Science Fiction – Page 4 – Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Tuesday, August 9, 2016

August 9, 2016 Linda Reimer

Hello everyone, here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats.

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Dark Side by Anthony O’Neill:

“In this gripping sci-fi noir for fans of The Martian and Quentin Tarantino, when an anarchic android begins wreaking havoc on a moon-based penal colony and bodies start turning up, an exiled detective must decide who he can trust in a city of criminals.

Never bang your head against a wall. Bang someone else’s.

Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of eccentric billionaire, Fletcher Brass and mecca for war criminals, murderers, and curious tourists alike. You can’t find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere in the universe. But trouble is brewing in Brass’s black-market heaven. When an exiled cop comes to enact law and order in this wild new frontier, he finds himself the lead investigator in a series of high-profile murders that puts him toe to toe with the city’s charismatic founder and his equally ambitious daughter.

Meanwhile, 2000 km away a memory-wiped android, Leonardo Black rampages across the lunar surface. Programmed with only the notorious “Brass Code”—a compendium of corporate laws that would make Ayn Rand blush—he journeys across the dark side of the moon with only one goal in mind: find Purgatory and conquer it.”

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2232776

And our print book suggested read for today is:

Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley:

Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve.

Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency. But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order.

Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/pG1Ldp

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

You can access digital library content on PCs, Macs and mobile devices. For mobile devices simply download the OverDrive, Freegal or Zinio app from your app store to get started. If you have questions call the library at: 607-936-3713 and one of our Digital Literacy Specialists will be happy to assist you.

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Wednesday, August 3, 2016

August 3, 2016 Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats.

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Daughter of the Sword by Jeanne Williams:

A beautiful woman, desired by two very different brothers, fights for the freedom of others in this spellbinding saga set during “Bleeding Kansas.”

The daughter of abolitionists whose isolated cabin on the Kansas–Missouri border serves as a stop on the Underground Railroad, Deborah Whitlaw is devastated when pro-slavery marauders murder her parents. Yet she can no more extinguish the flame of justice that burns inside her than she can forget her mother and father. She vows to continue their fight, no matter the cost, and joins forces with a runaway black woman and a mission-educated Shawnee girl to spirit many fugitives northward.

Deborah’s fiery personality attracts two aristocratic English brothers. Rolf Hunter is violent and indomitable; he wants to capture Deborah and bend her to his will. Dane is the polar opposite of his sibling. Honest, gentle, and idealistic, he wins Deborah’s heart, but their tender romance faces staggering obstacles in a state and nation lurching toward civil war. For a blessed interval, Deborah finds solace with Conrad, a German nobleman who has brought his peace-loving Mennonite tenants to Kansas to found a colony. But Rolf, now the head of a gang of pro-slavery bushwhackers, soon shatters Deborah’s idyll. Can she keep him from crushing not only her, but also her friends and the abolitionist cause they’ve risked their lives to support?

A magnificent tale of love and honor, danger and destiny, Daughter of the Sword takes readers on a thrilling journey into the darkest chapter of American history and pays tribute to the brave men and women who led the nation back into the light.

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2697442

And our print book suggested read for today is:

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

Dark Matter: A Novel by Blake Crouch:

A brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/4X2Y2O

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

About Library Mobile Apps:

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Listen & Read: Thursday, July 28, 2016

July 28, 2016July 28, 2016 Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended listen & read in print and digital formats!

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the downloadable audiobook:

The Night and the Music, Volume One: The Matthew Scudder Stories

by Lawrence Block:

Lawrence Block’s seventeen Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world—along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). But Scudder has starred in short fiction as well, and here is Volume One. Includes the following stories: “Out the Window,” “A Candle for the Bag Lady,” “By the Dawn’s Early Light,” “Batman’s Helpers,” “The Merciful Angel of Death,” and “The Night and the Music.”

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/1186268

And our print book suggested read for today is:

The Night of the Animals by Bill Broun:

In this imaginative debut, the tale of Noah’s Ark is brilliantly recast as a story of fate and family, set in a near-future London.

Over the course of a single night in 2052, a homeless man named Cuthbert Handley sets out on an astonishing quest: to release the animals of the London Zoo. When he was a young boy, Cuthbert’s grandmother had told him he inherited a magical ability to communicate with the animal world—a gift she called the Wonderments. Ever since his older brother’s death in childhood, Cuthbert has heard voices. These maddening whispers must be the Wonderments, he believes, and recently they have promised to reunite him with his lost brother and bring about the coming of a Lord of Animals . . . if he fulfills this curious request.

