Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
–
Future Saints by Ashley Winstead
Winstead (In My Dreams I Hold a Knife) focuses on the demise of a women-led rock band in her latest. Told through the perspective of the bandmates, manager, and fans, this emotionally charged novel opens as the Future Saints perform at a nearly empty venue. The members of the Future Saints are on the cusp of giving up on everything–the music, their fans, and themselves–when lead singer Hannah closes the show with a new song that sets the internet on fire with its grief and honesty. The Future Saints are rocketed to a level of popularity that flummoxes the bandmembers as well as their new manager, Theo. As poor choices are made, captured for social media, and regurgitated within the band itself, they begin writing new music that captures their changed situation as well as their sadness at the death of their former manager, Ginny, who was also Hannah’s sister. Hannah ultimately confronts her grief in a dramatic way, bringing the story full circle and allowing catharsis. The novel’s satisfying epilogue places each character in the future where they need to be. VERDICT Fans of Stephanie Clifford’s The Farewell Tour will enjoy. – Library Journal Review
–
George Falls Through Time: A Novel by Ryan Collett
George’s life in present-day London keeps hitting new lows. He already lost his job and boyfriend, he’s about to lose his flat, and now, having taken a dog-walking gig, he has lost two of the six dogs that he was walking in the park. While a panicked George searches for the missing dogs, he observes the London he knows falling away. Somehow, he has traveled through time, and the only thing he can find out is that he’s in the 28th year of a King Edward’s reign (1300 CE). Time-travelling is brutally hard when you’re going backward: the language is foreign to George, and dragons, apparently, are known to exist in this world, which he can’t quite believe. He is thrown into prison, eventually escaping with the help of a man named Simon. Then George is brought before the king, who presents him with a plastic Coca-Cola bottle and demands an explanation. VERDICT Collett’s (The Disassembly of Doreen Durand) time-travel novel is a marvelously lovely queer retelling of the story of St. George and the dragon. Readers who loved Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time will enjoy this too. – Library Journal Review
–
Greatest Sentence Ever Written by Walter Isaacson
Thirty-five words. That’s the length of the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, the one that begins with “We hold these truths to be self-evident” and ends with “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” In between, there is talk of equality and sacrosanct rights. It’s a lot to pack into a single sentence, but award-winning biographer Isaacson cogently honors the wisdom it took to create it. Its authors–Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams–struggled over concerns such as, who, precisely, should be included in “We” and whether “inalienable”” would be a better choice than “unalienable.” Glimpses into such behind-the-scenes polishing of the most important of our country’s foundational documents would be fascinating in and of itself, but as the Declaration’s 250th anniversary draws near, Isaacson’s granular analysis serves as a more potent lesson. Our nascent nation was freeing itself from Britain’s tyrannical rule, the facts of which are specifically enumerated in the body of the Declaration. Re-reading these grievances through the lens of today’s politically fraught atmosphere is a chilling but necessary exercise. In Isaacson’s expert hands, those 35 words, and the ones that come after them, gain a new level of clarity and relevance, and inspire deepened appreciation. – Booklist Review
–
The Infamous Gilberts: A Novel by Angela Tomaski
DEBUT Margaret Gilbert has long lived with her three daughters and two sons in Thornwalk, a once-stately English manor, until, in 2002, the keys to the manor are about to be handed over to a new owner who plans to transform the estate into a luxury hotel. But first, Maximus, who lives in a cottage on the property, walks readers through a more than 60-year history of the Gilbert family and their home. Tomaski’s sad, sometimes funny debut novel thrives on its personalities. There’s Hugo, the eldest Gilbert son, who plans to take over the family’s failing business after their father dies; Jeremy, the wanderer who disappears for long stretches at a time; and the three Gilbert daughters dreaming of love, whose poor choices as they try to marry into wealth cloud and complicate the family’s fate. Tomaski offers strong characterization as each Gilbert reveals the weaknesses and gullibility that will ultimately contribute to the family’s downfall as they struggle with the implications of marrying for money versus clinging to the hope of regaining lost love.
VERDICT Readers of Tomaski’s immersive multigenerational saga will be pulled into the lives of the Gilbert family. Recommended for fans of big English novels about people who cannot help themselves. -Library Journal Review
–
No One Would Do What the Lamberts Have Done: A Novel by Sophie Hannah
The twistiest murder mystery you are ever likely to read? A story about a family that does the unthinkable?
Both? Or something else altogether?
You think it will never happen to you.
The doorbell. The policeman. The words that turn your world inside out: I’m afraid there’s been an incident…
For Sally Lambert, those words mean only one thing—danger. Not just for her family, but for Champ, their loyal and beloved dog. A single accusation, a neighbor’s grudge, and suddenly the Lamberts are trapped in a nightmare with no escape.
Unless they make one.
Most people would never run. Most people would never leave behind everything they know to protect an animal who can’t defend himself. But for Sally, Champ is more than a dog—he’s one of her children. And most people aren’t the Lamberts.
No one has ever done this before. No one has ever gone this far. But the Lamberts have never been quite like any other family…
New York Times bestselling author Sophie Hannah spins an unexpected tale of suspense in No One Would Do What the Lamberts Have Done, an unsettling reflection on how far we’ll go for those we love.
–
Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
–
Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday and then they are published later in the week.
–
Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
–
Information on the four library catalogs
The Digital Catalog aka Libby: https://stls.overdrive.com/
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
–
Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
–
Kanopy Catalog: https://www.kanopy.com/en
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
–
StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
–
Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
–
Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 