There are reportedly 130 million books out in the world, and the number is growing by the millions. How can you find something you would enjoy reading? The internet has enabled us to listen to book podcasts and explore book review websites; however, here, too, the numbers have also exploded. It is daunting. The English Center has always attempted to match a reader to just the right book. We have eight book groups, for example, or you can make an appointment with a staff member to point you in the right direction. BOOK BROWSING is another attempt to highlight books you might enjoy. Some months, we will draw attention to current bestsellers, award winners, or well-known classics. You might find Staff Picks one month or seasonal themes. Please keep coming back to check what we have posted.
February
Romantasy is an emerging subgenre in new adult fiction, combining elements of high-fantasy with romance. And February is the perfect time to highlight the wildly successful Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros. The first three books are out with
two more planned!
two more planned!
|
|
|
Book 1:
Fourth Wing
Violet Sorrengail expected to live a quiet life surrounded by books, until she was forced onto the world's deadliest training ground. Now she must fight to join the army's elite: dragon riders. But dragons don't choose fragile riders, they incinerate them, and when your body breaks as easily as Violet's does - death is only a heartbeat away.
EVERY NIGHT COULD BE YOUR LAST
Many cadets would kill Violet to better their own chances of success; the rest would kill her just because of her last name . . . including the ruthless Xaden Riorson, her family's greatest enemy. With the odds stacked against her, Violet must use every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise, because once you enter Basgiath War College, there are only two ways out:
GRADUATE OR DIE
Book 2:
Iron Flame
SECRETS. SACRIFICE. SURVIVAL.
Against all odds, Violet Sorrengail made it through her first year at Basgiath War College, but now, the real training begins. The stakes are higher than ever, and a determination to survive won't be enough this time.
When a powerful new enemy threatens everything she cares about, including the man she loves, Violet must do whatever it takes to keep their secrets safe. One wrong move could have horrifying consequences - and as the web of lies spun by those in charge starts to unravel, nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
THE DEADLY SECOND YEAR AT BASGIATH AWAITS
Book 3:
Onyx Storm
ARE YOU READY TO BRAVE THE DARK?
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves - her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.
They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find - the truth.
But a storm is coming...
and NOT EVERYONE CAN SURVIVE ITS WRATH.
Fourth Wing
Violet Sorrengail expected to live a quiet life surrounded by books, until she was forced onto the world's deadliest training ground. Now she must fight to join the army's elite: dragon riders. But dragons don't choose fragile riders, they incinerate them, and when your body breaks as easily as Violet's does - death is only a heartbeat away.
EVERY NIGHT COULD BE YOUR LAST
Many cadets would kill Violet to better their own chances of success; the rest would kill her just because of her last name . . . including the ruthless Xaden Riorson, her family's greatest enemy. With the odds stacked against her, Violet must use every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise, because once you enter Basgiath War College, there are only two ways out:
GRADUATE OR DIE
Book 2:
Iron Flame
SECRETS. SACRIFICE. SURVIVAL.
Against all odds, Violet Sorrengail made it through her first year at Basgiath War College, but now, the real training begins. The stakes are higher than ever, and a determination to survive won't be enough this time.
When a powerful new enemy threatens everything she cares about, including the man she loves, Violet must do whatever it takes to keep their secrets safe. One wrong move could have horrifying consequences - and as the web of lies spun by those in charge starts to unravel, nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
THE DEADLY SECOND YEAR AT BASGIATH AWAITS
Book 3:
Onyx Storm
ARE YOU READY TO BRAVE THE DARK?
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves - her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.
They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find - the truth.
But a storm is coming...
and NOT EVERYONE CAN SURVIVE ITS WRATH.
|
Sonnets from the Portuguese
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese, written c. 1845–1846 and published first in 1850, is a collection of 44 love sonnets. These love sonnets written for her, then, future husband Robert Browning. The content and tone of the sonnets change as her relationship with Browning relationship progressed. In the earlier sonnets she expresses her doubt and fear about beginning a relationship with Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular during the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. |
Think Gardens!
|
|
|
Wild Your Garden
by The Butterfly Brothers
Introducing Wild Your Garden, a practical guide to rewilding your outdoor space, with advice, inspiration and step-by-step projects brought to you by Gardeners' World and Springwatch guests The Butterfly Brothers.
