book-review – Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

Suggested Reading Five: March 4, 2026

March 4, 2026March 4, 2026 Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!

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Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria by Loubna Mrie

In her first book, photojournalist Mrie recounts coming of age at the beginning of the Syrian civil war and the devastating costs of her involvement in documenting the conflict. Born into a family of Alawites, a minority group that ruled the country and prospered under the protection of the ruling al-Assad family, Mrie began questioning the government when the Arab Spring protests of 2010 spread to Syria. Inspired by her mother’s encouragement of education and personal liberty, Mrie began recording the clashes between protestors and government forces, a rejection of her family’s loyalty to Bashar al-Assad, which eventually led to her estrangement from relatives and friends, her exile from the country, and a series of personal losses. Mrie uses an exceptional eye for detail to evoke her surroundings, whether it be the peaceful Syrian countryside of her childhood or the carnage-filled chaos of rebel-held villages under bombardment. But the most remarkable aspect of Mrie’s memoir is her unflinching honesty as she details how trauma and guilt led to her struggles with impulsive behavior and an addiction to alcohol.

VERDICT Recommended for libraries with sizable collections of autobiographies and memoirs, Mrie’s book will resonate with readers. – Starred Library Journal Review

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Felicia’s Favorites by Danielle Steel

A mother bestows a life-changing legacy on her five adult daughters in this profoundly moving novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel.

After the unexpected death of their mother, Felicia Morgan Weston, her five daughters are summoned to a historic Connecticut farmhouse for the reading of her will. Still reeling from shock, they hear revelations that will potentially change their lives—and they realize there was much more to their mother than they ever knew.

Charlotte, the oldest, always resented her mother’s advice, but now misses her terribly. An entrepreneur and single mother, she doesn’t dare hope for a second chance at love.

Although content with her career as a TV producer and her life with her partner in Greenwich Village, Quinne is about to have an opportunity to dream bigger.

Former ballet dancer Olivia has lived as a paraplegic since a car accident twelve years ago. Refusing to be a burden, she has denied herself the love of her life.

Despite her mother’s disapproval, Veronica resigned herself to a secret relationship with an ambitious married senator.

Happily married mother of three Isabelle has just found out that her husband is having an affair with his much younger intern.

Each sister is about to receive a gift beyond her wildest dreams from their very private but loving mother, who considered all her girls her favorites. Danielle Steel’s new novel is a moving testament to the power of a mother’s love and the importance of fully embracing life.

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Far-Flung Life by M L Stedman

For generations, members of the MacBride family have lived and prospered on their vast sheep station in remote Western Australia. However, their good fortune seems to run out in 1958, when a kangaroo crosses the path of the truck that is carrying Phil MacBride and his two sons. In the ensuing crash, Phil and his older boy are killed instantly, while Matt, the younger son, clings to life. Although Matt survives, a traumatic brain injury leaves him with a patchy memory and an altered personality. More tragedies crop up for the remaining MacBrides, and a shocking encounter leads to daughter Rose’s unwanted pregnancy. Soon after the birth of her son, she throws herself down a mine shaft. Unwilling to cause the family more grief, the pragmatic police chief rules her death an accident. In time, life improves as Matt regains mental stability while helping his mother run the station and care for Rose’s son. But the arrival of a new by-the-books police chief, who means to reopen irregular cold cases, threatens to expose old secrets.

VERDICT This sweeping saga, told with great heart and tenderness, is a story of broken people working to heal themselves. The many admirers of Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans will find the same blend of sadness and hope in her latest. – Starred Library Journal Review

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The Ghost Women: A Novel by Jennifer Murphy

