Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

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!)

Columbia Recordings from 1926 by Various Artists (Genre: Jazz, Swing):

 

The Day the Music Died: Remembering Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (Genre: Classic Rock, Pop):
(56 Songs, 02 hr 06 min 37 sec)

 

The Essential Percy Faith (Genre: Pop, Easy Listening, Film): 

 

Stand! Songs of Freedom (Genre: Rock, Blues, R&B, Jazz):
(91 Songs, 06 hr 29 min 10 sec)

 

Three For The Road (2019) by John Mayall (Genre: Blues):

 

Valentine’s Day Playlist (Genre: Pop, R&B, Jazz, Rock):

Where I Come From (2019) by Patty Griffin (Genre: Folk):

Videos of the Week:

Alabama Stomp by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra

Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly

Chantilly Lace by The Big Bopper

Come On Let’s Go by Richie Valens

Jungle Fantasy by Percy Faith

Theme from a Summer Place by Percy Faith

Reaching for the Moon by The Radiolites

Inner City Blues by Gil Scott-Heron

Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight & The Pips

Lonely Feelings by John Mayall

A Kiss To Build A Dream On by Louis Armstrong

Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

Where I Come From by Patty Griffin

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 ANONYMOUS GIRL by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:

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

 

CIRCE by Madeline Miller:

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

 

CRUCIBLE by James Rollins:

Monk Kokkalis and Commander Gray Pierce use arcane clues in hopes of preventing a potential apocalypse.

 

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.

 

EVERY BREATH by Nicholas Sparks:

Difficult choices surface when Hope Anderson and Tru Walls meet in a North Carolina seaside town.

 

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.

 

JUDGMENT by Joseph Finder:

Juliana Brody, a judge in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, has a one-night stand that might be her undoing.

 

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.

 

MAGIC HOUR by Kristin Hannah:

A child psychiatrist helps a 6-year-old girl found in the Olympic National Forest.

 

NEW IBERIA BLUES by James Lee Burke

Detective Dave Robicheaux and his new partner Bailey Ribbons investigate the death of a young woman by crucifixion.

 

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty:

A romance writer becomes fascinated by the owner and director of a health resort.

 

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict:

Hedy Lamarr flees to Hollywood where she becomes a screen star and develops technology that might combat the Nazis.

 

OUT OF THE DARK by Gregg Hurwit

The fourth book in the Orphan X series.

 

THE RECKONING by John Grisham:

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

 

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris:

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

 

TURNING POINT by Danielle Steel:

Four American trauma doctors face difficult choices when they join a mass-casualty training program in Paris.

 

VENGEANCE ROAD by Christine Feehan

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

 

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.

 

FASCISM: A Warning by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward

The former secretary of state examines the legacy of fascism in the 20th century and its potential revival.

 

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.

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:

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller:

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A Most Anticipated Book at Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, Elle, BUST, HuffPost, NYLON, Southern Living, Parade, and more

From the author of Our Endless Numbered Days and Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange is a seductive psychological portrait, a keyhole into the dangers of longing and how far a woman might go to escape her past.

From the attic of Lyntons, a dilapidated English country mansion, Frances Jellico sees them—Cara first: dark and beautiful, then Peter: striking and serious. The couple is spending the summer of 1969 in the rooms below hers while Frances is researching the architecture in the surrounding gardens. But she’s distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she finds a peephole that gives her access to her neighbors’ private lives.

To Frances’ surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to get to know her. It is the first occasion she has had anybody to call a friend, and before long they are spending every day together: eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes until the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. Frances is dazzled.

But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don’t quite add up, and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the glamorous, hedonistic couple, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur. Amid the decadence, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand their lives forever.

 

The Graveyard Apartment: A Novel by Mariko Koike:

One of the most popular writers working in Japan today, Mariko Koike is a recognized master of detective fiction and horror writing. Known in particular for her hybrid works that blend these styles with elements of romance, The Graveyard Apartment is arguably Koike’s masterpiece. Originally published in Japan in 1986, Koike’s novel is the suspenseful tale of a young family that believes it has found the perfect home to grow into, only to realize that the apartment’s idyllic setting harbors the specter of evil and that longer they stay, the more trapped they become.

This tale of a young married couple who harbor a dark secret is packed with dread and terror, as they and their daughter move into a brand new apartment building built next to a graveyard. As strange and terrifying occurrences begin to pile up, people in the building start to move out one by one, until the young family is left alone with someone… or something… lurking in the basement. The psychological horror builds moment after moment, scene after scene, culminating with a conclusion that will make you think twice before ever going into a basement again.

 

The Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates:

An ingenious, dystopian novel of one young woman’s resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society, from the inventive imagination of Joyce Carol Oates

“Time travel” — and its hazards—are made literal in this astonishing new novel in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America — “Wainscotia, Wisconsin”—that existed eighty years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town she is set upon a course of “rehabilitation”—but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constrains of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating.

Arresting and visionary, Hazards of Time Travel is both a novel of harrowing discovery and an exquisitely wrought love story that may be Joyce Carol Oates’s most unexpected novel so far.

 

The Lions of Lucerne, Scot Harvath Series, Book 1 by Brad Thor:

In his daring and chilling first novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor draws us into a sinister labyrinth of political intrigue and international terrorism, serving up an explosive cocktail of unrelenting action as one man is pushed to the edge.

