Must Read Releases - 18th September 2018
Here's a selection of the books I've added to my To Be Read pile this week:
The Astronaut's Son by Tom Seigel
The Astronaut's Son by Tom Seigel
(Literary Fiction / Mystery & Thriller)
Jonathan Stein, the CEO of Apollo Aeronautics, has spent a lifetime determined to accomplish two tasks: First, to complete his father’s unfulfilled mission to reach the moon, and second, to forge a relationship with the reclusive Neil Armstrong. Despite a heart condition, he’s on the verge of his first goal, but has gotten nowhere with the second.
Avi Stein was an Israeli pilot specially chosen to command Apollo 18 in 1974, but suffered a fatal heart attack before launch. Now, months from being able to realise his father’s dream, Jonathan discovers a “lunar hoax” conspiracy website offering a disturbing reason for Armstrong’s silence: He knows Jonathan’s father didn’t die of natural causes.
While researching his father’s last days in the National Archives, Jonathan expects to confirm the official cause of death, but uncovers a motive for murder. To get to the truth, Jonathan must confront Dale Lunden, his father’s best friend and the last man on the moon.
Twice Dead by Caitlin Seal
(Teen, YA)
Naya, the daughter of a sea merchant captain, nervously undertakes her first solo trading mission in the necromancer-friendly country bordering her homeland of Talmir. Unfortunately, she never even makes it to the meeting. She's struck down in the streets of Ceramor. Murdered.
But death is not the end for Naya. She awakens to realise she's become an abomination - a wraith, a ghostly creature bound by runes to the bones of her former corpse. She's been resurrected in order to become a spy for her country. Reluctantly, she assumes the face and persona of a servant girl named Blue.
She never intended to become embroiled in political plots, kidnapping, and murder. Or to fall in love with the young man and former necromancer she is destined to betray.
A Childhood Under the Influence
(Biography, Memoir / Self-Help)
Born to “hippie” parents, immersed in the “flower child” lifestyle of the time - Kohn, shares her unique story. With a mixture of encounter groups and primal screams, macrobiotic diets, communes, Jefferson Airplane concerts in Central Park, and watching naked actors on off-Broadway stages - Kohn’s childhood was less than idyllic. By the time she turned ten, her mother joined the Unification Church - the Moonies - physically abandoning her and her brother, while emotionally and spiritually bringing them into the cult. Wholeheartedly embracing the Moonies, Kohn found the stringent, punishing rules by which they lived a safe haven to the chaos she knew.
In the 1970’s, the Unification Church was at the forefront of American culture, and Kohn was at the epicentre of the Unification Church - best friends with Reverend Moon’s children and a frequent guest at his house, at his dining table, and in his pool. On weekdays, she lived in her father’s world of drugs, sex, and late-night bartending in the squalor of the East Village of New York. On weekends, Kohn escaped to a world she longed for - her mother’s - the fanatical, puritanical life of religious fervour.
Resonating on a multitude of levels, Lisa Kohn shares her story with a position of love and hope, the harrowing journey of facing her fears, feeling her buried pain, and confronting the lies she had built up to feel - and to be - safe. Slowly, Kohn created a healthy adult life she always wanted but never knew existed.
From Devastating Loss to Unimaginable Hope
(Religion & Spirituality)
At 20 weeks pregnant, Lindsey Dennis and her husband were told the child she was carrying would not live due to a fatal diagnosis. Later, in another stunning blow, they were told the same news with her second pregnancy. They chose to celebrate both lives alongside a community, both local and online, of hundreds of thousands as she carried each child to term only to bury them 14 months apart from each other.
Through the crushing of their hopes and dreams, they came to know the kind of resurrection hope that can rise from the grave. This experience of infant loss revealed to Dennis how sorrow and suffering are instruments in the hands of God to forge in us a greater joy and hope than one can ever know. This kind of joy can only be discovered when we walk through the deep pain of burying our most precious dreams.
