Here comes another great selection of new books in for review. Check them out and then stop by our site in a few weeks to read the reviews!
Center of Gravity: One Woman's Experiment to Reinvent her Entire Life Through Creativity, Spirituality, and a Leap of Faith by Geva Salerno Geva Salerno is a businesswoman who embarks on a year-long experiment designed to step outside her pre-conceived ideas about life, in order to reclaim her true self. After finding herself over-worked, divorced and obsessed with achieving society's vision of the perfect life, Geva gives up dating for a one-year period...no more online dating, no more blind dates and no more thinking about men. Set in southwest Florida in 2011 and 2012, the story is the true account of how a woman re-created her life step by step. As she begins the process of dismantling her false life and slowly building an authentic, creative and fulfilling one, Geva brings to life long-forgotten dreams and aspirations and begins to take risks. But, as she begins to re-discover her true self, she also discovers her true voice. Her family must learn to adapt to this "new Geva" as she begins to carve out a new place for herself in her family of origin. She must also find a new, healthier relationship to work, which forces her to examine her real monetary needs and how she spends her time. As her old life unravels, Geva must simultaneously create a new one and be open to what the new life brings. Can she survive in this brand, new world unfolding around her? Over the course of the year, Geva meets new friends who are on similar, but different paths. Strong new women enter her life, while several interesting men tempt her to give up the quest and she is forced to choose between familiar patterns and a new, unknown future.
"Will Geva give up the experiment and return to her old life?" "Can Geva create a new life, where she no longer needs men?" "Will her new discoveries affect the lives of millions of women around the world?"
The Sweetness by Sande Boritz Berger Early in The Sweetness, an inquisitive young girl asks her grandmother why she is carrying nothing but a jug of lemons and water when they are forced by the Germans to evacuate their Vilna ghetto. "Something to remind me of the sweetness," the wise woman tells her, setting the theme for what they must remember to survive. Set during World War II, the novel is the parallel tale of two Jewish girls, cousins, living on separate continents, whose strikingly different lives promise to converge. Brooklyn-born Mira Kane is the eighteen-year-old daughter of a well-to-do manufacturer of women's knitwear in New York. Her cousin, eight-year-old Rosha Kaninsky, is the lone survivor of a family in Vilna exterminated by the invading Nazis. Yet, unbeknownst to her American relatives, though orphaned, Rosha did not perish. Desperate to save his child during a round-up, her father thrust the girl into the arms of a Polish Catholic candle maker, who hides her in a root cellar─putting her entire family at risk. The headstrong and talented Mira, who dreams of escaping Brooklyn for a career as a fashion designer, finds her ambitions abruptly thwarted when, traumatized at the fate of his European relatives, her father becomes intent on safeguarding his loved ones from the threats of a brutal world. All the family must challenge his injurious and spiraling survivor guilt. Though the Kanes endure the experience of the Jews who got out, they reveal how even in the safety of our lives, we are profoundly affected by the dire circumstances of others.
The Dragon's Orb by J.T. Twerell In the 1970’s, France developed a nuclear missile program called the TN-90. In 1996, President Mitterand slashed the program and placed the remaining warheads in storage. Unfortunately, five of the missiles were recently “lost” and somehow North Korea “found” them. Dawn Laskey, a thirty-two year old fashion designer from New York, decides to take a vacation break to Paris where she becomes involved with Anthony Marconi, a romantic and fun–loving resident of Paris. On the last night of her vacation, she witnesses a murder and is forced to run for her life. Unknown to her, Anthony is an arms dealer with ties to North Korea and is in the midst of the theft of the TN-90 missiles. The murder she witnesses is part of Anthony’s dealings with the North Korean underground known as the Munmu Warriors, who report directly to Kim Jong-Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea. Anthony is killed during their attempt to flee from the North Korean assassins. While Dawn escapes, the Munmu Warriors believe she is involved with Anthony and has vital information they need to complete the arming of the stolen TN-90 missiles. Fleeing to America, Dawn is now hunted by North Korea with the plan to torture her for the information. In addition, high levels of the French police discover her connection to Anthony and now want to question her. In New York, she comes under the protection of thirty-eight years old Detective Gerald Denton who tries to grasp her innocence while the international incident escalates. The story is filled with twist and turns leaving the reader riveted as Dawn tries to stay alive while very dark forces hunt her down and ultimately capture and torture her.
Shades of Virtue by Jack Whitsel Nearly two years have passed since the Harhn incursion. While the Hugue recovers from the devastation, the Order of the Secret Throne resumes their agenda. Lord Yannic and his armies march the breadth of the Vol Thaldane to rally the divided human fiefdoms into the new realm of Shyrlandia, while engaging the Braug tribes and Harhn Hordes still plaguing the region. In the Hugue, a tournament champion is foreseen to have an impact on future events. The Council of Whispers dispatch Lady Lucia and her two apprentices, Dragana and Tallya to oversee the event. Amidst the spectacle of pageantry and martial prowess, Lucia must uncover the dark powers wishing to thwart the Order's agenda, while supervising her headstrong apprentices. There is more at stake than winning a lady's hand, for whoever wins the tournament will set events in motion that will forever impact the future realm of Shyrlandia, the Vol Thaldane, and the Hugue.
TIME For Kids Big Book of When: 801 Facts Kids want to Know (Time for Kids Big Books) by Editors of Time for Kids Magazine If you were asked to come up with a list of the most important events, inventions, people, or discoveries in the past 100 or 1,000 years, what would you choose? TIME FOR KIDS new Big Book of When, the newest release from the hugely successful Big Book Series, is a riveting new resource for younger curious readers. This engaging and instructive book presents kids with answers to the kinds of intriguing questions that appeal to their sense of curiosity about when the most important events in history happened. Colorful graphs, spectacular photos, and clear, engaging timelines help answer a myriad of questions. TIME FOR KIDS Big Book of When is a must have book to satisfy the most curious kids. It will have readers of all ages thumbing through its pages again and again.
Can't-Wait Willow! by Christy Ziglar Willow is so excited that the Over-the-Top Circus has finally come to town! The only problem is that when left to make her own decisions, she can't say 'no' to her favorite things. On the way to the show, she is distracted by enticing treats and fun that she just can't turn down. Willow arrives late and is sad to find that not only has she has run out of time, but money, and she won't be able to enjoy the pink cotton candy she's been dreaming of. Willow is given valuable advice and a second chance and is ultimately taught the lesson that sometimes in life you have to say 'no' to good things to end up with something great!
Must-Have Marvin! by Christy Ziglar Marvin loves new things -- he especially loves finding the latest, greatest, most awesome new things! Soon Marvin finds himself focusing on a new toy that he wants, to the exclusion of his friends. He lets them down when they need his help and nearly loses their friendship. Through a chat with a wise neighbor and a second chance to help, Marvin learns the important life lesson that people are more important than things.
The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.
