Books In For Review

Here's a look at some of the books that have just arrived for review!




Matthias: The Ghost of Salvation Point by Jodi Auborn Ten-year-old Dylan is excited when his father inherits an old lighthouse and cottage in Maine. Dylan and his family get to live there all summer! He goes sailing on the bay, explores the small town down the road, and searches for a legendary pirate treasure that was said to be buried nearby. After mysterious things start happening at the cottage, Dylan meets Matthias, a gruff lighthouse keeper who had died in a storm one hundred years before. A ghost! Dylan is startled to find Matthias living in his bedroom, but he is glad when they become friends. It’s the best summer ever! Things change when they learn that the lighthouse is threatened by a greedy treasure hunter who also knows about the pirate legend. He will do whatever it takes to find the treasure…even kidnapping! As Dylan and Matthias team up to protect their home, they begin an adventure that changes Dylan’s life forever.  

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.  

The Price of Blood by Patricia Bracewell Readers first met Emma of Normandy in Patricia Bracewell’s gripping debut novel, Shadow on the Crown. Unwillingly thrust into marriage to England’s King Æthelred, Emma has given the king a son and heir, but theirs has never been a happy marriage. In The Price of Blood, Bracewell returns to 1006 when a beleaguered Æthelred, still haunted by his brother’s ghost, governs with an iron fist and a royal policy that embraces murder. As tensions escalate and enmities solidify, Emma forges alliances to protect her young son from ambitious men—even from the man she loves. In the north there is treachery brewing, and when Viking armies ravage England, loyalties are shattered and no one is safe from the sword.

Love by The Book by Melissa Pimentel Love by the Book charts a year in the life of Lauren Cunningham, a beautiful, intelligent, and unlucky-in-love twenty-eight-year-old American. Feeling old before her time, Lauren moves to London in search of the fab single life replete with sexy Englishmen. But why can’t she convince the men she’s seeing that she really isn’t after anything more serious than seriously good sex? Determined to break the curse, Lauren turns her love life into an experiment: each month she will follow a different dating guide until she discovers the science behind being a siren. Lauren will follow The Rules, she’ll play The Game, and along the way she’ll journal her (mis)adventures and maybe even find someone worth holding on to. Witty, gritty, and very true to life, Love by the Book will have you in stitches.

The Man I Love by Suanne Laqueur As a college freshman, Erik Fiskare is drawn to the world of theater but prefers backstage to center stage. The moment he lays eyes on a beautiful, accomplished dancer named Daisy Bianco, his atoms rearrange themselves and he is drawn into a romance both youthfully passionate and maturely soulful. Their love story thrives within a tight-knit circle of friends, all bound by creativity and artistry. A newcomer arrives--a brilliant but erratic dancer with an unquenchable thirst for connection. And when this disturbed friend brings a gun into the theater, the story is forever changed. Daisy is shot and left seriously injured. And Erik finds himself alone in the aisle, looking down the muzzle of a pistol and trying to stop the madness. He succeeds, but with tremendous repercussions to his well-being and that of his loved ones. Traumatized by the experience, Erik and Daisy spiral into depression and drug use until a shocking act of betrayal destroys their relationship. To survive, Erik must leave school and disconnect from all he loves. He buries his heartbreak and puts the past behind. Or so he believes. As he moves into adulthood, Erik comes to grips with his role in the shooting, and slowly heals the most wounded parts of his soul. But the unresolved grief for Daisy continues to shape his dreams at night. Once those dreams were haunted by blood and gunfire. Now they are haunted by the refrain of a Gershwin song and a single question: is leaving always the end of loving? Spanning fifteen years, The Man I Love explores themes of love and sexuality, trauma--physical and mental--and its long-lasting effects, the burden of unfinished business and the power of reconciliation. Through Erik's experience we reflect on what it means to be a man, a son and a leader. A soul mate, a partner and a lover. What it means to live the truth of who you are and what you feel. What it means to fight for what you love.

The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown High in the hills of Valencia, a forgotten house guards its secrets. Untouched since Franco’s forces tore through Spain in 1936, the whitewashed walls have crumbled, and the garden, laden with orange blossom, grows wild. Emma Temple is the first to unlock its doors in seventy years. Emma is London’s leading perfumier, but her blessed life has taken a difficult turn. Her free-spirited mother, Liberty, who taught her the art of fragrance making, has just passed away. At the same time, she broke up with her long-time lover and business partner, Joe, whose baby she happens to be carrying. While Joe is in New York trying to sell his majority share in their company, Emma, guided by a series of letters and a key bequeathed to her in Liberty’s will, decides to leave her job and travel to Valencia, where she will give birth in the house her mother mysteriously purchased just before her death. The villa is a perfect retreat: redolent with the exotic scents of orange blossom and neroli, dappled with light and with the rich colors of a forgotten time. Emma makes it her mission to restore the place to its former glory. But for her aging grandmother, Freya, a British nurse who stayed in Valencia during Spain’s devastating civil war, Emma’s new home evokes memories of a terrible secret, a part of her family’s past that until now has managed to stay hidden.

