Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

DIGITAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

The Darkest Minds, The Darkest Minds Series, Book 1 by Alexandra Bracken (Format: eBook):

Book one in the hit series that’s soon to be a major motion picture starring Amandla Stenberg and Mandy Moore—now with a stunning new look and an exclusive bonus short story featuring Liam and his brother, Cole. When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. But when the truth about Ruby’s abilities—the truth she’s hidden from everyone, even the camp authorities—comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. On the run, she joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp: Zu, a young girl haunted by her past; Chubs, a standoffish brainiac; and Liam, their fearless leader, who is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. While they journey to find the one safe haven left for kids like them—East River—they must evade their determined pursuers, including an organization that will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. But as they get closer to grasping the things they’ve dreamed of, Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

 

A Rogue of Her Own, Windham Brides Series, Book 4 by Grace Burrowes (Format: eBook):

Continuing the New York Times bestselling series, this marriage-of-convenience romance delivers “flawless prose and delicious wit…Burrowes is pure reading gold” (Library Journal, starred review).

For Miss Charlotte Windham, the best way to maintain her spinsterhood-and her independence-is a teeny, tiny brush with scandal. She chooses wealthy, handsome upstart Lucas Sherbourne as her unwitting accomplice. He’s intelligent, logical, and ambitious. What Charlotte doesn’t count on is that one kiss will lead them straight to the altar.

Sherbourne has no love for polite society, nor is he keen on being anybody’s husband of last resort. He is attracted to Charlotte’s boldness, though-and her family’s influence. Without a title, he knows he’ll never truly be part of their world, even as he and Charlotte inch closer to a marriage that means much more than convenience. But a scheming business partner is about to test that tenuous trust, forcing Sherbourne to make a drastic choice: his wealth or his wife.

 

Texas: A Novel written by James A. Michener and read by Larry McKeever (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

Spanning four and a half centuries, James A. Michener’s monumental saga chronicles the epic history of Texas, from its Spanish roots in the age of the conquistadors to its current reputation as one of America’s most affluent, diverse, and provocative states. Among his finely drawn cast of characters, emotional and political alliances are made and broken, as the loyalties established over the course of each turbulent age inevitably collapse under the weight of wealth and industry. With Michener as our guide, Texas is a tale of patriotism and statesmanship, growth and development, violence and betrayal—a stunning achievement by a literary master.

 

The Stars Are Fire: A Novel written by Anita Shreve and read by Suzanne Elise Freeman (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Weight of Water and The Pilot’s Wife (an Oprah’s Book Club selection): an exquisitely suspenseful new novel about an extraordinary young woman tested by a catastrophic event and its devastating aftermath—based on the true story of the largest fire in Maine’s history

In October 1947, after a summer long drought, fires break out all along the Maine coast from Bar Harbor to Kittery and are soon racing out of control from town to village. Five months pregnant, Grace Holland is left alone to protect her two toddlers when her husband, Gene, joins the volunteer firefighters. Along with her best friend, Rosie, and Rosie’s two young children, Grace watches helplessly as their houses burn to the ground, the flames finally forcing them all into the ocean as a last resort. The women spend the night frantically protecting their children, and in the morning find their lives forever changed: homeless, penniless, awaiting news of their husbands’ fate, and left to face an uncertain future in a town that no longer exists. In the midst of this devastating loss, Grace discovers glorious new freedoms—joys and triumphs she could never have expected her narrow life with Gene could contain—and her spirit soars. And then the unthinkable happens—and Grace’s bravery is tested as never before.

 

Veil of Lies, Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Series, Book 1 by Jeri Westerson (Format: eBook):

Crispin Guest has fallen far from his privileged position as a knight in medieval high society. Accused of treason, abandoned by former friends and allies, he has survived on the gritty streets of London by reinventing himself as “The Tracker,” a private investigator for hire who can locate lost objects or uncover the clandestine lives of people.

When the secretive, wealthy merchant Nicholas Walcote hires Guest to investigate his alluring young wife Philippa for adultery, he discovers a seedy underworld of covert dealings and violent men of mystery. Philippa is indeed hiding something and she’s not the only one. Guest soon learns that Walcote is rumored to be in possession of a mystical holy relic so powerful that some would even kill for it.

Guest must contend with his nemesis, Sheriff Simon Wynchcombe in the search for answers to the questions surrounding the mysterious Walcotes. With each new day comes another layer of intrigue and Guest quickly becomes entangled in a strange world of superstition, seduction, and murder.

 

PRINT BOOK SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

The Atlas of Reds and Blues: A Novel by Devi S. Laskar: 

When a woman―known only as Mother―moves her family from Atlanta to its wealthy suburbs, she discovers that neither the times nor the people have changed since her childhood in a small Southern town. Despite the intervening decades, Mother is met with the same questions: Where are you from? No, where are you really from? The American-born daughter of Bengali immigrants, she finds that her answer―Here―is never enough.

Mother’s simmering anger breaks through one morning, when, during a violent and unfounded police raid on her home, she finally refuses to be complacent. As she lies bleeding from a gunshot wound, her thoughts race from childhood games with her sister and visits to cousins in India, to her time in the newsroom before having her three daughters, to the early days of her relationship with a husband who now spends more time flying business class than at home.

The Atlas of Reds and Blues grapples with the complexities of the second-generation American experience, what it means to be a woman of color in the workplace, and a sister, a wife, and a mother to daughters in today’s America. Drawing inspiration from the author’s own terrifying experience of a raid on her home, Devi S. Laskar’s debut novel explores, in exquisite, lyrical prose, an alternate reality that might have been.

 

Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh:

Mark Renton is finally a success. An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life. He’s then rocked by a chance encounter with Frank Begbie, from whom he’d been hiding for years after a terrible betrayal and the resulting debt. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist and – much to Mark’s astonishment – doesn’t seem interested in revenge.

Sick Boy and Spud, who have agendas of their own, are intrigued to learn that their old friends are back in town, but when they enter the bleak world of organ-harvesting, things start to go so badly wrong. Lurching from crisis to crisis, the four men circle each other, driven by their personal histories and addictions, confused, angry – so desperate that even Hibs winning the Scottish Cup doesn’t really help. One of these four will not survive to the end of this book. Which one of them is wearing Dead Men’s Trousers?

Fast and furious, scabrously funny and weirdly moving, this is a spectacular return of the crew from Trainspotting.

 

The Lost Night: A Novel by Andrea Bartz:

So many unreliable narrators headline thrillers these days, you’d think human beings have an innate problem with telling the difference between truth and lies, even to ourselves. (Oh, wait. Maybe we do.) But Lindsay Bach, the main narrator of Andrea Bartz’s hypnotic The Lost Night, is cut from a different cloth. She’s never doubted she was at a concert the night her best friend, Edie, committed suicide ten years ago—at least until another friend states just as unequivocally that Lindsay never arrived. Now Edie’s “suicide” is questionable as well, as Lindsay unearths a rats’ nest of secrets but finds just as many holes in her own memory. As Lindsay assembles old Facebook photos, conversations with former friends, shaky memories, and an equally shaky handheld video recording, the truth of that night draws closer, even as Lindsay wonders if she can handle knowing what really happened. Bartz drops enough hints that some readers will pat themselves on the backs for spotting the big reveal, while others will gasp. As Brooklyn’s drug-fueled hipster scene transmutes between glorious and grimy, nostalgic and toxic, Bartz’s debut thriller achieves a complex, murky depth perfectly designed to hide the facts Lindsay so desperately desires and fears. —Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review

 

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: 

From the internationally bestselling author of The Bone Season, an enthralling epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons–and the women who must lead the fight to save it.

