Etiquette & Espionage, by Gail Carriger (fiction) - curtsies, hankies, and poisoning lessons

Curiosity? Improper in a young lady of good family.
Interested in things mechanical? How uncouth.
A potential assassin? Just right for Mademoiselle Geraldine's school!!

Steampunk plus young lady spies-in-training - smashing!
I do so want a steam-powered mechanimal dachshund like Bumbersnoot, even if I would have to break his coal into tiny nibbles.

Read excerpts at io9 and at Tor to be properly introduced to Sophronia and her interesting world, browse politely inside the first pages of  the Finishing School series: Book the First at the publisher's site, then proceed in a stately manner to acquire Etiquette & Espionage  at your local library or independent bookstore - posthaste, as it was just published last week!

And do watch for flywaymen and other air pirates along the carriage roads...
**kmm

Book info: Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, Book the First) / Gail Carriger. Little Brown, 2013. [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]  

My Recommendation: She’d much rather disassemble the robot butler than learn etiquette, but well-brought-up young ladies in 1851 British society must have impeccable manners. How else to distinguish persons of quality from vampires, werewolves, and other beings of lower social class?

Tumbling out of the dumbwaiter covered with pudding was perhaps not the best way to meet the finishing school headmistress. However, Miss Geraldine accepted Sophronia to the Academy because of the 14-year-old’s curiosity and resourcefulness, despite her dreadfully subpar curtsy.

Surviving an attack by flywaymen on their carriage journey, Sophronia is somewhat startled to find that the Academy floats above the moors, that the Miss Geraldine who visited her mother is not the Miss Geraldine who heads up the exclusive school, and that dashing Captain Niall is a werewolf (with impeccable manners, it must be noted).

Aboard the triple dirigibles of the Academy, she meets the real Miss Geraldine (who seems quite unaware of the deadly classes being taught on board), teachers of non-quite-human persuasion (but excellent taste in fashion), and the sooties below decks who stoke the mighty furnaces powering this most unusual finishing school.

Classes for dance and the deadly uses of hatpins, the sudden appearance a darling mechanimal dachshund (which needs wee bits of coal to keep going) bearing threats from villains about handing over a prototype, and odd preparations for an outing at their allied school for boys keep Sophronia and the other young ladies quite busy - but not so busy that they can’t do a little sleuthing of their own.

Why does Miss Geraldine not know that her school is training spies and assassins?

What is the device whose prototype is coveted by so many?

Will Sophronia learn to curtsy properly in the few months before her sister’s debutante ball?

Book the First of the Finishing School series brings together steampunk and high manners with great success, inviting readers along on the astounding journey of clever Sophronia, her new friends, and her new enemies.

(One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Unnaturalists, by Tiffany Trent (fiction) - steampunk, witch-fairy mutiny?

Science is good, magic is bad.
Technology is better than nature.
The powers-that-be hold all the power in this city...
or do they?

Steampunk plus pixies, manticores, and sphinxes - all in an alternate London swept out of its own world and time by a Tesla coil in the wrong hands! Vespa is in great peril as she awakens to her powers as a witch in this so-rational City.

If you've ever wondered about how book covers are created, go behind the scenes at the photo shoot for The Unnaturalists.  You'll find it in hardback now at your local library or independent bookstore; don't wait for the August 2013 paperback edition!

So, just how steampunk do you like your alternate history books?
**kmm

Book info: The Unnaturalists / Tiffany Trent. Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2012. [author's website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation:

Vespa loves working with her father, preparing captured magical creatures for display in the museum. But now she must make a good match, ignoring the signs that she’s as Unnatural as anything in the museum – and in terrible danger.

The Church of Science and Technology controls New London after a temporal quirk landed that city in an alternate England generations ago; it allows no magic or witchery within its bounds. The Tinker folk who respect nature and its Elementals endure a hardscrabble existence outside the City Wall, adopting City children born with magical traits and abandoned there, exposed to the Creeping Waste.

Syrus listens to Granny’s stories in the Tinker camp, knows that the City soldiers will soon take more Tinkers to slave in the Refinery which produces the substance to power the City, senses that Vespa is not like other City folk, knows that the land will rupture and perish when the last Elementals are gone.

