Category: Uncategorized

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, January 18, 2022.

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Delicacy by David Foenkinos

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

Lighthearted and offbeat, this translation of a French novel serves up a mostly frothy dish of romance, lost love, new hope, and typically Gallic sensibilities. Natalie and Francois share an almost unbearably perfect and oddly bland life, in which everything happens with seamless affability. But when Francois is struck by a car and dies, his still-young widow is shocked at the intrusion of grief into the wonderful fantasy that is her life, which she had not thought to question until it was too late. Sleepwalking through the subsequent days, Natalie fends off unwanted advances by an enamored suitor, throws herself fully into her work, and erects a near-impenetrable fortress around her grieving heart. Yet when unprepossessing coworker Markus enters her awareness, Natalie begins to reassess what might be next. The novel’s entire focus, in fact, may stem from this one sentence, Natalie’s sadness considerably deepened her erotic potential. It should be noted that there is plenty of soft erotic subtext but little overt sexuality in this thoughtful, character-driven novel. Starred Publishers Weekly review

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In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd

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

A collection of humorous and nostalgic Americana stories—the beloved, bestselling classics that inspired the movie A Christmas Story

Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant—and utterly hilarious—works of comic art. In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash represents one of the peaks of his achievement, a compound of irony, affection, and perfect detail that speaks across generations.
In God We Trust, Shepherd’s wildly witty reunion with his Indiana hometown, disproves the adage “You can never go back.” Bending the ear of Flick, his childhood-buddy-turned-bartender, Shepherd recalls passionately his genuine Red Ryder BB gun, confesses adolescent failure in the arms of Junie Jo Prewitt, and relives a story of man against fish that not even Hemingway could rival. From pop art to the World’s Fair, Shepherd’s subjects speak with a universal irony and are deeply and unabashedly grounded in American Midwestern life, together rendering a wonderfully nostalgic impression of a more innocent era when life was good, fun was clean, and station wagons roamed the earth.

A comic genius who bridged the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.

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King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett

(Available Format(s): Print Book)

With the same meticulous scholarship and narrative legerdemain she brought to her hugely popular Lymond Chronicles, our foremost historical novelist travels further into the past. In King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett’s stage is the wild, half-pagan country of eleventh-century Scotland. Her hero is an ungainly young earl with a lowering brow and a taste for intrigue. He calls himself Thorfinn but his Christian name is Macbeth.

Dunnett depicts Macbeth’s transformation from an angry boy who refuses to accept his meager share of the Orkney Islands to a suavely accomplished warrior who seizes an empire with the help of a wife as shrewd and valiant as himself. She creates characters who are at once wholly creatures of another time yet always recognizable–and she does so with such realism and immediacy that she once more elevates historical fiction into high art.

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The Last House on the Street: A Novel by Diane Chamberlain

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Chamberlain (Big Lies in a Small Town) delivers the goods with this affecting and spellbinding account of a community’s buried secrets. In 2010, North Carolina architect Kayla Carter reluctantly prepares to move into her dream home with her three-year-old daughter, Rainie, after her husband, Jackson, died in a freak accident while building the house. Kayla is approached at her office by a woman named Ann Smith, who claims to be a potential client but unnerves Kayla by talking about Jackson’s death, and by telling her she is thinking about killing someone. After moving into the new house, Kayla and Rainie meet neighbor Ellie Hockley, who recently returned to the area to care for her aging mother and ill brother. In a parallel narrative set in 1965, Ellie joins a student group to help register Black voters. She faces danger from the KKK while working alongside other students from Northern colleges and the members of her local Black community in N.C., all of which is exacerbated by her attraction to a Black civil rights activist. As Kayla learns Ellie was once in a romantic relationship with Kayla’s father, she uncovers a series of terrible events that occurred in the woods surrounding Kayla’s property. Chamberlain ratchets up the tension with the ever-present mystery of what Ann might be up to, and the dual narratives merge beautifully before an explosive conclusion. This will keep readers enthralled. Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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Old Filth by Jane Gardam

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

Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer in Southeast Asia, where he earned the nickname Old Filth (FILTH being an acronym for Failed In London Try Hong Kong) to his final working days as a respected judge at the English bar. Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult and emotionally hollow childhood. Now an eighty-year-old widower living in comfortable seclusion in Dorset, Feathers is finally free from the regimen of work and the sentimental scaffolding that has sustained him throughout his life. He slips back into the past with ever mounting frequency and intensity, and on the tide of these vivid, lyrical musings, Feathers approaches a reckoning with his own history. Not all the old filth, it seems, can be cleaned away. Borrowing from biography and history, Jane Gardam has written a literary masterpiece reminiscent of Rudyard Kiplings Baa Baa, Black Sheep that retraces much of the twentieth centurys torrid and momentous history.

Old Filth is the first book in a trilogy; it is followed by The Man In The Hat and Last Friends.

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On The Outside Looking In by Julie Ellis

(Available Format(s): Print Book)

Seasoned romance- and suspense-writer Ellis sets her latest tale in Castro’s Cuba. Havana pediatrician Chris is disillusioned with the meager supplies and restrictions that define his life, yet he doesn’t want to be disloyal to his father’s memory or his own devotion to his country. Chris finds himself drawn to Eva, a pretty nurse, who shares his yearning for a better life. The novel traces their courtship, marriage, and friendship with another young couple from the hospital. Chris and Eva’s story takes a turn when they discover their infant son has a serious heart condition that can only be cured with an operation in an American hospital. Ellis paints a portrait of resilience in the face of overwhelming circumstances. Despite some heavy-handed dialogue in which characters describe the Cuban Revolution and its repercussions, readers stay engaged, wanting to discover the couple’s fate. – Booklist Review

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People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman

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

The fourth novel in New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman’s highly acclaimed Leaphorn and Chee series.

A dying man is murdered. A rich man’s wife agrees to pay three thousand dollars for the return of a stolen box of rocks. A series of odd, inexplicable events is haunting Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police and drawing him alone into the Bad Country of the merciless Southwest, where everything good struggles to survive, including Chee. Because an assassin waits for him there, protecting a thirty-year-old vision that greed has sired and blood has nourished. And only one man will walk away.

Readers’ Note: As mentioned in the overview, People Of Darkness is the fourth book in the Leaphorn & Chee series; if you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, the first book is The Blessing Way.

