Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don't have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
Some of the books on the list have been out for a short while and some are coming out soon, but I always enjoy knowing about them.
Scifi/Fantasy
I have been waiting for this one:
Drawn Blades by Kelly McCullough - author of the WebMage series and the Fallen Blade books (Penguin/ACE)
(Coming out on Oct. 28th)
Kelly says:
ACE (Peguin Random House) high fantasy, detective noir cross. Book V, in which much is learned about the non-human empire to the south and what really led to the fall of the goddess of Justice. Chapter one can be found here.
http://kellymccullough.com/...
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http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
Once one of the world's greatest assassins, Aral Kingslayer has finally reclaimed his swords and his soul. But the forces that destroyed his patron Namara twelve years ago are still there, waiting, and his past as a Blade is never more than a shadow's breadth away.
In the days before the fall of his goddess, only one other rivaled Aral's skills, Siri the Mythkiller, a woman who ruthlessly earned the title First Blade. As a friend, Aral owes her his loyalty. As a former lover, he owes her part of his heart. As a Blade, he owes her anything she asks, including his life.
When Siri seeks Aral's aid, he knows he must go. But as they journey towards the ancient Sylvani Empire, only time will reveal whether Aral can save the former First Blade, or if he will simply fall with her.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss (10/28/2014)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
Deep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug in the heart of this forgotten place.
Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a brief, bittersweet glimpse of Auri's life, a small adventure all her own. At once joyous and haunting, this story offers a chance to see the world through Auri's eyes. And it gives the reader a chance to learn things that only Auri knows....
Already out. I read this one and thought it was interesting, but now I have to wait for the next book and that is going to be hard considering where the book left off.
Fool's Assassin (Fitz and the Fool Trilogy Series #1) by Robin Hobb
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Over the years, Hobb's imagination has soared throughout the mythic lands of the Six Duchies in such bestselling series as the Liveship Traders Trilogy and the Rain Wilds Chronicles. But no matter how far she roamed, her heart always remained with Fitz. And now, at last, she has come home, with an astonishing new novel that opens a dark and gripping chapter in the Farseer saga.
Coming Home by Jack McDevitt (Publication date: 11/4/2014)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Thousands of years ago, artifacts of the early space age were lost to rising oceans and widespread turmoil. Garnett Baylee devoted his life to finding them, only to give up hope. Then, in the wake of his death, one was found in his home, raising tantalizing questions. Had he succeeded after all? Why had he kept it a secret? And where is the rest of the Apollo cache?
Antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his pilot, Chase Kolpath, have gone to Earth to learn the truth. But the trail seems to have gone cold, so they head back home to be present when the Capella, the interstellar transport that vanished eleven years earlier in a time/space warp, is expected to reappear. With a window of only a few hours, rescuing it is of the utmost importance. Twenty-six hundred passengers, including Alex's uncle, Gabriel Benedict, the man who raised him, are on board.
Mysteries
The Long Way Home (Armand Gamache Series #10) by Louise Penny
Already out and it is very poignant. Another book by Penny that makes you think.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole."
While Gamache doesn't talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache's help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. "There's power enough in Heaven," he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, "to cure a sin-sick soul." And then he gets up. And joins her.
The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad Series #5) by Tana French
Already out. I found this one gripping and literally could not lay it down.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
The photo on the card shows a boy who was found murdered, a year ago, on the grounds of a girls' boarding school in the leafy suburbs of Dublin. The caption says I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.
Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to get a foot in the door of Dublin's Murder Squad, and one morning, sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey brings him this photo. "The Secret Place," a board where the girls at St. Kilda's School can pin up their secrets anonymously, is normally a mishmash of gossip and covert cruelty, but today someone has used it to reignite the stalled investigation into the murder of handsome, popular Chris Harper. Stephen joins forces with the abrasive Detective Antoinette Conway to find out who and why.
Personal (Jack Reacher Series #19) by Lee Child
Already out. A thriller as always. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
You can leave the army, but the army doesn't leave you. Not always. Not completely, notes Jack Reacher, and sure enough, the retired military cop is soon pulled back into service. This time, for the State Department and the CIA.
Someone has taken a shot at the president of France in the City of Light. The bullet was American. The distance between the gunman and the target was exceptional. How many snipers can shoot from three-quarters of a mile with total confidence? Very few, but John Kott, an American marksman gone bad, is one of them. And after fifteen years in prison, he's out, unaccounted for, and likely drawing a bead on a G8 summit packed with enough world leaders to tempt any assassin.
