A to Z: T is for Timebound

For this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge I'm featuring books that I'd like to read!

T is for: Timebound by Rysa Walker

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.

Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and her genetic ability to time travel makes Kate the only one who can fix the future. Risking everything, she travels back in time to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the murder and the chain of events that follows.

Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does Kate have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world? 

If you could travel back in time, where and when would you visit?

1. I'd LOVE to go to the 1893 Chicago's World Fair. I was intrigued ever since I read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.  
2. I'd also travel back in time and to see Jesus teaching to the crowds -- My that would be amazing! 

A to Z: S is for Storied

For this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge I'm featuring books that I'd like to read!

S is for: The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry by  Gabrielle Zevin

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died; his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history; and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island--from Chief Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward him; from Ismay, his sister-in-law, who is hell-bent on saving A.J. from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who persists in taking the ferry to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, he can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, though large in weight--an unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J., for the determined sales rep Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light, for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world. Or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming.

As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

Have you ever received something unexpected? 

Did it change you?

A to Z: R is for Rooftopper

For this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge I'm featuring books that I'd like to read!

R if for: Rooftopper by Katherine Rundell

Embrace possibility in this luminous novel about a girl in search of her past who discovers a secret rooftop world in Paris.

Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck that left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive—but “almost impossible” means “still possible.” And you should never ignore a possible.


So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian, threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, she takes matters into her own hands and flees to Paris to look for her mother, starting with the only clue she has— the address of the cello maker.


Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers—urchins who live in the hidden spaces above the city. Together they scour the city in a search for Sophie’s mother—but can they find her before Sophie is caught and sent back to London? Or, more importantly, before she loses hope?

Ever been on an actual roof? What's the highest up you've ever been (not counting up in an airplane)? 

 

A to Z: Q is for Queen

For this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge I'm featuring books that I'd like to read!

Q is for: Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile

A mother-daughter story of reinvention—about an African American woman who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana
 
Why exactly Charley Bordelon’s late father left her eight hundred sprawling acres of sugarcane land in rural Louisiana is as mysterious as it was generous. Recognizing this as a chance to start over, Charley and her eleven-year-old daughter, Micah, say good-bye to Los Angeles.


They arrive just in time for growing season but no amount of planning can prepare Charley for a Louisiana that’s mired in the past: as her judgmental but big-hearted grandmother tells her, cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley must balance the overwhelming challenges of her farm with the demands of a homesick daughter, a bitter and troubled brother, and the startling desires of her own heart.


Penguin has a rich tradition of publishing strong Southern debut fiction—from Sue Monk Kidd to Kathryn Stockett to Beth Hoffman. In Queen Sugar, we now have a debut from the African American point of view. Stirring in its storytelling of one woman against the odds and initimate in its exploration of the complexities of contemporary southern life, Queen Sugar is an unforgettable tale of endurance and hope.

Have you ever inherited anything?

 

A to Z: P is for Pure

For this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge I'm featuring books that I'd like to read!

P is for: Pure: A 90-Day Devotional for the Mind, the Body & the Spirit by Rebecca St. James

Rebecca St. James's messages of abstinence and modesty reflect her passionate love for Jesus and her commitment to living for Him. Rebecca does more than talk the talk--she walks the walk. And in this daily devotional, she offers young women the encouragement they need to join her in living a life of all-out purity. It's not just about sex. It's about mind, body, and spirit.

This 90-day devotional proves that purity is anything but old-fashioned and boring. It's edgy and relevant. Rebecca lives it--and readers can live it too. It starts with Day 1 . . . and ends with everyday radical living.

What devotion are you reading right now?