The past couple of weeks have been momentous for 20SomethingReads.com (and The Book Report Network) --- we moved our office! It’s been quite the affair as the company had been in the same building since it was founded in 1996 --- 21 years ago. That’s right, The Book Report Network is not only a 20something, but also a newly legal one. We’re quickly settling in, i.e. updating the delivery address on our Seamless accounts, checking out the afternoon coffee hot spots and discovering commute crushes on the train.
Carol Fitzgerald, President and founder of the company, has been putting the work behind the move for a few months now, so it feels like it's been a long time coming; there were a lot of details to iron out. Adjusting to the new digs has been quite easy as we only relocated a few blocks down and an avenue over. We’re already comfortable with our surroundings and feel pretty lucky about that.
Speaking of new, there’s some fun news from two big publishing icons. First, for all you "GOT" fans out there, George R. R. Martin confirmed two books in the works just last week on his non-blog blog. Get this: Neither is the much-anticipated THE WINDS OF WINTER, the impending sixth novel of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Fans can now focus their attention on the forthcoming two-part volume, Fire and Blood, which will cover the history of the Targaryen empire and its downfall. According to Martin, the first book in the volume is set to release in late 2018/early 2019, and the second book has no release date. Knowing his issues with releasing books on a projected timeline, we won’t be holding our breath for this one. There is still no set release date for THE WINDS OF WINTER, so much like we’re already used to, it’s Martin’s world and we’re just living in it.
The other exciting publishing news is that Stephenie Meyer will be adapting a post-apocalyptic, supernatural series for television premiering in 2018 on Starz. This is the same network that brings us "Outlander" and "American Gods," so there's much to look forward to on this one. The series will be based off the 2012 book, THE ROOK, by Daniel O’Malley. In case it’s slipped your brain, Meyer is the author of the Twilight series, which gave us one of the most intense vampire romance sagas in literary history. Lest we forget, the movie adaptations did not disappoint and ultimately put Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattinson (Edward) on the Hollywood map. Even more so, it gave millennial women another teenage heartthrob to swoon and lust over. Keeping this in mind, we have full faith that Meyer will deliver again, and we can’t wait to see who will be cast in the new show. You can read more about the upcoming release here and how the main character is going to give other women protagonists a run for their money in the current TV environment.
We’re in the final days of our annual Beach Bag of Books contest, which ends next Monday, August 7th at noon ET, so if you have not done so yet, be sure to enter now! Five winners will each receive a copy of each of the seven books included in the feature and some special summer goodies. If you’re looking for a more-than-halfway-through-summer read right now, be sure to check out the list. Click here to enter, and scroll down to see what titles are included in the giveaway.
Need more book recs? Don’t look any further. Here are a few to check out:
In her second chilling thriller, THE BREAKDOWN, B.A. Paris tells the story of Cass, who is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside --- the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped. She just can’t forget that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt. Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her.
In Michael Connelly’s THE LATE SHOW, Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none, as each morning she turns everything over to the day shift. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night she catches two assignments she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Against orders and her partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the investigations entwine, they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job. This is the start of a new series for Connelly; "Bosch" on Amazon is an adaptation of his Harry Bosch series.
Zinzi Clemmon’s WHAT WE LOSE “is a tender and vicious exploration of identity and grief.” Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother’s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor --- someone, or something, to love. In WHAT WE LOSE, we watch Thandi’s life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood.
Happy reading!
5 Things To Obsess About This Very Moment, in no particular order:
1. The new Blade Runner 2049 trailer
2. Felicity Jones will play Ruth Bader Ginsburg in new biopic
3. Wonder Woman 2 is coming!
4. The new "Stranger Things" Season 2 trailer
5. Mahershala Ali tapped for "True Detective" Season 3, if it happens
--- Nicole Sherman
Beach Bag of Books 2017 Feature + Contest
We're in the middle of summer, and there's more time than ever to read. The way we see it, it wouldn't be summer without sun, surf and great reading. You supply the beach chair, and we'll provide the fantastic book ideas in our Sixth Annual Beach Bag of Books Feature and Contest. Enter now through next Monday, August 7th at noon ET for your chance to be one of five lucky readers who will win a copy of each of the books listed below.
