MM - October 10th

This has been a pretty exciting week for receiving new books. I haven't been to the library for years, so decided one day when feeling adventurous to check out the local small library, then one of the larger ones. The larger one has a constant small shelf corner from Friends of the Library. There I bought some cheap books, totalling a dollar for four. Picked up a fantasy since I want to get further into the genre, and a few mysteries. Also, literally received some books in the mail. Always fun to get those packages. Finally, bought a young adult at Goodwill, gasped when I saw the cover as I remember reading this one before, and figured it would give me a chance to have another one for the YA challenge of the year (which I have a meager selection for.) Also picked up a Tony Hillerman mystery at the same store. Let's explore the weekly offerings that threaten that ever growing TBR pile to topple over:




This one's quite different but looked intriguing, as I've loved sagas ever since youth and reading the imaginary family line for the Wakefield sisters in the twin series.

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the magnificent saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you will not want to leave, and one you will not forget.

Esteban -- The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by his tyrannical passion for the wife he can never completely possess.

Clara -- The matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and shapes the fortunes of the house of the Truebas.

Blanca -- Their daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of her father's foreman fuels Esteban's everlasting contempt... even as it produces the grandchild he adores.

Alba -- The fruit of Blanca's forbidden love, a luminous beauty, a fiery and willful woman... the family's break with the past and link to the future.

 

I couldn't resist this adorable mystery cover and who doesn't like a cozy every now and again? Or, very often. 

Chloe Carter has a lot on her plate-exams for grad school are coming up, and her chef boyfriend needs her support as his fledgling trendy restaurant comes into its own. The staff of Simmer gets along like petits pois in a pod, everyone pulling pranks on one another now and then. Everyone, that is, except for Leandra, a waitress who treats the busboys like chopped liver-and can never take a joke. One morning, Leandra's dead body is found in a fish truck. So people start to wonder: was this just a prank gone awry? Or did somebody actually want her to sleep with the fishes?

Here's the fantasy book I was speaking of, a first in a series and from a well-known author I've always wanted to try.

Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil had ruined the world and forced mankind to compete with many other races--gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves. But in peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knew little of such troubles.

Then came the giant, forbidding Allanon, possessed of strange Druidic powers, to reveal that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord was plotting to destroy the world. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness was the Sword of Shannara, which could be used only by a true heir of Shannara. On Shea, last of the bloodline, rested the hope of all the races.

Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of Evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea fled, drawing the Skull Bearer after him . . .

The young adult - sadly the reviews are a bit lackluster, but it's a quick read and it looks intriguing. I want to re-read it, forget everything in it.


 

When you read a novel by Rosamunde Pilcher you enter a special world where emotions sing from the heart. A world that lovingly captures the ties that bind us to one another-the joys and sorrows, heartbreaks and misunderstandings, and glad, perfect moments when we are in true harmony. A world filled with evocative, engrossing, and above all, enjoyable portraits of people's lives and loves, tenderly laid open for us...

There were only two men in Emma's life-her father, a remote artist who left her in boarding school and saw her every few years, and Christo, who had been her stepbrother for a few months, and now wanted to get to know her. But until Emma can understand what she means to them, there will never be room for love.

Suicide. It wasn't a word that should been used in the same sentence as my pretty, popular stepsister's name. Yet Diane had killed herself, and hadn't even left a note. No one could understand it, least of all me.


My friends said I should try to forget it, just get on with my own life. But Diane wasn't only my sister, she was my friend. I had to know why. Maybe Steve, the job who'd been her long time steady, or Max, the mysterious guy she'd recently been so infatuated with, would have some answers. Someone had to know the reason Diane had chosen to die...and I was determined to find out.

Human bones lie on a ledge under the peak of Ship Rock mountain, the remains of a murder victim undisturbed for more than a decade. Three hundred miles across the Navajo reservation, a harmless old canyon guide is felled by a sniper's bullet. Joe Leaphorn, recently retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, believes the shooter and the skeleton are somehow connected and recalls a chilling puzzle he was previously unable to solve. But Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee is too busy to take an interest in a dusty cold case . . . until the reborn violence of it hits much too close to home.

Received this one in the mail, the second to the Urban Fantasy series I just started last week. Magic bites series still on backorder for me so have to wait on that one.

Clairvoyant Cassie Plamer has inherited new magical powers-including the ability to travel through time. But it's a whole lot of responsibility she'd rather not have. Now she's the most popular girl in town, as an assortment of vamps, fey, and mages try to convince, force, or seduce her-and her magic-over to their side. But one particular master vampire didn't ask what Cassie wanted before putting a claim on her. He had a spell cast that binds her to him, and now she doesn't know if what she feels for him is real-or imagined...

FINALLY - Another book in the Chronicles of Narnia series :) Haven't started this one  yet but want to read in order, despite my previous thoughts on it. I already had Prince of Caspian on my bookshelf - although can't find it right now. Ordered these two as well so should have four now once I find Price of Caspian. This is the actual official first of the series.

The secret passage to the house next door leads to a fascinating adventure

NARNIA...where the woods are thick and cold, where Talking Beasts are called to life...a new world where the adventure begins.

Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to...somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis before they finally return home.

I'm a big Jonathan Kellerman fan and although this isn't part of the Alex Delaware series, thought it sound intriguing:

Moses Reed and Aaron Fox, the battling half brothers of Bones, return for another foray into crime fighting and sibling rivalry. LAPD detective Aaron and private detective (and former cop) Moses share a mother, but little else. When issues about the two-year-old disappearance of Caitlin Frostig resurface, these modern-day Cain and Abel sleuths are once again thrown together to sort out the evidence -- and their abiding differences. A classic setup and a suspenseful family whodunit.

 

When Dr. Rennie Newton's jury duty on a case involving a contract killer ends in an acquittal for Ricky Lozada, her carefully composed and very private life begins to unravel. First, someone breaks into her house to leave her an anonymous dozen red roses. Then her colleague and one-time rival for the chief of surgery job is murdered in the parking lot of her hospital, which makes her a prime suspect, especially when the police learn that she's killed a man once before. None of that stops Detective Wick Threadgill from falling in love with her; unlike his partner, he's sure that Lozada, not Rennie, is behind Howell's murder. And it soon becomes clear that the killer is so obsessed with Rennie that he'll do anything to have her--including killing again. Brown, master of the romantic mystery, goes into darker territory here, but she handles it with her usual deftness and turns in a well-paced if not particularly heart-stopping thriller with the requisite happy ending for Rennie and Wick. 

This is book five in the series -  I mistakenly thought it was earlier in there. Oh well, I would have needed it eventually anyway. Have to get the fourth now though.

Shasta is a young boy living in Calormene with a cruel man who claims to be his father. One night he overhears his "father" offering to sell him as a slave, so Shasta makes a break and sets out for the North. He meets Bree, a talking horse who becomes his companion. On their way they encounter Aravis, a high-born girl escaping an arranged marriage, and her talking horse. Despite their differences the children and horses learn to work together to reach the freedom they long for. In the meantime, they uncover a Calormene plot to conquer Narnia.

Finally - we're done for this week!