Cambridge High School Library 2024

By: Karan Mahajan Location: FIC MAH Genre: Fiction set in India I kind of accidentally got this book- I was reviewing it and hit the purchase button. I am OK with that because it is set in a place I have wandered, the Delhi Markets. Those places are crowded. I have actually ridden a push bike in them in the old city of Delhi at Chowdrik Chow. It was insane, people, carts, goats, bikes, scooters, people with merchandise on their heads,  cows, more people, more scooters, narrow lanes, more people, shops, noise- horns, bells and much chatter and yelling. Imagine being in those narrow lanes with the daily carnage of the Old Delhi ways and a bomb going off. It is a recipe for complete devastation. This is what this book is about- two brothers die, one brother lives. The story follows the life of the living- Mansoor survives, bearing the physical and psychological effects of the bomb. After a brief stint at university in America, Mansoor returns to Delhi, where his life becom...

By: Timothee De Fombelle Location: FIC FOM Genre: Nice combo- Love, Fantasy, History and France! The Book of Pearl  is a modern fairy tale with elements of the classics, filled with strange places, magical laws and intriguing mysteries.   It was engaging and tasteful and came together like a tidy tapestry. Delightfully written, it is the interwoven stories of four people, connected by various threads, both direct and indirect.  Enchanting and beautiful, with a tinge of the unusual. "It is, overall, the story of a boy from a world we have ceased to believe in. Snatched away from his haunted, spectral life, he is deposited into our world, France, sometime in the 1930s. Here, he makes a new life for himself, joining the Pearls in their quaint marshmallow shop. But war changes everyone, and it transforms the boy into Joshua Pearl, opening his eyes to our harsh reality. Joshua clings to the memories of his past, and as those begin to fade, he...

By:  Kristy Acevedo Location: FIC ACE Genre: Sci Fi- Dystopic Series: Holo#1  Winner of the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award (2015) What would  you  do if mysterious holograms suddenly started to appear from the sky from all over the world, bringing a warning of impending destruction of Earth? Anxiety disorders are real, and paralyzing, mix this with the end of the world and huston we have a problem! As if Alexandra Lucas’ anxiety disorder isn’t enough, mysterious holograms suddenly appear from the sky, heralding the end of the world. They bring an ultimatum: heed the warning and step through a portal-like vertex to safety, or stay and be destroyed by a comet they say is on a collision course with earth. For 17 year old Alex, life is full of choices. And every decision she makes - about her boyfriend Nicholas, her parents, where she's going to go to school after graduation - only serves to heighten her already out-of-cont...

By: Kiersten White Location: FIC WHI Genre: Fantasy and History- Sultans and Empires- Young Adults Series: The Conquerers Saga   #1 This cover has Johnny Depp written all over it, but a chic version. I think this makes me like it..  and be intrigued! HEADS WILL ROLL, HEARTS WILL BE BROKEN “ So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?” No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way. Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets. Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between La...

By: Darrell Pitt Location: FIC PIT Genre: Sci Fi-  fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett   For fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett comes a hilarious new space and time adventure. Teenagers on skateboards jumped off walkways, dropped a dozen floors and activated rockets to safely land walkways below. Blake took a deep breath, inhaling something that smelt like a cross between burnt plastic and toffee apple. Neo City, Blake thought. Home, sweet home. 'THAT'S RIGHT', BADDE SAID.  'I HAVE AN ENTIRE BOX SET OF THE BRADY BUNCH AND I'M PREPARED TO USE THEM.' NEO City, 2509. After a series of operational bungles, as well as the accidental death of his partner, special agent Blake Carter’s career at the Planetary Bureau of Investigation is in trouble. To make matters worse, he’s just been assigned a new partner—and the beautiful and brilliant Nicki Steel happens to be a cyborg. When universe-famous criminal Bartholomew Badde steals a weapon capable ...

By: Lynne Matson Location: FIC MAT Genre: Young Adult Fantasy- Dystopia Series: NIL “A promise means nothing...It's a statement of present want, not future reality.” " "Survivor  meets  Lost  in this exciting survivalist story set on a bizarre island filled with monstrous beasts and only one way out, and if you miss your chance to leave, you die." Giselle On the mysterious island of Nil, the rules are set. You have one year. Exactly 365 days--to escape, or you die. Seventeen-year-old Charley doesn’t know the rules. She doesn’t even know where she is. The last thing she remembers is blacking out, and when she wakes up, she’s lying naked in an empty rock field. Lost and alone, Charley finds no sign of other people until she meets Thad, the gorgeous leader of a clan of teenage refugees. Soon Charley learns that leaving the island is harder than she thought . . . and so is falling in love. With Thad’s time running out, Charley realizes that to save their futu...