The secret society of Architects also knows that the Church cannot keep capturing Elementals /Unnaturals without endangering their world, and they foil the Refiners at every turn. When Syrus gets caught up in their conflict, he rushes to rescue his clan members from the Refinery.

Vespa’s time as Companion to high-born Lucy is filled with dressmaker’s appointments and matchmaker consultations, when her mistress suddenly demands that she use magic to craft a love charm! But lurking secrets in Lord Virulen’s manor house may upset the young ladies’ scheme before it begins.

Does so-ordinary Vespa possess enough untapped magic to help Lucy capture a nobleman’s heart before the Empress discovers their crime?

Who is the secretive Architect risking exposure as he shields Syrus from the Refiners’ wrath?

Why didn’t Vespa ever suspect that she was a witch in the first place?

Steampunk and fantasy collide in this alternate world created by Tiffany Trent, as the creatures seen as Elementals by the Tinkers and as Unnaturals by the Citizens hold the key to everything.

(One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Year Zero, by Rob Reid (fiction) - music downloads, alien invasion, legal loopholes?

Sharing music is an age-old tradition.
Downloading music is more recent.
But global annihilation to avoid copyright fees?

That's what Earth faces when the rest of the universe realizes that their music downloads since the 1970s have run up a copyright bill bigger than...than...than the universe.

Author Rob Reid knows quite a lot about music licensing and copyright, since he founded the Rhapsody music service before he wrote this first novel. About those lawsuit-happy aliens... he's not telling us his sources.

Grab this funny-alien-legal-music-thriller in hardcover, eBook, or audiobook now at your local library or independent bookstore; available in paperback April 30, 2013.

Wonder if aliens really prefer disco to 80s hair metal?
**kmm

Book info: Year Zero / Rob Reid. Del Rey Books, 2012.  [author's website] [author's Facebook page] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: Radio waves going from station to listener bounce out into space, too, and the aliens agree that Earth’s music is better than any other in the universe. 

But once they realize how much money the entire Refined League owes in royalty and copyright fees to human musicians, some alien bad guys decide that wiping out Earth to erase the debt is the only way to go!

However, most aliens would rather find a more-peaceful solution, so a few drop in on New York attorney Nick Carter to have him fix it all. Alas, Nick is not the Backstreet Boys singer Nick (as the aliens had hoped) nor is he the world’s best music copyrights attorney who could possibly find a way to reverse-license a few decades of slightly-to-completely illegal music downloads many light years from Earth.

But he’s going to have to try, since the bad-aliens will blow up Earth in a few days’ time if he can’t find a way around or through this problem. Of course, his law firm will decide this week on whether he’ll finally be named a junior partner or get axed, his cute neighbor also acquires a stray pet who’s an alien spy, and the wrinkles of universe-travels get a little sweaty.

Did the aliens of the Refined League honestly decide that Earth’s musical domination of the universe ended with rap?

Are there truly jokes coded into human (or Perfuffinite) DNA, since our bodies only use 2% of the genome?

Is there really a loophole in US music copyright law that Nick can find in time?

This debut novel by the founder of Rhapsody online music service brings music-crazed aliens to Earth, whisks earnest-but-only-human humans into outer space battles, and sharply skewers the most restrictive music copyright system in the universe between all the laughs.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette, by Bianca Turetsky (fiction) - glorious gowns in guillotine's shadow

It's a mysterious Monday, and fashion-lover Louise Lambert has received another invitation from the most exclusive vintage dress shop ever.

When Louise tries on an delicate blue gown for Brooke's fancy dress birthday party, she is suddenly sent back to young Marie Antoinette's court!

Weren't they just talking about the French Revolution in history class this morning? If Louise could just remember those important dates from her homework... but can she change what happens to the princess?

While you're getting this September 2012 release at your local library or independent bookstore, ask about book one, The Time-Traveling Fashionista  (my review here) so you can start Louise's adventures at the beginning and join her aboard the Titanic!

