The Life O'Reilly by Brian Cohen

Book Description

At once a bittersweet love story and a young lawyer's journey of self-discovery, this auspicious debut delivers an emotional wallop and will move readers in unexpected ways.

My thoughts
Brian Cohen’s “The Life O’Reilly’ is a heartwarming and compassionate story of one lawyer’s quest for love and meaning in his life. Nick O’Reilly had the money, the career and a great apartment, yet there was something missing. It took the pro bono case of a young woman and her son to change the way Nick looks at the world and his life.

BookSwim

I just heard about BookSwim, although they have been around for awhile. They are like Netflix for books. They're the first online book rental library service that lends you hard covers, paperbacks, college textbooks and delivers them right to your home and you don't need to buy them!

I still like going to the library, but if you are a big reader and a big Netflix fan, then BookSwim is for you.

And now through Valentine’s Day, you can give a gift membership and get dinner on BookSwim (a restaurant.com certificate)

A little bit more about them:
BookSwim is the first online book rental library service lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and now college textbooks Netflix®-style directly to your house, without the need to purchase! We stock all the latest bestsellers, new releases, and classics! Read your books as long as you want - no late fees! Even choose to purchase and keep the books you love!
BookSwim gift cards also make that unique, perfect Holiday gift for readers.

What is BookSwim?
BookSwim, America's most-gifted book rental service, delivers UNLIMITED books "Netflix®-style" by mail with no due dates, no late fees, and free shipping both ways!

How does an online book rental service work?
1.Request: Create your pool of online books. Choose from thousands!
2.Receive: We ship books from your pool directly to your door.
3.Read: Keep each book as long as you like; there are no late fees!.
4.Return: Mail out finished books for more. Shipping is prepaid.

If you join or know of anyone who is a member, let me know what you think. Thanks.

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott

Book Description
In The Chase, Clive Cussler introduced an electrifying new hero, the tall, lean, no-nonsense detective Isaac Bell, who, driven by his sense of justice, travels early-twentieth-century America pursuing thieves and killers . . . and sometimes criminals much worse.

It is 1907, a year of financial panic and labor unrest. Train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line and, desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. The Wrecker traverses the vast spaces of the American West as if he had wings, striking wherever he pleases, causing untold damage and loss of human life. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a striker? An anarchist? A revolutionary determined to displace the "privileged few"? A criminal mastermind engineering some as yet unexplained scheme?

Whoever he is, whatever his motives, the Wrecker knows how to create maximum havoc, and Bell senses that he is far from done-that, in fact, the Wrecker is building up to a grand act unlike anything he has committed before. If Bell doesn't stop him in time, more than a railroad could be at risk-it could be the future of the entire country.

Filled with intricate plotting and dazzling set pieces, The Wrecker is one of the most entertaining thrillers in years.

My thoughts
I have enjoyed Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels, but this new series involving Isaac Bell as a detective for the Van Dorn Detective Agency at the turn of last century is a bit of historical brilliance. Together Cussler and co-author Justin Scott takes one back to when the railroad was the major mode of transportation across this vast country of ours in "The Wrecker". And yet, there is someone out there intent on destroying these great railroads. Although, the reader knows who the antagonist is, it takes Bell and his cohorts a while to discover who it is. In the mean time, the reader is entertained with much action and historical details.

LOST - Answers?! (Song Parody)

Postcards from A Dead Girl Book Giveaway

Thanks to Erica at Harper Collins, I am offering one copy of POSTCARDS FROM A DEAD GIRL to one of my lucky readers. This book will be released February 16, 2010.

Leave a comment that you want to be entered with your e-mail address, and you receive one (1) entry. Become a follower or if you are already a follower leave a comment that you are and get another (1) entry. Become a subscriber or if you are a subscriber, leave a comment that you are and you will receive two (2) additional entries. Comments without an e-mail address will be void.

This contest ends on Monday, February 15, 2010
It is open to U.S. residents only and no P.O. boxes.
The book will be shipped directly from Harper Collins.

Thanks and good luck!

