“Mad” about books
I needed to pick a theme to tie a selection of recent reads together and realized that each one had a “mad scientist” character as the antagonist. Bwaa–ha-ha!
I just finished Atherton: the House of Power by Patrick Carman which is on the 2008 Lone Star list. Edgar toils away in the fig groves to feed the privileged ones who live above him and control the water supply. His special gift is climbing which takes him into forbidden territory and leads him to the discovery of the manipulating mind who created his world. Atherton has its greedy dictators but who compares to the evil genius who designed this place to collapse into itself and leave all vulnerable to an ecological monster?? Check this book out at www.unlockdrhardingsbrain.com
Something truly creepy, not to mention gruesome, is happening in Victorian London why else would Albert Wilkes who was buried last week appear at teatime and scare his wife and dog! How can a fifteen-year old pickpocket, a museum clock expert, the curator of the Department of Unclassified Artefacts, and the daughter of a clergyman outwit a millionaire collector specializing in death? Augustus Lorimore can bring the dead back to life and that is not a good thing. Who can escape?…The Death Collector by Justin Richards.
In The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, four children each chosen because of a unique gift are sent by Mr. Benedict to infiltrate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. It is a strange school indeed where the goal is to pass enough quizzes to be chosen a Messenger, maybe even an Executive. However, it is the Whisperer that is important. What is this device, so secret that only the select ever encounter it? How does the madman who created it mean to take over the world?
Tell me about some books that you are “mad” about. What is on your “read this” list?
