Posts in the Books category.
Displaying 1 through 20 of 861. Subscribe: See All Books.
May 26
Book: The Drowning Girl
India Morgan Phelps--Imp to her friends--is schizophrenic. She can no longer trust her own mind, because she is convinced that her memories have somehow betrayed her, forcing her to question her very identity.
Struggling with her perception of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about an encounter with a vicious siren, or a helpless wolf that came to her as a feral girl, or neither of these things but something far, far stranger... [more inside]
May 22
Book: Whose Body
The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.< [more inside]
May 20
Book: Ten Steps To Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby
"There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself."--Hannah Gadsby, Nanette (CW: assault, molestation, rape, injury, isolation, suicidal ideation, body image or other mental health difficulties) [more inside]
May 17
Book: Interesting Times
The Agatean Empire, on the Disc's gold-rich Counterweight Continent, is at a crossroads. The Emperor (May He Live for a Thousand Years) is old and mad, and at death's door. The Five Noble Families are positioning themselves for what will come afterwards. A group of revolutionaries called The Red Army are busy sloganeering. A new book called "What I Did on My Holidays" is making tons of waves. Barbarians are within the gates of the Forbidden City. And into all of this, Ankkh-Morpork's Unseen University sends Rincewind, who may not be the "Great Wizzard" the Agateans are expecting. (Discworld #17, Wizards #5.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
May 2
Book: Cyrion
When a merchant stumbles into an inn, desperately looking for Cyrion, the other patrons can't help him locate the legendary hero--but they all have a story to tell. [more inside]
May 1
Book: Our Share of Night
Argentine writer Mariana Enríquez's first novel to be translated into English, Our Share of Night, is an epic horror story that traces a dangerous secret society of occultists across several generations from Argentina's 1970s dictatorship to the present day. [more inside]
Book: Eric
Rincewind returns from hell at the behest of a 13-year-old Demonologist looking to make a deal with a devil, and Rincewind will just have to do. Along the way to seeing about the young man's wishes, they'll visit the Discworld's versions of the Aztec Empire, the Trojan War, and Corporate Bureaucracy. (Discworld #9, Wizards #4.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
Book: For the First Time, Again (Take Them to the Stars #3)
The conclusion of the Take Them to the Stars trilogy lands with something of a thud, trading the centuries-long frame of the series and the decades-long span of the previous books for a too-tight focus on a single character telling us more about her plan than showing it. [more inside]
April 27
Book: Small Gods
The Great God Om has a problem. Several problems, really. Despite a theocratic nation worshiping, warring, torturing, and avoiding all manners of pleasure in His name, he's all but faded away and died. Confined to the body of a decrepit tortoise, he must join up with Brutha, an illiterate youth with a phenomenal memory who is also his only remaining actual believer, to save his own existence and, if the chance comes along, change the course of history for all of Omnia for the better. (Discworld #13, Standalone.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
April 22
Book: Such a Pretty Smile
Prepubescent girls start being murdered in Atlanta. Lila's mother Caroline has always been overprotective,but overhearing her mother on the phone Lila realizes that her mother is somehow connected to these killings. [more inside]
Book: The Big Door Prize
Deerfield, Louisiana, is a sleepy small town like any other until the mysterious DNAMIX machine appears at the local grocery store. Deposit $2 and a DNA swab, and the machine spits out a ticket displaying the user's potential. Who can resist? Even as residents discover their callings, the past returns for a history teacher, a grieving student, and a Catholic priest. How people navigate hope, pursue change, and reckon with choices are the heart of M.O. Walsh's sweet and cozy novel, The Big Door Prize (2020). [more inside]
Book: The Other Black Girl
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career. [more inside]
April 19
Book: Lockwood & Co. Book series (and TV show)
There is an epidemic of ghosts in Britain. Their touch brings death, and only children have the power to fight them.
Lucy Carlyle, a young psychic investigator, joins London's smallest agency, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood and his ever-hungry assistant George Cubbins. Together the trio must investigate some of the spookiest and deadliest spectral hauntings in the city, armed only with the tools of the ghost-hunting trade (magnesium flares, iron filings, chains and salt bombs), their courage and a thermos of tea.
