The Book of Strange New Things
The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber is $1.99! This book made a bunch of lists when it came out. It was a New Yorker Best Book, NPR Great Read, and made the New York Times 100 Notable Books list. Many loved how the main character as a man of faith despite it being a scifi novel. However, others found the scifi elements to be lacking. Have you read this one?
It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings—his Bible is their “book of strange new things.” But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter.
Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us.
Marked by the same bravura storytelling and precise language that made The Crimson Petal and the White such an international success, The Book of Strange New Things is extraordinary, mesmerizing, and replete with emotional complexity and genuine pathos.
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Defy Not the Heart by Johanna Lindsey is $1.99! The heroine is kidnapped to be married off, but hopes to convince her escort for said kidnapper and soon-to-be husband to marry her instead. The book was originally released in the late eighties, so it has a smidgen of crazysauce in it.
We also had a bit of Cover Snark fun when Sarah showed us the original cover:
Sarah: HE wears purple tights!
and maybe she has a …boner?
Her dress has pitched a tent…
Redheadedgirl: It’s her vagina bones.
Amanda: Or his boner is so strong it has punched through her dress.
ALIEN style!
Sarah: That’s a big boner. I expect nothing less.
Elyse: His legs look hypothermic.
Redheadedgirl: ZOMBIE FAKE FABIO
Elyse: Like he’s been sitting in that tree for so long he’s frozen from the waist down.
Sarah: He’s not cold if his boner is two feet long… unless he’s BLUE legged from loss of BLOOD to that BONER!
Amanda: Def. blood loss
Sarah: OMG. His boner is so big his legs are hypoxic?
Amanda: That should also be a Tinder profile line.
Sarah: My boner’s so big my legs turn blue from blood deprivation?
Blue Legs, Big Boner?
Amanda: Blue Legs, Big Boner. Probably with a winking emoji and an eggplant emoji.
Sarah: EGGPLANT hahahahahaha
“No, those aren’t purple tights, ladies.” Wink wink nudge nudge.
Amanda: There used to be (still is?) an Instagram hashtag called #EggplantFriday where dudes would show of their boner shadows.
Sarah: EGGPLANT FRIDAY.
Poor eggplants. They never asked for this.
Reina seethes with rage over her fate: taken captive by the knight Ranulf — a golden giant of a man — who has pledged to deliver her to the nuptial bed of the despised Lord Rothwell. She will never accept such bondage — and Reina offers herself to her kidnapped instead, offering to make Ranulf a great lord…if he agrees to wed her.
But the brave knight desires much more than a marriage of convenience from this proud, headstrong lady who treats him with scorn yet makes his blood run hotter than liquid fire. She must come to him of her own free will — or Ranulf will take her. For the passion that consumes them both cannot long be denied — even though gravest peril surely awaits them on the heart’s trail to a destines and turbulent love.
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Falling Hard by Tina Wainscott is 99c! This is the second book in her Falling Fast series. Trigger warning: I want to warn readers that, in the past, the heroine had accused the hero’s brother of rape. I’m not sure how this all shakes out, so if any of you have read this book, definitely drop a comment below. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
In bestselling author Tina Wainscott’s gritty, emotional small-town romance—perfect for fans of Jasinda Wilder and Colleen Hoover—passions run high as a reformed bad boy reconnects with an old enemy . . . and gets her engine revving.
There’s no one Pax Sullivan wants to run into less than Gemma Thornton. Back in high school, she revved his heart more than street racing. But she picked his clean-cut brother over him—only to accuse Blake of an unforgivable crime. Eventually the charges were dropped and Gemma left town, but the hard feelings lingered . . . along with Pax’s gnawing “what-ifs.” Seven years later, just as he quits the police force to open a racetrack, Gemma’s back—and their chemistry is more combustible than ever.
If it were up to her, Gemma would never lay eyes on another Sullivan. She hates them, and they hate her—even Pax, who just so happens to be fixing up her father’s B&B. But the more time she spends with the lean, hard-bodied ex-cop at the inn and on the track, the more Gemma sees that Pax is nothing like his brother. Despite their anguished history, she’s tempted to take their relationship into high gear . . . if she can face the past and risk her heart.
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Merely Magic by Patricia Rice is $1.99 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble! This is a historical fantasy romance with a magical, outcast heroine. Some readers found the blend of fantasy elements into the historical setting to be a little strange and not well-executed. However, many liked the magical aspects to the opposites attract romance. Have you read this one?
Can a cynical scientist and an illogical enchantress find happiness?
Lady Ninian Malcolm Siddons, a healer and herbalist, has dedicated her life to the welfare of her ancestral Northumberland village. Both her class and calling have isolated her from companionship and love. But according to legend, her beloved village cannot thrive without a magical Malcolm in residence.
Drogo Ives, Earl of Ives and Wystan, cares only for honor, science, and reason–unlike his unruly brothers and the illogical and untrustworthy female of the species. Love and marriage are two unknowns he has no desire to explore. His married brother can inherit.
But fate and Drogo’s meddling stepsister bring Drogo and Ninian together for one night…with shattering consequences. Having dealt with the inconvenient result of his father’s bastards, Drogo has vowed to marry any woman who carries his child—and now the irresistible Ninian does. Only, the last time a Malcolm married an Ives, disaster destroyed Wystan and both their families. With all the odds against them, can they find a place where science and mystery meet, and build a bridge into a future where love saves both their families and their homes?