Murphy’s (Scarlet in Blue) new novel is a dark-academia tale of murder and revenge that delves into the depths of strength and determination that women can reach when they are pushed to the brink by men. On the autumnal equinox in 1972, Abel Montague, a student at the exclusive, secretive St. Luke’s Institute of the Arts, is found dead, hanging from a tree, his body position matching the pose of the Hanged Man tarot card in his pocket. So begins a series of ritualistic murders at St. Luke’s–a former monastery that once held witch trials and executions–with each death designed to match tarot cards left at the scene. When detective Lola Germany investigates, she discovers that the administration and students are keeping secrets, including Pearl, Abel’s girlfriend, who calls herself and her group of friends “witches.” As truth and lies emerge from the past and the present, Lola realizes that she must uncover how it all began to solve the case. VERDICT This fast-paced novel set in the South Carolina Lowcountry combines magic, mysticism, and mystery into an engrossing and entertaining story that is difficult to put down. Recommended for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Alex Michaelides. -Library Journal Review

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Kin: A Novel by Tayari Jones

Jones, whose previous novel, An American Marriage (2018), was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, is back with a tender love song to southern Black families, communities, and female friendships. Annie and Niecy have grown up as “cradle friends” in small-town Mississippi, “tended to but never mothered.” Niecy’s mother is dead and Annie’s has simply “up and left.” Their lives diverge dramatically after their last year of high school: Niecy graduates and reinvents herself at Spelman College, while Annie runs away with three friends, hoping to track down her errant mother in Memphis. Neither finds exactly what she was looking for, yet each girl will experience profound self-discovery. Told in alternating first-person narration and in letters, Jones’ novel is an intimate portrayal of the anxieties and mixed messages of African American girlhood in the early 1960s that linger in adulthood. Pining for their mothers, both girls will seek replacements: Niecy’s a tippling Atlanta social climber, Annie’s the no-nonsense madam of a brothel. As each faces her personal demons and disappointments, their unbreakable childhood bond keeps them anchored in a friendship transcending blood relatives and romantic partners. Jones deftly conveys the nuances of Southern Black culture in this novel full of depth, pain, and beauty. – Booklist Review

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.

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Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.

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Information on the four library catalogs

The Digital Catalog aka Libby: https://stls.overdrive.com/

The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!

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

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

The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.

Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.

The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.

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Kanopy Catalog: https://www.kanopy.com/en

The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.

The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!

You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).

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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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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.

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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.

Suggested Reading Five: June 5, 2024

June 5, 2024 Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!

Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.

And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.

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And Then? And Then? What Else? By Daniel Handler, AKA Lemony Snicket

This dazzling memoir from the writer better known as Lemony Snicket (a nom de plume whose origins he hilariously explains here) delves deeply into every aspect of his life. Each section effortlessly shifts from the sublime–such as his literary and cultural influences, particularly the poetry of Baudelaire–to the banal, then the deeply silly, and then back to another immensely readable description of the writers and artists he loves (he includes a short reading list at the end of the most notable works he mentions since he discusses so many). In stupendously written, engagingly conversational prose, Handler candidly covers a wide range of topics and experiences–his mental health struggles, his sexuality, his terrible early attempts at writing, and some shocking trauma. Handler also thoughtfully probes what to include and not include in a memoir, and throughout there are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Handler’s army of devoted fans will be delighted with this imitable memoir, while his fascinating experiences and approaches to writing will engage all readers interested in how writers write and why. Thought-provoking, deeply personal, and like few other memoirs in the range of topics covered, Handler’s mix of the personal and the literary is as compelling as his gloriously off-beat fiction. – Booklist Review

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The Comfort of Ghosts by Jaqueline Winspear

Winspear presents the eighteenth and final book in her internationally best-selling Maisie Dobbs series that began in 2003. In the very first novel, neatly titled Maisie Dobbs, Maisie remarks, “we only like our heroes out in the street when they are looking their best . . . not when they’re showing us the wounds they suffered on our behalf.” She was referencing WWI survivors. Her story spans the years 1910-45, and now, at its conclusion, Maisie finds herself dealing with many who have been terribly wounded, physically and mentally, by WWII. Four adolescent orphans damaged by their experiences are squatting in a vacant mansion in London, and when Maisie investigates, she discovers they are caring for a recently demobbed soldier on death’s doorstep. She also uncovers a decades-old secret about her deceased husband that puts her beliefs in him and his family to the test. Winspear delivers a most elegant and satisfying resolution. In her opening letter to the reader, she writes, “I’ve endeavored to create a body of work that is in equal measure a family saga and mystery series.” She succeeded beyond everyone’s expectations. It’s a privilege to experience life with Winspear’s determined and maximally resilient woman protagonist. – Booklist Review