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The Train To Warsaw: A Novel by Gwen Edelman

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

Edelman’s second novel (after War Story) is a tale of the Holocaust’s lingering wounds, told in polished prose of distilled intensity. After fleeing the Warsaw Ghetto, Jascha, a Polish Jew, settles in London and finds success with a critically lauded memoir, The Way Down. Yet his wife, Lilka, another Jewish Holocaust survivor from Poland, never feels at home: “Even after forty years, London is as alien to me as the other side of the moon.” When they are invited back to Warsaw for Jascha to give a reading, Lilka considers their return a homecoming, while Jascha does not, saying “God knows why we are going… didn’t we have enough?” Jascha and Lilka must confront the melancholy alienness of their onetime home, where they find themselves lost in once-familiar streets, and Lilka is made to feel like an outsider by residents who compliment her on her excellent Polish. At the reading, Jascha focuses on his work’s most challenging moments, prompting walkouts from an audience whose members are still unable to reckon with their past. Afterward, the couple continues to re-explore the city, all the while working backward into their separate histories, until their stories meet, and they learn that some old truths still have the power to shock, even after 40 years. Edelman has written a well-crafted study of exile and return whose depth exceeds its length. – Publishers Weekly Review

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The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Most teens think the universe is against them at some point. Seventeen-year-old Alex Woods has plenty of evidence for his case: a tarot-reading witch for a mother, his father a one-night Solstice stand long since forgotten, a chunk of meteorite crashing through the roof and smashing into him, the onset of epileptic seizures, and school bullies eager to target him. Luckily for Alex, the meteorite and bullies have an upside. While the meteorite accident introduces him to two unusual doctors and the worlds of astrophysics and neurology, the school bullies chase him into a life-changing friendship with the semi-reclusive Mr. Peterson after Alex takes the blame for Mr. Peterson’s broken greenhouse windows. Rather than revealing the bullies’ names, Alex accepts a punishment of helping out the curmudgeonly widower. Neither is very happy about the arrangement until they bond over books and Alex founds the Secular Church of Kurt Vonnegut reading group. Over the course of a year, they also come to terms with a terminal diagnosis. Their plans for a simple trip to a Zurich clinic turn into a wild wheelchair ride through a hospital, an unexpected kiss, and international media attention. Not your average rite of passage but one Alex can ace. VERDICT A bittersweet, cross-audience charmer, this debut novel will appeal to guys, YA readers, and Vonnegut and coming-of-age fiction fans.

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Wildwood by Elinor Florence

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

In Florence’s (Bird’s Eye View) second novel, Molly Bannister, broke and unemployed after the crash of 2008, discovers she has been left a remote Canadian farmstead by her estranged great-aunt Mary. The catch is she must live there full time for one year in order to inherit it legally. Leaving Phoenix for the beautiful Peace River region of Northern Alberta is quite a shock. Molly is helped along when she finds Mary’s 1924 homesteading journal in the farmhouse; selections are shared, adding warmth and interest. The heart of the story, though, lies in Molly’s relationship with her young daughter Bridget; the reason Molly decided to claim the inheritance is to sell it to pay for Bridget’s needed medical treatments. Their new neighbors are mostly salt-of-the-earth types, but not everyone is reliable: some mystery and intrigue surround Molly’s legacy. There is also a chance at love, in a slightly clunky romantic subplot.

VERDICT A heartwarming story about the power of family, this novel of modern pioneering will appeal to many readers. Fans of Debbie Macomber or even Janette Oke will likely find the gentle tone and the focus on wholesome themes a familiar and engaging type of read.                                – Library Journal 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.

January 16, 2022 Update! I’ve run out of week this week – so the next  New York Times Bestseller post will be published on Tuesday, January 18, 2022.

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FICTION

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ANNIHILATION ROAD by Christine Feehan

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

The sixth book in the Torpedo Ink series. Savage sets Seychelle’s whole body on fire.

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BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU by Sally Rooney

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

A novelist, a warehouse worker, an editorial assistant and a political adviser deal with changes.

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CALL US WHAT WE CARRY  by Amanda Gorman

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

A debut collection of poems on identity and history by the presidential inaugural poet who wrote “The Hill We Climb.”

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CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr

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

An interconnected cast of dreamers and outsiders are in dangerous and disparate settings past, present and future.

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CRIMINAL MISCHIEF by Stuart Woods

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The 60th book in the Stone Barrington series. Stone goes to places he has not been in pursuit of an evasive adversary.

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DARK HOURS by Michael Connelly

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

A death on New Year’s Eve, an unsolved murder and a hunt for serial rapists bring Bosch and Ballard back together.

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GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon

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

The ninth book in the Outlander series. As the Revolutionary War moves closer to Fraser’s Ridge, Claire and Jamie reunite with their daughter and her family.

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INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. Schwab

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook, downloadable audiobook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

A Faustian bargain comes with a curse that affects the adventure Addie LaRue has across centuries.

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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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THE JUDGE’S LIST by John Grisham

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

The second book in the Whistler series. Investigator Lacy Stoltz goes after a serial killer and closes in on a sitting judge.

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THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME by Laura Dave

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

Hannah Hall discovers truths about her missing husband and bonds with his daughter from a previous relationship.

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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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LOVE HYPOTHESIS by Ali Hazelwood

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

A young professor agrees to pretend to be a third-year Ph.D. candidate’s boyfriend.

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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 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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SLOW FIRE BURNING by Paula Hawkins

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

Three women come under scrutiny when a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat.

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SONG OF ACHILLES by Madeline Miller

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

A reimagining of Homer’s “Iliad” that is narrated by Achilles’ companion Patroclus.

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STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT by Mitch Albom

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

After a ship explodes, nine people struggling to survive pull a man who claims to be the Lord out of the sea.

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UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR by TJ Klune

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

When given seven days to cross over, Wallace tries to pack in a lifetime’s worth of living in that week.

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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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THE WISH by Nicholas Sparks

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

Maggie Dawes, a renowned travel photographer, struggles with a medical diagnosis over Christmas.

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WISH YOU WERE HERE by Jodi Picoult

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

Diana O’Toole re-evaluates her seemingly perfect life when a pandemic disrupts her vacation in the Galápagos Islands.

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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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ALL ABOUT ME! by Mel Brooks

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

The EGOT and Kennedy Center honoree shares stories about making comedy for the stage, film and television.

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BEST WISHES, WARMEST REGARDS by Daniel Levy and Eugene Levy

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Character profiles, major story moments and behind-the-scenes tales from the Emmy Award-winning series “Schitt’s Creek.”

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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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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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DAWN OF EVERYTHING by David Graeber and David Wengrow

(Available Formats: Print Book)

A reinvestigation of social evolution and suggestions for new ways of organizing society.

