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Showing posts from August, 2023

Untethered Sky

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 By: Fonda Lee Genre: Fantasy, Novella Location: FIC LEE “A person might pass a tree on the path every day and not notice it until it springs fruit at a time they’re hungry.” Untethered Sky  is a beautifully crafted gem of a novella, which reinforces Fonda Lee’s standing as one of the most talented authors in fantasy today. The Middle Eastern-inspired setting is an ideal backdrop for Lee’s tale, which gently interweaves fantastical elements in this graceful story about the nature of humanity, our relationships with each other, and humankind’s place in the natural world. Fonda Lee’s understated approach is the perfect vehicle for this moving novella about rising from tragedy to find one’s true calling.- John Mauro- Goodreads From World Fantasy Award-winning author Fonda Lee comes Untethered Sky , an epic fantasy fable about the pursuit of obsession at all costs. A Most Anticipated in 2023 Pick for Polygon | Book Riot | Paste Magazine Ester’s family was torn apart when a manticore killed

Liars Beach

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 By: Katie Cotugno Location: FIC COT Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller A fresh new take on Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery The Mysterious Affair at Styles , with iconic detective Hercule Poirot recast as a brilliant, brash teen girl named Holiday, and narrated by her childhood friend Linden, an athlete-scholar who fits right in at his elite New England prep school—all the while hiding some secrets of his own. Michael Linden—or just Linden to his preppy boarding school pals—doesn’t belong in wealthy, storied Martha’s Vineyard. But when his roommate Jasper invites him to spend the end of summer at his massive beachfront home, August House, Linden tries his best to fit in. Linden wouldn’t call it lying, exactly. Though it turns out August House is full of liars. Then someone is found unconscious in Jasper’s pool, and everyone has something to hide—Jasper, his beautiful sister Eliza, their older brother Wells, and their friends. The accident is written off as just that—an acci

Lets Play Murder

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 By: Kesia Lupo Genre: Horror, Mystery- Video Game Fiction Location: FIV LUP Video games have never been more murderous. Veronica wakes up trapped with four strangers in a sprawling manor house in a snow storm with a dead body, a mystery right out of an Agatha Christie novel. It feels so real - but it isn't. This is VR and this is THE Game; a rumoured Easter Egg hidden in other VR games that draws you into a competition for a prize beyond your wildest dreams. And there's no escaping the VR world until the Game is won. But while Veronica and her fellow players are trying to figure out the puzzle, something is not right in the VR world. Blackouts, glitches, NPCs acting strange, and a mysterious figure haunting their footsteps. Then when a player dies, and also dies in real life, all hell breaks loose. Without warning, the game Veronica thought she was playing gets overshadowed by a much darker, and much more real, mystery: who is killing us?' It may not be a game Veronica wan

Judgement Day

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 By: Mali Waugh Location: FIC WAU Genre: Crime, Ficti on Family law judge Kaye Bailey is found murdered in her chambers. Is this the work of a disgruntled complainant? Or an inside job by a jealous colleague? Or is there something even more insidious at the heart of this brutal act? Detective Jillian Basset is just back from maternity leave, struggling with new motherhood as she tackles the biggest case of her career. As her work and home lives get messier and messier, though, something's going to give. Exploring the murky underworld of the justice system and setting a cracking pace,  Judgement Day  is a gripping thriller from a fresh and compelling new Australian voice. Praise for  Judgement Day 'I absolutely loved  Judgement Day . It kept me guessing right the way through, but pulled it all together in the end in a way that was immensely satisfying and solid. It's really refreshing to read such a quality procedural, and it's impressive work for a debut. I also loved t

Emily Wildes Encyclopaedia of Faeries

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 By: Heather Fawcett Location: FIC FAW Genre: Fantasy ,Romance , Fae “If anyone were to claim greater happiness in their careers than I do in poking about sunlit wildwoods for faerie footprints, I should not believe it.”   "I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did but I found myself genuinely cackling with delight throughout :’)" Ashleigh A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series. Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at  people . She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people. S

When Women Were Dragons

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By: Kelly Barnhill Location: FIC BAR Genre: Fantasy, Fiction Learn about the Mass Dragoning of 1955 in which 300,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons...and change the world. Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950's America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex's beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn't know. It's taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate. Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of dragons: a mother more protective than ever; a father growing increasingly distant; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and a new "siste

You Dont Know What War Is?

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 By: Yeva Skalietska Location: NF 920 SKA WAR Genre: Ukraine War- Memoir- Diary “Everyone knows the word war. But very few people understand what it truly means. You might say that it’s horrible and frightening, but you don’t know the scale of fear it brings. And so, when you suddenly have to face it, you feel totally lost, walled in by fright and despair. All of your plans are suddenly interrupted by destruction. Until you’ve been there, you don’t know what war is.” An important, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful memoir about the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war as told through the diary entries of a young Ukrainian girl. Yeva Skalietska’s story begins on her twelfth birthday in Kharkiv, where she has been living with her grandmother since she was a baby. Ten days later, the only life she’d ever known was shattered. On February 24, 2022, her city was suddenly under attack as Russia launched its horrifying invasion of Ukraine. Yeva and her grandmother ran to a basement bunker, where she b

Goliath

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 By: Tochi Onyebuchi  Location: FIC ONY Genre:  Sci Fi, Dystopia Goliath is an outstanding example of literary science fiction with the ability to interrogate the pressing fears of the day- from climate change and race wars to disease, gentrification, technological advancement, class division, and more. It contains a non-linear story structure and is told in an elevated style of prose that readers might find challenging, but I promise it is well worth the effort. This novel manages to be both experimental and fiercely relevant to the human experience . Bethany "In this ambitious novel, dense with perspectives and social commentary, Onyebuchi dreams up disparate lives in a crumbling future America—with gentrifiers returning to Earth from space colonies and laborers trying to make a precarious living—while leaving room for moments of beauty and humor."— The New York Times , Editors' Choice In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and ALA

