ABOUT THE BOOK: The complete reprinting of Superman's adventures in chronological order continues with this new, sixth volume, featuring tales from the early 1940s. Among the menaces facing The Man of Steel in this new volume are the mysterious gang leader known as the Unknown X, a petty thief turned radioactive, and Lex Luthor, who has gained the ability to turn invisible. Plus, Clark Kent becomes Police Commissioner after a criminal gang scares the other candidates out of taking the job.
Steven works in the family firm. He's a Pomp, tasked with easing spirits from this dimension to the next after death. And he's kind of okay with that, until someone high up the corporate hierarchy makes a bid to be Australia's new Regional Death. This means killing all of the current Death's staff. After his parents, relatives and pretty much every other Pomp he's ever known has been killed, Steve is left to make a reluctant stand.
But to do this he must stay alive. Threatened at every turn, Steve and the perilously attractive (and dead) Lissa go on the run to save what's left of their world in DEATH MOST DEFINITE the dark, funny, fast-paced first book in the Death Works trilogy.
MY TAKE - I enjoyed the first story where the author's dad brought home a stray dog they named King, which fostered his love for dogs. After that story, and a few mentions about breeders and one of their dachshunds, it focused much more on the author and his family and their travels. It didn't seem Dachshund focused, it seemed author focused.
The summary said it was about observations any dog lover would appreciate. I did find numbered "rules" at ends of chapters with a picture of one of his adorable dachshunds, and a sentence with "Dachshund Life Lessons." Those I could relate to, and enjoyed reading. Perhaps I didn't give it enough time, but I wanted more of the dogs and less of family dynamics. - So, if you're looking for more dog-oriented stuff, I would pass - but the Dachshunds are adorable.
Hounded: The Lowdown on Life from Three Dachshunds by Matt Ziselman
ABOUT THE BOOK: Living with three strong-willed, highly individual Dachshunds can be equal parts entertaining, frustrating and rewarding. Just ask Matt Ziselman.
Armed with a fresh, creative voice that is unabashedly cranky one moment and profoundly poignant the next, Ziselman mixes hilarious canine stories, with heartfelt reminiscences from his own life, the results of which is a memoir of illuminating life lessons, courtesy of the three thoroughly Teutonic Dachshunds that he shares his life (and couch) with: Baxter, Maya and Molly. Seemingly mundane moments, like Baxter's incessant, neuroses inducing staring, Maya's inexplicable refusal to walk through the front door and Molly's obsessive compulsive love for a torn and tattered blanket become, through Ziselman's insightful eyes, a treasure trove of observations that any dog-lover will appreciate.
In a market where Americans spend more than $40 billion a year on their pets, this work of razor-sharp wit and quiet tenderness will reach out and grab readers everywhere by the heartstrings and-quite possibly-their leashes.
HOUNDED wraps universal insights in hot-dog-shaped packages, providing true dog lovers with many knowing nods, honest belly laughs and an accurate, warts-and-all reflection of the fascination, wonder and love that they have for their dogs. And that Matt Ziselman obviously has for his.
The book was filled with photos, images, and diagrams, which really helped, because I'm not a vulcanologist or seismologist (it also addressed earthquakes of course, since they are connected with volcanic eruptions). I learned a lot from the book like the different types of eruptions, the components of eruptions, intrusions (hardened magma that blocks the way of liquid magma inside a volcano), and bradyseism - the cyclical, gradual uplift or subsidence (sinking) of Earth's crust as it relates to volcanoes.
I was amazed by the number of Calderas around Italy, too. For those who don't know, a caldera is a massive, cauldron-like volcanic depression. It forms when a volcano violently empties its magma chamber, causing the ground above to lose structural support and collapse inward. Spanning up to dozens of kilometers across, these vast bowls are fundamentally different from standard volcanic craters.
(Image: Campi Flegrei area circled in red. Credit: https://volcanofoundation.org/campi-flegrei-una-bomba-de-tiempo/)
IS MOUNT VESUVIUS PART OF THAT AREA? No, Mount Vesuvius is not in Campi Flegrei. They are distinct volcanic systems within the same Campanian Volcanic Arc near Naples, Italy -
WHAT IS CAMPI FLEGRI? -Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) is a massive 8-by-12-kilometer volcanic caldera located west of Naples, Italy. The area has been experiencing significant, ongoing seismic unrest, including continuous earthquake swarms and ground deformation.
When three empty-nest friends purchase a neglected 1860s Greek Revival in San Antonio's historic district, they believe they're investing in a renovation project-and a fresh start.
They aren't expecting the attic footsteps. Or the woman in white.
Ellen has always been practical, skeptical, grounded in reality. But when strange occurrences escalate and long-buried records surface, even she can't ignore the truth: the house is holding onto something.
Decades earlier, the property operated as a private medical residence for women-patients declared unstable, difficult, or hysterical. Their diagnoses were signed. Their confinement justified. Their stories erased.Until now.
As Ellen, Sue, and Tanya dig into hospital archives, interview guarded neighbors, and uncover evidence someone doesn't want exposed, they realize this isn't just a haunting.It's a reckoning. Because the women who suffered behind those walls were silenced in life. And they will not remain silent in death.
In this gripping opening to the Mystery House Series, friendship, history, and the supernatural collide in a story about forgotten voices, buried truths, and three women brave enough to listen. Content Note: This novel explores historical injustices, including references to sexual assault within the context of institutional abuse.
OVERVIEW: It was the deadliest weapon in the West--a gun that could down a whole regiment, a whole Indian tribe of a whole town without even trying. They called it the Devil Gun.
Captain Dusty Fog of the Texas Light Cavalry had orders to capture that gun from a pair of Union Army fanatics--and out to stop him was the entire strength of the war-crazy Indian nations. The odds were not good. But Dusty had no choice--at stake were the lives of every man, woman and child in Texas.
FUN FACTS
ABOUT THE BOOK: Imagine that the spirit of someone you never met in life comes along in your new relationship. The spirit died 20 years before you met your partner, and this spirit was in a commited relationship with your partner decades before. That's what happened to author and medium Rob Gutro. The spirit, whose name is Ed, has come through in so many ways from dreams to coins, look-alikes, and more. Ed's spirit told Rob many things he couldn't possibly have known. Rob confirmed everything with his partner.
It's uncommon for a medium really get know a spirit so well that the living person considers the spirit a best friend. But that's exactly what happened to medium and paranormal investigator Rob Gutro. When Rob met his partner Tom in 2005, Ed's spirit came along for the ride. Rob never knew Ed in life.
The Witch City Mystery series by Carol J. Perry is one of my all time favorite series! I have read most of them, and finally went back and read the second book of the series "Tails You Lose." - Somehow I had missed it, and it was AWESOME. That's today's blog.
The main characters are wonderful, Lee who teaches television at a local school (and in later books becomes a reporter for WICH-TV), her boyfriend, later husband, detective Pete Mondello, her aunt Ibby, a retired librarian, and her cat O'Ryan, who originally belonged to a local witch found murdered in book one- are all captivating. There's also Lee's best friend River North, a true witch who reads tarot.
Tails You Lose is a GREAT mystery that will keep you wanting to finish. I read it in 1 week, which is Super-fast for me. In the book, Lee is teaching a television class, and the assignment is to write about the history of Trumbull's deparment store, which happens to be haunted by one of the former residents when it also served as a home. There's mystery, secret tunnels, ghosts, and various new characters. 5 of 5 stars!
ABOUT THE BOOK: Her instincts may be killer--but can she catch one this wicked?
After losing her job as a TV psychic, Lee Barrett has decided to volunteer her talents as an instructor at the Tabitha Trumbull Academy of the Arts--known as "The Tabby"--in her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts. But when the school's handyman turns up dead under seemingly inexplicable circumstances on Christmas night, Lee's clairvoyant capabilities begin bubbling to the surface once again.One of my favorite series of mysteries is called the "Haunted Bookshop Mystery" series by Cleo Coyle. I've just finished the seventh book in the series called" The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait." It was wonderful, 5 of 5 stars! Today's blog is about the book.
I love the characters!!! Pen McClure owns a mystery book store in Quindicott, Rhode Island with her aunt Sadie. In the 1940s a private investigator named Jack, was killed in the store, thus he haunts it. Pen can hear him and he has helped her solve mysteries in the town. There are a lot of great supporting characters, too. One is a mailman and another is a college professor who bicker back and forth. In this story, an art collector is selling his paintings, and one is supposed to have a curse on it, that leads to various deaths, family matters, a tie in to a case that the dead detective had in the 1940s, and more. It's a great read!! I look forward to the next book!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait is the seventh book in Cleo Coyle's Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, featuring bookstore owner Penelope Thornton-McClure and her ghost sidekick, Jack Shepard, as they investigate a mysterious, cursed-seeming portrait that causes accidents. The cozy mystery blends contemporary and noir elements, with Penelope enlisting the help of the 1940s-era ghost detective to solve the case, which involves a vintage book cover painting and a woman rumored to have gone mad.
