Tag: public library

Suggested Reading Five: January 7, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole 

Ellory Morgan feels a bit isolated as an older-than-average freshman at the prestigious Warren University, arriving with a handful of community college credits and a Godwin Scholarship, which entails a full ride with high expectations and a work-study job. She immediately goes head-to-head with Hudson Graves, whose family donated the campus library, as the two of them are both brilliant Black students from vastly different backgrounds in a wealthy, white academic environment. Their paths continue to cross, with inexplicable incidents of both déjà vu and possibly magic drawing their analytical minds towards the puzzle of mysterious disappearances across the history of their campus. With their friends’ help, they use a cross-section of magical heritage and institutional knowledge to delve into the mysteries, drawing them into a seance with the library ghost and other strange occurrences. As the plot untangles, a surprising twist has Ellory making life-or-death decisions for her friends. Cole’s adult debut is an unusual dark academia tale that diverges from an obvious enemies-to-lovers conclusion to build a richer story. – Booklist Review 

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The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave 

Dave’s latest takes place five years after the events of The Last Thing He Told Me, in which Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter Bailey had to run for their lives after Hannah’s husband Owen disappeared. They’ve now settled into a new life, with Bailey a recent college graduate and Hannah a successful artist. They even both have a good relationship with Hannah’s grandfather, whom they have grown to love and trust. Then unexpected events cause Hannah and Bailey to flee once again for their safety. Twists and turns will keep readers guessing throughout the novel at how it will all end. Chapters jump back and forth between past and present, but with smooth transitions that flow with the story. The characters’ love and concern for each other show through their thoughts and actions, and even minor characters show their loyalty by keeping long-ago promises. VERDICT This sequel is sure to be a hit, with fans of the first novel or its Apple TV+ series adaptation lining up to read it. A definite buy for most collections. – Library Journal Review 

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Pride And Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vaill 

Vaill  examines the lives of Angelica Schuyler Church and Elizabeth “”Eliza”” Schuyler Hamilton, the unconventional eldest daughters of the prominent Schuyler family. Following their wealthy childhoods in upstate New York, Angelica and Eliza socialized with prominent figures during the American Revolution. Eliza married Alexander Hamilton, and Vaill recounts their relationship and how Eliza helped Hamilton create several of the nation’s founding documents. Angelica married a businessman, moved to England, and became a witness to the wider effects of unrest in Europe. Vaill relates the main events of the Revolutionary War and other volatile events while interweaving Angelica and Eliza’s experiences. After Hamilton is killed in a duel, Eliza immersed herself in charity work and fought to preserve his legacy. Vaill speculates on the women’s feelings and motivations where sources are scarce as well as on the suspiciously close relationship between Angelica and Hamilton. A detailed and fascinating story of two strong women. – Booklist Review  

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The Shop On Hidden Lane by Jayne Ann Krentz 

For four generations, the Wells and the Harpers have feuded over the proper professional use of psychic powers. Eventually, a tenuous pact to agree to disagree was reached. Now Sophy Harper and Luke Wells are going to test that pact when Luke’s Uncle Deke disappears, and Luke hires Sophy to “read and clean” the scene of the crime. However, while doing so, Sophy discovers that not only did her beloved Aunt Bea disappear with Deke but all the rumors of “No-Talent” Luke’s lack of physic powers are untrue. Luke seems to have a few psychic tricks up his sleeve, and he is to be the one man who isn’t scared off by Sophy’s own unique talents. Krentz’s (It Takes a Psychic, 2025) latest paranormally imbued romantic-suspense novel, which stands on its own while simultaneously referencing other titles in the Jayneverse, delivers everything her readers crave including a super-cool librarian heroine with an intriguing side hustle, plenty of snappy dialogue, simmering sexual chemistry, and a clever canine who almost steals the show. – Starred Booklist Review  

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The Storm by Rachel Hawkins  

In 1984, Landon Fitzroy is found dead on the beach in St. Medard’s Bay after a hurricane has roared through town. His death is initially thought to be an accident, a horrible case of wrong place, wrong time. When Landon’s affair with local teen Lo Bailey is discovered, Lo is accused of murder and of using the storm to cover up her crime. After she is acquitted, Lo escapes the gossip and leaves town. Forty years later, Geneva Corliss is the current owner of her family’s struggling hotel, The Rosalie Inn. When August, a writer, reserves a room to work on a book about the Fitzroy case, Geneva thinks the publicity may help her save the inn. Unexpectedly accompanying August is Lo, and as another hurricane makes its way toward the town, the truth about what happened in 1984 will be uncovered. Hawkins uses her mastery of multiple time lines and characters to great effect in this quick and enjoyable read, and the pulpy nature of the story will appeal to fans of Sally Hepworth and Laura Dave. – Booklist  

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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.

