Monday, August 29, 2016

Library Book Sale!

I swear, library book sales are one of the best things in life.  Right up there with coffee, Dropkick Murphys, and chocolate.  Therefore, when a book sale came on August 26, I had no choice but to crack open a piggy bank!  And I am so glad I did!


Look at them!  See the beauty!  I'm so excited!

Now, what do we have here?

  •  Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley
    • This novel tells the tale of Gwynneve who record her memories of her druid teachers and independent mother.  As the monastery is torn apart by accusations, her words become the force that can save her.
    • I haven't read anything by Horsley before but I am pumped to begin this journey!  I love Ireland and am always excited to read novels that are set there.  Additionally, I am excited to see this side of the religious change when we so often see the other.
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein
    • This is the story of Amir, a boy who once left Afghanistan and is now returning to discover the fate of a childhood friend and his family.
    • Based on all of the reviews that I have read so far, this is going to be an amazing read.  However, I get the feeling that I am going to need a lot of tissues.  It just looks like the kind of book that is going to take all of my emotions into one big ball, stuff them into a sack and pummel them into the ground until I no longer exist.  Can't wait to find out!  (I love emotional reads.)
  • What the Dickens by Gregory Maguire
    • Here there be skibbereen.  No, seriously!  This is the story of Dinah, Gage, and some terrifying tooth fairies.
    • Ahh Gregory Maguire, you brought us Wicked and Son of a Witch. Now, we have What the Dickens.   Honestly, if his writing style in this book is anything like it was in the aforementioned novels, this book is going to be stuck in my hands with imaginary superglue.
  • Maplecroft by Cherie Priest
    • After their parents' deaths, Lizzie Borden and her sister have used their inheritance to move to the Maplecroft mansion by the sea.  In this town, evil flows from the sea.  Lizzie and her ax, however, are ready for it.
    • OK, how does anyone NOT get supremely jazzed up about a twist on a story that everyone thinks they know?  How can we resist wanting to know what happens differently?  What happens next?  
  • Mira, Mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison
    • After being changed into a mirror by a beloved friend, Mira and a peasant girl are on their way to find a new kind of magic that gives life.  Their pasts, however, are not to be forgotten.
    • I'll be honest about this one.  I didn't pick it up for me.  I picked it up for my classroom and then decided that I have a quest to finish this book.  I mean, seriously, how can you not feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins as you read that synopsis (as paraphrased as it is)?  Besides, someone has to make sure that it's quality reading for the kids!  Books aren't going to read themselves!
  • The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
    • Sadly, The Grand Tour is the second book in its series.  This means that it will be stuck on my waiting shelf until I get the first book.  Until then, look to the bullet below for a synopsis of this book from GoodReads!
    • Kate and Cecy and their new husbands, Thomas and James, are off on a leisurely tour of the Continent. But once they arrive in France, strange things start to happen. Cecy receives a mysterious package, Thomas's valet is assaulted, and Kate loses a glove. Soon it becomes clear that the newlyweds have stumbled upon a magical plot to take over Europe, and they must embark on a daring chase to thwart the evil conspiracy. There's likely more trouble ahead--for when you mix Kate and Cecy and magic, who knows what's going to happen next!
  • The Mark  by Jen Nadol
    • Cassandra Renfield has the ability to see a mark on a person on the day that they are doomed to die.  Because of her vague understanding of her gift, there is plenty for her to find out.  Then, there is the most important question of all: If you know today is someone's last, should you tell them?
    • My Kleenex warning is exploding on this one.  I see a lot of sad ugly crying in my future.  I mean, how can I not cry when I can tell from the synopsis that I am going to get attached to a character only to fear their death the entire time!  I'm so excited, but sooooo very beyond not ready for he wave of tears that I am going to land myself in.   
  • What I Think I Did by Larry Woiwode
    • This memoir is the first planned in an autobiographical trilogy.  Woiwode tells the story of living in North Dakota and the beginning of his writing career and friendship with the young Robert DeNiro. Woiwode is currently the Poet Laureate of North Dakota.
    • I bought this book mainly because of the author.  He was one of my favorite college professors!  I can't wait to find out more about who he was before the University of Jamestown. 
  • Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand by Ursula K. LeGuin
    • GoodReads Review: In one of her most deeply felt works of fiction, Le Guin explores the dreams and sorrows of the inhabitants of Klatsand, Oregon, a beach town where ordinary people bring their dreams and sorrows for a weekend or the rest of their lives, and sometimes learn to read what the sea writes on the sand. Searoad is the story of a particular place that could be any place, and of a people so distinctly drawn they could be any of us.
    • I truly treasure any books that I can put myself into.  I want to be a character, feeling the same sensory provocations as all of the other characters in the novel do.  I want to be there.  I want to hear the same sounds and taste the same sorrows.  I know that Le Guin is an author who can make this happen.  Therefore, I'm excited for the uncharted sea of this book.
  • Pinkerton's Sister by Peter Rushforth
    • GoodReads Review: Trapped in a suffocating life of convention and party chatter, Alice Pinkerton has turned to the liberating worlds she finds in literature. Like a character from one of her favorite novels, Alice holds a biting, eccentric, but expansive view of life; she wears only white, has a stutter, and knows her peers call her a madwoman in the attic. Various period cures-hydrotherapy, hypnotherapy, electrotherapy, a sanitarium-fail to turn this thirty-two-year-old, highly imaginative, caustically funny woman into one of the silly damsels of 1903's New York Society. Hauntingly, beneath all this lies a dark family secret.
    • Now, here is a character that I can stand in the shoes of.  I am so excited for so many literary references in one place.  I must discover that family secret!

Well, what have you hauled in recently?  Have you read any of these? What book should I start with?  What reviews would you like to see? Leave a comment in the box below!



2 comments:

  1. I love library sales as well! Coincidentally, I picked up The Kite Runner at the last library sale I went to. I haven't read it yet. I recently won a Barnes and Noble book card (and a NOOK) at my library's summer reading program and I bought myself The Last Mile and Being Mortal.
    I hope you enjoy all your new books. Happy reading!

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  2. Who knows, maybe we can be Kite Runner buddies and read together?

    ReplyDelete