By Sara Alfageeh
Pages: 336
"Aiza has always dreamt of becoming a Knight. It's the highest military honor in the once-great Bayt-Sajji Empire, and as a member of the subjugated Ornu people, Knighthood is her only path to full citizenship. Ravaged by famine and mounting tensions, Bayt-Sajji finds itself on the brink of war once again, so Aiza can finally enlist in the competitive Squire training program. It's not how she imagined it, though. Aiza must navigate new friendships, rivalries, and rigorous training under the unyielding General Hende, all while hiding her Ornu background. As the pressure mounts, Aiza realizes that the "greater good" that Bayt-Sajji's military promises might not include her, and that the recruits might be in greater danger than she ever imagined."
I don't often read graphic novels, but my friend convinced me to buy this one and read it. It is such a cool story and reminds me of Tamora pierce woman knights, only in a middle-eastern inspired setting. The artwork was rich and full of movement and I loved the training montages. I was sad when the story ended as it left a very open ending that makes me hope for more installments in the future.
By Pip Williams
Pages: 400
"Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the "Scriptorium," a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. One day a slip of paper containing the word "bondmaid" flutters to the floor. She rescues the slip, and when she learns that the word means slave-girl, she withholds it from the OED and begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women's and common folks' experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words. "
This was an interesting dive into how the dictionary was created and how historical events such as the woman's suffragist movement and WWII affected the creation and selection of words. Esme collects ones that are rejected from the formal dictionary, mostly written or said by women and minorities and turns them into her own dictionary and gives them a voice. I really enjoyed this book and I often do not read historical fiction, but the bookworm in me was intrigued by the title and I am glad I picked it up.
By Angie Thomas
Pages: 454
"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr."
Such an emotional roller coaster story of someone who has her foot in two different worlds. I highly recommend that it be read as words cannot express how much this book made me feel and think about the world we are living in.
Anne Boleyn has gone down in history as the scheming woman who bewitched Henry VIII into divorcing his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and breaking with the Catholic Church in his mad quest for an heir to the British throne. But was Anne really the cunning woman she was made out to be, or a passionate reformer who married the king, not for love and the crown, but as a way of furthering causes she held near and dear?
327 pages.
