Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Anticipated Spring 2015 Releases!

I've been looking around at some of the upcoming book releases for Spring 2015 and found so many that I am really excited about. I have thus compiled a list of the ones that I am most looking forward to share with all of you. The list is a large mixture of young adult, fiction, and some nonfiction, so hopefully there's a little something for everyone! :) I tried to narrow it down, but as you'll see... that didn't really work out too well.

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings;. J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip an Carol Zaleski.


This particular book is a combined biography of the authors mentioned in the title who belonged to an Oxford writing club called the Inklings. The Inklings met in C.S. Lewis's Oxford rooms and a nearby pub weekly for three decades. Together, they read from their current workings, maintained lively discussions about nearly anything, and gave one another priceless companionship , criticism, and inspiration.

Release date: June 2nd (also my birthday, just in case you were wondering)

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey. Young adult, fantasy.


The Girl at Midnight is to be the first novel in a new series by Melissa Grey.

"Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever know.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the border of her homes, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen."

Release date: April 28th

Anastasia and Her Sisters by Carolyn Meyer. Young adult, historical fiction


This young adult novel follows the true story of Anastasia Romanov and the fellow grand duchesses of Russia. In 1914, the Romanovs find themselves sailing to Romania to meet the Crown Prince Carol, which appears to be an almost fairy tale-like journey - unfortunately, it is no fairy tale.

The girls and their family face a variety of struggles once inside the palace, and find that life there is not like anything they imagined. When Germany then declares war on Russia, Anastasia knows that her life will never be the same.

Release date: April 7th

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. Young Adult, fiction.


"Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspiciious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch... she's falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend. 

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all."

Release date: May 12th

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin. Young adult, historical fiction.


"It's 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four front. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of the Regency England's dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don't fit high society's constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies - plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy and war. 

After accidentally setting her father's stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. but Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible - until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads - or their hearts..."

Release date: May 19th

Illusionarium by Heather Dixon. Fantasy.


The summary for this book is brief, but it gives just enough to intrigue me into needing to know more:

"Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then - as every good adventure begins - the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations - or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path. Through richly enveloped parallel worlds, vivid action, a healthy dose of humor, and gorgeous writing, Heather Dixon spins a story that calls to mind The Night Circus and Pixar movies, but is wholly its own."

Release date: May 19th

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge. Young adult, fantasy/fairy-tale retelling.


After Hodge's wild success with Cruel Beauty, she has come up with another novel that is sure to be a wonderful follow-up.

Where Cruel Beauty was a tale inspired by the story of Beauty and the Beast, Crimson Bound is based upon the classic Little Red Riding Hood.

As a fifteen year-old, Rachelle was apprenticed to her aunt in order to protect her village from dark magic. Rachelle strays from her regular path, however, which results in an illicit meeting that causes her to have to make a terrible decision.

"Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand - the man she hates most - Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a lave that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?"

Einstein's Dice and Schrodinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unnified Theory of Physics by Paul Halpern. Nonfiction.


I love incorporating some nonfiction books into my regular reading, as there are some extremely fascinating topics that would be otherwise unlikely to make it into my topics of reading.

In this novel, the relationship between Einstein and Schrodinger is examined. They begin as collaborators before turning into competitors over their attempts to a create a grand unified theory to eradicate "quantum randomness" and make the universe more understandable.

Release date: April 14th

Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure by Cedric Villani, translated by Malcolm DeBevoise. Nonfiction.

This is another nonfiction book that really piqued my interest.

Cedric Villani, a French mathematician, received the Fields Medal award in 2010, an extremely coveted prize in the field of mathematics. This book allows readers to follow Villani's years leading up to his receiving the award, giving us an inside look at the mind of a groundbreaking mathematician as he works with the most important work of his career.

Release date: April 14th

Invisible: The Dangerous ALlure of the Unseen by Philip Ball. Nonfiction.


The notion of invisibility has enthralled and intrigued people for centuries. But why, exactly? In this book, Philip Ball investigates the subject of invisibility and how it has driven curiosity, science, and various discoveries throughout time. Invisibility has shown up in countless books, movies, and even games; it is an idea that has sparked much research and debate. But again, why are we so fascinated the unseen? "Ball shows that our fantasies about being unseen - and seeing the unseen - reveal surprising truths about who we are."

Release ate: April 8th

Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartonning, Comics, and Grapic Novels, edited by Tom Devlin. Graphic Novel/Comic Book.


This 800-page comic book features some of the best works by Drawn & Quarterly cartoonists, with a plethora of rare company photographs, correspondence, and comics. There are also a variety of biographic, interviews, and personal reminiscences with staff and cartoonists of those associated with Drawn & Quarterly.

The Boys of Fire and Ash by Meaghan McIsaac. Children, fantasy.



"Abandoned at birth, the Brothers of the Ikkuma Pit know no mothers. They fend for themselves, each training their Little Brother to survive until they turn sixteen, when it's their Leaving Day. No boy knows what's beyond the forest. But when Urgle's Little Brother, Cubby, is carried off by troll-like predators, Urgle and his Brothers embark on a quest to rescue him from a place from which no one has ever returned."

Release date: May 12th

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker. Young adult, fantasy.


"Elizabeth Grey is one of the king's best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. When she's accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to die at the stake. Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can track down the person who laid a deadly curse on him.

As she's thrust into the world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and all-too-handsome healers, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate."

Release date: June 2nd

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Young adult, fantasy.


"Laia is a scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

Elias is the academy's finest soldier - and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he's ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.

When Laia and Elias's paths cross at the academy, they find threat their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself."

Release date: April 18th

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua. Graphic novel/Comic book.


From Publisher's Weekly: "Early computer visionaries Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace are re-imagined as boisterous crime-fighters in this witty, meticulously researched romp."

Need there be more said?

Release date: April 28th

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