New Books Coming Your Way: January 2026

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, here is a list of all the new books, physical media items, eAudios & eBooks the library has ordered this month.

New Books Coming Your Way at the Southeast Steuben County Library

January 2026

New Books Coming Your Way January 2026Download

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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P.S. Some of the print books & physical media items may not yet appear in StarCat. So, if you see any title you’d like to check out, but it isn’t in StarCat, send me an email or give me a call and I’ll put your name on the list for it, as soon as it has arrived.

P.S.S. The three digital catalogs are:

The Digital Catalog found online at https://stls.overdrive.com/ and its companion app Libby found in mobile app stores.

The Hoopla Catalog found online at: https://www.hoopladigital.com/ and its companion app, also called Hoopla and found in mobile app stores.

Kanopy: The streaming video catalog found online at https://www.kanopy.com/ and its companion app, also called Kanopy, found in mobile app stores.

Suggested Reading Five: December 31, 2025

Linda Reimer

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

On another library note, the Southeast Steuben County Library is open abridged hours today, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Additionally, the library is closed tomorrow, January 1, 2026, due to the New Year’s holiday. We will re-open at our regular opening time of 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 2, 2026. Happy New Year to everyone!

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This week we’re focusing on five of the best non-fiction titles of 2025, again as compiled from a number of “Best of 2025” book lists, links for which may be found at the end of this post.

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Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao

A well-reported look at the frontiers of information technology as brought to the world courtesy of artificial intelligence. “I think this will be the most transformative and beneficial technology humanity has yet invented,” Silicon Valley tech tycoon Sam Altman once exalted of ChatGPT, the AI engine built on a vast corpus of words. Hao, a writer forThe Atlantic and other publications, takes a more measured view of the accomplishments of Altman and his OpenAI, a tech firm with significant transparency issues and a curious structure, part nonprofit, part for profit. Hao opens with Altman’s being fired in November 2023 at the hands of his board and his quick return to the company with few of those issues resolved, a drama that, Hao writes, “highlighted one of the most urgent questions of our generation: How do we govern artificial intelligence?” It’s an urgent question indeed, given that AI increasingly governs us in making decisions about judicial sentencings, college admissions, health insurance payouts, and so on. Moreover, Hao writes, AI development has become increasingly secretive, with the evolving product put to uses that “could amplify and exploit the fault lines in our society.” Against booster promises that AI will solve the climate crisis and discover a cure for cancer, Hao–who found employees blocked from speaking with her “beyond sanctioned conversations”–looks at some unhappy realities: For one, data centers consume huge amounts of energy, with one planned facility using nearly as much power as New York City; for another, most of the corpus of AI’s large language models overlooks the developing world, where, not coincidentally, a great deal of AI-related grunt work is happening for low wages in places like Kenya and Chile. A pointed account raises needed questions about how AI is to be regulated to do no–or at least less–harm. – Kirkus Review

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Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families by Judith Giesberg 

 The Second Middle Passage, the transportation of enslaved people from one U.S. state to another, forcibly separated families, relocating siblings, parents, children, and spouses across multiple states. The arduous task of locating loved ones who had often not been seen for decades began after the defeat of the Confederacy. Ads placed in newspapers throughout the North and South urgently sought information about long-lost family members. Giesberg (history, Villanova Univ.; Sex and the Civil War) expertly utilizes an archive of thousands of such information-seeking ads published from the end of the Civil War through the 1920s. Many of the stories demonstrate how difficult it could be to locate family members, as searchers tried to remember names, dates, and places. In other instances, people discovered that in the intervening years, their spouses had remarried. While a few stories have endings where family members were reunited, the vast majority show how the horrors of enslavement and forced migration continued to affect Black families for years after emancipation. VERDICT Based on a unique set of sources, this heart-wrenching work should be read by all focused on enslavement studies as well as American and Civil War history. – Starred Library Journal Review

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A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst

