Chasing Prophecy

Chasing Prophecy

by James Moser

published by Skookum Trail

January 2014

ISBN n/a

Why Read?: Review

Challenges:  E-Book, 100 Books in a Year

James Moser's Chasing Prophecy was not at all what I expected, but in the best way possible.  This coming-of-age story deals with issues that I have never encountered before in a YA novel...and Bigfoot.

Mo Kirkland is a pretty typical teenager.  He is a regular student, sometimes bullied, and in love with his best friend.  Yes, he does have two moms, and that is how he has fallen in with the local cult, the Bethlehem Family, which is best friend, Prophecy Bethlehem (he still calls her Kazzy) is part of.  When the Bethlehem Family leader dies and the government comes after them for tax evasion, claiming they are not a real religion, Max, his moms, and his other best friend, Max, get involved in trying to help.  Little does Mo know that he and Max will be turned into drug mules.  Not liking the turn the Bethlehem Family has taken, Kazzy and her mom escape and agree to help the US Marshals.  The Bethlehem Family, though, has plenty of resources and soon Mo's life is turned completely upside down.

Moser starts Chasing Prophecy as a typical YA contemporary about a boy who will do anything to impress the girl he likes, including jumping off a bridge and searching for Bigfoot.  However, Moser slowly weaves in a much darker story that takes this from light fiction to something much more real.  While his characters and plot are strong, it is the themes that really set Chasing Prophecy apart from anything else in the YA market today.

If you want something different and not super fluffy from your YA, Chasing Prophecy is a great pick.  James Moser has created something unique here and I hope to see more from him.

Rating: 4/5

Stacking the Shelves: 3/30-4/12

For possible review (here and on Bookloons):

Running Through a Dark Place by Michael J. Bowler

How About Never - Is That Good for You? by Bob Mankoff

Won:

Mayhem in Maryland by Candice Spear

First Reads from Goodreads:

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham

Murder at Cape Three Points by Kwei Quartey

LibraryThing Early Review:

Midnight by Mari Adkins

Mystic Guardian by Patricia Rice

Requested from Paperback Swap:

Daughter of Light by V.C. Andrews

The Overloaded Ark by Gerald Durrell

Selection for Astraea Press Book Club:

A Stormy Knight by Amy Mullen

Bought at Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis:

Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow by Masashi Kishimoto

More Starlight to Your Heart 2 by Hiro Matsuba

Full Metal Panic! Overload! 2 by Shouji Gatou & Tomohiro Nagai

The Great Plan by Chase Wheeler

Skip-Beat 1 by Yoshiki Makamura

Kamikazi Kaito Jeanne 1 by Arina Tanemura

Red Handed by Matt Kindt

Super Spy by Matt Kindt

Parnassus on Wheels

Title: Parnassus on Wheels
Author: Christopher Morley

Publisher: Melville
ISBN: 978-1-935554-11-0

Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: Definitely a lost classic!  This novella from the early 20th century is an adorable story about a bored farm woman who wants an adventure so she buys a bookseller's wagon.    A wonderful, fun story about books and love at any age.

Rating: 4 stars

Spotlight: The Infinity Program

Title: The Infinity Program
Author: Richard H. Hardy
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback available at: Amazon





Book Description:

Jon Graeme and Harry Sale are unlikely friends. Harry is a world-class programmer, but his abrasive personality alienates co-workers. In contrast, Jon is a handsome and easy-going technical writer, the low man on the IT totem pole.

Sharing a love of nature, the men set out together, planning to go their separate ways--Jon on a hike and Harry, fly fishing. Three days later, Jon arrives at the rendezvous point, but his friend is nowhere in sight. When Jon finds Harry unconscious on the floor of a cave, Harry claims to have been lying there the entire time. But he is neither cold nor hungry. What Jon doesn't know is that Harry fell into an underground cavern, where he came into contact with an alien quantum computer.

Back at work, Harry jettisons his regular tasks and concentrates exclusively on inventing new operating language to access the alien system. In the process he crashes his office's Super Computer and is fired. Jon convinces the company to give Harry a second chance, arguing that the system he has invented will make them millions.

Jon has no idea what havoc Harry is about to unleash.


Excerpt:

About the Author:
Richard H. Hardy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, during a week of relentless bombing raids just before the close of World War II. The day he was born an incendiary bomb fell on the church across the street from where he lived, so he is fond of saying that he entered the world with a big adrenaline rush.

His family later moved to England and then on to America.

After college Richard bounced through a series of temporary jobs as he traveled around the country, wanting nothing more than to write fiction. A job driving a library van allowed him free time to write several short stories and work on a novel.

He and his wife moved to New Hampshire, where he took an entry level job at a software company. He was soon promoted to the technical writing department and ended up producing over 500,000 words of online documentation. After a few years he was promoted to the programming department and ended up as the Senior EDI Programmer, creating EDI maps and writing UNIX scripts and troubleshooting on AIX systems throughout the U.S. and Canada.

After he retired, he started writing fiction again. The Infinity Program is his first published novel.


Where to find Richard H. Hardy:

Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog
Website

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Reading Challenge Update: March 2014

Here is where I stand with the challenges I have joined after the month of February (only challenges that I read books for this month are featured here):

Ebook (11/25)
8. Conscientious Inconsistencies by Nancy Jane Moore
9. After the War by Libby Sternberg
10. Two-Room Flat by Jill Urbach
11. The Crone's Jewels by E. J. Dabel

Audio Book (6/25)
5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
6. Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford

100 Books in a Year (37/100)
28. Conscientious Inconsistencies by Nancy Jane Moore
29. After the War by Libby Sternberg
30. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
31. Two-Room Flat by Jill Urbach
32. Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford
33. Road Rash by Mark Huntley Parsons
34. The Counselor by Cormac McCarthy
35. Heartless by Sam Shepard
36. The Winner's Circle by Marie Rutkoski
37. The Crone's Jewels by E. J. Dabel

Historical Fiction (5/15)
5. After the War by Libby Sternberg

British Book (4/12)
4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Free Reads (16/30)
12. Conscientious Inconsistencies by Nancy Jane Moore
13. After the War by Libby Sternberg
14. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
15. Two-Room Flat by Jill Urbach
16. Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford

Author Alphabet (12/26)
12. Two-Room Flat by Jill Urbach

YA Mythology (4/12)
4. The Crone's Jewels by E. J. Dabel

Elsewhere Online: March 2014

As you know from my Stacking the Shelves posts, I review for two other websites (bookloons.com and bittenbybooks.com). As I cannot post my reviews there and here, but I would still like to count the books I read for the challenges, I am going to have a post like this at the end of the every month listing the books I reviewed and what challenges the went towards.

Title: Road Rash
Author: Mark Huntley Parsons

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Title: The Counselor

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Title: Heartless

Author: Sam Shepard

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Title: The Winner's Curse

Author: Marie Rutkoski

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Title: The Crone's Jewels

Author: E. J. Dabel

Challenges: E-Book, YA Mythology, 100 Books in a Year

Stacking the Shelves: 3/23-3/29

For possible review (here and on Bitten by Books):

Written for You by Joseph Cognard

The Unwanted Earl by Ruth J. Hartman

Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin

Won:

Evening Stars by Susan Mallery

First Reads from Goodreads:

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Bought on Amazon:

The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom

Cold in the Earth by Aline Templeton

Settled Blood by Mari Hannah