Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
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First off the music, this week an album:
Trio (1987) by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris
The album starts off with the song:
Telling Lies
Note: This album is available for check out through Hoopla, one of the library’s digital catalogs, as part of the set “Trio: The Complete Collection.” The collections features both Trio albums by Parton, Ronstadt & Harris as well as outtakes for a total of 41 songs.
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is
The Straight Story (1999)
Available Formats: The Straight Story can be streamed from the usual online sources and is also available on DVD at the library.
About The Movie: The movie is based on the real-life experiences of Alvin Straight. As the movie opens, viewers meet 73-year-old Alvin; a retired laborer who is living in Laurens, Iowa and who cannot see well enough to drive a car. Alvin discovers that his brother Henry Straight, who is living in Blue River Wisconsin, has had a stroke. Alvin decides to go visit Henry; and as he can’t drive a car, the very determined Alvin loads up a trailer with supplies and hooks it up to his 1966 John Deere tractor to drive the 240 miles from his Iowa home to his brother’s home in Wisconsin.
During the trip, Alvin meets a variety of people who wish to help him, his tractor breaks down more than once and must be repaired; and at one point he even has to pause in his journey for a few days until his next social security check comes through so he has funds to continue his journey. It takes him six weeks but Alvin finally makes it to Laurens to see Henry.
The movie was directed by David Lynch and stars Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek and Harry Dean Stanton.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
Forest Walk in Skyrim | 4 Hours Music and Ambience
Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
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.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout 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.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
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).
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.
Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
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First off the music, this week the album:
Waltz for Debby (1962) by The Bill Evans Trio
The album opens with the song:
My Foolish Heart
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie:
Hidden Figures (2016)
Available Formats: The movie is available from the library on DVD and may be streamed through the usual online streaming services, i.e. Apple, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube etc.
About The Movie: The movie is based on the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly; and follows three female African American mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan. The film opens in the late fifties, during the space race era, with the trio working at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Initially the women are seen as entry level human computers and assigned simply to do calculation without being told why. Eventually, overcoming racial discrimination, all three advance in their careers at NASA. Jackson goes on to become NASA’s first female African American engineer; Vaughan becomes NASA’s first female African American supervisor and Johnson works on the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions.
The film stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst & Jim Parsons.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
You’re Sitting by a Lake Campfire
Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
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.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout 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.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
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).
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.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Well
Veteran narrator Ivey is magnificent in her performance of Wells’s sprawling, delicious novel of lifelong female friendship and mother-daughter tension and reconciliation. When Siddalee Walker, a successful theater director, accidentally lets slip in an interview some less-than-flattering truths about her mother, Vivi, the ever-dramatic Vivi declares
“You are dead to me!” But when Sidda reads Vivi’s scrapbook detailing seven decades of friendship with her lifelong pals, the irrepressible Ya-Yas, she begins to understand her vivacious, unconventional, often difficult but never boring mother in ways she never has before. Ivey creates distinctive voices for each one of the multitude of characters—not an easy task, since most of them are female and Southern. There’s the four Ya-Yas, both as young, giggly girls and then as elderly women; Sidda as a child and a woman; and a plethora of relatives, siblings and friends. Ivey performs each character with conviction and emotion. Through her performance, listeners can see the characters, colorful events and the tangle and friction of close-knit, complicated relationships. – Publisher’s Weekly Review of the audiobook of this title, narrated by Judity Ivey; which the library has on CD as well as digitally in both Libby and Hoopla catalogs.
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Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts and feuds provided by lifelong friends and neighbors and who find humor and hope in the most unlikely places, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo.
Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself.
