Hi everyone, here is our weekly Suggested Listening and Viewing post; featuring ten songs and two streaming video recommendations, one from a mainstream service and the other from Kanopy, the library’s free to access streaming service (all you need is a library card!).
This week we’re turning our listening spotlight on classic blues and jazz songs. Enjoy!
First the songs:
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St. Louis Blues (1925) by Bessie Smith
Found on the Album: Smith, Bessie: St. Louis Blues (1924-25) (2003)
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West End Blues (1928) by Louis Armstrong
Found on the Album: Volume IV – Louis Armstrong And Earl Hines (1989)
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Caravan (1936) by Duke Ellington
Found on the Album: Money Jungle (2002)
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Cross Road Blues (1937) by Robert Johnson
Found on the Album: King of the Detla Blues Singers (1937)
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Jumpin’ at the Woodside (1938) by Count Basie & His Orchestra
Found on the Album: The Complete Decca Recordings (1992)
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Key to the Highway (1940) by Big Bill Broonzy
Found on the Album: Vol. 1: The Pre-War Years (2007)
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A Night in Tunisia (1942) by Dizzy Gillespie
Found on the Album: Night In Tunisia: The Very Best Of Dizzy Gillespie (2006)
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I’m In The Mood (1951) by John Lee Hooker
Found on the Album: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of John Lee Hooker (1999)
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I’m Ready (1954) by Muddy Waters
Found on the Album: The Best of Muddy Waters (1957)
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Smokestack Lighting (1958) by Howlin’ Wolf
Found on the Album: Moanin’ In The Moonlight (1958)
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So What (1959) by Miles Davis
Found on the Album: Kind of Blue (1959)
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Take Five (1959) by The Dave Brubeck Quarter
Found on the Album: Time Out (1959)
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Lullaby of Birdland (1955) by Sarah Vaughan
Found on the Album: Lullaby of Birdland (1955)
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All The Things You Are (1963) by Ella Fitzgerald
Found on the Album: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Jerome Kern Song Book (1963)
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Second The videos:
A new title available through one of the mainstream U.S. streaming services, followed by a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.
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!
This week we’re turning our reading spotlight on five of the best mysteries of 2025, as found on several of Best Books of 2025 lists; links to the Best Books lists used in researching this post, are found at the end of the post.
Have a great holiday season!
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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
English writer Hall serves up twist after twist in her canny U.S. debut, a story of grief, love, and murder set in the Dorset countryside. The year is 1968 and Beth Johnson, wife of gentle sheep farmer Frank, remains shattered by the death of her nine-year-old son, Bobby, in an accident two years earlier. Her first love, Gabriel, a bestselling novelist who grew up wealthy on a nearby estate, returns with his young son, Leo, after separating from his American wife. Beth reconnects with Gabriel, fantasizing about rewinding her life to a simpler time, and she forges a bond with Leo, who reminds her of Bobby. An unreliable narrator, Beth provides a blinkered view of the action, mentioning early on that a farmer has been murdered and someone close to her is on trial for the crime, but neglecting to reveal the identities of these two characters until more than halfway through the narrative. As a result, readers are kept guessing about the precise consequences of Gabriel’s return and the circumstances behind Bobby’s death. Hall makes Beth a fascinatingly complex lead who vacillates between restlessness and contentment, and the other characters’ motivations prove to be different than they seem at first glance. This sharp morality tale will stay with readers. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Hegarty’s brilliant debut kicks off with a murder mystery–themed New Year’s Eve party at a posh London Airbnb. The guests of wealthy siblings Abigail and Benjamin include work acquaintance Barbara; Benjamin’s childhood friend, Stephen; bankrupt spoilsport Declan; extravagant couple Cormac and Olivia; and Dorcas, the maid. The morning after the festivities, Benjamin is found dead in his locked bedroom. The doctor who arrives on the scene suspects suicide, but a skeptical Abigail hires famous PI Auguste Bell to investigate. When Benjamin and Abigail’s eccentric aunt arrives to console Abigail, she, too, is unconvinced that Benjamin took his own life, and she partners with Bell to solve the crime. “There are too many clues,” complains a frustrated Bell, who asks absurd questions (“Does this house have gas central heating?”) of each suspect in an attempt to sniff out the murderer. A distraught Abigail turns against each of her friends until Bell finally announces the name of the killer. Or does he? Readers, especially fans of Richard Osman, will happily go along with the plot’s many reversals and take heart in its surprisingly tender conclusion. Hegarty’s wonderfully eccentric characters, expert knowledge of classic whodunits, and ability to balance silly hijinks and serious emotional stakes mark her as a writer worth keeping tabs on. For mystery lovers, this is a joy. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Holy City by Henry Wise
Winner of the 2025 Edgar Award for Best Novel by an American Author
A heinous crime tests a freshly minted deputy sheriff’s allegiances in Wise’s stylish debut. When Will Seems’s mother died 13 years ago, he fled rural Euphoria County, Va., for the “holy city” of Richmond. Now, he’s returned to take a job with Euphoria County’s police department, and he finds that his old neighborhood remains mired in poverty and crime. Soon after Will dons his badge, his childhood friend, Tom Janders, is murdered in an arson. Zeke Hathom, father of another of Will’s boyhood friends, is spotted running from the burning building, and authorities swiftly place him in custody. Substantial evidence implicates Zeke in Tom’s death, and Will’s boss wants to send Zeke to prison. Will, however, owes a deep adolescent debt to Zeke’s son and sets out to prove the older man’s innocence. When Zeke’s friends and family hire PI Bennico Watts to help exonerate him, she and Will enter into an uneasy alliance and plunge together into Euphoria County’s underworld. Wise propels the plot forward with flashbacks to the violence of Will’s past and the shame that motivates his return. Bold characters and splendid prose further enhance the proceedings. Wise knocks it out of the park his first time up to bat. – Publishers Weekly Review
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The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell
Winner of the 2025 Edgar Award for Best Novel
The second in the rompy, contemporary, Agatha Christie-esque Detective Inspector Caius Beau series, following The Other Half, sees Caius Beauchamp’s evening at the theater interrupted when a dead body is discovered. Two cold cases complicate matters further, as do politics and a duke-in-waiting. – Library Review
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Vantage Point: A Novel by Sarah Slinger
To be a member of one of the country’s wealthiest, most prestigious families means, well, wealth and prestige. But what if your family’s cursed and you’re a woman on the internet—are you ever truly safe? Sara Sligar’s Vantage Point blends family drama, generational trauma and the destructive forces of cutting-edge technology in a disturbing suspense story told from two compelling female perspectives. For the Wieland family, April is a historically tragic month: 14 Aprils ago, a teenage Clara Wieland witnessed both her parents’ brutal demise. A whirlwind of chaotic world travel, heavy substance use and eating disorder clinic stays later, Clara returns to Vantage Point, the family estate on a remote Maine island. Also living at Vantage Point are Clara’s brother, Teddy, now running for the U.S. Senate, and Clara’s childhood best friend, Jess, now married to Teddy. At the beginning of April, an intimate, graphic video of Clara surfaces online and immediately goes viral, but Clara has no memory of the video’s events. Is it real, or an extremely advanced deepfake? As Teddy’s political campaign is threatened and Jess struggles to hold the family together, Clara experiences disturbing hallucinations she insists are also engineered. Has Clara descended into madness, or are the three surviving Wielands in serious danger? Author and academic Sligar expertly crafts the history of her fictional dynasty through fictional Wikipedia entries describing the tragic outcomes of the Wieland curse, from wine cellar explosions to rogue horse tramplings. Jess grew up impoverished and became enmeshed with the Wielands at an early age, and Clara is still grappling with the tremendous loss in her adolescence. Close confidantes and now in-laws, they each provide a unique perspective on the family’s collective trauma, and they share common ground as women vulnerable to a society intent on ruining them. The “future” of believable deepfakes is already here, and Sligar’s novel serves as an entertaining literary companion to shows like Succession, but also a warning to women everywhere: Your moment of deepfake reckoning may be just around the corner. – Starred BookPage Review
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 are our five suggested reads of the week!
This week we are turning the reading spotlight on five of the years’ best general fiction titles, as found on several Best Books of 2025 lists. Links to the review articles are found in the references section at the end of the post.