The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe (Signed Book) (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series #15) by Alexander McCall Smith (October 28)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
In this delightful fifteenth installment, Mma Ramotswe has her hands full both at home and in the office. To add to her current challenges, her devoted partner, Grace Makutsi, has decided to branch out on her own and open The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe. But even 'Miss 97 Per Cent' can't quite meet all the demands of running a business, not to mention those that a lightning strike makes on her building. Eventually, she'll have to accept all the help she can get, even if it comes from a completely unexpected source.
General Fiction and Non-fiction
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
Longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award
On their farm in Denby, Iowa, Rosanna and Walter Langdon abide by time-honored values that they pass on to their five wildly different children: from Frank, the handsome, willful first born, and Joe, whose love of animals and the land sustains him, to Claire, who earns a special place in her father's heart.
Each chapter in Some Luck covers a single year, beginning in 1920, as American soldiers like Walter return home from World War I, and going up through the early 1950s, with the country on the cusp of enormous social and economic change. As the Langdons branch out from Iowa to both coasts of America, the personal and the historical merge seamlessly: one moment electricity is just beginning to power the farm, and the next a son is volunteering to fight the Nazis; later still, a girl you'd seen growing up now has a little girl of her own, and you discover that your laughter and your admiration for all these lives are mixing with tears.
The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books (Signed Book) by Azar Nafisi
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
/1118738418?ean=9780525428930
Overview
A passionate hymn to the power of fiction to change people's lives, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-copy bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating followup, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling, and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society. What Reading Lolita in Tehran was for Iran, The Republic of Imagination is for America.
Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her in Seattle, where a skeptical reader told her that Americans don't care about books the way they did back in Iran, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite American novels. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Babbitt, and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, among others, she invites us to join her as citizens of her 'Republic of Imagination', a country where the villains are conformity and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.
Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation (Signed Book) by Bill Nye (Nov. 4th)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
Sparked by a provocative comment to BigThink.com last fall, and fueled by a highly controversial debate with Creation Museum curator Ken Ham, Bill Nye's campaign to confront the scientific shortcoming of creationism has exploded in just a few months into a national crusade. In this book, he expands the points he has made, and claims that this debate is not so much about religion versus science, as about the nature of science itself.
With infectious enthusiasm, he reveals the mechanics of evolutionary theory, explains how it is rooted in the testable and verifiable scientific method, and why it is therefore a sound explanation of our beginning. He argues passionately that to continue to assert otherwise, to continue to insist that creationism has a place in the science classroom is harmful not only to our children, but to the future of the greater world as well.
The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind Five English Thrones by Thomas Asbridge (Dec. 2nd)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
A renowned scholar brings to life medieval England's most celebrated knight, William Marshal. providing an unprecedented and intimate view of this age and the legendary warrior class that shaped it.
Caught on the wrong side of an English civil war and condemned by his father to the gallows at age five, William Marshal defied all odds to become one of England's most celebrated knights...
A leading retainer of four English kings, Marshal served the great figures of this age, from Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to Richard the Lionheart and his infamous brother John, and was involved in some of the most critical phases of medieval history, from the Magna Carta to the survival of the Angevin/Plantagenet dynasty. Asbridge introduces this storied knight to modern readers and places him firmly in the context of the majesty, passion, and bloody intrigue of the Middle Ages.
The Greatest Knight features 16 pages of black-and-white and color illustrations.
Children
The Secret Life of Squirrels by Nancy Rose
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
Overview
Adorable squirrels as you've never seen them!
You may think you know what squirrels do all day...but Mr. Peanuts is no ordinary squirrel. Instead of climbing tress, he plays the piano. ("Moonlight Sonutta" is his favorite.) Instead of scurrying through the woods, he reads books (such as A Tail of Two Cities). But everything is more fun with company, so Mr. Peanuts writes a letter to Cousin Squirrel and invites him for a visit!
Featuring candid photographs of wild squirrels in handcrafted, homemade miniature settings, this irresistible book is sure to surprise and delight readers and animal lovers of every age!
What new books are you interested in?
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! Lessons learned from a book.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Contemporary Fiction Views: Recapturing that moment
by bookgirl
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early