The Hunger Games is simply great story telling. The novel takes us on a journey with our heroine who is picked out of a lottery to compete in the Hunger Games, an annual fight to the death competition between children of this future world in a post-apocalyptic America. I found this book to be a page-turner and look forward to reading the rest of the books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

Charlotte has a secret she's lived with for the past 10 years... this secret causes her to be an expert at avoiding marriage.

Darius is a logical bachelor challenged by his over powering father to become more adult by restoring an old family home. This home is adjacent to Charlotte's family property.

Can you see where this romance is going? I'm sure you can.

It was a pretty enjoyable read but dragged in the middle, almost causing me to put it in the "I'll finish later pile" but after some slow moments the story did pick up and finished well.

This story gallops along almost faster than you can read it. It tells the steampunkified history of “The Company,” a shadowy organization unbound by the laws of time and space. Not Less Than Gods, though, spends just about one chapter telling us just the basics of what we need to know about the Company before enlacing us completely in the story of Edward Bell-Fairfax, noble-born orphan, who becomes the greatest spy and assassin this alternative Victorian era will know. The reader joins Bell-Fairfax on a funny and dangerous adventure through Turkey, Jerusalem, Denmark and Russia, marveling at his superhuman skills and ingenious use of “magical” spy technology. Science fans will love the explanations behind Victorian-era night-vision goggles, “aetherical radiation“ radar technology, and what would have been the world’s first armored luxury vehicle--think Hummer, the Golem Edition--invented by a mysterious Rabbi in the frozen East.

This book is extremely disappointing because it claims to have "new" and "contradictory" information about the last days of the Romanovs, yet when (and if) you follow up on the sources, you find that many of them just don't measure up to these grandiose claims. Sadly, this seems to be a case of some "creative referencing", not historical facts. This is easy to confirm of course - so don't just take my word for it - check out the sources of the more controversial claims if you do end up reading this book. But until you confirm the sources, please take any and all "new" information in it with a grain of salt...

Please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against historical fiction. But if one is going to use real and well known historical characters as protagonists, one should try to stick to well known facts. The only good thing I have to say about it, is that this book did have a strange way of making you read it until the end, if only out of morbid curiousity to see what other nonsense the author is going to come up with. I used to think that Erickson would be better off writing fiction - since her non-fiction often sounds like fiction anyway, but now I am not so sure. If you really want to read this book, make sure you don't buy it but get it at the library.

I would like to at least say that this book was an entertaining read, but honestly can't. I am not even sure how I finished it. The second daughter of the Tsar of Russia entertaining two lovers before the age of 18? Gallivanting all over town on her own? Getting advice from her aunt on how not to get pregnant? Some whimsy in historical fiction is ok, but this went completely overboard! I won't mention any of the other "plots" in case someone still wants to read this, but I am hoping that the reader won't take any of it seriously as none of it has anything to do with history. Too bad the author chose a historical character to run away with her imagination, she would have done better creating a completely fictional Russian girl who lived during the revolution. I would not recommend this book, not even for entertainment value.

I really enjoyed this book! Very well researched and well written, the author weaves historical facts into the story with elegant ease, which makes it not only fun to read but also informative. There was even a point when I had to double check to make sure this was really a work of fiction and not a real memoir by Victoria Battenberg. You really get to know the main character, and realize that she was not just one of the more obscure of Queen Victoria's granddaughters but an interesting person in her own right, as well as a witness to the crucial historical events of the late 19th and early 20th century.

This book made a lot of Jackson fans very mad. I decided to read it because I was curious about the strange and unusual relationship that the rabbi and the "king of pop" shared, and I sort of wanted to know what it was all about. I also wanted to read the first hand comments MJ made about various subjects... Some readers felt that rabbi Shmuley was too harsh in his interpretation of MJ, but the way I saw it, he seemed to be pretty non-judgmental... or at least as non-judgmental as he could be considering what he [allegedly] heard and witnessed while spending time with MJ.

Well, ok, it was fun to read this book, if only for the anticipation that perhaps there would be something new and exciting in it. There wasn't, unless you count the author's allegations that Michael Jackson came on to him at their first meeting, and that he (MJ) had numerous male lovers coming in and out of Neverland... And that he had wild passionate sex with Lisa Marie. In fact, that sex was the main part of that relationship... Hmmm... Ok, this is not impossible, but somehow I just don't see it. And of course Jackson is no longer here to confirm or deny this (my feeling is that he would deny it). The book has a few good moments, but not enough to make them memorable. My advice? If you are interested in Jackson, then by all means read it, but don't expect too much, and don't pay for it - just get it at the library.