Hmmm... what other fantastic history-imbued frocks do mysterious shopkeepers Marla and Glenda have in their Traveling Fashionista Shop inventory?
**kmm

Book info: The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette (Time Traveling Fashionista, book 2) / Bianca Turetsky. Poppy, 2012  [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]  

My Recommendation: Oh, no! Louise’s trip to Paris with her French class is cancelled when her dad loses his job, and history homework is building up. What she needs is some time with vintage fashion to take her mind off things. But trying on an antique gown sweeps her away from the tiny shop to the court of a French princess!

It’s a bit odd to speak old French with no effort and have courtiers calling her Mademoiselle Gabrielle, but Louise does pretty well at playing along. Soon she realizes that she’s part of the entourage of young Marie Antoinette – and that she might not be the only person at Versailles with a false identity…

The princess is never seen in the same ensemble twice and demands that her ladies-in-waiting follow that fashion as well. Somehow, Louise must keep her original gown hidden so that she can wear it and return to modern Connecticut safely.

So many different experiences - beautiful palace gardens and boring waits for royal arrivals, splendid gilded ballrooms and bitterly critical letters from Marie’s mother, stunning Paris-designed dresses and the stench of Parisian streets. As time passes, Louise remembers more details from history class and wonders if she should warn the princess about the perils ahead.

Who is spying for Marie’s mother, sending detailed reports back to the Empress? Can Louise make the princess understand the suffering outside the palace walls, before it’s too late? Most importantly, can she get back to her own time before France’s nobility start losing their heads in the Revolution?

The second book of the series puts this Time-Traveling Fashionista in as much danger as she faced on board the Titanic in book one. Where will Louise’s passion for vintage fashion take her next? (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions from Pop Culture, by Laura Barcella (nonfiction)

Global warming.
Mutant diseases.
Alien attacks.

Seems like humans have been trying to figure out how the world will end almost since its beginning. Fifty apocalyptic visions from pop culture are analyzed in this new book (published today) which has many of the usual (Welles's "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast and Dr. Strangelove) and several lesser-known exemplars.

I'm intrigued by Steve McGhee's painting "The Big Swallow" which portrays an enormous storm and whirlpool consuming Sydney harbour (I climbed that bridge, so I don't want it to disappear!) and a 1912 novella "The Scarlet Plague" by Jack London (read here free).

Ask for The End at your local library or independent bookstore and decide which movie, book, song, or artwork has it right. How do you think the world will end?
**kmm

Book info:The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions from Pop Culture That You Should Know About...Before It's Too Late / Laura Barcella. Zest Books, 2012.   [author's website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Climate catastrophe or zombies? Alien invasion or the Four Horsemen on earth? People have long pondered how the world might end. Go behind the scenes of fifty apocalyptic endings from the past five centuries of art, film, theater, books, and music in this fascinating book.

Michaelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” and Durer’s 1498 “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” translate Biblical “end time” words into stirring pictures. Sandow Bok’s 1995 painting “Course of Empire” shows Los Angeles fractured by ultimate destruction of unknown origin. 

“It’s The End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. is a spotlighted song, as is Barry McGuire’s performance of “The Eve of Destruction”. The peppy tune of “99 Luftballons (99 Red Balloons)” by Nena might hide this Cold War protest song’s strong lyrics from casual listeners.

Barcella highlights important early books The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster (1909) and Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, which Stephen King acknowledges as a huge influence on his work, like The Stand, discussed here as a television miniseries. Alan Moore’s dystopian graphic novel series V for Vendetta and Watchmen are analyzed, as is Brian K. Vaughn’s 60-issue comic book saga of Y: The Last Man.

Almost a third of the book covers movies from “12 Monkeys” to “Waterworld,” with aliens, asteroids, melting ice caps, zombies, atomic war, and other disasters leading to the end of life on earth. Quotes and Unforgettable Moments from every play, book, and movie give the flavor of each one’s style.

The author consulted experts about “the Reality Factor” of The End proposed by each movie, song, or book (almost all are quite improbable) and also lists the impact of each creative work on subsequent popular culture.

