Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.
New York Times Bestsellers can be requested through StarCat (for print books) & The Digital Catalog/Libby for eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks. Select titles may also be checked out, on demand, through the Hoopla Catalog.
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are published on Sundays; and due to vacation leave in Library Land, the next New York Times Bestseller blog post will be out on Friday, March 17, 2024.
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FICTION
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AFTER ANNIE by Anna Quindlen
When Annie Brown suddenly dies, her family and closest friend piece their lives back together and carry her memory forward.
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BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood
Issues of trust arise when an alliance is made between a Vampyre named Misery Lark and a Were named Lowe Moreland.
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A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas
The fifth book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Nesta Archeron is forced into close quarters with a warrior named Cassian.
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CROSSHAIRS by James Patterson and James O. Born
The 16th book in the Michael Bennett series. Bennett teams up with a sniper.
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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver
Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
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FATE INKED IN BLOOD by Danielle L. Jensen
After the secret of her magic to repel attacks is revealed, Freya encounters dangerous tests by the gods.
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FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston
A woman who works for a mysterious boss takes on a new identity to dig up information on someone.
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FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros
Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.
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GOTHIKANA by RuNyx
A century-old mystery brings Corvina Clemm and Vad Deverell together at a university based in a castle at the top of a mountain with a dark history.
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THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride
Secrets held by the residents of a dilapidated neighborhood come to life when a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well.
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THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden
Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
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HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas
Passion arises between Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar as they seek to avenge the deaths of Bryce’s friends.
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HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW by Sarah J. Maas
The third book in the Crescent City series. Bryce wants to return home while Hunt is trapped in Asteri’s dungeons.
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ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace
Anastasia might need the help of the captain of a college hockey team to get on the Olympic figure skating team.
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IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros
The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.
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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt
A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.
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THE TEACHER by Frieda McFadden
A math teacher at Caseham High suspects there is more going on behind a scandal involving a teacher and a student.
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THREE-INCH TEETH by C.J. Box
The 24th book in the Joe Pickett series. A man released from prison uses grizzly bear attacks to cover his acts of revenge.
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THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah
In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
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NON-FICTION
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ATTACK FROM WITHIN by Barbara McQuade
A legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC looks at the effects of disinformation on law and politics.
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BLOOD MONEY by Peter Schweizer
The author of “Red-Handed” depicts a scheme involving the Chinese Communist Party’s covert operations in America.
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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk
How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
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THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown
The story of the American rowers who pursued gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games; the basis of the film.
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BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.
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BURN BOOK by Kara Swisher
The tech journalist and podcast host gives an overview of the tech industry and the foibles of its founders.
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ELON MUSK by Walter Isaacson
The author of “The Code Breaker” traces Musk’s life and summarizes his work on electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence.
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EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE by Dolly Alderton
The British journalist shares stories and observations; the basis of the TV series.
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GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE by Sloane Crosley
After her apartment is broken into and someone close to her dies by suicide, Crosley contends with her past.
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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy
The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.
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IT’S HARD FOR ME TO LIVE WITH ME by Rex Chapman with Seth Davis
The former NBA player details his gambling and opioid addictions.
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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.
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THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY by Tim Alberta
The author of “American Carnage” looks at divisions within the American evangelical movement.
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MANY LIVES OF MAMA LOVE by Lara Love Hardin
The ghostwriter describes being convicted of thirty-two felonies and the life she built after her release from jail.
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MASTERS OF THE AIR by Donald L. Miller
An account of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II; the basis of the TV series.
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OATH AND HONOR by Liz Cheney
The former congresswoman from Wyoming recounts how she helped lead the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6. Attack on the United States Capitol.
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OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford
A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
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TRUMP INDICTMENTS with an introduction, annotations and supporting materials by Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann
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THE WAGER by David Grann
The survivors of a shipwrecked British vessel on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain have different accounts of events.
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WHITE RURAL RAGE by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman
A look at the factors that exacerbate the difficulties and grievances of white rural voters.
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WHY WE REMEMBER by Charan Ranganath
A neuroscientist elucidates the role memory plays in our lives.
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THE WOMAN IN ME by Britney Spears
The Grammy Award-winning pop star details her personal and professional experiences, including the years she spent under a conservatorship overseen by her father.
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Search for and request books online!
eBooks & Audiobooks Through The Digital Catalog & Libby
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access
StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries throughout the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs, you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Telephone Number: 607-936-3713.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesdays; unless your friendly neighborhood librarian hits publish today, instead of Wednesday! And then, the post might come up on Tuesday (or another day) instead! Happy Tuesday!
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
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American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden by Katie Rogers
In 1993, the differences between the outgoing president, patrician George H. W. Bush, and the newly elected, folksy Bill Clinton could not have been more telling. The contrast between their wives was equally stark. While Barbara Bush appeared as an irascible matron, Hillary Clinton presented the epitome of feminist ambition. With her assignment to shepherd sweeping new health care legislation, Clinton’s tenure as First Lady morphed from a traditional ceremonial post to something of significance. By its very nature, the office’s unstructured portfolio exposes its occupants to open interpretation by themselves and others. If Jill Biden is famously hands-on in protecting and advising husband Joe, Melania Trump was infamously hands-off, to the point of inscrutability. For other FLOTUSes, their mandate was a manifestation of their core identities. Former librarian Laura Bush championed literacy. For Michelle Obama, with her controversially toned arms, the cause was health and nutrition. As the New York Times’ White House correspondent, Rogers rigorously examines the notion of legacy and the first lady in the modern era. These women, she maintains, are “the most known (and often least understood) women in America.” Rogers’ unerring journalistic evaluation of the person behind the post should help change all that. – Starred Booklist Review
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Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher
From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.