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GREENLIGHTS by Matthew McConaughey

(Available Formats: Print Book, 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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THE LYRICS: 1956 TO THE PRESENT by Paul McCartney

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

A two-volume celebration of 154 songs, with handwritten texts, paintings and photographs from the songwriter’s archives.

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THE PRESIDENT AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTER by Brian Kilmeade

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Fox News host gives an account of the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

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The REAL ANTHONY FAUCI by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

The anti-vaccine advocate gives his take on the chief medical advisor to the president.

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THE STORYTELLER by Dave Grohl

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

A memoir by the musician known for his work with Foo Fighters and Nirvana.

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TASTE by Stanley Tucci

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

The award-winning actor reflects on his career, Italian-American heritage, meals and mishaps.

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THERE AND BACK by Jimmy Chin

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

Photographs and stories of expeditions on all seven continents by the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker.

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle

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

The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.

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VANDERBILT by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

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

The CNN host and descendant of the Vanderbilt family charts the rise and fall of this American dynasty.

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WILL by Will Smith with Mark Manson

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The actor, producer and musician tells his life story and lessons he learned along the way.

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YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion

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

Winner of the National Book Award in 2005. The late writer recounts her daughter’s illness and husband’s 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, January 14, 2022.

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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Ain’t Misbehaving by Leon Redbone (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: On The Tracks (1975)

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Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin (Genre: Jazz, Pop-Rock)

From The Album: Simple Pleasures (1988)

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Ev’ry Sunday Afternoon by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra (Genre: Big Band, Jazz)

The song is also known as “Every Sunday Afternoon.”

From The Album: The Chronological Classics: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra: 1940 (2000)

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Lean On Me (1972) by Bill Withers (Genre: R&B, Pop)

From The Album: Still Bill (1972)

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Movin’ Right Along (1979) by Fozzie and Kermit (from The Muppet Movie Soundtrack)  (Genre: Soundtrack)

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Putting On The Ritz by Leo Reisman and his Orchestra with Lew Conrad (1930)

From The Album: how Tunes of the 1920’s Vol. 2 (2009)

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Sh-Boom (1954) by The Chords (Genre: R&B, Pop)

From The Album: Doo Wop Classics Vol. 6 (Rhino Records) (2003)

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Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham! (Genre: Pop)

From The Album: Make It Big (1984)

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Wham! By Lonnie Mack (Genre: Guitar, Classic Rock)

From The Album: The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963)

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You Got A Friend by Carole King & James Taylor (Genre: Folk, Pop-Rock, Singer-Songwriter)

Recorded live on the Ellen Show in 2010.

You can find another live version by the duo on the 2007 album “Live at the Troubadour.”

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

For The Roses (1974) by Joni Mitchell (Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Pop)

And from the album the song

You Turn Me on I’m a Radio

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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, January 11, 2021.

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All About Love: Love Song To The Nation by Bell Hooks

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

Taking on yet another popular topic in her role as cultural critic, hooks blends the personal and the psychological with the philosophical in her latest book–a thoughtful but frequently familiar examination of love American style. A distinguished professor of English at City College in New York City, she explains her sense of urgency about confronting a subject that countless writers have analyzed: “I feel our nation’s turning away from love as intensely as I felt love’s abandonment in my girlhood. Turning away, we risk moving in a wilderness of spirit so intense we may never find our way home again.” With an engaging narrative style, hooks presents a series of possible ways to reverse what she sees as the emotional and cultural fallout caused by flawed visions of love largely defined by men who have been socialized to distrust its value and power. She proposes a transformative love based on affection, respect, recognition, commitment, trust and care, rather than the customary forms stemming from gender stereotypes, domination, control, ego and aggression. However, many of her insights about self-love, forgiveness, compassion and openness have been explored in greater depth by the legion of writers hooks quotes liberally throughout the book, such as John Bradshaw, Lucia Hodgson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton and M. Scott Peck, among others. Still, every page offers useful nuggets of wisdom to aid the reader in overcoming the fears of total intimacy and of loss. Although the chapter on angels comes across as filler, hooks’s view of amour is ultimately a pleasing, upbeat alternative to the slew of books that proclaim the demise of love in our cynical time. Publishers Weekly Review, January 3, 2000

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Cosmic Hotel: A Novel by Russ Franklin

(Available Formats: Print Book)

At the heart of Franklin’s surreal and genre-defying debut novel lie existential questions about life and what we hold dear. He effectively delivers these moral dilemmas through a quirky set of characters who might as well pass for the Pritchetts on television’s Modern Family. Life could hardly get any more bizarre for Sandeep Sanghavithe biracial son of an Indian hotelier businesswoman, Elizabeth, and a self-centered astronomer, Van, as he watches his family’s illustrious hotel business decay while battling mysterious health concerns and nurturing a crush on his distant cousin, Ursula. To make matters worse, an alien, Randolph, wants to go home to his mother planet and keeps texting Sandeep because he needs Van, who has discovered this planet, to help. Franklin renders many scenes of suspended animation achingly well: the closing of many of their hotels, waiting at airport lounges trapped in limbo between time zones, the desperate search for an elusive planet. This is what being is: an existence, a created crater. We all just simply go away and our gravity disappears, Sandeep realizes. Franklin’s fresh and reflective tale movingly shows that what we make of that created crater, and how, just might be the point of it all. Starred Booklist Review

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Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

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

In this contemporary reimagining of Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island, Riordan (the Percy Jackson series) merges foundational science fiction adventures with a modern sensibility and a variously inclusive cast from across the globe, injecting the adventure with action and generation-spanning intrigue. Ana Dakkar, 14 and of Bundeli Indian ancestry, is excited to undergo the freshman end-of-year trials that will determine her future at the prestigious Harding-Pencroft Academy, which provides a world-class education in all things marine and aquatic. No sooner has her class departed for the event, though, when the academy is attacked and destroyed by the rivaling Land Institute, forcing Ana and her classmates, the only survivors, to seek refuge in a hidden island outpost. Along the way, Ana discovers that she is descended from the infamous Captain Nemo as well as heir to his trove of futuristic technology and legendary submarine, the Nautilus. When the Land Institute seeks to usurp the technology for its own selfish ends, Ana and her classmates must harness Nemo’s legacy to defend themselves. But her parents died years ago while unlocking the Nautilus’s secrets—how can she succeed where they failed? Simultaneously retro and futuristic, this entertaining standalone starts with a bang and doesn’t let up.

