Poems To Be Afraid Of by Pixie Bruner

 

This haunting collection of poems explores phobias, from various cornophobias (fear of a particular color) to the made-up phobia coined by cartoonist Gary Larson: Luposlipaphobia, the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.  The poem, "Aichmophobia", a fear of sharp objects, tells the tale of Sleeping Beauty, who has been told to avoid the spinning wheel with its sharp needle.  "She's a beautiful idiot, as practical as a decorative vase," and "She could only use a silver spoon because what if a fork tine went rogue?" and is "sheltered from a lifetime of potential pricks.", a statement that could be taken more than one way.  Sleeping Beauty stupidly pricks her finger, causing her entire kingdom to enter into a deep, long-lasting sleep.    

The poem "High Infidelity (Commitmentphobia)" is another favorite of mine.  It examines desire, which "is just an excuse for need. Need-- dressed to kill, Tarted up, tipsy on stilettos".  This poem also looks at the physicality of love, desire, and need.  The imagery of the crisp white sheets with wet spots and the "id-entity" make this a poem worth reading.  The artwork in this book is amazing. The creepy picture of a young girl with button eyes for the poem "Koumpounophobia, the fear of buttons looks like something out of the scary movie Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman's best-selling book.  The author is a good friend of mine, but that doesn't mean she isn't an incredible writer.  This collection includes some of her greatest works, aside from the Dream Fruit poems she wrote for Katabatic Circus Vol. 2, which are fabulous.  This book was just published in time for Halloween.  

 

Pixie Bruner has been published in such esteemed tomes as Spectral Realms and Strange Horizons, and her book The Body As Haunted was nominated twice for the Elgin.      

Quotes

Sensation and desire are easier than love.

They do not cut to the quick of you as easily.

They can be costumed as

love for exposure therapy.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.8)

Cynophobia--

Crawling through my skin

to avoid the blues.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.12)

Egrets give me regrets

make me scream and regress

Pristine pure, too too clean

blood cells lacking heme.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.35)

She could only use a silver spoon

because what if a fork tine went rogue.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.37)

Desire is just an excuse for need.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.46)

"Love" is only used in self-defense.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.47)

Need is only a man's excuse for neglect.

Only they need.

We must only love love love

until we are hollowed out

or fill ourselves at great risk

and shown the door.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.47)

To cook is to make mis-steaks

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.57)

Smile lines reflect, etched into skin

telling a story I am not ready to hear.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.74)

Language is a virus.

Pixie Bruner (Poems To Be Afraid Of, p.96)

Link To Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Afraid-Angela-Yuriko-Smith/dp/B0H9L7TS34/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TJW1SFJ3112U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Rqu5JqSuTGSzMdSgfEMbK0ECloR_L_1FLkEK1jyzNfYsIL9qxrwBv_m6f2COqacyVcKI6gDzIaGnRdBRMo3WRZDTtKv9FryuP-pempvM4dHXfuJUT5xI_w2t2MkbnGNnfMxLYmi0uOHrE_fOeLjvlF0CC5Iec5mDP8vqJIGPjEoDCSBw9sd19xmRftpSKO22mcZHpPHDQKpoX8psWvucx03260oedLAWIL9LI8UaZp0.0JgQmPpkbhTqkv1m3NJis5WaYHqjTrVzzlylkb2L6yQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=poems+to+be+afraid+of&qid=1792516942&sprefix=poems+to+be+%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-1

Link To ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/poems-to-be-afraid-of_pixie-bruner_angela-yuriko-smith/59823952/?resultid=5913035a-c532-4c3e-83f6-1972f4be0966#edition=76270373&idiq=90118539

Link to Authorities Press: authortunitiespress.com

Grave Secrets by Alice James

 