Cuthbert flickers in and out of awareness throughout his desperate pursuit. But his grand plan is not the only thing that threatens to disturb the collective unease of the city. Around him is greater turmoil, as the rest of the world anxiously anticipates the rise of a suicide cult set on destroying the world’s animals along with themselves.

Meanwhile, Cuthbert doggedly roams the zoo, cutting open the enclosures, while pressing the animals for information about his brother. Just as this unlikely yet loveable hero begins to release the animals, the cult’s members flood the city’s streets. Has Cuthbert succeeded in harnessing the power of the Wonderments, or has he only added to the chaos—and sealed these innocent animals’ fates?

Night of the Animals is an enchanting and inventive tale that explores the boundaries of reality, the ghosts of love and trauma, and the power of redemption.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/kH6Btn

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

About Library Mobile Apps:

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Wednesday, July 27, 2016

July 27, 2016July 27, 2016 Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and digital formats!

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the e-book:

Elusive Salvation (Star Trek: The Original Series) by Dayton Ward

An all-new Star Trek adventure across time—the latest of the acclaimed Original Series novels!

The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes. Surviving the harsh conditions will pose a challenge, but over time the aliens will migrate to more populated areas, with decades passing as they work to conceal their presence from their former oppressors, who continue to hunt them at any cost.

San Francisco, 2283: When a mysterious craft is detected entering the solar system, Admiral James Kirk is dispatched by Starfleet to confront the vessel. He meets with an emissary from the Iramahl, a previously unknown alien race who have come in search of their brothers and sisters thought to have gone missing in this area of space centuries earlier. Having recently thrown off the last chains of subjugation by another species, the Ptaen, they now believe their lost people hold the key to saving their entire race from eventual extinction.

New York, 1970: Roberta Lincoln, young protégé of the mysterious agent Gary Seven, is shocked when she receives the oddest request for help—from the future…

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2260560

And our print book suggested read for today is:

Drinking Gourd: A Benjamin January Historical Mystery by Barbara Hambly:

Benjamin January must uncover a killer to protect a secret . . .

Benjamin January is called up to Vicksburg, deep in cotton-plantation country, to help a wounded “conductor” of the Underground Railroad – the secret network of safe-houses that guide escaping slaves to freedom. When the chief “conductor” of the “station” is found murdered, Jubal Cain – the coordinator of the whole Railroad system in Mississippi – is accused of the crime. Since Cain can’t expose the nature of his involvement in the railroad, January has to step in and find the true killer, before their covers are blown.

As January probes into the murky labyrinth of slaves, slave-holders, the fugitives who follow the “drinking gourd” north to freedom and those who help them on their way, he discovers that there is more to the situation than meets the eye, and that sometimes there are no easy answers.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/9c0EJF

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc. http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

About Library Mobile Apps:

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Thursday, July 21, 2016

July 21, 2016July 21, 2016 Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads and watches (in the case of the streaming video):

Our suggested daily Digital Catalog item for today is the streaming video:

Short Circuit (1986):

Struck by lightning, an endearing little robot known only as “Number 5” escapes from an experimental electronics firm. Technician Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) and his indecipherable East Indian assistant, Ben Jabituya (Fisher Stevens), set out to locate Number 5 before the military can go through with its plans to destroy the robot. Number 5 takes refuge with loopy Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who is convinced that the mechanical man is an extraterrestrial. Hoping to teach the “alien” all about Earth, she fills Number 5’s memory banks with reams of pop culture — and then the real fun begins. Synopsis by Hal Erickson, allmovies.com

Here’s a link to the description page in the Digital Catalog:

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2507566

And our print book suggested read for today is:

Death at Breakfast by Beth Gutcheon:

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Still Missing, More Than You Know, and Gossip comes the first entry in a stylish and witty mystery series featuring a pair of unlikely investigators—a shrewd novel of manners with a dark heart of murder at its center, set in small-town New England.

Indulging their pleasure in travel and new experiences, recently retired private school head Maggie Detweiler and her old friend, socialite Hope Babbin, are heading to Maine. The trip—to attend a weeklong master cooking class at the picturesque Victorian-era Oquossoc Mountain Inn—is an experiment to test their compatibility for future expeditions.

