Halloween Short Stories:

Here are the scary stories I read today.

Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts By: Jonathan Broughton, Rayne Hall, et al
Fiction: Horror, Paranormal, Short Story,E-Book

This is a collection of ghost tales, some are scary, some are sad, some are unexpected.  The ghost range from Victorian to modern times.  I was even surprised in one when the ghost starts singing a song from the late 80's as I thought they were from a much earlier time.  Also the stories are from both American and British authors and has the wording and spellings of both.

Benedictum: A Gothic Fairy Tale By: Anna Godiva
Fiction: Short Story, E-book

This is a short fairy tale about a cursed family.  The ending is unexpected and odd.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Trouble Maker 2:

Trouble Maker Book 2 By: Janet & Alex Evanovich Art By: Joelle Jones
Non-fiction: Graphic Novel, mystery, adventure 109 pages

Book Count: 54

The review of book one can be found here. This book finishes out the story of from book one.

I Ate The Sheriff:

A Holiday Book in Review

I Ate The Sheriff (Mallory Caine, Zombie at Law) By: K. Bennett
Fiction: Mystery, Paranormal 310 pages
Book Count: 53

This is the story of a lawyer who is also a zombie, but she is actually a likable person.  First, she tries not to eat people, but cow brains. And secondly she is an actual good lawyer both in that she is good at her job and she defends the innocent and the not totally guilty.  Also the area prosecutor that she deals with not only is Satan's son, the reason that she is a zombie but also her ex-boyfriend.  Besides these two there is cast of strange people and creatures who fight and epic battle between good and evil in this book.  This includes: werewolves, vampires, angels, demons, Pat Sajak, the ghost of the "Black Dalia",a cult, a fire breathing boy, gospel choirs, prophets, prisoners, bats, corrupt politicians, a sheriff that acts like its the old west, mobsters and more.

A Note to Self:

Naked Writing By: Glenys O'Connell
non-fiction: writitng, e-book

L. this is THAT book.

NaNoWriMo

AS you can tell by the pic to the right, we are doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is November.  So we will not be reading as much and therefor not blogging as much.

Diary:

A Holiday Book in Review

Diary - A Novel By: Chuck Palahniuk
Fiction: 261 pages

Book Count: 52

This book is the diary that a women keeps about her life after her husband goes into a coma after a suicide attempt.  And it's about an artist that suffers for her art.  And it's about a creepy town full of weird rich people that are clearly up to something. 

Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues:

A Holiday Book in Review

Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues By: Diana Rowland
Fiction: Fantasy, mystery 312 pages
Book Count:51

This book is the sequel to the book reviewed here. This is a series where you NEED to read the book before in the series before this one, as it picks up almost directly after the end of the 1st one.  This book is all about brains. (And not all in the way that you would think in a zombie book.) Angel learns that she needs to get her GED as part of her parole.  She meets a lot of highly educated people that are friends of her boyfriend's family.  And there are synthetic brains and maybe some other zombie based testing done in a high tech lab.

Grave's End: A True Ghost Story:

A Holiday Book in Review

Grave's End: A True Ghost Story By: Elaine Mercado
Non-Fiction: Paranormal, e-book

This is the story of one family who lived in a haunted house for many years.  It is not as exciting as a fictional book of the type would be, but you really get into the mind of someone dealing with something that they can't explain and don't necessary even believe is really happening at times.  It also shows you unintentionally how much the Internet has changed life, as this story took place not that long ago in NYC, but the family spends weeks, months and years looking for information that now takes minutes to find. 

Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons:

A Holiday Book in Review

Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons By: Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian
Fiction: Classics, Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery, e-book

This is another of the books that combines a work of classic literature with some unexpected pop-culture favorite.  In this case the main character has the ability to see angels and there are also treasure hunting dragons in it. (As well as demon influenced people with their own weather fronts and a duck of unusual size.)  This one is not as action packed as some of the other mash-ups, but still a fun twist on a classic, with a fair amount of humor in it.

Damned:

A Holiday Book in Review

Damned By: Chuck Palahniuk
Fiction: Paranormal 247 pages
Book Count: 50

This is the story of a 13 year old girl, named Madison, who dies and goes to Hell.  Each chapter starts with a short note she writes to Satan (kind of like a dead, anti-version of the Judy Blume novel.) It then tells about her life on Earth or Hell.  Madison, as a teenager is a bit of an annoying narrator, especially in the beginning she is always going on about, yes she knows what this or that word means, she's dead not stupid, or about how everyone hates the dead.  But the storyline besides that is full of unexpected twists and turns that make the whinny teenagerness bearable. 

Lunatics:

Lunatics By: Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel
Fiction: Humor, audio book

This is the story of two normal guys (well one is often called an idiot, followed by an apology to actual idiots for comparing him to one.)  Their story starts out as a normal fight between a crazed parent and the referee of his daughter's soccer game.  It soon escalates to run ins with the police, pirates, bears, terrorists, a black ops team (that doesn't exist), world leaders, and many more people your average pet shop owner and  plumber for NY would never meet.  The story is told by both men so you can see how drastically differently they deal with each thing. 