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Winding up her book tour promoting her collection of lighthearted wartime newspaper columns, Juliet Ashton casts about for a more serious project. Opportunity comes in the form of a letter she receives from Mr. Dawsey Adams, who happens to possess a book that Julia once owned. Adams is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – no ordinary book club. Rather, it was formed as a ruse and became a way for people to get together without raising the suspicions of Guernseys Nazi occupiers. Written in the form of letters (a lost art), this novel by an aunt-and-niece team has loads of charm, especially as long as Juliet is still in London corresponding with the society members. Some of the air goes out of the book when she gets to Guernsey; the humorous tone doesn’t quite mesh with what the islanders suffered. But readers should enjoy this literary soufflé’ for the most part, and curiosity about the German occupation of the British Channel Islands will be piqued. – Booklist Review
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The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
The thing about books,’ she said, ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’ The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets. – On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found… For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems. Readers have fallen in love with The Lost Bookshop: ‘Beautifully written and captures the wonder and awe that a story can bring to its reader…a delightful story for any book lover…an ode to storytelling and the connections that books can make! – overview from the publisher
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The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bival
As luck would have it, the day Sara arrives in Broken Wheel, IA, from Sweden to meet her book-loving pen pal Amy, the townsfolk are just leaving Amy’s funeral. Tourists are rare in this tiny, depressed town and the residents gather around Sara, sharing their stories of their departed friend. Sara stays in Amy’s house, surrounded by her huge collection of books, and is comforted by the warmth of this quirky community. There’s not much to do and Sara has little drawing her back to Sweden, so she decides to take Amy’s books and open a cozy bookstore in a derelict downtown storefront. With little money to buy books, Sara simply begins sharing Amy’s books with her friends. Gradually, the good citizens of Broken Wheel realize that a bookstore and Sara are what they need. How they go about ensuring that Sara can stay and the store can thrive is at the core of this heartwarming and utterly charming debut novel by Swedish author Bivald.
VERDICT This gentle, intelligent Midwestern tale will captivate fans of Antoine Laurain’s The Red Notebook, Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop, and Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. An ideal book group selection, it reminds us why we are book lovers and why it’s nice to read a few happy endings. – Library Journal 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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
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First off the music, this week, in honor of the man and his music on the 86th anniversary of John Lennon’s birth, our musical recommendation is the album:
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is a movie that nicely complements the autumn season:
October Sky (1999)
About the Movie: October Sky is set in the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia in 1957 and tells the story of high school student Homer H. Hickam Jr., the son of the local mine manager, who watches the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite and is inspired to design and launch his own rockets. He recruits three friends to his rocket making team, and they create and test a variety of rockets, getting better at building and launching them through research, trial and error and with the help of their teacher Miss Riley. After Homer’s father is injured in an accident at the mine; he temporarily quits school to work in the mine and help support his family. Eventually, Homer goes back to school, returns to making rockets, and his team enters a rocket in their high school science fair.
The movie is based upon the life of the real Homer H. Hickam Jr. and if you want to know how the boys made out with their science fair entry you can watch the movie, or Google Homer Hickam Jr.
The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Chris Owen & Laura Dern.
Available Formats: The movie can be checked out at the library on DVD; and streamed from the usual online streaming stores.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
October Autumn Serenity
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And as Halloween is this month and there are only so many evenings and weekends in the month for us to watch movies – here is a list of classic horror films that you might find entertaining – these are classic Universal and Hammer films with a few others included to spice up the mix – enjoy!
A Selection of Classic Horror Films of 1930s & 1940s
Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi
Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff
The Mummy (1932) with Boris Karloff
The Old Dark House (1932) with Boris Karloff & Melvyn Douglas
Murder in the Rue Morgue (1932) with Bela Lugosi
The Invisible Man (1933) with Claude Rains
The Black Cat (1934) with Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Boris Karloff & Elsa Lanchester
Son of Frankenstein (1939) with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi
The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr.
The Uninvited (1944) with Ray Millan and Ruth Hussey
Dead of Night (1945) with Mervyn Johns & Michael Redgrave
A Selection of Classic Horror Films of the 1950s & 1960s with a few from the 1970s
House of Wax (1953) with Vincent Price
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with Richard Carlson
The Curse of Frankenstein (1958) with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee
Dracula (1958) (AKA The Horror of Dracula) with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee
The Mummy (1959) with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) with Oliver Reed
The Innocents (1961) with Deborah Kerr
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) with Vincent Price
Carnival of Souls (1962) with Candace Hilligoss
The Birds (1963) with Rod Taylor & Jessica Tandy
The Haunting (1963) with Julie Harris
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Horror Express (1972) with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee & Telly Savalas
Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
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.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout 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.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
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).
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.
Hi everyone, at the Southeast Steuben County Library we order books on a 10-month calendar, from January through October; and in October we pre-order upcoming releases by popular authors who have new books coming out during October, November & December and we do not place another book order until January.
With that in mind, the pre-ordered titles we’ll be receiving for you to check out this fall, are listed in the post New Books Coming Your Way for October 2026 – you can find that list on the blog.
