Category: reading

The Leveller by Julia Durango

Nixy Bauer has a steady income provided by parents who need her to enter the MEEP, or virtual reality world, to retrieve their teenage children who should be doing their homework or getting to their jobs. But now Nixy has been asked to retrieve the son of the MEEP creator, who has apparently entered the game planning to never come out. Others have tried to find him but have failed. After negotiating a terrifying maze, Nixy finds more than the missing teen and together they have to figure out why they are trapped and how to get out.
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks

With the endorsement of the author’s family, this homage to the delightful Jeeves and Wooster characters, brought to life through the many books of P.G. Wodehouse, is true to the form. Here we find Jeeves and Wooster trading places in a complicated, if not ridiculous, effort to see a successful marriage for one of Wooster’s chums. The classic “servant seems smarter than the master” repartee makes for a very funny tale, perfect for a summer read. Reminds me that I should read more Wodehouse.

The Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

1943, occupied Amsterdam. While working for a local funeral director, Hanneke, a young girl just out of high school, delivers black market goods obtained with the ration cards of the deceased. When one customer begs her to help find a missing Jewish teenager, Hanneke is drawn into a bigger black market involving the Dutch resistance. Her search ultimately leads to both sorrow and hope, in this compelling novel of the Second World War.

What’s so Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey

Christian writer Philip Yancey takes on the confounding and “amazing” idea of grace. Indeed, as he suggests, we live in a graceless time, where the never ending cycle of tit-for-tat means that grace can seldom be achieved as each new transgression requires something similar in response. Who will, rather than retaliate, apologize first? Who will break the cycle of ungrace? For nations and for individuals what is amazing is that grace can break this relentless pattern and set free all who suffer in its wake.