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Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
Kraus’ follow-up to Whalefall (2023) explores the same deeply emotional themes, this time in WWI France. Private Bagger has used his wits to stay alive in the trenches as a latrine and grave digger. He and four other misfits are asked to stay behind in order to “take care” of a suffering soldier lying in the dangerous no-man’s land between them and the Germans. However, it is not a soldier they find screaming–it is an angel, fallen from heaven and stuck in barbed wire. As the men travel to rejoin their unit, carrying the angel, each is mesmerized by her light and tempted by her power. She could save them all or lead to their deaths. The book unfolds like a chant, in short paragraphs each beginning with the word and, and readers will quickly fall under Bagger’s narrative spell as they see the visceral and gruesome toll war takes on the entire planet. Is Bagger going to survive through a miracle or by luck? A brilliant novel that will encourage its readers to live their best lives, despite the horrors that surround them. For fans of John Milas’ The Militia House (2023) and thought-provoking tales that sow discomfort through story and narrative structure, such as Agustina Bazterrica’s The Unworthy (2025). – Booklist Review
Angel Down is found on the New York Times Best Books of 2025 list.
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Antidote by Karen Russell
The prairie witch calls herself The Antidote because people feel so much better after she unburdens them of painful memories, storing them in her “vault.” But when she finds herself in jail in the midst of a terrifying dust storm in Uz, Nebraska, she realizes that the deposits she’s been paid to protect have vanished. High-school basketball star Asphodel Oletsky, living, since her mother was murdered, with her uncle Harp, a dryland farmer, is desperate to keep her winning team on the court after they lose their sponsor. Harp is haunted by how his Polish parents were forced off their land by the Germans, only to find themselves unwittingly doing the same to Native Americans. New Deal photographer Cleo Allfrey, at risk on the plains as a Black woman, arrives in Uz during the worst of the Dust Bowl and finds people pushed to the brink by drought, deadly and otherworldly dust storms, vanished crops and topsoil, unsolved murders, and a corrupt and brutal sheriff. Among many strange occurrences, Cleo’s photographs inexplicably depict the horrific past and a possible future. Highly honored Russell follows two stellar story collections with her second novel, an ardent work of encompassing and compassionate historical fiction supercharged with her signature imaginative, astutely calibrated supernatural twists. A dramatic and uncanny tale of the drastic consequences of our destruction of nature and Indigenous communities. – Booklist Review
Found on Pen America’s Best Books of 2025 list.
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Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Fired from her lackluster job as an adjunct professor of writing, and on the verge of needing to move back in with her parents, Zelu has lost control of her life. Because she’s disinclined to pick up the pieces in a way that will satisfy her family, a Nigerian American dynasty for whom being exceptional is considered merely ordinary, she turns instead back to her writing. What comes out of those dark moments is a piece of science fiction set in the aftermath of humanity’s extinction. Upon publication, the novel captures the entire world’s imagination, quickly becoming a bestseller and almost immediately being optioned as a movie. But the consequences of Zelu’s meteoric rise aren’t all so dreamy. As they ripple out, they change her life forever, causing her to rethink her relationship to her writing, her family and even her own body. Death of the Author, by acclaimed science fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death), is comfortable straddling the line between genres. Okorafor explores the dynamics Zelu experiences as a disabled Nigerian American author from the south suburbs of Chicago, rendering familiar experiences with remarkable specificity, pulling us in so that we understand Zelu’s truth, warts and all. As the book shines on a literary level, so, too, do its science fiction elements. In a metafictional twist, Okorafor peppers in chapters from Zelu’s bestselling novel with increasing frequency as the story progresses. Beyond being interesting in their own right, the chapters give us a lens through which to see Zelu more clearly—and influence the course of her journey. A remarkable exploration of storytelling, fame and the Nigerian American experience, Death of the Author surprises all the way to its brilliant ending. Read our interview with Nnedi Okorafor about Death of the Author. – BookPage Review
Found on the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2025 list.