And our Suggested Reading Five titles for the months of October, November & December will be themed collections; for October we’ve got books that complement the autumn season with falling leaves, personal reflections, colder weather, wool sweaters etc., and featuring stories that incorporate family sagas into the mix.
Enjoy!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
P.S. I’ll let you know what the themes are for our Suggested Reading Five posts, for November & December, just as soon as I figure that out!
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The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Feisty Marietta Greer changes her name to “Taylor” when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Ill. By the time she reaches Oklahoma, this strong-willed young Kentucky native with a quick tongue and an open mind is catapulted into a surprising new life. Taylor leaves home in a beat-up ’55 Volkswagen bug, on her way to nowhere in particular, savoring her freedom. But when a forlorn Cherokee woman drops a baby in Taylor’s passenger seat and asks her to take it, she does. A first novel, The Bean Trees is an overwhelming delight, as random and unexpected as real life. The unmistakable voice of its irresistible heroine is whimsical, yet deeply insightful. Taylor playfully names her little foundling “Turtle,” because she clings with an unrelenting, reptilian grip; at the same time, Taylor aches at the thought of the silent, staring child’s past suffering. With Turtle in tow, Taylor lands in Tucson, Ariz., with two flat tires and decides to stay. The desert climate, landscape and vegetation are completely foreign to Taylor, and in learning to love Arizona, she also comes face to face with its rattlesnakes and tarantulas. Similarly, Taylor finds that motherhood, responsibility and independence are thorny, if welcome, gifts. This funny, inspiring book is a marvelous affirmation of risk-taking, commitment and everyday miracles. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.
Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.
Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design―especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open―bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.
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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Set in Stockett’s native Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s, this first novel adopts the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. A century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black maids raised white children and ran households but were paid poorly, often had to use separate toilets from the family, and watched the children they cared for commit bigotry. In Stockett’s narrative, Miss Skeeter, a young white woman, is a naive, aspiring writer who wants to create a series of interviews with local black maids. Even if they’re published anonymously, the risk is great; still, Aibileen and Minny agree to participate. Tension pervades the novel as its events are told by these three memorable women. Is this an easy book to read? No, but it is surely worth reading. It may even stir things up as readers in Jackson and beyond question their own discrimination and intolerance in the past and present. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Plainsong by Kent Haruf
It’s a good thing young Ike and Bobby Guthrie are close, because they’re in for a spell of loss and radical change. Victoria Roubideaux, 17, is too, but she has no sibling to stand beside her during bouts of morning sickness, or when her mother throws her out of the house. Haruf, author of “The Tie That Binds” (1984), alternates between the Guthrie boys’ adventures and Vicky’s quest to find a safe place for herself and her baby, but the two story lines soon entwine because all lives converge in the small Colorado town of Holt, which he so adroitly portrays. The Guthrie boys are often on their own after their mother leaves, while their nearly overwhelmed father, Tom, a high-school teacher, is distracted by the threats of a violent student. Vicky goes to Maggie Jones, a colleague of Tom’s, for help. Unable to provide her with the sanctuary she needs, Maggie delivers Vicky to the elderly McPheron brothers, farmers as tightly connected as Tom’s sons. Vicky revolutionizes their staid lives, and they provide her with her first true home, and the resulting familial love seems to set the entire countryside aglow. Haruf’s narrative voice is spare and procedural, and his salt-of-the-earth characters are reticent almost to the point of mannerism until it becomes clear that their terseness is the result of profound shyness and an immensity of feeling. Haruf’s unforgettable tale is both emotionally complex and elemental, following, as it so gracefully does, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. – Booklist Review
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The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Proulx has followed Postcards , her story of a family and their farm, with an extraordinary second novel of another family and the sea. The fulcrum is Quoyle, a patient, self-deprecating, oversized hack writer who, following the deaths of nasty parents and a succubus of a wife, moves with his two daughters and straight-thinking aunt back to the ancestral manse in Killick-Claw, a Newfoundland harbor town of no great distinction. There, Quoyle finds a job writing about car crashes and the shipping news for The Gammy Bird , a local paper kept afloat largely by reports of sexual abuse cases and comical typographical errors. Killick-Claw may not be perfect, but it is a stable enough community for Quoyle and Co. to recover from the terrors of their past lives. But the novel is much more than Quoyle’s story: it is a moving evocation of a place and people buffeted by nature and change. Proulx routinely does without nouns and conjunctions–“Quoyle, grinning. Expected to hear they were having a kid. Already picked himself for godfather”–but her terse prose seems perfectly at home on the rocky Newfoundland coast. She is in her element both when creating haunting images (such as Quoyle’s inbred, mad and mean forbears pulling their house across the ice after being ostracized by more God-fearing folk) and when lyrically rendering a routine of gray, cold days filled with cold cheeks, squidburgers, fried bologna and the sea. – Publishers Weekly 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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
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First off the music this week the album:
Astral Weeks (1968) by Van Morrison
About The Album: Astral Weeks is singer-songwriter Van Morrison’s second album and blends elements of folk, jazz, classical music and rock and has an almost mystical quality to its eight songs – it is a mellow, reflective album and perfect listening for this first weekend in October.
