This week's featured books!
Make sure you stop by Making Connections and grab your copy to review!
Clicking on the book title will bring you to the review sign up page on Goodreads!
Make sure you stop by Making Connections and grab your copy to review!
Clicking on the book title will bring you to the review sign up page on Goodreads!
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
The hunt for a blackmailer sends private investigator Benson Keirstad on a trip up the California coast. Neither attack dogs nor violent brawls in seedy dives can stop him in the pursuit of his mission. When he finally arrives in Berkeley, an unexpected and deadly showdown awaits him. Could this be Keirstad's last case? A short story.
__________
Genre: Non-Fiction
What does a writer do when he's got a family that includes a blacklisted member of the Hollywood Ten, the brains behind Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man, a trio of gay puppeteers, the world's leading birdwatcher, 1960s hippies, a Dutch stowaway who served in an all-black regiment during the Civil War, and a convicted murderer? He tells their stories and secrets, illuminating 150 years of American history along the way.
Dan Bessie begins his journey through the Bessie and Burnett family history with his great-grandfather in the cargo hold of a ship bound for New York on the storm-tossed Atlantic. What follows are stories of his grandfather's various entrepreneurial schemes, a grandmother who was voted "New York's Prettiest Shop Girl" (and who resisted the recruitment efforts of various city madams), and his uncle Harry's Turnabout Theater in Los Angeles (a renowned puppet theater drawing patrons as diverse as Shirley Temple, Ray Bradbury, and Albert Einstein).
Through inherited journals and letters, Bessie comes to a new understanding of his father, Alvah, an actor and writer who fought in the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. Later, as a screenwriter, Alvah was blacklisted for his Communist sympathies and jailed as one of the Hollywood Ten.
Alvah is only one of many colorful relatives who would go on to play key roles in the world. Bessie's research reveals many prominent people, from his grandmother's cousin Sidney Lenz who wrote Lenz on Bridge, a classic guide to the game, to Bessie's brother-in-law Wes Wilson who designed rock-and-roll posters for the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco during the 1960s and lived a counterculture existence vastly different from the bridge-mad Depression Era.
Not to be outdone, Cousin Michael Bessie established his niche in publishing, co-founding Atheneum Press and shaping books by Anwar Sadat, Edward Albee, and Aldous Huxley. With an equally impressive career, Uncle Leo Burnett built the country's fifth largest advertising agency. A passion of a different sort led cousin Phoebe Snetsinger to travel all over the globe; during her lifetime she sighted 8,400 different birds—nearly 85 percent of the species known to exist.
Rare Birds celebrates the colorful diversity of a remarkable and accomplished family. While their choices and professions run the gamut of the American experience in the twentieth century, the history of the nation can be traced in their lives as Bessie's passionate bids of a feather sing their unique songs across the decades and generations.
Dan Bessie begins his journey through the Bessie and Burnett family history with his great-grandfather in the cargo hold of a ship bound for New York on the storm-tossed Atlantic. What follows are stories of his grandfather's various entrepreneurial schemes, a grandmother who was voted "New York's Prettiest Shop Girl" (and who resisted the recruitment efforts of various city madams), and his uncle Harry's Turnabout Theater in Los Angeles (a renowned puppet theater drawing patrons as diverse as Shirley Temple, Ray Bradbury, and Albert Einstein).
Through inherited journals and letters, Bessie comes to a new understanding of his father, Alvah, an actor and writer who fought in the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. Later, as a screenwriter, Alvah was blacklisted for his Communist sympathies and jailed as one of the Hollywood Ten.
Alvah is only one of many colorful relatives who would go on to play key roles in the world. Bessie's research reveals many prominent people, from his grandmother's cousin Sidney Lenz who wrote Lenz on Bridge, a classic guide to the game, to Bessie's brother-in-law Wes Wilson who designed rock-and-roll posters for the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco during the 1960s and lived a counterculture existence vastly different from the bridge-mad Depression Era.
Not to be outdone, Cousin Michael Bessie established his niche in publishing, co-founding Atheneum Press and shaping books by Anwar Sadat, Edward Albee, and Aldous Huxley. With an equally impressive career, Uncle Leo Burnett built the country's fifth largest advertising agency. A passion of a different sort led cousin Phoebe Snetsinger to travel all over the globe; during her lifetime she sighted 8,400 different birds—nearly 85 percent of the species known to exist.
Rare Birds celebrates the colorful diversity of a remarkable and accomplished family. While their choices and professions run the gamut of the American experience in the twentieth century, the history of the nation can be traced in their lives as Bessie's passionate bids of a feather sing their unique songs across the decades and generations.
__________
Genre: Romance
This is a story chiefly about love: the love between a man and a woman, the love between brothers and sisters, and the love between friends.
But WHY does love exist? For what reason is there love in our world?
The plot consists of four stories told in four different time periods. Through reincarnation, the main characters Barakel and Nissa experience love in its many forms: First in the time of Genesis, where they face challenges even in a loving and enduring relationship. Second in the time of Lemuria, where one experiences great love and loss, and the challenge of living a life alone. Third takes place in Tudor England after the death of Henry VIII, where love is explored in the deep friendship between Edward VI and his cousin Jane Grey, a friendship that ultimately led a king to pass on his crown to his best friend, above his own sisters. The final story takes place in present day America, where even a soulmate relationship is torn apart by misunderstanding and hurt, and how true forgiveness and starting anew can heal and bring them back together again.
By the end of this book, you will learn WHY love exists in our world.
__________
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
"Maybe I was caught between the two worlds. I was having serious trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality."
