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 Thursdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Thursday, September 14, 2023.
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All the Dead Shall Weep by Charlaine Harris
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
#1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author returns with the fifth installment in the bestselling Gunnie Rose series as sisters Lizbeth Rose and Felicia as well as brother Eli and Peter, are reunited in Texoma only to break apart before the Wizard’s Ball held in San Diego, which will determine all their fates.
Following the murderous events of the “gripping…thrill-ride” (Karin Slaughter) Serpent of Heaven, Lizbeth Rose is awaiting the arrival of her sister Felicia and her husband’s younger brother Eli in Texoma. Both needed to leave the seat of the Holy Russian Empire in San Diego after Felicia’s burgeoning wizardly power in death magic became the reason for kidnapping and assassination attempts from her mother’s family of high-powered wizards in Mexico.
Yet bad news has traveled ahead of them, as Eli is called back to San Diego, taking Peter along with him, splitting them apart in more ways than one as their enemies’ plans for revenge come to fruition. In this fifth installment in the beloved and bestselling Gunnie Rose series, #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Charlaine Harris has crafted a family drama of murderous and magical thrills.
Gunnie Rose Series
1. An Easy Death (2018)
2. A Longer Fall (2020)
3. The Russian Cage (2021)
4. The Serpent in Heaven (2022)
5. All the Dead Shall Weep (2023)
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Evil Eye by Etaf Rum
(Available Formats: Print Book)
“A moving meditation on motherhood, inter-generational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her first!”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community Board
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian-American women, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents.
“After Yara is placed on probation at work for fighting with a racist coworker, her Palestinian mother claims the provocation and all that’s come after were the result of a family curse. While Yara doesn’t believe in old superstitions, she finds herself unpacking her strict, often volatile childhood growing up in Brooklyn, looking for clues as to why she feels so unfulfilled in a life her mother could only dream of. Etaf Rum’s follow-up to her 2019 debut, A Woman Is No Man, is a complicated mother-daughter drama that looks at the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma and what it takes to break the cycle of abuse.” —Time magazine, “The Most Anticipated Books of the Year”
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The Fraud by Zadie Smith
(Available Formats: Print Book)
From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed.
It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.
Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.
Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.
The “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . .
Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”
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Holly by Stephen King
(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)
Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.
“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” —BILL HODGES
Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.
Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.
“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.” —STEPHEN KING
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The Long Game by Elena Armas
(Available Formats: Print Book)
A disgraced soccer exec reluctantly enlists the help of a retired soccer star in coaching a children’s team in this smalltown love story in the vein of Ted Lasso and It Happened One Summer —from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spanish Love Deception.
Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her daily routine: wake up at dawn, drive to the Miami Flames FC offices, try her hardest to leave a mark, go home, and repeat.
But her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral. Rather than fire her, the team’s owner—who happens to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, where she’s tasked with turning around the struggling local soccer team, the Green Warriors, as a way to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the players wear tutus to practice (impractical), keep pet goats (messy), and are terrified of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old kids.
To make things worse, also in town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is somewhat of a mystery. Cam is the perfect candidate to help Adalyn, but after one very unfortunate first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s also set on running her out of town. But banishment is not an option for Adalyn. Not again. Helping this ragtag children’s team is her road to redemption, and she is playing the long game. With or without Cam’s help.
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The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson
(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & eAudiobook)
Longmire lovers, rejoice! He’s back with a deeply personal case that uncovers family secrets. Walt Longmire, sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, has a long record of solving crimes under unorthodox circumstances. This time, Walt’s hunt for a lost tourist leads to an investigation that’s both personally wrenching and dangerous. The search area recalls a story his father told him about an elk hunt he went on as a teen with his own father, Lloyd. During the hunt, the state accountant, Big Bill Sutherland, was shot and killed, and his murder is still unsolved. When Walt finds the tourist, he also finds a buried, custom-made .300 H&H Magnum that was probably the murder weapon in the Sutherland case. The owner of that rifle was Lloyd Longmire, a wealthy man and a tough taskmaster who used chess lessons to teach Walt about not only the game, but about life. This coldest of cold cases forces Walt to look into his grandfather, with whom he continued to have an adversarial relationship away from the chessboard. Although Walt and cemetery expert Jules Beldon find an empty coffin in Sutherland’s grave, Lucian Connally, who’d been the sheriff when Sutherland was killed, is extremely reticent about the ancient mystery. But Beldon’s shooting turns the cold case hot, and a long conversation with a childhood friend who’s now an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stirs up long-lost memories for Walt. Powerful people pressure him to forget the old case, which is tied to vast amounts of money in a hidden fund. It doesn’t matter: Walt has his own moral code, refuses to bend, and is ready to unmask his grandfather as a murderer if that’s where the clues lead. Learning the history of a beloved protagonist raises an exciting mystery to a higher level. – Starred Kirkus Review
