These are the books that I bought at our local thrift store. I haven’t been in a while, so I decided to go. I always go on a Saturday because they have 50% off most of their items. I bought 11 books.
Stolen Lives By: Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi
The daughter of a former aide to the king of Morocco, who was executed after a failed assassination attempt on the ruler, describes how she, her five siblings, and her mother were imprisoned in a desert penal colony for twenty years.
An Amish Match on Ice Mountain By: Kelly Long
A fireman returns to his Amish home—with an unexpected “Kelly understands the human heart and writes about it with beauty and resonance.”—Beth Wiseman, author of A Picture of Love
An Amish homecoming…
Disgrace drove Stephen Lambert from Ice Mountain, but honor drives him back to his Amish home. After rescuing a pregnant young woman from a burning house, the rugged firefighter knows the remote Amish Mountain community is the only place Ella Nichols will be safe. Abandoned by the father of her child, the brave Englischer beauty needs him like no one before. Determined to protect her, Stephen claims the unborn babe as his own—and prepares to return to the town, and the family, that once falsely accused him…
From the moment she is saved from peril by Stephen’s strong arms, Ella feels sheltered, nurtured. How else could she agree to sequester herself on Ice Mountain, among the Plain folk there, but for the promise of Stephen’s loving protection? But as she steps deeper into his world and discovers his haunting secrets, Ella longs to heal the heart of the man who has captured hers forever…
In the Garden of Beasts By: Erik Larson
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.
A Little House Reader Edited By: William Anderson
I have already read this book but didn’t have it in my collection.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was a writer long before she ever recorded the adventures of her pioneer childhood in the beloved Little House books. As a young girl she wrote poetry, and after marrying Almanzo and moving to the Ozark Mountains, she became a journalist, publishing articles on farming and the life of a farmwife. This moving collection pieces together a unique medley of Laura’s writings from the time before her Little House books. These writings, culled mostly from fragile and yellowed pieces of paper, offer a window into Laura’s day-to-day life and experiences, giving us a richer understanding of the woman and writer famed for her Little House books.
Resistance By: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Chaya Lindner is a teenager living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Simply being Jewish places her in danger of being killed or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents all but give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference. Using forged papers and her fair features, Chaya becomes a courier and travels between the Jewish ghettos of Poland, smuggling food, papers, and even people.
Soon Chaya joins a resistance cell that runs raids on the Nazis’ supplies. But after a mission goes terribly wrong, Chaya’s network shatters. She is alone and unsure of where to go, until Esther, a member of her cell, finds her and delivers a message that chills Chaya to her core, and sends her on a journey toward an even larger uprising in the works — in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Though the Jewish resistance never had much of a chance against the Nazis, they were determined to save as many lives as possible, and to live — or die — with honor.
The Betrayal By: Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear
There is an alternate story of the life of Jesus. One the early Church fathers found so menacing they outlawed the books that documented it, ordered them burned, and threatened anyone found copying them with death. International bestselling authors and award-winning archaeologists Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear put more than thirty years of exhaustive research into this fascinating novel. In A.D. 325, Brother Barnabas is a student of the ancient holy texts. These books paint a portrait of Jesus that is radical, heretical, and irresistible. In the writings of Mary Magdalene, Phillip, and James, Barnabas finds clues to a secret he must protect at all costs. But the Ecumenical Council of Bishops has just declared his cherished books “a hotbed of manifold perversity.” Emperor Constantine has decreed that the documents must be burned and that anyone found copying them will be executed as a heretic. Barnabas’s monastery is attacked. Brother Barnabas flees with his trusted companions, but they are being followed, for the True Church cannot allow them to find the most sacred place on Earth. In fact, it will do anything to stop them…
Tisha By: Robert Specht
I have already read this book but would like to reread it again.
Anne Hobbs is a prim and proper 19-year-old schoolteacher who yearns for adventure. She finds this and much more in a town with the unlikely name of Chicken, located deep in the Alaskan interior. It is 1927 and Chicken is a wild mining community flaming with gold fever. Anne quickly makes friends with many of the townspeople but is soon ostracized when she not only befriends the local Indians but also falls in love with one.
Deadline By: Mira Grant
Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.
But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.
Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.
Madame Bovary By: Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary is the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. When the novel was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. After Flaubert’s acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert’s masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history.
Where Hope Dwells By: Elizabeth Ludwig
he Amish of Sugarcreek are experiencing a baby boom!
Cheryl Cooper loves the air of excitement these new arrivals bring, and as a recent member of the community, she enjoys getting to know her neighbors by delivering congratulatory gifts to the families. She never dreamed that one of these visits would end in an awful discovery…a baby has been snatched from his cradle!
When Cheryl happens across a lead that could reunite the child with his mother and put the kidnapper behind bars, she must take matters into her own hands. But will the truth she uncovers spell happily ever after or will it expose a deeper, more sinister problem?
Blessings in Disguise By: Nancy Mehl
Meet Cheryl Cooper, who left a banking job in Columbus, Ohio, to run a gift shop, the Swiss Miss, in Sugarcreek, while her aunt Mitzi fulfills an overseas missionary call. Cheryl is just getting over a bad breakup with her longtime fiance and is looking forward to the slower pace among the Amish community. But as she explores a neighboring corn maze, she overhears a man’s menacing voice making serious threats. Upon her return from the unsettling experience, Cheryl discovers an ominous note and then a foreboding message in a Bible. Were they written by the same person she overheard in the maze? Cheryl joins forces with Naomi Miller, the woman who supplies the Swiss Miss with homemade treats, to find out the answers. But can they catch the culprit before his frightening intimidations are carried out?
Have you heard anything about the books mentioned above? Have you read any of them? Let’s chat in the comments below. Until next time, keep reading.
Debbie's Reading Corner 