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This is the second novel in the Clare Vengel Undercover series. This time around, Robin Spano puts Clare in another unusual environment, a world class poker circuit/tournament where players are being choked to death.? The Royal Canadian Mounties (RCMP) have pulled her in to attempt breaking the case. She is minimally experienced, and desperate to prove herself as a proficient undercover agent. The problem is that Clare Vengel, disguised as Tiffany, the pink clothed high heel wearing trust fund kid, doesn’t know a damn thing about poker. She has studied a couple books, and knows some limited basics, and lucks out on a couple big hands. She is by no means a poker savant, she can not count cards, and even a blind man could read her tells. This is kind of the same way she approaches undercover work in general. She has a good idea what she should be doing, but cant seem to do more than luck into things. I have become a big fan of Clare Vengel. When reading the first novel (Dead Politician S...

Matthew Inman is a genius and The Oatmeal is his brainchild. As a child, I was never a fan of oatmeal, but it was better than cornmeal. Inman altered my reality with the magic of stinging pterodactyl laser piss in my eyes. 5 very good reasons to punch a dolphin in the mouth ( and other useful guides ) was a great read. There are a number of classic Oatmeal comics in this book, including “Why Nikola Tesla is the most awesome geek who ever lived”, “7 reasons to keep you Tyrannosaur off crack cocaine”, and “How to use a semicolon, the most feared punctuation on earth” There are also a number of new comics featured? only in the book. “5 reasons to have rabies instead of babies” being the one i enjoyed the most. I cannot say this is a book for everyone. The humor of TheOatmeal is a special brand, If you are unfamiliar, go hit up TheOatmeal.com and get a taste. Brand new it can be purchased at online retailers for under ten bucks, so itis really quite a steal. Pages:  160 Publisher: ...

Shelved as a Young adult novel, I feel it is incorrectly categorized, instead it should just be standard dark fantasy. The only aspects of this that make it YA is the 17 year old protagonist and the heavy handed coming-of-age vein, other wise it is “King/Koontz-lite”. Winter, Wisconsin. Murder. Nazis. Dead Bodies. Ghostly visions. Fatal fires. A boy who can draw people’s nightmares. All of these topics are discussed on the cover liner notes. What is not discussed is how well put together it is. It was surprisingly enjoyable from a number of perspectives. Detailing the events around social outcast Christian Cage. Dark opens with Christian, being investigated for graffiti on a local building, red spray paint with swastikas and eyes. Christian does not remember vandalizing anything. This isn’t the first time that Cage has been in trouble with the law. The suicide of a school teacher brought him into the limelight when much younger. Cage is an obsessive artist, falling into a near hypnotic...

This classic has been translated into just about every language you can think of, from original French to Martian (just venturing a guess). It has now crossed another communication barrier, into the world of comic art. As a graphic novel, Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry’s ‘The Little Prince’ received a really fantastic treatment. It should be noted that the Saint-Exup?ry drew the original art,which was pretty amazing. So readers should try NOT to compare against it, lest they may lessen the experience. It is a different beast, treat it as such. When I first mentioned that I would read this, I got a couple bizarre looks from friends. “Wasn’t the Little Prince already basically a graphic novel?” was the most common question asked. These were obviously people who have either no clue (love you guys!) or never read the book. An illustrated novella.. That was the term you folks were looking for. Joann Sfar’s graphic novel redux holds true to the original. The tale of a man lost in the desert, his a...

Robin Spano’s “Dead Politician Society”.. How to put this.. I was happy but not surprised. Let me explain. Dead Politician Society (DPS) is an undercover detective novel. The Mayor is poisoned and dies on stage during a speech. A cryptic untraceable email from the killer is received by the Toronto star, it is signed by a rumored Utopian secret society on the local college campus. The police send in Clare under cover to see if she can fish for more details. they have no other leads. Clare really leads the novel. She is very likable. Working her first undercover job, she is prone to some understandable mistakes. Clare drinks, smokes, rides a motorbike. She juggles guys and overall does what needs to be done to get the job in the can. I really enjoyed her as a character and am glad this is geared to be a series. With detective novels, in many cases they are designed to give you all the same clues the investigators receive. If you work it a bit, you can come up with the conclusion to the b...

In 50 words or less... i hate that i have to be the douchebag reviewer, but damn... i cant do otherwise. I refuse to Kowtow, would prefer kicking puppies and stomping flowers than finishing this novel. Sweating like a fat jogger, spurned author pulls the trigger, spreading skull like airplane's wings. red nervous system buttercup glistens in the bullet's wake. I feel relief, death saves!." too much lawyer fashionista, forcing me too look up brands in order to accurately picture someone. too many foot notes telling me the meanings of common acronyms such as DUI. characters, lets leave them where they lie. avoid this book Hardcover: 357 pages Publisher: Chateau Publishing (2001) ISBN-10: 0971271003 ISBN-13: 978-0971271005 This review is based on a book kindly provided for free by the publisher or author. Please check my FTC Douche-claimer for details regarding this disclaimer’s existence.

