This month's pick for book club is Red Rising by Pierce Brown. We will be meeting on Thursday, May 27th at 6:30pm in an online video chat. You can RSVP to the event here.

Pierce Brown graduated from college in 2010, fancying the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate campaign. Now he lives Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.

What's the book about?

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

​If this sounds like something you would like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store for 15% off when you order with us: online, over the phone (828.386.1219), or via email. If you're looking for an audiobook, our partners at Libro.fm have it available for easy access on our affiliate website. You can get it here.

You can pickup your book using our pickup basket at the front door or the drive thru window. We also offer free media mail shipping & local delivery (within Boone town limits). Getting your book to you as conveniently as possible is important to us! 

Finally, you can RSVP on the Facebook event to get reminders & updates about any changes to the event! Do that here!
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Interview with Pierce Brown, author of Red Rising - January 27, 2014 -- The Qwillery
​RED RISING | Kirkus Reviews -- Kirkus 
Review: Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy 1) -- Geeks Under Grace
Interview with Pierce Brown, author of RED RISING trilogy -- ​Hodder & Stoughton

Keep reading to find the summary, reviews of the book, interviews with the author, and info about how to buy your book from us in various formats. ​

When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
​

If this sounds like something you would like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store for 15% off when you order with us: online, over the phone (828.386.1219), or via email. This title is also available from our audiobook partner, Libro.fm, as a DRM-free audiobook--buy it here. 

You can pickup your book using our pickup basket at the front door or the drive thru window. We also offer free media mail shipping & local delivery (within Boone town limits). Getting your book to you as conveniently as possible is important to us! 

Finally, you can RSVP on the Facebook event to get reminders & updates about any changes to the event! Do that here!
​

Octavia Butler’s Prescient Vision of a Zealot Elected to “Make America Great Again” 
​-- The New Yorker
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (Book Review) -- Black & Bookish
Parable of the Sower -- Publisher's Weekly
An Interview with Octavia Butler, 2004 -- by Joshunda Sanders for Africana.com & In Motion Magazine
Octavia Butler: Writing Herself Into The Story -- for Code Switch by NPR

Keep reading to find the summary, reviews of the book, interviews with the author, and info about how to buy your book from us in various formats. ​

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .

As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.
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But how come she can’t shake the feeling she’s being followed?

If this sounds like something you would like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store for 15% off when you order with us: online, over the phone (828.386.1219), or via email. This title is also available from our audiobook partner, Libro.fm, as a DRM-free audiobook--buy it here. 

You can pickup your book using our pickup basket at the front door or the drive thru window. We also offer free media mail shipping & local delivery (within Boone town limits). Getting your book to you as conveniently as possible is important to us! 

Finally, you can RSVP on the Facebook event to get reminders & updates about any changes to the event! Do that here!

Monsters Imaginary & Real Haunt the Caves of The Luminous Dead -- NPR Books
Rich & Complicated Survival Horror: The Luminous Dead by Starling -- tor.com
The Luminous Dead--Spooky Reads! -- Horror Bound Blog
Podcast Episode #6: Interview with Caitlin Starling  -- Sublime Horror Podcast
Q&A with Caitlin Starling, author of 'The Luminous Dead' -- Fictionist Magazine