November
I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING AND REVIEWING THE FOLLOWING TITLES THIS MONTH:
Girlhood, courage, nature, and flight from a tyrant’s hand in post-frontier Montana.
The Swan Keeper is an historical, coming of age novel set in Northwest Montana's Mission Valley in the late 1920s.
Lillian Connelly loves trumpeter swans and vows to protect them from a hunter who is killing them and leaving their carcasses for the wolves and coyotes to ravage.
On her eleventh birthday Lilly’s family visits the Cattail Marsh to see the newly hatched cygnets. The family outing turns tragic when Dean Drake shows up with his shotgun and fires on not only the swans, but on Lilly’s family. Unable to prevent tragedy, Lillian witnesses Drake kill her father, injure her mother, and slaughter the bevy of trumpeter swans.
The sheriff, Charlie West, thinks that Lilly is reacting to the trauma and blaming Drake because of a previous conflict between Drake and her father. Lilly’s mother, sister, and her best friend, Jerome West, the sheriff’s son, all think the same thing: that Lilly is trying to make sense of a senseless accident.
Left alone to bring Dean Drake to justice, Lilly’s effort is subverted when Drake woos her sister, courts her mother, and moves into their home.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Milana Marsenich
Published: April 20th 2018
Publishing House: Open Books
Dakota Territory, 1866. Following the murders of a frontier fort’s politically connected sutler and his wife in their illicit off-post brothel, Lieutenant Martin Molloy and his long-suffering orderly, Corporal Daniel Kohn, are ordered to track down the killers and return with “boots for the gallows” to appease powerful figures in Washington. The men journey west to the distant outpost in a beautiful valley, where the soldiers inside the fort prove to be violently opposed to their investigations.
Meanwhile, Irish immigrant brothers Michael and Thomas O’Driscoll have returned from the brutal front lines of the Civil War. Unable to adapt to life as migrant farm laborers in peacetime Ohio, they reenlist in the army and are shipped to Fort Phil Kearny in the heart of the Powder River Valley. Here they are thrown into merciless combat with Red Cloud’s coalition of Native tribes fighting American expansion into their hunting grounds. Amidst the daily carnage, Thomas finds a love that will lead to a moment of violence as brutal as any they have witnessed in battle—a moment that will change their lives forever.
Blending intimate historical detail and emotional acuity, Wolves of Eden sets these four men on a deadly collision course in a haunting narrative that explores the cruelty of warfare and the resilience of the human spirit.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Kevin McCarthy
Hardcover, 304 pages
Expected publication: November 6th 2018
Publishing House: W. W. Norton Company
Till death do us part
When they fell in love back in law school, Natalie and Will Clarke joked that they were so brilliant, together they could plan the perfect murder. After fifteen rocky years of marriage, they had better hope they’re right.
Their young son Jacob’s principal is accused of molesting a troubled student. It’s a horrifying situation—and the poison spreads rapidly. One night before bed, Jacob tells Natalie he is a victim, too. In that moment, her concept of justice changes forever. Natalie decides the predator must die.
To shelter Jacob from the trauma of a trial, Natalie concocts an elaborate murder plot and Will becomes her unwilling partner. The Clarkes are about to find out what happens when your life partner becomes your accomplice—and your alibi.
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Author: Margot Hunt
Paperback, 336 pages
Expected publication: December 11th 2018
Publishing House: Mira Books
Five years after being kidnapped, Elian's captor sends him into the mall--with a bomb strapped to his chest.
Across the mall is Maya, a girl whose crippling anxiety holds her prisoner in its own way.
Whether it's chance or fate, Maya keeps Eli from ending them all. And now nothing is the same. Drawn together by their dark pasts, Maya and Eli know it takes only seconds for their entire worlds to change. But time will tell if meeting each other will change them for better or worse.
Genres: Contemporary / Fiction / Thriller / YA
Author: Kevin Emerson
Hardcover, 400 pages
Expected publication: November 20th 2018
Publishing House: Crown Books for Young Readers
Escape into the story of a brave and unusual girl brimming with the ancient powers of the forest. From Robert Beatty, the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Serafina books, comes a thrilling new series filled with the history, mystery, and magic of the Great Smoky Mountains. Kirkus Reviews described WILLA OF THE WOOD as "A moving, atmospheric journey of hope."
Move without a sound. Steal without a trace.
Willa, a young night-spirit, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the cabins of the day-folk under cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work--the day-folk kill whatever they don't understand--but Willa will do anything to win the approval of the padaran, the charismatic leader of the Faeran people.
When Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in the day-folk world, she calls upon the old powers of her beloved grandmother, and the unbreakable bonds of her forest allies, to escape. Only then does she begin to discover the shocking truth: that not all of her day-folk enemies are the same, and that the foundations of her own Faeran society are crumbling. What do you do when you realize that the society you were born and raised in is rife with evil? Do you raise your voice? Do you stand up against it?
As forces of unfathomable destruction encroach on her forest home, Willa must decide who she truly is, facing deadly force with warmest compassion, sinister corruption with trusted alliance, and finding a home for her longing heart.
Genres: Middle Grade / Historical Fiction / Fantasy
Author: Robert Beatty
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published: July 10th 2018
Publishing House: Disney-Hyperion
Collecting the four-part story arc, Vikings: Uprising, following Ragnar Lothbrok and his band of Viking raiders.
A four-part story arc following Ragnar Lothbrok after the events of the Paris raid, and Lagertha and her shield maidens, as they must stop an uprising.
'Uprising' follows the story of what happened after Ragnar and his crew's raid on Paris. Ragnar is a broken man, but an attempt on his life causes him to take drastic action. Meanwhile, his former wife Lagertha travels to the holy place of Uppsala seeking a sign from the gods, but finds only destruction. Lagertha and her shield maidens must find those responsible.
Genres: Graphic Novel / Historical Fiction
Author: Cavan Scott
Illustrator: Staz Johnson
Paperback, 128 pages
Published: September 12th 2017
Publishing House: Titan Comics
Winner of the Best Artist Award at the Angoulême Festival! Lushly illustrated and one of the most stunningly beautiful graphic novels of the 21st century.
The story takes place in Paris during the German Occupation and stars a memorable heroine in the French Resistance fighter named Jeanne. With the help of an apolitical cat burglar named François, she tries to save her comrades, including her missing sister Cécile, from the Gestapo. They walk in the places between shadows, as Gibrat uses the evocative Paris rooftops and river barges on the Seine almost as separate characters. The book also includes a portfolio of pin-ups featuring its heroine.
Nominated for two 2018 Eisner Awards, for Best U.S. Edition of International Material and Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art) for creator Jean-Pierre Gibrat as well as a 2018 Harvey nomination for Best European Book.
Genres: Graphic Novel / Historical Fiction
Author: Jean-Pierre Gibrat
Paperback, 144 pages
Published: February 7th, 2017 (first published 2010)
Publishing House: IDW Publishing
That’s it in regards to any fixed reading plans for me for November. I really have a hankering for an epic fantasy…should I be able to read ahead of schedule, I have to obey the crave!!! What are you reading this month. Any of the same titles?
