SSJCPL Podcast Network

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.
White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.
Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault. Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL. #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll which is focused on infamous serial killer Ted Bundy and the Chi Omega Sorority House murders.

You can check out your own copy of Bright Young Women here https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results/?qu=bright+young+women&te=

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #brightyoungwomen #bookclub

Welcome back to Book with a View/the Goodreads Virtual Book Club. This month we read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Continue the conversation on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.

Welcome back to Book with a View/the Goodreads Virtual Book Club. This month we read My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones.

Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold.
Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges… a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body.
My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.

Continue the conversation on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren. It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.Jam-packed with yuletide cheer, an unforgettable cast of characters, and Christina Lauren’s trademark hijinks, this swoon-worthy romantic read will make you believe in the power of wishes and the magic of the holidays. Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL. #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner.

1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike.

Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But as the women team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves… Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL. #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes Berlin 1933. Following the success of her debut novel, American writer Althea James receives an invitation from Joseph Goebbels himself to participate in a culture exchange program in Germany. For a girl from a small town in Maine, 1933 Berlin seems to be sparklingly cosmopolitan, blossoming in the midst of a great change with the charismatic new chancellor at the helm. Then Althea meets a beautiful woman who promises to show her the real Berlin, and soon she's drawn into a group of resisters who make her question everything she knows about her hosts--and herself.
Paris 1936. She may have escaped Berlin for Paris, but Hannah Brecht discovers the City of Light is no refuge from the anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathizers she thought she left behind. Heartbroken and tormented by the role she played in the betrayal that destroyed her family, Hannah throws herself into her work at the German Library of Burned Books. Through the quiet power of books, she believes she can help counter the tide of fascism she sees rising across Europe and atone for her mistakes. But when a dear friend decides actions will speak louder than words, Hannah must decide what stories she is willing to live--or die--for.
New York 1944. Since her husband Edward was killed fighting the Nazis, Vivian Childs has been waging her own war: preventing a powerful senator's attempts to censor the Armed Service Editions, portable paperbacks that are shipped by the millions to soldiers overseas. Viv knows just how much they mean to the men through the letters she receives--including the last one she got from Edward. She also knows the only way to win this battle is to counter the senator's propaganda with a story of her own--at the heart of which lies the reclusive and mysterious woman tending the American Library of Nazi-Banned Books in Brooklyn.
As Viv unknowingly brings her censorship fight crashing into the secrets of the recent past, the fates of these three women will converge, changing all of them forever.
Inspired by the true story of the Council of Books in Wartime--the WWII organization founded by booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors to use books as "weapons in the war of ideas"--The Librarian of Burned Books is an unforgettable historical novel, a haunting love story, and a testament to the beauty, power, and goodness of the written word.

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner.

A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.
Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman which is based on the infamous urban legend Cropsey as well as the Willowbrook State School.

You can check out your own copy of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=the+girls+of+willowbrook&te=.

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #thegirlsofwillowbrook #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Book Lovers by Emily Henry. One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....
Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves. Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #booklovers

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce which is based on the infamous black widow of LaPorte Belle Gunness.

You can check out your own copy of In the Garden of Spite https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=in+the+garden+of+spite&te=ILS.

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #inthegardenofspite #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #shewhobecamethesun

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Severance by Ling Ma. Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.

Here are the discussion questions for those interested readers: https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/rgg-guides/9780374261597RGG.pdf

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #severance

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at I'll Be You by Janelle Brown that is based on a few infamous cults including NXIVM and Synanon.

You can check out your own copy of I'll Be You here https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=i%27ll+be+you&te=ILS!

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #illbeyou #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Circe by Madeline Miller.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #circe

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly and the true story of the infamous murder of Grace Brown in upstate New York.

You can check out your own copy of A Northern Light here https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/?dt=list!

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #anorthernlight #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford.

For as long as she could remember, Ashley has put her father on a pedestal. Despite having only vague memories of seeing him face-to-face, she believes he's the only person in the entire world who understands her. She thinks she understands him too. He's sensitive like her, an artist, and maybe even just as afraid of the dark. She's certain that one day they'll be reunited again, and she'll finally feel complete. There are just a few problems: he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there.
Through poverty, puberty, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley returns to her image of her father for hope and encouragement. She doesn't know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates; when the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley finally finds out why her father is in prison. And that's where the story really begins.
Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she provides a poignant coming-of-age recollection that speaks to finding the threads between who you are and what you were born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #somebodysdaughter

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Harriet Said by Beryl Bainbridge and the true story of the infamous Parker-Hulme case in New Zealand.

