Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.

Each title is followed by a listing of which formats it is available in for check out within the three catalogs: StarCat (Print, Large Print & CD Audiobook), The Digital Catalog (eBook & Downloadable Audiobook) and the Hoopla Catalog (Hoopla instant checkout eBook & Hoopla Audiobook).

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 usually published each Sunday. And the next New York Times blog post will be published on Sunday, December 11, 2022.

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FICTION

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THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

Two childhood friends follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which puts them on opposite sides of the law.

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A CHRISTMAS MEMORY by Richard Paul Evans

(Available Formats: Print Book)

In 1967, the joy of the holiday season seems out of reach to a boy whose brother died in the Vietnam War and father lost his job.

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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.

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DESERT STAR by Michael Connelly

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

Ballard and Bosch bury old resentments as they go after two killers.

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DREAMLAND by Nicholas Sparks

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)

Musicians from different backgrounds are attracted to each other and a mother flees with her son from an abusive husband.

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FAIRY TALE by Stephen King

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

A high school kid inherits a shed that is a portal to another world where good and evil are at war.

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GOING ROGUE by Janet Evanovich

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

The 29th book in the Stephanie Plum series. The man who abducted the office manager at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds demands a mysterious coin in exchange for her.

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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)

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

(Available Formats: Print Book)

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

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.

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MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

After returning to her hometown, Olivia McAfee’s son gets accused of killing his crush.

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NO PLAN B by Lee Child and Andrew Child

(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)

The 27th book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher goes after a killer but is unaware of the bigger implications.

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NOVEMBER 9 by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobooks)

Is Ben using his relationship with Fallon as fodder for his novel?

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OUR MISSING HEARTS by Celeste Ng

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner goes on a quest to find his mother, a Chinese American poet whose work he was taught to disavow.

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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.

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TRIPLE CROSS by James Patterson

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

Detective Alex Cross and the true-crime author Thomas Tull search for a serial killer known as the Family Man.

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UGLY LOVE by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

Tate Collins and Miles Archer, an airline pilot, think they can handle a no strings attached arrangement. But they can’t.

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VERITY by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

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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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

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

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THE WHITTIERS by Danielle Steel

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

After tragedy strikes, six adult children return to the family home without their parents for the first time.

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NON-FICTION:

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AND THERE WAS LIGHT by Jon Meacham

(Available Formats: Print Book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer portrays the life of Abraham Lincoln.

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BIBI by Benjamin Netanyahu

(Available Formats: Print Book)

An autobiography by the former prime minister of Israel.

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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.

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A BOOK OF DAYS by Patti Smith

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

More than 365 images and reflections by the National Book Award–winning author and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

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CINEMA SPECULATION by Quentin Tarantino

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

The filmmaker shares his love of cinema with special attention given to key American films of the 1970s.

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COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE BOOK by Jerry Seinfeld

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Behind-the-scenes photos and stories of the streaming series about the art of comedy.

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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.

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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy

(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)

The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.

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THE LIGHT WE CARRY by Michelle Obama

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)

The former first lady shares personal stories and the tools she uses to deal with difficult situations.

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PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG by Bob Dylan

(Available Formats: Print Book)

In a collection of more than 60 essays, the musician and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature explores the nature of popular music.

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THE QUEEN by Andrew Morton

(Available Formats: Print Book)

A biography of Queen Elizabeth II, which explores her influence on Britain and the rest of the world.

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THE REVOLUTIONARY by Stacy Schiff

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer details Samuel Adams’s contributions to the American Revolution.

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SO HELP ME GOD by Mike Pence

(Available Formats: Coming soon in print book format)

The former vice president gives an account of his career, including his time in the Oval Office and during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

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SONG OF THE CELL by Siddhartha Mukherjee

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author chronicles the discovery of cells and describes how modern medicine uses them.

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SURRENDER by Bono

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The lead singer of the Irish rock band U2 offers details of his life, career and activism.

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WHAT IF? 2 by Randall Munroe

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The creator of the web comic “xkcd” and former NASA roboticist looks into hypothetical and oddball scenarios.

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSL

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*Information on the Three Catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

The Digital Catalog has two companion apps, Libby & OverDrive. Libby is the app for newer devices and the OverDrive app should be used for older devices and Amazon tablets.

All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant check outs of eBooks, downloadable audiobook, comic books, albums and streaming videos. Patron check out limit is 4 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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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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 Tel: 607-936-3713

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Tech Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Hi everyone, here are our streaming recommendations for December 2022.

The next streaming recommendation post will be out on Saturday, January 7, 2023.

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Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (Netflix) (Dec. 7)

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Slow Horses, Season 2 (Apple TV Plus) (Dec. 2)

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Sr. (Netflix) (Dec. 2)

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His Dark Materials, Season 3 (HBO Max) (Dec. 5)

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Emancipation (Apple TV Plus) (Dec. 9)

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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix) (Dec. 9)

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Kindred (Hulu) (Dec. 14)

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1923 (Paramount+) (Dec. 18)

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Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Season 3 (Prime Video) (Dec. 21)

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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) (Dec. 23)

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Hoopla Streaming Pick of the Month

To checkout Moonstruck, you can search for the Hoopla app for your smart TV, download the Hoopla app to

your mobile device, or click the following link to visit the Hoopla website and watch the movie on your

computer: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11805960

And here’s the Moonstruck trailer:

Have a great weekend,

Linda

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References

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, December 9, 2022.