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The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Booker winner Desai returns 19 years after The Inheritance of Loss with an elegant bildungsroman of two Indian people and their convergence in the early 2000s U.S. The reader meets the pair before they meet each other, when they’re unhappy with their current partners. Sunny, a journalist in New York City, navigates the contradictory feelings that come with dating an American woman and the challenge of reporting on one world while feeling suspended between two. Meanwhile, Sonia, a college student and aspiring novelist in Vermont, struggles to adapt to American life. She winds up in a relationship with Ilan de Toorjen Foss, an artist 30 years her senior, and moves with him to New York, where she hopes to feel less lonely. Instead, Ilan proves controlling and quickly isolates her. Eventually, Sunny and Sonia meet on a train. Their love story is affecting and enriched by Desai’s forays into the lives of their family members in India, including Sunny’s widowed and overbearing mother, who’s stuck with her corrupt brothers-in-law and lives vicariously through her son; Sonia’s mother, who leaves her husband to become a hermit in the jungle cottage that was once her German father’s art studio; and many more. Desai’s artful prose is subtle even when pitched on a grand scale (“There were no children in India anymore in the homes of successful parents of a successful class”). This ambitious yet intimate saga is well worth the wait. – Publisher’s Weekly Review
Found on both Maureen Corrigan’s Best Books of 2025 list and the New York Times Best Books of 2025 list.
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Theft: A Novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah
The bonds of family, friends, and workers are tested in this coming-of-age tale about three young people. Beautiful Fauzia is magnetically drawn to the handsome, suave Karim who comes from a well-to-do family. Badar is an uneducated domestic worker in Karim’s household; his family severely neglected him. Fauzia teaches Badar how to cook and clean the house, and he proves capable until he is falsely accused of theft. This accusation changes his life, but Karim gets him a job at the Tamarind Hotel. At the hotel, Badar meets an attractive woman, a guest who invites him out to dinner. When Badar declines, Karim steps in and takes the guest to one of his favorite restaurants. This begins an affair, another pivotal moment that leads to abrupt changes in the lives of the novel’s three protagonists.
VERDICT Nobel Prize winner Gurnah (emeritus, English and postcolonial literatures, Univ. of Kent; Afterlives) is a captivating, enthralling storyteller whose characters are vibrant and sympathetic. The pages fly by quickly in his wonderful new novel. – Library Journal Review
Found on Town And Country Magazine’s The 20 Best Books of 2025 list.
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.
1. BRIMSTONE by Callie Hart: The second book in the Fae & Alchemy series. To save those close to them, Saeris and Fisher face a new set of dangers.
2. THE WIDOW by John Grisham: When Simon Latch, a lawyer in rural Virginia, is accused of murder, he goes in search of the real killer.
3. THE SECRET OF SECRETS by Dan Brown: As he searches for the missing noetic scientist he has been seeing, Robert Langdon discovers something regarding a secret project.
4. ALCHEMISED by SenLinYu: After the war, an imprisoned alchemist is sent to a necromancer to recover her lost memories.
5. QUICKSILVER by Callie Hart: Saeris is transported to a dangerous land of ice and snow, where she must contend with a Fae warrior who has suspect agendas.
6. GONE BEFORE GOODBYE by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben: When a mysterious man disappears, the former combat surgeon giving him medical assistance goes on the lam.
7. THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans: Letters from someone she used to know push Sybil Van Antwerp toward revisiting her past and finding a way to forgive.
8. THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden: Troubles surface when a woman looking to make a fresh start takes a job in the home of the Winchesters.
9. THE BOOK OF AZRAEL by Amber V. Nicole: As dangers intensify, an alliance between enemies might be the only thing that can save a world and various realms.
10. RETURN OF THE SPIDER by James Patterson: The 34th book in the Alex Cross series. An enemy’s murder book suggests Cross may have made rookie mistakes years ago.
11. PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir: Ryland Grace awakes from a long sleep alone and far from home, and the fate of humanity rests on his shoulders.
12. EXIT STRATEGY by Lee Child and Andrew Child: The 30th book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher’s interest is piqued when he finds a handwritten note in his pocket.
13. THE INTRUDER by Freida McFadden: During a rough storm, Casey puts herself in danger when she lets a girl, who is covered in blood, into her cabin.
14. MURDER AT HOLLY HOUSE by Denzil Meyrick: When a dead stranger is found in a Yorkshire chimney around the holidays in 1952, Inspector Frank Grasby gets assigned the case.
15. THE SEVEN RINGS by Nora Roberts: The third book in the Lost Bride Trilogy. Sonya fights across two realms to take possession of a haunted manor.
