The next Books & Beyond discussion club (BAB) will be Tuesday,
November 19th at 6:30pm. The topic up
for discussion is any book or film related to reading and/or writing. This
week, BAB met to chat about magic & illusion.
Half Magic by Edward Eager (Tales of Magic series #1)
It all begins with a strange coin on a sun-warmed sidewalk. Jane finds the coin, and because she and her siblings are having the worst, most dreadfully boring summer ever, she idly wishes something exciting would happen. And something does: Her wish is granted. Or not quite. Only half of her wish comes true. It turns out the coin grants wishes—but only by half, so that you must wish for twice as much as you want. Enjoy all seven of the middle grade novels in Edward Eager's beloved Tales of Magic series!
At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber
When Ava Harrison receives a letter containing an unusual
job listing one month after the sudden death of her ex-boyfriend, the job is
the perfect chance to start a new life. On the surface, Maggie Mae
Brightwell is a bundle of energy as she runs a coffee and curiosity shop, where
there’s magic to be found in pairing the old with the new. But keeping busy is just
the best way to distract herself from lingering loss and worry. Ava and Maggie
soon find they’re kindred spirits, as they’re both haunted―not by spirits, but
by regret. Both must learn to let go of the past to move on―because sometimes
the waves of change bring you to the place where you most belong.
Pearl by Josh Malerman
“Daring readers should find this tale of a malevolent
telepathic pig to be a memorable experience.”—Booklist (starred review)
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a
collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated
into English by the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The
Dangers of Smoking in Bed—“the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for
some time” (Kazuo Ishiguro).
Petty Magic by Camille DeAngelis
Evelyn Harbinger sees nothing wrong with a one-night stand.
At 149 years old, Eve may look like she bakes oatmeal cookies in the afternoon
and dozes in her rocking chair in the evening, but once the gray hair and
wrinkles are traded for jet-black tresses and porcelain skin, she can still
turn heads as the beautiful girl she once was. Can’t fault a girl for having a
little fun, can you? This is all fine and well until Eve meets Justin, who
reminds her so much of a former lover that one night is no longer enough. In
this captivating tale of adventure and timeless romance, novelist Camille
DeAngelis blends World War II heroics with witchcraft and wit, conjuring a
fabulously rich world where beldames and mortal men dare to fall in love.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Magicians trilogy #1)
The prequel to the New York Times bestselling
book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The
Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary
fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry
Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the
imagination.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Written in 1610-1611, The Tempest is set on a
remote island and is centered on the sorcerer Prospero, his daughter Miranda,
and their two servants, Caliban and Ariel, who all live in exile on the island.
One of Shakespeare's most complex and nuanced comedies, The Tempest remains
a favorite of audiences and of scholars, featuring many of Shakespeare's most
memorable characters and lines.
The Grand Illusion by Syd Moore
Historical fiction inspired by the War Office response to
the Nazi obsession with the occult.
Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary
description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the
voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a
county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a
man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that
will ever happen to him.
And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a
useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays
the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he
graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and
gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for
the taking. At least for now.
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? That is what
young Winnie Foster must decide when she discovers a spring on her family’s
property whose waters grant immortality. Members of the Tuck family, having
drunk from the spring, tell Winnie of their experiences watching life go by and
never growing older. But then Winnie must decide whether or not to keep the
Tucks’ secret―and whether or not to join them on their never-ending journey.
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh &
Elsie Chapman
Sixteen extraordinary authors—including New York
Times bestsellers Melissa de la Cruz, Renée Ahdieh, and Julie
Kagawa—reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in
short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and
passionate.
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio
Hearn
A blind musician with amazing talent is called upon to
perform for the dead. Faceless creatures haunt an unwary traveler. A beautiful
woman — the personification of winter at its cruelest — ruthlessly kills
unsuspecting mortals. These and 17 other chilling supernatural tales — based on
legends, myths, and beliefs of ancient Japan — represent the very best of
Lafcadio Hearn's literary style. They are also a culmination of his lifelong
interest in the endlessly fascinating customs and tales of the country where he
spent the last fourteen years of his life, translating into English the
atmospheric stories he so avidly collected.Teeming with undead samurais,
man-eating goblins, and other terrifying demons, these classic ghost stories
inspired the Oscar-nominated 1964 film of the same name.
Mrs. Davis (not available in the JCLC, streaming by subscription on Peacock, available to rent or buy on Amazon)
After being ousted from her convent, Sister Simone vows to
destroy the one responsible: a powerful artificial intelligence known as Mrs.
Davis. To exact her revenge, Simone makes a deal with the algorithm and is
thrust into a dangerous world of secret societies, religious conspiracies and
age-old legends as she searches for the whereabouts of the most clichéd and
overused MacGuffin -- the Holy Grail. To complete the ridiculous and farfetched
task, Simone teams up with her rebellious ex-boyfriend, Wiley, who is now the
leader of an underground resistance movement dedicated to stopping Mrs. Davis.