“Swisher, the bad-ass journalist and OG chronicler of Silicon Valley…takes no prisoners in this highly readable look at the evolution of the digital world…Bawdy, brash, and compulsively thought-provoking, just like its author, Burn Book sizzles” (Booklist, starred review).
Part memoir, part history, Burn Book is a necessary chronicle of tech’s most powerful players. From “the queen of all media” (Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal), this is the inside story we’ve all been waiting for about modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world.
When tech titans crowed that they would “move fast and break things,” Kara Swisher was moving faster and breaking news. While covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, she developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the facts about this new world order. Her consistent scoops drove one CEO to accuse her of “listening in the heating ducts” and prompted Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg to once observe: “It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, ‘I hope Kara never sees this.'”
While still in college, Swisher got her start at The Washington Post, where she became one of the few people in journalism interested in covering the nascent Internet. She went on to work for The Wall Street Journal, joining with Walt Mossberg to start the groundbreaking D: All Things Digital conference, as well as pioneering tech news sites.
Swisher has interviewed everyone who matters in tech over three decades, right when they presided over an explosion of world-changing innovation that has both helped and hurt our world. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few whom Swisher made sweat—figuratively and, in Zuckerberg’s case, literally.
Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them. She calls upon the industry to make better, more thoughtful choices, even as a new set of powerful AI tools are poised to change the world yet again. At its heart, this book is a love story to, for, and about tech from someone who knows it better than anyone.
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The Dead Letter Delivery by C. J. Archer
The discovery of long-lost mail delivers a marriage proposal, a missing person, and a magical mystery.
A road trip with Gabe and her friends leads Sylvia to discover more about her mother’s veiled past yet throws up several questions, too. The stack of unopened letters addressed to her family will hopefully provide answers. As she delves into the contents, a startling revelation emerges: the letters allude to a clandestine union between two magician families, hinting at the elusive identity of Sylvia’s father.
Full of hope, she embarks on a quest to find the author of the letters, only to discover an artless youth who vanished decades ago, a dead man with the wrong name, and a hospital for former soldiers that connects them. The further Sylvia and Gabe delve into these mysteries, the more lies they expose, including long-buried secrets that certain individuals will stop at nothing to protect.
When danger strikes, Sylvia wonders if finding answers is worth the risk.
Reader’s Note: The Dead Letter Delivery is the fourth book in the Glass Library series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one: The Librarian of Crooked Lane.
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A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
The mortal daughter of a god fights to become the mistress of her own fate in this tightly plotted series starter. Twenty-year-old Freya has spent her entire life hiding her ancestry. In her world–a take on medieval Scandinavia–the Norse pantheon blesses mortal babies with drops of the deities’ own blood, imbuing them with fractions of divine power. As the daughter of Hlin, Freya is the shield maiden prophesied to “unite the people of Skaland beneath the rule of the one who controlled her fate.” After her abusive first husband learns her true identity, he turns her over to the jarl, Snorri, who grants him a divorce so that Snorri may marry Freya himself. Snorri believes his new bride is his key to becoming Skaland’s king. So does his beloved and cunning first wife, Ylva, who desperately wants to see her own son on the throne, but it’s Bjorn–the jarl’s firstborn, Ylva’s stepson, and the child of Tyr–who’s in line to inherit. Snorri appoints his heir as Freya’s personal bodyguard, not knowing that his son happens to be the object of his new wife’s forbidden affections. As for the shield maiden, she barely has time to consider her hopelessly complicated position in Snorri’s court, with other jarls beginning to launch attacks on her people, determined to steal her away from her new husband. All these men are certain she’ll crown a king, thereby determining the fate of their entire nation, but they’ve forgotten one very important rule: The children of the gods aren’t bound by fate. Jensen offers a vibrant and perfectly paced novel that’s sure to delight readers of historical fantasy. Although some of the writing reads a little too contemporary at times–an early passage in which one character is dubbed a “narcissist” is a prime example–the tension among Freya, Bjorn, and the rest of Snorri’s court is simply irresistible. A captivating first installment in what promises to be a compelling, feminist Viking fantasy. – Kirkus Review
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Girl Abroad by Elle Kennedy
Bestseller Kennedy (The Graham Effect) delivers an angsty and addictive new adult romance. Abby Bly, 19, the only child of formerly hard-partying rock star Gunner Bly, grew up “hearing the stories of his many exploits but having no stories or exploits of my own, coddled and sheltered in the hermetic seal of his guilt and regrets.” So she leaps at the opportunity to spend her sophomore year of college at Pembridge University London, finding a flatshare online with three female roommates. But when Abby arrives on their doorstep, she realizes Lee, Jack and Jamie are men. Despite the momentary shock, Abbey soon seamlessly fits into the household, falling for her rugby-playing roommate Jack, a hunky Australian—and also for Nate, a musician who’s part of their friend group. (“My erratic pulse is now confused as to which guy it’s pounding for.”) After Abbey buys an enigmatic painting at an estate sale, she’s caught up in the mystery behind it—even attending a royal ball with Lord Benjamin Tulley, one of the original owner’s heirs. Kennedy skillfully keeps readers guessing which suitor Abby’ll end up with and the mystery painting provides some welcome additional intrigue. The London setting, charming heroine, and well-drawn love quadrangle make this a treat. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
