Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, and while the library is closed the weekly recommendations will all be digital – eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

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Recommended Reads:

The Accusers by Lindsey Davis (Format: eBook)

Fresh from his trip to Britain, Marcus Didius Falco needs to re-establish his presence in Rome. A minor role in the trial of a senator entangles him in the machinations of two real life lawyers at the top of their trade. The senator is convicted, but then dies, apparently by suicide. It may have been a legal move to protect his heirs, but Falco is hired to prove it was murder. As Falco shows off his talents in the role of advocate, he exposes himself to a tangle of upper-class secrets and powerful elements in Roman law that may have consequences he hadn’t quite bargained for.

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All the Flowers in Paris: A Novel by Sarah Jio (Format: eBook)

When Caroline wakes up in a Paris hospital with no memory of her past, she’s confused to learn that for years she’s lived a sad, reclusive life in a sprawling apartment on the rue Cler. Slowly regaining vague memories of a man and a young child, she vows to piece her life back together—though she can’t help but feel she may be in danger. A budding friendship with the chef of a charming nearby restaurant takes her mind off her foggy past, as does a startling mystery from decades prior.

In Nazi-occupied Paris, a young widow named Céline is trying to build a new life for her daughter while working in her father’s flower shop and hoping to find love again. Then a ruthless German officer discovers her Jewish ancestry and Céline is forced to play a dangerous game to secure the safety of her loved ones. When her worst fears come true, she must fight back in order to save the person she loves most: her daughter.

When Caroline discovers Céline’s letters tucked away in a closet, she realizes that her apartment harbors dark secrets—and that she may have more in common with Céline than she could have ever imagined.

All the Flowers in Paris is an emotionally captivating novel rooted in the resiliency and strength of the human spirit, the steadfastness of a mother’s love, and the many complex layers of the heart—especially its capacity to forgive.

“Heart-stopping . . . Fans of emotional, romantic stories set during World War II will enjoy this heartbreaking tale of love and loss.”—Booklist

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Chemistry: A Novel written by Weike Wang and read by Julia Whelan (Format: Audiobook)

A luminous coming-of-age novel about a young female scientist who must recalibrate her life when her academic career goes off track; perfect for readers of Lab Girl and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.

Three years into her graduate studies at a demanding Boston university, the unnamed narrator of this nimbly wry, concise debut finds her one-time love for chemistry is more hypothesis than reality. She’s tormented by her failed research—and reminded of her delays by her peers, her advisor, and most of all by her Chinese parents, who have always expected nothing short of excellence from her throughout her life. But there’s another, nonscientific question looming: the marriage proposal from her devoted boyfriend, a fellow scientist, whose path through academia has been relatively free of obstacles, and with whom she can’t make a life before finding success on her own. Eventually, the pressure mounts so high that she must leave everything she thought she knew about her future, and herself, behind. And for the first time, she’s confronted with a question she won’t find the answer to in a textbook: What do I really want? Over the next two years, this winningly flawed, disarmingly insightful heroine learns the formulas and equations for a different kind of chemistry—one in which the reactions can’t be quantified, measured, and analyzed; one that can be studied only in the mysterious language of the heart. Taking us deep inside her scattered, searching mind, here is a brilliant new literary voice that astutely juxtaposes the elegance of science, the anxieties of finding a place in the world, and the sacrifices made for love and family.

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Continental Crimes by Martin Edwards (Format: eBook)

A man is forbidden to uncover the secret of the tower in a fairy-tale castle by the Rhine. A headless corpse is found in a secret garden in Paris – belonging to the city’s chief of police. And a drowned man is fished from the sea off the Italian Riviera, leaving the carabinieri to wonder why his socialite friends at the Villa Almirante are so unconcerned by his death.These are three of the scenarios in this new collection of vintage crime stories. Detective stories from the golden age and beyond have used European settings – cosmopolitan cities, rural idylls and crumbling chateaux – to explore timeless themes of revenge, deception, murder and haunting.Including lesser-known stories by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, J. Jefferson Farjeon and other classic writers, this collection reveals many hidden gems of British crime.

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The Family Upstairs: A Novel by Lisa Jewell (Format: eBook)

“Rich, dark, and intricately twisted, this enthralling whodunit mixes family saga with domestic noir to brilliantly chilling effect.” —Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author

“A haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late read.” —Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author

From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.
Be careful who you let in.

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

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Interior Chinatown: A Novel written by Charles Yu and read by Joel de la Fuente (Format: Audiobook)

“One of the funniest books of the year has arrived, a delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire.” —The Washington Post

From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: He’s merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. At least that’s what he has been told, time and time again. Except by one person, his mother. Who says to him: Be more.

Playful but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes, Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterly novel yet.

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The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Format: eBook)

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Namesake comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan–charismatic and impulsive–finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind–including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

Masterly suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland is a work of great beauty and complex emotion; an engrossing family saga and a story steeped in history that spans generations and geographies with seamless authenticity. It is Jhumpa Lahiri at the height of her considerable powers.

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The Man with a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes (Format: eBook)

Long Piddleton had always been wary of newcomers. But the quiet town was stunned when the first stranger was found dead, upended in a butt of ale in the cellar of the Men with a Load of Mischief. Then the second body appeared, swinging in place of the mechanical man above the door of the Jack and Hammer.

Suddenly Long Piddleton had good reason to be wary of everyone! Its cozy pubs and inns with their polished pewter and blazing hearths had become scenes of the most bizarre crimes. Who were the victims? And who was the murderer? A stranger? A maniac? Or the disarmingly friendly man next door?

Richard Jury Series, Book 1

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Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen (Format: eBook)

In this sophisticated, suspenseful debut reminiscent of Laura Lippman and Chloe Benjamin, two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer in Atlantic City as mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home.

Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there.

Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face. If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl—so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?

Evocative, eerie, and compelling, Please See Us is a fast-paced psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power, and violence.

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The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths (Format: eBook)

Finalist for an Edgar Award for Best Novel

“This lively whodunit keeps you guessing until the end.” —People

Death lies between the lines when the events of a dark story start coming true in this haunting modern Gothic mystery, perfect for fans of Magpie Murders and The Lake House.

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she even teaches a course on him. But when one of Clare’s colleagues is found dead, with a line from Holland’s iconic story “The Stranger” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with her favorite literature.

The police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her diary, the only outlet for her suspicions and fears. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn’t hers, left on the page of an old diary:

Hallo Clare. You don’t know me.

Clare becomes more certain than ever: “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?

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Be well and happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the publisher unless otherwise specified.

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StarCat

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

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, as regular blog visitors know, I usually post links to request the print versions of the New York Times Bestsellers on Sundays, so that patrons can request those (print) titles in StarCat (the catalog of physical library materials).

 

However, as all the libraries in the Southern Tier Library System are currently closed, you can’t place holds for physical materials, nor, of course, pick up holds.

 

So for the duration of the Corona Virus crisis, I’m going to post links to the New York Times Bestsellers, in eBook or downloadable audiobook form, that can be requested, or checked out, through the Digital Catalog.

 

If you have questions about how to access digital content you can write a comment and post it on the blog, or send me, SSCL Librarian Linda Reimer, questions via email: reimerl@stls.org

 

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And here are the New York Times Bestsellers that can be found in the Digital Catalog.

 

FICTION:

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins (Format: eBook):

A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.

 

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THE BOOK OF LONGINGS by Sue Monk Kidd (Format: Audiobook):

A scholarly young woman named Ana meets an 18-year-old Jesus and becomes caught up in a confluence of dangers.

 

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THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate (Format: Audiobook):

The stories of three women struggling to get from Louisiana to Texas during Reconstruction are discovered by a first-year teacher living a century later.

 

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THE BOY FROM THE WOODS by Harlan Coben (Format: eBook):

When a girl goes missing, a private investigator’s feral childhood becomes an asset in the search.

 

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THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett (Format: Audiobook):

A sibling relationship is impacted when the family goes from poverty to wealth and back again over the course of many decades.

 

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FIRST COMES SCANDAL by Julia Quinn (Format: eBook):

Will Georgiana Bridgerton and Nicholas Rokesby’s unorthodox courtship lead to a marriage of convenience or will they find true love with each other?

 

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THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes (Format: Audiobook):

In Depression-era America, five women refuse to be cowed by men or convention as they deliver books throughout the mountains of Kentucky.

 

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THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel (Format: eBook):

Years after an international Ponzi scheme falls apart, one of its victims investigates the disappearance of a woman from a container ship.

 

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IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle (Format: Audiobook):

A Manhattan lawyer finds herself confronting a vision she had when elements of it come to life on schedule.

 

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IF IT BLEEDS by Stephen King (Format: eBook):

Four novellas: “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” “The Life of Chuck,” “Rat” and “If It Bleeds.”

 

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LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (Format eBook):

An artist upends a quiet town outside Cleveland.

 

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MASKED PREY by John Sandford (Format: eBook):

The 30th book in the Prey series. Washington politicians ask Lucas Davenport to look into someone who is targeting their children.