This year's featured titles include:
THE BLACK ELFSTONE: The Fall of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
Audiobook available, read by Simon Vance
The Four Lands has been at peace for generations, but now a mysterious army of invaders is cutting a bloody swathe across a remote region of the land. No one knows who they are, where they come from, or what they are after --- and most seem content to ignore these disturbing events. The only people who sense a greater, growing threat and wish to uncover the truth are society’s outcasts: an exiled high Druid, a conflicted warrior, a teenage girl struggling to master a prodigious magic…and a scrappy young orphan, improbably named Shea Ohmsford. Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard.
THE BOOKSHOP AT WATER’S END by Patti Callahan Henry (Fiction)
Audiobook available; read by Andi Arndt, Lauren Fortgang, Shannon McManus and Dorothy Dillingham Blue
Bonny Blankenship’s most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. They swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey’s mother disappeared. Now, in her early 50s, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor. With her troubled teenage daughter in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. They reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long-ago loves return like the tide. Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller.
THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. Paris (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Georgia Maguire
Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside --- the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped. She just can’t forget that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt. Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
COLLARED: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Audiobook available, read by Grover Gardner
Lawyer Andy Carpenter’s true passion is the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs with his friend, Willie Miller. All kinds of dogs make their way to the foundation, and it isn’t that surprising to find a dog abandoned at the shelter one morning, though it was accompanied by a mysterious anonymous note. But they are quite surprised when they scan the dog’s embedded chip and discover that he is the “DNA dog,” which helps renew the search for a missing child. Goaded by his wife’s desire to help a friend and fellow mother, and Andy’s desire to make sure the real kidnapper is in jail, Andy and his team enter the case. But what they start to uncover is far more complicated and dangerous than they ever expected. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.
CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS by Sally Rooney (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Aoife McMahon
Frances is vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. At a local poetry performance one night, she and her best friend, Bobbi, catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer. As the girls are gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances’ friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances' intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
DARK SATURDAY by Nicci French (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, performed by Beth Chalmers
A decade ago, 18-year-old Hannah Docherty was arrested for the shocking murder of her family. It was an open-and-shut case, and Hannah has been incarcerated in a secure psychiatric hospital ever since. When psychotherapist Frieda Klein is asked to meet Hannah and give her assessment, she reluctantly agrees. But what she finds horrifies her. Hannah has become a tragic figure, old before her time. And Frieda is haunted by the idea that Hannah might be as much of a victim as her family --- that she might, in fact, be innocent. As Hannah's case takes hold of her, Frieda begins to realize that she's up against someone who will go to any lengths to keep the truth from surfacing --- even kill again. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
DOWN A DARK ROAD: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda Castillo (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Kathleen McInerney
Two years ago, Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a “fallen” Amish man and a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped and is headed for Painters Mill. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder grew up with King. As a 13-year-old Amish girl, she had worshipped the ground he walked on. She never could have imagined the nightmare scenario that becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and takes his five children hostage at their Amish uncle’s farm. Armed and desperate, he has nothing left to lose. Fearing for the safety of the children, Kate makes contact with King only to find herself trapped with a killer. Or is he? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE FALLEN: A Quinn Colson Novel by Ace Atkins (Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by MacLeod Andrews
Mississippi sheriff Quinn Colson had to admit he admired the bank robbers. A new bank was hit almost every week, and the robbers rushed in and out with such skill and precision it reminded him of raids he’d led back in Afghanistan and Iraq when he was an army ranger. In fact, it reminded him so much of the techniques in the Ranger Handbook that he couldn’t help wondering if the outlaws were former Rangers themselves. If he stood any chance of catching them, he was going to need the help of old allies, new enemies and a lot of luck. The enemies he had plenty of. It was the allies and the luck that were going to be in woefully short supply. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE FIFTH REFLECTION: A Dot Meyerhoff Mystery by Ellen Kirschman (Mystery)
Police psychologist Dr. Dot Meyerhoff is pulled into the vortex of a terrible crime involving an eccentric photographer whose images of nude children make her a prime suspect in the disappearance of her own daughter. However, she is trapped between her allegiance to the principal investigator, a young officer whose dedication to work and obsession with finding the missing child is tearing his own family apart, her complicated connections to the photographer, and her unstable relationship with the police chief. As Dot's psychological expertise and determination contribute to solving the mystery, her involvement with the missing child's extended, dysfunctional family brings her face-to-face with painful psychological issues of her own. Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy.