After embarking on her first grown-up job, an idealistic 20-something begins an affair with a married colleague. Hera Stephen, 24, lives with her father in Sydney, Australia. She’s used grad school to delay adulthood as long as possible, but now it’s time for her to join the ranks of her corporate friends and get a “real job.” After several disastrously frank interviews, she takes a position as a news organization’s comment moderator, where her soul-sucking responsibility is to read, parse, and color-code the vitriol of online discussions. It’s at this job that she meets Arthur Jones, a soft-spoken journalist with whom she starts up a message-based flirtation (hence the title, referencing the green dot that indicates a user is online). By the time Hera finds out that Arthur is married, it’s already too late–she’s enamored. Gray’s writing skillfully captures the passion of their early trysts. The sex scenes crackle with energy, and the chemistry between Hera and Arthur is believable and seductive. You may find yourself rooting for them against your better instincts, even as Hera begins to neglect her friends and her delightful, supportive father. As the book tracks the increasingly doomed love affair (including through the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic), the only thing keeping the narrative from devolving into something grim and cynical is Hera’s dynamic and snarky voice. She addresses the reader directly at times, preempting any criticism and attempting to mitigate her own bad decisions. Her narration is peppered with references to music and pop culture, the things that define your personality in your 20s, when you’re still searching, as Hera is, for some kind of identity. Just as much of the narrative unfolds digitally as it does IRL, and Gray deftly incorporates FaceTime, Instagram, and an unnamed company chat platform into the text. A breezy, heartfelt coming-of-age story for Gen Zers concerned with how to grow up without growing cold. – Kirkus Review
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The Hunter by Tana French
It has been two years since Cal Hooper befriended Trey Reddy and helped the teen reconcile to the murder of her brother, Brendan. At least, she seemed reconciled. But when her absentee father, Johnny, comes back to town intent on perpetrating a swindle on the townsfolk whom she blames, Trey sees an opportunity to avenge Brendan’s death. It has been a blazing hot and lazy summer, and the locals are excited to buy into a scheme to find a legendary vein of gold in the area. Johnny brings along a master con man to head up the operation, planning to turn the tables on him and run away with the money. When that man turns up dead, Johnny is the prime suspect, but when former Chicago detective Cal investigates, together with a man sent down from Dublin, things get very complicated, and everyone looks guilty. The entire complex cast of characters from The Searcher (2020) are back in all their eccentric glory, with Cal and Lena in a comfortable relationship. French’s characterizations are brilliant, as always, and surprising strengths and vulnerabilities make for an often amusing, yet ominous and somber tale. The atmosphere is rich as the reader is reminded that this is the “real” Ireland and not the one idealized by the “plastic Paddies.” Masterfully written. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: By picking up the story of her previous best-seller, much-lauded French guarantees peak interest. Starred Booklist Review
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My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
Gutierrez’s memoir poignantly conveys her story of being born and raised in Tucson, AZ, by Mexican immigrants. Her parents wanted her to get the best education she could in the U.S., and she excelled academically. Her parents’ visas expired when she was 15, which forced them to return to Mexico while Gutierrez stayed behind in the U.S. to continue her education. She moved several times, staying with neighbors, school administrators, and even strangers who took her in. Through sheer determination, she fought back against the oppression, trauma, and racism that worked against her, to create the life her parents dreamed of for their children. Written in an immersive and easy-to-read style, the book shows readers what it was like for Gutierrez throughout those difficult times before she achieved an impressive level of success. VERDICT Perfect for readers who want to learn more about how the U.S immigration system affects the families its laws separate. Also a great pick for fans of memoirs about people who overcome the odds against them. – Library Journal Review
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The New Couple In 5B by Lisa Unger
Although a surprise inheritance sounds like good luck, it turns out to be anything but in a tense, twisty thriller. New Yorkers Rosie and Chad Lowan have spent most of the first year of their marriage caring for his dying uncle Ivan. Rosie, the novel’s engaging narrator, expects Ivan’s long-estranged daughter, Dana, to inherit his dreamy Park Avenue apartment, so she’s shocked to discover after his death that he’s left it to her and Chad. It’s a huge boon–Chad is an aspiring actor, and Rosie has published one bestselling true-crime book but is struggling to start a second, so money is always tight. The apartment in the elegant, century-old Windermere is not just a place to live but a multi-million-dollar asset. Dana, however, is not just surprised to be cut out of Ivan’s will but furious. The couple’s joy is marred not only by her rage but by odd goings-on in the building. At the behest of her editor and BFF, Max, Rosie focuses her next book on the Windermere’s grisly history of residents who died in murders, suicides, and bizarre accidents. Does the building bear some sort of curse–and if so, is it all in the past? As first one person in Rosie’s orbit and then another die, she becomes suspicious of people like the Windermere’s longtime doorman, Abi, and the kindly old couple across the hall, Charles and Ella Aldridge, who have lived there for decades and take much interest in Rosie’s efforts to get pregnant. And is Chad, a golden-haired charmer, as perfect as he seems? If all this reminds you of Rosemary’s Baby, it’s meant to–the book is salted with references to that classic melding of mystery and horror, and it vibrates with the same sense of escalating dread. But Unger builds her own fast-moving, creepy combination of thriller and horror in one of her best books yet. This propulsive, haunted thriller proves that competition for New York City real estate really can be deadly. – Kirkus Review
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On Moonberry Lake by Holly Varni
DEBUT Cora’s mother always had a knack for knowing when someone was going to die, but she doesn’t give Cora any heads-up on before she kicks the bucket herself. Instead, she leaves a cryptic note, along with the keys to a rundown lodge in Moonberry Lake, MN, that Cora’s estranged grandparents used to run. The lodge’s failing plumbing and electricity, eccentric and angry neighbors, and too many rodents for comfort are overwhelming enough, but Cora also feels like she can’t grow roots there until she finds out why she was ripped away from Moonberry and her grandparents as a child. It is a struggle to see the locals as friendly and welcoming rather than unusual; after all, Cora’s closest neighbor spends most of her time talking to the residents of the local cemetery and caring for the headstones. VERDICT Varni, host of the Moments from Moonberry Lake podcast, delivers a solid debut focusing on the stories of ordinary Midwesterners. The faith content is vague enough that general-fiction readers of Fannie Flagg, J. Ryan Stradal, and Viola Shipman will appreciate the small-town flavor and humorous anecdotes. – Library Journal Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout/download content to a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla App is available for Android or Apple mobile devices, PCs, Macs*, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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*You must have an active Internet connection to access Hoopla content on a Mac.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!
Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, March 8, 2024.
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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!
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Blues At Sunrise by Albert King
From The Album: Live Wire Blues Power (1968)
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Blues With A Feeling by The Butterfield Blues Band
From The Album: The Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
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Confessin’ The Blues by The Rollings Stones
From The Album: 12 x 5 (1964)
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I’m Tore Down by Freddie King
From The Album: Freddie King Sings (1961)
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Killing Floor by Howlin’ Wolf
From The Album: The Real Folk Blues (1966)
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Merry-Go-Round by Fleetwood Mac
From The Album: Fleetwood Mac (1968)
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Rollin’ Stone by Muddy Waters
From The Album: Best of Muddy Waters (1957)
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The Returner by Allison Russell
From The Album: The Returner (2023)
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Walking Blues by Bonnie Raitt
From The Album: Bonnie Raitt (1971)
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You Know I Love You by B. B. King
From The Album: Singing The Blues (1957)
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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week
Crusade (1968) by John Mayall and the Blues Breakers
Listener’s Note: This LP features Mick Taylor on guitar, and is one of the “trio” of albums by John Mayall and his band, from the mid/late sixties, that features outstandting guitarists that went on to be internationally known; the other two LPs being Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966) and A Hard Road (1967) with Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green on guitar; and yes, indeed, Linda has her classic guitar geek on!
And from the album, the instrumental;
Snowy Wood
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Have a great weekend,
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Online Catalog Links:
StarCat
The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, March 6, 2024.
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The Atlas Maneuver by Steve Barr
1945. In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947 some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Instead, those assets were stamped classified, shipped to Europe, and secretly assimilated into something called the Black Eagle Trust.
Present day. Retired Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violent and Cotton is thrust into a war between the world’s oldest bank and the CIA, a battle that directly involves the Black Eagle Trust. He quickly discovers that everything hinges on a woman from his past, who suddenly reappears harboring a host of explosive secrets centering around bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is being quietly weaponized, readied for an assault on the world’s financial systems, a calculated move that will have devastating consequences. Cotton has no choice. He has to act. But at what cost?
From the stolid banking halls of Luxembourg, to the secret vaults of Switzerland, and finally up into the treacherous mountains of southern Morocco, Cotton Malone is stymied at every turn. Each move he makes seems wrong, and nothing works, until he finally comes face-to-face with the Atlas Maneuver.
Reader’s Note: The Atlas Maneuver is the eighteenth book in the Cotton Malone series; If you’d like to read the series from the beginning check out book one: The Templar Legacy.
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Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux
This tightly focused novel relates how a young man, as yet unformed, gradually finds his own identity. In 1921, Eric Blair, 19 and newly hatched from Eton, sets sail for Burma on a posting to the Indian Imperial Police. There he will oversee native policemen–Burmese and Indian. From the start, his peers see Blair as an outsider. He feels like one too, alienated from them by height (his nickname is “Lofty”), bookishness, and latent humanitarianism. At every subsequent posting of Blair’s, something goes wrong and he’s shuffled off to the next posting to get rid of him. The crassness of his fellow Englishmen and their indifference toward local concerns affront him, driving him to writing as escape. Eventually, he returns to England, laid up by fever, and resigns. Succeeding in his new focus, the man renames himself George Orwell, and his experiences in Burma became background for an anticolonial novel, Burmese Days, and two of what will become his most famous essays, “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant.”
VERDICT The prolific Theroux (The Mosquito Coast) has long been a expert writer of fiction and travel narratives, so this biographical historical novel, about the young adult life of the soon-to-be George Orwell, is a natural for him. – Library Journal Review
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The Guest by B. A. Paris
New York Times bestselling author B. A. Paris captivated psychological thriller readers everywhere with Behind Closed Doors. Now she invites you into another home full of heart-pounding secrets, in The Guest.
Some secrets never leave.
Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and again: sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris’ clothes, even rearranging the furniture.
Laure has walked out on her husband—and their good friend—Pierre, over his confession of an affair and a secret child. Iris and Gabriel want to be supportive of their friends, but as Laure’s mood becomes increasingly unpredictable, her presence takes its toll.
Iris and Gabriel’s only respite comes in the form of a couple new to town. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past.
Soon, secrets from all their pasts will unravel, some more dangerous than they could have known.
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The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King
In their latest appearance (after Castle Shade, 2021), Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell are looking forward to spending some time with Sherlock’s son, Damian Adler, a well-known artist, and his family. When they arrive in the village of Délieux, France, a caretaker with a shotgun greets them and tells them that the family has fled an intruder. Sherlock immediately sets out to find Damian, while Mary, nursing a sprained ankle, stays in the house. She discovers several shipping crates in Damian’s studio; in them, she finds an antique lamp that appears to be a type of zoetrope and a journal written in code. As she works to decipher the journal, she realizes that its pages are linked to scenes on the lamp, telling the story of a young woman in India fleeing from her home. Further study leads Mary to think that this relates to Damian and Sherlock’s’ family. Readers will enjoy learning about the Holmes family as they uncover interesting information about the history of India and the role and status of women in Victorian England. – Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: The Lantern’s Dance is the eighteenth novel in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, if you’d like to binge read series from the beginning, check out book one: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.
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Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz
It’s not Evan Smoak’s usual case, tracking down a child’s missing dog; he got guilted into it. But the dog’s trail leads Evan, the former government assassin also known as Orphan X, to something more familiar: a murdered man, a ruthless killer, and a whole lot of mystery. The ninth Orphan X novel is as tightly plotted as the previous eight, and just as suspenseful. Evan continues to be a strong, enigmatic series lead–each book reveals a little more about the man, but there’s a lot left to be revealed–and Hurwitz continues to dazzle the reader with cleverly staged action sequences and wonderfully villainous antagonists. (In this case, a chillingly efficient female assassin known as the Wolf seems like a match for Evan in nearly every way.) Fans of the series will be lining up to read this one, and because each book works just fine as a stand-alone, new readers can jump right in. Keep ’em coming! – Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: As mentioned, Lone Wolf is the nineth book in the Orphan X series, if you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one simply titled: Orphan X.
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Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment by Allen C. Guelzo
Princeton University professor Guelzo opens chapter one of his newest book by telling readers that the word democracy occurs only 137 times in Abraham Lincoln’s writings. That does not mean, however, that democracy was unimportant to the sixteenth president. In fact, Guelzo continues, Lincoln saw it as “the most natural, the most just, and the most enlightened form of human government.” As the subject of thousands of studies, Lincoln is one of American history’s most written-about individuals. It is therefore a welcome surprise to read such fresh insights as Guelzo musters here. Many readers will be familiar with Lincoln’s folksiness and his approach to race, but what about his economic policies? His views on industrialization? His ideas for commercial regulation? These get short shrift in popular biographies. Especially intriguing is the final chapter, “What If Lincoln Had Lived?” which imagines him leading a far less dysfunctional Reconstruction after the Civil War. In an era when democracy’s death is shouted from the front page of seemingly every U.S. newspaper, it is comforting to read that Abraham Lincoln, at least, thought the effort to maintain it was not in vain. – Booklist Review
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Three-Inch Teeth by C. J. Box
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett faces two different kinds of rampaging beasts—one animal, one human—in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C.J. Box.
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage—killing, among others, the potential fiancé of Joe’s daughter. At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a special list tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him away: the six people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property.
Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates sets out to methodically check off his list. The problem is, both Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett are on it.
Reader’s Note:Three-Inch Teeth is the twenty fourth book in the Joe Picket series. If you’d like to binge read the series from the beginning, check out book one: Open Season.
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Village In The Dark: A Novel by Iris Yamashita
Yamashita’s riveting sequel to 2023’s City Under One Roof sets a chilling murder mystery against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness. Detective Cara Kennedy has come to believe that her husband and son died in a natural accident. After Cara discovered and buried the pair’s remains in the Talkeetna forest near where they disappeared on a hike, she takes leave to cope with her loss. But when investigators find a series of photographs in a deceased gang member’s possession, including an image of Cara and her family, she suspects foul play. Fueled by grief, Cara makes a startling discovery—the people in each of the gang member’s photographs are either dead or missing. Among them is Mia Upash, a quiet young woman who grew up in hiding from an abusive man and harbors key secrets that may connect each of the missing people. Enlisting the help of her former partner J.B. Barkowski, Cara sets out to find Mia, uncovering dark truths that endanger herself and her colleagues along the way. Yamashita maintains a breakneck pace throughout—some might argue that she jumps into the investigation a little too quickly—but dispels any initial vertigo with memorable characters and a stunning conclusion. Readers will be glued to the page. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Orange follows up his PEN/Hemingway-winning There There with a stirring portrait of the fractured but resilient Bear Shield-Red Feather family in the wake of the Oakland powwow shooting that closed out the previous book. The sequel is wider in scope, beginning with stories of the family’s ancestors before catching up to the present. Those ancestors include Jude Star, who barely survives the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in what is now Colorado as a youth and is sent to a prison in St. Augustine, Fla., where he’s forced to learn English and read the Bible. Jude later works as a farmhand in Oklahoma and raises his son Charles, who is sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. As a young man in the early 1900s, Charles drifts into San Francisco, where he becomes addicted to morphine while contending with the trauma of forced assimilation and unspecified abuse at Carlisle (“There is something deeper down, doing its dark work on him some further forgotten thing, but what is it? His life is about knowing it is there but not ever wanting to see it”). In the present, high school freshman Orvil Red Feather recovers at home in Oakland after being struck by a stray bullet during the powwow. Like Charles, he becomes addicted to opiates and struggles to connect with his cultural identity after his grandmother neglects to share details about their Cheyenne heritage. With incandescent prose and precise insights, Orange mines the gaps in his characters’ memories and finds meaning in the stories of their lives. This devastating narrative confirms Orange’s essential place in the canon of Native American literature. – Publishers Weekly Review
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What Have We Here by Billy Dee Williams
Eighty-six-year-old Star Wars actor Williams provides a candid look back at his life and career in this genial debut memoir. Williams grew up in New York City in the 1940s and landed his first role, at seven years old, via his mother, who worked as a secretary for a Broadway producer. Bigger stage roles soon followed, and he eventually succeeded James Earl Jones as the lead in the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Fences in 1988. Williams’s breakout film role was opposite Diana Ross in 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues, in which his charm and good looks led the press to dub him “the Black Clark Gable.” Following that success, he turned down several roles in Blacksploitation films, fearing they’d “put in a box,” and his career stalled until George Lucas’s desire to racially diversify the Star Wars series led to Williams being cast as Lando Calrissian in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. Williams ruminates on his professional triumphs, disappointments (including being passed over for the role of Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s Batman), and friendships (he counted Laurence Olivier and James Baldwin among his peers), as well as his three failed marriages and his love of painting. Even as he catalogs losses and missteps, Williams writes with the panache and suavity that characterize his screen presence. The result is a heartfelt Hollywood self-portrait. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout/download content to a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla App is available for Android or Apple mobile devices, PCs, Macs*, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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*You must have an active Internet connection to access Hoopla content on a Mac.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
This blog post includes all the new titles that have been ordered by the library this month.
