📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #classics)
📜THE CALL OF THE WILD📜
by Jack London
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➡️ There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
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📗About:
The domesticated life of a powerful St. Bernard-Shepherd mix named Buck is quickly turned on end when he is stolen away from his master and put to work as a sled dog in Alaska. His once life of luxury turns into a life of survival and adaptation as he learns the ways of the wilderness.
📜THE CALL OF THE WILD📜
by Jack London
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➡️ There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
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📗About:
The domesticated life of a powerful St. Bernard-Shepherd mix named Buck is quickly turned on end when he is stolen away from his master and put to work as a sled dog in Alaska. His once life of luxury turns into a life of survival and adaptation as he learns the ways of the wilderness.
📜Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
➡️ Sun Tzu, The Art of War
➡️ Sun Tzu, The Art of War
📚 Book of the Day (#nonfiction #selfdevelopment #biography)
📜APPRENTICED TO A HIMALAYAM MASTER📜
by Sri M
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➡️ Someone who met him recently said, “I expected a flashy godman and instead I saw a jean clad gentleman with a smile of his face, ready to discuss my problems. In five minutes flat, I said to myself, this is no ordinary man. The peace and tranquility that enters your system is tangible”.
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📗About:
The author Sri ‘M’ is an extraordinary individual. His uniqueness lies not only in the fact that at the young age of 19 and a half, he travelled to snow clad Himalayas from Kerala, and there he met and lived for several years with a ‘real-time’ yogi, Babaji, but also that he should undertake such an unusual and adventurous exploration, given his non-Hindu birth and antecedents.
The metamorphosis of Mumtaz Ali Khan into Sri ‘M’, a yogi with profound knowledge of the Upanishads and deep personal insights, born of first hand experiences with higher levels of consciousness is indeed a fascinating story.
📜APPRENTICED TO A HIMALAYAM MASTER📜
by Sri M
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➡️ Someone who met him recently said, “I expected a flashy godman and instead I saw a jean clad gentleman with a smile of his face, ready to discuss my problems. In five minutes flat, I said to myself, this is no ordinary man. The peace and tranquility that enters your system is tangible”.
--------------------------------------------------------
📗About:
The author Sri ‘M’ is an extraordinary individual. His uniqueness lies not only in the fact that at the young age of 19 and a half, he travelled to snow clad Himalayas from Kerala, and there he met and lived for several years with a ‘real-time’ yogi, Babaji, but also that he should undertake such an unusual and adventurous exploration, given his non-Hindu birth and antecedents.
The metamorphosis of Mumtaz Ali Khan into Sri ‘M’, a yogi with profound knowledge of the Upanishads and deep personal insights, born of first hand experiences with higher levels of consciousness is indeed a fascinating story.
📚 Books made into movies 2023📚
🔻A Hallowe'en Party/A Haunting in Venice by Agatha Christie
🔻Maigret and the Dead Girl by Georges Simenon
🔻Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
🔻American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
🔻The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa
🔻The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
🔻Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
🔻American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
❗ detailed description
🔻A Hallowe'en Party/A Haunting in Venice by Agatha Christie
🔻Maigret and the Dead Girl by Georges Simenon
🔻Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
🔻American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
🔻The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa
🔻The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
🔻Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
🔻American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
❗ detailed description
📚 Book of the Day (#nonfiction #selfdevelopment)
📜THE FINE ART OF SMALL TALK
by Debra Fine
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➡️ Help is on the way with The Fine Art of Small Talk, the classic guide that’s now revised for the modern era.
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📗About:
Small talk is more than just chitchat; it’s a valuable tool to help you climb the corporate ladder, widen your business and social circles, and boost your self-confidence. With practical advice and simple conversation “cheat sheets,” this book offers easy-to-learn techniques that will allow you to feel comfortable in any type of social situation—from a video meeting to a first date to a cocktail party where you don’t know a soul. Nationally recognized communication expert Debra Fine will show you how to:
- Learn to connect with others regardless of the occasion, event, or situation
- Come across as composed and self-assured when entertaining
- Avoid awkward silences and “foot in mouth” disease
- Convey warmth and enthusiasm so that other people feel good about being near you
- Make a positive, lasting impression from the minute you say hello.
📜THE FINE ART OF SMALL TALK
by Debra Fine
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➡️ Help is on the way with The Fine Art of Small Talk, the classic guide that’s now revised for the modern era.
