Pomella AnDone is a commoner in a world where nobility have all of the power and answer only to the Mystics. The Mystics have the ability to sense and manipulate the Myst, the energy that lives at the heart of the universe. The odds of ever rising from your station are zilch to none, as tradition and honor are the most important things of her world.
But Pomella has always been viewed as an odd one in her village, as she’s always seen silver animals in the forest that no one else can see and has an obsession with the Myst. Therefore, when the Green Man appeared to offer Pomella an invitation to compete to be the new High Mystic’s apprentice, she has no choice but to go, despite the fact that the local Baron’s daughter has threatened if she leaves the Baron’s land she’ll become Unnamed. As an Unnamed, she would be viewed as a worthless criminal not welcomed anywhere, even with her family. If she were to stay, she would live a meaningless life tending to her garden, wishing for what this precise opportunity offered, while verifying to her village that they cannot move up in station.
With her little knowledge of the Myst, how is she to compete against nobility that has been training for this opportunity their whole lives? Does she even stand a chance?
Denzel's magical world of the Myst is quite like most bildungsroman magical stories, but in a refreshing way. He makes you want to read about the character's experiences and follow their story. Though this story is classified as adult fiction, it reads more as a young adult novel. Mystic is the first book of Pomella's journey through the Myst; the second installment of the "Mystic" series is slated to be out in 2018.
If you’re like most people, you can’t say much about Presidents McKinley and Garfield except that they were two of the four presidents, along with Lincoln and Kennedy, who were assassinated while in office. This book can fix that. It’s the story of writer and NPR contributor Sarah Vowell visiting all the sites related to our four assassinated presidents and their untimely deaths in her “assassination vacation.” Mixing dark humor with honest feeling, she visits graves, death sites, presidential libraries, homes, theaters, and more, in hopes of better understanding these four fallen leaders. In the process, she pulls not only from primary and contemporaneous sources, but also from modern ones. She quotes historic letters and newspaper articles alongside conversations with tour guides and impersonators she meets along the way. It makes for an eclectic but absorbing read, jumping from a harrowing first-person account of McKinley’s shooting to the nondescript plaque that marks the spot today.
Vowell’s witty writing style will appeal to fans of David Sedaris, and her storytelling makes the experience feel very personal. If the idea of a morbidly funny road trip through our nation’s history sounds like fun to you, you’ll want to pick this one up. Audiobook Lovers: The author narrates this book, giving an impeccable reading of her own lines with a dry, deadpan delivery that complements the writing perfectly. However, her high, lispy voice may turn off some listeners.
Jonathan and Billie are the perfect couple. They met on public transit, fell in love at first sight, and got married on a beach two weeks later. Nearly two decades later, they have a house in Berkeley, an environmentally-conscious teen daughter, and a seemingly perfect life. Billie is a stay-at-home mom who loves yoga and hiking, and Jonathan has worked his way up the ladder at a tech magazine. But their perfect life comes at a price. Jonathan is a workaholic, and Billie, a wild child in her youth, begins to grow bored and disillusioned with their life together. So, Billie decides to take a page from Cheryl Strayed's playbook and hike out her problems solo on the Pacific Crest Trail. Instead, she vanishes on her hike, leaving behind only a lone boot.
A year later, with Billie close to being declared legally dead, their daughter Olive begins to have hallucinations (or are they visions?) of her mother, very much alive. As Jonathan and Olive begin searching for answers, they find a tangle of secrets in Billie's past that makes them question everything about the woman they loved and thought they knew.
Janelle Brown weaves a compelling, twisty tale that will keep readers turning the page and guessing right up until the last sentence. A great summer read, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.
This is the (mostly) true story of the world's first computer. British inventor Charles Babbage designed the "Difference Engine," the earliest predecessor to modern computers. In turn, his friend and confidant, Ada Lovelace, illegitimate daughter of Lord Byron, wrote the world's first computer program for it. In reality, sadly, the Difference Engine was never built. The design and the programming were technically correct, but theoretical. But who cares about reality? It's far more fun to imagine that they did build it, and then used it to further their rollicking steampunk adventures!
This graphic novel, with its charming black-and-white art, imagines what kinds of adventures they might have gone on, which is delightful on its own, but the truly amazing part is that the whole book is littered with footnotes and full-page spreads about the real Lovelace and Babbage. The author did a huge amount of original research about the oft-overlooked pair, and the way she swirls fact with fiction is masterful. If you're a fan of biography and/or steampunk, you'll want to give this a look.
Agnieszka’s village lies at the edge of The Wood, a dark and sinister forest full of monsters and magic. They survive only by the mercy of The Dragon, a great and powerful wizard, but his mercy has a price. Every ten years, he descends on the village and chooses a girl to become his servant. The girls are never the same when they are released. Everyone has always known who will be chosen this year, Kasia, the good and brave and beautiful. So when the day comes and the Dragon chooses her unremarkable friend Agnieszka instead, everyone is stunned, especially Kasia and Agnieszka. So Agnieszka goes to his tower, and finds that nothing is as she expected. The Wood is advancing, huge and ominous, and if they aren’t able to stop it, it will devour her village and everything and everyone in it. And the Dragon isn’t what she expected either...
This is a tale deeply rooted in Russian folklore and fairy tales, but it subverts a lot of the tropes you usually see in the fairy tale genre. Not every author can build an atmosphere like this, both tense and whimsical. The descriptions of the forest are legitimately frightening, and the style of magic they use is really something different. Agnieszka isn’t your average fairy tale heroine, and the Dragon isn’t your average hero (or villain, or romantic lead, for that matter). If you’re a fan of dark fairy tales, give this a chance. It’s one of the best.
