Tag: reading

Suggested Reading Five: September 9, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Agrippa by Robert Harris

A dying Roman recalls his lifelong friendship with the man who became Emperor Augustus. A few short years before the Common Era, Agrippa writes his memoir. In his waning days at age 50, the old Roman general remembers his eventful life, which has been so tightly tied to his friend Octavius’. He began life as Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a plebeian, a nobody who was taunted as a “mother-killer” because his mother died in childbirth. Octavius, on the other hand, is a great-nephew of Julius Caesar, whom they both admire. As they enter manhood, they fight bravely in Rome’s savage wars, both civil and foreign. Agrippa promises Caesar that he will always protect Octavius, who can be sickly, and he lives up to that commitment. That loyalty becomes his destiny. And when Caesar puts him in command of an army, he knows that is what he was born to do. Put briefly, Agrippa develops into the Roman Republic’s most renowned general and oversees great feats of engineering such as the aqueducts, while Octavius eventually becomes Emperor Augustus. The former ascends by merit, the latter by blood. This is no ordinary friendship, nor is it an equal one. When the emperor wants to adopt one of Agrippa’s sons, for example, Agrippa has no choice but to agree. When he is asked to divorce his wife and marry someone else, what’s a good soldier to do? “You are part of my family,” Augustus tells him. “I want you by my side for eternity. Besides, I shall need you to guard my back in the Underworld.” Agrippa comments: “He punched my arm. A joke.” Much is impossible to know after two millennia, and author Harris weaves a strong story that honors history and imagines vivid details. There are great naval battles, disastrous storms at sea, and the threat posed by Antony and Cleopatra. Women are often interchangeable–who can produce a son? And through it all, Rome descends into dictatorship. A compelling mix of history and imagination.–Kirkus Review

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A Past Without Pictures by Jonathan Ames

When Maria Cole, an LAPD detective, learns that her long-estranged father has been murdered, she heads off to Alabama to sort out his estate. She doesn’t exactly expect to be welcomed by the insular rural community with open arms, but she’s equally unprepared for the unconcealed hatred and distrust she’s met with. Soon she discovers why: her father’s death was not what the local cops are saying it was, and there are people who are determined to keep the real circumstances of his murder a closely guarded secret. The new book by the author of Wake Up, Sir! (2004) and You Were Never Really Here (2013)–two very different but equally splendid novels–is perfect for fans of S. A. Cosby and other writers of Southern noir: it has beautifully drawn characters, a real-feeling setting, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a story that keeps the reader in a constant state of apprehension.– Booklist Review

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Taipei Story by R. F. Kuang

A Yale freshman travels to Taipei for an immersive Chinese language course in hopes of connecting with her roots in this pensive outing from bestseller Kuang (Yellowface). Lily, the narrator, was born in China and raised in the U.S., where she steadily lost her ability to speak Mandarin amid her determination to assimilate. Though her grandparents still live on the mainland in Guangzhou, where she was born, the narrator chose to study in Taiwan for the summer because the “place had nothing to do with me,” leaving her free to make mistakes. Some of her missteps are unexpected, as when JC, a classmate and internet-famous polyglot, invites her to skip class and visit a hot spring with him. After an awkward sexual encounter, which she’s prepared to brush off as a “funny story between friends,” JC tells others in the program, embellishing the details, and the rumor damages Lily’s relationships with her classmates and teachers. Making matters worse, she learns her grandfather has just passed away, and that she’s lost the chance to talk with both grandparents in their native tongue. Lily’s earnestness is heartfelt and poignant, especially as she reels from grief. The result is a touching story of fading heritage.– Publishers Weekly

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Those Who Are Gone by Laurie R. King

King’s solid sequel to Back to the Garden follows San Francisco detective Raquel Laing as she investigates a cold case that links back to her childhood. After being placed on leave, Laing has returned to the SFPD’s cold case unit as a consultant. She resumes investigating the execution-style murder of Gilbert Gallegos, a small-time drug dealer, with special intensity after learning that the fatal bullet matches one removed from her leg when she was shot while she was on the force. The motive for Gallegos’s murder seems obvious—he’d stolen a kilo of cocaine, likely from a narcotics trafficker, before his death. Laing’s digging, however, leads her to suspect that Gallegos’s death was connected to a decades-long string of killings in Northern California, including a 1980s hit on Dolores Ortega, a journalist probing the Sinaloa cartel. That murder has personal resonance for Laing: Ortega was the birth mother of her adopted sister, Dee, who lives with Laing and has since become a PI. As the investigation unfolds, the siblings unearth dark family secrets. King has the mechanics of a police procedural down pat, and she heightens suspense with chapters from the perspective of an unnamed killer. This goes down smooth.– Publishers Weekly Review

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Training for Your Old Lady Body: A Guide to Building Muscle and Mobility at Any Age by Elizabeth Davies

Training for a bikini body? No, thank you. We’re training for dense bones, a healthy heart, good balance, and to maintain physical independence in our senior years. To carry our groceries up a flight of stairs. To play with our children and our grandchildren after them. We’re training for our old lady bodies.

Whether you are starting from scratch or a seasoned pro in the gym, these pages contain everything you need to know to strength train safely and effectively. This essential guide offers practical instruction and powerful motivation to build strength for life, including:

Sections highlighting pelvic floor health, mobility, and bone density

A training jargon dictionary

Modifications for bodyweight exercises

Tips on sleep health and protein intake

Creating a routine that fits within busy schedules

And much more.

Filled with expert guidance and 50 illustrations showcasing various exercises, this empowering companion will provide you with the tools and confidence to establish a healthy, consistent fitness practice, enabling you to feel your best and strongest at any age.

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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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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: September 2, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Before You Were Anne by Emiko Jean

After a woman is killed and her daughter vanishes, detective Chelsey Calhoun uncovers a legacy of violence and survival that spans from Japan to Seattle in this propulsive novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Return of Ellie Black.

A murdered woman. A missing daughter. A truth buried across two continents.

Married, pregnant, and thriving in her career, Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life finally feels whole, until an explosive new case shatters everything. A mother is dead. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Naomi, has disappeared. And the search will awaken questions about Chelsey’s own origins—questions she’s spent a lifetime afraid to ask.

The victim called herself Anne Walker. But she was born Rika Takahashi, and her journey from a remote Japanese farm to suburban Seattle conceals decades of deception. Across Tokyo’s shadowed underworld, an isolated Idaho town, and years of carefully constructed lies, Rika reinvented herself at every turn. But she was always running—from someone, or something.

Now, Chelsey must find Naomi before she becomes the next victim. But the deeper she delves into Rika’s hidden life, the more she discovers: some secrets are worth killing for. And the most dangerous truths may be the ones closest to home.

Told in three interwoven voices, Before You Were Anne is a gripping suspense novel about the lies that bind families and the sins that echo across generations.

