Favorite Fictional Character --- Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner

While searching for a appropriate youtube video to put at the end of this post, my roommate commented that he couldn't understand why someone our age would still love these characters.  He said when he catches it on TV now, he just gets annoyed by them.  I told him to mind his own business and buzz off.

How can you not love the classic give and take between these two?  The pursuit, followed by the ultimate humiliation and defeat every time is a classic story. Whether you want to compare it to the relationship between two people who's feelings for each other aren't quite matching up or to the pursuit of your goals that seem to be just out of reach, the story seems to resonate within each of us.  Now what I just described is what I would compare this story to now, as a kid I just enjoyed it for the fun.

Watching this show as a kid was a war of wills for me.  At times I would be rooting for Wile E. Coyote to accomplish his goal of capturing the Road Runner.  I would want his crazy hair brained schemes to work.  I would want the boulder to wipe the Road Runner off the road, I would wait in anticipation to see if his new ACME rocket would help him out in his quest or if it would fail horribly once again.

At other times I would want the Road Runner to get away from the hungry look in Coyote's eyes.  I would sit on the floor with bated breath to see how he would get out of the Coyote's new nefarious trap.  This was the safe side to root for, because no matter what, you knew the Coyote would fail once again and that the Road Runner would live to see another day.

Dawn Of The Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

Synopsis From Back Cover:

....Dawn of the Dreadfuls-a thrilling prequel set four years before the horrific events of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  As our story opens, the Bennet sisters are enjoying a peaceful life in the English countryside.  they idle away the day reading, gardening, and daydreaming about future husbands-until a funeral at the local parish goes strangely and horribly awry.

Suddenly corpses are springing form the soft earth-and only one family can stop them.  As the bodies pile up, we watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naive young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead.  Along the way, two men vie for her affections: Master Hawksworth is the powerful warrior who trains her to kill, while thoughful Dr. Keckilpenny seeks to conquer the walking dead using science instead of strength.  Will either man win the pirze of Elizabeth's heart:  Or will their hearts be feasted upon by the hoardes of zombies?

When I first heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I was listening to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR and while they were making fun of it quite a bit I found myself getting a little giddy in the car.  So when that first book finally came out a few months later I was lining up in the store to get my hands on it.  For the most part the book lived up to what I wanted it to be.  It took a book, Pride and Prejudice, that for what ever reason I found myself falling asleep every time I read it and made it come alive for me.  The book that once bored me to tears gave me goose bumps.  Now I wasn't totally in love with it because it still held the language that I can't get through and not enough zombie action (blame it on the fact I'm a guy).

Fastforward in time to a few weeks ago when I saw someone posting about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls coming out and that same feeling of euphoria overtook me once again. I was so excited to see that it would be a prequel to PPZ and since Jane Austen never wrote such a book, it would be all new. I was bouncing up and down in my chair so hard I think I almost broke the poor thing and I had to get on twitter right away so express my glee. Little did I know that my tweet would be spotted by the wonderfully kind Melissa Monachello from the publisher, Quirk Books, who would then offer me a copy of the book. When I got that tweet, I almost fell on the ground. For the next few days I waited for the book to arrive and once I did it took all the self control I had to set it aside so I could finish the books I had already started.

Now I have finally finished the book and I must point out that this prequel was everything I wanted to PPZ to be. It had more brain eating, limb dismemberment, and gut spillage than the first plus a host of new characters to get to know. The book starts off with one of dryest tongue-in-cheek opening lines I've read in a long time:

"Walking out in the middle of a funeral would be, of course, bad form.  So attempting to walk out on one's own was beyond the pale."

That line promised good things to come.  The book is full of witty dialogue and a wry sense of humor that I find refreshing.  Most books that feature zombies or other such nasties tend to be in the strict horror genre or in the "urban paranormal", "urban fantasy", "paranormal fantasy" or what ever else you want to call it.  Now there is nothing wrong with that last genre, I just find it tends to "sex" up such creatures, which can get rather tedious after a while.  This book, at least for me, played the horror card well but never took itself to seriously.  The bordering on sarcastic sense of humor is what made this book great for me.  It was used to point out the flaws that existed in society at the time as well as looking at male/female relationships and their respective roles in a world gone crazy.

