Nothing like new Books...

There is nothing like new books; book mail is definitely the best mail. This month I purchased seven new books. Some as part of a series and some just stand alones.

This month I purchased several books form Book Depository (my favorite place to buy books) and Ollie's Discount Warehouse and Target. I paid under 50$ for all seven of the books you see in the pictures above.

Here is the list of the books purchased:
1) Falling Kingdoms (Book #1) by Morgan Rhodes
2) Gathering Darkness (Book #3) by Morgan Rhodes
3) Stormbringers (Order of Darkness #2) by Philippa Gregory
4) The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
5) Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough
6) The Poet by Michael Connelly
7) A Gift to Remember by Melissa Hill

Rest Easy....Mr. Poe

"Once Upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore"

- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe 

I happened across Edgar Allan Poe in my pre-teen years; and my love for his work has remained. Like most of us, I was introduced to him by way of the poem The Raven. I have made a tradition of reading is short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" every Halloween. Poe is close to my heart for several reasons. Chief among them is that Poe always came across to me as a lost and lonely soul; and I guess on some level that spoke to me. Because of Poe (and Stephen King) I became very interested in writing within the horror, thriller and mystery genre.

Here are some of my favorite quotes by Edgar Allan Poe:

Book Review: Revival by Stephen King

                                       

Its not the kind of Revival: My review of Stephen King's Revival

King is one of those authors who I can not seem to get enough of. In fact, I have read three of his books this summer. Revival had been on my TBR for a few months. This book was not at all what I expected. It was not at all what I thought it would be. I was a little disappointed because it was very anti-climatic. 

Revival revolves around the life of Jamie and his relationship with his former Pastor. Charles Jacobs; who has been casting a shadow over Jamie's life seen the day they first meant at Jamie's boyhood home. Charles Jacob seems like a nice man, though he is a little odd. He has an attraction to electricity and loves to give the kids at the church lessons and lectures on the subject. He even goes so far as to weave Christian theology into it the lessons. Jacob's seems harmless until his young wife and son are killed in a car accident. 

After that everything changes, and he loses his faith; and during his final sermon at the town church Jamie seems to lose his faith as well. The sermon is so bad, so full of grief, that Jacob's is fired and forced out of town. 

Jamie does not think he will ever meet or see Jacob's again, until years later, when he is traveling with a band. Getting high on heroin and living rough does he meeting Jacob's at a fair. Jacob's is using electricity to create stunning portraits of young and attractive women. However, it is discovered, that being a subject of one of these photos might cause you some trouble.

It is during this chance meeting that Jacob's convinces Jamie to allow him to "cure" him of his drug addiction. Jamie will do anything to get his life back and does not think that it could hurt, or that their would be any real side effects. Oh, how wrong he was. 

Jamie has one or two weird incidents, but does not connect them to his "cure". Its not until much later in the book that he connects it all to Jacob's. Who, seems to have regained his faith, and is now "healing" afflicted people at tent revivals. 

My favorite scene of the book was at the end, when suddenly it all clicks into place. Jamie accepts that he is the key to this mystery and while scared he knows he has to face the darkness thats coming.

Revival was a great book, with a creepy villain, and the tale was will weaved. However, something was missing. We only got a small look at the evil that lurked behind Jacob's greatest experiment. I think it would be very easy for King to open this can of worms again. Maybe the ending is just a foreshadowing to another novel. I sure hope so because I want to know about "mother".

I gave Revival 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Quotes I loved:

"When you want to feel better, call something a piece of shit. It usually works."

"There's no proof of these after life destinations; no backbone of science; there is only the bald assurance, coupled with our powerful need to believe that it all makes sense...Religion is the theological equivalent of a quick-buck insurance scam, where you pay in your premium year after year, and then, when you need the benefits you paid for..so religiously, you discover the company that took your money, does not, in fact, exist."

"Question: Death, where is thy sting? Answer: Every-fucking-where."

"I thought he was fuckin' dead. All the coke he snorted, he should be."

"That's how you know you're home, I think, no matter how far you've gone from it or how long you've been in some other place. Home is where they want you to stay longer."

