Unabridged Chick

First line:Once there was a farmhouse in a field of hay, but as it lay sleeping, the acres gave way to a bustling city whose bright, shiny towers edged out the farmhouse, the fields and flowers.

I love the idea of tiny houses although I could never, never, never live in one. The farm where my wife works, and where Unabridged Toddler spends most of his time, has a tiny house, and so when this book was offered for review, there was no way I could pass it up.

Both my toddler and I were completely charmed by this sweet read and gorgeous illustrations. An old farmhouse is transformed into a tiny house, and he and his friend, Big Truck, travel the country and make friends. A snobbish mansion makes Tiny nervous that he's not a real home, but he quickly discovers he's home no matter what.

The text is rhyming, but not irritatingly so, and the illustrations are wonderfully bold and bright. As Tiny and his friends travel the United States, there are visible notes of multiculturalism that…

First line: You only know of me through the healing of my mother, a shadow of a woman blessed by the miracle in the Gospels of Luke, Mark, and Matthew.

This slender book explores the life of the Apostle Peter's unnamed wife, and I found it a compelling, complicated, and surprising read.

As the first line explains, the only reference to her comes from the gospels, when Jesus heals her mother; from this simple line, Magia imagines what life for this unknown woman must have been like.

I didn't know what to expect with this novel; I enjoy fiction inspired by the events and figures in the Bible, even though I'm not a fan of explicitly Christian fiction. To my great delight, Magia balances an evocative sense of place and era with a gentle reverence for Jesus as a spiritual leader.

The novel opens with our heroine facing an unwanted marriage to a much older man, but her father's apprentice Simon asks for her hand, which she accepts. But as with everything in her life, this ch…

First line: Melissa made fun of me at school today.

I wasn't falling over myself in love with the first book in this trilogy, Sleeping Giants, but without anticipating an oh-my-god read with this one, I enjoyed it more than the first book.

The mysteries from the first book are explored in this one -- the meaning of the alien technology and the purpose for the abandoned machine now named Themis.

Whereas the first book felt more intimate, in a way, being focused on the four or five characters involved in researching this alien technology and what that research does to them, this book pulls back and starts looking at the global implications.

There are still four main characters we see things through, who give the story some heart, but much of the story is focused externally -- and with good reason. An alien robot lands in London at the start of the novel, similar to Themis but not the same, and our heroes have to scramble to figure out what the meaning of this visit is -- and if they…

I think all of us passionate readers have a TBR in the thousands and we still can't help anticipating new releases. (My 2017 aspirational TBR has more books than I can read in a year, but does that stop me from adding more?! NOPE!)

I've been super curious about this historical novel, Lilli de Jong, since I caught sight of the cover and title earlier this year. Honestly, I wanted to read it based on just those two things but after reading the blurb, I'm pretty much guaranteed to pick this one up. (And, undoubtedly, do some ugly crying.)

It doesn't hurt that it's been blurbed by authors I love and admire, like Sarah McCoy, Valerie Martin, and Sandra Gulland.

You can read an excerpt at the author's website.

So, what do you think -- curious, too?

Lilli de Jong
by Janet Benton
Nan A. Talese, May 16, 2017 Hardcover & eBook; 352 Pages Genre: Fiction/Historical/Literary

A young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for …