While the protagonist, Victoria, is incredibly flawed in The Language of Flowers, it is unlikely you will ever feel anger towards her. Trapped in the uncaring hands of foster care her entire life, she is socially inept, volatile and completely mired in grief and rage.
Festive in Death is the 39th book in J.D. Robb’s In Death series. Thirty-nine books! Seriously? Yes. Thirty-nine. Not many authors could keep my interest in the same group of characters over the years, but Nora Roberts (writing as J. D. Robb) has again written a book I will be recommending to friends. In a futuristic New York, Lieutenant Eve Dallas is the top murder cop in the city.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue takes place shortly after the events of The Dream Thieves, with the characters recovering from their fight against Kavinsky. Summer is over and school is starting, but the raven boys and Blue have many other things on their minds, particularly Blue who has been searching for her mother lost in the tunnels following the ley line.
Tuan is an orphan, raised by his neighbors. He is a hard worker and buys himself a small house and field, but he is lonely and unable to find a suitable match even with the help of a matchmaker. Yet Tuan continues to work hard and, one day, finds a large snail in his garden that he begins to care for. Shortly thereafter, he finds delicious meals prepared for him when he returns home from work. Every night, the meals become larger and more delicious. Tuan cannot seem to find out who is cooking for him, so he decides to return home early to catch the generous cook.
I love superhero comics, but I must confess, I don't like a lot of contemporary superhero comics. The trend has overwhelmingly become oriented towards grim and serious. There are some terrific, well done stories, full of high imagination and smart storytelling, but there's a distinct lack of whimsy and unabashed optimism.
Quality time. Words of affirmation. Physical touch. Receiving gifts. Acts of service. These are the five ways that people give and receive love according to relationship counselor Dr. Gary Chapman. This book guides you in how to “fill the love tank,” as Chapman words it, of your partner by learning how to assess the way your partner wants to receive love. By knowing which love language your partner speaks (i.e. which way they want to receive love), you can improve even the healthiest of relationships.
Before heading to the self-help books looking for psychological insight, be aware that reading fiction can also have strong therapeutic benefits. One example is local author Laura Moriarty’s The Rest of Her Life. Moriarty received a degree in social work from KU, which is excellent training for the themes she explores in her novel: social status and crime, parent/child relationships, and cyclical family dynamics.
Michael Haller is starting back to work as a lawyer, after taking a year off. A year spent in recovery from an injury, as an addict, and then in rehab. Mickey's ready to take on a couple of cases, and get his feet wet again when a long-time friend is killed, leaving Haller & Associates his business and current caseload. Among the 31 cases Mickey inherits is a high profile murder case. Archway Studios owner and movie mogul, Walter Elliot is accused of murdering his wife and her boyfriend.
Grace has a problem, well several problems to be exact. She’s a liar and she can’t stop lying not only to herself but also to the people with whom she surrounds herself. She’s a thief but again doesn’t see herself as one, at least not at first. She can never be normal, not after what she has put everyone else through. And she is terrified that two men who are about to be set free on parole for robbing a historic mansion back in Garland, Tennessee are going to find her.
On a day like any other day, the Others arrived. Their mothership lit up the sky and the human race was forever changed. The Others came in waves taking away electricity, bringing upon the world a plague, sending out evil drones to take care of the survivors, and now, they have taken on the form of humans. The idea of trust (or lack thereof) and the depths that humans will sink to survive are constantly replayed over and over through the actions of the multiple protagonists that Yancey introduces in the story.