Now I know some of you, the Jane Austen purists to name a few, will probably not even give this book a chance, either because it plays around in the universe created by a beloved author or for the simple fact pleny of innards are spilled and devoured.  I would only ask that before you reject it out of hand, you give it a thought or two to see if you could maybe find yourself laughing aloud, while being horrified at the same time.

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Reclusive tycoon Sir Oswald Coote and his melancholy wife, Lady Coote, have hit upon the ideal plan to spice up their quiet lives.  They'll host a lavish weekend part at Chimneys, their isolated estate, and invite only "bright young things."  But the festive mood is clouded by doom.  A practical joke involving seven clocks and a sleeping guest has ended in accidental death-and cuase for alarm.  For the guests may not be all that they appear.  And as whispers of a strange clube called Seven Dials echo through the halls of Chimneys, all hands will be pointing to murder....

First of all I have to say I loved this book and I'm going to have to put it up near the top of my favorite Christie books.  This book brought back a fun loving character from a previous books, "Bundle" Brent who first appeared in The Secret of Chimneys, she shines in this one.  Like most of Dame Agatha's female characters, Bundle is a strong minded woman who not only solves the case but finds love all at the same time. 

I really can't get into too much of the overall storyline as it would give too much away but I will say while there are a few murders, this book reads more like a spy vs. spy read though you aren't sure which incidents are really red herrings that are leading the reader down a path that really doesn't exist.  I have to say I was surprised by the ending and I wouldn't have had it any other way.  This was a affirmation for me of how good Agatha Christie really was at mapping out plot line that has twists, turns, and false paths that all make sense at the end.

This book qualified for both the Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge 2010 and the Typically British Reading Challenge 2010 both of which are hosted by Carolyn of Book Chick City.

Mailbox Monday for 03/29/2010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marica at The Printed Page

Now I have already broke my book buying ban, I'm such a bad boy.

I bought A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen from Barnes & Noble

I won Black Hills by Dan Simmons in hardcover from Nely over at All About {n}

I got 12 by Jeffrey Marcus Oshins from Goodreads giveaway program

I made a trip to the library and stopped in the Friends of the Library Bookstore and walked out with 5 books.  I bought The Terror by Dan Simmons, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, and The Married Man by Edmund White all in trade paperback for $.75 each.  I also got The Elder Gods by David & Leigh Eddings and Into Darkness by Barbara Michaels both in hardcover for a $1 each.

The Jets: The Best Band Of All Time

Ok, they really aren't the best band of all time but they are my favorite.  The first year we were with the carnival I saw them in concert about 8 times at different country fairs in Minnesota.  So for those of you who may not remember them, here is a few of their videos.











Sorry, it's a lot of videos but I couldn't narrow it down any further.

A Film Meme, Now For The Second Time

I was tagged by Ceri form Not in the Pink for this one and since I love movies as much as books I said what the heck, lets do it.  Now I had already done a version of this meme on August 3rd of last year, so I will try to expand on my answers and not repeat myself.  Now a few of the questions are different but most are the same.

Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times.

The Thin Man would be one I've seen over and over and over and over and over again.

Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema.

I'm not a big lets go to the theater to see it over and over kind of guy.  Now because of a past relationship I do remember seeing The Cell with Jennifer Lopez and Mission Impossile 2 in the theater twice each.

Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.

Parker Posey

Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.

Nicholas Cage

Name a film that you can and do quote from.

Monster Squad. "Kick him in the nards, kick him in the nards.......the Wolfman  does have nards!"

Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

The Phantom of the Opera, only because I loved the stage musical first.

Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.

To name a few I didn't name last time:  Gosford Park, The Thin Man series, Gremlins, The Last Starfighter, The Orphanage, Pan's Labyrinth, and I will end it there otherwise the list will never end.

Ever walked out of a film?

Another movie I walked out of was 12 Monekeys.

Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.

Ok I have to give a different answer from last time and since I mentioned two of them then, the first movie that comes to mind this time is Evita.  All I ask is that you keep the snickering to a minimum.

Popcorn?

The more butter the better.

How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

Not as much as I used to.  It's about a few times a month now.  It used to be once or twice a week.

What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?