6 CD's 7 hour 4 minutes

Lullaby:

A Holiday Book in Review

Lullaby By: Chuck Palahniuk
Fiction: fantasy/paranormal 352 pages
Book Count: 49

A reporter working on a story about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome finds that a poem in a children's book of lullabies is actually a culling song that kills the people who hear it.  A real estate agent sells only haunted houses, the same haunted houses over and over again.  Two young Wiccans want to change the world in a way you wouldn't expect.  All these people get together, each wanting power, each for a different use.

September Books:

You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) By: Jeff Goins
Non-fiction: writing, e-book

An Honest Mistake By: Andrew Biss
Fiction: short story, e-book

Killer History: Why do they leave all the fun stuff out of the history books? By: Marek McKenna
Non-fiction: history, e-book

The Witch Who Made Adjustments By: Vera Nazarian
Fiction: short story, e-book

End of Aug.

Any Glass With Wine in it, is a Wine Glass! By: Nicholas Walker
Non-Fiction: Food e-book

Rediscover Catholicism- A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion & Purpose By: Mathew Kelly
Non-fiction: Religion 317 pages
Book Count: 48

Inspire Me To Get Writing By: Carla Acheson
Non-fiction: writing e-book

Confucius Cat Says. . . By: P.R. Mason
Non-fiction: Humor e-book

The Full-Time Parent's Guide to Earning Extra Income By: Eric Richardson
Non-fiction: advice e-book

Meet a Jerk, Get to Work, How to Write Villains and the Occasional Hero By: Jaqueline Girdner and Ronald Hudson
Non-fiction: writing e-book

Every Item on Sale: How to Slash Your Grocery Bill By Over 50% By: Janice Kitson
Non-fiction: home ec. e-book

The Ghost at the Foot of the Stairs By: David Pickering
Fiction: short story, paranormal e-book

We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage By: Elaine W. Miller
Non-Fiction: religion, relationships e-book

Move it Mom! By: Marci Pliskin and Patti Dunn
Non-Fiction  e-book

Mad Science Institute By:Sechin Tower
Fiction: YA Sci-Fi 310 pages
Book Count: 49

2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month By: Melissa Burnell
Non-Fiction: home ec. e-book

Secondhand Jesus By: Glenn Packiam
Non-fiction religion 224 pages
Book Count: 50

How to Feed a Family of 4 or More for Less than $200 a Month By: Melissa Burnell
Non-fiction: home ec. e-book

End of July-1st half of Aug.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen By: Janet Evanovich
Fiction: mystery 308 Pages
Book Count: 44

The Geeks' Guide to World Domination: Be Afraid, Beautiful People By: Garth Sundem
Non-fiction: pop culture, science, history, cooking, etc 288 pages
Book Count: 45

Simple Emergency Food Storage By: Jennifer Stanek
Non-Fiction: e-book

Couponing for Busy People By:Elle Marshall
Non-fiction: home ec., e-book

Blackbirds By: Chuck Wendig
Fiction: mystery, Sci-fi/Fantasy, paranormal 381 pages
Book Count: 46

The Furious Longing of God By: Brennan Manning
Non-fiction: Religion 144 Pages
Book Count: 47

This Blog is on Break.

We are taking a break from blogging for a time.  We plan on being back in time for our holiday posts.  While on break there will be a few notes to ourselves listing books we read, so we have them all listed in the same place, but no review, comment or other info on the stories.

Unholy Night:

Unholy Night by: Seth Grahame-Smith
Fiction: humor, audio book
Book Count: 43

This is the story of Christmas, if the wisemen were actually a set of thieves that were on the run.  And if for some reason you wrote the book based off what you remember of the story from Sunday school as a kid, but you looked up the names that traditionally were given to the wise men.  Not that I expected a lot of biblical accuracy from the book, but making John the Baptist years older than Jesus for no real reason is odd.  (The timeline is also messed with, but that is for the storyline.)  Unlike most other stories that deal with the event the main character is not Jesus, nor Mary, Joseph, or even one of the cute little animals in the stable; it is Balthazar a.k.a. the Antioch Ghost.  He is a man that vowed to destroy Rome and steals all of their treasure.  He is a man that believes in nothing but himself and leaves a wake of destruction and broken hearts all over the empire.  He is a man that has a dark past.  In short he is the last person you would think of being a hero in the story of Christmas.  But he is, as the one thing he hates more then the Romans is the Romans killing the innocent.

8 CD's 9.5 Hours

Three Books no Reviews:

Fashions of the Decade the 1950's by: Patricia Baker
Non-fiction: history, pop culture 62 pages
Book Count: 40

Baby Showers By: Amy Elliott
Non-fiction: 61 pages
Book Count: 41

Rebecca and Ana By: Jacqueline Dembar Greene
Fiction: history, 78 pages
Book Count: 42

Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them:

Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking By: Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough
Non-Fiction: Cooking 320 pages
Book Count: 39

This book is all about cooking myths; why they aren't true, what you should really do, and how the myths came about.  It also also has 25 recipes in it based off of the truth related to each myth.  As each entry is 2-3 pages it doesn't have the depth of a episode of "Good Eats" or some other books, but it is a good starting place for food myths.