Some of these titles have arrived and can be requested through StarCat; other titles are not yet ready to circulate (and thus are not yet found in StarCat).
So, if you see a book you’d love to read, but don’t find it listed in StarCat, send me an email and let me know which title you’d like to read; and I will place it on hold for you, when it is ready to circulate.
Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.
New York Times Bestsellers can be requested through StarCat (for print books) & The Digital Catalog/Libby for eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks. Select titles may also be checked out, on demand, through the Hoopla Catalog.
For more information on the three catalogs skip to the section below the bestselling titles*
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New York Times Bestseller blog posts are published on Sundays; and due to vacation leave in Library Land, the next New York Times Bestseller blog post will be out on Friday, March
And the next New York Times blog post will be posted on Sunday, March 10, 2024.
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FICTION
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BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood
Issues of trust arise when an alliance is made between a Vampyre named Misery Lark and a Were named Lowe Moreland.
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A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas
The fifth book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Nesta Archeron is forced into close quarters with a warrior named Cassian.
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THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese
Three generations of a family living on South India’s Malabar Coast suffer the loss of a family member by drowning.
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CROSSHAIRS by James Patterson and James O. Born
The 16th book in the Michael Bennett series. Bennett teams up with a sniper.
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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver
Winner of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.
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FANGIRL DOWN by Tessa Bailey
A golfer whose career goes to pieces asks his biggest fan to be his caddy.
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FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston
A woman who works for a mysterious boss takes on a new identity to dig up information on someone.
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FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros
Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.
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THE FURY by Alex Michaelides
Violence erupts when a former movie star brings a group of her friends to her private Greek island for Easter.
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GOTHIKANA by RuNyx
A century-old mystery brings Corvina Clemm and Vad Deverell together at a university based in a castle at the top of a mountain with a dark history.
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THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride
Secrets held by the residents of a dilapidated neighborhood come to life when a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well.
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THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden
Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
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HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas
Passion arises between Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar as they seek to avenge the deaths of Bryce’s friends.
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HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW by Sarah J. Maas
The third book in the Crescent City series. Bryce wants to return home while Hunt is trapped in Asteri’s dungeons.
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HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH by Sarah J. Maas
The second book in the Crescent City series. Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar must choose to fight or stay silent.
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ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace
Anastasia might need the help of the captain of a college hockey team to get on the Olympic figure skating team.
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IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros
The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.
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LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.
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REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt
A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.
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THE TEACHER by Frieda McFadden
A math teacher at Caseham High suspects there is more going on behind a scandal involving a teacher and a student.
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TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett
Three daughters, who return to their family orchard in the spring of 2020, learn about their mother’s relationship with a famous actor.
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WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT by T. Kingfisher
The second book in the Sworn Soldier series. Local superstitions greet a retired soldier returning home from a war.
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THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah
In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
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NON-FICTION
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ALL ABOUT LOVE by bell hooks
The late feminist icon explores the causes of a polarized society and the meaning of love.
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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk
How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
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CAPOTE’S WOMEN by Laurence Leamer
Truman Capote’s attempt to portray the lives of high society women led to his banishment from their circles; the basis of the TV series “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.”
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CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today.
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ELON MUSK by Walter Isaacson
The author of “The Code Breaker” traces Musk’s life and summarizes his work on electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence.
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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry
The late actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.
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GRIFT by Clay Cane
An overview of Black Republicanism from the time of President Lincoln to the present.
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HITS, FLOPS, AND OTHER ILLUSIONS by Ed Zwick
The director, writer and producer recounts his four decades of working in Hollywood.
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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy
The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.
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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.
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THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY by Tim Alberta
The author of “American Carnage” looks at divisions within the American evangelical movement.
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THE LEDGE by Calvin Trillin
A longtime writer for The New Yorker profiles reporters and shares stories from his time as a journalist.
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LIFE AFTER POWER by Jared Cohen
A look at the lives of seven presidents after their time in the White House.
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MASTERS OF THE AIR by Donald L. Miller
An account of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II; the basis of the TV series.
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MEDGAR & MYRLIE by Joy-Ann Reid
The MSNBC host details how the wife of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers carried forward their legacy after his assassination in 1963.
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OATH AND HONOR by Liz Cheney
The former congresswoman from Wyoming recounts how she helped lead the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6. Attack on the United States Capitol.