I'm not sure but the last few movies I've seen in the theater are: Ninja Assassins, The Road, Precious, and I know I have seen movies since then but my mind is drawing a blank right now.

What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?

My second favorite would be mystery.  I can never get enough of a good murder.

What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?

I also remember seeing pretty early in life: The Creep Show, Dawn of the Dead, and The Sword in the Stone.

What film do you wish you had never seen?

Twilight.  I finally broke down and saw the first movie and I've been kicking myself ever since.

What is the scariest film you’ve seen?

After Halloween it would have to be The Blair Witch Project, that ending scared the hell out of me.

If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?

Zorro or Tarzan.  It would be so cool to be either character, The Lone Ranger comes to mind as well.

Total number of films you own on DVD and video.

137 plus another 25 seasons of different TV shows

Last film you bought.

I bought Snow White, Poltergeist, Mannequin and Mannequin 2: On The Move all at the same time.

Last film you watched.

I rented The Hurt Locker and I loved it as much as I did in the theater.  The last movie I watched off of TV was Them! which I had on my DVR from TCM.

Five films that mean a lot to you.

I tackled this thinking if I could only watch 5 movies for the rest of my life, what would they be?  So I chose; The Women, Auntie Mame, The Thin Man, Halloween, and Christmas in Connecticut.

Winner of Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein

Now is the time to announce the lucky winner of Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein.  Using random.org  the winner was:

Krista

I will be sending an email shortly and Krista will have 8 hours to forward me her shipping info or a new winner will be picked.

Word Verification Balderdash

For those of you unfamiliar with the greatness that is Balderdash, here is what you do. You write down all the word verifications you come across as you are commenting on other people's blogs. Then you play balderdash with them. Now for those of you who don't know how to play, you take a made up word and come up with an authentic sounding definition of it. Do this for a week and post your best ones on Thursday.

Come back and leave a link to your post and I will add it to the bottom of the post.

Here are mine for this week:

 

Phodem:  Race of demons, first encountered by the Charmed Sisters, that are able to transport themselves via telephone lines.  Once out of phone lines they are able to send large gusts of words at their victims, causing hearing loss and cell phone envy.  The Charmed Ones were able to beat them by canceling their phone service and ever since the Phodems have been making a nusiance of themselves to Harry Dresden.

 

Locail:  Slang term used for the stupid, ididotic, and crazy spam email that manages to find itself to your inbox everyday.  Whether it's for sex sites, erectile disfunction cures, offers to share millions of dollars, or to join the wonderful field of animal control; locail is annoying and I for one think we need to start a petition to end it once and for all.  Of couse some of those sites are interesting, so maybe not.

 

Verax:  Small lynx like animal that was tamed by great heroes of history, Gilgamesh and Abraham Lincolon among them.  Veraxes, are wonderful creatures that bond with their owners for life and grant them great wisdom and courage.  It is rumoured that a Verax can actually take over the body of their owner, giving them unnatural abilities at time.  This may explain the recent revelations of the vampire hunter skills that Abraham Lincoln was know for.

 

Conage:  Cage matches where to convicts are place in a ring and forced to fight to the death.  The jusitfication gives was that the prison system was becoming overcrowded and space needed to be made for recent arrivals.  The added fiscal benefit of televising the matches was whole heartedly welcomed as well. They were in vogue around the same time the hit TV game show, The Running Man, was popular.  Both practices after years of scrutiny were pronounced barbaric and have been outlawed.

Favorite Fictional Character --- The Women

I was watching one of my favorite movies, the 1939 version of The Women, and it reminded me that I havent' mentioned the great characters in a FFC post yet.  So here I am today, rectifying that wrong.

For those of you not familiar with the movie, here is a link to IMDB site that gives the full cast list and synopsis.  The movie is a brilliant remake of a Broadway play that took a intimate look at the cat fights and interpersonal politics in a group of society women.  The cast was all female and all the male characters were off screen and never heard from.