I actually had high hopes for this one... And it does have a few relatively good moments, although they are outweighed by not-so-good ones. It was all over for me when [warning - spoiler!:] Rasputin turned out to be alive after being assasinated! Not to mention some annoying minor mistakes like referring to Rasputin as "Father Rasputin", to a grand duke as "Boris Konstantin" and to a palace as "Alexander's Palace". Need I go on?

I am just getting to know this author, who apparently has quite a few well-written and well thought out books on the subject. This one is no exception. I am not a religious person, but I always like to hear or read good philosophical thoughts (I have also read the "antithesis" of this book - "There is a God" by an atheist who changed his mind). Basically, no matter how many logical and reasonable theories are presented, there is no way to win or lose an argument about the existance of a higher being, so if anyone wants to read this book for that purpose, I am not sure you will get anything out of it. However, if you like a good discussion about deep philosophical matters and interesting points of view, this one is it!

I met Mary Jo briefly at the Book Expo in NYC. Of course, as most others, I probably had a preconceived idea about her, and got her book out of pure morbid curiousity... I was, in fact, pleasantly surprised by both her and the book. Not to say that it is a masterpiece deserving of the Pulitzer, but it was an interesting biography, and as you read it you even sort of start understanding where this woman was coming from (not quite, but sort of). I am hoping that at the very least the book may be a wake-up call to some people in similar situations, i.e. in relationships with sociopaths or people with some serious personality disorders, who can learn from MJB's experience and her very infamous case. Having said that, I am surprised that Mary Jo waited this long to tell her story. If she was the innocent victim in all of this mess, why not tell it sooner. Perhaps it was because that she didn't want to do it while she was still married to Joey... So to summarize: don't expect a literary masterpiece, but it is an interesting read and an easy one at that - I think it only took me 2 days to read it.

Compared to some other biographies of Grand Duchess Olga, this books gives a fairly balanced portrait of her, the positive and the negative traits - hence the real person, as well as of her sons, their wives, grandchildren and others in her family circle. I would have preferred it if there was less about Anna Anderson (whose photo they even included in the book), but on the whole, I enjoyed this book and even learned a few new things...

Killing Me Softly by Nicci French is a true page-turner. Immediately the novel pulls you into the intense love affair of Alice and Adam and you just devour the words to find out where this passionate love will lead.

Alice is involved with Jake, her comfortable live-in boyfriend of some years when one day walking to work she locks eyes with a handsome stranger, briefly they exchange an intense staring session but eventually continue to their separate designations. Leaving for lunch Alice notices the stranger is standing in the same spot “as if he hadn’t moved since this morning.” He tells her he was waiting for her and asks her to come with him – she does. They travel to his apartment via taxi without speaking and then engage in “obliterating” passionate love making. She leaves without knowing his name.

And that’s how the story begins; Alice has a passionate love affair with a man who seems to worship her. Their love is obsessive and Alice’s normal world shrinks to just Adam, the stranger she locked eyes with on the street.

Alice leaves Jake and sets up shop with Adam, the somewhat stoic mountain climber who only has eyes for Alice. The beginning of their relationship is made of the stuff romantics day dream about, the terribly handsome stranger is smitten by you, he pays rapid attention to your every word, he can’t keep his hands off you, he’s spontaneous, he always makes you feel loved and desired and you feel the same way. But then reality creeps in, how much does Alice really know about Adam?

The novel takes you on a road where we find out more about Adam and the price that comes with an obsessive relationship. It’s a quick read which will surely keep you interested.

In a fun style, reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Roach describes the nitty-gritty of how we got into space. It includes hysterical anecdotes and comments from past astronauts and cosmonauts regarding the daily details they experienced. One chapter, "Houston, we have a fungus" describes what happens when people don't bathe for extended periods of time...and how NASA prepared for this. Day 8 (of 20) was when the test subjects in an Apollo simulation finally stopped noticing the smell (their minds stopped registering it). This was a really fun read!