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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Christmas Tears by Freddie King (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: 17 Greatest Hits (2001)

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Cool Yule by Louis Armstrong (Genre: Jazz)

From The Album: Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule (2022)

And as a bonus, another song from the same album:

Christmastime in New Orleans (Genre: Jazz)

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It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry by Bob Dylan (Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Folk-Rock)

From The Album: Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

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Oh, Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison (Genre: Rock, Vocal)

From The Album: The Essential Roy Orbison (2006)

And as a bonus, a second song from the great Roy Orbison

She’s A Mystery To Me (Genre: Rock, Vocal)

From The Album: Mystery Girl (1989)

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Seventy-Six Trombones by the Music Man 2022 Broadway Cast featuring Hugh Jackman & Sutton Foster (Genre: Musical, Show Tunes)

From The Album: The Music Man (The 2022 Broadway Cast Recording)

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Tingings: This Side By Fireside Theatre (Genre: Comedy)

From The Album: Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers (1970)

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Tweeter and the Monkey Man by The Traveling Wilburys (Genre: Rock)

From The Album: The Traveling Wilburys (1988)

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Uptown Girl by Billy Joel (Genre: Rock)

From The Album: An Innocent Man (1983)

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You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac (Genre: Pop/Rock)

From The Album: Rumors (1977)

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You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone (Live At Carnegie Hall) by The Beach Boys (Genre: Classic Rock)

From The Album: Sail On Sailor Deluxe Edition (2022)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

Rumours (1977) by Fleetwood Mac (Genre: Rock)

And from the album the hopeful classic:

Don’t Stop

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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 Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

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

–

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.

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 now published on Wednesdays. Unless Linda is swamped, and them, occasionally, they are published on Thursdays as it the case today!

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, December 7, 2022

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Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

(Available Formats: eBook & Hoopla instant check out audiobook)

Kawaguchi returns with the heart-warming third installment of his internationally best-selling series (following Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe). Instead of taking place at the small Tokyo caf Funiculi Funicula, this story occurs at caf Donna Donna in Hakodate, a city on the island of Hokkaido. As at Funiculi Funicula, Donna Donna customers are given the opportunity to travel back in time, but they must follow a list of rules, the most important one being they must return to the present before their cup of coffee gets cold. Like the two previous books, this title follows four new customers wanting to travel back in time: a daughter, a comedian, a sister, and a young man in love. The first and last stories, “The Daughter” and “The Young Man,” are the standouts in this book.

VERDICT Fans of Kawaguchi’s series will enjoy this latest installment. While the stories are similar to previous ones, readers will enjoy reading about a new group of customers and seeing some familiar faces. Kawaguchi’s comforting and thought-provoking book is perfect reading for cold winter nights.-Library Journal Review

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The Call of the Wrens Jenni L. Walsh

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant check out eBook & audiobook)

Walsh (Becoming Bonnie) offers an enticing story of two Englishwomen serving their country during both world wars. In 1917, Marion Hoxton ages out of the orphanage she was raised in and joins the Women’s Royal Naval Service (the “Wrens”), while her best friend Eddie Smith joins the Royal Navy. As they each make their way toward the front lines in France, their friendship develops into romance. Meanwhile, Marion works as a dispatch rider and helps her new friend Sara train carrier pigeons to send and retrieve messages. In a parallel narrative set in 1940, well-to-do Evelyn Fairchild joins the Wrens, desperate to prove she’s overcome a childhood disability impacting one of her legs by serving as a motorcycle driver. Evelyn and Marion’s paths cross when Marion returns to be a leader in the new Wrens, her romance with Eddie having turned out not as they’d hoped. Marion also harbors a secret about Evelyn’s true parentage, as Evelyn’s parents failed to disclose she was adopted. Walsh expertly contrasts the lives of orphaned Marion with privileged Evelyn to expose their common desire to show their value outside societal labels. Historical fiction fans will be riveted. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Death on a Winter Stroll by Francine Mathews

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

In December, Nantucket would be desolate and bleak, except for the Christmas Stroll event—the first since Covid began—which lends the town a festive air in Mathews’s knotty seventh Merry Folger mystery (after 2020’s Death on Tuckernuck). Two disparate groups arrive on the island: the Secretary of State and her family, and a cast and crew filming a murder mystery TV show. Merry, recently promoted to police chief, is tasked with assisting the security detail for Madam Secretary and keeping the Stroll running smoothly. When two dead bodies are found, Merry and Howie Seitz, recently promoted to Merry’s old detective job, must uncover the web of connections among the murder victims, the many visitors, and island denizens, including a National Geographic photographer-naturalist. The solve depends on a fairly simple, conventional clue, but many of the character motivations are both complex and coherent. The Secretary’s seemingly feckless stepson befriends the TV star’s daughter, and their tender, genuine relationship steals the emotional show. Fresh, well-wrought prose brings the setting of Nantucket to life. Mathews consistently entertains. – Publishers Weekly Review

Reader’s Note: As mentioned in the review, Death on a Winter Stroll is the seventh book in the Merry Folger series, if you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning checkout book one: Death in the Off Season.

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The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks by Gwendolyn Brooks

(Available Formats: eBook)

Discover the most enduring works of the legendary poet and first black author to win a Pulitzer Prize—now in one collectible volume

“If you wanted a poem,” wrote Gwendolyn Brooks, “you only had to look out of a window. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing.” From the life of Chicago’s South Side she made a forceful and passionate poetry that fused Modernist aesthetics with African-American cultural tradition, a poetry that registered the life of the streets and the upheavals of the 20th century. Starting with A Street in Bronzeville (1945), her epoch-making debut volume, The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks traces the full arc of her career in all its ambitious scope and unexpected stylistic shifts.

“Her formal range,” writes editor Elizabeth Alexander, “is most impressive, as she experiments with sonnets, ballads, spirituals, blues, full and off-rhymes. She is nothing short of a technical virtuoso.” That technical virtuosity was matched by a restless curiosity about the life around her in all its explosive variety. By turns compassionate, angry, satiric, and psychologically penetrating, Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry retains its power to move and surprise.