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📗About:
Small talk is more than just chitchat; it’s a valuable tool to help you climb the corporate ladder, widen your business and social circles, and boost your self-confidence. With practical advice and simple conversation “cheat sheets,” this book offers easy-to-learn techniques that will allow you to feel comfortable in any type of social situation—from a video meeting to a first date to a cocktail party where you don’t know a soul. Nationally recognized communication expert Debra Fine will show you how to:
- Learn to connect with others regardless of the occasion, event, or situation
- Come across as composed and self-assured when entertaining
- Avoid awkward silences and “foot in mouth” disease
- Convey warmth and enthusiasm so that other people feel good about being near you
- Make a positive, lasting impression from the minute you say hello.
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #crime #thriller)
📜NO EXIT📜
by Taylor Adams
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➡️ A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?
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📗About:
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.
Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?
There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?
Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.
But who can she trust?
📜NO EXIT📜
by Taylor Adams
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➡️ A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?
--------------------------------------------------------
📗About:
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.
Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?
There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?
Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.
But who can she trust?
📚 Book of the Day (#nonfiction #biography)
📜ELON MUSK📜
by Walter Isaacson
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➡️ From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.
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📗About:
For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
📜ELON MUSK📜
by Walter Isaacson
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➡️ From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.
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📗About:
For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #fantasy)
📜PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF📜
by Rick Riordan
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➡️ Look, I never asked to be the son of a Greek god. I was just a normal kid. . . until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher.
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📗About:
Percy Jackson is having a bad week. His life has gone from totally normal to monsters-from-Greek-mythology-randomly-appearing kind of strange. Worse still, the king of the gods thinks Percy has stolen his all-powerful lightning bolt - and it seems making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to catch the true lightning thief and stop all-out war from erupting on Mount Olympus. . .
What could possible go wrong?
📜PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF📜
by Rick Riordan
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➡️ Look, I never asked to be the son of a Greek god. I was just a normal kid. . . until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher.
--------------------------------------------------------
📗About:
Percy Jackson is having a bad week. His life has gone from totally normal to monsters-from-Greek-mythology-randomly-appearing kind of strange. Worse still, the king of the gods thinks Percy has stolen his all-powerful lightning bolt - and it seems making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to catch the true lightning thief and stop all-out war from erupting on Mount Olympus. . .
What could possible go wrong?
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #contemporary)
📜TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM📜
by Yaa Gyasi
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➡️ Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.
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📗About:
Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.
But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love.
📜TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM📜
by Yaa Gyasi
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➡️ Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.
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📗About:
Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.
But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love.
📜 It’s great to be the fastest runner, but not when you’re running in the wrong direction.
➡️ Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club
➡️ Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club
📚A review of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is a novel that has garnered both praise and perplexity, leaving readers with mixed feelings about its literary merits. While the book offers an immersive portrayal of a bleak post-apocalyptic world and showcases McCarthy's masterful prose, it falls short in several critical areas.
One of the book's most glaring shortcomings is its repetitive nature. Throughout the narrative, it feels as if the same themes and scenarios are continually revisited. The relentless struggle for survival, the search for food and shelter, and the encounters with various dangers become monotonous, making one wonder if this story could have been more effectively condensed into a short story. The repetition, unfortunately, detracts from the overall impact of the novel.
Adding to the ambiguity is the book's unclear message or moral. McCarthy leaves readers grappling with questions about the deeper significance of the story. While the theme of hope amid despair is evident, the ultimate takeaway remains somewhat elusive. What is the author trying to convey about human nature, love, or the resilience of the human spirit? The lack of a clear moral or message can leave readers feeling unsatisfied and wondering about the broader purpose of the narrative.
Despite these criticisms, it's crucial to acknowledge the strengths of McCarthy's writing. His prose is undeniably beautiful and effectively conveys the feeling of cold and deprivation that permeates the story.
In conclusion, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is a polarizing novel that, despite its lyrical prose and evocative atmosphere, leaves readers questioning its repetitive nature, unclear message, and unsatisfying ending. It's a book that elicits strong reactions, with some finding it deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, while others remain perplexed as to its acclaim. Ultimately, whether it resonates with a reader or not is a matter of personal interpretation and taste.