British journalist Elmhirst’s first book is the riveting tale of a quirky married couple who survived 117 days lost at sea in the 1970s. Maralyn and Maurice wanted to live a different life from their parents in England, so instead of settling down and buying a house, they got a boat. They spent four years building out their small yacht, the Auralyn. In June 1972, they set off on their planned around-the-world cruise, sailing to Spain, then across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal. Occasionally, the couple would travel with like-minded couples, but mostly they sailed alone and, at Maurice’s insistence, without a radio transmitter on board. En route to the Galapagos Islands, a dying whale crashes into their hull, and the Auralyn sinks quickly. The couple find themselves alone in the ocean with only a dinghy, a life raft, and what they could salvage from the wreck. The story then follows the next 117 days at sea, as they find all their survival skills tested. Elmhirst reconstructs the tale from Maralyn’s diaries, books the couple wrote after their rescue, and news stories. VERDICT This compelling adventure story of two people sailing around the world without radios or electronics has emotional depth.—Library Journal Review

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Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy

 Roy’s mother Mary was formidable, her brilliance and determination yoked to her “rage and unpredictability.” So dominant and radical was Mary, Roy compares her childhood in Kerala, India, to growing up in a cult requiring “unquestioning obedience and frequently demonstrated adoration of the Mother-Guru,” demands the future writer failed to meet. In the wake of her mother’s death, Booker Prize-winner Roy recounts her unconventional life, beginning with her shocking their small Syrian Christian community by divorcing her husband, clashing with family over property rights, and running a thriving, progressive village school. Mary was also a fierce women’s rights activist even as her viciousness toward her daughter led to a long estrangement. Roy left home young, living hand-to-mouth, studying architecture, and finding her way to love and writing, first screenplays, then, eventually, the novel that made her famous, The God of Small Things (1997). She reconnected with her feckless father and impossible mother as the book’s success brought her controversy and wealth, which she generously shared. Never one to play it safe, Roy began writing daring essays about social and environmental crises, embarking on a “restless, unruly life as a seditious traitor-writer,” traveling across India and Kashmir while facing prosecution, “insults and outrage.” Roy’s stunning, dramatic, funny, far-ranging, and complexly illuminating chronicle portraying two strong-willed women fighting for justice and truth is incandescent in its fury, courage, and love. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Roy’s many avid admirers are eagerly awaiting her first memoir, certain that, as always, she will be astute, provocative, and bewitching. – Starred Booklist Review

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There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone

Homelessness has long been a chronic problem in almost every large American city. However, the common assumption that the homeless are unemployed (and unemployable) is challenged in journalist Goldstone’s heartbreaking book. He does a deep dive into the history and circumstances of several family units in the Atlanta area who have been plagued by homelessness, despite having jobs. These families have found themselves without a home, sometimes because of personal problems but more often through adverse developments beyond their control. Some of them face eviction by a landlord intent on development, some have subsistence jobs that make them unable to afford move-in costs. Occasionally they have enough for a short stay in a cheap motel, sometimes they resort to shelters, sometimes they live in their cars. Learning of the harsh obstacles of daily life for these people will both distress and outrage any reader with an ounce of empathy. At the very least, the reader is made aware of the complexity and severity of the problems of those living on the edges of society. – Booklist Review

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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

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

–

Information on the four library catalogs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.

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

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

Suggested Listening & Viewing: December 26, 2025

Linda Reimer

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!).

First the songs: 

Dynamite by Brenda Lee

Found on the Album: Anthology 1956-1980 (1991)

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Now That The Buffalo’s Gone by Buffy Saint Marie

Found on the Album: The Best of Buffy Saint Marie (1987)

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Keep On The Sunny Side by The Carter Family

Found on the Album: The Essential Carter Family (2013)

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The Erie Canal (aka Er-ie Canal) by Cisco Houston

Cisco Houston Sings Songs of the Open Road (1960)

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He Was A Friend Of Mine by Dave Van Ronk

Found on the Album: Folksinger (1962/1989)

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Walking The Floor Over You by Ernest Tubb

Found on the Album: Retrospective (Volume 2) (1987)

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Lovesick Blues by Hank Williams

Found on the Album: 40 Greatest Hits (1978)

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We Had All The Good Things Going by Jan Howard

Found on the Album: N/A

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Blowin’ In The Wind by Joan Baez

Found on the Album: Any Day Now (1968)

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Cry, Cry, Cry By Johnny Cash

Found on the Album: The Total Johnny Cash Sun Collection (2018)

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If I Had A Hammer by Pete Seeger

Found on the Album: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (2019)

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Optimistic by Skeeter Davis

The Essential Skeeter Davis (2015)

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I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I Bound by Tom Paxton

Found on the Album: The Essential (2019)

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Rock Island Line by The Weavers

Found on the Album: The Best Of The Decca Years (1996)

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This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

Found on the Album: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1 (1997)

Second The Videos: 

A new title available through one of the usual U.S. streaming services, followed by a Kanopy title that you can check out with your library card and stream on-demand.