“Spellbinding . . . This extraordinary saga includes heroism, romance, friendship, pirates, plague, diplomacy, and, of course, dragons . . . with broad appeal for fans of the epic and readers of Zen Cho, Naomi Novik, and V. E. Schwab. Highly recommended.” –Booklist, starred review

A world divided.

A queendom without an heir.

An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

 

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel:

Award-winning author Sylvain Neuvel explores an immigration dystopia in The Test

A timely novella with a powerful thematic punch, Neuvel’s latest is set in a dystopian future where immigrants seeking citizenship in England must pass a harrowing test…Obvious political commentary aside, the questions Neuvel asks readers are simple yet profound: What does it mean to be human? Is one person’s life less valuable than another’s because of ethnic, religious, or socioeconomic differences? Is the true nature of humankind fear and hate or love and acceptance? Thought-provoking and disturbing. A cautionary tale illuminated with dark enlightenment.– “Kirkus Reviews (starred review)”

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

*Magazines are available for free and on demand! You can check out magazines and read them on your computer or download the RBDigital app from your app store and read them on your mobile devices.

ABOUT LIBRARY APPS:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or RB Digital app from your app store to get started. 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, here are the top New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week that ends March 10, 2019.

(Click on the book covers to read a summary of each plot and to request the books of your choice.)

FICTION:

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:

Jessica Farris’s life unravels when she signs up for Dr. Shields’s psychology study.

 

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James:

A loner named Tracker teams up with a group of unusual characters in search of a mysterious boy.

 

THE CHEF by James Patterson and Max DiLallo

Caleb Rooney, a police detective and celebrity food truck chef, must clear his name of murder allegations.

 

CIRCE by Madeline Miller:

Zeus banishes Helios’ daughter to an island, where she must choose between living with gods or mortals.

 

CONNECTIONS IN DEATH by J. D. Robb:

Eve Dallas scours tattoo parlors and strip joints for clues to the cause of Lyle Pickering’s mysterious death.

 

THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER by Lisa Kleypas:

Desire burns between the young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, and West Ravenel, her late husband’s tormentor.

 

DEVOTIONS by Mary Oliver:

A collection of more than 200 poems spanning 50 years of the author’s career.

 

EARLY RISER BY Jasper Fforde:

Charlie Worthing investigates an outbreak of viral dreams killing a hibernating human population.

 

ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman:

A young woman’s well-ordered life is disrupted by the I.T. guy from her office.

 

FIRE AND BLOOD by George R.R. Martin:

Set 300 years before the events of “A Game of Thrones,” this is the first volume of the two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.

 

THE LAST ROMANTICS by Tara Conklin:

A family crisis tests the bonds and ideals of a renowned poet and her siblings.

 

THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS by Pam Jenoff:

Grace Healey investigates the fates of 12 women who were sent to occupied Europe to help the resistance during World War II.

 

MISSION CRITICAL by Mark Greaney:

The eighth book in the Gray Man series. Court Gentry must track down assassins.

 

NEVER TELL by Lisa Gardner:

D.D. Warren and Flora Dane investigate whether a pregnant woman shot and killed her husband.

 

THE RECKONING by John Grisham:

A decorated World War II veteran shoots and kills a pastor inside a Mississippi church.

 

THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides:

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

 

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris:

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

 

THE WEDDING GUEST by Jonathan Kellerman:

Milo Sturgis and Alex Delaware investigate the death of a stranger at a wedding reception.

 

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens:

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

 

NON-FICTION:

ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY by Neil deGrasse Tyson:

A straightforward, easy-to-understand introduction to the universe.

 

BAD BLOOD by John Carreyrou:

The rise and fall of Theranos, the biotech startup that failed to deliver on its promise to make blood testing more efficient.

 

BECOMING by Michelle Obama:

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.

 

BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah:

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

 

EDUCATED by Tara Westover:

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

 

THE FIRST CONSPIRACY by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch Flatiron:

The story of a secret plot to kill George Washington in 1776.

 

FIVE PRESIDENTS by Clint Hill:

A retired Secret Service agent discusses his experience with presidents from Eisenhower to Ford.

 

GRATEFUL AMERICAN by David Sinise with Marcus Brotherton:

The Oscar-nominated actor describes how he has entertained troops and helped veterans.

 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by David Grann:

The story of a murder spree in 1920s Oklahoma that targeted Osage Indians, whose lands contained oil.

 

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean:

The story of the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library provides a backdrop to the evolution and purpose of libraries.

 

MAID by Stephanie Land:

An unexpected pregnancy forces the author to navigate challenges faced by the working poor.

 

POINT OF IT ALL by Charles Krauthammer, edited by Daniel Krauthammer:

A collection of essays, speeches and upublished writings by the late conservative columnist.

 

SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari:

How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species.

 

SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD by Toni Morrison:

A collection of essays and speeches written over four decades, including a eulogy for James Baldwin and the author’s Novel lecture.

 

THE THREAT by Andrew G. McCabe:

The former deputy director of the F.B.I. describes major events ofh is career and the ways the agency works to protect Americans.

 

WOMEN ROWING NORTH by Mary Pipher:

Reflections on the ageism, misogyny and loss that women might encounter as they grow older.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSL

 

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our lucky seven musical streaming* suggestions for the week. This week we offer a mix of suggested playlists and albums.

(Click on the photos of the albums you’re interested in to stream them!)

B-Day (2006) by Beyoncé (Genre: R&B, Pop):

B-Day is Beyoncé’s second album, it was originally released in 2006 and it shows the former Destiny’s Child singer just hitting her creative stride. Stand out songs, among an entire album full of stand out songs, include the funky Déjà Vu, the introspective Ring The Alarm, the bouncy and guitar-centric Suga Mama and Upgrade U featuring a determined lady setting out the way it is going to be!

 

Lovers and Leavers (2016) by Hayes Carll (Genre: Americana, Folk) :

Singer-songwriter Hayes Carll sounds like an American Chris Rea* with a more Americana-folk style of playing.

This 2016 LP shows him in fine fettle with a collection of thoughtful slice-of-life songs that show Carll contemplating life, the way things change over time and just thinking as he’s driving down the highway.

Songs in the set include: Drive, Sake of the Song, The Love That We Need, My Friends, The Magic Kid and Jealous Moon.

 

Golden Slumbers: A Father’s Lullaby (2002) by Various Artists (Genre: Easy Listening, Jazz):

This collection of soothing light jazz is perfect to play as you get kids ready for bed, and also perfect for those of us without kids who simply want to unwind at the end of the day.

