This week’s Bookish Scene: Project 52 theme is „April Showers“ and the timing couldn’t have been any better because a) well, it’s obviously April and b) it was raining EVERY DAY this week. So finding the right setting was pretty easy but it was a little tricky to catch the raindrops with my phone camera without going outside and risking getting my books wet (what a nightmare :O). (mehr …)
Rund eineinhalb Jahr ist es her, dass der abtrünnige Sohn von FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast im Dickicht des brasilianischen Dschungels verschwunden ist, da taucht Alban plötzlich direkt vor der Haustür seines verhassten Vaters auf. Aus einem versöhnlichen Wiedersehen wird jedoch nichts, denn Pendergast und sein Mündel Constance können können nur noch den Tod des gefesselt vor ihren Füßen liegenden jungen Mannes feststellen. Dem Agenten ist schnell klar, dass ihm hier jemand eine ganz spezielle Botschaft übermitteln will, doch wer kann es überhaupt geschafft haben, seinen diabolischen Sohn mit seiner geradezu brillanten kriminellen Energie in eine tödliche Falle zu locken? Auch das NYPD steht angesichts des Mordes vor einem Rätsel, vor allem das extrem gestörte Vater-Sohn-Verhältnis und die erschreckende Gleichgültigkeit Pendergasts über den Verlust Albans wirft für die Ermittler viele Fragen auf. Pendergast selbst verfolgt jedoch eigene Pläne und setzt zu einem Alleingang an, als bei der Obduktion des Toten ein äußerst seltener Edelstein im Magen seines Sohnes gefunden wird und ihn die Spur des Steins zu einer verlassenen Mine in der Wüste Kaliforniens führt. Doch in den dunklen Schächten des ehemaligen Bergwerks lauert auf Pendergast eine tödliche Gefahr… (mehr …)
Introvert Rose Franklin just escaped the party for her eleventh birthday and can finally try out the new bike she got from her father when she spots an eerie turquoise glow beside her path. When she gets off her bike to take a closer look at the light the ground beneath her feet suddenly gives in, causing Rose to fall several meters into the earth and pass out. Waking up again she finds herself in giant hole with some odd glowing carvings in the wall – but the most bizarre thing is yet to come: Getting rescued by firemen and being pulled out of that hole she takes a look back to where she came from and discovers that she had landed in the palm of a giant metal hand…
17 years later Rose is a scientist at the University of Chicago and gets in contact with the odd artefact a second time when the NSA takes an interest in the giant hand and asks Rose to try what the US military couldn’t succeed in for all these past years: to solve the mystery of the artefact and find an explanation for its origin and purpose. And unlike the army Rose needs only a few months to make progress with her research – and her discovery is mind-blowing…
When it comes to my trusted bookish friends there seem to be three authors that can easily create a mass hysteria whenever they have a new book coming out (and also every time in between^^): Patrick Ness (of whom I’ve read only three books so far but can definitely already see why everybody loves him/his stories), Maggie Stiefvater (whose books I honestly couldn’t be any less excited about because they’re so not my cup of tea, I’m afraid) and Victoria (or V.E.) Schwab who to me seems to have the biggest fandom of those three – at least if I take my Twitter timeline as a benchmark. Since I had never read a Schwab book I felt that it was about time to give one of her novels a try and „Vicious“ seemed to be the best choice for me because come on, a story about people with superpowers and two villains as the main characters? That’s so right up my alley that I just couldn’t resist in the end and all the praise for this book made me super excited for it. (mehr …)
Today is Earth Day which is also the theme of this week’s Bookish Scene: Project 52 and to be honest I had absolutely no idea what kind of picture I could take or even which book would fit the theme. (mehr …)