"Sometimes death is natural, a mercy that puts an end to suffering. But all too often it comes   as an assassin, full of senseless cruelty and lacking and vestige of compassion"

Crisp Autumn Air, Crunchy Colorful Leaves and Big Books....aren't we all itching for Autumn!

Fall is this Book Lover's favorite Season!

 And like always I have compiled my Autumn TBR list! Please feel free to suggest books to me via email or on the blogs Facebook Page and Forum! 

Here are my Top Five (to be read immediately):

1) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Synopsis: Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. 

2) End of Watch (Bill Hodges #3) by Stephen King 

Synopsis: In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. 

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero ofMr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. 

3) The Shining by Stephen King

Synopsis: Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

4) Conversion by Katherine Howe

Synopsis: It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t. 

  
First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic. 
  
Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . . 
  

5) In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Synopsis: Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood has all the hallmarks of a good psychological thriller-- a woman lured back to a past she's spent a decade trying to escape, a few unstable characters, and a shocking death. The impending marriage of Nora's best friend from that long ago time brings her to a glass-walled cabin deep in the woods, for a hen party (the U.K. equivalent of a bachelorette weekend). But why is she there when the two haven't spoken since Nora fled their college town ten years ago? As the party gets underway things start to take a dark turn that builds with each passing moment. In a Dark, Dark Wood is a slow burn, each revelation and obfuscation luring the reader at an ever faster pace towards its ultimate life and death conclusion.--Seira Wilson

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        The rest of the wild bunch 

6) Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding 

7) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

8) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

9) The Silkworm by Robert Galibrath 

10) Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

*all synopsis are taken from Amazon.com*

Who Doesn't love the Ice Cream man: Bookbabe Review of Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

It's been a few years since I have dived into a King Novel; and I was so happy to be re-introduced to him via Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges #1). I will admit that I was not sure I would enjoy a detective thriller by a novelist known largely for his horror novels. But, as a lover of crime novels and a good who - dun -it; I can say that King does not disappoint.
In Mr. Mercedes we meet recently retired detective, Bill Hodges. Hodges seems to be losing his way. He has lost his purpose after retirement. He spends his days watching crap tv and playing with a loaded gun; contemplating how long it will be until he is ready to pull the trigger on himself. But, that all changes when he receives a note from "Mr. Mercedes" - the man that carried out the City Center attack; that left 8 people dead and injured several others. After receiving the letter Hodges is determined to find out more about the letter and to track down the killer; he wants to put this case to rest. 
What I found amazing about the book is that King identifies the killer quickly. He wraps you so fully in the killers motives and mind that you simply have to keep reading. You also get to see both sides of the story unfold in a very satisfying and unpredictable way. The killer in this story is smart, dangerous and unpredictable. While his main crime (center city) was a "sledgehammer" he actually prefers to go after his victims with a "scalpel". We see this with the way he goes after Olivia Trelawaney and Hodges. What I love is that the reader is clued in to the just how close Mr. Mercedes is to Bill way before Bill and his friends can actually figure it out. Fortunately, for Bill and his crew they figure it out before the killer can do even more damage. 
I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.

Favorite Quotes:

"Most people are fitted with lead boots when they are just little kids and have to wear them all their lives. These lead boots are called a conscience. I have none, so I can soar high above the heads of the normal crowd"

"Wouldn't work. You know that Dorothy Parker said, right? You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think"