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The Raging Storm: A Detective Matthew Venn Novel by Ann Cleeves
(Available Formats: Coming soon as a print book; CD Audiobook, eBook & eAudiobook)
Bestseller Cleeves’s outstanding third Matthew Venn novel (following 2021’s The Heron’s Cry) sees the detective returning to a small village on the northern English coast to solve a pair of murders. In the middle of a storm one September afternoon, Jem Rosco—sailor, bon vivant, and local legend—enters a pub in his misty hometown of Greystone to await a visitor he won’t name. A few days later, a local rescue crew responding to an anonymous distress call discovers Rosco’s lifeless body in an anchored dinghy. Det. Insp. Matthew Venn and his bickering sergeants are called from Devon to investigate. Venn is less than enthusiastic: Greystone is home to the Brethren, a religious sect his family once belonged to, and he left unceremoniously several years earlier. As the detective and his officers dig into Rosco’s past, local magistrate Barty Parker—husband of Rosco’s first love, Nell—turns up dead as well. Then Nell herself disappears, and pressure mounts to identify the killer before the body count climbs. Cleeves crafts a devilishly intricate mystery that will surprise even seasoned genre fans, and Venn remains an appealing lead every bit as memorable as the author’s Vera Stanhope or Jimmy Perez. Cleeves’s fans and newcomers alike will be hungry for the next entry. – Starred Kirkus Review
Two Rivers (Matthew Venn) Series:
1. The Long Call (2019)
2. The Heron’s Cry (2021)
2.5. The Girls on the Shore (2022)
3. The Raging Storm (2023)
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Reykjavík: A Crime Story by Ragnar Jónasson
(Available Formats: Print Book & eAudiobook)
Jónasson, a translator of Agatha Christie mysteries, teams up with Icelandic prime minister Jakobsdóttir for a thrilling Scandinavian noir inspired by a real-life cold case. In 1956, a 15-year-old housemaid named Lára vanishes from the only inhabited house on Videy, a small island off the coast of Reykjavík. Infrequent media inquires into her disappearance prove fruitless until 1986, when Valur Róbertsson, an ambitious young journalist, sees Lára’s case as a potentially career-making story. Just after Valur receives a compelling scoop, he’s pushed in front of a bus and dies, and his grief-stricken younger sister, Sunna, takes over the investigation. Building on her brother’s reporting, she discovers that a cabal including a judge, a real estate developer, a councilman, and a newspaper editor has been concealing a terrible secret central to Lára’s disappearance. Jónasson has clearly learned a thing or two from Christie’s trademark tight plotting and penetrating characterizations, and Jakobsdóttir’s insider knowledge of Iceland’s halls of power lend the proceedings an air of authenticity. Fans of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole series will be rapt. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the “expansive, atmospheric American saga” (Entertainment Weekly) This Tender Land.
On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.
Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life from an author of novels “as big-hearted as they come” (Parade), The River We Remember is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.
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Sleep No More by Seanan Maguire
(Available Formats: eBook)
October is very happy with her life as the second daughter of her pureblood parents, Amandine and Simon Torquill. Born to be the changeling handmaid to her beloved sister August, she spends her days working in her family’s tower, serving as August’s companion, and waiting for the day when her sister sets up a household of her own. Everything is right in October’s Faerie. Everything is perfect.
Everything is a lie.
October has been pulled from her own reality and thrown into a twisted reinterpretation of Faerie where nothing is as it should be and everything has been distorted to support Titania’s ideals. Bound by the Summer Queen’s magic and thrust into a world turned upside down, October has no way of knowing who she can trust, where she can turn, or even who she really is. As strangers who claim to know her begin to appear and the edges of Titania’s paradise begin to unravel, Toby will have to decide whether she can risk everything she knows based on only their stories of another world.
But first she’ll have to survive this one, as Titania demonstrates why she needed to be banished in the first place—and this time, much more than Toby’s own life is at stake.
October Daye Series
1. Rosemary and Rue (2009)
2. A Local Habitation (2010)
3. An Artificial Night (2010)
4. Late Eclipses (2011)
5. One Salt Sea (2011)
6. Ashes of Honor (2012)
7. Chimes at Midnight (2013)
7.5. Full of Briars (2016)
8. The Winter Long (2014)
9. A Red-Rose Chain (2015)
10. Once Broken Faith (2016)
11. The Brightest Fell (2017)
12. Night and Silence (2018)
13. The Unkindest Tide (2019)
14. A Killing Frost (2020)
15. When Sorrows Come (2021)
16. Be the Serpent (2022)
17. Sleep No More (2023)
18. The Innocent Sleep (2023)
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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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.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, Downloadable Audiobooks, digital magazines and a handful of streaming videos. The catalog, which allows one to download content to a PC, also has a companion app, Libby, which you can download to your mobile device; so you can enjoy eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks 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, Downloadable Audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 devices, 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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Format Note: Under each book title you’ll find a list of all the different formats that specific title is available in; including: Print Books, Large Print Books, CD Audiobooks, eBooks & Downloadable Audiobooks from the Digital Catalog (Libby app) and Hoopla eBooks & Hoopla Downloadable Audiobooks (Hoopla app).
