Twelve Fantastical Reads Recently Added to the Lake County
Library System
A Sudden Light by Garth Stein
The bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
presents a long-awaited new novel in which a boy trying to save his parents’
marriage uncovers a vast legacy of family secrets.
In the summer of 1990, fourteen-year-old Trevor Riddell gets
his first glimpse of Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber
fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant whole trees and
is set on a huge estate overlooking Seattle’s Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt
parents have begun a trial separation, and his father, Jones Riddell, has
brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with his sister,
Serena, dispatch the ailing and elderly Grandpa Samuel to a nursing home, sell
off the house and property for development, divide up the profits, and live
happily ever after.
But as Trevor explores the house’s secret stairways and
hidden rooms, he discovers a spirit lingering in Riddell House whose agenda is
at odds with the family plan. Only Trevor’s willingness to face the dark past
of his forefathers will reveal the key to his family’s future.
Spellbinding and atmospheric, A Sudden Light is rich with
unconventional characters, scenes of transcendent natural beauty, and
unforgettable moments of emotional truth that reflect Garth Stein’s outsized
capacity for empathy and keen understanding of human motivation—a triumphant
work of a master storyteller at the height of his power. –Amazon Description
Bathing the Lion by Jonathon Carroll
In Jonathan Carroll's surreal masterpiece, Bathing the Lion,
five people who live in the same New England town go to sleep one night and all
share the same hyper-realistic dream. Some of these people know each other;
some don’t.
When they wake the next day all of them know what has
happened. All five were at one time “mechanics,” a kind of cosmic repairman
whose job is to keep order in the universe and clean up the messes made both by
sentient beings and the utterly fearsome yet inevitable Chaos that periodically
rolls through, wreaking mayhem wherever it touches down—a kind of infinitely
powerful, merciless tornado. Because the job of a mechanic is grueling and
exhausting, after a certain period all of them are retired and sent to
different parts of the cosmos to live out their days as "civilians."
Their memories are wiped clean and new identities are created for them that fit
the places they go to live out their natural lives to the end.
For the first time all retired mechanics are being brought
back to duty: Chaos has a new plan, and
it's not looking good for mankind... –
Amazon Description
Bitter Greens : a novel by Kate Forsyth
The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes
alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and
the redemptive power of love
French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished
from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of
scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur
Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier,
is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens...
After Margherita’s father steals parsley from the walled
garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both
hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl.
Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by
him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the
center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction
and betrayal, love and superstition.
Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that
someone will hear her. One day, a young man does.
Award-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the
stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned
Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an
enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one
remarkable woman.
Dreamer's Pool : a Blackthorn & Grim novel by Juliet
Marillier
Award-winning author Juliet Marillier “weaves magic,
mythology, and folklore into every sentence on the page” (The Book Smugglers).
Now she begins an all-new and enchanting series that will transport readers to
a magical vision of ancient Ireland....
In exchange for help
escaping her long and wrongful imprisonment, embittered magical healer
Blackthorn has vowed to set aside her bid for vengeance against the man who
destroyed all that she once held dear. Followed by a former prison mate, a
silent hulk of a man named Grim, she travels north to Dalriada. There she’ll
live on the fringe of a mysterious forest, duty bound for seven years to assist
anyone who asks for her help.
Oran, crown prince of
Dalriada, has waited anxiously for the arrival of his future bride, Lady
Flidais. He knows her only from a portrait and sweetly poetic correspondence
that have convinced him Flidais is his destined true love. But Oran discovers
letters can lie. For although his intended exactly resembles her portrait, her
brutality upon arrival proves she is nothing like the sensitive woman of the
letters.
With the strategic
marriage imminent, Oran sees no way out of his dilemma. Word has spread that
Blackthorn possesses a remarkable gift for solving knotty problems, so the
prince asks her for help. To save Oran from his treacherous nuptials,
Blackthorn and Grim will need all their resources: courage, ingenuity, leaps of
deduction, and more than a little magic. – Amazon Description
Flight of the Golden Harpy by Susan Klaus
Kari, a young woman, returns to the jungle planet of Dora
after ten years in Earth’s schools determined to unravel the mysteries
surrounding the harpies, a feral species with the appearance half-bird,
half-human.
The human colonists believe harpies are dangerous animals,
which are known to steal women. The creatures are hunted like wild game, their
wings considered rare trophies. But Kari distrusts these rumors. When she was
attacked by a monster in the jungle as a child, a male harpy with rare golden
coloring rescued her.
Constant hunting by men has driven the harpies to the brink
of extinction. Is Kari’s savior, the elegant golden harpy, is still alive? If
so, how long can he and his flock survive the ravages of mankind?
