Dystopian Novels Ring True and Traumatic! "Life As We Knew It" "Dead and Gone" and "This World We Live In" by Susan B. Pfeffer

 "THE DEAD AND THE GONE"   by  Susan Beth Pfeffer  Library Journal Review:An asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, and every conceivable natural disaster occurs. Seventeen-year-old Alex Morales's parents are missing and presumed drowned by tsunamis. Left alone, he struggles to care for his sisters Bri, 14, and Julie, 12. Things look up as Central Park is turned into farmland and food begins to grow. Then worldwide volcanic...

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"The Fear Principle" ~ An Interesting Syfy Slant on Criminal Rehibilitation

The Official Book Summary:On Prison Planetoid Three, Jaguar Addams and Alex Dzarny rehab the worst criminals by telepathically making them face their fears. Their current case is hitwoman Clare Rilasco, emotionless, beautiful, and part of a death machine plot that threatens to take over the world.Jaguar can’t tell who the bad guys are anymore, as she’s dragged into her own terrifying past by Clare’s telepathic tricks. While the search for the man...

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Elizabeth I : A Novel by Margaret George

First of all, I want to talk about the glorious cover of this wonderful book.  I'm one of those who is drawn to a book cover, and this one is simply irresistible.  The Rose of England is featured with the two colors of red representing Elizabeth's two ages she reigned...as a young girl until her elderly years.  Her picture shows her beauty at her prime...a woman of wisdom and wry humor in her eyes and mouth, dark red curly hair, the...

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Vampire Gothic Opera in Poetry~"Ordeal" by T. K. Varenko

Truly this picture does not do the cover of "Ordeal" justice!  It's a gorgeous and shocking cover..grey as death, marbled with veins of red running randomly through it...so unusual. The title is scripted in old world and ornamented as an illuminated letter, each page is topped with a gothic swirl...haunting and beautifully packaged for a fairytale story of vampirish, unrequited love.The Cover Summary:It is a verse-ornated story About...

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"The Killing Storm"~A new Sarah Armstrong series mystery~ by Kathryn Casey

Touted by reviewers as the best in the Sarah Armstrong mystery series, this book by Kathryn Casey is a page-turner you can't miss!Watch this video for an outstanding preview...Here's the plot from Kathryn Casey's perspective:A quiet afternoon in the park, and four-year-old Joey Warner plays in the sandbox, when a stranger approaches looking for his runaway dog. While Joey’s mom, Crystal, talks on her cell phone, the stranger convinces the child to...

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"A Doctor's Journey" A Collection of Memoirs by Fredric A. Mendelsohn, MD

BOOK COVER SUMMARY :Practicing neurologist Frederic A. Mendelsohn takes you on an insider’s journey through the sometimes startling landscape of American medicine today. Inspired by his own encounters during thirty-five years of clinical practice, Mendelsohn’s stories range from the tragic to the droll, but each speaks in some way to the incredible strength of the human spirit.Here’s a taste of the remarkable stories in A Doctor’s Journey: “Searching...

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BACK IN THE STACKS:I chose this classic, award-winning novel for my Bookish Libraria Blog as a "Back in the Stacks" review book this past week.It's actually, unbeknownst to me prior to my reading it, a dystopian novel about the coming of age and the coming to wisdom and understanding of a young boy in a futuristic society. A book I missed reading in school, but which my children were exposed to in my own childrens' time, this is somewhat dated in...

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Werewolf Nazi's in America During WWII~ POWs Housed~ "German Jackboots on Kentucky Bluegrass: Housing German Prisoners of War in Kentucky, 1942-1946"

German Jackboots on Kentucky Bluegrass: Housing German Prisoners of War in Kentucky, 1942-1946Diversion Press, distributed by Ingram$24.95Pages: 228, incl. picturesBOOK SUMMARY:"German Jackboots on Kentucky Bluegrass..." presents a case of American humanitarianism, adherence to international law, southern hospitality, and friendship and mutual respect between "enemies" in a brutal and bitter war. This academic work provides the first book length...

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"More Than Good-Bye...As One Journey Ends, Another Begins" by S. Carol Crovo

What happens when we die? Have we been here before, and if we made mistakes in our lives, will we get an opportunity to make them up to our loved ones? This is the stuff of S. Carol Crovo's new novel, "More Than Good-Bye~As One Journey Ends, Another Begins..." She poses the questions and spins a story that will answer these questions in her own way.Through the eyes and lives of her main character, Jane, who has died suddenly and is given a second...

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"Inzanesville" by Jo Ann Beard~ My Top 10 Fav. of 2011

Published by: Hachette Publishing Group/Little, Brown & Co.Book Summary:The beguiling fourteen year old narrator of Inzanesville is a late bloomer.  Even in her small midwestern city, where modesty is prized and self-assertion is a faux pas, she flies under the radar--a sidekick, a third wheel, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose eureka moment is the discovery that "fudge" can't be said with an English...

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