Suggested Reading Week of April 2, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week.

This list includes ebook titles available through OverDrive and five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’re interested in to request it or check it out)

Digital Suggestions For The Week:

Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir by Jennifer McGaha:

When life gets your goat, bring in the herd.

Jennifer McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle. Or to be setting Merle up on dates and naming his doeling Merlene. She didn’t expect to be buying organic yogurt for her chickens. She never thought she would be pulling camouflage carpet off her ceiling or rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it “date night.” Most importantly, Jennifer never thought she would only have $4.57 in her bank account.

When Jennifer discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes—a lot of back taxes—her world changed. Now desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a one-hundred-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer’s life began to more closely resemble her Appalachian ancestors than her upper-middle-class upbringing. But what started as a last-ditch effort to settle debts became a journey that revealed both the joys and challenges of living close to the land.

Told with bold wit, unflinching honesty, and a firm foot in the traditions of Appalachia, Flat Broke with Two Goats blends stories of homesteading with the journey of two people rediscovering the true meaning of home.

Vanished: Private Justice Series, Book 1 by Irene Hannon:

Reporter Moira Harrisons is lost. In the dark. In a thunderstorm. When a confusing detour places her on a rural, wooded road, she’s startled by the sudden appearance of a lone figure caught in the beam of her headlights. Though Moira jams on her brakes, the car careens across the wet pavement–and the solid thump against the side of the vehicle tells her she hit the person before she crashes into a tree on the far side of the road.

A dazed Moira is relieved when a man opens her door, tells her he saw everything, and promises to call 911. Then everything fades to black. When she comes to an hour later, she is alone. No man. No 911. No injured person lying on the side of the road. But she can’t forget the look of terror she saw on the person’s face in the instant before her headlights swung away. The person she hit had been in trouble. She’s sure of it. But she can’t get anyone to believe her story–except a handsome former police detective, now a private eye, who agrees to take on the case.

From the very first page, readers will be hooked into this fast-paced story full of shocking secrets from fan-favorite Irene Hannon. Vanished is the exciting first book in the Private Justice series: Three justice seekers who got burned playing by the rules now have a second chance to make things right.

Poison Princess: The Arcana Chronicles, Book 1 by Kresley Cole:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces The Arcana Chronicles, post-apocalyptic tales filled with riveting action, the dark mysticism of Tarot cards, and breathtaking romance.

She could save the world—or destroy it.

Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life—until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, killing everyone she loves, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can’t do either alone.

With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally trust Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?

As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side…

In Poison Princess, New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces a dark and intriguing world, full of unspeakable danger and irresistible romance.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer written by Michelle McNamara & narrated by Gabra Zackman (unabridged audiobook):

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

Introduction by Gillian Flynn • Afterword by Patton Oswalt

“A brilliant genre-buster…. Propulsive, can’t-stop-now reading.” —Stephen King
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.

Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump written by Michael Isikoff & narrated by David Corn (unabridged audiobook):

A New York Times Bestseller.

The incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the US election and help Donald

Trump gain the presidency.

Russian Roulette is a story of political skulduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After US-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on US political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election.

The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no “third-rate burglary.” It was far more sophisticated and sinister-a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump’s strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle-including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn-and Russia.

Russian Roulette chronicles and explores this bizarre scandal, explains the stakes, and answers one of the biggest questions in American politics: How and why did a foreign government infiltrate the country’s political process and gain influence in Washington?

Print Suggestions For The Week:

The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman:

A masterful novel that moves from Roman apartments to SoHo galleries to the South of France and tells the story of the son of a great painter striving to create his own legacy, by the bestselling author of THE IMPERFECTIONISTS. Rome, 1955. The artists gather for a picture at a party in an ancient villa. Bear Bavinsky, creator of vast canvases, larger than life, is at the centre of the picture. His wife, Natalie, edges out of the shot. From the side of the room watches little Pinch – their son. At five years old he loves Bear almost as much as he fears him. After Bear abandons their family, Pinch will still worship him, striving to live up to the Bavinsky name; while Natalie, a ceramicist, cannot hope to be more than a forgotten muse. Trying to burn brightly in his father’s shadow, Pinch’s attempts flicker and die. Yet by the end of a career of twists and compromises, Pinch will enact an unexpected rebellion that will leave forever his mark upon the Bear Bavinsky legacy.

Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira:

“Interesting quirks and divided loyalties flesh out this first novel in which sf and mystery intersect in a well-crafted plot…Pedreira’s science thriller powerfully highlights the human politics and economics from the seemingly desolate expanse of the moon. It will attract readers who enjoyed Andy Weir’s lunar crime caper Artemis.” — Library Journal, starred review

A realistic and chilling vision of life on the Moon, where dust kills as easily as the vacuum of space…but murder is even quicker—a fast-paced, cinematic science fiction thriller, this debut novel combines the inventiveness of The Martian, the intrigue of The Expanse, and the thrills of Red Rising.

The Moon smells like gunpowder. Every lunar walker since Apollo 11 has noticed it: a burnt-metal scent that reminds them of war. Caden Dechert, the chief of the U.S. mining operation on the edge of the Sea of Serenity, thinks the smell is just a trick of the mind—a reminder of his harrowing days as a Marine in the war-torn Middle East back on Earth.

