Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Fellowship of the Ring

Tolkien, J.R.R.

Genre: adventure, fantasy

Series: Lord of the Rings


This is book one of the series.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.




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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Golden Buddha

Cussler, Clive
Dirgo, Craig

Genre: adventure

Series: Oregon Files


Juan Cabrillo skippers a disguised spy ship - for hire for covert missions. In this adventure he must find and seize a golden Buddha - the artifact and its contents are vital to striking a deal with the Russians and the Chinese and restoring the Dalai Lama to power in Tibet.

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Secret Prey

Sandford, John

Genre: mystery

Series: Lucas Davenport




The company chairman lay dead in the woods, his orange hunting jacket punctured by a bullet at close range. Around him stood the four executives with whom he had been hunting, each with a reason not to be sorry about the man's death. A classic murder mystery, it would seem: the kind where the detective gathers everyone together at the end and solves the case. But Lucas Davenport knows it's not going to be that easy. There are currents running through this group, hints and whispers of something much greater than the murder of a single man. Some time soon, unless he could stop it, there would be other deaths - and Davenport can't help but wonder if maybe the final death might be his own

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The Kingdom

Cussler, Clive
Blackwood, Grant

Genre: adventure

Series: Fargo



The Fargos are used to hunting for treasure, not people. But then a Texas oil baron contacts them with a personal plea: an investigator friend of the Fargos' was on a mission to find the oil baron's missing father-and now the investigator is missing, too. Would Sam and Remi be willing to look for them both? Though something about the situation doesn't quite add up, the Fargos agree to go on the search.

What they find will be beyond anything they could have imagined. On a journey that will take them to Tibet, Nepal, Bulgaria, India, and China, the Fargos will find themselves embroiled with black-market fossils, a centuries-old puzzle chest, the ancient Tibetan kingdom of Mustang, a balloon aircraft from a century before its time . . . and a skeleton that could turn the history of human evolution on its head.

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Thursday, June 5, 2014

Poseidon's Arrow

Cussler, Clive

Cussler, Dirk

Genre: action, adventure

Series: Dirk Pitt


This is book 22 in the series

It is the greatest advance in American defense technology in decades — an attack submarine capable of incredible underwater speeds. Nothing else in any other nation’s naval arsenal even comes close. There is only one problem: A key element of the prototype is missing — and the man who developed it is dead.

At the same time, ships have started vanishing mid-ocean, usually never to be found again, but when they are, sometimes bodies are found aboard . . . burned to a crisp.What is going on? And what does it have to do with an Italian submarine that itself disappeared in 1943, lost at sea? Or was she?

It is up to NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his team, aided by a beautiful NCIS agent and by Pitt’s children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, to go on a desperate international chase to find the truth, from Washington to Mexico, Idaho to Panama. What they discover at the end of it is a much, much greater threat than even they imagined.

If they don’t succeed in their mission, the world as they know it might end up a very different place — and not a pleasant one.

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Friday, May 23, 2014

The Rich Girl

Stine, R. L.

Genre: horror

Series: Fear Street


This is book 44 in the series.


Fear Street -- Where Your Worst Nightmares Live... 

Emma and her best friend Sydney always share their secrets. And now they have a big one: They found a duffel bag filled with cash and swore never to tell anyone. But Sydney broke her promise -- she told her boyfriend, Jason.

Now Emma is terrified. She doesn't trust Jason. She knows he would do anything to get the money for himself.

Even if it means killing someone who gets in his way...


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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Stay with Me

Griffin, Paul


Genre: romance, drama


Fifteen-year-olds Cece and Mack didn't expect to fall in love. She's a sensitive A student; he's a high school dropout. But soon they're spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog, telling their secrets, making plans for the future. Everything is perfect. Until. Until. Mack makes a horrible mistake, and in just a few minutes, the future they'd planned becomes impossible. In this stark new reality, both of them must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had, to survive when the person they love can't stay.


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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Carroll, Lewis


Genre: classic, fantasy

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English.)  "Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was!  Good-bye, feet!"





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Monday, May 5, 2014

Confessions of a Murder Suspect

Patterson, James
Paetro, Maxine

Genre: mystery



On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 

1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 
2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings.
3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself. 

Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

Friday, March 28, 2014

The Supernaturalist

Colfer, Erin

Genre: science fiction

In the future, in a place called Satelite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill enters the world, unwanted by his parents. He's sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, Freight class. At Clarissa Frayne, the boys are put to work by the state, testing highly dangerous products. At the end of most days, they are covered with burns, bruises, and sores. Cosmo realizes that if he doesn't escape, he will die at this so-called orphanage. When the moment finally comes, Cosmo seizes his chance and breaks out with the help of the Supernaturalists, a motley crew of kids who all have the same special ability as Cosmo-they can see supernatural Parasites, creatures that feed on the life force of humans. The Supernaturalists patrol the city at night, hunting the Parasites in hopes of saving what's left of humanity in Satellite City. Or so they think. The Supernaturalist soon find themselves caught in a web far more complicated than they'd imagined, when they discover a horrifying secret that will force them to question everything they believe in. Eoin Colfer has created an eerie and captivating world-part Blade Runner, part futuristic Dickens-replete with non-stop action
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Arcadia Falls

Meyer, Kai

Genre: science fiction

Series: Arcadia


This is book 3 in the series.


