What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

This absolutely fascinating book examines the most bizarre questions that people can come up with and actually answers them.  Included are questions about what would happen if you could throw a baseball at the speed of light to a hitter, what would happen; what if everyone actually had a random soul mate in the world; what if everyone disappeared from the earth, how long before the last artificial source of light would go out; is it possible to build a jetpack using downward firing machine guns; from what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground; if someone's DNA suddenly disappeared, how long would that person last; how much force power can Yoda output; if a woman were to have sperm cells made from her own stem cells and impregnate herself, what would happen; how many unique tweets are possible and how long would it take for the world to read them all; when will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living people; and what if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple choice question, how many perfect scores would there be.

If you did have a single soul mate in the world, the question would be would you ever meet.  What if you also took out the part that they may have already lived and died out of the equation, as well as huge age differences, cultural and language differences.  "The odds of running into your soul mate would be incredibly small."  Basing finding a soul mate on making eye contact and "knowing", suppose you see a few dozen strangers a day, "if 10 percent of them are close to your age, that would be around 50,000 people in a lifetime.  Given that you have 500,000,000 potential soul mates, it means you would find true love only in one lifetime out of 10,000."  Even if you put a Soul Mate Roulette website and watched it twelve hours a day, everyday, there would still only be a small amount of people who would ever find true love.

 Believe it or not the Russians have actually tried to build a jetpack using downward firing machine guns.  The idea is simple.  When you fire a gun, the recoil will send you backward.  The thing you would have to look into would be the thrust-to-weight ratio, or how much less the object has to weigh before being able thrust backward the farthest.  The AK-47 has one of a 2 and could "rise into the air while firing."  But not all machine guns can do this.  You also have to take into account the weight of shell casings and ammo.  "If each gun [AK-47] can lift 5 pounds more than its own weight, two can lift 10."   The other problem is ammo.  You would need enough ammo to lift yourself off the ground high enough and that adds weight, which means adding more machine guns.  "Each bullet weighs 8 grams, and the cartridge (the "whole bullet") weighs over 16 grams.  If we added more than about 250 rounds, the AK-47 would be to heavy to take off."  You would need an optimal amount of 300 guns with 250 rounds of ammo each to reach a half a kilometer in the air. 

A human contains two sets of DNA, one from the mother and one from the father.  If a woman could take one of her stem cells and turn it into a sperm cell (they are close to doing this in the lab) she could impregnate herself with her own eggs and have a daughter.  The only problem with this is the inbreeding.  The child would be born with so many abnormalities, it might not survive for very long, if at all.  The inbreeding would be like a brother and sister from four generations producing offspring.

He also includes some dumb questions that he usually doesn't give an answer to, such as: would dumping anti-matter into the Chernobyl reactor when it was melting down stop the meltdown; is it possible to cry so much you dehydrate yourself ("Karl, is everything ok?"); if people had wheels and could fly, how would we differentiate them from airplanes; would it be possible to stop a volcanic eruption by placing a bomb (thermobaric or nuclear) underneath the surface; how fast would a human have to run in order to be cut in half at the bellybutton by a cheese-cutting wire; In Thor the main character is at one point spinning his hammer so fast that he creates a strong tornado, would this be possible in real life; could you survive a tidal wave by submerging yourself in an in-ground pool; what is the possibility that if I am stabbed by a knife in my torso that it won't hit anything vital and I'll live; what if everyone in Great Britain went to one of the coasts and started paddling, could they move the island at all ("NO"); and what if I swallow a tick that has Lyme disease, will my stomach acid kill the tick and the borreliosis or would I get Lyme disease from the inside out ("Just to be safe, you should swallow something to kill the tick, like ...a tropical fire ant.  Then swallow a...fly to kill the ant.  Next, find a spider...").

This is a great and fun read.  I am a kind of science idiot when it comes to physics and chemistry, but he made it so easy to understand and he includes stick-figure drawings to illustrate his point.  As a matter of fact, he left his job with NASA to draw a stick-figure comic on-line and answer bizarre questions, like the ones seen here in this book.  I found this book to be a smart and educational book (but in a good way) that answers questions I didn't even know I had.

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544272994?ie=UTF8&keywords=what%20if%20serious%20scientific%20answers%20to%20absurd%20hypothetical%20questions&qid=1464708883&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

For those of you who cry at books, grab the box of Kleenex, you will need every one of them. Zusak uses a very creative choice for his narrator: Death. Set during the time of World War II, the book opens on a train heading for a small town in Germany (where it came from is a mystery). Death has come for Liesel Meminger's little brother and finds himself fascinated in Liesel who, when they bury her brother, steals a book on the ground, likely to remember her brother by, as she cannot read. The book is called The Gravedigger's Handbook. Her mother was taking them to live with a couple, Hans and Rosa Hubermann who live on Himmel Street (which translates as Heaven Street), as she cannot take care of them anymore since her husband, a Communist, "disappeared".  Liesel, of course has a hard time getting out of the car to meet her new family or to take a bath.

Both Hans and Rosa love Liesel and show it in different ways. Hans is there in the middle of the night when she has nightmares and plays his accordion for her. He's also the one to teach her to read. Rosa is a tough woman who has an ongoing feud with a neighbor who spucks on their door and yells "Schwiene!" Neither woman seems to know what the original argument was about. At school, Liesel is picked on at first for her ignorance, but the local boy, Rudy Steiner, with the lemon-colored hair and blue eyes, falls for her and becomes her friend, when she blocks a kick, as goalie, in a street game of football [soccer]. The night Jesse Owens won his medals, Rudy, also an athlete, rubbed himself in charcoal, and pretended to be Jesse Owens by running in the streets, which got him into a spot of trouble. He is also always chasing Liesel for a kiss.

Hans makes a living as a painter during the season, but plays his accordion in local bars and such in the winter to make money. Rosa does washing and ironing to bring in money. Liesel takes the laundry to and from the houses and gives a detailed response to how the clients reacted. One of them, Ilsa Hermann, the wife of the Mayor of Molching, is one of Rosa's clients. Ilsa is beyond depressed over the death of her son in the previous war and she has a beautiful library, that she ends up letting Liesel use. As their relationship, a rocky one at first, as Liesel does not know what to make of her, grows and blooms like a flower, Ilsa comes out of herself and Liesel enters the world of books. Ilsa gives her a journal to write in. It is Ilsa's husband that has the book burning where Liesel is forced to toss in a book given to her, but later after everyone has gone, she steals a hot book from the pile to take with her.

Max Vanerburg comes to stay with the Hubermann's because as a Jew, he is in danger. Max's dad and Hans served together in World War I (where Hans gave death the slip, but he got Max's dad). While he is there, he helps with Liesel's reading and he even takes a copy of Mein Kemp and paints the pages white and writes her two books. When the Nazis come to do an inspection, they somehow hide him from them and are told that they need to make improvements to their basements as it does not meet their standards.

I could go all English minor on you and talk about the themes of Death, Love, and Reading, and how important colors play a role, but I won't.  Death  says it is "haunted by humans" and maybe that is perhaps because of how we can go from love to hate on a dime. Liesel is special to him, because she is different. Having Death as the narrator means you get to find out when and why someone dies,  which you may, or may not, like. The author also includes, what I enjoyed but others may not, some very interesting definitions intermittently throughout the book. Zusak wrote the book because he felt it was important to know that not every German was a Nazi. Not every German was an evil person. Some were sweet kids with lemon-colored hair who had no interest in Hitler and loved Jesse Owens.  Some hid Jews in their basements. A lot of them just lived their lives. If you've read my book review on Ravensbruck, then you've heard me talk about people being various shades of gray, not black and white. Which makes books like this so important to remind us of our humanity.

