Book Review: A Killing Frost (Crime)
Book’s Name: A Killing Frost
Author: R D Wingfield
Detective Inspector Jack Frost is at the site of a macabre discovery-a human foot found in the woods. A serial rapist is on the loose, the supermarket reports poisoned stock and a man claims to have cut his wife up into bits but can’t recall where he hid them…And then, two young girls go missing in quick succession. The crime wave has reached terrigying heights and the exhausted Jack staggers from case to case, haunted by memories of his dead wife..Will Jack find the missing girls before a terrible fate befalls them?
Hot tip: Witty dialogue, racy plot, more twists than there are in a bucket full of eels…Good fun!
Book Review: THE BURNT HOUSE (Thriller)
Book’s Name: THE BURNT HOUSE (Thriller)
Author: Faye Kellerman
Publisher: Harper
A commuter plane with 47 passengers crashes into an apartment in Granada Hills, California. Shock waves ripple through LA, as the cops work overtime to calm rampant fears of a 9/11 repeat. But a grisly mystery lives on in the plane’s charred wreckage-the unidentified bodies of four extra travellers. Moreover, there’s no sign of flight attendant Roseanne….To top it all, her irate stepfather insists that she never boarded the doomed plane. Instead, he claims, she was likely murdered by her abusive, unfaithful husband. Why, then, was her name on the flight list?
Hot tip: Relentless suspense meets intense, multilayered human dramas in this mesmerising one-night read.
Berserk
In Berserk, a man named Tom and his wife are still grieving over the death of their nineteen year old son, who died ten years ago in an army related accident. Days before the ten year anniversary of their son’s death, Tom over hears a conversation he wasn’t meant to. After that, the next few days are spent in a whirlwind of activity trying to find out the truth of his son’s death. What he finds instead is horrific.
He finds the mass grave he overhead about and digs up dead solider after dead soldier but none are son’s corpse. Tom digs a little deeper and finds the body of a little girl who starts talking to him in his head. He thinks he’s crazy until someone starts shooting at him. After getting away, Tom drives to the house he and his wife have rented for the weekend. The shooter follows and kill’s Tom’s wife but Tom gets away. The little girl tells him of herself and her family.
It turns out the army created them in an experiment and made them to be berserkers. They were made to use their awsome anger to kill for the army but the side effect was their hunger for human flesh. Berserk was written by Tim Lebbon.
Thorn Birds and Scarlett
Simpson’s Paradox shows what to do with The Thorn Birds and Scarlett.
I have to agree, I recommend stay far from the book Scarlett, which claims to be the “long-awaited sequel to Gone With The Wind.“ An exception to this rule could be made if you’re on a very long plane trip with nothing else in English, but in that situation, you must pretend than this book has nothing to do with Gone With The Wind, and all resemblances are pure coincidences.
It’s the sequel to Gone With The Wind, the way the drunk guy playing air guitar and waving his hips is Elvis. The words we should use instead of “sequel to” are “very, very loosely inspired by.” A total disappointment. I’d recommend re-reading Gone With The Wind instead, or perhaps any other book you happen to have lying around.
Book Review: VIVA SANTIAGO (Coming of age)
Book’s Name: Viva Santiago
Publisher: Penguin
Colin’s debut novel ready easy, sorta like the stuff a college kid would fantasise about-drugs, booze, cuss-words, rock music and a good dose of sex! Read it easy, feel it. The evocative imagery seeps into your mind as you enter the world of the crazy but lovable Gonzalez family and experience through their eyes a totally bizarre world, where the shifting sands of Goa and the delightful randomness of a student’s life come together. Watch out for the quirky, chillum-clutching, Dylan-loving, mad-mad-mad ‘Grampa’, both alive and as a ghost!
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
If you love non-fiction and are interested in Buddhism, a great introduction is “Shambhala: The Sacred path of the Warrior.”
This is by a Buddhist, Chompke, who is known for bringing Buddhist concepts into the United States and offering a Western perspective about the philosophies of what this particular type of thought includes.
With this book, you get into the basic concepts of meditation. Shambhala is actually a specific meditation technique used as a philosophy (not attached to actual Buddhism). The idea with it is to recognize good in everything and to reach enlightenment. This is done through consistent and specific discipline in meditation practices.
When you start getting into this book, you will start to see not only specific ways to approach meditation, but also philosophies behind it and ways to improve little things in your life by recognizing what is happening. This is because the practice is used for you to be grounded in reality first, recognizing yourself and your inner being. It is from this that you can let go of all thoughts, reach emptiness and as a result, reach enlightenment.
What I love about this book is that all of these concepts are defined, divided and put back together in a way that is specific for the Western culture. Since most of us (meaning me) have never been introduced to these specific concepts, Shambhala is a definite way to make sure that the basic ideals are reached, both through the book and the practice.
And, if you really want your interest perked, you can go to Shambhala training centers located around the US to get intensives on the practice. I’ll warn you though, meditation pillows are not comfortable. 
But, it’s fun anyway.
Createspace.com
Createspace.com is a great website where you can publish your own book for free! I am going to use it to publish a book I am creating.
The best thing about this free service is that the books can be marketed on Amazon.com which is web site with lots of exposure and members to buy your book!
In this market, there is no one to answer to about what topic your book covers or their need for it. They simply allow everyone to publish their own book or CD for free.
Createspace earns money on the sales of your book and pays you royalties on the sales of your books.
This is a great way for a new author to get started or experience authors to avoid the stress of trying to get book companies to buy their book.
If you choose to create a book here, you can advertise it for sale on your blog, website, or non-spam classifieds. It also might be good to join Amazon’s affiliate program while you’re there to earn commision off the sale of any book listed there.
Another option is Cafepress, but they don’t have a listed option to sell at Amazon. However, you can buy your own create books there at wholesale and sell them yourself anywhere.
Whatever you choose, it’s up to you! Happy publishing!
Edwin Black
I hold tribute to this investigative journalist. He is a genius of a writer and has literally pulled his audience into his research. There are pages and pages of biblography in the back of his books. After writing IBM and the Holacaust and War on the Weak I am suprised he hasn’t been shot yet. His parents were in Nazi concentration camps and when they visited the National Holacaust Museum later there was an IBM machine as part of the display. Noone really had much to say about it either, which was interesting to Black. He swore to his parents to find the connection and he did in a revolutionary way in IBM and the Holacaust.
He has won countless awards for his journalism and he continues to be very impressive and going strong.
Books going the way of the Dinos
Am I old or just really set in my ways? It wouldn’t look like it’s so with being only 35, but I am not ready for all books to go to computer disk. There is something uniquely private and well frankly connecting with touching a nice book cover that you know was inspired by someone very real. Sure, I understand the ecobenefits from moving books to computer disk, but my heart still tells me there is alot more to appreciate about books and it can’t be explained on computer disk.
Book Review: The Wise Woman (Historical fiction)
Name of the book: The Wise Woman
Author: Philippa Gregory
Publisher: Pocket Books
Alys joins a nunnery to escape poverty but is thrown out when Henry VIII’s troops destroy her sanctuary. With her looks, magic and cunning, Alys treads a perilous path between faith and her female urges. She fails in love with the feudal lord Hugo, another woman’s husband, and dabbles in witchcraft to win her lover. But magic makes a dominant master. Since heresy against the new church leads to the stake and witchcraft to the noose, Alys is in danger. A woman’s powers are no longer safe to use…..
Hot Tip: A hanuting tale of a woman’s desire in a time of turbulence…