 

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MIRROR & THE LIGHT by Hilary Mantel (Format: eBook):

The third book in the Wolf Hall trilogy. After Anne Boleyn’s execution, Thomas Cromwell’s enemies assemble.

 

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NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney (Format: Audiobook):

The connection between a high school star athlete and a loner ebbs and flows when they go to Trinity College in Dublin.

 

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REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Anne Tyler (Format: eBook):

Micah Mortimer’s orderly existence is thrown off kilter when his partner faces eviction and a teenager claims to be his son.

 

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THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (Format: Audiobook):

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

 

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WALK THE WIRE by David Baldacci:

The sixth book in the Memory Man series. Decker and Jamison investigate a murder in a North Dakota town in a fracking boom.

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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (eBook):

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.

 

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WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. Finn (Format: Audiobook):

A recluse who drinks heavily and takes prescription drugs may have witnessed a crime across from her Harlem townhouse.

 

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NON-FICTION:

BECOMING by Michelle Obama (eBook):

The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent.

 

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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah (Format: eBook):

A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”

 

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EDUCATED by Tara Westover (Format: eBook):

The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.

 

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FRONT ROW AT THE TRUMP SHOW by Jonathan Karl (Format: Audiobook):

The ABC News chief White House correspondent gives his perspective on our current president and describes the shifts within their relationship.

 

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THE GREAT INFLUENZA by John M. Barry (Format: eBook):

An overview of the 1918 flu epidemic and cautionary tale for similar kinds of large-scale outbreaks.

 

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HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD by Robert Kolker (Format: Audiobook):

From 1945 to 1965, a family in Colorado had 12 children, six of whom went on to develop schizophrenia.

 

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THE MAMBA MENTALITY by Kobe Bryant (Format: eBook):

Various skills and techniques used on the court by the Los Angeles Lakers player.

 

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MORE MYSELF by Alicia Keys with Michelle Burford (Format: Audiobook):

The Grammy Award-winning musician retraces her path to discovering her own worth.

 

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SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari (Format: Audiobook)

How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species.

 

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THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson (Format: Audiobook):

An examination of the leadership of the prime minister Winston Churchill.

 

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TALKING TO STRANGERS by Malcolm Gladwell (Format: eBook):

Famous examples of miscommunication serve as the backdrop to explain potential conflicts and misunderstandings.

 

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UNORTHODOX by Deborah Feldman (Format: eBook):

A woman breaks free of the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn in which she was raised.

 

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle (Format: eBook):

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

 

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Stay safe and read on!

Linda Reimer, SSL

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Note: this list contains all the New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that are owned by libraries within the Southern Tier Library System.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is our bi-weekly recommended listening posting for Friday, May 1, 2020.

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Our listening suggestions today includes ten streaming albums, from the Freegal Music Catalog, and a selection of related music videos.

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 If you have questions about how to use the Freegal Music Service, please let me know! You can contact me by leaving a message on the blog.

Or, you can send an email to the following address reimerl@stls.org and I’ll get back to you!

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Freegal Streaming Suggestions:

500 Miles Away From Home (1963) by Bobby Bare (Genre: Country, Pop, Folk)

Bobby Bare was born in Ohio, made his first guitar as a child, dropped out of school as a youth, became a professional musician in his teens and then moved to California to have a better shot at becoming a successful musician and recording artist. His first hit single “All American Boy” was released in 1959 and he’s been performing and recording ever since. 500 Miles Away From Home is his first album and the songs offer a pleasing mix of country and folk with a bit of what today we’d call a social justice theme mixed in.

Songs List:
500 Miles Away from Home
Homestead on the Farm
Let Me Tell You About Mary
Abilene
Gotta Travel On
Lynchin’ Party (LR Note: The song focuses on mob mentality and the evils of racism)
Worried Man Blues
I Wonder Where You Are Tonight
Noah’s Ark
Sailor Man
What Kind of Bird Is That
Jeannie’s Last Kiss

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Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath (2014) by Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath (Genre: R&B, Funk, Rock)

On Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath, the Austin based Latin funk band covers Black Sabbath’s songs and makes them their own – in a upbeat, funky way!

Songs List: The Wizard, Iron Man, N.I.B., Black Sabbath, Hand of Doom, Into the Void & Planet Caravan.

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Boardwalk Party: 50 Old Fashioned Jazz Songs Various Artists (Genre: Vocal, Jazz)

Just like the title says, this collection features 50 old fashioned jazz songs, horns and velvety vocals abound with a pinch and dash of strings.

Songs/artists include: I’m in the Mood for Love by Doris Day, Big Noise from Winnetka by Bob Crosby, Fire Dance by Woody Herman, A Night in Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie, Love in New Orleans by Gerry Mulligan, The Mocche by Duke Ellington & Telestar by The London Pops Orchestra.

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The Legendary Sun Classics by Carl Perkins (Genre: Traditional Rock, Rockabilly)

Carl Perkins isn’t as well known today as he should be; he is remembered by many simply for his song Blue Suede Shoes, which was a much bigger hit for Elvis Presley. However, this early rock pioneer was a terrific guitar player incorporating country and blues influences into his early rock style. He greatly influenced many subsequent guitarists including George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Brian Setzer and Dave Edmunds; and indeed, the Beatles recorded several of his songs on their early albums.

The song on this album were recorded during his Sun Records days, when the head honcho of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, was also recording some other up and coming musicians named Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, and if you like guitar music – check this LP out!

Song List:
Blue Suede Shoes
Matchbox
Put Your Cat Clothes On
Dixie Fried
Honey Don’t
Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing
Boppin’ The Blues
Movie Magg
Pink Pedal Pushers
Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
Right String Baby
Wrong Yo-Yo
Sure To Fall
That Don’t Move Me
Caldonia

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Love In a Smalltown (1990) by K.T. Oslin (Genre: Country)

Love In a Smalltown is a classic album by the feminist country singer K. T. Oslin; which weaves feminist themes and details of small town life into the grooves of the music.

Song List: Come Next Monday, Oo-Wee, Mary and Willie, Love Is Strange, Momma Was a Dancer, New Way Home, Cornell Crawford, Still On My Mind, You Call Everybody Darling & Two Hearts.

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On Fire With Louis Jordan by Louis Jordan (Genre: Jazz, Blues, R&B)

On Fire is a collection of the great saxophonist and jump band leader Louis Jordan vintage music. Jordan was a very energetic performer and you can hear that in the music!

Songs in the 25-song set include Cat Scratchin’, Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens, Whiskey, Do Your Stuff, Let The Good Time Roll, Gotta Go, Caldonia, Chicken Back, Ella Mae, Choo Choo Ch’boogie, A Dollar Down, I’ve Seen What You’ve Done & Saturday Night Fish Fry.

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Open Fire, Two Guitars (1959) by Johnny Mathis (Genre: Vocal, Easy Listening)

Open Fire, Two Guitars is a 12-song collection of soothing tunes from the inestimable Johnny Mathis. And the “open fire”, refers to a fire in a  fireplace and not gun fire, so rest assured, this is a calming collection of music!

Song List: Open Fire, Bye Bye Blackbird, In the Still of the Night, Embraceable You, I’ll Be Seeing You, Tenderly, When I Fall In Love, I Concentrate On You, Please Be Kind, You’ll Never Know, I’m Just A Boy In Love &  My Funny Valentine,

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Philadelphia Pop: Rockin’ and Croonin’ on Bandstand, 1957-1959 BY Various Artists

Philadelphia Pop: Rockin’ and Croonin’ on Bandstand, 1957-1959 is a 44-song blast from the past collection of early rock favorites from Philadelphia based musicians. Songs/artists in the collection include: Butterfly by Charlie Gracie, Turn Me Loose by Fabian, Venus by Frankie Avalon, At the Hop by Danny and the Juniors, All I Want Is You by Bobby Rydell, Get a Job by The Silhouettes & I Dig Girls by Frankie Avalon

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The James P. Johnson Collection 1921-49 (Genre: Jazz)

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Victory Stride: The Symphonic Music Of James P. Johnson (Genre: Jazz, Classical)

James P. Johnson was the premier stride pianist of the 1920s and 1930s, and influenced many subsequent musicians including Duke Ellington, Fats Waller & Thelonious Monk. Johnson was a very versatile musician and played classical and jazz music. He backed a number of prominent jazz and blues players of the era, including Ethel Waters, Clarence Williams and Bessie Smith, as well as leading his own band and producing solo recordings. Johnson spent most of the 1930s working on in-depth & longer compositions and returned to shorter works in the 1940s.

The James P. Johnson Collection 1921-49 allows us to hear the great musical talent of Johnson playing stride piano. Songs in the 47-song set includes The Harlem Strut, Carolina Shout, Harlem Woogie, Dear Old Southland, Old Fashioned Love & Boogie Woogie Stride.

The Victory Stride collection features longer Johnson compositions recorded by the Concordia Orchestra with Marin Alsop conducing & Leslie Stifleman on piano. Songs on the LP include Victory Stride (1944), Harlem Symphony, Subway Journey (1932), Harlem Symphony, April in Paris (1932), Harlem Symphony, Night Club (1932), Harlem Symphony (1932), Baptist Mission & American Symphonic Suite (1934) Based on St. Louis Blues by W. C. Handy.

