{Review} Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes – The True Story of a Japanese Girl

Posted March 12, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

{Review} Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes – The True Story of a Japanese GirlSadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes Publisher: Puffin (1977)
Paperback (80 pages)
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2016 Backlist Books, 2016 Re-Reading, Read 2016

Synopsis

Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic--the star of her school's running team. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon gravely ill with leukemia, the "atom bomb disease," Sadako faces her future with spirit and bravery. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.
Based on a true story,
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes celebrates the extraordinary courage that made one young woman a heroine in Japan.

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{Review} One Ordinary Sunday – A Reflection on a Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time

Posted March 10, 2016 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments

{Review} One Ordinary Sunday – A Reflection on a Sunday Mass in Ordinary TimeOne Ordinary Sunday by Paula Huston
Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2016 - March 11)
eARC (256 pages)
Via: NetGalley
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Read 2015

Synopsis

The popular, award-winning writer Paula Huston draws on her spiritual wisdom and her talent as a novelist to provide both a moment-by-moment record of her experience of one particular Mass on one particular Sunday in her home parish in California and a theologically and historically rich exploration of the origin and meaning of the liturgy.
For Catholics, the Mass is the
“source and summit of the Christian life,” as the documents of the Church put it. Yet many Catholics might confess to not understand in any depth what goes on in an “ordinary” celebration of the Eucharist. In perhaps her most compelling and original book to date, novelist and spiritual writer Paula Huston guides us through a Mass on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time at her home parish in Arroyo Grande, California. Huston’s personal and spiritual reflections offer fresh and often unexpected insights into the profound mystery at the heart of the Catholic faith.
A natural storyteller, Huston deftly illuminates what might seem either mysterious to those unfamiliar with the Mass or overly familiar to those who have lost an appreciation of its mystery. In the Mass “we are healed and restored and spiritually fed,” she writes. “We are handed strong armor against evil. We are unified and made whole as a people and as a Church. We get a little taste of heaven.”

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{Review} A Tyranny of Petticoats – An Anthology of Girls in American History

Posted March 7, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

{Review} A Tyranny of Petticoats – An Anthology of Girls in American HistoryA Tyranny of Petticoats by Jessica Spotswood
Publisher: Candlewick Press (2016 - March 8)
eARC (368 pages)
Via: NetGalley
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2016 What's In A Name?, Read 2016

Synopsis

From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines.
Criss-cross America — on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains — from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today’s most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell.
With stories by:
J. Anderson Coats
Andrea Cremer
Y. S. Lee
Katherine Longshore
Marie Lu
Kekla Magoon
Marissa Meyer
Saundra Mitchell
Beth Revis
Caroline Richmond
Lindsay Smith
Jessica Spotswood
Robin Talley
Leslye Walton
Elizabeth Wein

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{Review} The Siren – A Girl Whose Voice is Deadly to Humans Only Wants to be Human

Posted March 5, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

{Review} The Siren – A Girl Whose Voice is Deadly to Humans Only Wants to be HumanThe Siren by Kiera Cass
Publisher: Harper Audio (2016)
Audiobook
{7 hours} (336 pages)
Rating:
Also by this author: The Elite, The One, The Heir
Reading Challenges: Read 2016

Synopsis

From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a sweeping stand-alone fantasy romance.
A girl with a secret.
The boy of her dreams.
An Ocean between them.
Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again.
Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude...until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of.
Falling in love with a human breaks the Ocean’s rules. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.

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{Review} Wolf by Wolf – A Motorcycle Race and a Plan to Kill the Führer

Posted March 3, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

{Review} Wolf by Wolf – A Motorcycle Race and a Plan to Kill the FührerWolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Series: Wolf by Wolf #1
Publisher: Little Brown Books (2015)
Hardcover (388 pages)
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Read 2016

Synopsis

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. To commemorate their Great Victory over Britain and Russia, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball.
Yael, who escaped from a death camp, has one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female victor, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin's brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move. But as Yael begins to get closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?

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