About the book:

Postcards from a Dead Girl
A Novel by Kirk Farber

Postcards from a Dead Girl is the story of Sid, who is slowly but surely becoming unhinged by the postcards he receives in the mail from his ex, Zoe. They’re coming from locales as exotic and varied as Barcelona, London, Paris, and New Jersey, and they’re taunting him. So embarks on a journey of his own, chasing Zoe and her postcards, looking for the answers that will help him move on and let himself fall in love again. Awesome fact about this one: Kirk Farber, the author, works as a librarian in Colorado as his day job.

Dino Vicelli: Private Eye In A World of Evils by Lori Weiner

Book Description
This story transports the reader to an alternate-reality version of New York City, in which talking dogs interact regularly with humans. The hero, Dino Vicelli, is a private investigator who just happens to be a sharply dressed Italian greyhound with a great fondness for cigars. He takes on what initially appears to be a routine missing person case but soon finds himself in the midst of a sinister plot that involves kidnapping, murder, and bizarre scientific experiments aimed at controlling the world. As he investigates this strange case, Dino repeatedly encounters mortal danger, while also finding romance with a beautiful blonde Afghan dog.

With its unusual twists on the traditional detective story genre, this book blends elements of humor, suspense, and fantasy into a truly unique and entertaining tale.

My thoughts
Lori Weiner has written an adorable and funny novella with “Dino Vicelli: Private Eye in a World of Evils”. Dino is a talking dog who also is a private investigator who takes the case of a missing person. Yes, dogs and humans interact in this humorous take on the detective genre.

Web of Deceit by Darlene Cox

Book Description
Peter Brock is a man to be envied. He is young, handsome, intelligent, a founding partner of one of New York's most prestigious law firms, and a respected member of the International Community of Currency Traders. But, that isn't enough to fulfill his goal in life. When he meets James Campbell , a very wealthy New York diamond dealer who would like to keep more of his wealth out of the hands of the IRS, Peter starts weaving a web of deceit to divert the bulk of Campbell's wealth to his own account. But, he needs a little help. He enlists Delilah, a strip-club dancer, to learn, through pillow talk, the extent of Campbell's wealth; and Jenny, a flight attendant for a major airline, to smuggle loose diamonds to Europe on international flights. As a coconspirator, how can Campbell yell "foul," at the risk of spending his remaining days in a Federal prison? The perfect Plan-so Peter thinks.

Unfortunately, his law partner, Jack Morrison, gets wind of the Plan and decides to toss in his ante. Now the game gets interesting-a case of diamond cut diamond. When two people wind up dead, Jack says "enough," leaving Peter hopelessly entangled in his web. As Jack says: "That's what happens when little fish try to swim with the predators."

My thoughts
Darlene Cox has certainly written a deceitful maze of individuals in her book “Web of Deceit”, Peter Brock has executed a complex plan of stealing diamonds that seems to fall apart when two people die. But did they die because of his scheme? And will his scheme come apart? Cox has developed a story that makes you ask these questions and wonder what’s up, yet I felt that I couldn’t care about the characters or what they were up to.

Pixar Memorabilia auction to aid the people of Haiti

Lee Unkrich (director of Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo) is auctioning off his personal collection of Pixar memorabilia to aid the people of Haiti.

Check out his auctions on eBay here!

And Another Thing by Eion Colfer

Book Description
An Englishman's continuing search through space and time for a decent cup of tea . . .

Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has not been entirely without incident.

Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up . . . again.

And Another Thing . . . is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

My thoughts
I really enjoyed the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series of books, and when I read that Eoin Colfer has written a sixth book in the series, I was ecstatic. But Colfer is no Douglas Adams. The humor I found in the original book was just not there. Colfer does a good job in bringing back the characters, but I just couldn’t get into this book.

Breathless by Dean Koontz

Book Description
In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound Merlin step from shadow into light…and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.

A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring all the forces of a government in peril to her door.

At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness…In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable…On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder…Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past begins a trek toward his destiny…

In a novel that is at once wholly of our time and timeless, fearless and funny, Dean Koontz takes readers into the moment between one turn of the world and the next, across the border between knowing and mystery. It is a journey that will leave all who take it Breathless.

