Tag: reading

Suggested Reading Five: June 17, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Ash Dark as Night by Gary Phillips 

The times, they are a-changing in Phillips’s outstanding sequel to One-Shot Harry (2022). It’s August 1965: Vietnam is heating up; the civil rights movement is marching forward. Escalating tensions between the police and Black Americans have boiled over most recently in the Watts Riots. Black photographer Harry Ingram is in Los Angeles to document the unrest and winds up capturing the police shooting of unarmed activist Faraday Zinum. The widely reproduced photo brings Harry newfound fame, as well as the unwelcome attention of LAPD chief William Parker and his intelligence division. Meanwhile, an acquaintance hires Harry to look into the disappearance of her business associate Moses Tolbert, who ran a building company in the Watts neighborhood and vanished during the riots. As Harry investigates, stumbling into citywide conspiracies along the way, he finds that he has a natural aptitude for the work, and ponders the possibility of becoming a private detective full-time. Phillips folds real historical figures, including TV journalist Louis Lomax, and events into a complex narrative of shifting alliances that captures the urgency and volatility of the mid-’60s. The results rank with the best of Walter Mosley in the canon of Los Angeles noir. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell Management. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review  

– 

Inner City Blues by Paula L. Woods 

The award-winning first book in the series featuring black LAPD homicide detective Charlotte Justice. 

Meet Detective Charlotte Justice, a black woman in the very white, very male, and sometimes very racist Los Angeles Police Department. The time is 48 hours into the epochal L.A. riots and she and her fellow officers are exhausted. She saves the curfew-breaking black doctor Lance Mitchell from a potentially lethal beating from some white officers—only to discover nearby the body of one-time radical Cinque Lewis, a thug who years before had murdered her husband and young daughter. Was it a random shooting or was Mitchell responsible? And what had brought Lewis back to a city he’d long since fled? 

Charlotte’s quest for the truth behind Cinque’s death will set her at odds with the LAPD hierarchy, plunge her into the intricacies of everything from L.A.’s gang-banging politics to its black blue-bloods, and lead her into deep emotional waters with Mitchell’s partner (and her old flame), Dr. Aubrey Scott. 

In Charlotte Justice, Paula L. Woods has created a tough, tart, but also vulnerable heroine sure to draw comparisons to such classic figures as Easy Rawlins and Kinsey Milhone, but a true original as well. 

Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel from Mystery Readers International.  

– 

The Island Club by Nicola Harris  

On California’s Balboa Island in the 1950s, three different women strive to make the best of their strenuous situations. Milly moved to the island in hopes that she would have more quality time with her husband, who works in the movie business in L.A. Despite her plans for family dinners and beach trips, she is alone most of the time as he barely comes home from work. Sylvia, a pillar in the social community, has started a tennis club with her husband, hoping to boost membership and boost their already fulfilling income. Sylvia’s husband has a habit of playing poker, and with a shattering loss, he puts the family in danger and the club at risk of closure. Adele, once a famous tennis pro who left the profession due to a scandal that ruined her career, slowly begins to coach women at the tennis club but keeps her identity a secret. Harrison (Hotel Laguna, 2023) excels at creating compelling characters. These women struggle with loneliness and sexism, but Harrison focuses on their resilience and strength and the powerful bonds of female friendship.- Booklist Review  

– 

Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles by Philip Norman 

There will never be another pop manager like Brian Epstein, the young record retailer from Liverpool behind the 20th century’s greatest romance. Having achieved his much-derided aim of making the Beatles “bigger than Elvis,” Brian went on to make them bigger than any earthly instrument could measure. Only a handful of years older, he nonetheless referred them as “The Boys,” protecting and pampering them like the children he could never hope to have. 

Brian’s achievement in a profession in which he had no experience, and for which nor rulebook existed, remains jaw-dropping. A devout classical music fan, he was nonetheless solely responsible for a new genre of pop that was to change its course, and Britain’s international image, forever—yet, disgracefully, earn him no public honor nor even thanks. 

Mr. Moonlight draws on a cache of exclusive interviews with those closest to Brain, including his mother, Queenie, and brother, Clive, to tell the story of this hugely complex, self-contradictory, and ultimately tragic character. This revelatory narrative explores the unplumbed depths of Brian’s many trials and tribulations—how he almost lost the Beatles to organized crime, the antisemitism and homophobia he had to face even at the height of his success, his complex relationship with John Lennon that led to their reckless “Spanish Honeymoon”—and sheds new light on Brian’s mysterious, lonely death in the throes of the so-called Summer of Love. 