Artists and songs in the collection include: Blackbird by David & Jeff Koz, Brahms Lullaby by Brain Culbertson, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Dave & Jeff Koz, When You Wish Upon A Star by David Benoit and You Can Close Your Eyes by Norman Brown.

 

Jazz And The Philharmonic (2014) by Various Artists (Genre: Jazz, Classical):

Jazz and the Philharmonic is a cool album featuring classical and jazz artists recorded live in concert at the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center in January 2013.

Artist and songs in the set include: Autumn Leaves by Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea & Dave Grusin, Simple Gifts by Mark O’Connor and Dave Grusin, The Man I Love by Elizabeth Joy Roe & Shelley Berg, Fugue in C Minor by Eric Owens, Terence Blanchard and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and Solfeggietto by Elizabeth Joy Roe, Terence Blanchard and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

 

March Madness Playlist by Various Artists (Genre: Pop, Rock, R&B etc.):

This 81 songs collection runs more than 5 hours and features some great songs to get you into the mood while you’re waiting for the game to start!

Artists/Songs featured in the collection include: Run’s House by RUN-DMC, Jump Around by House of Pain, Crazy in Love by Beyoncé, Jamboree by Jamboree, Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, Thunderstruck by AC/DC and Slam Dunk by Dan Jordan.

And if you love basketball but aren’t into modern music – you might check out this more traditional collection of marching band music!

 

March Madness by Various College Basketball Marching Band (Genre: Marching Band):

March Madness offers a collection of classic college basketball fight songs form the marching bands of a variety of universities including: Across The Field by Ohio State University Band, I’m A Jawyhawk by University Of Kansas Marching Band, Down, Down The Field by Syracuse University Marching Band, Notre Dame Victory March by University of Notre Dame Marching Band and The Victors by University of Michigan Marching Band.

 

El Amor de Su Vida (2019) by Pandora (Latin, Pop, Folk):

Pandora is family trio consisting of sisters Fernanda Meade and Isabel Lascurian and their cousin Mayte Lascurian. The group released their first album, the self-titled LP Pandora, in 1985. Más Pandora Que Nunca is their 2019 release and shows the singers as seasoned pros sweetly singing with the passion and depth that only comes as the years pass.

Songs on the LP include: Corre, Me Vas a Extrañar, Dónde Está el Amor, Darte un Beso & Te Dejo en Libertad.

 

St. Patrick’s Day Playlist by Various Artists (Genre: Celtic, Folk, Classical, Pop, Rock etc.):

The Luck of the Irish by Great Irish Pub Songs, I’m Shipping up to Boston by Boston Pops Orchestra, The Galway Girl by Celtic Thunder, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, Finnegan’s Wake by The Irish Masters, Galway Bay by Johnny Cash and The Spanish Lady by The Dubliners.

And for those who favor a more traditional Irish music – here’s a greatest hits collection by the Chieftains!

 

The Essential Chieftains by The Chieftains (Genre: Folk, Internetional):

The Essential Chieftains is a thirty three song greatest hits collection and includes the following songs: Lots Of Drops Of Brandy, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Boil The Breakfast Early, The Donegal Set, The Bells of Dublin and The Foggy Dew.

 

Bonus Recommendation: Chris Rea!

If you’re not familiar with Chris Rea, he’s a British singer-songwriter and blues guitarist – and his singing does indeed remind one of Hayes Carll! Or perhaps it is the other way around… as I believe Chris Rea is older than Hayes Carll – either way Chris Rea’s music is top notch, especially if you love the sound of blues guitar.

And here is a link to Chris Rea’s 2019 release –

Blue Guitar: A Collection of Songs (2007) by Chris Rea (Genre: Blues, Rock):

Blue Guitar features the songs: Where The Blues Come From, Only a Fool Plays by the Rules, The Soul of My Father’s Shadow, The American Way and Come Change My World.

 

Videos of the Week:

Suga Mama by Beyoncé

The Magic Kid by Hayes Carll

Brahms Lullaby by Brian Culbertson

Fugue in C Minor by Fugue in C Minor by Eric Owens, Terence Blanchard & The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra

Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied) by B.T. Express

Down the Field by Syracuse University Marching Band

Hail Purdue by Purdue Marching Band

El Amor de Su Vida by Pandora

Galway Girl by Celtic Thunder

Trying To Pull Myself Away by Glen Hansard

The Wind That Shakes The Barley/The Reel With The Beryle by The Chieftains

Where The Blues Comes From by Chris Rea

Joys of Christmas by Chris Rea

In Memoriam Andre Previn:

West Side Story (1960) by Andre Previn and his Pals (the entire album)

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

REFERENCES:

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

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Witburn

About Freegal: 

Freegal is a free streaming music service available for free to library card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries. STLS member libraries include all the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegany counties — including our own Southeast Steuben County Library.

You can download the Freegal music app to your mobile device or access the desktop version of the site by clicking on the following link:

*The Freegal service offers library card holders the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

DIGITAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte (Format: eBook):

Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but she’s, in fact, one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara’s most enlightened region, Eonia. He runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara’s queens dead.

With no other choices and on the run from Keralie’s former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation’s four dead queens.

An enthralling fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.

 

Grace: A Novel written by Natashia Deon & read by Lisa Renee Pitts (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

For a runaway slave in the 1840s South, life on the run can be just as dangerous as life under a sadistic master. That’s what fifteen-year-old Naomi learns after she escapes the brutal confines of life on an Alabama plantation. Striking out on her own, she leaves behind her beloved Momma and sister Hazel and takes refuge in a Georgia brothel run by a freewheeling, gun-toting Jewish madam named Cynthia. There, amid a revolving door of gamblers, prostitutes, and drunks, Naomi falls into a star-crossed love affair with a smooth-talking white man named Jeremy who frequents the brothel’s dice tables all too often.

The product of Naomi and Jeremy’s union is Josey, whose white skin and blonde hair mark her as different from the other slave children on the plantation. Having been taken in as an infant by a free slave named Charles, Josey has never known her mother, who was murdered at her birth. Josey soon becomes caught in the tide of history when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reaches the declining estate and a day of supposed freedom quickly turns into a day of unfathomable violence that will define Josey—and her lost mother—for years to come.

Deftly weaving together the stories of Josey and Naomi—who narrates the entire novel, unable to leave her daughter alone in the land of the living—Grace is a sweeping, intergenerational saga featuring a group of outcast women during one of the most compelling eras in American history. It is a universal story of freedom, love, and motherhood, told in a dazzling and original voice and set against a rich and transporting historical backdrop.

 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel written by Jamie Ford & read by Feodor Chin (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut that explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle era during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love.”—Lisa See

In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s—Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel’s basement for the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.

 

Into the Wilderness, Wilderness Series, Book 1 written by Sara Donati & read by Kate Reading (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

Weaving a vibrant tapestry of fact and fiction, Into the Wilderness sweeps us into another time and place…and into the heart of a forbidden, incandescent affair between a spinster Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate readers from the very first page.

When Elizabeth Middleton, twenty-nine years old and unmarried, leaves her Aunt Merriweather’s comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the remote mountain village of Paradise on the edge of the New York wilderness, she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose: to teach school.

It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered–a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives.

Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village–white, black, and Native American–Elizabeth soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter–betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. An alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his father, and a small group of Native Americans live and hunt.

As Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with a choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest, and a desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation. Elizabeth’s ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to come: trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel’s own secrets and divided soul.

Interweaving the fate of the remnants of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.

 

Lady Smoke, Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian (Format: eBook):

The sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller that was “made for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Sabaa Tahir” (Bustle), Lady Smoke is an epic new fantasy about a throne cruelly stolen and a girl who must fight to take it back for her people.

The Kaiser murdered Theodosia’s mother, the Fire Queen, when Theo was only six. He took Theo’s country and kept her prisoner, crowning her Ash Princess—a pet to toy with and humiliate for ten long years. That era has ended. The Kaiser thought his prisoner weak and defenseless. He didn’t realize that a sharp mind is the deadliest weapon.

Theo no longer wears a crown of ashes. She has taken back her rightful title, and a hostage—Prinz Soren. But her people remain enslaved under the Kaiser’s rule, and now she is thousands of miles away from them and her throne.

To get them back, she will need an army. Only, securing an army means she must trust her aunt, the dreaded pirate Dragonsbane. And according to Dragonsbane, an army can only be produced if Theo takes a husband. Something an Astrean Queen has never done.
Theo knows that freedom comes at a price, but she is determined to find a way to save her country without losing herself.

Praise for the Ash Princess Series:

“A darkly enchanting page-turner you won’t be able to put down.”—Bustle

“A dark and spellbinding epic.” —Sara Holland, New York Times bestselling author of Everless

“A rebel queen fans the sparks of revolution…[and] Theo’s first-person narration remains enthralling with emotional immediacy…[while] packed to the brim with intrigue and the promise.”-Kirkus Reviews

 

PRINT BOOK SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson:

It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys? club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Sankara is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she’s being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent. In the year that follows, Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American. –Indiebound Review

 

Bangkok Wakes To Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad:

A house in the center of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries’ flux in one of the world’s most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future.

A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music that will pacify resident spirits, even as he’s haunted by ghosts of his former life. Not long after, a young woman gives swimming lessons in the luxury condos that have eclipsed the old house, trying to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in the post-submergence Bangkok of the future, a band of savvy teenagers guides tourists and former residents past waterlogged, ruined landmarks, selling them tissues to wipe their tears for places they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by blood, memory, yearning, chance, and the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibian, ever-morphing city itself.

 

The Cassandra: A Novel by Sharma Shields:

The Cassandra follows a woman who goes to work in a top secret research facility during WWII, only to be tormented by visions of what the mission will mean for humankind.

Mildred Groves is an unusual young woman. Gifted and cursed with the ability to see the future, Mildred runs away from home to take a secretary position at the Hanford Research Center in the early 1940s. Hanford, a massive construction camp on the banks of the Columbia River in remote South Central Washington, exists to test and manufacture a mysterious product that will aid the war effort. Only the top generals and scientists know that this product is processed plutonium, for use in the first atomic bombs.

Mildred is delighted, at first, to be part of something larger than herself after a lifetime spent as an outsider. But her new life takes a dark turn when she starts to have prophetic dreams about what will become of humankind if the project is successful. As the men she works for come closer to achieving their goals, her visions intensify to a nightmarish pitch, and she eventually risks everything to question those in power, putting her own physical and mental health in jeopardy. Inspired by the classic Greek myth, this 20th century reimagining of Cassandra’s story is based on a real WWII compound that the author researched meticulously. A timely novel about patriarchy and militancy, The Cassandra uses both legend and history to look deep into man’s capacity for destruction, and the resolve and compassion it takes to challenge the powerful.

 

Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.:

This is a story about America during and after Reconstruction, one of history’s most pivotal and misunderstood chapters. In a stirring account of emancipation, the struggle for citizenship and national reunion, and the advent of racial segregation, the renowned Harvard scholar delivers a book that is illuminating and timely. Real-life accounts drive the narrative, spanning the half century between the Civil War and Birth of a Nation. Here, you will come face-to-face with the people and events of Reconstruction’s noble democratic experiment, its tragic undermining, and the drawing of a new “color line” in the long Jim Crow era that followed. In introducing young readers to them, and to the resiliency of the African American people at times of progress and betrayal, Professor Gates shares a history that remains vitally relevant today.

 

The Unlounging: From A Belly Full Of Beer And A Craw Full Of Time by Selraybob:

Mid-twenties and already beaten down and hopeless, Selraybob spends his days on his worn out lounger, drinking quarts of Busch and talking to his buddy Herm on the phone. Productivity is a forgotten dream. Until, right in the middle of his wife’s long-overdue goodbye speech, Selraybob has an epiphany. It’s about Time. Time, he determines, is a count. It’s only a count. Einstein was wrong. And life on the lounger will never be the same.

“A piquant and fun romp that recounts the misadventures of a beer drinker who proves to be as insightful as he is amusing….Written in a distinctive, plain style that calls to mind Mark Twain, this book should touch and entertain readers with its self-deprecating humor and deep perceptions that penetrate to the root of the Midwest American male character.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

*Magazines are available for free and on demand! You can check out magazines and read them on your computer or download the RBDigital app from your app store and read them on your mobile devices.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our lucky seven musical streaming* suggestions for the week.

(Click on the photos of the albums you’d like to hear to stream them!)

Tennessee Alabama Fireworks (2018) by Boo Ray (Genre: Country, Alt Country)

Originally from Georgia, singer-songwriter and guitarist Boo Ray is a self-described “southern troubadour” who moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to begin a recording career; Tennessee Alabama Fireworks is his latest LP and features great modern rocking country music!

Songs on the LP include: A Tune You Can Whistle, Gone Back Down to Georgia, Honky Tonk Dream, She Wrote the Song and Dee Elle.

 

Souled by José Feliciano (Genre: Guitar, Latin, Pop, Flamenco):

A classic sixties LP by the great flamenco guitarist and singer José Feliciano.

Feliciano has a gift for blending his terrific flamenco guitar playing with popular songs to create fun, uplifting music.

Songs in the set include: Younger Generation, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, And The Sun Will Shine, Hey! Baby and Hitchock Railway

 

Ceilings and Floors (2019) by Lisa Frangeur (Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening):

Ceilings and Floors is the brand new album by Swedish jazz singer Lisa Frangeur. I’ll admit I had never heard of Lisa Frangeur before I did the research for this posting. However, she has a great voice and this is a lovely, easy listening collection of songs – perfect for a relaxing weekend at home.

Songs on the LP include: Wouldn’t it Be Nice, Ceilings And Floors, Waltz About Falling, Peace of Mind and There Must Be Love.

 

Mio caro Händel by Simone Kermes (Genre: Classical):

Simone Kermes is a coloratura soprano who is known for her outstanding singing of Baroque and early operatic pieces.

According to Google the title of her new album, Mio caro Händel, translates into English as “My Dear Handel”, and as you might expect the album features works by the great 18th Century composer George Frideric Handel including Rinaldo: Furie Terribili! Armida (Act I, Scene 5), Amadigi Di Gaula: Ah, Spietato Melissa (Act I, Scene 4), Athalia: My Vengeance Awakes Me Athalia (Part II, Scene 2) and The Triumph of Time and Truth: Guardian Angels Beauty (Part III).