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The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochal:

(Available Formats: eBook)

In this captivating collection, Afghan writer Kochai (99 Nights in Logar) paints intimate portraits of Afghans and Afghan Americans. In turns amusing and devastating, the stories are rich with vivid scenes and distinct narrative voices, and are mostly set in California or Logar. “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,” told in an engaging second-person narration, follows a teenage boy in California who plays video game set during the Soviet-Afghan War in order to connect with his father, a former mujahid. In “Enough,” an aging woman reflects on her past as she loses her grip on reality. “Occupational Hazards” tells an Afghan man’s life story in the form of a CV, with overlapping pastoral experiences chronicled under “Shepherd” and “Grade School Student” in Logar in the 1960s and ’70s giving way to a harrowing stint under “Mujahid” from 1980 – 1981 (“Duties included: transporting a rewired Soviet bomb that had landed in the center of Hajji Alo’s compound without exploding; avoiding Communist kill squads and Soviet airpower”), and culminating with a beautiful reveal. Many of these stories end in violence or tragedy, but on the whole, the collection is far from repetitive; the range of framing and styles keeps the reader on their toes and delivers emotional impact in one hard-hitting entry after another. Readers won’t want to miss this. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)

McCracken (The Souvenir Museum) blurs fiction and memoir with a mischievous and loving portrait of her late mother. The unnamed narrator dislikes memoirs, and her mother, Natalie, whom she revered, “distrusted” them. So the narrator turns to fiction, claiming that all it takes to leap from the dreaded realm of grief memoirs is to make a few things up, such as the desk clerk at the London hotel she checks in to in 2019, a year after Natalie’s death, to sort through her thoughts and feelings. Despite her avowed opposition to memoir, she unleashes a flood of details about Natalie while wandering around London, describing how the short Jewish woman’s cerebral palsy made walking a struggle, and how she had to cultivate a stubborn nature to ignore the “muttering” of those who doubted her potential. (She ended up a beloved magazine editor in Boston.) The narrator lists a few made-up details that diverge from McCracken’s own life: “the fictional me is unmarried, an only child, childless,” and she notes how novelists are free to kill off characters as needed. What emerges alongside this love letter to the restive Natalie is an engaging character study of a narrator who views everything through the lens of fiction (“Your family is the first novel that you know”). It’s a refreshing outing, and one that sees McCracken gleefully shatter genre lines. – Publisher Weekly Review

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Jackal: A Novel by Erin. E. Adams

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Liz Rocher, the Black narrator of Adams’s stellar debut, an unforgettable gut punch of a horror thriller, returns reluctantly home to Johnstown, Pa., a largely white rust belt town, for the wedding of her white best friend, Mel Parker. When Mel’s mixed-race daughter, Caroline, disappears in the woods, Liz’s attempts to find Caroline lead her to the discovery of years of police cover-ups of the deaths of Black girls in the woods, their hearts neatly removed, and the revival of her own memories of hiding in the woods the night a fellow Black teen was murdered. Adams’s careful plotting impresses with the subtle organic feel of embedded clues primed to emerge as relevant much later. The girls’ thoughts are included at various points, and the reader is thrown off balance when the narrative shift to the point of view of the supernatural killer at the moment of violence. At the same time, Adams skillfully presents changing theories about the possible humans involved as Liz struggles with who to trust and navigates dreamscapes that seem increasingly real. This novel is a masterful and emotionally wrenching gem of Black storytelling. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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Red-Rose Chain by Seanan McGuire

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

It should have been a happy time for half-fae knight October (Toby) Daye: she’s planning her wedding to King of Cats Tybalt and is in the good graces of Arden, the new Queen of the Mists. But when the former holder of that title decides she wants her kingdom back and convinces a neighboring kingdom to declare war on the Mists, Arden sends Toby to negotiate peace. It’s a compelling choice, as Toby is much more likely to stir up trouble wherever she goes. In the Kingdom of Silences, she finds a realm ruled by a tyrannical king who loathes changelings such as Toby.

VERDICT Sustaining a series over nine volumes is not an easy feat, and McGuire keeps things fresh by allowing Toby to grow while keeping her core values of protecting the weak and the innocent. This new entry (after The Winter Long) takes Toby away from her usual stomping ground and limits her allies, giving the dangerous situation extra tension. – Library Journal Review

Reader’s Note: This is the ninth book in the October Daye series, if you’d like to start reading from the beginning check out book one: Rosemary And Rue.

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The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Hoopla instant check out eBook & audiobook)

Cox follows The Edge of Belonging (2020) with a novel that portrays three generations of women and dramatizes the ways the impact of family misunderstandings are passed down over and over again. After tragically losing her husband, Sarah Ashby returns to Brighton, Tennessee, and Old Depot Grocery, which her family has maintained for decades. Her mother, Rosemary, is desperate to sell the store, but keeps her true motive hidden while Sarah’s grandmother, Glory Ann, finds solace there, squeaky floorboards and all, since the store gave her a second chance at life long ago. While Sarah plays peacemaker and seeks healing within the familiar aisles, she uncovers a long-buried secret. Masterfully told from each woman’s perspective and across two time lines, Cox’s tale articulates the emotional trauma each woman experiences while also weaving in forgiveness and hope. Readers will fall in love with Old Depot Grocery and its women as Cox explores themes of loneliness and isolation and highlights mother-daughter relationships and the strength of the female spirit. Cox is a writer to turn to for emotionally rich and redemptive fiction. – Starred Booklist Review

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What We Found in Hallelujah by Vanessa Miller

(Available Formats: Hoopla instant checkout eBook & audiobook)

Two sisters reunite with their mother in Hallelujah, S.C., in the satisfying latest from Miller (Something Good). The death of family patriarch Henry Reynolds followed by the disappearance of his youngest daughter, 14-year-old Trinity, fractured the relationships among the remaining family members: Henry’s wife, Ruby, and daughters Faith and Hope. Eighteen years later, Hope lives in California and Faith lives in Atlanta, dealing with her strained marriage and obstinate teenage daughter, Crystal. Ruby convinces Hope and Faith to come home, citing an unwise business deal she’s made that’s put their beachfront home at risk of repossession, but their visit is tense and painful. As Hope confronts Ruby about a devastating family secret that’s kept them estranged, Faith starts to suspect that Crystal has been suffering from the same mental illness that ailed Trinity. With a hurricane approaching Hallelujah, Ruby must confront how her stubbornness and distance from God have kept her from having fulfilling relationships with her daughters. A dramatic plot and uplifting resolution make up for the occasionally stilted dialogue. The result is a potent testament to the power of faith and family in the face of tragedy. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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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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.