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OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford
A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS by Jeffrey Rosen
The president and chief executive of the National Constitution Center reframes a famous phrase.
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THE WAGER by David Grann
The survivors of a shipwrecked British vessel on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain have different accounts of events.
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WHAT HAVE WE HERE? by Billy Dee Williams
The stage and screen actor traces his life from his childhood in Harlem to becoming a pop culture icon.
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Search for and request books online!
eBooks & Audiobooks Through The Digital Catalog & Libby
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access
StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries throughout the Southern Tier Library System.
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Also of Note: If a New York Times Bestseller isn’t yet available in any of the three catalogs, you can contact the library and request to be notified when it becomes available.
Southeast Steuben County Library Telephone Number: 607-936-3713.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here are our recommended reads for the week!
*More information on the three catalogs and available formats is found at the end of the list of recommended reads*
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Wednesdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
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The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Ruffin, author of the terrifying racial dystopia We Cast a Shadow (2019), re-creates the slave narrative in this imaginative Civil War-era meta novel. Ady, an enslaved young girl, has been sold along with her mother, Sanite, to planter John Du Marche. Sanite is a woman of ingenious talents skilled in carpentry, fishing, herbalism, orienteering, and combat, which become increasingly necessary survival skills as she and Ady make various attempts to escape. Recaptured and separated from her mother and her baby brother Emmanuel, Ady finds herself trapped in “the open-air prison of New Orleans,” where she discovers the free colored Creole aristocracy. Invited to work at the Mockingbird, an inn run by the coy and mysterious Lenore, Ady is gradually drawn into the American Daughters, an underground network of Black women and girls working to undermine the Confederacy from within. As her relationship with Lenore deepens, Ady must decide whether to devote her life to the sisterhood’s mission and fulfill her mother’s destiny. Ruffin creates added resonance with “historical” documents: bills of sale, “wanted” posters, research reports, and a poignant interview with the elderly Emmanuel, who was never able to reconnect with his lost family. A sobering yet liberatory portrayal of American slavery and of the courage, determination, and intelligence required to survive it. – Booklist Review
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The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller
DEBUT Miller enters the cozy-mystery arena with this offering set amid the illegal antiques market. Freya Lockwood, feeling at loose ends with her life, is suddenly summoned by her Aunt Carole back to the quaint English village where she grew up. Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and Freya’s former mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. A trail of clues left by Arthur leads Freya and Carole to an old manor house filled with antiques and populated by various mysterious guests, all of them with hidden agendas and exuding varying degrees of menace. The author, daughter of Judith Miller (Miller’s Antique Price Guide), draws on her own knowledge of antiques to develop the backdrop of the mystery. Though the plot and characters are a bit confusing at times, the overall storyline is solid. VERDICT Miller bears watching. Readers will look forward to more adventures with Freya and Carole in the intriguing world of antiques. – Library Journal Review
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The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Choo (The Night Tiger) draws on Japanese folklore for a rich detective story involving fox spirits. In 1908 Manchuria, a fox spirit named Snow assumes a human form during her search for Bektu Nikan, a photographer responsible for her child’s death in a hunt he’d orchestrated. She takes a job as a servant for the matriarch of a medicine shop, whose grandson, Bohai, and his medical school friends have spent time with Bektu. One of the friends, Shirakawa, is also a fox and claims that Bektu fled to Japan. Bohai’s grandmother agrees to accompany Snow and the students there, unaware of the journey’s real purpose. Meanwhile, retired teacher and detective Bao Gong, who has a supernatural ability to discern lies and is fixated on fox spirits, is hired to identify a woman found dead in an alley. His investigations unveil links between the unidentified woman, Bektu, and a beautiful woman rumored to be a fox. As Bao unravels the threads of the mystery, Snow faces danger in Japan when she crosses paths with another fox she has long avoided. Choo’s writing is lush and the slow revelation of complicated relationships and reunions hum with tension. This is a treat. -Publishers Weekly Review
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Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond
Dani Poissant has led an unconventional life, being the daughter of famed art thief Maria Poissant–not to mention the Poissant legacy of magic. The duo performs heist upon heist together, until there is a betrayal, sending Maria to prison and leaving Dani utterly alone. Ten years later, a mysterious figure from Dani’s past approaches her to do the ultimate heist–stealing a portrait from an ultraprivate collection famously known as the Fortress of Art. Dani’s reward: reuniting with her mother. Hesitant but wanting to be a good daughter, Dani says yes. With only a week to pull off the job, Dani must recruit the crew who iced her out and finagle her way into the Fortress of Art. But upon learning the truth behind the painting she’s about to steal, Dani needs to decide if the reward is greater than the cost. More than a heist novel, romance author Bond’s latest (after Mr. and Mrs. Witch, 2023) is also a contemporary fantasy about the fraught relationships between mothers and daughters as well as regret and forgiveness. Fans of the author will enjoy. – Booklist Review
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Girls With Bad Reputations by Xio Axelrod
Axelrod’s spirited second the Lillys rock and roll romance (after The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes) turns the spotlight onto the eponymous indie band’s drummer, Kayla Whitman. Raised by a controlling mother who made her feel like a constant disappointment for being too loud and boisterous, Kayla’s lifeline growing up was her older brother, Zach, who gave Kayla her first pair of drumsticks. After Zach died, Kayla clung to his love of music to cope with her grief, joining a local indie girl band. Now the Lillys have blown up and embark on their first national tour. It’s a different beast than the local gigs Kayla’s used to, and with her mother still calling to berate her about how she needs to “get her life together,” she worries she’ll crack under the pressure. Comfort comes from tour bus driver Ty Baldwin, a strong and silent type with whom Kayla discovers an unexpected spark. This sweet couple find a rhythm as the tour goes on, but Kayla’s still torn between pursuing music and packing it up for a safer life. Bolstering both the slow-burning love story and Kayla’s personal growth is the charming chosen family she finds with her bandmates. Readers are sure to be entertained. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Hammer Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor by Hamilton Nolan
Over the past few years, a wave of high-profile trade union actions in the United States has brought labor organizing to the forefront of the collective consciousness of the nation. Journalist Nolan, in his first book, offers a new and fresh perspective on the recent evolution of labor movements in the United States. In largely separate but thematically overlapping chapters, the book alternates between unraveling the histories of large and small unions across the country and following Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (an affiliate of the AFL-CIO), as she rises through the ranks of her union and navigates political obstacles. This important book shows how unions in a wide range of industries can utilize their inherent power and explores the complicated and necessary relationship between labor and politics, encouraging readers to examine how one affects the other.