The story was good and kept you reading. The main character, Will, the lead Ranger was struggling with being in his 40s and feeling almost too old for the job, while leading 3 other rangers that included a good tracker, a crack rifleman, and another who was clearly an alcoholic with a gun. They were tasked with bringing a band of 10 or so isolated, renegade Comanches who brutally murdered anyone, including other native americans, because they could. They were led by a fierce, and obviously psychotic (I read between the lines) Comanche named Iron Horse. The book opens with a lot of violence by the renegades, and sets up the reason why they need to be stopped.
Will and his Rangers set out to do what the U.S. Army couldn't do - track the renegades and try to bring them to justice. It was a well-written story that kept me reading. 5 of 5 stars. .
This week's book of the week is "T-Rex in Magic Metal Town" by Ethan Howatt. It's a children's book with a fun story and great, colorful illustrations! It features a boy who lives in Magic Metal Town (which is explained in various artifacts from a magic shovel to a school bus) and who goes on a dig for dinosaur bones. I bought a copy of this book for our neighbors' kids because they love dinosaurs and enjoy reading. Dinosaurs and magic are two things that also fascinate me, so I HAD to read this, and it was a really fun story to read as an adult! In fact, I hope he writes a sequel involving the magic and dinosaurs because I want to read it! 5 of 5 stars!
I learned about this fun book because I taught a class on self-publishing and marketing your own book and one of the students in the class is the author! He also authored another book in this series (for ages 5 to 10) and another series for teenagers. The teenage Sci-fi books include Z.O.M.B.I.E. Games, True Beauty and the Optimal Mind.
His 6 year old son also authored a book for his younger brother called "My Mom is ABC" with illustrations by his 6 and 4 year old boys.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Ian loves dinosaurs and gets to meet one in Magic Metal Town!
The first book in this series is called School Day in Magic Metal Town
To Get the paperback: LINK ON AMAZON
The original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, wore an overcoat, fedora style hat and gas mask. He carried a gun that dispersed sleeping gas. He was also a member of the Justice Society in the 1940s... Recently the character was resurrected for a series of 6 comics made into a graphic novel. It was Outstanding.
The DC Comics' graphic novel "Wesley Dodds, the Sandman" depicts the character in the 1940s, during World War 2. The story is excellent. He was a chemist and concocted different sleep-gases, but shelved the deadly ones and locked the formulas up so they would never be used. However, someone has stolen his formulas for other sleep-like gases that had fatal consequences. The story is how he fought to get them back! It's an excellent story, 5 of 5 stars.- I wish DC Comics would bring the character back in the Justice Society comic.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Wesley Dodd’s dream of a better world is now a nightmare, as DC’s original Sandman returns in a gripping new noir mystery!
This week's book of the week is a great one in the "Mordecai Tremaine Mystery" series from the United Kingdom. It's called "In at the Death" by author Francis Duncan (that's his pen name). I thought the title was Odd, so I looked up the phrase and it means: "to be present at the end or climax of something, often an event that is either disastrous or significant." I had never heard of the author or the series, and just happened to find this book at a dollar store. It sounded good, and it was great!
ABOUT THE BOOK: Amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine is back in another classic mystery from the author of Murder for Christmas Mordecai Tremaine and Chief Inspector Jonathan Boyce are never pleased to have a promising game of chess interrupted – though when murder is the disrupting force, they are persuaded to make an exception.
A quick stop at Scotland Yard to collect any detective’s most trusted piece of equipment – the murder bag – the pair are spirited away to Bridgton.
No sooner have they arrived than it becomes clear that the city harbours more than its fair share of passions and motives…and one question echoes loudly throughout the cobbled streets: why did Dr Hardene, the local GP of impeccable reputation, bring a revolver with him on a routine visit to a patient?
Over the last couple of years, I bought many DC Comics 500 page black and white collections of classic comics and most recently, finally read "DC Showcase Presents: The Metal Men" Volumes 1 and 2. I love the characters and had never read their debut comics run until now. The stories were good, but there was otwo repetitive themes throughout all of them that became tiresome... Today's blog is about those trade paperbacks.
MY TAKE - The metal man had been around since 1962 and it's a great concept. It's about a scientist named Doc Magnus who created robots who were extremely malleable and made out of different medals like lead, gold, platinum, tin, iron, and mercury. All of them are in the likeness of men except for platinum who is in the likeness of a woman.