Buried Dreams offers an uplifting perspective, sharing how devastating loss of personal dreams can give way to unimaginable hope and how death can give way to life. Framing her own story of staggering loss and soaring hope with biblical perspective, Dennis highlights that we can never plan for the unexpected turns of this life that sometimes lead to great personal suffering, but we can reach for the One who is there with us in the loss.
Through the crushing of their hopes and dreams, they came to know the kind of resurrection hope that can rise from the grave. This experience of infant loss revealed to Dennis how sorrow and suffering are instruments in the hands of God to forge in us a greater joy and hope than one can ever know. This kind of joy can only be discovered when we walk through the deep pain of burying our most precious dreams.
Buried Dreams offers an uplifting perspective, sharing how devastating loss of personal dreams can give way to unimaginable hope and how death can give way to life. Framing her own story of staggering loss and soaring hope with biblical perspective, Dennis highlights that we can never plan for the unexpected turns of this life that sometimes lead to great personal suffering, but we can reach for the One who is there with us in the loss.
(Teen & YA)
For Mary Sofia, The Penultimate writing competition is more than a chance at a free college education; she wants to show her younger siblings that they can all rise above their violent family history. For Raiden, the pressure to succeed comes from within, although he knows that family traditions play a part in his determination. For Camara, writing fiction is almost compulsive, but her own dark secret may be the best story she can ever tell. For Michael, swimming and writing fit his introverted personality perfectly, but meeting a smart and beautiful girl at The Penultimate makes stepping outside of his comfort zone easy. All four will compete against each other along with 96 other high school juniors for the chance of a lifetime: a full scholarship to a prestigious private college. Some students will do anything to win, but others may pay the price
(Teen & YA)
Being a feminist can mean different things to different people, but one thing it always includes is the belief in equality and human rights. Whether you are talking with one close friend or hanging out with a group of classmates, it matters what you say and how you say it. Not everyone is going to agree with your opinions, especially when you are talking about social justice issues. Can Your Conversations Change the World? provides insight into the origins and history of feminism, how it plays out on the global stage and what it means to be a young feminist and activist today.
A Retelling of Jane Austen's Emma
(Romance / Fiction)
LOVE HER OR HATE HER, JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA IS BACK...WITH A SEXY, MODERN MAKEOVER
It-girl and blogger Emma Worth has it all: beauty, brains, connections and a fabulous Manhattan apartment.
But under the surface, she's got a huge hole in her life and tries to fill it...in all the wrong ways, from playing Cupid to chasing celebrity pipe dreams.
Emma's neighbour Adam Knightley thinks she's got her priorities all wrong, but Emma knows better...or does she?
When Emma’s matchmaking backfires and her actions result in scandal, will she finally learn what's important and change her ways?
Or will her desire for the one thing she doesn't have cause her to risk the one thing she never knew she wanted?
If you’re a fan of heart-warming romantic comedies, you’ll devour this grippingly entertaining, thoroughly original retelling of Jane Austen's timeless classic.
It-girl and blogger Emma Worth has it all: beauty, brains, connections and a fabulous Manhattan apartment.
But under the surface, she's got a huge hole in her life and tries to fill it...in all the wrong ways, from playing Cupid to chasing celebrity pipe dreams.
Emma's neighbour Adam Knightley thinks she's got her priorities all wrong, but Emma knows better...or does she?
When Emma’s matchmaking backfires and her actions result in scandal, will she finally learn what's important and change her ways?
Or will her desire for the one thing she doesn't have cause her to risk the one thing she never knew she wanted?
If you’re a fan of heart-warming romantic comedies, you’ll devour this grippingly entertaining, thoroughly original retelling of Jane Austen's timeless classic.
With Love, Joy, Hate & Despair
(Biography & Memoir / History)
Every day, President Obama received ten thousand letters from constituents. Every night, he read ten of them before going to bed. This is the story of the profound ways in which they shaped his presidency.
