Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
And the next Suggested Reading posting will be published on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
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The Au Pair Affair: A Novel by Tessa Bailey
Accepting a job working as au pair for divorced dad Burgess Abraham’s tween daughter, Lissa, seemed like a good idea at the time. Then Tallulah Aydin comes across a video of hockey player Burgess–aka Sir Savage–busting up an opposing team member on the ice. Now Tallulah is having second–and to be honest, third and fourth–thoughts about going to work for the team captain of the Boston Bearcats. However, with a bit of work, Burgess manages to quell whatever initial fears Tallulah might have, and she agrees to a trial period working for Burgess and Lissa. But spending so much time around Burgess soon raises a different concern–can she keep things strictly profession with her gruff, tough, and way-too-buff new boss? With the latest entry in her Big Shots series, Bailey (Fangirl Down, 2024) shoots and scores with another effortlessly entertaining sports romance that not only perfectly encapsulates her naughty and nice brand of love stories but is also richly imbued with her puckish sense of humor. – Booklist Review
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The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
Quinn’s (The Diamond Eye) compelling story of women’s friendships, set against the frightening days of McCarthyism, combines personal stories with real history. In 1954, a Thanksgiving gathering at a Washington, DC, women’s boardinghouse is disrupted. The result is two dead bodies and 17 suspects. The boardinghouse residents and their guests worry about what the police will uncover, because Briarwood House has harbored secrets for at least four years. Mrs. Nilsson, the owner and landlady at Briarwood House, is disliked by all the residents. However, beginning in 1950, when a widow named Grace Marsh moves in, the atmosphere slowly changes. Every Thursday, when Mrs. Nilsson is out, Grace invites everyone to dinner in her tiny room. Residents include a Hungarian refugee, a cop’s daughter who is dating the wrong man, and a secretary to a senator. The women all have a chance to talk about their past while still keeping secrets, but the lives they’ve made might come crashing down as friendships are tested by home invasion and murder.
VERDICT This powerful, unforgettable historical mystery is for fans of Mary Anna Evans’s Justine Byrne series and stories with strong women characters. – Starred Library Journal Review
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Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer
Award-winning actor/comedian/podcaster Scheer’s charming, disarming, candid, and warm collection of essays will appeal to readers who like their humor best when it’s bittersweet. He aims to wear his former feelings of shame with pride, whether it’s describing abuse at the hands of his stepfather or listing cringeworthy celebrity encounters so embarrassing that he had to leave the scene. He acknowledges the times in his life that those who loved him most, including himself, failed him. Laying bare how traumatic events can become so routine they may not register as trauma, he conveys his humility and humanity with humor and authenticity. In the chapters “Ode to a Minivan” and “Scheer Humiliation,” readers see the silly side of him in his roles as an actor, a comedian, a husband, and a father. Readers will find the sincerest form of self-acceptance through hard lessons learned in the chapters “When I Grow Up” and “Becoming Dad.” VERDICT Scheer’s memoir addresses somber truths of adolescence and abuse while never losing a sense of hope and humor along the way. Recommend this beautiful book to fans of Sam Neill, Casey Wilson, and Samantha Irby. – Starred Library Journal Review
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The Queen Of Poisons by Robert Thorogood
The cozy yet high-mortality English village of Marlow is once again roiled by murder, this time involving a victim at the very top of the local food chain. Seeking zoning approval for the pod hotel she’s convinced will make her a mint, dog walker Suzie Harris attends a meeting of the Marlow town council to get the lay of the land. Her attempt to pass herself off as having official business before the council is much less successful than the fatal poisoning of Marlow mayor Geoffrey Lushington, who gets a dose of aconite in his coffee, or maybe in his sugar, that stops the meeting before it starts. The obvious suspects are the four other council members who were present in the room where it happened: estate agent Marcus Percival, accountant Debbie Bell, architect Jeremy Wessel, and late-arriving Sophia De Castro, a homeopathic podcaster who actually grows aconite in her garden. But once DI Tanika Malik appoints Suzie and her partners in crime detection, Judith Potts and Becks Starling, as civilian advisers, they start asking nosy questions and moving from one suspect to the next with disconcerting dispatch, broadening the field to consider Alec Miller, the retiree who served tea at all the council meetings except this one, and an unknown blond man “average in…height and in weight” spotted in the immediate environs. In the end, Judith carries off sleuthing honors, though at a certain cost to her domicile. Ingenious, ultracivilized mental gymnastics guaranteed not to disturb your sleep. – Kirkus Review
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The Sentinel by Mark Greaney
An African coup may force Josh Duffy to choose between his mission and his family in this intense thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Gray Man series.
Josh Duffy and his wife Nikki are both working for the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service providing protection for diplomats in the field. They’ve been sent to Ghana with a team of US embassy personnel who are there to highlight American commitment to the construction of a new dam.
Since Ghana is a stable democracy, the Duffy children have come along for a short vacation. But stability proves to be fleeting when a Chinese plan to embarrass the US means the destruction of the dam. Now Josh and his protectees are on the run caught between a Chinese hit squad and a rebel army.
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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 three library catalogs
The Digital Catalog: 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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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 