– 

A Year of Marvelous Ways by Sarah Winman 

In this latest from Winman (Still Life), a war-weary young man and a sage older woman come together in a journey of recovery. Francis Drake (not the explorer), a lucky survivor of World War II, finally arrives back in England with a letter entrusted to him by a dying soldier with a plea to deliver it to his father in Cornwall. Making his way there, Drake is sidetracked after catching sight of Missy Hall, his childhood companion and the love of his life. She invites him up to her room, where they spend the night together. But by the next day, she has disappeared again. Now bereft, drunk, and much the worse for wear, Drake washes up on the shores of St. Ophere, a tiny Cornish hamlet where an 89-year-old woman named Marvelous Ways seems to have been waiting for him. With hearty soups and herbal remedies, she nurses him back to health while spinning out tales about her life and lost loves.  

VERDICT Once again, Winman delivers historical fiction that memorably evokes the sweetness and sorrow of times past.–Library Journal Review  

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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: June 10, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See 

See (Lucy Tan’s Circle of Women) tells the intertwining story of three women in 1870s California during a turbulent time for Chinese immigrants. Dove, whose had her feet bound and is the daughter of an imperial scholar, desires to love and be loved as she travels to be the second wife of an older businessman. Petal, the large-footed daughter of a farmer, is unknowingly sold and forced into sex work to feed her starving family. Her desire for freedom fuels her every breath. Moon, the wife of a respected doctor, is intelligent and beautiful, but her limp, the result of a botched foot-binding, diminishes her value in society’s eyes. Her desire for justice guides the latter half of the narrative, following the devastating events of October 24, 1871, when simmering anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States finally erupts into a violent massacre, resulting in the mass murder and lynching of Chinese immigrants. The events of that night bring Dove, Petal, and Moon even closer; together, they find their voices by demonstrating bravery and fortitude in an environment where women have few rights. VERDICT See offers a stunning piece of historical fiction based in truth. It will touch readers with the characters’ resilience, heroism, and devoted friendship. — Starred Library Journal Review  

– 

The Queen’s Coronation: A Novel by Jennifer Ryan 

A master of uplifting historical fiction, Ryan (The Underground Library, 2024) presents her first post-WWII novel. Centered on three very different women working at Buckingham Palace during the lead-up to Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, it offers a glimpse into what it was like to work in the young queen’s orbit. Assistant dresser Caroline finds strength in the queen’s presence. Trapped by both a husband who squanders her money and a secret from her past, Caroline works tirelessly but begins to lose hope. Lucy is a young and beautiful junior assistant who dreams of singing on the London stage, but her optimism is soon overshadowed by her naivety as she navigates London society. Miranda, an American journalist, is undercover, working in the palace to get the scoop on the coronation. Filled with unresolved trauma over losing her husband in the war, Miranda puts on a stony facade to get through each day. Though they couldn’t be more different, their stories intertwine and they lift each other up and find strength together. Fans of The Crown and Downton Abbey will enjoy the dynamics. –Booklist Review 

– 

The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance to Antisemitism and White Supremacy by Steven J. Ross 

This well-researched and at times shocking volume relates the surprising number of pro-Nazi groups and figures who emerged during and after World War II in the United States gained followers and influence and made impacts in local and national politics for decades. Ross (history, Univ. of Southern California; Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America) makes the case that the typical narrative of the United States after the war might not be as accurate as most people think. Ross weaves the timelines of these figures together in an easy-to-follow way, showing how they gained power but also highlighting the people and organizations who actively fought against them in public and in spy rings, who each had their own motivations for resisting fascism. Readers will get sucked into the story and want to know what happens next. There are plenty of footnotes for further reading, and the author makes clear how past actions led to today’s events. This is a good read-alike and companion to Rachel Maddow’s Prequel. VERDICT An excellent “hidden history” book that gives additional context to modern political movements. Recommended for all general collections. –Starred Booklist Review  

– 

Take Me With You: A Novel by Steve Rowley  

Jesse and Norman have been together for 30 years, and lately, the spark has gone out of their marriage. Their recent move to Joshua Tree (not so much a town as a “Census designated place,” as Jesse is fond of pointing out) in the California desert has only compounded the tension. But when Norman abruptly leaves the house in the middle of the night, Jesse doesn’t expect to find him ascending into the sky from their backyard in a beam of light. As an award-winning humor writer, Jesse can get by for a while telling his neighbor and his colleagues at the local community college that his husband was abducted by aliens. But as the days pass, it becomes more difficult to deflect, especially when Norman’s sister shows up on their doorstep with a very big request. And as Jesse goes from spiraling to settling into his new life, will there be room for Norman if he returns? Rowley (The Guncle Abroad, 2024), himself the recipient of a humor-writing prize, adeptly balances the absurdity of Jesse’s circumstances with the sensitive portrayal of a longtime couple at a crossroads. Recommend to readers of humorous but moving fiction, like that of Kevin Wilson (Run for the Hills, 2025) and Rufi Thorpe. – Starred Booklist Review  

– 

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden 

Medieval history and Celtic mythology merge in an enchanting tale. Arden, best known for her Winternight Trilogy, here turns from medieval Russia to Europe during the same period. Anne of Brittany–a real person–is 19 when the novel begins in the late 15th century, a sovereign duchess whose father, the duke, has been dead since she was a child. Described as “small and glossy as a cat in a dairy,” she’s desperately trying to avoid marrying Charles VIII, the king of France, which would mean the dissolution of her country. She conceives a plan to conduct a unicorn hunt in the ancient, haunted forest of Broceliande, thinking she will be able to secretly arrange a proxy wedding to Maximilien of Austria, heir to the Holy Roman Empire. While there, she encounters not only an actual unicorn but an evil enchanter who has designs on her kingdom. With the unlikely aid of the chivalrous (and undeniably attractive) Louis of Orleans, who has been sent by Charles’ sister Marguerite to betray Anne, as well as Anne’s spunky younger sister, Isabeau; a clever peasant girl, Elesbed; and a cat named Butter, Anne works feverishly to protect her people from sinister forces both political and supernatural. Arden takes her time immersing the reader in this thoroughly and intricately imagined world, where historical figures bump up against an enigmatic korriganed queen, at least one monstrous sea-dragon, a herd of undead “anaon,” and a whole Breton city that has been trapped in time. This is an alternate history in which the admirable Anne, freed from the confines of textbooks, gets to ask the question, “Shall we not write our own story?” Here, love and duty reach an understanding, and courtly romance makes friends with a steamier variety of physical contact. Fans of jousts, spells, dark magic, and brave women will find plenty of each here. A clever and inspiring reimagining of a little-remembered time and place. – Starred Kirkus Review  

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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: June 3, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Foursome by Christina Baker Kline 

Kline’s (The Exiles) latest is a work of historical fiction that has ties to her own family. Writing about her distant cousins, Adelaide (Addie) and Sarah (Sallie) Yates, who married conjoined twin brothers Chang and Eng Bunker in 19th-century North Carolina, Kline uses older sister Sallie’s voice to drive the novel. With this unique foundation for storytelling, readers get a taste of the hardships the Yates-Bunker families might have endured and their lives as plantation owners with 21 children between them. Issues such as racism, gender roles, motherhood, and identity are touched on, as well as difficult topics such as sexual violence and enslavement. Written with compassion and sensitivity, the book gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the once perceived scandalous lives of the two Yates-Bunker families. Strong characterizations and imagery quickly move the work along, making this novel hard to put down.  

VERDICT Readers familiar with Darin Strauss’s 2000 novel Chang and Eng will appreciate a version of the story told from the wives’ perspectives. Kline points out the liberties she took in crafting this novel, an emotionally moving read for book groups and anyone interested in witnessing a slice of life of two famous brothers and their families. -Starred Library Journal Review 

– 

The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang 

Yang’s first novel (after the story collection The Runaway Restaurant) is imaginative, spanning a range of topics and featuring lyrical writing and complex characters. Marine biologist Jo Ness grieves the loss of her best friend and colleague Aldo, who was working with her on a jellyfish guide. She receives a call from Nadia, an old friend she hasn’t seen in years, pleading for her help with a massive jellyfish that is terrorizing a Maine island community. Nadia is nowhere to be found when Jo arrives in Shattering Point, and the locals there each have a different take on the sea monster, which they have named Clementine. With a varied cast of characters, the novel captivates from start to finish and provides a sense of solace as the events unfold. The finale is perfection, sure to leave readers feeling satiated and impassioned, with sticking power that lasts long after the book’s close.  

VERDICT Perfect for fans of Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures or Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart who are looking for the same immersiveness, heartbreak, and comfort those novels evoked. –Starred Library Journal Review  

– 

Summerland Cove: A Novel by Ellen Baker 

Lindy has the summer of a lifetime planned at her family’s beloved cottage in Summerland Cove, Maine, where she’s spent summers all her life and where she and her husband David met as teenagers. She’s slated big events three weekends in a row: David’s fiftieth birthday party, her parents’ fiftieth anniversary party, and her oldest daughter Hailey’s wedding. But when David doesn’t show up for his own party, everything about the life they’ve created together is thrown into question, as the shattered family sets out looking for him. Has he been in an accident? God forbid, been the victim of a crime? Or is it something more cliché—a midlife crisis, an affair? Surely, he’ll show up for his beloved daughter’s wedding—won’t he? 

The agonizing days tick by and still no David. Lindy’s four nearly grown children are panicked. Lindy struggles to remain calm, even as long-buried details of the family’s past begin to surface, offering distressing clues. Meanwhile, her mother seems to be harboring secrets of her own, her father has grown alarmingly absent-minded, and Hailey wrestles with whether she should get married at all—even if her father does turn up. 

A richly drawn novel of mothers, marriages, and one endearingly messy family, Summerland Cove beautifully evokes the crisp air and rocky beaches of coastal Maine, while poignantly revealing how complicated histories can shape the present in unexpected ways. 