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NON-FICTION
1. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin: The New York Times journalist and CNBC host looks at the fight between Washington and Wall Street that fueled a historic crash of the stock market.
2. HOW TO TEST NEGATIVE FOR STUPID by John Kennedy: The Republican senator from Louisiana shares stories about politics in Washington, D.C., and in his home state.
3. NOBODY’S GIRL by Virginia Roberts Giuffre: The late activist and advocate for sex-trafficking survivors describes her time with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
4. THE LOOK by Michelle Obama with Meredith Koop: A celebration of the former first lady’s evolution in style, featuring more than 200 photographs.
5. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns: A companion to the PBS series that delves into various facets of the war and the founding of a new form of government.
6. POEMS & PRAYERS by Matthew McConaughey: The actor and author of “Greenlights” explores elements of belief and reason that make up our lives.
7. 107 DAYS by Kamala Harris: The former vice president recounts her abbreviated campaign to become president in 2024.
8. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
9. THE GREATEST SENTENCE EVER WRITTEN by Walter Isaacson: The historian and biographer examines the concepts of a statement found in the Declaration of Independence.
10. THE GALES OF NOVEMBER by John U. Bacon: An account of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, an American Great Lakes freighter, 50 years ago.
11. HEART LIFE MUSIC by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason: The country musician recounts events and encounters that shaped his life and career.
12. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
13. SIMPLY MORE by Cynthia Erivo: The multiple award-winning performer and producer shares insights into how she overcame obstacles to complete real and metaphorical marathons.
14. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
15. TO RESCUE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT by Bret Baier with Catherine Whitney: The Fox News Channel’s chief political anchor chronicles the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt.
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Have a great Sunday!
Linda
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays.
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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For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
And along with the new year, will be a new season of Books Sandwiched In, hosted by The Friends of the Library, SSCL and held at the First Congregational Church (171 West Pulteney Street) in Corning.
Here is an informal version of the schedule:
Professional/formal copies of the schedule may be picked up at the library.
Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Home of the American Circus: A Novel by Allison Larkin
In Larkin’s charming latest (after The People We Keep), a 30-something woman forges an unexpected bond with her teenage niece. Freya, a bartender in coastal Maine, returns to her hometown in the Hudson Valley after her parents die in a car accident, having inherited the ramshackle house she grew up in. She’s surprised to find her troubled niece Aubrey, 15, secretly living in the house. The reason at first seems to be teenage rebellion, but the troubling truth is gradually revealed, along with Freya’s fraught history with her sister, Steena, who is Aubrey’s mother, and with Steena’s scummy husband, Charlie. Freya gets a job at a local inn and reconnects with old friends, who, along with Aubrey, help her repair the house. While the storytelling is simplistic—Steena, Charlie, and the sisters’ late mother are dastardly, while those on Freya and Aubrey’s side are correspondingly good-hearted—Larkin explores with tenderness and nuance the strong yet complicated relationship between her protagonists, and successfully uses the details of home repair as a metaphor for the rebuilding of Freya’s and Aubrey’s lives. It’s a cozy tale of new beginnings. – Publishers Weekly Review
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Murder in Constantinople by A.E. Goldin
DEBUT Ben Canaan, the son of a Jewish East End tailor in 1850s London, finds himself at the center of the international intrigue of the Crimean War in this first entry in a swashbuckling and highly entertaining series. Ben, dissatisfied with his lot in life and itching for more, runs afoul of the law, his family, and a local gangster. Discovering a recent photo of a lost love he believed was dead, Ben escapes to Constantinople to find her. Once there, he is pursued by the police and embroiled in a series of political murders called the White Death, plus a conspiracy that threatens the life of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire with potentially disastrous outcomes for Britain in the Crimean War. Although the book includes numerous plot contrivances and derring-do stereotypes, Goldin writes Ben with such verve and fun that he’s a natural companion to Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence and John Buchan’s Richard Hannay. VERDICT Goldin interweaves romance and vibrant local and historical color into this winning first novel. Readers willing to fully suspend their disbelief will be delighted by this boisterous and charming espionage mystery.-Library Journal Review
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Murder at Holly House by Denzil Meyrick
