Book: The Book of Candlelight

 Book: The Book of Candlelight

Author: Ellery Adams

Pages: 322

This is my 206th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Nora Pennington figures all the wet weather this spring is at least good for business.  The local inns are packed with stranded travelers, and among them Nora finds new customers for her store, Miracle Books.  Since a little rain never hurt anyone, Nora rides her bike over to the flea market one sodden day and buys a bowl of Danny, a Cherokee potter.  But the next day, after Miracle River overflows its banks, and Danny's body is found floating within the churning waters, Nora decides it's time for the Secret, Book, and Scone Society to spring into action.  A cruicial clue may lie within the stone walls of the Inn of Mist and Roses; a diary, over a century old and spattered with candle wax, that leads Nora and her friends through a maze of intrigue - and onto the trail of a murder. 

Stars: 4

Book: All Manner of Thing Shall Be

 Book: All Manner of Thing Shall Be

Author: Olivie Blake

Pages: 46

This is my 205th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

A group of vampirical frenemies come face to face with their immortality in this off-the-beaten-tiemline short story.  What do you get when you throw together a PTA president, a dissipated rake, a poor little match-girl, a colonial nun, and an elderly revolutionary?  No, it's not the start of a joke; it's the cast of undead characters sharing a Victorian mansion in Santa Monica, California.  The motley housemates can usually keep the bickering to a minimum - but when their classing personalities get stuck in a rut, they suffer what could be a terminal case of deja vu.

Stars: 1

Book: A Visit To The Husband Archive

 Book: A Visit to The Husband Archive

Author: Kaliane Bradley

Pages: 33

This is my 204th read for the year

What amazon says:

A woman discovers her hidden potential in this dystopian short story about memory, identity, and imagination.  Nobody likes being on agricultural rotation, and with this heat wave, it's almost more than Ester can take.  She's itching for something she can't put words to - something she has no memory of wanting.  But then, she can't remember much beyond the past couple of years.  She's sent to the husband archive for a cure, but the man she checks out comes with baggage: stacks and stacks of paper he calls "books" What thye teach each other may prove hard to forget.

Stars: 2.5

Book: The Little Match Girl

 Book: The Little Match Girl

Author: Hans Christian Andersen

Pages: 32

This is my 203rd read for the year

Stars: 4.5

Book: Cronus

 Book: Cronus

Author: P. Djeli Clark

Pages: 48

This is my 202nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

A young Black woman challenges the indignity f a segregated dystopian futre and exposes a time-bending secret in this dark, defiant short story.  The year is 2030.  Annabeth works a stable job at CRONUS, a time travel company that caters to wealthy clients.  Life is harsh, but she's willing to keep her head down - until a vision of a past that never happened leads her to question everything she knows.  They call it madness, but she'll learn to call it memory.

Stars: 4

Book: Making Space - The Time Traveler's Passport

 Book: Making Space - The Time Traveler's Passport

Author: RF Kuang

Pages: 32

This is my 201st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

A childless couple take in a mysterious boy in this ominous short story about parenthood, sacrifice, and our responsibility to the future.  Jess desperately wants to be a mother, so when she discovers a young boy lost in the woods near her home, her heart goes out to him.  The boy, who Jess and her husband call "Buddy", can't tell them his name or anything about his family, but he's clearly been through a lot.  When her husband cautions her not to get too involved, Jess brushes him off.  She would do anything for this child - and soon, she'll have to prove it.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Hearts In Atlantis

 Books: Hearts in Atlantis

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 688

This is my 200th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery are at the core of these 5 interconnected, sequential tales - each deeply rooted in the 1960s, and each scarred by the Vietnam War, which continues to cast its shadow over American lives, politics, and culture.  In Part one, "Low Men in Yellow Coats", 11 year old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood.  He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescurers but at the heart of the terror.  In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest, and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.  In "Blind Willie and "Why We're in Vietnam", 2 men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow - and as haunted - as their own lives.  And in "Heavently Shades of Night Are Falling", this remarkable book's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him.

Stars: 4