– 

Waiting On A Friend: A Novel by Natalie Adler 

DEBUT Adler’s debut novel is poignant, reminding readers of the fear and anguish that came with the rise of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. It is 1984, and Renata is a 29-year-old bisexual woman living on New York City’s Lower East Side. All around her, friends and neighbors are dying from AIDS, and Renata has a special gift for seeing and communicating with ghosts. When her friend, roommate, and occasional lover Mark dies, Renata’s grief grows because he’s the one ghost she can’t seem to reach. She starts receiving fliers from Manhattan Remediation, a service that claims to be able to dispose of paranormal problems in one’s home. Renata is immediately suspicious about these claims, and the novel goes on to detail her efforts to uncover the company’s fraud and manage her heartache. Despite the book’s tragic plot, there is a certain humor in Renata’s observations, especially of customers at the vintage clothing store where she works. She is a memorable character in a community of sadness, and her communication with ghosts is spellbinding.   

VERDICT Adler’s debut is highly recommended for readers who enjoy vividly drawn literary fiction about the past. 

– 

What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative by Jim Collins 

Jim Collins, international bestselling author of Good to Great, offers transformative lessons on constructing—and reconstructing—a life through the cliff moments and transitions we all will face repeatedly in our lives. 

What to make of a life? 

It is a question we all wrestle with more than once: How do we find our way in the world? How do we make it past the cliffs, significant events that can radically change a life? How do we keep the inner fire burning bright, long and late? Inspired by relentless curiosity, Jim Collins devoted a decade to studying these questions and to minutely analyzing those moments when life flips from clarity to confusion and casts us into a befuddling fog. 

His exploration follows various lives side-by-side, paired together at cliffs, and analyzes the different choices made and divergent paths taken. Two rock musicians confronting a future without the group that had brought them success. Two public figures tainted by scandal having to make decisions about how to rebuild their lives. Two suffragists achieving their epic goal and so left with the puzzle of what to do next. Two figure skaters seeking new purpose when their Olympic careers come to an end. What emerges from Collins’s extensive studies—of writers, actors, scientists, leaders and many others—is a framework for understanding how individual lives can be built, sustained and constantly renewed. 

By examining the long arc of these remarkable lives, Collins tackles life’s questions. What does it take to: 

Discover a deeply fulfilling role in life—one that you are naturally ‘encoded’ for—and then to find a second one, if the first one ends? 

Overcome a major cliff—a fracture point that forces choices about what’s next and calls for you to re-envision the years to come? 

Make your personal economics work so that you can focus on one big thing that feeds your inner fire? 

Navigate the fog, when you feel uncertain or even outright lost, and build confidence step by step? 

Build personal momentum decade upon decade, so that your most creative and energetic years are spread across an entire lifetime? 

Achieve the imperative to “Know Thyself” and apply self-knowledge to each phase of life 

And for the first time, Collins movingly chronicles his own story to reveal how undertaking this project transformed him, changing his thinking and reshaping his emotions in fundamental ways. Surprising, story-driven, deeply researched, and uplifting, What to Make of a Life is a book like no other, convincingly showing how a richly fulfilled life is within reach of us all. 

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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

–

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: April 23, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

The Antiquarian’s Object of Desire by India Holton

Professors Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling are best friends working in the field of magical antiquities and mired in the gender politics of Oxford University–which means no one can ever know they are best friends and that no one takes the brilliant Amelia seriously. The two bicker, create chaos, and pretend to hate each other in public, while secretly leaning on each other to navigate the world. When a staged argument gets out of hand, their faculty head banishes them to the country and tasks them with investigating a collection of possibly magical objects at a country manor house. In the company of an ever-growing collection of irritating–and perhaps villainous–people, Amelia and Caleb navigate mayhem, undertake intellectual inquiry, and finally admit that the sparks they generate when they pretend to hate each other are actually the embers of a delightful romantic life. VERDICT The follow-up to The Geographer’s Map to Romance is the best of the “Love’s Academic” trilogy, rich with magical and academic details, a zany plot that moves the story forward, and a tender, engaging romance. It sees all the series’ couples united and offers a lovely note of acceptance and appreciation.-Library Journal Review 

– 

The Mother-Daughter Book Club: A Novel by Susan Patterson & James Patterson 

Elin, Mariella, and Grace met in college, and Jamie later joined their tight-knit friend group that now includes the four women’s five now-adult daughters. Three years after their last Mother-Daughter Book Club, which ended in disaster, the crew is meeting at Mariella’s house on Lake Como for a weekend planned to the hilt that will include wine, yoga, boat rides, and a little bit of talking about books. As pastor Grace (still a virgin at 60) finds romance, Elin’s daugther, neurologist Brigid, is conspiring with Jamie to hide a secret. This is written by James Patterson with his wife, Susan, with whom he collaborated on Things I Wish I Told My Mother (2023), so despite its relationship-fiction trappings, there’s lots of plot that keeps the pages turning, especially the big reveal at the end. Chapters alternate among the nine women–helpfully labeled with the name of the narrator–giving a full picture of a weekend away, bolstered by delicious descriptions of meals and scenery. Fans of Elin Hilderbrand’s The Five-Star Weekend (2023) will enjoy this girls’ trip to Italy. 

