The Rest of Your Summer Reading ~ August New Books (part 1)

15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius by Simon Monk

Nonfiction 

This wickedly inventive guide explains how to design and build 15 fiendishly fun electronics projects. Filled with photos and illustrations, 15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius includes step-by-step directions, as well as a construction primer for those who are new to electronics projects.

Using easy-to-find components and equipment, this do-it-yourself book shows you how to create a variety of mischievous gadgets, such as a remote-controlled laser, motorized multicolored LEDs that write in the air, and a surveillance robot. You'll also learn to use the highly popular Arduino microcontroller board with three of the projects.

Avalon Rising by Kathryn Rose

Metal & Lace #2

Fantasy 

In the aftermath of Morgan le Fay’s war on Camelot, the once great kingdom struggles to rebuild. Knights scour the world, attempting to restore the Round Table’s glory by locating Avalon and the Holy Grail before the dreaded Black Knight can do so first.

Vivienne, Merlin’s former apprentice, toils in secret day and night to build an aeroship. The Lady of the Lake has seen the future and promised that the ship will ensure Camelot’s knights succeed in their quest.

But when an infantry of knights goes missing—including Owen, Vivienne’s brother, and Marcus, her beloved—Vivienne changes the plan and commandeers the aeroship for a rescue mission, altering the fates of all involved. Now, the Lady sees danger in Vivienne’s future. And for Marcus: either betrayal or death.

Batgirl of Burnside by Cameron Stewart

Batgirl #1

Graphic Novel 

It's Batgirl as you've never seen her before! Big changes are here for Barbara Gordon as she moves across Gotham City to begin a new chapter in her ongoing fight against crime as Batgirl! The new creative team of Cameron Stewart (BATMAN AND ROBIN, SEAGUY, SEVEN SOLDIERS), Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr set Barbara Gordon off in a brand-new direction in BATGIRL VOL. 1! Collects BATGIRL #35-40 and a story from SECRET ORIGINS #10

Beauty's Daughter by Carolyn Meyer

Historical Fiction 

When renowned beauty Helen runs off to Troy with Prince Paris, her enraged husband, King Menelaus, starts the Trojan War, leaving their plain daughter, Hermione, alone to witness the deaths of heroes on both sides and longing to find her own love and place in the world. Includes historical notes.

Beyond Championships: A Playbook for Winning at Life by Coach Dru Joyce II

Nonfiction 

In Beyond Championships Teen Edition, Coach Dru Joyce lays out the steps teens can follow to become winners on and off the court. Much more than a sports book, Beyond Championships Teen Edition is a blueprint for anyone looking to make better choices and reach their full potential. The book speaks to athletes aspiring to emulate LeBron's success, as well as anyone who feels either uninspired or unable to change the direction of their lives. In less than ten years, Coach Dru went from someone resigned to a dull-yet-stable existence to one of the highest profile basketball coaches in the country, despite having virtually no background in the sport. It was an incredible transformation, the type most people only dream of, but one Coach Dru proved can become a reality with the right combination of faith and hard work. 

New Books for October ~ Part 4

The ultimate guide to understanding the universe.These days, it often seems like there's nothing we can count on. Mechanical engineer and proud science geek Christine McKinley has some good advice: Trust the laws of gravity, motion, energy, and entropy. In this funny, smart, and surprisingly practical book, McKinley offers a guided tour of the physical world, explaining everything from sound and light waves to momentum, buoyancy, magnetism, and relativity - and offers advice on how to use them in our everyday lives and more glamorous pursuits. Whether you're a secret agent trying to cover your tracks, a war correspondent ducking into a bomb shelter, or simply trying to execute the perfect stage dive, understanding physics can mean the difference between life and death (or at least looking kind of silly). Part science book, part memoir, and part extreme survival handbook, Physics for Rock Stars is the amazing science class you never had (or don't remember).

Michael and his friends must rescue a child prodigy as the thrilling action continues in this electrifying fourth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling series! Michael, Taylor, Ostin and the rest of the Electroclan head to China in search of a girl who may have discovered why Michael and his friends became electric. Her name is Lin Julung, or Jade Dragon, and she's a child prodigy with an IQ higher than Einstein's- and Ostin's. But Hatch gets to her first, and the Elgen are holding her prisoner in their Taiwan Starxource plant. Now the Voice wants Michael and the Electroclan to go to Taiwan and free her before Hatch can realize his dreams of an army of electric children. The hunt for Jade Dragon is on, and it's a race against time!