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder

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 By: Kerryn Mayne Location: FIC MAY Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Crime "If Eleanor Oliphant had an Aussie twin, Lenny Marks would be her."  Lenny Marks is good at not remembering. She has spent the last twenty years not thinking about the day her mother left her when she was still a child. Her stepfather’s parting words, however, remain annoyingly unforgettable: 'You did this.' Now thirty-seven, Lenny prefers contentment and order over the unreliability of happiness and the messiness of relationships. She fills her days teaching at the local primary school, and her nights playing Scrabble with her pretend housemate, watching reruns of Friends and rearranging her thirty-six copies of The Hobbit. Recently though, if only to appease her beloved foster-mum, Lenny has set herself the goal of ‘getting a life’. Then, out of the blue, a letter arrives from the Adult Parole Board. And when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. Worse, she starts to

My Contrary Mary

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 By: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Aston and Jodi Meadows Location: FIC HAN Genre: Mary Queen of Scots Jane is done- BRING ON THE MARY'S “‘Should we ban baguettes as well?’ the queen asked Nostradamus. ‘No, Your Majesty. That would be madness.’ Oh, to be French.” Long live the The authors who brought you the New York Times bestselling My Lady Jane kick off an all-new historical trilogy with the classy, courtly tale of Mary, Queen of Scots.   Welcome to Renaissance France, a place of poison and plots, of beauties and beasts, of mice and . . . queens? Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she’s a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. It’s a secret that could cost her a head—or a tail.  Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn after the king meets a suspicious end. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis face a viper’s nest of conspiracie

The Winter Soldier

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 By: MacKenzie Lee Genre: Marvel, Historical Fiction, Fantasy Location: FIC LEE 1954: The Winter Soldier is the Soviet Union’s greatest weapon. Assigned the most dangerous covert missions from the USSR’s secret military branch, and guided by a handler who knows him better than he knows himself, he has only one purpose: to obey orders. But he wasn’t always the Winter Soldier . . . 1941: As World War II begins, sixteen-yearold Bucky Barnes is determined to enlist in the US army—if only the local commander will stop getting in his way. When Bucky is offered enrollment in a training program with the British Special Operations Executive—the UK’s secret service—he leaps at the chance to become a hero. But Bucky has hardly touched down in London when he finds himself running from a mysterious assassin and accompanied by an English chess champion fond of red lipstick and double crosses. She’s in possession of a secret every side is desperate to get their hands on. If only they knew what it was

The Monkey From The Future

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 By: Ross Welford Genre:  Sci Fi Location: FIC WEL The hilarious, moving and adventure-packed new novel for readers of 9 and up from Ross Welford, the bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author of  Time Travelling with a Hamster The year is 2425. Centuries after a catastrophic meteor collision, nature has retaken the earth. In a small town in what was once England, young Ocean Mooney and the monkey-owning Duke Smiff have just dug up a 400 year-old tablet computer. Meanwhile, in the present day, Thomas Reeve and his genius cousin Kylie create the Time Tablet – a device which they hope will allow them to communicate with the future. But when the Time Tablet malfunctions live on television, Thomas and Kylie are sucked into the year 2425 – and have only 24 hours to return home, and save the future of humanity… "Ross Welford is a wonderful writer. I have read all of his books and I have loved every single one of them. When I saw he had a new one, I ran to my library to get it, and oh boy

City of Brass

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 By: S A Chakraborty Location: FIC CHA Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction Series:  The Daevabad Trilogy#1 "There are magic rings, flaming swords, strange beings of diverse sorts, plots, battles, large scale and small, plenty of awful ways to die, without that being done too graphically. And there is even a bit of interpersonal attraction. Did I mention Dara being smokin’? There is also some romantic tension between Nahri and Ali. Add in a nifty core bit of history centered on Suleiman.".... WILL Step into The City of Brass, the spellbinding debut from S. A. Chakraborty, an imaginative alchemy of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings, and Uprooted, in which the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts. Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she's a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyon

The Name She Gave Me

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 By: Betty Culley Location: FIC CUL Genre: Family, Adoption, Novel verse  'The Name She Gave Me' is a fascinating book about adoption, family struggles, and finding your own identity. It offers lots of deep lessons about how life is precious and more meaningful than anything else, but also respect other people's feelings and situation. As some of the topics related to me a lot, this book really helped me feel positive about myself. 😇🌸 From the acclaimed author of  Three Things I Know Are True  comes a new novel in verse, a deeply emotional story about an adopted teenager exploring the meaning of family, friendship, and love in all its many forms. Perfect for fans of Robin Benway, Cynthia Hand, and Jandy Nelson, Rynn’s journey shows how complicated and infuriating, yet healing, family can be. When Rynn was born, her birth mother named her Scheherazade. It’s one of the only things Rynn has from her. Now sixteen, Rynn and her adoptive parents live on a small garlic farm in c

The Children on the Hill

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 By: Jennifer McMahon Location: FIC MCM Genre: Horror, Thriller "This creepy, heart throbbing, intense, dark, chilling story is such a great tribute to Marry Shelly’s epic classic novel Frankenstein meets Ryan Murphy’s AHS’ season two: asylum with the vibes of so much disturbing, old school Stephen King novels!" Nligur From the New York Times bestselling author of The Drowning Kind comes a genre-defying new novel, inspired by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein , that brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us. 1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she’s home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love. Then one day Gran br