– 

Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History by Susan Page 

The Crown meets The West Wing in this illuminating history that chronicles the largely unknown story of Queen Elizabeth II’s relationship with thirteen American presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Donald J. Trump. With that, she changed the world. 

No American or foreign leader has met with as many sitting presidents as Queen Elizabeth II. Her Royal Majesty’s seventy-year reign witnessed the highs and lows of the close and crucial alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., from the Suez crisis to Brexit. 

Following the advice of her mentor, Winston Churchill, to “stay close to the Americans,” Queen Elizabeth played an unexpected role behind the scenes that has never been thoroughly explored. In The Queen and Her Presidents, veteran political reporter Susan Page goes beyond the image of a staid monarch in colorful hats to reveal a skilled strategist, who, like many powerful women, was routinely underestimated and discounted. 

Page also shows the impact American presidents had on the monarch as she developed from a shy, anxious princess to a powerful and persuasive global leader, and analyzes both the reach and the limits of the “soft power” she wielded. These accounts of the Queen’s deft diplomacy provide candid and telling assessments of her partners in the Oval Office as well. 

Page shares fascinating true stories and details, including: 

Going beyond rumors and speculation, the reality of the relationship between Donald Trump and Queen Elizabeth – and Trump’s own surprising comments about the monarch whose approval he coveted. 

The unexpected and genuine connection between the Queen and Barack Obama, and her surprising admission to him, and how each ranked the other as among the most impressive leaders of their lifetimes. 

Her influential friendship with Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, a bond built on their shared love of horses—and their conflict with Britain’s then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. 

How Richard Nixon sought the Queen’s help during Watergate—and even wanted to make her a relative. 

Elizabeth’s hand-in-glove cooperation with John F. Kennedy and the distance from his successor, Lyndon Johnson, the only president who declined to meet with her in office. 

The almost paternal role played by Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, offering support and advice as the young monarch assumed the crown in the wake of her beloved father’s death. 

Eye-opening and compelling, featuring an 8-page color photo insert, The Queen and Her Presidents is a remarkable chronicle of a legendary contemporary monarch and the American presidents who helped shape who helped shape her—and were shaped by her. 

– 

When It’s Your Turn For Midnight by Blessing Musariri 

When fifteen-year-old Chianti learns that her dad isn’t her biological father, her family splinters. Chianti goes to stay with her maternal grandmother, Ambuya, an eccentric and formidable ex-freedom fighter in Zimbabwe’s civil war. Ambuya’s closest neighbors are the gogos: her three best-friends-turned-business-partners, who take Chianti under their wings. They make a living by upcycling choice items of secondhand clothing—when their supply chain’s not being disrupted by thieves. In between helping with the gogos’ business, Chianti becomes fascinated by a box of her grandmother’s old photos. As she wrestles with the ghosts of their past as well her own, she realizes that time is slippery, that family isn’t defined by blood, and that it’s never too late for a transformation. 

– 

Where the Music Had to Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other—and the World by Jim Windolf 

Windolf, an editor at the New York Times, traces “the long and eventful relationship” between Bob Dylan and the Beatles, weaving a riveting narrative from anecdotes “scattered piecemeal across biographies, out-of-print memoirs, and long-buried articles,” as well as recent interviews, most notably with Paul McCartney. Windolph reveals striking parallels in the artists’ origins, from their upbringing in the declining industrial towns of Hibbing, Minnesota, and Liverpool to their transformative encounters with the music of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and, especially, Little Richard. At the heart of this comparative biography is a dynamic exchange of influence: Dylan and the Beatles met, partied, shared songs, and challenged one another in ways both generous and competitive. When they first met in New York in 1964, the Beatles, already global stars, were passing around Dylan’s records obsessively; within months, their songwriting began to shift in response. As Dylan pushed beyond the constraints of folk toward electrified experimentation, the Beatles turned inward, embracing acoustic textures and greater lyrical ambition. Lively, incisive, and deeply researched, Windolf’s account captures the specific, consequential moments in a creative dialogue; one that didn’t just shape two towering acts but irrevocably expanded what popular music could say, sound like, and mean.- Starred Booklist Review  

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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

–

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: April 8, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

