Top Ten Tuesday #3

It is Tuesday again so that means another TTT. This week I have decided to talk about ten authors I haven't read from yet and own some of their books. I saw Becca and the Books do this on her you tube channel. I thought it would be fun to do and discovered I have more then ten authors that I haven't read yet and own their books. I did just pick the first ten that came to my mind. They will be in no particular order. I have no idea when I will get to reading them. So onto the Authors.

 I just hauled his 2.5 book in this series. I now have all the books in this series so I really want to read them. I have been told by several people that it is a good book but you need to read it physically. I know this is going to be rough to read. I will probably read one book a month when I start it.

 I own most of this series and a middle grade series from this author. I have heard both positive and negative things about this author. I want to be able to find out for myself what her writing style is like. This series is a young adult series.

 I only own three of her books. This is only the first book in a trilogy she has written and everyone really likes it. I have her duology also and again never but good things have been said about it.

 I never heard of this author before this book came out. I did look her up and she has written several books. This book is suppose to be like The Lord of The Flies. I love the cover.

 I always get this author mixed up with Mary Hoffman. I only own two of her books. The other one is The Rules of Magic. I think it is the sequel to this one.

 Again I have heard mixed reviews on this series. I own the first two and the third should be out sometime this year. I have recently discovered that I enjoy fantasy so I want to give it a try. It might be more about magic instead of fantasy. I don't really know.

 This is a debut author and this book came highly recommended. I also have her second book. I know that this is a fantasy and want to give it a try.

 I own a lot of his books and have still not read any of them. His Scythe series went over well. I own the whole series besides this one and one of his first series he wrote.

 I only own two of his books. Again there have been mix reviews on this book. Every one likes his Dark Matter book which I also own and it has been on two of TBR's but still haven't picked it up. He is more into science fiction and I am still slow into getting into that genre. I will give them both a try.

I picked up this book because my daughter Tara really likes her. This is historical fiction so I should enjoy it. She has written many books.

As you can see I own a lot of the books that are in a series and still haven't read them. I have a tendency to pick a whole series before I read it because nothing is worse than liking a series and not having the next book to go right into.
Let me know if you have any of these books and if you have read them.
Until next time keep reading.

Books Beside My Chair #6

Here is another weekly wrap-up. These are the books that I read from February 3rd to February 9th. I was able to read 6 books which brings my total to 29 books read so far for the year 2020. Total pages read was 789. This was a busy and hard week to get my reading in so these are mostly short books. So onto the books that I read.

 This is a graphic novel that I gave 3 stars. It is the second volume and is about werewolves and fairies. I liked the first volume better. Blitherton is a typical college town full of typical mythical creatures living peacefully alongside humans. (Well, as peacefully as any town full of magic and mystery can be.) A werewolf in the throes of young love, Julie longs for a normal, human life. But when enchanted drinks turn an otherwise ordinary party into a full-on magical meltdown, Julie's dreams of normality drift further away than ever. With her relationship with her girlfriend seesawing between bliss and miser, will Julie find a way to save her friends and her love life? (Sorry had to use the back of the book to describe what the book is about).

 This is another graphic novel and again I only gave it 3 stars. This book is about a school who brings African Americans to attend with a promise of free tuition and everything. It is a school who uses them to power the school by using their soul. You have Harriet Tubman and another ghost from the civil war who are fighting to catch them and save these unknown students who don't know what is going on. It was a little weird for me and trying to be like Harry Potter.

 This is probably my favorite book for the week. As you can see it another book about history. I really enjoy reading about the civil war and this one talked about the war in the Ozarks. I gave this book 4 stars. I learned about several important that I never heard of before and some old favorites like the James Brothers. I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy learning about the civil war.

 This is a quick read. Each page has a quote from each of her books that she wrote. It is a book of wisdom. They just gathered some of the quotes to match a wisdom they were talking about. I gave it 5 stars. Nothing to fancy but good. I read this for the #littlehouse readathon.

 This book was only 9 pages long. It goes into who really saved the Ingalls in the book Little House on the Prairie. This is about the native American who talked the others out of killing the settlers.  on their land. I gave it 4 stars. It was informative but to be honest I don't really care if she got the wrong Native American or not. Again I read this for the #littlehouse readathon.

This was the last book that I read for the week. I didn't like this book. It just wasn't for me but it could be for you. I gave it 2.5 stars. It would be better if I just put what  Good Reads says here. The reason I really didn't like this book is because her parents are forcing her to become a lawyer and that isn't what she wants to do. If she doesn't then they won't pay for her college. She has a lot to deal with and trying to figure it out is hard for her and she makes some choices that aren't good for her or are they.

Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

That is what I read and I hope you give these books a read. I may not have enjoyed all of them but you should still give them a go and find out for yourself. Let me know what you have read recently.

Until next time keep reading.

Last Book Haul of January

These are the last of the books that I bought for the month of January. All descriptions will be coming from Good Reads.

 I bought this book from Dollar Tree. I don't know much about this book but my daughter Tara loves this author It is book seven in a series.After a showdown with the notorious Yemeni terrorist known as The Panther, John Corey has left the Anti-Terrorist Task Force and returned home to New York City, taking a job with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Although Corey's new assignment with the DSG - surveilling Russian diplomats working at the U.N. Mission - is thought to be "a quiet end," he is more than happy to be out from under the thumb of the FBI and free from the bureaucracy of office life.

But Corey realizes something the U.S. government doesn't: The all-too-real threat of a newly resurgent Russia.

