Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

 

Wee Reader and I wandered around the non-fiction shelves in the children’s section for a change, making a beeline for the transportation shelves and picking up books on submarines, dump trucks and helicopters. Boys!

There were quite a few holds waiting for me… thus I actually had a stack of books to photograph this week!

The Body at the Tower (The Agency #2) – YS Lee

For #Diversiverse

Now nearly a full-fledged member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit operating out of Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary Quinn is back for another action-packed adventure. Disguised as a poor apprentice builder and a boy, she must brave the grimy underbelly of Victorian London – as well as childhood fear, hunger, and constant want – to unmask the identity of a murderer. Assigned to monitor a building site on the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, Mary earns the confidence of the work crew, inching ever nearer her suspect. But if an irresistible desire to help the city’s needy doesn’t distract her and jeopardize her cover, unexpectedly meeting up with an old friend – or flame – just might.

A suspenseful and evocative window into a fascinating moment in history, The Body at the Tower is the much-anticipated second outing with a daring young detective.

Ilustrado – Miguel Syjuco

For #Diversiverse

 

 

Ruin and Rising (The Grish #3) – Leigh Bardugo

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

 

Supernatural Enhancements – Edgar Cantero

First saw this on Andi’s blog

When twentysomething A., the unexpected European relative of the Wells family, and his companion, Niamh, a mute teenage girl with shockingly dyed hair, inherit the beautiful but eerie estate of Axton House, deep in the woods of Point Bless, Virginia, it comes as a surprise to everyone—including A. himself. After all, he never even knew he had a “second cousin, twice removed” in America, much less that the eccentric gentleman had recently committed suicide by jumping out of the third floor bedroom window—at the same age and in the same way as his father had before him . . .

Together, A. and Niamh quickly come to feel as if they have inherited much more than just a rambling home and a cushy lifestyle. Axton House is haunted, they know it, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the secrets they slowly but surely uncover. Why all the suicides? What became of the Axton House butler who fled shortly after his master died? What lurks in the garden maze and what does the basement vault keep? And what of the rumors in town about a mysterious gathering at Axton House on the night of the winter solstice?

Told vividly through a series of journal entries, scrawled notes, recovered security footage, letters to Aunt Liza, audio recordings, complicated ciphers, and even advertisements, Edgar Cantero has written a dazzling and original supernatural adventure featuring classic horror elements with a Neil Gaiman-ish twist.

 

Best science fiction & fantasy of the year. Volume eight – edited by Jonathan Strahan

I’m more interested in the SF/Fantasy authors whose names I keep hearing about but whose works I’ve yet to read, like Madeline Ashby, Ted Chiang, Joe Abercrombie (although on that last note, see e-book below)

The best, most original and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past twelve months are brought together in one collection by multiple award winning editor Jonathan Strahan. This highly popular series now reaches volume eight and will include stories from both the biggest names in the field and the most exciting new talents.

Previous volumes have included stories from Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Bear, Joe Abercrombie, Paolo Bacigalupi, Holly Black, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Margo Lanagan, Bruce Sterling, Adam Robets, Ellen Klages, and many many more.

With this volume the series comes to a new home at Solaris, publishers of Jonathan Strahan’s award-winning original Infinities SF anthologies and the and Fearsome fantasy anthologies

The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book – Carolyn Wyman

I was recently researching cookies for an article I was writing. And found out the story behind the chocolate chip cookie. Which is probably my favourite cookie – to eat and to bake! Thus the book…

Forget apple pie and ice cream–chocolate chip cookies are America’s favorite sweet and also one of its most interesting, as this one-and-only complete chocolate chip cookie history, guidebook, and cookbook proves. The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book’s six highly engaging and entertaining chapters include:

-The long-overdue, never-before-told true story of the cookie’s invention 75 years ago by Ruth Wakefield at her Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts, straight from Wakefield’s former employees and her daughter (despite what you might have read on the Internet, it was no accident)

-A chronicling of the cookie’s 1980s commercial heyday under Mrs. Fields and Famous Amos to the rise of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the early ’90s to today’s internet phenomena, cookie dough-stuffed cookies and cookie cake pie.

-Artistic and event tributes to the chocolate chip cokie, including its starring role in that famous episode of Friends

-A state-by-state survey of bakeries and restaurants known for their chocolate chip cookies creations, including a Boston cookie store started by now-Secretary of State John Kerry and the Chicago-area bakery whose chocolate chip cookies are so prized that there’s a per-person daily limit

-Recipes for sour cream, pudding, kosher, vegan, and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies; instructions for replicating Mrs. Field’s, Tate’s, Hillary Clinton’s, and Momofuku Milk Bar’s chocolate chip cookies; and fun chocolate chip dessert variations like chocolate chip cheese nut ball and Toll House truffles–more than 75 recipes in all–and tips for taking your favorite recipe to the next level

Half a King – Joe Abercrombie

Patrick Rothfuss (author of my beloved Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear) gave this book five stars on Goodreads so I was curious

“I swore an oath to avenge the death of my father. I may be half a man, but I swore a whole oath.”
 
Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty, chains, and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea. And he must do it all with only one good hand.

The deceived will become the deceiver.
 
Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a cold heart rule. He cannot grip a shield or swing an axe, so he must sharpen his mind to a deadly edge.

The betrayed will become the betrayer.
 
Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles could.

Will the usurped become the usurper?
 
But even with loyal friends at his side, Yarvi finds his path may end as it began—in twists, and traps, and tragedy

The kids couldn’t wait to get their hands on the books!

The kids’ loot:

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What did you get from your library this week?