Link to my Ravensbruck Review: http://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2016/01/ravensbruck-life-and-death-in-hitlers.html


Link to Amazon: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LK1NgAk6L._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Lock In by John Scalzi

A Great Flu pandemic sweeps the globe killing more than 400 million people and named Haydens after the first lady who had the disease.  The symptoms, which were slow to show up, caused people who had it to spread it without even knowing they had it.  The first stage of the flu, causing up to 75 percent of the deaths, was followed by viral meningitis.  Those who survived the second stage suffered no long-term problems, but at least 1percent suffered from "lock in" where they were aware of their surroundings, but could not communicate or move.  An even smaller number, 100,000 had their brains rewired and were able to become integrators, or those who could hold the consciousness of a Hayden sufferer and allow them a body to walk in.  Those suffering from lock in could use robots to get around in and be called "threeps" after C3PO.  A virtual world called Agora, was created for those with this disease so that they could communicate with others.  Trillions were initially spent on finding a cure and the treatment of those suffering from it.  Then after decades of this, the Abrams-Kettering Bill was passed, cutting funding for those suffering from this disease, despite the fact that on average 30,000 people would suffer from lock in annually in the US alone.

Agent Shane, the poster child for Haydens when she was a girl growing up, has left the limelight and joined the FBI and is paired with an integrator, Agent Vann, as part of a new task force.  They arrive on the scene of a murder where an integrator, Nicholas Bell, the brother of the famous Cassandra Bell, who is stirring trouble in the Hayden community, is standing over a dead body, with blood all over himself.  Unable to charge him with anything, they are forced to let him go.

At a business dinner at her father's home, Shane, meets Bell again, only with a CEO of a computer company occupying his body this time, and his lawyer, occupying a different body because the body he usually uses is driving a bomb, while under the influence of a Hayden scientist, into the Pharma Lab, the major company researching Haydens and the one closest to a cure.

Now its seems that someone is taking over integrators against their will and leaving them "locked in" their own bodies while someone is at the wheel.  Something that is impossible to do.  Every integrator remains conscious during these sessions and has the ability to step in at any time, to help with a misstep, or to keep the Hayden from doing something wrong.  But someone has found a way around this.

Shane moves her threep into a type of Hayden commune in a walk-up; her actual body is at her parent's house being watched after by nurses.  One of her new roommates, is a computer programmer, who works on making patches for the different threeps to update them.  He finds out that the dead man, a Native American, who was intellectually challenged, but also an integrator, contained a new machine in his head that he has never seen before.  They also discover that the man committed suicide while being taken over by someone.  Other integrators are at risk, and another one dies, but not before regaining consciousness and providing Shane with a clue as to who was inside her.

Cassandra is planning a large protest rally, where many Haydens will be in attendance, and Shane and Vann believe her life is in danger.  The problem is, no one has ever seen Cassandra.  She only exists on Agora.  As Shane digs into the mystery, she ends up fighting off the enemy and damaging four suits in one day.  Luckily she's rich and is able to buy a new suit until her good one is fixed.   Its a race against time to find out who would want to destroy the Lab and who is buying up all the threep companies that are going out of business, due to the fact that there is a smaller market with fewer people needing them and the new bill going through, making it so that poor Americans cannot afford a threep.

This book just flew through my hands as I read it.  It was so realistic, in that our worst nightmare and possibility, is just such a pandemic.  There are also the secrets being kept by Vann about her years working as a integrator, which she quit to join the FBI.  The techno-speak is easy to follow if you pay attention and the author does a good job of explaining things to you.  I hope he writes a sequel to this amazing work of science fiction and soon.

Link to Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Lock-Novel-Near-Future-ebook/dp/B00IHCBE1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510061351&sr=8-1&keywords=lock+in+john+scalzi

The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever by Jeff Strand

This book opens with a warning. It is indeed about making The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever. And there will be zombies. Just not real ones. And no one turns into anything. It is a book about a group of teenage boys making a movie. So don't throw the book (or electronic reading device) "across the room, hitting an innocent gerbil. Gerbils don't deserve this." I myself, have flung books across rooms (ahem, Faulkner). This book is sitting happily on my kindle. Yes. It was so good, I bought it. And it was on sale.

