Thunderball by Ian Fleming begins with M, MI6’s head, sending James Bond, our hero, to a two week vacation in a health clinic due to poor health caused by lots of drinking and smoking sixty cigarettes a day.

If you do not know the plot of the Hunger Games by now, then where have you been living? Under a rock? Well, it goes something like this: in a future time, the world is divided into twelve areas and controlled by the Capitol. The evil leader, President Snow, makes each area give tributes, one teenage boy and one teenage girl, to the Hunger Games- a fight to the death in a natural arena. Much like the Roman tradition of pitting gladiators against animals and each other, these battles resulted in only one victor. Buy The Hunger Games Trilogy in a boxed set or electronic format* After the big movie release, reviews of the Hunger Games series probably came out of the woodwork. Truthfully, I had no interest in reading the books until after I watched the movies. My friends kept telling me how great they were and how I should go read them now, but I did not see the appeal. After all, aren’t they just another young adult series? That plus the idea of kids fighting to the death kind of put me off to the whole thing. Eventually, however I caved in enough to rent the movie…

Article first published as Book Review: Vlad by Carlos Fuentes on Blogcritics. About: Vlad by Carlos Fuentes is a short novel taking place in Mexico City, Mexico. The story was part of the 2004 collection “Inquieta Compañía” and recently came out as its own book translated by Alejandro Branger and Ethan Shaskan Bumas. 112 pages Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; Tra edition Language: English ISBN-10: 1564787796 My rating for Vlad – 4 Buy this book in paper format from Amazon.com* Thoughts: Vlad by Carols Fuentes takes on an interesting premise, what if Dracula still lived and settled inMexico City. As one might expect, there is a lot of dark humor in this book, starting with the strange requests the client is making of the real estate agent (“remote”, “easy to defend”) to the client’s look which consists of a silly wig and glued on mustache. What I found to be different in this book is that the reader knows a lot more than the narrator. This style of storytelling invigorates the dark comedy and brings a sense of ominous foreboding to banal and meaningless lines said by the famous Count. In this rendition of the story, Fuentes marries vampire and lawyers – both server as vessels for…

About: Skeleton Women by Mingmei Yip is a novel taking place in China’s underworldduring the beginning of the Century. The majority of the novel takes place in Shanghai’s criminal element, bars and clubs. 352 pages Publisher: Kensington (May 29, 2012) Language: English ISBN-10: 0758273533 My rating for Skeleton Women – 2 Buy this book in paper or electronic format More Books by Mingmei Yip Thoughts: Skeleton Women by Mingmei Yip (website | Facebook |@mingmeiyip) is a well written novel about a Chinese woman who is part of the Flying Dragon gang, however she is actually spying undercover for a rival gang. Many seem to think this novel takes place in the 1930s, however I could not find any reference to that time period in the book. I was looking forward to reading this book and the beginning was promising, I could immediately tell that it was written with a certain flair. The setup of the protagonist, Camilla, was enticing but the outcome did not fulfill the promise of the tease. I felt as if I walking down the street and following my nose to a small bakery where a fresh loaf of bread was just taken out of the oven….

Article first published as Book Review: Black Fridays by Michael Sears on Blogcritics. About: Black Fridays by Michael Sears is a novel which capitalizes on the author’s Wall Street experience providing interesting insights on financials capers. This is a first book by Mr. Sears and seems to be the first of a series. 352 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult Language: English ISBN-10: 0399158669 My rating for Black Fridays – 4 Buy this book in paper or electronic format Thoughts: Black Fridays by Michael Sears (website | Facebook) is a novel about financial schemes, murder and greed but mostly about the meaning of fatherhood. While I couldn’t begin to understand the complexity of the scam which Jason Stafford, the protagonist, pulled over his Wall Street bosses, I liked the other aspects of this book. Jason has a son which he is fighting for. After spending a couple of years in jail Jason certainly wasn’t up for the “Father of the Year” award, but neither was his white trash ex-wife, her fixation with abusive men and her way of dealing with autism (locking the kid in a room at his grandmother’s house so he won’t hurt himself). I enjoyed the financial aspect of the book and the…

Article first published as Book Review: Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell on Blogcritics. About: Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell is a feminine take on the famous Burroughs novel. This book tells the famous story from the view point of Jane Porter, Tarzan’s love interest. The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book— use the Raf­fle­copter form at the end of the post to enter. 320 pages Publisher: Tor Books Language: English ISBN-10: 0765333589 My rating for Jane – 4 Buy this book in paper or electronic format More Books by Robin Maxwell Thoughts: Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell (website | Facebook | @TheRobinMaxwell) is not a retelling of the origin story of Tarzan, but a reimagining of the mythology originally created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I was very excited about this novel, Tarzan has always been a favorite (who can forget those wonderful comics and Johnny Weissmuller films) and in preparation read the original Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. To be honest, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book again (I read it as a kid), I can certainly see why it is considered a classic and captures the imagination of…

There are a few books that stick with you from your childhood. One of those books for me is Bunnicula by James Howe

About: The Mirrored World by Debra Dean is a fictional account of the life of St. Xenia. The novel takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia during the 18th Century. The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book— use the Raf­fle­copter form at the end of the post to enter. 256 pages Publisher: Harper Language: English ISBN-10: 0061231452 My rating for The Mirrored World – 2 Buy this book in paper or electronic format More Books by Debra Dean Thoughts: The Mirrored World by Debra Dean (Facebook) is has an interesting premise – the life of a Russian saint. This is one of those books where everything is wonderful, but for me the sum of the parts simply didn’t come together to create a whole. The subject is interesting, the time period fascinating, the writing is lyrical and the novel certainly captures a dreamy state of time and place. However, the book simply failed to capture my interest. Even though I appreciated the styling, effort and talent that went into the writing, I found myself having a difficult time reading the novel. I never got vested in any of the characters, I simply didn’t care about them at all. The best…

Article first published as Book Review: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs on Blogcritics. About: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs is the famous novel of the boy who was raised by simians in the jungles of Africa. The book was first serialized in All-Story Magazine 1812 and published in 1814. 288 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books Language: English ISBN-10: 034531977X My rating for Tarzan of the Apes – 5 Buy this book in paper or FREE in electronic format More Books by by Edgar Rice Burroughs Thoughts: A few weeks ago I put in a request to review Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell, the Tarzan story from the perspective of Jane (post coming next week). I then decided to re-read the original Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs to refresh my memory has it has been decades since I read it first. I did not regret that decision for a moment and can certainly understand why Tarzan achieved a cult icon status. Burroughs wrote an exciting novel, making the unbelievable seem somewhat plausible in a story which tags on the readers’ imagination almost every page. The characters, especially that of Tarzan, are masterfully written, combining intelligence and wisdom….

Twelve year old Hugo shoulders a lot of responsibility for his age. His parents are dead and his caretaker is his drunkard uncle, tender to the train station’s clocks, which one day simply disappears.

Son of a watchmaker, Hugo who loves to tinker with mechanical toys takes it upon himself to maintain the clocks while hiding in the hidden world of the train station. One day he finds an automaton, a mechanical man, which was cherished by his late father. Hugo restores the toy using his father’s notebook as a reference, he gets his parts by stealing them from the old man who owns a toy kiosk in the station.