Take a look at what’s happening this August at the Andover Public Library!
Art Adventures: Books about art
Every week this Summer, we’re giving a list of books around our Summer Reading themes! Week Eight’s theme is Art Adventures. Scroll down to see the list.
Picture Books
My dog thinks I’m a genius / Louise loves art/ Picasso and Minou/ Niko draws a feeling/ The noisy paint box : the colors and sounds of Kandinsky’s abstract art
Juvenile Nonfiction
Art sparks : draw, paint, make, and get creative with 53 amazing projects!/ Cultured donuts : take a bite out of art history/ A whole world of art : a time-travelling trip through a whole world of art
Juvenile Fiction and Graphic Novels
Art club /Behind the canvas/ Doodleville/ Nightlights
Young Adult
The art of insanity/ Piper Perish/ Punching the Air/ Starfish
Adult
The painter / Fake like me/ The Italian teacher / The color storm
Nonfiction
Freehand : sketching tips and tricks drawn from art / Playing with sketches : 50 creative exercises for designers and artists / Wichita artists in their studios
BOOK REVIEW: The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
A book review by Mina Nguyen
Following the events of V.E. Schwab’s series, Shades of Magic, seven years later, readers follow old and new characters into the four worlds- each with its own powers and fantastical lure- connected by a single city: London. With White London having a new Antari, Kosika, and taking the throne in Holland’s absence, the young queen is willing to do anything to restore the power of White London, even if it means feeding the city with her own blood and religious fervor. Back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is being threatened by a rising rebellion, the Hand, who is determined to balance power by destroying the crown completely where Kell and Lila will be forced to come back from being abroad to save the King. Through all this, a girl, Tes, with an unusual magical ability to see the threads of magic comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.
Every book that Schwab has written, I’ve fallen in love with. The Shades of Magic Series is the first series I recommend to anyone in need of a fantasy book, and I would recommend reading that series before starting the spin-off series, The Fragile Threads of Power. While it may not be necessary, it is highly recommended so that readers understand the careful world building that Schwab has written along with her well-crafted characters. I, initially, was excited to pick up this new release due to my love of Kell and Lila, but Schwab does a great job of introducing new main characters without ignoring old ones; I immediately loved Tes. I found Tes to be complicated and crafty; she’s smart, but she has extreme flaws that can inhibit but also enhance her character and her choices. Additionally, Schwab does a great job of giving her side characters personalities. They’re not there to only push Tes along, but they also have interesting backstories and goals that inevitably affect the outcome of the book. With picking up her new release, I was worried about forgetting everything from The Shades of Magic Series, having read it over a year ago, but Schwab does a fantastic job of reminding readers of the most important events and the hierarchy of magic; she also doesn’t introduce all the past events in the beginning of the book within the first chapters, but she sprinkles it throughout the book so the writing flows so naturally. While this book did take longer to get into compared to her previous series, as the book progresses, events get more interesting and there are enough loops and unexpected action that keeps readers hooked. As an overall review, I find that V.E. Schwab does a unique job of adding in interesting concepts to her books; her settings and plots are so original, and she does a great job at world-building that readers can’t help but keep reading. I loved this first book back into the introduction of The Shades of Magic Series, and I can’t wait to read more! I really believe that any reader who picks this series up will be fascinated by her storytelling and her characters (the two people that I ended up recommending this series to gave 5 stars to the majority of the books in the series). I can’t recommend this enough!
Books similar to The Fragile Threads of Power:
● The Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab (Should read before this new series!)
● Villains Series by V.E. Schwab
● The Atlas Six by Olivie Blak
Put The Fragile Threads of Power on hold.
If you like Frieda McFadden, try these books
If you enjoyed the Freida McFadden, here are a few more books and authors that may interest you.
None of this is true / Lisa Jewell
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life-and into her home. But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat. Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
Local woman missing / Mary Kubica
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold. Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find.
The perfect marriage / Jeneva Rose
A high-powered attorney finds herself defending her much less successful husband after his mistress is found stabbed in the married couple’s second home.
The only one left / Riley Sager
At seventeen, Lenora Hope / Hung her sister with a rope. Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred. Stabbed her father with a knife / Took her mother’s happy life. It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer–I want to tell you everything. “It wasn’t me,” Lenora said / But she’s the only one not dead. As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth–and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
First lie wins / Ashley Elston
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes–especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to–her real identity–just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher–but then, Evie has always liked a challenge…
Hidden pictures / Jason Rekulak
Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a creepy and warm-hearted mystery about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets. Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy. Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body. As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house. With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy-while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past-before it’s too late.
The housekeeper / Joy Fielding
A woman hires a housekeeper to care for her aging parents–only to watch as she takes over their lives in this riveting novel of suspense from the New York Times bestselling author called “an ingenious master of domestic suspense” (Samantha M. Bailey). In the end, I have only myself to blame. I’m the one who let her in. Jodi Bishop knows success. She’s the breadwinner, a top-notch real estate agent. Her husband, Harrison . . . not so much. Once, he had big dreams. But now, he’s a middling writer who resents his wife’s success. Jodi’s father, Vic, now seventy-nine and retired, is a very controlling man. His wife, Audrey, was herself no shrinking violet. But things changed when Audrey developed Parkinson’s eight years ago, and Vic retired to devote himself to her care. But while still reasonably spry and rakishly handsome, Vic is worn down by his wife’s deteriorating condition. Exhausted from trying to be all things to all people, Jodi finally decides she’s had enough and starts interviewing housekeepers to help care for her parents. She settles on Elyse Woodley, an energetic and attractive widow in her early sixties, who seems perfect for the job. While Vic is initially resistant, he soon warms to Elyse’s sunny personality and engaging ways. And Jodi is pleased to have an ally, someone she can talk to and occasionally even confide in. Until . . . She shuts Jodi out. And Audrey’s condition worsens–rapidly. Who is this woman suddenly wearing her mother’s jewelry? What is she after? And how far will she go to get it?
How can I help you / Laura Sims
No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper–even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.