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Uprooted
RECOMMENDED: Uprooted by Naomi Novik is $2.99! A lot of people have recommended this book and Novik’s writing, but some readers did mention on Goodreads that the book is a bit slow at times. Do you love Novik’s writing? What did you think of this one?
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
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Sugar Queen
RECOMMENDED: Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen is $1.99! I’ve talked about my love for Sarah Addison Allen before. Her books are literary fiction with magical realism and they’re such perfect comfort reads. I like Garden Spells (her debut) a little better, but this was still a good read.
In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever.
Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother…Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life—because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding.
Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and—most amazing of all—has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush.
As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time—even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place—and what Chloe has to do with it all—is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’ s fast-changing life.
Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.
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The Power of Habit
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is $2.99! This book has been mentioned on a few previous podcasts. Sarah recommends this one, though says to avoid the audio:
Some of the profiles are of people I don’t necessarily admire much, but the explanation and the exploration of habit are fascinating.
A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.
Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.
An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones.
What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives.
They succeeded by transforming habits.
In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.
Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.
At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.
Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.
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Prisoner of the Crown
Prisoner of the Crown by Jeffe Kennedy is 99c! This is the first book in The Chronicles of Dasnaria and came out last week. Reviews mention that this is a rather dark fantasy with no romance in this installment. Also, be prepared for it to start slowly. I’m very interested in this! Are you?
She was raised to be beautiful, nothing more. And then the rules changed . . .
In icy Dasnaria, rival realm to the Twelve Kingdoms, a woman’s role is to give pleasure, produce heirs, and question nothing. But a plot to overthrow the emperor depends on the fate of his eldest daughter. And the treachery at its heart will change more than one carefully limited life . . .
THE GILDED CAGE
Princess Jenna has been raised in supreme luxury—and ignorance. Within the sweet-scented, golden confines of the palace seraglio, she’s never seen the sun, or a man, or even learned her numbers. But she’s been schooled enough in the paths to a woman’s power. When her betrothal is announced, she’s ready to begin the machinations that her mother promises will take Jenna from ornament to queen.But the man named as Jenna’s husband is no innocent to be cozened or prince to charm. He’s a monster in human form, and the horrors of life under his thumb are clear within moments of her wedding vows. If Jenna is to live, she must somehow break free—and for one born to a soft prison, the way to cold, hard freedom will be a dangerous path indeed…
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Uprooted is still my favorite book of this year. I loved all of the characters without reservation.
The blurb for Uprooted drew me in. Heading on over to Amazon… 🙂
I CANNOT DIS-recommend (UNrecommend?) The Power of Habit enough. I listened to the entire audiobook a few years ago waiting and waiting for it to have a point, and hoping that in the next section there would be some useful information about forming positive habits versus negative ones, and how small habits shape the bigger picture of our lives.
But alas—this book is a total tease. It just drones on with randomish ‘case studies’ that ultimately seem like pointless filler, and have no bearing on how the average reader lives their life.
Please if you’re interested in this one, library that thing.
I’ve already yelled about how fantastic Uprooted is on previous posts, but also The Sugar Queen is one of my absolute favorites. I have heated debates with my girlfriends on the ranking order of Allen’s works, and I’m a firm believer that this one is a close second to Garden Spells. I love the heroine to the moon and back.
I am excited about the new Jeffe Kennedy series!
Also – FYI, the YA anthology, “All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages” is $1.99 on amazon. Mackenzi Lee (The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virture) is one of the 17 authors included.
Uprooted is now on sale at B&N too. I used your link for another book and switched to this one. I hope that means you got your commission.
I love Naomi Novik. His Majesty’s Dragon, the first installment in her Temeraire series is only $2.99 on kindle! It’s historical fantasy set during the Napoleonic Wars. BUT THERE ARE DRAGONS. And they talk and have wonderfully diverse personalities and relationships with the elite league that ride them.
I am also patiently awaiting Spinning Silver, which comes out next month and is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.
