This sounds similar to a Robin Hood kind of thing. She is working to help those who cannot help themselves. I want to know what happens when she realizes that what she's going into isn't what she thought it was going to be. It sounds really good and like something that I would enjoy.
This isn't the kind of book I normally go for. I don't really do adult contemporary romances. But this just caught my attention. I have a sneaking suspicion that I already bought a copy. If I did, I will just remove that one from my shelves and replace it with this nice hard back. Anyway, I like the idea of her turning to some mysterious group she knows hardly anything about to ask why she thinks Iain is Ethan. Why would you do that? I hope we find out her reasoning and that it isn't terrible.
I remember seeing this on Bookstagram the other day, and I thought it looked really really good. I don't know if they mean dark skinned or dark in temperament when they say Darkling. I am hoping it's the second one. This is very obviously a YA romance novel, which doesn't put me off nearly as much as it used to. I got used to reading these. It looked interesting and I found it for under $3, so I was like "Why not?"
I know I saw this on BookTube last year. I remember the starry dragon on the cover. I wanted to read it then, and I wanted it back then, too. I just didn't have the money at the time to get it. I would laugh if it turned out Evie was actually a witch. She does not know who she is after all. I grabbed it when I found it and I think it will be put pretty high up on my TBR this month. If I finish one of the other books I'm currently reading, next will be Pennyroyal Academy.
I checked this particular book out from my local library (yeah, I know, I have seven other books I personally own and I'm checking them out...sue me). I had been wanting to borrow it for a while. It's a non-fiction book about H.H. Holmes and his murder house during the Chicago World's Fair. Right now I'm roughly 20% of the way through and I can't believe how good it is. It begins with the absolute beginning, before the fair was even given to Chicago. I think I know where that's going, but I can't be sure til I reach that part. I can't wait to finish this book and find out more about one of the most prolific serial killers, also the one of if not the first, in the United States.
Despite their differences, sisters Vianne and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Vianne finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her. As the war progresses, the sisters' relationship and strength are tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.
I absolutely adore anything WWII related. I don't know why and I had seen this being hauled in a few different videos during the last few months. I didn't realize it was about WWII, because people didn't say anything. Most of them hadn't bothered to read the book's synopsis, so they didn't know either. I'm glad I picked it up when I saw it. This is a library book for me, so I will eventually have to give it back.
Book #10: The Trial by John Mayer
When Glaswegian Brogan McLane completes many years of university education and legal training he crosses that great divide from Glasgow to Edinburgh. 'Called' to the Bar of the Scottish Supreme Court, he becomes a member of the most prestigious club in Scotland; The Faculty of Advocates in Parliament House. When High Court Judge, Lord Aldounhill, is found dead after a transvestite party in his sumptuous home, those who know the killer close ranks and need a scapegoat – who better than 'outsider' Brogan McLane? Out on bail with his career on hold, McLane and his band of blood brothers in the Calton Bar in Glasgow need to get ahead of their enemies or McLane will go down for life after Trial. But every time they discover a piece of evidence, it seems there is a mirror image to contradict it. Through the murky world of Russian controlled transvestite hotels and with some unexpected police and judicial help, McLane battles against 'Low Life in High Places in the Old Town' until the killer is found. But well protected and knowing all the tricks, will the killer ever stand trial in Parliament House.
I've been getting more into criminal mystery books and this one sounded good. It takes place in Scotland, in a place I've actually heard of. That and it involves a transvestite party. What in the hell is a transvestite party? I have to know. It makes me think of something that you would read in any Sherlock Holmes book.
Book #11: A Glimmer of Destiny by Spencer Pierson
Aiden Finn is an orphan, comfortable in his quiet life working at the School of Breen when everything is turned upside down by a casual bet between two young nobles. One that cause him to use the forbidden Glimmer Stones which create constructs of physical light, and by law only nobles are allowed to touch. Threatened with death by duchy law and evil forces intent on capturing him and his dark secret, Aiden is forced to learn how to control this emerging power to save all that he holds dear. However, will that which saves him also be his world's downfall? The dreaded Mourning Lords, beings that came from the dawn of the Cataclysm four thousand years earlier once more walk the land, searching for an answer to their torment. Will Aiden learn how to become a master of Glimmer Steel or will the mystery of the Cataclysm and the destruction of technology drown him as surely as it nearly cracked the world in half?