GOODBYE, VITAMIN by Rachel Khong (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Therese Plummer
Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, 30-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents’ home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth’s mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father’s condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming all her grief. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
HELLO, SUNSHINE by Laura Dave (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Joy Osmanski
Sunshine Mackenzie is living the dream. She’s a culinary star with millions of fans, a line of #1 bestselling cookbooks, and a devoted husband happy to support her every endeavor. And then she gets hacked. When Sunshine’s secrets are revealed, her fall from grace is catastrophic. She loses her husband, her show, her fans and her apartment. She’s forced to return to the childhood home --- and the estranged sister --- she’s tried hard to forget. But what Sunshine does amid the ashes of her own destruction may well save her life. Reviewed by Leah DeCesare.
HOUSE OF SPIES by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Audiobook available, performed by George Guidall
Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11, terrorists leave a trail of carnage through London’s West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread. The thread leads Gabriel Allon and his team of operatives to the south of France and to the gilded doorstep of Jean-Luc Martel and Olivia Watson. A beautiful former British fashion model, Olivia pretends not to know that the true source of Martel’s enormous wealth is drugs. And Martel turns a blind eye to the fact that he is doing business with a man whose objective is the very destruction of the West. Together, under Gabriel’s skilled hand, they will become an unlikely pair of heroes in the global war on terror. Reviewed by Kate Ayers.
I NEED A LIFEGUARD EVERYWHERE BUT THE POOL by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella (Humor/Essays)
Audiobook available, read by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella
The bestselling and “perennially hilarious” mother-daughter team is back with a new collection of stories from their real lives, guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Join Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella as they regret drunk-shopping online, try smell-dating, and explore the freedom of a hiatus from men --- a Guyatus. They offer a fresh and funny take on the triumphs and facepalm moments of modern life, showing that when it comes to navigating the crazy world we live in, you are always your own best lifeguard. Reviewed by Carole Turner.
IN THE DAYS OF RAIN: A Daughter, a Father, a Cult by Rebecca Stott (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Rebecca Stott
Rebecca Stott both adored and feared her father, Roger Stott, a high-ranking minister in the Brighton, England, branch of the Exclusive Brethren, a separatist fundamentalist Christian sect. Years later, when the Stotts broke with the Brethren after a scandal involving the cult’s leader, Roger became an actor and a compulsive gambler who left the family penniless and ended up in jail. IN THE DAYS OF RAIN is Rebecca Stott’s attempt to make sense of her childhood in the Exclusive Brethren, to understand her father’s role in the cult and in the breaking apart of her family, and to come to be at peace with her relationship with a larger-than-life figure whose faults were matched by a passion for life, a thirst for knowledge, and a love of literature and beauty. Reviewed by John Bentlyewski.
THE LATE SHOW by Michael Connelly (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Katherine Moennig
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none, as each morning she turns everything over to the day shift. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night she catches two assignments she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Against orders and her partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the investigations entwine, they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
LESS by Andrew Sean Greer (Romantic Comedy)
Audiobook available, read by Robert Petkoff
You are a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes --- it would be too awkward. And you can't say no --- it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. How do you arrange to skip town? You accept them all. Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.
REFUGE by Dina Nayeri (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Mozhan Marno and Youssif Kamal
An Iranian girl escapes to America as a child, but her father stays behind. Over 20 years, as she transforms from confused immigrant to overachieving Westerner to sophisticated European transplant, daughter and father know each other only from their visits. The longer they are apart, the more their lives diverge, but also the more each comes to need the other's wisdom and, ultimately, rescue. Meanwhile, refugees of all nationalities are flowing into Europe under troubling conditions. Wanting to help, but also looking for a lost sense of home, our grown-up transplant finds herself quickly entranced by a world that is at once everything she has missed and nothing that she has ever known. Reviewed by Allison Sharp.
THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS by Michael Robotham (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Lucy Price-Lewis
Agatha is pregnant and works part-time stocking shelves at a grocery store in a ritzy London suburb. As the hours of her shifts creep by in increasing discomfort, the one thing she looks forward to at work is catching a glimpse of Meghan, the effortlessly chic customer whose elegant lifestyle dazzles her. When Agatha learns from Meghan’s popular parenting blog that Meghan is pregnant again, and that their due dates fall within the same month, she finally musters up the courage to speak to her. Little does Meghan know that the mundane exchange she has with a grocery store employee during a hurried afternoon shopping trip is about to change the course of her not-so-perfect life forever. Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.
THE SMACK by Richard Lange (Thriller)
Rowan Petty is a conman down on his luck. He's flat broke, living out of cheap hotels, and wondering how it all went wrong. His car quits on him in Reno, and he takes a job there on the bottom rung of a lousy phone scam. When he's not swindling lonely widows, he tries to turn nickels into dimes at the poker table. One snowy night, he crosses paths with a sweet-talking hooker who's tired of the streets, and sparks fly. When an old friend of his turns up spreading a rumor about two million dollars in army money smuggled out of Afghanistan and stashed in an apartment in Los Angeles, it seems like a chance at the score of a lifetime. So Petty and the hooker head south, and straight into trouble. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE STREAK: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., and Baseball's Most Historic Record by John Eisenberg (Sports/History)
Audiobook available, read by Kyle McCarley
When Cal Ripken Jr. began his career with the Baltimore Orioles at age 21, he had no idea he’d beat the historic record of playing 2,130 games in a row set by Lou Gehrig, the fabled “Iron Horse” of the New York Yankees. Was his streak or Gehrig’s the more difficult achievement? When did someone first think it was a good idea to play in so many games without taking a day off? THE STREAK delves into this impressive but controversial milestone, unraveling Gehrig’s at times unwitting pursuit of that goal and Ripken’s fierce determination to play the game his way. Along the way, John Eisenberg dives deep into the history of the record and offers a portrait of the pastime in different eras. Reviewed by Ron Kaplan.
TWO NIGHTS by Kathy Reichs (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Coleen Marlo and Kim Mai Guest
Meet Sunday Night, a woman with physical and psychological scars, and a killer instinct. Sunnie has spent years running from her past, burying secrets and building a life in which she needs no one and feels nothing. But a girl has gone missing, lost in the chaos of a bomb explosion, and the family needs Sunnie’s help. Is the girl dead? Did someone take her? If she’s out there, why doesn’t she want to be found? It’s time for Sunnie to face her own demons --- because they just might lead her to the truth about what really happened all those years ago. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
WHAT WE LOSE by Zinzi Clemmons (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Nicole Lewis
Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother’s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor --- someone, or something, to love. In WHAT WE LOSE, we watch Thandi’s life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood. Reviewed by Maya Gittelman.
FIRST WE WERE IV by Alexandra Sirowy (Thriller/Suspense)
Audiobook available, narrated by C. S. E. Cooney
Izzie loves nothing more than her three best friends and the bond the four of them share and she’s terrified of their friendship falling apart when they go off to college. To bind them together, she decides to create something that will belong only to them. And so they dream up the Order of IV, a secret society devoted to mischief that rights wrongs and pays back debts. At first, it works like a charm, but when the Order of IV’s escapades get recognition beyond their wildest expectations, other people start wanting in. And soon, what started as a game of friendship is spiraling into something dangerous and beyond their control. Reviewed by Flor H., Teen Board Member.
THE GALLERY OF UNFINISHED GIRLS by Lauren Karcz (Magical Realism)
Mercedes Moreno is an artist. At least, she thinks she could be, even though she hasn’t been able to paint anything worthwhile in the past year. Despite Mercedes’s creative block, art starts to show up in unexpected ways. A piano appears on her front lawn one morning, and a mysterious new neighbor invites Mercedes to paint with her at the Red Mangrove Estate. At the Estate, Mercedes can create in ways she hasn’t ever before. But Mercedes can’t take anything out of the Estate, including her new-found clarity. Mercedes can’t live both lives forever, and ultimately she must choose between this perfect world of art and truth and a much messier reality. Reviewed by Caitlyn K., Teen Board Member.
