The "Reader"

I have always been a "reader". I started reading when I was really young and never seemed to stop. My dad would read me a story every night before bed and I think that's what made me love books so much. I can't tell you how many books I've finished and how many I own that still need finishing! However, buying books is one of my favorite things, so even though I have probably close to a hundred that I need to read still, I continue buying more. Recently, though, I haven't been able to finish a single book in probably six months or more. The last book I read and (of course) LOVED was Water for Elephants. I didn't see the movie because I thought the main characters were poorly cast, but the book forever lives on in a positive light in my heart. Unfortunately, it feels like it's been FOREVER since I read that! I've started several books since then only to put them down and never pick them back up. I think the internet and my Netflix account hold a lot of blame, though it all comes down to me, huh?

Anyway, I couldn't stand the idea of me NOT being a "reader" anymore so I purchased some books from Borders.com that I'd heard of and had coupons for (yay!). They arrived today and I couldn't be more excited.

I want to list them here and then possibly write reviews for all of them. That might motivate me to finish them sooner than later and then share with the world how amazing or not so amazing they are!

So, first things first...

1.


From Ransom Riggs website

"A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows."


2.


Also, Ransom Riggs. Description from Amazon.com

"“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know.”

This reader’s companion to the casework of Sherlock Holmes explores the methodology of the world’s most famous consulting detective. From analyzing fingerprints and decoding ciphers to creating disguises and faking one’s own death, readers will learn how Holmes solved his most celebrated cases—plus an arsenal of modern techniques available to today’s armchair sleuths. Along the way, readers will discover a host of trivia about the master detective and his universe: Why did Holmes never marry? How was the real Scotland Yard organized? Was cocaine really legal back then? And why were the British so terrified of Australia? Full of fascinating how-to skills and evocative illustrations, The Sherlock Holmes Handbook will appeal to Baker Street Irregulars of all ages."

3.


by Melanie Benjamin. Description from RandomHouse.com

"Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever."

4.


Also, Melanie Benjamin.

"She was only two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later. As a child, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world's most unexpected celebrity.

Here, in Vinnie's singular and spirited voice, is her amazing adventure—from a showboat "freak" revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life: P. T. Barnum and Charles Stratton, AKA Tom Thumb. Their wedding would captivate the nation, preempt coverage of the Civil War, and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens. But Vinnie's fame would also endanger the person she prized most: her similarly-sized sister, Minnie, a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinnie's spotlight.

A barnstorming novel of the Gilded Age, and of a woman's public triumphs and personal tragedies, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is the irresistible epic of a heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreams—and whose story will surely win over yours."


(I don't actually recieve The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb until it comes out at the end of the month but I'm equally as excited for that one as the ones I've already received.)


I hope to have all these finished by the end of the summer/early fall. I will try to write reviews for each one of them if you are at all interested. I might do it even if you're not interested ;)

So, keep a weather eye out!