I was very tired (went to bed at 6 that morning) when I bought this. It was free and I have no idea what it is about or why I decided that I needed to own it.
Book #12: A Facet for the Gem by C.L. Murray
In a land of eagle-riding knights, bloodthirsty beasts, and a ruthless prince, no border is safe for long. And as smoke billows from the only blockade standing between the great city of Korindelf and certain doom, young Morlen races to escape the inevitable siege. Thrust from the chaos with thousands of snapping jaws on his trail, he discovers that the abilities he’s buried all his life are awakening—and it could not have happened at a worse time. War has come, and he doesn’t dare rely on his untested talents after stealing the coveted Goldshard, which makes strength and invincibility just a panicked whisper away. His dependency on it carries him through many dangers, until it becomes an enemy far worse than those he must fight hand-to-hand. And the allies he meets on his quest are just as troubled: a legendary warrior too afraid to leave his sheltered paradise, a wizard tormented by his past, and a disgraced king who has lost any hope of saving his people.
Actually, I do know why I got this one. I found that the idea of instead of dragons, or horses, or whatever else the commonplace mythological creature is that they ride (mostly dragons), these people ride on giant eagles. That's cool! And the fact that what he relies on, instead of his own power, comes back to bite him hard. How will Morlen (already inspired the name of a pet in a game) overcome the fact that he has to use his own power now instead of that of the Goldshard?
Book #13: Ink & Bone by Rachel Caine
Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service. When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn…
Who could pass up a book about a library that censors reading? Seriously. At least I think that's what it is? It's hard to tell when you can't actually flip through the book. This has been on my to-buy list for a very long time, though. It looks amazing. I've been dying to get my hands on it for a long time.
Book #14: The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
Just before Henry Aster’s birth, his father—outsized literary ambition and pregnant wife in tow—reluctantly returns to the small Appalachian town in which he was raised and installs his young family in an immense house of iron and glass perched high on the side of a mountain. There, Henry grows up under the writing desk of this fiercely brilliant man. But when tragedy tips his father toward a fearsome unraveling, what was once a young son’s reverence is poisoned and Henry flees, not to return until years later when he, too, must go home again.
This one is another (my third) book from Blogging for Books. I looked them up when I was going through after finishing
This Too Shall Pass by Milena Busquets. Hopefully I like this one more than I liked that one. This looks like a really good story about how a young man deals with something that just rips his entire world apart. Definitely something I'd be interested in reading. It's up next on my TBR after I finish some of the books I'm already reading.
Book #15: The Adventures of Robin Hood by Paul Creswick
Recounts the life and adventures of Robin Hood, who, with his band of followers, lived as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest dedicated to fight against tyranny.
I was at the local Farmer's Market with my uncle and we found one of those discount stalls where you never know what they will have. Typically the rack on the farthest side from the entrance has miscellaneous junk and cleaning supplies. Much to my delight, this time they had books there. I was browsing and I came across this pretty edition of
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Paul Creswick in the Reader's Digest edition. I have tried to read books in this edition before and failed. They also had a Sherlock Holmes book there that I would have happily bought, loose page and all, but it was under the counter. Boo. Anyway, I've always loved the tales of Robin Hood and this was just calling my name. I had to own it.
Book #16: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal,and rescue illuminates this book like flashes of heat lightening.
I heard about this book through BookTube, like I do most things I pick up for myself. When I heard the basic description, I had to have it. I've been looking for it everywhere and I couldn't find it. I recently joined a group online that has books offered up for trade and I saw it as one of the books. I immediately asked for it and it arrived just before the big snow storm that hit my area. I figure I know what I'll be reading during the storm.
Book #17: Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake, orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying. Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.
I couldn't tell you anything about this. I didn't know I was getting it. My friend J sent up some miscellaneous things in a box. I had no idea what the things were going to be. This was one of the books in the box.
