Archive for the ‘mystery’ Tag
New Books Highlight: Books You’ll Like if…
This week I want to show you three brand new books that share some traits with books you may have already read. We all know how it feels to hunt for a book that is kinda like the last great book you read. Sometimes it is hard to pin down exactly what you liked about that last book, but sometimes you know just what you’re looking for. Here are three you might like if…
If you like the pace and subjects of books by Ellen Hopkins like Identical and Tilt, or you liked the style and setting of Looking for Alaska by John Green you should try…
Escape Theory by Margaux Froley (A Keaton School Novel)
Devon has never really fit in at her prestigious California boarding school. Because she plans to study psychology at an even more prestigious college -Stanford University – she decides to use her lack of social life and her misfit status to her advantage by becoming a peer counselor. It seems fairly straightforward until the stunning suicide of a classmate, Jason Hutchins aka Hutch, rocks the school. Devon is called upon to hear her peers’ struggle with accepting the death, all the while struggling herself to understand how and why it happened. To make things trickier for Devon, she might have loved Hutch. And she might know more about his death than what the school wants students to know.
Sneak Peek! “Devon’s eye caught the harsh glare of the setting sun. She blinked and looked down, realizing she was rubbing her right palm where Hutch had kissed her before.” (Text copyright © 2013 by Margaux Froley)
If you like books by Meg Cabot and Lisi Harrison you should try…
Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg
Lexi is popular, has lots of great friends and a nice family…oh, except for their obsession with her younger sister’s beauty pageants, as though beauty was all that mattered. Lexi has always been the girl with a “great personality,” but what does that even mean? One day she decides she’s sick of being ignored by the guys she likes, by her family, by everyone. She wrangles her confidence – luckily it’s abundant -to step up and take the world on with her great personality, letting her inner beauty outshine everyone around her.
Sneak Peek! “Applying butt glue to my sister’s backside is, without question, not the first way I’d choose to spend a weekend.” (Text copyright © 2013 by Elizabeth Eulberg)
If you liked The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty, the quirky fantasy of books like A Wrinkle in Time and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente you should try…
A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty (The Colors of Madeleine Book One)
Madeleine Tully lives in rainy Cambridge, England, with her kooky mother. Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Cello – which may or may not be Fairyland – Elliot is desperately searching for his father who went missing a year ago on the same night his uncle was found dead. Things are amiss in Cello, it seems, where Dangerous Colors are raining destruction. When Elliot and Madeleine both discover a gap between their parallel worlds they begin to communicate and events in their lives begin to intertwine.
Sneak Peek! ” Madeleine Tully turned fourteen yesterday, but today she did not turn anything. Oh, wait. She turned a page.” (Text copyright © 2013 by Jaclyn Moriarty)
New Books Highlight: Steampunk
Do you geek steampunk? Here are three new titles that will get you dreaming of dirigibles, steam power, gears, gadgets, goggles, science and history.
The Lazarus Machine: A Tweed and Nightingale Adventure by Paul Crilley
This is the first book in Crilley’s new series, Tweed & Nightingale Adventures. True to steampunk form, it’s set in an alternate London in the year 1895. The city is tightly controlled by the secretive government, the Ministry. The possibly corrupt government is at a loss as to what to do when a destructive gang starts spreading mayhem around London and one name is on everyone’s lips: Professor Moriarty. Sebastian Tweed teams up with information broker Octavia Nightingale when his conman father is kidnapped by Moriarty. What they uncover in the computer-laden, automaton-filled world is more sinister than they could have imagined. Part sci-fi, part Sherlock, all awesome!
Sneak Peek! “Tonight, seventeen-year-old Sebastian Tweed was going to be the voice of a fifty-year-old woman. More specifically, he was going to be the voice of a Mrs. Henrietta Shaw – missing and presumed dead for over a year now. He wasn’t happy about it.” (Text copyright 2012 by Paul Crilley)
Legacy of the Clockwork Key: The Secret Order, Book One by Kristin Bailey
Another first in a new series, the Secret Order. When Meg’s parents are killed in a devastating fire, all that is left besides her life is a pocket watch. More than it seems, however, the watch turns out to be a clockwork key, one that only Meg can use. What does it unlock? Secrets, clues to a mystery only Meg can solve – with a little help from a possible love-interest. She begins to unravel the web of secrecy around a secret society, and an invention that could change the world but that Meg must destroy. If you like your steampunk with a little romance and a lot of intrigue, this is the book for you.