On the snow-covered slopes of Utah, the President of the United States has been kidnapped and his Secret Service detail massacred. Only one agent has survived—ex-Navy SEAL Scot Harvath. He doesn’t buy the official line that Middle Eastern terrorists are behind the attack and begins his own campaign to find the truth and exact revenge. But now, framed for murder by a sinister cabal, Harvath takes his fight to the towering mountains of Switzerland—and joins forces with beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney’s Office. Together they must brave the subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus—where their only chance for survival lies inside the den of the most lethal team of professional killers the world has ever known…

 

November Road: A Novel by Lou Berney:

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY Entertainment Weekly • Washington Post • AARP • Newsweek • Dallas Morning News • South Florida Sun-Sentinel • Chicago Public Library • Real Book Spy • CrimeReads • Litreactor • Library Journal • LitHub • Booklist

An Amazon Editor’s Pick of the Month • An Apple Best of the Month • An Indie Next Pick • An Okra Pick by SIBA Booksellers • A Book of the Month Pick

Set against the assassination of JFK, a poignant and evocative crime novel that centers on a desperate cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America—a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone.

Frank Guidry’s luck has finally run out.

A loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans’ mob boss Carlos Marcello, Guidry has learned that everybody is expendable. But now it’s his turn—he knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours of JFK’s murder, everyone with ties to Marcello is turning up dead, and Guidry suspects he’s next: he was in Dallas on an errand for the boss less than two weeks before the president was shot. With few good options, Guidry hits the road to Las Vegas, to see an old associate—a dangerous man who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry vanish.

Guidry knows that the first rule of running is “don’t stop,” but when he sees a beautiful housewife on the side of the road with a broken-down car, two little daughters and a dog in the back seat, he sees the perfect disguise to cover his tracks from the hit men on his tail. Posing as an insurance man, Guidry offers to help Charlotte reach her destination, California. If she accompanies him to Vegas, he can help her get a new car.

For her, it’s more than a car— it’s an escape. She’s on the run too, from a stifling existence in small-town Oklahoma and a kindly husband who’s a hopeless drunk.

It’s an American story: two strangers meet to share the open road west, a dream, a hope—and find each other on the way.

Charlotte sees that he’s strong and kind; Guidry discovers that she’s smart and funny. He learns that’s she determined to give herself and her kids a new life; she can’t know that he’s desperate to leave his old one behind.

Another rule—fugitives shouldn’t fall in love, especially with each other. A road isn’t just a road, it’s a trail, and Guidry’s ruthless and relentless hunters are closing in on him. But now Guidry doesn’t want to just survive, he wants to really live, maybe for the first time.

Everyone’s expendable, or they should be, but now Guidry just can’t throw away the woman he’s come to love.

And it might get them both killed.

 

PRINT BOOK SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

The Black Ascot by Charles Todd:

A tip from an ex-convict seems implausible–but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard. Alan Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years, is the suspect in an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horserace honoring the late King Edward VII. His disappearance began a manhunt that consumed Britain for a decade. Now it appears that Barrington has turned to England, giving Scotland Yard a last chance to retrieve its reputation and see justice done.

 

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James:

A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made.” –Neil Gaiman

“Gripping, action-packed….The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

In the stunning first novel in Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child.

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: “He has a nose,” people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy’s scent–from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers–he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that’s come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that’s also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.

 

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay:

“The Far Field is remarkable, a novel at once politically timely and morally timeless. Madhuri Vijay traces the fault lines of history, love, and obligation running through a fractured family and country. Few novels generate enough power to transform their characters, fewer still their readers. The Far Field does both.”―Anthony Marra, author of The Tzar of Love and Techno

Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope, Pushcart Prize-winner Madhuri Vijay’s The Far Field follows a complicated flaneuse across the Indian subcontinent as she reckons with her past, her desires, and the tumultuous present.

In the wake of her mother’s death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir’s politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay masterfully examines Indian politics, class prejudice, and sexuality through the lens of an outsider, offering a profound meditation on grief, guilt, and the limits of compassion.

 

To Keep The Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari:

The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner. In the 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?

And yet, life goes on. Bibi-Khanoom’s grandniece secretly falls in love with the judge’s grandnephew and dreams of a career on the stage. His other grandnephew withers away on opium dreams. A widowed father longs for a life in Europe. A strained marriage slowly unravels. The orchard trees bloom and fruit as the streets in the capital grow violent. And a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse, set to occur on one of the holiest days of year, finally causes the family―and the country―to break.

Told through a host of unforgettable characters, ranging from servants and young children to intimate friends, To Keep the Sun Alive reveals the personal behind the political, reminding us of the human lives that animate historical events.

 

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff:

1946, Manhattan: One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs — each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station. Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal. Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

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.

Did You Know…

February is Black History Month?

It is!

And to celebrate here is a reading list with three parts: A selection of classic works by Hurston, Baldwin, Angelou and others, a selection of fiction titles by contemporary authors and a selection of biographies and memories by contemporary authors.

And in doing research for this posting I found so many great non-fiction books that to include them all in one posting would be inundating!

So I will do a second posting next week, titled Black History Month Non-Fiction Part 2: General Non-Fiction, to feature those books.

And onto the reading list!