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,

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And here are the 10 recommended songs of the week!

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The Goofing Off Suite by Pete Seeger and Big Bill Broonzy (Genre: Folk/Blues)

From: The 1956 Radio Broadcast

Studio Version Found On The Album: Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (2019)

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Have You Ever Loved A Woman by Freddie King (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: Ultimate Collection (2001)

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I’m Only Sleeping by The Beatles (Genre: Rock, Classic Rock)

From The Album: Revolver (Special Edition) (2022)

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Love Is Just A Four Letter Word by Joan Baez with Earl Scruggs (Genre: Folk)

Studio Version From The Album: Any Day Now (1968)

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One Too Many Mornings by Bob Dylan (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: The Times Are A-Changin’ (1964)

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A Rovin’ On A Winter’s Night by the Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band, with The University Of Mary Washington Philharmonic Orchestra (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: A Fiddler’s Holiday (2012)

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Sweet Lafayette by Lucinda Williams (Genre: Folk, Americana)

From The Album: Happy Woman Blues (1980)

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Ten Thousand Voices by Rhiannon Giddens (Genre: Folk, Blues, Americana, Vocal)

From The Album: There Is No Other (2019)

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This Old Planet by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Genre: Rock, Classic Rock)

From The Album: World Record (2022)

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When I Get To Thinking by Muddy Waters (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: Sings Bill Broonzy (1960)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

The Music Man (Original Broadway Cast) (1957)

And from the album, the song:

76 Trombones by Robert Preston with the Original Broadway Cast

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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 Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

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

–

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.

Hi everyone, here is the latest edition of Library Connections, our weekly readers’ and listeners’ advisory videocast.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the next Library Connections video will be posted in two weeks, on Wednesday, December 7, 2022.

Library Connections videos may also be accessed via the Southeast Steuben County Library’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SESTEUBENCOLIBRARY

Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL

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 now published on Wednesdays.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.

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52 Ways to Walk The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The newest work by fiction and nonfiction author Streets (who also writes under the name Annabel Abbs) continues her research on walking that began in Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women. Her new book takes readers through a year’s worth of intentional walks, one week at a time. Streets here encourages readers to plan walks in advance and focus on either external factors (e.g., landscape) or internal factors (e.g., spiritual direction), in order to recontextualize walking: the walk itself should be the goal, instead of a means of going from point A to point B. Walks themed around sounds or smells challenge readers to think about sensory perception or reengage with surroundings. Walkers are encouraged to think about both comfort and safety prior to stepping out; Streets acknowledges privilege, stating that walking is not necessarily a safe activity for all. Each short chapter encompasses a bit of science as a framework and ends with a list of tips to help readers maximize their experiences.

VERDICT Recommended for walkers looking to add more variety to their routines, as well as readers looking for motivation to get outside and move. – Library Journal Review

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And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling Meacham’s expert biography enlarges the view of Lincoln’s life by vividly rendering mood and setting. Readers will feel menace hovering over Lincoln as he travels to Washington, D.C., for his first inauguration and imagine that they are in the crowd, mud, and sudden burst of sunlight at his second. Meacham’s portraits of Lincoln’s family and contemporaries include a more balanced view of Mary Lincoln than is usually offered and startling and unsettling examples of Andrew Johnson’s racism and drunkenness. Meacham’s clear, compelling, and detailed accounts of Lincoln’s childhood and the campaign for the 1864 election illuminate key aspects of his life that are not always covered. Meacham also greatly emphasizes Lincoln’s religious beliefs at every stage and shares some Lincoln witticisms not found elsewhere. The book is well-researched and up-to-date, and its informatively captioned maps, paintings, and photographs enhance the narrative. In the epilogue, Meacham traces Lincoln’s legacy to the present and concludes this fresh and revealing addition to the vast Lincoln canon with some of the best last words in any book. – Booklist

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The Best Short Stories 2022: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Valeria Luiselli

(Available Formats: eBook)

This impressive anthology, the first in the series to include work in translation, is a showcase for Luiselli’s keen eye for literary quality. Many speak to the pandemic’s new normal. In the opener, “Screen Time” by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, the parents of a two-year-old boy resolve to keep his early childhood free of screens. Later, when the family’s in lockdown, the couple reconsiders and discusses sharing their world of television and movies with their son. Daniel Mason’s “The Wolves of Circassia” follows an older couple and their care worker, Seini, who moves in with them during the lockdown, along with the couple’s son and grandson. As Seini grows isolated from her own family and fatigued from her increased responsibilities, the household’s uneasy balance is threatened. Politics feature in the uncanny “Where They Always Meet” by Christos Ikonomou, translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich, in which a journalist meets a woman who claims to be the granddaughter of Stalin, her existence covered up by the state; and in the wildly inventive and fantastical “Dengue Boy” by Michel Nieva, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer, featuring a class-conscious pubescent boy who’s bullied for being half mosquito. These stories surprise and illuminate. – Publishers Weekly Review

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A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

Young’s (Much Ado About You) latest is an emotional contemporary romance. The digital files that event planner Hallie Goodman receives from her new bride-to-be’s inspiration portfolio include not only mood boards but also some very personal messages from the bride’s ex, Captain Christopher Ortiz, a Mexican American astronaut, recorded during his months aboard the International Space Station. Hallie wasn’t planning on watching the videos and reading NASA’s golden boy’s transmissions, but when her return email bounces back, she begins to pen her own diary-like letters, thinking she is sending them into the void. When NASA IT actually forwards Hallie’s messages to Chris, he begins to fall for the pink-haired woman via her confessions of family strife, work woes, and hope for the future. Both Hallie and Chris fall in love with the idealized person captured in their transmissions, but when they meet they must mesh their out-of-space expectations with their messy realities back on Earth.

