Posted September 16, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
An Ember in the Ashes by
Sabaa Tahir Series: An Ember in the Ashes #1 Publisher: RazorBill (2015)
Hardcover (446 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
I WILL TELL YOU THE SAME THING I TELL EVERY SLAVE.
THE RESISTANCE HAS TRIED TO PENETRATE THIS SCHOOL COUNTLESS TIMES. I HAVE DISCOVERED IT EVERY TIME.
IF YOU ARE WORKING WITH THE RESISTANCE, IF YOU CONTACT THEM, IF YOU THINK OF CONTACTING THEM, I WILL KNOW AND I WILL DESTROY YOU.
Laia is a slave.
Elias is a soldier.
Neither is free.
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.
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Tagged as 4 star, Library, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 14, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Happy Feast of the Triumph of the Cross!
Walking with Jesus by
Pope Francis Publisher: Loyola Press (2015)
Paperback (135 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: The Joy of the Gospel,
Encountering Truth,
The Name of God is Mercy Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, “Follow me.” What if the 21st-century Church actually heeded that call? What would the world look like if the Church were truly on the move? Simply put, very different. But these ponderings beg one more critical question: What exactly should the Church be moving toward?
In Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church, Pope Francis’s own words lead us to the answer. Francis urges us to make Jesus central in our individual lives and in the collective life of the Church—to walk toward him, and ultimately to walk with him at all times and in all places.
Each chapter of this book helps us put one foot in front of the other as we move ever closer to God and to our neighbors through the sacraments, prayer, evangelization, the gifts of the Spirit, and service to others.
With a foreword by Archbishop of Chicago Blase J. Cupich, Pope Francis’s first major appointment in the United States,Walking with Jesus offers the Church a much-needed way forward, past its inner and outer walls, as it fearlessly follows Christ toward the future.
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Book, Pope Francis, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 7, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments
Fire Study by
Maria V Snyder Series: Study #3 Publisher: Harlequin (2008)
Audiobook {11 hours and 20 minutes} (441 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: Poison Study,
Magic Study Also in this series: Poison Study,
Magic Study Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
The apprenticeship is over—now the real test has begun.
When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder—able to capture and release souls—spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena’s unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena’s fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before…
Honor sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself—and save the land she holds dear.
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted August 27, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 3 Comments
An Introduction to the Vocation of Consecrated Virginity Lived in the World by
United States Association of Consecrated VIrgins Series: ORDO VIRGINUM #1 Publisher: USACV (2012)
Paperback (145 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Re-Reading,
Read 2015 Synopsis
An Ancient Rite Restored, for women living in the world.
Those who choose chastity have looked upon the face of Christ, its origin and inspiration.
They give themselves wholly to Christ, the Son of the ever-virgin Mary, and the heavenly Bridegroom of those who in his honor dedicate themselves to lasting virginity.
-Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity (24)
Consecrated by the diocesan Bishop, these women acquire a particular link with the Church, which they are committed to serve while remaining the world. Either alone or in association with others, they constitute a special eschatological image of the Heavenly Bride and of the life to come, when the Church will at last fully live her love for Christ the Bridegroom.
-Pope Saint John Paul II in Vita Consecrata
The Order of Virgins is a special expression of consecrated life that blossomed anew in the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Its roots, however, are ancient; they date back to the dawn of the apostolic times. With unheard of daring, certain women began to open their hearts to the desire of consecrated virginity … the desire to give the whole of their being to God. (This desire) had its first extraordinary fulfillment in the Virgin of Nazareth and her “yes.”
-Pope Benedict XVI to the 2008 Rome International Congress/Pilgrimage of Consecrated Virgins
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Book, Consecrated Virginity, Read 2015, Rereading Challenge, Vocation, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted August 24, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments
The Darkest Part of the Forest by
Holly Black Publisher: Little Brown Books (2015)
Hardcover (324 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown,
The Queen of Nothing Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.
At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.
Until one day, he does…
As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