Thought-provoking and entertaining, this book gives readers much to think about as its alphabetical list of titles covers the many and varied ways that The End might emerge slowly or drop suddenly from above. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

In High Places, by Harry Turtledove (fiction) - alternative history, time travel, danger

What if the Black Death had lasted decades and decades?
What if scientific knowledge was scourged from Arabic thought?
What if you could visit timelines where history had changed?

Welcome back to the world of Crosstime Traders, where technology makes it possible - and profitable - to travel to the many timelines where historical events large and small caused different time-streams to branch off from the Home Timeline.

Crosstime Traffic isn't some science experiment, but a vital business enterprise that brings in food and energy resources from low-population alternates to support the high-technology Home Timeline.

So in this alternate, educated Annette from California must disguise herself as a quiet, modest Muslim daughter of olive oil merchants from southern France and make sure that she never says or does anything that would make locals question that identity.

Of course, profit is the slave traders' motive, too, but there's something truly strange here. Could this particular group of slavers be in cahoots with someone from the Home Timeline?

Other Turtledove adventures in the Crosstime Traffic series include The Valley-Westside War, set in an alternate where The Bomb fell worldwide in the 1960s, and The Disunited States of America, where the US Constitution was never ratified. Alternative history brings intriguing answers to "What if?"
**kmm

Book info: In High Places (Crosstime Traffic, book 3) / Harry Turtledove. Tom Doherty Associates/ Tor Science Fiction, 2007. [author's website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation:  Almost time to leave muddy Paris and go back to school – on an alternate timeline. Annette’s family is returning to their Crosstime transfer station when slavers attack their caravan and take the teen far from her destination, far from her parents, far from her only way to get Home.

In this 21^st century, the “City of Light” is a filthy small town in the rough Kingdom of Versailles. The Black Death killed 80% of Europe in this timeline, allowing the Muslim Kingdoms to spread far beyond the Middle East – no voyages of exploration, no Scientific Revolution, no Industrial Revolution. Here, a second son of God is credited with finally stopping the plague, basic sanitation is unknown, and bad water kills more people than marauders’ arrows.

Masquerading as olive oil traders from Marseilles, Annette’s parents observe local politics in Paris as they gather fine fruits and olives to be sold on the Home timeline, which requires food and energy from many alternate timelines to support its technologically advanced population.

Duke Raoul of Paris feels that something is too-different about these oil merchants, but is more worried about reports of slave traders attacking closer and closer to his realm. By sending young Arabic-speaking Jacques as a caravan guard on the long journey over the mountains, perhaps he can learn more about both problems.

The attack on their caravan was expected; being captured for sale as slaves in far-off Madrid was not! Far from the safety of Marseilles, Annette and Jacques are sold to a large household with some mysterious buildings where large groups of slave disappear for a whole day before returning.

How will Annette’s parents know where she’s been taken? How can she escape to Marseilles and the only transfer station to Home? Why does Jacques’ description of a metal room sound so much like that advanced technology?

Take a trip through time to a country that might exist somewhere, some-time, with another exciting adventure of the Crosstime Traders from the master of alternative history, Harry Turtledove.  (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The Peculiars, by Maureen Doyle McQuerry (fiction) - quests, steampunk inventions, strange folk

Lying awake at night,
wondering if she's "having wild thoughts"
or if her overlong fingers truly are goblin hands,
Lena never hears good things about her father...

Never hears from him until her 18th birthday when the money enclosed in the only letter he's ever written to her allows her to start searching for him, despite her mother's concerns and her grandmother's fretting about unladylike behavior.
Why stay hidden in the City when adventure calls?

This steampunk adventure-romance-paranormal quest is set in a different United States of America than the one seen in our history textbooks about the late 19th century. While both USAs share Charles Darwin, the Pony Express, self-righteous missionaries, and Mark Twain's writings, only Lena's world includes winged persons, a cat whose purrs always sound like human speech, and a successful steam-powered flying machine with titanium frame.