It’s 2072, and lunar helium-3 mining is powering the fusion reactors that are bringing Earth back from environmental disaster. But competing for the richest prize in the history of the world has destroyed the oldest rule in space: Safety for All. When a bomb kills one of Dechert’s diggers on Mare Serenitatis, the haunted veteran goes on the hunt to expose the culprit before more blood is spilled.

But as Dechert races to solve the first murder in the history of the Moon, he gets caught in the crosshairs of two global powers spoiling for a fight. Reluctant to be the match that lights this powder-keg, Dechert knows his life and those of his crew are meaningless to the politicians. Even worse, he knows the killer is still out there, hunting.

In his desperate attempts to save his crew and prevent the catastrophe he sees coming, the former Marine uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that, with one spark, can ignite a full lunar war, wipe out his team . . . and perhaps plunge the Earth back into darkness.

Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester: 

From the acclaimed author of Chasing the Sun comes a new novel about immigration and the depths to which one Mexican American family will go for forgiveness and redemption.

The first time Isabel meets her father-in-law, Omar, he’s already dead—an apparition appearing uninvited on her wedding day. Her husband, Martin, still unforgiving for having been abandoned by his father years ago, confesses that he never knew the old man had died. So Omar asks Isabel for the impossible: persuade Omar’s family—especially his wife, Elda—to let him redeem himself.

Isabel and Martin settle into married life in a Texas border town, and Omar returns each year on the celebratory Day of the Dead. Every year Isabel listens, but to the aggrieved Martin and Elda, Omar’s spirit remains invisible. Through his visits, Isabel gains insight into not just the truth about his disappearance and her husband’s childhood but also the ways grief can eat away at love. When Martin’s teenage nephew crosses the Mexican border and takes refuge in Isabel and Martin’s home, questions about past and future homes, borders, and belonging arise that may finally lead to forgiveness—and alter all their lives forever

The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century by Simon Baatz:

From New York Times bestselling author Simon Baatz, the first comprehensive account of the murder that shocked the world.

In 1901 Evelyn Nesbit, a chorus girl in the musical Florodora, dined alone with the architect Stanford White in his townhouse on 24th Street in New York. Nesbit, just sixteen years old, had recently moved to the city. White was forty-seven and a principal in the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. As the foremost architect of his day, he was a celebrity, responsible for designing countless landmark buildings in Manhattan. That evening, after drinking champagne, Nesbit lost consciousness and awoke to find herself naked in bed with White. Telltale spots of blood on the bed sheets told her that White had raped her.

She told no one about the rape until, several years later, she confided in Harry Thaw, the millionaire playboy who would later become her husband. Thaw, thirsting for revenge, shot and killed White in 1906 before hundreds of theatergoers during a performance in Madison Square Garden, a building that White had designed.

The trial was a sensation that gripped the nation. Most Americans agreed with Thaw that he had been justified in killing White, but the district attorney expected to send him to the electric chair. Evelyn Nesbit’s testimony was so explicit and shocking that Theodore Roosevelt himself called on the newspapers not to print it verbatim. The murder of White cast a long shadow: Harry Thaw later attempted suicide, and Evelyn Nesbit struggled for many years to escape an addiction to cocaine. The Girl on the Velvet Swing, a tale of glamour, excess, and danger, is an immersive, fascinating look at an America dominated by men of outsize fortunes and by the women who were their victims.

The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George:

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley are forced to confront the past as they try to solve a crime that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of a quiet, historic medieval town in England

The cozy, bucolic town of Ludlow is stunned when one of its most revered and respected citizens–Ian Druitt, the local deacon–is accused of a serious crime. Then, while in police custody, Ian is found dead. Did he kill himself? Or was he murdered?

When Barbara Havers is sent to Ludlow to investigate the chain of events that led to Ian’s death, all the evidence points to suicide. But Barbara can’t shake the feeling that she’s missing something. She decides to take a closer look at the seemingly ordinary inhabitants of Ludlow–mainly elderly retirees and college students–and discovers that almost everyone in town has something to hide.

A masterful work of suspense, The Punishment She Deserves sets Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Inspector Thomas Lynley against one of their most intricate cases. Fans of the longtime series will love the many characters from Elizabeth George’s previous novels who join Lynley and Havers, and readers new to the series will quickly see why she is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed writers of our time. Both a page-turner and a deeply complex story about the lies we tell, the lies we believe, and the redemption we need, this novel will be remembered as one of George’s best.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

You can request physical items, i.e. print books, DVDs & CDs, online via StarCat:

or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

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.

Did You Know…Poldark!

Linda Reimer

Did You Know…Poldark!

This is the first in a new series of monthly postings that will offer fun bits of info on books, TV series and movies that you can check out at the library!

The Did You Know series of posts will come out in the first day of each month.

And our debut positing is on the new Poldark TV series!

So perhaps you’ve enjoyed the first three seasons of the swashbuckling romantic TV series Poldark? If you haven’t gotten to it yet, here’s a brief description: The series is set in 18th Century Cornwall, England, and stars Aidan Turner as Captain Ross Poldark, Eleanor Tomlinson as his wife, and the venerable heroine of the series, Demelza Carne Poldark, Heida Reed as Elizabeth Poldark Warleggan and Jack Farthing as George Warleggan.

And on to the Did You Know items!

Did you know…

• That the TV series is based upon a series of books written by the British author Winston Graham that were published between 1945 and 2002?

You read that right! Mr. Graham published 13 books in the series over the course of 57 years!