I want to quickly talk about the three main characters and the fabulous actresses who played them.  Norma Shearer (in the middle of the picture) played Mrs. Stephen Haines or Mary for short.  She was the wronged woman who's husband was having an affair behind her back.  She was also the last to know about, her friends, gossiping behind her back, took great relish in knowing something that Mary never did.  As played by Norma Shearer, Mary was demure but strong at the same time.  She demanded the respect that every woman should get from her husband and when things didn't quite go her way, she left him.  She wanted to be the modern, independent woman, who was the equal of her husband.  She also wanted to be needed and loved by him and if he would have played it differently she never would have left.  By the end of the movie, you can see the pain Mary is still feeling, two years after her divorce.  You can tell she still loves her ex husband and you get to see Mary, playing by the rules of her friends, to get him back.

Joan Crawford played Crystal Allen, the gold digging saleswoman who gets her claws into Stephen Haines.  She is the perfect vamp, played to the nth degree by the wonderful Joan Crawford.  You want to despise the woman for destroying what was a happy marriage, but by the end of the movie you realize that as catty and selfish as Crystal is, she still comes across as a understandable character.  That you can understand her motivations and wish her the best.

Now comes my favorite character, that of Mrs. Howard Fowler, we can call her Sylvia.  She is played by the hysterically funny Rosalind Russell, who is still my favorite actress of all time.  She is the bitchy, gossipy cousin of Mary who stays right in the thick of things the entire time.  She enjoys seeing other women's marriages fall apart because it means she doesn't have to think of her own that is slowly dying because her husband is falling for a chorus girl (Paulette Goddard).  She is both conniving and funny at the same time.  You love it when she joins Mary in Nevada to get her own divorce, because you think she deserves it.  You love it even more when she turns on Crystal at the end and rejoins the side of a very dubious Mary.  You know she has no morals but you love her anyway.

There are some other fantastic performances in this movie by Ruth Hussey, Lucille Watson, Phyliss Povah, Joan Fontaine, Marjorie Main, and Mary Boland.  Hedda Hopper even appears as herself.  You put all these women together and you get a wonderfully entertaining group of characters that never fails to make me laugh.

The Creation Of Eve by Lynn Cullen

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The Creation of Eve is a novel based on the true but little-known story of Sofonisba Anguissola, the first renowned female artist of the Renaissance.  After a scandal in Michelangelo's workshop, Sofi flees Italy and joins the Spanish court of King Felipe II to be a lady-in-waiting to his young bride.  There she becomes embroiled in a love triangle involving the Queen, the King, and the King's illegitimate half brother, Don Juan.  The Creation of Eve combines art, romance, and history from the Golden Age in Spain in a story that asks the question: Can you ever truly know another person's heart?

I'm still trying to figure out how much of this book I enjoyed and how much of it just wasn't for me.  On the one hand we are presented with a fantastic character in Sofi.  A woman, with the support of her family, pursues her passion of art.  Her father pushes her and supports her to the point of getting the attention of Michaelangelo himself.  She is constantly trying to prove herself in a world dominated by men.  Through her own actions she is forced into a situation where she is bound to serve the King of Spain as an attendant to his new bride.

Now if the book would have stayed with her story at this point I would have enjoyed the book more, as it was it seemed she was the tool used to tell the story of King Felipe, Queen Elisabeth, and Don Juan.  That everything Sofi did or said, even about her own life, was to illustrate a point abou the lifes of those she was obliged to serve. 

What I was wanting, was more of Sofi's story.  More about her childhood and the reactions of her community to what she was doing and how far her father was willing to go to help her.  I wanted more details about the art aspect of her life, about her process and actual works.  I wanted to know more about her life after she left the service of the royal family, I know it's talked about in the afterword, but imagine how much better it would have been to have her entire life fleshed out in prose.  Essentialy, I wanted more of Sofi and less of everyone else.

With that being said I enjoyed the author's writing style and her way she was able to bring every scene to life in my mind.  It's obvious she did some serious researching and while quite a bit of the personal stuff may have been made up, whe was able to put in enough "reality" that the rest of it was still believable.  I found myself being dissapointed in the book anyway. Now this could simply be the fact that I'm not familiar with that much historical fiction, as this is really the first non mystery historical I've really read.  It could be that maybe this genre really isn't for me.  I don't know but I'm willing to read more to see if it could be. 

For more on the author please visit her website, lynncullen.com.

I was give the opportunity to read, review this book by Trish of  TLC Book Tours.