Every evening for 8 years, at his request, President Obama received a binder containing ten handpicked letters from ordinary American citizens - the unfiltered voice of a nation - from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first President to save constituent mail, and this is the story of how those letters affected not only the President and his policies, but also the deeply committed people who were tasked with opening the millions of pleas, rants, thank yous, and apologies that landed in the White House mailroom.
Based on the popular New York Times article, "To Obama," Laskas now interviews the letter writers themselves and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years emerges: There is Kelli, who saw her grandfathers finally marry - legally - after 35 years together; Bill, a lifelong Republican whose attitude toward immigration reform was transformed when he met a boy escaping M-16 gang leaders in El Salvador; Heba, a Syrian refugee who wants to forget the day the tanks rolled into her village; Marjorie, who grappled with disturbing feelings of racial bias lurking within her during the George Zimmerman trial; and Vicki, whose family was torn apart by those who voted for Trump and those who did not.
They wrote to Obama out of gratitude and desperation, in their darkest times of need, in search of connection. They wrote with anger and respect. And together, this chorus of voices achieves a kind of beautiful harmony: here is a diary of a nation. To Obama is an intimate look at one man's relationship to the American people, and the intersection of politics and empathy in the White House.
Grasping at Water by Carmel Bendon
(General Fiction / Mystery & Thriller)
When a young, unidentified woman is pulled alive and well from Sydney Harbour in 2013, the connections to another woman – found in similar circumstances forty years earlier – present psychiatrist Kathryn Brookley with a terrible decision as the events of the present and past begin to mirror each other and the gap between truth and illusion shrinks.
When the young woman goes further and declares that she has lived continuously since coming to ‘understanding’ in the 14th century, her vivid accounts of life, love, childbirth, and loss in the Middle Ages seem so authentic that they test Kathryn’s scientific objectivity to the limit. As Kathryn delves she discovers that she is not the only one whose habitual assumptions about life have been torn asunder by an apparent experience of the miraculous in connection with the mystery woman.
Every evening for 8 years, at his request, President Obama received a binder containing ten handpicked letters from ordinary American citizens - the unfiltered voice of a nation - from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first President to save constituent mail, and this is the story of how those letters affected not only the President and his policies, but also the deeply committed people who were tasked with opening the millions of pleas, rants, thank yous, and apologies that landed in the White House mailroom.
Based on the popular New York Times article, "To Obama," Laskas now interviews the letter writers themselves and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years emerges: There is Kelli, who saw her grandfathers finally marry - legally - after 35 years together; Bill, a lifelong Republican whose attitude toward immigration reform was transformed when he met a boy escaping M-16 gang leaders in El Salvador; Heba, a Syrian refugee who wants to forget the day the tanks rolled into her village; Marjorie, who grappled with disturbing feelings of racial bias lurking within her during the George Zimmerman trial; and Vicki, whose family was torn apart by those who voted for Trump and those who did not.
They wrote to Obama out of gratitude and desperation, in their darkest times of need, in search of connection. They wrote with anger and respect. And together, this chorus of voices achieves a kind of beautiful harmony: here is a diary of a nation. To Obama is an intimate look at one man's relationship to the American people, and the intersection of politics and empathy in the White House.
Grasping at Water by Carmel Bendon
(General Fiction / Mystery & Thriller)
When the young woman goes further and declares that she has lived continuously since coming to ‘understanding’ in the 14th century, her vivid accounts of life, love, childbirth, and loss in the Middle Ages seem so authentic that they test Kathryn’s scientific objectivity to the limit. As Kathryn delves she discovers that she is not the only one whose habitual assumptions about life have been torn asunder by an apparent experience of the miraculous in connection with the mystery woman.
(Teen & YA)
Chance César is fabulously gay, but his gender identity - or, as he phrases it, “being stuck in the gray area between girl and boy” - remains confusing. Nonetheless, he struts his stuff on the catwalk in black patent leather pumps and a snug-in-all-the-right (wrong)-places orange tuxedo as the winner of this year’s Miss (ter) Harvest Moon Festival. He rules supreme at the local Beans and Greens Farm’s annual fall celebration, serenaded by the enthusiastic catcalls of his BFF, Emily Benson.
Although he refuses to visually fade into the background of his rural New Hampshire town, Chance is socially invisible - except when being tormented by familiar bullies. But sparks fly when Chance, Pumpkin Pageant Queen, meets Jasper (Jazz) Donahue, winner of the Pumpkin Carving King contest. Chance wants to be noticed and admired and romantically embraced by Jazz, in all of his neon-orange-haired glory.
And so at a sleepover, Chance and Emily conduct intense, late-night research, and find an online article: “Ten Scientifically Proven Ways to Make a Man Fall in Love With You.” Along with a bonus love spell thrown in for good measure, it becomes the basis of their strategy to capture Jazz’s heart.
But will this “no-fail” plan work? Can Chance and Jazz fall under the fickle spell of love?
Although he refuses to visually fade into the background of his rural New Hampshire town, Chance is socially invisible - except when being tormented by familiar bullies. But sparks fly when Chance, Pumpkin Pageant Queen, meets Jasper (Jazz) Donahue, winner of the Pumpkin Carving King contest. Chance wants to be noticed and admired and romantically embraced by Jazz, in all of his neon-orange-haired glory.
And so at a sleepover, Chance and Emily conduct intense, late-night research, and find an online article: “Ten Scientifically Proven Ways to Make a Man Fall in Love With You.” Along with a bonus love spell thrown in for good measure, it becomes the basis of their strategy to capture Jazz’s heart.
But will this “no-fail” plan work? Can Chance and Jazz fall under the fickle spell of love?
Rivers - Book 1
(Literary Fiction / General Fiction)
In 1908 two Irish American brothers leave their jobs on the docks of Hoboken, NJ to make their fortune tapping rubber trees in the South American rainforest. They expect to encounter floods, snakes, malaria, extreme hunger and unfriendly competitors, but nothing prepares them for the psychological hurdles that will befall them. Before We Died, the first in a three-book "rivers" series, is a literary adventure novel set against the background of the South American rubber boom, a fascinating but little known historical moment.
A Regency Cozy - Volume 1
(Historical Fiction / Mystery & Thriller)
Twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare is far too shy to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow guest in the Lake District. A spinster who lives on the sufferance of her relatives, she would certainly not presume to search the rooms of her host's son and his friend looking for evidence. Reared in the twin virtues of deference and docility, she would absolutely never think to question the imperious Duke of Kesgrave about anything, let alone how he chose to represent the incident to the local constable.
And yet when she stumbles upon the bludgeoned corpse of poor Mr. Otley in the deserted library of the Skeffingtons' country house, that's exactly what she does.
And yet when she stumbles upon the bludgeoned corpse of poor Mr. Otley in the deserted library of the Skeffingtons' country house, that's exactly what she does.
A Novel for Grown Ups
(Multicultural Interest / Fiction)
“Black girls must die exhausted” is something that 33-year-old Tabitha Walker has heard her grandmother say before. Of course, her grandmother (who happens to be white) was referring to the 1950’s and what she observed in the nascent times of civil rights. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, Marc - a “paper-perfect” boyfriend, and a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, Tabitha never imagined how this phrase could apply to her as a black girl in contemporary times – until everything changed.
An unexpected doctor’s diagnosis awakens Tabitha to an unperceived culprit, threatening the one thing that has always mattered most - having a family of her own. With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the former “Sexy Lexi," Tabitha must explore the reaches of modern medicine and test the limits of her relationships to beat the ticking clock on her dreams of becoming a wife and mother.
She must leverage the power of laughter, love, and courageous self-care to bring a healing stronger than she ever imagined - before the phrase “black girls must die exhausted” takes on a new and unwanted meaning in her own life.
