Title: Tricky Twenty-Two
Author: Janet Evanovich
Genre: fiction, humor, mystery, chick lit

Our favorite clumsy bond enforcer is back- but Stephanie is not having a good time. First Joe breaks up with her (say it ain't so!), she has a huge pimple about ready to explode, and then Lula gets kidnapped and carjacked during a bond enforcement pickup. On top of all this, Stephanie and Lula are investigating a no-show bonded client with ties to the Zeta fraternity house at the local university. On top of the usual fraternity hijinks, this frat house has connections to a mysterious university researcher who turns out to be a wee bit cray-cray: fleas, Bubonic plague and other nasty stuff.

Title: Darkroom
Author: Lila Quintero Weaver
Genre: graphic novel, memoir, Hispanic author, non-fiction, Southern history, American history


Psst! I have a confession to make.... I just read a graphic novel for the first time last night.....I read Archie and Veronica comics as a kid but I never did become a huge graphic novel fan- mainly because of the scantily clad women on most of the covers, but the premise behind Darkroom was intriguing: a graphic novel/memoir about growing up Hispanic in a tiny, rural Alabama town during the tumultuous Civil Rights era. Call me a nerd, but that sounded pretty riveting. Instead of the traditional inked comic panels, Darkroom is full of original, detailed pencil drawings. 

Lila Quintero Weaver originally created this as a senior project for her undergrad degree back in 2007. As a non-traditional college student myself, this is inspiring to see her schoolwork become a published work.
Ms. Quintero Weaver came to Augusta a few months ago as part of Augusta University's Latino Americans series but unfortunately, I couldn't attend her lecture due to work and school obligations, but you can watch part of her lecture here: https://vimeo.com/152378185 and you can read more about the Latino Americans series here: http://guides.augusta.edu/latino

Title: Black Widow Forever Red
Author: Margaret Stohl
Genre: YA fiction, superheroes


I never got into reading comic books but when I heard that the Black Widow storyline had been turned into a YA novel, I was intrigued...
Ava Orlova is a scrappy orphan on the run from SHIELD (yes, that SHIELD) with one best friend and a stray cat to call family. Alex Manor lives a comfortable suburban life but lately he feels like he's being watched. Ava has dreams of people she never met, especially a certain tall and handsome boy who loves fencing. Ava also remembers the day that Black Widow saved her from Ivan Somodorov. At a fencing tournament Alex and Ava meet and their fates become intertwined when the Black Widow shows up and saves them from Ivan's stooges. Soon Natasha learns that her connection to Alex is blood-related our favorite female assassin starts to become human again when she realizes she has a family member to protect.

Overall, the book was okay. The pacing started out quick, dragged in the middle, and picked back up again during the last few chapters. Natasha Romanoff is a lot more aloof and self-protective in this book than in the Avengers movies. She has guarded herself for decades and once she finds out she has a brother, she starts to soften (although that seemed to happen a little too quickly considering all that she has been through).

Title: The Big One: The Earthquake That Rocked Early America and Helped Create a ScienceAuthors: Jake Page and Charles Officer
Genres: non-fiction, American history, science

Most American are familiar with the San Andreas fault and the infamous earthquakes that rock the West Coast every few decades but the New Madrid area of Missouri is unfamiliar to most. New Madrid lies on the bank of the muddy Mississippi River- not your usual suspect for earthquake activity.... This book takes the reader back to the morning of December 16, 1811. The residents of New Madrid were rudely awakened by the strange lights, geysers of gas, and the ferocious movement of the earth- an earthquake!

The ramifications of the New Madrid earthquake were huge: Congress passed the first disaster relief act in 1815 to aid the homeless residents who were still trying to rebuild their lives four years after the quake. The New Madrid earthquake also helped create the science of seismology. The authors blend historical facts and figures with an action-packed writing style that keeps the science from getting too bogged down with technicalities and jargon. They also cover the beginnings of geology in the US and how early geological research aided the creation of seismology.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

Title: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
Author: Katarina Bivald
Genre: romance, literary fiction, women's fiction


The Readers of Broken Wheel is a delight! Amy Harris and Sara Linqvist are pen pals/book pals; after Sara is laid off from her bookstore job in Sweden Amy invites her for an extended visit to Iowa. Amy had painted a Norman Rockwell-esque portrait of Broken Wheel, Iowa to Sara: eccentric characters, town gossip, tragedy, etc. When Sara arrives she finds out that Amy has died and that the town is on the verge of dying too. Amy Harris was a respected citizen of Broken Wheel so the townspeople decide to take care of Sara and they let her stay in Amy's house free of charge. In fact, they let her do everything free of charge: meals at the diner, groceries, etc. Sara decides to repay their kindness with a bookshop. She stocks the bookshop with Amy's books and vows to find a book for everyone in the town. Broken Wheel is not a literary town (there is no library!) so Sara is looked upon as a strange European. People come into the bookshop to check out the "tourist" and eventually their lives change in small but significant ways. The town also changes Sara. Sara was used to living life vicariously through books. Ironically, she begins to live in a tiny town in Iowa!
** This book was received as an Advanced Reader Copy digital e-galley from Netgalley.com**

Title: The Hundred-Foot Journey
Author: Richard C. Morais
Genre: books to movies, food, cooking, immigrant fiction

The Hundred-Foot Journey had been on my "movies to watch" list since it debuted in theaters last year. I finally watched it last month in order to earn some extra credit for my Food and Culture class. After learning that it was based off a book, I, of course, had to read it.

This is one of the rare occasions where the movie is better than the book! The move is charming, delightful, bright and colorful and gives the viewer a craving for Indian food at the end. The book is more somber. The pacing of the book is much slower than the movie, especially the first five chapters. In the book, Hassan's character starts out as a bit crude and rough around the edges and his job as the cook in the family's restaurant was by accident. In the movie he is portrayed in a more sentimental light with the natural cooking gift that was guided by his mother since he was a small child. The main characters in the book and the movie are the same but the plots points differ considerably. It wasn't a terrible book but I was expecting it to be more uplifting.

Title: Voyager
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Genre: historical fiction, romance, time travel, fantasy, books to TV


Aahhh, another semester is over and I have a few weeks of fun reading ahead of me. Diana Gabaldon's books are waaayyyy too addictive to read during the school year when I need to be focusing on homework and research papers so her books are always a delicious treat to me at the end of a stressful and busy semester. Her books are also difficult to categorize: they are a blend of historical fiction, romance (not too much!), time travel and fantasy. They are also hard to talk about with others without giving away major spoilers....


SPOILERS BELOW! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!
In this third installment in the Outlander series we get to see how Jamie deals with the aftermath of not dying at Culloden (not well at first). His life is spared by an English commander and he is sent on his way back to Lallybroch. Meanwhile, back in 1968 Claire, Brianna, and Roger follow the paper trail to find out what happened to Jamie after the failed Stuart Restoration. Soon Claire makes the momentous decision to go back to Jamie and she finds him... and discovers a lot of "surprises" not mentioned in the historical record: smuggling, sedition, an illegitimate son, a loveless marriage, etc. Of course Jamie and Claire are thrust into one adventure after another as they venture across the Atlantic Ocean to rescue Jamie's nephew: pirates, plague ships, hurricanes, slave revolts, etc. Oh, and the best part? The connection between the kidnapping and an old "nemesis."