We all have the potential to make the world a little greener, and Wild Your Garden shows you how to create a garden that can help boost local biodiversity. You don't need specialist knowledge or acres of land.
If you have any outdoor space, you can make a difference to local wildlife, and reduce your carbon footprint, too! So what are you waiting for?
Grow Food for Free
by Huw Richards
Author Huw Richards is a man on a mission. He is passionate about teaching you how to garden and grow your own food. Years of experience and trying different things has taught Huw how to garden with little money (or without a garden) and he shows you how to do the same! Grow Food for Free teaches you how to produce no-cost, low-maintenance fruit and veg - and finding low-cost ways to overcome common gardening worries.
Learn about the space you need and how to prepare it, make your own compost, tackle weeds, pests, and diseases, and how to get hold of your first set of seeds! Discover strategies to expand your garden. Can't afford a raised bed? Try repurposing an old wooden pallet. Don't have money to buy lots of different seeds? Look in your kitchen cupboards for food that you can plant. This home gardening book shows you everything you need to barter, borrow, repurpose, and propagate your way to a bountiful harvest without burdening your bank balance!
Gardening Step by Step
from the Royal Horticultural Society
Simple steps to growing, planting and reaping rewards from your garden, from the experts at the RHS. Transform your garden with inspiring projects taken from the bestselling "RHS Simple Steps to Success" series. Follow practical tips, checklists, charts and step-by-steps which are easy to do and simple to follow to keep your garden gorgeous all year round. Discover how to plant a small garden, from using colour to container ideas. Learn to grow vegetables in your small garden with tips on choosing a site and delicious planting recipes. There is advice on creating an easy-care garden from formal designs to planting ideas. Plus, get the low-down on easy pruning and find out how to encourage flowering and keep your clematis properly cut back. Get results, whether you're a green-fingered guru or a gardening novice.
by The Butterfly Brothers
Introducing Wild Your Garden, a practical guide to rewilding your outdoor space, with advice, inspiration and step-by-step projects brought to you by Gardeners' World and Springwatch guests The Butterfly Brothers.
We all have the potential to make the world a little greener, and Wild Your Garden shows you how to create a garden that can help boost local biodiversity. You don't need specialist knowledge or acres of land.
If you have any outdoor space, you can make a difference to local wildlife, and reduce your carbon footprint, too! So what are you waiting for?
Grow Food for Free
by Huw Richards
Author Huw Richards is a man on a mission. He is passionate about teaching you how to garden and grow your own food. Years of experience and trying different things has taught Huw how to garden with little money (or without a garden) and he shows you how to do the same! Grow Food for Free teaches you how to produce no-cost, low-maintenance fruit and veg - and finding low-cost ways to overcome common gardening worries.
Learn about the space you need and how to prepare it, make your own compost, tackle weeds, pests, and diseases, and how to get hold of your first set of seeds! Discover strategies to expand your garden. Can't afford a raised bed? Try repurposing an old wooden pallet. Don't have money to buy lots of different seeds? Look in your kitchen cupboards for food that you can plant. This home gardening book shows you everything you need to barter, borrow, repurpose, and propagate your way to a bountiful harvest without burdening your bank balance!
Gardening Step by Step
from the Royal Horticultural Society
Simple steps to growing, planting and reaping rewards from your garden, from the experts at the RHS. Transform your garden with inspiring projects taken from the bestselling "RHS Simple Steps to Success" series. Follow practical tips, checklists, charts and step-by-steps which are easy to do and simple to follow to keep your garden gorgeous all year round. Discover how to plant a small garden, from using colour to container ideas. Learn to grow vegetables in your small garden with tips on choosing a site and delicious planting recipes. There is advice on creating an easy-care garden from formal designs to planting ideas. Plus, get the low-down on easy pruning and find out how to encourage flowering and keep your clematis properly cut back. Get results, whether you're a green-fingered guru or a gardening novice.
Take a look at these wonderful reads!
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home.
Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either.
Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.
Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either.
Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.