The Bridge Back To You by Riss M. Neilson

Neilson (A Love Like the Sun) crafts a heartfelt second-chance romance, bringing together Carmello Rodriguez and Olivia Jones through an unexpected inheritance. When Carmello’s late mother Celia leaves him 75 percent of her Filipino restaurant–with 25 percent going to his ex-girlfriend Olivia–the two professional chefs spend hours in Celia’s kitchen cooking together, rekindling favorite memories, and addressing their past relationship through their dual perspectives. Neilson excels at weaving cultural identity into the narrative. Carmello, of Filipino and Dominican descent, introduces his heritage through his passion of food, while Olivia explores her own multiracial identity and unique upbringing. Additionally, Neilson’s discussion of disabilities, such as chronic illnesses, includes a thoughtful portrayal of how they affect daily life. The couple’s honest communication feels genuine and is enhanced by posthumous emails from Celia that illuminate Carmello’s protectiveness as a father, Olivia’s nomadic lifestyle, and how their intertwined past shaped who they’ve become. VERDICT A slow-burn, small-town romance that beautifully demonstrates how food, family, and culture can bridge the past and present. Perfect for readers seeking emotional depth with a culinary heart.–Starred Library Journal Review

–

The Delivery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Merc Carter is not your typical deliveryman. A former postal inspector, he specializes in moving sensitive or dangerous packages—of all sorts—from point A to B. And sometimes he needs his gun to do so. Carter’s current mission leads him to Providence, Rhode Island, but his delivery is interrupted when he comes across a woman badly injured in a car wreck in the pouring rain. Then a man with a gun appears warning Carter away from the scene and Carter leaps into action, disarming the attacker and rescuing the crash victim.

Just as Carter thinks the danger has passed, he discovers a deeper mystery stemming from the crash, a deadly puzzle involving a memorable pair of grifters, a crooked ex-cop, stolen identities, human trafficking, and murder. And it appears that Carter’s next assignment will put him right in this conspiracy’s perilous center . . .

The follow-up to last year’s acclaimed hit, The Mailman, which launched the Mercury Carter series, The Delivery is a fast-paced, unpredictable thriller following a memorable protagonist whose resourcefulness is matched only by his quick wit and determination to never miss a delivery. – from the publisher

Reader’s Note: The Delivery is the second book in the Mercury Carter series. If you’d like to start reading the series from the beginning, check out book one: The Mailman.

–

Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power by Abby Phillip

CNN anchor Phillip debuts with a fresh and illuminating account of Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. Starting from Jackson’s childhood in segregated Greenville, S.C., Phillip traces his development into a prominent civil rights leader. Jackson became Martin Luther King Jr.’s “man in the North,” helming boycott campaigns that pressured companies into hiring more Black workers. He also took a growing interest in harnessing Black electoral power, spearheading efforts to register Black voters and aiding in the 1983 election of Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, a victory that inspired Jackson to pursue his own presidential run. Phillip surveys the two Jackson campaigns’ notable achievements, including embarrassing President Reagan by negotiating directly with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad for the return of an imprisoned Black Navy lieutenant, and building his multiethnic “rainbow coalition” in part by advocating for white farmers. Phillip also delves into the campaigns’ catastrophic missteps, most destructively Jackson’s antisemitic reference to New York City as “Hymietown,” which derailed his 1984 bid. She also offers a striking analysis of Jackson’s continued influence, showing how his campaign prefigured the contemporary progressive platform and to some extent foreshadowed the populist agendas of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The result is a paradigm-shifting reassessment of a progressive firebrand’s legacy. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

–

The Lust Crusade by Jo Segura

The third in Segura’s Raiders of the Lost Heart series features a sassy librarian and a hot, nerdy archaeologist. Dani Guiterrez has had a crush on her brother’s best friend since they were both teenagers, and when he disappears and is presumed dead, she is heartbroken. After a lifetime of playing it safe, Dani books a trip to Greece to mourn Theo in his favorite place. But she’s not there long before she sees Theo, who’s been kidnapped by smugglers who believe that he can lead them to a priceless ruby known as the Eye of the Minotaur. The kidnappers believe that she is his fiance, and Dani is soon caught up in the search. Starting as a slow burn, it eventually becomes a smoking inferno. Both of them have a hard time confessing their feelings, and there are several miscommunications, but Dani and Theo have amazing chemistry. Readers who love a good adventure romance combined with Greek mythology will not be able to put this one down. For fans of Ali Hazelwood and Sara Desai. – Booklist Review

–

Moonlight Runner by Karen Robards

The brilliant Robards (Some Murders in Berlin, 2024) presents a captivating wartime adventure set it Ireland in 1918. The Irish are rebelling against the British for their independence and many of the locals are getting involved in dangerous acts. Rynn Carmichael is a 22-year-old local who is working as a nurse at Ballyshannon Court, a large family estate turned hospital during the war. Rynn discovers that her fiance , as well as her close childhood friends, are in a dire situation in which she involves herself. Several times over, in fact, starting with gun smuggling, murder, healing, and hiding the men who are fighting for Ireland. Trying to keep herself safe but also willing to support Ireland in whatever way she can, Rynn keeps getting embroiled in dangerous situations. This is an epic tale of feminine heroism, patriotism, and a touch of romance. With rich historical details of Ireland and London, descriptions of everything from fashion to classism, violence, and war, The Moonlight Runner captures readers right from the start. This page-turner is a must for historical fiction fans. – Booklist Review

