Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to ’90s Sitcoms by Geoff Bennett
More than a chronicle of Black comedy, Bennett’s 20 chapters tell a story of cultural innovation for recognition and self-representation. The Peabody Award-winning political journalist and PBS NewsHour co-anchor employs chronologically arranged portraits of performers and programs from minstrelsy, vaudeville, Broadway, motion pictures, radio, and television. Linking early performers, such as minstrel Billy Kersands (1842-1915), to TV programs like Living Single (1993-98) and Chappelle’s Show (2003-06), Bennett shows how Black comedians have fundamentally shaped the American sense of humor and how pointed, provocative, nuanced, unapologetic Black voices engaged with issues like racism, sexism, colorism, and class. Their irreverent, sometimes controversial or even offensive comedy has challenged stereotypes and pushed boundaries, redefining public perceptions of comedy and Black identity. While carving out spaces for themselves in mainstream entertainment amid shifting politics and media industry economics, Black comedians have used humor to survive and subvert oppression. They have wielded artful satire as a weapon of resistance and helped open eyes in the United States and elsewhere to the richness and complexity of Black life.
VERDICT Bennett’s deft unfolding of a complicated legacy offers readers of U.S. popular culture, race relations, or Black identity insight into Black comedy’s poignant power. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line by Elle Cosimano
Starting her latest adventure (following Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave), Cosimano’s heroine is used to a chaotic life, but things have been harder since Vero Rodriguez, her kids’ nanny and Finlay’s own literal partner in crime, was arrested. Now Vero is under house arrest and awaiting trial for a crime (stealing from a sorority treasury) she adamantly insists she did not commit. Determined to clear Vero’s name, Finlay agrees to leave her adorable but wild children in the care of her boyfriend, “hot cop” Nick Anthony, and hops in her minivan. She arrives at Vero’s home to learn that Vero has been getting threatening messages and has had just about all of her overprotective mother and aunt that she can take. Together with help from some of their misfit friends, Finlay and Vero set out to prove Vero’s innocence. Hijinks ensue as they try to find Vero’s ex and alibi, identify her stalker, and program Vero’s ankle monitor to show her safely at home while she’s actually on a mission to clear her name.
VERDICT Great pacing, humor, storytelling, and characterization for fans of the series or those who enjoy the books of Janet Evanovich and Jesse Q. Sutanto. –Library Journal Review
Reader’s Note: Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line is the sixth book in the Finlay Donovan series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.
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Python’s Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich
An eight-year-old girl is sent to live with her flinty grandparents while her mother has a baby, carefully fitting herself into their hard-bitten lives as they run a small grocery store and butcher shop overseen by a fierce guard dog. School is not much safer when a presentation of “dangerous exotic creatures,” including an enormous python, veers out of control. The title story, the first in this enrapturing collection set primarily in Erdrich’s centering place, Minnesota, is saturated with feelings while wild, hilarious, and cruel acts and accidents occur in rapid succession. Each dramatic tale that follows, however distinct, generates a similar incandescent intensity. Dora’s niece insists on hearing the stories of Dora’s four water-damaged wedding dresses. A boa constrictor signifies the drastic troubles plaguing the son of a woman running a tribal newspaper. “The Hollow Children” reveals the thoughts of a farmer and part-time schoolteacher driving a full school bus through a deadly 1923 blizzard. “Love of My Days” is a riveting nineteenth-century outlaw tale. Erdrich glides into the future in two chilling tales about the corporate digital takeover of the afterlife. Spanning two writing decades, these profound and resplendent stories are shaped by wit, artistry, and wisdom as Erdrich traces the weave of life that intricately meshes humans with each other, animals, earth, sky, and spirit.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Erdrich is always on readers to-be-read lists and her admirers and all short-story lovers will be drawn to this landmark book, her first story collection since The Red Convertible (2009). –Starred Booklist Review
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Second Chance Duet by Ana Holguin
Celia Garcia has spent the last decade trying to break into the world of movie music, but so far all her jobs have involved creating advertising jingles and the like. Now a career-making opportunity to compose the score for a famous Hollywood director’s first television series is within her grasp. There is just one problem: Celia must work with a partner on the project. Ordinarily, Celia wouldn’t hesitate before agreeing to this stipulation, except the person Celia will be partnering with is none other than Oliver Barlowe. When they were both students at Juilliard, Oliver was a perpetual thorn in her side. Now if Celia wants the job, she will have to figure out some way to spend the next couple of months working closely with Oliver without going crazy. Holguin (Up Close & Personal, 2025) doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to composing a compelling enemies-to-lovers love story that is both flirtatiously sweet and seriously sexy in equal measures. With its perfectly matched protagonists and a fascinating plot that delves into the intriguing world of music composition, this will be a hit with romance readers. –Starred Booklist Review
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Truffle Trouble by Amanda Flower
Combining the sugar rush of candy making with a fascinating look at Amish life, a quirky whodunit, and a sweet romance between chocolatier Bailey King and Sheriff Aiden Brody, Amanda Flower’s USA Today bestselling Amish Candy Shop Mysteries continue, as summer wedding season comes to the village of Harvest, Ohio…
Horror d’oeuvres
Summer is finally upon the village of Harvest, Ohio, nestled in picturesque Amish Country, and folks are abuzz over their very own Bailey King’s upcoming June wedding. The Amish Candy shop owner and star of TV’s Bailey’s Amish Sweets is marrying Holmes County Sheriff Aiden Brody. To sweeten the occasion will be a scrumptious giant chocolate truffle wedding cake, made especially for the happy couple by Bailey’s New York City mentor, Jean Pierre. Other than the risk of the ring bearer, Jethro the pig, taking a bite out of the confection, what could go wrong?
As it turns out, a food-related disaster does befall the day. But with Bailey in the mix, it’s nothing so pedestrian as a peckish pig. At the reception, a wedding guest dies after sampling the hors d’oeuvres. Café owner and new caterer Darcy Woodin, who made all the food except the desserts, is pegged by police as the number one suspect. Even more incriminating, the victim is one of Darcy’s ex-boyfriends . . .
Still, Bailey is friends with Darcy, and she’s certain the young woman is innocent. Even before the first dance with her new husband, Bailey’s on the case. Can she help solve it in time for her honeymoon—or will a killer try to end her happily ever after before it’s even begun . . .?
Reader’s Note: Truffle Trouble is the tenth book in the Amish Candy Shop Mystery Series. If you’d like to start reading from the beginning, check out book one: Assaulted Caramel.
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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.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 