Romeo and Juliet meets The Godfather amid an exotic Sicilian setting—filled with shape-shifters and mortal danger—in this thrilling conclusion to the first YA trilogy by bestselling German author Kai Meyer.

Everyone close to mafia clan leader Rosa Alcantara is dead.

Everything she's ever known about her life is a lie.

Everywhere she turns there is a trap.

As the clock ticks down to their own destruction, it's a race against time for young lovers Rosa and Alessandro as they evade murderers, track down clues, and avoid a showdown with the man who wants them dead.

The pair must find out the truth behind Arcadia once and for all—but will it be the key to unlocking their freedom and future together, or the final step in bringing them to their knees?
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The Book of Love

Weingarten, Lynn

Genre: romance

Series: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers

This is book 2 in the series.


The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers has given Lucy everything she thought she wanted. Gone is the poor, innocent girl pining away for a guy who didn’t deserve her and in her place is a fierce, fabulous Heartbreaker with glamorous sisters, an unbreakable heart, and access to magic.

The only problem is this: Lucy’s floppy-haired, blues-playing best friend Tristan is in pain. And she’s powerless to help him.

Or is she?

It’s time for the annual Heartbreaker competition — a chance for Lucy and her sisters to win The Book of Love, an ancient tome containing centuries’ worth of Heartbreaker wisdom, and maybe, just maybe, enough magic to fix Tristan’s heart for good.

Lucy will do whatever it takes; if it helps her fix her friend, she knows it’s worth it. At least she thinks she knows.

As Lucy goes deeper into the world of the sisterhood, she learns that even those closest to her have unimaginable secrets, and when it comes to magic, nothing comes without a price . . .


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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Daniel X: Demons and Druids

Patterson, James
Sadler, Adam

Genre: science fiction, action

Series: Daniel X


Daniel X's hunt to eliminate each and every intergalactic criminal on Earth is always relentless, but this time, it's getting personal. Number Three on the List of Alien Outlaws takes the form of raging, soul—possessing fire. And fire transports Daniel back to the most traumatic event of his life—the death of his parents.

In the face of his "kryptonite", Daniel struggles with his extraordinary powers like never before, and more than ever is at stake: his best friends are in grave peril. The only way to save them is to travel back—through a hole in time—to the demon's arrival during the Dark Ages.

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Night Probe!

Cussler, Clive

Genre: adventure

Series: Dirk Pitt


Dirk Pitt proved invincible in Raise the Titanic! Now, with the future of virtually every person in the world at stake, he is enlisted to spearhead his most daring mission year - the rescue of a vital document for the United States. To an energy-starved, economically devastated America, possession of this document is worth billions. But to Great Britain, it's worth a war. Pitt's quest plunges him into a head-to-head confrontation with Britian's most cunning secret agent - and into the throes of a torrid love triangle. As time runs out for a desperate America, Dirk Pitt races toward an underwater clash more terrifying than anything Clive Cussler has ever created - the breathtaking climax of Night Probe!

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Infinite

Meadows, Jodi

Genre: fantasy

Series: Incarnate


This is book 3 in the series.


DESTRUCTION
The Year of Souls begins with an earthquake—an alarming rumble from deep within the earth—and it’s only the first of greater dangers to come. The Range caldera is preparing to erupt. Ana knows that as Soul Night approaches, everything near Heart will be at risk.

FLIGHT
Ana’s exile is frightening, but it may also be fortuitous, especially if she can convince her friends to flee Heart and Range with her. They’ll go north, seeking answers and allies to stop Janan’s ascension. And with any luck, the newsouls will be safe from harm’s reach.

CHOICE
The oldsouls might have forgotten the choice they made to give themselves limitless lifetimes, but Ana knows the true cost of reincarnation. What she doesn’t know is whether she’ll have the chance to finish this one sweet life with Sam, especially if she returns to Heart to stop Janan once and for all.

With gorgeous romance and thrilling action, the final book in the Incarnate trilogy offers a brilliant conclusion to the compelling questions of this fascinating world, where one new girl is the key to the lives of millions.

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Great

Benincasa, Sara

Genre: romance, drama



In Sara Benincasa's contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, a teenage girl becomes entangled in the drama of a Hamptons social circle, only to be implicated in a tragedy that shakes the summer community.

Everyone loves a good scandal.

Naomi Rye usually dreads spending the summer with her socialite mother in East Hampton. This year is no different. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the teenagers who have been summering (a verb only the very rich use) together for years. But Naomi finds herself captivated by her mysterious next-door neighbor, Jacinta. Jacinta has her own reason for drawing close to Naomi-to meet the beautiful and untouchable Delilah Fairweather. But Jacinta's carefully constructed world is hiding something huge, a secret that could undo everything. And Naomi must decide how far she is willing to be pulled into this web of lies and deception before she is unable to escape.