Mainstream Stream of the Week

Fallout, Season 2 (2025) (Prime)

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Kanopy Stream of the Week

Death in Paradise, Series 14 (2025)

Trailer

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Have a great weekend!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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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. 

And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.  

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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 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.  

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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. 

Library Closing Early Today 12.26.25

Linda Reimer

Hi everyone, just a quick FYI on this snowy afternoon.

Due to the inclement weather, the library is closing today, Friday, December 26, at 3:00 p.m.

So unfortunately, we won’t be showing our December Monthly Matinee, Wicked (2024), today.

Our Monthly Matinees are shown the fourth Friday of each month, with a start time of 2:30 p.m.

An as we are finding that many patrons are inquiring if we will reschedule showing the movie Wicked – we have done so!

Wicked will now be our January Monthly Matinee, bumping the film The Wild Robot, which we may show at a later date. Wicked will be shown Friday, January 23, 2026 with a start time of 2:30 p.m.

And here is the current Monthly Matinee Schedule January – August 2026

As mentioned, Monthly Matinees are shown the fourth Friday of the Month, start time 2:30 p.m.

This list updated 12.26.25 LR

January 2026:

Wicked (2024)

February 2026:

In The Heights (2021)

March 2026:

The Courier (2020) with Benedict Cumberbatch

April 2026

News of the World (2020) with Tom Hanks

May 2026

42 (2013) with Chadwick Boseman & Harrison Ford

June 2026

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) with Ralph Fiennes & F. Murray Abraham

July 2026

1776 (1972) with William Daniels, Howard DaSilva & Ken Howard

August 2026:

Wicked for Good (2025)

Have a great weekend!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

Suggested Reading Five: December 24, 2025

Linda Reimer

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

And on another library note, just a reminder, the library is closed today, Wednesday, December 24, and tomorrow, Thursday, December 25 for the Christmas holiday. We will re-open on Friday, December 26 at our usual opening time of 9:00 a.m.

This week we’re going to take a look at five of the best romances of 2025, selected from several Best of 2025 book lists – links to the lists are found at the end of this post.

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After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian 

1968 New York City

News about the war might be keeping Patrick up at night—news in general might be keeping Patrick up at night—but he’s doing fine. He’s sure of it. He gets to spend his days selling books in the gayest neighborhood on the East Coast and his nights merrily sleeping his way through the rare book community. But when he takes in a drifter who seems to be hiding something, and his best friend and her newborn move into the apartment upstairs, his life gets turned on its head.

A sleepy little bookstore should be the perfect place for Nathaniel to lie low, waiting for his past to catch up with him, but it turns out Dooryard Books is full of political radicals and anti-war agitators. If the FBI isn’t actively surveilling this place, it will be. Nathaniel should go anywhere else. The last thing he expects is to like these subversives. There’s a grieving folk musician and her baby—a demon of a child who will only sleep if Nathaniel, of all people, holds her. There’s a pair of rabble-rousing teenagers who, upsettingly, seem to be right about everything. And then there’s Patrick, who can’t walk past anyone who needs his help—and who is perplexingly determined to help Nathaniel.

As the world balances on the precipice of something new and scary and maybe even hopeful, Patrick needs to decide what he’s willing to risk for this chaotic new community he’s accidentally created. And Nathaniel needs to figure out whether he has a place in this messy, flawed world—and whether he can believe he deserves it.

