Piling Up on Friday May 4th

This weekly meme is hosted here at Finding Your Gibbee. Feel free to play along, and post a link to your blog in the comments below. List all the books you have added to your To Be Read wishlist this week. (These don't have to be titles you have actually purchased.)

I just finished reading a fabulous book this afternoon. It's called Wine to Water by Doc Hendley. It's the story about a bartender who decided to help bring clean water to developing countries, and started his work in the heart of Darfur during the humanitarian crisis of 2004. My book review is coming soon, so stay tuned. I'm even doing a giveaway for this one!

Here are some fun and fascinating titles I have added to my TBR wishlist this week.

The Vanishers by Heidi Julatvis

Julia Severn is a student at an elite institute for psychics. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackermann, afflicted by jealousy, refuses to pass the torch to her young disciple. Instead, she subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving her mother's suicide when Julia was an infant. As the two lock horns, and Julia gains power, Madame Ackermann launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment.  Julia retreats to a faceless job in Manhattan. But others have noted Julia's emerging gifts, and soon she's recruited to track down an elusive missing person—a controversial artist who might have a connection to her mother. As Julia sifts through ghosts and astral clues, everything she thought she knew of her mother is called into question, and she discovers that her ability to know the minds of others—including her own—goes far deeper than she ever imagined. 

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind. Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

The White Forest by Adam McOmber

Young Jane Silverlake lives with her father at a crumbling family estate on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Jane has a secret—an unexplainable gift that allows her to see the souls of manmade objects—and this talent isolates her from the outside world. Her greatest joy is wandering the wild heath with her neighbors, Madeline and Nathan. But as the friends come of age, their idyll is shattered by the feelings both girls develop for Nathan, and by Nathan’s interest in a cult led by Ariston Day, a charismatic mystic popular with London's elite. Day encourages his followers to explore dream manipulation, with the goal of discovering a new virtual reality, a place he calls the Empyrean. A year later, Nathan has vanished, and the famed Inspector Vidocq arrives in London to untangle the events that led up to Nathan’s disappearance. As a sinister truth emerges, Jane realizes she must discover the origins of her talent and use it to find Nathan herself, before it’s too late. 

The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, self-dependent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly he marries her, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy’s unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Gradually he discovers, as he works in the family’s vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life, that maybe for this beginner there is a way of saying goodbye. 

 

My current read is:

Inspiring Experiences That Build Faith by Thomas S. Monson

President Monson recalls tender and inspiring personal experiences that will build faith and testimony for every reader. Taken from events throughout his life, these accounts are organized into sections: Service to others, Faith Precedes Blessings, Prayer Availeth Much, Missionary Moments, Testimony Teaches Truth, Example of the Believers, and On the Lighter Side. One experience tells of an elderly man in oppressed Hungary. He had collected his tithing for forty years until he met a patriarch who could deposit it for him. Also, the man had tried unsuccessfully for many years to get permission to leave Hungary to attend the temple. Following a special blessing, his passport was finally approved and this faithful man received the temple ordinances. This example and many others depict the happiness that comes from obedience to the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ. Readers can find renewed strength in their testimonies through these faith-promoting experiences.