VERDICT Recommended for readers who appreciate exploring complicated family dynamics and a search for identity along with a romance arc. Library Journal Review

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Dinosaurs: A Novel by Lydia Millet

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook, Downloadable Audiobook & hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

Gil decides to walk from Manhattan to Arizona. “He had nowhere to be and no one who needed him.” Millet follows her climate-crisis drama, A Children’s Bible (2020), with an intriguing portrait of a lonesome man trying to do good in a grim world. The sorrowful heir of immense wealth, bruised and confused by the abrupt end to a love affair, Gil heads to the desert hoping for a new orientation to life. He buys a castle-like house bordering public lands with one neighboring home in view made of glass, its alluring occupants unwitting actors on an exposed domestic stage. Psychotherapist Ardis is beautiful and kind. Ted travels a lot for his global infrastructure projects. Teen Clem is “glued to her phone,” and young Tom longs for companionship. Gil volunteers at a woman’s shelter, keeps Tom company, and becomes fascinated with birds, feathered “descendants of dinosaurs.” Intricate conflicts and conundrums develop at a meditative pace as patient, generous Gil tries to suss out the feelings of others while contending with his own painful memories. Anguish and tenderness mesh with piquant humor as Millet, empathic and imaginative, reveals her humble hero’s Batman-like backstory. Birds, bats, humans, and many other creatures may be facing extinction, but the desert is an ongoing marvel and love still thrives. – Booklist Review

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The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare by Kimberly Brock

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

When 36-year-old Alice’s father dies, she discovers he has left her the family estate, Evertell, which the two had abandoned more than 20 years earlier when Alice’s mother died. Thinking to sell the property, which lies eight miles from Savannah, Alice travels there with her 13-year-old daughter, Penn, and finds the estate maintained by its caretaker, Sonder, whom Alice has known since they were teenagers. To her delight, Alice discovers in Evertell’s family chapel the lost book of Eleanor Dare, one of two survivors of the lost colony of Roanoke. The nearly 400-year-old commonplace book has passed through generations of Eleanor’s female descendants (Evertell heirs, it is said, could always find their way home). But is Evertell to be home to heirs Alice and Penn, and what of the emerging relationship between Alice and Sonder? Though sometimes slow paced and, arguably, too long, this romantic novel is redeemed by its characters and their search for their identity and heritage. Expect the book to attract an eager audience of readers who enjoy women’s fiction. – Booklist Review

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The Mountain In The Sea: A Novel written by Ray Nayler, read by Eunice Wong

(Available Formats: Downloadable Audiobook & Print Book)

Eunice Wong narrates a fascinating thriller in which humanity confronts a potential intellectual equal. Dr. Ha Nguyen jumps at the opportunity to study a new species of octopus said to have achieved hyperintelligence. She is ushered to a remote archipelago populated only by the octopuses, a security agent, and a degrading android. Wong complements the narrative wonderfully with consistent and distinct characters and a steadfast delivery of the narrative. The story is tightly focused, and the narration keeps it feeling both entertaining and contemplative. The theme of the nature of consciousness is equal parts intriguing, thrilling, and eerie. Best of all, it’s always compellingly narrated, making for a performance that’s difficult to pause. – AudioFile Review

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Our America: A Photographic History by Ken Burns

(Available Formats: Print Book)

From one of our most treasured filmmakers, a pictorial history of America—a stunning and moving collection of some of Ken Burns’s favorite photographs, with an introduction by Burns, and an essay by longtime MoMA photography curator Sarah Hermanson Meister

Burns has been making documentaries about American history for more than four decades, using images to vividly re-create our struggles and successes as a nation and a people. As much as anyone alive today, he understands the soul of our country.

In Our America, Burns has assembled the images that, for him, best embody nearly two hundred years of the American experiment, taken by some of our most reknowned photographers and by others who worked in obscurity. We see America’s vast natural beauty as well as its dynamic cities and communities. There are striking images of war and civil conflict, and of communities drawing together across lines of race and class. Our greatest leaders appear alongside regular folks living their everyday lives. The photos talk to one another across boundaries and decades and, taken together, they capture the impossibly rich and diverse perspectives and places that comprise the American experience.

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Two Old Broads: Stuff You Need to Know That You Didn’t Know You Needed to Know by Dr. M. E. Hecht & Whoopi Goldberg

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Retired orthopedic surgeon and aging expert Hecht and actress/The View host Goldberg (author of Is It Just Me?) submit a series of reminders for self-care and preventative-care as well as spirited living. These self-defining two “old broads” who became friends later in life offer alternating perspectives on creating a world full of zest and sparkle in the senior years. Hecht and Goldberg combine their wits and bold life experiences to invite women to live with as much inventiveness as possible. Practical tips such as how to work with doctors and discuss difficult issues with family members are juxtaposed against lifestyle approaches such as accentuating the positive, indulging in artistic dates, and hiring some help. The coauthors also urge readers to actively defy age exclusion and pursue social connections and continuous learning. A good life may be as simple as laughing more and checking for hearing loss.

VERDICT While this advice is not new, it is a fun, often sassy reminder that no one is just a number. For all public libraries. – Library Journal Review

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A World Of Curiosities by Louise Penny

(Available Formats: eBook, Downloadable Audiobook, Print Book & CD audiobook)

Note: This title will be published on Tuesday, November 29 – but you can place a hold for the digital copy, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook, now!

Bestseller Penny’s virtuoso 18th novel featuring Chief Insp. Armand Gamache of the Québec Sûreté (after 2021’s The Madness of Crowds) blends nuanced characterization with nail-biting suspense. Siblings Fiona and Sam Arsenault return to Three Pines more than a decade after Gamache investigated the bludgeoning murder of their mother, Clotilde. His inquiry revealed that Clotilde had prostituted her children, then 13 and 10, at the time of the killing. During the case, he met his future number two and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who came to a different conclusion than his own. Gamache stayed involved in Fiona’s life, even aiding her graduate studies in engineering. The Arsenaults’ arrival coincides with several murders, which seem connected to an unusual painting found concealed in a hidden room in Three Pines. It first appears to be a duplicate of The Paston Treasure, a cryptic 17th-century assemblage of items known as A World of Curiosities, but anachronistic elements, such as a digital watch, have been added. Penny adds crucial details about Gamache’s backstory and satisfactorily resolves a plotline tease from earlier in the series. This tale of forgiveness and redemption will resonate with many. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

Reader’s Note: If you’re new to this series, and would like to start reading it from the beginning check out book one – Still Life.