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Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley 

In her U.S. debut, Stanley follows a decade in the life of Coralie Bower, beginning in 2013 when she’s newly arrived in London. A chance encounter with Adam, a handsome journalist, blossoms into a romance, and her life becomes everything she’s hoped for. But the reasons she left Australia–family issues, an abusive boss–still lurk. Adam is her rock throughout numerous life events, but when their first daughter’s birth coincides with a major book deal for Adam, Coralie finds herself struggling to stay afloat. As the years pass, Coralie feels like she’s surrendered herself to motherhood and managing the household, abandoning her own dreams to ensure that Adam succeeds. By the time COVID hits, the resentment has built, and Coralie realizes that something must change. Stanley cleverly entwines British politics with the plot of the story, grounding the narrative in a specific time. The trajectory of Coralie and Adam’s relationship is authentic, and the family relationships enhance the story, providing further detail about the characters’ motivations. Fans of Jojo Moyes will be drawn into this emotionally candid deep dive into a long-term relationship.

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Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone 

 

Six months after cancer took her beloved best friend and roommate, Lou, Helen “Lenny” Bellamy is still adrift, spending most nights riding the Staten Island Ferry instead of returning to the apartment she once shared with Lou or trying to check items off Lou’s “Live Again” list. An experienced nanny, Lenny can keep herself together only for short-term gigs like a weekend with Ainslie, an eight-year-old girl with a single mom and a grumpy uncle named Miles, who seems to see right through Lenny’s fragile facade. Having lost his mother and cousin in a car accident years ago, and more recently his father and Ainslie’s pop pop, Miles is determined to be a lifeboat for Lenny, with no judgment. As Miles helps Lenny fulfill the items on Lou’s list, they both find they have so many things to live for. VERDICT A stunning book by Bastone (Ready or Not), who delivers another slow-burn and emotional romance that doesn’t shy away from also exploring life’s hardest moments. Recommended for readers who also enjoy Abby Jimenez. – Starred Library Journal

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Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola 

 Sweet and spicy second-chance romance animates this delightfully layered contemporary from Babalola (Honey and Spice). Kiki Banjo was heartbroken after her first love, filmmaker Malakai Korede, left London for what was supposed to be a six-month job in Los Angeles only to never return. Fast-forward three years, and Kiki has a wealthy new man (though she’s not sure how she feels about him) and doles out romantic advice as the host of popular podcast The Heartbeat. When her employer insists on bringing an out-of-touch white woman in as Kiki’s cohost, Kiki quits. In the midst of this personal upheaval, she has to put on a smile to play maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding, a task made harder by the knowledge that Malakai is the best man. After the pair’s reunion at the engagement party, they struggle to navigate the still-powerful attraction between them. When a musician they both love asks Malakai to direct and Kiki to produce a documentary, working together brings even more old feelings to the surface. Babalola has a talent for convincingly depicting the extremes of human emotion, from devastating heartbreak to intense passion, and her characters feel wonderfully real and well rounded. Readers won’t be able to resist. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau 

Lau (Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie) offers up a fun contemporary rom-com with a Groundhog Day twist. Workaholic mechanical engineer Noelle Tom has been in survival mode for most of her life, believing she can find a straightforward solution to every problem if she keeps her head down and works hard. However, after eating some magical dumplings that make her endlessly repeat the day she ate them, Noelle abruptly discovers the flaws in her worldview. Now no matter what she does–leaving her time zone, quitting her job, or trying to find other magic dumplings to reverse the spell–she can’t escape June 20. There are some unexpected benefits to this mystical problem: she finds a friend in Avery, who is also stuck in the loop after eating the same dumplings, and she gets myriad, consequence-free chances at redoing her first meeting with handsome brewery manager Cam Huang, who, strangely enough, seems to subconsciously remember Noelle through hundreds of meet-cutes. Despite the repetition, Lau keeps the pace moving at a brisk clip, thanks in large part to Noelle’s attempts to apply the scientific method to her predicament. The author’s fans will be very pleased with this breezy treat. – Publishers Weekly Review

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References with Links

Colgan, J. (2025, December 4). The five best romance books of 2025. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/04/five-best-romance-books-2025-ali-hazelwood-bolu-babalola-jessica-stanley

New York Public Library. (2025). Best Books. Nypl.org. https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/best-books/adults?year=2025&f%5B0%5D=terms%3ARomance

Puckett-Pope, L. (2025, November 14). The Best Books of Fall 2025, According to ELLE Editors. ELLE. https://www.elle.com/culture/books/g69251844/best-books-fall-2025/

Waite, O. (2025, December 9). The Best Romance Books of 2025. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/books/review/best-romance-books-2025.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7U8.C_Eg.i5cFvhqPxSwv&smid=nytcore-ios-share

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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

–

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

–

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.

–

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.

–

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).

–

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.

–

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.