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Your Good Girls Gonna Go Bad (1967) by Tammy Wynette (Genre: Country)

Your Good Girls Gonna Go Bad is the debut album by the classic country singer Tammy Wynette. The record features her first two hit singles and can be heard as musical snap-shot of what great country music sounded like in the mid-sixties.

Song List: Apartment No. 9, Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind), Don’t Touch Me, There Goes My Everything, Send Me No Roses, Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad, Walk Through This World With Me, I’m Not Mine to Give, I Wound Easy (But I Heal Fast) & Almost Persuaded

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Recommended Videos:

500 Miles by Bobby Bare

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Homestead On The Farm by Bobby Bare

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Planet Caravan by Brownout

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The Wizard by Brownout

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Prelude to a Kiss by Mel Tormé

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Stardust by Carmen McRay

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Boppin’ The Blues by Carl Perkins

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Where The Rio de Rosa Flows by Carl Perkins

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Come Next Monday by K. T. Oslin

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New Way Home by K. T. Oslin

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Caldonia by Louis Jordan

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Saturday Night Fish Fry by Louis Jordan

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Bye, Bye Blackbird by Johnny Mathis

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When I Fall in Love by Johnny Mathis

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Cool Baby by Charlie Gracie

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Turn Me Loose by Fabian

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Harlem Strut by James P. Johnson

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Harlem Symphony, Night Club composed by James P. Johnson and performed by The Concordia Orchestra, Marin Alsop conducing with Leslie Stifleman on piano

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Apartment No. 9 by Tammy Wynette

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Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad by Tammy Wynette

Be well!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

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Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles 1955-1990. Record Research Inc. Menomonee Falls. 1991.

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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Bobby Bare. Biography. Official Bobby Bare website. https://www.bobbybare.com/biography

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Digital Catalogs:

Note: There are apps for each catalog or, you can download digital content to a PC.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

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Freegal Music

You can stream an unlimited amount of music for the duration of the Corona Crisis.

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RBDigital:

RBDigital offers on-demand magazines, so you can read til your heart’s content!

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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is our bi-weekly recommended listening posting for Monday, April 27, 2020.

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Our listening suggestions today includes ten streaming albums, from the Freegal Music Catalog, and a selection of related music videos.

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 If you have questions about how to use the Freegal Music Service, please let me know! You can contact me by leaving a message on the blog.

Or, you can send an email to the following address reimerl@stls.org and I’ll get back to you!

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Freegal Streaming Suggestions:

The Best Of Elvin Bishop: Tulsa Shuffle by Elvin Bishop (Genre: Blues-Rock)

Elvin Bishop was born in California, grew up in Iowa and, inspired by the blues music he heard on the radio,  began playing the guitar as a youth. Bishop went on to join the popular sixties group The Butterfield Blues Band before launching a solo career. The Best Of Elvin: Bishop: Tulsa Shuffle is a soulful, rocking bluesy 18-song collection by Bishop and his early seventies band.

Songs include: Tulsa Shuffle, How Much More, The Things That I Used To Do, Sweet Potato, Honey Bee, Prisoner of Love, Party Till The Cows Come Home, Hogbottom (Album Version), As the Years Go Passing By, So Good, Rock My Soul and Rockbottom

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Big Hits Of The Fifties by Various Artists (Genre: Pop, Vocal)

Big Hits Of The Fifties features great pop music from the fifties, an era when the radio waves were filled with optimistic music, and singers offering sweet vocals were backed up by buoyant swinging orchestras and strings.

This is an relaxing and optimistic 23-song set featuring the tunes: Too Young by Nat King Cole, Jezebel by Frankie Lane, Glow Worm by The Mills Brothers, Half As Much by Rosemary Clooney, Rags To Riches by Tony Bennett, The Blacksmith Blues by Ella Mae Morse & Sugarbush by Doris Day & Frankie Lane.

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The Final (1994) by Wham! (Genre: Pop)

The Final was Wham!’s finale, a greatest hits collection, first released in 1994, that does indeed feature all their pop hits including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Carless Whisper, I’m Your Man, Everything She Wants and Freedom.

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Fetch The Bolt Cutters (2020) by Fiona Apple (Genre: Pop, Rock)

Fetch The Bolt Cutters is the new and delightful fifth album by Fiona Apple. The songs on the album feature a well-balanced plate of emotions including angst, anger, humor and playfulness.

Song List: I Want You To Love Me, Shameika, Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Under The Table, Relay, Rack of His, Newspaper, Ladies, Heavy Balloon, Cosmonauts, For Her, Drumset & On I Go.

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French Impressions (2012) by Joshua Bell & with Jeremy Denk (Genre: Classical, Violin)

The talented violinist Joshua Bell plays music by romantic French composers on this Uplifting LP accompanied by the pianist Jeremy Denk.The album includes the following sonatas: Sonata No. 1 in D minor, for violin & piano, Op. 75 by Camille Saint-Saëns, Sonata in A major, for violin & piano by César Franck & Sonata for violin & piano by Maurice Ravel.

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Good Souls, Better Angels (2020) by Lucinda Williams (Genre: Folk, Roots Rock)

Good Souls, Better Angels is the brand-new album by the reflective singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams.

Williams is a very introspective songwriter who writes of the highs and lows of life and incorporates little daily life details, like descriptions of how the coffee is brewing and the sound made by a car driving over a gravel road into music making her songs both thoughtful in scope and exceptionally accessible. If you’re familiar with William’s music, then you already know this! If you’re a new to William’s music, I urge you to give her music a listen as it is wonderful!

Song List: You Can’t Rule Me, Bad News Blues, Man Without a Soul, Big Black Train, Wakin’ Up, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Shadows & Doubts, When the Way Gets Dark, Bone of Contention, Down Past the Bottom, Big Rotator & Good Souls.

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Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965) by Patti Page (Genre: Easy Listening, Vocal, Country)

Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte is a classic album by the great vocalist Patti Page.

Songs include Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, Try to Remember, The Green Leaves of Summer, Jamacia Farewell, Croce di oro, Who’s Gonna Show My Pretty Little Feet, Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair, Longing to Hold You Again, Danny Boy, Can’t Help Falling in Love and Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair).

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Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (2019) by Pete Seeger (Genre: Folk)

This Smithsonian Folkways description of this 137-song collection, released on what would have been Seegers 100th birthday – May 3, 2019, is a good one, so I’m going to cite it here!

“He was a singer, a rebel, and a voice of the people. With a banjo and a selfless dedication to justice and the transformative power of music, he inspired all of humanity to question the status quo, to sing out and speak up against oppression wherever they witnessed it. His body of work reflects a deep reverence for the earth and all of those who walk on it; you can hear it in his voice and in the voices of the thousands of people who sang and continue to sing with him every day. Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection is a career-spanning anthology of one of America’s most quintessential, celebrated, and influential musicians. Featuring classic recordings, 20 previously unreleased tracks, historic live performances, and special collaborations, this set encompasses over 60 years of Pete’s Folkways catalog, released on the occasion of his 100th birthday.”

The collection features all the popular songs Seeger is know for including We Shall Overcome, If I Had a Hammer, Turn Turn Turn, Goodnight, Irene, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine and many more.

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Tapestry (1963/2013) by Chuck Wayne (Genre: Jazz)

Tapestry is considered by many to be the best album by the bebop jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne – check it out!

Song List: On Green Dolphin Street, My Favorite Things, Satin Doll, Down the Road, Loads of Love, Askaterine, Lady’s Love Song, ‘Round Midnight, Greensleeves, Softly as in a Morning & Thank the Lord.

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The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (1973) by Bruce Springsteen (Genre: Rock, Folk)

The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle is Springsteen’s third album, and it is a bit of a transitional one, as he moved away from the more folk based music featured on his first two albums to the more rock based music he has since become known for. Although by whatever description you give his music, he is a terrific songwriter and performer – enjoy!

Song List: The E Street Shuffle, 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy), Kitty’s Back, Wild Billy’s Circus Story, Incident on 57th Street, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) & New York City Serenade.

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Recommended Videos:

Hogbottom by Elvin Bishop

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Party Till The Cows Come Home by Elvin Bishop

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The Blacksmith Blues by Ella Mae Morse

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Too Young by Nat King Cole

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Freedom by Wham!

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Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham!

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Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple

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Shameika by Fiona Apple

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Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 75: I. Allegro agitato by Joshua Bell with Jeremy Denk

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Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, M. 77: III. Perpetuum mobile. Allegretto by Joshua Bell with Jeremy Denk

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Man Without A Soul by Lucinda Williams

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When The Way Gets Dark by Lucinda Williams

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Green Leaves of Summery by Patti Page

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Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte by Patti Page

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We Shall Overcome by Pete Seeger

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Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger

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‘Round Midnight by Chuck Wayne

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Softly As The Morning Sunrise by Chuck Wayne

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E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen

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Rosalita by Bruce Springsteen

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Be well!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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Isle Of Calm: Stream 6 Hours Of Soothing Music, https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/815457669/isle-of-calm-stream-6-hours-of-soothing-music

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Lucinda Williams: A Guide To Her Best Songs written by Ann Powers. NPR. April 24, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/04/24/843340924/lucinda-williams-a-guide-to-her-best-songs

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The Wit, Wisdom And Awe Of Fiona Apple’s ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’by Bob Boilen, Ann Powers & Marissa Lorusso. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/19/838236937/the-wit-wisdom-and-awe-of-fiona-apples-fetch-the-bolt-cutters

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Digital Catalogs:

Note: There are apps for each catalog or, you can download digital content to a PC.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

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Freegal Music

You can stream an unlimited amount of music for the duration of the Corona Crisis.

