Book #2 in the Chronicles of the Necromancer saga

The Obsidian King was defeated by Sorceress Bava K’aa and locked in an orb. The orb itself was imprisoned within the flow, a stream of magic so strong it flows through the land like a river. Jared, the self made King of Margolan sends his minion, Foor Arentala, to find and release this ancient power.

Meanwhile, Tris, his exiled younger brother, has found sanctuary under the protection of King Staden in Principality. As a reward for aiding in the escape of King Stadan’s daughter, Tris is granted Dark Haven’s mansion and lands. As the new Lord of the Manor, he befriends both the Vayash Moru(an ancient Vampire race) and the VyrKin (shape shifters), who are also under attack from Jared for their secrets and abilitites. He has also gained some support in the Blood Council, the ruling body of the Vayash Moru. Still, challenges and enemies close in from all sides.

The warring brothers finally face off and the winner will take the prize. Fate may favor the bold, but there will be no rest for the war torn Winter Kingdoms. Something dark is rising from the barrows…

Book #1 of the Chronicles of the Necromancer:

On a special night of the year, called the Haunt, the spirits can be seen by all who care to pay attention. Martris Drayke, second grandson of the most powerful Sorceress in the Winter Kingdoms, has seen these invisible inhabitants of the palace from as far back as he has memories. This year however, something feels wrong and the ghosts, including Bava K’aa herself, give him a warning.

Meanwhile Jared, Martris’ older brother and heir to the throne, has taken steps to sit in his father’s place sooner rather than later. After a successful coup, Jared must see to the loose end personified by his younger brother, Martris. What he hadn’t counted upon was opposition. Both the ghosts of the castle and the captain of his father’s guard help to spirit the younger prince beyond his grasp.

Martris, called Tris by his friends and allies, must fight more than the assassins sent to kill him. There is an even more important struggle raging within him. Tris has inherited the awesome power of his famous grandmother, Bava K’aa. He is about to discover there are more than mortal allies willing to rally to his cause, but first he must discover what it means to wield the power of a Summoner.

Sure to please readers of the Song of Fire and Ice by G. R. R. Martin. No relation!

What are the effects of the mass media publicity on children? What are the parameters that publicists must follow in order to provide selling content to this special group of customers? What are the methods that researchers follow to measure the consumption of mass media publicity in children? El Impacto de los Medios de Comunicación en la Infancia: Guía para Padres y Educadores written by Emily Moyer-Gusé and Karyn Riddle suggest that advertisement messages toward this segment group are focused on three basic elements: age, language and levels of attention. According with the authors, the television, as an instrument of mass media consumption, is introduced to the children -at the early stage- with messages that are targeted to a specific individual sub-group. Furthermore, external group factors such as parents’ domestic rules and cultural parameters can influence, positively or negatively, the amount of time that a child is exposed to the communication media learning not only consumer behaviors that are subtle imposed by the advertisement, but also attaining how to measure success with the value-added of materials things. This research study is divided in ten chapters and is written in the Spanish language.

Continues the saga began in the Chronicles of the Necromancer by Gail Z Martin.

Jair, cousin to Tris, the King of Margolan, rides with the Sworn, a nation of mages and shamans. In fact, he is wed to their ruling chieftan, Talwyn, who rushes to his aid when angry spirits attack.

Meanwhile, forces are building in an effort to keep Margolan and Isencroft from bonding under the rule of King Tris and Queen Kiara. Following the harrowing birth their son, Cwynn, the question of his birthright hangs by a thread. Their infant son will either be the glue that bonds their separate nations , or he will be the final stroke of the sword that divides them.

Someone is targeting the undead and were-wolves in a quest to discover the key to their long life and powers. Add a woman who lends her body to the spirits of dead for a night with their lovers in exchange for coin, and dark times will be had by all. Diversionist rebels work feverishly to ferment discord and are gathering the means to build an army. Like the Song of Fire and Ice, you have to read this to find out where all the pieces of this tangled puzzle will fall.

What I Was is a meditation on a life, a life that was forever changed by one person. Hilary has spent many rebellious years getting thrown out of boarding school. When he comes to St. Oswald's he expects his life there to be more of the same, and, in many ways, it is. But, while out running with a class he sees a young man with whom he becomes obsessed. Finn lives a life of freedom that Hilary can only dream about. Finn is self-sufficient and has managed to become invisible and, thus, does not have to attend school or participate in a life like Hilary's which is profoundly ordinary and suffocating. Finn works in the village, catches fish and crabs to sell in town, and has no one to answer to. In Finn, Hilary sees what he wants to be, an idealized life he cannot have. The stulifying atmosphere of the boarding school and his cold, dispassionate family crushes Hilary's spirit. Soon Hilary is devising ways to spend more and more time sneaking away from St. Oswald's in order to be with Finn. Tragedy ensues as a consequence of Hilary's selfish behavior, but there is no going back. What I Was is more than a novel about life-shaping events. While others believe they understand what happened between Hilary and Finn, the only people who actually KNOW what has happened are Hilary and Finn. Truth, we suppose is irrefutable and absolute. Looking back on his life, Hilary learns that truth is anything but absolute and irrefutable. At the heart of this book is a meditation on memory and on what happens when people invest themselves in what they believe to be true.

We thought it was over at last when Roland Deschain finally found his Dark tower. We were wrong. Stephen King has opened yet another door into Midworld. This time, we move into the past, somewhere just after Wizards and Glass, into the teeth of a storm.

While sheltering from the blow, Susanna puts Roland to some soul searching questions. How did Roland’s mother die? Was Jake the only young life Roland sacrificed in the name of his quest? Has Jake come to terms with the way Roland sacrificed him? To answer, Roland settles down to some old fashion story telling. Come back to Midworld and listen his story for yourself. Coming soon!

Told in first person through the eyes of Patroclus, a nine year old prince in exile for the death of bully, the reader first encounters Achilles at the spring games. He is all a Greek prince should be, all the things Patroclus thinks he is not: bright, comely, and skillful. He is also the one thing Patroclus is assured that he is not: the Son of King Peleus and the water goddess Thetis.

Achilles is portrayed as neither self centered nor a glory hound. He is open and friendly, likeable even. He is the golden boy for whom all things come with ease and grace. Except for a mother who finds his mortal state an offense, and who finds his choice of Patroclus as a lover more than just an annoyance, his life could not be more perfect.

Agamemnon, King of Sparta, is given the role of a grasping, greedy and unbending ruler who sees Achilles as merely another tool to employ in his plans to annex the wealth of Troy to Mycenae. When Helen is abducted by Paris it is Agamemnon who calls for vengeance, pressing the claim of his brother Menelaus for her return, and setting into the motion the Greek war machine that will sweep him, Hector, Patroclus and Achilles to their death.

Scar Night gripped me at the opening line and didn’t let go all the way through. The tension and dialog are snappy with a dark and raging feel. Deepgate is a city over an endless darkness, and from that darkness all manner of evil can escape.

Scrimlock, a Presbyter witnesses the escape of a deadly Angel. Only a prayer to Ulcis causes the Angel to spare him when she has slaughtered all those around him.

2000 years later, young Dill must unravel the mystery of the abyss, the escape of the Angel known as Carnival, the prophecy of Ulcis’ return and somehow secure the future safety of his chain bound city. Book one of the Deepgate Codex

Logan Ninefingers is many things –most of them not so good- but he thought to add traitor to his list of accomplishments. It’s not like he woke up one morning and said, “Self, today I feel like providing valuable information about my king to his enemies.” In fact it wasn’t much of a choice at all.

The author lets the reader into the head of the main character, a misfit, rogue and adventurer who just happens to have been working for the man who later became a king. Like most plot driven scenarios, the major issue stands between an invading army called the Northman and the Union. While matters seem to bog down in the middle, Abercromby gets back on point toward the end by setting up for the sequel which promises to keep the swordplay in high gear.

