This month I just finished up the Green Rider book, Falling in a Sea of Stars, and I have several short stories to read for book club. As usual there are two books I'll be reading for The Mystery book Club on Goodreads, and a pick it for me book as well.
The pick it for me book-
You Have to Believe Me by Minka Kent
A wronged woman must do the impossible—prove herself innocent of her ex-husband’s murder—in a shocking novel of suspense by Washington Post bestselling author Minka Kent.
She has every reason to hate her ex. It doesn’t mean she wants him dead.
Every day on her way home from work, Dove Damiani drives past her ex-house, where her ex-husband lives with her ex-dog and her ex–yoga instructor, next to her ex-neighbors and the ex-life she once affectionately described as “frighteningly perfect.”
To outsiders, Dove is bitter and resentful. The divorce left her alone, with nothing but a set of car keys and 50 percent of a paltry savings account. So when the lifeless body of her former husband is discovered in the birch grove outside Dove’s apartment on what would have been their fifth wedding anniversary, investigators waste no time making Dove a person of interest.
She swears she didn’t do it. She’s never so much as killed a spider in her thirty-four years. But as evidence mounts against her, Dove finds herself questioning her memory, her sanity, and even…her innocence.
Previously published as You Have to Believe Me by Sunday Tomassetti, this revised edition of You Have to Believe Me includes editorial revisions and a new ending.
She has every reason to hate her ex. It doesn’t mean she wants him dead.
Every day on her way home from work, Dove Damiani drives past her ex-house, where her ex-husband lives with her ex-dog and her ex–yoga instructor, next to her ex-neighbors and the ex-life she once affectionately described as “frighteningly perfect.”
To outsiders, Dove is bitter and resentful. The divorce left her alone, with nothing but a set of car keys and 50 percent of a paltry savings account. So when the lifeless body of her former husband is discovered in the birch grove outside Dove’s apartment on what would have been their fifth wedding anniversary, investigators waste no time making Dove a person of interest.
She swears she didn’t do it. She’s never so much as killed a spider in her thirty-four years. But as evidence mounts against her, Dove finds herself questioning her memory, her sanity, and even…her innocence.
Previously published as You Have to Believe Me by Sunday Tomassetti, this revised edition of You Have to Believe Me includes editorial revisions and a new ending.
Reading with The Mystery Book Club-
The Tattling Whisperwoods (Leaf and Scale #2) by Tilly Wallace
Words have power, and secrets can kill…
The village of Drake’s Bend has long been guardian of a sacred grove where ancient trees offer gentle counsel to those who dare share their secrets. For centuries, this delicate balance between confession and wisdom has been maintained.
Until now.
The whisperwoods have turned venomous. The trees sharpen sacred confidences into devastating weapons of betrayal, threatening to tear the local community apart. Old friendships are being torn apart, and villagers fall ill with a mysterious sickness. But the whisperwoods hold still darker secrets that are twisted and spread to the highest reaches of London society. The old sentinels could be lost forever as the call to silence them grows louder.
Fern must uncover the truth behind what poisons both trees and people before time runs out and lives are ruined. The ancient sentinels are the last of their kind, and their loss would forever silence a magic as old as Britain itself. But in the race to save both grove and villagers, Fern discovers that some secrets were meant to stay buried—and awakening them could destroy everything she holds dear.
The village of Drake’s Bend has long been guardian of a sacred grove where ancient trees offer gentle counsel to those who dare share their secrets. For centuries, this delicate balance between confession and wisdom has been maintained.
Until now.
The whisperwoods have turned venomous. The trees sharpen sacred confidences into devastating weapons of betrayal, threatening to tear the local community apart. Old friendships are being torn apart, and villagers fall ill with a mysterious sickness. But the whisperwoods hold still darker secrets that are twisted and spread to the highest reaches of London society. The old sentinels could be lost forever as the call to silence them grows louder.
Fern must uncover the truth behind what poisons both trees and people before time runs out and lives are ruined. The ancient sentinels are the last of their kind, and their loss would forever silence a magic as old as Britain itself. But in the race to save both grove and villagers, Fern discovers that some secrets were meant to stay buried—and awakening them could destroy everything she holds dear.
Their Lost Souls (Agent Tori Hunter #6) by Roger Stelljes
Turning the key in the lock of the lakeside
cabin, Ally puts her finger to her lips as her boyfriend laughs softly.
Tonight it’s just the two of them. Later that night their broken bodies
lie in the grass by the boathouse, the moonlight reflected in their
unseeing eyes…
When a young couple are found murdered by a remote holiday cabin, Agent Tori Hunter races to the scene: and is devastated to recognize Ally Mannion, a close friend’s daughter, and her boyfriend Reed. Who would want to snatch away their innocent lives?
The first thing Tori notices is a boat drifting out on the lake. Did someone witness the attack? But with the boat offering up no clues, interviewing Ally’s heartbroken family Tori soon realizes that Ally and Reed broke in to the cabin. Were they hiding something? Or did the young couple see something they shouldn’t?
Then the body of a missing person from fourteen years ago is found at the bottom of another lake. He too was murdered. Convinced the two cases are linked, Tori uncovers a series of terrible crimes at the heart of the local community stretching back years: even to her own school days.
To catch the killer Tori will need to question everything about people she’s known her whole life. But how far will she have to go, before they strike again?
