Wowza! There's a lot going on here at Feathered Quill. Besides gearing up for our annual award program, we have a LOT of books coming here for review. All size publishers are sending their new titles to us and our reviewers are going to be VERY busy this summer! Here's a quick look at what has just arrived for review. Check them out and then stop by our site in a few weeks to read the reviews.
TIME For Kids Book of Why - Really Cool People & Places by Editors of TIME For Kids Magazine TIME for Kids The BIG Book of Why: People and Places answers the why, what, when, where, who and how questions about people and places in history that kids commonly ask, but adults can rarely answer. Why did the Maya build pyramids? Did Vikings really have horns on their helmets? Why did Christopher Columbus sail to America? Why did the Titanic sink? Why is the London Bridge in Arizona? Written in an upbeat manner, each answer is accompanied by either a photo or an illustration to show the reasons why. Of course, TIME For Kids goes beyond answering the question, and dips into the science or history to further explain the answer in an easy-to-follow, straightforward manner.
TIME For Kids Book of Why - Awesome Animal Kingdom by Editors of TIME For Kids Magazine TIME for Kids The BIG Book of Why: Awesome Animal Kingdom answers the why, what, when, where, who and how questions about humans and animals that kids commonly ask, but adults can rarely answer. Why do we have eyebrows? What's the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? How does aspirin know where to go in the body to take care of pain? What's the fastest a human is capable of running? Why do animals' eyes glow in the dark? Written in an upbeat manner, each answer is accompanied by either a photo or an illustration to show the reasons why. Of course, TIME For Kids goes beyond answering the question, and dips into the science or history to further explain the answer in an easy-to-follow, straightforward manner.
Sports Illustrated Kids Big Book of Who: ALL-STARS: The 101 Stars Every Fan Needs to Know by The Editors of Sports Illustrated Kids From the editors of Sports Illustrated Kids comes The Big Book of Who, a 128-page collection of the brightest stars in sports, past and present. Profiles, facts and stats will bring the best players in pro sports history to life with all of the touches that Sports Illustrated Kids is famous for - terrific, age-appropriate writing and exciting sports photography. Ballfield greats such as, Lebron James, Babe Ruth, Landon Donovan, Michael Jordan, and Sidney Crosby will be profiled. Written in a fun question and answer format, kids will be able to stump their friends.
TIME For Kids X-WHY-Z Animals: Little Kids Ask. We Answer. by Editors of TIME For Kids Magazine Why do zebras have stripes? Why don't cats like water? Why do sharks have so many teeth? When it comes to the facts, every child wants to know: Why? Now, with X-Why-Z Animals from Time For Kids, young readers-and their parents-can discover the answers. This book satisfies the never-ending curiosity of children, ages 4 to 6. The easy to follow, question and answer format accompanied by colorful photos and illustrations delivers answers to more than 200 questions that kids have about animals!
TIME For Kids Explorers: Robots Robots is the first book in an exciting, new series from TIME For Kids. Aimed squarely at readers who want to know more, this book answers the questions that children ages 8-12 want to learn the answers to. Do you know what makes something a robot? Can you name the six types of robots? Can robots really fly? What kinds of robots are being designed by spy agencies, the military, and our first responders? And best of all, what's next? Rich with photos, facts, and fun, Robots will cover the world of robots as it exists today - and will exist tomorrow.
Final Curtain: An Edna Ferber Mystery by Ed Ifkovic Who murdered the handsome young actor? And why? In 1940, against the chilling backdrop of Hitler’s rise and the specter of another war, Edna Ferber decides to follow an old dream: to act on the stage. Selecting The Royal Family, the comedy she wrote with George S. Kaufman, for her starring role, she travels to Maplewood, New Jersey. But her escape from the troubling daily headlines is short lived. Before opening night, a mysterious understudy is shot to death, opening up a world of lies, greed, and hypocrisy. Ferber, along with Kaufman, who is directing the production, begin a different kind of collaboration: the discovery of the murderer. As rehearsals evolve, they deal with a cast of characters who are all hiding something from their days spent in Hollywood: a stage manager, a young ingénue, an American Nazi and his boisterous girlfriend, a stagehand named Dakota who is the son of a famous evangelist, his charismatic preacher-mother, her money-bags husband, and a driven acolyte of the church. Each character, Edna discovers, has some connection with the dead man. Why have they all converged on quiet Maplewood? As Edna investigates, she realizes that the answer to the murder lies back in Hollywood. As Kaufman wisecracks his way through the story, Edna methodically examines the facts, determined to find the answer. Opening night looms and so does World War II. Edna, resolute, believes that justice needs to prevail in a world that is falling apart.
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.
Harbor Island: Rock Point (Sharpe & Donovan Novels) by Carla Neggers Emma Sharpe, granddaughter of world-renowned art detective Wendell Sharpe, is a handpicked member of a small Boston-based FBI team. For the past decade Emma and her grandfather have been trailing an elusive serial art thief. The first heist was in Ireland, where an ancient Celtic cross was stolen. Now the Sharpes receive a replica of the cross after every new theft—reminding them of their continued failure to capture their prey. When Emma receives a message that leads her to the body of a woman on a small island in Boston Harbor, she finds the victim holding a small, cross-inscribed stone—one she recognizes all too well. Emma's fiancé, FBI deep-cover agent Colin Donovan, is troubled that she's gone off to the island alone, especially given the deadly turn the thief has taken. But as they dig deeper they are certain there is more to this murder than meets the eye. As the danger escalates, Emma and Colin must also face do-or-die questions about their relationship. While there's no doubt they are in love, can they give their hearts and souls to their work and have anything left for each other? There's one thing Emma and Colin definitely agree on: before they can focus on their future, they must outwit one of the smartest, most ruthless killers they've ever encountered.