The first Poldark novel was originally titled The Renegade. Graham later changed the title to match the name of the hero of the book – Ross Poldark. Mr. Graham was inspired to write the Poldark novels after he moved to Cornwall as a youth and had the chance to take in the breath-taking beauty of Cornwall along with a dose of local history.

And although Graham wrote many other novels, including several that were turned into popular movies*. The Poldark series remained close to his heart. In fact, the very last book he finished in his life was the final book in the Poldark series, titled Bella Poldark, it was published in 2002 just a year before he died at age 95.

Did You Know…

• That the current TV Series, which made its debut in 2015, was preceded by TV series that ran from 1975 – 1977?

It was!

The original series featured Robin Ellis as Ross Poldark, Angharad Rees as Demelza Carne Poldark, Jill Townsend as Elizabeth Poldark Warleggan and Ralph Bates as George Warleggan. Like the current series the original TV series was shown on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre and I remember watching it with my mother when it was original broadcast on American television. Like the current series, the original Poldark series was great fun to watch.

Did You Know…

• Robin Ellis, the actor who portrayed Ross Poldark in the 1970s series, is also in the new series?

He is!

Robin Ellis portrays the grouchy clergyman and Justice of the Peace the Reverend Doctor Halse in the new Poldark series.

About The Books:

On another interesting note, this one a book note, the one thing the original TV series didn’t have that the new series does – is access to the complete Poldark series of books!

When the original series was filmed in the seventies the author had only written the first seven books in the series, and those books chronicled the lives of Captain Ross Poldark and his family from his return to Cornwall after the American War (on our side of the pond The American Revolution) in 1783 through December of 1799. From the eighties through the early twenty first century the author wrote five more Poldark novels which take the Poldark Family all the way to 1820! So the makers of the new series have five more books, that span twenty more years, to base stories upon!

All the Poldark books, the complete seventies TV series and the first three seasons of the new Poldark TV series  can be requested through StarCat.

The fourth season of the new Poldark TV series will be shown on PBS this fall.

And here is a list of all the Poldark books and videos, which you can request from the library.

To request a title click on the photo of the book or video.

First the books in order:

Ross Poldark

Demelza

Jeremy Poldark

Warleggan 

The Black Moon

The Four Swans

The Angry Tide

The Stranger From The Sea

The Miller’s Dance

The Loving Cup

The Twisted Sword

Bella Poldark

Here are the links to request the videos in the 1970s series starring Robin Ellis:

Poldark, Series 1

Poldark, Series 2

And here are the links to request the first three video sets in the new series starring Aiden Turner:

Poldark: The Complete First Season

Poldark: The Complete Second Season

Poldark: The Complete Third Season

And just as an FYI you can also request the series in ebook and downloadable audio book formats through the Digital Catalog which you can access by clicking on the photo below:

Have a great day!
Linda, The Librarian (a tip of the hat to The Librarian in the old Hilarious House of Frightenstein TV series – I always wanted to type that!)

* The Graham novels that were filmed for the big screen are: Take My Life (1947), Night without Stars (1951), Fortune is a Woman (1957), Marnie produced by Alfred Hitchcock (1964) and The Walking Stick (1970).

References:

Because I’m a librarian and we’re big on citing sources!

Online Sources:

Reverend Dr. Halse day in court with Captain Poldark by Robin Ellis. Robin Ellis Actor, writer cook and author. (12 May, 2014). Online. Accessed March 21, 2018.
https://robin-ellis.net/2014/05/12/reverend-dr-halses-day-in-court-with-captain-poldark/

Obituary Winston Graham written by Dennis Baker and published in The Guardian (14 July 2003). Online. Accessed March 21, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jul/14/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

Poldark Novels & Writing. The Official Winston Graham Site. Online. Accessed March 21, 2018.
http://www.winstongraham.org/novels1/novels1.htm

Print Sources:

Poldark’s Cornwall written by Winston & Andrew Graham. Published by Macmillan in London in 2015.

The World of Poldark by Emma Marriott. Published in New York by St Martin’s Press in 2016

Suggested Listening March 30, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions and one recommended album on CD.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you want to listen to!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

Modern Lore (2018) by Julian Lage (Genre: Jazz, Instrumental):

Julian Lage was born on December 25, 1987 and was a child prodigy who learned to play the guitar by the age of five. As a child he played with a number of world renowned musicians including: Carlos Santana, Pat Metheny, Toots Thielemans, David Grisman and others. In 1997, he was the focus of the Academy Award Winning documentary Jules at Eight.

So we can safely say this young man can really play the guitar!

Lage’s Modern Lore LP features the following songs: The Ramble, Atlantic Limited, General Thunder, Splendor Riot, Look Book and Whatever You Say, Henry.

Hallelujah Nights (2018) by LANCO (Genre: Country, Pop, Rock):

LANCO, which is short for Lancaster & Company, is a quintet featuring Brandon Lancaster on vocals, Eric Steedly on guitar, Jared Hampton on keyboard, Chandler Baldwin on bass and Tripp Howell on drums.

The group’s music can aptly be described as feel good country-rock – which is always fun!

Hallelujah Nights is the band’s 2018 release and it features the songs: Born to Love You, Long Live Tonight, Greatest Love Story, We Do, Singin’ at the Stars and Middle of the Night.

Coming Home (2015) by Leon Bridges (Genre: Soul, R&B, Pop):

AllMusic aptly describes Bridges as a “Singer, songwriter, and guitarist who emerged on Columbia in 2015 with a rich retro-soul sound.”