Susan Klaus's Flight of the Golden Harpy is an imaginative
and romantic fantasy novel that questions what it means to be human. –Amazon Description
The Boy Who Drew Monsters : a novel by Keith Donohue
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen
Child comes a hypnotic literary horror novel about a young boy trapped inside
his own world, whose drawings blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years
earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors.
Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends
his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no
one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear
strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from
the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, who fill her head with
stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach,
frantically searching for a strange apparition running wild in the dunes. And
the boy's only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of
the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they
see, only he knows the truth behind the frightful occurrences as the outside
world encroaches upon them all.
In the tradition of The Turn of the Screw, Keith Donohue's
The Boy Who Drew Monsters is a mesmerizing tale of psychological terror and
imagination run wild, a perfectly creepy read for a dark night. -Amazon
Description
The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
Full of magic, mystery, and romance, an enchanting steampunk
fantasy debut in the bestselling vein of Trudi Canavan and Gail Carriger.
Orphaned as a child, Octavia Leander was doomed to grow up
on the streets until Miss Percival saved her and taught her to become a
medician. Gifted with incredible powers, the young healer is about to embark on
her first mission, visiting suffering cities in the far reaches of the
war-scarred realm. But the airship on which she is traveling is plagued by a
series of strange and disturbing occurrences, including murder, and Octavia
herself is threatened.
Suddenly, she is caught up in a flurry of intrigue: the
dashingly attractive steward may be one of the infamous Clockwork Daggers—the
Queen’s spies and assassins—and her cabin-mate harbors disturbing secrets. But
the danger is only beginning, for Octavia discovers that the deadly conspiracy
aboard the airship may reach the crown itself.
The Falcon Throne by
Karen Miller
WHEN KINGDOMS CLASH, EVERY CROWN WILL BE TARNISHED BY THE
BLOODY PRICE OF AMBITION.
A bastard lord leads a rebellion against his tyrant king --
and must live with the consequences of victory.
A royal widow plots to win her daughter's freedom from the
ambitious lords who would control them both.
An orphaned prince sets his eyes on regaining his father's
stolen throne.
And two brothers, divided by ambition, will learn that the
greater the power, the more dangerous the game.
A masterful tale of the thirst for power and the cost of
betrayal. Epic fantasy at its bloodiest, action-packed best. –Amazon Description
The Mammoth Book of Warriors and Wizardry by Sean Wallace
This anthology brings together a stellar collection of short
fantasy from authors who have made an impact on the genre over the last decade,
along with some bestselling favorites, like Naomi Novik and Jay Lake.-Amazon
Description
The Slow Regard for Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
Deep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people
know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young
woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug
in the heart of this forgotten place.
Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a brief, bittersweet
glimpse of Auri’s life, a small adventure all her own. At once joyous and
haunting, this story offers a chance to see the world through Auri’s eyes. And
it gives the reader a chance to learn things that only Auri knows....
In this book, Patrick Rothfuss brings us into the world of
one of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s most enigmatic characters. Full of secrets
and mysteries, The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the story of a broken girl
trying to live in a broken world. – Amazon Description
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami—a
fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish
library.
Opening the flaps on
this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange
world of best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination. The story of a lonely
boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a
nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written.
Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated, in full color, throughout, this
small format, 96 page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.
The World of Ice & Fire : the untold history of Westeros
and the Game of Thrones
by George R. R Martin
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • THE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN HISTORY OF
WESTEROS AND THE LANDS BEYOND • WITH HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF ALL-NEW MATERIAL FROM
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
If the past is prologue, then George R. R. Martin’s
masterwork—the most inventive and entertaining fantasy saga of our
time—warrants one hell of an introduction. At long last, it has arrived with
The World of Ice & Fire.
This lavishly illustrated volume is a comprehensive history
of the Seven Kingdoms, providing vividly constructed accounts of the epic
battles, bitter rivalries, and daring rebellions that lead to the events of A
Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones. In a collaboration that’s been
years in the making, Martin has teamed with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda
Antonsson, the founders of the renowned fan site Westeros.org—perhaps the only
people who know this world almost as well as its visionary creator.
Collected here is all the accumulated knowledge, scholarly
speculation, and inherited folk tales of maesters and septons, maegi and
singers, including
• full-color artwork
and maps, with more than 170 original pieces
• full family trees for Houses Stark, Lannister, and
Targaryen
• in-depth explorations of the history and culture of
Westeros
• 100% all-new material, more than half of which Martin
wrote specifically for this book
The definitive companion piece to George R. R. Martin’s
dazzlingly conceived universe, The World of Ice & Fire is indeed proof that
the pen is mightier than a storm of swords. –Amazon Description
All of these items are available to be placed on hold from
this link.
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