Justin, Gabe, and Bobby are three longtime friends living in Florida, who have dreams of being filmmakers. They have been making movie shorts for a while now on various horror topics, such as vampires, werewolves, and mummies. One day, a month before school lets out for the summer they get the idea to make THE GREATEST ZOMBIE MOVIE EVER! Their first movie and they are going to go for broke.  First, of course, is the discussion of whether to have fast zombies or slow zombies. Justin settles the dispute between Gabe and Bobby by deciding to have both. It will make their movie different and stand out. Justin will direct. Gabe will be the cameraman. And Bobby will handle sound and lots of abuse. All three will take a third of the script and they will put it together and see what happens. They only have a month to do this in, as Gabe will be going to Indiana for the summer right after school ends, so time is of the essence.

Bobby decides that Justin's crush, Alicia would make the perfect female lead to their movie. He has been moderately in love with her for years and has had three conversations with her that consisted of a total of eleven sentences. The last thing he wants is for Bobby to call Alicia. When he does and pushes the phone in Justin's hand, he comes up with the backbone of their movie on the spot. He tells her the movie is tentatively called "Zombies With Flesh Stuck in My Teeth" and that the name of her character was going to be "Veronica Chaos, and she's in a post-apocalyptic world... with mutant zombies everywhere and she has to find the lost" --Medallion? Skull? Child? "book that can save humanity. She carries a" --Sword? Chainsaw? Lightweight lawn mower?--"cat and wears a"-Cloak? Corset? Chain and bikini?--"tattered white wedding dress." Alicia is very interested in being in their movie.

They also need some money to make this movie. They have equipment (some borrowed from the school and elsewhere) but they will need zombie special effects and stuff. So, they go to Justin's very interesting grandmother who loans him the $5,000 if he guarantees her a 12% return on her investment. Most of this is used to buy zombie special effects from Bobby's Uncle Clyde, a man in the business, and just as unusual as Justin's grandmother. He also has a basement that he works out of, which, for those of you who don't live down in Florida, people who live in Florida generally don't have basements because of the flooding.  Uncle Clyde's whole house is weird, but not in the way you would expect.

Justin fails to get permission from the school principal to shoot footage on school property, but he tells no one, thinking that maybe he can change her mind later, as that will be the last thing they shoot. The first day of shooting in the park scenes and everyone arrives early. Alicia, who is going to be sporting a purple Mohawk and her friend Daisy and Christopher, who will be playing Runson Mudd, the male lead, along with his little brother, Spork, who has brought along a camera to document a behind-the-scenes video on the making of the movie. Everything is going great (With the exception of Alicia's crying and fact that Bobby is sick, and makes a near-fatal error of accidentally dropping the boom mic on Alicia, who insists on being called Veronica Chaos for the entire shooting. Actors!), until a kiddie party arrives. With a very annoying clown. But there are ways around this. And revenge can be sweet.

But an accident causes the camera to break. Which also causes a break between Justin and Gabe. Justin has been slowly going off the rails with this movie. He has been making changes and doing anything just to get the movie made. And he is ready to sacrifice his friendship too. Gabe walks off the set, and Justin decides to continue shooting the movie with the camera on his phone, making it a "lost video" type of movie instead. He's not making a lot of sense. But will he come to his senses in time? Will they complete the movie or will grandma have someone come over and break their legs, or arm, as the case may be? Just how important is friendship? If your best friend is not there with you making the movie of your dreams, is it worth it?

This book, if filled with many laugh out loud, laughs. I was very careful NOT to read it close to bedtime, as I needed my sleep and I knew it would keep me up all night. This book explores not just following your dreams, but also the importance of friendship and how they will stick by you, especially when the chips are down. Definitely, go out and check this book out or buy it! I'll probably be re-reading it, myself. I've already given it away as a birthday gift and bought the other two books he has written because they sound quite interesting as well. Strand is one to watch.