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Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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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.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
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 the next New York Times blog post will be posted Sunday, September 10, 2023
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FICTION
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AFTER THAT NIGHT by Karin Slaughter
The 11th book in the Will Trent series. Trent’s investigation of a young woman’s assault reveals a link to an attack 15 years ago.
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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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DEAD MOUNTAIN by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The fourth book in the Nora Kelly series. Kelly and Swanson search for the ninth victim of a gruesome and bizarre incident that occurred in 2008.
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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.
Things kept hidden bubble to the surface when the 9-year-old daughter of a man whose affair just ended badly goes missing.
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THE FIVE-STAR WEEKEND by Elin Hilderbrand
After a tragedy, a popular food blogger brings friends from distinct times in her life to spend a weekend in Nantucket.
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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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HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry
A former couple pretend to be together for the sake of their friends during their annual getaway in Maine.
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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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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse.
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IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
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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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LION & LAMB by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski
The Eagles’ starting quarterback is murdered and his wife, a Grammy-winning singer, is the prime suspect.
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LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara
Four college friends, one with a traumatic past, move to New York seeking fame and fortune.
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MASTERS OF DEATH by Olivie Blake
A real estate agent who also is a vampire seeks the help of a medium to extricate the ghost who is haunting the house she needs to sell.
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RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston
A staged friendship between the son of the president and his rival, the Prince of Wales, evolves into a secret and potentially dangerous romance.
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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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SHADOW DANCE by Christine Feehan
The eighth book in the Shadow Riders series. Geno connects to Amaranthe in the shadows and goes after his parents’ killer.
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SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides
Theo Faber looks into the mystery of a famous painter who stops speaking after shooting her husband.
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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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TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin
Two friends find their partnership challenged in the world of video game design.
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TOO LATE by Colleen Hoover
Dangers develop when a drug trafficker becomes obsessed with a woman who has a mutual attraction to a D.E.A. agent.
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VERITY by Colleen Hoover
Lowen Ashleigh is hired by the husband of an injured writer to complete her popular series and uncovers a horrifying truth.
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NON-FICTION
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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AMERICAN PROMETHEUS by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
A biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 and an inspiration for the film “Oppenheimer.”
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THEART THIEF by Michael Finkel
The author of “The Stranger in the Woods” tells the story of Stéphane Breitwieser, who stole art more than 200 times for the sake of admiring it.
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BEYOND THE STORY by BTS and Myeongseok Kang
An oral history of the K-pop group that is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
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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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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah
A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”
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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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CRYING IN H MART by Michelle Zauner
The daughter of a Korean mother and Jewish American father, and leader of the indie rock project Japanese Breakfast, describes creating her own identity after losing her mother to cancer.
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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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GAMBLER by Billy Walters with Armen Keteyian
The sports gambler shares his life story and gives insights on his betting system.
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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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IN-BETWEEN by Hadley Vlahos
A hospice nurse shares some of her most impactful experiences and questions some of society’s beliefs around end-of-life care.
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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 NECESSARY TROUBLE by Drew Gilpin Faust
The former Harvard president and author of “This Republic of Suffering” describes the misogyny and racism that compelled her to become a historian.
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NEVER ENOUGH by Jennifer Breheny Wallace
The journalist and social commentator looks at how the pressure to succeed affects parents, educators and children.
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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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PAGEBOY by Elliot Page
The Oscar-nominated star details discovering himself as a trans person and navigating abuse in Hollywood.
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POVERTY, BY AMERICA by Matthew Desmond
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Evicted” examines the ways in which affluent Americans keep poor people poor.
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THINK AGAIN by Adam Grant
An examination of the cognitive skills of rethinking and unlearning that could be used to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
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TRAIL OF THE LOST by Andrea Lankford
A former law enforcement park ranger and investigator details the search for missing hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail.
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TUCKER by Chadwick Moore
An overview of the personal and professional life of the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
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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 HAPPENED TO YOU? by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
An approach to dealing with trauma that shifts an essential question used to investigate it.
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Have a great weekend,
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Search for and request books online!
eBooks & Audiobooks Through The Digital Catalog/Libby (10 items at a time)
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.
–
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.
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.
New Books is a monthly post; now coming on the last Saturday of the month.
The next New Books Coming Your Was post will be out on Saturday, September 30, 2023.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSC Library
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Accessing The Catalogs:
And the direct link to our catalog of physical materials, AKA StarCat, is: https://starcat.stls.org/
The direct link to the online version of the Digital Catalog (companion app Libby, found in your app store) is: https://stls.overdrive.com/
And the Hoopla catalog (which is like Netflix in that all content* is available on-demand & which also has a complementary app, simply called Hoopla) can be accessed online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
*Hoopla content includes Audiobooks, eBooks, comic books, TV shows & Movies (A Smart TV app is available),
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 Thursdays.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Thursday, September 7, 2023.