Reader’s Note: As mentioned in the review, The Comfort of Ghosts is the eighteenth novel in the Maisie Dobbs mystery series; if you’d like to binge read the series from the beginning, check out book one, simply called: Maisie Dobbs (2003).

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Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

You know you’ve got some juice in the publishing world when you get top billing on a book nearly 16 years after your death. “Eruption” is the completion of a partial manuscript found by the late Michael Crichton’s wife, Sherri, and finished by James Patterson.

That pedigree is sure to make it a summer bestseller, and fans of both authors will read it with relish. The short chapters — there are 109 of them in 419 pages — propel the plot at a furious pace.

The plot itself revolves around the imminent eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. Dr. John MacGregor (“Call me Mac”) is the scientist in charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), and when he calls a press conference to announce that the largest active volcano on Earth is going to erupt soon, that furiously paced plot, pardon the pun, explodes.

This being a Crichton/Patterson story, there’s much more at stake than the life of Pacific islanders during a natural disaster. Turns out the U.S. military has a secret buried at Mauna Loa and let’s just say that when it comes to the fate of civilization it makes lava look like a hot, runny creamsicle.

The book’s characters are straight out of central casting. In addition to Mac, there’s Jenny Kimura, the lead lab scientist at the HVO, “32… Ph.D in earth and planetary sciences from Yale, well-spoken, very attractive.” And Col. James Briggs, “60s, white-haired, trim, and fit.” Throw in a couple more volcanologists practiced at gallows humor and a smart teen who Mac has taught how to surf, and you have all the elements of a summer blockbuster coming in a couple years to a theater near you. – Associated Press Review

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Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies: A Novel by Catherine Mack

In this start to a new series, Mack introduces 35-year-old modern-day mystery writer Eleanor, who gets ensnared in solving a real-life mystery while on her book tour in Italy. Eleanor is just looking to finish this tour; conclude her successful series; kill off her main character, Connor Smith; and finally be free of her horrible ex-boyfriend, Connor Smith (yes, you read that right). Unfortunately, Connor is also on this tour, as the inspiration for her male lead, and demands her help in figuring out who is trying to actually kill him. This novel is funny and suspenseful, featuring Eleanor as a witty and relatable narrator who constantly breaks the fourth wall in an entertaining and original use of footnotes. Mack’s tale is full of lively references (Taylor Swift galore), beautiful Italian settings, romance, fun chapter titles, and an interesting mix of suspects who are almost all mystery writers themselves. It is an amusing, light read that invites the reader to gather the clues and solve the crime before Eleanor reveals the answer. – Booklist Review

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Mind Games by Nora Roberts

Grammie Lucy calls it a gift. Sometimes Thea Fox wishes it is a gift she could return, because it comes with such a high price tag. Late one night while staying with her Grammie in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky, Thea “sees” her parents being brutally murdered back home in Virginia. Later Thea uses this gift to help the police identify the killer and put him behind bars. Now, 15 years later, Thea has built a new life for herself in Redbud Hollow. Although the man who murdered her parents is still in prison, he has made it his life’s mission to make Thea pay. Fans of Roberts’ (Inheritance, 2023) enticing brand of storytelling will find everything they crave in her latest polished thriller, including compelling characters, an evocative, richly realized setting, and a captivating plot enlivened by a generous dash of romance and just the right measure of nerve-jangling, nail-biting suspense.

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: You don’t have to be a mind reader to predict Roberts’ latest will soon be on reserve and best-seller lists all around the country. – Booklist Review

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