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Paper Ghosts by Sarah Addison Allen

Over the generations, the reclusive Wester matriarchs are feared by their neighbors, as they seem to have second sight, knowing personal things about others and using this information to manipulate them. In 1976, Alice Wester is raising her granddaughter Willamena “Wills” Wester and controlling her life, including the man she is supposed to marry, only allowing Wills to choose her friends. When Wills is betrayed by those friends and rebels against Alice by planning to leave, a tragedy occurs, tying Wills to Wester House. Years later, Wills vows not to make the same mistakes with her own granddaughter Bailey, who, along with her father, Wills’s son, comes to live with her when Bailey’s mother dies. However, to protect Bailey, she repeats her grandmother’s mistake, sending Bailey away until Bailey returns and learns the truth about her grandmother’s past and her own life-changing night. Allen slowly reveals secrets, showing the lengths a family will go to protect their own.

VERDICT Allen’s (Other Birds) latest atmospheric, compelling novel is populated with well-drawn characters, including ghosts, and laced with magical realism. It’s sure to please her fans as well as those of Alice Hoffman.–Library Journal Review

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Promised Land by Henry Wise

The mysterious disappearance of Georgia swamp-dweller Lucas “Rainbo” Boon creates a pressure cooker of conflict in Edgar winner Wise’s expert sequel to Holy City. After Rainbo’s truck is found crashed and bloodstained in the Snakefoot swamp, Sheriff Mills launches an investigation with the help of his deputies, Will Seems and Tania Jameson. As the search party—including Rainbo’s troubled teenage grandson, Buck, and Buck’s anxious mother, Diane—plunges into the treacherous swamp, already-strained family bonds among Rainbo’s kin fray further. Eventually, Buck and a local woman named Arlene Davis, both skilled trackers, lead Will to a remote camp where chilling discoveries deepen the mystery. When Rainbo is found gravely wounded and the FBI uncovers his hidden identity, the investigation draws the surrounding community into a web of betrayal and violence that puts Buck in harm’s way. Wise’s vivid evocation of the Southern landscape and nuanced cast of flawed, fully realized characters imbue his sophomore novel with brooding suspense and emotional depth, solidifying him as a formidable voice in literary crime fiction. It’s a home run. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review

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A Time of Witches by Madeline Martin

Two women, bound by blood and betrayal, must break silence across centuries—or be silenced forever, in the dazzling new novel by New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin.

Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening – plants turn toward her touch, animals linger in her path, and the birthmark on her arm has started tingling. Worse still is her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake.

Her search for answers brings her from Savannah to England, to the decaying Brackenmere Manor where the past blurs with the present. There, Lilith discovers a legacy she never asked for and along with it, the threat of peril. History must be rewritten, or she too will die.

In 1645 Suffolk, Sybil Brantham stands accused as a witch. An educated, wealthy widow, she is branded a threat by men who fear her independence. As arrests begin and suspicion abounds, Sybil must protect her younger sister, even as betrayal takes root within her household.

Across centuries, Lilith and Sybil are bound by blood and by danger. To save themselves, and each other, they must confront the silence that has stolen women’s power for generations—and dare to claim their voices before it’s too late.

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Under Story by Chloe Benjamin

Benjamin (The Immortalists) blends speculative fiction and romance in this sui generis story of an erstwhile couple who discover a parallel universe. Laurel Salter, a mycologist, divorces her physicist husband, Eli, leaves her position at U-W Madison, and takes a job as a dishwasher at the remote McMurdo Station in Antarctica, determined to get as far away as possible from her life. (Benjamin hints early on that Laurel suffered a devastating loss, the details of which are gradually revealed.) One day, researchers discover a coruscating light source, which they dub the Arc. News of the phenomenon draws physicists to the base, including Eli, much to Laurel’s chagrin. Because the Arc gives off inverted neutrinos, Eli thinks it proves his theory that there is a mirror universe, a Duoverse, where time runs backward. Laurel, stirred by Eli’s passion for his theory, persuades him to enter the Arc with her, and they find themselves in another realm where time indeed flows in reverse. Their goal is to stay for three years and undo the tragedy that tore them apart, then return to the known universe. Benjamin holds the reader’s attention with well-conceived depictions of the Duoverse, where people age in reverse from death to birth, but the heart of the story is in Laurel and Eli’s desperate attempt to mend their lives and recover their love. This captivates.

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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: August 26, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Barn Gothic: Three Generations and the Death of the Family Dairy Farm by Ryan Dennis

When Ryan Dennis’s father was crushed by heavy machinery on their New York dairy farm, both men accepted the accident as a risk of agricultural life. But it was harder to comprehend being crushed by low milk prices, big banks, and the policies that destroyed America’s family farms.

Even though Ryan grew up watching his father and grandfather struggle to survive, he always thought he would follow in their footsteps and take over the family farm. But as he milked cows and fed calves, the world outside the barn was changing. Between 2003 and 2020, 40,000 dairy farms went out of business in the United States.

Barn Gothic is an elegy for family farmers and an intimate portrait of three generations laboring to be fathers and sons while their livelihood falls apart. Beautifully told with a farmer’s restraint and a poet’s grace, it is a story of personal loss amid corporate corruption and of finding a way forward when everything you know disappears.

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Dey: A Novel by Edwidge Danticat

“Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die?” These questions haunt Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. When she hears gunfire while at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a nearby restaurant, cowering with fellow shoppers and diners. Once she’s safely home, Magnolia keeps this traumatic event from everyone. But given her life back, she begins to see everything clearly: her extraordinary bond with her daughter, Zoë; her nearly broken relationship with Zoë’s father; the challenges of her mentally troubled mother, whose unraveling patterns Magnolia worries she’s spiraling toward herself; and her father’s affair with a woman who has borne him a child. While struggling through the labyrinth of her past, Magnolia must also come to terms with the losses sustained that life-altering day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti.

Can love or family protect us from harm? Does optimism or fear win out in one’s heart? Which side will prevail for Magnolia? Pulled between these questions, each of which involves a high-stakes choice—Miami or Haiti, single or married, mortal or ghost, before or after—Magnolia is a narrator who is “yon pati koukouy, part firefly”: flitting and shimmering between different worlds.

Taking as its title a Haitian Kreyòl word for mourning, Dèy is a profoundly warm and moving novel about the importance not only of sharing grief but also of inseverable family ties. Brave and striking, Dèy is one of Danticat’s most powerful and deeply affecting works yet, told with her signature “unfaltering voice and evocative beauty” (The Boston Globe).