You Can Read More Reviews Here:

Wednesday, March 3rd: Scandalous Women

Thursday, March 4th: Café of Dreams

Monday, March 8th: Books and Movies

Tuesday, March 9th: Booking Mama

Thursday, March 11th: Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, March 15th: Fyrefly’s Book Blog

Tuesday, March 16th: The Tome Traveller

Wednesday, March 17th: Educating Petunia

Thursday, March 18th: English Major’s Junk Food

Monday, March 22nd: A Few More Pages

Tuesday, March 23rd: Devourer of Books

Wednesday, March 24th: Wordsmithonia

Thursday, March 25th: A Bookshelf Monstrosity

Monday, March 29th: Katie’s Nesting Spot

Tuesday, March 30th: Dolce Bellezza

Wednesday, March 31st: Raging Bibliomania

Friday, April 2nd: Thoughts From an Evil Overlord

Mailbox Monday for 3/22/2010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page

Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint in hardcover was purchased from the Friends of the Library Bookstore for $2.

I purchased Sepulchre by Kate Moss in hardcover from the bargain table at Barnes & Noble.

Another Meme I'm Stealing From Alexia

Well I was blog surfing and came across another meme at Alexia's Books and Such..., called What I Do and Do Not Like.  It looks really easy and since I've been hitting a reading slump I would give it a go.

The rules are really simple, all you have to do is fill in the blanks after each bold word and tag 3 of your friends, I'm not a big tagger so if you feel like joining in, consider yourself tagged.

I like cold fried chicken,
I like root beer.
I like getting my hair cut.
I like ferns.
I like anything that is flavored with butterscotch.
I like being home by myself.
I like thunderstorms.
I like listening to old mystery radio shows.
I like Christmas cards.
I like the way snow looks on pine trees.
I like Limon salt on my popcorn.
I like raspberry vinegar.

I love my son.

Today is just begining.

I hate clowns.
I hate falling down the stairs.
I hate overly hot Summer days.
I hate watching golf.
I hate FOX News.
I hate leeches.

I (secretly) like eating in public by myself.

I love books.

One Of My Childhood Heroes Passed Away Today

I was saddened to learn when I got home today that one of my favorite television heroes passes away today.  Fess Parker, who plaed Davy Crockett in numerous Disney movies and Daniel Boone for the NBC series of the same name, passed away today at the age of  85.

You may also remember him as the dad in Old Yeller or the cult classic, Them! about rampaging ants, which I actually have on my DVR right now.

He brought me hours of entertainment and adventure and I'm thankful to him for it.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Dagny Taggart

So for this week I picked Dagny Taggart, the protagonist of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.  Dagny is the the Operating Vice President of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental which is being run into the ground by her weak willed brother James Taggart.  She is strong willed and independent and does everything she can to save the company from going under in a country that is slowly being taken over by those who want to reward laziness and punish inovation.

You would think that in book filled with archtypes and characters that were well written to be examples of what the author either admired or disdained, that Dagny would be a little one sided and not as dynamic as she is portrayed.  The author did a brilliant job showing a woman who is both principled and flawed, a woman who strives to save everything she loves and starts an affair with a married man all at the same time.  She is a woman who respects herself and knows what she has to offer to her company and other people in her life that she respects and admires.  She is a woman who will not compromise her beliefs even when society seems to be falling apart around her.

Regardless of what an individual reader feels about the book or Ayn Rand herself, I would just say that this character is brilliantly done and one of the strongest women I've ever had the honor of reading about.

TV Guide Picks TV's Top 50 Families Of All Time

I'm a TV nut, I can't get enough of my favorite shows.  So like any good TV fantatic I subscribe to TV Guide, the handbook of all things television.  I got next weeks issue in the mail today and the cover story is their ranking of the Top 50 TV families of all time, so I thought I would share who made the list and in the order they were ranked.

