The topic for Top Ten Tuesday this week is 10 Books I’ve recently added to my To Be Read List in no particular order. These are some of the most recent ones that I’ve marked but I haven’t read yet. It is an eclectic bunch.
“Zombies in North London, death cults in the West Country, the engineering deck of the Enterprise: Simon Pegg has been ploughing some bizarre furrows in recent times. Having blasted onto the small screens with his now legendary sitcom Spaced, his rise to the UK’s favourite son status has been mercurial, meteoric, megatronic, but mostly just plain great.
From his childhood (and subsequently adult) obsession with Star Wars, his often passionate friendship with Nick Frost, and his forays into stand-up which began with his regular Monday morning slot in front of his 12-year-old classmates, this is a joyous tale of a homegrown superstar and a local boy made good.” From Goodreads”
Owl and the Japanese Circus by Kristi Charish
“Ex-archaeology grad student turned international antiquities thief, Alix—better known now as Owl—has one rule. No supernatural jobs. Ever. Until she crosses paths with Mr. Kurosawa, a red dragon who owns and runs the Japanese Circus Casino in Las Vegas. He insists Owl retrieve an artifact stolen three thousand years ago, and makes her an offer she can’t refuse: he’ll get rid of a pack of vampires that want her dead. A dragon is about the only entity on the planet that can deliver on Owl’s vampire problem – and let’s face it, dragons are known to eat the odd thief.” from Goodreads
Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire by Roy Moxham
“Tea came late to England—after its arrival in Portugal, Holland, and France—but quickly became a national obsession. Tea gardens and shops sprang up everywhere in seventeenth-century England. Demand soon spread to the colonies, where the heavy taxation on tea led to smuggling on a massive scale and, in the New World, cost England her American empire. Tea drove the British to war with China, to guarantee the supply of pekoe, and it prompted colonists to clear jungles in India, Ceylon, and Africa for huge tea plantations. In time, the cultivation of tea would subject more than one million laborers to wretched working conditions. Hundreds of thousands of them would die for the commodity that for four centuries propelled Britain’s economy and epitomized the reach of its empire. With the same colorful detail and narrative skill that pushed The Great Hedge of India to international success, author Roy Moxham, once a tea planter himself, maps the impact of a monumental and imperial British enterprise. In this new volume, he offers a fully fascinating, and frequently shocking tale of England’s tea trade—of the lands it claimed, the people it exploited, the profits it garnered, and the cups it filled.” from Goodreads
66 Square Feet: A Delicious Life, One Woman, One Terrace, 92 Recipes by Marie Viljoen
“South Africa–born Marie Viljoen captures the hearts of her readers as she blogs about cooking and gardening on her tiny 66-square-foot terrace in Brooklyn. Named one of the top 10 gardening blogs by Apartment Therapy and the Discovery Channel, 66 Square Feet has also been covered in the New York Times.” from Goodreads
Pride Mates by Jennifer Ashley
“Like most Shifters, Liam Morrissey has learned that trusting humans leads to no good. But when a beautiful attorney enters Shiftertown alone, Liam’s alpha nature leaves him no choice but to offer his protection.
Tasked with defending a Shifter accused of murder, attorney Kim Fraser is completely out of her depth in the mysterious world of Shifters. To prove her client’s innocence, Kim will need the help of someone on the inside, even though relying on Liam goes against everything society says about Shifters.” from Goodreads
Marked by Sarah Fine
“In a broken landscape carved by environmental collapse, Boston paramedic Cacia Ferry risks life and limb on the front lines of a fragile and dangerous city. What most don’t know—including her sexy new partner, Eli Margolis—is that while Cacy works to save lives, she has another job ferrying the dead to the Afterlife. Once humans are “Marked†by Fate, the powerful Ferrys are called to escort the vulnerable souls to either eternal bliss or unending fire and pain.” from Goodreads
“Once Jenny Casey was somebody’s daughter. Once she was somebody’s enemy. Now the former Canadian special forces warrior lives on the hellish streets of Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 2062. Racked with pain, hiding from the government she served, running with a crime lord so she can save a life or two, Jenny is a month shy of fifty, and her artificially reconstructed body has started to unravel. But she is far from forgotten. A government scientist needs the perfect subject for a high-stakes project and has Jenny in his sights. Suddenly Jenny Casey is a pawn in a furious battle, waged in the corridors of the Internet, on the streets of battered cities, and in the complex wirings of her half-man-made nervous system. And she needs to gain control of the game before a brave new future spins completely out of control.” from Goodreads
A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez
“A tale of vengeance, true love, and cannibalism.
Being born undead can have its disadvantages, such as eternal youth and flawless beauty; things most unsuitable for a witch. Hiding behind the guise of a grimy old crone, the witch is content living outside Fort Stalwart with her unlikely band of allies: a troll named Gwurm, an enchanted broom, and a demonic duck named Newt. She leads a simple life filled with spells, potions, and the occasional curse.
So when a White Knight arrives at Fort Stalwart, the witch knows her days of peace are at an end. The Knight is just days in front of a horde of ravenous goblings, and Fort Stalwart lies right in the horde’s path. But the goblings are just the first wave of danger, and soon the witch and the Knight must combine forces on a perilous quest to stop a mad sorcerer from destroying the world. from Goodreads
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders
“A healthy young man suddenly loses his memory–making him unable to remember the events of each passing hour. Two patients diagnosed with Lyme disease improve after antibiotic treatment–only to have their symptoms mysteriously return. A young woman lies dying in the ICU–bleeding, jaundiced, incoherent–and none of her doctors know what is killing her. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving these and other diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis.” from Goodreads
Happy Wives Club: One Woman’s Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage by Fawn Weaver
“Fawn Weaver was a happily married woman running a successful business–and then something happened. Maybe it was divorce rate reports on the evening news, “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” or any daytime talk show where husbands and wives dramatically reveal their betrayals. Everywhere she looked, Fawn saw negative portrayals of marriage dominating the airwaves and dooming everyone to failure.
Looking at Keith, the love of her life, she knew that wasn’t true. She was determined to find and connect with women just like her–happy and optimistic about marriage, deeply in love with her spouse, and committed to building a strong marriage that stands the test of time.
On a whim, she started the blog HappyWivesClub.com and sent the link to a few of new friends. What started as a casual invitation to five women exploded into an international online club with 150,000 members in more than 100 countries. from Goodreads
These do look interesting! I’m especially intrigued by the “Tea” one… putting that on my TBR right now.
I have a friend who would love Tea. I need to get it for her.
My TTT