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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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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.

Hi everyone, here is the weekly list of New York Times Bestsellers.

Each title is followed by a listing of which formats it is available in for check out within the three catalogs: StarCat (Print, Large Print & CD Audiobook), The Digital Catalog (eBook & Downloadable Audiobook) and the Hoopla Catalog (Hoopla instant checkout eBook & Hoopla Audiobook).

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 usually published each Sunday.

However, as the Southeast Steuben County Library is closed for Thanksgiving, and annual cleaning from Thursday, November 24 – Sunday, November 27, the next New York Times blog post will be published on Sunday, December 4, 2022.

And on a related note, the New York Times Bestseller lists are actually available for free to anyone who would like to read them; and accessible via the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/

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FICTION

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THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

Two childhood friends follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which puts them on opposite sides of the law.

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THE CLOISTERS by Katy Hays

(Available Formats: Print Book)

A woman assigned to the Met Cloisters discovers a 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might help predict the future.

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DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

A reimagining of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia.

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DESERT STAR by Michael Connelly

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook & eBook)

Ballard and Bosch bury old resentments as they go after two killers.

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DREAMLAND by Nicholas Sparks

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)

Musicians from different backgrounds are attracted to each other and a mother flees with her son from an abusive husband.

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FAIRY TALE by Stephen King

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

A high school kid inherits a shed that is a portal to another world where good and evil are at war.

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GOING ROGUE by Janet Evanovich

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

The 29th book in the Stephanie Plum series. The man who abducted the office manager at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds demands a mysterious coin in exchange for her.

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IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)

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

(Available Formats: Print Book)

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

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show.

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LONG SHADOWS by David Baldacci

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & eBook)

The seventh book in the Memory Man series. Decker works with a new partner to investigate a double homicide.

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MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

After returning to her hometown, Olivia McAfee’s son gets accused of killing his crush.

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NO PLAN B by Lee Child and Andrew Child

(Available Formats: Print Book & Large Print)

The 27th book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher goes after a killer but is unaware of the bigger implications.

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NOVEMBER 9 by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Downloadable Audiobooks)

Is Ben using his relationship with Fallon as fodder for his novel?

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OUR MISSING HEARTS by Celeste Ng

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD Audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner goes on a quest to find his mother, a Chinese American poet whose work he was taught to disavow.

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THE PASSENGER by Cormac McCarthy

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The first of a two-volume story. Bobby Western discovers things have gone missing from a jet in an underwater crash site, including the 10th passenger.

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THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

A movie icon recounts stories of her loves and career to a struggling magazine writer.

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TRIPLE CROSS by James Patterson

(Available Formats: Print Book & CD audiobook)

Detective Alex Cross and the true-crime author Thomas Tull search for a serial killer known as the Family Man.

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UGLY LOVE by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & Hoopla instant checkout audiobook)

Tate Collins and Miles Archer, an airline pilot, think they can handle a no strings attached arrangement. But they can’t.

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VERITY by Colleen Hoover

(Available Formats: Print Book & eBook)

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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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, CD audiobook, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

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

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NON-FICTION:

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AND THERE WAS LIGHT by Jon Meacham

(Available Formats: Print Book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer portrays the life of Abraham Lincoln.

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BEYOND THE WAND by Tom Felton

(Available Formats: Not yet in any catalog)

The actor known for playing the villain Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” movies recounts his life on and off the set of the film series.

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THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.

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BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook, Downloadable Audiobook, Hoopla instant checkout eBook & audiobook)

A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.

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CINEMA SPECULATION by Quentin Tarantino

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

The filmmaker shares his love of cinema with special attention given to key American films of the 1970s.

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DINNERS WITH RUTH by Nina Totenberg

(Available Formats: Print Book, CD audiobook, eBook & Downloadable Audiobook)

The NPR legal affairs correspondent details her professional accomplishments and friendship with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF AN ORDINARY MAN by Paul Newman

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

The late movie star’s memoir reveals intimate details about his personal relationships and professional rivalries; compiled and edited by David Rosenthal.

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FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING by Matthew Perry

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety.

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I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy

(Available Formats: Print Book & downloadable audiobook)

The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother.

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KILLING THE LEGENDS by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The conservative commentator’s Killing series profiles Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Muhammad Ali.

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MYTH OF NORMAL by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

(Available Formats: Print Book, eBook & downloadable audiobook)

The potential ways in which trauma and stress from modern-day living can affect our physical health.

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NOVELIST AS A VOCATION by Haruki Murakami

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

The author of “1Q84” and “Norwegian Wood” shares his journey as a novelist and looks at the role of the novel in society.

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PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG by Bob Dylan

(Available Formats: Print Book)

In a collection of more than 60 essays, the musician and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature explores the nature of popular music.

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RADIO’S GREATEST OF ALL TIME by Rush Limbaugh with Kathryn Adams Limbaugh and David Limbaugh

(Available Formats: Not yet available in any catalog)

A collection of the late conservative commentator’s on-air moments, with memories from his widow and brother.

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THE REVOLUTIONARY by Stacy Schiff

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer details Samuel Adams’s contributions to the American Revolution.

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SONG OF THE CELL by Siddhartha Mukherjee

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author chronicles the discovery of cells and describes how modern medicine uses them.

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SURRENDER by Bono

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The lead singer of the Irish rock band U2 offers details of his life, career and activism.

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSL

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*Information on the Three Catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

The Digital Catalog has two companion apps, Libby & OverDrive. Libby is the app for newer devices and the OverDrive app should be used for older devices and Amazon tablets.

All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

The Hoopla Catalog features instant check outs of eBooks, downloadable audiobook, comic books, albums and streaming videos. Patron check out limit is 4 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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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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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 Tel: 607-936-3713

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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 November 25, 2022.

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And here are the “baker’s 10” recommended songs of the week!