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RBDigital:

RBDigital offers on-demand magazines, so you can read til your heart’s content!

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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, and while the library is closed the weekly recommendations will all be digital – eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

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April is National Humor Month, and as we’re running out of month, I thought I’d recommend humorous titles this week!

Recommended Reads:

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion: A Novel by Fannie Flagg (Format: eBook)

The one and only Fannie Flagg, beloved author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, and I Still Dream About You, is at her hilarious and superb best in this new comic mystery novel about two women who are forced to reimagine who they are.

Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with is her mother, the formidable Lenore Simmons Krackenberry. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter. Then one day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a secret about her mother’s past that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.

Sookie begins a search for answers that takes her to California, the Midwest, and back in time, to the 1940s, when an irrepressible woman named Fritzi takes on the job of running her family’s filling station. Soon truck drivers are changing their routes to fill up at the All-Girl Filling Station. Then, Fritzi sees an opportunity for an even more groundbreaking adventure. As Sookie learns about the adventures of the girls at the All-Girl Filling Station, she finds herself with new inspiration for her own life.

Fabulous, fun-filled, spanning decades and generations, and centered on a little-known aspect of America’s twentieth-century story, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion is another irresistible novel by the remarkable Fannie Flagg.

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel by Michael Chabon (Format: eBook)

The epic, beloved novel of two boy geniuses dreaming up superheroes in New York’s Golden Age of comics, now with special bonus material by the author—soon to be a Showtime limited series

“It’s absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book World

Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Decade by Entertainment Weekly • Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize

A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939.

A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.

Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age.

Winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the New York Society Library Book Award

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I Remember Nothing written and read by Nora Ephron (Format: Audiobook)

Nora Ephron returns with her first audiobook since the astounding success of I Feel Bad About My Neck, taking a cool, hard, hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten.

Ephron writes about falling hard for a way of life (“Journalism: A Love Story”) and about breaking up even harder with the men in her life (“The D Word”); lists “Twenty-five Things People Have a Shocking Capacity to Be Surprised by Over and Over Again” (“There is no explaining the stock market but people try”; “Cary Grant was Jewish”; “Men cheat”); reveals the alarming evolution, a decade after she wrote and directed You’ve Got Mail, of her relationship with her in-box (“The Six Stages of E-Mail”); and asks the age-old question, which came first, the chicken soup or the cold? All the while, she gives candid, edgy voice to everything women who have reached a certain age have been thinking . . . but rarely acknowledging.

Filled with insights and observations that instantly ring true—and could have come only from Nora Ephron—I Remember Nothing is pure joy.

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I’m A Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson (Format: eBook)

A classic from the New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body.

After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens—as he later put it, “it was clear my people needed me”). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item.

Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I’m a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man’s attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

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Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog written and read by Dave Barry (Format: Audiobook)

In this “little gem” (Washington Independent Review of Books), Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and New York Timesbestselling author Dave Barry learns how to age happily from his old but joyful dog, Lucy.

As Dave Barry turns seventy—not happily—he realizes that his dog, Lucy, is dealing with old age far better than he is. She has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun. So Dave decides to figure out how Lucy manages to stay so happy, to see if he can make his own life happier by doing the things she does (except for drinking from the toilet). He reconnects with old friends and tries to make new ones—which turns out to be a struggle, because Lucy likes people a lot more than he does. And he gets back in touch with two ridiculous but fun groups from his past: the Lawn Rangers, a group of guys who march in parades pushing lawnmowers and twirling brooms (alcohol is involved), and the Rock Bottom Remainders, the world’s oldest and least-talented all-author band. With each new lesson, Dave riffs hilariously on dogs, people, and life in general, while also pondering Deep Questions, such as when it’s okay to lie. (Answer: when scallops are involved.)

Lessons from Lucy shows readers a new side to Dave Barry that’s “touching and sentimental, but there’s still a laugh on every page” (Sacramento Bee). The master humorist has written a witty and affable guide to joyous living at any age.

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Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Format: Audiobook)

A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Can’t Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers and cashiers with 6-inch fingernails. Compared by The New Yorker to Twain and Hawthorne, Sedaris has become one of our best-loved authors. “Sedaris is an amazing reader whose appearances draw hundreds, and his performances including a jaw-dropping impression of Billie Holiday singing “I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner” are unforgettable. Sedaris’s essays on living in Paris are some of the funniest he’s ever written. At last, someone even meaner than the French! The sort of blithely sophisticated, loopy humour that might have resulted if Dorothy Parker and James Thurber had had a love child.” –Entertainment Weekly on Barrel Fever

“Sidesplitting…Not one of the essays in this new collection failed to crack me up; frequently I was helpless.” –The New York Times Book Review on Naked

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Naked Came The Florida Man by Tim Dorsey (Format: eBook)

Can it still be hurricane season? Must be, because here come Serge A. Storms and his perpetually stoned bro, Coleman, in Tim Dorsey’s gonzo crime caper.” –New York Times Book Review

The “compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny” (Boston Globe) Tim Dorsey returns with an insanely entertaining tale in which the inimitable Serge A. Storms sees dead people and investigates a creepy urban myth that may be all too real.

Though another devastating hurricane is raking Florida, its awesome power can’t stop the Sunshine State’s most loyal son, Serge A. Storms, from his latest scenic road trip: a cemetery tour. With his best bro Colman riding shotgun, Serge hits the highway in his ’69 gold Plymouth Satellite, putting pedal to the metal on a grand tour of the past. Beginning in Key West, the sunshine boys’ odyssey includes a forgotten mass grave in Palm Beach county holding the remains of African Americans killed by the Great Hurricane of 1928, and the resting place of one world-famous television dolphin (RIP Flipper) from the 1960s.

But one deadland—a haunted old sugar field—holds more than just the bones of those who’ve passed. For years, local children have whispered about a boogeyman hiding among the stalks. Could it be the same maniac known as Naked Florida man who’s been raising hell all over the place?

There are few things Serge loves more than solving a good mystery and bestowing justice on miscreants who sully his beloved home’s good name. With his partner bong boy, Florida’s psycho superhero will find the truth in this hilariously violent delight—packed with history, lore, and plenty of motel antics—from the insanely ingenious Tim Dorsey.

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One For The Money by Janet Evanovich (Format: Audiobook)

Discover where it all began—#1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich’s first “snappily written, fast-paced, and witty” (USA TODAY) novel in the beloved Stephanie Plum series featuring a feisty and funny heroine who “comes roaring in like a blast of very fresh air” (The Washington Post).

Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie’s opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.

She’s a product of the “burg,” a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Out of work and out of money, Stephanie blackmails her bail-bondsman cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, el-primo bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook. Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli’s the inamorato who charmed Stephanie out of her virginity at age sixteen. There’s still powerful chemistry between them, so the chase should be interesting…and could also be extremely dangerous.

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Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple (Format: eBook)

A brilliant novel from the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, about a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, forced to abandon her small ambitions and awake to a strange, new future.

Eleanor knows she’s a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won’t swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother’s company. It’s also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he’s on vacation. Just when it seems like things can’t go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret.

TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.

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Toucan Keep A Secret by Donna Andrews (Format: eBook)

Toucan keep a secret, if one of them is dead.

Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal Church locking up after an event and checking on the toucan her friend Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. When she investigates the sound of hammering in the columbarium (the underground crypt where cremated remains are buried), Meg finds the murdered body of an elderly parishioner. Several niches have been chiseled open; several urns knocked out; and amid the spilled ashes is a gold ring with a huge red stone.

The curmudgeonly victim had become disgruntled with the church and ranted all over town about taking back his wife’s ashes. Did someone who had it in for him follow him to the columbarium? Or was the motive grave robbery? Or did he see someone breaking in and investigate? Why was the ruby left behind?

While Chief Burke investigates the murder, Robyn recruits Meg to contact the families of the people whose ashes were disturbed. While doing so, Meg learns many secrets about Caerphilly’s history—and finds that the toucan may play a role in unmasking the killer. Clues and events indicate that a thief broke into the church to steal the toucan the night of the murder, so Meg decides to set a trap for the would-be toucan thief—who might also be the killer.

Toucan Keep a Secret is the twenty-third book in New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews’ hilarious Mag Langslow mystery series.

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Be well and happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the publisher unless otherwise specified.

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StarCat

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

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, as regular blog visitors know, I usually post links to request the print versions of the New York Times Bestsellers on Sundays, so that patrons can request those (print) titles in StarCat (the catalog of physical library materials).