Title: Inferno By: Catherine Doyle  Series: #2 Blood for Blood Saga Series Title: Walk the Edge By: Katie McGarry Series: #2 Thunder Road Novel Title: Booked By: Kwame Alexander Other title: The Crossover I am not going to blog these- check out the blogs in the first of series, but just want you all to know at Cambridge High School we have them ready for your enjoyment!!!

By: Lara Avery Location: FIC AVE Genre: Contemporary Youth Fiction I am so annoyed by this book, when it came to my desk I nearly chucked it across the room. Why- you ask? A Year 10 student, our wonderful English teacher Miss Bigge and I had decided to write a book from three POV's. A 15 year old, a mum and a grandmother. The plot- the 15 year old was diagnosed with Alzheimers and had one year to create memories with her grandmother and mum. We even had the first chapter completed- Sarah had written it- it was about a  day in school- she had done a great job of putting the setting together- her last paragraph was her completely forgetting what class she had next... Then this book arrives- our book- someone had beaten us to it. This is the blab "The Memory Book  by Lara Avery, a romance that unfolds through a series of journal entries, text messages and other mementos and features a teen girl diagnosed with a rare disease that causes memory loss." “It’s li...

By: Danika Stone Location: FIC STO Genre: Contemporary Young Adult Sometimes you just need a fun book- I read to serious stuff sometimes- this one will make me chuckle and chill! “Alright. I'm over on the dark side. You'd better have the cookies I've been promised.”  ―  Danika Stone ,  All the Fe els "EVERY fangirl needs to read this when it comes out. i spent all 300 pages swooning and laughing. it's a must."- Amanda College freshman Liv is more than just a fangirl: The Starveil movies are her life… So, when her favorite character, Captain Matt Spartan, is killed off at the end of the last movie, Liv Just. Can’t. Deal. Tired of sitting in her room sobbing, Liv decides to launch an online campaign to bring her beloved hero back to life. With the help of her best friend, Xander, actor and steampunk cosplayer extraordinaire, she creates #SpartanSurvived, a campaign to ignite the fandom. But as her online life succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, ...

By: Ally Condie Location: FIC CON Genre: Fantasy    Another cover winner!!! “We are not lost mermaids with seaweed hair and coins for eyes, but human girls, alive and found. We are sisters, and we did not drown.”  ―  Ally Condie ,  Atlantia Can you hear Atlantia breathing? For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose. Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to lis...

By: Tara Altebrando Location: FIC ALT Genre: Young Adult -Mystery   “Every time the woman turned her head, it was like she was posing for a picture with an Instagram setting that filtered out humility.”  ―  Tara Altebrando ,  The Leaving "A whole generation oblivious to the truth of the human condition is a recipe for the collapse of society."- mate that is a scary statement and I reckon that generation is not to far away! We sometimes I think allow what is not right to occur because we somehow  allow tolerance and acceptance to override decency. Gun Control in the USA is a great example... homelessness is another. This quote I shall mull on over my lunch time meander! The Leaving is a mysterious tale of six children who went missing without a trace and came back as 16-year-old teens who don't exactly remember everything happens to them in the past few years of their disappearances. And now everyone wants answers. Everyone wants to know t...

By: Linda Nagata Location: FIC NAG Genre: Military Sci-Fi Series: #1- The Red Trilogy “It’s the doom of our species that psychopaths always want to be in charge.”  ―  Linda Nagata ,  The Red: First Light Hmmmm I wonder who the author is talking about! Reality TV and advanced technology make for high drama in this political thriller that combines the military action of  Zero Dark Thirty  with the classic science fiction of  The Forever War . Lieutenant James Shelley, who has an uncanny knack for premeditating danger, leads a squad of advanced US Army military tasked with enforcing the peace around a conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. The squad members are linked wirelessly 24/7 to themselves and a central intelligence that guides them via drone relay; and unbeknownst to Shelley and his team, they are being recorded for a reality TV show. When an airstrike almost destroys their outpost, a plot begins to unravel that is worthy of Crichton an...