Hope and Maggie have barely finished their first aperitifs when the inn’s tranquility is shattered by the arrival of Alexander and Lisa Antippas and Lisa’s actress sister, Glory. Imperious and rude, these Hollywood one-percenters quickly turn the inn upside-down with their demanding behavior, igniting a flurry of speculation and gossip among staff and guests alike.

But the disruption soon turns deadly. After a suspicious late-night fire is brought under control, Alex’s charred body is found in the ashes. Enter the town’s deputy sheriff, Buster Babbin, Hope’s long-estranged son and Maggie’s former student. A man who’s finally found his footing in life, Buster needs a win. But he’s quickly pushed aside by the “big boys,” senior law enforcement and high-powered state’s attorneys who swoop in to make a quick arrest.

Maggie knows that Buster has his deficits and his strengths. She also knows that justice does not always prevail—and that the difference between conviction and exoneration too often depends on lazy police work and the ambitions of prosecutors. She knows too, after a lifetime of observing human nature, that you have a great advantage in doing the right thing if you don’t care who gets the credit or whom you annoy.

Feeling that justice could use a helping hand–as could the deputy sheriff—Maggie and Hope decide that two women of experience equipped with healthy curiosity, plenty of common sense, and a cheerfully cynical sense of humor have a useful role to play in uncovering the truth.

You can request the book by clicking on the following link to StarCat:

http://goo.gl/nkkptH

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

Online Catalog Links:

StarCat: the catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD etc.: http://starcat.stls.org/

The Digital Catalog: the catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos: https://stls.overdrive.com/

Freegal Music Service: This music service is free to library card holders and offers the option to download, and keep, three free songs per week and to stream three hours of commercial free music each day: http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

Zinio: Digital magazines on demand and for free! Back issues are available and you can even choose to be notified by email when the new issue of your favorite magazine is available: https://www.rbdigital.com/stlschemungcony

About Library Mobile Apps:

Daily Digital & Print Suggested Reads: Tuesday, July 12, 2016

July 12, 2016July 12, 2016 Linda Reimer

Here are our suggested daily recommended reads in both print and electronic (e-book) formats!

Our suggested daily e-book is:

Tom Clancy Duty & Honor by Grant Blackwood:

Even though he’s on forced leave from the clandestine intelligence group known as The Campus, Jack Ryan, Jr., still finds himself caught in the crosshairs after an attempt on his life is thwarted when he turns the tables on his would-be dispatcher. Convinced that the attack is linked to his recent covert actions with the convalescing Iranian national Ysabel Kashini, Jack sets out to find out who wants him dead, and why.

Using clues found on the now dead assassin, Jack pursues the investigation, following a growing trail of corpses to the European Union’s premier private security firm, Rostock Security Group, and its founder, Jürgen Rostock—a former general in the German Special Forces Command. Rostock is world-renowned as a philanthropist and human rights advocate. But Jack knows him from a Campus mission revolving around a company linked to RSG—a mission that has put him on Rostock’s lethal radar.

Without any Campus resources, Jack launches his own shadow campaign to uncover the truth about Rostock and a long-running false-flag war of terror that has claimed thousands of lives. Yet all of that bloodshed is but a precursor to a coming catastrophic event that will solidify Rostock’s place among the global powers. An event that Jack must stop at any cost.

https://stls.overdrive.com/media/2582496

And our print book suggested read for today is:

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee:

To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.

Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.

The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim.

You can request the book by clicking on the following StarCat link:

http://goo.gl/Ywyk4g

Or by calling the library at: 607-936-3713 x 502.

Have a great day!

Linda, SSCL

What To Read Next!

June 13, 2016June 13, 2016 Linda Reimer

Our What To Read Next series offers patrons lists of the new books added to the library’s collection each month.

And if you can’t attend the monthly programs you can still access the lists of new titles each month!

Here are the new book categories & links to PDF versions of each of these lists all of which will print out on letter size paper should you be so inclined as to print the lists.

General Fiction & Literature

Mysteries

Southeast Steuben County Library Adult Services, Digital Literacy & Makerspace Events Week of September 7, 2015

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015 Linda Reimer

Tuesday, September 08, 2015:

Creation Station, The Southeast Steuben County Library’s Makerspace, will be open from 1 – 4 p.m.