In Meyrick’s proposed trilogy starter, it’s December 1952 and Detective Inspector Frank Grasby has once again mishandled an investigation in York, England. As a reprimand, he is temporarily reassigned to the village of Elderby in the North Yorkshire moors to solve a string of thefts at several farms. Upon arrival, he discovers his staff consists of two constables, an American intern, and a sergeant prone to narcolepsy. While interviewing the local aristocratic family about the latest theft, Frank finds a body stuffed into a chimney. No one in the area claims to know the victim. After a second murder occurs, Frank realizes that Elderby is not just a sleepy country village; it conceals many secrets. When he is warned off investigating the deaths by his superiors, however, he is more curious than ever. Frank soon discovers he may be in over his head and that the people he has chosen to depend on may be his worst career mistake yet. VERDICT This is quite a departure from the author’s DCI Daley series. Meyrick, who died in February 2025, includes plenty of humorous asides and commentary from Grasby. That and the dialogue style add a lighthearted mood.-Library Journal Review
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Never Rescue A Rogue: A Novel by Virginia Heath
A duke teams up with a journalist to protect his tenants from his scheming uncle in Heath’s infectious second Merriwell Sisters historical romance (after Never Fall for Your Fiancée). Roguish Giles Sinclair, heir to the Duke of Harpenden, learned years ago that his real mother was the duke’s mistress, making him illegitimate. When his father dies suddenly, Giles fears it’s only a matter of time before the truth gets out and the law comes calling to seize his dukedom and hand it over to his greedy, philandering uncle Gervais. Brilliant Diana Merriwell also has a secret: she’s The Sentinel, an anonymous reporter with a reputation for using her pen to uncover dangerous secrets. Though no one in Diana’s family knows her real role at the paper, Giles suspects the truth. The quarrelsome pair have been forced to tolerate each other ever since Giles’s best friend married Diana’s sister—and now Giles turns to Diana for help. As they work together to protect each other’s secrets, their witty bickering becomes more like foreplay and trust and loyalty grow. Still, the threat of Gervais and Diana’s distrust for men threaten their budding romance. It’s the perfect mix of romance and intrigue, and the formidable central couple is sure to win hearts. This is a gem. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Return of the Spider by James Patterson
Return of the Spider is the stunning companion novel to Along Came a Spider, the New York Times bestselling classic thriller from the world’s most popular storyteller.
Enter the thrilling world of the #1 bestselling detective series that inspired the Prime Video show, Cross.
Along Came a Spider introduced Detective Alex Cross to readers around the globe and delivered an unsurpassed rivalry: Cross—named the “human superhero” by The New York Times—versus Gary Soneji, who the Lexington-Herald Leader called the “most deliciously wicked character since Hannibal Lecter”. But that wasn’t their first meeting …
Police discover that Soneji kept a murder book, Profiles in Homicidal Genius, detailing his transformation from substitute teacher to hardened serial killer—including clues that imply missteps that Alex Cross may have made a rookie homicide detective.
Now, Alex must retrace the steps of that long-ago investigation and face … the Return of the Spider.
Reader’s Note: Return of the Spider is the thirty-third book in the Alex Cross Series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: Along Came A Spider.
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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, or the library is closed a day due to inclement weather, and then they are published later in the week.
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 are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Clown Town by Mick Herron
A series of mounting complications leads to yet another fight to the death between the discarded intelligence agents of Slough House and the morally bankrupt head of MI5. As Jackson Lamb’s motley crew on Aldersgate Street struggles to cope with the deaths of River Cartwright’s grandfather and mentor, intelligence veteran David Cartwright, and their dim, beloved colleague Min Harper, new troubles are brewing. Diana Taverner, who runs the British Intelligence Service from Regent’s Park, is being blackmailed by former MP Peter Judd to do his bidding. Nothing untoward about that, of course, but this time, Judd’s demands, backed by a compromising tape recording, are more pressing than usual. So Diana reconvenes the Brains Trust–Al Hawke, Avril Potts, Daisy Wessex, and their ex-boss Charles Cornell Stamoran–whose last assignment was to serve as the contact for psychopathic IRA informant Dougie Malone while turning a blind eye to his multiple rapes and murders, which were really none of the Crown’s business. Taverner’s new assignment for the Brains Trust is the assassination of Judd. Since all these developments are filtered through the riotously cynical lens of Herron’s imagination, nothing goes as planned, and when the smoke clears, the fatalities don’t include Judd. Now that Judd knows he has as much reason to fear Taverner as she does to fear him, Lamb offers to broker a peace meeting between them which Slough House computer geek Roddy Ho will keep secret by knocking out 37 security cameras around Taverner’s dwelling. What could possibly go wrong? The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence. – Kirkus Review
Reader’s Note: Clown Town is the nineth book in the Slough House series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: Slow Horses.