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie:
Coherence (2013)
Available Formats: Available for request as a standard DVD, also available to stream from the library via Kanopy or Hoopla, and may be streamed from the usual online sources.
About The Movie: A small dinner party is being held in a typical neighborhood on a night when a comet flies close by the earth; during the festivities the power goes out, and cell phones stop working. One of the partygoers walks to a nearby house, the only one in the immediate vicinity that has lights on, to see if the people there have a working phone – only to see the members of the dinner party at the house he just left – having dinner in that house.
As the film unfolds the people at the dinner party realize that the comet has impacted space time and created local alternate realities; the people from these realities, are the same people seen at the dinner party at the beginning of the film, but the alternate versions of the partygoers when they meet the initial partygoing group is different, sometimes subtlety so and sometimes more overtly so, because those people made different decisions earlier in the evening. And one of the partygoers decides she’d like to replace herself in one of the other realities, one where the evening has gone well for her – thinking she’ll have a better life. She discovers towards the end of the film, which does have an opened-ended ending; meaning in this case, that not all the questions are answered – she discovers that she may be wrong in thinking this new reality will be a good fit for her.
This is one of those neat mind-bending “what if” films for those that like that style of film.
And as a bonus, if you haven’t already seen it, I also recommend the series Dark which also features alternate realities and time travel; it is set in a small town, following four connected families and explores how the past, present and future are connected; it was super in its first two seasons, if a bit rushed to complete the story in its third.
Here is the trailer for the TV series:
Dark (2017 – 2020)
Note: Dark is only available via Netflix & should have English dialogue although it was originally done with German dialogue and that version too was accessible on Netflix the last time I had a subscription.
And as both those video recommendations are a bit on the dark side, I’m also going to recommend a screwball comedy from Hollywood’s Golden Age, for those looking for a humorous film this weekend:
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Directed by Howard Hawkes and starring Kathryn Hepburn & Cary Grant
Available Formats: You can request a copy of the DVD from the library or stream the movie via Kanopy. The movie is also available to stream through the usual online stores.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
Crackling Fireplace ambient sounds
And on a upcoming programs note, “upcoming” in this case meaning this afternoon! We’re showing a matinee of the comedy/mystery classic film:
Murder by Death (1976)
The film stars Peter Falk, Peter Sellers, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Alec Guinness, James Coco, Truman Capote and Elsa Lancaster.
So if you’ve got nothing on deck this afternoon, join us for the matinee which starts at 2:00 p.m. and runs 94 minutes.
Everyone is welcome & snacks will be provided
Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
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.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout 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.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
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).