This sassy, supernatural comic thriller features vampires, zombies, and a necromancer.  Toni is a powerful necromancer who has to raise the dead for a short while or deal with being antsy.  She is also an estate agent in Staffordshire, England, who is looking for a place for a vampire, Oscar, to live.  In Europe, being a vampire is legal.  In other places, like America, it's more of a stake-on-sight.  The English vampire Assemblage has a huge problem with a Chicago mob Assemblage that has moved in on their territory and plans to take it over.  Oscar is a member of the English vampire Assemblage and has Peter, a German doctor, in his coterie, who hates living at the Assemblage.  Toni and Oscar fall in love, but they have to overlook faults, like his desire to drink her blood (Yuck!). There's also the matter of the head vampire of England wanting Toni to pledge fealty to him in exchange for protection from the other vampires, and the EDL, an anti-vampire faction that wants to kill all vampires and those associated with them.  

There is also the matter of the Jane Doe in the morgue that Toni's brother, Wills, keeps asking Toni to try to raise her so they can find out her name and who murdered her.  Toni has little luck in this task since she needs a name to raise a corpse or control vampires.  The vampires supposedly wiped out all the necromancers, and Toni must keep the fact that she can control the dead and undead a secret or risk being killed by the vampires.   Toni is a snappy, sarcastic woman who refuses to put up with any gruffness.  She is a strong character who can mostly take care of herself.  Oscar is an inscrutable vampire with old-fashioned values about male-female relationships and doesn't tell Toni anything about himself or what life is like as a vampire.  Peter is forced to fill her in.  The pages fly in this fast-paced novel that will keep you entertained to the very last page.  This is the first of three books, and I can't wait to read more.  

Quotes

God blessed me with pale English skin that burns under light candlelight and tangerine-coloured hair that tangles when you are asleep.  And when you are awake.  And probably when you are dead.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.21)

I noticed what beautiful cursive handwriting he had.  My own looks like a mating ritual of the rare Amazon ink dancing spider.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.27)

"Have you got her?" he called...in an English voice.  A Birmingham voice to be exact.  I wasn't going to die at the hands of an escaped zombie or a blood-eating vampire.  I wasn't even going to be shunted off this mortal coil by a ninja or a Chicago hitman.  I was going to meet my maker at the hands of some thug from Shirley.  Thank you, posterity. You suck.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.37)

We really needed to get to first names soon. Still, we were both English and it had only ben five years.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.49)

Next time there was a work party, I was going to lock the door, take the phone off the hook, and watch all three Lord of the Rings movies with a kebab, an entire tub of ice cream and a bottle of vodka.  If there was any evening left, I would start on The Hobbit.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.67)

-Hello, Tori.  How's your decapitated corpse doing:

-It's finished bleeding on me and now it's just oozing onto my lawn.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.70-1)

Croquet is a game with two teams, six hoops, eight mallets, and too many rules.  The worst rule is that you are not allowed to use the mallets to club the opposition to death.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.85)

Toni, I grew up in Germany, remember?  There we think sausages are vegetables.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.89)

I wasn't so much unlucky in love as damn well cursed.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.99)

My idea of tidying up and feng shui was to line up all the piles of rubbish in a visually pleasing manner.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.142)

Don't listen to your heart.  It's a liar and deceiver and brings nothing but grief.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.189)

When you seek through the world for love, you should first look for friendship and kindness.  Without these, I think there is a great risk of the heart making bad choices for the head.

Alice James (Grave Secrets, p.279)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Grave-Secrets-Lavington-Windsor-Mysteries/dp/1781088616/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TifyQ6Ct-IdrTtuZA_sIhpUqoxnj_OO1iwKz-bgCncfGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.nVfr3e9kUiaiEEtbLaFZiJS9SNXEGfjCTBsTuyf3VS4&qid=1792267698&sr=8-1

Link to ThriftBooks:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/grave-secrets-the-lavington-windsor-mysteries-book-1_alice-james/26135396/?resultid=3a780af1-608a-43bf-8b53-2769a1027d6f#edition=28875186&idiq=64844799

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

 

Stephen Graham Jones has written another New York Times bestselling book that takes place in Lamesa, Texas and Tolly Driver who is looking back on the summer of 1989 when he was seventeen. Tolly's dad had died a year before in a car accident. He only has his mother who owns a hardware store and his best friend from school, Amber Dennison, the only Native living in town`.  Amber drives a Rabbit truck that runs on diesel.  The two are very close but not in a romantic way.  They are not in the marching band or the Future Farmers of America which puts them on the outside looking in. 

