Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls For the 21st Century (Volume 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)All in all, a great collection of tales imbued with a serious sense of dread, making it nigh impossible to set this issue aside. Pick up your copy today!
1. "Hazards" by Justin Pollock: A good Samaritan sees more than he could ever have expected late one night on the open road.
2. "Darnell Behind Glass" by Jeff Crook: In this particular convenience store, sometimes it's hard to tell the living from the dead.
3. "The Mine" by Jason V. Shayer: A weird western with two mischievous lads determined to uncover a local mystery--and see some dead bodies.
4. "Ricky and the Elder Gods" by S.M. Williams: A dual-POV tale between the hunter (assisted by two otherworldly, indescribable creatures) and the hunted (one very tough chick).
5. "Gingerbread and Ashes" by Jaelithe Ingold: In this well-told sequel, you'll wish you'd never wondered what became of Hansel and Gretel.
6. "Dear Management" by Tom Wortman: Hands-down the funniest tale in this issue, in which a new employee confronts the source of a horrific odor emanating somewhere above his office.
7. "In the Place Where the Tree Falleth" by Michael Lutz: A seminary student selling Bibles happens upon an ancient house where the mysterious owners believe in a new god who is not silent.
8. "Laundry Night" by Stephen Hill: Everybody loses a sock now and then; but in the bowels of this particular condominium, gruesome horrors lurk among the washers and dryers.
9. "Hello Operator" by Donny Waagen: In this surreal, absurd tale involving a phone booth and a whole lot of water, one man's journey into the afterlife becomes another man's headache.
10. "Courting the Queen of Sheba" by Amanda C. Davis: Three circus performers get way more than they bargained for when they steal a competitor's ancient corpse for their own sideshow.
11. "A Requiem for Tarsenesia" by William Knight: In this dark fantasy where music is the only defense against unseen monsters, the young daughter of an instrument maker must decide the fate of all.
12. "The Hole" by Rob Errera: In this parable, you may not learn the lesson until it's too late.

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Blue Moon (Orca Soundings) Review

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(More customer reviews)Growing up can have a harsh reality when taking responsibility of an animal. It is not always fun and games it is very hard and frustrating work. For a young person that is a very big responsibility to know that the life of this animal is in your hands.
Bobby Joe is a teenage girl with a heart for barrel racing. She had saved her money for years for that great horse. Then Bobby Joe's parents let her go to her first horse sell by herself. She came home with a beaten up old mare and $690 short. At the horse sell Bobby Joe had to ask Cole for so money. Cole is this boy that she does not like. He work at the horse sell and he was the only person there she knew so she had to ask him for the money, which she did not like. When at home she set her mind to have a barrel racing horse by the end of summer.
Things were going good through the summer with the horse and she was going to go to the barrel races. Her and Cole had become good friends and were always together, but then one-day things started going wrong. Then she finds out that the horse show is in a few weeks. What is she going to do and will she be able to go?
Taking the responsibility of buying and raising a horse is a big thing. When taking the responsibility of owning a horse and the things that can happen will make you grow up and face reality.
This is a great book to read. Anyone that likes horse will love this book and will not want to put it down. Even if you don not horse this book will show you the love people have for their animals.


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Bombproof Your Horse: Teach Your Horse to Be Confident, Obedient, and Safe, No Matter What You Encounter Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently attended a dressage clinic given by an international classical dressage master and 3 of the 8 so-called accomplished riders should have read this book first! This book is simply the best, most concise, clearly presented treatise on dealing with the innumerable terrifying possibilities every rider faces at some time in their riding careers. It encourages a pro-active approach to de-spooking horses before they know the multitude of things there are in the world to spook at -- like crossing water, whizzing bikes, too-friendly mothers wheeling baby carriages, waving baloons, flags and plastic bags, flapping tarps, barking, charging dogs, etc, etc, etc. To the uninitiated horse, most events outside of their stable yard are terrifying. It is the riders' responsibility to expose their horses to these terrors before disaster strikes so as to have a pleasurable, meaningful relationship with their horses. Too many people wait til they're dumped on their butt or even seriously injured to start this training and then the response is often abusive -- beating their horses for being afraid, which of course only makes them more afraid. I really appreciate the author's measured, systematic approach to the process of bombproofing. He emphasizes that first, the rider must have a secure seat and good, general riding abilities to cope with a fearful horse. Then he lays out many clear, descriptive exercises for bombproofing, both from the ground and under saddle. His approach is always sympathetic to both the rider and the horse; the book is sprinkled with humor and personal anecdotes and great, fun ideas for a "communal bombproofing day". Every horseperson should read this book!

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A clearly illustrated manual that shows equestrians how to prepare their mounts for the unexpected, turning them into safer, more pleasurable mounts.

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Youth in Revolt: Now a major motion picture from Dimension Films starring Michael Cera (Random House Movie Tie-In Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)For the sake of being interesting, I will review this book in the style which it was written:
Day 1: Finally started reading this book. Many years ago, a friend suggested I read it. Ever since then, the title was always stuck in my head. When I would see it in print I would think, "You know. I really should pick that book up." Eventually I did pick it up, but it ended up in my overly large "to read" pile. Finally, something made me pick it up today. After 50 pages, it seems interesting.
Day 2: I read more of the book today. I'm having trouble getting into it based on the nature of how it is written. The entire book is written in the form of journal entries. Don't get me wrong, it's easy to read. Still, I find that the short entries lend themselves to reading only a few at a time. Still, over the course of the day I read 100 pages. Certainly an interesting book.
Day 3: I read 250 pages of the book today. I can't put it down. The short journal entries have gone from being a hindrance in reading to an aid in getting rapid snapshots of how the story unfolds. The narrative transpires in small doses which leave you wanting more. As soon as I put the book down I want to pick it up again and get another dose. I cannot remember the last time I was so engrossed in a book. It's uncanny.
Day 4: Today is the final day with the book. That sounds funny, but it's true. I wish it were 1000 pages long and I could get 4 more days out of it. No, make that 2000. For the first time in a long time, I am saddened to see a book coming to a close. I don't want it to end, I enjoy it that much. Normally, I look forward to the close of one story and the beginning of a new one. Not this time. I want this story to go on forever (or a reasonable length of time). It's that enjoyable.
Day 5: I am sitting here the day after, thinking about the book. The ending was good enough, not Earth shattering. Nothing amazing could have happened to make everything right in the world again. I honestly didn't expect a lot from the ending and I would have been disappointed if he had tried to do make everything perfect. The bulk of the story ties up, which prevents it from merely hanging. Still, some questions remain, like: How did Paul know?
I wish I could pick it up and read it again. But it's too early for that. Being honest, the book wasn't philosophically deep enough for me to learn anything new if I were to reread it immediately. Still, the book was really good. Sitting down with it every day was a pleasure.
If every book were this good, I would read constantly. As it is, I read every day, but not like this. I read this book while brushing my teeth or making coffee. I'll miss this book. It was a great ride which I am sad to see end.
As a final note, I think those who give the book bad ratings are not able to stray from their usual genre of reading and accept this book for what it is. It is a well written and silly narrative about 14-year-old kids that is not really based in reality, but as a 14-year-old might see it. The fact that the story is interpreted through the voice of one of these children is lost on the people who disparage the book. Don't be swayed from reading this, as it harkens back to the silliness inherent in youth which can be appreciated at any age.
Phenomenal entertainment value. Highly recommended.

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The Grasshopper Trap Review

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(More customer reviews)A book filled with humorous stories, this compilation of experiences was a treat to read! The Grasshopper Trap is only the second book I've read by Patrick McManus but now I want to track down all of his stories. McManus writes humor without the obscene, offensive language that seems so common everywhere these days. It's a refreshing, fun read with stories that entertain as well as remind us of a simpler, less frantic way of life.

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Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit Review

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(More customer reviews)I will never look at a supermarket tomato the same way again. Never mind that I'll never eat another one -- ever -- after reading this book. Author and food writer Barry Estabrook takes us on a journey to discover why those perfect-looking tomatoes piled up on supermarket shelves are so oddly tasteless, and believe me, the answer isn't very appetizing. Flavor, though, is the least of his concerns. The big story here is the human suffering -- right under our noses -- that we unknowingly perpetuate each time we pick a tomato up and put it in our shopping cart. It took courage to sniff this story out. Estabrook is clearly a pro in his field and deserves a great deal of credit. The writing is engrossing and at times hilarious, all of which makes the heartbreak a little easier to stomach.

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Supermarket produce sections bulging with a year-round supply of perfectly round, bright red-orange tomatoes have become all but a national birthright. But in Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, "The Price of Tomatoes," investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. Fields are sprayed with more than one hundred different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and green and artificially gassed until their skins acquire a marketable hue. Modern plant breeding has tripled yields, but has also produced fruits with dramatically reduced amounts of calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C, and tomatoes that have fourteen times more sodium than the tomatoes our parents enjoyed. The relentless drive for low costs has fostered a thriving modern-day slave trade in the United States. How have we come to this point?Estabrook traces the supermarket tomato from its birthplace in the deserts of Peru to the impoverished town of Immokalee, Florida, a.k.a. the tomato capital of the United States. He visits the laboratories of seedsmen trying to develop varieties that can withstand the rigors of agribusiness and still taste like a garden tomato, and then moves on to commercial growers who operate on tens of thousands of acres, and eventually to a hillside field in Pennsylvania, where he meets an obsessed farmer who produces delectable tomatoes for the nation's top restaurants.Throughout Tomatoland, Estabrook presents a who's who cast of characters in the tomato industry: the avuncular octogenarian whose conglomerate grows one out of every eight tomatoes eaten in the United States; the ex-Marine who heads the group that dictates the size, color, and shape of every tomato shipped out of Florida; the U.S. attorney who has doggedly prosecuted human traffickers for the past decade; and the Guatemalan peasant who came north to earn money for his parents' medical bills and found himself enslaved for two years.Tomatoland reads like a suspenseful whodunit as well as an expose of today's agribusiness systems and the price we pay as a society when we take taste and thought out of our food purchases.

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Trailer Trashed: My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility Review

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(More customer reviews)Hollis has wacky friends, a fascinating life, and wild and embarassing stories that she fortunately does not mind sharing. Her writing style and family stories remind me some of the Sedaris clan and a little of Terry Ryan, the woman who wrote The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. I enjoy her musings about Grant/Lary/Daniel, faking her way through German translations, hell-fire cats, waiting for the neighborhood prostitute to claim her discarded go-go boots, or spilling the dirt on her sister who owns a bar in Nicaragua. Also, if you get the chance, go see Hollis speak in person - her quick wit will have you guffawing. I saw her with a standing room only crowd and she had 'em belly laughing. (full disclosure: I know and like Hollis. But she's funny, I'm telling you!).

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The Great American Trailer Park Musical - Acting Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I ordered this book after listening to the soundtrack a million times. I am a producer and director for the stage and made the decesion to bring this to the audiences the moment I read it. Delicious comedy and music. We had a three week run with nightly sell outs and very satisfied patrons. Standing ovations became a regular nightly ritual. Don't miss the witty dialogue and touching songs of this musical. A must see and read for anyone looking for some "white trashin', cat scratching, chair crashing and a hell of a whole lot more." If this show is produced in your area, don't miss it. "It's not my fault that cock smokin', cheese sucking, dick in a bag doesn't know a lady when he sees one."

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