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It Was the Way She Said It Short Stories, Essays, and Wisdom by Terry McMillan
The best part of reading this entertaining collection of published and unpublished fiction, sketches, and nonfiction is the sheer delight of immersing yourself in the works of a writer who has plenty to say and has never been afraid to say it. Author of 1990s megahits like Waiting To Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, McMillan has been chronicling the hopes, dreams, and defiance of Black women for decades, examining relationships between men and women, friends, neighbors, and family with hard-won wisdom and a rebellious authenticity. In these stories, economic woes figure prominently in the lives of her characters. Most of the protagonists are women, but in “The End,” published in 1976, a weary worker at the Ford Motor Co. confronts his dull days and the myriad factors that trap and isolate him. In “Reconstruction,” a man loses his job, and a couple’s relationship deteriorates into physical violence and sexual abuse. In “Ma’Dear (for Estelle Ragsdale),” a scrappy elderly widow survives by taking in boarders she’s not supposed to have. There are also characters struggling with love and its fallout–pregnancy scares, anger, regret, loneliness and loss–proving that McMillan has never shied away from frank assessments of sex and its power. In one of the best stories, “Can’t Close My Eyes to It,” a young girl spends time with her beloved grandmother and learns hard lessons about life. Even McMillan’s quick sketches are so immediately absorbing that you wish she’d fleshed them out into full-blown stories. You won’t want to skip the nonfiction pieces, which range from essays to a commencement speech, because the author’s voice is always engaging. But it’s through her fiction that McMillan shines brightest. “She reads the times we’re living through,” author Ishmael Reed writes in the foreword, a truth evident on every page. An entertaining reminder of McMillan’s storytelling abilities and unflinching honesty. – Starred Kirkus Review
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A Land So Wide: A Novel by Erin A. Craig
Greer Mackenzie has always dreamed of seeing the world beyond the borders of her settlement of Mistaken, and her work as a mapmaker only adds to that desire. However, she and everyone else who lives in Mistaken are trapped there by the Warding Stones that surround their tiny community. These stones also keep out the monsters, known as the Bright-Eyed, that live in the woodlands beyond Mistaken’s borders. Greer makes plans with her childhood love, Ellis Beaufort, to find each other during the Hunt (a hide-and-seek courting game that pairs up couples to marry), but when the Hunt begins, she is shocked to see Ellis walk through the boundary of the Warding Stones and be hunted by a creature. Determined to save Ellis, Greer discovers that the history of their town is not what its residents have been told. She and Mistaken have mysterious origins, and all will come to light as the Bright-Eyed face the travelers. The novel starts off at a slow pace, but the second half quickly sets up an action-filled sequence of events.
VERDICT Craig’s (The Thirteenth Child) adult debut pulls from Scottish folklore to explore a woman’s desire to be free. – Library Journal Review
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Please Don’t Lie by Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt
In this stylish, twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and award-winning author Anne Burt, a young woman heads to the Adirondacks with her new husband for a fresh start—but the past won’t let her go.
Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family’s tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation.
But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined.
Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends—a free-spirited couple living on the property—can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off.
As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous. – from the publisher
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Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
The world’s most celebrated thriller writer and author of The Da Vinci Code returns with his most stunning novel yet—a propulsive, twisty, thought-provoking masterpiece that will entertain readers as only Dan Brown can do.
Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon—a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague’s most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, Langdon desperately searches for Katherine . . . and for answers. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, he uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind.
The Secret of Secrets is the sixth book in the Robert Langdon series, if you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning check out book one: Angels & Demons.
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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.
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.
–
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.
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.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios or streaming videos)? 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.
–
Visit the Southeast Steuben County Library website for more information on the library, its programs and services: https://ssclibrary.org
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.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios or streaming videos)? 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.