Book #18: Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
Monsieur Goriot is one of a select group of lodgers at Madame Vauquer's Parisian boarding house. At first his wealth inspires respect, but as his circumstances are reduced he is shunned by those around him, and soon his only remaining visitors are two beautiful, mysterious young women. Goriot claims that they are his daughters, but his fellow boarders, including master criminal Vautrin, have other ideas. And when Eugène Rastignac, a poor but ambitious law student, learns the truth, he decides to turn it to his advantage. Old Goriot is one of the key novels of Balzac's Comédie Humaine series, and a compelling examination of two obsessions, love and money. Witty and brilliantly detailed, it is a superb study of the bourgeoisie in the years following the French Revolution.
I will admit it: I have always wanted to read a Balzac book. I have heard (from unreliable sources) that he is a good writer and someone I should read. I just never managed to stumble across a book by him for any amount of money I had on my person at the given time. So I'm glad J sent up a copy of this that apparently cost only $0.50.
Book #19: Middlemarch by George Eliot
'We believe in her as in a woman we might providentially meet some fine day when we should find ourselves doubting of the immortality of the soul,' wrote Henry James of Dorothea Brooke, who shares with the young doctor Tertius Lydgate not only a central role in Middlemarch but also a fervent conviction that life should be heroic. By the time the novel appeared to tremendous popular and critical acclaim in 1871-2, George Eliot was recognized as England's finest living novelist. It was her ambition to create a world and portray a whole community--tradespeople, middle classes, country gentry--in the rising provincial town of Middlemarch, circa 1830. Vast and crowded, rich in narrative irony and suspense, Middlemarch is richer still in character, in its sense of how individual destinies are shaped by and shape the community, and in the great art that enlarges the reader's sympathy and imagination. It is truly, as Virginia Woolf famously remarked, 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'
I have also wanted this for quite a long while. I love the idea behind the story and I've wanted to read it. I also have heard a lot of people talking about it and am curious to know what exactly it's about. It's much thicker than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting something thin, but this is crazy.
Book #20: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers–-a comic masterpiece that catapulted its 24-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle &, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, & his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtor’s prison, characters & incidents sprang to life from Dickens’s pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour & literary invention.
I already had a copy of this book, but mine was an old Signet Classics mass market. This one will be much easier for me to read when I actually get around to it. I'll toss the other edition I have up in the book exchange group for them to look at.
Book #21: The Awakening by Lisa M. Lilly
Tara Spencer is at a loss. She has recently learned she's pregnant, despite never having had sex. Her fiance breaks up with her, convinced she cheated on him, and even her parents and best friend doubt her story. But when Cyril Woods, a member of The Brotherhood religious order, claims to believe that Tara is still a virgin, she believes she has finally found understanding. The Brotherhood sees Tara's child as a possible new messiah-that is, until they learn she is expecting a girl. This revelation convinces them that the child is actually the anti-Christ, and they are determined to prevent Tara from giving birth at any cost. As the forces aligned against her close in, Tara's only hope for survival is to solve the mystery of her pregnancy. But who is her friend and who is her enemy? Will Tara find answers before it's too late?
It's a virgin-birth story. How could I not? I have no idea really what the entire rest of the book will be about, but I absolutely have to read it and find out. I am very excited to get to it. Maybe she did have sex but doesn't remember it? (Someone gave this unconscious person tea...). I want to know why the brotherhood believes the Messiah can't be a female. If God made us in his image, and there are women, that means that there is at least a small chance that the next messiah can be a woman. Right?
Book #22: The Mist on Brontë Moor by Aviva Orr
When Heather Jane Bell is diagnosed with alopecia and her hair starts falling out in clumps, she wants nothing more than to escape her home in London and disappear off the face of the earth. Heather gets her wish when her concerned parents send her to stay with her great-aunt in West Yorkshire. But shortly after she arrives, she becomes lost on the moors and is swept through the mist back to the year 1833. There she encounters fifteen-year-old Emily Bronte and is given refuge in the Bronte Parsonage. Unaware of her host family s genius and future fame, Heather struggles to cope with alopecia amongst strangers in a world completely foreign to her. While Heather finds comfort and strength in her growing friendship with Emily and in the embrace of the close-knit Bronte family, her emotions are stretched to the limit when she falls for Emily's brilliant but troubled brother, Branwell. Will Heather return to the comforts and conveniences of the twenty-first century? Or will she choose love and remain in the harsh world of nineteenth-century Haworth?