Has anyone here read Novik’s latest novel, Spinning Silver? I’ve hesitated to read it even though the short story it’s expanded from was absolutely perfect–it didn’t need to be any longer and I worry that a novel would water it down.
Oh wait, just saw that it’s not out yet, never mind.
Uprooted is AMAZING. I totally love it! (I do find myself almost never agreeing with anyone who finds anything I’ve read/watched “slow” tho so *shrug*… But yeah I thought it was pretty freakin perfect.)
And I can’t wait to read Spinning Silver; I never read the short story, I didn’t know there was one, but I did read the first chapter and I adored that, and I love Novik. I’m definitely buying Spinning Silver as soon as it’s out.
Uprooted is fabulous! It is, however, one of the few books I don’t recommend on audio. While some have said they had trouble understanding the narrator’s accent, that wasn’t my problem with her. She really just didn’t seem to have a clue where the story (or the sentence!) was going, and since the story is told in first person, that distracted from the plot. It’s a shame, because I really enjoyed the paper version, and I think it would go into circulation for audiobooks to listen to in the background if not for the narrator.
I love Sarah Addison Allen. Garden Spells is far and away my favorite, but The Sugar Queen and The Peach Keeper flip-flop for second. I even enjoyed First Frost, the sequel to Garden Spells.
I really liked Uprooted. I read it before I read Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and then couldn’t figure out why Barnhill’s plot seemed so familiar. They are vastly different stories with different target audiences, but both are excellent. I’ll have to look for Novik’s next book, since I hadn’t read any of her work before Uprooted.
Annabeth Albert has a bunch of books for sale. The entire Perfect Harmony series, two bundles of her Portland Heat series, At Attention, and Status Update are on sale for $0.99 each. I’ve read everything except the perfect harmony books, and I really enjoy her writing. Mm contemporary
@Brianna: The audiobooks for the Temeraire series are fabulous, too.
I’ve heard nothing but raves for Uprooted, but I bounced off of it HARD. Guess I need to give it another shot someday when I’m in a different frame of mind.
NOW you tell me to avoid the audio for The Power of Habit 🙁
I suffered through the whole thing. There are a couple of interesting stories in it, and in the last 30 minutes the author actually gets to the point, but jeez that’s a long book to listen to, and I say that as someone who listened to all 600 pages of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host.
I loved the book form of Uprooted but I have to agree the narrator was irritating. I don’t think it was her accent; it was her narration. I grew up in a neighborhood where half of the older women had similar accents, and I didn’t find it irritating to listen to them. (Unless they were telling me to get offa the lawn, of course.)
Just FYI, there are two audiobook editions of Uprooted. I recommend the one read by Katy Sobey; she is delightful and has a light, clear British accent. (I assume it’s British. Commonwealth, anyway.) Easy on the ears and she understands sentence structure and scene-appropriate emotion. (The publisher of the recommended edition is Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd. But there might be geo blocking, depending on where you reside. Because publishing.)
Murder Takes the High Road (m/m mystery) by Josh Lanyon is 99 cents right now.
@Katie Lynn, the Perfect Harmony books are my favorites of the entire, fabulous oeuvre by Annabeth Albert. I even bought two of them, something I never do.
Tuesday 19 June Audible Daily Deal is La Nora’s YEAR ONE narrated by Julia Whelan for $4.90!!!!!!!!!
@ ms bookjunkie
Thanks for the heads up I picked it for $3.95 just now.
It doesn’t look like Katy Sobey’s version of Uprooted is available in the US. 🙁
Uprooted is “slow”? Is that some new kind of slang for “terrifying”, because scary it certainly and often is. Slow, no.
Perfect timing, I was on staycation this week working on projects around the house. I downloaded the Uprooted audiobook from the library. It was FANTASTIC! I got so much cleaning done while listening to this, because I had to know what would happen next! I really enjoyed the audiobook and would recommend it wholeheartedly.