My thoughts
Dean Koontz’s “Breathless” is the story of numerous individuals that and their lives, a veterinarian, a cabinet maker, a hideous homeless man, a psychotic murderer and several others. Koontz develops their lives making me yearn for what the connection is. When two mysterious creatures appear to Grady (the cabinet maker), he invites Camilla (the veterinarian), it made me wonder what the importance of the others were. It takes to the end of the story for it all to connect, but once the mystery was gone, it opened more questions, mainly what was the point. I enjoyed the buildup but it should have been more.

Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young

Book Description
Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when he's about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems.
In Waverly's new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But there's a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollars—including a hefty broker's fee for himself—in exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath.
The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer who's bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverly's clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Erickson—who has some skeletons of his own to hide—are unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.

My thoughts
I found “Buying Time” by Pamela Samuels Young to be quite an engaging thriller. She has taken her legal expertise and created a story that is not only believable, but “edge of my seat” entertaining. I had never heard of viatical investments, but can easily see how the corrupt can manipulate the outcome.

Waverly Sloan’s patients are dying soon after he finds investors for their life insurance policies. The next possible US Attorney General Lawrence Erickson wife’s dies after her policy is sold. Was it Waverly, Lawrence or someone else who may have killed her? Or was it the cancer? Young keeps you guessing as the story twists and turns to a worthwhile conclusion.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Book Description
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

My thoughts
Thomas with her memory erased, enters into a world of teenage boys that are trapped in a Glade surrounded by a moving maze and mechanical creatures that kill at night. Can they solve the maze and escape and why are they there to begin with?
James Dashner has written a well executed story with “The Maze Runner”. It is filled with many questions, intense drama and enough action to keep this reader not wanting to out the book down. I was a little let down by the climax, but then he comes back with an ending that pulled me in to get the next book of this trilogy.

Deeper Than The Dead by Tami Hoag

Book Description
California, 1984. Three children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Close behind the children is their teacher, Anne Navarre, shocked by this discovery and heartbroken as she witnesses the end of their innocence. What she doesn't yet realize is that this will mark the end of innocence for an entire community, as the ties that bind families and friends are tested by secrets uncovered in the wake of a serial killer's escalating activity.

Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with interpreting those now revealed secrets. He's using a new technique-profiling-to develop a theory of the case, a strategy that pushes him ever deeper into the lives of the three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own.

As new victims are found and the media scrutiny of the investigation bears down on them, both Mendez and Navarre are unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves-or the family and friends of the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath.

My thoughts
1985 – A different time. A time when it wasn’t as easy to track a criminal as it is today. The FBI behavioral sciences unit was just in its beginning stages and DNA analysis hadn’t even started. Forget about having a fingerprint database, the police didn’t have computers. So when three young kids literally stumble onto the partially buried body of woman, all hell breaks loose. Not only may there be a serial killer on the loose; can the killer be stopped before another woman is murdered. What is the connection to a local center for women? And don’t forget the children and the trauma suffered by them. Tami Hoag as developed a multi-faceted novel with “Deeper than the Dead”. Not only did I wanted to know who the killer was (she has you twisting and turning), I wanted to see how the children were going to react to this traumatic event. I have enjoyed her books in the past and this one is no different. It is an exhilarating story.

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen

Book Description
Set against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced–the 1918 flu epidemic–Thomas Mullen’s powerful, sweeping first novel is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval.

Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town’s founder, it is a haven in another sense–as the first place in his life he’s had a loving family to call his own.

And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly illness striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities.

When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired–and apparently ill–soldier presents himself at the town’s doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value–love, patriotism, community, family, friendship–not to mention the town’s very survival, is imperiled.

Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, The Last Town on Earth is a remarkably moving and accomplished debut.