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Ain’t Nothing But a House Party by Showstoppers (Genre: Soul)

From The Album: Ain’t Nothing But a House Party: 60s and Early 70s Club Soul Classics(2022)

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Banquet Hall by Loreena McKennitt (Genre: Instrumental, Folk)

From The Album: Under A Winter’s Moon (2022)

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Goodbye, Honey Goodbye by Martha Davis with her spouse Calvin Ponder (Genre: Vocal, Jazz, Piano)

From The Album: N/A – the song was recorded at The Rhythm & Blues Revue live show in 1955.

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Joy Train by Amy Ray (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: If It All Goes South (2022)

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Moorland Elegies, No. 4, Fall, Leaves, Fall by Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (Genre: Classical, Orchestral)

From The Album: Kõrvits: Moorland Elegies (2017)

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Mother Earth by Open Road (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: Deep in the Woods: Pastoral Psychedelia & Funky Folk 1968-1975 (2022) by Various Artists

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New Stew, Opus 2 by Triple Play (Genre: Rock/Blues/Jazz)

From The Album: Triple Play Live (2006)

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Red House by The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Genre: Rock, Guitar)

From The Album: Live at the L.A. Forum, April 26, 1969 (2022)

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The I Really Miss Ya Blues by Freedy Johnston (Genre: Folk)

From The Album: Back On The Road To You (2022)

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Two Doors Down by Dolly Parton (Genre: Country)

From The Album: Diamonds & Rhinestones: The Greatest Hits Collection (2022)

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Small Town Nashville Blues by Cristina Vane (Genre: Blues)

From The Album: Make Myself Me Again (2022)

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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week

And from the album:

Swingmatism (1941) by Jay McShann & His Orchestra with Charlie Parker

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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.

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The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby

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 now published on Wednesdays.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.

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Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Grifiths

(Available Formats: Print Book)

A reunion of the class of 1998 at London’s posh Manor Park school, “where trendy lefties send their kids,” provides the backdrop for this stunning standalone from Edgar winner Griffiths (The Postscript Murder). One attendee, Det. Sgt. Cassie Fitzherbert, believes she pushed a classmate to his death on the rails of an abandoned underground tube station 21 years earlier, but could her memory be faulty? At Manor Park, Cassie was close friends with members of the Group, who used to meet in the attic of the home of Garfield Rice, now a Conservative MP. Every Group member has since had a successful career, except for EFL teacher Anna Vance, who’s “definitely hiding something.” Past crushes, jealousies, and buried passions surface, culminating in Rice’s “unexplained” death in the loo, traces of cocaine on his lips. The stabbing murder of another MP at a dining club in Bleeding Heart Yard, a courtyard in Holborn, raises the stakes. Jaw-dropping red herrings, headbanging twists and turns, and Rashomon-like alternating narratives add to the briskly paced plot, which builds to a reconstruction of the original crime and a bombshell revelation. Donna Tartt fans won’t be able to put this one down.

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Distant Thunder by Stuart Woods

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)

Published not quite three months after his death, this is Woods’ sixty-third Stone Barrington novel (but possibly not the last, as at least one more appears to be in the pipeline). Cop turned private investigator/attorney Barrington has a problem: a dead man has washed up onto his property after a big storm. Who is the man? Well, that’s the question that will cause Barrington much consternation and see him going up against U.S. government agents and foreign elements. When a series runs as long as this one has (it launched in 1991, with sometimes as many as four books published in a single year), there usually comes a point when it begins to feel tired. Not so with the indefatigable Stone Barrington. The series always followed something of a formula, with the superwealthy Barrington cavorting and romancing his way around the globe, but somehow Woods managed to keep the characters fresh, the escapist plots interesting enough, and the villains intriguing. This one checks all the boxes. Booklist Review

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Essential: How The Pandemic Transformed The Long Fight For Worker Justice by Jamie J, McCallum

(Available Formats: Print Book)

The Covid-19 pandemic inaugurated a rare national conversation on justice for the working class, according to this enlightening analysis. Sociologist McCallum (Worked Over) highlights the tragic experiences of blue-collar workers caught in the grips of the pandemic, including a Houston mother of four forced to live out of her car after the local eviction moratorium ended, and a Burmese immigrant who fell sick while working 15-hour days at a Colorado meatpacking plant and slipped into a fatal coma soon after her grandson was born. According to McCallum, these and other calamities sparked an “awakening” that united essential workers across industries. Amazon workers formed the first labor union in the company’s history; Massachusetts nurses picketed for 301 days to end cost-cutting staff furloughs and mandatory overtime; Chicago teachers refused to return to overcrowded, poorly ventilated classrooms. McCallum delves into the long-festering tensions behind these actions, including the “tectonic shift” in risk distribution across society, as corporations and governments raised employee healthcare premiums while simultaneously increasing work hours. His solutions include continued labor actions, passage of the Green New Deal, and shorter work hours. Interweaving deeply affecting personal stories with whip-smart structural analysis, this is a revealing diagnosis of America’s ills and an invigorating call for change. – Publishers Weekly Review

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The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland

(Available Formats: Print Book)

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been”–George Eliot . . . or Melissa Levin-Levine, depending on who you’re asking. When Melissa graduated from Bellport Academy in 1997, she was voted “Most Likely to Win the White House.” Twenty-five years later, the only thing she’s winning is a game of virtual Scrabble, if that. Her friend Tara isn’t having the success she thought she would either, teaching children to cook instead of owning a Michelin-starred restaurant. Priya is a doctor but hasn’t cured cancer and is struggling to find work-life balance. The only one out of their friend group to find their destined success is Suki, with a makeup company that has landed her on the Forbes 400 list. But when the group (minus Suki) reunites at their twenty-fifth high-school reunion, they realize dreams don’t have to have a shelf life. Friedland’s latest (after Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, 2021) is a novel that touts the message “success is what you make it.” Funny, heartwarming, and relatable, The Most Likely Club proves to be another success for Friedland. – Booklist Review

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The Pasta Queen: A Just Gorgeous Cookbook: 100+ Recipes And Stories by Caterina Munno

(Available Formats: Print Book)