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The Night Hunter by Natalie Moss

Dani and Grace grew up on a game preserve in South Africa, where their mother dedicated her life to her anti-poaching foundation. After a childhood accident leaves Grace permanently disfigured, Dani flees with their father to London. She and Grace become increasingly distant, especially after their mother remarries. When their mother dies, the girls reluctantly agree to honor her by undertaking a safari with friends–a trip that will take them through their mother’s preserve to their old home. But from the moment the safari begins, things go wrong. The group’s vehicle is destroyed, meaning they must trek on foot through the unforgiving African terrain; there are threats from both humans and animals; and murder and violence abound. In this gripping and turbulent saga, the suspense, uncertainty, and danger increase to a heart-palpitating intensity until the end, which brings reconciliation when the two sisters discover their mother’s darkest secrets. Gory, gruesome, terrifying, and action-packed, this book is not for the fainthearted, but those interested in South Africa, wild animals, illegal poaching, and family trauma will relish Moss’ adventure story. – Booklist Review

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There’s Only One Sin In Hollywood: A Novel by Rasheed Newson

Newson’s second captivating novel, following My Government Means to Kill Me (2022), is about a closeted Black fixer’s quest to reveal the truth behind the untimely demise of a queer movie star. As the story unfolds, the author explores Hollywood and queer Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s. Aaron Touissant fell in love with movies as a boy and eventually landed a job as a handler for Skyline Studios’ Black talent. His biggest assignment is rising star Xavier C. Barlow, the studio’s answer to Sidney Poitier and a man willing to take risks for his beliefs. The tension rises as Xavier is cast in a biopic close to Aaron’s heart, and he decides to take over the project. Newson weaves an engrossing story of sex, race, power, and ambition, showcasing a who’s who of Black Hollywood and dropping readers into the midst of pre-Stonewall raids on gay bars and erotic encounters in bathrooms and city parks. Ultimately, this is a tale of how far the powerful will go to protect themselves and whose stories end up on the cutting-room floor. – Booklist Review

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Under an Afghan Sky by Melissa Fung

In October 2008, Mellissa Fung, a long-time reporter for CBC’s The National, was leaving a refugee camp outside of Kabul. Suddenly, she was grabbed by armed men claiming to be Taliban, stabbed, stuffed into the back of a car and driven off into the desert. When the group finally reached a village in the middle of nowhere, her kidnappers pushed her towards a hole in the ground. For twenty-eight days, Mellissa Fung lived in that hole, which was barely big enough to stand up or lie down in, nursing her injuries, praying, writing in her notebook and, as a veteran journalist, interrogating her own captors. Under an Afghan Sky is the gripping tale of Fung’s days in captivity, and a powerful book about survival and the indomitable spirit of one woman in the most perilous of circumstances.

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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: August 19, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

–

Freight: A Novel by Ryan Lowell  

DEBUT Lowell’s debut features a dynamic cast of characters who are all struggling to lead their best lives despite flaws and deeply held secrets that keep each of them perpetually on the brink of disaster. Curtis, an overnight dispatcher for Maine-based trucking company Hart Logistics, is teetering toward alcohol addiction and trapped in a deteriorating marriage. He views his job as beneath him, even though he is one mistake away from being fired. Theo, one of his drivers, is trying to start a family, but things are complicated in no small part by his affair with Sarah, a local woman desperate for attention and currently accompanying Theo on a long-haul run to Quebec. Another driver, Phil, is seeking refuge on the road after his wife left him, even if it means violating safety protocols by pushing well beyond his legal driving limit. And Billy Trask is looking to use them all, whatever the cost, to pull off the heist of a lifetime.  

VERDICT A fast-paced caper steeped in grim humor with characters who aren’t just carrying baggage; they’re hauling full-scale emotional freight. Will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen, Lou Berney, and Joe Ide.–Library Journal Review  

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God’s Country by William Kent Krueger (Cork O’Connor Series, No. 22) 

Cork O’Connor, preparing for a family trip into the Boundary Waters, is troubled by ominous visions about his future. Ignoring the warnings, he uncovers signs of violence while searching for his missing friend, Cordell Bishop. Soon, he is forced to negotiate with dangerous criminals, the Kennedy brothers, who are seeking their late father’s hidden stash. 

Facing escalating danger and difficult choices, Cork grapples with his darkest instincts as he helps others escape and eventually takes justice into his own hands. God’s Country is an action-packed thrill ride that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. 

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Our Marriage Is Murder by Carol Goodman  

In Goodman’s (Writers and Liars) latest, husband-and-wife writing team Fred and Thea Morgan-Lane are attending a mystery-writers’ conference at an Italian castle that was the setting for the couple’s first book, Death Takes the Castle. Their series “Death Takes a Holiday” is up for an award at the conference, but after 20 books and 20 years of marriage, things are falling apart personally and professionally for Fred and Thea. Before the award winner can be announced, the conference coordinator dies, having drunk a cocktail meant for Thea. Thea, who earlier told Fred she wants to end the series and their marriage, wonders if she is worth more to him dead than alive. Despite the tragedy, the conference continues and so does the scheduled treasure hunt. As attendees scour the castle grounds for clues, more deaths occur. It soon becomes clear that the killer is drawing on Death Takes the Castle. With their relationship on shaky ground, Fred and Thea must work together to stop someone from using their book as a guide to murder.  

VERDICT Goodman’s entertaining plot is a great combination of adventure and suspense. Recommended for fans of Frances and Richard Lockridge’s classic “Mr. and Mrs. North” mysteries.–Library Journal Review 

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A Moment in the Sun: Black Manhattan Before the Civil War by Shane White 

A Moment in the Sun dispels the pernicious narrative that in New York City, slavery was followed by a hundred years of poverty and destitution. 

Dispelling the persistent narrative that abject poverty followed the end of slavery in New York City, acclaimed historian Shane White finally sets the historical record straight. A Moment in the Sun, a revisionist and immersive retelling of antebellum Manhattan, depicts a long-forgotten, nineteenth-century era when ordinary Black men and women, now free, “stood a brief moment in the sun” (W. E. B. Du Bois), ushering in a roughly half-century period when New York City bulged and thrummed with Black creativity and achievement nearly a hundred years before the storied Harlem Renaissance. 

Culling a narrative from thousands of fragmentary sources gathered over three decades of research, White conjures the distant world of these Black New Yorkers, from the streets where dandies flaunted their signature style to a rollicking dance cellar on a Friday night in the Five Points neighborhood. “In a city still rife with racism and violence,” White writes, “ordinary African New Yorkers―among them oystermen, petty entrepreneurs, fortune-tellers, and ‘confidence men’―brought into being a free urban Black culture.” Along the way, White introduces us to a notable parade of characters who helped transform Gotham into a booming urban metropolis, among them Thomas Downing, the “Oyster King of New York”; Mary Thompson, who ran a cookshop out of her cellar; and Cato Alexander, whose tavern provided cocktails and carriage races to a diverse clientele. 

As these people, languages, and cultures mixed in the so-called amalgamated city, racial tensions heightened and often exploded, but this friction helped facilitate a cultural melding that was extensive. To a startling degree, White reveals the myriad ways this first attempt at integration in New York City actually worked. 