1.  The Bradys from "The Brady Bunch"

2.  The Huxtables from "The Cosby Show"

3.  The Bunkers from "All in the Family"

4.  The Simpsons from "The Simpsons"

5.  The Sopranos from "The Sopranos"

6.  The Waltons from "The Waltons"

7.  The Conners from "Roseanne"

8.  The Cleavers from "Leave it to Beaver"

9.  The Ewings from "Dallas"

10.  The Barones from "Everybody Loves Raymond"

11.  The Pritchetts from "Modern Family"

12.  The Clampetts from "The Beverly Hillbillies"

13.  The Cunninghams from "Happy Days"

14.  The Ingallses from "Little House on the Prairie"

15.  The Keatons from "Family Ties"

16.  The Jeffersons from "The Jeffersons"

17.  The Tates and The Campbells from "Soap"

18.  The Taylors from "The Andy Griffith Show"

19.  The Addamses from "The Addams Family"

20.  The Evanses from "Good Times"

21.  The Cartwrights from "Bonanza"

22.  The Bluths from "Arrested Development"

23.  The Lopez' from "George Lopez"

24.  The Flintstones from "The Flintstones"

25.  The Osbournes from "The Osbournes"

26.  The Fishers from "Six Feet Under"

27.  The Camdens from "7th Heaven"

28.  The Arnolds from "The Wonder Years"

29.  The Griffins from "Family Guy"

30.  The Rocks from "Everybody Hates Chris"

31.  Malcom's Family from "Malcom in the Middle"

32.  The Patridges from "The Partridge Family"

33.  The Robinsons from "Lost in Space"

34.  The Taylors from "Friday Night Lights"

35.  The Carringtons from "Dynasty"

36.  The Dubois from "Medium"

37.  The Munsters from "The Munsters"

38.  The Andersons from "Father Knows Best"

39.  The Tanners from "Full House"

40.  The Bradfords from "Eight is Enough"

41.  The Salingers from "Party of Five"

42.  The Seavers from "Growing Pains"

43.  The Davis' from "Family Affair"

44.  The Douglas' from "My Three Sons"

45.  The Gilmores from "The Gilmore Girls"

46.  The Henricksons from "Big Love"

47.  The Hecks from "The Middle"

48.  The Petries from "The Dick Van Dyke Show"

49.  The Walshes from "Beverly Hills, 90210"

50.  The Kardashians from "Keeping Up with the Kardashians"

There is the list and I must say while I'm happy about some of them, The Cartwrights for example, I'm a little dissapointed that two reality show families made the list.  I'm not saying they are "bad" families but this should be about families that aren't using the medium of television to make a buck.  Some of the families I wish would have made the list are The Barkleys from "The Big Valley", The Stephens' from "Bewitched", and The Jestsons from "The Jetsons".

Some other families that I think got left out for some odd reason are; The Bundys from "Married, With Children", The Hogans from "The Hogan Family" the sitcom not the reality show, The Papadopolis' from "Webster", The Drummond/Jacksons from "Diff'rent Strokes", The Tanners from "Alf", The Lawsons from "Small Wonder", The Lamberts from "Step By Step",  and The Taylors from "Home Improvement".

So which of your favorites made the list and which should have made the list?

I Was In The Mood For A Little Kay Starr

Word Verification Balderdash

For those of you unfamiliar with the greatness that is Balderdash, here is what you do. You write down all the word verifications you come across as you are commenting on other people's blogs. Then you play balderdash with them. Now for those of you who don't know how to play, you take a made up word and come up with an authentic sounding definition of it. Do this for a week and post your best ones on Thursday.

Come back and leave a link to your post and I will add it to the bottom of the post.

Here are mine for this week:

Probor:  This term refers to that person in your life that constantly bores you to death.  It's the one person you really like, but everytime they talk you find yourself falling asleep.

Flice:  A crossbeed of flea and lice with the worst attributes of both.  They are able to jump 10 feet through the air to find a new host body.  They not only constantly bit the host but they will lay over 100 eggs every 47 minutes.  The only way to exterminate them is by dousing the host with a combination of Miracle Whip, hot pickle relish, hydrogen peroxide, and Pepto Bismol.  This solution must cover the host's entire body for 71 hours and 22 minutes.

Soach:  Sterling silver coaches that are currently all the rage in Paris and Milan.  For the sexy and rick, they are the only acceptable mode of transportation.

Shoss:  In the alternative reality being explored on this season's episodes of Fringe, Shoss is the name of one of the brothers on their version of the hit show Bonanza.