The crime at the center of this book is compelling, but the writing is very poor. I had to struggle to get through to the end. The author seems to have no coherent organization for the information presented and he repeats himself endlessly. A shorter, tighter book would have been both easier to read and more enjoyable. Four young adults are gunned down for no apparent reason. Years of investigation and thousands of leads only leave the police and family frustrated. But reading the same thing over and over leaves the reader frustrated. Also annoying was the author's coloring of facts through the use of language that colored the facts to suit his opinion. While this may be a stylistic pet peeve of mine--I like my facts presented in an organized and neutral way--it decreased the effectiveness and impact of the content of the book.

Social Networking for Career Success written by Miriam Salpeter provides the job seeker a helpful guide on how to build a strong personal brand for: a) professional development, and b) career change. According with the author, the candidate must be active on social networks sharing not only expertise on a particular subject but also participate in professional groups that can lead meaningful conversations. As a consequence of this interaction, the job seeker must build a positive online footprint that can provide evidences, to the future employee, on the skills needed to pursue the challenges of the new position. Furthermore, Salpeter suggest strongly that a well-crafted resume fulfill with action verbs and keyword-focused profile will benefit positively the seeker during the hiring process. Finally, this book provides a helpful word cloud of terminology that can aid the candidate to be familiar with this new technological jargon.

How you can highlight your resume from the rest of the job seekers? Cracking the New Job Market: The 7 Rules for Getting Hired in Any Economy written by William Holland underlines that “value creation” and “personal brand” are the two essential components that employers are looking for in a prospective candidate. How the “value creation” concept can be integrated in a well-crafted resume fill with qualitative and quantitative achievements that can stand out from the rest of the crowd? According with the author, the traditional job methods that candidates used to follow a decade ago no longer work in this technological era in which leadership, cross-cultural communication and networking skills are the key elements to succeed in the search for the right company. In conformity with Holland, this is an interactive market in which “the wants” and “the needs” are being measured accordingly to the value- need of the job market. The seeker must learn how to apply this new set of rules, in the strategy plan, in order to maximize his/her results. In this book, William Holland guides the job seeker step-by-step on how to build a strong personal brand and a powerful resume that can aid the prospective candidate land in the right job.

Set in 1649 at the end of the English Civil War, Accidents of Providence, is a compelling and well-researched historical novel. Rachel Lockyer, a young woman apprenticed to a glove maker, and William Walwyn, a married man with fourteen children, fall passionately in love. While Walwyn, a member of the progressive Levelers, is imprisoned for his populist beliefs, Rachel discovers she is pregnant. If her condition becomes common knowledge it would not only ruin her life, but the life of her lover. Accidents of Providence is based on first hand accounts of events of the time and it seems there can be no happy ending for any of the parties involved. However, things are not always what they seem. A dark, often depressing look at the fate of 17th century women end, perhaps not happily ever after, but with hope of better things to come.

I chose this book after hearing a segment on NPR in which it was selected for the monthly "Back Seat Book Club." Reading Breadcrumbs was a bit like reading two different books and I liked one and didn't like the other. In Part One, childhood friends, Hazel and Jack, are inseperable. They both enjoy using their imaginations to create elaborate worlds they inhabit at will. Initially the story reminded me a bit of Bridge to Terabithia. After a mysterious accident, for which Hazel feels guilty, Jack begins to ignore his former best friend. Hazel's mother chalks this up to the inevitable change in relationships, especially between children of different genders, as children mature. At first Hazel is mystified, but then she begins to believe some evil force has taken Jack away from his family. Her hunch is confirmed when Jack's parents tell her he has gone to care for an elderly aunt, someone Hazel has never heard of. There are hints of what is to come in Part Two, but the majority of Part One is realistically protrayed. Perhaps this is what makes Part Two seem so jarring in contrast. In Part Two Hazel becomes certain that Jack has been taken by a mysterious evil woman, an idea that is reinforced by one of Jack's male friends, Tyler. On the way to meet Jack for some fun sledding in the snow, Tyler gets a glimpse of a strange woman dressed in white. After seeing her on the hill where the boys are to meet, Jack is not seen again. Hazel has to save her friend by going into the woods which are full of evil characters from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Snow Queen. The second part of the book became very tedious and I skipped sections. After spending half the book introducing two characters with a host of realistic problems, such as divorce, money issues, a mother with major depression the second half of the book abandons these issues and goes off into a fantasy land. Disappointing.

I've seldom, if ever, read such a story that grabs you by the wrist and drags you pell-mell, barely able to keep your feet under you, across the face of a distant world, searching for haven and finding danger, looking for honesty and finding guile, wanting peace and getting war and genocide. The plot is breathless, the tension rises and rises and rises until the cataclysmic ending at the conclusion of book three. This new world unfolds before the reader at every turn in unpredicatble and unexpected ways. The reader's mind is blown wide open over and over again. Pick up The Knife of Never Letting Go and proceed through The Ask and the Answer and finish with Monster of Men. You won't regret it. You'll greatly enjoy it. Just don't forget to breath...

This is a highly readable introduction to the tumultuous life of one of the most important Puritains in our nation's history. For Williams did a very important thing that even overtops his founding of the first democratic state, the state of Rhode Island, his shared founding of the denomination of Baptists in America (though he himself moved on to call himself a mere Seeker,) and his making peace between the Native Americans and the Northern colonies when the colonies were at risk of destruction. Working within the Christian tradition, he showed how any interference with what he called "soul libertie" by the state was anathema. Before Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, etc., he put the kibosh on theocracy, and not just from a secular viewpoint, but from a profoundly Christian one.

What is perhaps most pleasing about this biography is that it spends the time to put William's life in context. It shows how the world of his time influenced the development of his brilliant, independent intellect. You get a real feeling for this gentle, prickly man as he barrels through his many functions. By the end, you are grateful that America was blessed with such a remarkable presence.

This is a highly readable introduction to the tumultuous life of one of the most important Puritains in our nation's history. For Williams did a very important thing that even overtops his founding of the first democratic state, the state of Rhode Island, his shared founding of the denomination of Baptists in America (though he himself moved on to call himself a mere Seeker,) and his making peace between the Native Americans and the Northern colonies when the colonies were at risk of destruction. Working within the Christian tradition, he showed how any interference with what he called "soul libertie" by the state was anathema. Before Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, etc., he put the kibosh on theocracy, and not just from a secular viewpoint, but from a profoundly Christian one.

What is perhaps most pleasing about this biography is that it spends the time to put William's life in context. It shows how the world of his time influenced the development of his brilliant, independent intellect. You get a real feeling for this gentle, prickly man as he barrels through his many functions. By the end, you are grateful that America was blessed with such a remarkable presence.

Will, Brother Walter (the hob), Brother Snail and Shadlok are back for another supernatural adventure at Crowfield Abbey. When the collapse of a chapel unleashes an ancient evil, Will must fight to save the Brothers and the Abbey. The Crowfield Demon's supernatural element is set within the realistic depiction of 14th century England. The supernatural occurances are frightening, but Will has friends so he is never fighting alone. He must make choices that highlight his loyalty to his friends. An open ending promises more adventures, perhaps away from the Abbey with his fay companion, Shadlok. Well-written with a sense of time and place as well as a wide variety of characters, The Crowfield Demon is just scary enough to keep readers turning the pages to see what happens next.

Girl Reading presents the back story for six works of art spanning the years 1333 through 2060. Each chapter is steeped in the time and place in which the art work was created. Beautifully written and full of unique characters this novel brings the stories of these women to life. Through the centuries books hold a power to captivate the reader and art, whether painting, drawing or photography captures a moment in time. The stories are brilliantly imagined and offer quirky and interesting heroines. The last chapter, set in a future where technology has changed nearly every aspect of life, ties all the other chapters together with a strange, sentient being. Never boring, each chapter grabs the reader and my only complaint is that once finished, the characters are gone forever, leaving the reader wanting to know more about them.

Her name is Celeste Jackson. Unlike most of her friends and acquaintances she has a difficult destiny. She dreams of a normal life, but what is in the works is anything but normal. The war in heaven has just landed on her doorstep and she is the key to salvation or damnation for the mortal world.

. One of the last works of our beloved Sister L. A. Banks, this is the start of a trilogy that is must read for fans of her Vampire Huntress series.