Hoping that author McQuerry is a fast writer so that we can have more of Lena's adventures soon!
**kmm

Book info: The Peculiars / Maureen Doyle McQuerry. Amulet Books, 2012.  [author's website]   [publisher site] 

My Recommendation: Lena’s long-vanished father is responsible for her elongated fingers and overlarge feet and not much else in her life. So when her 18^th birthday brings a message from him, she feels compelled to travel from the City to the wildness of Scree – hiding place of goblins, flying people, and outlaws – to find him and discover what Peculiar blood might flow in her veins.

As the steam train chugs north, Lena keeps to herself, longtoed boots hidden by her traveling skirt, gray gloves covering her long, long fingers. One young man doesn’t take her hints, insisting on talking about their destination, a coastal town near Scree where he’s taken a position as librarian to a scientist, and about his fiancée and his family’s expectations.

During dinner, the train suddenly halts as masked men rescue a prisoner and rob the passengers! Thankfully, Lena had pinned her father’s envelope inside her bodice, but now has little money to finance her planned expedition into Scree. And the sheriff investigating the train heist has been chasing after her father for years…

Luckily, Jimson’s eccentric employer decides that Lena should also help catalog his unusual collection, giving her time to save up money to venture into Scree. A steam-powered typewriter, doors with intricate opening mechanisms, books with gem-encrusted covers – the library is a treasure of wonders and even a few answers for Lena’s questions about the Peculiars and Scree.

But she sees a strange winged figure on the roof at night, finds drawings of hands like her own in Mr. Beasley’s medical case sketchbook, and is getting more attention from Sheriff Saltre than she wants. If Lena doesn’t go into Scree quite soon, she’ll be trapped by winter weather and her growing affection for Jimson.

Alarmed by the sheriff’s investigations, Mr. Beasley and Jimson prepare for household members to escape Zephyr House. Can the flying machine get everyone out in time? Have they hidden the inventor’s secrets and experiments regarding the Peculiars well enough? Will Lena get to Scree and find her father after all these years?

Set in an alternative steampunk United States of late 1800s, those called The Peculiars face extreme prejudice and lifelong slavery in Scree’s mines, as Lena and compatriots from Zephyr House are about to discover first-hand.  (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Bloomswell Diaries (fiction)

Sinister enemies...
Plots against peace...
Mechanical men...
This is not the way our history books portray the early 1900s!

On this World Wednesday, travel far with young Benjamin Bloomswell as he seeks the answers to his world-trekking parents' disappearance. The first-generation tinmen of England, like the redoubtable Olivander who works at the Bloomswell house in London, each have an insignia, rather like a badge which binds them loyally to someone.

However, those American tinmen attacking his uncle's New York townhouse are newer models, with no built-in loyalty feature. Inside their metal torsos, they can store weapons or treasure or young teenagers! These are not friendly Tik-Tok of Oz mechanical men at all!

Steampunk action, intrigue, espionage, and a rambunctious circus group make this diary anything but dull!
Look for The Bloomswell Diaries at your local independent bookstore or library. Here's hoping that first-time author Buitendag continues the adventure!
**kmm

Book info: The Bloomswell Diaries / Louis L. Buitendag. Kane Miller Books, 2011. [book's Facebook page] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Ben hardly settles into his uncle’s house in America before there are sinister phone calls, a break-in, and a murder. Odd answers to his telegrams sent to his big sister Liza’s new boarding school in Switzerland, no way to contact his parents on yet another business trip away from their London home.

The newspaper report that Mr. and Mrs. Bloomswell had been found dead cannot be correct – Ben and his parents were still sailing across the Atlantic on the date given for their funeral! As his uncle explains the true nature of the Bloomswells’ overseas journeys to stop sinister plots against world peace, he accidently lets out secrets that were better left unsaid.

Suddenly, Ben must outrun ruffians and mechanical men sent by a mysterious enemy. These American tinmen have no insignia that binds them to a family in loyalty. Could they be agents of The Buyer his uncle warned him about or someone worse? Ben tries to escape a decrepit orphanage far from the city, using skills learned from Olivander, the Bloomswells’ loyal mechanical man. He must get to Liza so they can solve the mystery of their parents’ disappearance!

Hurrying to hide aboard a steamer in New York harbor, Ben can only pray that the ship is heading for Europe. Down in the ship’s cargo hold, a circus owner guarding crates of super-secret magic tricks swears he won’t report Ben as a stowaway. As the ship slowly journeys toward England, Mr. Holiday and Ben realize that they are being chased by someone or something that wants both them and their cargo.

Are Ben and the circus folk really on the same side? Can they outwit the enemies pursuing them? Is Liza safe at school? Have their parents succeeded in their vital mission?

Crossing oceans and mountains on ships, carriages, and railway trains, pursued by mechanical men and shadowy villains, Ben’s entries in The Bloomswell Diaries are a fascinating alternate view of the early 1900s with a very deep, sinister mystery.
(One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Valley-Westside War (fiction)

In 1967,
during "the Summer of Love,"
someone dropped the Bomb and began nuclear holocaust...

Why did it happen in one time-continuum and not the others? What made this time-stream different? If Crosstime Traffic seals off this alternate, will if prevent this blight from spreading to others where they trade undercover for resources?

Yes, it's all about the money for Crosstime Traffic; researchers are allowed to travel to alternate time-streams if there's a potential commercial advantage for the corporation.

That's why Liz is spending her gap year between high school and college with her scientist parents in this fragmented L.A. time-stream, with its hippie-talk lingo and scavenged technology. But can she hide her intellect well enough to pass for a young woman of this era during a war between neighborhoods?

You can read the six Crosstime Traffic books in any order, as there are different teens traveling the alternate time-streams in each. The Disunited States of America (review) never saw the Constitution signed - alternate history is an interesting and dangerous place!
**kmm

Book info: The Valley-Westside War (Crosstime Traffic #6) / Harry Turtledove. Tor Books, 2008 (paperback, 2009). [author's website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Nuclear bombs shattered the US in 1967, leaving pockets of survivors and halting technology development – on this parallel timeline. Sent there by Crosstime Traffic, Liz and her parents pose as traders as they try to discover why this Los Angeles is still a patchwork of neighborhood kingdoms at war with one another 100 years later.

In the nearly abandoned UCLA library lit by oil lanterns, Liz scans crumbling magazines and newspapers with her hidden data device, hunting for the war’s trigger point. She can’t visit the library too often, as women here are expected to run the household and stay quiet – women’s liberation never even got started before someone fired the first deadly missiles. Good thing she’ll be at the real UCLA in the home timeline in just a year, instead of fetching water from cisterns during the ongoing drought.

When the Westside City Council decides to charge a toll for wagons coming through Sepulveda Pass on the old highway, King Zev of the Valley declares war. So it’ll be arrows and knives in hand-to-hand combat, as usual – except someone has found an Old Time machine gun and made it work. As killing from a distance becomes possible for the first time in decades, the stakes are much higher for Dan and the other soldiers.

A chance meeting between Liz and Dan may put both their missions in jeopardy, as Dan invents reasons to visit the Mendoza hacienda in enemy territory so he can talk to her again. It’s hard to transmit data reports to the home timeline when Liz doesn’t know when Dan might show up. He is nice to talk to and look at, of course.

As long as the Mendozas act like regular traders and the locals don’t suspect there’s a time station hidden in their hacienda’s basement, everything will be fine… right?

Turtledove brings readers into another alternate strand of history with this exciting episode of the Crosstime Traffic series, asking “what if?” a single event could change everything we know. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy purchased because it looked interesting.

Future of Us (fiction)

Oooh, tell me about my future!!
I'll have hundreds and hundreds of friends!?
I'll look like that in 15 years?
I'll be incredibly... miserable?

Seeing into the future is a form of time travel, and best friends Josh and Emma have stumbled onto a window into their own destinies through an AOL disk and a dial-up modem.

Somehow, the view from 1996 (when getting online is new to most teens) into their adult lives isn't as rosy as they'd hoped. Emma decides to try and tweak her future by making some changes right now, checking that Facebook thingie to see how it works.

There are two distinct voices in this book, as Carolyn Mackler writes Emma's chapters and Jay Asher writes Josh's, alternating to tell their story.

