The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

The Burning Sky is about a young mage named Iolanthe Seabourne who discovers she has monumental powers and a terrifying destiny that awaits her. She, along with Prince Titus, who is nothing more than a figurehead for the Domain, his realm, must defeat the Bane in order to free the Domain from his crushing command, and win back Titus's power to rule.

What drew me to this book in the first place was its stunning cover art that graces it. You're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but the cover is the very thing that drew me to this particular book. After seeing it, I knew it was a book that I just had to read.

I'm glad that I did. The writing style and story sucked me in so hard that I felt as though I was part of the story, toiling along right beside Iolanthe and Titus as they went about their suicidal task of defeating the Bane. It's a book that will keep you up all night to finish it if you're not careful.

The ending is a non cliff hanger, but because the book is part of a trilogy, there are many unanswered questions left - enough that I dove right into the second book.

If you're a fan of fantasy and magic, I highly recommend this book. But, I warn you to be prepared to lose great chunks of time as you try to get to the end! 

-Amber

Check it out in the catalog here.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Amie Kaufman is at the top of her game right now.  I loved These Broken Stars, but what makes Illuminae so different is this book is dark. It's gritty, bloody and terrible.

It's not often you get a book that makes you seriously question whether or not there will be a good ending.  The format of the book is a dossier of interviews, surveillance footage, etc. Reading in this format didn't take me to long to adjust to and after a while, it all flowed seamlessly.

There is a lot of moral dilemma in this novel.  Whether is AIDAN trying to figure out how best to protect humans on the ship and deciding just who and what he is, to the Captain of the ship trying to do what's best for everyone.  And for being a dossier, it made me feel things.  I almost cried about 2/3 of the way in.

Why does this matter?  Because honestly, a book hasn't made me cry in quite a long time.  I don't know what that says about me... I do know this book also terrified me.  I don't like zombies, but this plague was so much more terrifying.  (DON'T read with your back to the door in a relatively dark room, when you're home alone.  Just a WARNING!)

The visuals were amazing.  There where coffee stains, fingerprints, blood even.  I felt like I was in that place, running alongside Kady or in the mind of AIDAN.

Check it out in our catalog here.

~ Kilie

Children's Books for When the World is Scary

There are a lot of terrible things happening in the world right now. Your kids may hear about it on the news or at school and chances are they will have questions or become frightened. Here at the library, we have some great book suggestions to help open dialogue about these scary times. Books about hope, kindness, and love. This is a good opportunity to explain to kids why some people do bad things, but that not all people are bad.

The Peace Book by Todd Parr

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

What's Love? by Shelley Rotner

Peace is an Offering by Annette LeBox

The Peace Tree From Hiroshima by Sandra Moore

What Does it Mean to be Kind? by Rana DiOrio

Andy and the Lion by James Henry Daugherty

Children Just Like Me by Barnabas Kindersley

How to Say it to Your Child When Bad Things Happen by Paul W. Coleman

Jenny is Scared: When Sad Things Happen in the World by Carol Shuman

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher is about a world where crystals power the realm. These

crystals give the airships their flight, as well as grow their food. The cities, or Spires as they are called, are built levels above the surface level, which is dangerous and inhabited by deadly beasts. This makes natural resources fairly scarce Because of this, everyone wants what everyone else has. Including other Spires.

Which leads us to the Privateer Captain Grim, a dishonorably discharged Fleet Captain. When his airship, the Predator, is badly damaged by an encounter with another Spire's battle ship after he tried to over take a plump Merchant ship, Captain Grim fears that it may take him years to come up with the funds, if ever, to repair her. It is at this time that his Spire's leader offers him a deal almost too good to pass up - make one delivery with no expectations of more, in exchange to have his ship outfitted with all the materials needed to repair her. It's a deal far too tempting for Captain Grim to pass up, and from there on, many interesting events transpire.

The Aeronaut's Windlass is labelled as Steampunk, and I wasn't sure what I was going to think when I picked it up. Steampunk is not a genre that I'm typically fond of, but since this one was by Jim Butcher, I thought I would give it a try. And I'm glad that I did! The Steampunk elements are not so overpowering as to distract from the story. Which I appreciated. However, this book takes a little bit to get into as one has to wade through a bit of technical jargon explaining how everything works. But once past that, the story truly begins to pick up pace.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and would highly recommend it to any Jim Butcher fans, and also encourage those not familiar with his work to give it a try as well.

Check it out in our catalog here.  

-Amber 

Staff Pick- Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Sarah Nickerson is a career-driven supermom living in an affluent Boston suburb. She leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband and three children. She is the VP of human

resources at Berkley Consulting, but also fits in taking kids to soccer, daycare, piano lessons...and tries to make it home for dinner.  It's a wonder this over-achieving, over-scheduled mom has time to breathe!

But on one fateful day, a quick phone call on the way to work and taking her eyes off the road for one second changes her life forever. A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world and she must learn to pay close attention to details around her, including her formerly absent mother. She has no awareness of food on the left side of her plate, or even her own left hand and must search for answers in her semi-world. 

It's a story of learning independence and finding healing and understanding that perhaps her new, true life - the one away from her former hectic, over-scheduled one - a life of happiness and peace is greater than all the success in the world. This is the first book I've read by Lisa Genova and I was wonderfully impressed. I look forward to reading more of Lisa's novels!

Check it out in our catalog here. 

-Staci