NOTE: This review was originally published by Grand High Poobah on June 5, 2008. Enjoy.

For these books, vampires aren’t quite vampires…except they totally are. Let me explain. The traditional idea is that vampires are cursed, soulless, and drink blood. That’s true. With me so far? The addendum that we don’t realize is that they have an out-clause. They are cursed, not by God or some benevolent high power, but by a demon. They are not evil, and they have a chance to get their soul back. An out-clause, or in all truth, an out-person.
All vampires( who prefer, by the way, to be called Dark Ones) have a Beloved. A woman who, through a series of steps, can save his soul. Someone who he is destined to spend his life with. Until he finds her, his existence is something daunting and prospects are bleak.
If, that is, he can find her.
Enter Christian Dante, a Dark One in search of his soulmate…aka Beloved. Read the rest of this entry »

This review was originally published by Grand High Poobah in april, 2007. Enjoy.

This book was a great read. The main character of this story puts a new spin on ancient mythology. Hopefully the world is familiar with the story of Cupid and Psyche. That is the story told in this book, but in a way completely different from what we know as the “truth”. This book was interesting, but the tone was pretty melancholy, at least to me. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested, or familiar with, mythology, and also to anyone who is willing to read something a little more “heavy”. It’s not a huge book, but it’s a lot to digest mentally and seems to run along the lines of the things one is assigned to read in school – only much more interesting. (I know that there are people who would like to set me on fire for this, but I hated The Great Gatsby.) Read the rest of this entry »

A thing of the past?

As digital books continue to gain market share, one of the country’s oldest mass paperback publishers is abandoning its traditional print books and making its titles available in digital format and print-on-demand only.

Dorchester Publishing Inc., a closely held book and magazine house with 40 years in the business, said it is making the switch after its book unit sales fell 25% last year, in part because of declining orders from some of its key retail accounts, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart declined comment.

The decision to go digital could be a sign of things to come for other small publishers facing declining sales in their traditional print business. Dorchester’s switch will likely result in significant savings at a time when it expects its digital sales to double in 2011.

Tags: Dorchester, e-book, ebook, paperback, Wal-Mart

Barnes & Noble Inc., put itself up for sale Tuesday, succumbing to pressure from shareholder activists as digital books erode the traditional business of the nation’s largest bookstore chain.

The news surprised analysts and alarmed publishers, who have watched as the book business has increasingly shifted to online retailers and e-book sales, leaving both chains and independent sellers struggling.

Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest book chain with 720 stores, said that its board believed the stock was “significantly undervalued” and that it had set up a special committee to review its options.  It sells approximately 300 million books annually.

A few years ago, such figures represented a fearsome retailing force, attracting ire of rivals and publishers who fretted that one company controlled the country’s book-reading tastes. Since then, it has been hobbled by larger technological forces, with books becoming mere digital files, peddled by anyone with an Internet connection.

“Anybody with their eyes open knows that the retail book market is increasingly challenged,” said Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of Idea Logical Co., a New York consulting firm. Each new report that shows e-book sales are growing more rapidly than expected only intensifies the problems facing the bookstore chains, he said.

Today, Barnes & Noble has a market capitalization of just under $950 million—even after a 25% run-up in after-hours trading Tuesday in the wake of the announcement. In comparison, chief competitor Amazon.com Inc. has a market cap of around $55 billion. In 2001, Barnes & Noble was worth $2.2 billion and Amazon $3.6 billion.

Sources: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal

Tags: Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, Barnes and Noble sale

Loved Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series? Hated the movie? Wish there was more story?

Well, there is. This Fall, Rick Riordan returns to the world of Percy Jackson in his new series, “The Heroes of Olympus”. Can’t wait till then? Neither can I. Here then, is a special, 2-chapter excerpt from the first book, “The Lost Hero”:

The Lost Hero

The Heroes of Olympus: Lost Hero

Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day.

He woke in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where he was, holding hands with a girl he didn’t know. That wasn’t necessarily the rotten part. The girl was cute, but he couldn’t figure out who she was or what he was doing there. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to think.

A few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of him, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. They all looked around his age . . . fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. He didn’t know his own age.

The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Out the windows, desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. Jason was pretty sure he didn’t live in the desert. He tried to think back . . . the last thing he remembered . . .

The girl squeezed his hand. “Jason, you okay?”

She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore no makeup, like she was trying not to draw attention to herself; but it didn’t work. She was seriously pretty. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope ?” brown, blue, and green.

Jason let go of her hand. “Um, I don’t ?””

In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, “All right, cupcakes, listen up!”

The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he’d eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would’ve looked pretty scary if he hadn’t been five foot zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, “Stand up, Coach Hedge!”

“I heard that!” The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus, The Lost Hero, The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero excerpt

“Return to Hope.

Return to Magic.

Return to Narnia.”

Tags: C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, Dawn Treader, Dawn Treader Trailer, Narnia 3 Trailer, Narnia Trailer, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Voyage of the Dawn Treader Trailer

WE HAVE A WINNER!

For details.. read the comments, for Pete’s sake!

What is it? It's this!

Tags: contest, Que es esto?, What is it?, what is this?

Nothing blurry this time…

this is about as good a clue as you’re going to get:

Tags: contest, Que es esto?, What is it?, what is this?

Uh oh.. now it’s getting interesting…

What is it? Image 6

Remember, click on the image for a bigger view.

Tags: contest, Que es esto?, What is it?, what is this?