I like the Brontë sisters, so of course I would be all about a book that features them in a very...
Lost in Austen sort of way. It's not really high up on my TBR. In fact, by the time I get to it, I'll have forgotten I even have it, so really it's an "Oh yeah, I remember buying that...." sort of book.
Book #23: The Cure by Tania Hagan
Beautiful and brilliant, eighteen-year-old Genesis Weatherby lives a charmed life as the clone of a long-dead silent film star. She is loved by her close-knit family as well as her two best friends, and being a clone isn't so bad when everyone in the world is one too. Thanks to an organization known as GOD, there have been no Original births in one hundred and thirty years. In a successful attempt to eradicate cancer, GOD has taken control of human procreation, and only the human copies that are proven to be free of the once devastating disease are allowed to thrive. Genny never questions anything about her world, until she meets handsome and mysterious Nat Wilkinson. Now, she is forced to make choices that can alter the course of her life, as well as the lives of everyone on the planet.
How does someone feel when they were never born? This definitely sounds like the kind of book I might end up suggesting to W as a read, maybe K as well....This girl doesn't ask any questions. Probably because she doesn't know she can. She just kind of started existing in the world. I like the fact that she's an old film star. It looks really interesting.
Book #24: Beautiful Chaos by Alex Tully
While most seventeen year-olds work part-time delivering pizzas or whipping up frappuccinos, Brady O’Connell’s job is a little less conventional. Helping his dad with the family ‘business’ is a responsibility he doesn’t take lightly, especially when thousands of dollars are being exchanged. There are rules to be followed, timetables to be kept. But when his best friend Jay gets backstage concert tickets, and business interferes with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet their favorite band, Brady decides to break the rules, just one time. And one time is all it takes to send his life spinning out of control. When an envelope full of cash ends up in the wrong hands—specifically in the hands of a pretty red-head named Vivienne—things get messy in a hurry. Where Vivienne goes, a whole lot of chaos seems to follow. But sometimes…chaos is a beautiful thing.
What in the world could the family 'business' be? Are they money launderers? Who is Vivienne and what does she do in the story? I'm very confused by the synopsis and I can't wait to get to it in the list of books and figure out what it's about.
Book #25: Underneath by M.N. Arzu
An injured merman is found washed up on a beach in Maine. After being brought to a special facility, doctors are at a loss for how to help him. Worse, how are they to keep him away from the eager hands of the military? One reporter is hot on the trail of what she believes is an elaborate hoax—or the story of a lifetime. A story that has her tracking elusive clues into an ever-growing house of secrets surrounding one of the richest families in New York City. For merfolk have been hiding in plain sight for centuries, and are now torn between sacrificing one of their own—or telling humanity the truth.
I see this as almost a gender-swapped version of
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson (yes, that is right....I got into an argument over it in Barnes & Noble once). Only slightly more apocalyptic? I have no idea how to describe it. It sounds really good and I think I will love it when I finally get to it.
Book #26: Burning Bright by Melissa McShane
In 1812, Elinor Pembroke wakes to find her bedchamber in flames—and extinguishes them with a thought. At 21, she is old to manifest magical talent, but the evidence is unmistakable: she not only has the ability to start fires, but the far more powerful ability to control and extinguish them. She is an Extraordinary, and the only one in England capable of wielding fire in over one hundred years. As an Extraordinary, she is respected and feared, but to her father, she represents power and prestige for himself. Mr. Pembroke, having spent his life studying magic, is determined to control Elinor and her talent by forcing her to marry where he chooses, a marriage that will produce even more powerful offspring. Trapped between the choices of a loveless marriage or living penniless and dependent on her parents, Elinor takes a third path: she defies tradition and society to join the Royal Navy. Assigned to serve under Captain Miles Ramsay aboard the frigate Athena, she turns her fiery talent on England’s enemies, French privateers and vicious pirates preying on English ships in the Caribbean. At first feared by her shipmates, a growing number of victories make her truly part of Athena’s crew and bring her joy in her fire. But as her power grows and changes in unexpected ways, Elinor’s ability to control it is challenged. She may have the power to destroy her enemies utterly—but could it be at the cost of her own life?
Magical reality? Special powers? Threat of death? How could any sane fantasy-lover say no? I absolutely want to read this book so much that I may start it soon. I think it looks really good. She even uses her power to join the Royal Navy. How cool. Something women in the early 1800s were definitely not allowed to do. I'll read it just as soon as I finish one of my other eBooks.
Book #27: Dungeon Crawl by Skyler Grant
Gamers are celebrities. Superstars. Idols to the masses. Only a few ever make it out of Piper's Mill, most toil their lives away in the small town just dreaming of a better life. Liam thought he had a comfortable life all worked out when it winds up wrenched away from him. Drawn into other's schemes to hack the game and steal some spotlight he never expects to find himself playing in a game nobody has ever heard of. He never expects to find himself deep in a dungeon at level one with no gear and barely any skills. He certainly would never anticipate suddenly being tied to forces that promise not just to reshape his life, but the world outside the game. Time to level up.
I am part of a Dungeons & Dragons group and this looks very interesting. I think I will be picking this up shortly as a kind of temporary almost primer for the group play. I'm still not very good at rpgs. One day though. One day. This looks like the sort of book my character would read.
Book #28: Hounds of Autumn by Heather Blackwood
It is 1890, and the windswept moors hold dark secrets. Chloe Sullivan is an amateur inventor whose holiday takes a dark turn when her friend and colleague, one of the few female mechanical experts in the British Empire, is murdered. A black mechanical hound roams the moors, but could it have killed a woman? And what secrets are concealed within the dark family manor? Accompanied by her naturalist husband and her clockwork cat, Chloe is determined to see her friend’s killer found. But some secrets have a terrible cost.
I will probably actually cry if the windswept moors end up being Dartmoor. This is screaming that it's a steampunk version of
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. We all know by now (at least in my immediate circle of friends) how big of a Sherlock Holmes fan I am. I also like steampunk things and here they seem to be meshed together into a Steampunk Sherlock amalgamation. I cannot wait.
Book #29: Wife of the Left Hand by M.L. Bullock
Avery Dufresne had the perfect life: a rock star boyfriend, a high-profile career in the anchor chair on a national news program. Until a serious threat brings her perfect world to a shattering stop. When Avery emerges from the darkness she finds she has a new ability--a supernatural one. Avery returns to Belle Fontaine, Alabama, to claim an inheritance: an old plantation called Sugar Hill. Little does she know that the danger has just begun.
So my mom loves
Gone with the Wind and I love paranormal stories. What better to have then paranormal stories related to
Gone with the Wind? According to the rest of the Goodreads description this is like
Gone with the Wind with ghosts. How can that not be awesome? I will have to check it out as soon as I possibly can. I have far too many books on my list now to get to it quickly, but I think this will go up on next month's TBR.
Book #30: The Colour of Poison by Toni Mount
The narrow, stinking streets of medieval London can sometimes be a dark place. Burglary, arson, kidnapping and murder are every-day events. The streets even echo with rumors of the mysterious art of alchemy being used to make gold for the King. Join Seb, a talented but crippled artist, as he is drawn into a web of lies to save his handsome brother from the hangman's rope. Will he find an inner strength in these, the darkest of times, or will events outside his control overwhelm him? Only one thing is certain - if Seb can't save his brother, nobody can.
Definitely not a cover buy. It looks almost like the type of romance novel I avoid, but I read the synopsis of it and I thought it would be really good. It's the sort of book that looks like it would fit well with the
Stalking Jack the Ripper themed things. Along with some of the television shows I watch. I can't wait to get to this one as well as the others.