Suggested Listening & Viewing: December 19, 2025

Linda Reimer

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: 

–

St. Louis Blues (1925) by Bessie Smith 

 

Found on the Album: Smith, Bessie: St. Louis Blues (1924-25) (2003) 

– 

West End Blues (1928) by Louis Armstrong 

 

Found on the Album: Volume IV – Louis Armstrong And Earl Hines (1989) 

– 

Caravan (1936) by Duke Ellington 

 

Found on the Album: Money Jungle (2002) 

– 

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) 

– 

A Night in Tunisia (1942) by Dizzy Gillespie 

 

Found on the Album: Night In Tunisia: The Very Best Of Dizzy Gillespie (2006) 

– 

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) 

– 

I’m Ready (1954) by Muddy Waters 

 

Found on the Album: The Best of Muddy Waters (1957) 

– 

Smokestack Lighting (1958) by Howlin’ Wolf 

 

Found on the Album: Moanin’ In The Moonlight (1958) 

– 

So What (1959) by Miles Davis 

 

Found on the Album: Kind of Blue (1959) 

– 

Take Five (1959) by The Dave Brubeck Quarter 

 

Found on the Album: Time Out (1959) 

– 

Lullaby of Birdland (1955) by Sarah Vaughan  

 

Found on the Album: Lullaby of Birdland (1955) 

– 

All The Things You Are (1963) by Ella Fitzgerald 

 

Found on the Album: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Jerome Kern Song Book (1963) 

– 

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.

Mainstream Streaming Pick of the Week 

Fallout, Season 2 (2025) (Amazon Prime)  

 

– 

Kanopy Streaming Pick of the Week 

The Travel Detective, Season 10 (2025) 

Trailer 

 

– 

Have a great weekend!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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. 

And The Digital Catalog/Libby features titles that may be checked out via the one-copy-one-user lending model, just like print books.  

– 

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

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.  

– 

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). 

– 

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. 

Suggested Reading Five: December 17, 2025

Linda Reimer

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!

–

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

– 

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

– 

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

– 

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

– 

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

–

References

Best Books. (2025).New York Public Library. https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/best-books/adults?year=2025&f%5B0%5D=terms%3ACrime%2C%20Mysteries%20%26%20Thrillers. Retrieved December 17, 2025, from https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/best-books/adults?year=2025&f%5B0%5D=terms%3ACrime%2C%20Mysteries%20%26%20Thrillers

Gaffney, A. (2025, October 31). The best mysteries and thrillers of 2025. ELLE. https://www.elle.com/culture/books/g69127582/best-mystery-thriller-books-2025/

Mwa. (2025, May 2). 2025 Edgar Award Winners announced. Mystery Writers of America. https://mysterywriters.org/mystery-writers-of-america-announces-the-2025-edgar-award-winners/

Schumer, L. (2025, December 6). PEOPLE picks the 15 best books of 2025. People.com. https://people.com/peoples-best-books-of-2025-11862936

–

– 

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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

–

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.

–

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.

–

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).

–

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.

–

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.

Suggested Reading Five: December 10, 2025

Linda Reimer

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.

–

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.

– 

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.

– 

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.

– 

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.

– 

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.

–

References

Best Books for Adults 2025. (2025). The New York Public Library. Retrieved December 9, 2025, from https://www.nypl.org/spotlight/best-books-2025 

Burack, E., & Rathe, A. (2025, December 8). The 20 best books of 2025. Town & Country. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a68851782/best-books-2025/ 

Corrigan, M. (2025, December 8). Maureen Corrigan’s 10 favorite books of 2025 — with plenty for nonfiction lovers. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/12/08/nx-s1-5634019/best-books-2025-maureen-corrigan 

New York Times Staff. (n.d.). The 10 Best Books of 2025. The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2025, from https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/books/review/best-books-2025.html

Tolin, L. (2025, November 26). Best Books of 2025: 15 top picks from the ‘Best Of’ lists. PEN America. https://pen.org/best-books-of-2025/ 

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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

–

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.

–

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.

–

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).

–

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.

–

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.

New York Times Bestsellers: December 14, 2025

Linda Reimer

All titles can be requested/checked out through the library.

If you’d like to go the traditional route to request a title on this list and drop by the library, or give us a call – please do!

Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713

You can also request titles through StarCat found at https://starcat.stls.org

–

THE BESTSELLERS

FICTION

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.

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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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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.