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Best Books of the Month: August 2016

These titles have been racing to the top of our popularity charts!

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Giveaways

Brewer Archives
by Meisha Camm (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Nov 27, 2015

Enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of the book, Brewer Archives and a 10.00 gift card to Starbucks!

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Availability: 2 copies available, 1007 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Jun 17 - Aug 19, 2016

Countries available: US

Format: Print Book

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Top Reviews This Week

The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis

Patrick's review of The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" (The Chronicles of Narnia, #3) by C.S. Lewis

" It feels odd to mark this book as anything less than five stars. It was a huge part of my childhood.

What's more, this book is part of the reason I'm a decent public speaker these days. I joined forensics because this was the book that was being used It feels odd to mark this book as anything less than five stars. It was a huge part of my childhood.

What's more, this book is part of the reason I'm a decent public speaker these days. I joined forensics because this was the book that was being used for extemporaneous reading. (I didn't even know what forensics was when I started, just that I liked the book.)

And there are things I like here. Good things. It's a fun adventure story. There are cool settings. Action. Tension. The different nature of the islands is cool. There's mystery. Magic. Wonder. The character of Reepicheep alone boosts this book by a full star.

The character of Eustace is better than I remember him being, too. It's nice to see a kid who is a total dick learn that there's consequences to his actions, then have a redemption arc in a kid's book.

But reading this book to my little boy made me confront a lot of the problems in the book. There are slavers in the early chapters, which is something I didn't remember. And a topic I wasn't sure I wanted to introduce to my kid at the age of 6.

There's a fair chunk of sexism too. Little things scattered throughout the books. Not terrible considering when it was written. But still nothing I want soaking into my kid's psyche. The best example of this is Ramandu's daughter. Caspian meets her, and it becomes obvious that they're going to get married.

Let's just pass lightly over the fact that she's effectively being treated like a prize for him completing his quest and jump right into the fact that SHE DOESN'T HAVE A NAME! She's referred to as "Ramandu's daughter" through the entire book despite the fact that she has a larger part in the book.

That's fucked up, y'all.

There's narrative issues too. The children rarely solve their own problems. Several times they're confronted by bad situations or make bad choices but then instead of having to deal with the consequences or figure out solutions, Aslan shows up and is all ಠ_ಠ. Then, under the weight of his disappointed dad eyes and they're filled with shame and realize they should stop being dicks. That's not good storytelling. That's some deus ex leo bullshit.

It's a good book, and I'm fond of it. But it's not perfect, and its flaws are large enough that they bear some serious consideration before you put it in front of your kids. ...more "
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B.A. Paris

Her Favorite Books About Marriages Gone Wrong: Secrets, lies, and murderous urges poison the unions in these selections from the author of Behind Closed Doors.

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