Ghosts and ghouls beware! [more inside]
Book: Moving Pictures
IN A WORLD GONE MAD, where Alchemists have just devised a way to film performances and screen them for enraptured audiences, Unseen University drop-out Victor Tugelbend leaves Ankh-Morpork for Holy Wood, a new community of like-minded dreamers devoted to the Clicks industry, but something is lurking under Holy Wood that should not be awakened! Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler also stars. (Discworld #10, Stand-Alone.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
April 14
Book: Pyramids
King Teppicynon, Pharaoh of the Kingdom of Djelibeybi and all it's lands (which stretch all of a mile on either side of the river Djel) and God in charge of making the sun rise over his peoples (though no one, including the King, is quite sure how he does that) is dead. Long live the King! Both the new one, Teppicynon's son Teppic, a recent graduate of the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild School with no interest in killing anyone, and Teppicynon himself, who in death is learning that the massive tombs Djelibeybi is bankrupting itself to erect might not be all they're cracked up to be... (Discworld #7, Stand-alone.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
April 12
Book: Alexandra Petri's US History
[Some] people look at our history textbooks and say, "Oh no! We have only one president's weird sex letters, and that president is Warren G. Harding! We need a book that fixes that! This is that book. [more inside]
Book: Snuff
Ankh-Morpork City Watch Commander Sam Vimes is forced very much against his will to take a holiday, heading with Lady Sybil, Young Sam, and of course Willikins out to Crundells, Lady Sybil's age-old family estate in the country. After puttering around the rural area for a while pissing people off for either being a Lord or not being Lordly enough, he comes across a whole lot of blood, which leads him and a young local Constable down a path into the area's dark history with Goblins... (Discworld #39, City Watch #8.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
April 6
Book: Yak Girl: Growing Up in the Remote Dolpo Region of Nepal by Dorje Dolma
Dorje grew up in a remote high-altitude village in Nepal without electricity, running water, or even the wheel, in the 1980s. The book is the story of her life to about age 10, when she is adopted by an American couple and brought to the US for life-saving scoliosis surgery. With no schooling at all, she is turned loose in the Himalayas at age 6 to shepherd over her family's herd of goats and yak, responsible for both getting herself and the animals back to the village safely each day.
As it becomes apparent that she needs medical help the family embarks on a nearly 1-month trek to Kathmandu, where Dorje sees electricity, automobiles, and TV for the first time. Living 9 people in a 1 room apartment with another family from the village, they eek out survival via begging and social services until Dorje is accepted into a boarding school and starts to learn to read and write, and her family starts the 1-month trek up the mountain back to the village. The book ends as Dorje receives life- saving surgery in America.
The book is essentially self-published, but her story is so compelling it does not matter. A real editor working their magic could result in an amazing book that would compare to Angela's Ashes. As is, I still highly recommend the book.
Book: We are the Ants
16-year-old Henry has been regularly abducted by aliens since he was 13. But now they've given him a job. The earth will be destroyed in 144 days unless Henry pushes a button to stop it. It seems like an easy choice, but Henry hasn't been digging life lately. His boyfriend committed suicide last year, his best friend dropped out of his life too, his dad left years ago without saying goodbye, and his mom is an alcoholic chain smoker trying to get by on a waitress' income. His brother is a sadistic bully who just dropped out of college and moved back home because his girlfriend is pregnant. School is no better. Henry is doing poorly and is a target for the bullies there too, including the popular "straight" kid who he is secretly hooking up with on occasion.
Henry isn't seeing any reason that the world should continue on in 144 days. He might be doing the world a favor by putting everybody out of their misery. Will he find a reason to push the button? The book gets into big issues of depression, mental health, self-worth, friendship, relationships, and bullying as Henry navigates the 144 days of his life before the world lives or dies on his command.
April 5
Book: Making Money
Who can convince the people of Ankh-Morpork that slips of paper are as valuable as gold? Who can take on the most cunning blue-bloods and open up Finance to the masses? Who can bust out a death-row prisoner but twice get caught "breaking into" his own office? Who can withstand the love of a woman who digs up hordes of Golems as a hobby? And who can do it all while rocking a gold suit and hat? Why, Moist von Lipwig, of course! (Discworld #36, Industrial Revolution #5.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]