Stacking the Shelves (22)

Things are settling back into the normal pattern of work and family life. I'm now traveling again—typically out on Monday and return on Thursday, though there is a little bit of variation in that schedule. Then on Saturdays, I play with my two grandchildren since their parents all work on Saturdays.

Library Books

I went bonkers in the library's Freading catalog on Sunday afternoon. I filled up my eBook reader with books, preparing for the next couple of weeks of travel.

Moving right ahead with my Finishing the Series Challenge, I've borrowed the sixth book in the Brother Cadfael medieval mystery series, The Virgin in the Ice. I'm really enjoying this series of books and I'm so thankful that they were released in eBook formats in late 2014—AND that the Freading library service picked them up so that they are free to read. If my library didn't offer Freading, I might have to spend money to join the Kindle Unlimited program.

The Justice Trilogy is a “boxed set” compilation of all three SF novels about children with psi powers. The books are Justice and Her Brothers, Dustland, and The Gathering. In this dystopian fantasy series, the four children must uncover the secrets of their powers. The protagonist, Justice Douglass, her brothers, Thomas and Levi, and a friend, Dorian, mind-jump to a future Earth a million years from today, only to find a wasteland. Originally published in 1978-1981, they have been reissued in eBook formats by Open Road Media.

Mrs. Budley Falls from Grace is the third book in M. C. Beaton's comic Poor Relations series. This is another series that is being republished by Open Road Media

A small group of indigent aristocrats all of whom are the “poor relations” of their wealthy families have pooled their resources to establish the Poor Relation Hotel. As they struggle to make a go of their hotel, they sometimes stoop to less-than-honest means to keep their business afloat. The books are easy reading, combining zany characters with light-hearted romance and just a touch of mystery.

The other collection that I borrowed is The Boxcar Children Mysteries Box Set by Gertrude Chandler Warner. This eBook contains the first 12 books in Warner's classic series of mystery novels for elementary children. I probably won't read all 12 of the books, but I'll certainly complete a couple of them in the time permitted.

The first book in the series, The Box-Car Children was originally published in 1924 and reissued in 1942. Warner wrote the first 19 books in the series which has now grown to more than 100 mysteries penned by any number of authors. In this collection, the reader can follow the Alden children from their first adventure living in an old boxcar through subsequent adventures and even mysteries as they explore their neighborhood and places they visit with their grandfather.

Although I was an early reader, my next-younger sister didn't take to books with the same enthusiasm that I did. Our mother spent a lot of time trying to tempt her into reading just for fun. It was books about horses that did it. Books I remember her reading were the Trixie Belden series—Trixie was a horse-crazy teen sleuth—and all of the horse and dog books written by Marguerite Henry, including Misty of Chincoteague.

Now why did I bring all that up? Because I found a recently published series about a group of pre-teens who are horse crazy and form the Pony Club. They're May, Jasmine, and Corey—three totally different girls with one thing in common—they love ponies! In keeping with my goal of reading more mid-grade and young adult fiction in 2015, I've borrowed the first book in this series, Pony Crazy from the library.

How about you? Any new books? You're invited to tell us all about it by joining the fun at Stacking the Shelves. According to the reviewers at Tynga's Reviews who host the meme:

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!