Saturday, October 8, 2016

Stacking the Shelves #4

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews


A Slice Of Life 

Hey all , this my first time and try to share some of my IRL life. I've seen this around and thought why not give it a try.  My COLLEGE LIFE started again after a okayish summer. I'm in my last year of university and  the preparation for thesis writing begins. Aah How do people do it? My thesis topic is history and cultural heritage themed. I'm a history major with a minor in Heritage and Tourism. I'm writing on  a Jewish cemetery in Suriname. This cemetery has Ashkenazi graves. Wish me luck.  Btw I can wait to read non text books this holiday weekend. Okay not a lot more but still a few chapters. Monday is Day of the Maroons. Enough chattering  now unto the books 

This is a sum of the past couple of weeks.  This haul has library copies of  books that are out of print ,  pre-orders and an audiobook. Synopses of sequels  in a series will not be added  to avoid spoilers !




LIBRARY BOOKS



Becoming Human (Harmony of Worlds #2) by Valerie J. Freireich

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Published January 1st 1995 by Roc

Alexander Greeneyes, a brilliant "toolman" for the planetary government of Sucre, meticulously records key political gatherings and probes the participants' discourse for unspoken innuendo. A product of controlled eugenic experiments looked down on as inhuman, he has reached the end of his built-in 35-year life span, which his politically powerful overseer and lover, Sanda Brauna, can do nothing to extend. Hoping to change his destiny as well as bring honor to Brauna, Alexander forges a deal with diplomats from the planet Neulander, where genetic manipulation is tolerated, to help Neulander's bid to become a new member in the Polite Harmony of Worlds. His plan backfires, however, when Neulander secretly attacks an allied world, implicating Alexander as a traitor and ending his life. Now his successor, 23-year-old clone August, must live down the stigma of Alexander's betrayal and win enough respect from his superiors to transcend his status as a toolman and become human. Aside from occasionally stilted prose, Freireich masterfully interweaves absorbing political intrigue and an original, futuristic version of racial prejudice. Set against a background f interplanetary war at the far reaches of the universe, here is a sweeping tale exploring what it means to be human. Can the clone of a traitor overcome his legacy, or will he be doomed to repeat it?





 The Tempering of Men (Iskryne World #2)by Sarah Monette  and Elizabeth Bear

Hardcover, 304 pages
Published August 16th 2011 by Tor Books
















Mélusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths #1) by Sarah Monette

Hardcover, 421 pages
Published August 2nd 2005 by Ace Hardcover

Mélusine — a city of secrets and lies, pleasure and pain, magic and corruption — and destinies lost and found. 
Felix Harrowgate is a dashing, highly respected wizard. But his aristocratic peers don't know his dark past — how his abusive former master enslaved him, body and soul, and trained him to pass as a nobleman. Within the walls of the Mirador — Melusine's citadel of power and wizardry — Felix believed he was safe. He was wrong. Now, the horrors of his previous life have found him and threaten to destroy all he has since become.
Mildmay the Fox is used to being hunted. Raised as a kept-thief and trained as an assassin, he escaped his Keeper long ago and lives on his own as a cat burglar. But now he has been caught by a mysterious foreign wizard using a powerful calling charm. And yet the wizard was looking not for Mildmay — but for Felix Harrowgate." Thrown together by fate, the broken wizard Felix and the wanted killer Mildmay journey far from Melusine through lands thick with strange magics and terrible demons of darkness. But it is the shocking secret from their pasts, linking them inexorably together, that will either save them, or destroy them.


PRE-ORDERS  





Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1) by Zoraida Córdova 

Hardcover, 336 pages
Published September 6th 2016 by Sourcebooks Fire

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.
I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.
Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.
The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…
Beautiful Creatures meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone with an infusion of Latin American tradition in this highly original fantasy adventure.



A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1)by Jessica Cluess

Hardcover, 416 pages
Published September 20th 2016 by Random House Books for Young Readers

Henrietta can burst into flames.
Forced to reveal her power to save a friend, she’s shocked when instead of being executed, she’s named the first female sorcerer in hundreds of years and invited to train as one of Her Majesty’s royal sorcerers.
Thrust into the glamour of Victorian London, Henrietta is declared the prophesied one, the girl who will defeat the Ancients, bloodthirsty demons terrorizing humanity. She also meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, handsome young men eager to test her power and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her.
But Henrietta is not the chosen one.
As she plays a dangerous game of deception, she discovers that the sorcerers have their own secrets to protect. With battle looming, how much will she risk to save the city—and the one she loves?

AUDIOBOOKS 




Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1) by Kerri Maniscalco . Narrated by Nicola Barber.

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
Release Date:09-20-16
Publisher: Hachette Audio

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.
Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.


Concluding thoughts:  Becoming Human is a standalone in a companion series. Honestly it's the only one that sounds exciting out of the three 3 companion books. Whereas all books by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear sound exciting. I've heard about the queer main characters in Doctrine of Labyrinths and the  Iskryne World trilogy . Knowing makes me want to read it more.

Speaking about representation it's cool that Labyrinth Lost has a Bi latina lead. This is not the only reason for picking this one up. I've loved  Cordova's debut Vicious Deep. I  still have to finish that trilogy.

