Tuesday, September 30, 2014

March ~ 2013

46. Orange is the New Black:My Year in a Women's Prison...Piper Kerman

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With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years ago. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187-424—one of the millions of women who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules, where the uneasy relationship between prisoner and jailer is constantly and unpredictably recalibrated. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there.


47. Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder...Lucy Jane Miller

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Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a condition affecting at least one in twenty children who experience sensations in taste, touch, sound, sight, smell, movement, and body awareness in a vastly different manner from how other children their ages do. What may be typical activities for most kids are a daily struggle that may result in social, emotional, or academic problems.

Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, the best-known SPD researcher in the world, brings together a lifetime of study to teach parents and others the signs and symptoms of SPD and its four major subtypes; ways the disorder is diagnosed and treated; sensory strategies for living with the condition; and methods to help SPD kids thrive.



48. Mixed Signals: Understanding and Treating Your Child's Sensory Processing Issues...Mary Lashno

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Mary Lashno, an occupational therapist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, shares her extensive experience working with children who don't process sensory information properly.



49. Extraction (Short Story)...Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

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In New Orleans' French Quarter, the Tooth Fairy isn't a benevolent sprite who slips money under your pillow at night....he's a mysterious old recluse who must be appeased with teeth--lest he extract retribution. When young Diogenes Pendergast loses a tooth, however, his skeptical older brother Aloysius is determined to put the legend to the test...with dire consequences.

50. Faerie Winter...Janni Lee Simner

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Liza is a summoner. She can draw life to herself, even from beyond the grave.
And because magic works both ways, she can drive life away. Months ago, she used
her powers to banish her dangerous father and to rescue her mother, lost in
dreams, from the ruined land of Faerie.

Born in the wake of the war
between humanity and Faerie, Liza lived in a world where green things never
slept, where trees sought to root in living flesh and bone. But now the forests
have fallen silent. Even the evergreens' branches are bare. Winter crops won't
grow, and the threat of starvation looms. And deep in the forest a dark,
malevolent will is at work. To face it, Liza will have to find within herself
something more powerful than magic alone.

Here at last is the sequel to
Bones of Faerie, for all those fans of dark fantasy and dystopian
adventure who thrilled to Janni Lee Simner's unique vision of a postapocalyptic
world infused with magic.

Here's the sequel to the book I read last month that I thought was a little young for YA. This one was a bit better...she seems to have found the groove between juvenile and young adult. I still love the premise of this book (see last paragraph of quote above.) I will definitely try to remember to read the third book when it comes out later this year.



51. Beautiful Redemption...Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

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Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?

Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly
small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his
dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of
Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be
forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan
awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal:
to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves.

Back in Gatlin,
Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan's return, vowing to do whatever it
takes -- even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the
family and friends Ethan left to protect.

Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their
fate, in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series.

I finally got to read this book! Great ending to a good series...now to decide if I want to watch the movie!



52. Lost Girls...Andrew Pyper
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Attorney Bartholomew Crane doesn't belong in the small town of Murdoch. And the
town of Murdoch doesn't want him there. Even Crane's client, a teacher accused
of killing two girls, his own students, doesn't seem to care if Crane gets him
off or not. But Bartholomew Crane has come to Murdoch to try his first murder
case -- and he intends to win at all costs.

That is, until the case
takes an unexpected turn. For as Crane begins to piece together a defense for
his client, he finds himself being drawn into a bizarre legend at the heart of
the town's history -- a legend that is slowly coming alive before his eyes.

Unnerved by visions he sees on Murdoch's dark streets, by the ringing of
a telephone down the deserted hallway of his hotel, Crane is beginning to
suspect that what is happening to him is happening for a reason. And that the
two lost girls of Murdoch may be intricately tied to the town's shameful history
... and to a dark episode in his own long-forgotten past.

53. The Demonologist...Andrew Pyper

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Fans of The Historian won’t be able to put down this spellbinding
literary horror story in which a Columbia professor must use his knowledge of
demonic mythology to rescue his daughter from the Underworld.


Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic
literature, with special expertise in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Not that
David is a believer—he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and
nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and
invites him to travel to Venice and witness a “phenomenon,” he turns her down.
She leaves plane tickets and an address on his desk, advising David that her
employer is not often disappointed.

That evening, David’s wife announces she is leaving him. With his life
suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old
daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. The girl has recently been stricken by
the same melancholy moods David knows so well, and he hopes to cheer her up and
distract them both from the troubles at home.

But what happens in Venice will change everything.

First, in a tiny attic room at the address provided by the Thin Woman, David
sees a man restrained in a chair, muttering, clearly insane… but could he truly
be possessed? Then the man speaks clearly, in the voice of David’s dead father,
repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left
scars—and a mystery—behind.

When David rushes back to the hotel, he discovers Tess perched on the roof’s
edge, high above the waters of the Grand Canal. Before she falls, she manages to
utter a final plea: Find me.

What follows is an unimaginable journey for David Ullman from skeptic to true
believer. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of
Paradise Lost, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter
and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever.

I definitely didn't find these books "terrifying" or "spine-chilling" (as the reviews said), but I still thought they were pretty good stories. I will read more of his books when the library gets them in.



54. The Guardians...Andrew Pyper

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From acclaimed author Andrew Pyper, a gripping novel of psychological suspense about four men haunted by a secret from childhood.

There's no such thing as an empty house...

Trevor, Randy, Ben and Carl grew up together in the small town of Grimshaw as many boys do--playing hockey on the local team, the Guardians, and forging friendships that run deep. Twenty-four years later, Trevor, recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and faced with his own mortality, learns that his old friend Ben has committed suicide. He returns to Grimshaw to pay his respects and to reunite with Randy and Carl.

But going home means going back to the memories of a sinister crime that occurred in the abandoned house at 321 Caledonia Street--a crime that claws its way into the present, leaving its indelible mark on everyone. Chilling to the core and gripping in the extreme, The Guardians is taut psychological suspense that will leave you at once breathless and moved.

Definitely more suspenseful than the last couple of his books, but I still don't see the whole "chilling to the core and gripping in the extreme" that the reviews give it. Still, it was a good story and I would recommend it.

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