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Freedom: Stories Celebrating The Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a forward by Archbishop Desmond Tutu

(Available Formats: Print Book)

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

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Future Media edited by Rich Wilber

(Available Formats: Print Book)

This startling exploration of the mass media age uniquely combines complex nonfiction and prescient fiction from the best and brightest visionaries of the future. With an Introduction by Paul Levinson, essay contributors include Marshall McLuhan, who posited that the medium is the message; Cory Doctorow and his re-visioning of intellectual property in the digital age; and Nicolas Carr, whose cautionary warnings include that Google is making us stupid. The thought-provoking short stories are authored by science fiction luminaries including James Tiptree Jr., whose pseudonymous cyperpunk preceded all of her peers; Joe Haldeman and his wars where humans fight through cloning and time travel; and Norman Spinrad, who has pitted the media against an immortality conspiracy. Offering a blend of predictions for the course of communications, Future Media entertains while it informs and challenges readers to consider the implications for a society dealing with networks that are alternately personal, public, pervasive, and powerful.

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Night Soldiers by Alan Furst

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

Bulgaria, 1934. A young man is murdered by the local fascists. His brother, Khristo Stoianev, is recruited into the NKVD, the Soviet secret intelligence service, and sent to Spain to serve in its civil war. Warned that he is about to become a victim of Stalin’s purges, Khristo flees to Paris. Night Soldiers masterfully re-creates the European world of 1934–45: the struggle between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia for Eastern Europe, the last desperate gaiety of the beau monde in 1937 Paris, and guerrilla operations with the French underground in 1944. Night Soldiers is a scrupulously researched panoramic novel, a work on a grand scale.

Readers’ Note: Night Soldiers is the first book in the fifteen book Night Soldiers series.

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Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD Audiobook)

Young writers are often told to write about what they know. In his 1999 collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, Nathan Englander spun the material of his orthodox Jewish background into marvelous fiction. But the real trick to writing about what you know is to make sure you know more as you mature. Englander’s first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases, conjures a world far removed from “The Gilgul of Second Avenue.” The novel is set in 1976 in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s “dirty war.” Kaddish Poznan, hijo de puta, son of a whore, earns a meager living defacing gravestones of Jewish whores and pimps whose more respectable children want to erase their immigrant parents’ names and forget their shameful activities. Kaddish labors in the Jewish cemetery at night. His hardworking wife, Lillian, toils in an insurance agency by day, and their idealistic son, Pato, attends college, goes to concerts and smokes pot with his friends. When Pato is taken from home, Kaddish learns what it really means to erase identity, because no one in authority will admit Pato has been arrested. No one will even acknowledge that Pato existed. As Lillian and Kaddish attempt to penetrate the Ministry of Special Cases, Englander’s novel takes on an epic quality in which Jewish parents descend into the underworld and journey through circles of hell.

Gogol, I.B. Singer and Orwell all come to mind, but Englander’s book is unique in its layering of Jewish tradition and totalitarian obliteration. At times Englander’s motifs seem forced. Kaddish, whose very name evokes the memory of the dead, chisels out the name of a plastic surgeon’s disreputable father, and in lieu of cash receives nose jobs for himself and his wife. Lillian’s nose job is at first unsuccessful, and her nose slides off her face. One form of defacement pays for another. Kaddish fights with his son in the cemetery and accidentally slices off the tip of Pato’s finger. Attempting to erase a letter, Kaddish blights a digit. But the fight seems staged, Pato’s presence unwarranted except for Englander’s schema. Other scenes are haunting: Lillian confronting bureaucrats; Kaddish appealing to a rabbi to learn if it is possible for a Jew to have a funeral without a body; Kaddish picking an embarrassing embroidered name off the velvet curtain in front of the ark in the synagogue. When he picks off the gold thread, the name stands out even more prominently because the velvet underneath the embroidery is unfaded, darker than the rest of the fabric. Englander writes with increasing power and authority in the second half of his book; he probes deeper and deeper, looking at what absence means, reading the shadow letters on history’s curtain. Publishers Weekly Review

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Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell with Paul Simon

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

What happens when Paul Simon, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in music history, and Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, sit down together, with a tape recorder and a guitar?

Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon is part memoir, part investigation, and unlike any creative portrait you’ve ever heard before. Recorded over a series of 30 hours of conversation between Simon, Gladwell, and Gladwell’s oldest friend and co-writer, journalist and Broken Record podcast co-host Bruce Headlam, the conversation flows from Simon’s music, to his childhood in Queens, NY, to his frequent collaborators including Art Garfunkel and the nature of creativity itself. Gladwell and Headlam traveled from the mountains of Hawaii to Simon’s own backyard studio to record an artist they’ve idolized since childhood.

Woven throughout the audiobook is distinctive commentary about Simon’s songwriting alongside archival audio footage and never-before-heard live studio versions and original recordings of beloved hits including “The Boxer”, “The Sound of Silence”, and “Graceland”. Between conversations, Gladwell deploys his signature blend of historical research and social science in an attempt to understand how a boy from 1940s Queens conjured near-perfect songs over an incredible 65-year career. Along the way, he gathers reflections on Simon’s particular genius from the likes of Sting, Herbie Hancock, Renee Fleming, Jeff Tweedy, Aaron Lindsey, and Roseanne Cash.

The result is an intimate audio biography of one of America’s most popular songwriters. Brimming with music and conversation, Miracle and Wonder is a window into Simon’s legendary career, what it means to be alive as an artist, and how to create work that endures.

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The People Next Door by Keri Beevis

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

Her new house has a mysterious past—and her new life in the English countryside is about to take a dark turn . . .

When Ellie and Ash move into a beautiful old house in rural Norfolk, England, they believe they’ve found their perfect home. Intrigued by the people next door, Ellie befriends shy but sweet Benjamin, and as time goes by, becomes ever more curious about his elusive sister, Virginia.

But when she discovers that her new home has a darker past and that Ash has been keeping secrets, what she thought was a perfect life in the countryside begins to unravel. Is her best friend to be trusted, are the new neighbours all that they really seem, and why is her new puppy so obsessed with the cellar? Most worrying of all is the mystery of what happened to the former occupants of the house.

When Ash goes away on business and strange things begin to happen, Ellie’s paranoia goes into overdrive. But are these all coincidences—or is she really in danger?

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Shadows of Swanford Abbey by Julie Klassen

(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)

Agatha Christie meets Jane Austen in this atmospheric Regency tale brimming with mystery, intrigue, and romance. When Miss Rebecca Lane returns to her home village after a few years away, her brother begs for a favor: go to nearby Swanford Abbey and deliver his manuscript to an author staying there who could help him get published. Feeling responsible for her brother’s desperate state, she reluctantly agrees. The medieval monastery turned grand hotel is rumored to be haunted. Once there, Rebecca begins noticing strange things, including a figure in a hooded black gown gliding silently through the abbey’s cloisters. For all its renovations and veneer of luxury, the ancient foundations seem to echo with whispers of the past—including her own. For there she encounters Sir Frederick—magistrate, widower, and former neighbor—who long ago broke her heart. When the famous author is found murdered in the abbey, Sir Frederick begins questioning staff and guests and quickly discovers that several people held grudges against the man, including Miss Lane and her brother. Haunted by a painful betrayal in his past, Sir Frederick searches for answers but is torn between his growing feelings for Rebecca and his pursuit of the truth. For Miss Lane is clearly hiding something…

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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, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, January 7, 2022.

