For example, my latest trip to the library gave me a chance to check out a debut novel that I've heard a lot of positive talk about. Kayla Rae Whitaker's The Animators focuses on the friendship of two art students, Sharon and Mel, who become partners in an indie animation company.
After creating a number of short features, they finally win a major grant with their first full length film, which happens to be semi-autobiographical for Mel. It seems that only good times are ahead of them but just like any combination of personal and professional relationship, bumps do occur in their path towards future success that threaten to divide them, perhaps for good.
Having a lifelong interest in art of animation, this story does sound compelling and adding on the unique challenges facing women in any artistic endeavor had me putting a check in the plus column when I saw this on my local library shelf. If nothing else, a book like this should highlight that old saying about judging covers in a smartly vivid spotlight:
The other library find I picked up,Force of Nature by Jane Harper, could fit into my FrightFall readathon line-up. It's a thriller set in Australia where a woman named Alice Russell has gone missing in the wilderness during a corporate retreat.
Alice's disappearance is complicated for two reasons-one, the area in question was once the hunting ground of a serial killer who is long dead but perhaps someone may be carrying out his gruesome legacy and two, Alice was working with financial investigators to uncover the company's shady business dealings.
One of those investigators is Aaron Falk, who is recovering from his last case and has a spark of memory about the long ago killings in that neck of the woods. However, as he and his partner Carmen Cooper discover, there are numerous suspects among Alice's colleagues when it comes to her vanishing. Can Falk find Alice in time or at least track down the person who did her in?
This book is the second entry in Harper's series featuring Aaron Falk(the earlier title, The Dry, got quite a bit of bookish praise) and since this set of stories is rather new, I don't think it will be hard to get into this latest one. Whether or not Force of Nature makes it into my readathon, this sinister tale has a intriguing hook that makes me want to dive right in as soon as can be:
Speaking of serial mysteries, I'm taking on yet another cozy mystery collection with a food theme and it's the works of Diane Mott Davidson.
Recently, I came across a copy of the final book in her Goldy Bear mystery stories(entitled The Whole Enchilada) and while I don't mind reading out of order, starting with the very last book didn't seem right to me.
So, I had to get the first two books in the series for a proper introduction and in book one, Catering To Nobody, we met Goldy Bear, a divorced mom who has to juggle her business(called Goldilocks Catering) and personal life which dangerously overlap when her former father-in-law is poisoned by lemonade from one of her services. In order to get her business back on track after being shut down by the cops, Goldy takes up serving a slice of justice with reluctant help from investigating officer Tom Schulz.
By the time Dying for Chocolate rolls around, Goldy has a new love in her life who is quickly gone due to an auto accident that feels more like foul play. In digging into her recent romantic interest's life, she unearths a few secrets and lies that are more bitter than baker's chocolate. Can she find the solution to this puzzling case or be stuck with a deadly aftertaste from the true killer?
I've heard of DMD before and have to say, her book titles are savory sweet puns that are hard to resist such as The Cereal Murders, The Main Corpse, Grilling Season and Fatally Flaky. Spending some page turning time in her creative kitchen should be fun indeed:
Our leading lady is Miryem, a moneylender's daughter who has to take over the family business due to her father being too softhearted to collect what is owned, leaving their family on the brink of dire poverty.
Her harsh yet fair ways become a local legend, with an idle boast about Miryem being able to spin gold from silver catching the unwanted attention of the icy king of the Staryk, magical folk who raid their mortal neighbors for any form of that particular glittering stone.
Trapped in their kingdom, Miryem has to make good on this dubious promise and perhaps become the Staryk queen. Otherwise, her fate will be a chilly one in the worst sense of the term. Novik is an amazing writer-I've read some of her Temeraire series of books where dragons take part in the Napoleonic wars-and this stand alone story is a richly written treasure worth it's weigh in any precious metal:
I know that there are people who take on way more reading challenges than me and yet, it can be a bit daunting to balance the ones that I do sign up for. However, it can be done with joy in your bookish heart instead of literary dread.
Let us all remember that reading is meant to be fun as well as fundamental and not allow ourselves to get too overwrought, as there are enough things out there to get worked up about and this should not be on that pile, not at all!:
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