Book review by Ren Zelen Buy this book in paper or electronic format Amazon is trying its hand at the movie business. Two-year-old Amazon Studios has optioned its first horror movie, buying the film rights to an e-book, the Southern gothic thriller, “Seed,” by Ania Ahlborn. Released in 2011 as a self-published title, “Seed” reached the top of Amazon’s bestselling horror list by ‘nothing more than word-of-mouth’, according to Amazon spokespersons. The horror novel was re-released in 2012 after Ahlborn restructured particular plot points with the help of input from fans and added another 6,000 words to the manuscript. The news of Amazon buying the film rights broke as, coincidentally, I was about halfway through reading the e-book. I can understand why Amazon decided to pick-up this particular story. It lends itself to the visual image, exuding a seedy, oppressive, Southern Gothic ambience, and offering an ideal opportunity to create a particular nasty and memorable demonic entity and a possessed child. Ahlborn has a kind of proto-Stephen-King, descriptive writing style (and we all know how often that has attracted movie-makers, though with mixed results). I consider King to be a master storyteller, a deft spinner of compelling yarns, and like…

Buy this Star Wars Book in paper or electronic copy* Andrew: Originally published at http://www.rancorslovetoread.com/2008/12/andrews-review-of-truce-at-bakura.html 3/5 Rancors – There are no vacation days for the heroes of the Rebellion. Finally, the Emperor’s reign of terror has been ended, the Empire is in disarray, and the Rebellion is suddenly in a position to start laying the groundwork of a new galactic government. Unfortunately, mere hours after these tumultuous events a distress call from the remote system of Bakura arrives at Endor and it’s back in the proverbial saddle for Luke Skywalker and his buddies. The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers tells the story of an alien invasion of the Bakura system, a place “protected” by the Empire but in desperate need of aid. The Rebels must find a way to help the Bakurans while maintaining an uneasy alliance with Imperial Governor Wilek Nereus and his forces. The alien invaders are an extra-galactic reptilian species named the Ssi-ruuk. Total enslavement of all other life is the Ssi-ruuk reason for their assault on Bakura and other systems. The most unusual aspect of these creatures is the method they use to power their fleet. It is called entechment and involves draining living beings of life to power…

The Forbidden Trilogy, an award-winning YA paranormal romantic thriller by Kimberly Kinrade, is now complete with the launch of the third and final book, Forbidden Life. Described as “thrilling, dark and deeply romantic” (Refracted Light YA Reviews) with a “plot that is very ALIAS and DARK ANGEL-like with X-MEN as its backdrop” (Sour Skittles Book Blog), the Forbidden Trilogy tells the story of a group of paranormal teens raised in a secret school and rented out as spies to the rich. When Sam, a girl who reads minds, meets Drake, a boy who controls minds, they discover a deep secret that could destroy everything and everyone they love. Together, they must escape and save their friends, before it’s too late. In Forbidden Life, all the secrets of this corrupt organization are revealed, with more page-turning twists and nail-biting mystery than ever before. This series “has romance, mystery, action and suspense that will keep you hooked from beginning till end.” ~Nickle Love Get your copy today on Amazon or Smashwords! About Forbidden Life The road to redemption begins in darkness. A sinister force waits for them in darkness, ready to devour their powers and take their lives. Sam’s baby is the…

Leanne Shapton grew up under the definitive identity of “competitive swimmer”. She spent the larger part of her life on the humid decks of muggy swimming pools, in and out of freezing waters, and constantly comparing herself and her times to the swimmers around her. Growing up as a competitive swimmer myself, the images and scenes that Shapton portrays in her novel Swimming Studies is all but too familiar. While this novel really grabbed my attention because of its familiarity for me and my own life events, there was something universally appealing about the style, voice, and subject at hand. Even without the knowledge of binge eating carb dinners before competition or staying in foreign hotel rooms with your teammates and competitors, Shapton strikes on the universal notes of longing to belong, searching for an identity, and grief and loss. Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format* More Books by Leanne Shapton This novel follows the life of a woman and girl utterly obsessed with the solitude of swimming and the race, but also completely foreign to it. Shapton explores her experience as a swimmer in grade school, as a college swimmer, vying for an Olympic spot in her later…