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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

From The Album: Auld Lang Syne (1993) & the various artists collection Ultra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails, Part Two (1997)

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Bringing in a Brand New Year by Charles Brown (Genre: Vocals, Piano, Blues, R&B)

From The Album: Charles Brown’s Cool Christmas Blues (1994)

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Happy New Year by Lightning Hopkins (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: The Best Of Lightnin’ Hopkins (2006)

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I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm by Les Brown & His Band of Renown (Genre: Big Band, Jazz, Easy Listening)

From The Album: The Best of Les Brown (2013)

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Let’s Start The Year Right by Bing Crosby with Bob Crosby & His Orchestra

From The Album: Holiday Inn Soundtrack (1942)

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My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) by Regina Spektor

My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) [Live] (2012)

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

From The Album: King & Keen (1967).

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

From The Album: The Innocent Age (1981)

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

From The Album: Odessey and Oracle (1968)

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What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? by Ella Fitzgerald (Genre: Vocal, Jazz)

From The Album: A Swingin’ Christmas (1960)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

Brand New Day(1999) by Sting (Genre: Rock)

And from the album the title track

Brand New Day

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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 References

Janes, D. (2020, November 23). 35 Best New Year’s Eve Songs to Add to Your Party Playlist. Oprah Daily. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/g29741592/best-new-years-eve-songs/

Uy, M. (2021, December 9). 41 Best New Year’s Eve Songs to Add to Your Party Playlist. Cosmopolitan. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a30221963/new-years-eve-songs/

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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, January 4, 2021.

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48 Hours To Kill: A Thriller by Andrew Bourelle

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

Convicted armed robber Ethan Lockhart, the hero of this propulsive crime thriller from Bourelle (Heavy Metal), leaves prison on a 48-hour furlough to attend his sister Abby’s funeral. Abby vanished after a shift as a dancer at the Reno, Nev., strip club where Ethan worked as a bouncer before he took on more violent work for Shark, the club’s owner. Though Abby’s body was never found, the huge amount of blood in her empty apartment, Ethan learns, persuaded their mother to have her declared dead. Regret and guilt send Ethan on a harrowing journey through his criminal past to get answers, accompanied by his sister’s best friend, Whitney. Ethan suspects Shark, now a kingpin in a Reno underworld that’s become more dangerous, is complicit in Abby’s death. Shark in turn has cruel plans for Ethan. The tension builds—as does the attraction between Ethan and Whitney—while the clock ticks toward a brutal conclusion with a surprise twist. Crisp action scenes make up for the characters’ weak backstories and holes in the law enforcement side of Abby’s case. Bourelle is a writer to watch.

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Dinner At The Center of the Earth: A Novel by Nathan Englander

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Equal parts political thriller and tender lamentation, the latest from Englander (What We Talk about When We Talk about Anne Frank, 2012) explores, in swirling, nonlinear fashion, Israeli-Palestinian tensions and moral conflicts. The General, who is never named but is clearly former prime minister Ariel Sharon, lies in a coma, his thoughts hovering over past glories and a horrifying gunshot. By his side is Ruthi, his devoted assistant, whose pot-smoking, TV-obsessed son has found a plum job guarding the disappeared Prisoner Z in a secret prison in the Negev. An American spy who in a moment of either moral courage or traitorous intent turned against his Israeli backers, Z was on the run in Europe but tripped up when he fell in love with a fearless waitress from an ultrawealthy Italian family. Discerning the connections between these narratives provides much of the drama, which turns on the logic of human weakness and intractable opposition. Ultimately, Englander suggests that shared humanity and fleeting moments of kindness between jailer and prisoner, spy and counterspy, hold the potential for hope, even peace. – Booklist Review

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Elizabeth Street: A Novel Based On True Events by Laurie Fabiano

(Available Formats: Print Book)

“Basing her story on her own family narratives and a deep understanding of Italian Americans, [Fabiano] paints a vivid portrait not just of immigrants’ lives in the first ten years of the last century, but of the vicious criminals who preyed on them.” –Mike Dash, author of The First Family

In Elizabeth Street, Laurie Fabiano tells a remarkable, and previously unheard, story of the Italian immigrant experience at the start of the twentieth century. With stories culled from her own family history, Fabiano paints an entrancing portrait of Giovanna Costa, who, reeling from personal tragedies, tries to make a new life in a new world. Shot through with the smells and sights of Scilla, Italy, and New York’s burgeoning Little Italy, this intoxicating story follows Giovanna as she finds companionship, celebrates the birth of a baby girl, takes pride in a growing business, and feels a sense of belonging during a family outing to Coney Island.

However, these modest successes are rewarded with the attention of the notorious Black Hand, a gang of brutal extortionists led by Lupo the Wolf. As the stakes grow higher, Giovanna desperately struggles to remain outside the fray, so she may fight for–and finally save–what is important above all else: family.

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The Essential June Jordan by June Jordan

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

Wide in scope and singular in their articulation of atrocities, Jordan’s poems shine in this thoughtfully curated volume. Ordered so that each era of her work speaks to the next, her poems contemplate war (“What will we do/ when there is nobody left/ to kill?”) on a national, interpersonal, and intergenerational scale, and suggest that struggle may be inextricable from the human experience. Jordan (1936–2002) stands against established power in poems that reckon with colonialism and the police state through her distinctive use of cataloging, repetition, and linguistic play. She implicates the self in depictions of historical violence as a basis for the cultivation of empathy: “I am a stranger/ learning to worship the strangers/ around me.” As she contemplates land, borders, race, and gender, the reader, too, is invited to look closely at the world around them. In these rich, generous poems, to hold and accept divisive truths is an act of love and solidarity. “I am black alive,” she writes, “and looking back at you.” Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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Five Tuesdays In Winter by Lily King

