Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Hundreds of years ago, a group of people left their damaged world behind and sailed to another world, leaving behind technology and all of the problems that it caused.  A new world was set up, but that world remained far from perfect.  This world is ripe for change.  This world needs a strong, fair leader.

Kelsea Raleigh Glynn is not your average princess.  She is not unattractive, but she wouldn't get a lot of notice on the streets of New London.  She also could stand to lose a few pounds as a member of the Queens's Guard reminded her during training.  However, there is something different about her.  She is nothing like her mother, Elyssa, nor her uncle, who is the current ruler of Tearling.

 For reasons that Kelsea doesn't understand, she was sent away as a baby and kept hidden by two of her mother's servants until she turned nineteen.  She doesn't know who her father is, and she doesn't understand the power of the sapphire that hangs around her neck.  She tries to win over the Queen's Guard, and the outspoken Lazarus, but she doesn't know who to trust, or how to rule.  Can she trust the thief, Fetch?

 She has also angered the Red Queen because she has stopped the shipments of slaves to Mortmesne. If the treaty her mother signed is broken, then Mortmesne will invade Tearling.  The last time that happened, it was a slaughter.

Can Kelsea win over the Queen's Guard?  Are they even to be trusted?  Who is Fetch, and why does he show up at odd moments?  Who is her father?  What was her mother really like?

I really liked this book.  I liked this book enough that book II is at my feet waiting to be picked up and started.  Fetch and Lazarus have piqued my curiosity.   I know you will like them too.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Every single one of us knows a Don Tillman.  He's the guy who would make a great husband, but he doesn't quite fit in.  He stays true to his Standardized Meal System by eating the same meals each week.  He is a well established college professor of genetics. He has a total of three friends, unless you count Gene and Claudia's children. Don is just wired differently from the rest of us.

Don realizes he is lonely.  He feels that he needs a female life partner.  His friend, Daphne, once told him that he would make someone a wonderful husband, but Don is just not sure, so he creates a questionnaire for his prospective life partner.  The prospective partner cannot smoke, drink, or wear a lot of makeup.  Enter Rosie, a "barmaid" who smokes, cusses like a sailor, drinks, and is a vegan.  Suddenly there is the Jacket Incident, the Father Project, and the Rosie Project.

If you are looking for a couple of great characters, humor, and a fast pace, this is the book for you.  I am now a member of the Don Tillman fan club.  Lobster, anyone?

                                             The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Since I was a child in Sunday School class, I had heard the stories of Jacob and his twelve sons, and Joseph and his coat of many colors.  Here is a recap.  Isaac, Jacob's father, was the boy whose father almost sacrificed him at the altar until God stopped him.  Flash forward to Isaac and his wife, Rebecca and their twin sons.  Jacob and Esau compete with each other up until their father is on his death bed.  Since Esau was the "firstborn," he had the rights to his father's blessing.  Esau was hairy, and his brother, Jacob was not, so Rebecca told her favorite son, Jacob, to put sheep's wool on his arms to fool his father and steal the blessing from his brother.  He did just that.  However, he had to flee from his brother's wrath and ended up in Canaan looking for work.

When he arrives in Canaan, he finds himself working for a man named Laban.  Laban had two daughters,  Leah and Rachel.  Jacob wants to marry Rachel, but ends up marrying Leah first  (long story), then Rachel, then he sleeps with their handmaidens.  Out of these unions come twelve sons, and one daughter, Dinah.

Dinah grows up as the only girl and as the story in Genesis goes, she visits the king in Shechem, and falls in love with the king's son.  What happens after that is not only tragic, but horrific.  This is Dinah's story from her perspective and what it was like to grow up in Jacob's clan and then travel to Egypt.

This is the Biblical story told from a woman's perspective.  It also reminds us that there have been many strong women throughout the ages.  Dinah, whose "name - two syllables, one high, one sweet - summon up the innumerable smiles and tears, sighs and dreams of a human life."

5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The book creeped me out!  I mean, it really did.  I had nightmares for three days while I was reading this book.  Did those nightmares stop me from reading the book?  Absolutely not.  I was hooked, and when a book invades my dreams, that means that it is having a profound affect on me.