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.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Disappearers by Marlon James
Booker Prize-winner James’ (Moon, Witch, Spider, King, 2022) latest captivating and epic novel is about a group of gay men in late twentieth-century Kingston, Jamaica, in the aftermath of a brutal and traumatic attack. When eight disparate men gather to begin rehearsals for a play in 1988, their community is a dangerous and deadly place for queer people. One night, the group is the target of a murderous mob’s violence that leaves one of them dead and the survivors coping with the devastating repercussions. James follows these characters through their lives and relationships as they grapple with the many ways in which people can disappear when they live on the margin of a society that is hostile to their existence. Told through multiple perspectives and with scenes of graphic violence and sex, the often harrowing stories of these unforgettable characters are about struggle and survival, longing and reconciliation. James renders his characters’ tumultuous inner lives with striking imagery and energy; their dialogue is rapid, keen, and hard-hitting. In all, a gritty, powerful, and gripping read.–Booklist Review
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Galinda: A Charmed Childhood by Gregory Maguire
This sister volume to Elphie (2025) continues Maguire’s exploration of the Oz myth, this time telling the backstory of Galinda. As a young girl, she watches with some befuddlement as her family deals with forces within and without: her father is a businessman whose success is suspicious to many in town, as her older brother Hamm slowly discovers, and her mother is never home. Galinda is preoccupied with succeeding at her dance lessons and hopefully going on to get a prestigious prize, but spends many of her days ignored, lonely, and talked-down-to. This novel has somewhat less bite than the one on Elphaba’s childhood, despite the similarities Maguire does his best to draw out–both girls had a difficult father whose love they yearn for, both girls often feel lonely. Galinda, however, is slightly harder to root for, as her character development promises to wait until she’s at school at Shiz. Nevertheless, fans of the Wicked Years series will enjoy this insight into an iconic character, as will new fans of the Wicked films.
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A Librarian’s War: The Man Who Fought World War II with Books and Brought the Joy of Reading to Millions by Mollyi Guptill Manning
Movies, dances, and USO shows often come to mind as popular activities for American soldiers on the front during World War II. However, as historian Manning (When Books Went to War) illustrates in her biography of U.S. Army Chief Librarian Ray Trautman, books, comics, and periodicals were also in high demand among troops. These materials offered service members a sense of connection to home or an escape from both the horrors and boredom of war. Books boosted morale and played a vital role in the war against fascism. After earning a master’s degree in librarianship, Manning, then in the U.S. Army Reserves, was called up to active duty and selected to serve as chief librarian. During his tenure, he established an extensive library network and book distribution system. By visiting the men at the front–even serving during the Battle of the Bulge–Trautman’s determination, hard work, and empathy helped connect servicepeople to the books they wanted to read. Working with influential publishing houses, he even innovated the Armed Service Edition, a small book format that fit in uniform pockets. VERDICT This engaging biography will delight history readers and inspire future library students.–Starred Library Journal Review
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Threshing Dayby Rebecca Yarros
The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza. This breathtaking collectible is available only in the US and Canada while supplies last.
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The Vanished Sister by Sherry Thomas
Growing up as Joanna Redmayne, Mrs. Joanna Watson could not have been closer to her older sister, Justina. However, that sibling bond was fractured when Justina cut her out of her life after Joanna decided to pursue an acting career. So Joanna could not be more surprised when Justina, now Mrs. Everett Carstairs, attempts to repair relations by inviting Joanna to a house party celebrating the engagement of Justina’s son, Charles, to Miss Philana Newell. Things seem to be going well until the party ends, and Justina is nowhere to be found. When the body of a woman is found in the nearby Bristol Channel, everyone assumes the worst, until Everett Carstairs insists it is not his wife. To discover what really happened to her sister, Joanna Watson turns to her dear friend and business partner, Charlotte Holmes, for help. Fans of Thomas’ Lady Sherlock mysteries, including A Ruse of Shadows (2024), will savor the exquisitely plotted ninth addition to this ingenious series while simultaneously reveling in the author’s witty writing, impeccably evoked historical settings, and flair for crafting intriguing characters with a welcome depth. –Starred Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: The Vanished Sister is the ninth book in the Lady Sherlock Series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: A Study In Scarlet Women.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout 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.
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.
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).
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.
Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
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First off the music, this week an album which complements the Americana vibe of the movies; it is the soundtrack to the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War.
The Civil War Soundtrack (1990)
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Moving on to our suggested viewing titles of the week; this week I couldn’t pair it down to just one movie – so we have two historical drama recommendations:
Shenandoah (1965)
About Formats: This movie is available in the both the streaming & DVD formats; you can request a standard DVD of this film from the library.
About The Movie: Shenandoah stars Jimmy Stewart and an ensemble cast including Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne & Katherine Ross. The film is set in Virginia during the Civil War and tells the tale of widowed farmer Charlie Anderson and his family, which includes six sons, a daughter and daughter-in-law. Charlie opposes slavery but does not support the Union either saying that the conflict is not his business and insisting his family members stay out of it. Despite Charlie’s best efforts his family is unable to stay out of the conflict; his daughter Jennie marries a Confederate soldier and his youngest son, who he refers to as “Boy,” is out hunting one day and is captured by Union soldiers who believe he is a rebel. Charlie and most of his family go out in search of Boy, leaving one son, his wife and infant daughter at home. And the story unfolds further from there —
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Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
About Formats: This movie is available in streaming and DVD formats; and may be checked out of the library in standard DVD format.
