The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading Kaliana Bradley's witty time-travel story The Ministry of Time; I'm listening to Only If You're Lucky, Stacy Willingham's mystery about college students, a death, and a missing girl; and I'm reading Sleeping Giants, Rene Denfeld's literary fiction about trying to find out the truth about the decades-old death of a young boy at a children's home on the wild coast of Oregon.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
In a world of the near future, a young woman is one of many civil servants offered a mysterious job: she'll be a handler for expats--and paid very handsomely for her work.
But the expats the government is gathering aren't necessarily from another country. They're from other times.
Our main protagonist, Commander Graham Gore (based upon a real figure from history), has been whisked from 1847 to the book's future setting.
In order to be a "bridge" for Gore between his past and the present, she'll have to explain why she's showing so much skin, why it's not healthy to smoke all day, and what a washing machine is.
But the bridge and her client are building bonds deeper than either could have imagined.
This is witty and fun so far. To read about other books I've reviewed that play with time, check out this link.
I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Avid Reader Press, Simon and Schuster.
02 Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Margot is a freshman in college still reeling from the loss of her best friend, who died a year earlier. She's spent her first year at school holing up and studying, maintaining a quiet life.
Then she's singled out by a vivacious girl on her hall, Lucy. Lucy is wild, mischievous, mysterious--and she has an extra room in her rambunctious house for the summer.
Margot is ready to cut loose and live a little, so she ditches her steady, predictable roommate and dives into living with Margot and friends, who are virtual strangers.
By the time their sophomore year is half over, one of the fraternity boys from next door is dead, Lucy is missing, and Margot is keeping secrets that could change everything.
I'm listening to Only If You're Lucky as an audiobook. Willingham is also the author of All the Dangerous Things and A Flicker in the Dark.
03 Sleeping Giants by Rene Denfeld
Almost thirty years ago, Dennis, a young boy from a children's home washed away in the rough waves of an Oregon beach, and his body was never found.
Now his sister Amanda, a young adult who learned of Dennis while researching her birth mother, is trying to find out how Dennis escaped the children's home and what happened leading up to her brother's death. She and Larry, a new local friend, a widower and former police officer, begin trying to find out the truth--but meet with dead ends everywhere they turn.
But then disturbing facts begin to come out about the horrifying behavioral modification methods used at the home and those who enacted them. Amanda and Larry are closer than ever to uncovering the whole, heartbreaking truth.
I mentioned Rene Denfeld's book The Child Finder in the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer.
I've read and reviewed another book called Sleeping Giants; that one was a science fiction story by Sylvain Neuvel.
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