 

However, as all the libraries in the Southern Tier Library System are currently closed, you can’t place holds for physical materials, nor, of course, pick up holds.

 

So for the duration of the Corona Virus crisis, I’m going to post links to the New York Times Bestsellers, in eBook or downloadable audiobook form, that can be requested, or checked out, through the Digital Catalog.

 

If you have questions about how to access digital content you can write a comment and post it on the blog, or send me, SSCL Librarian Linda Reimer, questions via email: reimerl@stls.org

 

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And here are the New York Times Bestsellers that can be found in the Digital Catalog.

 

FICTION:

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins (Format: eBook):

A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.

 

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THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate (Format: Audiobook):

The stories of three women struggling to get from Louisiana to Texas during Reconstruction are discovered by a first-year teacher living a century later.

 

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THE BOY FROM THE WOODS by Harlan Coben (Format: eBook):

When a girl goes missing, a private investigator’s feral childhood becomes an asset in the search.

 

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THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett (Format: Audiobook):

A sibling relationship is impacted when the family goes from poverty to wealth and back again over the course of many decades.

 

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THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes (Format: Audiobook):

In Depression-era America, five women refuse to be cowed by men or convention as they deliver books throughout the mountains of Kentucky.

 

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THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel (Format: eBook):

Years after an international Ponzi scheme falls apart, one of its victims investigates the disappearance of a woman from a container ship.

 

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IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle (Format: Audiobook):

A Manhattan lawyer finds herself confronting a vision she had when elements of it come to life on schedule.

 

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LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (Format eBook):

An artist upends a quiet town outside Cleveland.

 

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MASKED PREY by John Sandford (Format: eBook):

The 30th book in the Prey series. Washington politicians ask Lucas Davenport to look into someone who is targeting their children.

 

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MIRROR & THE LIGHT by Hilary Mantel (Format: eBook):

The third book in the Wolf Hall trilogy. After Anne Boleyn’s execution, Thomas Cromwell’s enemies assemble.

 

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REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Anne Tyler (Format: eBook):

Micah Mortimer’s orderly existence is thrown off kilter when his partner faces eviction and a teenager claims to be his son.

 

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THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (Format: Audiobook):

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

 

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THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris (Format: eBook):

A concentration camp detainee tasked with permanently marking fellow prisoners falls in love with one of them.

 

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TEXAS OUTLAW by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle (Format: eBook):

A Texas Ranger goes to a small town to investigate whether an accidental death was actually a murder.

 

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VALENTINE by Elizabeth Wetmore (Format: Audiobook):

 

A Texas town on the verge of an oil boom in 1976 becomes divided when a teenage girl is brutally attacked.

 

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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (eBook):

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.

 

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WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. Finn (Format: Audiobook):

A recluse who drinks heavily and takes prescription drugs may have witnessed a crime across from her Harlem townhouse.

 

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NON-FICTION:

BECOMING by Michelle Obama (eBook):

The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent.

 

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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah (Format: eBook):

A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”

 

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EDUCATED by Tara Westover (Format: eBook):

The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.

 

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FRONT ROW AT THE TRUMP SHOW by Jonathan Karl (Format: Audiobook):

The ABC News chief White House correspondent gives his perspective on our current president and describes the shifts within their relationship.

 

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THE GREAT INFLUENZA by John M. Barry (Format: eBook):

An overview of the 1918 flu epidemic and cautionary tale for similar kinds of large-scale outbreaks.

 

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HELL AND OTHER DESTINATIONS by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward:

A memoir by America’s first female secretary of state detailing some of her accomplishments after leaving that post.

 

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HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD by Robert Kolker (Format: Audiobook):

From 1945 to 1965, a family in Colorado had 12 children, six of whom went on to develop schizophrenia.

 

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THE MAMBA MENTALITY by Kobe Bryant (Format: eBook):

Various skills and techniques used on the court by the Los Angeles Lakers player.

 

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MORE MYSELF by Alicia Keys with Michelle Burford (Format: Audiobook):

The Grammy Award-winning musician retraces her path to discovering her own worth.

 

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SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari (Format: Audiobook)

How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species.

 

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THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson (Format: Audiobook):

An examination of the leadership of the prime minister Winston Churchill.

 

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UNORTHODOX by Deborah Feldman (Format: eBook):

A woman breaks free of the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn in which she was raised.

 

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle (Format: eBook):

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

 

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Stay safe and read on!

Linda Reimer, SSL

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Note: this list contains all the New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that are owned by libraries within the Southern Tier Library System.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is our bi-weekly recommended listening posting for Friday, April 24, 2020.

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Our listening suggestions today includes ten streaming albums, from the Freegal Music Catalog, and a selection of related music videos.

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 If you have questions about how to use the Freegal Music Service, please let me know! You can contact me by leaving a message on the blog.

Or, you can send an email to the following address reimerl@stls.org and I’ll get back to you!

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Freegal Streaming Suggestions:

1936-1940 Anthology by Lil Hardin Armstrong (Genre: Jazz)

Lil Hardin was a terrific jazz pianist in an era when it was hard for female performers to be taken seriously. She met Louis Armstrong in 1922, when they both were members of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. She subsequently married Armstrong and worked with him as his manager and co-composer and arranger. After the couple split up in the early 1930s, she formed a big band of her own and later worked as a solo musician in Chicago.

And she recorded some great music!

This 26-song set includes the following tunes!
Just For A Thrill
Doin’ The Suzie-Q
Let’s Get Happy Together
Oriental Swing
Harlem On Saturday Night
You Shall Reap What You Sow
Born To Swing
Safely Locked Up In My Heart
You Mean So Much To Me

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Boogie Gals by Various Artists (Genre: Jazz, Swing)

Boogie Gals is a 48-song collection of tunes recorded by female artists during the Big Band Era. The set includes songs by singer & pianist Hadda Brooks, singer Mildred Anderson, singer and pianist Vivian Greene and pianist and singer Betty Hall Jones.

This is a cheerful collection of boogie woogie tunes!

The collection features the following songs:
Stompin’ the Boogie by Hadda Brooks
Doin’ the Boogie Woogie by Mildred Anderson
Red Light by Vivian Greene
Learn to Boogie by Betty Hall Jones
Joogie Boogie by Lil Armstorng
Elevator Boogie by Betty Jean Washington
Piney’s Boogie Woogie by Honey Lee
Player Piano Boogie by Martha Davis

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The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 (1945 – 1946) by Cousin Joe (Genre: Blues)

Cousin Joe was born in Louisiana in 1907, and moved with his family to New Orleans when he was 12 years old. While growing up in New Orleans he heard the great mix of blues, jazz and creole music that the city is known for, he learned to play the guitar and ukulele and began a music career. He was a flamboyant singer and one of the early jazz & blues pioneers to record music; so take a trip back to the Jazz Age and enjoy listening to this collection!

Songs in the 21-song set include Broken Man Blues, Levee Blues, Bad Boy Blues, Saw Will Man Blues, Post War Future Blues, My Love Comes Tumblin’ Down & Desperate G.I. Blues.

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God Bless The Grass (1966) by Pete Seeger (Genre: Folk)

This album was actually released four years before the first Earth Day!

And the fiftieth Earth Day was this past Wednesday, April 22, so it seems like a good time to include an album that focuses on the beauty of the natural world, and promotes the idea that we should protect mother earth.

The album features 21 songs including The Power And The Glory, Pretty Saro, 70 Miles, The Faucets Are Dripping, God Bless The Grass, The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood, Coal Creek March, The Girl I Left Behind, Coyote, My Little Brother, Preserven El Parque Elysian My Dirty Stream, America, the Beautiful & There’ll Come A Time

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No Place That Far (1998) by Sara Evans (Genre: Country)

No Place That Far is the critically acclaimed sophomore release by singer-songwriter Sara Evans, and features a strong, modern woman singing modern country songs.

Song List:
The Great Unknown
Cryin’ Game
No Place That Far
I Thought I’d See Your Face Again
Fool, I’m a Woman
Time Won’t Tell
The Knot Comes Untied
Love, Don’t Be a Stranger
These Days
Cupid
There’s Only One

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The Other Side of Desire (2015) by Rickie Lee Jones (Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Pop-Rock)

The Other Side of Desire features eleven bright, reflective songs by the inestimable singer songwriter; and her voices doesn’t seem to have changed a bit from the confident timbre it had on her first LP, 1979’s Rickie Lee Jones, released, unbelievable so – 41 years ago!

Song List:
Jimmy Choos
Valtz De Mon Pere (Lovers’ Waltz)
J’ai Connais Pas
Blinded by the Hunt
Infinity
I Wasn’t Here
Christmas in New Orleans
Feet on the Ground
Juliette
Finale: (A Spider in the Circus of the Falling Star)

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Rockin’ It With Eddie Cochran by Eddie Cochran (Genre: Rock, Traditional Rock)

Rockin’ It With Eddie Cochran features songs the skillful and tragedy fated guitarist recorded between 1954-1960. Cochran was a cool, swaggering, confident musician who died in a plane crash while on tour in the U.K. in 1960, just as his career was taking off. But fortunately, he left us some great music!

