A few more slices of birthday book haul cake

 

While we are still at the start of May, I do have some last month book business to finish up, beginning with what remains of my birthday book haul.

Thanks to Book of the Month Club, I was able to gift myself the Legendborn trilogy by Tracy Deonn( book one was my free BOTM birthday bonus!).

Bree Matthews is still recovering from the death of her mother when at her new school for gifted students, she witnesses a supernatural attack on campus, followed by a “Merlin” mage attempting to wipe that memory from her mind.

As it turns out, Bree has magical powers of her own unleashed by this encounter and to learn more about these new skills (and how this connects to her mother’s demise), she joins up with the title group but not without keeping a cautious eye open.

Along with a former Legendborn named Nick, she discovers that this secret society has ancestors from King Arthur’s court and that a major otherworldly threat is preparing to do battle in a fight that could endanger the world. Should Bree go to war with this looming menace or take on the group that has plenty of dangerous secrets of their own?

I have heard so many great things about this series and plan to dive into Legendborn(along with Bloodmarked and Oathbound) as soon as summer arrives. A magical realm with a strong young woman lead and a twist on Arthurian lore? Yes, please, indeed!:

I did get a non book club read as one of my birthday presents; Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s Assistant to the Villain.

Evie Sage never expected to be working for one of the most notorious bad guys in the realm but in order to take care of her sickly relatives, this dubious opportunity was too good to pass up.

Bad enough that she finds her evil doing boss to be rather attractive, Evie soon realizes that perhaps there’s something  much more dangerous than this particular criminal empire she’s employed by that wants to set them all up in a scheme to overthrow the status quo.

Can Evie warn her nefarious boss in time or should she really do that? Then again, a great job like this is tough to find…

This is the first in a trilogy and hopefully, I will get the other entries in the near future. I do find hench women to be engaging characters and this does sound like a real pop culture ride to enjoy:

A few days later my birthday, I made a library visit and was able to find exactly what I wanted on the shelves.

Due to a recent BookTuber video, I decided to pick up Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence , which is set at a bookstore much like the one the author owns.

Tookie, a new hire, is having enough trouble as it is restarting her life without the presence of a new ghost haunting the book shop. The spirit in question, Flora, died while browsing and persists in believing that Tookie is her best friend, despite their only connection being customer and seller.

As Tookie does her best to figure out what will help Flora move on to the next world, real life events crop up that change many lives outside of the bookshop. Yet, that bookish hub still has the power to assist both the living and the dead to deal with what’s to come.

It’s been awhile such I’ve read Erdrich and as a former indie bookseller myself, this novel feels like the perfect way to reconnect with her work:

I also picked up a short story collection, Out There Screaming, edited by filmmaker Jordan Peele.

This anthology has a number of horror stories written by such writers as Tannarive Due, Nnedi Okorafor and Rebecca Roanhorse that cover such things as a cop who keeps seeing literal eyes everywhere upon him, a young couple traveling down South only to have their bus strand them in a dangerous place after dark and a young woman seeking revenge against the unholy creature that killed her parents.

I don’t read short stories often but this book offers me a chance to check out a good number of authors that I have heard plenty about but haven’t gotten to yet all at once. 

Not to mention that Jordan Peele has become one of the new vanguards of this genre and his recommendations for solid storytelling would be foolish to ignore:

So, old book business done for now. Despite taking a book buying break, I did weaken and ordered a new Aardvark box(just two titles this time!). In my defense, once I showcase these books here, you may understand why I couldn’t resist.

Even so, taking up positive energy in an increasingly negative world is challenging but necessary to counteract the imbalance out there. Books can bring us together, which is why fighting to persevere public libraries is important and spreading the good word about books can be a healthy emotional need for us all.

Plus, it’s spring and enjoying yourself every now and then is part of that season of that, so keep a good book in hand and a song in your heart: