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Friday, October 25, 2013

Strange Stories, Part Two

    Ready for some more horror tales? Try these on for size.

    Ash is written by James Herbert. Visiting a secluded stately home that country locals believe to be haunted, paranormal investigator David Ash looks into stories about strange occurrences and makes a shocking discovery beyond anything he has ever encountered.

    Breed is written by Chase Novak. A couple obsessed with their infertility travels to Slovenia to have an unusual and painful procedure that results in horrible consequences they manage to hide until their twins, Adam and Alice, turn ten years old and start asking questions.

    Abandon: a Novel is written by Blake Crouch. Hiring back-country guides, a psychic, and a paranormal photographer to aid their investigation into the bizarre and abrupt disappearances of every citizen from a gold-mining town over a century earlier, a history professor and his journalist daughter embark on the journey aware that the last team that attempted to solve the mystery was never heard from again.

    77 Shadow Street is written by Dean Koontz. Once the center of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse, the 1800s Gilded Age palace known as the Pendleton, has been re-christened in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building. But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, and elevators plunge into unknown depths.

    American Gods is written by Neil Gaiman. Just released from prison, Shadow encounters Mr. Wednesday, an enigmatic stranger who seems to know a lot about him, and when Mr. Wednesday offers him a job as his bodyguard, Shadow accepts and is plunged into a dark and perilous world.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Strange Stories

    Just in time for the Halloween season, here are some spooky novels selected by Monika for your reading pleasure.

    Soul Trapper: a Novel is written by F.J. Lennon, Rising to legendary underground status as a ghost-hunter in spite of a lack of motivation, Hollywood native Kane Pryce uses a supernaturally charged object to dispatch lost souls, falls in love with a nosy reporter and becomes entangled in the problems of two ghosts.

    Alien Hunter is written by Whitley Strieber. When brilliant police detective Flynn Carroll’s young wife vanishes inexplicably in the middle of the night, his obsessive investigation reveals a string of similar disappearances and draws the attention of secret police Special Agent Diana Glass, whose team invites Carroll into their world of extraordinary challenges and lethal dangers.

    The Darkling is written by R.B. Chesterton. Working for a wealthy family in a 1940’s Alabama community that once provided a secret haven for hideaway movie stars, live-in tutor Mimi attempts to schedule a curriculum for her employer’s new ward, a troubled orphan teen with no memory of her past who harbors a savvy and malicious nature.

    The Temporal Void is written by Peter F. Hamilton. At the center of the galaxy is the Dreaming Void, an artificial black hole that may hold paradise within its walls. When a human named Inigo begins dreaming of what lies within the Void, the word spreads, triggering a religious pilgrimage into the Void and possibly a catastrophic expansion that threatens the peace of the Commonwealth Universe.

    World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War is written by Max Brooks. An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival.

Friday, October 4, 2013

October Birthdays

    Celebrate October by reading up on the lives of celebrities who have birthdays this month.

October 1st: Former President Jimmy Carter:
  1.Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: the Georgia Years, 1924-1974; written by E. Stanly Godbold, a professor of history, it examines the lives of both Carters prior to his election to the presidency
  2.White House Diary; written by the former president, it is an edited and annotated version of the diary he kept during his White House years

October 1st: Singer, actress and author Julie Andrews
  1.Home: a Memoir of My Early Years; written by Andrews and covering her life between birth and Walt Disney’s discovery of her in 1962
  2.Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies; a collection selected by Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton

October 2nd: Musician Sting
  1.Sting, Back on the Beat: a Biography; written by Christopher Sanford, a rock music critic, it traces Sting’s career from a schoolteacher, to his work with The Police, to his successes as a solo artist

October 16th: Actress and author Suzanne Somers
  1.I’m Too Young for this!: the Natural Hormone Solution to Enjoy Perimenopause; written by this talk show host and natural health writer; this is her twenty-fourth book

October 26th: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
  1.Living History, written by Clinton herself about her years in politics, first as a partner in her husband’s career and then as a senator from New York
  2.Bill and Hillary: the Politics of the Personal, details the political partnership and personal relationship of the Clintons