A triumph of historical reclamation, A Moment in the Sun paints a pointillist portrait of this time in New York history, one that presents an entirely different story that was waiting to emerge from the archive. And in bringing to vivid life these Black New Yorkers and their eponymous moment in the sun, this shimmering history preserves their memory and, in the words of Caleb Gayle, “takes us into the experiment in freedom whose possibilities could have and should have lasted generations.” 

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Plant Lady by Minyoung Kang 

This addictive South Korean import is part horror story, part noir mystery, and part women’s revenge tale. In the quiet neighborhood of Dosan-gu, Yoohee opens the Plant Shop, where she has a loving relationship with each plant. The shop becomes a popular attraction both in the city and on the web. After architect Hoyoung consults with Yoohee on a new project, the two fall in love. When Hoyoung mindlessly pulls leaves off her beloved plants, Yoohee gets rid of him, literally. Yoohee soon discovers that the young women who wander into her store are being mentally and physically abused by the men in their lives. She resolves to help these women take their revenge. Yoohee’s ingenious methods make the men disappear. When police Inspector Dokyung investigates a number of cases of missing men, the only connection seems to be the Plant Shop, but he doesn’t see how the mousy Yoohee fits in. When her childhood abuser comes into her shop, Yoohee must deal with him while playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the detective and the reader. This atmospheric, twisty, and darkly humorous novel has a strong message about men’s abuse of women. Readers of relationship fiction will be cheering for Yoohee and her plants. – Starred Library Journal Review  

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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: July 29, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

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Blood River Witch by T. J. Martinson

On Kentucky’s Blood River, a Sheriff’s Deputy investigates the death of her ex-fiance, whose brutal occultist murder strongly resembles a similar murder decades ago, for readers of Tana French, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott, and fans of True Detective
Deputy Sheriff Alicia Moore is thrust into the center of a chilling murder investigation when she discovers a victim identifiable only by his hauntingly familiar tattoo—her name inked onto the knuckles of her ex-fiancé, Jake.

Years earlier, Alicia’s father, the then-Sheriff, had arrested a teenage occultist for a nearly identical murder, believed to be driven by the suspect’s worship of demonic entities. Now, with Jake’s murder mirroring that past crime, doubts arise about whether the true culprit was ever caught. The mystery deepens with the arrival of Lucas Masterson, a Criminology PhD student studying the confluence between religious trauma and occult crime, who is eager to lend his expertise to the investigation. As Lucas delves into the case, his profound knowledge of the town’s grim history and his outsider perspective strain the local social fabric, while Alicia grapples with her suspicion towards his unsettling familiarity with the crimes. Caught between her strained relationship with her father, the community’s watchful eyes on a female deputy, and her own harrowing ties to the case, Alicia must navigate a maze of potential occultists, convicts, corrupt officials, and clergy to prevent a gruesome history from repeating itself once again.
For what lies at the heart of Blood River—is it an ancient malicious force seeking to harm the townfolk, or is there a deeper prejudice in a town that continues to punish women in a way that it does not punish the men?

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If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberle 

DEBUT Roxie loves romance novels, but when her wish to live out a storyline from her favorite romance author is magically granted, it’s not quite what she’d hoped for. Turns out, the new book is a crime thriller, and Roxie is stuck as the protagonist in a dangerous genre she doesn’t know much about. In an effort to escape a serial killer, she accidentally kidnaps a nerdy but hot professor, Grant, in the strangest meet-cute ever. With his knowledge of the thriller genre and her expertise in self-defense, they team up to solve an international murder plot that takes them from Boston to London. In order to end the spell and get back to her real life, she must figure out the mystery. As Roxie and Grant live through several literary devices, they find true love together, but Roxie is reluctant to give her heart to Grant since he’s a character in the novel and will disappear once the story is over. VERDICT Full of adventure, a touch of the supernatural, plenty of kooky, adorable characters, and hilarious hijinks, Eberle’s highly original and fun debut is for fans of heartfelt, original rom-coms with strong bookish themes. — Library Journal Review 

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Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution by Denise Kiernan 

In honor of the 2026 United States Semiquincentennial, aka the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, deep-dive American history chronicler Kiernan (We Gather Together, 2020) considers an array of contributions made by various Revolutionary War-era women. Kiernan’s approach is impressively inclusive. She tends toward less celebrated individuals whose accomplishments often occurred behind the scenes (Sarah Bradlee Fulton’s cosmetics helped disguise Boston Tea Party participants) or were left out of male-centric standard narratives (Chief Nanye’hi helped broker Cherokee peace treaties). Subjects represent diverse segments of society (patriots and loyalists, New Englanders and Southerners, enslaved individuals, aristocrats, housewives, poets, spies). Chapters alternate between detailed historic accounts, effortlessly incorporating primary source material, and accounts of the author’s recent research-inspired visits to three landmarks: Mount Vernon, a former South Carolina plantation, and a casino on Indigenous lands. A few luminaries make cameo appearances (Abigail Adams, Marie Antoinette) but the emphasis is on everyday women who are resurrected through diaries and letters, shipping lists, headstones, and bills of sale. This is an engaging, enlightening, and quite satisfying read. – Booklist Review 

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Sisters of the Midnight Sun by Rebecca Wright Stevens 

On August 3, 1993, the bodies of two sisters, Wanda and Bernice Ipalook, were discovered in Utqiagvik, an oil-rich area on Alaska’s North Slope. Both women had been strangled, and one had been raped. Amos Lane, a drifter with a prior record, was charged with the crimes, and Stevens was the public defender assigned to defend him. She secured immunity for him if he testified for the prosecution against the person ultimately charged with the crime, Bernice’s fiance , John Adams. Ultimately, Adams was found not guilty of the murders, and Lane was found guilty of perjury. To this day, the crime remains unsolved. Stevens’s novelistic writing style focuses less on the trial itself than on her experiences as an outsider in the community and on the lives of the Iupiat people in Arctic Alaska. Stevens spent 36 years working as a defense lawyer, and readers will appreciate everything she did to protect her client, though they may wish for more insight into the Ipalook murders. VERDICT Although this true crime book boasts an expansive view of the surrounding I upiat community, readers may leave this book with further questions about the grisly, complex case at its center. – Library Journal Review 

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The Talking Bone by Renee Denfeld  

Ruby Spencer, known as “the Exonerator,” has devoted her life to finding missing women and freeing the people wrongly convicted for their disappearances. Her work leads her to Georgia, where Mitchell Brown, a 32-year-old man on death row, has just two weeks left before his execution. A decade earlier, Mitchell celebrated landing a new job, drank too much, and wandered into a gas station. He later awoke in his truck to find the attendant missing and the station splashed with blood. The evidence was lost, the body was never found, and Mitchell’s memory of that night never returned. As Ruby investigates, she travels to Mitchell’s Oregon hometown. There she uncovers a chilling parallel: Mitchell’s mother vanished when he was a child, just as Ruby’s mother disappeared years before. Chapters weave between past and present, revealing the story of Ruby’s mother as the clock ticks toward Mitchell’s execution. Forced to confront her own trauma and unresolved grief, Ruby pushes deeper into a case where justice feels out of reach.  