An unexpected doctor’s diagnosis awakens Tabitha to an unperceived culprit, threatening the one thing that has always mattered most - having a family of her own. With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the former “Sexy Lexi," Tabitha must explore the reaches of modern medicine and test the limits of her relationships to beat the ticking clock on her dreams of becoming a wife and mother.
She must leverage the power of laughter, love, and courageous self-care to bring a healing stronger than she ever imagined - before the phrase “black girls must die exhausted” takes on a new and unwanted meaning in her own life.
Book 1 - The Fall (A True Crime Series)
(True Crime / Mystery & Thriller)
In March 2009, pretty, vivacious Rhonda Casto plunged to her death from a 300-foot cliff in the Oregon woods. The only witness, Stephen Nichols, the father of her nine-month-old baby, Annie, told police investigators she slipped and fell.
Yet, Nichols’ story didn’t quite mesh with the facts. And some of his other actions raised suspicions as well, including just days after her death trying to collect on a million-dollar life insurance policy he’d taken out on his unemployed, 23-year-old girlfriend four months earlier. What had begun with a 911 call to report an accident, quickly turned into a homicide investigation.
However, in part due to lack-luster police work, the case grew cold. Then in 2011, Dardie Robinson, a tenacious investigator with a Portland law firm began digging into the circumstances surrounding Rhonda's death. The law firm represented Rhonda’s mother, who believed that Nichols, 34 at the time, had murdered her daughter. She wanted to prevent him from gaining custody of Annie and the life insurance money.
What Robinson discovered, including an attempt by Nichols to throw his first wife off a high-rise balcony in China, as well as sexual abuse allegations with Rhonda's underaged sister, convinced her that Rhonda’s death was no accident. So began her six-year battle to ‘save Annie’ from her own father and find justice for Rhonda.
In the meantime, a parallel investigation into the case by co-authors Steve Jackson, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, and private investigator Tom McCallum, posed the same questions. What really happened to Rhonda Casto on that cold, rainy afternoon on the Eagle Creek trail? And what would become of her child?
Yet, Nichols’ story didn’t quite mesh with the facts. And some of his other actions raised suspicions as well, including just days after her death trying to collect on a million-dollar life insurance policy he’d taken out on his unemployed, 23-year-old girlfriend four months earlier. What had begun with a 911 call to report an accident, quickly turned into a homicide investigation.
However, in part due to lack-luster police work, the case grew cold. Then in 2011, Dardie Robinson, a tenacious investigator with a Portland law firm began digging into the circumstances surrounding Rhonda's death. The law firm represented Rhonda’s mother, who believed that Nichols, 34 at the time, had murdered her daughter. She wanted to prevent him from gaining custody of Annie and the life insurance money.
What Robinson discovered, including an attempt by Nichols to throw his first wife off a high-rise balcony in China, as well as sexual abuse allegations with Rhonda's underaged sister, convinced her that Rhonda’s death was no accident. So began her six-year battle to ‘save Annie’ from her own father and find justice for Rhonda.
In the meantime, a parallel investigation into the case by co-authors Steve Jackson, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, and private investigator Tom McCallum, posed the same questions. What really happened to Rhonda Casto on that cold, rainy afternoon on the Eagle Creek trail? And what would become of her child?
(Children's Fiction)
Sometimes things aren't always what they seem... sometimes they are better. When a young explorer comes upon a dragon he quickly learns he shouldn't jump to conclusions. This is no ordinary dragon. This is a Peace Dragon and she is spreading a message of peace the whole world should hear. Join them in this journey that teaches about love and trust and the importance of embracing others for who they are, not how they appear.
I can't wait to read and review these books so watch this space!
If you liked this post have a look at my complete list of Reading Lists or my complete list of What I Learned full review posts.
Happy Reading!
If you liked this post have a look at my complete list of Reading Lists or my complete list of What I Learned full review posts.
Happy Reading!
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