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

The first collection of stories from an acclaimed novelist. King, who won the inaugural Kirkus Prize for Fiction for Euphoria (2014), can make you fall in love with a character fast, especially the smart, vulnerable, often painfully self-conscious adolescent protagonists featured in several of the 10 stories collected here, half previously published, half new. In “Creature,” the fetching opener, 14-year-old Carol is hired to be a live-in mother’s helper by a rich woman whose children and grandchildren are coming for a two-week visit, a woman so entitled she breezily renames her Cara because she likes it better. Under the influence of Jane Eyre, Carol is swept away by the charms of the woman’s newly married son, who’s arrived without his wife. “You cannot know these blistering feelings,” she writes to her friend, “you have not yet met your Rochester.” As in King’s debut, Father of the Rain (2010), alcoholism and mental illness shadow many characters’ lives. Carol has a father in rehab, while the unnamed boy narrator of “When in the Dordogne” has parents who have left for France following the father’s nervous breakdown and failed suicide attempt. His babysitters are a pair of college boys with whom he has so much more fun than usual that he dreams that his parents will get in a car crash and never return. The protagonists of other stories show King’s range, among them a gay man who receives a surprise visit from his homophobic college roommate, a Frenchwoman living in the U.S. whose husband has abruptly moved on, a German woman taking her bratty daughter on holiday to an unpromising inn on the North Sea, a 91-year-old visiting his young granddaughter in the hospital. The final story, “The Man at the Door,” about frustrations of the writing process, also tells of its joys: “This morning, however, without warning, a sentence rose, a strange unexpected chain of words meeting the surface in one long gorgeous arc….Words flooded her and her hand ached to keep up with them and above it all her mind was singing here it is here it is and she was smiling.” Full of insights and pleasures. Kirkus Review

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House Of Shadows by Nicola Cornick

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

The wooded hills of Oxfordshire conceal the remains of the aptly named Ashdown House—a wasted pile of cinders and regret. Once home to the daughter of a king, Ashdown and its secrets will unite three women across four centuries in a tangle of intrigue, deceit and destiny…

In the winter of 1662, Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, is on her deathbed. She entrusts an ancient pearl, rumored to have magic power, to her faithful cavalier William Craven for safekeeping. In his grief, William orders the construction of Ashdown Estate in her memory and places the pearl at its center.

One hundred and fifty years later, notorious courtesan Lavinia Flyte hears the maids at Ashdown House whisper of a hidden treasure, and bears witness as her protector Lord Evershot—desperate to find it—burns the building to the ground.

Now in the present day, a battered mirror and the diary of a Regency courtesan are the only clues Holly Ansell has to finding her brother, who has gone missing researching the mystery of Elizabeth Stuart and her alleged affair with Lord Craven. As she retraces his footsteps, Holly’s quest will soon reveal the truth about Lavinia and compel her to confront the stunning revelation about the legacy of the Winter Queen.

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Icon by Frederick Forsyth

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD Audiobook)

While for sheer reading excitement Forsyth has yet to top his fiction debut, Day of the Jackal, published a quarter century ago, his later novels (The Fist of God, etc.) display a mature mastery of storytelling melded with a deep knowledge of realpolitik. Here, contemporary Russian crypto-fascists prove every bit as villainous as their Communist predecessors whom Forsyth portrayed in The Fourth Protocol and The Deceiver. It’s 1999, and ultra-nationalist Igor Komarov’s victory in the upcoming Russian presidential election seems assured. But within Komarov’s party headquarters, an elderly janitor accidentally discovers Komarov’s secret plans for Russia, laid out in a document that comes to be known as the Black Manifesto–a blueprint for a return to dictatorship, military expansionism and genocidal ethnic cleansing. The manifesto soon comes to the attention of British intelligence, but both they and the CIA are restrained by their governments from taking official action. So with the backing of an organization of international VIPs, former British Secret Service chief Sir Nigel Irvine mounts his own covert operation to subvert Komarov. Ex-CIA operative Jason Monk, who once ran highly placed agents in the Soviet Union, will be Irvine’s point man. As usual, Forsyth interweaves speculation with historical fact, stitching his plot pieces with a cogent analysis of both Russian politics and the world of espionage–particularly the legacy of the real-life Aldrich Ames, a Soviet mole who tunneled deep into the CIA. Shifting back and forth in time and space among a large cast of characters, Forsyth expertly builds suspense toward a climactic New Year’s Eve skirmish in Moscow. It’s another strong performance by a writer who knows exactly what he’s about, and who here catalyzes narrative with another memorable protagonist, the stealthy and daring Monk. Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

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

Offutt’s brooding and bloody country noir (after Country Dark) takes readers to the hollers of rural Kentucky, where meth and Oxycontin ravage the population, and havoc is wrought by long-festering family feuds. Mick Hardin, a traumatized veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now working as an Army intelligence agent, teams up with his sheriff sister to solve the murder of Nonnie Johnson after her body is discovered deep in the woods. In the process, they find themselves pitted against coal tycoon Murvil Knox; a meddling agent FBI agent who fingers an obvious patsy in disturbed outsider Tanner Curtis; roughneck brothers Bobby and Billy; and a pair of bumbling henchmen sent by arch-criminal Charley Flowers. Soon Hardin is up to his ears in intrigue and trying to keep a low profile as he interrogates suspects including local miscreant Fuckin’ Barney; Knox’s hapless nephew Delmer Collins; Nonnie’s vengeful son, Frankie; and the earthy Old Man Tucker, who found Nonnie’s body. Not only will Hardin have to find his man somewhere among this cast of backwoods desperados, he’ll need to do so before he becomes a casualty of grudges old and new. The lean prose elicits more than a hard-boiled style, and while the brisk yet gnarled atmosphere is reminiscent of Winter’s Bone, the dime-store crime novels of Jim Thompson, or even William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, Offutt brilliantly evokes the body and soul of his wounded hero. It adds up to a mesmerizing and nightmarish view of what lurks just over the hills. This is sure to be Offutt’s breakout. Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier

(Available Formats: Print Book)

While lecturing at Oxford, Diana Morgan, philologist and expert on the legendary female warriors known as the Amazons, receives a tantalizing offer from a stranger who invites her to visit a new excavation that promises to rewrite history. Taking leave of her academic responsibilities and possibly her senses, she sets off to North Africa. At the ancient temple, Diana recognizes writing, not from her research as a philologist but from her grandmother’s journal. Her father, presuming his mother insane, had condemned her to psychiatric procedures and confinement. As a young girl, Diana had facilitated her grandmother’s disappearance, thus resulting in a lifetime of regret and longing. Now suddenly faced with written evidence of the historical existence of the Amazons, Diane realizes that her grandmother’s journal is not a memoir of delusions. Are the Amazons still among us?

