The Age of Will

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Flesh and Blood is a large story covering three generations and 100 years.

The book starts in 1935 with Constantine and his early childhood memories. Constantine falls in love with and marries Mary. Constantine is a young strong immigrant. Not comfortable with his english, but strong and determined to have the dream. Mary is pretty and sophisticated in Constantine’s eyes.

They have three children Elizabeth, Billy and Zoe. The book continues to follow their lives as people enter and leave.

The book is presented as snapshots of time. Brief images of the characters as they grow and evolve yet very detailed with a strong narrative. Within the first few pages the reader is comfortable with the characters.

Michael Cunningham is also the author of A Home at the End of the World and The Hours.

Flesh and Blood is a saga of growth, struggle, ambition, love, violence, heartache and loss. A wonderful drama that grips your chest and doesn’t let you breath till the end.

[bookdetail]: http://clubreadingbooks.com/bookdetail/1122/

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All-American Alien Boy is Allen Steele’s second short story collection. Unlike his first, the stories in this collection are all set on earth. Excellent stories that have the author’s characteristic writing style and structure. Yet each story is very different.

That last story in the book is my favorite. Called ‘The Good Rat’, it is a first person account of falling in love. In ‘The Good Rat’, testing of any kind on animals has been outlawed. So many uneducated folks, or people in need of quick money hire themselves out as lab rats. It is an oddly optimistic look at the present day puritanical legal trends.

Each story in the book is introduced by Steele. He discusses the motivation behind the stories and what he likes and dislikes about each. This provides an interesting look into the process the author uses.

The stories included in the book are:

• Lost in the Shopping Mall
• Mudzilla’s Last Stand
• Hunting Wabbit
• Riders in the Sky
• Whinin’ Boy Blues
• See Rock City
• 2,437 UFOs Over New Hampshire
• Jonathan Livingstone Seaslug
• Doblin’s Lecture
• A Letter From St. Louis
• The Good Rat

[bookdetail]: http://clubreadingbooks.com/bookdetail/1051/

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I cannot say much about the plot of this book without spoilers, so I won’t say much about the plot.

I can say, however, that it is as fast-moving and as spell-binding as her other books. I think, in fact, that this one was much better than most, as it moves well with very few side issues.

As to the plot, it does begin to deal with the dating issues, as Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are all now 16. It also reveals some secrets that we may have wondered about, including how Voldemort survives and where Snapes true loyalties are (maybe–Rowling does tend to make things very complicated). I have to admit that I enjoyed this book, even with parts that will make some people very unhappy, more than any since the first Harry Potter. And it’s so nice to see the characters growth and not just in height!

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The Mystery of the 15 Sounds is a juvenile mystery novel similar to The Hardy Boys written in the 1930′s. Roger works in his uncle Grover’s laboratory. The laboratory does research for various companies and scientists. As a result of a bizarre series of events, Roger becomes involved in a mystery surrounding a missing sacred Tibetan jewel. Using science, Roger and his uncle solve the mystery and nab the bad guys in a scene straight out of a Scooby Doo mystery.

The author writes in a note before the story begins:

‘…every scientific device, process and theory herein is based on electrical, chemical and other data of developed apparatus and procedure or on theories so far perfected as to be acceptable to Science.’

Very entertaining and a great garage sale find.

[bookdetail]: http://clubreadingbooks.com/bookdetail/1024/

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Reviewer: Shar
“September And Other Stories” by Julie Ann Dawson
Author:  Julie Ann Dawson

Publisher:  Lulu Press

softcover, 188 pgs

ISBN 1411619226

Simultaneously dark, creepy, and quirky, September and Other Stories is a collection of 16 horror short stories and poems by writer Julie Ann Dawson.  Horror fans looking for something original and entertaining will enjoy the range of writing styles and unexpected plot twists that fill this book.

The collection includes a variety of flash fiction pieces, including my favorite story, Voodoo.  Voodoo relates the events that transpired when a co-worker asked the author to make a voodoo doll of their boss.  Dawson’s wit and odd sense of humor come into play beautifully in this story.  Another flash fiction piece, A Daughter’s Pride, focuses on a young woman’s thirst for revenge after her aging parents are the victims of home invaders.  Bad Karma tells the tale of a selfish man who awakens from a bad dream, only to discover it wasn’t a dream after all.

Dawson’s short stories are engaging and thought-provoking.  The story To Dine With a Demon tells the tale of a writer who agrees to a dinner date with a young college co-ed, and discovers she’s not what she appears to be.  But this isn’t your normal “sell-your-soul” story.  Instead, the demon isn’t looking for the writer’s soul, but his help in the final battle against God.  Dawson presents an alternative theory behind the Fall of Humanity that leaves you wondering whos side you should be on.  Bus 264 is a reverse ghost story of sorts, telling the tale of a frightened teenager who, upon discovering she was pregnant, decides to try and get to the clinic for an abortion before her parents come home from vacation.  The internal and external dialogue between the protagonist and the other girl sharing the bench waiting for the bus is heart-breaking.

In the novella, September, Dawson provokes the feel of early 20th century pulp fiction with a story of three affluent sisters journeying to Cairo in search of the tomb of a forgotten pharaoh.  The story is told from the perspective of Natasha Collins, a professor of philosophy and religion who just so happens to possess an uncanny knack for communicating with the dead.  The novella is part H. P. Lovecraft, part Mummy Returns, and entirely entertaining.  Natasha also appears in the story A Candle for Imbolc, when she and a ghostly companion investigate the death of a fellow professor, and the story The Horror in the Attic, where Natasha is asked by a friend of her mother’s to investigate an apparent suicide in the woman’s house.

The stories move quickly and the dialoque is fresh and enjoyable.  This book is a fine addition to any horror or dark fantasy library. 

Review written by Shiela Tamerline

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Two mid-seventies free loving parents of four write a best selling Joy of Sex type sex manual. Flash to the present. How have the parents and children dealt with book?

A great concept, but the book doesn’t deliver. The author doesn’t let the characters speak for themselves.

The mother and father are stereotypical hippie academics. Separated a couple of years after the book. In the present, a publisher wants to reissue the book. The mother is desperate to regain the celebrity, but the father wants nothing to do with it.

The oldest child, Holly doesn’t have much to do with the family. Rebellious as a teenager, now unhappily married to a doctor in L.A.

Michael, the older son is a software engineer living with his actress girlfriend in N.Y. He heads to Florida to try and talk his father into the book deal.

Dashiell is the next in line. A gay republican political speech writer living with his partner in Rhode Island. Dashiell discovers he has Hodgkin’s disease and has to undergo chemotherapy. No surprise there. A healthy gay character simply is not allowed in American novels. Also, the authors political opinions and prejudices about present day America are spoken clearly in the authors voice in the Dashiell sections of the book.

Claudia is the youngest. She is a bit lost and uncertain. She is in film school and currently working on a film project. She is interviewing her elementary school teachers.

As I said, a great concept for a book but it doesn’t deliver. If the author had limited the story to one or two of the characters and allowed them to speak for themselves it would have had a chance. But as written, it is just not a good read.