Reviews and and an excited author got me interested in the two other books. Both books were on my radar but I was not that intrigued to read them.  Jesse the reader's review of and others on a shadow bright and burning got me that intrigued.  The other one was because of A.G Howard. I love her books and I got it after I seen her loving it online.  That's what I  got  the couple of weeks.  How has your week been?

 



Saturday, August 27, 2016

Stacking the shelves #3



Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Synopses  of first in a series will only be added  to avoid spoilers !




Viking Warrior 

Hardcover, 360 pages
Published June 13th 2006 by HarperCollins Publishers

A young man only at peace when he is at war
Young Halfdan is a slave. He is crafty with a bow and arrow and wise in the ways of the animals, but he can only dream of a warrior's life. That is, until the dark day a Saxon's blows lay his father on his deathbed, and his mother makes a tragic bargain for Halfdan's freedom.
A boy's destiny can come at the most terrible price. Halfdan must suffer a grave loss in order to grasp what he most desires: to train by, to live by, and, if the fates decree it, to die by the force of his sword and the swiftness of his arrow. He is to be a warrior -- a great warrior.
Bloody, furiously paced, heart-wrenching, and unflinching, this is a story of a land where the destinies of boys and men are forged in the heat of battle. Young Halfdan shall come to know the glories of true brotherhood and the unspeakable horrors of true evil. In this first book in a saga teeming with thrilling details of the Viking world, young Halfdan emerges as a new hero . . . a new myth . . . a new legend.



Dragons from the Sea
Hardcover, 346 pages
Published June 12th 2007 by Harper Teen 


The Road to Vengeance
Hardcover, 344 pages
Published June 17th 2008 by Harper Teen














Book 1,  Mélusine , hasn't arrived yet. The series  description will substitute.    


Set in the fantasy world of Meduse, it tells the story of the adventures of Felix Harrowgate, a wizard, and his half-brother Mildmay the Fox, a former assassin.



The Virtu
Hardcover, 439 pages
Published June 27th 2006 by Ace Hardcover



The Mirador
Hardcover, 426 pages
Published August 7th 2007 by Ace Hardcover














Corambis
Hardcover, 432 pages
Published April 7th 2009 by Ace




















by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda
Paperback, 192 pages
Published July 19th 2016 by Image Comics


Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900’s Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steampunk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both




Leverage
by Joshua C. Cohen

Hardcover, 425 pages
Published February 17th 2011 by Dutton Books for Young Readers

The football field is a battlefield
There's an extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove High. It is paid on - and off - the football field. And it claims its victims without mercy - including the most innocent bystanders. 
When a violent, steroid-infused, ever-escalating prank war has devastating consequences, an unlikely friendship between a talented but emotionally damaged fullback and a promising gymnast might hold the key to a school's salvation.
Told in alternating voices and with unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the fierce loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won optimism of two young athletes.


 So that's what I got. How has your week been?

PS.  Leverage was the 2nd book I shelved as to be read on Goodreads, in the month May of 2011. My paperback copy has been worn.  A non-reader did not candle it properly.  I haven't read it but it will be read before 2016 is done.  Leverage, The Strong Bow saga And The Doctrine Of Labyrinths are now out of print. I luckily won't a 2nd  store this year that has free international shipping. Shipping and handling to Suriname gets pricey.  It's Betterworldbooks.com btw. They sell old library books from prices ranging from $6 to $13 in most cases.  I've waited 5 years to read the out -of -print- books. I can't freaking wait

Sunday, July 24, 2016

REVIEW: The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel



Title: The Summer That Melted Everything
Author: Tiffany McDaniel
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Publication Date:  July 26th 2016
Source:  Netgalley
Rating:  5/5

Amazon  //  Bookdepository 
Synopsis: Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.
Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town.
When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.

My thoughts

It was a heat that didn’t just melt tangible things like ice, chocolate, Popsicles. It melted all the intangibles too. Fear, faith, anger, and those long-trusted templates of common sense. It melted lives as well, leaving futures to be slung with the dirt of the gravedigger’s shovel.”

Summer has lots to offer. It depends were you life what will be. Summer should be a fun time with family and friends. The summer of '84 in Breathed, Ohio is different. Attorney Autopsy Bliss is the cause of it. He invites mr morningstar in a sarcastic manner after a chase did not go as he wished. His request has been answered. It's a shock because were a cloven hoofed biblical figure should be a thirteen year old black kid with the oddest green eyes shows up claiming to be the devil himself. The authorities can't find his family looking for him and he ends up staying with Fielding Bliss and his family. Fielding Bliss is the narrator and tells his story summer of 1984 story somewhere in the future as an older man.

Tiffany Daniel's debut is shelved on goodreads as a magical realism adult novel. The magical realism aspect for me at least is in the setting. I love how Breathed, Ohio breathed heavily as if it was out of breath of the heat. Haha, a pun. The book shows characters that have monstrous capabilities. The citizens display how mob mentality happens. Racism, homophobia, fear of AIDS, agoraphobia, child abuse and religion are shown not heavy handed and are done in a non preachy way. This book has brought me out of an reading slump. A 6-month reading slump, the agony. Daniel's writing is amazing. Although it it hit me hard emotionally i'm glad i had the chance to read. I will definitely re-read it in the future. I can't wait to see what will be next.

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