I'd heard that Sturgeon was a man of words, and a self-educated man, at that. More Than Human is the first book I've ever read by him. At first it was surprising and startling and odd, but his style and pace are easy enough to learn and then it became a book that couldn't be put down. Sturgeon writes like a poet, thinks like a psychiatrist, and understands like a philosopher. "His clothes were many-windowed" (p.1). "he lived inside somewhere, apart, and the little link between word and significance hung broken" (p.1). "...they were the last words she had said, and they hung shimmering in the silence" (p.121). "Janie in a peasant blouse, with a straight spear of morning sunlight bent and molded to her bare shoulder and the soft upper curve of her breast. Janie dancing, bending away and cleaving to him as if he and she were the gold leaves of an electroscope" (p.132). "He said only that the command might be removed by a reverse abreaction...Moving backward, mentally, to the incident itself" (p. 166). In three chapters - 'The Fabulous Idiot,' 'Baby is Three,' and 'Morality' - Sturgeon introduces us to Lone, Janie, Beanie and Bonnie, The Baby, Gerry and Hip - characters like you've never met before. I won't describe them here: they are more worth discovering on your own than the plot is. Here's the plot in two sentences: the first six - Lone, Janie, and the rest - make up "the next step upward...a psychic evolution instead of a physical" (p.175); together they are Homo Gestalt. The seventh - Hip - saves Homo Sapiens from extinction by the mind of Homo Gestalt. If I'm making the plot sound straight-forward, in a way it is. But how deliciously novel and captivating that straight-forward path. This is a book worth wrapping your mind around.

There's a place out on Route 25A in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York; a unique tavern, indeed, but you couldn't tell by looking at it. Oh sure, the jumble of parked cars out front would seem a little odd, like a bumper cars rally frozen in time, or the fact that there was no mirror behind the bar like you'd see in any other drinking institution.But that's all superficial and easily explained. What makes this institution so very special would require you to spend some time seated at the bar or one of the tables, enjoying a drink made with care and professionalism, before understanding dawned on you.

You see, this place you've found out on 25A (or wherever you are), and you can only find it when you need to, is Callahan's Place: a cross-time saloon and interstellar stop-over frequented by the kindest, nicest, most loyal group of regulars in the whole wide world...and far, far beyond.

There's a motto the folks at Callahan's believe in: "Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased." And two rules scrupulously followed: 1)Don't ask prying questions. 2)If a problem is shared, whoever's listening does all they can to help solve the problem.

Come pay a visit to Callahan's and meet the most bizarre blend of barflies you're likely to meet...and never forget.

Your Dad disappears from his home in suburban Philadelphia. There is evidence that he went in, but never came out (all the doors and windows are locked from the inside; his keys and personal effects are inside). But he has left two devices, about the size of a walkman, in your care. As you wait to hear from the police searching for your Dad's whereabouts, you experiment with the controls on one of the devices and suddenly find yourself half way across the state of Pennsylvania a day later!

Welcome to what you will soon learn is the world of time traveling.

Dad is eventually found and so is a whole new way of life. McDevitt unfolds the exhilaration, the thrill, the fear, and the emotional addiction (and devastation) of being a time traveler. Homage is paid to some of the classic tropes of time travel novels that have gone before, but the author brings a common logic and modern spin to the canon, as well. McDevitt also has fun with the paradox of meeting yourself in your own past. Its a great way to create the perfect alibi when the police ask where you were on the night of...

Remember, Time Travelers Never Die, but traveling can certainly give you a headache, if not a heart attack!

Excellent first-contact story set in rural, village England. The aliens are never directly involved, but do have the historic impact you'd expect. And this is the joy of this novel: the multiple tensions Eric Brown plucks and then lets hum through out the novel. Mortality and Immortality, isolationist and galaxy traveller, friendly aliens or world conquerors, life over death over life. I don't want to say more and spoil the pleasure of discovering Brown's story on your own, but suffice it to say this is a refreshing telling of first contact. Are you a fan of (the original) The Day the Earth Stood Still?

Excellent "dramatization" of important crossroads in Siddhartha's young life up to his achieving enlightenment. Great as an introductory text to the man. Chopra includes an Epilogue and a "Practical Guide to Buddhism" that serves well as an introduction to the religion. If you're interested in Buddhism, start here and continue at http://www.buddhanet.net