Moleskin notebooks = Trouble: Bookbabe review of Finders Keepers by Stephen King

Wow just wow. Stephen King really kept the action going with Finders Keepers and tied this book very artfully into the first novel of the Hodges series. This novel is really about obsession; one guys obsession with an author and his work of fiction. Just like the first novel the villain is identified quickly; his motives are identified quickly and we also get the feeling that the guy is way way way off the reservation. Complete nutter. (And won't King have fun with that). The book even opens up with a in your face home invasion and murder. King really held no punches in the beginning and the deep dive into the book was very necessary. 
It takes a while to get to the point where Hodges (now four years older) gets into the story. 
The story revolves mainly around Peter Saubers and his family; whose father is on the survivors of the attack as City Center. At the beginning of this story Saubers and his family have fallen on very tough times. Having to had to move to a low income neighborhood, the kids losing friends; then drowning the debt from medical bills and having to deal with the pain of living off a teachers salary. Peter is hoping for anyway to help his family and it comes; in the form of a trunk buried in an abandon field. 
Of course, we all know that sometimes something good can turn into something very bad very quickly. And this happens just a few years after Peter has found the trunk. You could say that opening that trunk was like opening Pandora's box - Peter had no clue what danger awaited him or what the consequences of his actions would be. What  I loved about this book was the growth and depth of the main character; Peter was well written and fully flushed out. We saw the good in him; along with his selfishness. And it was this selfishness that seemed to link him to the villain. It was his; as well as, the obsession of the villain that could have destroyed them both and for a while I thought that it would.
What's amazing about this book is that our previous villain plays a small role; mostly towards the end of the book - but his reintroduction is sinister and seems to foreshadow that something truly scary is coming in the next installment of the series. I really can not wait to start it. 
I gave Finders Keepers 5/5 stars on goodreads.com.

Quotes that I loved:

"You created one of the greatest characters in American literature, then shit on him...a man who could do that doesn't deserve to live"

"The critical eye should always be cold and clear"

"A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them happen and then writes down what he sees. A good novelist realizes he is a secretary, not God"

Women's History Month...author of the day!!!!

Woman's History Month is a time to uplift women that have influenced and shaped our way of thinking. Today I want to lift up, Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and Valley of Amazement...and many many more. I first read Joy Luck while in highschool. And the book had a profound effect on how I viewed relationships with my mother, grandmother and aunt. The book also deepened my need to read more fiction focused on flawed, realistic female characters. I plan on re-reading Joy Luck some time this summer!

Here are some of the quotes I love by Amy Tan:

Another thing I love about her...she is cool with my favorite horror novelist...

The Creepiest Book Covers in my Book Collection.....

For more information on these books visit www.goodreads.com. Feel free to leave a snap shot of your favorite creepy book cover on the Bookbabe Main Page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thebookbabeofde)

My Fall 2015 to Read List

                      

             My Fall 2015 Reading  List

1) World After by Susan Ee

2) Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

3) First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

4) Eve by Wm. Paul Young

5) The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

6) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

7) Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

8) Siddhartha by Herman Heese

9) Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

10) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

11) Inferno by Dan Brown

12) Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward

13) 1984 by George Orwell

14) Kalona's Fall by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Awesome August Book Photo Challenge Day 10: Favorite Authors

Awesome Book Photo Challenge Day 10: Favorite Author! Well I read to much to just have one...so my picks are Deborah Harkness, Jane Austen, Amy Tan, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, Sarah J. Maas, Alice Walker, Andrew Pyper, and J.K. Rowling. Sorry folks but I read to much to have just one. These are my favorite "fiction writers. Non-fiction/inspirational award goes to David Pelzer (author of A Child called It) Rob Bell (author of Love Wins)  and Max Lucado (author of He Chose the Nails) .

New Book Discovery

                                                                                   

New Book Discovery (found on The Reading Room)

A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans

Here is the synopsis: 

Perched precariously on the precipice between horror and psychological drama, Evans' first novel explores the notions of demons--how real they are and how real we are able to make them. Eleven-year-old George Davies' father, a self-purported mystic and studier of demonology, dies a mysterious death after traveling to Honduras for equally mysterious purposes. Soon after, George is visited by a "Friend" that only he can see, who leads him on thrilling yet terrifying journeys to a shadowy ether-world, pulling him ever closer to a dangerous awareness of his father's death (the cornucopia of fatherhood issues emanating here would make Freud's head wobble). Is the boy really possessed, or simply crazy? And which is better? Evans deftly marks the labyrinthine wards of clinical treatment in stark contrast with scenes of floor-dropping exorcisms as the boy becomes ever more volatile and his Friend ever more diabolical. This is an edgy, compelling read--more unnerving than scary--that will slide its hooks deep inside and throttle you more than a few times before it's all over.