What I Plan On Reading This Fall:
I’ve always loved reading. For as long as I can remember I’ve been infatuated by stories- both reading and writing them. As a child I remember being in awe of bookstores, libraries, and really any place that housed books. The last two years I’ve been recovering from a traumatic brain injury and reading has been rather difficult for me. I’ve read one book the past two years and even still, that process hurt my head and burned my eyes. Since that last read, I’ve spend hours upon hours in physical therapy, vision therapy, and doctors offices working on fixing this so I could get back to reading. Well, reading has been getting a bit easier- it’s still difficult, but I’m able to comprehend what I’m reading now which is a HUGE win! So, I went to Barnes & Noble and picked out a few books. Here is what’s on my bookshelf and to be read (TBR).
1.The Memory thief | lauren mansy
In the city of Craewick, memories reign. The power-obsessed ruler of the city, Madame, has cultivated a society in which memories are currency, citizens are divided by ability, and Gifted individuals can take memories from others through touch as they please.
Seventeen-year-old Etta Lark is desperate to live outside of the corrupt culture, but grapples with the guilt of an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city’s asylum. When Madame threatens to put her mother up for auction, a Craewick practice in which a “criminal’s” memories are sold to the highest bidder before being killed, Etta will do whatever it takes to save her. Even if it means rejoining the Shadows, the rebel group she swore off in the wake of the accident years earlier.
To prove her allegiance to the Shadows and rescue her mother, Etta must steal a memorized map of the Maze, a formidable prison created by the bloodthirsty ruler of a neighboring Realm. So she sets out on a journey in which she faces startling attacks, unexpected romance, and, above all, her own past in order to set things right in her world.
2. The Louder Song | Aubrey Sampson
Lament helps us hear God’s louder song.
When you’re in the midst of suffering, you want answers for the unanswerable, resolutions to the unresolvable. You want to tie up pain in a pretty little package and hide it under the bed, taking it out only when you feel strong enough to face it. But grief won’t be contained. Grief disobeys. Grief explodes. In one breath, you may be able to say that God’s got this and all will be well. In the next, you might descend into fatalism. No pretending. Here, you are raw before God, an open wound.
There is a pathway through this suffering. It’s not easy, but God will use it to lead you toward healing. This path is called lament. Lament leads us between the Already and the Not Yet. Lament minds the gap between current hopelessness and coming hope. Lament anticipates new creation but also acknowledges the painful reality of now. Lament recognizes the existence of evil and suffering–without any sugarcoating–while simultaneously declaring that suffering will not have the final say.
In the midst of your darkest times, you will discover that lament leads you back to a place of hope–not because lamenting does anything magical, but because God sings a louder song than suffering ever could, a song of renewal and restoration.
3. Apologies That Never Come | Pierre Alex Jeanty
The words that never left their mouth, the feelings that you held on to, the process from heartbreak to healing. Let’s explore this journey, dissect the reality. Pierre does it again by presenting a unique way of reflecting on heartbreak.
4. A Very Large Expanse Of Sea | Tahereh Mafi
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.
Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.
But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.
5. Devil’s Club | Georgette Heyer
The son of the Duke and Duchess of Avon, the Marquis of Vidal is known as Devil’s Cub not only for the excesses of his father but for his own wild habits. As he is paying court to a girl of the bourgeoisie, Sophia Challoner, he also participates in a rather impromptu duel, the outcome of which forces him to leave the country. He intends to bring Sophia with him as his mistress: but her strait-laced sister Mary has no intention of allowing her sister to be ruined, and takes her place, assuming that the Marquis will let her go once the mistake is discovered, leaving him with no chance to take Sophia afterwards. But she has not yet obtained the measure of the Marquis’s personality, for in the grip of fury he takes Mary off with him instead, and only when they are in France and it is too late for either to turn back does he realize that by abducting a respectable girl he has compromised her and is obliged to offer her marriage.
However, Mary refuses Vidal because she believes he is making the offer from guilt and as she has fallen in love with him she finds this intolerable. In her misery, she runs away, intending to seek her own fortune. While away, she meets Vidal’s father, the Duke of Avon, by chance, and takes him into her confidence without realizing that she is talking to Avon – who is an old crony of her grandfather’s and has come to France to investigate the rumors surrounding his son and scotch any scandal. The two reach an excellent understanding, with Avon clearly coming to respect Mary.
Vidal pursues, and ultimately realizes he loves her, persuading her to marry him — in spite of Avon’s dry observation that she could do better.
Once I finish these books I’ll post a book review! I can tell you now, it’s going to be a while to get through this list, but none the less, I will share my thoughts about what’s on these pages! If you’ve read any of these, please share with me- spoiler free- what you think, in the comment section!
What are you reading?
