Teaser Tuesday & Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books On My Spring TBR

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

16%: “He made the Meg cry. I’m going over to the store to see if I can find a sparkly that will make her smile again.”

Anne Bishop, Written in Red

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. They created the meme because they love lists. Who doesn’t love lists? They wanted to share these list with fellow book lovers and ask that we share in return to connect with our fellow book lovers. To learn more about participating in the challenge, stop by their page dedicated to it and dive in!

This week’s topic: Ten Books On My Spring TBR

I have a pretty solid list of books that I want to read over the course of the months, but I’ve been reading a few books outside of my “planned” reads when I have a chance (or when I’m tempted by something else). Instead of listing my planned reads over again, I thought I’d list a few “outside” books that I’d like to read during spring. They may or may not happen, but there will be… an attempt. I’m going to list a mix of speculative and non-speculative reads.

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane – I just added this book to my TBR pile because I wanted to listen to a book narrated by Bahni Turpin who was highlighted in a recent audiobook related newsletter I received. She’s got quite the narrator resume being part of over 70 audiobooks in a wide-range of genres. This series captured my interest because I could review it for this site and because it’s features a “functioning” drug addict/ghost hunter which isn’t the norm for a UF heroine.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack.

In a future world under attack from the undead, the powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Consequently, there are many false claims of hauntings from those hoping to profit. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully-tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for nailing human liars and banishing the wicked dead. But she’s keeping a dark secret from the Church: a little drug problem that’s landed her in hot water.

Chess owes a lot of money to a dangerous drug lord who wants immediate payback. All Chess has to do is dispatch a very nasty species of undead from an old airport. But the job involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and crossing swords with enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in a dangerous attraction to the drug lord’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert – This came as a gift from a friend. I won’t say that I’m huge into self-help books, but from time to time, I’ll pick through them. This one has gotten a mostly positive reception from friends, and I tend to like books geared more toward creativity.

Readers and listeners of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski – I am a huge fan of The Witcher games after trying the first one around the time I was waiting for Mass Effect 3 to be released. I know many people don’t like the first game much because of the mechanics, but enjoyed the second one. However, I have loved all three games and while much praise goes to Bioware for the choices, they have nothing on the hard choices that players face in The Witcher games. It’s only fitting that I read the series that inspired the games that have caused me so much emotional turbulence and laughs because I have my own interpretation of The Witcher.

Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves….

For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.

Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world – for good, or for evil.

As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt’s responsibility to protect them all – and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – A classic that I really, really want to get around to reading. It’s such a long book that I think I’ll be working on this one for quite a while around my other reads.

On the eve of his marriage to the beautiful Mercedes, having that very day been made captain of his ship, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on a charge of treason, trumped up by jealous rivals. Incarcerated for many lonely years in the isolated and terrifying Chateau d’If near Marseille, he meticulously plans his brilliant escape and extraordinary revenge.

Of all the “masked avengers” and “caped crusaders” in literature, The Count of Monte Cristo is at once the most daring and the most vulnerable. Alexandre Dumas (père), master storyteller, takes us on a journey of adventure, romance, intrigue, and ultimately, redemption.

And Again by Jessica Chiarella

In the spirit of Station Eleven and The Age of Miracles, this exciting literary debut novel imagines the consequences when four ordinary individuals are granted a chance to continue their lives in genetically perfect versions of their former bodies.

Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? Hannah, David, Connie, and Linda – four terminally ill patients – have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves – without a single imperfection. Blemishes, scars, freckles, and wrinkles have all disappeared; their fingerprints are different; their vision is impeccable; and, most importantly, their illnesses have been cured.

But the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. Hannah, an artistic prodigy, has to relearn how to hold a brush; David, a congressman, grapples with his old habits; Connie, an actress whose stunning looks are restored after a protracted illness, tries to navigate an industry obsessed with physical beauty; and Linda, who spent eight years paralyzed after a car accident, now struggles to reconnect with a family that seems to have built a new life without her. As all try to reenter their previous lives and relationships, they are faced with the question: How much of your identity rests not just in your mind but in your heart, your body?

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff – I want to read this in preparation for watching the movie starring Eddie Redmayne.

Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his California-born wife, this tender portrait of a marriage asks: what do you do when someone you love wants to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked of a husband by his wife on an afternoon chilled by the Baltic wind while both are painting in their studio. Her portrait model has cancelled; would he slip into a pair of women’s shoes and stockings for a few moments so she can finish the painting on time?

“Of course,” he answers. “Anything at all.”

With that, one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the 20th century begins.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – I keep saying that I’m going to try something by Maggie Stiefvater. This book is available through Kindle Unlimited. Friends seem to like it well enough, so I might as well, right?

“There are only two reasons a nonseer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love… or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them – not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all – family money, good looks, devoted friends – but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the best-selling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

Genevieve by Eric Jerome Dickey – I’ve had this book on my TBR pile for quite a number of years now. I typically tend to read Dickey’s books fairly soon after reading them. I think I started this one, but I wasn’t in the mood for it at the time. Spring feels like a good time to move it off my pile if I have a chance.

Eric Jerome Dickey’s boldly sensual new novel centers on what his fans love best – steamy romance and shocking betrayal. This is an edge-of-your-seat novel about a good man who loves his wife, Genevieve, but finds himself drawn against his best intentions into an affair – with his wife’s sister. Both women have a mysterious and tragic past that raises the stakes in this fast-paced novel.

Genevieve hits all the crowd-pleasing notes that we have come to expect from a Dickey novel, delivered in a style that is sexy, raw, humorous, and thrilling all at once.

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington – This is a random book that I picked up during some sale or another, and since then, I’ve kept promising myself that I would read it soon because the premise sounds interesting.

It has been 20 years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs, once thought of almost as gods, were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs’ fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion’s Four Tenets.

A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience. As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought–and lost–before he was born. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests. But when he discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything.

To the north an ancient enemy, long thought defeated, begins to stir. And to the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian’s wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is….

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – I finally started watching this series on the weekends when I have a little time, and I hope to be all caught up by the time season two premieres. I’ve had this book for years on my shelf and recently bought the audiobook at huge discount, so maybe I’ll get to this sometime this spring since I’m curious now.

This stunning blend of historical romance and time traveling adventure has captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world and catapulted author Diana Gabaldon to the top of the New York Times best seller list. Outlander introduces an exhilarating world of heroism and breathtaking thrills as one woman is torn between past and present, passion and love.

In 1945, former combat nurse Claire Randall returns from World War II and joins her husband for a second honeymoon. Their blissful reunion is shattered when she touches a boulder in an ancient stone ruin and is instantly transported to 1743 Scotland, a place torn by war and raiding border clans. Will Claire find her way back to her own time, or is her destiny forever linked with Clan MacKenzie and the gallant James Fraser?

Here’s to hoping that I actually find some time to get around to these books. With such a busy work schedule and running around with my kids, reading can seem like a daunting task. Thank goodness for audiobooks, though!