I agree with that assessment 100%. This is a lovely album – if you like classic soul and R&B it is right down your street! And I can’t believe that Bridges is as young as he is! He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1989! But, wow, listening to this album you get the impression he would have been right at home playing R&B in the 1960s.

Songs on the LP include: Coming Home, Better Man, Brown Skin Girl, Smooth Sailin’, Shine, Flowers and Twistin’ & Groovin’

100 Hits Vintage Nº1 (Genre: Vintage, Vocal, Pop):

This collection features one hundred hits from the golden age of pop! Artists featured in this collection include Doris Day, The McGuire Sisters, Paul Anka, Judy Garland, Betty Johnson, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Cleo Laine, Billie Holiday and many more.

Songs in the collection include: Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) by Doris Day, Brother Bill by Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong, Sway by Rosemary Clooney with Perez Prado and His Orchestra, Rum and Coca Cola by The Andrew Sisters, Besame Mucho by Eyde Gorme and Steve Lawrence, Frenesi by The Four Freshman and more.

Bonus Streaming Suggestion:

Snake Drive by Eric Clapton from the V/A Collection The Beginning (Genre: Blues, Blues-Rock, Rock, Classic Rock):

The Freegal Music Catalog mainly features music from SONY Records and its offshoots so there isn’t much music by Eric Clapton in the catalog.

However, since today, March 30, is Eric Clapton’s 73rd birthday, I’m going to recommend you give a listen to one of the two instrumental tunes he did early in his career that appear on this LP: Freightloader or Snake Drive. The songs are from a various artists collection with a long name: The Beginning: Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Jimmy Page. Masterpieces, Vol. 1 (Remastered). And the collection features some neat songs but a couple that have less than stellular sound quality so those that value pristine sound quality beware!

CD of the Week:

Trumpet Blues The Best of Harry James (Genre: Swing, Pop, Traditional Jazz):

Harry James was an enthusiastic trumpet player and band leader. Indeed, he ran one of the most popular bands of the Swing Era. He even hired a young and unknown singer for his band – one that in short order became a household name – Frank Sinatra.

Trumpet Blues features recordings of songs that James first recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. The sound quality of many of those early recordings wasn’t so hot so James re-recorded them with more higher end equipment in the 1950s.

Songs on the LP include: Trumpet Blues, Moten Swing, I’m Beginning To See The Light, Sleepy Lagoon, I’ve Heard That Song Before and It’s Been A Long, Long Time.

Videos of the Week:

Roger, The Dodger by Julian Lage

Greatest Love Story by LANCO

Smooth Sailin’ by Leon Bridges

Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be) by Doris Day

Snake Drive by Eric Clapton

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

*A library card is required to use the Freegal Music Service. If you live in the service area of the Southern Tier Library System, that contains the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Alleghany counties in New York State, you can get a library card for free at your nearest public library – including our own Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York. The Freegal Music Service is free for all library card holders to access.

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

Freegal Music!

Hannah of SSCL

Does your library subscribe to Freegal?

freegal

Ours does here in Corning, NY.  It’s great, and here’s why:

A) Free music

B) You get to keep it

C) Diverse library of music

Plus, it’s available for pretty much any internet-enabled device.

Find your library @FreegalMusic: https://www.freegalmusic.com/homes/chooser

#FreeMusic, #LibrariesRock

Digital & Print Recommended Titles Week of March 26, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week.

This list includes ebook titles, available through OverDrive and, five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’re interested in to request it or check it out)

Digital Suggestions For The Week:

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking:

A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin–and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending–or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?

Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God–where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.

Girl Unknown: A Novel by Karen Perry:

Girl Unknown by critically acclaimed author Karen Perry is a powerful novel that “Explores emotional danger with relentless, surgical accuracy.”—Tana French, New York Times bestselling author of The Trespasser and In the Woods

David and Caroline Connolly are swimming successfully through their marriage’s middle years—raising two children; overseeing care for David’s ailing mother; leaning into their careers, both at David’s university teaching job, where he’s up for an important promotion, and at the ad agency where Caroline has recently returned to work after years away while the children were little. The recent stresses of home renovation and of a brief romantic betrayal (Caroline’s) are behind them.

The Connollys know and care for each other deeply.

Then one early fall afternoon, a student of sublime, waiflike beauty appears in David’s university office and says, “I think you might be my father.” And the fact of a youthful passion that David had tried to forget comes rushing back. In the person of this intriguing young woman, the Connollys may have a chance to expand who they are and how much they can love, or they may be making themselves vulnerable to menace. They face either an opportunity or a threat—but which is which? What happens when their hard-won family happiness meets a hard-luck beautiful girl?

Twice Bitten, Argeneau Series by Lynsay Sands (Publication Date: March 27, 2018 – although you can place holds for the eBook now!):

Thrilling, witty, and oh-so-sexy, Lynsay Sands’ Argeneau novel brings together a beautiful Immortal and the man who is her destiny…
For someone who’s been around for over a hundred and forty years, immortal Elspeth Argeneau hasn’t done a whole lot of living. Now that she’s moved away from her controlling mother, she’s tracking down rogue vampires and enjoying some overdue freedom. A fling would be fun. A life mate can wait. Yet to Elspeth’s surprise, her landlady’s hot grandson checks both boxes.