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is a novel that has garnered both praise and perplexity, leaving readers with mixed feelings about its literary merits. While the book offers an immersive portrayal of a bleak post-apocalyptic world and showcases McCarthy's masterful prose, it falls short in several critical areas.
One of the book's most glaring shortcomings is its repetitive nature. Throughout the narrative, it feels as if the same themes and scenarios are continually revisited. The relentless struggle for survival, the search for food and shelter, and the encounters with various dangers become monotonous, making one wonder if this story could have been more effectively condensed into a short story. The repetition, unfortunately, detracts from the overall impact of the novel.
Adding to the ambiguity is the book's unclear message or moral. McCarthy leaves readers grappling with questions about the deeper significance of the story. While the theme of hope amid despair is evident, the ultimate takeaway remains somewhat elusive. What is the author trying to convey about human nature, love, or the resilience of the human spirit? The lack of a clear moral or message can leave readers feeling unsatisfied and wondering about the broader purpose of the narrative.
Despite these criticisms, it's crucial to acknowledge the strengths of McCarthy's writing. His prose is undeniably beautiful and effectively conveys the feeling of cold and deprivation that permeates the story.
In conclusion, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is a polarizing novel that, despite its lyrical prose and evocative atmosphere, leaves readers questioning its repetitive nature, unclear message, and unsatisfying ending. It's a book that elicits strong reactions, with some finding it deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, while others remain perplexed as to its acclaim. Ultimately, whether it resonates with a reader or not is a matter of personal interpretation and taste.
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #crime)
📜THE KILL ARTIST📜
by Daniel Silva
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➡️ Smart and electrically exciting global thriller.
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📗About:
Gabriel Allon had a simple but brutal job: he tracked down and eliminated Israel's terrorist enemies. But when his wife and son fell victim to the danger that accompanied him everywhere, Gabriel quit and devoted himself to the work of art restoration, an occupation that had previously been a cover for his secret assignments. Now Ari Shamron, the head of Israeli intelligence, needs Gabriel's particular kind of experience to thwart a Palestinian plot to destroy the peace negotiations in the Middle East. The architect of this plot, a Palestinian zealot named Tariq, is a lethal part of Gabriel's past, so as the two begin an intercontinental game of hide-and-seek, with life and death as the prizes, the motives are as personal as they are political.
📜THE KILL ARTIST📜
by Daniel Silva
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➡️ Smart and electrically exciting global thriller.
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📗About:
Gabriel Allon had a simple but brutal job: he tracked down and eliminated Israel's terrorist enemies. But when his wife and son fell victim to the danger that accompanied him everywhere, Gabriel quit and devoted himself to the work of art restoration, an occupation that had previously been a cover for his secret assignments. Now Ari Shamron, the head of Israeli intelligence, needs Gabriel's particular kind of experience to thwart a Palestinian plot to destroy the peace negotiations in the Middle East. The architect of this plot, a Palestinian zealot named Tariq, is a lethal part of Gabriel's past, so as the two begin an intercontinental game of hide-and-seek, with life and death as the prizes, the motives are as personal as they are political.
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #horror #mystery)
📜THE SEPTEMBER HOUSE📜
by Carissa Orlando
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➡️ A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.
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📗About:
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.
Margaret is not most people.
Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.
📜THE SEPTEMBER HOUSE📜
by Carissa Orlando
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➡️ A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.
-------------------------------------------------------
📗About:
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.
Margaret is not most people.
Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #contemporary)
📜THE LOST BOOKSHOP📜
by Evie Woods
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➡️ The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.
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📗About:
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
📜THE LOST BOOKSHOP📜
by Evie Woods
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➡️ The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.
-------------------------------------------------------
📗About:
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
📜What classic novel is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama?
Anonymous Quiz
20%
The Catcher in the Rye
20%
Moby-Dick
10%
Pride and Prejudice
50%
To Kill a Mockingbird
📚 Book of the Day (#fiction #fantasy #ya)
📜CITY OF BONES📜
by Cassandra Clare
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➡️ Discover this first installment of the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and “prepare to be hooked” (Entertainment Weekly).
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📗About:
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...
📜CITY OF BONES📜
by Cassandra Clare
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➡️ Discover this first installment of the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and “prepare to be hooked” (Entertainment Weekly).
-------------------------------------------------------
📗About:
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...
📜 You don't have to have it all figured out to move forward.
➡️ Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
➡️ Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart