A Better World of new books to enjoy

 As the fall season makes its presence more known, the urge to wrap yourself up in blankets with a good book at hand  to read becomes increasingly urgent with every passing day.

To that end, I indulged in a small haul from Better World Books, where a portion of each sale goes towards a literary charity, and got a nice trio of reads, one of which I’ll probably pick up before the end of the year.

My main focus for this buying session was to find a nice copy of Parable of the Talents, the follow up to Octavia Butler’s sci-fi classic The Parable of the Sower.

Here, we rejoin Lauren and friends as they seek to create a more harmonious community within the ravaged remains of America, only to face persecution from those in power.

A good section of the book is told by Lauren’s daughter Asha, who wants to finish what her mother started but is concerned about the price to be paid for going down that harsh road. This was meant to be the second book in a trilogy but sadly, Butler passed away before it could be completed.

I may save this book for next year’s Sci-Fi Summer readathon( no doubt it’ll be a more potent read after the midterms) but I would like to dive into Butler’s work upon discovering just how amazing she and her writing both was and is still to this day:

I added on a couple of mystery titles as well, such as The Killer Question by Janice Hallett.

Told in a mixed media style, the main source of contention arises at a small town pub in England aptly named The Case is Altered.

Locals have come to love the Monday night trivia contest, particularly a team who calls themselves the Plucky Losers. However, when a new trivia team, The Shadow Knights, who are lead by someone known  only as the General arrive on the scene, the vibe quickly shifts downward.

What was once a friendly game soon becomes bitter competition that divides rather than unites everyone. Things get dicier when a body is discovered nearby and the victim happens to have a reputation for cheating at pub games. Is this a coincidence or the end result of taking trivia night way too seriously?

Hallett is a top notch writer in this field and her blend of tech talk(e-mails, apps, etc) with good old fashioned clever suspense building is a marvel to behold. Plus, who hasn’t let a trivia challenge get a little out of hand at times (just not in the lethal sense, of course!):

To round this haul out, my pick was a recent romantic suspense by Nora Roberts, Hidden Nature.

When Officer Sloan Cooper becomes severely injured while stopping an armed robbery, she decides to spend her recovery at Heron’s Rest, her family’s home town.

While she’s managing to rebuild her life in more ways than one(including a possible romance with lawyer turned contractor Nash Littlefield), a string of mysterious disappearances leads Sloan to believe that this is not just a random set of occurrences.

As she starts to investigate, her instincts about this being the work of a serial killer appear to be right. Can Sloan regain her confidence enough to halt him in his tracks or is she setting herself up to be the next target of the killer?

I’m a latecomer to Roberts’ work but hey, better late than never, right? Her keen knack for developing solid characters that you want to spend time with and weaving in well earned moments of mystery and suspense makes for a great read that’s especially welcoming this chilly time of year:

With the state of the world right now, there’s no doubt that I’m alone in dealing with rising stress levels that aren’t brought on by watching the usual Halloween fare.

Nevertheless, we can and will get through this together and hopefully come out on the other side of the darkness somewhat the better for this harrowing experience.

All I can suggest  here for that is a) vote early if you can (as my family and I are planning to do) and b) take some time out for yourself to relieve that anxiety whenever possible. Read, rewatch a favorite show, take up that hobby you put aside, do whatever it reasonably takes to keep your spirits up.

What’s  been helping me at the moment, besides my reading, is revisiting Gilmore Girls, particularly on Saturday nights(thanks to a small cable channel that does a mini marathon of the episodes and they’re in the middle of Season Two as we speak!). 

It’s a fun fall tradition to hang out in Stars Hollow with Lorelai and Rory and most importantly, Rory’s books! Choose your comfort food of the mind as things get more wacky than a Town Hall meeting with a major pitch from Taylor , assisted by Kirk, and be sure to stock up on snacks as well because you know Lorelai and Rory always do as part of the coping with madness fun: