10 More Of The Sexiest Vampires

It's that time of year again, the weather is getting cooler and the ghosts and goblins will be coming out soon.  Nothing says Halloween like vampires so I feel like sharing 10 more of the sexiest vampires to ever grace a screen.  If you feel so inclined you can check out last years list as well.

THE MEN

Damon Salvatore, as played by Ian Somerhalder in the TV show "The Vampire Diaries."  The resident bad boy of Mystic Falls, Damon is sexy and dangerous.  There is always something about bad boys and leather jackets, not my normal type but I think I could make an exception.

Dylan Radcliff, as played by Luke Mably in the TV show "The Gates."  Dylan is trying to make a new life for his family but that pesky blood lust keeps him on his toes.  The fact that Dylan is both good looking and a loving family man makes him that much sexier.

Kit, as played by Johnathon Schaech in the movie "The Forsaken."  Formerly a French knight, Kit sold his soul for immortality and now he is being hunted by someone who doesn't want to live forever.  If he were to ask for sanctuary, I'm not sure I could turn him down.

Louis de Pointe du Lac, as played by Brad Pitt in the movie "Interview With A Vampire."  Louis has always been a troubled soul, being one of the undead never cured him of that.  How can you not find that soul searching turmoil paired with those good looks not appealing?

Spike, as played by James Marsters in the TV show "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer."  I guess if you combined Damon and Dylan into one vampire, you could end up with Spike.  When a bad boy falls in love and regains his soul you can't help but love him.  The attitude sure doesn't hurt either.

THE WOMEN

Claire Radcliff, as played by Rhona Mitra in the TV show "The Gates."  Claire and what she did to a mother and her child is the reason Dylan is trying to make a life for them.  Claire is the classic bad girl, she wants to do good but deep down she likes being bad.  With a sexy accent and a killer body, it's hard not to be.

Drusilla, as played by Juliet Landau in the TV show "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer."  If you want your woman to be smoking hot, crazy as a fox, and a sociopath, Drusilla is the girl for you.  With her gorgeous eyes and lush lips, Drusilla will change your life forever.

Janette DuCharme, as played by Deborah Duchene in the TV show "Forever Knight."  Janette was a prostitute in her former life.  Now she is a drop dead gorgeous nightclub owner who has a taste for the good life and  blood.

Lilie Langtry, as played by Stacy Haiduk in the TV show "Kindred: The Embraced."  As the Toreador primogen for the city of San Francisco, Lilie holds a lot of power.  As a former actress Lilie knows how to play her part, she uses that to her advantage.

Santanico Pandemonium, as played by Salma Hayek in the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn."  Blood thirsty killing machine who happens to be a stripper.  What's not to love?

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial food pipeline to live a rural life- vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.

One of the unforeseen benefits of starting my own book blog has been the fact that I've now read more non fiction books in the last year than I ever have before.  What's really wonderful about it is the wide range of topics I've been able to read about. I have since discovered a new found love of memoirs, so when I had the chance to sign up for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I jumped for it.

 I wasn't sure what I would get out of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle before I read it, and now that I'm done, I'm still not really sure what I got out of it.  When I started the book I assumed it would be a detailed account into the lives of the author and her family as they took a year off from outside sources of food and for the most part, that's what I got.  What I wasn't expecting was the almost dogmatic tone directed at the food industry as a whole.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that this book, for the most part, worked for me and I really enjoyed reading it.  I was amused and somewhat jealous of this family's year long experiment.  I can only imagine the pride of growing your own food and seeing it nourishing your family.  The sense of well earned accomplishment is one to be admired and I applaud the author for caring enough about her family to take on such a life changing journey.   It's one that I wish I had the resources to experience for myself. I would love to feed my son vegetables grown on our own land.

What I loved about this book more than anything was how personal it felt.  The author is more than willing to share all the details of her experiment.  It felt like I was living with them during that year and I never wanted to leave.  I laughed along with her while she was recounting her story of breeding heritage turkeys.  My mouth watered at some of the fantastic recipes sprinkled throughout the book, some of which I will be trying out very soon.

Where this book didn't work for me, and I may be in the minority on this one, is the almost condescending tone taken throughout the book towards the modern food industry and those of us forced to deal with it.  I'm not here to defend the industry, quite honestly I don't agree with half the things done to the animals and crops we get our food from.  Every time I see a video of a egg hatchery or a slaughter house I wish I had the luxury to swear off it's products, but like millions of other I don't. 

I know the author wasn't judging those of us who can't do what she did, but there was a tone used throughout the book that almost felt snobbish.  The sense of being better than the rest of us was implied though I don't think it was intentional.  I think when people write a memoir about any aspect of their life, a little ego will come out.  It's normal and not something done on purpose.  It's the lens we view life from.  For the most part this was a very small aspect of what I got from the book and not one that should deter anyone else from reading it.  It may be simply that I was being over sensitive and judging myself through the author's eyes.

Now I would like to say that this book changed my life and that I'll be eating differently.  This book made me want to and for a day or two after I finished with the book I was in that mind set. My reality quickly set in though and while I may be more conscious of my choices, I don't seem them changing all that much.  I will be visiting the farmers market more often to buy local, fresh produce and I will pay more attention to where my food comes from.  But in the end, though I loved reading this book, it won't be life changing for me.

You can read more about Barbara Kingsolver by visiting her website.

I would like to thank Trish of  TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to review this book.  This was part of a larger Barbara Kingsolver book tour featuring 5 of her books.  You can view all the other stops on the tour by visiting the tour page.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Amanda Shelton

Since I'm such a hug fan of "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" and it's amazing main character, Buffy Summers, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I love Sarah Michelle Gellar just as much.  She is an actress that brings every character she plays to life.  So this weeks Favorite Fictional Character is Amanda Shelton from the movie "Simply Irresistible."

When Amanda's mother passed away, she was left running a slowly dying restaurant.  It was a labor of love for her mother and Amanda has been trying in vain to keep it running.  She has very few customers, mainly old friends of her mother's who are just trying to be supportive.  The worst part, Amanda can't cook.  If it wasn't for her assistant, the restaurant would never serve anything that was edible.

Since Amanda is the star of a romantic comedy, you know something special will have to happen.  While she's at the market a mysterious crab crawls into her basket, and Amanda's life is never the same again.  While the crab looks on Amanda starts putting everything she has into her food, and I mean everything.  Amanda can not only cook and cook well now, but she can make her customer's feel any emotion just by eating the food.  Lucky for us there is a hunky man in the picture, Tom Bartlett, who is in charge of opening a new restaurant for a department store.  Needless to say hi jinks ensue and while the road may be rocky for or romantic couple, they end up together in the end.

What I love about Amanda is that she is both naive and worldly at the same time.  She is the girl next door that every girl wanted to be friends with and every boy wanted for his own.  Her approach to life is to grab it and turn it into something she wants.  She takes this opportunity to not only save her mother's dream but to find love for herself.  Even after she figures out what's going on, she keeps herself in control with only a little freaking out.  She accepts life and moves on.  She's not a whiner or a quitter and I admire her for it.

A Meeting At Corvallis by S.M. Stirling

It's been 10 years since the Change and Michael Havel and Juniper Mackenzie are still leading their groups of survivors in Western Oregon.  War with Norman Arminger hasn't started yet due to some ingenious moves by Clan Mackenzie, but it's only a matter of time before these groups will meet in battle and change their lives forever.

Because of various tactical planning by Juniper and her Clan, war with the Portland Protectorate Association hasn't quite broken out.  Tensions though are rising and it's only a matter of time before Norman Arminger and his even more dangerous wife, the Lady Sandra Arminger, figure out a way to ride roughshod over the obstacles in the way.

This is a tense third book in the series and one that I found myself being unable to put down.  The author is fantastic at creating completely believable worlds for his characters to inhabit.  It's those characters that drives this story.  This book, along with the two previous books, are glued together by the fantastic people who inhabit them.  It's their stories that will keep you coming back for more.  Now obviously, like most epic fantasy books, there is a large cast of characters running throughout the books so far.  Characters you will love and love to hate.  Lucky for us, they are all believable and well rounded.  Even the "evil" characters come across as complex individuals who have their own reasons for being the way they are. 

There are some brilliant supporting characters in these books, I may have not mentioned them before but they are well worth getting to know.  There is Mike's sister-in-law who's so into Tolkien that she, along with Juniper's deaf daughter, has started her own version of The Dunedain Rangers.  Juniper's son Rudi and Mathilda Arminger,the daughter of Lord Norman and Lady Sandra, are slowly growing into their own personalities and both are deeply enjoyable.  I could go on and on but there are so many wonderful characters in these books that I could take the next twenty paragraphs and never get through them all.

One warning though, and this started in the previous books, characters are never safe.  Even the ones you have grown to love are in danger of being killed off.  It's the one aspect of epic fantasy that when encountered for the first time, may take you by surprise.  The more you read and get into the story itself, you realize those deaths are needed to propel the story.  In a world turned upside down, people will die, including the good guys.

The meeting in Corvallis, which is an independent city state that is run by the old faculty of the University, that's in the title doesn't happen until the end of the book, but by then you are welcoming it.  It's a calming down of sorts that needs to happen but the journey towards that meeting is a wild ride that will leave you breathless.

They're Coming To Get You, Barbara.....

They're coming to get you, Barbara....They're coming for you, Barbara....They're coming for you....Look, there comes one of them now....Here he comes now! I'm getting out of here!

Little did Johnny know, how correct he was while he was teasing his sister, Barbara, that evening in the cemetery.  What started off as a taxing 6 hour long road trip to lay flowers on their father's grave, turned into a night of unspeakable horror.

When a destroyed satellite crashes to Earth, the radiation wakens the newly dead who wander around and feast on human flesh.  Barbara is quickly thrust into a world gone mad, where the walking dead is roaming the land slaying and eating their victims.