While on a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, nineteen-year-old Maddie Pearce finds her world has been thrown into a vortex and is madly spinning toward the impossible. Abducted by a mad psychopath, Maddie narrowly escapes with her life. But that is only the beginning. Her mysterious rescuer introduces her to a world that Maddie has difficulty accepting as reality. Will this strikingly gorgeous stranger be the key to her future or will she return to her mundane world, scarred from her experience? Follow Maddie as she is forced to make difficult decisions that carry her to mysterious places.
While on a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, nineteen-year-old Maddie Pearce finds her world has been thrown into a vortex and is madly spinning toward the impossible. Abducted by a mad psychopath, Maddie narrowly escapes with her life. But that is only the beginning. Her mysterious rescuer introduces her to a world that Maddie has difficulty accepting as reality. Will this strikingly gorgeous stranger be the key to her future or will she return to her mundane world, scarred from her experience? Follow Maddie as she is forced to make difficult decisions that carry her to mysterious places.
__________
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Maddie knew she was dying. Her life started to flash before her. She had visions of running down the soccer field, scoring a goal, eating her mother’s yummy, homemade, sticky cinnamon rolls, standing in her foyer listening to the police tell her father that her mother had been killed in a car accident. Each vision was disturbingly clear—as if it was happening again."
Rayn Yarrister, the first-born son and Leader of The Guardians, has been imprisoned on Vesturon for breaking their most sacred of covenants. He is suddenly jolted by Maddie's telepathic pleas for help, as her life hangs in the balance. Can he alert The Guardians in time to save his soulmate? Or will he face his trial alone and broken without his one true love?
In Resurrection (Book 2), The Guardians of Vesturon are facing their biggest challenges as Earth is threatened by an invading species from a distant planet intent on destroying it for its resources. The Guardians, as protectors of the universe, have been assembled to defend not only Earth, but other vulnerable worlds as well. The Yarrister family is threatened by an unknown entity intent on discrediting them. Will they uncover this plot in time to save themselves from ruin? Will The Guardians succeed in stopping the Xanthians, or will Earth be invaded and ravaged by this marauding species?
Rayn Yarrister, the first-born son and Leader of The Guardians, has been imprisoned on Vesturon for breaking their most sacred of covenants. He is suddenly jolted by Maddie's telepathic pleas for help, as her life hangs in the balance. Can he alert The Guardians in time to save his soulmate? Or will he face his trial alone and broken without his one true love?
In Resurrection (Book 2), The Guardians of Vesturon are facing their biggest challenges as Earth is threatened by an invading species from a distant planet intent on destroying it for its resources. The Guardians, as protectors of the universe, have been assembled to defend not only Earth, but other vulnerable worlds as well. The Yarrister family is threatened by an unknown entity intent on discrediting them. Will they uncover this plot in time to save themselves from ruin? Will The Guardians succeed in stopping the Xanthians, or will Earth be invaded and ravaged by this marauding species?
__________
Genre: Sci-Fi
The biggest thing on 15-year-old Tommy's mind is convincing Mom to let him go to the drive-in, but when an accident claims his mother's life and puts him in the hospital, the arrival of his estranged, alien father brings more changes than he had bargained for.
It doesn't take his father long to figure out that Tommy knows nothing about who or what he is. Without any explanation, Tommy finds himself onboard his father's spaceship where he is forced to trust a man he does not know in a world he knows even less about.
Adapting to his new life seems overwhelming, and his father's solution may prove to be Tommy's finest challenge yet...Jayden. A few months younger than Tommy, high strung and always in a mood, the doctor's daughter definitely didn't like being 'told' to help Tommy fit in. Jayden is not the most welcoming or patient of tutors, let alone a friend.
As fate would have it, Tommy quickly learns that none of these things compare to the peril that comes from being born with amethyst eyes.
It doesn't take his father long to figure out that Tommy knows nothing about who or what he is. Without any explanation, Tommy finds himself onboard his father's spaceship where he is forced to trust a man he does not know in a world he knows even less about.
Adapting to his new life seems overwhelming, and his father's solution may prove to be Tommy's finest challenge yet...Jayden. A few months younger than Tommy, high strung and always in a mood, the doctor's daughter definitely didn't like being 'told' to help Tommy fit in. Jayden is not the most welcoming or patient of tutors, let alone a friend.
As fate would have it, Tommy quickly learns that none of these things compare to the peril that comes from being born with amethyst eyes.
__________
Genre: Inspirational/Contemporary Young Adult Fiction
“This is the end of my life as I’ve known it. I can’t spend another day playing the sidekick in other people’s stories. I can’t keep trusting the advice and expectations of adults who lack the time and interest to see me for who I am and what I care about. I will not argue anymore about why my dreams are valid. Today, I step forward on my own path into the unknown without a backward thought. If I get crushed, so be it. At least I’ll know what it means to be the keeper of my own destiny.”
With these thoughts, 16 year-old Kyle Weaver breaks free from foster care and public education to set out on the path of his own greatness. What follows are the trials of a modern-day hero’s journey.
The Barefoot Warrior explores a universal human yearning for liberation and fulfillment that is shared by people young and old throughout the world. This book offers a fresh and youthful perspective on the social and educational problems that society faces today.
With these thoughts, 16 year-old Kyle Weaver breaks free from foster care and public education to set out on the path of his own greatness. What follows are the trials of a modern-day hero’s journey.
The Barefoot Warrior explores a universal human yearning for liberation and fulfillment that is shared by people young and old throughout the world. This book offers a fresh and youthful perspective on the social and educational problems that society faces today.
Vaporfi is the most recommended electronic cigarettes supplier on the market.
ReplyDelete