Based on a beloved classic and steeped in Sara Benincasa's darkly comic voice, Great has all the drama, glitz, and romance with a terrific modern (and scandalous) twist to enthrall readers.


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The Promise of Amazing

Constantine, Robin

Genre: romance


Wren Caswell is average. Ranked in the middle of her class at Sacred Heart, she’s not popular, but not a social misfit. Wren is the quiet, “good” girl who's always done what she's supposed to—only now in her junior year, this passive strategy is backfiring. She wants to change, but doesn’t know how.

Grayson Barrett was the king of St. Gabe’s. Star of the lacrosse team, top of his class, on a fast track to a brilliant future—until he was expelled for being a “term paper pimp.” Now Gray is in a downward spiral and needs to change, but doesn’t know how.

One fateful night their paths cross when Wren, working at her family’s Arthurian-themed catering hall, performs the Heimlich on Gray as he chokes on a cocktail weenie, saving his life literally and figuratively. What follows is the complicated, awkward, hilarious, and tender tale of two teens shedding their pasts, figuring out who they are—and falling in love.

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Friday, March 21, 2014

Blowback

Thor, Brad

Genre: spy, action

Series: Scot Harvath


This is book four of the series (but you do not have to read them in order).


Scot Harvath's counterterrorism career has just crashed and burned -- thanks in part to a ruthless senator with her sights set on the White House. But when the war on terror takes a chilling turn, the president has no choice but to secretly bring Harvath back inside. Deep beneath an Alpine glacier, an ancient weapon designed to decimate the Roman Empire has been unearthed -- and a shadowy organization intends to use it for America's downfall. Racing across Europe, Harvath must secure the ultimate instrument of destruction before it brings the United States and the rest of the world to its knees.

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Forbidden

Suzuma, Tabitha

Genre: romance



She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings.  As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right.  As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.


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Monday, March 17, 2014

Ender's Game

Card, Orson Scott

Genre: science fiction, action

Series: The Ender Quintet

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.



A movie was made of this book.  It was O.K, but this is one of those cases where the book is better than the movie.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Pretty Bad Things

Skuse, C. J.

Genre: drama



"Wonder Twins" on the run--and running amok--in Vegas. Road Trip!

Paisley and Beau are boldface names again. Last time, paparazzi called them the "Wonder Twins," two kids found alone but alive in the woods of exotic New Jersey. Three days after their mom's death -- and before their dad's criminal misdeeds.

Flash-forward to now: Their so-called lives? Suck out loud: Hating on their cougarized, Botoxic grandma, they're totally clueless about the location of ex-con Daddy. Till they discover a stash of old letters. That's when they decide to jack the Pontiac and hit the road. Holding up donut shops in Sin City might seem extreme, but if they can just get their pretty bad faces back on TV -- or TMZ -- they might wrap up their whole gaga saga with an Oprah-worthy reunion already!



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Rush

Silver, Eve

Genre: science fiction, romance

Series: The Game



This is book 1 in the series.


When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into some kind of game—her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos. In the game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival, and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.

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Inhuman

Falls, Kat

Genre: Science Fiction


Never let them tames you.

In a world ravaged by mutation, a teenage girl must travel into the forbidden Savage Zone to recover lost artifacts or her father’s life is forfeit.
America has been ravaged by a war that has left the eastern half of the country riddled with mutation. Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plantlife has gone feral.

Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artifacts—he is a Fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding—until he’s caught.

Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his latest job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb—and her very DNA—in the Savage Zone. But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of “manimal” mutation, he’s hardly civilized . . . and he may not be trustworthy.

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Friday, February 21, 2014

Ironman

Crutcher, Chris

Genre: sports


Bo Brewster has been at war with his father for as long as he can remember. Following angry outbursts at his football coach and English teacher that have cost him his spot on the football team and moved him dangerously close to expulsion from school, he turns to the only adult he believes will listen: Larry King.

In his letters to Larry, Bo describes his quest for excellence on his own terms. No more coaches for me, he tells the talk show icon, no more dads. I'm going to be a triathlete, an Ironman.

Relegated to Mr. Nak's before-school Anger Management group (which he initially believes to be populated with future serial killers and freeway snipers), Bo meets a hard-edged, down-on-their-luck pack of survivors with stainless steel shields against the world that Bo comes to see are not so different from his own. It is here he meets and falls in love with Shelly, a future American Gladiator, whose passion for physical challenge more than matches his.

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Death Wave

Coonts, Stephen
Keith, William H. 

Genre: action, spy

Series: Deep Black


In Central Asia, a dangerous shipment has vanished. Twelve nuclear warheads—with a combined power greater than the Hiroshima bomb—have been stolen by a deadly new alliance of international terrorists. Their plan: Use man-made weapons to trigger a devastating natural catastrophe—the largest tsunami the world has ever seen…

Enter Deep Black: a secret unit of the NSA led by former Marine sniper Charlie Dean. With his hand-picked team of special ops, Dean follows the terrorists’ trail to the Canary Islands. But time is running out. In hours, the warheads will be detonated and a thousand-foot wave will rise. In it’s path of destruction lies every city on America’s eastern coast.


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