and Josh Hammer: O’Reilly and Hammer profile some of history’s nefarious characters.
12. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
13. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
14. BORN LUCKY by Leland Vittert with Don Yaeger: The NewsNation host describes how his father helped him navigate living with autism.
15. THE GALES OF NOVEMBER by John U. Bacon: An account of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, an American Great Lakes freighter, 50 years ago.
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Have a great Sunday!
Linda
–
New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
–
*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 