VERDICT Drawing on her experience as a licensed death-row investigator, Denfeld (Sleeping Giants) crafts a taut, emotional thriller. Readers of her earlier novels will appreciate this intricately layered tale of suspense. –Library Journal Review  

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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

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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.

–

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: July 22, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

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Data Empire The Power of Information to Organize, Control, and Dominate by Roopika Risam 

During 11,000 years of global history, recordkeeping has taken countless forms–tally sticks, clay tablets, knotted cords, scrolls, codices, ledgers, formularies, databases, and digital content–but people have always collected and classified information in pursuit of power. According to Risam (digital humanities, Dartmouth Coll.; New Digital Worlds), collecting and making sense of data drives commerce, conquest, and social control. Powerful elites decide how to interpret data and create narratives. Empires gather intelligence, draw maps, deed land, tax trade, and conduct censuses. Traditions and customs may endure, but information is authoritative only when recognized by authorities. Over the past century, data has become an empire in its own right, shaping institutions and worldviews, powering surveillance capitalism and the rise of artificial intelligence, and reducing all ideas and actions to raw data and predictive modeling. The author’s arguments will resonate with readers of Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, and The Power of Knowledge by Jeremy Black. Readers are left with the impression that information and its uses produce exploitation, failing to enrich or empower lives. It is high time to reclaim data for good.  

VERDICT A sweeping and convincing argument that information undergirds power. –Library Journal Review 

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Dooneen by Keith Ridgway  

A surreal, magical realist joy of a novel, highly acclaimed Ridgway’s (A Shock, 2021) latest is a remarkable work sure to feature on best-of-the-year lists. The opening sees Bartholomew Port–Mew–mysteriously transport from a London park to a near-future Dublin with no cars, shifting roads, and a still-worsening housing crisis. As Mew drifts around a recognizable but off-kilter Dublin seeing acquaintances and family, he describes all to his lover Mootie, whom he longs to rejoin in London. Mew stumbles into being part of a reckoning of sorts, led by those seeking a collective solution to the housing crisis, and here the novel truly takes off with a staccato, breathless pace that sweeps the reader up and refuses to let go. Like the intoxicating, dreamlike prose of Evan Dara and Kazuo Ishiguro, this suspenseful tale explores community, identity, housing, and the remorseless power of the state. The vividly described backdrop of monuments of Irish revolutionary history contrasts with the contemporary feeling of powerlessness many people feel. A love letter, a puzzle, a haunting–Doneen unsettles and entrances like Susanna Clarke’s dreamlike Piranesi (2020) but also packs a political punch. A stunning achievement, Ridgway’s novel is urgent, profound, and shimmeringly beautiful. — Starred Booklist Review 

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The Forty-Year Grudge by Liza Tully 

The guests at an exclusive sorority reunion include murder. Aubrey Merritt, “the nationally renowned private investigator,” never intended to leave Gramercy Park for the wilds of New Mexico even though she was an invited member of Sarah Lawrence College’s Sigma Delta Tau chapter. She changes her mind when her old friend John Fitzroy tells her of a note announcing that “she who lives by the sword shall die” that his wife, retired Brigadier General Joan Battersea, received shortly before her guests were scheduled to arrive at the Muddy River Ranch. Merritt decides to make the trip in the company of her assistant and amanuensis, Olivia Blunt. Sure enough, someone’s shot to death during the festivities, but it’s not the general. Instead, the victim is MIT biochemist Eve Exeter, who together with her husband, entrepreneur Conrad Zander, had been about to launch Lifespan, Inc., as a public corporation dedicated to using Eve’s research to extend the lives of its clients. As the newly married Blunt mingles with the guests, all of them old enough to be her mother, she learns one of them has held a grudge against Eve since they were in school together. In case you’ve forgotten that original threat against the general, someone hides no fewer than five scorpions in her bed. Of all the possible antagonists, the one Blunt takes most seriously is Merritt, who challenges her to solve the mystery herself if she wants to keep her job. Considering Merritt’s national reputation, which actually ends up being an important plot point, the mystery is, as she acknowledges, not very challenging at all. Looking for a reason to avoid your college reunion? Tully is happy to oblige. –Kirkus Review  

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It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories by Sigrid Nunez 

The dazzling first collection by novelist Nunez (The Friend, 2018) includes 13 stories published over the past few decades. They range from the nightmarishly surreal “Airport Story,” in which an unnamed woman spirals downward after being diverted to an airport she doesn’t know, to the noir-tinged “The Plan,” in which an increasingly unstable narrator contemplates murder, to the wild, coming-of-age tale “Imagination,” in which a high-strung 14-year-old sees one guest at a party at her parents’ country home “turn into a small dog, no, a large dog” as he enters the bathroom, and the deceptively casual title story, which asks, “Aren’t we all unreliable narrators of our own lives?” Nunez has a gift for surprise, whether it’s in the turn a sentence or a story takes, the little revelations that detonate as a seemingly matter-of-fact story unwinds or the variety of protagonists and settings in her stories. She also knows how to calibrate despair and surprising joy, leaving the reader giddily off-balance. Each of these stories, even the most ostensibly wispy, reverberates long after it ends. – Starred Booklist Review  

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Shadow Step: A Detective Miller Novel by Mark Billingham 

The Cookie Monster with a badge personified, or as the Brits might say, a biscuit fiend with a warrant card: Billingham’s peripatetic DS Declan Miller takes his third turn, following The Wrong Hands (2024), tearing around Blackpool on his trusty blue moped. His dead wife, Alex, continues to manifest herself as needed. This is one rambling and wildly funny tale that is set in motion by Ruby, a wobbling, incontinent sausage of a dog who is the companion of the unfortunate Barry Cheshire. The pair are involved in a contretemps with a mean dog owner in the park, and when that man is found dead, Cheshire is the likely suspect. It turns out the victim was involved in a major drug network with ties to Alex’s death. The story branches out from there, with intermittent fox-trotting for Miller, who proudly displays his tango trophy on his mantelpiece. Not spiraling out of control, by any means, this is as carefully plotted as expected from Billingham. There is the promise of redemption for some, although for “Google” McDougall, maybe not so much. – Booklist Review 

Reader’s Note: If you’d like to start reading the Detective Miller Mystery Series from the beginning, check out book one: The Last Dance.  

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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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: July 15, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

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Death of a Wild Swimmer by Peter Boland 

Still waters run deep in this baffling new case for the Charity Shop Detective Agency! 