A SELECTION OF CLASSIC WORKS:

(To learn more about a book, or to request it – click/tap on the book cover)

Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson by James Weldon Johnson contained in the collection Writings (Non-Fiction):

 

Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South, by Deborah Gray White (Non-Fiction):

 

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. by Martin Luther King Jr. (Non-Fiction):

 

The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois by W. E. B. Du Bois (Non-Fiction):

 

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Fiction):

 

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (Non-Fiction):

 

Harriet A. Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (Non-Fiction):

 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Non-Fiction):

 

Jubilee by Margaret Walker (Fiction):

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (Fiction):

 

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Fiction):

FICTION:

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely:

 

American Street by Ibi Zoboi:

 

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson:

 

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay:

 

Even in Paradise by Elizabeth Nunez:

 

Finding Gideon by Eric Jerome Dickey:

 

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas:

 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi:

 

The Illegal by Lawrence Hill:

 

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson:

 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler:

 

Lust: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray:

 

The Sellout by Paul Beatty:

 

So Much Blue by Percival Everett:

 

Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey:

 

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon:

 

NON-FICTION PART 1: BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIRS:

Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King:

 

Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson:

 

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight:

 

He Calls Me by Lightning: The Life of Caliph Washington and the Forgotten Saga of Jim Crow, Southern Justice, and the Death Penalty by Jonathan Bass:

 

March. Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and‎ Nate Powell:

 

March. Book 2 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and‎ Nate Powell:

 

March. Book 3 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and‎ Nate Powell:

 

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward:

 

My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King & Barbara Reynolds:

 

Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson:

 

Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith:

 

Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz:

 

This Is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare by Gabourey Sidibe:

 

When I Left Home: My Story by Buddy Guy:

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

References

9 Books to Read for Black History Month, According to Scholars written by Sarah Begley for Time Magazine (Feb. 15, 2018):

http://time.com/5157662/black-history-month-books-2018/

For Black History Month, PBS Books has put together a list of inspirational works honoring the African-American experience by PBS:

http://www.pbs.org/book-view-now/great-books-black-history-month-2018/

Never More Relevant: 50 Books for February, Black History Month, and Beyond by Molly McArdle (Dec. 22, 2016):

https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=never-more-relevant-50-books-for-february-black-history-month-and-beyond

‘Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin,’ by David Ritz by By Elsa Dixler (Book Review) (Dec. 5, 2014):

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/books/review/respect-the-life-of-aretha-franklin-by-david-ritz.html

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 ANONYMOUS GIRL by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:

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

 

CIRCE by Madeline Miller:

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

 

A DOG’S WAY HOME by W. Bruce Cameron:

A dog sets out across 400 miles of wilderness to find the man who rescued her as a puppy.

 

EVERY BREATH by Nicholas Sparks:

Difficult choices surface when Hope Anderson and Tru Walls meet in a North Carolina seaside town.

 

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 HOUSE NEXT DOOR by James Patterson:

Three stories: “The House Next Door” (written with Susan DiLallo), “The Killer’s Wife” (written with Max DiLallo) and “We. Are. Not. Alone” (written with Tim Arnold).

 

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.

 

LONG ROAD TO MERCY by David Baldacci:

The F.B.I. agent Atlee Pine must choose between protecting her career or the United States’ democracy.

 

THE NEW IBERIA BLUES by James Lee Burke:

Detective Dave Robicheaux and his new partner Bailey Ribbons investigate the death of a young woman by crucifixion.

 

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty:

A romance writer becomes fascinated by the owner and director of a health resort.

 

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict:

Hedy Lamarr flees to Hollywood where she becomes a screen star and develops technology that might combat the Nazis.

 

PAST TENSE by Lee Child:

Jack Reacher explores the New England town where his father was born.

 

THE RECKONING by John Grisham:

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

 

SUMMONED TO THIRTEENTH GRAVE by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson returns to the earthly plane after 100 years in exile to find her killer.

 

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris:

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

 

THERE THERE by Tommy Orange:

A multigenerational story exploring the plight of the urban Native American.

 

TURNING POINT by Danielle Steel:

Four American trauma doctors face difficult choices when they join a mass-casualty training program in Paris.

 

VERSES FOR THE DEAD by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child:

Agents Pendergast and Coldmoon track a killer who removes hearts and leaves handwritten letters.

 

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:

21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY by Yuval Noah Harari

Technological, political and social issues in the modern era, and the choices individuals might consider in facing them.

 

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.

 

BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE BIG QUESTIONS by Stephen Hawking:

A collection of essays from the late scientist’s personal archive that address 10 imponderables.

 

EDUCATED by Tara Westover:

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

 

ELON MUSK by Ashlee Vance:

A technology writer follows Musk’s life from his difficult South African childhood to his involvement in Internet start-ups like the rocket company SpaceX and the electric-car company Tesla.

 

FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund:

A look at our biases and how the world is in a better state than we might think.

 

FIFTH RISK by Michael Lewis:

The author of “The Big Short” examines how the Trump administration staffs its federal agencies.

 

THE FIRST CONSPIRACY by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch Flatiron:

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

 

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND by Michael Pollan

A personal account of how psychedelics might help the mentally ill and people dealing with everyday challenges.

 

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.

 

KILLING THE SS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard:

A look at the postwar manhunt for members of Hitler’s inner circle.

 

LEADERSHIP by Doris Kearns Goodwin:

The challenges that shaped the leadership abilities of four presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.

 

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.

 

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.

 

SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari:

How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species.

 

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.

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, five print titles available through StarCat and three new magazine issues avaialable through RBDigital.

DIGITAL SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones (Charley Davidson Series, Book 1) (Format: eBook):

First Grave on the Right is the smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper.

Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e., murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life…and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.

