Camp Merrie-Seymour for Boys is the home to Ariel and Max for the summer. Six weeks without technology, living in the Jupiter cabin (all the cabins are named for planets) they quickly realize they are different from everyone else at camp. Sent there not to overcome their addiction to technology (the advertise goal of the camp) Max and Ariel are there because their father works for Merrie-Seymour and camp tuition is free for employees. The only ones not obsessed with getting a sweet taste of the internet, the boys of Jupiter quickly begin to win the cabin competition.
In short, this book is about dying. Yes it is sad, but also eye opening in showing how doctors are poorly equipped to deal effectively with the natural process of dying and the limits of medicine. Dr. Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital who also teaches at Harvard Medical School. In this insightful and worthwhile book, Dr. Gawande wonderfully tackles the question of whether the objective of medicine should be pure survival at any cost, including more pain and suffering, or about the quality of life and what it means to die with dignity and control.
Riley MacPherson's older sister, Lisa, committed suicide when Riley was just 2 years old, leaving her family changed forever. Now Riley has returned to her father's home shortly after his death to settle his estate and check on her angry, mentally ill brother. She soon finds evidence that much of her life has been a lie when an acquaintance suggests Riley was adopted. Then she finds evidence that Lisa may have faked her death at age 17 to escape a murder charge.
Vampires in Saint Louis? Yes, and they need help. Guilty Pleasures is the first of the Laurell K. Hamilton’s wildly popular Vampire Hunter stories. Anita Blake is a necromancer, with an affinity for the dead in all their guises, but that doesn’t mean she wants to work for them. When the Master Vampire of Saint Louis sends sexy Jean Paul to procure Anita’s help her main response is, “I don’t date vampires.
Don’t let the 2001 publication date of Jezebel scare you (it was written even earlier in 1992.) Because however alarming you may find life with no cell phone, it’s not the really scary thing here. Animal Control Officer Tony Parker has serious trouble. Beloved family pets are unpredictably, and without provocation, turning on their owners. Most alarming, Jezebel, the first dog to “turn” is on the loose. It’s up to Parker to find her, stop the emerging trend, protect his family . . . and keep his job.
The Honorable Sebastian Sullivan faces the same predicament as his two brothers: a wealthy uncle has promised to divide his fortune among them upon his death on the condition that they each rescue a “fallen woman” by marrying her. Sebastian’s once-lost love, Lady Serena Grantley, was born into nobility but has since been forced into working with her gamester stepfather. She doesn’t really qualify for rescue, but when she turns to Sebastian once again in her time of need, he must find a way to save their rekindled romance.
This was one of the shortest and most fun books I’ve read in a long while. The pictures of the frogs and toads are gorgeous. The pictures are why I picked up the book in the first place.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is a fast-paced murder mystery with lots of twists and turns throughout. It is July 2013 and Rachel, a middle-aged single woman, commutes by train to London every day. She has memorized everything about the trip, from the stops to the landscape, and has become particularly fascinated by a happy couple she sees almost everyday.
This novel is classified as high fantasy, but don't go in looking for another Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson clone. Award-winning author Ken Liu gives us a novel as sweeping and epic as you could possibly look for in fantasy's leading lights, but with a much different tone and flavor than you might be used to. Liu's world is based on Asian myth, specifically the Chinese Han dynasty, and Liu's writing marries the old to the new to become something altogether fresh and original.