Together they face a variety of mysterious and powerful forces as they search
for the Grail, the one thing capable of destroying the algorithm once and for
all. As they grow closer to completing their quest, Simone must confront her
past, prove the strength of her faith and uncover long-hidden secrets as she
fights to liberate a society that may not want to be freed.
I Married a Witch (digital only: depending on city of residence, available on Kanopy with a valid library card)
Just as she is about to be burned at the stake for
witchcraft, 17th century witch Jennifer (Veronica Lake) casts a curse on the
family of her accuser, dooming all the men of future generations to marry the
wrong women. Freed from her ethereal prison some 250 years later, Jennifer
decides to make the most recent descendant of her accuser (Fredric March) even
more miserable by using a love potion on him that makes him fall in love with
her, a plan that has unexpected results.
In the late 1950s, Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) is a
modern-day witch living in New York City's Greenwich Village. When she
encounters charming publisher Shepherd Henderson (James Stewart), she decides
to make him hers by casting a love spell. Gillian takes added pleasure in doing
so because Henderson is engaged to her old college rival (Janice Rule).
However, Gillian finds herself actually falling for Shepherd, which poses a
problem: She will lose her powers if she falls in love.
One Night on Halloween by Thea Masen (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook and paperback purchase only)
Zoe thought she’s spend her Halloween watching movies and
passing out candy, until the single dad next door comes over dressed as
Dracula. Zoe and her hot neighbor slip into character, only to find out that
this role-playing is more than just pretend.
What starts as an innocent one-night stand turns
mysteriously magical, and a new tradition is born. As their yearly Halloween
encounters become more passionate and intense, Zoe has to ask herself, are
these feelings real or just a costume?
Corny by Sabrina Cross
A True Love Spell Gone Wrong. A Demon Fairy Godmother? Her Very Soul on the Line.
Can Clover still find true love or is she destined to face the flames alone? Content
Considerations: Corny is a paranormal romance that involves woman on stuffed
animal action. This story is very weird and not for everyone.
Hallowpeen by Holly Wilde (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook and paperback purchase only)
Three women, one occult ritual, and an urban legend come
true are waiting for you to discover just how delicious Halloween can be. Everyone
in the small town of Hollow Springs knows that Halloween night is when the veil
of sentience is at its thinnest. So no one would attempt a ridiculous ritual on
the night of a full moon, right? Wrong.
Circe by Madeline Miller
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold
and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly
reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra
Alter, The New York Times).
Halloween poems collected by the Poetry Foundation
Spooky, scary, and fun poems that will make your hair curl.
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake,
Vampire Hunter series #1)
Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache” (Diana Gabaldon). Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy...
Thief, Liar, Lady by D.L. Soria
“Happily Ever After” is a total scam, but at least this time
the princess is the one controlling the grift—until her true love arrives and
threatens to ruin the whole scheme. Intrigue, magic, and wit abound in this
Cinderella fairytale reimagining, perfect for fans of Heather Walter and Naomi
Novik.
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see.
Ruth―strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries―is the light of Roos' life.
That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom
seances, and the two strike up a connection.
Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes
inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls,
strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues
reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but
still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable. Then, someone
is murdered. Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the
obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to
prove who―or what―is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.
Hollow by C.M. Nascosta (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook only)
From the New York Times bestselling author comes two smutty,
spooky, dark academia, gothic romance retellings of The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow. In one, Ichabod Crane, Sleepy
Hollow’s new schoolmaster, is on the prowl. After he happens upon two members
of the polo club in flagrante delicto in the club’s locker room, he
can’t get the headless hedonists out of his mind. In the other, Kat Van Tassel
doesn't have to choose between Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane, and there are
worse things haunting them than the Headless Horseman.
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
A collection of well-loved stories for witches and wizards
of all ages, The Tales of Beedle the Bard are the wizarding world's
Grimm's Fairytales.
Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann
First published in 1845. Struwwelpeter (variously translated
as "slovenly" or "shock-headed" Peter) has become widely
recognized as one of the most popular and influential children's books ever
written. Heinrich Hoffmann was a Frankfurt physician. Unhappy with the dry and
pedagogic books available for children at the time, he wrote and illustrated
Struwwelpeter as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son. The book
relates in verse and pictures the often gruesome consequences that befall
children who torment animals, play with matches, suck their thumbs, refuse to
eat, fidget at meals, etc.
A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo
Cody (Jennifer's Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school
crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse. After a set of playfully horrific
circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to
find love, happiness... and a few missing body parts along the way.
A terrible plague has left the planet's population divided
between zombies and humans. An unusual zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) sees his
walking-dead brethren attacking a living woman named Julie (Teresa Palmer) and
rescues her. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and the
pair embark on an unusual relationship. As their bond grows and R becomes more
and more human, a chain of events unfolds that could transform the entire
lifeless world.
Item descriptions pulled from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes.
Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash
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