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Big Little Spells by Hazel Beck
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eAudiobook)
Rebekah Wilde was eighteen when she left St. Cyprian, officially stripped of her magic and banished from her home. Ten years later, she’s forced to return to face the Joywood Coven, who preside over not just her hometown but the whole magical world. Rebekah is happy to reunite with her sister, and with her friends, but the implications of her return are darker and more dangerous than they could have imagined.
The Joywood are determined to prove Rebekah and her friends are a danger to witchkind, and her group faces an impending death sentence if they can’t prove otherwise. Rebekah must seek help from the only one who knows how to stop the Joywood—the ruthless immortal Nicholas Frost. Years ago, he was her secret tutor in magic, and her secret impossible crush. But the icy immortal is as remote and arrogant as ever, and if he feels anything for Rebekah—or witchkind—it’s impossible to tell.
Witchlore Series
Book 1: Small Town, Big Magic
Book 2: Big Little Spells
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The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she’s lived since college still looks like she’s just moved in. But she’s got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling club in Philadelphia. She’s at peace with her plus-size body—at least, most of the time—and she’s on track to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood summer sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her perpetually dieting mother forced her to attend. Fifteen years after her final summer at Camp Golden Hills, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, it feels like the happy ending she’s always wanted.
Yet Abby can’t escape the feeling that something isn’t right…or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously. When Abby gets a last-minute invitation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she’s happy to have time away from Mark, a chance to reflect and make up her mind.
But things get complicated fast. First, Abby spots a familiar face in the group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she’d never see again. Sebastian is a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away. In spite of their undeniable chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Then there’s a surprise last-minute addition to the trip: her mother, Eileen, the woman Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she’s still trying to undo.
Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl with a secret unites the riders in unexpected ways…and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love.
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From One Cell: A Journey Into Life’s Origins and the Future of Medicine by Ben Stanger
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Inside the quest to unlock the mysteries of development—and find the key to transforming our future.
Each of us began life as a single cell. From this humble origin, we embarked on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster. Yet, amazingly, we reached our destination intact, emerging as dazzlingly complex, exquisitely engineered assemblages of trillions of cells. This metamorphosis constitutes one of nature’s most spectacular yet commonplace magic tricks—and one of its most coveted secrets. In From One Cell, physician and researcher Ben Stanger offers a breathtaking glimpse into what scientists are discovering about how life and the body take shape, and how these revelations stand to revolutionize medicine and the future of human health.
In vivid prose, Stanger leads readers on a gripping odyssey retracing this universal, yet unremembered, rite of passage. Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling development’s riddles in experiments as painstaking as they are inventive, we confront fascinating puzzles: how does the plethora of different tissues that compose our bodies arise from a single source? How do cells know what they are meant to become—skin or bone, blood or muscle—when all carry the same set of genetic instructions? Once a cell starts developing down one path, can it change its mind, or is its destiny irrevocably sealed?
As Stanger shows us, the answers to these questions may at last empower us to solve some of our most persistently confounding medical challenges, from cancer to cognitive decline to degenerative disease. Recognizing tumors as evil doppelgangers of the embryo points the way toward new, more targeted cancer therapies. Learning how cells choose their identities and find their way in space could unlock lifesaving breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. The possibilities are extraordinary.
Popular science at its best, From One Cell celebrates the power and beauty of understanding our collective beginnings.
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Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare
(Available Formats: Print Books)
Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she’d be there with her father. But now he’s dead, and she’s newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman—the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England—offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining.
Will’s friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town.
Canary Club Mysteries
1. Miss Aldridge Regrets (2022)
2. Harlem After Midnight (2023)
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The Lady from Burma by Allison Montclair
(Available Formats: Print Book)
In Allison Montclair’s The Lady from Burma, murder once again stalks the proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in the surprisingly dangerous landscape of post-World War II London…
In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture – The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous – and never discussed – past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.
Shortly thereafter, she’s found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn’t make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets – perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.
Sparks & Bainbridge Mysteries
1. The Right Sort of Man (2019)
2. A Royal Affair (2020)
The Haunting of the Desks (2021)
3. A Rogue’s Company (2021)
4. The Unkept Woman (2022)
5. The Lady from Burma (2023)
6. Murder at the White Palace (2024)
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Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue
(Available Formats: Print Book)
“A wrenching love story” (Chris Bohjalian, The Washington Post) based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.
Drawing on years of investigation and Anne Lister’s five-million-word secret journal, Learned by Heart is the long-buried love story of Eliza Raine, an orphan heiress banished from India to England at age six, and Anne Lister, a brilliant, troublesome tomboy, who meet at the Manor School for young ladies in York in 1805 when they are both fourteen.
Emotionally intense, psychologically compelling, and deeply researched, Learned by Heart is an extraordinary work of fiction by one of the world’s greatest storytellers. Full of passion and heartbreak, the tangled lives of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine form a love story for the ages.