Quotes

Her body was like a goddess mixed with an angel mixed with a female superhero.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 13)

But when Justin put his mind to something, whether it was getting one hundred percent on a chemistry test or watching forty-eight hours’ worth of horror movies in a row, he always succeeded. Okay, that wasn’t completely true. When he was eleven, he’d set his mind to being the ultimate Hollywood stuntman, and four years after the cast came off, he still couldn’t lift his right arm all the way. Last year he had set his mind to stop being afraid of the neighbor’s pit bull and to befriend the animal instead. That hadn’t worked out in the best possible manner either.  In fact, now that he was thinking about it, there had been many, many, many instances in which he’d put his mind to something and the end result had been pain, humiliation, or a combination of the two. But Justin was fine with that. Pain was temporary.  On his third movie he’d been conked on the forehead by a baseball bat that had slipped out of his lead actor’s hand during an intense “bash the mummy with a baseball bat” sequence, and the pain had gone away after only two days. Perhaps brain damage was forever, but pain was temporary.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 15)

  “Fast zombies or slow zombies?” Justin had asked. “Slow zombies,” said Gabe. “Fast zombies,” said Bobby. “Slow zombies are scarier.” “No, they’re not. Fast zombies are scarier because they’re fast.” “Fast zombies aren’t realistic.” “Zombies aren’t realistic.” “If you were a corpse that came back to life, you wouldn’t be moving fast,” Gabe insisted. “It doesn’t make sense. Decomposed muscles are slow.” “You can just walk away from slow zombies,” said Bobby. “Just la-di-da, strolling along. Ooops, that one is kind of close. I’d  better veer slightly to the left. Uh-oh, there’s another one. I suppose I’ll have to shove it over.” “Until you’re overwhelmed by their sheer numbers,” said Gabe. “That’s the whole point of zombies. They don’t seem like a huge threat until suddenly you’re surrounded and there’s no way to escape. You’re doomed.” “You’re more doomed if you’re surrounded by fast zombies.” “Shaun of the Dead has slow zombies.” “Zombieland has fast zombies.” “Lucio Fulci’s Zombie has slow zombies.” “28 Days Later has fast.” “Those aren’t zombies. Those are infected.” “Stop being such a zombie snob.” “I’m not a snob. I’m being accurate.” “Dawn of the Dead has fast zombies.” “No, Dawn of the Dead has slow zombies.” “It has fast zombies,” said Bobby. “I watched it last week. We’ll put in the Blu-ray.” “Which one are you talking about?” “Dawn of the Dead.” “No, which version?” “I’m talking about the remake.” “Well, I’m talking about the original.” “The remake was better.” “Get out of my house,” said Gabe. “I mean Justin’s house.” “I’m allowed to express my opinion.” “Okay,” said Gabe. “If we’re going to try to make the greatest zombie movie ever, then we need to pay homage to the original classic, Night of the Living Dead. Therefore, we need to go with slow zombies. Case closed.” “The first zombie in Night of the Living Dead chased after Barbara in her car, so technically it had both fast and slow zombies. Ha! Logic fail!” “That’s it!” said Justin. “We’ll have the best of both worlds. Our movie will have both fast and slow zombies. Guaranteed mass appeal!” “What about talking zombies?” asked Bobby. “No talking zombies,” said Justin and Gabe, almost simultaneously. “Return of the Living Dead had talking zombies.” “Shut up,” Justin and Gabe said.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever  p33-35)

Justin’s mom was an overprotective parent in a lot of ways, but she didn’t restrict his movie watching as long as he continued to demonstrate that he could tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Though she was not a fan of his enthusiasm for horror movies, she knew there were much worse things he could be doing with his friends, like vandalism or treason.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 38)

That zombie stuff gives me nightmares. As far as I’m concerned, when you die, you should stay dead. All of that rising from the grave and walking around and biting nice people on the arm…it’s rude is what it is. Flat-out inconsiderate.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 43-4)