Tolly likes to go to parties and get drunk, throw up and make a fool of himself.  For the most part the other students ignore him because he no longer has a father.  Stace Goodkin is one of those people who gets great grades and follows the rules.  One night, the In Crowd decides to show Justin Joss a lesson in why he would never be a part of their crowd by taking him to a oil pump horse, one of those machines that bobs up and down like a bronco horse.  They convinced him to climb on top and ride.  Justin ended up mutilated by the machine.  Stace tried to help him, but only managed to distract Justin into causing more damage to himself.

The In Crowd throws a party one night and Tolly, as usual, is plastered.  He got the brilliant idea to do a cannonball in the pool getting everyone nearby soaking wet.  One of them was a baton twirler in the marching band named Shannon who is sitting at a table flirting with a cute older guy.  Tolly has a severe allergy to peanuts, so Shannon's date who puts peanuts in his Coke makes Tolly drink it.  He has a major reaction and his EpiPen is in Amber's car.  The band members take their belts off their uniforms and tie Tolly to a lounge chair.  He starts throwing up to try to get rid of the peanuts.  

Amber and Stace are talking inside the house when Stace sees into the backyard Tolly convulsing on the lounge chair.  Stace, a gymnast, vaults into action to get his EpiPen to him.  She injects him and her and Amber start trying to get him out of the restraints.  Suddenly, the dead Justin Joss appears with a chainsaw and begins to kill those at the party who were responsible for his death.  Even Stace is included in this because she was there.  He doesn't kill her, but hurts her really bad.  Stace had called her doctor father to help Tolly so he's coming and the police likely are too.  There's also Justin to contend with so, everyone runs off.  

Unfortunately, Tolly gets a splash of Justin's blood on his forehead.  When he wipes it away, it goes into an open wound on his forehead.  This will cause Tolly to go psycho and start his own killing spree.   And while the Tolly looking back hasn't killed anyone since, he's recounting this to explain how he became a psycho for a while.  This is a sharp book that nails high school life and living in West Texas on the head.  Its also the perfect book for today, Halloween.

Quotes

Amber...leaned against the steering wheel to shove her own hand down under the front of he seat, closing her eyes to let her fingers see better. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p7)

You think big thoughts when you're seventeen. Big stupid thoughts. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p9)

My kind don't exactly do  funerals.  I know.  We're the reason for the funeral. Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher (p25)

Make enough of an ass of yourself, you get noticed, right? (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p22)

Still? I'd just lost my dada year ago, hadn't I?  This--me being an idiot--was probably some stage of grief. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p28)

Someone not necessarily full of promise, but full of promises. Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher (p66)

His two big sayings that year, both of which applied that night, were that nothing good happens after midnight, and that the grass really wasn't that much greener on the other side of fifty-five miles per hour.  Though it could get bloodier real damn fast. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p64-5)

Its less about survival, more about who you're holding when that big irradiated shock wave blows you to ash. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p66)

The world's so much simpler when you've got a chainsaw in your hand, isn't it? A chainsaw, or a machete or an axe, that's the elegant solution to every problem. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p67)

You always want your mom when you're hurt. When you call you're dad is when you've done something he can maybe be proud of. For pain, though, it's moms all the way. Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher (p128)

We all want to hide, don't we?  To not have to be constantly navigating between our true selves and people's expectations twenty-four seven. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p136)

   

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

I started out liking this book that is about a teenage girl named Ivy who is pregnant and whose parents want to send her away to have the baby and put it up for adoption.  The father wants nothing to do with her, and Ivy decides she wants to keep the baby, so she sneaks out at night and meets up with a young woman who is going to Blackwell, a town in western Massachusetts, where a group called the Community believes in love and acceptance.  Both girls go there and find out that the handsome and charismatic man running the place, Joel, has a lot of rules, including: no acts of wickedness, no antisocial behavior, no contact with original family, no contact with the outside world, no reading, no attending public schools, no disloyalty, no personal possessions, and no terminating pregnancies.  Joel becomes immediately enchanted with Ivy and asks her to marry him, and they do after Mia's birth.

Ivy realizes that she doesn't want to live there anymore, but Joel threatens Mia if she tries to leave.  At first, Ivy has little contact with Mia because children belong to the Community, not to individuals, and a woman who cares for the children hates Ivy for taking away Joel and won't let Ivy see her daughter.  As time passes and Mia becomes a teen, she and Ivy grow close, and Ivy secretly introduces her to the library. Soon, Mia is sneaking books from the library to read in the barn on an apple farm the Community owns.  If you break the rules, you could have your head shaved, be given a letter placard announcing your crime, or a letter burned into your skin.  

After Ivy dies, Mia escapes the Community, but finds she cannot escape Joel, who easily finds her.  Then the novel takes a sharp left turn into the forest when Mia goes back in time to be with Nathaniel Hawthorne.  His book, The Scarlet Letter, saved Mia's life.  Ivy's story is a retelling of Hester and Pearl. I feel the book really went off the rails with this diversion to Hawthorne.  Up until then, the book is really good.  I have really loved some of Hoffman's books, including The Witches of Cambridge, which I reviewed earlier this month.  Her writing is magical and beautiful poetry that flows off the page.  All her books are worth reading because of her writing.  I don't know whether to recommend this book, but I suppose if you read it you will know that it goes a little wonky in the middle.  

       

     

Quotes

She loved Thoreau for his rebellious thoughts, and the Brontës for their dark and tragic tales of love, and Toni Morrison, whose novels made her cry and feel as if she didn't know the first thing about life.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.5)

Magic is a made-up concept that gives you the idea that you can control something you have no control over.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.45)

In a place where books were banned, there could be no personal freedom, no hopes, and no dreams for the future.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.46)

The worst thing that can happen often happens in silence.  It is not the explosion, but the aftermath, when you see through smoke and ash, and you know how much you have lost.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.68)

-You shouldn't trust me. You don't even know me.

-I know what you like to read. That's good enough for me.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.76)

Real life is unbelievable.  Souls are snatched from us, flesh and blood turn to dust, people you love betray you, men go to war over nothing. It's all preposterous.  That's why we have novels.  To make sense of things.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.118)

There was no way for him to explain that a person didn't choose being a writer; writing chose you.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p. 138)

He believed it was possible to see inside a person's soul once you knew which books mattered to them.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.146)

She remembered that you could never look back, because if you did, you would understand just how much you were about to lose.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.171)

Love was cruel and unpredictable, and yet he wanted it more than words, more than anything.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.190)

Mia now understood that Joel was well aware that once a girl walked into a library, she could never be controlled again.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.226)

Life can be long or short, it is impossible to know, but every once in a while an entire life is spent in one night, the night when the windows are open and you can hear the last of the crickets' call, when there is a chill in the air and the stars are bright, when nothing else matters, when a single kiss lasts longer than a lifetime, when you do not think about the future or the past, or whether or not you are walking through a dream rather than the real world, when everythihg you have always wanted and everything you are fated to mourn forever are tied together with black thread and then sewn with your own hand, when in the morning, as you wake and see the mountain in the distance, you will understand that whether or not you've made a mistake, whether or not you will lose all that you have, this is what it means to be human.

Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour, p.228)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Hour-Novel-Alice-Hoffman/dp/1982175370/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.wSW9NdmfEUhpKW_c_F_M2pGsRRax8dsIEUvEaKNBrGzZ1CBXlX6F_CFC8tcIhkI-o3-AlGuWgZTZ6w13HlkjEWRl0l7-s3nC46oaJxKK8ZetuPxz6YjaHgVuwozuScbeMmQREwTBXAVzz834qvJpeKFT3AGnN5iLHyYuds-rr1ZORHo8sHF9N_1a4pjsMRC6KuLr7KOtV0cKYrr0NVOQ-7yMYmC9HRt3PHs_a8z3UNw.UPxTkApeetV20v0YahMH2xkc_zVLiIpCIndVPSI5T5c&qid=1791733815&sr=8-1

Link to ThriftBooks:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-invisible-hour_alice-hoffman/37654919/?resultid=7f0ba944-d479-4177-80e2-24ae3895551c#edition=70056080&idiq=71805257

 

Daredevil Vol. 2: No Devils, Only God by Chip Zdarsky (Writer), Java Tartagalia and Jordie Bellaire (Color Artists), and VC's Clayton Cowles (Letterer)

This book is a sequel to Daredevil Vol 1: Know Fear (https://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2020/10/daredevil-know-fear-vol-1-by-chip.html).  In the last book, Fisk has become mayor. In this one, Fisk decides to dismantle his criminal empire for appearances' sake, but still take his cut of New York City crime from the crime families.  To the world, Daredevil is dead.  Matt now works as a parole officer because he can't go back to being a lawyer.  One of his parolees is the brother of the guy he killed in the liquor store stick-up.  He had to turn to a life of crime when his brother was murdered to take care of their mother and family.  This leads Matt into a crisis of faith.  He seeks help from the church, his best friend Foggy, and others, but doesn't believe he deserves forgiveness for all the bad things he did.  Meanwhile, Detective North, who sought to bring down Daredevil, must face corrupt cops who want him dead.  This book is almost as good as the last one; however, I prefer the artwork of the first comic to this one. It was more realistic.  Zdarsky explores the soul of Matt Murdock as he is plunged into a deep quandary about God and life.  Zdarsky has started a series off to a good start, as this second book shows.    

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Daredevil-Chip-Zdarsky-Vol-Devils/dp/1302914995/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YPX3L92IAC1R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KfjYpfRzdvNyNOIF3-evIX1sh5BIz2zN6DBHf7QQLizz6g2u50PZ1pc93otbLz8-222ZIxuEmPU2b71Fm9dd8qOkymOeoWCGixdQDctQULXLJc5FNkxewhEz04JRLPcur_9s9gauiHdfEf7KehEfXHF0hiBewNWw61C8LNwuOnEcImQOHLDB_DK8Vhl8I3jiqjDbj15nVJzW4urH9UTZfZdlQbdIug83Yt-i44n3od8.o6vLHuPgXdK-klBdw63_UdduoZR20muRZ9C2USXA-0k&dib_tag=se&keywords=daredevil+no+devils+only+god&qid=1791300341&sprefix=daredevil+no+dev%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1

Link to ThriftBooks:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/daredevil-by-chip-zdarsky-vol-2/21309910/?resultid=c2b26088-5fef-4aef-b034-acc0db6efd18#edition=22748252&idiq=35682537

 

Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest

 

This cozy mystery centers on Leda Foyle, a travel agent who runs her own business and has a bit of a psychic streak.  When she saves Detective Grady Merritt from a plane crash by booking him on another flight back to Seattle, he looks her up and asks her to help him find the killer in an old murder case he can't solve. Leda is new to this psychic business and performs at a bar called Castaways, where audience members give her things to hold; she has a vision and sings a song that speaks to that person.  This is causing her abilities to strengthen.  Leda hopes that while working with Grady, she will also be able to solve her fiancé's murder of three years ago.  

Grady takes her to the crime scene and has her touch the evidence encased in plastic, and she does indeed get some odd clues.  He takes her and her friend Niki to reinterview some of the suspects.  Niki is the comic relief of this novel, hobbling around on a giant medical boot and being a cheerleader to Leda.  In Grady's investigation, they find that everyone wanted to kill Christopher, one of the dead guys found in a low-rent motel.  The other victim, who was found in the parking lot and is Christopher's son, Kevin, is believed to have been killed because he saw the murder.  Unlike his father, he was beloved by all.  As the mystery progresses, the insights she gets from touching things are better understood now.  Also, it turns out that Leda's murder inquiry and Grady's murders are connected somehow. 