Songs in the 30-song set include Candy Kisses, Rockin’ and Flyin’, Tired and Sleepy, Chuck & Eddie’s Boogie, I’m Ready, Sittin’ in the Balcony, 20 Flight Rock & Summertime Blues.

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Roy Eldridge With The Gene Krupa Orchestra Featuring Anita O’Day (1941-1942) by Roy Eldridge with Gene Krupa & His Orchestra & Anita O’Day (Genre: Jazz, Swing)

Drummer and band leader Gene Krupa hired tqo great finds for his band in the early forties, trumpeter Roy Eldridge and singer Anita O’Day; and these two players made the swinging music even better!

The collection features 24-songs including Green Eyes, Let Me Off Uptown, After You’ve Gone, Rockin’ Chair, Stop! The Red Light’s On, Watch the Birdie, Skylark, The Walls Keep Talking & Why Fall In Love With A Stanger?

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Saginaw, Michigan (1964) by Lefty Frizzell (Genre: Country)

William Orville Frizzell was born in Texas in 1928, and acquired the nickname “Lefty” as a youth after winning a fight. He began singing professionally in his teens and became a successful, country singer and songwriter, with a honky tonk style, in the early fifties. Saginaw, Michigan is a terrific album Lefty made in 1964 – old style country music – enjoy!

Song List:
Saginaw, Michigan
Stranger
What Good Did You Get (Out of Breaking My Heart)
There’s No Food in This House
When It Rains the Blues
Hello to Him
James River
I’m Not the Man I’m Supposed To Be
Through the Eyes of a Fool
I Was Coming Home to You
Don’t Let Her See Me Cry
Lonely Heart

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The Very Best Classical New Year’s Eve by Various Artists (Genre: Light Classical)

I know, I know, we are not even close to New Years Eve!

However, this is an uplifting forty song collection of light classical music that does include one the seasonal favorite – Auld Lang Syne, and also includes:

Spring (Four Seasons) by Salzburg Baroque Orchestra
Flower Duet from Lakme by Cerise
Overture from Carmen by New Philharmonic Orchestra
Peer Gynt by London Philharmonic Orchestra
Concerto for Clarinet by London Festival Orchestra
Canon by Baroque Ensemble of Vienna
New World Symphony by London Festival Orchestra
Clair De Lune by Michael Simone
Brandenburg Concerto Baroque by Ensemble of Vienna

And we can imagine New Year’s Eve 2020, gathering with family and friends and good food, and the coming of a new, and most likely much better year arriving in 2021!

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Recommended Videos:

Lil Hardin Armstrong & her Swing Orchestra 1936-1940 Compilation

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The Pearls by Lil Hardin

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Stompin’ the Boogie by Hadda Brooks

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Elevator Boogie by Betty Jean Washington

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Everything Made of Wood Once Was a Tree (New Orleans 1984) by Cousin Joe

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Looking For My Baby by Cousin Joe

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God Bless The Grass by Pete Seeger

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The Power and the Glory by Pete Seeger

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Fool, I’m a Woman by Sara Evans

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The Great Unknown by Sara Evans

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Feet on the Ground by Rickie Lee Jones

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Jimmy Choos by Rickie Lee Jones

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Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran

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Twenty Flight Rock by Eddie Cochran

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Let Me Off Uptown by The Gene Krupa Orchestra featuring Roy Eldridge & Anita O’Day

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Thanks for the Boogie Ride by The Gene Krupa Orchestra featuring Roy Eldridge & Anita O’Day

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Saginaw, Michigan by Lefty Frizzell

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There’s No Food in This House by Lefty Frizell

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Flower Duet from Lakme by Cerise

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Pictures at an Exhibition by London Symphony Orchestra

Be well!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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10 Women in Jazz Who Never Got Their Due written by Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, April 22, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/arts/music/women-jazz-musicians.html?referringSource=articleShare

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Eddie Cochran Rockin’ It with Eddie Cochran, review by Steve Leggett, AllMusic
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rockin-it-with-eddie-cochran-mw0001980317

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Uptown by Roy Eldridge Review by Cub Koda, AllMusic
https://www.allmusic.com/album/uptown-mw0000207323

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Digital Catalogs:

Note: There are apps for each catalog or, you can download digital content to a PC.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

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Freegal Music

You can stream an unlimited amount of music for the duration of the Corona Crisis.

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RBDigital:

RBDigital offers on-demand magazines, so you can read til your heart’s content!

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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here is our bi-weekly recommended listening posting for Monday, April 20, 2020.

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Our listening suggestions today includes ten streaming albums, from the Freegal Music Catalog, and a selection of related music videos.

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 If you have questions about how to use the Freegal Music Service, please let me know! You can contact me by leaving a message on the blog.

Or, you can send an email to the following address reimerl@stls.org and I’ll get back to you!

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Freegal Streaming Suggestions:

The Archies: Greatest Hits (1969) by The Archies (Ron Dante on vocals) (Genre: Pop/Soundtrack)

Cheerful bubble gum pop at its finest!

Song List:
Sugar, Sugar
Who’s Your Baby?
Get On the Line
Over and Over
Waldo P. Emerson Jones
Bang-Shang-a-Lang
Feelin’ So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.)
Jingle Jangle
Sugar and Spice
Seventeen Ain’t Young
Everything’s Alright
Sunshine

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At the Swing Cats Ball (2011) by Don Redman and His Orchestra (Genre: Jazz, Swing, Big Band)

Born in West Virginia in 1900, clarinetist, oboist, composer and music arranger Don Redman graduated from Storer College with a degree in music in 1920. Redman went on to work in the jazz field, playing first with Billy Paige’s Broadway Syncopators and later with jazz great Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, before embarking on a solo career in the 1930s. The songs on this LP were recorded in 1957 in New York City, and were intended to be used by broadcast stations (aka TV). In addition to Redman, the recording sessions featured Joe Wilder, Seldon Powell and Coleman Hawkins; and they offer a great fly-on-the-wall type of listening experience! You can close your eyes and pretend you are in the studio, while the boys in the band are recording their up-tempo tunes on the other side of the recording booth, a stones’ throw away!

Selected songs, from the 29-song set:
Park Avenue Patter
Good Boog Di Goodie
Black Velvet
Ballade De Ballet
My Confectionary Baby
My Girl Friday
Looney
The Blame’s on You
Penthouse Alley
Seedless Grapefruit
Last Night in Town
To the River
Ballad ‘n Bounce

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Cool Daddy-O – ’60s Beatnik Songs by Various Artists (Genre: Rock, Pop Culture) 

A 36-song collection of cool, hip music from the 1960s including songs by Edd “Kookie” Byrnes, who starred in the classic sixties TV series Sunset Strip, New Orleans music star Huey “Piano” Smith and even Herman Munster!

Selected song list:
Like, I Love You by Edd “Kookie” Byrnes
Beatnik by The Royal Jokers
The Beat Generation by Mamie Van Doren
Guy Lombardo’s Back In Town by The Hermit
Herman Munster Reads by Herman Munster
Enille by The Wild Man Of Wildsville
Line For Lyons by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet
Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop by Lionel Hampton
Real Crazy Cool Big Jay McNeely

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Falling Debris (2009) by David Kilgour & Sam Hunt (Genre: Folk, Pop/Rock)

New Zealand Singer-guitarist and former Clean band member David Kilgour incorporates the great New Zealand poet Sam Hunt’s words into the songs on this album – the result is a terrific, introspective album – check it out!

Song List:
Intro
Chord
Everytime It Rains Like This
I Throw You Flowers
First One Hit
Talking of the Weather
Friend to Many
They Are Clouds
River Plateau Song
Return to Rangitoto
A Summertime Blues for Tom
Reprise

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Five Guys Named Moe Original Broadway Cast Recording (1992) (Genre: Soundtracks/Musicals)

Five Guys Named Moe tells that tale of Nomax, a sad soul whose girlfriend had just dumped him. Normax is comforted by the swinging music issuing from his vintage radio – but really, the show is about the music which comes from the catalog of the great swing artist Louis Jordan. Jordan recorded a very early music video of the song in 1943, which can be found in the suggested videos section!

A selection of songs in the 27-song set:
Early in the Morning
Five Guys Named Moe
Beware, Brother, Beware
I Like ‘Em Fat Like That
Messy Bessy
Pettin’ and Pokin’
Life Is So Peculiar
I Know What I’ve Got
Azure Te
Safe, Sane and Single
Push Ka Pi Shi Pie
Saturday Night Fish Fry

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Live at Jazzhus Slukefter 1983 by Hank Jones (Genre: Jazz)

A classic album by Jazz pianist Hank Jones recorded live in Copenhagen in June 1983.