By: Erin Bow Location: FIC BOW Genre: Dystopia “Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, humans were killing each other so fast that total extinction was looking possible, and it was my job to stop them.” A world battered by climate shift and war turns to an ancient method of keeping peace: the exchange of hostages. The Children of Peace - sons and daughters of kings and presidents and generals - are raised together in small, isolated schools called Prefectures. There, they learn history and political theory, and are taught to gracefully accept what may well be their fate: to die if their countries declare war. Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan-Polar Confederation, is the pride of the North American Prefecture. Learned and disciplined, Greta is proud of her role in keeping the global peace — even though, with her country controlling two-thirds of the world’s most war-worthy resource — water — she has little chance of reaching adulthood a...

By: Kai Ashante Wilson Location: FIC WIL Genre: Fantasy Wilson plays with language and gender roles while spinning a world that has texture, taste and weight. The narrative is energetic and muscular and humanistic- Daniel "Tell us, my son: how are you faring in those strange lands, so far from home? Whom have you chosen to walk with, to talk to: some good woman, some kind man?  " Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors' artifacts in hand, the Sorcerer follows the Captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight. The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive. The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for god...

By: Sarah-Jane Stratford Location: FIC GIR Genre: Historical Fiction THE BBC-its legendary, its reputable, its British, its honorable and it had Top Gear! I remember living in the UK and loving listening to the BBC especially Wimbledon- the commentary was brilliant! The BBC became my friend as I sat at home with a new baby and it taught me the world. This book is about the intrigues of the BBC. "This book had everything that great historical fiction should have. Wonderful writing, interesting subject matter, incorporation of real events and real people into the fictional part of the story and wonderful and well described characters."- Dorie 1926, the BBC. The nation listens. A woman finds her voice. Now here is a stunning quote! “Maisie had never owned a book and couldn’t imagine rereading anything when time was so short and the libraries so full.”  Sarah-Jane Stratford,  Radio Girls: A Novel ...

By: Sara Barnard Location: FIC BAR Genre: Contemporary Young Adult- Mental Health I was brave She was reckless We were trouble I see this in the library, in fact I am looking out my window to it right now!  Girls- giggling, pointing, mocking and being generally teen- some days it makes me so mad and it makes me remember my days as a Yr 10 and the spite and venom that was poured out on any unsuspecting YR 10 girl who just happened to be not one of 'them'- it also reminds me of being in a triangular friendship- Rotten days !  This book is about the jealousies, passions and conflicts involved in teen girl friendships. I love books that explore this subject - the way teenage girls get so wrapped up in one another, loving and hating each other with a furious intensity. It tackles that intense feeling experienced when one of your best friends becomes better friends with someone else and what it's like to see your fr...

Titles:  #1 Cocoon, #2 Matemorhposis, #3 Butterfly Author:  David Saperstein Location: FIC SAP Genre: SciFi/Fantasy Cocoon , which was a  New York Times  bestseller upon its release (and an Academy Award–winning film of the same name), is the amazing beginning of the Cocoon trilogy, which spans twenty years and was a pioneering science fiction novel by David Saperstein that still resonates with audiences today. Fifteen years before the start of the Earth’s third Christian millennium, after a five-thousand-year absence, Antarean space travelers have returned to Earth. After the destruction by the impact of an asteroid, a few islands were all that remained of the continent above the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Before the asteroid’s impact destroyed Antares Quad-Three, they had cocooned and secreted a diplomatic army for future use on Earth. They believed these soldiers and commanders, numbering 941, were secure and safe in a state of suspended animation beneat...

By: Peter Tieryas Location: FIC TIE Genre: SCI FI “Why don’t people fight for change?” “Because the ones who do get hunted down.”  ―  Peter Tieryas ,  United States of Japan The United States of Japan continues the journey that was started by Phillip K. Dick back in the 1960s. Set in an alternative 1980s, the United States of Japan depicts a world where Japan won World War Two. Most Americans now worship the Emperor, and history has been changed to a point where Japan's role in the war is now viewed to be nothing short of exemplary and honourable. Japanese civilisation stands unchallenged at the pinnacle of technological development and cultural dominance, until now. A group, known as the 'George Washington's' are starting to disrupt the regime by spreading an underground game that allows players to imagine a world where the Allies won the war. In order to stop these attacks video game censor Captain Beniko (hereafter referred to as Ben) Ishimura and secret...