Justin snapped awake. He needed another Red Bull. He needed wings. He went to the kitchen, got another Red Bull out of the refrigerator, and gulped it down. Oh yeah. He could feel the creativity flowing through his veins already. Every blood cell, both white and red, was electrified with pure energy…His right pinkie was twitching. Good. It could tap the keys faster. Ah, so that’s what a rapid heartbeat felt like! He’d always kind of wondered. This project was giving him the opportunity to enjoy all sorts of new experiences…Space bar. He had to remember to use the space bar. Despite all of this awesome energy, Justin still felt exhausted like he’d been running for several miles but couldn’t stop because some guy with a machete was still chasing him. He couldn’t figure out if his body was awake and his brain was tired or vice versa. Now his pinkie was twitching. That would help balance things out…The zone was crucial if they were going to finish this screenplay before school tomorrow. Before school today, technically. Those blankets on his bed sure looked enticing…Warmer. Fluffier. Comfier. Has his blanket just moved? Justin swore the blanket had turned down a bit at the corner, inviting him underneath the covers. No! He had to resist! He’d been in this situation many times. “Oh, why didn’t I start studying for that test a week ago?” he’d often wail. “I could’ve studied for a mere fifteen minutes a day and my life would be wonderful! But now…oh, the misery of my existence!” But he always got the studying done. And this was for something that he liked a lot more than math…You don’t need to write that script tonight, his bed said in a low purr. We haven’t been spending enough time together. Don’t you love me anymore? Just slip between the sheets and close your eyes, and the script will be magically finished when you wake up. His bed was lying to him. Justin would not be fooled. I would never lie to you, his bed assured him. We’re the best of friends forever. You know you’re sleepy, and I’m as cozy as snuggling with a hundred kittens. Come on, Justin. I have your best interests at heart. Trust me. You can totally trust him, said the pillow. Just one hour of sleep. That’s all you need. Think how much more productive you’ll be if you get in that on short hour. I’m the softest, most wonderful pillow in the world. Why would you want to break my fluffy little heart? Justin was not going to let them win this battle of wills. You’ve just made a powerful enemy, his bed said with a snarl. You’ll regret your disloyalty! The next time you get in me, I’m going to bite you in half! Right in half with my sharp, glistening fangs! Ha-ha-ha-ha! By the way, there’s a scary clown in your closet. At least his pinkies weren’t twitching anymore. No, wait. Maybe his eyeballs were twitching, and that just made his pinkies look normal.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 54-7)

“Test?” “The history test. Today. First period.” Justin suddenly wished there was a nearby bunker where he could hide away for a few minutes and scream. “I completely forgot to study for that! Why didn’t you remind me?” “I studied last week.” “Studying last week doesn’t count! People only remember stuff if they look at it the night before!” Justin wanted to weep, but again there was no bunker. “I guess I just assumed that you wouldn’t spend all day yesterday working on the script if you didn’t feel prepared for the test.” “Oh, really? You didn’t think I’d make a poor decision? You know me better that that! We’ve been friends for a hundred and fifty years!”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p58-9)

Hollywood and the FBI work in similar ways.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 83)

“All right, Duane, read the lines off the sheet.” “Look out behind you! There’s a—“ “This isn’t a musical.” “I know that.” “You were singing the line.” “Oh, I didn’t realize that.” “It’s okay. Try again.” “Look out behind you! There’s a—“  “Still singing.” “Could the character sing maybe?” “No.” “Look out behind you! There’s a zombie!” “That’s better, but you’re still doing it in a singsongy tone. What we’re specifically looking for in our male lead is dialogue that’s not in a singsongy tone.” Duane cleared his throat and nodded. “I can fix that. Just give me a second.” “Take your time.” “La la la la la la.” “The La la la’s probably aren’t going to help.” “I’m sorry. I’m used to audioning for musicals.” “It’s okay.” “Look out behind—“ “Still singsongy.” “Look—“ “Singsongy.” “What if I just play a zombie instead?” “That’s fine.” “Maybe we could have singing zombies,” suggested Bobby. “Don’t talk during the auditions, “ Justin told him.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 88-90)