Wyatt fell instantly in love with Elspeth four years ago. He’s stunned to run into her again, especially as she has no memory of him. Then again, there are a lot of things about Elspeth that don’t make sense, like the miraculous speed with which her wounds heal. And the chemistry that transforms every touch into an explosion of desire. But with mysterious “accidents” besieging Elspeth, the ex-Special Forces soldier appoints himself her bodyguard. But time is running out to uncover the truth about her enemies—and rediscover the man determined to love her for eternity.

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest Room, a powerful story about the ways an entire life can change in one night: A flight attendant wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened.

Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She’s a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them, and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, already counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police – she’s a single woman alone in a hotel room far from home – Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it’s too late to come clean-or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did?

Set amid the captivating world of those whose lives unfold at forty thousand feet, The Flight Attendant unveils a spellbinding story of memory, of the giddy pleasures of alcohol and the devastating consequences of addiction, and of murder far from home.

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers:

The Monk of Mokha is the exhilarating true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana’a by civil war.

Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemen’s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the country’s rugged mountains and meet beleagured but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people.

Print Suggestions For The Week:

The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst:

From the winner of the Man Booker Prize, a masterly novel that spans seven transformative decades as it plumbs the complex relationships of a remarkable family; an immediate best seller upon its publication in England, hailed by the Observer as “perhaps Hollinghurst’s most beautiful novel yet.”

In 1940, David Sparsholt arrives at Oxford, his sights set on joining the Royal Air Force. Handsome, athletic, charismatic, he is unaware of his powerful effect on others—especially on Evert Dax, the lonely and romantic son of a celebrated novelist who is destined to become a writer himself. With the world at war, and the Blitz raging in London, Oxford exists at a strange remove: a place of quiet study, but also of secret liaisons under the cover of blackouts. A friendship develops between David and Evert that will influence their lives for decades to come.

Hollinghurst’s astonishing new novel evokes across three generations the intimate relationships of a group of friends brought together by art, literature and love. We witness shifts in taste and morality through a series of vividly rendered episodes: a Sparsholt holiday in Cornwall; eccentric gatherings at the Dax family home; the adventures of David’s son Johnny, a painter in 1970s London. With tenderness, wit and keen insight, The Sparsholt Affair explores the social and sexual revolutions of the past century, even as it takes us straight to the heart of our current age.

Richly observed, emotionally charged, this is a dazzling novel of fathers and sons; of family and legacy; and of the longing for permanence amid life’s inevitable transience, by the writer acclaimed in The Wall Street Journal as “one of the best novelists at work today.”

The Sandman by Lars Kepler: 

The #1 internationally best-selling thriller from the author of The Hypnotist tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police agents who must try to beat him at his own game.

Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman. Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jurek’s capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikael’s sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a twenty-seven-year-old prodigy. She will have to go under deep cover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is imprisoned, and she will have to find a way to get to the psychopath before it’s too late–and before he gets inside her head.

The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weis:

Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don’t want black women voting. And then there are the “Antis”–women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel’s, and the Bible. Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman’s Hour is an inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War, and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights.

A Dangerous Game by Heather Graham:

Wrapping up a normal day at the office, criminal psychologist Kieran Finnegan is accosted by a desperate woman who shoves an infant into her arms and then flees, only to be murdered minutes later on a busy Manhattan street … Kieran can’t stop thinking about the child and the victim, so her boyfriend, Craig Frasier, does what any good special agent boyfriend would do– he gets the FBI involved … Kieran won’t sit idle when a lead surfaces through her family’s pub. Investigating on her own, she uncovers a dangerous group that plays fast and loose with human lives and will stop at nothing to keep their secrets.

The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s by William I Hitchcock:

In a 2017 survey, presidential historians ranked Dwight D. Eisenhower fifth on the list of great presidents, behind the perennial top four: Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Teddy Roosevelt. Historian William Hitchcock shows that this high ranking is justified.

Eisenhower’s accomplishments were enormous, and loom ever larger from the vantage point of our own tumultuous times.

A former general, Ike kept the peace: he ended the Korean War, avoided a war in Vietnam, adroitly managed a potential confrontation with China, and soothed relations with the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death. He guided the Republican Party to embrace central aspects of the New Deal like Social Security. He thwarted the demagoguery of McCarthy and he advanced the agenda of civil rights for African Americans. As part of his strategy to wage, and win, the Cold War, Eisenhower expanded American military power, built a fearsome nuclear arsenal and launched the space race. In his famous Farewell Address, he acknowledged that Americans needed such weapons in order to keep global peace—but he also admonished his citizens to remain alert to the potentially harmful influence of the “military-industrial complex.”

From 1953 to 1961, no one dominated the world stage as did President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Age of Eisenhower is the definitive account of this presidency, drawing extensively on declassified material from the Eisenhower Library, the CIA and Defense Department, and troves of unpublished documents. In his masterful account, Hitchcock shows how Ike shaped modern America, and he astutely assesses Eisenhower’s close confidants, from Attorney General Brownell to Secretary of State Dulles. The result is an eye-opening reevaluation that explains why this “do-nothing” president is rightly regarded as one of the best leaders our country has ever had.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

You can request physical items, i.e. print books, DVDs & CDs, online via StarCat:

or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

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.

Suggested Listening March 24, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions and one recommended album on CD.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you want to listen to!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

Don’t Let The Devil Ride (2018) by Paul Thorn (Genre: Rock, Blues, Country, Singer-Songwriter):

Paul Thorn hails from Tupelo, Mississippi and worked as a boxer and skydiver before launching a career as a singer-songwriter.