 

The Best of The ’68 Comeback Special (2019) by Elvis Presley (Genre: Rock, Traditional Rock):

This album was just released on February 15 to mark the 50th anniversary of Elvis’s renowned TV special –  The NBC “68 Comback Special.”

If you’re not a huge Elvis fan and you wonder why Elvis is known as a pillar of rock n’ roll because you’ve mostly heard his ballads on the radio then this album, and the video of the ’68 Comeback Special, will give you a clue!

And if you are an Elvis fan – enjoy!

 

Radio Hits of the Seventies by Various Artists (Genre: Pop, Rock):

I’m showing my vintage but I couldn’t resist including this neat collection of seventies pop songs!

Song in this various artists collection include: Please Come To Boston by Dave Loggins, Life Is A Rock by Reunion, STIR IT UP by Johnny Nash, My Maria by B. W. Stevenson, Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks, Amie by Pure Prairie League and Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan.

 

Are You Open? (2019) By Seth Walker (Genre: Blues, Pop, Rock):

Seth Walker is a blues guitarist from Austin, Texas known for his T-Bone Walker-ish style of guitar playing, and Are You Open? is his brand new album.

Songs on the LP include: Giving It All Away, All I Need to Know, Hard Road, No Bird and Are You Open?

 

Videos of the Week:

A Tune You Can Whistle by Boo Ray

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight by Jose Feliciano

Hey! Baby by Jose Feliciano

Ceilings And Floors by Lisa Frangeur

Amadigi di Gaula, HWV 11, Act I, Scene 4: Ah, spietato by Simone Kermes

That’s Alright Mama by Elvis

Baby, What You Want Me To Do Jam from the video version of the 50th Anniversary of the ’68 Comeback Special

Life Is A Rock by Reunion

Please Come To Boston by David Loggins

Turn The Beat Around by Vickie Sue Robinson

Are You Open? By Seth Walker

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

REFERENCES:

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

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Witburn

Official Boo Ray Site, https://booraymusic.com/

About Freegal: 

Freegal is a free streaming music service available for free to library card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries. STLS member libraries include all the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegany counties — including our own Southeast Steuben County Library.

You can download the Freegal music app to your mobile device or access the desktop version of the site by clicking on the following link:

*The Freegal service offers library card holders the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are the top New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for this week.

(Click on the book covers to read a summary of each plot and to request the books of your choice.)

FICTION:

AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones:

A newlywed couple’s relationship is tested when the husband is sentenced to 12 years in prison.

 

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:

Jessica Farris’s life unravels when she signs up for Dr. Shields’s psychology study.

 

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James:

A loner named Tracker teams up with a group of unusual characters in search of a mysterious boy.

 

CIRCE by Madeline Miller:

Zeus banishes Helios’ daughter to an island, where she must choose between living with gods or mortals.

 

CONNECTIONS IN DEATH by J. D. Robb:

Eve Dallas scours tattoo parlors and strip joints for clues to the cause of Lyle Pickering’s mysterious death.

 

DEVOTIONS by Mary Oliver:

A collection of more than 200 poems spanning 50 years of the author’s career.

 

EARLY RISER BY Jasper Fforde:

Charlie Worthing investigates an outbreak of viral dreams killing a hibernating human population.

 

ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman:

A young woman’s well-ordered life is disrupted by the I.T. guy from her office.

 

FIFTY FIFTY by James Patterson:

Detective Harriet Blue tries to clear her brother’s name and save a small Australian town from being massacred.

 

FIRE AND BLOOD by George R.R. Martin:

Set 300 years before the events of “A Game of Thrones,” this is the first volume of the two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.

 

THE LAST ROMANTICS by Tara Conklin:

A family crisis tests the bonds and ideals of a renowned poet and her siblings.

 

LIAR LIAR by James Patterson and Candice Fox:

Detective Harriet Blue has become a dangerous fugitive from the law as she pursues the murderer Regan Banks.

 

LILAC GIRLS by Martha Hall Kelly:

A story of three women’s lives during and after World War II.

 

THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS by Pam Jenoff:

Grace Healey investigates the fates of 12 women who were sent to occupied Europe to help the resistance during World War II.

 

THE NIGHT TIGER by Yangsze Choo:

In 1930s colonial Malaysia, dangers encroach upon a dressmaker’s apprentice and a houseboy as they seek to help others close to them.

 

THE RECKONING by John Grisham:

A decorated World War II veteran shoots and kills a pastor inside a Mississippi church.

 

THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides:

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

 

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris:

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

 

VENGEANCE ROAD by Christine Feehan:

The second book in the Torpedo Ink series. Complications rev up between Breezy and Steele.

 

THE WEDDING GUEST by Jonathan Kellerman:

Milo Sturgis and Alex Delaware investigate the death of a stranger at a wedding reception.

 

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens:

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

 

NON-FICTION:

ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY by Neil deGrasse Tyson:

A straightforward, easy-to-understand introduction to the universe.

 

BAD BLOOD by John Carreyrou:

The rise and fall of Theranos, the biotech startup that failed to deliver on its promise to make blood testing more efficient.

 

BECOMING by Michelle Obama:

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.

 

BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah:

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

 

EDUCATED by Tara Westover:

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

 

THE FIRST CONSPIRACY by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch Flatiron:

The story of a secret plot to kill George Washington in 1776.

 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by David Grann:

The story of a murder spree in 1920s Oklahoma that targeted Osage Indians, whose lands contained oil.

 

LET ME FINISH by Chris Christie:

The former governor of New Jersey describes his relationship with President Trump and the tensions among others close to the president.

 

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean:

The story of the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library provides a backdrop to the evolution and purpose of libraries.

 

MAID by Stephanie Land:

An unexpected pregnancy forces the author to navigate challenges faced by the working poor.

 

MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL by Adam Higginbotham:

An account of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, based on hundreds of hours of interviews.

PARKLAND by David Cullen:

Portraits of the teenage survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who created the #neveragain movement.

 

SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari:

How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species.

 

TEAM OF VIPERS by Cliff Sims:

The former special assistant to President Trump recalls what he considers his successes and failures in the White House.

 

WOMEN ROWING NORTH by Mary Pipher:

Reflections on the ageism, misogyny and loss that women might encounter as they grow older.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSL

 

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

DIGITAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson (eBook):

“A delightful combination of race-against-the-clock medical mystery and outwit-the-bad-guys adventure.” –Publishers Weekly, Starred

Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a “mudlark,” he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. He’s being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. And he’s got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe. But even for Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fateful August day in 1854–the day the deadly cholera (“blue death”) comes to Broad Street.

Everyone believes that cholera is spread through poisonous air. But one man, Dr. John Snow, has a different theory. As the epidemic surges, it’s up to Eel and his best friend, Florrie, to gather evidence to prove Dr. Snow’s theory–before the entire neighborhood is wiped out.