Wild swimming in February? No, thank you. It sounds like torture to Fiona, Daisy and Partial Sue, the retired ladies behind the counter at Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop. 

Still, no one ever died of plunging into the icy waters around the sleepy little English town of Southbourne.  

Until now. 

The body of Colin Barclay, retired PE master and wild-swimming fanatic, washes up in a secluded cove. 

Days later, a shifty new customer comes calling at Dogs Need Nice Homes. Is this where you solve murders? She asks, her eyes darting wildly round the shelves of bric-a-brac. I think I have one . . . 

This woman belongs to Colin’s swimming club — and she’s convinced his death was no accident. It was murder. 

She just needs the ladies to dive in and help her prove it . . . 

Fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood, Janice Hallett, Simon Brett, Ian Moore and Sarah Yarwood-Lovett will adore this exciting new talent in cozy crime. 

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Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Blooms, Shadows, and Stars by Cathy Haynes 

A celebration of circadian rhythms. British curator, artist, and educator Haynes, who has served as timekeeper in residence at University College London’s Petrie Museum, makes an engaging book debut with a naturalist’s view of marking time. Ranging widely around England, Scotland, and Iceland, Haynes becomes newly attentive to the ways plants and animals respond to changes in light and seasons. She listens to layers of song that build as birds join the dawn chorus, and to the sounds of owls and bats at night. She notices the regular unfolding of flowers–the primrose in the evening, and many flowers, including the daisy, at predictable times during the day. Linnaeus and other scientists tried to create floral clocks based on the movement of petals, most recently at the Botanical Garden in Bern, Switzerland. The Cambridge University Botanic Garden Circadian Beds are planted with flowers that give off scents, half in the morning, half in the evening, possibly an adaptation for attracting pollinators. Sundials have served as rudimentary clocks since ancient times: a stick in the turf or a spike stuck into a wall with lines scratched beneath could suffice to mark time by the movement of shadows. Humans contrived ways both to ascertain time and keep time: In northern Scotland, Haynes hears songs and chants sung by weavers, millers, and knitters to accompany their work. Assuming that sunlight was of primary importance in telling time, Haynes is surprised to discover the colors and qualities of twilight, which have given rise to three gradations: civil twilight, when it is too dim to read and the brightest stars emerge; nautical twilight, when the atmosphere is too dark to see the horizon; and astronomical twilight, when the faintest stars appear. Curiosity and enthusiasm impel a foray into the natural world. – Kirkus Review 

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In Stormy Weather: A Novel by Chelsea Curto 

Quincy Monroe has a PhD in atmospheric sciences, a successful weather show online, and millions of followers on social media–and she still gets grief from men questioning her credentials. When her dream job opens up at the National Weather Service, she quashes her doubts and submits an application. Nothing can stop her now, except maybe Sebastian Dunn. Sebastian is a New York City TV weatherman with his own set of fans–and Quincy’s best friend’s brother, who’s been Quincy’s academic and professional rival since high school. Back in their hometown to film a documentary on the hurricane season, he shows up everywhere Quincy does, chasing the same storms as well as the same NWS job. As they endure record-breaking storms together, Quincy begins to question everything she thought she knew about Seb. Is it possible he’s not the self-absorbed clout chaser she thought he was? Does it even matter, if they’re both trying for the same prestigious job?  

VERDICT Curto’s (“D.C. Stars” series) first traditionally published book is a page-turner, sure to appeal to fans of Ali Hazelwood’s women-in-STEM books, as well as those who enjoy antagonists-to-lovers romances.–Starred Library Journal Review  

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Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson 

Jackson (Pineapple Street) offers sharp social commentary on millennials navigating middle age, set in a close-knit Massachusetts beach town. Caroline, an outsider, narrates much of the story, with other voices offering their perspectives. The daughter of a bestselling author, Caroline is determined to forge her own literary identity. After publishing a story in the New Yorker, she quits her publishing job and wins a prestigious writing fellowship that comes with a stay in a seaside cottage once owned by a legendary local writer. There she meets Van, a passionate environmentalist, and is drawn into his circle of longtime friends. As she immerses herself in their world–and falls in love with Van–initially guarded relationships soften. Everything shifts when one of Van’s friends reveals she is pregnant with his child. Though Caroline and Van navigate the pregnancy, things change after the baby’s birth, and Caroline lashes out the only way she knows how: through her writing. Her thinly veiled short story, based on Van’s friends, detonates the small town. Hidden truths surface, relationships fracture, and everyone is forced to reckon with what they’ve been avoiding.  

VERDICT Fueled by humor, sex, and drugs, this pointed, character-driven novel will appeal to fans of Emma Straub or Taffy Brodesser-Akner.–Starred Library Journal Review  

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Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins 

The Mojave Desert is Watkins’ muse and the setting for her spiky novels. In her third, following I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness (2021), Rose has returned to the pitiless Nevada desert after the demise of her marriage and the painful decision to have her daughter live on the East Coast with her father during the school year. Rose has been working for the Sierra Club but feels like “a flunky for the nonprofit-corporate-industrial complex.”” She prefers the scrappy eco-activists occupying Yellow Pine, an enormous commercial solar installation on public land that is causing the deaths of desert tortoises, among other abominations. After her first love reappears, Rose wants a second child, but he balks. Both are deep thinkers tormented by crimes against the planet and humanity. How to keep from plunging into despair? How to cultivate hope and love? Churning with Rose’s ethical, profane, furious, funny, and cosmic reflections and forays into desert geology, ancient goddess cultures, and numerous books, Watkins’ keen and righteous novel wrestles with myriad paradoxes, spirituality, and how ecocide does “deep, grievous injury to the collective soul.” — Booklist Review  

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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: July 8, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

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Big Stick Energy by Sarine Bowen  

Bowen’s second “New York Legends Hockey” book, after Thrown for a Loop, delivers a romance between Darcy Kendrick, assistant to the general manager of the New York Legends hockey team, and team captain Eric Tremaine. When Darcy receives a wedding invitation from her half-sibling, she decides to enter a fake-dating arrangement with Eric, who is also attending the wedding. Their scheme quickly becomes complicated as real feelings emerge between the two characters. The workplace-romance element adds layers of tension to their relationship as Darcy navigates the implications of dating the team captain while maintaining her position in management. Bowen shifts the focus from hockey to relationship development, allowing readers to dive deeper into the emotional lives of the characters, and the novel explores significantly heavy family dynamics: Eric struggles with his parents’ inability to move on after a death in the family, while Darcy navigates the fallout from her parents’ divorce, affairs, and complicated half-sibling relationships.  

VERDICT Fans of the first book in Bowen’s series will enjoy this sequel, which has even more focus on romance. Recommended for readers who want to delve into sports romance with unique workplace dynamics. – Library Journal Review 

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The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris 

From the best-selling authors of The Lost Words, a dazzling celebration of endangered birds. 