You can check out your own copy of Harriet Said exclusively on the Hoopla App!

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #harrietsaid #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read Cultish by Amanda Montell.

What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #cultish

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at The Wonder by Emma Donoghue and the true stories of Fasting Girls from the 14th-19th centuries.

You can check out your own copy of The Wonder at ssjcpl.org!

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #thewonder #bookclub

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club/A Book with a View podcast! This month we read If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio for our December Found Family read.

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

Continue the discussion on goodreads.com search SSJCPL.  #ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub #ifwewerevillains

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott, based on the true crime case of Marie Robards.

Article mentioned in the show:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/poisoning-daddy/

You can check out your own copy of Give Me Your Hand at ssjcpl.org!

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #givemeyourhand

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club! This month we read The Guncle by Steven Rowley.    

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.  

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.  

To continue the discussion head over to goodreads.com and search SSJCPL. 

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #theguncle #stevenrowley

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden and the long and fraught history of tribal and federal law.

Here are a few links to get starting in your own research: https://www.lakotamall.com/history-and-ancestry/ 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rushmore-sioux/

Books recommended by the author: American Apartheid: The Native American struggle for self-determination and inclusion by Stephanie Woodard

American Indians, American Justice by Vine Deloris Jr and Clifford M. Lytle

Braid of Feathers: American Indian law and contemporary tribal life by Frank Pommersheim

You can check out your own copy of Winter Counts exclusively on Libby! 

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #wintercounts

Welcome to A Book with a View, a Goodreads Virtual Book Club! This month we read a short story collection by a local author from Stockton, CA; Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So.

Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.  A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.

With nuanced emotional precision, gritty humor, and compassionate insight into the intimacy, emotional and sexual, of queer and immigrant communities, the stories in Afterparties deliver an explosive introduction to the work of Anthony Veasna So.

To continue the discussion head over to goodreads.com search SSJCPL. Also check out the library's new podcast that features this book club! Search SSJCPL Podcast Network on your favorite podcast platform.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #afterparties #anthonyso #bookclub

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, based on the Satanic Panic that happened in the 1980s and 1990s.

You can check out your own copy of My Best Friend's Exorcism here https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:516450/one?qu=my+best+friend%27s+exorcism

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #mybestfriendsexorcism

Welcome back to A Book with a View! This month we read a middle grade book called Ghost Squad by Claribel A Ortega.

Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy. For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business. Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd's witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely's firefly spirits before it's too late. With the family dynamics of Coco and action-packed adventure of Ghostbusters, Claribel A. Ortega delivers both a thrillingly spooky and delightfully sweet debut novel.

To continue the discussion head over to goodreads.com search SSJCPL. Also check out the library's new podcast that features this book club! Search SSJCPL Podcast Network on your favorite podcast platform.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #ghostsquad #claribelaortega

Welcome to Dark Fascinations the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at All These Bodies by Kendare Blake based on the infamous murder spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate as well as the infamous Clutter Family Murders.

You can check out your own copy of The Patient's Secret at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=all+these+bodies&te=ILS

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #allthesebodies

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club! This month we read a short story collection called Her Body and other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.

Her Body and Other Parties is a debut collection of shorty stories with a variety of stories dealing with the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes.

To continue the discussion head over to goodreads.com search SSJCPL.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #bookclub

Welcome to Dark Fascinations, previously Beyond the Book, the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at The Patient's Secret by Loreth Anne White, a book based on the Richardson Family murders in Alberta, Canada.

You can check out your own copy of The Patient's Secret at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=the+patient%27s+secret&te=ILS

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #thepatientssecret

Welcome back to the Goodreads Virtual Book Club! This month we participated in the National African American Read-In and read Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.    

Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.  

To continue the discussion head over to goodreads.com search SSJCPL. Also check out the library's new podcast that features this book club! Search SSJCPL Podcast Network on your favorite podcast platform.   

Click the links here to place this book on hold in the catalog, check out discussion questions, and view the character list.  https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=harlem+shuffle&te=ILS https://bookclubs.com/discussion-guides/harlem-shuffle-a-novel https://www.bookcompanion.com/harlem_shuffle_character_list.html 

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #harlemshuffle #colsonwhitehead

Welcome to Dark Fascinations, previously Beyond the Book, the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Home Before Dark by Riley Sager, a book loosely based on the Amityville Horror.

You can check out your own copy of Home Before Dark at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=home+before+dark&te=ILS.

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #homebeforedark

Summer Reading and Spanglish

Welcome to Dark Fascinations, previously Beyond the Book, the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian, a book loosely based on the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy and the study of psychopathy.

You can check out your own copy of Never Saw Me Coming at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=never+saw+me+coming&te=ILS.

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #neversawmecoming

Welcome back to the A Book with a View, a Goodreads Virtual Book Club! This month our book club theme was Winter Romance and the book we read was One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston.

One Last Stop is about a young woman named August who meets the love of her life in the Q train in New York. The only foil is that Jane may be a time traveler.

Join us next month as we read Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

To continue the conversation go to goodreads.com search SSJCPL.

For more library news visit https://ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #bookclub #OneLastStop #CaseyMcQuiston 

Welcome back, campers! This episode, Michael and special guest Kathy Layfield discuss Lee Cronin’s 2017 supernatural horror film, The Hole in the Ground. To avoid spoilers, watch the film ahead of time for free with your library card at Kanopy. Don’t have a library card yet? Call us at 209-937-8221 and get one for free!

Special thanks to Speaker Negotiations for our beautiful intro/outro music.

Welcome to Beyond the Book, the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips, a book based on the infamous Great Depression Lonely Hearts Killer.

You can check out your own copy of Quiet Dell at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=quiet+dell&te=ILS.

Links to more information and the trial transcript.

https://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view&db=articles_hurherald&id=64267%7B

https://wvexplorer.com/2022/02/21/harry-powers-serial-killer-west-virginia/

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #quietdell

Welcome back, friends! This episode, Michael and special guest Gissella Maltos discuss Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 record setting zombie film, Train to Busan.

To avoid spoilers, watch the film ahead of time for free with your library card at hoopladigital.com. Don’t have a library card yet? Call us at 209-937-8221 and get one for free!

Special thanks to Speaker Negotiations for our beautiful intro/outro music.

Welcome to Beyond the Book, the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood based on the killings of Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear in 1840s Canada.

You can check out your own copy of Alias Grace at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=alias+grace&te=ILS.

Links to more information and the trial transcript. 

https://aliasgracerivendell.weebly.com/grace-marks--case.html

https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/267434/the-trials-of-james-mcdermott-and-grace-marks-at-toronto-u#

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org.

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #margaretatwood #aliasgrace

Welcome back, friends! This episode, Michael and special guest Jodi Crawford discuss Ti West’s 2011 supernatural horror, The Innkeepers.

To avoid spoilers, watch the film ahead of time for free with your library card at ssjcpl.kanopy.com or hoopladigital.com. Don’t have a library card yet? Call us at 209-937-8221 and get one for free! Want to get in on all the horror fun? Join Horror Club at ssjcpl.org.

Special thanks to Speaker Negotiations for our beautiful intro/outro music.

Welcome to Beyond the Book, the podcast that deep dives into the true stories popular fiction is based on. This month Jodi and Brianna take a look at The Long Drop by Denise Mina and the true crime story of serial killer Peter Manuel the Beast of Birkenshaw. 

You can check out your own copy of The Long Drop at an SSJCPL branch nearest you here: https://stks.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ssjcpl/search/results?qu=the+long+drop&te=ILS.

For more library news visit ssjcpl.org. 

#ssjcpl #ssjcplreading #denisemina #thelongdrop

Welcome back, friends! This episode, Michael and special guest Shenae Crain discuss Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell’s 2018 horror mystery, Summer of 84.

To avoid spoilers, watch the film ahead of time for free with your library card at ssjcpl.kanopy.com or hoopladigital.com. Don’t have a library card yet? Call us at 209-937-8221 and get one for free! Want to get in on all the horror fun? Join Horror Club at ssjcpl.org.

Special thanks to Speaker Negotiations for our beautiful intro/outro music.

How unexpected events help two girls from two completely different backgrounds bond in order to survive a dangerous night.

Get the low down on some great reads with Ms. Cyndee and Ms. Kendra.

Looking for more ebooks and music available online? Cyndee and Kendra have you covered. All of the books and music mentioned are available on the Hoopla app with your library card.

For more library news visit: ssjcpl.org