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Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg
(Available Formats: Print Book & CD Audiobook)
“Hell comes to Southern California every October. It rides in on searing Santa Ana winds that blast at near hurricane force, igniting voracious wildfires. Master thief Danny Cole longs for the flames. A tsunami of fire is exactly what he needs to pull off a daring crime and avenge a fallen friend. As the most devastating firestorms in Los Angeles’ history scorch the hills of Malibu, relentless arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his wild card of a new partner, Andrew Walker, a former US marshal, suspect that someone set the massive blazes intentionally, a terrifying means to an unknown end. While the flames rage out of control, Danny pursues his brilliant scheme, unaware that Sharpe and Walker are closing in. But when they all collide in a canyon of fire, everything changes, pitting them against an unexpected enemy within an inescapable inferno”– Provided by publisher.
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The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T. L. Huchu
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Duels, magic, and plenty of ghosts await in The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, the third book of T. L. Huchu’s USA Today bestselling Edinburgh Nights series.
Everyone’s favorite fifteen-year-old ghostalker, Ropa, arrives at the worldwide Society of Skeptical Enquirers’ biennial conference just in time to be tied into a mystery—a locked room mystery, if an entire creepy haunted castle on lockdown counts. One of the magical attendees has stolen a valuable magical scroll.
Caught between Qozmos, the high wizard of Ethiopian magic; the larger-than-life Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe; England’s Sorcerer Royal; and Scotland’s own Edmund MacLeod, it’s up to Ropa (and Jomo and Priya) to sort through the dangerous secret politics and alliances to figure out what really happened. But she has a special tool—the many ghosts tied to the ancient, powerful castle.
Edinburgh Nights Series
Library of the Dead
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
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The Season of Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss
(Available Formats: eBook & eAudiobook)
Annie Sharpe’s spark for life has fizzled out. Her kids are grown up, her restaurant is doing just fine on its own, and her twenty-six-year marriage has come to an unceremonious end. Untethered for the first time in her adult life, she finds a winter guardian position in a historic seaside home and decides to leave her city life behind for a brand-new beginning.
When she arrives in Willow Bay, Annie is enamored by the charming house, the invigorating sea breeze, and the town’s rich seasonal traditions. Not to mention, her neighbors receive her with open arms—that is, all except the surly nephew of the homeowner, whose grand plans for the property are at odds with her residency. As Christmas approaches, tensions and tides rise in Willow Bay, and Annie’s future seems less and less certain. But with a little can-do spirit and holiday magic, the most difficult time of her life will become…a season for second chances.
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Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham
(Available Formats: Print Book)
After the death of his brother, a grief-stricken young man seeks refuge and oblivion in a secluded fishing village dominated by a family of brujas in this haunting debut novel, inspired, in part, by the ramifications of Diné history and thought—a mesmerizing, original tale in the tradition of works by Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, and Gabriel García Márquez.
When the river swallowed Kai, Damien’s little brother didn’t die so much as vanish. As the unbearable loss settles deeper into his bones, Damien, a small-town line cook, walks away from everything he has ever known. Driving as far south as his old truck and his legs allow, he lands in a fishing village beyond the reach of his past where he hopes he can finally forget.
But the village has grief of its own. The same day that Damien arrives, a young woman from the community’s most powerful family is being laid to rest. A stranger in town, Damien is the object of gossip and suspicion, ignored by all except the dead girl’s mother, Ana Maria, who offers Damien a room and a job.
Grateful for her kindness, Damien soon begins to fall under Ana Maria’s charismatic spell. But how long can he resist the rumors swirling through town suggesting she might have had something to do with her daughter’s death? Or deny his strange kinship with one of Ana Maria’s surviving daughters, Marta, who knows too well the grief that follows the loss of a sibling—and who is driven by a fierce need for revenge? Swiftly, Damien finds himself caught in a power struggle between the brujas, a whirlwind battle that threatens to sweep the whole village out to sea.
Resonant with the Diné creation story and the unshakeable weight of the Long Walk—the forced removal of the Navajo from their land—Swim Home to the Vanished explores the human capacity for grief and redemption, and the lasting effects it has on the soul.
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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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.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, Downloadable Audiobooks, digital magazines and a handful of streaming videos. The catalog, which allows one to download content to a PC, also has a companion app, Libby, which you can download to your mobile device; so you can enjoy eBooks and Downloadable Audiobooks 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, Downloadable Audiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 devices, 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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Format Note: Under each book title you’ll find a list of all the different formats that specific title is available in; including: Print Books, Large Print Books, CD Audiobooks, eBooks & Downloadable Audiobooks from the Digital Catalog (Libby app) and Hoopla eBooks & Hoopla Downloadable Audiobooks (Hoopla app).
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Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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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.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
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 the next New York Times blog post will be posted Sunday, September 3, 2023.
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FICTION
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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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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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THE FIVE-STAR WEEKEND by Elin Hilderbrand
After a tragedy, a popular food blogger brings friends from distinct times in her life to spend a weekend in Nantucket.
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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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HAPPINESS by Danielle Steel
A best-selling author inherits an estate near London from her uncle and contemplates embracing a new identity.
