Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Goodreads Blurb: Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy – until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The Reason … HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!
Goodreads Review: To give it it’s due the film was surprising faithful but it’s no replacement for the original. So if you haven’t already give this a read.
Goodreads Blurb: Fifteen-year-old Laura lives apart from her family for the first time, teaching school in a claim shanty twelve miles from home. She is very homesick, but keeps at it so that she can help pay for her sister Mary’s tuition at the college for the blind. During school vacations Laura has fun with her singing lessons, going on sleigh rides, and best of all, helping Almanzo Wilder drive his new buggy. Friendship soon turns to love for Laura and Almanzo in the romantic conclusion of this Little House book.
Goodreads Review: A loving beautiful story of two people finding each other on the frontier. If you can get past the slightly uncomfortable age discrepancy.
Goodreads Blurb: As the advisor who helps King Arthur through the early years of his reign, Merlin has become the most famous wizard of all time.
The stories of Merlin may have been based on a real person. But the character we know as Merlin today has come down to us through the “History of the Kings of Britain”, a book by the twelfth-century English writer Geoffrey of Monmouth. A later text called “Le Morte D’Arthur”, written by fifteenth-century English writer Thomas Malory, further popularised the tale of this wizard.
Goodreads Review: An excellent start to a study of the Merlin legend; I also liked that it actually acknowledged that their are different versions of Merlin’s death.
Goodreads Blurb: It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort Vlad Tepes, the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. Peppered with familiar characters from Victorian history and fiction, the novel follows vampire Geneviève Dieudonné and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club as they strive to solve the mystery of the Ripper murders.
Goodreads Review: I’ve throughly enjoyed all the books of this series – that I’ve read thus far – but their’s really no beating the first book in terms of writing quality or sense horror that it builds as it expounds on the world that Dracula has created.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Goodreads Blurb: In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day’s sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic’s heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.
Goodreads Blurb: Charlie and her friends are avid video gamers. But when they spot a huge chocolate bar growing from the top of a tree – then another, and another – it is the beginning of a real-life, outdoor quest!
Goodreads Blurb: Long after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Earthman Elijah Baley, Keldon Amadiro embarked on a plan to destroy planet Earth. But even after his death, Baley’s vision continued to guide his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who had the wisdom of a great man behind him and an indestructible will to win….
Goodreads Review:So, the love between Elijah and Daneel is canon now? Excellent, now we only need the sex scene. What? That spacer woman gets to sleep with Elijah but we don’t get one scene of love between that old man and his robot spacer husband? A tragedy. Oh and Earth has been flooded with radiation that will slowly kill it in a hundred years and has to be evacuated but lets stay focused on the big picture here.
Goodreads Blurb: An epic adventure set in the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. Determined to carve her own path in life, a skilled archer named Princess Merida defies a sacred age-old custom–and inadvertently unleashes a beastly curse upon the kingdom. To set things right, Merida embarks on a perilous quest and discovers the meaning of true bravery.
Goodreads Review: I think I may ship Merida and Young MacGuffin now. What? What do you mean that’s not what I was supposed to take away from the story? You can’t tell me how to feel. 😁
Goodreads Blurb: A meet-not-so-cute leads to spicy romance in this brilliantly hilarious new rom-com from best-selling author A. J. Pine!
It’s the flight before Christmas and Molly just got an unexpected gift: a free first-class upgrade on her plane trip home for the holidays. Bring on the complimentary cocktails! But after one too many, she spills all her secrets to the hot guy seated next to her—only to wake up mortified when her buzz has worn off. At least she never has to see Liam again … or so she thinks.
When Molly arrives at Christmas House, the festive rental home that she and her family are sharing with her sister’s fiancé and his wealthy family, she discovers that Liam is one of the new in-laws. Oops. Now thanks to her boozy oversharing, he knows all her secrets—and they’ll be stuck in the same house all Christmas long. Double oops.
As their chemistry turns red-hot, will they be able keep their hands off each other long enough to navigate growing family drama? And what will Molly do when she discovers that Liam is hiding a scandalous secret of his own? Whatever happens, one thing is clear: These two are in for an unforgettable holiday ride.
Goodreads Review: The perfect book for when you’re feeling a bit runout from Halloween and are just trying to get into the Christmasy feeling again. Man, was this a nice surprise.
Goodreads Blurb: Following their debate over the fate of mankind, Spock and Q have continued their discussions over a meal. After dining, the two return to the stage to recount their repast, which included encounters with several of Spock’s former shipmates.
However, at the moment the two verbal sparring partners shake hands, a power surge places them in total darkness. Suddenly, Spock and Q are no longer on stage, but somewhere in deep space.
As they struggle to determine what has happened, a curious personality change takes hold. Spock is overcome with giddy delight. Q is much more serious, even… logical.
Masterfully performed by Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie, Star Trek® Spock vs. Q: The Sequel is a fascinating and often hilarious role reversal that reveals previously unknown sides of Spock and Q. It is a program so original it could only come from Alien Voices®.
Goodreads Review: Love will steal the stars … how is this ship not a bigger presence in the fandom!!! They’ve literally had two books dedicated to them.
The Wee Writing Lassie 