VERDICT Through her time-shifting narrative, Fortier (Juliet) offers us a front-row seat to the mythological stories we have learned through epics and poetry. Grounded in a thorough knowledge of classical literature, this skillful interweaving of plausible archaeological speculation, ancient mythology, and exciting modern adventure will delight fans of such authors as Kate Mosse and Katherine Neville. Starred Library Journal Review

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The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk

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

Soon to be a Netflix original series!

At first, this reads like something by Samuel Beckett. Peter Sutherland spends his nights, all 284 of them so far, sitting in a little room waiting for the phone to ring. It doesn’t. The phone is in the basement of the White House, and if anybody does call, Peter’s supposed to tell somebody important. On this night, the phone rings. A woman’s wavering voice: “He’s inside. He’s going to kill me.” What follows hits close to home: Russia is planting moles in U.S. government offices as part of an effort to rebuild the old Soviet Union. Peter learns quickly that the people he should report to are treacherous, forcing him to go it alone, with some help from the frightened caller. Lots of good, tense plotting and wild action here, though, like a Mission: Impossible movie, it doesn’t know when it’s time to end. A real pleasure of espionage fiction is tradecraft secrets, and Quirk doesn’t disappoint. Someone glancing at his dominant hand as he talks is being deceptive. Hydrogen peroxide, unlike bleach, will destroy DNA. – Booklist Review

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Have a great week and a Happy New Year too!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the Three Catalogs*

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

The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, digital magazines and a handful of streaming videos. The catalog, which allows one to download content to a PC, also has a companion app, Libby, which you can download to your mobile device; so you can enjoy eBooks and downloadable audiobooks on the go!

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

–

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

The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 items per month.

Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.

The Hoopla App is available for Android or Apple devices and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

–

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

Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.

The StarCat app is called Bookmyne and is available for Apple and Android devices.

–

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

–

Have questions or want to request a book?

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

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

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, January 11, 2021.

Library Connections videos may also be accessed via the Southeast Steuben County Library’s YouTube channel.

Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL

Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!

Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, December 31, 2021.

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole (Genre: Vocal, Jazz)

From The Album: Merry Christmas Baby: Romance & Reindeer From Capital by Various Artists (2011)

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December’s Here by New Found Glory (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From The Album: December’s Here (2021)

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Every Year by The Fox & The Hounds (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: Songs Of Winter (2018)

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I’ll Be Home From Christmas by The Pilgrim Travelers (Genre: R&B)

From The Album: Blue Yule: Christmas R&B Classics (1991)

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If I Had A Heart (In Norse) by Colm R. Mcguinness (Genre: Folk, International)

From The Album: If I Had A Heart (In Norse) (2021)

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Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by Frank Sinatra (Genre: Vocal, Easy Listening)

From The Album: A Sinatra Christmas (2019)

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A Long December by Counting Crows (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From The Album: Recovering The Satellites (1996)

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Night: Part I Snow by George Winston (Genre: Piano, New Age)

From The Album: December (1982)

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Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie by Memphis Slim (Genre: Blues, Piano)

From The Album: Memphis Slim and the Honky-Tonk Sound (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1960)

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The Seasons by Loreena McKennitt (Genre: Folk, Vocals)

From The Album: To Drive The Cold Winter Away (1987).

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

Barn (2020) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

And from the album the song

Song Of The Seasons

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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 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, December 28, 2021.

Library Connections videos may also be accessed via the Southeast Steuben County Library’s YouTube channel.

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, December 28, 2021.

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The Bookseller’s Tale by Ann Swinfen

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

The death of a scholar, the birth of a detective…

Oxford, Spring 1353. When young bookseller Nicholas Elyot discovers the body of William Farringdon floating in the River Cherwell, all the signs point to suicide.

Soon, however, Nicholas discovers evidence of murder. Who could have wanted to kill this promising student? As Nicholas and his close friend Jordain try to unravel what lies behind William’s death, they learn that he was innocently caught up in a criminal plot.

When their investigations begin to involve town, university, and abbey, Nicholas takes a risky gamble – and puts his family in terrible danger in order to uncover the truth.

A thrilling historical mystery full of twists and intrigue, perfect for fans of Ellis Peters, Paul Doherty and E. M. Powell.

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Evergreen: A Novella by Susan May Warren

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

An empty nest has Ingrid Christiansen dreading the upcoming holidays, but her husband, John, couldn’t be more excited about this new season of life. He even has a surprise trip abroad planned. He’s sure she’ll love it. What’s more romantic than Christmas in Paris? Before he can stop her, however, Ingrid agrees to spearhead a major church project. Then their faithful dog, Butterscotch, needs emergency surgery, draining their savings. And then-because disasters strike in threes-an unexpected guest arrives, dredging up old hurts. As a beautiful blanket of snow transforms the north woods into a winter wonderland, a deep chill settles over John and Ingrid’s marriage. With the holidays fast approaching, their only hope of keeping their love evergreen depends on turning the page on the past and embracing a new chapter of their future.

Evergreen is part of Warren’s Christiansen family series. If you’d like to read the series from the beginning check out book one: Take A Chance On Me

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The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook & audiobook)

How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
In this study of language, archeology and culture, Hartwick College anthropology professor Anthony hypothesizes that a proto-Indo-European culture emerged in the Ponto-Caspian steppes 4,000 years ago, speaking an ur-language ancestor to the Romance, German and Slavic family of languages, Sanskrit and modern English. Citing discoveries in the Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan made possible only after the fall of the Iron Curtain brought together Soviet and western scientists, Anthony combines evidence from radioactive dating, demographic analysis of migration patterns, linguistic analysis and the study of epics such as the Iliad and the Rig Veda to substantiate his contention. Central to his thesis is the role of the horse, originally domesticated for food and first ridden to manage herds; only later, with the development of the chariot, were they ridden during combat. Anthony provides a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of his subject, complete with a history of relevant research over the past two centuries (including evidence and opinion that counter his own, such as the now-discredited Aryan race hypothesis). A thorough look at the cutting edge of anthropology, Anthony’s book is a fascinating look into the origins of modern man. Library Journal Review

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The Last Daughter of York by Nicola Cornick

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

For 11 years, Serena Warren has been haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her twin sister, Caitlin. Unable to remember what happened that fateful evening, Serena has tried to move on with her life. Then she receives a call with the news that Caitlin’s body has been found. Hoping to recover her lost memories, Serena travels to her grandparents’ English estate, Minster Lovell, where Caitlin was last seen alive. Six centuries earlier, five-year-old Anne Neville, daughter of nobility, is chosen to wed Francis Lovell. The marriage will solidify allegiances between royal families; but as she grows, Anne must choose between her family and her new husband when the battle to overthrow the king begins. Cornick (The Forgotten Sister, 2020) seamlessly weaves together the stories of two young women, separated by centuries yet bound by their time at Minster Lovell. As the investigation of Caitlin’s death unfolds, the legend of a centuries-old relic is explained. History lovers and mystery fans alike will delight in Cornick’s latest suspenseful, romantic, paranormal tale.