Reading is one of the most important habits that children can pick up. A child who loves to read has a larger vocabulary, a bigger imagination, and can pick up more details than other children. However, getting your children to love reading is often easier said than done. Here are some tips for fostering a love of reading in your children: Start young – The best way to get your children to love to read is start reading to them at a very young age. When parents spend time showing children what books can do, they have a greater chance of wanting to pick up books themselves. Do not just let the children be passive listeners either. Involve them in the stories by asking questions like what they think is going to happen next. Make it fun –Making reading fun instead of a chore is important. Set aside times during the day that are ‘quiet times’ for reading or just quiet play. Supply them with plenty of books to chose from and encourage them to pick up a book by discussing what you have read and reminding them how fun it is to get involved in stories. Let them decide…

About: Emotional Wellness: Transforming Fear, Anger, and Jealousy into Creative Energy by Osho is an amazing book that helps us understand our emotions, why they appear and how they influence our life decisions, are they manipulating us, and can we break out of our unhealthy patterns when we deal with them. Here Osho offers a new and effective approach for us to better cope with our emotions, sharing his wisdom for living healthy emotional life. Length: 304 pages Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, Apr 24, 2007 Language: English ISBN-10: 030733788X Buy this book in paper or electronic format Thoughts: At the very beginning of this book Osho gives an introduction into the real nature of the emotions. He explains how they cannot be permanent: “That’s why they are called emotions – the word comes from motion, movement. They move; hence, they are emotions.” Our emotions constantly change. How we feel now is not how we’ll feel tomorrow. But they are not our nature. We should not define ourselves and act upon those emotions, thoughts and feelings. When we act based on them is the moment the problems begin. Instead we should rise ourselves above them and not let them guide our…

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…

Welcome to another installment of “Thoughts from the Ran­cor Pit” in which Andrew and David from the fab­u­lous blog “Ran­cors Love to Read” will review books tak­ing place in the Star Wars uni­verse. This time they are reviewing Dark Force Risingthe second installment in The Thrawn Trilogy which popularized the Star Wars books. Buy this Star Wars Book in paper or electronic copy* Andrew: Originally published at http://www.rancorslovetoread.com/2009/01/andrews-review-of-dark-force-rising.html 5/5 Rancors – Timothy Zahn continues the incredible story of the New Republic’s efforts to repel the attacks of the formidable Grand Admiral Thrawn in Dark Force Rising, the second volume of a trilogy. Set five years after Return of the Jedi, this book is an excellent continuation of one of the most interesting storylines in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Since the trilogy was written in the early 1990’s, some details have been contradicted by the prequel films and the immense growth of the saga, but the overall impact of the story is undiminished and things fit together remarkably well. The book opens with Thrawn’s assault upon smuggler Talon Karrde’s base of operations on the planet Myrkr. Karrde is struggling to maintain his profitable neutrality in this conflict, but the open attack by the Empire starts him down a path that…

Life has been frightening and cataclysmic lately, so I needed some reading material that would reconnect me with a sense of the spiritual. I also haven’t had a lot of time to read, I’ve been writing so much. So the book I just finished was unlike my usual favorites: nonfiction books about history or colorful, literary adventure novels. I decided to pick up a book I’d had on my shelf for a long time, The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, edited by Stephen Mitchell. Buy this book in paper or electronic format This remarkable volume serves as a history of world religion, as well as a collection of beautiful poetry. In fact, we might not even have considered many of these works “poetry” the way we normally think of it. Many of the world’s great religious classics, (and indeed most highbrow literature before a few hundred years ago) were written in verse rather than prose, as the divinity they were meant to express can only be captured, even in part, by the beauty of a poetic treatment. In order, The Enlightened Heart contains selections from: the Upanishads, the Book of Psalms, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita,…

David LeRoy, Sept 18th, 2012 Author of The Siren of Paris. Have you ever run a Marathon? There are usually two responses to this question. One is yes, or I have always wanted to run one. The other is to question the sanity of the person asking the question. I suppose there is a third, and that is to ignore the question and change the topic. Traditional publishers usually view marketing the way sprinters approach the 50-yard dash. The effort is intense, all out, for a very specific distance and short period of time. For the author of a major release, press releases, interviews, reviews of the book, guest appearances, and signing are all coordinated into a short window of time. The goal is to get as much exposure as soon as possible, and this “launches the book.” The target market is reached and the copies are sold, sometimes. Or sometimes not. Like sentence fragments, there are mistakes. For the self published author, or ‘indie author,” this approach to marketing can produce complete burn out and exhaustion. First, few people who choose to self publish a book today, through Amazon, Smashwords, or Nook, can afford to bankroll this kind of…