Corey Haim and Zelda Rubinstein, Remembered

My favorite Corey Haim movie has to be The Lost Boys, which is still one of the best vampire movies ever made.  The pairing of him and Corey Feldman was perfection .  Whenever they appeared together, you knew the movie would be good.  With his tragic death today I'm not sure I will ever be able to watch The Lost Boys again, without paying a little tribute to this talented actor.

The other person I wanted to say a quick word about was Zelda Rubinstein, who passed away in January of this year.  Most of us know her as Tangina from Poltergeist, which she was great in by the way.  My favorite movie of her's though was Teen Witch, as the teacher to a young girl coming into her powers.  She gave me hours of entertainment as a kid and I thank her for it.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Angel

Well here we are, a new week and a new FFC post.  Well as you can tell I picked Angel from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel, one of the sexiest vampires to grace the small screen.   How can you not love him, look at him, he's hot.  Of course it helps that he was played by David Boreanz, who is one of the hottest guys in hollywood.

For those of you who were living under large, unmovable rocks from 1997 through 2004, Angel was the cursed, brooding vampire that broke Buffy's heart.  He was turned into a vampire by Drusilla (played by the wonderful Julie Benz) and the two of them went on a rampage, slaughtering hundreds of people and reveling in the blood.  He killed a young gypsy girl, then had her clan curse him with his soul back.  He spent years living in squalor, feeding of rats, and moping around the world, feeling sorry for himself.

He is given a purpose to protect Buffy and the rest is history.  He was a brilliantly complex character who grew over seven years into a man who loved his friends, his family, and even under the worst circumstances always tried to do the right thing.  You see him as the hero and the villian at times and both of those aspects of his personality are needed to make him the man that he is.

Giveaway of Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein

Guess what everyone....Sarah over at Terra Communications has very generously offered an extra copy to be given away to one lucky winner.  If you haven't read my review you can find it here.

The rules of this giveaway are going to be pretty simple.  You must reside within the United States or Canada.  You have to be a follower of the blog and you must leave a comment with your email address. 

For one extra entry, if you are so inclinded to pursue, please let me know of a book that despite the cover, you went ahead and read and were glad you did.

The contest will run for two weeks, ending on 03/23/10 at 11:59 PM.  The winner will be selected by random.org after which I will email the winner.  The winner will then have 48 hours to contact me with their mailing address or a new winner will be selected.

Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein

Synopsis From Back Cover:

When Jenna Rosen abandons her comfortable Seattle life to visit Wrangell, Alaska, it's a wrenching return to her past.  The hometown of her Native American grandmother, Wrangell is located near the Thunder Bay Resort, where Jenna's young son, Bobby, disappeared two years before.  His body was never recovered, and Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death.  But whispers of ancient legends begin to suggest a frightening new possibility about Bobby's fate, and Jenna must sift through the beliefs of her ancestors, the Tlingit, who still tell of powerful, menacing forces at work in the Alaskan wilderness.  Armed with nothing but a mother's protective instincts, Jenna's quest for the truth behind her son's disappearance is about to pull her into a terrifying and life-changing abyss.

I have to admit upfront that I had never heard about this book or the author before, which after reading it I should be apologizing for, so when I was offered a chance to read the reissue of the book and I read the synopsis, I jumped at the chance.  Now I will also have to admit to feeling a little disappointment when I first got the book and glimpsed the cover.  It looked like any other book out there and had a hint of "chick lit" to it.  If I had seen the book in a store, sitting on a new release table, I would not have picked it up.  I actually looked up the earlier cover for the book, and while it wasn't the best either, I felt that it caputred the mysterious aspect of the book better.  While this cover seems to say not much other than that it's pretty.

Now that I got that off my chest, I have to say I loved this book.  The story was a blend of drama, mystery, paranormal, myth, and fantasy all rolled up into a very cohesive book that even when it took the fantastical turns, you always feel as if it's real.  Jenna and Robert (her husband) felt like real people trying to deal with their loss in different ways which caused strain in the relationship.  It just so happens that on the anniversary of their son's death they are required to go to a dinner party which ends up being too much for Jenna.  She ends up taking off and ends up back in Alaska where the tragedy happened.

