Top 5 Wednesday is a goodreads group that responds to weekly prompts about books. This week’s prompt is “Must Have on Vacation”. When I’m on vacation I love light, romances.
This is a perfect vacation romance. Henley and Graeme are work rivals competing for a promotion doing publicity for a cruise line. To win the job, they are sent on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands. Once they get to know each other, they discover there’s more between them than angry emails.
This is a fun second-chance romance set on a tropical island. Ruby and Will were best friends until he broke her heart. Now they’re reunited for their friends’ wedding on a tropical island.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly prompt hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is summer reading list. I split my list into two parts. The first half is adult books I plan on reading over the summer. The second half is middle grade books. One of my goals for the summer is to read more middle grade books. This way I can add to my classroom library, have recommendations ready for my students, and gain insights for my writing.
My adult summer reads:
With Love from London by Sara Jio- I just started this one last night. I’ve only read the first chapter, but I have high expectations. Jio is one of my favorite authors, and I can’t resist a plot that involves someone inheriting a bookshop.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel- fleeing Nazis isn’t beach reading material, but I love Harmel’s writing
Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose- This historical mystery series has been recommended to me several times.
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam- I know the least about this book and author, but it looks like a good summer thriller
Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne- When I think of summer reads, this is the type of book that comes to mind, a humorous contemporary romance.
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine- A story of friendship around the integration of Little Rock schools.
Supergifted by Gordon Korman- If you haven’t read Ungifted, it’s the story of an “average” kid who is accidentally placed in a school for the gifted and talented. The sequel is the reverse, when one of the gifted kids attending a “normal” school. Korman is one of the best at reaching reluctant readers.
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan- This was published in 2016, I don’t know how I haven’t read it yet. You can’t miss with Rick Riordan
Top 5 Wednesday is a goodreads group that responds to weekly prompts about books. This weeks topic is heart-racing reads. I don’t read a lot of face-paced books, but I do enjoy them. These were my favorites.
Goodreads synopsis:
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.
Goodreads synopsis:
Renée Ballard is working the night beat again, and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard kicks him out, but then checks into the case herself and it brings a deep tug of empathy and anger.
Bosch is investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally murdered and her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now, Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy and finally bring her killer to justice.
Goodreads synopsis:
A whirlwind romance followed by a picture-perfect marriage, Hannah Reilly seizes her chance at happiness. However, one day her husband fails to come home. The more questions she asks, the fewer answers she finds. But are the secrets that Mark has been keeping designed to protect him or protect her? And can you ever really know what happened before you met?
The spectacular finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes (winner of the Edgar Award) and Finders Keepers—In End of Watch, the diabolical “Mercedes Killer” drives his enemies to suicide, and if Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney don’t figure out a way to stop him, they’ll be victims themselves.
In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.
Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.
In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense. No one does it better than King.
Goodreads Synopsis:
The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was–and its true nature could change the modern world.
Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts–and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.
It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’ s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she’s not alone. Competing for the historic prize– and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses–is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.
Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world–and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post sponsored by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is books that you wish had an epilogue. After Pride & Prejudice , I struggled a bit with thinking of books. Many of the books I read are part of series, so there is a continuation of the story and I don’t necessarily remember if there was an epilogue. So, I confess I perused some other lists to jog my memory. Some of these books may have epilogues, but I still want to know more about what happens to the characters in the future.
Pride and Prejudice
An entire genre of Austen fan fiction has been created because we just can’t get enough of her characters.
I want to know the long-lasting political and social change as a result of Alex and Henry’s relationship. What does their happily ever after look like?
Top 5 Wednesday is a goodreads group that responds to weekly prompts about books. I was busy last week and missed the post. This week’s topic is best/favorite endings.
What makes a good ending? An ending that makes a statement on society or leaves ambiguity can be right for some stories. In general, I prefer the happy ending with everything tied up. That is true of all of my picks.
#1
A lot of times I just list five books and don’t rank them specifically. But, I had to this week, because Clockwork Princess is firmly in the number one spot. This was only book that came to mind when I saw the prompt. This was the most satisfying ending to a trilogy I’ve read.