Song List:
Just Friends (Live)
Au Privave (Live)
Alone Together (Live)
Stablemates (Live)
It Could Happen to You (Live)
Scrapple from the Apple (Live)
Budo (Live)
Tangerine (Live)
What’s New (Live)

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Mountain Frolic: Rare Old Timey Classics (1925-1930) by Various Artists:

Here is a collection of vintage string-band songs and ballads-this is what the mountain folks would sing and swing to on Saturday night in the ’20s and ’30s. A Crockett Family medley and The Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee by Doc Walsh join tunes by the Buckle Busters, Carolina Nighthawks and Bradley Kincaid plus a bunch by the Carolina Tar Heels: Roll On, Boys; Back to Mexico; Got the Farm Land Blues , and more! – JSP Records

Selected songs from the 25-song set
Medley Of Old Time Dance Tunes by the Crockett Family
Green Backed Dollar by Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters
Chesapeake Bay by Walter Couch & Wilks Ramblers
Fate Of Santa Barbara by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
North Bound Train by Nelstone’s Hawaiians
Rabbit Chase by Charlie Parker
Sugar Hill by Dad Crockett
No Business Of Mine by Smoky Mountain Ramblers

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Shapeshifting (2020) by Joe Satriani (Genre: Rock)

Shapeshifting is the brand-new album by the modern rock guitar master Joe Satriani!

Song List:
Shapeshifting
Big Distortion
All for Love
Ali Farka, Dick Dale, an Alien and Me
Teardrops
Perfect Dust
Nineteen Eighty
All My Friends Are Here
Spirits, Ghosts and Outlaws
Falling Stars
Waiting
Here the Blue River
Yesterday’s Yesterday

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Soul of Country Music (1968) by Connie Smith (Genre: Country, Classic Country)

Soul of Country is a classic album by the classic county singer Connie Smith, and it harkens back to a time that seems simpler in retrospect, but in fairness it probably wasn’t!

Song List:
Don’t Keep Me Lonely Too Long
Surely
The Last Letter
Burning Bridges
I’m Your Woman
There Goes My Everything
It Only Hurts for a Little While
Family Bible
If Teardrops Were Silver
Walk Through This World With Me
It’s Such a Pretty World Today
Touch My Heart

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Sunwatcher (2011) by Jeff Lederer (Genre: Jazz)

Sunwatcher is Saxophonist Jeff Lederer first solo album. This is a great, modern inspirational LP, check it out!

Song List
Albert’s Sun
Cristo Redentor
Arnold Schoenberg’s Son
Snake in the Blackberry Patch
Albert’s Love Theme
Arshawsky
Break Bread Together
Turiyasangitananda

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Recommended Videos:

Over And Over by The Archies

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Sugar Sugar by The Archies

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At The Swing Cats Ball by Don Redman & His Orchestra featuring Coleman Hawkings

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My Girl Friday by Don Redman & His Orchestra featuring Coleman Hawkings

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Like, I Love You by Edd “Kookie” Byrnes

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Line For Lyons by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet

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Every Time It Rains Like This by David Kilgour & Sam Hunt

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I Throw You Flowers by David Kilgour & Sam Hunt

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Five Guys Named Moe by Louis Jordan & His Orchestra

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Early in The Morning from Five Guys Named Moe

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I Know What I’ve Got from Five Guys Named Moe

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Just Friends by Hank Jones

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Tangerine by Hank Jones

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Medley Of Old Time Dance Tunes by the Crockett Family

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Rabbit Chase by Charlie Parker

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Shapeshifting by Joe Satriani

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Nineteen Eighty by Joe Satriani

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Don’t Keep My Lonely Too Long by Connie Smith

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It’s Such a Pretty World Today by Connie Smith

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Arnold Schoenberg’s Son by Jeff Lederer

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Sunwatcher by Jeff Lederer

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Be well!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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REFERENCES:

Print References

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn

Online References

AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/

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Don Redman At the Swing Cats Ball – Feat. Coleman Hawkins, Fresh Sound Records, https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/don-redman-albums/4074-at-the-swing-cats-ball-featuring-coleman-hawkins.html

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Don Redman: The Little Giant of Jazz, https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/don-redman-the-little-giant-of-jazz.htm

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Sam Hunt: We’ll be wiser, weaker folk by Colin Hogg for Newsroom, https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/04/07/1117315/sam-hunt-well-come-out-weaker-and-wiser

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Digital Catalogs:

Note: There are apps for each catalog or, you can download digital content to a PC.

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

–

Freegal Music

You can stream an unlimited amount of music for the duration of the Corona Crisis.

–

RBDigital:

RBDigital offers on-demand magazines, so you can read til your heart’s content!

–

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, and while the library is closed the weekly recommendations will all be digital – eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.

Recommended Reads:

Afterlife by Julie Alverez (Format: eBook)

A Most-Anticipated Book of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine * The New York Times * The Washington Post *Vogue * Bustle * BuzzFeed * Ms. Magazine *The Millions * The Huffington Post * PopSugar * The Lily * Goodreads * Library Journal * LitHub * Electric Literature

The first adult novel in almost fifteen years by the internationally bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

“A stunning work of art that reminds readers Alvarez is, and always has been, in a class of her own.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller The Poet X

Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.

Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?

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After Sundown by Linda Howard & Linda Jones (Format: eBook)

Danger brings together two guarded hearts in a battle for survival in this irresistible story from New York Times bestselling authors Linda Howard and Linda Jones.

Sela Gordon, the shy owner of a Tennessee general store, finds safety in solitude. But if anyone can pierce her protective shell it’s the handsome, mysterious ex-military man living alone in the wilds of Cove Mountain. For two years, he’s kept his distance—until the day he appears to warn her that a catastrophic solar storm capable of taking down the power grid is coming. Now, Sela must find the courage to become the leader Wears Valley needs.

Bitter experience has taught Ben Jernigan it’s best to look out for number one. For two years the former soldier has lived in a self-imposed exile, using a top-notch security system to keep people away. But he had to let Sela know about the impending threat—and now the quiet and undeniably sexy woman is making it too easy for him to lower his guard.

As panic spreads, Sela and Ben discover that in the dark, cut off from the outside world, there’s no more playing it safe—in life or in love.

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Big Lies in a Small Town: A Novel by Diane Chamberlain (Format: eBook)

From New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes a novel of chilling intrigue, a decades-old disappearance, and one woman’s quest to find the truth…

“A novel about arts and secrets…grippingly told…pulls readers toward a shocking conclusion.”—People magazine, Best New Books

North Carolina, 2018:
Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

North Carolina, 1940:
Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and in great need of work, she accepts. But what she doesn’t expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.

What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

“Chamberlain, a master storyteller, keeps readers hooked, with a story line that leavens history and social commentary with romance and mystery.”—Lexington Dispatch

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The Blessing Way, Leaphorn & Chee Series, Book 1 by Tony Hillerman (Format: eBook)

“Brilliant…as fascinating as it is original.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

From New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman, the first novel in his series featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn & Officer Jim Chee who encounter a bizarre case that borders between the supernatural and murder

Homicide is always an abomination, but there is something exceptionally disturbing about the victim discovered in a high, lonely place—a corpse with a mouth full of sand—abandoned at a crime scene seemingly devoid of tracks or useful clues. Though it goes against his better judgment, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn cannot help but suspect the hand of a supernatural killer.

There is palpable evil in the air, and Leaphorn’s pursuit of a Wolf-Witch leads him where even the bravest men fear, on a chilling trail that winds perilously between mysticism and murder.

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Camino Winds by John Grisham (Format: eBook)

The publication date for Camino Winds is April 27, but you can place a hold on it now!

“The best thriller writer alive.” – Ken Follett

John Grisham, #1 bestselling author and master of the legal thriller, sweeps you away to paradise for a little sun, sand, mystery, and mayhem.

With Camino Winds, America’s favorite storyteller offers the perfect escape.

Welcome back to Camino Island, where anything can happen—even a murder in the midst of a hurricane, which might prove to be the perfect crime . . .

Just as Bruce Cable’s Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for the island. Florida’s governor orders a mandatory evacuation, and most residents board up their houses and flee to the mainland, but Bruce decides to stay and ride out the storm.

The hurricane is devastating: homes and condos are leveled, hotels and storefronts ruined, streets flooded, and a dozen people lose their lives. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce’s and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson’s injuries suggests that the storm wasn’t the cause of his death: He has suffered several suspicious blows to the head.

Who would want Nelson dead? The local police are overwhelmed in the aftermath of the storm and ill equipped to handle the case. Bruce begins to wonder if the shady characters in Nelson’s novels might be more real than fictional. And somewhere on Nelson’s computer is the manuscript of his new novel. Could the key to the case be right there—in black and white? As Bruce starts to investigate, what he discovers between the lines is more shocking than any of Nelson’s plot twists—and far more dangerous.

Camino Winds is an irresistible romp and a perfectly thrilling beach read—# 1 bestselling author John Grisham at his beguiling best.

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Code Name Hélène: A Novel (Format: eBook)

Told in interweaving timelines organized around the four code names Nancy used during the war, Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding and moving story of enduring love, remarkable sacrifice and unfaltering resolve that chronicles the true exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name.

It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.

As LUCIENNE CARLIER Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname THE WHITE MOUSE from the Gestapo. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her HÉLÈNE. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly MADAM ANDRÉE, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces.

But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she—and the people she loves—become.