Wall, Watchtower, and Pencil Stub: Writing During World War II by John Carpenter Even as World War II raged on, contemporary writers were riveted by its every twist and turn. One of the war’s most fascinating features was that it was subject to constant change, surprises, and fate reversal. It ensured that wartime writers, who did not yet know of its outcome, adopted points of view that were entirely spontaneous, rather than based on historical hindsight. This remarkable book presents the war in its entirety, with all its force, suspense, and drama. With exceptional clarity it shows how the extreme events of war challenged writers, inspired their art, and in turn produced a modern legacy of literature.

Books In For Review

Busy, busy, busy!  The books just keep on coming.  Here's a look at what has just arrived for review.

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TIME-LIFE World War II in 500 Photographs by TIME/LIFE BOOKS Time-Life Books' World War II in 500 Photographs brings the war to life today, in its most compelling moments and images. In this enthralling, illustrated, original volume, Time-Life Books explores the greatest conflict in the history of the planet. Here are the great battles and the great generals, the essential weapons and the tactics that made the years between 1939 and 1945 the most memorable in history. The visuals encompass Morocco to Malaysia, Berlin to Iwo Jima. With 500 dazzling photos--including rare color photos--this book succinctly and powerfully tells the full story of the war. History comes alive, thanks to scores of historic photos, first-hand accounts from a host of fronts, images of artifacts, and compelling maps and charts that clarify the politics of this vast war that shaped our modern world. Here is World War II as you've never seen it--and as you'll never forget it.  

TIME-LIFE Everything You Need To Know About the Bible by TIME-LIFE BOOKS Everyone can benefit from understanding the Bible, and Time-Life Books' Everything You Need to Know about the Bible is the ultimate visual guide. This helpful book is filled with photos, illustrations, art, and maps, plus sidebars throughout featuring fun facts, Top Ten lists, verses to know, and more. Learn the fascinating story of the Bible itself-how it was written and how its contents have survived over the centuries. Meet the great characters, from Abraham and Isaac to Mary Magdalene and St. Paul. Discover the life, works, and teachings of Jesus Christ and his disciples, with observations offered by today's most noted interpreters of the Bible. It's all gathered in an easy to read, compelling visual format that brings a fresh understanding to readers of all spiritual backgrounds, whether you're new to the Bible or a daily reader of its inspiring words.  

The Immortal Crown: An Age of X Novel by Richelle Mead Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion. Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity. Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

Duel for the Crown: Affirmed, Alydar, and Racing's Greatest Rivalry by Linda Carroll In the Sport of Kings, the Triple Crown is the most valued prize, requiring a horse to win not just one race, but three: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. And 1978 would not be just for the record books, but also one of the greatest dramas ever played out in the racing world. There were names to conjure with, worthy of the Sport of Kings. The bloodline of Native Dancer. The teen wonderboy jockey Steve Cauthen. The once unbeatable Calumet Farm—the Damn Yankees of the racing world—now in eclipse and hoping for a comeback. The newcomer Harbor View Farm—owned by brash financier Louis Wolfson, who wouldn’t let even a conviction and a prison sentence for securities violations stand in the way of his dreams of glory. And the racetracks themselves: Belmont, Saratoga, Pimlico. And, of course, Churchill Downs. It has been thirty-five years since Affirmed and Alydar fought for the Triple Crown, thirty-five years when no other horse has won it. Duel for the Crown brings this epic battle to life. Not just two magnificent Thoroughbreds but the colorful human personalities surrounding them, caught up in an ever-intensifying battle of will and wits that lasted until the photo finish of the final Triple Crown race . . . and Alydar and Affirmed leaped into the history books.  