 

Home Front by Kristin Hannah (Format: eBook):

In her bestselling novels Kristin Hannah has plumbed the depths of friendship, the loyalty of sisters, and the secrets mothers keep. Now, in her most emotionally powerful story yet, she explores the intimate landscape of a troubled marriage with this provocative and timely portrait of a husband and wife, in love and at war.

All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost. . . .

Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life—-children, careers, bills, chores—-even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then an unexpected deployment sends Jolene deep into harm’s way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a solider she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen. When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fear and fight a battle of his own—-for everything that matters to his family.

At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family, Home Front is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.

 

Love And Ruin by Paula McLain (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. There she also finds herself unexpectedly—and unwillingly—falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.

On the eve of World War II, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must forge a path as her own woman and writer.

Heralded by Ann Patchett as “the new star of historical fiction,” Paula McLain brings Gellhorn’s story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice.

 

Manhattan Noir edited by Lawrence Block (Format: eBook):

Brand-new stories by: Jeffery Deaver, Lawrence Block, Charles Ardai, Carol Lea Benjamin, Thomas H. Cook, Jim Fusilli, Robert Knightly, John Lutz, Liz Martínez, Maan Meyers, Martin Meyers, S.J. Rozan, Justin Scott, C.J. Sullivan, and Xu Xi.

Lawrence Block has won most of the major mystery awards, and has been called the quintessential New York writer, although he insists the city’s far too big to have a quintessential writer. His series characters—Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, Evan Tanner, Chip Harrison, and Keller—all live in Manhattan; like their creator, they wouldn’t really be happy anywhere else.

 

Rod Serling’s Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves by Rod Serling (Format:eBook):

Twelve horrifying tales for the demon in you collected by the man who wrote Stories from the Twilight Zone

ROD SERLING’S FAVORITE STORIES—

THE WITCH—there was the little girl who always wanted to be a witch. She tried everything she could think of but she never made it until she learned to hate everybody—including herself…

AND THE WARLOCK WHO WAITED AND WAITED
“It was a wonderful attack, Captain. Nothing human could have lived through it—nothing human did. We were deep underground where they buried us long ago—the stakes through our hearts. Your fire burned the stakes away—” The warlock waved a scaly hand at the waiting shadows. They came down relentlessly.

AND THE WEREWOLF
Early morning at the zoo, and the naked man behind the bars was sound asleep. Suddenly, his eyes flickered and his right hand smashed down at the flies that buzzed on the bone he’d been gnawing last night. The flies left, but the naked man stayed immobile, his eyes on his hand. Outside the cage a sign read,

LOBO,

TIMBER WOLF,

Canis occidentalis.

AND NINE MORE STORIES ABOUT WITCHES, WARLOCKS AND WEREWOLVES ALL HERE IN ROD SERLING’S TRIPLE W

 

PRINT BOOK SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change And The Rest Can Follow by Joshua Goldstein:

A proven, fast, inexpensive, practical way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent catastrophic climate change. As climate change nears potentially disastrous tipping points, a solution is hiding in plain sight. Several countries have successfully replaced fossil fuels with low-carbon energy sources by combining renewable energy with a quick buildout of nuclear power. By following their example, the world could dramatically cut fossil fuel use by midcentury, even as energy consumption continues to rise. Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist explain how clean energy rapidly replaced fossil fuels in such places as Sweden, France, and Ontario, while enhancing both prosperity and the natural environment. Engagingly written, yet backed by deep research, this book will encourage a fresh look at the assumptions that have long shaped the climate change debate. The stakes are extraordinarily high and the deadline for action is near. This clear and compelling book could spark the transformation in energy policy that the world needs.

 

The Chef by James Patterson:

Accused of committing murder in the line of duty, detective Caleb Rooney of the New Orleans Police Department uses the contacts from his moonlighting job as a celebrity food-truck chef to counter a terrorist plot.

 

The Dreamers: A Novel by Karen Thompson Walker:

One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep, and doesn’t wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams, but of what? Written in luminous prose, The Dreamers is a breathtaking and beautiful novel, startling and provocative, about the possibilities contained within a human life, if only we are awakened to them.

 

Never Tell by Lisa Gardner:

A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. But his computer has been shot twelve times, and when the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun. D. D. Warren arrives on the scene and recognizes the woman–Evie Carter–from a case many years back. Evie’s father was killed in a shooting that was ruled an accident. But for D.D., two coincidental murders is too many. Flora Dane sees the murder of Conrad Carter on the TV news and immediately knows his face. She remembers a night when she was still a victim–a hostage–and her captor knew this man. Overcome with guilt that she never tracked him down, Flora is now determined to learn the truth of Conrad’s murder. But D.D. and Flora are about to discover that in this case the truth is a devilishly elusive thing. As layer by layer they peel away the half-truths and outright lies, they wonder: How many secrets can one family have?

 

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis:

An homage to the author’s mother relates how she cleverly played Detroit’s illegal lottery in the 1970s to support the family while creating a loving, joyful home and mothering her children to the highest standards.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

*Magazines are available for free and on demand! You can check out magazines and read them on your computer or download the RBDigital app from your app store and read them on your mobile devices.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our lucky seven musical streaming* suggestions for the week. This week we offer a mix of suggested playlists and albums.

(Click on the photos of the albums you’re interested in to stream them!)

American Love Song (2019) by Ryan Bingham (Genre: Country, Folk, Americana):

Ryan Bingham is a New Mexican singer-songwriter whose songs wander between the related genres of country, alternative country, folk and Americana.

American Love Song is his latest LP and features the songs: Jingle and Go, Nothin’ Holds Me Down, Beautiful and Kind, What Would I’ve Become and Blues Lady.

 

Awesome Rock Albums compiled by Mentor Library (Playlist, 281 songs, 20 hours and 43 minutes):

Albums in this colossal playlist include:  Black Star by David Bowie, Abraxas by Santana, Hesitation Marks by Nine Inch Nails, Greatest Hits by Journey, Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks, Toys In The Attic by Aerosmith, Pearl by Janis Joplin, Foo Fighters by Foo Fighters, British Steel by Judas Priest, Graceland by Paul Simon, Horses by Patti Smith, Three Days Gone by Three Days Gone, Little Queen by Heart, Ten by Pearl Jam, Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen, Heaven Tonight by Cheap Trick, The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Songs of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen, Modest Mouse by The Moon & Antarctica, The Stranger by Billy Joel, Wovoka by Redbone, Greatest Hits So Far by Pink and An Evening with The Allman Brothers by The Allman Brothers Band.

 

East Side Story (2007) by Emily King (Genre: R&B, Pop):

East Side Story is the 2007, Grammy nominated, debut album by the singer-songwriter Emily King.

King has a great voice and her style can be described as a pop-rock with some songwriting folk overtones.

The music on this album is upbeat throughout even when the subjects veer into heaver subjects.

Songs on the LP include: Walk In My Shoes, Business Man, Colorblind, It Was You, You Can Get By and Ain’t No Sunshine.

 

Evensong (2008) by Voces8 (Genre: Classical, Vocal, Pop):

Voces8 is a British vocal octet known for their acapella singing style. They cover classical and jazz songs but popular songs predominate.