When a young couple are found murdered by a remote holiday cabin, Agent Tori Hunter races to the scene: and is devastated to recognize Ally Mannion, a close friend’s daughter, and her boyfriend Reed. Who would want to snatch away their innocent lives?
The first thing Tori notices is a boat drifting out on the lake. Did someone witness the attack? But with the boat offering up no clues, interviewing Ally’s heartbroken family Tori soon realizes that Ally and Reed broke in to the cabin. Were they hiding something? Or did the young couple see something they shouldn’t?
Then the body of a missing person from fourteen years ago is found at the bottom of another lake. He too was murdered. Convinced the two cases are linked, Tori uncovers a series of terrible crimes at the heart of the local community stretching back years: even to her own school days.
To catch the killer Tori will need to question everything about people she’s known her whole life. But how far will she have to go, before they strike again?
Reading with my book club-
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson
When Kay is cursed by a magic mirror, he can no
longer perceive goodness in anything - not his best friend Gerda, nor
the roses in the garden. One wintry evening, he is kidnapped by the
wicked Snow Queen and swept away to live for ever in her kingdom of ice.
Friendless and shoe-less, Gerda must travel through inhospitable lands,
with only crows to guide her and bandits for company, in order to find
her beloved friend. And when she gets there, how will she melt the ice
in his heart? Nearly two centuries after its first publication, The Snow
Queen endures as a tale of love and loss, good and evil, and loyalty in
the face of great hardships.
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Margot is a nine-year-old girl whose family
moved from Earth to Venus when she was four. She remembers the sun
shining on Earth, something it rarely does on Venus. "All Summer in a
Day" takes place on the one day when Venus's rain will stop, and the sun
will shine for a couple of hours only.
The Door in the Wall by H.G. Wells
H. G. Wells's short story "The Door in the Wall"
was first published in 1911 as part of a collection titled "The Door in
the Wall, and Other Stories." The conflict between science and
imagination is the major theme of the story, which was enormously
popular when it first appeared. Today Wells's reputation rests almost
entirely upon his science fiction novels, which include The Time Machine
(1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and
The War of the Worlds (1898), all of which are acknowledged classics of
the science fiction genre and continue to be widely read and adapted
into other media. "The Door in the Wall" is considered by both readers
and critics to be Wells's finest short story.
I Hate Dragons by Brandon Sanderson
In December 2010, Brandon posted a note on his Twitter feed suggesting a dialogue writing exercise. This is his result.
"For those who are following along, here’s what I did for my writing exercise. I actually managed to make it something of a self-contained story." - Brandon
"For those who are following along, here’s what I did for my writing exercise. I actually managed to make it something of a self-contained story." - Brandon
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
The folktale supposedly describes how the Chinese came to give all their children short names. Supposed to be amusing but definitely not true. It's said this story actually may have originated in Japan.
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
A Tibetan lama hires a Western engineer to build a computer that can print all the possible names of God in an alphabet of nine letters. The story explores the themes of religion, science, and the limits of human knowledge.
A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
Alluding to both the Sherlock Holmes canon and
the Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos, this Hugo Award-winning short story
will delight fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and of
course, Neil Gaiman.
A Study in Emerald draws readers in through carefully revealed details as a consulting detective and his narrator friend solve the mystery of a murdered German noble. But with its subtle allusions and surprise ending, this mystery hints that the real fun in solving this case lies in imagining all the details that Gaiman doesn't reveal, and challenges listeners to be detectives themselves.
A Study in Emerald draws readers in through carefully revealed details as a consulting detective and his narrator friend solve the mystery of a murdered German noble. But with its subtle allusions and surprise ending, this mystery hints that the real fun in solving this case lies in imagining all the details that Gaiman doesn't reveal, and challenges listeners to be detectives themselves.
The Man Who Loved Dragons (From the anthology Cross Time Traffic) by Lawrence Watt-Evans
There is no description anywhere for this story, but I found the author's explanation of how he came about writing the story, which I liked. Here it is:
People like to give each other gifts -- for birthdays and holidays and thank yous, and sometimes just because. The thing is, it's not always easy to come up with a good gift idea. So people will find a theme and latch onto that, and run it into the ground.
I have a sister who likes wolves, so when we can't think of anything else to get her, we get her something with a picture of a wolf on it -- a shirt, an afghan, whatever. I have a brother-in-law who liked ducks, so for awhile everyone was giving him duck-themed presents (until he asked us all to please stop).
I'm a writer, so I get a lot of pens -- which is nice, but I hardly ever use pens; I learned to type before I hit my teens and do all my writing with a keyboard.
And I write fantasy, especially stories with dragons in them, so I started getting dragons. All kinds of dragons. Ivory dragons, brass dragons, paper dragons, plastic dragons, hand-carved wooden dragons, Lego dragons, Welsh dragons, Chinese dragons.
I'm fine with this, actually, because I really do like dragons, but one year apparently I was being particularly hard to shop for, and I got about half a dozen dragons at once. It was a bit challenging figuring out where to put them all. And when I had found them all places, and looked around, I found myself thinking that if this went on for a few years it could easily get out of hand -- there wouldn't be room in the house for anything but dragons. I might become a dragon hoarder, the fantasy equivalent of a crazy cat lady...
That was the start of the story.
The Paperweight Library by Stevie Burges
A story about an old woman who struggles to find her purpose in life after her retirement. The story traces her journey to her life's redemption.
I couldn't find this short story anywhere but on Scribd, Youtube, and one other blog, so there is no cover image for it.
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