Early Birdy Gets the Worm by Bruce Lansky This Story is Told in Pictures so children 3 to 6 can “read” the pictures and enjoy the story. Waking up early one morning, Early Birdy watches Mother Birdy catch a worm. Inspired, Early Birdy wants to catch one too. But catching a worm isn’t as easy as it looks. Join Early Birdy on an exciting and funny adventure set in a beautiful springtime forest environment created by illustrator Bill Bolton. Don’t be surprised to find yourself “smiling from ear to ear”. Don’t for one minute think you’re going to “read” (aka narrate) this story to your child because you’re the adult and your child is, well, the child. Your child can “read” the pictures as well as you can. A fact that changes how this story will be read: this is a story you and your child can read together. You might start the collaboration by asking a question: You: What do you see in this picture? Child: A little baby birdy is waking up You: And in the next picture? Child: A big bird is catching a worm. You: Meanwhile back in the nest? Child: The little birdy is watching. Child: He wants to catch a worm, too. He flies down. Child: He sees a worm. Child: He bites it. Child: And then uh oh! That’s not a worm! See what just happened? you and your child were reading the book together, until your child got much too excited to wait for you to ask a question. Suddenly your preschooler is telling the story as fast as she can turn the pages. And you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! My 3-year-old doesn’t know how to read. But she’s so excited—I can’t stop her from telling the story. She’s running away with the story. What happened to our quiet little game of question and answer?”  

Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run by Allan Wood Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Boston Red Sox’ unprecedented championship run in the fall of 2004, this guide takes fans behind the scenes and inside the dugout, bullpen, and clubhouse to reveal to baseball fans how it happened, as it happened. The book highlights how, during a span of just 76 hours, the Red Sox won four do-or-die games against their archrivals, the New York Yankees, to qualify for the World Series and complete the greatest comeback in baseball history. Then the Red Sox steamrolled through the World Series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games, capturing their first championship since 1918. Don’t Let Us Win Tonight is brimming with revealing quotes from Boston’s front office personnel, coaches, medical staff, and players, including Kevin Millar talking about his infectious optimism and the team’s pregame ritual of drinking whiskey, Dave Roberts revealing how he prepared to steal the most famous base of his career, and Dr. William Morgan describing the radical surgery he performed on Curt Schilling’s right ankle. The ultimate keepsake for any Red Sox fan, this is the 2004 team in their own words.  

How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love by Ken Baker “Thick. Heavy. Big-boned. Plump. Full-figured. Chunky. Womanly.” To Emery Jackson, these phrases are just nice euphemisms for the big “F” word of “fat.” But to her workout fiend dad, underwear model sister, and former Laker Girls mother, they are unacceptable states of being. Emery’s cash-strapped family’s solution? Signing up for a reality TV show in which Emery will have to lose fifty pounds in fifty days in order to win a million dollars. As the pounds start to drop and the ratings skyrocket, Emery feels the weight of success. And she must figure out how to turn the truths she uncovers—about beauty, love, fame, and family—into the keys to more than just fortune.

Books in for Review

Busy, busy, busy.  Things are sort of crazy at Feathered Quill, but we're loving it!  Here's a sample of the books that have just come in for review:





Beach Brain Jane's 'Hairy' Adventure on Hilton Head Island by Andrea Studenc
 
College Freshman 101 by Brenda Faye Collie  Loresha Evans goes to college in this second installment of the Loresha Evans trilogy.  Loresha, now a High School graduate, experiences the woes of being a freshman in college, academically and personally.  She befriends a group of students who want to publish a Black student journal at a predominately white college and is faced with non-interest from the English Department.  She also experiences love with a graduate student.  Will the journal ever get published?  Has Loresha found true love?  Will she survive the first semester of college academically?

Promised Valley Peace by Ron Fritsch Promised Valley Peace is the fourth and last novel in Ron Fritsch’s allegorical Promised Valley series. The conspirators and their allies from the first three novels give up on the gods, whose existence many of them doubt, and discover how to use horses in warfare. They prepare to employ them in a last battle to bring the prehistoric enemy hunters and farmers together as one people in a “new kingdom” and end warfare between them forever. Individuals who partner with persons of the same gender are once again in the front lines, risking their lives for their peoples. The first three novels—Promised Valley Rebellion, Promised Valley War, and Promised Valley Conspiracy—have won a number of awards. Reviewers have included these comments about the series.

America's Greatest Blunder: The Fateful Decision to Enter World War One by Burton Yale Pines Entering World War One against Germany was America's greatest blunder of the 20th century. America had no reason to join the 3-year-old struggle. By sending two million doughboys to the Western Front, America shattered the battlefield stalemate and won the war, allowing Britain and France to impose a devastating peace on Germany, thus igniting toxic German cries for revenge. Absent America's entry into the war, the exhausted combatants, however unhappily, would have had to drag themselves to a negotiating table and there make a peace of compromise. There would have been no victor, no vanquished, no Versailles Treaty, no reparations, no German demands for revenge, no Hitler and surely no World War II and even no Cold War. The tale of how America stumbled into war is told by America's Greatest Blunder. It chronicles America's journey from sensible neutrality to its war declaration. It then describes how legions of doughboys were mobilized and trained and how they won the war, giving victory to Britain and France - thus launching the young 20th century on its course of decades of unprecedented violence.