Don’t Let The Devil Ride is his ninth album and features the songs: The Half Has Never Been Told, What Should I Do?, You’ve Got To Move, Love Train, Something on My Mind and The Get Back.

Victor Wainwright and The Train (2018) by Victor Wainwright and The Train (Genre: Blues):

Victor Wainwright is a singer and boogie-woogie blues pianist who was born in Savannah, Georgia on February 4, 1981. This is his first album with his new band The Train and features the songs:
Healing, Whiltshire Grave, Train, Dull Your Shine, Money, Boogie Depression and Everything I Need.

17th Avenue Revival (2018) The Oak Ridge Boys (Genre: Gospel/Country):

The Oak Ridge Boys have gone back to their Gospel roots with their new LP.

The album features the songs: Brand New Star, God’s Got It, There Will Be Light, Walk in Jerusalem and Let It Shine on Me.

Progressions: 100 Years Of Jazz Guitar by Various Artists (Genre: Jazz):

This Columbia Records collection features more than 60 songs featuring vintage jazz guitarists.

Songs on the LP include: St. Louis Tickle by Ossman-Dudley Trio, Savoy Blues by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, Swingin’ On The Strings by The Inks Spots, Guitar Swing by Case Bill Weldon, Solo Flight by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra

CD of the Week:

The First Edition (1967) by The First Edition (Genre: Pop, Rock, Country):

The First Edition was also known as Kenny Rogers and The First Edition and featured Thelma Camacho on lead vocals, Kenny Rogers on lead vocals and bass, Terry Williams on guitar and vocals, Mike Settle on guitar and Mickey Jones on drums.

This is their first album and it features the songs: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), I Get a Funny Feeling, Ticket to Nowhere, Hurry Up Love, If Wishes Were Horses and Shadow in the Corner of Your Mind.

Videos of the Week:

What Should I Do? By Paul Thorn

Money by Victor Wainwright and The Train

Brand New Star by The Oak Ridge Boys

Swinging on the Strings by the Ink Spots

Just Dropped In by The First Edition

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

My Virtual Reality Experience

Hannah of SSCL

On Thursday I attended Ed. Tech. Day at Ithaca College. It’s a free event designed for educators to keep informed about technological advancements for educational applications. I had the honor of spending a few minutes under the influence of the HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) headset and paddles. I say under the influence because the virtual program to which I was transported seemed so serene that the surrounding sounds faded out of focus (the bustling hubbub of vendors packing up or attendees anxious to learn or get free).

At first I was concerned by warnings that VR can trigger motion sickness–that occurred to me right after I boldly requested to have a try at it. I was glad to find that the fairly static images in the program, and optional rotation of the model, was not especially unsettling after the initial orientation. Rather, I was impressed by the way my brain interprets visual and sound cues differently when they don’t go together. As a learner who is easily distracted, I very much appreciated settling into a space that I could have this close and sort of private interaction with a learning tool and have my brain  disregard the crowd.

I feel sorry that I didn’t have someone take pictures. I’m sure I would have at least one if more of our staff were able to come, but in lieu of photos I made a couple of rough sketches. The first one is of the setup where I was corralled off a little and had an attendant explaining the system to me as I used it. I think she was able to see roughly what I saw using a monitor laptop nearby.

notes_180323_134957_cf7_1.jpg
HTC Vive or quarantined to play maracas blindfolded

The second sketch is very primitively what it looked like inside the HTC Vive; there was a brain, or a heart, eye, or a set of lungs the size of me! I could turn it, toggle labels on and off, and cycle through a series of models and section views that make it easier to see particular parts of each organ.

Notes_180323_134957_cf7_1
Can you see how this could be a model of a healthy brain?

In short, this VR headset seems to be a great learning tool that I think library patrons would really benefit by if we can swing the cost, the staffing, and the sanitation methods (they had a tissue that skirted the bit of the mask that touches your face, but it’s clearly not ideal). These systems are made for homes, for individuals, but not everyone is going to be able to access the market–at least not for a long while.

I know I reference PC Mag a lot, but here’s their 2018 rundown of VR headsets: https://www.pcmag.com/article/342537/the-best-virtual-reality-vr-headsets 

@HTCvive: https://www.vive.com/us/

#VRreview

Computer User Vignette

Hannah of SSCL

Some time ago, I wrote this next passage to adequately share a patron’s comment with my library director. I wanted to spend a little extra time on it because he’s such a consistent patron and one that I thought could represent our computer user visitors. Recently, I had the patron read the paragraph or so that I  had written. The patron was overjoyed, he thought I really managed to summarize  him quite articulately–and in only one paragraph! He said he’d be honored to see it posted online. So, here goes, a vignette of one of our regular computer users:

if_user_50702Rocky would like us to be open Sundays again because he is losing out on some important opportunities. A collector if ever I met one, Rocky is a self-proclaimed home-body who patronizes the library for the almost sole purpose of using the computer. He visits auctions and auction websites to develop his collection of 45” rock and roll records. Investments have gone well enough that he not shy of price as long as it’s not over-paying and the artist seems significant. Rocky’s record collection may be one of the largest of its kind; he tells me that when he’s at trade shows or auctions he gets attention from collectors from all over the world. Some ask, “What’s Rocky going to do with all his records?” Well, he’s going to continue developing as long as he can until he finds someone who will archive the records to his credit or carry on developing the collection in his name. If 45’s aren’t your thing, he’s also adding to his collection of Lionel model trains and period automobile magazines.