Priest has written over thirty books spanning steampunk, urban fantasy, horror, and young adult.  This includes the books in her Clockwork Century series, which starts with Boneshaker (winner of the Lotus and PNBA Awards), and Four and Twenty Blackbirds from the Eden Moore series.  This was a pretty good book, and it was short, less than three hundred pages.  The killer is pretty easy to figure out if you read mysteries like I do.  This is a book you can curl up with and finish in a day.  You won't have to think too hard, and its simple, candy-like plot will keep you entertained until the end.  This is the first book in a series, and I plan to check out the rest.

Quotes

If you die and go to hell in the South, you have to stop in Atlanta.

Cherie Priest (Grave Reservations, p.1)

Listen to us kids, old man.  We know things about how to communicate when the world is super awkward.  Text messages are your friends.  She can answer when she feels like it or not at all.

Cherie Priest (Grave Reservations, p.74)

-It's a Star Trek thing.

-More of a Star Wars guy, to tell the truth.

She groaned. This is never going to work.  She said it half-jokingly, but the words sank into her soul regardless.  If they couldn't agree on which sci-fi memes to deploy in conversation, how would they work together long enough to fix anything?

Cherie Priest (Grave Reservations, p.104)

All knowledge is contained within the internet!  Even if it's found in rumors on Reddit or whatever.

Cherie Priest (Grave Reservations, p.144)

You can turn literally any good thing into a Greek tragedy.

Cherie Priest (Grave Reservations, p.283)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Grave-Reservations-Novel-Cherie-Priest-ebook/dp/B08VJM211X/ref=sr_1_6?crid=3L3900A3WMT8G&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nnnnQnRiUsuQ6TZoFYl07MyctiyIygobNo0eICZ1ALL1d5Kin2riWaPBisiWStyITWBlIFbV1XEGI9ItSvGel9ilRRA63eFtoHcxBWtc859xqtRzfQynzhdND_qtm5P9QnlhKDjupXS21gpwx34SgmIyVJkWTypIAyW7tAGh9O5sFMLIMVgfkpMhvJRy7lqVOlQnhXIEg_Dau9OpsZbO--wn3ll1wcF3Z2da9nfIc8O2KXrBw3CRzLBbVd6DB3t4D5rEZBfl0Ae1hzTG3eVSdcSXGOQuEw6NCiVdFdsV4GA.u1iOeJCxJMbwyhX85Pj-WmKkxDV-Y64DfK4V2sH-j84&dib_tag=se&keywords=cherie+priest+books&qid=1791486485&sprefix=cherie+prie%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-6

Link to ThriftBooks:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/grave-reservations_cherie-priest/28709527/?resultid=c0b065d8-33a5-4f6a-8794-cb6e405b0ac3#edition=59949313&idiq=56515340

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman

 

Alice Hoffman, author of Practical Magic, Here on Earth, and Turtle Moon, has written a sweeping tale set in both the 1950s and the 17th century, about two young witches and their time at Radcliffe, and the first witch of Cambridge, who set up Lilith House, a place for witches at Radcliffe, where they can learn magic along with their studies.  Lauren comes from a rich family and is a descendant of the original witches of Cambridge, whose parents died when she was young.  She is attempting to turn her heart to stone so she can never feel the pain of loss, which also means not falling in love.  Ava, a stunning redhead, didn't know she was a witch; she was raised in Maine on an apple farm, bullied for being different, and forced to follow her parents' strict rules to keep her from being discovered.  Ava and Lauren meet before the nightlong celebration welcoming new witches to Lilith House.  They save each other from being run over by a car and become blood sisters.  