Book #31: Elite by Nicola Claire
Selena Carstairs has been raised an Elite. She lives the life of privileged luxury, never wanting for anything. Respected. Admired. Honored. But life is not what it seems...The island of Wánměi has a strict set of rules. Be a model Citizen and all will be rewarded. Disobey the law and the consequences are dire. For Selena, the urge to defy is in her blood. Out of boredom? Or something else? But she never knew just what penalty she'd have to pay for her latest stunt. Trent Masters is a Citizen, born and bred. The leader of a small group of revolutionaries desperately trying to free their beloved city of Wánměi. He knows a world exists beyond the island's borders. He knows a life exists without the heavy handed manipulation and tight fisted control of those in charge. What he didn't know was that an Elite would have more chance of challenging the Overseers who control Wánměi than a rebel ever could. And he certainly wasn't expecting her to capture his heart as stealthily as she moves under the darkness of a hot and humid night.
Reminds me almost of the
Delirium books. She was raised to believe certain things were true and that the government was working in her favor. But is it? Probably not. Now she (and I bet a handsome young man) are part of a resistance that is going to overthrow the government of wherever they are. It's just one of those trope-tastic books you need to lighten the mood now and then.
Book #32: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Written at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Persuasion is a tale of love, heartache and the determination of one woman as she strives to reignite a lost love. Anne Elliot is persuaded by her friends and family to reject a marriage proposal from Captain Wentworth because he lacks in fortune and rank. More than seven years later, when he returns home from the Navy, Anne realises she still has strong feelings for him, but Wentworth only appears to have eyes for a friend of Anne’s. Moving, tender, but intrinsically ‘Austen’ in style, with its satirical portrayal of the vanity of society in eighteenth-century England, Persuasion celebrates enduring love and hope.
Okay. I have been wanting to read this one for a while. I have a few Jane Austen books floating around my house (my library is rather....mobile), but this one was not among them. I stopped at the library on 3/24, and happened to see this really pretty copy of
Persuasion on the shelf. I had like 10 minutes at best and a child who just wanted to play with the library's Easter decorations. I grabbed it and checked out, hauling the screaming 2-year-old with me. Here's hoping I made a good choice in books to read.
Book #33: Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor
Seventeen-year-old
Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese
American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in
history not often referred to the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for
having "one drop of Japanese blood in them" things are
finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel,
a job, and his gang of Lost Boys. Desperate to run away, the world
outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naive, eighteen-year-old
Nora the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil
rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned
Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her
younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for
things to change. For months, they've lived side by side, their paths
crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her
sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at
the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window. In her
honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees
the chance to take to the window and fly away.
I saw the cover of this and thought it was absolutely adorable. I love the Disney version of Peter Pan (I have been trying to get J.M. Barrie's book, it's just taking a while) and I love all things Japanese. This is a perfect mash up of two things that I love. I can't wait to see how I feel about it when I read it.
Book #34: Shallow Graves by Patrick Logan
Not
all houses are made of brick and stone... Robert Watts is having the
worst day of his entire life: first he's laid off, then he finds out
that his wife is having an affair... with his boss no less. And
that's only the beginning. Before the month is out, Robert finds
himself alone to raise his daughter with no money, no job, and a
house that is minutes from being repossessed. Just when he hits rock
bottom, a strange visitor arrives at the doorstep of his soon to be
foreclosed house with a letter from an Aunt he didn't know existed.
The offer is simple: look after Aunt Ruth during her dying days, and
in return Robert will be bequeathed the Harlop Estate in which she
currently resides. It's a no brainer and Robert jumps at the
opportunity, equally motivated by the prospect of financial security
as he is for a fresh start. Problem is, it only takes a few nights in
the Harlop Estate before he begins to question Aunt Ruth's claims
that they are the home's only inhabitants...It's the scratching he
hears during the night, the voices that he can barely make out over
the constant rain, and then there's the girl with the rat...With
their house foreclosed and their bank accounts liquidated, Robert and
his daughter Amy desperately need a place to live. But the question
Robert soon finds himself struggling with is whether living in the
Harlop Estate is worth it...and if he can survive until Aunt Ruth
passes to collect his inheritance.