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in. A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.

A Bad Mad Sad Day for Mama Bear by Mayra Calvani On a very bad day, Little Bear offers Mama Bear various items to make her feel better, but she's too busy to notice-until he gives her his super, so good, so very special dolly. Silly humor, alliteration, repetition, and onomatopoeia make this a fun read-aloud story. Gray Zone by Veronica Tabares The victim of a cyber-prank gone viral, Autumn was forced to transfer schools—not exactly what she wanted to do as a sophomore. But what choice did she have when all her personal information was posted all over the web? When threatening comments started to trickle in, the police said her only chance to avoid stalkers was to move schools and start over. Determined to make the best of her situation, Autumn realized that she had been given an opportunity to reinvent herself; to become the outgoing, popular, not-at-all-shy girl she'd always wanted to be. But even the best plans go awry. As soon as Autumn arrives at her new school, she meets Maurice—a bully of monumental proportions who makes life miserable for everyone. Things seem to be looking up when Autumn learns that her best friend Sophie Rose is transferring to her new school, too—but then Sophie starts keeping her distance. Bullied at school and online, adrift without the support of her best friend, Autumn believes she failed miserably at changing the old habits that had given her that shy girl reputation in the first place. Not only could she not move from reserved to rambunctious, she couldn't even get to normal. But when a tragedy shakes Autumn's world, she stops feeling sad about what happened to her. Now she's angry—and she's determined to put a stop to this cyber-torture and bullying of herself and the people she loves in

The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America by Allison Pataki In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of his part in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the assassins sent from London to kill the executioner of Charles I or the wolves-in many forms-who hunt for blood.

Along the Watchtower by David Litwack The war in Iraq ended for Lieutenant Freddie Williams when an IED explosion left his mind and body shattered. Once he was a skilled gamer and expert in virtual warfare. Now he's a broken warrior, emerging from a medically induced coma to discover he's inhabiting two separate realities. The first is his waking world of pain, family trials, and remorse--and slow rehabilitation through the tender care of Becky, his physical therapist. The second is a dark fantasy realm of quests, demons, and magic that Freddie enters when he sleeps. In his dreams he is Frederick, Prince of Stormwind, who must make sense of his horrific visions in order to save his embattled kingdom from the monstrous Horde. His only solace awaits him in the royal gardens, where the gentle words of the beautiful gardener, Rebecca, calm the storms in his soul. While in the conscious world, the severely wounded vet faces a strangely similar and equally perilous mission--a journey along a dark road haunted by demons of guilt and memory--and letting patient, loving Becky into his damaged and shuttered heart may be his only way back from Hell.

Montooth 3: Red Cross of Gold (Montooth Quintet) by Robert Jay The third book in the Montooth quintet follows the main characters as they finish high school while experiencing the advent of Rock n' Roll in the mid-Fifties. Off to college, Carty Andersson's archery skills and outspoken criticism of a professor, leads police to suspect her in a bizarre campus murder. Her friends in The Crew utilize their skills and display unquestioned loyalty as they attempt to save her while discovering and capturing the real killer. Meanwhile, her close friend and high school roommate, Elena Rafferty, joins the forces of Fidel Castro as he begins his quest to take power in Cuba. The infamous Cruz Cruz, teaming with actress-singer Sara Ann Dan, manipulates both sides of the Cuban Revolution as it marches closer to finality. Sally, the erstwhile witch from the initial book, Montooth and the Canfield Witch, exposes ancient family history to show origins of her enormous cache of gold, jewels, and other property. Smithsonian researches trace it from King Solomon's mines to the Templar warrior monks in France and Scotland, to Colonial America to the swamps of Florida. Author Jay includes his signature Montooth fable, this time involving the title character alligator and beehives.

Higgledy Piggledy by Benton Seymour Rabinovitch Curly, Twirly, Whirly, and Higgledy Piggledy are four brother piglets who live a happy life together in the sun. With no sweet name to rhyme with the rest of his family, poor Higgledy Piggledy wishes he were more like his brothers. When scary Mr. Wolf moves in next door, hes hungry for ham. As Curly, Twirly, Whirly, and Higgledy Piggledy attempt to outwit and outrun their sly neighbor, the little piglets learn a big life lesson about whats truly in a name.