Kara, a high school junior, is popular with a great group of friends, an amazing boyfriend, and expectations of being homecoming queen until she leaves a party angry, and wakes up in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the waist down. As she is forced to adjust to her new physical reality, she also learns that her friends are not who they seemed to be.

In 1905 czarist Russia, an impoverished country girl Elena and the aristocratic Ekatrina meet and set in motion an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and the witch Baba Yaga.

Waking up after a five-year absence with no memory of what happened, softball player Kyra Agnew is astonished to realize that she did not age while she was missing and teams up with her former boyfriend's now-teenaged younger brother to figure out what happened.

In November I am Thankful for...New Books! (part 4)

So You Want to be a Comic Book Artist by Philip Amara

A step-by-step guide to creating, publishing and marketing comic books shares professional insights into developing compelling characters and approaching publishers, offering additional advice for such topics as adapting storylines for video games and movies.

 

Soda-Pop Rockets by Paul Jarvis

Anyone can recycle a plastic bottle by tossing it into a bin, but it takes a bit of skill to propel it into that bin from 500 feet away. Skill, and a copy of Soda-Pop Rockets.

 Author and engineer Paul Jarvis has designed 20 different easy-to-launch rockets that can be built from discarded plastic drink bottles. After learning how to construct and fly a basic model, readers will find out new ways to modify and improve their designs.  Clear, step-by-step instructions with full-color illustrations accompany each project, including how to build a launch pad, along with photographs of the author firing his creations into the sky. 

 

 SYLO by D. J. MacHale

They came from the sky parachuting out of military helicopters to invade Tucker Pierce's idyllic hometown on Pemberwick Island, Maine. They call themselves SYLO and they are a secret branch of the U.S. Navy. SYLO's commander, Captain Granger, informs Pemberwick residents that the island has been hit by a lethal virus and must be quarantined. Now Pemberwick is cut off from the outside world. Tucker believes there's more to SYLO's story. He was on the sidelines when the high school running back dropped dead with no warning. He saw the bizarre midnight explosion over the ocean, and the mysterious singing aircraft that travel like shadows through the night sky. He tasted the Ruby--and experienced the powers it gave him--for himself. What all this means, SYLO isn't saying. Only Tucker holds the clues that can solve this deadly mystery. Look to the sky because Pemberwick Island is only the first stop.

 

 Taken by Erin Bowman

In the isolated town of Claysoot, every male is mysteriously "Heisted" on his eighteenth birthday, and seventeen-year-old Gray Weathersby is determined to figure out why.

 

 

This is NOT a Writing Manual by Kerri Majors

You're an aspiring writer. Maybe you've just discovered your love of words and dream of being a novelist someday. Maybe you've been filling notebooks with science-fiction stories since middle school. Maybe you're contemplating a liberal arts degree, but you don't know what the heck you're going to do with it. The last thing you need is another preachy writing manual telling you how you should write. This book isn't a writing manual. It is a series of candid and irreverent essays on the writing life, from a writer who's lived it.

New School Year...New Books for September! (part 4)

5 Centimeters per Second by Makoto Shinkai

Love can move at the speed of terminal velocity, but as award-winning director Makoto Shinkai reveals in his latest comic, it can only be shared and embraced by those who refuse to see it stop. Takaki Tohno quickly befriends Akari Shinohara when she transfers to his school. They grow closer to each other due to similar interests and attitudes; for instance, they both prefer to stay inside during recess due to their constitutions. As a result, they form a strong bond. Upon ending their school year, Akari moves to Tochigi, due to her parents' jobs. The two keep in contact by writing letters, but eventually begin to drift apart.

 Period 8 by Chris Crutcher

Period 8 has always been a safe haven and high school senior Paulie "The Bomb" Baum a constant attendee, but as Paulie, Hannah, their friends, and a sympathetic teacher try to unravel the mystery of a missing classmate, the ultimate bully takes aim at the school.

Elegy by Amanda Hocking

 Gemma must battle Penn to break the siren curse and secure a future with Alex.

 Zom-B Angels by Darren Shan

Near to giving up hope in a London overrun by zombies, B meets The Angels, a group gathered to fight the living dead and the forces that introduced them.

The Hot Air Balloon Book by Clive Catterall

More than a century before the Wright brothers’ first flight, humans were taking to the skies in hot air balloons. Today, with basic craft skills, you can build and safely launch your own balloons using inexpensive, readily available materials. Author and inventor Clive Catterall provides illustrated, step-by-step instructions for eight different homemade models, as well as the science and history behind them.