I got nothin'. It was a really neat looking spooky book and I have a family member who's name is Ruth. That was the primary motivation behind buying this. I have no clue what it's really going to be about or if I will like it.
Book #35: Breathe by Christine Grey
Dearra
comes into possession of the magical Sword of Cyrus just as the evil
Breken attack her island home. Though her people succeed in driving
their enemy back to the sea, one of the invaders remains behind, left
for dead by his cruel kin. Now, Dearra doesn't know what to be more
surprised by, the fact that her sword can speak to her, or that it
has imperiously informed her that the handsome Breken warrior is her
destiny. The two are bound together by a chain of events that was set
into motion a thousand years earlier, and everything they thought
they knew about themselves, their history, and their future is about
to change.
She has a talking magical sword and apparently is supposed to be with a guy from the kind of people that literally attacked them. This is like a fantasy version of Romeo & Juliet, is it not? It looks at least moderately interesting and I want to know why there are gold circles around her irises. I mean, what is that?
Book #36: The Dreamer's Lotus by Mike Dickenson
A
young outcast followed by crows finds a flower in the forest one
night - it is the Dreamer's Lotus, a powerful hallucinogen that opens
the mind to the meanings of the symbols. This can be helpful,
especially when you live in a world where everything is symbolic. The
crow is a dangerous sign that is helping Corvus to transform dreams
into reality, though everyone knows that manifestation will get you
banished. The Elders say the boy is a bad omen, part of a prophecy
that will destroy the village. Symbols never lie, but the Elders
might and if Corvus doesn't prove them wrong they will destroy him.
There is an old lunatic named Obiticus who lives in the forest. He
wants to manifest a new world, and Corvus is the key to his plan.
Obiticus speaks of things that are forbidden - he knows secrets that
only the awakened will understand. Corvus is desperate to know the
truth, but even enlightenment has its price.
Crows are sort of my thing? And this boy either takes the name of what follows him or they follow him because that is his name. I don't know which way that goes, but it looks interesting nonetheless. I hope to put it up pretty high on my reading list. After I get through what could be the best (or worst) reading challenge to date. We'll see.
Book #37: The Shadow Children by L.C. Hibbett
Everything
you know is a lie...Eighteen-year-old Grace is sick of running. For
over two thousand years the Angels have hunted the Half-Born,
determined to maintain the barrier that conceals the magical world
from Human eyes. Grace and her foster family have survived capture by
living amongst humans, but the noose is tightening as the spell
binding their magic begins to fail. When unexpected allies send Grace
and her family crashing into the world of The Shadow Children, she
finds herself at the epicenter of a battle to save those she loves.
But who can she trust when everyone has the face of an angel?
This reminds me of a mix between the Weaver series by Vaun Murphrey and the Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon. They know there is an enemy, but they don't know who that enemy is on the street. I assume that the "half-born" are half human and half angel. Otherwise why in the world would they care? They're angels. It wouldn't matter if we were like half dog or something. It will be going up high on my list.
Book #38: Longbow by Wayne Grant
Roland
Inness is a peasant boy with an unusual talent—and a secret. He has
learned the art of making a longbow and the skill to use it with
deadly accuracy. Why must this be kept secret? The Normans rule
England with their armored knights and a well-aimed longbow can
pierce that armor. Possession of the weapon is a hanging offense and
when Roland takes the wrong deer on the wrong Lord’s land he has to
flee for his life. His flight will take him from the high hills of
the English midlands to the wild frontier with Wales and on to the
court of Richard the Lionheart. Along the way he is hunted by a paid
killer, aided by a strange monk named Tuck, and taken in by a gruff
Norman knight, who values his skill with the bow. That skill and his
courage will be sorely tested as he fights to earn the trust of his
new master. As King Richard celebrates his coronation, Roland faces
old enemies he thought he had left behind and must test his skill at
a royal archery tournament against the greatest bowmen in England, to
include the favorite, Sir Robin of Loxley.
