Black Butler, Vol 16

Toboso, Yana. Black Butler, Vol 16. 2014. 163p. ISBN 78-0-316-36902-2. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

Seeking to meet the elusive headmaster of the elite Weston College, Phantomhive enrolled and joined Blue House. But in Black Butler, Vol. 15, he made no progress towards getting closer. The June 4th cricket tournament between the four Houses, however, presents a golden opportunity as the winners are invited to meet the headmaster. Unfortunately, Blue House has not won since Vincent Phantomhive, Ciel’s father, was himself the House prefect.

Blue House has neither the brawns, nor the athletic abilities to compete with the other houses. What it has, however, is strategic thinking and initiative, and Ciel is determined to use these to the best of his ability. With Sebastian’s help, he prepares a fiendish plan to dispose of his opponents, but the arrival of the Earl’s staff, as well as his future family-in-law, threatens to throw everything into chaos!

The story continues in Black Butler, Vol. 17.

Wicked

Shepard, Sara. Wicked. Book 5 of the Pretty Little Liars series. 2009. 310p. ISBN 0-06-156610-1. Available at FIC SHE on the library shelves.

With the death of Mona and the arrest of Ian in Unbelievable, Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer thought they were in the clear. “A,” after all, had now disappeared along with all of their secrets. As the winter semester starts, the girls head back to Rosewood Day, hoping things to quiet down so they can go back to their lives. That hope is quickly dashed, however, when the girls begin receiving more texts from someone identifying themselves as “A.” This person is clearly spying on them and know of many intimate details.

Panicked, the girls begin to make mistakes. Kate, Hanna’s stepsister, tries to get closer to Hanna, but worried about being undermined by her gorgeous rival, Hanna balks and decides to stab her in the back before it’s too late. Emily has broken up with Maya, and now finds herself attracted to Isaac. What team is she on? Even Emily doesn’t know. Aria is attracted to an older man again, but Xavier, an artist, has begun dating her mother and is sending her mixed messages. Spencer is in purgatory when she discovers that her dead grandmother’s will gives $2 million to each of her natural grandchildren, but Spencer is not listed in the will. What secrets are harbored by her family?

As the girls struggle to regain their footing, A keeps undermining their efforts. With Ian’s escape from custody, is A getting ready to kill them to exact his revenge?

Lewis and Clark and Exploring the Louisiana Purchase

Klepeis, Alicia Z. Lewis and Clark and Exploring the Louisiana Purchase. Part of the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion. 2018. 64p. ISBN 978-1502626394. Available at 917.8 KLE on the library shelves.

The new constitution of the United States described in details how states could join the fledgling country, but there were no directions on how to add territories not part of a state. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson had the opportunity of purchasing the Louisiana Territory, then controlled by France. There were no rules on how to do so, and no certainty there would be approval from the Congress, who controlled the purse strings. Jefferson forged ahead and struck a bargain with Napoleon to purchase over a million square miles of territory for $15 million, doubling the size of the country overnight with a largely unexplored and unknown area of the world for most Americans living on the East Coast.

Jefferson then commissioned a team to explore this new territory and exert American sovereignty over it. The Lewis and Clark expedition set out from St. Louis, then the westernmost point in the United States, and over the course of two years reached the Pacific in the Oregon territory and returned to St. Louis to report on their discoveries and the contacts they made with Native groups along the way. This expedition spurred western expansion and a race to the West Coast.

Fans of history will appreciate the quotes drawn from primary sources to support the text, and will see in their own words how people perceived these events at the time.    

Books in the Primary Sources of Westward Expansion series include Native American Resistance, Homesteading and Settling the Frontier, The Gold Rush, The Transcontinental Railroad, Lewis and Clark and Exploring the Louisiana Purchase, and Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War.

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant

Cliff, Tony. Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant. Book 1 of the Delilah Dirk series. 2013. 167p. ISBN 978-1-59643-813-2. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

Born to a wealthy English ambassador father and a famous Greek artist mother, Delilah Dirk has lived all over the world. She trained with marksmen in France, hunted in the jungles of India, perfected her acrobatic skills in Indonesia, and spent seven years honing her fighting techniques in a Japanese monastery. A master of forty-seven different sword fighting arts, a member of three different European royal houses, and the proud owner of a flying ship, Delilah travels the world wherever her whimsies take her, looking for treasures or action. Oh, and no prison has ever held her if she didn't want to.

She meets Selim, a lieutenant in the service of a rich Sultan, when he comes to interrogate him in a prison cell. She tells him she plans on robbing several previous scrolls from the Sultan. Selim reports the result of his interrogation, and the Sultan derides the woman's abilities, until the alarm sounds and the palace goes under siege. Delilah managed to escape her bonds, stole the precious scrolls, and finds herself facing Selim again. The Sultan and his guards surprise them both, and demands that they both be killed. Faced with death, Selim follows Delilah and they escape Constantinople aboard her famous flying ship.