My thoughts
Take a minor event in American history, add the flu epidemic 0f 1918, WWI, a new mll town in the northwest and you have the makings of a great story. Thomas Mullan has done just that in “The Last Town on Earth”. With the flu epidemic wiping out towns across America, the newly formed mill town of Commonwealth has decided to quarantine the town to keep people out so that their residents do not catch the flu. Then a soldier appears at the blockade and is killed. What happens next as Commonwealth struggles with being locked inside its own borders? Mullan has written a fascinating and touching story.

Unsweetined by Jodie Sweetin

Book Description
Once Danny Tanner's bubbly daughter on America's favorite family sitcom, Jodie Sweetin takes readers behind the scenes of Full House and shares her terrifying -- and uplifting -- real-life story of addiction and recovery.

Jodie Sweetin grew up in front of America, melting our hearts and making us laugh for eight years as the cherub-faced middle child on Full House. Her ups and downs seemed not so different from our own, but more than a decade after the popular television show ended, the star we knew as goody-two-shoes Stephanie Tanner publicly revealed her shocking recovery from methamphetamine addiction. Even then, Jodie still kept a painful secret -- one that could not be solved in thirty minutes with a hug, a stern talking-to, or a bowl of ice cream around the family table. The harrowing battle she swore she had won was really just beginning.

In her deeply personal, utterly raw, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Jodie comes clean about the double life she led -- the crippling identity crisis that began at her birth, the hidden anguish of juggling a regular childhood with her Hollywood life, and the vicious cycle of abuse and recovery that led to a relapse even as she wrote this book. Jodie traveled the country speaking to college kids about her triumph over substance abuse, yet she partied nightly, spending tens of thousands of dollars on her habit. Her addiction tore her family apart and alienated her from her former Full House cast mates until becoming a mother gave her the determination and the courage to get sober.

Today, Jodie's life is a work in progress. Resilient, charming, and funny, she writes candidly about taking each day at a time. Hers is not a story of success or defeat, but of facing your demons, finding yourself, and telling the whole truth -- unSweetined.

My thoughts
Who didn’t enjoy the television program “Full House” when it was on the air? The Olden twins got a lot of attention, but what about the cute middle sister, Stephanie Tanner? Jodie Sweetin grew up on the series, and then it ended. Out of the spotlight and back into the real world, this insecure young woman went on a downward spiral into the world of drugs and alcohol. Sweetin shows the reader in her book "Unsweetined" what it was like being a kid on a hit TV show and life after all that was over. She goes into detail of her life being drunk and high, trying to get back into acting, getting married twice and having a child. Even while writing this memoir, she relapsed. Hopefully, with the birth of her daughter, she will stay clean and sober. A remarkable tale of a Hollywood child.

Winner of THE LAST SURGEON Book Giveaway

The winner of the THE LAST SURGEON by Michael Palmer book giveaway is:

Ellie

Congratulations!

Depraved by Bryan Smith

Book Description
Visitors are more than welcome in the isolated rural town of Hopkins Bend. The town needs them for their annual sacrifices...and entertainment. Now outsiders have stumbled into the town's traps. Some will be held for their captors' perverse, degrading amusement, but some will face a far more gruesome end at the yearly Holiday Feast. The townspeople hope their unholy ritual will protect them from the curse that befell the Kincher family. For more than a century the Kinchers have been changing, mutating, becoming gradually less human. And at the center of it all lies the dark secret, the malignant evil that controls Hopkins Bend and has made its residents truly...DEPRAVED.

My thoughts
If you don’t take your horror too serious, then Bryan Smith’s “Depraved” is the book to read. The residents of Hopkins Bend are wicked and yet in reading this grotesque I found it amusingly captivating. It has cannibalism, gore, suspense, more gore, a supernatural element and a lot of action. I couldn’t put the book down! Not for the faint of heart.

Christmas Cookie

Look what kind of cookie my daughter made for me for Christmas. The Lost In Space Robot! She is so creative...


...and knows what I like!

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer

Book Description
Michael Palmer’s latest novel pits a flawed doctor against a ruthless psychopath, who has made murder his art form. Dr. Nick Garrity, a vet suffering from PTSD—post traumatic stress disorder—spends his days and nights dispensing medical treatment from a mobile clinic to the homeless and disenfranchised in D.C. and Baltimore. In addition, he is constantly on the lookout for his war buddy Umberto Vasquez, who was plucked from the streets by the military four years ago for a secret mission and has not been seen since.