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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

–

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: March 11, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Grizzled: Love Letters to 50 of North America’s Least Understood Animals by Jason Bittel 

Funny, fascinating, and scientifically grounded, this charming book reveals unknown details about 50 well-known animals. Effortlessly readable, Grizzled reintroduces nature lovers to species they thought they knew all about. From fireflies and hummingbirds to alligators and sharks, this collection of 50 brief essays combines witty prose and vivid illustrations to reveal the secret lives and oddball behaviors of North American creatures both familiar and little known. In Grizzled, science journalist Jason Bittel taps into current research about the behavior of key North American mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, from insects to urchins. Along the way, he answers questions you didn’t know to ask, such as: -How do monarch butterflies emerge from sentient goo? -Why did beavers have to parachute into their newest habitats? -What’s inside a yellowjacket meatball? -How many jellyfish can a sea turtle eat? -Can deer really grow antlers on their legs? Grizzled offers a surprising, endearing, and altogether eye-opening tour of the animal kingdom—one you won’t soon forget. 

– 

Heir of Whitestone by Catherine Coulter

England, 1842. Queen Victoria reigns, Buckingham Palace is overrun with rats, and the streets of London are filled with intrigue. 

Alex Ivanov is a brilliant young innovator, designing cutting-edge train engines. But Alex has a secret—he isn’t really Alex Ivanov. As a boy, he was pulled from the Thames, presumed drowned, with no memory of who he was. Rescued and raised by the formidable Ryder Sherbrooke, Alex has built a new life, but his past is catching up with him. 

Lady Camilla Rohman has problems of her own. Trapped by a scheming stepmother and a family determined to see her married off, she is as clever as she is desperate. When fate throws her into Alex’s path, their connection is undeniable. 

But as their whirlwind romance turns into marriage, danger follows. On their honeymoon, a series of deadly attacks make one thing clear—someone wants Alex dead. As they race to uncover the truth, old enemies and long-buried secrets come to light, leading them to a shocking revelation that will change everything… 

– 

Hospital at the End of the World by Justin C. Key 

DEBUT Pok is in his twenties and living in the tech-centric New York City of the future, complete with augmented reality, which is necessary to function in society. His father is a respected doctor at the AI-operated medical center, the Shepherd Organization, which has managed to insert itself into all aspects of daily life. Pok wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor. When a conspiracy forces him to attend the only remaining medical school not under the influence of artificial intelligence, in New Orleans, he uncovers secrets about AI in medicine, his heritage, and the fate of the last human-centered medical school in the country. This story explores the “what if” of AI in medicine and examines what a medical AI would consider best for patients. Key (The World Wasn’t Ready for You: Stories) adds a human touch to a detailed first novel that depicts a near-future world and provides realistic and thorough look into its medical field. VERDICT A medical-minded dystopia with mystery elements that emphasizes the importance of human connection and equity for everyone in a world of artificial intelligence. For readers of Laila Lalami. –Library Journal Review  

– 

Served Him Right by Lisa Unger 

When Paul Hayes is found murdered, no one is particularly upset or surprised. He’s made plenty of enemies in business and in his personal life, including several women who have accused him of sexual assault. Ana and Vera Blacksmith, sisters with a traumatic and mysterious past, find themselves in the middle of the investigation when police learn that Ana was Paul’s last girlfriend and has a history of volatile and erratic behavior. The investigation takes a turn when Ana’s best friend falls deathly ill, and Paul’s newest girlfriend goes missing. How are these people connected, who can be trusted, and what secrets are the Blacksmith sisters hiding? Unger’s latest mystery is an exploration of the patriarchy through the lens of female rage, with some witchy vibes added for extra fun. The combination of revenge, generational trauma, and girl power makes this a fun and twisted tale. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewel and Shari Lapena–and angry women everywhere. — Booklist Review  

– 

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum 

Benny Abbott and Joy Moore’s successful podcast This Story Might Save Your Life chronicles real-life survival stories with humor. Just when the podcasters (and best friends) stand to make millions in a lucrative deal, Joy and her husband go missing in the hills of northeast Los Angeles; her cohost Benny is the prime suspect in the disappearance. Crum’s multi-timeline novel is structured in part as a manuscript of Benny and Joy’s joint memoir, with alternating chapters about each podcaster’s life, while narration from the present also switches between Benny and Joy to advance the plot and character development. Fused with the mystery of what happened to Joy and her producer husband is a will-they, won’t they romance between Joy and Benny, who seem like a perfect match. Domestic violence, pregnancy loss, and narcolepsy are all dealt with in a storyline that will have readers thinking they’ve got it figured out–until they don’t. VERDICT A timely novel for fans of the growing trend of books featuring podcasters, such as Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie.–Library Journal Review  

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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

–

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

–

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: March 4, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

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

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

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

 

– 

Felicia’s Favorites by Danielle Steel 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– 