After suffering a breakdown when her private life suddenly collapsed and left her all on her own, Jude runs away from London and tries to leave her problems and worries behind. Thinking back of the trip she did the previous summer with her husband she decides to flee to Scotland and seeks refuge in the small city of Wigtown, where she hopes to be able to get her life sorted out again and to hide from her painful past. Her first destination after arriving in the little village is Lowland Glen Books, an old bookstore she had discovered during her vacation and which seems to be the perfect place to take her mind off things and make her calm down again. When Lowell Glen, the owner of the store who seems to be just as chaotic as his business, finds the desperate woman in his shop he immediately offers her a job and a place to stay for a while to help her out of her misery. For Jude being able to spend her days surrounded by books and far away from her messed-up life in London feels like heaven, but when a young woman suddenly shows up on Lowell’s doorstep and claims to be his daughter from an old affair, her new life soon gets complicated again and might even lead to the exposure of the secrets that she wanted to leave behind for good… (mehr …)
Brandon Sanderson’s „Calamity“, the final installment in the Reckoners trilogy, has been one of my most anticipated 2016 releases since I read the final page of „Firefight“ and I have been looking forward to reading it for a whole year. I was not only excited about how David and his Reckoners team would deal with the loss of their leader and mentor after Prof had been corrupted by his Epics powers and embraced his dark side in effort to save the city of Babylon Restored and if they would be able to find a way to defeat the Epics for good or at least stop the force that is turning every one of them evil sooner or later, but I had also high expectations because Sanderson already overwhelmed me with the perfection of his conclusion to the original Mistborn trilogy and I had hoped for nothing less than an equally satisfying ending to David’s story. And let me already spill it out so that I can get it over with: I’m not really happy with the ending of Reckoners series. (mehr …)
April is Autism Awareness Month which is a campaign by the Autism Society to „promote autism awareness, autism acceptance and to draw attention to the tens of thousands facing an autism diagnosis each year.“ To show solidarity and go along with the Autism Awareness Day (April 2) motto „Light it up blue“, this week’s theme for Bookish Scene: Project 52 is „Blue Ombré Spines“ which not only was the perfect opportunity to show some of my favorite books but also to make use of the blue wall of my bedroom 😀 (mehr …)
Die Bewohner des kleinen Küstenstädtchen Harmony Bay im amerikanischen Oregon bereiten sich im Sommer 1983 in der für sie typischen Gemütlichkeit auf die Feierlichkeiten zum Unabhängigkeitstag vor, als von ihnen unbemerkt plötzlich das Grauen in den Ort Einzug hält: Ein Gefangenentransport der Regierung kommt auf einer Küstenstraße von der Strecke ab und zerschellt an den Klippen – die beiden Fahrer können nur noch tot aus dem Führerhaus geborgen werden. Was Sheriff Cody aber noch mehr beunruhigt ist die Tatsache, dass die Fracht des Transporters spurlos verschwunden und im Laderaum des Wagens nichts außer einer Unmenge an Blut zu finden ist. Nur wenig später kommt es in Harmony Bay zu einem mysteriösen Todesfall, als ein junger Mann plötzlich leblos in der örtlichen Kneipe gefunden wird – die Todesursache gibt Cody und seinen Kollegen zunächst Rätsel auf. Als die Obduktion des Toten dann aber ergibt, dass der Mann im Schlaf auf äußerst grauenvolle Weise getötet wurde, läuten in Harmony Bay die Alarmglocken: Ist der entflohene Gefangene für den Mord verantwortlich? Und warum machen die Regierungsbeamten ein solches Geheimnis um die Identität des Entflohenen? (mehr …)
Like most of the orphans who lost their parents much too early Locke Lamora has spent his childhood in the streets of Camorr and survived on his own by quickly learning how to trick people who had more luck (and money) than himself. But his special talents didn’t stay unnoticed for long and so he soon was taken in charge by the Thiefmaker who trained him along with other chiefs of his age and taught them how to master their skills. Locke didn’t take long to establish quite a reputation for being one of the best thieves in Camorr but also had to learn the hard way that even for criminals their are rules they have to obey – and this lession almost cost him his life. With the help of Father Chains, a pretended blind priest who ran his own gang of young thieves, Locke escaped death narrowly and was introduced to other boys and girls who grew up just like he did. Joining the so-called Gentleman Bastards he apprenticed to Father Chains and over the years became infamous as the „Thorn of Camorr“, a living legend who is able to deceive even the wealthiest and most influential people in the city. But when a faceless killer comes to Camorr and and begins violently infiltrating the inner circles of the city’s ruthless ruler, even the legendary Thorn of Camorr seems to have found his ultimate challenge… (mehr …)