Songs on this 2008 release include: Me and My Shadow, Fever, Evensong, Straighten Up and Fly Right, Jailhouse Rock, Nunc Dimittis, Feeling Good & Hallelujah Chorus.

 

Jazz Favorites of 2018 (Playlist, 8 hours & 23 minutes):

This Jazz Favorites playlist is perfect for the weekened!

It features 78 songs including: So What (live) by Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Ramble by Julian Lange, Alternative Facts by The Stanley Clarke Band, Off the Record by Mary Halvorson & Piano Music by Myra Melford

 

The Love Train (2019) by Meghan Trainor:

Love Train is the new LP by perky pop-singer songwriter Meghan Trainor. Is a short one, only six songs. However, they are six bouncy and bright pop songs perfect for Valentine’s Day Week! The songs are: All The Ways, Marry Me, I’m Down, After You, Foolish & Good Morning.

 

Swings Cole Porter (2004) by John Barrowman:

Musical theatre master John Barrowman offers a neat tribute to Cole Porter with this 2004 release.

Songs on the album include: Just One Of Those Things, Anything Goes, In The Still of the Night, Don’t Fence Me In and Easy To Love.

Videos of the Week:

What Would I’ve Become by Ryan Bingham

Oye Como Va by Santana

Satellite Nine by Inch Nails

The Long Way Around by Dixie Chicks

Half Moon by Janis Joplin

Walk in My Shoes by Emily King

Jailhouse Rock by Voces8

The Ramble by Julian Lange

Piano Music by Myra Melford

A Happy Thought by Kurt Elling

Foolish by Meghan Trainor

What is this Thing Called Love by John Barrowman

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

REFERENCES:

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

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Witburn

About Freegal: 

Freegal is a free streaming music service available for free to library card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries. STLS member libraries include all the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegany counties — including our own Southeast Steuben County Library.

You can download the Freegal music app to your mobile device or access the desktop version of the site by clicking on the following link:

*The Freegal service offers library card holders the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are the top New York Times fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for this week.

(Click on the book covers to read a summary of each plot and to request the books of your choice.)

FICTION:

AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones:

A newlywed couple’s relationship is tested when the husband is sentenced to 12 years in prison.

 

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:

Jessica Farris’s life unravels when she signs up for Dr. Shields’s psychology study.

 

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James:

A loner named Tracker teams up with a group of unusual characters in search of a mysterious boy.

 

THE CAST by Danielle Steel:

A magazine columnist meets an array of Hollywood professionals when a producer turns a story about her grandmother into a TV series.

 

CIRCE by Madeline Miller:

Zeus banishes Helios’ daughter to an island, where she must choose between living with gods or mortals.

 

CONNECTIONS IN DEATH by J. D. Robb:

Eve Dallas scours tattoo parlors and strip joints for clues to the cause of Lyle Pickering’s mysterious death.

 

DEVOTIONS by Mary Oliver:

A collection of more than 200 poems spanning 50 years of the author’s career.

 

ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman:

A young woman’s well-ordered life is disrupted by the I.T. guy from her office.

 

FIRE AND BLOOD by George R.R. Martin:

Set 300 years before the events of “A Game of Thrones,” this is the first volume of the two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.

 

I OWN YOU ONE by Sophie Kinsella:

A series of debts between Fixie Farr and a handsome stranger involves her childhood crush.

 

THE LAST ROMANTICS by Tara Conklin:

A family crisis tests the bonds and ideals of a renowned poet and her siblings.

 

LIAR LIAR by James Patterson and Candice Fox:

Detective Harriet Blue has become a dangerous fugitive from the law as she pursues the murderer Regan Banks.

 

THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS by Pam Jenoff:

Grace Healey investigates the fates of 12 women who were sent to occupied Europe to help the resistance during World War II.

 

THE LOST MAN by Jane Harper: 

Nathan and Bub Bright find their other brother dead at the border of their cattle ranches in the Australian outback.

 

THE RECKONING by John Grisham:

A decorated World War II veteran shoots and kills a pastor inside a Mississippi church.

 

THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides:

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

 

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris:

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

 

VENGEANCE ROAD by Christine Feehan

The second book in the Torpedo Ink series. Complications rev up between Breezy and Steele.

 

THE WEDDING GUEST by Jonathan Kellerman:

Milo Sturgis and Alex Delaware investigate the death of a stranger at a wedding reception.

 

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens:

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

 

NON-FICTION:

BAD BLOOD by John Carreyrou:

The rise and fall of Theranos, the biotech startup that failed to deliver on its promise to make blood testing more efficient.

 

BECOMING by Michelle Obama:

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.

 

EDUCATED by Tara Westover:

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

 

THE FIRST CONSPIRACY by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch Flatiron:

The story of a secret plot to kill George Washington in 1776.

 

HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE by David Treuer:

A kaleidoscopic portrait of Native American history from 1890 to the present.

 

INHERITANCE by Dani Shapiro:

Secrets and identity in a fast-paced age of science and technology are explored through the story of a woman who discovered her biological father.

 

LET ME FINISH by Chris Christie:

The former governor of New Jersey describes his relationship with President Trump and the tensions among others close to the president.

 

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean:

The story of the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library provides a backdrop to the evolution and purpose of libraries.

 

MAID by Stephanie Land:

An unexpected pregnancy forces the author to navigate challenges faced by the working poor.

 

THE POINT OF IT ALL by Charles Krauthammer, edited by Daniel Krauthammer:

A collection of essays, speeches and unpublished writings by the late conservative columnist.

 

TEAM OF VIPERS by Cliff Sims:

The former special assistant to President Trump recalls what he considers his successes and failures in the White House.

 

THE TRUTHS WE HOLD by Kamala Harris:

A memoir by a daughter of immigrants who was raised in Oakland, Calif., and became the second black woman ever elected to the United States Senate.

 

WOMEN ROWING NORTH by Mary Pipher:

Reflections on the ageism, misogyny and loss that women might encounter as they grow older.

 

ZUCKED by Roger McNamee:

A Silicon Valley investor and mentor to Mark Zuckerberg describes some of the negative effects of the attention economy on our democracy and the greater culture.

 

Have a great day!

Linda, SSL

 

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, five digital titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

DIGITAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

Early Riser: A Novel by Jasper Fforde:

The new standalone novel from bestselling author Jasper Fforde

Every Winter, the human population hibernates.

During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, devoid of human activity.

Well, not quite.

Your name is Charlie Worthing and it’s your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses.

You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artefact borne of the sleeping mind.

When the dreams start to kill people, it’s unsettling.

When you get the dreams too, it’s weird.

When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.

But teasing truth from the Winter is never easy: You have to avoid the Villains and their penchant for murder, kidnapping, and stamp collecting, ensure you aren’t eaten by Nightwalkers, whose thirst for human flesh can only be satisfied by comfort food, and sidestep the increasingly less-than-mythical WinterVolk.

But so long as you remember to wrap up warmly, you’ll be fine.

 

House Broken by Sonja Yoerg:

In this compelling and poignant debut novel, a woman skilled at caring for animals must learn to mend the broken relationships in her family….