 After taking refuge in a farm house where she is quickly joined by others who are looking for a safety, Barbara and her companions must figure out what to do next.  Do they hole up in the house and hope for rescue or do they make a run for it to safety?  Either option leaves them exposed to the reanimated corpses gathering outside the house.

That one vital decision is what drives the best part of this movie.  It's the conflict and mistrust inside the house that fuels the flames and causes mistakes to happen.  When soul shaking fear is mixed in with self preservation instincts and overinflated egos, you know the result will not be good.  The tension and terror can be felt wafting off the screen and you can't help but be sucked into their plight.  How many of them will live to see morning?  Will any of them get out of that house alive?  I will leave it to you to find out what happens next, if you think you can handle it.

When Sept. starts drawing to a close and the weather is finally cooling off, I'm instantly in the mood for horror movies and books, so the other night I put in one of my favorite movies to start the season off right.  "Night of the Living Dead" just happens to be my favorite zombie movie.  Actually I'm not a big zombie fan, so this is one of the few movies I can handle.  The fact that is brilliantly done and still manages to scare the crap out of me at times, is even better.  I don't want to let you in on all the happenings, but I will give you a vague warning.  If you have never seen this before, don't get too comfortable in your ideas of what happens next.  Just when you think you have it figured out, something happens to change that outcome.

For those of you who don't mind sitting at their computer for about an hour and thirty-six minutes, I found the entire movie online at YouTube, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.  Bear in mind, it won't be as good as watching it on TV and the right hand side may be cut off, but just a fraction of it.



This will qualify for the Peril on the Screen segment of the R.I.P. Challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Indiana Jones

I'm more than a little excited to do this FFC post and I wish I could say it was all because of Indy.  As great as Indy is, I wouldn't be doing this post if he wasn't, he's not what I'm thrilled about showing you.  What I'm still giddy over is the lovely button that you see on the left hand side.  Saturday morning, early Saturday morning I got a email from my good friend Michelle of The True Book Addict.  Now any chance I get to talk with her is always fun so I gladly opened my email then about fell out of my chair.  The email was letting me know that, all on her own, she made a fantastic button for my Favorite Fictional Character posts.  Not only that, she made separate buttons for Halloween and Christmas characters during the months of Oct. and Dec.  Now I admit to never even thinking about having buttons for this but now that I have seen them and get to use them, I'm overly thrilled.  So I want to give a big humongous THANK YOU to Michelle.

Born, Henry Walton Jones, Jr., Indiana Jones is a rough and tumble college professor, archaeologist, OSS operative, and a ophidiophobia sufferer.  He is one of the most endearing characters to ever grace the big screen and I wanted to be just like him when I grew up. 

As Professor Jones, Indy is the intelligent, scholarly man who wears tweed and gives lectures that don't make you want to fall asleep.  He speaks many languages and knows so much about history and cultures that you would want him to be your lifeline call.  Once he has the chance to go out to the field and find an artifact though, he become Indiana Jones.  A fedora wearing, whip carrying man of action, Indian Jones is the pulp fiction hero come to life.

What is amazing about this character though is despite his rugged good looks (just look at that picture) and intense bravery, he is a human being.  He gets hurt, makes mistakes, laughs at himself and is so scared of snakes it's almost embarrassing to watch.  This sense of being a fallible human is what makes him such a great character.  He is the everyman we all want to be as kids especially when he is fighting Nazis, securing the Ark of the Covenant, finding the Holy Grail, or encountering inter dimensional beings.

The Protector's War by S.M. Stirling

Synopsis From Back Cover:

It's been eight years since the Change rendered technology inoperable across the globe.  Rising form the ashes of the computer and industrial ages is a brave new world.  Survivors have banded together in tribal communities, committed to rebuilding society.

There isn't a lot I can tell you about this book without giving a lot of the plot twists away, so this review will be short of details.  The book starts eight years after the Change and life in the Willamette Valley is teetering on the edge of war. The militarized Bearkillers led by Mike Havel and the mystical Clan Mackenzie headed by Juniper Mackenzie have managed to make a place in the valley for their respective societies.

The two groups have strong ties binding them together to oppose the Protectorate ruled by Norman Arminger.  All three groups now have heirs that they are wanting to protect and build inheritances for.  Together our heroes with the help of their allies, the warrior monks of Mt. Angel and the loose federation of ranchers east of the Cascades, are trying to keep Arminger's reach from growing even larger.

This is a solid second installment in the series and the focus, outside of the coming war, is on the family.  What family dynamics mean in a society where birthright is once again becoming an issue.  Who will inherit the positions of power when the parents start to die off?  What happens when titles and positions are once again important distinctions in society?  I don't want you to think that this is the only aspect of family that is explored in this book because it's not.  I don't think there is any aspect that isn't involved in this book and the interpersonal dynamics are fascinating to read.

The other aspect of the book I enjoyed was getting to see how other regions of the world have survived the Change.  We get to see glimpses in England and small glances at the rest of Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand.  Reading even a little bit of how the rest of the world manages to survive when everything they knew was turned on it's head was a treat that I was not expecting to see.

So for any of you who end up reading the first book in the series, Dies The Fire, you are in for an even better treat with this one.