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Find Your Path: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul, and Get Strong with the Fit52 Life written & read by Carrie Underwood (Format: Audiobook)

“I want to be healthy and fit 52 weeks of the year, but that doesn’t mean I have to be perfect every day. This philosophy is a year-round common-sense approach to health and fitness that involves doing your best most of the time—and by that I don’t mean being naughty for three days and good for four. I mean doing your absolute best most of the time during every week, 52 weeks of the year.”—Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood believes that fitness is a lifelong journey. She wasn’t born with the toned arms and strong legs that fans know her for. Like all of us, she has to work hard every day to look the way that she does! In FIND YOUR PATH she shares her secrets with readers, with the ultimate goal of being the strongest version of themselves, and looking as good as they feel. Carrie’s book will share secrets for fitting diet and exercise into a packed routine—she’s not only a multi-Platinum singer, she’s a businesswoman and busy mom with two young children. Based on her own active lifestyle, diet, and workouts, FIND YOUR PATH is packed with meal plans, recipes, weekly workout programs, and guidelines for keeping a weekly food and workout journal. It also introduces readers to Carrie’s signature Fit52 workout, which involves a deck of cards and exercises that can be done at home—and it sets her fans on a path to sustainable health and fitness for life. Fit52 begins with embracing the “Pleasure Principle” in eating, making healthy swaps in your favorite recipes, and embracing a long view approach to health—so that a cheat a day won’t derail you.

Throughout the book, Carrie shares her personal journey towards optimal health, from her passion for sports as a kid, to the pressure to look perfect and fit the mold as she launched her career after winning American Idol, to eventually discovering the importance of balance and the meaning of true health. For Carrie, being fit isn’t about crash diets or a workout routine that you’re going to dread. It’s about healthy choices and simple meals that you can put together from the ingredients in your local grocery store, and making the time, every day, to move, to love your body, and to be the best version of yourself.

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If It Bleeds written by Stephen King & read by Will Paton (Format: Audiobook)

From #1 New York Times bestselling author, legendary storyteller, and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary collection of four new and compelling novellas—Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, Rat, and the title story If It Bleeds—each pulling readers into intriguing and frightening places.

The novella is a form King has returned to over and over again in the course of his amazing career, and many have been made into iconic films, including “The Body” (Stand By Me) and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Shawshank Redemption). Like Four Past Midnight, Different Seasons, and most recently Full Dark, No Stars, If It Bleeds is a uniquely satisfying collection of longer short fiction by an incomparably gifted writer.

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Valentine: A Novel written by Elizabeth Wetmore & read by Cassandra Campbell (Format: Audiobook)

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s.

Mercy is hard in a place like this . . .

It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.

In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.

Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader’s heart, this fierce, unflinching, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women’s strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.

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Walk The Wire written by David Baldacci & read by Kyf Brewer (Format: Audiobook)

Amos Decker — the FBI consultant with a perfect memory — returns to solve a gruesome murder in a booming North Dakota oil town in the newest thriller in David Baldacci’s #1 New York Times bestselling Memory Man series.

When Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are called to London, North Dakota, they instantly sense that the thriving fracking town is ripe for trouble. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, and the community is growing faster than houses can be built. The sudden boom has also brought a slew of problems with it, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution — and now murder.

Decker and Jamison are ordered to investigate the death of a young woman named Irene Cramer, whose body was expertly autopsied and then dumped in the open — which is only the beginning of the oddities surrounding the case. As Decker and Jamison dig into Irene’s life, they are shocked to discover that the woman who walked the streets by night as a prostitute was a teacher for a local religious sect by day — a sect operating on land once owned by a mysterious government facility that looms over the entire community.

London is a town replete with ruthless business owners, shady government officials, and religious outsiders, all determined to keep their secrets from coming out. When other murders occur, Decker will need all of his extraordinary memory and detective skills, and the assistance of a surprising ally, to root out a killer and the forces behind Cramer’s death. . . before the boom town explodes.

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Be well and happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the publisher unless otherwise specified.

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StarCat

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

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content, i.e. eBooks & downloadable audiobooks, on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

For mobile devices simply download the Libby (eBooks & downloadable audiobooks) or the RB Digital app (on-demand magazines), from your app store to get started. And if you’re using a PC or Mac simply click on the following link: https://stls.overdrive.com/

If you have questions call the library at 607-936-3713 and one of our tech coaches will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, as regular blog visitors know, I usually post links to request the print versions of the New York Times Bestsellers on Sundays, so that patrons can request those (print) titles in StarCat (the catalog of physical library materials).

 

However, as all the libraries in the Southern Tier Library System are currently closed, you can’t place holds for physical materials, nor, of course, pick up holds.

 

So for the duration of the Corona Virus crisis, I’m going to post links to the New York Times Bestsellers, in eBook or downloadable audiobook form, that can be requested, or checked out, through the Digital Catalog.

 

If you have questions about how to access digital content you can write a comment and post it on the blog, or send me, SSCL Librarian Linda Reimer, questions via email: reimerl@stls.org

 

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And here are the New York Times Bestsellers that can be found in the Digital Catalog.

 

FICTION:

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins (Format: eBook):

A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.

 

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THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate (Format: Audiobook):

The stories of three women struggling to get from Louisiana to Texas during Reconstruction are discovered by a first-year teacher living a century later.

 

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THE BOY FROM THE WOODS by Harlan Coben (Format: eBook):

When a girl goes missing, a private investigator’s feral childhood becomes an asset in the search.

 

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THE CHOSEN ONES by Veronica Roth (Format: eBook):

A funeral reunites a group of teens who saved the world from an evil force a decade ago.

 

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THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett (Format: Audiobook):

A sibling relationship is impacted when the family goes from poverty to wealth and back again over the course of many decades.

 

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EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU by Celeste Ng (Format: eBook):

Lydia, bearing the hopes of a Chinese-American family in 1970s Ohio, ends up at the bottom of a lake.

 

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THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes (Format: Audiobook):

In Depression-era America, five women refuse to be cowed by men or convention as they deliver books throughout the mountains of Kentucky.

 

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THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel (Format: eBook):

Years after an international Ponzi scheme falls apart, one of its victims investigates the disappearance of a woman from a container ship.

 

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IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle (Format: Audiobook):

A Manhattan lawyer finds herself confronting a vision she had when elements of it come to life on schedule.

 

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LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (Format eBook):

An artist upends a quiet town outside Cleveland.

 

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MIRROR & THE LIGHT by Hilary Mantel (Format: eBook):

The third book in the Wolf Hall trilogy. After Anne Boleyn’s execution, Thomas Cromwell’s enemies assemble.

 

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REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Anne Tyler (Format: eBook):

Micah Mortimer’s orderly existence is thrown off kilter when his partner faces eviction and a teenager claims to be his son.

 

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THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (Format: Audiobook):

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

 

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SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES by Grady Hendrix (Format: eBook):

After being attacked by an elderly neighbor, Patricia Campbell suspects more trouble is at hand in the form of her attacker’s handsome nephew.

 

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TEXAS OUTLAW by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle (Format: eBook):

A Texas Ranger goes to a small town to investigate whether an accidental death was actually a murder.

 

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VALENTINE by Elizabeth Wetmore (Format: Audiobook):

 

A Texas town on the verge of an oil boom in 1976 becomes divided when a teenage girl is brutally attacked.

 

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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (eBook):

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.

 

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WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. Finn (Format: Audiobook):

A recluse who drinks heavily and takes prescription drugs may have witnessed a crime across from her Harlem townhouse.

 

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NON-FICTION:

BECOMING by Michelle Obama (eBook):

The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent.

 

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EDUCATED by Tara Westover (Format: eBook):

The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.

 

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FRONT ROW AT THE TRUMP SHOW by Jonathan Karl (Format: Audiobook):

The ABC News chief White House correspondent gives his perspective on our current president and describes the shifts within their relationship.

 

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THE GIFT OF FORGIVENESS by Katherine Schwarzenegger (Format: eBook):

Pratt Stories, interviews and reflections on the act of letting go of resentment.

 

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THE GREAT INFLUENZA by John M. Barry (Format: eBook):

An overview of the 1918 flu epidemic and cautionary tale for similar kinds of large-scale outbreaks.

 

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HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD by Robert Kolker (Format: Audiobook):

From 1945 to 1965, a family in Colorado had 12 children, six of whom went on to develop schizophrenia.

 

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THE MAMBA MENTALITY by Kobe Bryant (Format: eBook):

Various skills and techniques used on the court by the Los Angeles Lakers player.

 

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MORE MYSELF by Alicia Keys with Michelle Burford (Format: Audiobook):

The Grammy Award-winning musician retraces her path to discovering her own worth.

 

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OPEN BOOK by Jessica Simpson with Kevin Carr O’Leary (Format: Audiobook):

The singer, actress and fashion designer discloses times of success, trauma and addiction.

 

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THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson (Format: Audiobook):

An examination of the leadership of the prime minister Winston Churchill.

 

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UNORTHODOX by Deborah Feldman (Format: eBook):

A woman breaks free of the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn in which she was raised.

 

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UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle (Format: eBook):

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

 

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Stay safe and read on!

Linda Reimer, SSL

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Note: this list contains all the New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that are owned by libraries within the Southern Tier Library System.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.