THEME 1: Although I liked the early issues, one theme that ran through all of them that got to be really annoying was that platinum, the female robot, pined over her creator and was "in love with him." In Every single issue including the four debut issues in showcase magazine and the 35 issues of the metal men series itself platinum, known as Tina, cried over Doc Magnus not returning her affections. It got to be extremely tiresome.
THEME 2: In the first 20 stories of the Metal Men, it seemed like they were always getting totally destroyed and were rebuilt relatively quickly. That also became tiresome!
ODD NOTE: The creators did develop and conceive a villain known as Chemo, an animated chemical villain who is still popular 62 years later (although "chemo" is known today as a cancer treatment- but they would never have known that).
DC Showcase Presents: The Metal Men V1 & 2 B&W Archive 1962-1969
ABOUT THE BOOKS: DC's showcase vol 1 and 2 of the classic Metal Men contains the complete early run beginning with four issues of showcase before the Metal Men got into their own series! Plus, these two volumes also contain metal numbers 1 through 35. Presented in black and white , this is an archive of DC Showcase Comics Volumes 1 and 2. Spanning the years 1962 to 1969, this also includes the classic Brave and the Bold issue #55 with guest the Atom!! Artists and writers include: Robert Kanigher, Bob Haney, and Mike Esposito. **these are long out of print!**
The "Marvel Westerns Hardcover" is a comprehensive collection that brings together some of Marvel's most iconic Western characters. It features Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, Arizona Annie, The Black Rider, the Man From Fort Rango, Red Wolf, Hurricane, Gunhawk and Two Gun Kid, among others. One of the stories is about the origin of Rawhide Kid by Jack Kirby.There's also a special section in the back with text explanation for each of the characters.It's well-worth a read!
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SIDE NOTE - About "Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium's Vacation"
#1 in General Western US Travel Guides and An Amazon *Top 100* Bestseller!
Shot in the throat! Ghostly Faces! Meet the resident Bird Cage Theatre ghosts as some shared the pain of their violent deaths. Others revealed their lives as actors, drinkers, gamblers, prostitutes, or gunfighters to medium and paranormal investigator Rob Gutro on the museum’s ghost tour. He and his friend photographed faces of 2 ghosts in a painting and a mirror. Rob also sketched some ghosts he encountered. You may encounter them, too!
The Bird Cage Theatre is a very haunted and historic landmark in Tombstone, Arizona. It was a big part of the wild days of the Old West in the United States. Because of the raw emotional events that occurred there, a number of people have chosen to stay behind as earth-bound ghosts.
The characters, Nick and Perry are very likeable, and I could relate to both. I love the way the author portrays their relationship, with the anxieties, ups and downs. Since it's an MM book, there's a scene with romance, but the story mostly focuses on the interesting mystery. The author is masterful in presenting the various characters/suspects and it will keep you guessing. Another 5 star book by Josh Lanyon. Josh is truly one of my favorite authors. She knows how to write an MM mystery with great characters.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Now living in Los Angeles with former Navy SEAL Nick Reno, artist Perry Foster comes to the rescue of elderly and eccentric Horace Daly, the legendary film star of such horror classics as Why Won’t You Die, My Darling?
Horace owns the famous, but now run-down, Hollywood hotel Angel’s Rest, rumored to be haunted. But as far as Perry can tell, the scariest thing about Angel’s Rest is the cast of crazy tenants—one of whom seems determined to bring down the final curtain on Horace—and anyone else who gets in the way.
I love reading and collecting comics and have since the 1970s. Recently, I was in a comics shop and bought an old western Dell comic called "Idaho" for $1.00 that didn't have a cover on it. It was from 1963. I loved the main character, a cowboy named Idaho, and his older sidekick named Frazzle. Together they would ride the west searching for adventure, and winding up helping people in need. I managed to find issues to the entire 8 issue run, and enjoyed them all. I was disappointed when I learned that no other comics company picked up the character, but it will always be one of my favorite western comics.
Dive into the wild west with the Dell Comics IDAHO series, featuring the adventures of Frazzle and Idaho. This full run set includes issues #1-8 from the years 1963-1965, all featuring beautifully painted covers (except issue 8, which was hand drawn) that capture the essence of the western genre.
This is a rare out of print limited series and features the entire run! They contain one continuous story in each issue, broken into chapters. It's excellent storytelling, and they are great westerns! It's a shame that no comic company picked up the characters after this run.