When Vasily Petrov, a colonel in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service posing as a diplomat with the Russian U.N. Mission, mysteriously disappears from a Russian oligarch's party in Southampton, it's up to Corey to track him down. What are the Russians up to and why? Is there a possible nuclear threat, a so-called radiant angel? Will Corey find Petrov and put a stop to whatever he has planned before it's too late? Or will Corey finally be outrun and outsmarted, with America facing the prospect of a crippling attack unlike anything it's ever seen before?

Prescient and chilling. DeMille's new novel takes us into the heart of a new Cold War with a clock-ticking plot that has Manhattan in its crosshairs.

 I read her first book and really enjoyed it so I want to continue on with the sequel.
The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller everyone is talking about, One of Us Is Lying! There's a new mystery to solve at Bayview High, and there's a whole new set of rules.

Come on, Bayview, you know you've missed this.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts.

Until now.

This time it's not an app, though—it's a game.

Truth or Dare.

Phoebe's the first target. If you choose not to play, it's a truth. And hers is dark.

Then comes Maeve and she should know better—always choose the dare.

But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it's that they can't count on the police for help. Or protection.

Simon's gone, but someone's determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there's a whole new set of rules

 Book five is out and of course I had to get it. I will be reading this in February. I just love this series.
The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire's award-winning, bestselling Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister--whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice--back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.

Again.

 I haven't read the first book yet. I do own the whole series now I think and want to read them but I know it will be hard and I need to prepare myself for it. Good Reads says it is book 2.5 in the series.
From A Child Called “It” to The Lost Boy, from A Man Named Dave to Help Yourself, Dave Pelzer’s inspirational books have helped countless others triumph over hardship and misfortune.  In The Privilege of Youth, he shares the missing chapter of his life: as a boy on the threshold of adulthood.  With sensitivity and insight, he recounts the relentless taunting he endured from bullies; but he also describes the thrill of making his first real friends—some of whom he still shares close relationships with today.  He writes about the simple pleasures of exploring his neighborhood, while trying to forget the hell waiting for him at home. From high school to a world beyond the four walls that were his prison for so many years, The Privilege of Youth bravely and compassionately charts this crucial turning point in Dave Pelzer’s life and will inspire a whole new generation of readers

This is a middle grade book that I ordered from book depository. I actually ordered this in December but it didn't get here until the middle of January. I just love the cover. Amazon only had as a kindle book.
Chaya, a no-nonsense, outspoken hero, leads her friends and a gorgeous elephant on a noisy, fraught, joyous adventure through the jungle where revolution is stirring and leeches lurk. Will stealing the queen’s jewels be the beginning or the end of everything for the intrepid gang?

I hope you will join in reading these boos. I read a variety of different books. I love changing things up so it keeps me in books instead of a reading slump.
Let me know what you bought in January. Until next time keep reading.

Books Beside My Chair #5

I know I am behind on this post but this week has been busy for me. This is for the week of January 27th - February 2nd. I read 5 books which brings my yearly total to 23 books read. Pages read were 1,499. I will give you my star ratings but the information will come from Good Reads. Now for the books.

 This is a middle grade book that I read for the Thousand Page readathon. It was my last book for this readathon. It was ok and I gave it 3 stars. This is a graphic novel.
Princess Mera is teenage royalty and heir to the throne of Xebel, a penal colony ruled by the other not-so-lost land under the sea, Atlantis. Her father, his court and the entire kingdom are expecting her to marry and introduce a new king. But Mera is destined to wear a different crown....

When the Xebellian military plots to overthrow Atlantis and break free of its oppressive regime, Mera seizes the opportunity to take control over her own destiny by assassinating Arthur Curry—the long-lost prince and heir to the kingdom of Atlantis. But her mission gets sidetracked when Mera and Arthur unexpectedly fall in love. Will Arthur Curry be the king at Mera's side, or will he die under her blade as she attempts to free her people from persecution?

An astonishing graphic novel that explores duty, love, heroism and freedom, all through the eyes of readers' favorite undersea royalty.

From New York Times best-selling author Danielle Paige (Dorothy Must Die) and artist Stephen Byrne comes a Mera and Aquaman origin story that explores Mera's first steps on land, and her first steps as a hero or villain, forcing her to choose to follow her heart or her mission to kill.

 This is the fourth book in the Da Vinci Code series and I gave it 3 stars. Again it was just ok for me.
Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno.

Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again, combining classical Italian art, history, and literature with cutting-edge science in this sumptuously entertaining thriller

 I was disappointed is this book. I really enjoyed her first book. This book was good and I gave it 4 stars.
Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.

From New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance perfect for fans of Practical Magic, where dark fairy tales and enchanted folklore collide after a boy, believed to be missing, emerges from the magical woods—and falls in love with the witch determined to unravel his secrets.

 This was the book I read for my book club at the library. I greatly enjoyed this book and I did learn a few things that I didn't know about the Washington's. I of course gave this book 5 stars. I highly recommend you read this book.
A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave who risked it all to escape the nation’s capital and reach freedom.

When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital, after a brief stay in New York. In setting up his household he took Tobias Lear, his celebrated secretary, and nine slaves, including Ona Judge, about which little has been written. As he grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t get his arms around: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire.

Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, the few pleasantries she was afforded were nothing compared to freedom, a glimpse of which she encountered first-hand in Philadelphia. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs.

At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property.

Impeccably researched, historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked it all to gain freedom from the famous founding father.

The last book for the week. This is a graphic memoir. It is a little shocking and probably not for some to read. I did enjoy it and gave it 4 stars.
One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statemen.

I hope you give these books a try and let me know what you think. I will never advise any one not to read a book because all books should be given a chance. Let me know some of the books you have read. Until next time keep reading.