I SEE LONDON, I SEE FRANCE by Sarah Mlynowski (Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction,Fiction, Friendship, Romance, Young Adult 12+)
Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and a half weeks travelling through Europe with her childhood best friend Leela. But their plans did not include Leela’s cheating ex-boyfriend showing up on the flight to London, falling for the cheating ex-boyfriend’s très hot friend, monitoring her mother’s spiraling mental health via texts or feeling like the rope in a friendship tug of war. Reviewed by Taylor F., Teen Board Member.
JUST A GIRL by Carrie Mesrobian (Family, Family Life, Fiction, Sex, Social Issues)
By her senior year of high school, Rianne has exhausted all the fun there is to have in a small-town. Volleyball season is winding down, the parties feel tired, and now that she’s in a serious relationship with reformed player Luke Pinsky, her wild streak has ended. Not that she ever did anything worse than most guys in her school...but she knows what everyone thinks of her. Including her parents. Divorced but now inexplicably living together again. With an uncomfortable home life and her once-solid group of friends now dissolving, the reasons for sticking around after high school are few. Reviewed by Taylor F., Teen Board Member.
THE LAKE EFFECT by Erin McCahan (Contemporary Romance)
It’s the summer after senior year, and Briggs Henry is out the door. He's leaving behind his ex-girlfriend and his parents’ money troubles for Lake Michigan, working a summer job as a personal assistant and living in a gorgeous Victorian on the shore. But then he gets there and his eighty-four-year-old boss tells him to put on a suit for her funeral. So begins a summer of social gaffes, stomach cramps, fraught beach volleyball games, moonlit epiphanies, a drawer full of funeral programs and mysterious girls-next-door who won't fall for Briggs' charms. Reviewed by Rachel R., Teen Board Member.
THE LAST MAGICIAN by Lisa Maxwell (Fantasy/Romance)
Audiobook available, narrated by Candace Thaxton
Esta is a talented thief, and she's been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink, a dark energy barrier surrounding Manhattan. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order before the Magician can destroy it and doom all with magic to a hopeless future. But in Old New York, nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. Reviewed by Makayla H., Teen Board Member.
THE LEAF READER by Emily Arsenault (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Lori Gardner
Marnie Wells knows that she creeps people out. So no one even bats an eye when Marnie finds an old book about reading tea leaves and starts telling fortunes. Then basketball star Matt Cotrell asks for a reading. He’s been getting emails from someone claiming to be his best friend, Andrea Quinley, who disappeared and is presumed dead. And then, the readings seem real. And, despite the fact that they’re telling Marnie things about Matt that make him seem increasingly dangerous, she can’t shake her initial attraction to him. In fact, it’s getting stronger. And that could turn out to be deadly. Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.
QUEER, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE: 23 People Who Changed the World, Written by Sarah Prager with illustrations by Zoe More O'Ferrall (Gay & Lesbian, History, Human Rights, Nonfiction, Social Issues, Young Adult 12+)
Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era. By turns hilarious and inspiring, the beautifully illustrated QUEER, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE is for anyone who wants the real story of the queer rights movement. Reviewed by Rebecca D., Teen Board Member.
ROSIE GIRL by Julie Shepard (Contemporary Fiction, Drama, Family, Fiction, Friendship, Mystery, Romance, Social Issues, Suspense, Thriller, Young Adult 12+)
After her father passes away, seventeen-year-old Rosie is forced to live with her abusive stepmom and her deadbeat boyfriend. Desperate for a reason to leave, Rosie finds a letter her dad wrote years ago, a letter confessing that Rosie's birth mother isn't dead, as she believed, but alive somewhere. Rosie resolves to find her birth mom, and she'll put everything on the line to make that happen. Things begin to unravel quickly and, as Rosie and her best friend Mary get closer to finally uncovering the truth about Rosie's mom, Rosie comes face to face with a secret she never saw coming. Reviewed by Rachel D., Teen Board Member.
WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS by Julia Walton (Fiction)
Adam has just been diagnosed with schizophrenia. It should be easy to separate the real from the not real, but Adam can't. As Adam starts fresh at a new school, he begins a drug trial that helps him ignore his visions. Suddenly everything seems possible, even love. When he meets Maya, a fiercely intelligent girl, he desperately wants to be the great guy that she thinks he is. But then the miracle drug begins to fail, and Adam will do anything to keep Maya from discovering his secret. Reviewed by Jessica K., Teen Board Member.
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