Ah, summer. Time to catch up on some of those books I’ve been neglecting. Here’s are a few of the books in my To-Read Pile.

Lucifer: Children & Monsters
Author: Mike Carey
Art: Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly
Publisher: Vertigo, 2002
Genre: Graphic Novel

What the book’s about: The character of Lucifer Morningstar first appears in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but Gaiman authorized Mike Carey to write a series of comics telling Lucifer’s story in depth. Those comics have been compiled in Vertigo’s five-book Lucifer series. Lucifer: Children & Monsters is the second volume in the set. I’m told Lucifer will get his wings in this volume, although I still don’t quite know how. (No spoilers, please.)

All Clear
Author: Connie Willis
Publisher: Spectra, 2011
Genre: Science Fiction/Time Travel

What the book’s about: In this sequel to Blackout, time-traveling historians Michael Davies, Merope Ward, and Polly Churchill have been marooned in World War II London during the Blitz. Worse, they are starting to suspect that their fundamental assumptions about time travel are wrong – their actions do affect history after all. As they work frantically to survive Hitler’s onslaught and find a way back to Oxford in 2060, little discrepancies in the historical timeline begin to pile up, making the outcome of the war increasingly uncertain.

The Hour-Glass Factory
Author: Lucy Ribchester
Publisher: Pegasus, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mysteries

What the book’s about: Set in London 1912, The Hour-Glass Factory follows female reporter Frankie George. Frankie desperately wants to score an interview with notorious trapeze artist Ebony Diamond in the hopes of forcing her Fleet Street boss to let her write for something other than the Ladies section. When Ebony disappears in the middle of her trapeze act, Frankie investigates. Following Ebony’s trail inevitably sucks Frankie into the sinister world of the Hourglass Factory, a secret society that links the criminal class with some of London’s most prominent socialites.

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
Author: Marie Brennan
Publisher: Tor Books, 2014
Genre: YA/Fantasy

What the book’s about: Isabella, Lady Trent is the world’s foremost dragon naturalist. Her scholarly efforts have been instrumental in freeing dragons from the prejudice and misunderstandings of myth, into the objective realm of modern science. Of course, Lady Trent wasn’t always a towering figure of modern science. When she was a girl, her father expected to meekly marry a man of means (preferably one willing to share his library) just like everyone else in her social circle. Needless to say, that didn’t really work out.

In A Natural History of Dragons Isabella tells us, in her own words how she exchanged the hunt for a husband for the far more satisfactory pursuit of dragons (and possibly smugglers).

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Related Links: 

• The 3 books rocking our Family Togetherness Reading Separate Books Time (BostonWriters)