If I understand correctly, this is a book featuring Robin Hood, but it is not about the famed vagabond. This takes place after Robin is knighted? I love a good story featuring either England, Wales or Robin Hood, so I bet I will love this as much as I do the others.
Book #39: Of Windmills and War by Diane Moody
The
rumblings of war in distant countries mattered little to Danny
McClain. Growing up in Chicago, his world revolved around
after-school jobs, a rescued beagle, his pen pal in Holland, and the
Cubs’ chance to go to the World Series. Then, in December of 1941,
during his first year at Northwestern University, news of the attack
on Pearl Harbor hit much too close to home. After a series of
unexpected events over the next couple of years, Danny found himself
in the co-pilot seat of a B-17, stationed with the 390th Bomb Group
in Framlingham, England. Anya Versteeg had been just a teenager when
Hitler’s troops invaded her homeland of Holland in May of 1940.
Forced to grow up much too fast, the feisty preacher’s daughter
eagerly immersed herself in the Dutch Resistance and its many efforts
to thwart the enemy. Certain that God had turned His back on Holland,
she closed her heart and did whatever she had to do to save her
country before it was too late. By 1945, the people of Occupied
Holland were starving. Cut off from the outside world in retaliation
for their failed attempt to oust the Germans invaders, the Dutch had
no food, no electricity, no fuel, and little hope of surviving.
Thousands were dying every day. Then, just days before the war ended,
help came to The Netherlands like manna from heaven. Operation
Chowhound held special meaning for Lieutenant Danny McClain.
Somewhere below in the battered land of tulips and windmills was the
girl who needed rescuing—after rescuing so many others. And he
would move heaven and earth to find her.
WWII....England....a sweet love story (I think). What more does a girl need? I always grab everything I can that has to do with the second World War and this just sounds so much different from what I normally read that I couldn't pass it up, even had I wanted to.
Book #40: Alloria by David M. Staniforth
Perhaps
the night they celebrated Alloria’s tenth birthday was not the
correct time for Thomas and Bessy Merryweather to reveal that they
were not actually her parents. Perhaps they should have told her
years before how they discovered her in the cellar of their cottage,
bare-footed and clutching under her arm a rag-doll she called
Saphjrina. Perhaps they shouldn’t have hidden away for seven years
the amulet she had around her neck, with the promise of gifting it
back to her when she reached the age of ten. Had they told her
sooner, had they told her when she was less spirited, she may not
have ventured into the cellar with her friend Nat and discovered how
the amulet opened up a mysterious labyrinth. Had they kept it from
her altogether, their lives would not be in danger; their lives may
not have, but the plight of an entire planet would have been.
It makes me think of Disney's Hercules. Where everything goes to shit when the main character finds out that they aren't who they thought they were this entire time. Like how do you not know? It sounds somewhat unbelievable to me that she wouldn't have caught on at some point to the fact that their names are Thomas and Bessy and hers is Alloria. Where in the world did they pull that from? I don't know how soon I'll get to this, but I am kind of excited to see what happens.
Books #41-50: Pocket Library of the World's Essential Knowledge by Various Authors
I'm going to explain this. I was meandering the stalls in one of the covered outdoor sections (there are two indoor, two covered outdoor and a lot of random outdoor stalls) and I happened to wander across this section of like old flea market stuff. Everything on the table was $1 a piece. I didn't see much of interest until I landed upon these absolutely tiny cloth-bound books behind a CD player. I was in love immediately.
When I say little, I mean like 5x7" at best. I smiled, picking one up and looking at it. I there was nothing written on the front and I could hardly read the spine.
Outline on Science I was printed in thick black font on it. Hmm...interesting. I flipped it open to find the publication date of the volume and smiled. 1929. The vendor came over and asked if we could make a bargain for them. I said "Okay...let's see...there's 8 of them, so how about $5?" He said sold. I got 8 books that are almost 90 years old for $5 total. GO ME!!
Not long after that, I found the other two (volumes 1 and 10) on eBay and snagged them. I now have all 10 volumes in this little series.