 

Sandstorm by James Rollins (Sigma Force, Book 1) (Format: eBook):

A freak explosion in the British museum in London ignites a perilous race for an earth-shaking power source buried deep beneath the sands of history. Painter Crowe is an agent for Sigma Force, a covert arm of the Defense Department tasked with keeping dangerous scientific discoveries out of enemy hands. When an ancient artifact points the way toward the legendary “Atlantis of the Sands,” Painter must travel across the world in search of the lost city-and a destructive power beyond imagining.

But Painter has competition. A band of ruthless mercenaries, led by a former friend and ally, are also intent on claiming the prize, and they will destroy anyone who gets in their way.

Ancient history collides with cutting-edge science-with the safety of the world at stake!

 

There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir written & read by Casey Gerald (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR, THE NEW YORK TIMES AND POP SUGAR

A PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB PICK

“Somehow Casey Gerald has pulled off the most urgently political, most deeply personal, and most engagingly spiritual statement of our time by just looking outside his window and inside himself. Extraordinary.” – Marlon James

“Staccato prose and peripatetic storytelling combine the cadences of the Bible with an urgency reminiscent of James Baldwin in this powerfully emotional memoir.” – BookPage

The testament of a boy and a generation who came of age as the world came apart—a generation searching for a new way to live.

Casey Gerald comes to our fractured times as a uniquely visionary witness whose life has spanned seemingly unbridgeable divides. His story begins at the end of the world: Dallas, New Year’s Eve 1999, when he gathers with the congregation of his grandfather’s black evangelical church to see which of them will be carried off. His beautiful, fragile mother disappears frequently and mysteriously; for a brief idyll, he and his sister live like Boxcar Children on her disability checks. When Casey—following in the footsteps of his father, a gridiron legend who literally broke his back for the team—is recruited to play football at Yale, he enters a world he’s never dreamed of, the anteroom to secret societies and success on Wall Street, in Washington, and beyond. But even as he attains the inner sanctums of power, Casey sees how the world crushes those who live at its margins. He sees how the elite perpetuate the salvation stories that keep others from rising.

And he sees, most painfully, how his own ascension is part of the scheme.

There Will Be No Miracles Here has the arc of a classic rags-to-riches tale, but it stands the American Dream narrative on its head. If to live as we are is destroying us, it asks, what would it mean to truly live? Intense, incantatory, shot through with sly humor and quiet fury, There Will Be No Miracles Here inspires us to question—even shatter—and reimagine our most cherished myths.

 

What We Were Promised written by Lucy Tan & read by Jennifer Lim (Format: Downloadable Audiobook):

Set in modern Shanghai, a debut by a Chinese-American writer about a prodigal son whose unexpected return forces his newly wealthy family to confront painful secrets and unfulfilled promises.

After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Settling into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai, Wei, Lina and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city. One morning, in the eighth tower of Lanson Suites, Lina discovers that a childhood keepsake, an ivory bracelet, has gone missing.

The incident contributes to a wave of unease that has begun to settle throughout the Zhen household. Wei, a marketing strategist, bows under the guilt of not having engaged in nobler work. Meanwhile, Lina, lonely in her new life of leisure, assumes the modern moniker tai tai-a housewife who does no housework at all. She spends her days haunted by the circumstances surrounding her arranged marriage to Wei and her lingering feelings for his brother, Qiang. Lina and Wei take pains to hide their anxieties, but their housekeeper, Sunny, a hardworking woman with secrets of her own, bears witness to their struggles. When Qiang reappears in Shanghai after decades on the run with a local gang, the family must finally come to terms with the past.

From a silk-producing village in rural China, up the corporate ladder in suburban America, and back again to the post-Maoist nouveau riche of modern Shanghai, What We Were Promised explores the question of what we owe to our country, our families and ourselves.

 

Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin (Jack Harvey Series, Book 1) (Format: eBook):

She is an ingenious assassin, with as many methods as identities, a master of disguise with an instinct for escape…. She is Witch, and she makes for alluring prey, teasing her pursuers as she eludes them, hunting her victims with breathtaking creativity, beguiling the most powerful men in the world with her dark beauty and cunning. Witch is wanted by the world’s most elite police agencies, doggedly pursued by three very different detectives – one woman and two men. Two are at the beginning of their careers, one is staking a lifetime’s experience on tracking Witch down, and all three display a professional determination that veers dangerously close to obsession. Working with and against one another, crossing paths and crossing swords, the detectives on her trail must stop her before she pulls off her most daring and ingenious assignment yet, a killing whose repercussions will reverberate throughout the world. The intricate deceits and confidences that lead Witch to her latest target inspire an elaborate chase, but no matter how fast her pursuers track her, no matter how expertly they anticipate her every move, Witch always remains one step ahead of the game. With time growing short, it seems she will elude authorities again – but an unexpected link to her own mysterious past may upset her streak of calculated terror.

Edgar Award winner lan Rankin delivers a novel of espionage that rivals the classics of the genre, confirming his stature as one of the modern masters of suspense.

 

PRINT BOOK SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

The Current: A Novel by Tim Johnston

One of Entertainment Weekly’s Most Anticipated Books of 2019

Tim Johnston, whose breakout debut Descent was called “astonishing,” “dazzling,” and “unforgettable” by critics, returns with The Current, a tour de force about the indelible impact of a crime on the lives of innocent people.

In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene—half frozen but alive.

What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them.

Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river, and the deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown.

Grief, suspicion, the innocent and the guilty—all stir to life in this cold northern town where a young woman can come home, but still not be safe. Brilliantly plotted and unrelentingly propulsive, The Current is a beautifully realized story about the fragility of life, the power of the past, and the need, always, to fight back.