VERDICT Well researched and reported, with a propulsive storytelling style. Nolan’s outstanding book will interest readers who follow news about equality efforts but might not be familiar with the complex world of labor organizing. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Shades Of Milk And Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
In this alternate history of a Regency England, a lady’s chance at a good match improves with her every talent: good taste in the arts, a deft hand at pulling images from the ether, and proper conduct in polite society. Miss Jane Ellsworth was born with gifts of a keen artistic eye and creating mesmerizing glamours, but her sister, Melody, was born with the gift of physical beauty. In the end, which is truly the more desirable? A series of romantic misunderstandings, poorly expressed feelings, and purposeful deception lead Jane and Melody into a better understanding of their own views on the topic. VERDICT Readers will be disappointed only when they finish this enchanting story, which is suffused with genteel charm. The author’s judicious and effective changes to aspects of daily life clearly communicate how similar but different this world is from ours. With the grace of Sense and Sensibility, a touch of classic fairy tale magic, and an action-packed ending, this debut novel by an award-winning fantasy short story writer will appeal to fans of Jane Austen, Jane Yolen, Patricia Wrede, Susannah Clarke, and even Jasper Fforde. – Library Journal
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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale) blends a meticulously researched WWI epic, an eloquent family saga, and a touch of the supernatural in this breathtaking historical fantasy. Nurse Laura Iven returns home to Halifax, Nova Scotia, after being wounded on the Western Front and honorably discharged from the medical corps. When she learns in early 1918 that her soldier brother Freddie—her last living family member—is missing and presumed dead, she’s overwhelmed with questions, so she volunteers to return to Belgium, where she’ll work at a private hospital and seek answers in her limited spare time. The narrative shifts between Laura’s perspective and Freddie’s own, a year prior, as he falls in with a mysterious and potentially mystical new friend, adding captivating depth and tension to an already intriguing premise. Arden’s carefully constructed plot makes each unexpected twist feel as inevitable as it is shocking. Through resonant prose, she literalizes the apocalyptic qualities of WWI while dwelling in moral complexity and delivering vibrant, fully fleshed-out characters. The interwoven supernatural elements lend the historical details greater weight. The result is a powerful page-turner. – Publishers Weekly Review
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What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher
In the haunting second installment of Hugo and Nebula Award winner Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier series (after What Moves the Dead), reluctant, battle-damaged hero Alex Easton, who uses the pronouns ka and kan, returns to kan childhood home in the grim and Gothic countryside of Gallacia. It should be a routine, even boring, visit to the Easton family hunting lodge. Instead, Alex arrives to find the old caretaker has died, and the village buzzing with rumors that the supposed lung disease that killed him was in fact something far more sinister. To Alex, a practical old soldier, the villagers’ tales seem fanciful, the kind of thing one might tell to scare a child—until the new housekeeper’s son falls ill the same way, and Alex begins to have strange nightmares. Something has awoken in the Easton hunting lodge, and it wants to steal the very breath from all of the inhabitants’ lungs. Moving away from the Edgar Allan Poe story that inspired the first entry in the series, this sequel offers more surprises and just as many moments that will haunt readers’ dreams. Kingfisher’s winning formula of creepy folklore, affable protagonists, familiar Gothic tropes, and truly unsettling horror imagery makes this sing. – Publishers Weekly
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The Wind Blows In Sleeping Grassby Katie Powner
In remote Montana, a trash collector with anger issues who likes poetry and converses mostly with his potbellied pig is an unlikely hero. But Powner (Where the Blue Sky Begins) has readers rooting for Pete the garbageman from page one. The small town of Sleeping Grass is on the Hi-Line, where the land and the people are being slowly eroded by the wind and the harsh winters. Pete grew up here, before the bottom fell out and he was shuttled through a series of foster homes; he is only back now because it was the one place willing to overlook his past mistakes and give him a living wage. He meets a cast of characters, including a debt-ridden octogenarian and a grieving Siksika man, who help heal the hurts of the past and teach him how to live, but his new friends have problems and secrets of their own.
VERDICT Powner’s real-life experience as a seasoned foster mother shines through in this tale of finding treasure in the people and things that others have cast aside. The secondary characters are funny, flawed, and so unusual that readers will be clamoring for more. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
Have questions or want to request a book?
Feel free to call the library! Our telephone number is 607-936-3713.
–
Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout/download content to a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
The Hoopla Catalog features instant checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla App is available for Android or Apple mobile devices, PCs, Macs*, smart TVs & media streaming players.
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
*You must have an active Internet connection to access Hoopla content on a Mac.
–
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 