For veterinarian Geneva Novak, animals can be easier to understand than people. They’re also easier to forgive. But when her mother, Helen, is injured in a vodka-fueled accident, it’s up to Geneva to give her the care she needs.

Since her teens, Geneva has kept her self-destructive mother at arm’s length. Now, with two slippery teenagers of her own at home, the last thing she wants is to add Helen to the mix. But Geneva’s husband convinces her that letting Helen live with them could be her golden chance to repair their relationship.

Geneva isn’t expecting her mother to change anytime soon, but she may finally get answers to the questions she’s been asking for so long. As the truth about her family unfolds, however, Geneva may find secrets too painful to bear and too terrible to forgive.

 

The Night Tiger: A Novel by Yangsze Choo:

From New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo, an utterly transporting novel set in 1930s colonial Malaysia, perfect for fans of Isabel Allende and Min Jin Lee

Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for.

Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.

As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.

Yangsze Choo’s The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.

“A work of incredible beauty… Astoundingly captivating and striking… A transcendent story of courage and connection.” —Booklist (starred review)

 

Wicked Lies, Wicked Series, Book 2 by Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush:

If At First You Don’t Succeed

For two years, Justice Turnbull has paced his room at Halo Valley Security Hospital, planning to escape. Justice has a mission-one that began with a vicious murder two decades ago. And there are so many others who must be sent back to the hell that spawned them. . .

Kill. . .

Laura Adderley didn’t plan to get pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband, though she’ll do anything to protect her baby. But now reporter Harrison Frost is asking questions about the mysterious group of women who live at Siren Song lodge. Harrison hasn’t figured out Laura’s connection to the story yet. But Justice knows. And he is coming. . .

Then Kill Again. . .

All her life, Laura has been able to sense approaching evil. But that won’t stop a psychopath bent on destroying her. Justice has been unleashed, and this time, there will be no place safe to hide. . .

Praise for Wicked Game

“Chilling. . . Swift pacing and an intriguing plot make this a first-rate supernatural thriller.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

Winter in Paradise, Paradise Series, Book 1 by Elin Hilderbrand:

A husband’s secret life, a wife’s new beginning: escape to the Caribbean with New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand.

Irene Steele shares her idyllic life in a beautiful Iowa City Victorian house with a husband who loves her to sky-writing, sentimental extremes. But as she rings in the new year one cold and snowy night, everything she thought she knew falls to pieces with a shocking phone call: her beloved husband, away on business, has been killed in a plane crash. Before Irene can even process the news, she must first confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death on the distant Caribbean island of St. John.

After Irene and her sons arrive at this faraway paradise, they make yet another shocking discovery: her husband had been living a secret life. As Irene untangles a web of intrigue and deceit, and as she and her sons find themselves drawn into the vibrant island culture, they have to face the truth about their family, and about their own futures.

Rich with the lush beauty of the tropics and the drama, romance, and intrigue only Elin Hilderbrand can deliver, Winter in Paradise is a truly transporting novel, and the exciting start to a new series.

 

PRINT BOOK SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

Careless Love by Peter Robinson:

Two suspicious deaths challenge DS Alan Banks and his crack investigative team. A young local student’s body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road. The death looks like suicide, but there are too many open questions for Banks and his team to rule out foul play … A man in his sixties is found dead in a gully up on the wild moorland. He is wearing an expensive suit and carrying no identification. Post mortem findings indicate that he died from injuries sustained during a fall. Was it an accident–did he slip and fall? Or was he pushed? Why was he up there? … As the inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries surrounding these two cases proliferate, a source close to Annie reveals a piece of information that shocks the team and impacts the investigations. An old enemy has returned in a new guise–a nefarious foe who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to get what he wants. With the stakes raised, the hunt is on. But will Banks be able to find the evidence to stop him in time?

 

An Orchestra of Minorities: A Novel by Chigozie Obioma:

A contemporary twist on the Odyssey, An Orchestra of Minorities is narrated by the chi, or spirit of a young poultry farmer named Chinonso. His life is set off course when he sees a woman who is about to jump off a bridge. Horrified by her recklessness, he hurls two of his prized chickens off the bridge. The woman, Ndali, is stopped in her tracks. Chinonso and Ndali fall in love, but she is from an educated and wealthy family. When her family objects to the union on the grounds that he is not her social equal, he sells most of his possessions to attend college in Cyprus. But when he arrives in Cyprus, he discovers that he has been utterly duped by the young Nigerian who has made the arrangements for him. Penniless, homeless, we watch as he gets further and further away from his dream and from home.

 

Tear It Down by Nicholas Petrie:

Peter Ash pursues one case–and stumbles into another–in the City of the Blues. Iraq war veteran Peter Ash is restless in the home he shares with June Cassidy in Washington State. June knows Peter needs to be on the move, so she sends him to Memphis to help her friend Wanda Wyatt, a photographer and war correspondent who’s been receiving peculiar threats. When Peter arrives in Memphis, however, he finds the situation has gone downhill fast–someone has just driven a dump truck into Wanda’s living room. But neither Wanda nor Peter can figure out why. At the same time, a young homeless street musician finds himself roped into a plan to rob a jewelry store. The heist doesn’t go as planned, and the young man finds himself holding a sack full of Rolexes and running for his life. When his getaway car breaks down, he steals a new one at gunpoint–Peter’s 1968 green Chevrolet pickup truck. Peter likes the skinny kid’s smarts and attitude, but he soon discovers that the desperate musician is in far worse trouble than he knows. And Wanda’s troubles are only beginning. Peter finds himself stuck between Memphis gangsters–looking for Rolexes and revenge–and a Mississippi ex-con and his hog-butcher brother looking for a valuable piece of family history that goes all the way back to the Civil War.

 

To Keep The Sun Alive: A Novel by Rabeah Ghaffari:

The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner northeastern city of Naishapur, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi-Khanoom, continue to run their ancient family orchard, growing apples, plums, peaches, and sour cherries. The days here are marked by long, elaborate lunches on the terrace where the judge and his wife mediate disputes between aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews that foreshadow the looming national crisis to come. Will the monarchy survive the revolutionary tide gathering across the country? Will the judge’s brother, a powerful cleric, take political control of the town or remain only a religious leader?

 

We Cast A Shadow: A Novel by Maurice Carlos Ruffin:

In a near-future Southern city, everyone is talking about a new experimental medical procedure that boasts unprecedented success rates. In a society plagued by racism, segregation, and private prisons, this operation saves lives with a controversial method–by turning people white. Like any father, our unnamed narrator just wants the best for his son Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. But in order to afford Nigel’s whiteness operation, our narrator must make partner as one of the few black associates at his law firm, jumping through a series of increasingly absurd hoops–from diversity committees to plantation tours to equality activist groups–in a tragicomic quest to protect his son. This electrifying, suspenseful novel is, at once, a razor-sharp satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. In the tradition of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, We Cast a Shadow fearlessly shines a light on the violence we inherit, and on the desperate things we do for the ones we love.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat

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

The Digital Catalog (OverDrive)

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

Freegal Music Service

This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day:

RBDigital

*Magazines are available for free and on demand! You can check out magazines and read them on your computer or download the RBDigital app from your app store and read them on your mobile devices.

About Library Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.