#LibraryStories

Digital & Print Recommended Titles Week of March 19, 2018

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week.

This list includes ebook titles, available through OverDrive and, five print titles available through StarCat.

(Note: Click on the photo of the item you’re interested in to request it or check it out)

Digital Suggestions For The Week:

1. The Bootlegger by Clive Cussler (Downloadable Audio Book):

Detective Isaac Bell returns in the extraordinary new adventure in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series. It is 1920, and both Prohibition and bootlegging are in full swing. When Isaac Bell’s boss and lifelong friend Joseph Van Dorn is shot and nearly killed leading the high-speed chase of a rum-running vessel, Bell swears to him that he will hunt down the lawbreakers, but he doesn’t know what he is getting into. When a witness to Van Dorn’s shooting is executed in a ruthlessly efficient manner invented by the Russian secret police, it becomes clear that these are no ordinary criminals. Bell is up against a team of Bolshevik assassins and saboteurs—and they are intent on overthrowing the government of the United States.

2. Census by Jesse Ball (ebook):

A powerful and moving new novel from an award-winning, acclaimed author: in the wake of a devastating revelation, a father and son journey north across a tapestry of towns

When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn’t have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son—a son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son.

Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome them into their homes, others who bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs are wary of their presence. When they press toward the edges of civilization, the landscape grows wilder, and the towns grow farther apart and more blighted by industrial decay. As they approach “Z,” the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say good-bye to his son?

Mysterious and evocative, Census is a novel about free will, grief, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love, from one of our most captivating young writers.

3. Six Fantasy Stories Volume One by Robert Jeschonek (ebook):

Welcome to six of the most amazing fantasy stories you’ll ever read. This volume includes five full-length fantasy e-book stories plus an exclusive bonus short story for one low price. The lineup includes the following fantastic tales:

“Forced Retirement”: What if Alzheimer’s struck the World’s Mightiest Hero? His daughter, heroic Hericane, finds out the hard way. Gripped by dementia, godlike Epitome tears apart a city, and no one can stop him. Will his madness destroy the entire world? Not if Hericane recruits the one big gun who stands a chance in Hell of stopping her father in his tracks.

“Blazing Bodices”: Hardcore adventurer Sir Algernon Hogshead takes down badass steampunks in Victorian London. But the case of a lifetime might just ruin his winning streak and his life. When his wife starts keeping mysterious secrets and bad company, Sir Hogshead craves a peek behind the velvet curtain. But he can’t possibly break through the world of women…or can he?

“Fear of Rain”: Thanks to the sorcerous Mr. Flood, Johnstown, Pennsylvania has drowned three times…and the fourth time will be the charm. By the time he gets done flooding Johnstown, the city will vanish beneath the waves forever…unless his flood-making apprentice, Dee, has anything to say about it.

“The Genie’s Secret”: A sexy genie held captive by a brutal master has no choice: she must obey his twisted wishes at all costs. When a federal agent with a flair for the supernatural comes to the rescue, the genie must obey her master’s orders to capture and torture him. But the agent knows the genie’s deepest secret, a passion so powerful it could free her forever from servitude.

“Rose Head”: In a world where everyone has a flower for a head, who can stop the serial killer called the Pruner? Enter Inspector Glisten, a hard-boiled, two-fisted, rose-headed cop who’ll stop at nothing to cut down the Pruner. But when the trail leads to a seedy underworld he never imagined, Glisten gets in way over his rose-head.

“The Duck Lover”: In this special bonus story, which you won’t find anywhere else, a duck fights to save the man she loves from the heartless woman who uses and abuses him. Will his broken heart drive him to destruction, or will the ducks’ ultimate secret lead to his salvation in the most amazing journey of all time?

4. Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna (ebook):

When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts and the growing OxyContin and meth epidemic, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied.

With little to go on, Vega and Cap will go to extraordinary lengths to untangle a dangerous web of lies, false leads, and complex relationships to find the girls before time runs out, and they are gone forever.

5. The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore (ebook):

A lyrical, intelligent, authentic, and necessary look at the intersection of race and class in Chicago, a Great American City

In this intelligent and highly important narrative, Chicago-native Natalie Moore shines a light on contemporary segregation in the city’s South Side; with a memoirist’s eye, she showcases the lives of these communities through the stories of people who reside there. The South Side shows the impact of Chicago’s historic segregation – and the ongoing policies that keep the system intact.

Suggested Print Books:

1. Only Child by Rhiannon Navin:

Readers of Jodi Picoult and Liane Moriarty will also like this tenderhearted debut about healing and family, narrated by an unforgettable six-year-old boy who reminds us that sometimes the littlest bodies hold the biggest hearts and the quietest voices speak the loudest.

Squeezed into a coat closet with his classmates and teacher, first grader Zach Taylor can hear gunshots ringing through the halls of his school. A gunman has entered the building, taking nineteen lives and irrevocably changing the very fabric of this close-knit community. While Zach’s mother pursues a quest for justice against the shooter’s parents, holding them responsible for their son’s actions, Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and art. Armed with his newfound understanding, and with the optimism and stubbornness only a child could have, Zach sets out on a captivating journey towards healing and forgiveness, determined to help the adults in his life rediscover the universal truths of love and compassion needed to pull them through their darkest hours.

2. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas:

Five women. One question. What is a woman for?

In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.

Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own, while also writing a biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro’s best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling herbalist, or “mender,” who brings all their fates together when she’s arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.

RED CLOCKS is at once a riveting drama, whose mysteries unfold with magnetic energy, and a shattering novel of ideas. In the vein of Margaret Atwood and Eileen Myles, Leni Zumas fearlessly explores the contours of female experience, evoking THE HANDMAID’S TALE for a new millennium. This is a story of resilience, transformation, and hope in tumultuous-even frightening-times.

3. Saturday Night Supper Club by Carla Laureano:

Denver chef Rachel Bishop has accomplished everything she’s dreamed and some things she never dared hope, like winning a James Beard Award and heading up her own fine-dining restaurant. But when a targeted smear campaign causes her to be pushed out of the business by her partners, she vows to do whatever it takes to get her life back . . . even if that means joining forces with the man who inadvertently set the disaster in motion.

Essayist Alex Kanin never imagined his pointed editorial would go viral. Ironically, his attempt to highlight the pitfalls of online criticism has the opposite effect: it revives his own flagging career by destroying that of a perfect stranger. Plagued by guilt-fueled writer’s block, Alex vows to do whatever he can to repair the damage. He just doesn’t expect his interest in the beautiful chef to turn personal.

Alex agrees to help rebuild Rachel’s tarnished image by offering his connections and his home to host an exclusive pop-up dinner party targeted to Denver’s most influential citizens: the Saturday Night Supper Club. As they work together to make the project a success, Rachel begins to realize Alex is not the unfeeling opportunist she once thought he was, and that perhaps there’s life―and love―outside the pressure-cooker of her chosen career. But can she give up her lifelong goals without losing her identity as well?

4. Scourge by Gail Z. Martin:

Epic new fantasy from the bestselling author of The Summoner. In a city beset by monsters, three brothers must find out who is controlling the abominations.

The city-state of Ravenwood is wealthy, powerful, and corrupt. Merchant Princes and Guild Masters wager fortunes to outmaneuver League rivals for the king’s favor and advantageous trading terms. Lord Mayor Ellor Machison wields assassins, blood witches, and forbidden magic to assure that his powerful patrons get what they want, no matter the cost.

Corran, Rigan, and Kell Valmonde are Guild Undertakers, left to run their family’s business when guards murdered their father and monsters killed their mother. Their grave magic enables them to help souls pass to the After and banish vengeful spirits. Rigan’s magic is unusually strong and enables him to hear the confessions of the dead, the secrets that would otherwise be taken to the grave.

When the toll exacted by monsters and brutal guards hits close to home and ghosts expose the hidden sins of powerful men, Corran, Rigan and Kell become targets in a deadly game and face a choice: obey the Guild, or fight back and risk everything.

5. 1917: War, Peace, and Revolution by David Stevenson:

1917 was a year of calamitous events, and one of pivotal importance in the development of the First World War. In 1917: War, Peace, and Revolution, leading historian of World War I David Stevenson examines this crucial year in context and illuminates the century that followed. He shows how in this one year the war was transformed, but also what drove the conflict onwards and how it continued to escalate.

Two developments in particular – the Russian Revolution and American intervention – had worldwide repercussions. Offering a close examination of the key decisions, David Stevenson considers Germanys campaign of submarine warfare, America’s declaration of war in response, and Britain’s frustration of German strategy by adopting the convoy system, as well as why (paradoxically) the military and political stalemate in Europe persisted.

1917 offers a truly international understanding of events, including abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the disastrous spring offensive that plunged the French army into mutiny, on the summer attacks that undermined the moderate Provisional Government in Russia and exposed Italy to national humiliation at Caporetto, and on the British decision for the ill-fated Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

David Stevenson also analyzes the global consequences of the years developments, describing how countries such as Brazil and China joined the belligerents, how Britain offered “responsible government” to India, and how the Allies promised a Jewish national home in Palestine. Blending political and military history, and moving from capital to capital and from the cabinet chamber to the battle front, the book highlights the often tumultuous debates through which leaders entered and escalated the war, and the paradox that continued fighting was justifiable as the shortest road toward peace.

Have a great week!

Linda, SSCL

You can request physical items, i.e. print books, DVDs & CDs, online via StarCat:

or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

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.

Fitness Track?

Hannah of SSCL

if_running_man_296209

Do you fitness track? If you have a fitness routine and a tracker, how well do they work together to inform you about your progress?

They’re getting smaller and smaller–I just saw news of an Apple-compatible one that’s simply a ring, yet it does all of the things:

Motiv

Here’s a review from PC Mag: https://www.pcmag.com/review/356274/motiv-ring

If you’re really considering getting a fitness tracker, or a new one, though, or just want to know about how they work, then check out a broader review as Consumer Reports has: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/fitness-trackers/buying-guide/index.htm 

Personally, I’ve been trying out the BellaBeat. It’s lovely because I do feel more inclined to pay attention to my wellness, and I don’t really mind wearing it. I do feel disappointed though, because I thought it might monitor heartrate, and I didn’t really investigate how it does the things it claims to do. I think I overlooked that “little” detail, and learned, once again, that it’s easy to get caught up in hype or indecision and just make a decision that doesn’t old true to your starting criteria. Now I’m here to encourage #InformedDecisions.

@PCMag, @ConsumerReports, #FitnessTrackers, #ConsumerLiteracy