Monday, June 1, 2015

Books Read - May 2015

Adams, Ellery
  • Lemon Pies and Little White Lies ***
Fiction.  Fourth in the Charmed Pie paranormal cozy series.  Ella Mae struggles with her insecurities at being the Clover Queen while also preparing for the History in the Baking cooking festival in Havenwood.  She mourns the loss of her relationship with Hugh and tries to rally her people to ready themselves for a treacherous and magical storm caused by the legendary Nimue.

  • Murder in the Mystery Suite ****
Fiction.  First in Book Retreat cozy mystery series.  Jane, along with her great-aunt and -uncle run Stonyton Hall, a large resort known as a book lover’s vacation spot.  Jane sets up a murder and mayhem week where each lodger will come in the guise of a famous detective.  Jane’s own detective prowess comes into play when one of the guests ends up dead.

Alderman, P.J.
  • Phantom River ****
Fiction.  Second in the mystery series set in Astoria, OR, where the Columbia River crashes into the Pacific Ocean.  Jo, the only female bar pilot, climbs into a helicopter with two of her close friends who are flying her out to meet a freighter waiting to be piloted in through the dangerous currents and sand bars of the Columbia.  But Jo never makes it to the freighter.  The helicopter dashes down to the ocean, where Jo barely holds on to the wreckage and supporting one of her friends.  Mac, the newly appointment police chief, dives into the icy water to save them.

Beckett, Samuel
  • Waiting for Godot *
Fiction.  Play about two men sitting in front of a tree waiting for a guy who never shows up.

Cast, P.C.
  • Nyx in the House of Night *****
Non-fiction.  Essays about the world in the YA vampire series, House of Night.

Echeverria, Begona
  • The Hammer of Witches *****
Fiction.  Novel set in the early 1600’s in the Basque Country of Spain.  A young girl accused of witchcraft and a priest with a secret of his own stand up to the injustice of the Inquisition. 

Galenorn, Yasmine
  • Mist and Shadows *****
Fiction.  Collection of five dark stories of magic and mystery.

Jaffe, Nina
- The Golden Flower ****
Fiction.  Taino myth of how the ocean and Boriquen came to be.

Monteiro, Mariana
  • Legends and Popular Tales of the Basque People *****
Fiction.  Collection of legends and ballads of the Euskaldun.

Putney, Mary Jo
  • Songs of Love and Darkness *****
Fiction.  Collection of short paranormal stories by various authors.

Reilly, LeAnn Neal
  • An Ordinary Drowning ***
Fiction.  First in a series set on a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico.  A dark and more mystical version The Little Mermaid for adults.  Not graphic.  John is a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon who is taking a break from his studies to work on a proposal for his department.    He spends his time diving in the warm waters, but has a panic attack during one of his dives and is saved by a mermaid named Tamarind.  Their love story has a lot of bumps, and they sustain bruises along the way.

Roberts, Nora
  • Shadow Spell ****
Fiction.  Second in the Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy.  Meara and Connor have known each other their whole lives and have loved each other as friends and family.  Their relationship changes as the six work together to fight Cabhan, the man, the wolf, the dark sorcerer.  Can they untangle their feelings with the pressure of the fight against evil looming above them?  They must, because Cabhan has Meara in his sights, and Connor and the others must save her life.

Silva, Daniel
  • The English Assassin ****
Fiction.  Second in the Gabriel Allon series.  Gabriel, an art restorer, is hired to restore a painting owned by a very wealthy Swiss banker.  On arrival at the house, he finds the Rembrandt on the wall and the banker dead on the floor.  His first impulse is to flee, but he is unaware that his arrival at the house had been monitored, and he was now in danger.

Tartt, Donna
  • The Goldfinch ***
Fiction.  Theodore Decker is in trouble at school, so he and his mother have an appointment to meet with the principal.  To kill time, they walk to an art museum, where they are holding a show that Theo’s mother wants to see.  She shows him a beautiful portrait of a goldfinch, that he develops a great liking for.  His mother asks him to meet her downstairs at the gift shop, where she needs to pick up a gift for a co-worker, but as he walks around watching a young girl, a bomb explodes, and his life changes forever.

Webster, Wentworth
  • Basque Legends ****
Fiction.  Collection of Basque legends collected in 1879 in the Pays Basque region of France.

Zeppa, Jamie
  • Beyond the Sky and the Earth *****

Non-fiction.  True story of a Canadian woman who is contracted to teach English in Bhutan for two years.  She falls in love with the land and the people, the Buddhist religion, and finally with a man.