Far-Flung Life by M L Stedman 

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

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

– 

The Ghost Women: A Novel by Jennifer Murphy 

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

– 

Kin: A Novel by Tayari Jones 

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

–

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 Books Coming Your Way February 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

New Books Coming Your Way February 2026Download

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

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: January 28, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

 

A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James 

Violet Esmie doesn’t want to go home again. Eighteen years ago, Violet’s youngest brother, Ben, disappeared. One minute Violet, her sister Dodie, and her brother Vail were playing hide-and-seek with Ben, and the next minute no trace of him could be found. Soon after this traumatic event, Violet, Dodie, and Vail all left their upstate New York hometown with no intention of ever coming back. However, all three Esmie siblings are now returning to Fell, and the reason is eerie. Ben’s ghost has written a message that says, “Come Home.” Adeptly alternating viewpoints between Violet, Dodie, and Vail, St. James (Murder Road, 2024) perfectly captures the mix of annoyed snarkiness, edgy rivalry, and unconditional love that can exist among siblings while simultaneously dialing up the supernatural spookiness that has infected each of their lives in different ways. From the book’s chillingly creepy setting, which previously appeared in The Sun Down Motel (2020), to a nerve-jangling plot that effectively borrows from a mix of genres to the writing itself, which shimmers with a dazzlingly sharp sense of wit, everything about St. James’ latest is done to perfection. – Starred Booklist Review 

– 

Catch Her If You Can by Tessa Bailey  

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey is back with an all-new marriage of convenience, friends-to-lovers sports romance about a baseball catcher and the burlesque club owner he can’t get out of his head. 

Madden Donahue, the newest catcher for the Yankees, has been in love with Eve Mitchell since high school, but for some mysterious reason, the burlesque club owner always turns him down. That never stopped him from being her self-appointed protector. Case in point, now that Eve’s sister has left Eve with her two children indefinitely, Madden steps in with a proposition—marry him for the much needed health benefits. 

Eve has secretly harbored feelings for Madden all along, but there’s one problem—her best friend Skylar called dibs on him when they were fourteen. Eve has always put their friendship above all else, and she’s not willing to risk losing Skylar over a man. Raised by the local strip club owner, Eve is woefully short on friends and treasures the ones she has. But with Skylar happily paired off, Eve finds herself accepting Madden’s proposal—on the condition that their marriage remains strictly private. She’s not about to let her unique profession and maligned reputation destroy Madden’s shiny new career. 

Madden won’t let Eve get away that easily, though. What starts as a marriage of convenience soon ignites into something much hotter, and now it’s up to Madden to convince Eve that their connection is far more than a business arrangement. As the passion builds, can their fake marriage become the real deal? 

– 

Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging by Angela Buchdahl 

In Heart of a Stranger, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl reflects on a life shaped by complexity, heritage, and faith. Born to a Korean Buddhist mother and a Jewish American father, she explores how two different family histories have been united through shared values of resilience, tradition, and hope. Her mother’s story, marked by war, stands alongside her father’s Jewish heritage, forming a foundation both rich and complex. The book blends personal narrative, historical reflection, and Jewish teachings. Each chapter pairs a family story with spiritual insight, drawing on Hebrew terms and the rhythm of sermon-like meditations. Buchdahl traces her path into the Jewish faith and the challenge of embracing multiple identities. From misadventures in keeping kosher to balancing motherhood with leading a major synagogue, she writes with clarity and purpose. She calls for unity within Jewish communities despite their differences, honors her Korean roots, and faces questions of race, identity, and belonging with honesty and humility. Her story shows the courage required to embrace complexity and hold difficult truths with compassion. – Booklist Review  

– 

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney  

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife. 

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying. 

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs. 

My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems. 

– 

Twelve Months by Jim Butcher  

It has been three weeks since the devastating magical attack on Chicago (Battle Ground, 2020), leaving the city in complete disarray and wizard Harry Dresden’s life in shambles. He is mourning the loss of a loved one, has been banished from the White Council of Wizards–although he is not as upset about that–and has been forced by the ruthless Queen Mab into an engagement to the provocative leader of the White Vampires. Harry is grieving and exhausted but nevertheless providing food and shelter for neighbors left homeless by the battle. He is not sure how, or even if, he will recover. What he needs is time, but Mab has given him the impossible task of resolving a conflict with the sovereign of another magical nation, the same king who wants Harry’s brother dead. And an overzealous new White Council warden is out for Harry’s literal head. His friends and, oddly, his new fiancee are trying to help, offering support, a new apprentice, and a Valkyrie bodyguard, but the heartbreak and anguish may still be too much. Series fans will be intrigued by the new characters and changes in Harry’s life as Butcher deftly explores the impacts of loss and grief.  – Starred Booklist Review 

– 

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 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!

–

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.

–

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

– 

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

– 

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

–

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

– 

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

–

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.