The Goal of the Book Babe is to raise awareness to the importance of reading and new authors (especially females). To spark creativity and originality among it followers, to get more books into the hands of readers and finally to provide book reviews.
We all know I read a lot; in fact i average about 50 books a year. But when you look at my TBR list of 1701 books you know I simply am not reading at a fast enough pace! I've got to do better.
You can check out your TBR time results here:
http://www.readitforward.com/tbr-time/
Today Vanity Fair reported that an author had received an explosive interview with one of the key people from the Emmett Till Murder.
According to the interview, Carolyn Bryant (who accused Till of whistling at her), admits to lying. Her lie led to the lynching of Till in August of 1955. Bryant'a husband and and his half brother got their day in court but where never convicted; though they did admit to the crime.
I just added this book to my TBR for next month.
Here is the synopsis:
In 2014, protesters ringed the White House, chanting, “How many black kids will you kill? Michael Brown, Emmett Till!” Why did demonstrators invoke the name of a black boy murdered six decades before?
In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional.
The national coalition organized to protest the Till lynching became the foundation of the modern civil rights movement. Only weeks later, Rosa Parks thought about young Emmett as she refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Five years later, the Emmett Till generation, forever marked by the vicious killing of a boy their own age, launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle into a mass movement. “I can hear the blood of Emmett Till as it calls from the ground,” shouted a black preacher in Albany, Georgia.
But what actually happened to Emmett Till—not the icon of injustice but the flesh-and-blood boy? Part detective story, part political history, Timothy Tyson’s The Blood of Emmett Till draws on a wealth of new evidence, including the only interview ever given by Carolyn Bryant, the white woman in whose name Till was killed. Tyson’s gripping narrative upends what we thought we knew about the most notorious racial crime in American history.
It took me MONTHS to finish this book. Let me start there. Almost a year ago I read Red Queen (the first in the series) and I struggled with that. I thought perhaps it was just the fact that it was a debut novel. New concept and all. I stuck with it and finished; but, I was highly disappointed. I was expecting a more polished product then what I got. Fast forward to a few months ago and I decide to pick up Glass Sword. Especially since it was getting rave reviews and everyone was just eating it up. Saying the story was better paced etc. So I decided to give it a try. It took be three chapters to get bored. To give up and to walk away. In fact I read over 10 books before even coming back to this one. The only reason I did was because I knew I would not be satisfied until I had some closure. I will say I am glad that I came back to the story because Aveyard's finish was far better - though a bit conflicting. And left me open to reading not only the next in the series but also the novella's that have come out with the books.
In Glass Sword we meet back up with Mare Barrow and Cal as they attempt to avoid evil Prince Maven (Cal's brother) as they recruit other Red's like Mare (that have abilities). All the while Maven is killing the innocent and Mare is becoming someone not even her closest friend, Kilorn, knows anymore. She and Cal grow closer together only to be ripped apart due to Mare's mixed feelings about who to trust and her need for venegence. This book had just enough twists at the end to keep you guessing what would happen next. The action at the end was amazing - if only there would have been more of it throughout the book.
The greatest questions I have now...is what is the end game? How will Mare survive? How is Cal coping? And who is really pulling the strings? There seems to be a much bigger game being played then any of us can imagine.
I gave Glass Sword 3/5 stars on Goodreads.
Here are some of the quotes I loved:
"To rise. And rise alone. I see you as you could become, no longer the lighting, but the storm. The storm that's will swallow the world"
"Pride. I understand that too. For girls like us, who had nothing, expected nothing, it's intoxicating to know there is something of our own, something no one else can claim or take away"
"Love blinds" - Cal to Mare
The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")
2) In the Woods by Tana French
Here is the synopsis:
When Katy Devlin, a 12-year-old girl from Knocknaree, a Dublin suburb, is found murdered at a local archeological dig, Det. Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, must probe deep into the victim's troubled family history. There are chilling similarities between the Devlin murder and the disappearance 20 years before of two children from the same neighborhood who were Ryan's best friends. Only Maddox knows Ryan was involved in the 1984 case. The plot climaxes with a taut interrogation by Maddox of a potential suspect, and the reader is floored by the eventual identity and motives of the killer. A distracting political subplot involves a pending motorway in Knocknaree, but Ryan and Maddox are empathetic and flawed heroes, whose partnership and friendship elevate the narrative beyond a gory tale of murdered children and repressed childhood trauma.
3) Seeker by A.E. Dayton
Here is the synopsis:
Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.
Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.
4) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Here is the synopsis:
Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood's bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished.
As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body but his heart for herself- she sees the emotionally scarred male behind all his noble responsibility. But while the war with the Lessening Society grows more grim, and tragedy looms over the Brotherhood's mansion, Phury must decide between duty and love.
3) If She Knew by Lisa Jackson
Here is the synopsis:
She Woke Up With A New Face. . .
Not only has Marla Cahill survived a deadly car accident, but her beautiful features have been restored through plastic surgery. She should be grateful. Instead, she's consumed by confusion. . .and panic. For the people gathered at her bedside--her family--are strangers. And so is the woman whose haunted eyes stare back from the mirror. . .
She Woke Up With No Memories. . .
Secluded at the magnificent Cahill mansion, Marla waits for something to trigger recognition. Yet the only thing she's left with is the unshakable feeling that she is not who everyone says she is, and that something is very, very wrong. .
. . And She Woke Up To Murder
Determined to piece together the truth of her identity, she finds herself drawn to her brother-in-law, Nick--a man who seems both to want and despise her. And as her fractured mind slowly clears, Marla begins to have flashes of another life. . .of cruel betrayals and deadly secrets. Marla's life isn't just different--it's in danger, controlled by a twisted killer who's waiting for the right moment to strike. . .the moment Marla remembers. .
