Stacking the Shelves (18)

I bought one book (well, actually just a short story) this week and took several more out of the library.

Purchased

I'm an ardent fan of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce, the young sleuth in 1950s England. When I discovered that Bradley had released a short story in which the eleven-year-old budding chemist solves another murder, I knew I simply had to have it. So, I used some of the gift card money I received for Christmas to quickly purchase The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse.

This was a major departure for me as I have previously refused to buy short stories. Heck, I won't even download the freebies. But I do make an exception when the short story (or novella, even) is set in a well-established series that I have already been reading.

Borrowed

I've declared 2015 to be my year of focusing on tween/mid-grade and teen/young-adult fiction. So, I borrowed some books from the library to kick off this activity. I selected the four books of Steve Brezenoff's Return to Titanic series.

Reviews tell me that the story begins in Time Voyage when Tucker and his best friend Maya are spending their Spring Break helping Tucker's mother set up an exhibit of items from the Titanic to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its one and only voyage. While handling a boarding pass, the 8th graders are catapulted back to 1912, the day before the Titanic is to set sail. There, the two kids from the twenty-first century meet Liam and his family who are due to board the ship. They now have two objectives: convince Liam's family not to sail on Titanic and figure out how to return to their own time.

The fact that there are three other books in the series should be clue enough that they aren't done with the Titanic. Apparently they bounce back and forth between 2012 and 1912, with the tension ratcheting higher and higher as the Titanic nears its fateful collision with an iceberg.

I'm looking forward to settling down and reading the entire series. These are chapter books intended for independent elementary readers. Some reviewers say 2nd grade and up, but with the protagonists being junior high age, I'd probably say they'd be more appealing to the upper elementary student. Once I've read them, I'll have a better idea.

So how did you do this week? 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!

Review: A String of Beads

A String of Beads by Thomas Perry
Published 6 January 2015
by Mysterious Press
Source: eARC from NetGalley

After two decades protecting innocent victims on the run, and a year after getting shot on a job that took a dangerous turn for the worse, Jane McKinnon, née Whitefield, has settled into the quiet life of a suburban housewife in Amherst, New York—or so she thinks.

One morning as she comes back from a long run, Jane is met by an unusual sight: all eight clan mothers, the female leaders of the Seneca clans, parked in her driveway in two black cars. A childhood friend of Jane's from the reservation, Jimmy, is wanted by the police for the murder of a local white man. But instead of turning himself in, he's fled, and no one knows where he is hiding out. At the clan mothers' request, Jane retraces a walking trip she and Jimmy took together when they were fourteen in hopes that he has gone the same way again. But it soon becomes clear that the police aren’t the only ones after him. As the chase intensifies, the number of people caught up in this twisted plot multiplies, and Jane is the only one who can protect those endangered by it. A String of Beads is an addictive, fast-paced thriller about how abandoning the past can sometimes be the hardest thing to do, even when your life—and the life of those you love—depends on it.

My Thoughts

Once upon a time, there was Jane Whitefield, a young Seneca woman who acts as a guide to help innocent people adopt new identities to escape from those who would do them harm. Think “private witness protection program”, except Jane will not take a client who is a criminal. She's the last resort for battered wives, the falsely accused, an inadvertent witness, and the innocent whistle blower.

After her marriage to Dr. Carey McKinnon, Jane goes into retirement, but after 10 years, she finds that she feels compelled to occasionally return to her previous role when she truly is the last resort. It's been a year since her last client and this time the request for her services comes from the entire group of clan mothers of her tribe—asking that she use her skills to help her childhood friend who has been framed for murder.

Having accepted a string of beads from the clan mothers as a token of the contract between them, Jane sets out to find her friend Jimmy and help him return safely home where he can surrender to the police. But, things quickly escalate when Jane discovers that it's not just the police who are seeking Jimmy. The man who framed him is determined that Jimmy not live to stand trial. In Jimmy's case, Jane isn't helping him establish a permanent identity, she's simply trying to keep him hidden enough to smoke out the bad guys who are hunting him and make it safe for Jimmy to turn himself in.

A String of Beads is the eighth book in Perry's mystery series and I enjoyed it very much. It's definitely much better than the previous book, Poison Flower. Jane is at her best as she is evading her pursuers and utilizing the alternate identities she has carefully cultivated over twenty years. As she is protecting her client, she's also instructing him on how to hide. There's lots of action with a number of close calls and a big showdown at the end. Another departure from past stories is that Jane is actively trying to solve the murder so that Jimmy doesn't have to stay hidden for the rest of his life. As usual, the book is filled with references to Seneca beliefs, customs, and history.

I strongly recommended this newest volume for fans of the series and encourage those new to Jane Whitefield to start at the very beginning with Vanishing Act. You've got quite an adventure with one of mystery's strongest female protagonists.

★★★★☆

Note that I received a free copy of A String of Beads from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Bout of Books 12: Day 4 Update

As I mentioned in yesterday's update, there were only 39 pages left in my book when I went to bed. I read those early this morning, finishing A String of Beads at breakfast. The rest of the day, I've been bouncing back and forth between two books. The first is Unbreakable by W C Bauer, a science fiction novel that I received for review and Time Voyage a time-traveling adventure story for mid-grade kids.

