"Into The Storm" -Taylor Anderson

It took me so long to read this book, I felt like I was missing a post.

Another series, Destroyermen, is about a parallel world to WWII. A destroyer in the Asiatic Fleet, Pacific Theater during WWII goes into a squall and travels to a parallel world, geographically identical but with fun dinosaurs!! Man-eating lizards(!) are in a war with the local population of primates while man-eating fish(!) populate the waters.

Yeah, it's a dangerous world to take a step in. And That's the catch, this is a whole world Anderson's created. There are 7+ books, a committment I haven't yet made. Not sure if I want to keep reading, thrilling but thick. I'll leave you know...

Read Also:

I don't read a lot of parallel/alternate universes so I don't have much to recommend: Naomi Novik's Temeraire is a what if...dragons existed during the Napoleonic wars. A really good series; read them all!

"Nightsong" -Ari Berk (Illustrated by Loren Long)

Love me some picture books! And because I do, I included the illustrator of the book Nightsong by Ari Berk because the artistry is why I picked it up in the first place. It's a simple story of a young bat's first flight and using his radar to fly in the dark. As cute as the story is, the illustrations were gorgeous!!! They were soft and deep with contrasts between light and dark. Just beautiful! (My vote for the 2013 Caldecott award.)

Read Also:
For various reasons, try Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
Akiak: a tale from the Iditarod by Robert Blake
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (a Caldecott winner).

"The Reluctant Bridegroom" -Gilbert Morris

Sooooo, there I was, looking for a good, clean romance to read. I'm not very demanding when it comes to romances: a little bit of history, a lot of conflict, and I'm good. I came across this series, "The House of Winslow", written in the 80's and 90's, when many a Harlequin romance was going around. The series follows the Winslow family in American history beginning with the Mayflower and through to WWII.

The Reluctant Bridegroom, #7 in the series, deals with the Oregon Trail and the wagon train of women, wives to the men on the West Coast. There's not always a conflict over which girl the guy is going to get; never difficult to guess which girl either, but the stories intertwine throughout the books. Some characters stick around for 3 books.

Now, this is Christian romance. Each character undergoes a rebirth or awakening to Christ. Analysis of the circumstances under which man turns to his God would (or could) present an interesting discussion.

Read Also:

The "Sunfire" romance series (out-of-print, so the internet says) deals with a different girl and her 2 suitors at historical high points in American history.

Fire by Night from "The Refiner's Fire" series by Lynn Austin is a Civil War tale of love and compassion.

"The Trumpeter of Krakow" -Eric P. Kelly

Way back when...I got a list of all the Newbery and Caldecott winners and decided to read my way through them. (Must've been 2003 when The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein came out; my favorite Caldecott book!) I've done pretty well, picture books go much faster, of course, but novels aren't exactly textbook dry. Somehow The Trumpeter of Krakow didn't look appealing until I came across it this summer (Guilty: I always judge books by their covers) while helping Tarzan do inventory at work.

And it was good. The tale the book builds upon is very moving: a trumpeter sounds a trumpet each hour in each of the 4 compass directions from the tower of a church in Krakow, Poland. When the city is attacked by Tartars, the trumpeter sounds the trumpet but is killed mid-hymn. In memoriam, the hymn is cut short purposefully. From this, the book is about a boy who sounds the trumpet but continues the song as a warning of danger, rather than ending it. The book was lauded for its introduction of Polish history to young readers and for the author's sensitivity to detail and culture.

Read Also:

If you'd care for a history of the time period, Harold Lamb's The March of Muscovy (and indeed, Harold Lamb in general) is a good account of Ivan the Terrible's Russia.

Margaretha Shemin's The Little Riders

And any Newbery book is recommendation on its own.

"The Seduction of the Crimson Rose" -Lauren Willig

As a lover of the Scarlet Pimpernel books and a sucker for a romance, I was on top of a recommendation to read The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. History, romance, swashbuckling, hunky guys: my kind of book. So much so that I recommended the book to someone else ere I ever cracked the cover. Oops. Before we met up again, I read the book and was a little shocked at the sex. I wasn't prepared for a Harlequin romance, if only because I expected more story. She was slightly scandalized that I had ever read a book like this. I held off reading the 2nd book but the story was good:

Plot: doctoral student in England studying spies of the Napoleonic era discovers proof of her theory of a Pink Carnation spy, equable to the Scarlet Pimpernel and Purple Gentian. The tales of the student and her research are told simultaneously through the series.

So I kept reading and each book had less sex. Well, here I made it to The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, the 4th book in the Pink Carnation series (yes, they all use flowers in the titles), and it had negligible sex in it. Not sure what Willig's goal is but the stories got better and the romances kept up. So now I feel justified in recommending the series.

Read Also:

I tend to lean towards Christian romance so a wonderful historical romance was Bodie and Brock Thoene's The Galway Chronicles (4 books) set in Ireland under the oppression of England.

A similar writer, though I don't actually recommend her writing, just her subject matter, is Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady.

And of course, Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel!

"Dog Loves Books" -Louise Yates

Dog Loves Books is another fun picture book about adventures found while reading. Dog opens a bookstore and while he waits for people to come in, he reads, jumping from adventure to adventure.

I make it a point to read any picture book that takes place in a library.

Read Also:

Toni Buzzeo's No T. Rex in the library

Lois Grambling's Can I Bring Woolley to the library, Ms. Reeder?

Joanne Wills' Delilah D. at the Library.

"Mr. Churchill's Secretary" -Susan Elia MacNeal

So I read this book to justify the last post...

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal was a fun suspense novel set during WWII in England. It was enjoyable, fast-paced, with interesting characters. My favorite parts of historical novels are finding out how much is actual history. There's only a short historical note at the end but it mentions a couple biographies of secretaries who worked with Churchill from which she pulled certain facts.

Read Also:

No books to speak of but I felt like I was reading a PBS/BBC mini-series like Foyle's War or Call the Midwife.

There are 2 more in the trilogy so up next: Princess Elizabeth's Spy and His Majesty's Hope!