Sneak Peek! “Six months. It had only been six months. Heavy flakes of snow drifted past the black iron bars of the front gate. I watched one flutter and land on the muzzle of one of the enormous bronze lions standing guard.” (Text copyright 2013 by Kristin Bailey)
The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress
Another mystery-infused steampunk, this book is packed with action, humor, and kick-butt heroines. The three not-so-gentle ladies who make up the Friday Society – Cora, Michiko, and Nellie – meet and become partners in action when a ball which they are attending ends in murder. It’s up to them to combine their skills in science, combat, and sleight-of-hand, to solve the mystery. Even with their abundant intelligence, clever disguises, and alter egos, it’s hard to be sneaky – especially when there are eligible bachelors involved. But the three fight hard to save London from certain destruction at the hands of a nefarious woman exacting her revenge against the all-male Society of Heroes.
Sneak Peek! “And then there was an explosion. It was loud. It was bright. It was very explosion-y.” (Text copyright 2012 by Adrienne Kress)
New Books Highlight: An Out of YA Experience
There are still plenty of new books in the YA section, but this week I want to take a little walk over to a different New Books bookshelf in the library, the one for general fiction (or “Adult Fiction”). Many of you are reading books for adults anyway, so why not get a sense of some extra-specially awesome ones that have come out recently?! Here they are:
Yes, I know, Alexie is also a YA author. But his latest offering was published for a general/adult audience, and is shelved over with the adult fiction. These are short stories by the author famous for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. And they are just as awesome as that book.
For those of you who like a thriller, check out this one about a high school cheerleading squad who find themselves at the center of a suspicious tale. Mysterious deaths, a little in-fighting, and you’ve got yourself a great read. You’ll find it in the adult mystery section.
Science fiction to the max, 2312 takes place on Mercury at a time when disagreement in the solar system threatens its population and that of other near-Earth colonies. This book is a must for sci-fi fans!
Remember, all of these books are found in the adult fiction, mystery or sci-fi sections of Shorewood Library, but all of them are highly recommended for teens!
New Books Highlight: Mysteries
This week on the Shorewood shelves you’ll find some new mysteries waiting to be solved (or possibly not…). From a new take on Sherlock Holmes to a haunting tale by a very famous mystery writer, if you’re a fan of the genre you’re sure to be pleased:
Sherlock Holmes is 14 and we find him not at his familiar Baker Street address, that comes later, but staying in the English countryside while on break from school. The year is 1868 and even the relatively calm rolling farm country proves to be full of intrigue. Sherlock, expecting nothing but boredom during his vacation, is happy to be swept up in a mystery when two local men die from what appears to be the plague. Fans of the original Holmes stories, and any of its other incarnations, will love this one! (P.S. The sequel, Rebel Fire, is also available now!)
When Rachel’s brother, an addict who can’t seem to keep out of trouble, disappears, Rachel blames herself. And when an anonymous note arrives saying that he is in danger, Rachel knows she must do all she can to find and save him. She and Michah’s best friend Tyler set out on the trail with nothing more than a slim lead and a lot of hope.
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George
When she travels to the isolated and eerie Whidbey Island, near Seattle, Becca King does not leave her secrets behind her. Becca finds some solace in the friends she makes, especially Diana with whom she shares psychic abilities. This is the first in what promises to be a cycle of books about Becca and her friends, and the haunting mystery and romance that the encounter on Whidbey Island. Elizabeth George is a best-selling author of mysteries for adults, and this is her first offering for teen readers.
The Name of the Star
When Rory moves to London from Louisiana to attend school she knows things will be different. At first trying to keep up with classes and learn British slang takes all her time. But when copycat Jack the Ripper murders happen in her neighborhood and at the school, Rory gets pulled into the investigation. “Rippermania” takes over London and Rory finds herself at the center of a the mysterious killings.
A great murder mystery with a supernatural twist, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, is an exciting read filled with interesting characters, and fantastic setting, and a truly original plot.