Ava finds letters from Cambridge's first witch, Rose Bridewell, who tells the story of her life and the lives of other witches.  Rose is rescued from a jail in England by Increase Mather's wife, and Mather takes her to America.  Mather's wife is a witch who doesn't practice, and Rose and she become more than employer and employee; they become fast friends.  Mather's son, Cotton, is a witch, but doesn't know it. He hates himself, and that hate reaches out to those like him.  Cotton will go on to start the Salem witch trials.  The fear of being named a witch mirrors the fear of the 1950s McCarthyism that Ava and Lauren live in.

Ava falls hard for Jamie Mather, a man whose family sent him to Harvard to become a lawyer like the rest of them, even though he has no interest in it.  Jamie wants to get far away from his family, who treat him differently for being a witch.  Despite her efforts not to, Lauren falls in love with a tattoo artist named Carick, but refuses to give in to her emotions, even as she finds excuses to keep going back to see him.  Lauren spends her free time trying to keep Ava away from Jamie because he is a Mather, and the Mather family has hunted witches for a long time, and he will only hurt Ava.  This causes her friendship with Ava to be quite rocky at times.

This captivating novel keeps you quickly turning pages to find out what happens next.  It explores the power of friendship, finding love, and two men, in the present and the past, who seek to destroy those who are different, whether they be witches or so-called communists.  Both women from the 17th century and the 1950s have to hide who they really are, as well as Lauren't brother, Lionel, who is not only a witch, but gay in a world that punishes people like him as being unnatural.  This book holds a mirror up to today's society and how those who are different are still persecuted.

Quotes

It was said that everyone had three fates, the one they were born with, the one they walked away from, and the one they made for themselves.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.15)

Her mouth was so red she looked like a flower, although her true intention was to be the thorn.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.19)

The world will break your heart, but you can repair the world every day.  You know how you are, even if no one else does.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.23)

Ava's mother had always warned her to not accept favors from other girls.  Once she did, she would surely find herself at their mercy, for that was what friendship was about.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.34)

Hate yourself and everyone else will agree with you.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.57)

People said you couldn't make someone love you, but Jamie knew for a fact that you could make someone hate you.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.65)

Love is chemistry.  If it weren't, people wouldn't do such stupid things in the name of love.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.68)

Be willing to do what you most fear if you ever plan to be free.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.93)

It's people that ruin things, not love.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.92)

Sometimes you don't know why you've gone somewhere until you've reached your destination.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.116)

What men don't understand they will seek to destroy.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.164)

Love was greedy; it was all that you wanted once you'd had it; it was the reason to wake in the morning and to go to bed at night.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.184)

A story can tell you what to do when you don't know how to live your life.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.217)

Once you read a story, you'd carry it with you.  Even if it's hidden, even if it's only a bonfire, it will remain a part of who you are, and one day you'll find it; it will rise up in your blood and your bones to be remembered no matter what.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.280)

He was clearly a tortured soul.  He'd be worse by the end of the night, when he finished The Catcher In The Rye and realized he would never be happy until he discovered who he really was.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.315)

Love has nothing to do with the here and now.  That's what he'd said.  It's what we have no matter what happens.

Alice Hoffman (The Witches of Cambridge, p.392)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Cambridge-Novel-Alice-Hoffman/dp/1668074648/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.jUVbBP5jlvHNHxcEt2RPKSIgU71VrH-ZkZFpACETZDCqvfpZfHMDnmcAGlFqR6ePWf6xr_kFWw12D_Bjom6gEliz2_gYT1xRy6tr_HWXdUnkSf_7rwhYORLFHs-yurQ85qkHgfGtNafJRBxyBxl3wE6PgIwafiH3Owz2YHnKaZhy_gZJV-QZwGKAaaHKmsiLMoSir8bKqYKPcwb6c0lfZWYt7UUuM_nC4EDGwZyAxyg.fE9HAiMf2qZQ0aYJJeZgbgeZ8EVJIS5V3onnpJHBcsY&qid=1791114161&sr=8-1

