Reading continued
Before the books mentioned in the previous entry (which I finished about a week ago, in time to give to my niece 2 Sundays ago and return to school last Thursday) I read the 11th book in the Edge Chronicles series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. The Nameless One: The First Book of Cade" is set in the Third Age of Flight, when people have settled beyond the Edge due to the ability of the skyships to fly further and faster than before stormphrax was tamed. Cade Quarter has fled his comfortable life in the Great Glades city when the Academy of Flight begin to persecute his uncle, Nate Quarter (whose story I haven't read, in book #10, The Immortals) and his supporters. After stowing away on a skyship and narrowly avoiding a skyfiring for doing so, he ends up in the Farrow Ridges in the Deepwoods. With the help of new friends, Cade builds a life for himself, overcoming his lack of skills and knowledge about life out of a city. He and his prowlgrim pup, Rumblix, end up sharing their little cabin with a mysterious nameless one, a creature from Riverrise, an escapee from slavery in the Deepwoods.
I also got my niece Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. This is her first book and draws a lot from her own experiences as a migrant from Hong Kong to New York. Kimberley Chang and her mother move from Hong Kong to New York, sponsored by her mother's older sister. The aunt is a bitter vengeful woman and expects constant gratitude for providing Kimberley and her mother with an apartment in a condemned building, and a job doing piece-work in her and her husband's clothing factory. The Changs endure 7 years in their broken-windowed, cockroach-and-rat-infected home, resorting in winter to having the gas oven on at all times to try to combat below-freezing temperatures. Kimberley's lack of English is gradually overcome with hard work and she excels at school, knowing that a good education and then job are the only way out of their situation.
I found it hard to believe that a sister would treat her relatives so poorly. The aunt exploited all her factory workers, setting them deadlines that required working more than 12 hours a day, paying a pittance per item bagged or sewn (which she reduced when she realised Kimberley had worked out a system that would allow her to work quickly enough to earn a reasonable amount). She made endless excuses not to move her sister and niece to an apartment fit for habitation.
On the weekend I finished a book I borrowed from Ben's parents - Camilla Läckberg's 8th book in her Fjällbacka series Buried Angels. Patrick and Erica end up working together on a case again. Thirty five years ago, 5 members of a family running a boarding school on the island Valo disappeared during Easter lunch. Only the 1-year-old daughter Ebba remained. She has now returned to restore the house with her husband Tobias. As the book unfolds, we get flashbacks to the past, following the lives of several generations of a family of women who had tragic lives. The police become involved when a fire is lit in the old house, threatening Ebba and Tobias' lives. It's not initially obvious if the family's disappearance is related to current-day events. Then, Ebba is shot at while working in the kitchen of the old house.
I also got my niece Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. This is her first book and draws a lot from her own experiences as a migrant from Hong Kong to New York. Kimberley Chang and her mother move from Hong Kong to New York, sponsored by her mother's older sister. The aunt is a bitter vengeful woman and expects constant gratitude for providing Kimberley and her mother with an apartment in a condemned building, and a job doing piece-work in her and her husband's clothing factory. The Changs endure 7 years in their broken-windowed, cockroach-and-rat-infected home, resorting in winter to having the gas oven on at all times to try to combat below-freezing temperatures. Kimberley's lack of English is gradually overcome with hard work and she excels at school, knowing that a good education and then job are the only way out of their situation.
I found it hard to believe that a sister would treat her relatives so poorly. The aunt exploited all her factory workers, setting them deadlines that required working more than 12 hours a day, paying a pittance per item bagged or sewn (which she reduced when she realised Kimberley had worked out a system that would allow her to work quickly enough to earn a reasonable amount). She made endless excuses not to move her sister and niece to an apartment fit for habitation.
On the weekend I finished a book I borrowed from Ben's parents - Camilla Läckberg's 8th book in her Fjällbacka series Buried Angels. Patrick and Erica end up working together on a case again. Thirty five years ago, 5 members of a family running a boarding school on the island Valo disappeared during Easter lunch. Only the 1-year-old daughter Ebba remained. She has now returned to restore the house with her husband Tobias. As the book unfolds, we get flashbacks to the past, following the lives of several generations of a family of women who had tragic lives. The police become involved when a fire is lit in the old house, threatening Ebba and Tobias' lives. It's not initially obvious if the family's disappearance is related to current-day events. Then, Ebba is shot at while working in the kitchen of the old house.