About The Movie: The film stars Henry Fonda & Claudette Colbert and featured Edna May Oliver, Ward Bond and John Carradine; it is set in the 1770s and tells the story of Gilbert Martin (Fonda) who marries Lana Borst (Colbert) and takes her to live on his small farm, located in the Mohawk Valley in central New York, which was then on the western frontier. The duo and their neighbors work to clear the land and build lives for themselves; and then the American Revolution breaks out. Martin joins the patriot army; there are encounters with Native American and loyalist troops and residents have to leave their homes and flee to nearby Fort Schuyler for safety. To sum it up, although the film is set during a war – it isn’t really about the war, instead it is about the everyday people living through the conflict – John Ford style of course, as he directed the film.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, hanging out at home, reading etc.)
11 Hours of Enchanting Autumn Scenes
Have a great weekend!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
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.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout 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.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
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).
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.
Join us on September 25, 2026, as we participate in the 29th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival.
From September 24 to October 4, 2026, over 100,000 film lovers across the world will unite in over 500 cities on six continents for one reason…to view and vote on the Finalists’ Films in the 29th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival.
Here in Corning, we will show the finalists’ films in two free screenings: one at 2:30 PM and one at 7:00 PM.
Afterwards, you will able to vote for your favorite shorts. We will have all the voting rules and criteria at the event.
This FREE showing will run about 2 hours and 45 minutes, with a 10 minute intermission about halfway through.
The directors of each film will have a 30 second spot on screen to introduce their film to you, the audience.
We hope to see all of you film lovers here for the show!
Hope to see you this Friday, at this special event!
Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring one album or musical collection for your listening pleasure; one movie or TV show/season for your viewing pleasure and one recommendation for background viewing – perfect for having on while having dinner, reading or just hanging out at home. Enjoy!
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First off the music, this week in honor of the great guitarist and singer B. B. King, as the anniversary of his birth was this week – he was born near Itta Bena, Mississippi on September 16, 1925, we’re going to take a listen to his terrific album:
Singing The Blues (1957)
And to kick off the album, the song:
Please Love Meby B. B. King
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Moving on to our suggested viewing title of the week; this week our recommendation is the movie:
Cadillac Records (2008)
Available Formats: You can stream Cadillac Records from Amazon, Apple or Google Pay stores or check out the DVD from the library.
About The Movie: The film stars Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Beyonce as Etta James, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Cedric Antonio Kyles as Willie Dixon, Eamonn Walker as Howlin’ Wolf, Gabrielle as Geneva Wade, Eric Bogosian as Alan Freed, Shiloh Fernandez as Phil Chess and Yasiin Bey as Chuck Berry.
Briefly, the film tells the story of the founding of the iconic label Chess Records and some of the artists that recorded for it, who went on to become blues icons since then – including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
In more depth: The film opens in Chicago in 1947, with bar owner Leonard Chess; who becomes interested in the newly evolving art form of electric blues music; after seeing a band featuring guitarist Muddy Waters and harmonica player Little Walter.
Chess sees that the music is very popular with local audiences but is being ignored by major labels; so, he sets up a recording session with Muddy Waters after which Muddy’s records are played on the radio and hit the rhythm & blues charts.
In the aftermath of Muddy’s initial success, Chess and his brother Phil set up Chess Records and continue to record artists who also become successful these include Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry, who raised the prominence of Chess Records to a whole new level. By the late 1960s, popular music had changed dramatically; and with it the public’s taste for blues music; correspondingly, Leonard Chess sold the company in 1969. And as the film credits roll brief “what happened to” sections are shown; telling what happened to the real people portrayed in the movie and then text appears noting that all of the main characters have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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Background Viewing
(Perfect to have on while having dinner, reading etc.)
Evening Garden Escape
Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Information on the four library catalogs (content available 24/7!)
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.
And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron checkout 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.
Titles in the Hoopla Catalog are available to be checked out on-demand by all library card holders, with the caveat of being able to check out a maximum of ten titles per month, per card.
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).
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.
