Runemarks: Joanne Harris

This book may have been aimed as an adventure book for children, (dedicated to the author's dauther) but it was a fun clever read for those who know a little about Norse Mythology. The story follows a young girl who was born with a runemark birthmark and her adentures in the netherworld with Odin and Loki trying to save the world. This book gives additional insight that the bad guy isn't always who you think it will be.

House Next Door; Anne Rivers Siddons

The protagonists don't particularly like their new neighbors, a young couple builing a contemporary house next door. The young girl is pregnant and already making plans to include their neighbors in raising the child. The protagonists, Colquitt and Walter Kennedy do like and become friends with the architect and builder of the house. Scandle hits the new neighbors, the wife falls and has a miscarriage. Then while they are throwing a party the husband is caught having sex with a male coworker in their bedroom. They divorce and move away and the next couple moves in a woman who is still trying to recover from the loss of their son in vietnam. The house starts playing with her, she keeps getting phone calls and believes her son is still alive. The husband has a cousin of the wife come and take care of his wife. The wife slowly recovers only to find her husband having sex with her cousin on the couch and becomes catatonic. They move away. The next couple has a small child who suddenly becomes very ill in the house. The husband, who is an obsessive compulsive narcissist snaps and kills the family then himself. Colquitt and Walter don't want anyone else living in the house and the architect decides to live in it himself. After he tells them his story on why other things he has tried to build have fallen through the neighbors realize there is something in the architect that is creating all the evil...and they decide to get rid of it.

A Trick of Light; Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield

This is an interesting spin on an alien coming to earth with a device that is apparently the conciousness of another extinct alien species. The alien becomes the father of this device that he tries to make human even though it is like electricity and has no form. A boy falls in love with it and they try to figure out how to save the world from yet a third alien that has come to earth seeking revenge. I am doing a horrible job summing this up, it was good, you will enjoy it if you like the workings of Stan Lee- I assume it is Kat Rosenfield that did the writing and it pulls you in and keeps you glued.

If It Bleeds; Stephen King

A collection of short stories that rang from technology being a gateway for commmunication after death to an author making a deal with a rat to get his work published. A fun collection, an entertaining read. Finders Keepers centers on a woman that runs her own small time detective agency, but starts to realize something isn't right with the news, mainly with one of the reporters who seems to feed on the heartbreak and sadness that occurs in the tradgeties he covers. With the help of an old man she uncovers that the reporter isn't human at all and has been feeding on the pain of others for many years. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone follows a little boy who gives the older man (neighbor) he reads to a cell phone. When Mr Harrigan dies, the boy puts the cell phone in the pocket of the suit he iis buried in. He calls the phone to hear Mr Harrigan's voice, but the cell phone's battery lasts for years and sometimes he gets a response from the phone. He calls Mr Harrigan to tell him about troubles he is having and the troubles mysteriously go away. In "Rat" an author stays at his family cabin to write and saves a rat's life in a snow storm. The Rat offers him a deal, the death of a friend, who was sick with cancer, for a finished piece of work. The author agrees and his friend seems to recover from his illness only to die in a car crash after his book gets published.

Amazing Fantastic Incredible, A marvelous Memoir; Stan Lee

A fitting Graphic Memoir of Stan Lee. I am not a big comic fan, but I really loved this- it surprised me that it took as long to read as a print book- due to really looking at the art. A fun read, it would be a great book to get you out of a funk.

The Institute; Stephen King

Children possesing telekenetic, telepathic, or both abilities are stolen by th government and live out the short remainder of their lives saying the world from distruction. Together the children have the ability to kill people off, looking like accidents, that would possibly become a threat to humanity eventually if allowed to live. One boy, who is supposibly a genius, excapes and helps to shut down the facility and those like it around the world.

The Destructors; Graham Greene

I read this story one morning when I couldn't sleep- heard about it in Donnie Darko. A gang of boys take apart an old man's house just to see if they can.