Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Gibbon’s Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper – In this book, seven female friends meet every year from college in the 1950s until 2000. In 1998 one of their members disappeared. At the same time an epidemic slowly starts to spread that decreases testosterone and estrogen in all mammals. What happens in society when everyone loses interest in sex? There is no more vanity, no uncomfortable fashion, no pregnancies, and eventually less violence against women. The friends think that their missing member may have something to do with this epidemic and set off in search of her.

I love this author. She tells science fiction stories that focus on themes of women’s rights, the environment, and religion. She can get a bit preachy but I get preachy on those subjects too. Sometimes the story gets a little clunky because of all the messages that she wants to bring through but it will make you think.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan- This is the first book in The Heroes of Olympus series, which is a followup to the Percy Jackson series. Jason wakes up on a bus on a school trip to the Grand Canyon and has no idea who he is or how he got there. Monsters attack him and two kids who claim to be his best friends. He doesn’t remember them either. They are rescued and taken to Camp Half Blood.

Several characters from the first series are here- Annabeth, Chiron, Thalia. Percy Jackson, however, is missing. In the meantime Hera has been kidnapped and it seems to be up to Jason and his friends Leo and Piper to save her.

This book expands the world that he created exponentially. I loved it and can’t wait for the next one. It isn’t totally necessary to have read the Percy Jackson series but it would help with the details.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher – This is book three of the Dresden Files. I haven’t read books 1 or 2 which breaks my absolute rule to never read a series out of order. But, I heard that book 1 wasn’t great anyway and the library didn’t have book 1 or 2 so there you are.

Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire in Chicago. He has a friend named Michael who is the Fist of God and a skull in the basement that houses a spirit named Bob. In this book someone or something is riling up the spirits and loosening the boundary between this world and the spirit world. Spirits are coming through who want revenge on Harry and his friends for a bust they did a few months ago.

This started out slow for me but got better. There were a lot of characters with backstories that I didn’t know (Don’t start in the middle of a series!) which got sort of confusing but I was able to follow most of it. I may go back and try to get the first two books.