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I have one of those original Defy Not the Hearts and I am sure whenever I read it again I will think EGGPLANT BONER
Eggplant Boner is going to be an incredibly useful phrase in my daily life, I believe.
Oh that cover! I don’t recall any real crazysauce in the book, other than EVERYONE just happening to drop by the castle to conviently resolve all the backstory plot threads.
Mad About the Marquess by Elizabeth Essex is .99 on Amazon at least. Elyse gave it an A in a review a few weeks back. The first book in the series, Mad for Love, is free.
Another SF book with a man-of-faith protagonist is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I loved Emilio (the aforementioned protag), but the Church filled me with rage. Really good book that I’ll never read again because it was so painful.
Ren, I felt the same about The Sparrow.
Actually the newer cover of Defy Not the Heart reminds me a little TOO amusingly of the opening credits of the CBC children’s show The Friendly Giant:
(I don’t think you allow imgsrc as a tag, so here’s a link to a screenshot from the opening credits of the Friendly Giant’s storybook castle with the drawbridge helpfully lowered)
Cue avuncular giant, Jerome the Giraffe, and that strange little band known as the Jazz Cats.
This is a link to 45 Historical romances on sale for $0.99- May 22-28 only
https://historicalromancesale.wordpress.com
Available at Amazon, kobo, etc
I was trying to remember what went on in Defy Not My Heart but I really only remember one thing. At first the hero wasn’t that great at pleasing the heroine in bed. So he goes to a knowledgeable lady in the village and she tells him what to do. The heroine walks in on them and gets the wrong idea. I think his hands were on the woman’s boobs at the time so I understand why she might have thought something was going on.
For anyone interested-
I went through the (mostly positive) reviews on goodreads for Falling Hard to hunt down spoilers. So, spoiler alert!
It looks like the heroine, Gemma, was friends with the hero in high school, but he abandoned her when she started dating his brother (seems very nice guy-ish to me). Gemma was date raped by the hero’s brother as a teen. Nobody in the small town she was in, including the hero believed her and she was ostracized. The hero only starts to believe her after semi-forced proximity and developing feelings towards Gemma. The reviews say the subject of sexual assault was handled very well throughout the book, if a bit preachy at times.
For me personally, I don’t want to read a book where sexual assault happens, but is only believed after the hero is on the road to bone-town. I don’t see any reviews that counteract the idea in my head that the hero only starts believing Gemma when he starts interacting with her and lusting after her and some specifically mention that her anxiety and reactions to being around men are part of what changes his mind about her “crying wolf”, and that bothers me. I don’t like the idea that people who have been sexually assaulted have certain reactions that prove their assault. For me, those things make the book a hard pass, but a lot of the reviews say good things about how the situation was handled, so ymmv.
“She must come to him of her own free will — or Ranulf will take her.” She must choose me or not, doesn’t matter. I’m going to have sex with her whether she wants it or not. Very rapey and not very heroic.
@Kelly S: I have no idea why that’s in the description. It really doesn’t reflect the tone of the book to the best of my recollection. (Reread it last year.)
@Michelle. Thanks for the link! It includes Rose Lerner’s In For A Penny and Erin Satie’s Orphan Pearl in the sale. Both books I had wanted to read along with several others that look promising. FYI the sale is good through May 28.
I found The Book of Strange New Things to be incredibly boring, unfortunately. There’s almost nothing scifi about it, despite being set on a completely alien planet. It’s a literary novel posing as genre. (That’s not always necessarily bad, but as a genre reader I find it annoying) I was interested in the ‘man of faith’ angle as well, but the character happens to be a ‘man of faith’ who is also a completely petty and judgmental asshat.
OT, sorry, but I haven’t found anyone else to talk about this with.
@Ren Benton and @chacha1: I immediately thought of THE SPARROW in relation to Faber’s book, too, and agree with your assessment about the role of the church. I did read it twice, however, because Emilio Sandoz is such a remarkable character.
The most significant takeaway for me was this quote (which I’ve abbreviated, but the entire conversation is worthwhile):
“Matthew ten, verse twenty-nine: ‘Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.’ But the sparrow still falls.”
I felt as though finally–FINALLY–someone spoke the truth of that verse; that aside from any comfort we might derive from it, the reality is that the sparrow falls. The sparrow still falls. That may be the simplest and most powerful idea I’ve ever encountered.
You know how some books are life-changing? THE SPARROW was that for me.
The Sparrow was the only book we were assigned for a class in graduate school– we all finished it on the same day and showed up looking like life had beaten us. What a beautiful, terrible book.
The Sparrow is one of my all time favorites. Did anyone read the follow up?http://www.amazon.com/Children-God-Ballantine-Readers-Circle/dp/044900483X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1464195874&sr=8-5&keywords=mary+doria+russell? Also excellent and resolved things beautifully.Also enjoyed The Book of Strange New Things — agree that it is literary masquerading as sci fi but it worked for me. I had a terrible sense of dread reading it.
@Rachel: Yes, and I felt the same about its resolution. Powerful writing and ideas.