The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton was strange. It is a science fiction take on the concept of Groundhog Day. Aiden is living the same day over and over again. He is trying to solve the mystery of Evelyn Hardcastle's murder. However, he only gets to keep the memories of the last 7 days, so if he fails to solve the mystery he must start over with no recollection of previous attempts. I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It was hard to get into and to keep straight what was going on. However, I got sucked in and wanted to know how it ended.
A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos was also very different. The earth has been blasted apart and now exists in island like structures called Arks. Ophelia's marriage is arranged with a diplomat from another Ark for the purpose of political alliance. She must leave her own warm and casual existence to travel to her fiance's polar ark and learn to navigate the complicated political atmosphere. This series of four books was originally written in French and only two have been translated into English so far.
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis was fun. She is a Southern born and raised woman living in New York City. Her short essays on life and clinging to her Southern traditions in the Big Apple are funny and sometimes uncouth. I like essay collections for how easy they are to read just a little and have a complete story. I enjoyed some of the essays more than others, but I think that's just to be expected.
I read His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik because I enjoyed her later two books Uprooted and Spinning Silver. His Majesty's Dragon is set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, but in this story, both sides have dragons in their arsenals. Temeraire and his Captain, Laurence, are an unlikely pairing because Laurence was originally a sea captain, but after winning Temeraire's egg in battle the two become a team. They quickly prove their value on the battlefield and Temeraire finds he has an unusual capability. His roar has destructive powers. The series has nine books in it and I'm almost finished with the second one now. I'm really enjoying it.
Simone St. James's books are auto-reads for me now. The Sundown Motel is set at a remote motel outside a small town in upstate New York. Carly arrives in town and takes night clerk job at the motel. It's the same job her Aunt Viv was working when she disappeared 35 years ago. Carly hopes to find out what happened to Viv, but she will quickly find that there are more residents of the motel than those listed on the register. St. James is very good at creating an eerie atmosphere for her ghosts to inhabit.
I've read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility but I had never read Emma, by Jane Austen. Emma is a head strong single girl who spends her days caring for her worrisome father. She fancies herself a matchmaker, but is horribly bad at it and manages to mess up her friends' lives with her efforts. Fortunately, in the way of all good regency novels, everyone ends up happily married in the end, including Emma. I enjoyed Emma for the dry wit and laugh-out-loud moments. Sometimes I got bogged down in the details of the book, but was able to skim over them to the best parts of the story. Emma was first published in 1815 so it more than doubles the requirement for a book to be more than 100 years old.
I've written before on this blog about Mary Balogh's regency romance books. They are light funreads and I have loved falling into her worlds and her characters lives. I re-read Someone to Trust because it suited my mood for something fun!
I read Gone With the Wind for Mr. Tom Wilkinson's seminar. At 1,037 pages it well exceeded the 500 page requirement for the list. Gone With the Wind begins at the very beginning of the Civil War and follows willful Scarlett O'Hara through the war and her three marriages, children, and Reconstruction. Her foil is the daring and rebellious Rhett Butler. They dance around each other through the whole book, but their marriage and life together don't begin until the last part of the story. I found Scarlett charming and childlike at the beginning of the book, but those same characteristics became annoying as she aged, but didn't mature.
For the graphic novel category I read New Kid, by Jerry Craft. I wasn't sure what to expect but once I settled into the comic book style I enjoyed the story. Jordan Banks is African-American and his parents are sacrificing to send him to an up-scale private school far from his lower-income neighborhood. He begins to find a place for himself in his new school, but then finds that it is harder to fit in with his friends at home. He gradually learns to balance both sides of his life and to be himself.I'll be honest and tell you that some of these books aren't available through Franklin County Library. In fact I think I found the first three at the Houston Public Library's Overdrive site. Does anything on my list catch your attention? Do you have any recommendations for my remaining categories?