 

The Nowhere Child: A Novel by Christian White: 

“A nervy, soulful, genuinely surprising it-could-happen-to-you thriller ― a book to make you peer over your shoulder for days afterwards.”―A.J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, The Nowhere Child is screenwriter Christian White’s internationally bestselling debut thriller of psychological suspense about a woman uncovering devastating secrets about her family―and her very identity…

Kimberly Leamy is a photography teacher in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six years earlier, Sammy Went, a two-year old girl vanished from her home in Manson, Kentucky. An American accountant who contacts Kim is convinced she was that child, kidnapped just after her birthday. She cannot believe the woman who raised her, a loving social worker who died of cancer four years ago, crossed international lines to steal a toddler.

On April 3rd, 1990, Jack and Molly Went’s daughter Sammy disappeared from the inside their Kentucky home. Already estranged since the girl’s birth, the couple drifted further apart as time passed. Jack did his best to raise and protect his other daughter and son while Molly found solace in her faith. The Church of the Light Within, a Pentecostal fundamentalist group who handle poisonous snakes as part of their worship, provided that faith. Without Sammy, the Wents eventually fell apart.

Now, with proof that she and Sammy are in fact the same person, Kim travels to America to reunite with a family she never knew she had. And to solve the mystery of her abduction―a mystery that will take her deep into the dark heart of religious fanaticism where she must fight for her life against those determined to save her soul…

 

Out of the Dark: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz:

“A shocking stunner in every way. The perfect thriller.” ―Robert Crais
When darkness closes in―he’s your last, best hope. Evan Smoak returns in Gregg Hurwitz’s #1 international bestselling Orphan X series.

Taken from a group home at age twelve, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as part of the Orphan Program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets―i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the Program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man, a man who helps the truly desperate when no one else can. But now Evan’s past is catching up to him.

Someone at the very highest level of government has been trying to eliminate every trace of the Orphan Program by killing all the remaining Orphans and their trainers. After Evan’s mentor and the only father he ever knew was killed, he decided to strike back. His target is the man who started the Program and who is now the most heavily guarded person in the world: the President of the United States.

But President Bennett knows that Orphan X is after him and, using weapons of his own, he’s decided to counter-attack. Bennett activates the one man who has the skills and experience to track down and take out Orphan X―the first recruit of the Program, Orphan A.

With Evan devoting all his skills, resources, and intelligence to find a way through the layers of security that surround the President, suddenly he also has to protect himself against the deadliest of opponents. It’s Orphan vs. Orphan with the future of the country―even the world―on the line.

 

She Lies In Wait by Gytha Lodge:

Six friends. One killer. Who do you trust? A teen girl is missing after a night of partying; thirty years later, the discovery of her body reopens a cold case in an absorbing novel featuring a small-town cop determined to finally get to the truth—for fans of Tana French and Kate Atkinson.
“What a marvel! A corkscrew-twisty, knife-sharp thriller—yet it doubles as a tender ode to loss and longing. Prepare to be haunted.”—A. J. Finn, author of the New York Times bestseller The Woman in the Window

On a scorching July night in 1983, a group of teenagers goes camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and the youngest of the group—Aurora Jackson—is delighted to be allowed to tag along. The evening starts like any other—they drink, they dance, they fight, they kiss. Some of them slip off into the woods in pairs, others are left jealous and heartbroken. But by morning, Aurora has disappeared. Her friends claim that she was safe the last time they saw her, right before she went to sleep. An exhaustive investigation is launched, but no trace of the teenager is ever found.

Thirty years later, Aurora’s body is unearthed in a hideaway that only the six friends knew about, and Jonah Sheens is put in charge of solving the long-cold case. Back in 1983, as a young cop in their small town, he had known the teenagers—including Aurora—personally, even before taking part in the search. Now he’s determined to finally get to the truth of what happened that night. Sheens’s investigation brings the members of the camping party back to the forest, where they will be confronted once again with the events that left one of them dead, and all of them profoundly changed forever.

This searing, psychologically captivating novel marks the arrival of a dazzling new talent, and the start of a new series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens.

Praise for She Lies in Wait

“This enjoyably chilling suspense tale . . . conveys both the thrills and the dangers of being a teenager on the brink of adult independence. . . . The fascination of this story is in the character studies of the surviving children, all grown up now and participants in a dark mystery that they all wish had never seen the light of day.”—The New York Times Book Review

“The mystery intrigues and twists, offering enough red herrings and moments of police procedural to please fans of the genre.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Neatly plotted and nicely atmospheric . . . This British import is plausible and eminently satisfying. Encore, please.”—Booklist

 

That Churchill Woman: A Novel by Stephanie Barron: 

The Paris Wife meets PBS’s Victoria in this enthralling novel of the life and loves of one of history’s most remarkable women: Winston Churchill’s scandalous American mother, Jennie Jerome.
Wealthy, privileged, and fiercely independent New Yorker Jennie Jerome took Victorian England by storm when she landed on its shores. As Lady Randolph Churchill, she gave birth to a man who defined the twentieth century: her son Winston. But Jennie—reared in the luxury of Gilded Age Newport and the Paris of the Second Empire—lived an outrageously modern life all her own, filled with controversy, passion, tragedy, and triumph.

When the nineteen-year-old beauty agrees to marry the son of a duke she has known only three days, she’s instantly swept up in a whirlwind of British politics and the breathless social climbing of the Marlborough House Set, the reckless men who surround Bertie, Prince of Wales. Raised to think for herself and careless of English society rules, the new Lady Randolph Churchill quickly becomes a London sensation: adored by some, despised by others.