Psych nurse Gillian Coates wants to find her sister’s killer. She does not believe that Belle Coates, an ICU nurse, took her own life, even though every bit of evidence indicates that she did—every bit save one. Belle has left Gillian a subtle clue that connects her with Nick Garrity.

Together, Nick and Gillian determine that one-by-one, each of those in the operating room for a fatally botched case is dying. Their discoveries pit them against genius Franz Koller--the highly-paid master of the “non-kill”—the art of murder that does not look like murder. As Doctor and nurse move closer to finding the terrifying secret behind these killings, Koller has been given a new directive: his mission will not be complete until Gillian Coates and Garrity, the last surgeon, are dead.

My thoughts
“The Last Surgeon” by Michael Palmer is one fast-paced, action-packed thriller that had me not wanting to put the book down. Dr. Nick Garrity has been searching for a long lost war buddy when he meets Gillian Coates, whose sister Belle seemingly committed suicide, but Gillian thinks otherwise. A comic book clue “Nick Fury”, led Gillian to Nick and together they find clues of a much bigger conspiracy. Soon they are on the hit-list and must not only find out who is behind it all, but keep themselves and others around them alive. Mr. Palmer has written a novel that kept me up into the middle of the night because it was that entertaining.

NOTE: This book is being released February 16, 2010. You can pre-order it at http://www.michaelpalmerbooks.com/

First Finished Painting of 2010

Here is my first completed painting of 2010. It's another in my cereal box collection. Enjoy!

The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy

Book Description
After a deadly plague sweeps the world, toppling governments in its wake, a few surviving artists who have claimed San Francisco as their home wage an unorthodox war against an invading army intent on bringing the blessings of law and order to a community that has discovered a better way of life.

My thoughts
I came across this book by accident, but am glad that I did. “The City, Not Long After” by Pat Murphy is the story of survivors of a plague that has killed most of the population. The residents of San Francisco are artists, while outside the city there is an army ready to invade the city. The protagonist is a young woman with no name who enters the city to warn them. It is easy to see that the theme of this book is to make art not war. I found the story intriguing, the characters appealing and the writing splendid.

Under The Dome by Stephen King

Book Description
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

My thoughts
Stephen King has taken an ambitious undertaking in writing “Under the Dome” a 1000+ plus page novel where the town of Chester’s Mill, Maine is encased by a invisible dome. Trapped inside this prison, we learn about he inhabitants and what human nature is like when forced in a situation like this. But this is no “The Stand” and although I really go into in the beginning, it started to drag for me and I didn’t care about reading about some of the characters. And the ending, well, that was just unsatisfying. Some people may get more out if it than I, so be it. I was hoping for more.

Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber

Book Description
When the Imperial prison barge Purge–temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves–breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back–bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.

And death is only the beginning.

The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.


My thoughts
I waited for this book with anticipation when I first heard about it. But “Death Troopers” by Joe Schreiber is just a zombies in space story, with a few Star Wars characters added into the mix. It was entertaining, and Schreiber certainly added the gore and the shock scenes to make it horrifying. It didn’t need to be a part of the Star Wars universe, but I guess that was to entice those fans to read this different approach.

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a very happy and successful New Year. I hope that it is much better than the year we just left behind.

I am feeling a little melancholy with the holiday. My wife and I had a good time Christmas weekend in Manhattan and we were able to spend time with my daughter on Christmas Eve, but it didn’t feel like Christmas’ past.

Last year, our town borrowed lights from a neighboring town and lit on the main road. Not this year. Every year, the three of us usually go around and look at all the decorated houses. They didn’t even have a contest this year. Well, the two houses that usually go all out – didn’t. A local sign maker usually has the front lawn populated with many lighted objects and a window display with animated characters. But not this year. What a bummer.

Let’s hope the economy picks up and we all prosper!