–
Visit the Southeast Steuben County Library website for more information on the library, its programs and services: https://ssclibrary.org
1. DON’T LET HIM IN by Lisa Jewell: A man with dark secrets in his past may cause trouble for three women who did not heed the warning about him.
2. A MOTHER’S LOVE by Danielle Steel: After her handbag is stolen during a trip to Paris, a best-selling author with a traumatic past determines not to be a victim.
3. ATMOSPHERE by Taylor Jenkins Reid: In the summer of 1980, Joan Goodwin begins training with a group of candidates for NASA’s space shuttle program.
4. ONE GOLDEN SUMMER by Carley Fortune: A photographer returns to a place where she spent a summer as a teenager and runs into the guy she had a crush on back then.
5. SEVERED HEART by Kate Stewart: The second book in the Ravenhood Legacy series. Tyler gets his friend’s aunt to help him on his quest to become a man before his time.
6. THE TENANT by Freida McFadden: Things take an unsettling turn when a marketing executive loses his job and a woman rents a room in his brownstone.
7. CAUGHT UP by Navessa Allen: The second book of the Into Darkness series. Nico “Junior” Trocci and Lauren Marchetti become ensnared in a game of seduction.
8. THE FIRST GENTLEMAN by Bill Clinton and James Patterson: When President Wright’s husband goes on trial for murder, a pair of journalists search for answers.
9. NEVER FLINCH by Stephen King: Holly Gibney does double duty by helping head off acts of retribution and protecting a women’s rights activist.
10. GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Emily Henry: A writer looking for her big break competes against a Pulitzer winner to tell the story of an octogenarian with a storied past.
11. PROBLEMATIC SUMMER ROMANCE by Ali Hazelwood: Things get complicated between an older biotech guy and a struggling graduate student who go to a destination wedding.
12. ONYX STORM by Rebecca Yarros: The third book in the Empyrean series. As enemies gain traction, Violet Sorrengail goes beyond the Aretian wards in search of allies.
13. MY FRIENDS by Fredrik Backman: A young woman looks into the story behind a painting that was made 25 years ago and a small group of teens depicted in it; translated by Neil Smith.
14. REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt: A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.
15. THE RIVER IS WAITING by Wally Lamb: A man struggling in several areas of his life is sentenced to prison, where he encounters acts of kindness and brutality.
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NON-FICTION
1. BEHIND THE BADGE by Johnny Joey Jones: The Fox News military analyst extols the first responders among his friends and family.
2. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.
3. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt: A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the mental health impacts that a phone-based life has on children.
4. NOT MY TYPE by E. Jean Carroll: The journalist shares moments from her life and the two trials in which she accused President Trump of sexual assault and defamation.
5. MARK TWAIN by Ron Chernow: The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer portrays the life and career of the literary celebrity and political pundit.
6. ABUNDANCE by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson: A New York Times opinion columnist and a staff writer at The Atlantic evaluate obstacles to American progress.
7. ORIGINAL SIN by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson: An account of Joe Biden’s initial decision to run for re-election in 2024 and its numerous consequences.
8. EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green: The author of “The Anthropocene Reviewed” chronicles the fight against the deadly infectious disease tuberculosis.
9. ON TYRANNY by Timothy Snyder: Twenty lessons from the 20th century about the course of tyranny.
10. CULTISH by Amanda Montell: The author of “The Age of Magical Overthinking” evaluates language techniques used by various groups to develop followers.
11. OUTLIVE by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
12. THE WAGER by David Grann: The survivors of a shipwrecked British vessel on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain have different accounts of events.
13. BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah: A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the former host of “The Daily Show.”
14. BIG DUMB EYES by Nate Bargatze: The Grammy Award-nominated comedian shares snippets from his life and career.
15. EDUCATED by Tara Westover: The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.
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Have a great week!
Linda
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New York Times Bestseller lists are shared via blog post on Sundays; unless the poster is going in on vacation and inadvertently selects a different date, as was the case for last Sunday and yesterday (sorry about that!) – and with this list (7.13.25) – we are finally up to date!
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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For more information on library materials and services, including how to get a library card call the library at 607-936-3713.
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*The Southern Tier Library System includes the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler & Allegheny counties.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 