Artistically gifted and politically shrewd, she shapes her husband’s rise in Parliament and her young son’s difficult passage through boyhood. But as the family’s influence soars, scandals explode and tragedy befalls the Churchills. Jennie is inescapably drawn to the brilliant and seductive Count Charles Kinsky—diplomat, skilled horse-racer, deeply passionate lover. Their affair only intensifies as Randolph Churchill’s sanity frays, and Jennie—a woman whose every move on the public stage is judged—must walk a tightrope between duty and desire. Forced to decide where her heart truly belongs, Jennie risks everything—even her son—and disrupts lives, including her own, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Breathing new life into Jennie’s legacy and the glittering world over which she reigned, That Churchill Woman paints a portrait of the difficult—and sometimes impossible—balance among love, freedom, and obligation, while capturing the spirit of an unforgettable woman, one who altered the course of history.

Advance praise for That Churchill Woman

“The perfect confection of a novel . . . We’re introduced to Jennie in all of her passion and keen intelligence and beauty. While she is surrounded by a cast of late-Victorian celebrities, including Bertie, Prince of Wales, it’s always Jennie who shines and takes the center stage she was born to.”—Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue

 

RECOMMENDED MAGAZINES OF THE WEEK*

Bird & Blooms (January 31, 2019 issue):

 

Newsweek (January 31, 2019 issue):

 

O, The Oprah Magazine (February 01, 2019 issue):

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 photo of the albums to stream them)

Recomended Freegal Streaming Albums:

Look Up! (2017) by Andrew Gutauskas (Genre: Jazz):

Andrew Gutauskas is a Baritone Saxophonist and composer. He attended Julliard and is the musical director of the New York City based group Brass Against.

Look Up! is Gustaukas’s first EP and it features six great songs: Blues Day, Waterfalls, Dancing DD, How You Feelin’, I Don’t Know Yet and Look Up.

 

Folk Songs Of Old Eire (1967) (Digitally Remastered) by Judy Mayhan (Folk):

Judy Henske was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and studied at the University of Wisconsin in Madison before moving on to a music career. In the early sixties Henske sang in Californian coffeehouses before moving to New York City and becoming a part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene.

Henske has a deep, clear and strong voice and is one of those singers that could sing the old school telephone directory and make it sound good!

Folk Songs of Old Eire is a classic folk album and features the songs: Johnny Went Foling, One Morning In May, At the Foot of Yonder’s Mountain, Lass from the Low Country and Rockin’ the Cradle.

 

Essential Dolly Parton (2011) by Dollary Parton (Genre: Country):

The Essential Dolly Parton is a solid greatest hits collection by one of the quintessential country artists of our age.

Songs in the set include: Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, Please Don’t Stop Loving Me (with Porter Wagoner), Here You Come Again, 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream (with Kenny Rogers).

 

Springsteen on Broadway by Bruce Springsteen (Genre: Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Traditional Rock):

Springsteen On Broadway was recorded during several concerts Springsteen played in New York City in 2017. The album features the Boss in an intimate setting – on the stage playing and singing solo.

Songs in the set include: Growin’ Up, My Hometown, My Father’s House, Thunder Road, The Promised Land, Brilliant Disguise and Tougher Than The Rest.

 

Straw In The Wind (2017) by The Steel Woods (Genre: Rockabilly, Country, Rock):

The Steel Woods are a traditional country/rock/rockabilly band that plays down the same road as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Straw In The Wind is their first album.

Songs on the LP include: Better In The Fall, Delia Jane’s Heart, The Well, If We Never Go, Whatever It Means To You and Let The Rain Come Down.

 

The Only Big Band CD You’ll Ever Need (2000) by Various Artists (Genre: Big Band, Jazz):

The Only Big Band CD You’ll Ever Need is...Well maybe not the only big band CD you’ll ever need, especially if you like streaming your music!

However, this is a terrific 20 song collection of classic 1930s & 1940s swing music by some of the biggest names in the genre including: Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and Count Basie.

If you enjoy big band music then these songs are old friends. And if you don’t know much about big band music this collection is a great way to get your toes (and ears) wet!

Songs in the set include: Chattanooga Choo-Choo & In The Mood by The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Stompin’ At The Savoy by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, Take the “A” Train by Duke Ellington & his Orchestra, Begin The Beguine by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra and Tempo & Swing by Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra.

 

The Rza Presents Shaolin Soul Selection: Vol. 1 (2013) by Various Artists (Genre: R&B, Soul, Pop):

The Rza Presents Shaolin Soul Selection: Vol. 1albumfeatures 24 classic songs from the Stax Record vaults.

Songs in the set include: I Could Never Be Happy by The Emotions, in the Rain by The Dramatics, Packed Up And Took My Mind by Little Milton and I’ll Play The Blues For You by Albert King.

 

Videos:

Blues Day – Andrew Gutauskas – Jazz Baritone Saxophone:

 

Rockin’ the Cradle by Judy Mayhan:

 

Mule Skinner Blues by Dolly Parton:

 

Tougher Than The Rest by Bruce Springsteen from Springsteen on Broadway:

 

Straw In The Wind by The Steel Woods:

 

Stompin’ At The Savoy by Benny Goodman And His Orchestra:

 

In The Mood by The Glenn Miller Orchestra:

 

Margie by Cab Calloway:

 

It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra:

 

I Forgot To Be Your Lover by William Bell:

 

Joy by Isaac Hayes:

Have a great weekend!