You can become a fan of the book on Facebook, of course! The Future of Us is being released on Monday, November 21, 2011, and Warner Brothers has already purchased the film rights.
**kmm

Book info: The Future of Us / Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler. Razorbill, 2011. [Jay's blog] [Carolyn's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Events from 15 years in her future are the last things that Emma expects from her new computer in 1996! A birthday gift from her dad and stepmom, it even has an internal modem to dial-up and “get online” so her best friend Josh brings over an AOL install CD-ROM.

After dialing up on mom’s phoneline, Emma gets an AOL “welcome” message and something called Facebook with pictures of all these people she doesn’t know. Curious, she searches for other Emma Nelsons on the Facebook and finds one, someone who went to her high school, who has the same birthday, whose picture looks exactly like Emma…15 years older! This Emma has a rotten husband – you can tell by her messages to her “friends” (who could have hundreds of friends?). And the future Josh is married to the most popular girl at their high school! Josh, who’s too shy to talk to anyone except Emma and his best friend Tyson?!

Getting ready for the track meet, telling her boyfriend Graham that it’s all over, Emma wonders if she’s been pranked somehow with this Facebook thing. But when she tears up her application to the college that the future Emma attended, suddenly the Facebook entries are different. The future Emma is less-stressed about her husband (a different one!), but unhappy about her work… hmmm.

As Emma’s updates on the Facebook site change, Josh decides that he’d better start making his big-house-and-a-boat future come true, so he gets up the nerve to ask beautiful Sydney on a date. Never mind his long-hidden feelings for Emma and that awkward try at kissing her a few months ago.

So, can Emma completely alter her own destiny just by changing a few things now? Is Sydney going to be the best thing that ever happened to Josh? Do they really want to know ahead of time about their futures or would they rather go back to the way things were before?

Josh and Emma react to their view into the future in alternating chapters written by Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why) and Carolyn Mackler (Vegan Virgin Valentine and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things) - would you want to know about your future? (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Time-Traveling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky (fiction) - vintage dress in a Titanic time-adventure

Vintage clothes and old letters are tangible links to the past. What if the right vintage dress was a direct link to its original owner's past, like a wearable time-travel ticket?

Louise really appreciates the fine craftsmanship of vintage clothing, frequently wearing her carefully selected ensembles to junior high school (even if her mother disdainfully calls them "used clothes").

Who could imagine that a hand-delivered invitation to a dusty shop would take Louise so far away from her suburban Connecticut home?
First in a series - can't wait for the next!
**kmm

Book info: The Time-Traveling Fashionista / Bianca Turetsky. Little Brown Teens, 2011. [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Dreaming about the perfect dress for the seventh-grade dance is much more fun than studying the Titanic in history or doing math problems. Of course, it should be a vintage dress - Louise just adores vintage designer clothes.

When an invitation to the exclusive "Traveling Fashionista Vintage Sale" is hand-delivered, Louise and best friend Brooke go downtown to check it out. The shop may have eccentric owners and terrible crab dip, but its dresses are divine!

When Louise tries on a sparkling, silky pink gown, she swoons and blacks out, waking up... on board an ocean liner?

Everyone calls her "Miss Baxter" - from Mr. Baxter (her uncle and manager, says her maid Anna) to the very elegant passengers aboard. When others look at Louise, they see the beautiful young actress returning from a successful tour in Europe; when she looks at herself in the mirror, Louise sees her 12-year-old self, complete with braces and frizzy hair.

Stumbling through the plush carpeted corridors on Miss Baxter's high heels to the sumptuous dinners at the captain's table, Louise makes a few mistakes that her uncle explains away as stress. Once Louise discovers exactly which ship she's on, her stress level truly skyrockets!

Can she persuade the captain of the Titanic to alter his course? Will any of her new friends survive? Will Louise ever see her parents and modern times again?

First book in a fun series that will have readers prowling vintage clothing shops, looking for the perfect ensemble to send their imaginations back in time. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Disunited States of America (fiction)

Yesterday was a day for fireworks, picnics, and patriotic celebrations. At least, it was in this timeline for the USA... but what if the Constitution were never ratified? What if the states never united?