Thursday, 8 January

Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 69
Total number of pages read: 643
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 2

Currently reading

Completed Books

Bout of Books 12: Day 3 Update

Wednesday. Hump Day.

Work is finally settling down. Wednesday was the deadline for recording all 4th quarter activities, and while I was busy taking care of that, my Internet provider went down. We were offline for about 2 hours and my stress level was going up because I always procrastinate until a deadline is looming and I had almost run out of time to get my data submitted. Fortunately, this happened very late in the afternoon, so I cooked supper and then settled down to read while I ate. And I kept reading until the network was restored.

While I had hoped to finish reading A String of Beads, I am getting really close. I still had 240 pages to read when I awoke on Wednesday morning, and when I went to bed, I had whittled that down to only 39 more pages.

Wednesday, 7 January

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 201
Total number of pages read: 574
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books completed: 1

Currently reading

Completed Books

Bout of Books 12: Day 2 Update

If I thought things were busy at work on Monday, Tuesday was even worse. I think some people extended their holiday vacations into this week, so there were even more people back at work on Tuesday.

After getting off to a really good start on Monday, I read a lot less on Tuesday. I'm still reading A String of Beads by Thomas Perry. This is an ARC that I received from NetGalley and since the publication date was on Tuesday, I really need to complete it as quickly as possible and get my review posted.

Tuesday, 6 January

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 123
Total number of pages read: 373
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books completed: 1

Currently reading

Completed Books

Bout of Books 12: Day 1 Update

Monday was a day of beginnings for me—first day of work after vacation, first day of Bout of Books 12, and starting a new book.

I finished reading Poison Flower on Monday and returned it to the library. Then I immediately plunged into A String of Beads, for which I have promised to post a review. For a quick break, I read a few more pages in Echo Burning. I won't finish it before it's due back at the library, so I'll request an extension.

Monday, 5 January

Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 250
Total number of pages read: 250
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 1

Currently reading

Completed Books

Review: The Galaxy Game

The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
Published 6 January 2015 by Del Rey
Source: eARC from NetGalley

On the verge of adulthood, Rafi attends the Lyceum, a school for the psionically gifted. Rafi possesses mental abilities that might benefit people . . . or control them. Some wish to help Rafi wield his powers responsibly; others see him as a threat to be contained. Rafi’s only freedom at the Lyceum is Wallrunning: a game of speed and agility played on vast vertical surfaces riddled with variable gravity fields.

Serendipity and Ntenman are also students at the Lyceum, but unlike Rafi they come from communities where such abilities are valued. Serendipity finds the Lyceum as much a prison as a school, and she yearns for a meaningful life beyond its gates. Ntenman, with his quick tongue, quicker mind, and a willingness to bend if not break the rules, has no problem fitting in. But he too has his reasons for wanting to escape.

Now the three friends are about to experience a moment of violent change as seething tensions between rival star-faring civilizations come to a head. For Serendipity, it will challenge her ideas of community and self. For Ntenman, it will open new opportunities and new dangers. And for Rafi, given a chance to train with some of the best Wallrunners in the galaxy, it will lead to the discovery that there is more to Wallrunning than he ever suspected . . . and more to himself than he ever dreamed.

My Thoughts

Rafi has been sent to the Lyceum, a school for young people with psi powers. There his skills will be assessed to determine just what they are and whether he has the appropriate discipline and control to avoid being a danger to others. If Rafi had lived on a planet other than Cygnus Beta, there'd probably be no concern at all, but on his planet, there are few psionically gifted people.

As soon as he can, Rafi removes himself from the school—and from his planet. He travels with fellow classmate Ntenman to Purnatam, a planet mostly peopled by the Ntshune and where psi usage is common. There's something extraordinary taking place in the Academes of Punartam, and Rafi discovers that he has an unexpected role to play as tensions between the rival star-faring civilizations play out.

It seemed that it was taking me a long time to read The Galaxy Game. For much of the first part of the book I felt confused. I was ⅔ of the way into the book before I discovered that it was the second book in a series! I don't know if my disorientation was due to not having read the first book or not. I do know that as I read, I had to continually reevaluate everything. I found myself lost in the universe in which it takes place, lost as to who the characters were, and lost in the story itself.

But, as I read the final portion of The Galaxy Game things suddenly shifted into place. I did go back and read the prologue again and this time it made perfect sense—no confusion at all. I then returned to my place in the book and read eagerly to the end. From this experience, I think it is likely that my initial bewilderment was due to jumping into the series in the middle. I have placed the first book, The Best of All Possible Worlds, onto my wishlist at the library. I'm taken with the universe that Ms. Lord has envisioned and hope she continues to visit it in future books.

I initially debated between 3 and 4 stars when it came to rating this book. Since I don't want to penalize the book because I hadn't read the first in the series, I've decided to rank it as 4 stars—I really liked it. I think it's important to emphasize that this book does not stand alone well. To get the most out of it, I think it would be essential to read The Best of All Possible Worlds first.

★★★★☆

Note that I received a free copy of The Galaxy Game from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.