The Wishing Tide by Barbara Davis Five years ago, Lane Kramer moved to Starry Point, North Carolina, certain the quaint island village was the place to start anew. Now the owner of a charming seaside inn, she’s set aside her dreams of being a novelist and of finding love again. When English professor Michael Forrester appears on Lane’s doorstep in the middle of a storm, he claims he’s only seeking a quiet place to write his book. Yet he seems eerily familiar with the island, leaving Lane wondering if he is quite what he appears. Meanwhile, Mary Quinn has become a common sight, appearing each morning on the dunes behind the inn, to stare wistfully out to sea. Lane is surprised to find a friendship developing with the older woman, who possesses a unique brand of wisdom, despite her tenuous grip on reality. As Lane slowly unravels Mary’s story and a fragile relationship between Lane and Michael blooms, Lane realizes the three share a common bond. But when a decades-old secret suddenly casts its shadow over them, Lane must choose between protecting her heart and fighting for the life—and the love—she wants.
Dead Float: A Cal Claxton Mystery (Cal Claxton Mysteries) by Warren C Easley If you are a fly fisherman, it doesn’t get any better than the salmon fly hatch on the Deschutes River, Oregon’s legendary trout fishing venue. Cal Claxton–a small town lawyer who works to fish–has to pinch himself when his best friend and fishing guide, Philip Lone Deer, asks him to help guide an upcoming trip with a group of executives from a high-tech firm in Portland. But the trip through the remote Deschutes River Canyon turns ugly when a member of the fishing party is murdered. Everyone in the party is a suspect, including Cal himself. Does the fact that the company’s value is about to explode play into the crime? And what about the freight line running along the river? All Cal knows is that he better come up with answers because he’s suspect number one...
The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman Forty-four years after the brilliant young painter, Thomas Bayber, first meets Alice and Natalie Kessler, Bayber unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Alice, and Natalie. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting. But their task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Alice and Natalie, who seem to have disappeared.
Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert It is the early 1960s, and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensions—segregation, sexual experimentation, free love, the Cold War—but it is also home to one of the country’s most vibrant jazz scenes. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years. Finally, her big break arrives—the cover of Look magazine. But success has come at enormous personal cost. Beautiful and magnetic, Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her clever ten-year-old daughter. For Sophia, Naomi is the center of her universe. As the only child of a single, unconventional mother, growing up in an adult world, Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding. Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment, and compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes. Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi—a situation that adds to Sophia’s anxiety.
The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier A rash of grisly serial murders plagued Seattle until the infamous “Beacon Hill Butcher” was finally hunted down and killed by police chief Edward Shank in 1985. Now, some thirty years later, Shank, retired and widowed, is giving up his large rambling Victorian house to his grandson Matt, whom he helped raise. Settling back into his childhood home and doing some renovations in the backyard to make the house feel like his own, Matt, a young up-and-coming chef and restaurateur, stumbles upon a locked crate he’s never seen before. Curious, he picks the padlock and makes a discovery so gruesome it will forever haunt him… Faced with this deep dark family secret, Matt must decide whether to keep what he knows buried in the past, go to the police, or take matters into his own hands. Meanwhile Matt’s girlfriend, Sam, has always suspected that her mother was murdered by the Beacon Hill Butcher—two years after the supposed Butcher was gunned down. As she pursues leads that will prove her right, Sam heads right into the path of Matt’s terrible secret.
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman. During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty. Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true. Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a shrouded past. And it will take her becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. When a passage home finally opens, Nora must weigh her “real life” against the dangerous power of love and magic.
Vengeance is Mine: A Red River Mystery by Reavis Wortham By October, 1967, The Summer of Love is history, rock and roll is dark and revolutionary, and people in the small East Texas community of Center Springs want only a quiet life. Unluckily, two years earlier, Anthony Agrioli met newlyweds Cody and Norma Faye Parker in a Vegas casino and heard their enthusiastic descriptions of Center Springs as the perfect place to settle down and raise a family. Now handsome hit man Agrioli and a blonde bombshell full of surprises need a place to hide out and, if possible, duck retribution from his Las Vegas crime boss. Thirteen-year-old Top Parker has what his grandmother, Miss Becky, calls a Poisoned Gift. His dreams, though random and disconnected, always seem to come true. This time Top dreams he’s a wagon wheel hub with spokes converging from all directions. To him, the spokes symbolize that something is coming. And it is—Center Springs will soon become a combat zone when a squad of gangsters arrives. Oddly, they’re after something else. Not Agrioli—yet. Add a sheriff crooked as a dog’s hind leg, an unsolved murder in the river bottoms, counterfeit money, and a bank robbery to this country-noir Shakespearian comedy, cast it with Wortham’s real and sometimes wacky characters including a constable and a judge, and the outcomes become unpredictable.