About Creation Station:
Creation Station (Makerspace) projects that will be available to be created at the Southeast Steuben County Library include:

3 D Printer created projects*

Computer created projects

Sewing projects*

Scanning

Art projects*

Scrapbooking projects*

Drawing

All Patrons interested in using the Creation Station will be required to receive training before using the space. Projects that require training are only accessible upon staff availability.

*Some projects will require a small fee for materials.

Thursday, September 10, 2015:

Senior Tech: What is Personal Technology? This presentation will focus on the history of personal technology, how it evolved in the 20th Century and what personal technology is today. Find out how you can benefit from using personal technology in the 21st Century.

This program is a part of our monthly Fall Senior Technology series

Refreshments will be served.

Time: 10 – 11:30 a.m.

Creation Station, The Southeast Steuben County Library’s Makerspace, will be open from 5-8 p.m.

About Creation Station:
Creation Station (Makerspace) projects that will be available to be created at the Southeast Steuben County Library include:

3 D Printer created projects*

Computer created projects

Sewing projects*

Scanning

Art projects*

Scrapbooking projects*

Drawing

All Patrons interested in using the Creation Station will be required to receive training before using the space. Projects that require training are only accessible upon staff availability.

*Some projects will require a small fee for materials.

Corning Area Writer’s Group: Inject some socialization into your solo writing time by join the library’s Adult Creative Writers Group for conversation, inspiration and feedback on writing projects. No sign up is required. This group meets every Thursday from 6-8 pm. On the third Thursday of the month the group meets in the library. On the other Thursdays the group meets at Soul Full Cup CoffeeHouse.

For more information, please call Adult Services Director Michelle Wells at (607) 936-3713 ext. 209 or email wellsm@stls.org.

Time: 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Friday, September 11, 2015:

Monthly Science Fiction Film: 12 Monkeys (2009): Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to save the human race from a deadly virus that has forced mankind into dank underground communities in the future. Along his travels, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) and a mental patient, brilliantly portrayed by Brad Pitt, who may hold the key to the mysterious rogue group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease. Believing he can obtain a pure virus sample in order to find a cure in the future, he is met with one riddle after another that puts him in a race with time. This sci-fi masterpiece from the genius mind of Terry Gilliam is a modern-day classic. MPAA Rating: R. Run Time: 130 minutes.

Refreshments will be served.

Library doors open at 6:45 p.m. to admit film-goers and the movie starts at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 p.m.

Monthly Science Fiction Films @ The Library – Fall 2015 Schedule

August 20, 2015August 20, 2015 Linda Reimer

Fall is coming. Being a Game of Thrones fan I almost wrote “winter is coming,” but of course, fall will be here first!

And speaking of fall and Science Fiction/Fantasy titles — here is a flyer listing our Monthly Science Fiction Films @ the library for the fall season!

Our Monthly Science Fiction Films are shown the second Friday of each month.

And our Friday Night Free Films are shown the first and third Friday of each month.

Our Friday Night Free Film schedule for fall will be finalized and sent out shortly; and I will also post the flyer for those films on Facebook as soon as they schedule has been finalized.

Have a great Thursday & join us for our fun filled movies @ the library!
Linda, SSCL

Here’s a photo of our Fall 2015 Monthly Science Fiction Film Schedule:

Click the photo for a larger view:

And here’s a link to a PDF version which can easily be printed out (on legal paper) and/or shared:

Monthly Science Fiction Films @ The Library Fall Schedule 2015 Legal Size Flyer

Have a great Thursday and join us for our fun fall films @ the library!

Linda, SSCL

Monthly Science Fiction Film @ The Library Tonight!

August 14, 2015August 14, 2015 Linda Reimer

After you’ve attended the Doc Possum Band’s Beatles Tribute Concert in the Civic Center Plaza tonight, Friday, August 14, come to the library and see our Monthly Science Fiction Film for August!

Silent Running (1972): As this science fiction classic opens, botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) has spent eight years aboard the space freighter “Valley Forge” preserving the only botanical specimens left from Earth under huge geodesic domes. When he receives orders to destroy the project and return home, Lowell rebels and hijacks the freighter, while plunging the craft into the gaseous Rings of Saturn. From that moment on, he has only the trees, the gardens and two “Drone” robots, Huey and Dewey, to keep him company on his greatest adventure of all. Starring Bruce Dern and featuring: Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin & Jesse Vint. MPAA Rating: G. Run Time: 90 minutes.

Join us!

Linda, SSCL

Click the photo to get a larger view!

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