#2
I’m glad the series is continuing, but when I finished Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, I thought it would be the perfect ending to the series.
#3
Silent on the Moor isn’t the last book in the Lady Julia Grey series, but it does have the best ending.
#4
My Not So Perfect Life is a fun story where the main character changes her life and all the “bad” people get what they deserve.
#5
While The Firebird is part of The Slains series, any of them could be read as a standalone. Kearsley’s books always have good endings, but this is my favorite.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post sponsored by That Artsy Reader Girl . This week’s topic is books with a unit of time in the title. I searched my goodreads books using different units of time, and looked at ratings to determine my ten favorites. It wasn’t until I was posting that I realized the eerie coincidence that with this very general topic, I ended up with two books about school shootings this week.
I was excited that I could include a Little House book on one of my lists. This one was my favorite of the series because we get to see Almanzo and Laura’s courtship.
Kate Morton is one of my favorite writers for dual timeline books featuring family secrets (that sounds specific, but I love that trope, so I read a lot of them).
Like all of Picoult’s books, Nineteen Minutes gives a variety of viewpoints. I read this book a long time ago, but still think about parts of it whenever there’s a school shooting.
I joined Lilac City Rochester Writers in fall of 2020. The first event (over zoom since it was the height of the pandemic) was a critique. One of the pieces we reviewed was a chapter from Rick Ieckel’s book about the history of the Rochester airport. Today I got to attend the book launch. It was exciting to be a part of the event. I was able to get an early copy a couple of weeks ago and highly recommend the book to any in the Rochester, NY area or those interested in aviation history.
Rick Iekel worked at the Rochester, NY airport for 28 years, eventually serving as the director. So, he is the perfect person to tell its story. While it is very well researched and gives lots of information about the history of the airport and aviation in general, what sets it apart from other local history books is Iekel’s personal connection to the content. The story is told in a conversational voice that mixes factual information with behind-the-scenes stories. While the book is of most interest to people with a connection to Rochester, NY, it would appeal to anyone interesting in aviation history.
“All this time, I’ve been afraid of my ability, when instead I should have been regarding it as a treasured weapon.”
Namina Forna, The Gilded Ones
Goodreads synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.
But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.
Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.
Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.
My thoughts:
I haven’t read a book like this in a while. There’s enough craziness going on in the world, so I didn’t feel like reading anything with dystopian themes. This one appealed to me because of its “girl power” message. I enjoyed Deka’s journey as she discovered her own power. She is a dynamic character who changes greatly throughout the book.
This book is definitely on the older end of YA as it deals with issues of physical and sexual abuse. However, I found the overall message to be powerful for young girls. It shows strength and the power to overcome obstacles without downplaying the long-term effects of trauma. Above all, it showed the value of female friendship and standing together.
What I loved about this book:
Complex characters that are developed
Strong friendships
BIPOC and LGBQT+ characters as leads without race or sexuality being the main focus
It’s time to transition into summer reading. Here are some of my most anticipated releases for June of 2022. What new releases have piqued your interest?
Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home–she’s built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava’s world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn’t been used in years, and her toddler’s tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.
Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business–someone who’d never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.
Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.
I enjoyed Chen’s Soy Sauce for Beginners . This one looks like it’s is more fun and perfect for a summer read.
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.
Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.
This is a new-to-me author, but I love the idea of a murder mystery set in a library.
Smarting from her recently cancelled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety. Along with boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up at the bottom of a cedar chest. Laurie’s curiosity is piqued, especially after she finds a love letter to the never-married Dot that ends with the line, “And anyway, if you’re ever desperate, there are always ducks, darling.”
Laurie is told that the duck has no financial value. But after it disappears under suspicious circumstances, she feels compelled to figure out why anyone would steal a wooden duck–and why Dot kept it hidden away in the first place. Suddenly Laurie finds herself swept up in a righteous caper that has her negotiating with antiques dealers and con artists, going on after-hours dates at the local library, and reconnecting with her oldest friend and first love. Desperate to uncover her great-aunt’s secrets, Laurie must reckon with her past, her future, and ultimately embrace her own vision of flying solo.