TikTok star Munno, whose Italian ancestors were dried pasta makers as far back as the 1880s, shares a mix of go-to classics and family recipes in her luscious debut. Before getting to the recipes, Munno provides a brief history of pasta and lays out some helpful cooking tips (“Treat the recommended cooking time on a box of dried pasta as a guide, not law, to tell you when the pasta is al dente”), and novices will appreciate the detailed directions for making from-scratch pasta (the explanation for how to shape tortellini runs to multiple paragraphs). Classic recipes include spicy penne all’arrabbiata, and spaghetti all’amatriciana with guanciale and Pecorino Romano. Easy everyday recipes make use of leftover pasta, such as timballo di pasta (baked pasta) with salami, ham, or sausage. The American-inspired recipes—silky mac and cheese, penne with creamy salmon—offer nourishing comfort food. Those who want to put their skills to the test can try their hands at one of the recipes that encourage experimentation, such as a lemony pesto that calls for lemon, mint, and pistachios, the proportions of which can be changed based on flavor preferences and what one has on hand. Thorough and infectiously jubilant, this spirited celebration of Italy’s most famous food is a winner. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber Logan

(Available Formats: Large Print)

Cracked doesn’t always mean broken.

Grieving her mother’s death, Mari Lennox travels to Kyoto, Japan to take photographs of Yanagi Inn for a client. As she explores the inn and its grounds, her camera captures striking images, uncovering layers of mystery shrouding the old resort—including an overgrown, secret garden on a forbidden island. But then eerie weeping no one else in the inn seems to hear starts keeping her awake at night.
Despite the warnings of the staff, Mari searches the deep recesses of the old building to discover the source of the ghostly sound, only to realize that her own family’s history is tied to the inn, its mysterious, forlorn garden… and the secrets it holds.

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Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

(Available Formats: Print Book)

Mallory Viridian has found herself involved in murder cases throughout her life. Being surrounded by death has made her a suspect and an outcast, so when she receives the opportunity to take sanctuary on the sentient space station Eternity, she takes it. However, the station then agrees to allow more humans aboard, and Mallory knows her time is up. After the Earth shuttle arrives, humans and aliens begin to die, and the station itself is in jeopardy. Mallory must yet again solve the murders before others perish, but maybe this time she can finally figure out why she has been the nexus for so much death. Mallory’s loneliness and desire for peace make her an interesting protagonist as she looks for connections and answers. The time jumps in the story add interest as well and slowly unwrap the truths until the final reveals. The aliens are well-developed and lend both complexity and humor to this thrilling puzzle. VERDICT Lafferty (Hugo-nominated for Six Wakes) creates a clever and suspenseful sci-fi mystery, with intriguing characters and attentive worldbuilding. – Starred Library Journal Review

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The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print & CD audiobook)

Fair-play whodunits don’t come much funnier than bestseller Horowitz’s brilliant fourth mystery featuring a fictionalized version of himself as the bumbling sidekick to former detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne (after 2021’s A Line to Kill). Hawthorne had convinced Horowitz to write three books chronicling some of Hawthorne’s private investigations. With that contract fulfilled, Horowitz declines his partner’s request to write another. Later, following the London debut of Horowitz’s comic thriller play, Mindgame, theater critic Harriet Throsby pens a savage review, threatening the production’s prospects. When she’s found fatally stabbed in her home with a dagger given to Horowitz by the play’s producer that bears Horowitz’s fingerprints, he’s arrested. The damning evidence mounts as his hair is found on Throsby’s blouse, and video footage shows someone fitting his description near the crime scene right before the stabbing. When Horowitz is released while the investigation proceeds, he persuades Hawthorne to join him in probing the possible guilt of those involved in staging Mindgame. Clues are adroitly hidden in plain sight. This humorous homage to golden age closed-circle mysteries is not to be missed. – Starred Publishers Weekly

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The Ways We Hide: A Novel by Kristina McMorris

(Available Formats: Print Book, Large Print, eBook, Hoopla instant checkout eBook & audiobook)

Set during the 1940s with occasional flashbacks, McMorris’ latest (after Sold on a Monday, 2018) introduces the reader to Fenna Vos, who works with fellow stage musician Charles in a traveling show that pays homage to Houdini with daring escapes from locked items. The power struggle between the two of them soon comes to a head. An unusual offer from an audience member entices Fenna to take a chance at something new as an unconventional wartime civil servant in London working for MI9. Her choice sets her on the path for an unusual and personally fraught future where she is forced to come to a reckoning with all the parts of her past that she has hidden from others, but most of all from herself. Readers will be drawn into Fen’s frustrations, anger, terror, joy, and constant drive to innovate when new challenges are put in her way. This is no fairy tale, and the ending is satisfying rather than happy, as befits a story set during wartime. Readers interested in historical fiction, Houdini’s illusions, Depression-era United States, wartime London, and the Nazi Resistance in Holland will be quickly captured by the realistic characters and situations. – Booklist Review

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The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin

(Available Formats: Print Book)

This follow-up to 2020’s The City We Became picks up where the that volume left off, with the various avatars of New York City and its boroughs settling into their new powers while maintaining a watchful eye on the alien city that almost destroyed them. The avatars discover that despite her dependence on Aislyn, the traitorous Staten Island avatar, the Woman in White has resumed her attack on the city via a xenophobic candidate for mayor, hoping to weaken it enough for her to resume her all-out assault. While Neek (the primary avatar of New York City) and the other borough avatars work to combat this new assault, Aislyn begins to have doubts about her alliance with her new “”friend”” as the alien city’s presence begins to affect her family, her neighbors, and the borough itself. Jemisin brings her living-city saga to a satisfying conclusion, maintaining a sense of energy and excitement throughout, even as she sketches in more of the multiverse of multiverses underpinning her urban (in a more literal sense than usual) fantasy setting. – Booklist Review

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Have a great week!

Linda Reimer

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*Information on the three catalogs*

Digital Catalog: https://stls.overdrive.com/

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.

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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/

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 and most smart TVs & media streaming players.

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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org

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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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 & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.