Inferno Smoulders Beneath The Waters

~Inferno~
Robert Langdon
Book 4
By Dan Brown
Amazon ~ Powell's

"The darkest places in Hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in a hospital in the middle of the night. Disoriented and suffering from a head would, he recalls nothing of the last thirty-six hours, including how he got there... or the origin of the macabre object that his doctors discover hidden in his belongings.

Langdon's world soon erupts into chaos, and he finds himself on the run in Florence with a stoic young woman, Sienna Brooks, whose clever maneuvering saves his life. Langdon quickly realizes that he is in possession of a series of disturbing codes created by a brilliant scientist—a genius whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written—Dante Alighieri's dark epic poem The Inferno.

Racing through such timeless locations as the Palazzo Vecchio, the Boboli Gardens, and the Duomo, Langdon and Brooks discover a network of hidden passageways and ancient secrets, as well as a terrifying new scientific paradigm that will be used either to vastly improve the quality of life on earth... or to devastate it.

In his most compelling and thought-provoking novel to date, Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again. Inferno is a sumptuously entertaining read—a novel that will captivate readers with the beauty of classical Italian art, history, and literature...while also posing provocative questions about the role of cutting-edge science in our future.


The latest installment in the Robert Langdon series may not talk about the secret life of Jesus, plots of Popes, or hidden rituals of the Freemasons, but don't let that lull you into thinking it has nothing provocative within. Rather than chasing questions about the hidden past, this book looks toward the future of humanity, posing questions about morality and the greater good, all while following the clues of a mad scientist who threatens the world from beyond the grave. With the clock ever ticking, Langdon may have finally met his intellectual match.

Fulfill Your Promise and Restore the World to Harmony

Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Promise
By Gene Luen Yang & Gurihiru
in collaboration with Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino
Amazon ~ Powell's

Aang and friends band together for an exciting new adventure, beginning with a face-off against the Fire Nation!

A plan to force Fire Nation colonists from their homes in the Earth Kingdom has brought Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei to the verge of war. While Aang and Katara work tirelessly for peace between the two nations, Sokka helps Toph prepare her metalbending school to defend themselves against a rival class of firebenders! Will Aang be able to bring peace in time, or will his friendship with Zuko be destroyed and the world plunged back into war?

Think of it as Book (season) Four of Avatar! Written by Eisner winner and National Book Award nominee Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese), in collaboration with Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino, and drawn by art team Gurihiru (Captain America: Fighting Avenger), this is the Avatar's greatest adventure yet! This deluxe hardcover collects the New York Times best-selling The Promise Parts 1 through 3, with new annotations from Yang and Gurihiru, as well as an exclusive sketchbook of never-before-seen art! This is the story that Avatar lovers have been clamoring for, as well as a perfect jumping-on point for new fans! *


Why couldn't they just have green-lit a fourth season? It says it right in the description there, "Think of it as Book (season) Four of Avatar!" Because in all intents and purposes, it is a fourth season of the show.

Welcome To The Midnight Hour

~Kitty and the Midnight Hour~
Kitty Norville
Book 1
By Carrie Vaughn
Amazon ~ Powell's

Vampires.
Werewolves.
Talk Radio.

Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station—and a werewolf in the closet. Sick of lame song requests, she accidentally starts "The Midnight Hour," a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged.

After desperate vampires, werewolves, and witches across the country begin calling in to share their woes, her new show is a raging success. But it's Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew.


This book, and the series overall, has been on my radar for some time now. My sister bought the first three books a long while back and read the first one when she was in middle or early high school. Not the greatest decision ever. But before they went into the donation bin I snagged them and stuck them on my shelf. Followers should be able to guess by now that I'm a fan of werewolves, so a series having a snarky female lead who so happens to be a werewolf was an instant draw. It also helps that the author is visiting my local Powell's next week, so without further ado, let's dive in to Kitty's world.

Come To The Cuckoo's Calling

~The Cuckoo's Calling~
Cormoran Strike Mysteries
Book 1
By Robert Galbraith
Pseudonym for J.K. Rowling
Amazon ~ Powell's

A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein:
Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.


I'll admit, I'm normally not one for mysteries. Many in my family enjoy reading them and figuring out whodunnit long before the character discovers it, but I'm more along for the ride with the characters than thinking ten moves ahead. Lately I've gotten a little more interested in TV mysteries (House M.D., Castle, Whodunnit?), but have always preferred the more upbeat and campy storylines rather than the dark and gritty ones. Still, with all the hype surrounding this book's release, and being among the first at my library to place a hold, I figured I had to take a peek.

And I got hooked as soon as I finished that Prologue. Very reminiscent of Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, describing the moments following this death of a celebrity, the press and the spectacle surrounding it, and then asking how and why it happened. And that's really what the rest of the book is devoted to; talking with people, gathering information from them, piecing it together, and finally revealing exactly what happened at the end. But whereas Márquez's novella looks at the events from an omnicient eye, this story is seen through the eyes of the private investigator, Cormoran Strike.