On My Chair

This is where I post the books that I borrow from the library, buy, or I receive via mail in the last week.

"The Grand Tour" By Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Dear Reader,
We are having the most wonderful time on our tour of Europe with our new husbands, Thomas and James. We've been shopping in Paris, sightseeing in the Alps, and riding gondolas in Venice-there's nothing like exploring the Continent!
However, there have been some troublesome moments. There was the midnight intruder who left behind a fashionable Turkish slipper. We also always seem to be running into the same peculiar people on our visits to ancient sites. An, oh yes, there was our discovery of the mysterious parcel that hints at a murderously magical plot of international importance!
Clearly, this isn't quite the calm and relaxing journey we were expecting, But this Grand Tour is turning out to be the best adventure of our lives!
Love, Cecy and Kate

I saw this book and fell in love with the cover. I also found out that it is considered "steampunk", which is a genre I haven't read much of. I am all about reading outside my comfort zone.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

By John Boyne

Berlin 1942 When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

This book was at the library and I had to pick it up. I have heard great things and I have to read it before I see the movie. I'm 4 chapters in and enjoying it so far!

Fire

By Kristin Cashore

She is the last of her kind...

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

I've been waiting for this book to be released for MONTHS! I bought it the day it came out, I just wish I had more time to read. All the amazing reviews only make me more excited to read it!

"The Day the Falls Stood Still"

By Cathy Marie Buchanan

Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this epic love story is as rich, spellbinding, and majestic as the falls themselves. 1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating-and harboring a secret. The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him-against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating debut novel.

This book was a fantastic price and it had wonderful reviews.... I couldn't pass it up! I may not get to it for a while, but it ended up being almost 75% off.

Feel free to share the books you received this week by leaving a link to your blog. This meme (In My Mailbox) is brought to you by Kristi's (The Story Siren)