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HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry
A former couple pretend to be together for the sake of their friends during their annual getaway in Maine.
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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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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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INVISIBLE HOUR by Alice Hoffman
Mia Jacob finds resonance between her mother’s time inside a cult in western Massachusetts and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”
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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
A battered wife raised in a violent home attempts to halt the cycle of abuse.
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IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover
In the sequel to “It Ends With Us,” Lily deals with her jealous ex-husband as she reconnects with her first boyfriend.
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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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LION & LAMB by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski
The Eagles’ starting quarterback is murdered and his wife, a Grammy-winning singer, is the prime suspect.
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MASTERS OF DEATH by Olivie Blake
A real estate agent who also is a vampire seeks the help of a medium to extricate the ghost who is haunting the house she needs to sell.
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NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell
After meeting a woman who shares the same birthday, Alix Summer becomes the subject of her own true crime podcast.
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RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston
A staged friendship between the son of the president and his rival, the Prince of Wales, evolves into a secret and potentially dangerous romance.
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TIDES OF FIRE by James Rollins
The 17th book in the Sigma Force series. After a geological disaster, Cmdr. Gray Pierce and his team go into action to prevent even greater threats.
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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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TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin
Two friends find their partnership challenged in the world of video game design.
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TOO LATE by Colleen Hoover
Dangers develop when a drug trafficker becomes obsessed with a woman who has a mutual attraction to a D.E.A. agent.
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VERITY by Colleen Hoover
Lowen Ashleigh is hired by the husband of an injured writer to complete her popular series and uncovers a horrifying truth.
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NON-FICTION
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ADVERSITY FOR SALE by Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins with Benjamin Meadows-Ingram
The Grammy-nominated recording artist shares how he overcame obstacles in his life and career.
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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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AMERICAN PROMETHEUS by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
A biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 and an inspiration for the film “Oppenheimer.”
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ART THIEF by Michael Finkel
The author of “The Stranger in the Woods” tells the story of Stéphane Breitwieser, who stole art more than 200 times for the sake of admiring it.
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BEYOND THE STORY by BTS and Myeongseok Kang
An oral history of the K-pop group that is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
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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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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah
A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”
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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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CRYING IN H MART by Michelle Zauner
The daughter of a Korean mother and Jewish American father, and leader of the indie rock project Japanese Breakfast, describes creating her own identity after losing her mother to cancer.
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EDUCATED by Tara Westover
The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.
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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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FOURTH TURNING IS HERE by Neil Howe
One of the authors of “The Fourth Turning” gives reflections on the cycles of history and makes predictions of potential outcomes generated by the present era of polarization.
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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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IN-BETWEEN by Hadley Vlahos
A hospice nurse shares some of her most impactful experiences and questions some of society’s beliefs around end-of-life care.
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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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OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford
A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
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PAGEBOY by Elliot Page
The Oscar-nominated star details discovering himself as a trans person and navigating abuse in Hollywood.
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POVERTY, BY AMERICA by Matthew Desmond
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Evicted” examines the ways in which affluent Americans keep poor people poor.
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QUANTUM SUPREMACY by Michio Kaku
The ways in which quantum computing might be a benefit to society.
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SPARE by Prince Harry
The Duke of Sussex details his struggles with the royal family, loss of his mother, service in the British Army and marriage to Meghan Markle.
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THINK AGAIN by Adam Grant
An examination of the cognitive skills of rethinking and unlearning that could be used to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
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TUCKER by Chadwick Moore
An overview of the personal and professional life of the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
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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 AN OWL KNOWS by Jennifer Ackerman
The author of “The Genius of Birds” explores new scientific discoveries about the brains and behavior of owls.
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WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
An approach to dealing with trauma that shifts an essential question used to investigate it.
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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 (10 items at a time)
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, unless it is a busy week in Library Land, and then, occasionally, they are posted later in the week.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.
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Beneath Dark Waters by Karen Rose
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Deadly secrets lie beneath the murky waters of the Louisiana bayou in this pulse-pounding new romantic suspense novel from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Karen Rose.
There’s no safe place for a child to hide when danger comes from every direction.
Public prosecutor J.P. “Kaj” Cardozo has only lived in New Orleans for six months, and he’s already working on a high-profile celebrity sexual assault case that’s made headlines all over the country. But when his son becomes the target of a kidnapping attempt as a threat to Kaj, he is desperate to keep him safe and turns to a private investigative firm famous for their protection services.
A veteran Marine, Val Sorensen is glad to have found a new career with Broussard Investigations. Her latest assignment as the bodyguard to ten-year-old Elijah Cardozo reminds her why—Val is a kick ass guardian with a tender heart. Through her duties, Val grows fond of the boy—and his handsome father.
But when the high-stakes investigation reveals an explosive network of crime through a revived drug gang, lingering deep-seated corruption in the NOPD, and a group of murderers-for-hire targeting Kaj, Elijah, and his star client, they’re all left scrambling for safety…
Reader’s Note: Beneath Dark Waters is the second book in Karen Rose’s New Orlean’s series. If you’d like to start reading from the beginning, check out book one: Quarter to Midnight (2022).