The Mother ship is sitting in the sky.  What do the "Others' want?  Can we be peaceful?  The 1st Wave caused humans to lose all electricity.  There are planes falling from the sky and cars and trucks that have just stopped on the highways.  Transportation that we once knew is no more.  The 2nd Wave is coastal destruction.  The 3rd Wave was a terrible disease that was passed to humans from birds.  This virus is similar to Ebola and most humans never survive the illness.  Cassie's mother didn't.  The 4th Wave is the Silencers.  These are assassins who are sent to kill those remaining people.  Cassie lost her father to the Silencers.

What is the 5th Wave?  How do the "Others" understand human nature so well?  Why do they want to rid the planet of humans?  Cassie is a plucky survivor who only wants to get to her brother and save him from the horrors of the camp.  She knows there are others like her, but how will she know they aren't "Others?"

This book is the first in a series, so there is a cliffhanger at the end of the first book.  I must prepare for the nightmares because I am going to read the second book in the series as soon as I can.  Join me, won't you?

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Twins Cath and Wren are heading to college.  Wren told Cath earlier in the summer that she didn't want to be her roommate any longer.  Wren is an extrovert, but Cath is anxiety ridden and into writing fanfiction for the Simon Snow book series (think Harry Potter).  Her roommate seems weird, and her roommate's boyfriend is always around.  Sometimes it's just easier to disappear into the world of Simon Snow.

As Cath learns she can manage without her sister, she also has to come to grips with the fact that her family would be considered dysfunctional.  She uses her writing to help her deal with her insecurity issues and the fact that she really doesn't have any friends. But in reality, her writing starts to help her make friends.  Enter Reagan and Levi.  Reagan is Cath's roommate, and surprise! Levi is not Reagan's boyfriend- anymore.

The magical world of Simon Snow and the world of Cath Avery meld into an enjoyable read.  Issues are addressed that all college students must deal with at one time or another.

Rosie book 2015-2016

45 Pounds More or Less by K. A. Barson

                                            

What do you do if you are in your aunt's wedding and you want to find a dress that flatters you and makes you feel thinner?  Ann wants to lose weight, but weight has been a lifelong struggle for her.  Her mother is a size 6, and eats healthy all the time.  Ann just doesn't have the willpower or the interest to lose weight.  She knows what she needs to do to lose the weight. She has read countless books, watched shows, and even tried infomercial food.

Ann starts to make changes in her lifestyle when she starts working at the Twisted Pretzel and starts earning her own money and meeting new people.  She gains the self-confidence to make positive changes in her life.  She also learns who her friends are- and which so-called friends really are not her friends.  She also realizes that her mother has her own food issues.

Anyone who has ever had food issues will be able to relate to this book. Characters in the book have issues with too much food consumption and too little food consumption.  Children who see us dealing with our food issues can be affected by our behavior, and this is also addressed.

If you feel you don't have food issues and never have, this book will remind to be s little gentler and kinder to those who do.

Rosie book 2015-2016

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Eighteen year old Celaena Sardothien has spent the last year toiling in the salt mines of Endovier.  What was her crime?  She was the best assassin in the land, and she was caught and sentenced to a place where most people do not survive more than a month.

But who is she?  She was found another assassin nearly drowned and frozen when she was eight years old.  He raised her and trained her to be Adarlan's assassin, until one day she is escorted from the mines of Endovier.  She doesn't speak much of her past, but it is clear that there is more that the reader doesn't know.

Celaena is offered a deal by the Crown Prince of Adarlan and the captain of the guard, Chaol Westfall.  If she wins the competition, she becomes the royal assassin, and she will eventually win her freedom.

Once the competition begins, some of the participants start turning up dead.  Celaena knows that something doesn't feel right about all of this, and there is something evil about this kingdom and the ruler.

This book kept my attention, and I have just finished the second book.  Hurry up, MCPL readers, I need Book Three!

Great quotes from the book -
"Libraries were full of ideas - perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons."

"No, I can survive on my own - if given the proper reading material.'

"Names are not important.  It's what lies inside of you that matters."