 

Linda, SSCL

REFERENCES:

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

Andrew Gutauskas Music Bio. https://www.andrewgutauskas.com/bio

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 the week ending January 20, 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.

 

THE BEST OF US by Robyn Carr:

The fourth book in the Sullivan’s Crossing series. Two women in the Culver family are confronted with opportunities for love in Colorado.

 

BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman:

Malorie must get her two young children 20 miles downriver to escape an unseen terror.

 

CIRCE by Madeline Miller:

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

 

DAUGHTER OF WAR by Brad Taylor:

Pike Logan takes on dangers involving North Korea, Syria and a substance called Red Mercury.

 

A DOG’S WAY HOME by W. Bruce Cameron:

A dog sets out across 400 miles of wilderness to find the man who rescued her as a puppy.

 

EVERY BREATH by Nicholas Sparks:

Difficult choices surface when Hope Anderson and Tru Walls meet in a North Carolina seaside town.

 

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 HOUSE NEXT DOOR by James Patterson:

Three stories: “The House Next Door” (written with Susan DiLallo), “The Killer’s Wife” (written with Max DiLallo) and “We. Are. Not. Alone” (written with Tim Arnold).

 

LONG ROAD TO MERCY by David Baldacci:

The F.B.I. agent Atlee Pine must choose between protecting her career or the United States’ democracy.

 

THE NEW IBERIA BLUES by James Lee Burke:

Detective Dave Robicheaux and his new partner Bailey Ribbons investigate the death of a young woman by crucifixion.

 

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty:

A romance writer becomes fascinated by the owner and director of a health resort.

 

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict:

Hedy Lamarr flees to Hollywood where she becomes a screen star and develops technology that might combat the Nazis.

 

PAST TENSE by Lee Child:

Jack Reacher explores the New England town where his father was born.

 

THE RECKONING by John Grisham:

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

 

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris:

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

 

THROUGH FIERY TRIALS by David Weber:

The 10th book in the Safehold series. A temporary peace gives way as international alliances change.

 

TURNING POINT by Danielle Steel:

Four American trauma doctors face difficult choices when they join a mass-casualty training program in Paris.

 

UNTOUCHABLE by Jayne Ann Krentz:

The third book in the Cutler, Sutter and Salinas series. Quinton Zane returns to dispose of Anson Salinas’s foster sons.

 

VERSES FOR THE DEAD by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child:

Agents Pendergast and Coldmoon track a killer who removes hearts and leaves handwritten letters.

 

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.

 

THE WINTER OF THE WITCH by Katherine Arden:

The final book of the Winternight trilogy. The fate of two worlds depends on a girl who seeks to forge her own path.

 

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.

 

BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande:

The surgeon and New Yorker writer considers how doctors fail patients at the end of life, and how they can do better.

 

BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE BIG QUESTIONS by Stephen Hawking:

A collection of essays from the late scientist’s personal archive that address 10 imponderables.

 

EDUCATED by Tara Westover:

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

 

FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund:

A look at our biases and how the world is in a better state than we might think.

 

FEAR by Bob Woodward:

Based on hours of interviews with sources, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist describes debates and decision-making within the Trump White House.

 

FIFTH RISK by Michael Lewis:

The author of “The Big Short” examines how the Trump administration staffs its federal agencies.

 

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.

 

KILLING THE SS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard:

A look at the postwar manhunt for members of Hitler’s inner circle.

 

LEADERSHIP by Doris Kearns Goodwin:

The challenges that shaped the leadership abilities of four presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.

 

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.

 

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.

 

SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari:

How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species.

 

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.

 

WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo: 

Historical and cultural analyses on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue.

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 Best of Us, Sullivan’s Crossing Series, Book 4 by Robyn Carr:

In Sullivan’s Crossing, #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr has created a place where good people, powerful emotions, great humor and a healthy dose of common sense are the key ingredients to a happy life. Sullivan’s Crossing brings out the best in people. It’s a place you’ll want to visit again and again.

Dr. Leigh Culver loves practicing medicine in Timberlake, Colorado. It is a much-needed change of pace from her stressful life in Chicago. The only drawback is she misses her aunt Helen, the woman who raised her. But it’s time that Leigh has her independence, and she hopes the beauty of the Colorado wilderness will entice her aunt to visit often.

Helen Culver is an independent woman who lovingly raised her sister’s orphaned child. Now, with Leigh grown, it’s time for her to live life for herself. The retired teacher has become a successful mystery writer who loves to travel and intends to never experience winter again.

When Helen visits Leigh, she is surprised to find her niece still needs her, especially when it comes to sorting out her love life. But the biggest surprise comes when Leigh takes Helen out to Sullivan’s Crossing and Helen finds herself falling for the place and one special person. Helen and Leigh will each have to decide if they can open themselves up to love neither expected to find and seize the opportunity to live their best lives.

 

The Dakota Winters: A Novel by Tom Barbash:

An evocative and wildly absorbing novel about the Winters, a family living in New York City’s famed Dakota apartment building in the year leading up to John Lennon’s assassination

It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when twenty-three-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, a mission that takes him from the gritty streets of New York, to the slopes of the Lake Placid Olympics, to the Hollywood Hills, to the blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and brings him into close quarters with the likes of Johnny Carson, Ted and Joan Kennedy, and a seagoing John Lennon.