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A Little Hope by Ethan Joella

(Available Formats: eBook)

Wharton, Connecticut, is a sleepy, suburban town, filled in summer with the smell of hydrangeas and the sounds of kids playing soccer and tennis balls smacking country-club pavement. As in many small towns, the connections among its inhabitants are what makes Wharton special. The domino effect of neighbors’ choices impact each other one another far more than they could ever imagine. A chance meeting blossoms into a new relationship, a tragic diagnosis inspires independence, a surprise visitor helps breach an emotional wall, a marriage’s foundation becomes cracked in an instant. In his debut novel, Joella has an eye and ear for suburban pathos, highlighting tragedy and growth in equal parts. Exploring new love, the twists and turns of grief, and the steadfast loyalty of soulmates, A Little Hope is narrated by a diverse ensemble of Wharton residents. Joella pays particular attention to the aftershocks of loss in the residents’ lives, ranging from heartbreak and addiction to cancer, but he doesn’t dwell on the maudlin. Loyal readers of Meg Wolitzer and Matthew Norman will gravitate to this immersive, illuminating novel.

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The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

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

Despite having been adopted from India, Taj Rowland is an excelling American teen: senior-class president, a varsity athlete, and popular with his classmates at his all-white Colorado high school. But when he’s matched with an Indian family during a study-abroad program in London, Taj begins to remember pieces of his childhood, including his original name, Chellamuthu, and the family from which he was kidnapped and sold to an orphanage. Hoping to understand more about his identity, Taj immerses himself in Indian culture, starts an import-export company, and eventually marries an Indian woman, Priya, who turns out to have a surprising connection to his past. Armed with a map drawn from memory and accompanied by his business partner, Christopher Raj, Taj returns to India to search for his birth family. Wright (The Rent Collector, 2012) turns the story of the real-life Chellamuthu/Taj into a meditation on identity and the meaning of family, and a novel that is sure to be a book-club favorite. – Booklist Review

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On Turpentine Lane by Elinor Lipman

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

When Faith Frankel moves from Brooklyn back to her hometown of Everton, Mass., she falls in love with a little house on Turpentine Lane. The house, because of rumors about a death that took place there, is well within her salary as a fund-raiser, so despite the asbestos and a failing roof, she decides to buy it. She’s accustomed to challenging projects, starting with Stuart Levine, her longtime boyfriend who has left on a solo hitchhiking expedition with her credit card. No sooner does she move into the house does she learn that the previous owner’s second and third husbands fell down the basement stairs to their deaths. Stuart is unsupportive, so she finally dumps him, encouraged by Nick Franconi, officemate and soon-to-be roommate. Faith and Nick develop a relationship while she tries to solve the mystery of the deaths at Turpentine Lane, her parents’ faltering marriage, and her eligible-bachelor brother’s lack of a significant other. With a witty cast of characters and her usual delightful dialogue and insightful observations of human behavior, Lipman (The Inn at Lake Devine) captures the complications of modern love.

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Paradise on the Hudson: The Creation, Loss, and Revival of a Great American Garden by Caroline Seebohm

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook)

The Story of Samuel Untermyer and His Gilded Age Garden

Few people today have ever heard of him, but in the early years of the twentieth century, Samuel Untermyer took on the rich, the entrenched establishment, the robber barons, and the most powerful corporations in America. He also turned his estate into one of the most extensive and ambitious gardens of the Gilded Age. Located on the banks of the Hudson, it boasted extravagant structures based on Greek models, 60 greenhouses, and a staff of 60 gardeners. After Untermyer’s death, the garden went into a steep decline, until the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy began a program of restoration that has brought a significant part of the original gardens back to their former glory. Visitors today can experience the grandeur of the garden, and the renovations continue. In Paradise on the Hudson, seasoned writer and garden historian Caroline Seebohm shares all this and more, telling a fascinating story of a dazzling Gilded Age garden created, lost, and re-found. Packed with contemporary and historical photography, this must-read entry into the canon of garden history celebrates an important garden in its former glory and in its current restoration.

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The Raven in the Foregate by Ellis Peters

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

In a mild December in the year of our Lord 1141, a new priest comes to the parishioners of the Foregate outside the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Father Ailnoth brings with him a housekeeper and her nephew—and a disposition that invites murder.

Brother Cadfael quickly sees that father Ailnoth is a harsh man who, striding along in his black cassock, looks like a doomsaying raven. The housekeeper’s nephew, Benet, is quite different—a smiling lad, a hard worker in Cadfael’s herb garden, but, as Brother Cadfael soon discovers, an impostor. And when Ailnoth is found drowned, suspicion falls on Benet, though many in the Foregate had cause to want this priest dead. Now Brother Cadfael is gathering clues along with his medicinals to treat a case of unholy passions, tragic politics, and perhaps divine intervention.
Readers’ Note: The Raven in the Foregate is the twelfth book in the Brother Cadfael series. If you’d like to start reading the series at the beginning, checkout book one: A Morbid Taste For Bones.

Viewers’s Note: Back in the 1990s Derek Jacoby starred as Cadfael in a fun TV series based on the books; and SSCL owns the entire series on DVD – should you wish to check it out – it is great historical mystery fun!

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Splendid by Julia Quinn

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

Based on the phenomenal growth of Quinn’s popularity, and her four-week stint on the New York Times bestseller list with Romancing Mr Bridgerton, it’s the perfect time to revisit Ms Quinn’s ‘splendid’ storytelling.

American heiress Emma Dunster has always been fun-loving and independent with no wish to settle into marriage. She plans to enjoy her Season in London in more unconventional ways than husband-hunting. But this time Emma’s high-jinks lead her into dangerous temptation…
Alexander Ridgely, the Duke of Ashbourne, is a notorious rake who carefully avoids the risk of love…until he plants one reckless kiss on the sensuous lips of this high-spirited innocent…and condemns himself to delicious torment. Little does he know that his passion has touched the very soul of the lovely enchantress…and committed them both to a lifetime of splendid ecstasy.

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A bonus just for fun musical recommendation, from the Hoopla catalog:

Licorice Pizza Soundtrack

The soundtrack features twenty classics songs by Sonny & Cher, The Doors, David Bowie, Taj Mahal, Seals & Crofts, James Gang and more!

And including this one!

Stumblin’ In by Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman 

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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.