The Book of Birds is a field guide with a difference: It shows readers not just how to identify birds, but also how to identify with them. Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris conjure the unique spirit of nearly fifty once-common species: avocet to yellowhammer, kestrel to kingfisher, skylark to nightingale. In lyrical and incantatory essays, Macfarlane describes each bird’s habits and habitats, their patterns of flight and patterns of song, how they hunt or fish or scavenge or gather, how they nest and raise their chicks, the myths that attend them, the threats that shadow them―and how their lives intersect with our own. On every page we encounter Morris’s exhilarating artwork, painted from life in watercolor and gold leaf, and animated with an extraordinary attention to detail. The Book of Birds is a love letter to the thrilling variety and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the rapid depletion of our skies. 

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Bulletproof by K. M. Moronova 

He was built to be bulletproof. She’s the one thing that can break him. Briar Thornton has spent months outrunning her past, but when she’s drawn to the small Montana town of Bane Falls with the death of her late uncle and his estate to handle, she runs straight into a new nightmare—and a man more dangerous than the one who tried to kill her. Roman Syxx isn’t a savior. He’s a weapon—cold, precise, and programmed by the Dark Forces to destroy anything and anyone. As the lieutenant of the covert Icarus Squad, he’s in Bane Falls on orders: infiltrate, eliminate, disappear. But the new girl that randomly shows up in the small town fractures his control in ways no enemy ever could. Drawn together by their traumas, they burn through each other’s defenses until love feels as lethal as war. And when Briar’s hidden connection to Roman’s mission is exposed, both will learn that freedom always comes with a body count. 

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The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders  

Award-winning short-story author Sanders (Company, 2023) returns with a debut novel that is part family saga, part historical fiction, part ghost story, and entirely captivating. We meet Aubrey Lamb on the night her boyfriend of four years ends things and just a year after losing her father. As she struggles to cope and navigate multiple jobs to afford her life in Washington, DC, the inheritance of a family farm in Tennessee offers not only a distraction from her heartbreak, but also an opportunity to connect with her extended family. As Aubrey contemplates the future of her family’s land, the complicated and fraught origins of her heritage are told through the story of her great-grandfather. Throughout the novel, the ghosts of her ancestors observe the daily lives of their descendants and the story unfolds under their watchful eyes. Sanders expertly portrays familial relationships, imbuing her characters with pathos and humor as they grapple with the complexities of family legacy. Give to readers of The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois (2021), by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Booklist Review 

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Revolutionary by Alex Myers 

As a former indentured servant in Colonial Massachusetts, Deborah Sampson (1760-1827) leads a constricted life. Frequently chided for her desire for independence, she reaches a breaking point and runs away. Tall and strong, she dresses as a man to escape and soon finds untold freedom, respect, and comfort when she joins the Continental Army as Robert Shurtliff. But there are risks as well. Besides the dangers of battle and the fear of being discovered, there is the effect on Deborah/Robert’s sense of self: while increasingly comfortable at being Robert, the deceit of having to hide her true and complex nature takes its toll. The author is transgender and writes well about identity and gender, but sticklers for a historical voice may be disappointed. While based on true events and a real person, Myers’s debut novel is more interested in Deborah/Robert’s internal journey than in immersing readers in period detail.  

VERDICT Despite some flaws, this work offers a new take on historical accounts of transgender people; Myers explores not just how Deborah manages to pass as a man but her reasons for doing so.– Library Journal Review  

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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).

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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 York Times Bestsellers: July 12, 2026

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

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THE BESTSELLERS

FICTION

1. THEO OF GOLDEN by Allen Levi: A man travels to a small Southern town, where he purchases pencil drawings of local residents and exchanges them for stories.

2. YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke: Natalie Heller Mills, a privileged tradwife social media influencer, wakes up to find she is living in the comparatively difficult reality of 1855.

3. WHISTLER by Ann Patchett: Decades after their time together, a woman reconnects with her stepfather and they look back at the directions their lives have taken.

4. THE CALAMITY CLUB by Kathryn Stockett: As things get tougher during the Depression, several women look for ways to improve their circumstances.

5. 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; the basis of the movie.

6. DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL by Matt Dinniman: A Coast Guard vet named Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, are trapped in a fantasy dungeon.

7. THE DEAL by Elle Kennedy: Hannah Wells makes a deal with the captain of the college hockey team in exchange for tutoring him that may complicate their relationship.

8. WEDDINGS by Danielle Steel: The daughter of a celebrated wedding dress designer becomes engaged and the women in the family contend with relationship complications.

9. IT COULD HAVE BEEN HER by Lisa Jewell: When a teenager is reported missing, Jane Trevally visits a house that holds unsettling memories for her.

10. THE DIVORCE by Freida McFadden:  After her husband ends their marriage and she turns her attention to his new girlfriend, Naomi suspects she might be in danger.

11. 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.

12. THE MISTAKE by Elle Kennedy: The second book in the Off-Campus series. A college hockey player attempts to redeem himself to a rising sophomore.

13. THE SCORE by Elle Kennedy: The third book in the Off-Campus series. A brokenhearted senior resists the charms of a hockey star.

14. THE GOAL by Elle Kennedy: The fourth book in the Off-Campus series. Pregnancy complicates things between a college senior and a hockey player.

15. OUR PERFECT STORM by Carley Fortune: After her fiancé leaves her, Frankie goes on her planned honeymoon trip with her best friend from childhood, George.

NON-FICTION

1. REGIME CHANGE by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan: Two White House correspondents for The New York Times delve into the first year of President Trump’s second term.

2. COMMUNION by JD Vance: The vice president and author of “Hillbilly Elegy” describes how he perceives his faith played a part in his work in public life.

3. STRANGERS by Belle Burden: Burden retraces her marriage of 20 years in search of clues to help shape her understanding about its demise and to find a way forward.

4. REVOLUTION by Eric Metaxas: The author of “Martin Luther” and “Bonhoeffer” gives an account of the foundation of the United States of America.

5. THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE by David Sedaris: Essays on the passage of time, complicated relationships and some unexpected delights life has to offer.

6. COURAGE CAN SAVE US by Rye BarcottL Profiles of Democratic and Republican politicians who previously served in the military or the F.B.I.

7. LONDON FALLING by Patrick Radden Keefe: The author of “Say Nothing” details the efforts by the parents of a 19-year-old Londoner to uncover the truth about his mysterious death and secret life.

8. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE by Bessel van der Kolk: How trauma affects the body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery.

9. STRIPPED DOWN by Bunnie Xo:  The host of the “Dumb Blonde Podcast” shares how redemption was an important part of her journey toward reaching her goals.