But the more Anton finds himself enmeshed in his father’s professional and spiritual reinvention, the more he questions his own path, and fissures in the Winter family begin to threaten their close bond. By turns hilarious and poignant, The Dakota Winters is a family saga, a page-turning social novel, and a tale of a critical moment in the history of New York City and the country at large.

 

The Golden Tresses of the Dead: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley:

A finger in a wedding cake is only the beginning in this deliciously shocking mystery featuring Flavia de Luce, “the world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth” (The Seattle Times).

Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop’s Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce’s sister Ophelia is at last getting hitched, like a mule to a wagon. “A church is a wonderful place for a wedding,” muses Flavia, “surrounded as it is by the legions of the dead, whose listening bones bear silent witness to every promise made at the altar.” Flavia is not your normal twelve-year-old girl. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, she has solved many mysteries, which has sharpened her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve—not so simple an endeavor with her odious, little moon-faced cousin, Undine, constantly underfoot. But Flavia and Dogger persevere. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia’s wedding cake: a human finger.

 

The Milkman: A Novel by Anna Burns

Winner of the Man Booker Prize

“Everything about this novel rings true. . . . Original, funny, disarmingly oblique and unique.”—The Guardian

In an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting,” the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him—and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend—rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive. Told with ferocious energy and sly, wicked humor, Milkman establishes Anna Burns as one of the most consequential voices of our day.

 

The Winter of the Witch by Kathleen Alden:

Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen.

“A tale both intimate and epic, featuring a heroine whose harrowing and wondrous journey culminates in an emotionally resonant finale.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Reviewers called Katherine Arden’s novels The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower “lyrical,” “emotionally stirring,” and “utterly bewitching.” The Winternight Trilogy introduced an unforgettable heroine, Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl determined to forge her own path in a world that would rather lock her away. Her gifts and her courage have drawn the attention of Morozko, the winter-king, but it is too soon to know if this connection will prove a blessing or a curse.

Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers—and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all.

 

PRINT SUGGESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

Golden State by Ben Winters

In a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a nineteen-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime–and stopping those crimes is Laz’s job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to ‘speculate’ on what might have happened. But the Golden State is less a paradise than its name might suggest. To monitor, verify, and enforce the truth requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance and recording. And when those in control of the facts twist them for nefarious means, the Speculators are the only ones with the power to fight back.

 

The House Next Door: Thrillers by James Patterson:

Danger lurks in plain sight with a beguiling neighbor, a suspect’s wife, and a mysterious message from space in three electrifying thrillers from the World’s Bestselling Writer, James Patterson.

The House Next Door (with Susan DiLallo): Married mother of three Laura Sherman was thrilled when her new neighbor invited her on some errands. But a few quick tasks became a long lunch-and now things could go too far with a man who isn’t what he seems….

The Killer’s Wife (with Max DiLallo): Four girls have gone missing. Detective McGrath knows the only way to find them is to get close to the suspect’s wife…maybe too close

We. Are. Not. Alone (with Tim Arnold): The first message from space. It will change the world. It’s first contact. Undeniable proof of alien life. Disgraced Air Force scientist Robert Barnett found it. Now he’s the target of a desperate nationwide manhunt-and Earth’s future hangs in the balance.

 

No Exit: A Novel by Taylor Adams:

“A brilliant, edgy thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath. A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do? On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate. Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her? There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one? Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape. But who can she trust? With exquisitely controlled pacing, Taylor Adams diabolically ratchets up the tension with every page. Full of terrifying twists and hairpin turns, No Exit will have you on the edge of your seat and leave you breathless.”–IndieBound.org

 

No Sunscreen For The Dead by Tim Dorsey:

The Sunshine State’s most lovable psychopath, Serge A. Storms, kills it in this zany adventure from the “compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny” (Boston Globe) king of mayhem, New York Times bestselling author Tim Dorsey. Serge and Coleman are back on the road, ready to hit the next stop on their list of obscure and wacky points of interest in the Sunshine State. This time, Serge’s interest is drawn to one of the largest retirement villages in the world–also known as the site of an infamous sex scandal between a retiree and her younger beau that rocked the community. What starts out as an innocent quest to observe elders in their natural habitats, sample the local cuisine, and scope out a condo to live out the rest of their golden years, soon becomes a Robin Hood-like crusade to recover the funds of swindled residents. After all, our seniors should be revered and respected–they’ve heroically fought in wars, garnered priceless wisdom, and they have the best first-hand accounts of bizarre Floridian occurrences only Serge would know about. But as the resident’s rally for Serge to seek justice on their behalves, two detectives are hot on the heels of Serge and Coleman’s murderous trail. In this epic adventure that jumps between present day and the tumultuous times of the Vietnam war, mystery fans are in for a witty and deliciously violent delight from the twisted imagination of bestselling author Tim Dorsey.

 

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman:

For fans of Lilac Girls, the next powerful novel from the author of Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist The Two-Family House about two sisters working in a WWII armory, each with a deep secret.

“Loigman’s strong voice and artful prose earn her a place in the company of Alice Hoffman and Anita Diamant, whose readers should flock to this wondrous new book.” ―Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan’s Tale

“The Wartime Sisters shows the strength of women on the home front: to endure, to fight, and to help each other survive.” ―Jenna Blum, New York Times and international bestselling author of The Lost Family and Those Who Save Us

Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.

“One of my favorite books of the year.” ―Fiona Davis, national bestselling author of The Dollhouse and The Masterpiece

“A stirring tale of loyalty, betrayal, and the consequences of long-buried secrets.” ―Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of The Edge of Lost and Sold on a Monday.

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

Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available.

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.