Link to ThriftBooks:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-witches-of-cambridge/57207255/?resultid=4cafd96d-fced-435f-ad85-281019cdc7ea#edition=74508075&idiq=87017754

Eyes of Prey by John Sandford

 

This is the third book, published in 1991, featuring Lieutenant Lucas Davenport, a cop in Minneapolis.  He's had it rough in the last two books and is now in the depths of depression that seems to have no end.  His captain assigns him to the Bekker murder investigation, which is looking into the death of Stephanie Bekker.  All of her friends tell the cops that they wouldn't be surprised if her husband committed the murder because he was always a little off.  However, the husband has a rock-solid alibi.  Carlos Druze, a man Bekker met in a bar one night, kills and carves out the eyes of Stephanie for Bekker, who, like in the Hitchcock movie Strangers On A Train, will kill a woman at the theater Carlos works at who is giving him problems.  While killing Stephanie, Carlos is seen by her lover, who has just come out of the shower, to inspect the noises in the kitchen.  They both get a good look at each other.  After Bekker kills the theater woman for Carlos, Carlos kills the man he believes to be the lover so he cannot be identified.  Things begin to unravel for the two killers from there on out as Lucas draws closer to figuring out what is really going on.

Sandford writes books that tell you early on who the killer is.  The novel alternates between Lucas's and the killers' viewpoints.  This way of reading a book is both interesting and hard for me.  I like the insight into the killer's mind, but I get frustrated with the cops who spend chapters unable to figure out what is going on.  Bekker is a weird character.  He takes all sorts of drugs and pharmaceuticals such as cocaine, speed, meth, Xanax, Clonopin, PCP, steroids, acid, and lots of other drugs that I have never heard of.  He manages his life by what drugs he takes to feel or act a certain way.  It's a wonder he isn't brain dead, or just plain dead.  As the book goes on, he starts to have lots of blackouts.  A friend of mine got me reading this series and is ahead of me.  They tell me that the fourth book, Silent Prey, is the best, but that you have to read Eyes of Prey first.  So I pushed my way through the book.  It wasn't a terribly bad book, just hard to read at times, and the insight into Bekker's mind is priceless.  

Quotes

They would find him there, standing over the body like the innocent man in a Perry Mason television show, point a finger at him, accuse him of murder.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.503)

A fifth man, older, sat by himself in front of a bowl of peanuts, nursing a lifelong rage and a glass of rye.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.506)

You gotta be young or naive to write poetry.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.507)

Fuckin' women. So casual about the way you break a guy's heart.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.577)

In a week, you couldn't find that hole with three Geiger counters and a Republican water witch.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.628)

Column-writing is the only job I know where sarcasm passes for intelligence.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.633-4)

Nothing gives an editorial writer more satisfaction than seeing somebody else booted out of their job.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.721)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Prey-Book-3-ebook/dp/B000QFCFH0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PD9M5LTNQ4YK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.exRbuFpFcORbcTNIZRCnCF5ocRGc5IOSiDo5eF_37HmDppS6kwxuQZrzO0Lwgs9Psq3dzpV69G-nLZ94bLhnvOkDCJI92qUd4nzad4x8N4MnF12ka-BMErKVcoBs6TuKowuR0TZmyqCkAQG3XUk3uEp6MGzqPfcny7C-GxTzP-ED67ztiXjf5jhL7Mtd2ym0c2jntI-4J7XKDfd5At_C8sH9Jp2wQJS0GhCesLXhfsY.VzqUlukR98KcOcOEIQIFpoT9_q2dBTobUF3Iwu7MTr8&dib_tag=se&keywords=eyes+of+prey&qid=1790886222&s=comics-manga&sprefix=eyes+of+prey%2Ccomics-manga%2C347&sr=1-1

Link to ThriftBookshttps://www.thriftbooks.com/w/eyes-of-prey-by-john-sandford-ken-howard/247386/?resultid=758dede3-d4c9-41c5-b5ab-b58e18daa9aa#edition=3504529&idiq=1384714