10. THE GREATEST SENTENCE EVER WRITTEN by Walter Isaacson: The historian and biographer examines the concepts of a statement found in the Declaration of Independence.

11. MAILMAN by Stephen Starring Grant: After losing his corporate job and being diagnosed with cancer, Grant becomes a mailman in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

12. WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR by Paul Kalanithi: A memoir by a physician who received a diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36.

13. THE REVERSE CENTAUR’S GUIDE TO LIFE AFTER AI by Cory Doctorow: The journalist and science fiction writer envisions the future of work and artificial intelligence.

14. 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.

15. FAMESICK by Lena Dunham: The author of “Not That Kind of Girl” evaluates the effects that pursuing her creative endeavors had on her.

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NON-FICTION

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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.

Suggested Reading Five: July 1, 2026

Linda Reimer

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

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Nine Lives by Catherine Steadman 

Reeling from a very recent divorce, Frankie has moved into a glamorous London neighborhood. This is a new chapter in her life. She’s decided to put down roots with Blue, the beautiful Persian cat she left her marriage with. 

But little doubts about her perfect new life start to grow, and when Blue returns one night from slipping into places he shouldn’t, Frankie’s concerns solidify. Two words are roughly scratched into his collar: help me. Unsettled and unwilling to ignore the incident, Frankie roots out an old unused “cat cam” collar. What slowly begins as a voyeuristic fascination with her neighbors and the secrets they’re hiding soon turns into a perilous quest for the truth that threatens to bring untold terrors to her doorstep. 

A riveting thriller about the terrible secrets hidden behind the pastel-colored façade of one of London’s most upscale enclaves, Nine Lives is catnip for suspense readers everywhere and perfect for fans of modern classics like The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window. 

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Scandal of the Summer by Alexandra Vasti 

In Vasti’s new Regency adventure, following Ladies in Hating (2025), Ruby and her two best friends are tired of being high society outcasts for being different or having family issues. Ruby is too scientific and outspoken for the ton’s liking. She hatches a plan with her friends to pretend to be ladies-in-waiting at a princess’ empty estate. When they arrive, they find handsome Malcolm Archer and his crew running the mansion. The crew tries to make things unpleasant for the young women in hilarious ways, attempting to get them to leave. Archer is using his role at the royal home to disguise his smuggling business and doesn’t need nosy misses about, even if Ruby captures his attention and even as the women clean and fix up the house. Ruby is fascinated with Archer and tries to discover his secrets and what he and his crew are up to. Then the imperiled princess arrives, and they are all thrown into a plot to save her. Vasti’s wonderfully entertaining caper is full of heroism and romance. –Booklist Review  

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The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston  

In an attempt to grapple with her grief after the death of her best friend Harriet, horticulturist Sophie Drear takes on the head gardener position at her and Harriet’s favorite place, Lilymoor House in coastal Maine. The house and its vast, hedge-mazed gardens are challenging and gorgeous, as is the disgruntled and handsome man Sophie discovers behind a secret blue door. Cyrus Beck, grandchild of Lilymoor House’s owners, is trapped inside, and Sophie cannot seem to find a way to free him. As Sophie attempts to unlock the secrets tangled in the lush foliage and the people of Lilymoor House, she also finds herself falling in love with both the place and with Cyrus. Questions abound in this paranormal romance. Will Sophie be able to solve Lilymoor House’s mysteries without losing track of herself or her grief? What if the man she has fallen in love with is not the man who she’ll eventually meet in real life, outside of the hedge maze?  

VERDICT Poston (Sounds Like Love) continues her trend of lightly magical stories, perfect for readers seeking the magic of Sarah Addison Allen blended with the humor and romance tropes of Emily Henry.—Library Journal Review 

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Sweet Spot by Kemper Donovan  

Ghostwriters, just like ghosts, shouldn’t exist. Knowing that the latest juicy memoir was penned by a stranger for a paycheck tends to ruin the illusion of intimacy. But not every ghostwriter is in it for the money alone. 

For Belle Currer—as the ghostwriter extraordinaire prefers to be known—Genevieve Caraway’s memoir is an irresistible project, a tale of tragedy overcome. At 14, Genevieve was abducted from her bedroom by a couple and held hostage for three months. She’s now a happily married mother with a flourishing career, a poster child for thriving after trauma. Still, the scars haven’t entirely faded. 

Genevieve’s lavish Utah home, “Sweet Spot,” is a guarded compound impregnable to outsiders—theoretically, at least. But Belle’s arrival coincides with the parole of Deirdre Gregory, one of Genevieve’s kidnappers. When Deirdre shows up at Sweet Spot begging to see Genevieve, she is refused. The next day, Deirdre’s dead body is found on the grounds. 

How did Deirdre get in? More importantly, who killed her? Belle soon joins Detective Kay Adams, the pregnant Mormon detective assigned to the case, in sifting through the suspects. The compound is filled with family and friends—and also with secrets, including one the ghostwriter has been carrying for far too long. She knows how guilt, remorse, and love can drive people to do unthinkable things. And that no matter how much you try to keep the world at bay, the best and worst of it may find a way to get in . . .

 

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The Top of the World by Ethan Joella  

A teenager with leukemia spends one eye-opening summer working at a Poconos honeymoon resort, trying to find new experiences before he dies. It’s the mid-1970s, and Maggie Bishop’s older brother, Chip, has been diagnosed with cancer. Rather than subject himself to the treatments his doctors recommend, he leaves town after finishing high school without telling anyone where he’s going. He only returns home once he’s certain his death is imminent. He wants to spend his last days with his family, but he never tells them where he’d been all that time. After he dies, Maggie finds herself stuck on the question of where her brother spent his last summer and why. She snoops through his things for months until she finally discovers a nametag indicating Chip had been employed by the Red Maple, a Poconos resort. As soon as she finishes her own senior year, Maggie, like her brother before her, takes off without explaining to her parents where she’s going. She manages to get herself employed at the Red Maple, as well, and she spends her summer there trying to get to know the people who knew Chip in the hope of better understanding his final choices.

Told in alternating chapters that follow Chip through the summer of 1974 and Maggie through the summer of 1975, the book depicts a touchingly close relationship between the siblings, which is, paradoxically, most evocative in the moments when they are apart. Joella also manages to portray the devastation of a teenager’s certain death with grace and insight. While Chip seems to have a much richer internal life than his sister, both characters are exceedingly likable and devoted to each other, which makes their separation all the more heartrending. A particular strength of the novel is the Red Maple setting, where the author manages to capture the magic of the summer resorts where both visitors and staff have transformative experiences. While some readers may find a few too many coincidences or some predictable turns of plot, the preponderance of touching moments while Chip accepts the unfairness of his fate allow the story to soar nonetheless. A captivating and tragic tale about living to the fullest before a young life is extinguished. – Starred Kirkus Review  

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Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

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

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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.

–

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).

–

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.