“There are always ducks, darling.” I’m dying to know what this means after reading the description.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Riverbend Reunion Release Date: June 14
Riverbend, Texas, doesn’t look like the crossroads of anywhere. But for four high school besties reuniting after twenty years, it’s a place to unpack a lot of baggage.
Except for one hitch: the white-clapboard dream is causing a ruckus. With a renewed bond, hard work, and the promise of romance, Jessica and her friends aren’t backing down. For Riverbend, this is going to be a homecoming—and a scandal—to remember.
Risa’s headed for divorce, Mary Nell’s been kicked to the curb by her leech of a boyfriend, and Haley was just blindsided by a shocking family secret. But restless army veteran Jessica Callaway, looking to plant roots, has an idea: corral her fellow former cheerleaders and renovate an abandoned church smack-dab in the middle of three dry counties into a bar. Throw in a grill and Wade Granger—a onetime nerd turned surprisingly crush-worthy investor—and their lives are on tap for a turnaround. Amen to that.
Carolyn Brown writes fun, quick reads which are great for summer.
On the little Scottish island of Mure–halfway between Scotland and Norway–Flora MacKenzie and her fiancé Joel are planning the smallest of “sweetheart weddings,” a high summer celebration surrounded only by those very dearest to them.
Not everyone on the island is happy about being excluded, though. The temperature rises even further when beautiful Olivia MacDonald–who left Mure ten years ago for bigger and brighter things–returns with a wedding planner in tow. Her fiancé has oodles of family money, and Olivia is determined to throw the biggest, most extravagant, most Instagrammable wedding possible. And she wants to do it at Flora’s hotel, the same weekend as Flora’s carefully planned micro-wedding.
As the summer solstice approaches, can Flora handle everyone else’s Happy Every Afters–and still get her own?
Any Jenny Colgan release is automatically on my most-anticipated list.
Management consultant Lucie Yi is done waiting for Mr. Right. After a harrowing breakup foiled her plans for children—and drove her to a meltdown in a Tribeca baby store—she’s ready to take matters into her own hands. She signs up for an elective co-parenting website to find a suitable partner with whom to procreate—as platonic as family planning can be.
Collin Read checks all of Lucie’s boxes; he shares a similar cultural background, he’s honest, and most important, he’s ready to become a father. When they match, it doesn’t take long for Lucie to take a leap of faith for her future. So what if her conservative family might not approve? When Lucie becomes pregnant, the pair return to Singapore and, sure enough, her parents refuse to look on the bright side. Even more complicated, Lucie’s ex-fiancé reappears, sparking unresolved feelings and compounding work pressures and the baffling ways her body is changing. Suddenly her straightforward arrangement is falling apart before her very eyes, and Lucie will have to decide how to juggle the demands of the people she loves while pursuing the life she really wants.
I knew nothing about this book or author, but it caught my eye when scrolling the new releases for June.
Western Australia, 1886. After months at sea, a slow boat makes its passage from London to the shores of Bannin Bay. From the deck, young Eliza Brightwell and her family eye their strange, new home. Here is an unforgiving land where fortune sits patiently at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be claimed by those brave enough to venture into its depths. An ocean where pearl shells bloom to the size of soup plates, where men are coaxed into unthinkable places and unspeakable acts by the promise of unimaginable riches.
Ten years later, the pearl-diving boat captained by Eliza’s eccentric father returns after months at sea—without Eliza’s father on it. Whispers from townsfolk point to mutiny or murder. Headstrong Eliza knows it’s up to her to discover who, or what, is really responsible.
As she searches for the truth, Eliza discovers that beneath the glamorous veneer of the pearling industry, lies a dark underbelly of sweltering, stinking decay. The sun-scorched streets of Bannin Bay, a place she once thought she knew so well, are teeming with corruption, prejudice, and blackmail. Just how far is Eliza willing to push herself in order to solve the mystery of her missing father? And what family secrets will come to haunt her along the way?
A transporting feminist adventure story based on Lizzie Pook’s deep research into the pearling industry and the era of British colonial rule in Australia, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is ultimately about the lengths one woman will travel to save her family.
I can’t find the specific release date on this one. Goodreads lists the original version as being released in March, with a different edition released in June. A look at the pearl industry sounds fascinating.
