Dark Dreams

Sort of a mixed bag of horror stories by black authors. Some didn’t seem like horror, some were pretty awful, and nearly every one rambled or dragged out. There were a couple very good stories: The Empty Vessel which was eerie, I, Ghoul, Siren Song, The Fourth Floor, He Who Takes the Pain Away, and especially the last Danger Word.

Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume

I remember reading and enjoying Judy Blume books when I was a girl, but apparently I missed out big time by not reading Forever. There’s quite a few essays regarding that book’s influence, but I think I jumped from Blubber and Are You There God… straight to Christopher Pike, VC Andrews, Mary Higgins Clark and Stephen King.

Reading Everything… made me want to re-read all of Blume’s books!

My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon

The best of the bunch were the stories by P.N. Elrod and Jim Butcher.

Enjoyable mystery. It was refreshing to read an amateur sleuth cozy where neither the heroine nor sheriff were complete morons.

There were a couple (at least two where names/pronouns were switched) notable typos, but they didn’t detract from the story.

http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Year-Stories-Hottest/dp/0312374704/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215521946&sr=1-1

Great variety in this crime story antholody from mostly new writers.

I laughed a few times while reading the first of the series (May Day), so I took a chance and read August Moon. I was disappointed at the lack of character development, this is the fourth book and the surrounding characters are still one-demnsional – particularly Kennie who is annoying and unbelivable as the town’s mayor, but also the police chief and other characters who seem to pop in to give the main character someone to talk to and poke fun of their small town Minnesotan-ness. The mystery was also unexpected in a fourth novel, I couldn’t believe it. I think the author should think about expanding her novels 100 pages or so so she has room for the “plot” as well as her cast of oddball characters.

This is the first Veronica Lake movie I’ve ever seen, and I’ll definitely have to check out the others she’s been in. She was beautiful, and surprisingly funny. I though the number and length of the montages bogged down the film though.

The Arcane Society novels are the worst of the Amanda Quck bunch, but I forsee The Second Circle and The First Circle unfortunately.

The only main female character (Liz) was such an absolute MORON - predictable and annoying, but the spy story was fascinating.

Quite frankly, I have been waiting 14 years for another Indiana Jones movie. :) Does this one live up to the wait? Not quite, but it was entertaining. I think it’s problem was that it was trying too hard. The old Indy action wasn’t quite right, and there were some very silly parts (Shia LaBoef swinging through a jungle on vines like Tarzan?), but it was fun to see Indiana again.