A strange twist on the “freaky friday” body swapping idea,  Life as I know it  takes the standard body swap and turns it on it’s ear. Jessica Taylor is walking her dog in a park when a storm rolls in. she is unlucky enough to be struck by lightning, awakening in another woman’s body. Lauren, her host, is a married mother of four, very contrasted against Jessica who is single, has a dog, and works long hours. The twist is what makes this book so above par for the commonly Disneyfied plot process. When Jessica falls asleep, Lauren wakes up, reversing when Lauren passes out. While slipping between locations/host bodies, Jessica is forced to play the mother role she is unprepared for, the wife role to a complete stranger, and balance it all with her original life. Released in the US by Bantam Books (Random House), Melanie Rose’s  Life as I know it turned out to be a very refreshing read. The novel was engrossing and as the last few chapters come closer, you will begin to wond...

St. Martin's Paperbacks, February 2010 ISBN: 978-0-312-94613-5, ISBN10: 0-312-94613-9 , 320 pages Truly Madly arrived in my mailbox about a month ago. I had a few other books that were priority, so it took its place in line for reading. Last week, I picked it up and ran though it cover to cover in my free time. it is a fast but enjoyable read.. The basis for the story is a family whose business it is to match-make. they locate people to fill that empty hole in the hearts of their clientele. The Author is a little bit heavy handed by giving the fam a sur-name of “Valentine”. Lucy Valentine, after receiving an electrical shock at the age of 14, loses the ability to see people’s auras. auras are the bread and butter of the family business, it runs in the bloodline and is the root of a generations long legacy of great matches. Lucy’s power is now geared around touch. she can shake someones hand and find something they have lost. Lucy bombs from job to job, becoming a jack of all trades...

Swans and Pistols: Modeling, Motherhood, and making it in the Me Generation……… this was NOT my kind of book. i have read a number of Autobiographies and i can typically find something enjoyable in each of them. Bing’s book was difficult at best, like slogging through a swimming pool of oatmeal at worst. she led an interesting life for sure. the book takes you through key moments in her life from being a kid to having a kid, doing drugs to dating a coke dealer, modeling to writing. ultimately, i dont want to disrespect someones life story, so i will minimize the nitpicking. instead, i will state that i do not feel she is a good story teller. she approached her life story with a lack of zeal. her stories seemed cold. i didnt feel like i was reading a book about her as much as a textbook that tried to tell jokes. the sections that were interesting, such as her acquaintance with gangster Mickey Cohen. sadly, these interesting sections were kept short shallow. Bing spends more time writing ...

i did not enjoy this book but my wife did. after 3 chapters, i was wishing i had never started it. being a true crime buff, i thought this would be up my alley, but really couldnt get into it. my wife however, clearly liked this. it is not one that she would have picked up on her own. she stated that it should be read for the story, but if no other reason exists, to raise awareness of how our troops are mistreated and psychologically damaged/misdiagnosed upon their return to home after wartime. personally, i think i can get the same perspective from a book about the reagan era and an afternoon watching Rambo films. perhaps in a year, i will be able to finish this book. my 1 star and her 4 star equates 2.5 rating listed here. This review is based on a book kindly provided for free by the publisher or author. Please check my FTC Douche-claimer for details regarding this disclaimer’s existence.

Rocket Man was a very enjoyable story. It centers around Dale, husband and father of two. Dale is stuck in the burbs, hating every minute of it. His idea was to get out of the city and live the idyllic country life. This is not what he ended up with. instead, his house is close to foreclosure, bills are piling up, and his daughter cries at the drop of a pin. Dale is an author in a slump. His first few novels are published but he has had nothing new in four years. He fights with his wife, his boy seems to hate him, and the cops keep stopping blaming him for a sign that was cut down illegally in their neighborhood. When Dale’s father enters the book, everything gets far more interesting than expected. I will let you make up your own mind when you read the first chapter as Dale off-roads an SUV full of boy scouts through an field while drinking a bloody mary behind the wheel (hair of the dog), purely because he did not want to go the long way home. The last 3 pages of this book made my he...

Simply put, this book was fairly amazing. Who would have thought you could read a whole book about Rifles and find it interesting from beginning to end. Not I. From the origin of the musket, the riffling process where its name comes from, to the historical movements influenced by its use,  t his reads like a meandering plotline with no standardized characters. I t was very rare when I felt like I was slogging through a text book, and more often like I was watching a well written history channel segment. Minus the commercials of course :) This review is based on a book kindly provided for free by the publisher or author. Please check my FTC Douche-claimer for details regarding this disclaimer’s existence.

Note – 2/2/2010 Body of Knowledge has been picked up by Ridan books. It has had some spelling corrections and they slapped a new cover/title on it. The book is now titled “Finding Reason” Congrats Bryce! ~~~ A quick bit of background info: As a member of Goodreads.com and LibraryThing.com I have come across a great number of books that I would otherwise not have had exposure to. This is in part due to the face to face nature that these sites allow you, in regards to authors involved with the systems. Coming across Bryce Anderson’s  Body of Knowledge  is one of the shining moments of my involvement in both systems (and book blogging in general). On both GoodReads and LibraryThing, there are a significant number of authors, publishers, and general book fans who run drawings to get exposure. They will have a certain number of books which are going to be given to a random selection of people. The intent is to get some person to person marketing, reviews of adva...