Welcome to "alt hist" - the alternative histories produced by wondering "what if" some key event of history had happened differently, then writing in great and grand detail about the results of that new path through time.

Turtledove is an acknowledged master of alternative history (his Guns of the South and WorldWar series are epic), and this trip with Crosstime Traffic to an alternate timestream is as thought-provoking as it is dangerous for Beckie (native to that timestream) and Justin (visiting with his mom on a trading mission).

Biological terrorism launched before the antidote is ready? Rampant racism and unrest? Remember, this is an alternate history, right?

Among all the freedoms that we celebrate today, be sure to exercise your freedom to read!
**kmm

Book info: The Disunited States of America (Crosstime Traffic #4) / Harry Turtledove. Tor Teen, 2011. [author's website] [publisher site]

Recommendation: War between Ohio and Virginia? In Beckie’s world, it could happen any day. Justin’s seen enough alternate timelines to know that, as a Time Trader traveling through the many realities of how Earth’s history could have turned out.

Justin and his mom travel to Beckie’s alternate to make sure that researchers there hadn’t discovered Crosstime secrets and to help improve race relations. That North America is a crazy-quilt of big and little countries, and there are certainly no equal rights. If you weren’t white and male, you were powerless (except in Mississippi...strange, strange Mississippi).

This alternate never saw the states become united under the Constitution, so Beckie and her grandmother must have passports and visas and permission-to-travel letters for every border crossing between the civilized nation of California and Grandma’s hometown in rural Virginia. The “cousin” who gives them a ride across the bridge from Ohio gives her the creeps…the big guns hidden in his car give her the chills.

Beckie is glad to meet someone her own age when Justin visits the aunt and uncle she’s staying with. Justin is careful to speak like the locals, trying to blend in. Soon, they’re both glad that they met.

Suddenly, people in border towns start dying of a mysterious fever and Ohio is blamed for it. As Virginia soldiers roll in and bombing begins, Beckie and her ever-grumbling grandma search for a safe place, Justin is separated from his mom with communication lines cut, and the fever is confirmed as the plague. Plague! Who has a cure for the plague?

Will Beckie ever get home to California? Will Justin and his mom find their way through time to their world? Can Justin tell Beckie where he’s really from without poking holes in the fabric of time?

Turtledove is the master of alternate history, and his "Time Traders" series takes readers to fascinating timelines that truly make you wonder… what if? (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Time Quake (Gideon Trilogy #3) (fiction)

Time travel meets alternate history in the final volume of the Gideon Trilogy, and it's a doozy!

So we have the fabric of time tearing apart while Lord Luxon (that rat!) tries to manipulate history in his own favor.

But what's happening to Kate and Peter? Where's Gideon now? And the Tar Man? If the time quakes don't stop, the world that we know may shatter!

Be sure to read Time Travelers (#1 recommended here) and Time Thief (#2 recommended here) before you start this roller-coaster tale of time ripples so you can enjoy every bit of the wild ride!
**kmm

Book info: The Time Quake / Linda Buckley-Archer. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
[author's website] [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation:Returning to 18th century England on a duplicate time machine, Kate and Peter try to unravel the snarl of events that their unintended time travel has caused. Kate’s hold on the present (whatever year she’s in) grows more and more tenuous as the multiplicity of universes created by each time travel event start to collide. Their search for the Tar Man and Lord Luxon takes a dangerous turn and may separate the friends forever!

When the original time machine fell into Lord Luxon’s amoral hands, he all too quickly saw its potential for exploitation. Taking “undiscovered” 18th century masterpiece paintings into the 20th century brings wealth, but the Tar Man’s employer is looking for power so he travels to New York City to try his hand at changing history…

Could Lord Luxon’s purposeful damage to key events in the American Revolution truly change history? Can Peter and Gideon keep Kate from fading away entirely? Will anyone ever get back to their home time?

Time quakes muddle past and present, hurtling the friends toward the possible end of our universe as the trilogy races toward its heart-stopping conclusion (443 pages in paperback). (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.