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California Golden by Melanie Benjamin
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky a Go Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donnelly breaks the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport—and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of Carol’s unconventional lifestyle.
The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother’s absence—physically, when she’s at the beach, and emotionally, the rare times she’s at home. To escape questions about Carol’s whereabouts—and to chase her elusive affection—they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy is a natural, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water.
As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger’s relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity, complete with beachside love affairs, parties at the Playboy Club, and a USO tour in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ginger, desperate for a community of her own, is tugged into the dangerous counterculture of drugs and cults. But through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.
A gripping, emotional story set at a time when mothers were expected to be Donna Reed, not Gidget, California Golden is an unforgettable novel about three women living in a society that was shifting as tempestuously as the breaking waves.
The charming international bestseller about an unlikely friendship between an elderly door-to-door bookseller and a nine-year-old girl that changes his life.
Small-town German bookseller Carl Kollhoff delivers his books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world.
When Kollhoff unexpectedly loses his job, it takes the power of books and a nine-year-old girl to make them all find the courage to rebuild their bonds with each other.
A bestselling phenomenon internationally, Carsten Henn’s The Door-to-Door Bookstore is a feel-good novel about books and friendship.
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If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook
(Available Formats: Print & eBook)
Shook’s delightful and perceptive debut follows a family through an eventful week that begins with a funeral and ends with a wedding. One sweltering Georgia summer, the Williams clan has gathered to mourn the death of patriarch Gerry, but they’re thrown for a loop when Gerry’s best friend announces during the eulogy that he and Gerry had been lovers for decades. While Gerry’s widow, Ellen, wants nothing more than to deal with this revelation and her loss in peace, her three children and four 20-something grandchildren make that impossible. They’re all dealing with their own crises: sensible granddaughter Alice is pregnant and not sure whether to tell the father; high-strung daughter-in-law Jennifer is wondering whether her husband is having an affair; and grandson Red, a youth pastor, is trying to come to terms with his sexuality. Like a stone skipped across water, Shook flits seamlessly from one character to the next, and remarkably, all emerge as three-dimensional characters. Even with its many strands of plot, the novel never feels rushed, and Shook sprinkles some wild surprises into the goings-on. Readers will find plenty to savor. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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King of the Armadillos by Wendy Chin-Tanner
(Available Formats: Print Book)
BEST BOOK OF SUMMER 2023: The Boston Globe, Deep South Magazine, Ms. Magazine, BookRiot
“[A] gripping and tenderly executed drama.” —The New York Times
A novel about family, love, and belonging, set against the backdrops of 1950s New York City and Louisiana, following one young man’s quest to survive an often misunderstood disease, and find love, music, and himself, in the process.
“[A] lush drama about belonging.” —Good Housekeeping
Victor Chin’s life is turned upside down at the tender age of 15. Diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, otherwise known as leprosy, he’s forced to leave the familiar confines of his father’s laundry business in the Bronx – the only home he’s known since emigrating from China with his older brother – to quarantine alongside patients from all over the country at a federal institution in Carville.
At first, Victor is scared not only of the disease, but of the confinement, and wants nothing more than to flee. Between treatments he dreams of escape and imagines his life as a fugitive. But soon he finds a new sense of freedom far from home – one without the pull of obligations to his family, the laundry business, or his mother back in China. Here, in the company of an unforgettable cast of characters, Victor finds refuge in music and experiences first love, jealousy, betrayal, and even tragedy. But with the promise of a life-changing cure on the horizon, Victor’s time at Carville is running out, and he has some difficult choices to make.
A page turning work of historical fiction, King of the Armadillos announces Wendy Chin-Tanner as an extraordinary new voice. Inspired by her father’s experience as a young patient at Carville, this tender novel is a captivating and lyrical exploration of the power of art.
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The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin
(Available Formats: Print Book & eAudiobook)
A heartwarming story about the power of books to bring us together, inspired by the true story of the underground library in WWII Warsaw, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London.
All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things during times of hardship: books and her best friend, Janina. But no one could have imagined the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. As the bombs rain down and Hitler’s forces loot and destroy the city, Zofia finds that now books are also in need of saving.
With the death count rising and persecution intensifying, Zofia jumps to action to save her friend and salvage whatever books she can from the wreckage, hiding them away, and even starting a clandestine book club. She and her dearest friend never surrender their love of reading, even when Janina is forced into the newly formed ghetto.
But the closer Warsaw creeps toward liberation, the more dangerous life becomes for the women and their families – and escape may not be possible for everyone. As the destruction rages around them, Zofia must fight to save her friend and preserve her culture and community using the only weapon they have left – literature.
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North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan
(Available Formats: Print Book)
New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan’s latest standalone is an unputdownable race to the dramatic finish.
After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them. They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the middle of the Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods,searching desperately for safety—unaware of the severity of the approaching storm.
Boyd’s sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the Army years ago, cutting off contact in order to help keep her niece and nephew safe and free from the horrors of the McIntyre clan. So when she gets an emergency call that the plane has gone down with the kids inside, she drops everything to try save them.
As the storm builds, Ruby isn’t the only person looking for them. Boyd has hired an expert tracker to find and bring them home. And rancher Nick Lorenzo, who knows these mountains better than anyone and doesn’t understand why the kids are running, is on their trail too.
But there is a greater threat to Kristen and Ryan out there. More volatile than the incoming blizzard, more dangerous than the family they ran from or the natural predators they could encounter. Who finds them first could determine if they live or die. . .
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The Peach Seed by Anita Gail Jones
(Available Formats: Print Book)
Fletcher Dukes and Altovise Benson reunite after decades apart—and a mountain of secrets—in this debut exploring the repercussions of a single choice and how an enduring talisman challenges and holds a family together.
On a routine trip to the Piggly Wiggly in Albany, Georgia, widower Fletcher Dukes smells a familiar perfume, then sees a tall woman the color of papershell pecans with a strawberry birthmark on the nape of her neck. He knows immediately that she is his lost love, Altovise Benson. Their bond, built on county fairs, sit-ins, and marches, once seemed a sure and forever thing. But their marriage plans were disrupted when the police turned a peaceful protest violent.
Before Altovise fled the South, Fletcher gave her a peach seed monkey with diamond eyes. As we learn via harrowing flashbacks, an enslaved ancestor on the coast of South Carolina carved the first peach seed, a talisman that, ever since, each father has gifted his son on his thirteenth birthday.
Giving one to Altovise initiated a break in tradition, irrevocably shaping the lives of generations of Dukeses. Recently, Fletcher has made do on his seven acres with his daughter Florida’s check-ins, his drop biscuits, and his faithful dog. But as he begins to reckon with long-ago choices, he finds he isn’t the only one burdened with unspoken truths.
An indelible portrait of a family, The Peach Seed explores how kin pass down legacies of sorrow, joy, and strength. And it is a parable of how a glimmer of hope as small as a seed can ripple across generations.
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Three Fires by Denise Mina
(Available Formats: Print Book & Hoopla Instant Checkout eBook)
Mina (Rizzio) fictionalizes the life of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), who was executed for heresy, in this vivid historical thriller. The novel opens in 1498 Florence, with Savonarola reading a coerced confession stating that he’s been lying about having the gift of prophecy. It then flashes back nearly 30 years, to when Savonarola’s hopes for marriage and a successful career as a physician are dashed, setting him on the path to religious fanaticism. Even readers who know what comes next— namely, the 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities, in which Savonarola and his followers burned books and clothes and other “extravagances” all across Florence—will be captivated by Mina’s lyricism (reading his confession to the assembled crowd, Savonarola sees “the dust motes swimming aimlessly in the warm air above their heads and imagines that each speck is an iota of faith leaving a person in the room”) and the insightful connections she draws between medieval ideological battles and 21st-century culture wars. This is a triumph. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
A riveting thriller that puts the New York Times bestselling author squarely in the same league as Patricia Cornwell and Jefferson Bass, the Locard Institute Thriller series draws on Lisa Black’s real-life scientific expertise and her skill in crafting complex and dynamic female characters, as two female forensic experts team up to solve the deadliest and most devious crimes.
The Locard Institute is a state-of-the-art forensic research center where experts from around the world come together to confront and solve the world’s most challenging and perplexing crimes. When Dr. Ellie Carr arrives for her first day as an instructor at the prestigious facility, the buildings glimmer amid the brilliant fall foliage on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. But within hours a colleague, Dr. Barbara Wright, is found dead on the floor of a supply closet. Her death appears to be an accident—but Ellie and her new supervisor, Dr. Rachael Davies, suspect a more sinister explanation.
A young woman attending a professional training program then disappears, only to be found in a gruesome tableau. Other than their link to the Institute, there seems to be no connection between the student and Dr. Wright. Although forensic traces are elusive, Ellie and Rachael are determined to find the bizarre link between the violent and diverse deaths.
As reporters shatter the privacy of Ellie’s new workplace, she searches old files and finds evidence of a crime that feels much too personal. But who, among those dedicated to justice, could be the threat? No matter how skilled she and Rachael may be in uncovering the truth, they may not be able to prevent a well-schooled killer from striking again.
Reader’s Note: What Harms You is the second book in the Locard Institute thriller series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Red Flags (2022).
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Have questions or want to request a book?
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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, digital magazines and a handful of streaming videos. The catalog, which allows one to download content to a PC, also has a companion app, Libby, which you can download to your mobile device; 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 series. Patron check out limit is 6 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 devices, 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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Format Note: Under each book title you’ll find a list of all the different formats that specific title is available in; including: Print Books, Large Print Books, CD Audiobooks, eBooks & Downloadable Audiobooks from the Digital Catalog (Libby app) and Hoopla eBooks & Hoopla Downloadable Audiobooks (Hoopla app).
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Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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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.
Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 