Book Haul – July 15, 2012
Book Haul thingy, in which I show you…some books I found in my mailbox.
*gasp*
=D
So, someone had a fairly good week in bookdom. Know who it was? ME!
Books mentioned in this video are…
ARCs from SilverOak Publishing (THANK YOU!!)
Blood Relative: A Novel by David Thomas
Release Date: 2012-09-04
How well do we know our loved ones? In the wake of a brutal murder, architect Peter Crookham is forced to confront this question, launching him on a dangerous quest to uncover the truth. When Peter arrives home late for a dinner engagement with his beautiful wife, Mariana, and his journalist brother, Andy, he encounters a bloodbath: Andy has been brutally stabbed to death, and a nearly catatonic Mariana is bathed in his blood. Convinced Mariana is incapable of murder, Peter vows to clear her name. But when he discovers that Andy had been secretly investigating Mariana’s past, Peter can no longer trust his instincts. Desperate for answers, he travels to Mariana’s childhood home in East Berlin–and finds himself caught in a web of intrigue involving the notorious Stasi…and a terrible secret that someone will kill for in order to keep hidden. This gripping, atmospheric page-turner will keep readers guessing until the very last page.
NO OF PAGES: 320 | BUY ON AMAZON 
The Blackhouse: A Novel by Peter May
Release Date: 2012-10-02
From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy–a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life. When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he’s investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped–and nearly destroyed–Fin’s life. The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.
NO OF PAGES: 368 | BUY ON AMAZON
The Low Road: A Novel by Chris Womersley
Release Date: 2012-09-04
Unflinching, relentless, and powerfully written, The Low Road paints a searing portrait of two desperate men thrown together by chance as they both try to flee their troubled pasts. This savage noir surprises and grips at every turn. Young petty criminal Lee wakes up in a seedy motel with a bullet in his side, a suitcase of stolen money, and only a hazy idea of how he got there. Wild, a drug-addicted doctor also taking refuge at the motel, is forced by the proprietor to save Lee’s life–and move him out before the police show up. Connected by this twist of fate, the two strangers go on the lam, becoming the wariest of traveling companions. As the two men reflect on how they arrived at this point in their lives, the past pursues them in the form of an aging gangster determined to retrieve Lee’s suitcase of money–and punish him for the theft. Award-winning and critically acclaimed, The Low Road seduces readers with its poetic language and unique and indelible protagonists.
NO OF PAGES: 256 | BUY ON AMAZON
Toploader: A Novel by Ed O’Loughlin
Release Date: 2012-09-04
If Joseph Heller and Carl Hiaasen had a literary love child in occupied Gaza or Iraq’s Green Zone, it would be this insightful and darkly comic anti-war masterpiece. Spying inside the Embargoed Zone (aka the “Easy”) is expensive and hazardous, and the “terrorist” double agent known as Cobra needs his wages in cash. But his down-at-the-heels spymaster from the occupying forces can only pay with an American-made, top-loading washing machine. When it turns out that this piece of clothes-washing technology is critical to the occupation, a frantic scramble to retrieve the sensitive hardware ensues. Packed with unforgettable characters–including a resourceful local teenage girl, an intrepid reporter navigating the Easy, an egotistical blogger with delusions of relevance, a hapless drone pilot, and at least one very unfortunate donkey–Toploader is a savage and hilarious indictment of occupation diplomacy.
NO OF PAGES: 304 | BUY ON AMAZON
and a RAK from TNJeepGal (on youtube)
Infinite Days (Vampire Queen) by Rebecca Maizel
Release Date: 2010-08-03
"Throughout all my histories, I found no one I loved more than you…no one."
Those were some of Rhode’s last words to me. The last time he would pronounce his love. The last time I would see his face.
It was the first time in 592 years I could take a breath. Lay in the sun. Taste.
Rhode sacrificed himself so I, Lenah Beaudonte, could be human again. So I could stop the blood lust.
I never expected to fall in love with someone else that wasn’t Rhode.
But Justin was…daring. Exciting. More beautiful than I could dream.
I never expected to be sixteen again…then again, I never expected my past to come back and haunt me…
NO OF PAGES: 336 | BUY ON AMAZON
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
Release Date: 2008-12-26
Action—a stunning magic system—swordplay galore!
Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he’ll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become a Dragoneye, the human link to an energy dragon’s power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and, if discovered, Eon faces a terrible death. After a dazzling sword ceremony, Eon’s affinity with the twelve dragons catapults him into the treacherous world of the Imperial court where he makes a powerful enemy, Lord Ido. As tension builds and Eon’s desperate lie comes to light, readers won’t be able to stop turning the pages …
NO OF PAGES: 544 | BUY ON AMAZON
Eona by Alison Goodman
Release Date: 2011-04-19
Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled "Emperor" Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power – and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . .
Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama and romance, its unforgettable fight scenes, and its surprises, is the conclusion to an epic only Alison Goodman could create.
NO OF PAGES: 637 |BUY ON AMAZON
The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan
Release Date: 2009-05-12
During his two terms as the fortieth president of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency. Now, nearly two decades after he left office, this remarkable record—the only daily presidential diary in American history—is available for the first time.
Brought together in one volume and edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries provides a striking insight into one of this nation’s most important presidencies and sheds new light on the character of a true American leader. Whether he was in his White House residence study or aboard Air Force One, each night Reagan wrote about the events of his day, which often included his relationships with other world leaders Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Mohammar al-Qaddafi, and Margaret Thatcher, among others, and the unforgettable moments that defined the era—from his first inauguration to the end of the Cold War, the Iran hostage crisis to John Hinckley Jr.’s assassination attempt.
The Reagan Diaries reveals more than just Reagan’s political experiences: many entries are concerned with the president’s private thoughts and feelings—his love and devotion for Nancy Reagan and their family, his belief in God and the power of prayer. Seldom before has the American public been given access to the unfiltered experiences and opinions of a president in his own words, from Reagan’s description of near-drowning at the home of Hollywood friend Claudette Colbert to his determination to fight Fidel Castro at every turn and keep the Caribbean Sea from becoming a "Red Lake."
To read these diaries—filled with Reagan’s trademark wit, sharp intelligence, and humor—is to gain a unique understanding of one of the most beloved occupants of the Oval Office in our nation’s history.
NO OF PAGES: 784 | BUY ON AMAZON
There you have it, a few books that showed up at my house this week…So how about you, what books did you pick up this week?