mailboxThanks to Marcia at The Printed Page for hosting Mailbox Monday.  I love coming home after work and finding a package waiting for me. Amber was happy this week, too, because one is perfect for her to read this summer.

 

viva ciscoViva Cisco by Patrick Shannon

Viva Cisco is a trilogy of funny stories for kids. All three tales unfold in a land called Topopootl, which lies in a hidden valley deep in the heart of Mexico. Because of its seclusion, the inhabitants have created a society without the benefit of human contact, and they don’t seem to have missed out on anything important in the absence of that dubious blessing. In fact, they probably have more pure merriment and boisterous excitement than any human community could ever conceive. Much of the credit for that, though, must be laid at the feet of Topopootl’s most..uh.. stimulating citizen, one Cisco las Verde Arara del Gucigalpa. Aka, Cisco the Parrot.

scarecrowThe Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (audiobook)

Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paper to write the definitive murder story of his career. He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow’s so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent. Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poet  made his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar–and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack’s.

cemetery danceCemetery Dance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (audiobook)

Pendergast returns to NYC in New York Times bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s newest novel featuring the enigmatic FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. William Smithback, a NY Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archeologist, are found brutally attacked in their apartment on the Upper West side of Manhattan. Eyewitnesses claim and the security camera confirms the killer seen leaving the building was the strange, sinister man who had previously occupied Smithback and Kelly’s apartment—and who had died horribly in it exactly one year ago. Captain Hayward leads the official homicide investigation, while Pendergast and D’Agosta undertake a private quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them into a part of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive and deadly hotbed of Obeah, the West Indian Zombii cult of sorcery and magic. And it is here they find their true peril is just beginning.

Frenchman's Creek Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier

I won this at A Lovely Shore Breeze. Thanks, Caite!

Frenchman’s Creek, set in 17th-century England, is an absorbing tale of adventure, danger and passion. Lady St. Columb is bored with fashionable life at Court so she sets off for the peace and freedom of her husband’s Cornwall estate. Quite unexpectedly, she stumbles on the mooring place of the white-sailed ship belonging to the daring Frenchman who plunders the shores of Cornwall. It is only a question of time before this philosopher-pirate captures the heart of the lovely Lady St. Columb. Satisfying, romantic, swashbuckling action.

FragmentFragment by Warren Fahy

 In this powerhouse of suspense scientists have made a startling discovery: a fragment of a lost continent, an island with an ecosystem unlike any they’ve seen before . . . an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards. When they reach the island’s shores, scientists are utterly unprepared for what they find—creatures unlike any ever recorded in natural history. This is the Earth as it might have looked after evolving on a separate path for half a billion years. Soon the scientists will stumble on something more shocking than anything humanity has ever encountered: because among the terrors of Henders Island, one life form defies any scientific theory—and must be saved at any cost.

 

libraryI only picked up one at the library this past week. Amber actually remembered to bring her own card, so there are no kids’ books on my list. She did get a couple of Boxcar Children Mysteries, but I can’t remember which ones offhand. Library Loot is co-hosted by Eva and Alessandra.

 

trinityTrinity by Joseph F. Girzone

With Trinity, Joseph Girzone guides readers to a deeper understanding of this foundational concept, explaining why it is not antiquated theological dogma, but a living expression of the very essence of God.  For centuries, Christians have struggled to understand the nature of God as three persons in one.  Girzone takes a step back from the most arcane explanations to offer a simple, useful understanding. He begins by showing the ways God was perceived by the ancient Hebrews and reveals how Jesus forever changed that image of God. As he chronicles the growth from the time of Jesus and the early Church,  Girzone elucidates the mysterious ways the Trinity works in the world and especially, in the Church, as an extension of Jesus’ presence in history. Writing with passion and insight, he helps readers understand how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work within individuals as well, guiding them as they struggle along the pathways of life on Earth.

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