Jenna meets three individuals who are to become very important in her life, Oscar the loveable dog who may be more than he seems, Eddie the adorable fisherman, and David the tribal shaman who is dealing with demons of his own.  With their help Jenna takes a terrifying and touching journey to discover what happened to her son and where he is at now.

I've been struggling to do this review simply because so much of this book is important to the story and I don't want to give too much away.  The last thing I will say is that I felt this book was the perfect blend of the fantastic and realism, that the way these two elements are blended is seamless and you aren't always sure where one ends and the other begins.

I would like to thank Sarah at Terra Communications for the opportunity to read this wonderfully written book.

Mailbox Monday for 3/8/2010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marica of The Printed Page

I got Pride And Prejudice And Zombies: Dawn Of The Dreadfuls from the publisher (thank you Melissa) and I can't wait to dig into it.  How can you not love the cover?

I won an signed copy of Bonshaker by Cherie Priest from Celia of Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia.  I guess this was a week for zombie themed books.

Monster. 1959 by David Maine and The Sorcerer's Plague by David B. Coe were $1 hardcovers from The Dollar Tree. 

Davy Crockett: Two Movie Set is a DVD I got through Disney Movie Rewards.  For those of you unfamiliar with the program most of the Disney DVDs have special rewards codes that you collect on their website.  After a while you can trade those points in for free cool stuff.  This was our first redemption.  Now I just have to find a coon skin cap for Aidan.

Win a Copy of Pride And Prejudice And Zombies: Dawn Of The Dreadfuls

Head on over to My Eclectic Reads to win a copy of this book, don't worry I'm not entering because I already got a copy in the mail a few days ago, I'm so in love with the cover.  This is the prequel to Pride And Prejudice And Zombies and while it's based off of the same characters this book is not based off of any of Austen's writing, it's all brand new.  So hurry your butts over then and get entered to win!

Book Questionnaire

I saw this over at Alexia's Books and Such... and since I haven't  done one of these in a long time, I figurered I would give it a go.

Rules of this survey - no two answers can be the same book and all books must be fiction.


Book next to your bed right now:  The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Favorite series:  The Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey

Favorite book:  And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The one book you would have with you if stranded on a desert island:  Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  As long as it is, I would be busy for long periods of time.

Book/series you would take with you on a long flight:  The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling

Worst book you were made to read in school:  Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank.  I don't think this is a bad book though, actually I really enjoyed it.  I had to put something down though.

Book that everyone should be made to read in school:   The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Book that everyone should read, period:  Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

Favorite character:  Vanyel Ashkevron

Best villain:  Dracula

Favorite concept series:  The Dune series by Frank Herbert

Favorite invented world:  The world invented for The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

Most beautifully written book:   The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Funniest book: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton

I Was In The Mood For A Little Old School Hip Hop

Favorite Fictional Character --- The Lone Ranger

I'm not sure if anyone who grew up watching TV as a kid, well at least my age or older, who hasn't seen at least one episode of The Lone Ranger.  Now I wasn't around when this show first aired on TV between 1949-1957, but like a lot of shows I grew up watching, I was able to enjoy it in syndication.

There was nothing about it that a young kid wouldn't be able to love.  There was plenty of action, lots of gun fights, and a really cool horse that I always wanted to jump right on and take off into the sunset.  Of course it helped that Reid (The Lone Ranger) and his partner, the equally cool, Tonto were always on the side of truth and justice and they always came out on top.

Now I'm sure there are some now who would want to look at this show with glasses tinted by various sociological lenses, but for me this show was just fun.  It was the basic storyline of right vs. wrong and good will always win over evil. 

I've seen a few of the movies and while I enjoyed them, the Lone Ranger in my head will always be from the TV show that first aired from 1949-1957.  I've even listened to a few of the old radio show broadcasts and I loved them.  Sitting at home on a rainy day listening to show my grandparents and great grandparents would have listened to always puts me at ease, besides they are a whole lot of fun.  Now one of the days I have promised myself that I will check out a few of the novelizations and comic books based on this character.

Just watching the opening sequence of the show puts me back to Saturday mornings in 1st grade, wearing my pjs, and scarfing breakfast down in front of the TV watching The Lone Ranger and Tonto fight the good fight.