Little, Brown and Co. have announced the release of the new Twilight book titled: Twilight: The South Shall Bite Again. In the book, author Stephanie Meyer brings Edward and Jacob on opposing sides in the American Civil War. Below is the synopsis from the publisher: The year is 1863 and Confederate Lt. Edward Cullen has just been handed his first assignment, the Virginia 8th Cavalry. Unbeknown to his soldiers and commanders, Lt. Cullen is a thousand year old vampire who is hell bent on keeping slavery to save his family plantation. Corporal Jacob Black is a Union spy and a secret werewolf assigned to Lt. Cullen’s platoon. At nights he rides his horse, Hurricane, and plants destruction among the lines. Under the guise of legendary hero, El Zorro, Corporal Black becomes a hero to the underclass of Virginia and slaves around the country. Confederate President Jefferson Davis orders Lt. Cullen to stop “El Zorro” at any cost. Thinking his powers are beyond those of mortal men, Lt. Cullen agrees immediately but is stumped when even he cannot catch the criminal/hero in his acts of sabotage. In a last ditch effort, Lt. Cullen calls upon four of his friends to help…

An easy read and well written story. The narrative is clean and sometime even lyrical. The characters are multi-dimensional, vivid and fully realized

Conor Grennan, fresh from a job at Prague goes on a whirlwind world wide trip in 2006. He starts his adventure volunteering for an orphanage called “Little Princes Children’s Home). Turns out the kids are not orphans but victims of a notorious child trafficker which has promised their parents protection from the Maoist revolutionaries. However, more often than not the children end up as slaves.

None of us are surprised when common sense loses to political correctness – we encounter that almost on a daily base, after all that is what “procedures” and “policies” are for. It has recently been announced that Alabama-based publisher is planning new versions of “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” that will replace the “n” word with “slave” and will remove “Injun” as well – just for good measure. Professor Alan Gribben of Auburn University of Montgomery has came right out and stated that his hope is to make the books more palatable for teachers and as not to offend school children in particular. I understand the Professor’s good intentions, but committing an act which can is the equivalent of literary graffiti in order to impose political correctness upon one of the most politically incorrect authors in American history has already backfired. As far as I know, Huck Finn is read in high-school. Newsflash Professor Gribben – people in high-school are no longer “children”, they are young adults in the US and full fledged adults in most other parts of the world. The last thing these young adults need is a sugar coated past. The past is non-negotiable and Twain’s use…

In this biography, we meet Alexander Hamilton as a young boy in the Caribbean, a bastard son, soon an orphan, to a mother who has been jailed for adultery