Robots and Vamps

As a tradition, almost every Friday night Matt & Christel having been taking their daughter out to dinner and then a trip to a local bookstore. Sometimes it is a chain store, a used book store or a locally owned shop. We are trying to instill a love of books in our daughter, plus we need to find something to read for the week. These are the books that we spend our hard earned cash on. Anyway, below is our haul for the week. If you have any recommendations please let us know.

Matt

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Dust jacket summary: Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters–some heroic, some diabolical–and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he’s ever conjured.

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when–or if–it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens–town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing–even murder–to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry.

But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

With some of the most spectacularly sinister characters King has ever imagined and a driving plot, Under the Dome is Stephen King at his epic best. This book will thrill every reader who’s ever loved a novel by King.

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

Dust jacket summary: In Finch, mysterious underground inhabitants known as the gray caps have reconquered the failed fantasy state Ambergris and put it under martial law. They have disbanded House Hoegbotton and are controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human labor to build two strange towers. Against this backdrop, John Finch, who lives alone with a cat and a lizard, must solve an impossible double murder for his gray cap masters while trying to make contact with the rebels. Nothing is as it seems as Finch and his disintegrating partner Wyte negotiate their way through a landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. Trapped by his job and the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever.

The Romulan War (Star Trek : Enterprise) by Michael A Martin

Dust jacket summary: With nothing left to lose, the Romulan Star Empire declares all-out war against Earth, hoping to stop the human menace from spreading across the galaxy once and for all…One hundred years before the era of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, the first incarnation of the USS Enterprise journeys into space under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. Now, the voyages of the Starship Enterprise are about to lead her into the heart of a vital moment of Star Trek history — the Earth-Romulan War. Every fan of classic Star Trek knows about this conflict, which is referred to in numerous television episodes and several feature films and is regarded as a pivotal driving force behind both Starfleet and the Federation. But the story of the war itself and the subsequent founding of the Federation has never been told in any format — until now!

Christel

Apocalypse Happens (Phoenix Chronicles, book 3) by Lori Handeland

Dust jacket summary: Elizabeth Phoenix is one of a select few with the power to battle those who have escaped from the darkest level of hell – demons bent on destroying humanity and reclaiming earth once and for all. Liz is determined to stop yet another Doomsday. But this time, it’s going to be more difficult than ever because someone she thought was dead isn’t dead anymore.and is bound and determined to destroy Liz and everyone she loves in the upcoming Apocalypse.

Liz has arrived in Los Angeles to ferret out a nest of varcolacs: half human, half dragon creatures who crave the destruction of the sun and moon. But before she can prevent the kind of eclipse that would bring the world to an end, Liz must mine the depths of her own heart. She and her former lover Jimmy Sanducci have some personal demons to battle – and there’s always her mentor, the Navajo shaman Sawyer. Is he on their side or isn’t he? In the end, the three of them must find a way to fight together – or perish alone.