Traveling through the air, the two of them head to Delilah's next destination, the lair of fabled pirate lord Zakul, to retrieve some of the loot he stole from one of Delilah's extended friends, a merchant whose ships have been attacked in the Black Sea. In a series of amazing encounters, the two of them forge an unlikely friendship. Fans of graphic novels will enjoy this colorful and beautifully illustrated story.

Inheritance, or the Vault of Souls.

Paolini, Christopher. Inheritance, or the Vault of Souls. Book 4 of the Inheritance Cycle. 2011. 860p. ISBN 0375856110. Available at FIC PAO on the library shelves.

Eragon and Saphira have grown together and their skills since Brisingr have gotten better. However, there is still much doubt that they can defeat the King.  As the Varden marches towards Urû’baen, capital of Galbatorix’ empire. Always in the background, the King has sent Murtagh and his dragon Thorn to fight Eragon and Saphira, but at every step of the way Murtagh has failed to stop them. With the Varden on the move, though, the King reserves several surprises for Eragon and his allies.

Favorite characters are back, from Roran to Nasuarda to Arya, each engaged in mortal struggles against the forces of the King. As city after city falls, the Varden’s strength is dilapidated yet the army moves forward, with the siege of Urû’baen their ultimate goal, for only with this attack do they expect Galbatorix to take the field with his dragon Shruikan.

As the situation worsens, with Nasuarda a captive of Galbatorix, Eragon, Saphira, and their friends must come up with a plan, any plan, to confront the King and once and for all free Alagaësia. Even if they are successful, however, will they be able to restore order and justice throughout a continent abused and oppressed over the last hundred years?

Fans of fantasy will appreciate this masterful ending to the Inheritance Cycle.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

Swanson, James. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. 2009. 194p. ISBN 0-439-90354-8. Available at B BOO on the library shelves.

In April 1865, the United States had been at war for four years. Union and Confederate soldiers fought on battlefields throughout the country in a struggle that by this point the Union was clearly winning. By April 3rd, Union troops had occupied Richmond, the Confederate capital. On the 9th, General Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. Everywhere the Confederacy was on the ropes. There were still ardent supporters, however, who would not surrender and sought to continue the struggle for the South.

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer who hated President Abraham Lincoln and had conspired with others to kidnap him, entered the Ford theater box where Abraham Lincoln, his wife, and another couple sat, and fired a Derringer pistol at the back of Lincoln’s head, mortally wounding him. Booth escaped the theater and rode south, leaving Washington, D.C. and entering Maryland, with hopes of reaching Virginia and Confederate support.

What followed was the largest manhunt in the country’s history up to that time. Quickly identified as Lincoln’s assassin and easily recognizable, Booth thought that the decapitation of the government would rekindle the conflict. Instead it disgusted most Confederate supporters. As an injured Booth moved through Maryland and Virginia with the help of willing and sometimes unknowing accomplices, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton led the operations to find and capture Booth, but the assassin was eventually cornered in a tobacco barn and shot by a Union soldier.

Lincoln’s assassination changed the course of history and transformed the President into a beloved figure. The tale of this manhunt will interest any fan of history as well as of fast-paced criminal cases.

When Dimple Met Rishi

Menor, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi. 2017. 380p. ISBN 978-1-48147868-7. Available at FIC MEN on the library shelves.

Dimple Shah is looking forward to the rest of her life, despite her mother’s best efforts at marrying her off to a good Indian man. A recent high school graduate, she’s heading to Stanford in the fall to study web design. Before then, however, she’s hoping to attend a six weeks programming competition. Money is tight in her household, so it will be a problem paying the tuition for this short program. If she wins, Dimple will get to meet her idol, a star app creator. Surprisingly, talking her parents into paying for her participation turns out to be a lot easier than she expected. Generally, her mother would always try to convince her she needs to find a husband and she therefore needs to look pretty, but not this time. This time, she agrees to let her daughter go. Happy, Dimple is ready to compete.

Rishi Patel is heading to the same summer program with one goal in mind. To meet his future wife, Dimple. The Shahs and the Patels, who met each other eight years ago have arranged for Rishi to marry Dimple. Rishi has seen Dimple only in photos, but he already knows she’s the one for him. His parents couldn’t be wrong, could they? Rishi looks forward to courting Dimple and lavishing her with attention. He’s fine with an arranged marriage, because provides stability, honors an Indian tradition, and makes things easy for him. Only, when he first meets her and greets her with “Hello, my future wife,” she throws coffee in his face and wants nothing to do with it. Dimple, as it turns out, did not know her parents were setting her up with Rishi, and she wants him gone from this competition, especially since he’s not really into app design.

Unfortunately, it’s too late. Rishi requested Dimple as his partner, and since she did not express a preference they are now paired together, and they have to work as a team to complete an app. With Rishi being a hopeless romantic, and Dimple a complete cynic who’s mad at her parents for even trying to set this up, will the two of them be able to successfully compete this summer?