Every single tooth was glistening white, perfectly straight, and it the exact quadrant of his mouth where it belonged. His eyes—oh, his eyes—had such a glorious shade of blue. It was like he had twin miniature earths wedged into his eye sockets…His hair was always perfect too. It looked as if he’d cut it three times a day. Top physicists would be baffled by it’s ability to remain perfect in all weather conditions…His arms were muscular, perfect for removing zombie limbs. He was an excellent speller. He’d never won a spelling bee, but when he lost, it was on words like ukulele, which was impossible to spell anyway.  And he was a nice guy. His aura of charisma was so intense that he could probably be a complete jerk and you’d still want to be by his side as he fled from a herd of rampaging bulls. Though he was bad a geography, he was bad at it an endearing way, and that one flaw made all of his other strengths shine that much brighter.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p95)

Justin Hollow was ready for anything. “What history test?” “I texted you a reminder last night,” said Gabe. “Didn’t we just have one?” Justin asked. “How much history is there for Mr. Dzeda to test us on?” “Did you study at all?” “I can’t do everything. Oh well. I guess I don’t get to be a famous historian now.” “Don’t be sarcastic. If we called Steven Spielberg, he’d tell you that you should’ve studied for the test.” He was right. Spielberg would be polite but firm. Justin needed to maintain his focus on academics, or the only movie he’d be making would be a documentary about living in a cardboard box in an alley, scavenging half-eaten lizards for his dinner, and burning his hair to stay warm.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 106)

Dead’s Cool isn’t a bad title actually, though I don’t like it as much as Dead Skull.” “What about Dead is Cool without the contraction?” asked Gabe. “I’m not sure our movie has any evidence that being dead is cool,” said Justin. “Killing zombies is cool, yeah, but being dead is kind of a miserable existence. You’re all rotted and stuff, and people are always  trying to shoot you in the head.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p109)

“Green bedsheet?” “Check.” “Clothespins?” “Check.” “Laptop computer?” “Check.” “Browsing history deleted?” “Check.” “Waffle iron?” “Check.” “Tape measure?” “Uh-oh.” “It’s okay,” said Gabe. “I’ve got three.” “Why do you have three?” “People like to walk off with tape measures.” “Oh.” “Squirrel food?” “Why do we need that?” “In case squirrels swarm us. We discussed this, Justin.” “If squirrels swarm us, we’ll just break up one of the sandwiches and throw it.” “If squirrels swarm us, it’ll be because we have sandwiches lying out. We spent like twenty minutes working out this contingency plan.”  “Okay, we’ll just have to go into filming unprepared. If squirrels force us to cancel you can punch me in the face. But not hard. Maybe not in the face. You can punch me in the stomach. Also not hard. Actually, having to cancel the shoot will be punishment enough. Don’t punch me.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 114-15)

“You know what?” Alicia said. “I think I just freaked out because I’m nervous about being on my first movie set. I want the Mohawk. I really do.” Justin gaped at her. “But you…but you just…but just said…but you just said that—“ “She does this kind of thing all the time,” said Daisy. “Let’s finish this,” said Alicia. “I’m ready.” “Wait. No, wait,” said Justin. “I mean, we have a lot to shoot today. We don’t have time for you to get emotional again.” “Are you calling me emotional because I’m a woman?” “What? No. You were crying fifteen seconds ago! Your cheeks are still glistening!” Justin couldn’t figure out what was happening. Maybe the reason he’d never had a girlfriend was to protect his sanity.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 124)

Justin was not actually concerned about the time that they might lose by pronouncing two extra syllables, but it was a bit early in the process to allow the cast to start dictating the approach to characters that he’d created. It would start with Alicia insisting that she always be called Veronica Chaos, and it might end with the demand that the character communicate entirely by mooing. “Can we have a brief conference” Justin asked. “Sure,” said Gabe. The two of them stepped out of earshot, and then Justin shared his theory about the mooing. “I agree that we need to keep control,” said Gabe. “But in this case I think it’s more important to choose our battles. Give her the Veronica Chaos thing, and then when there’s a disagreement that actually matters, you can say, ‘Do it may way because I bent to your will that other time.’” “That makes sense.” “Most things I say do.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p127)

“I guess it’s safe to make your move.” “I’m not making any move.” “You might as well.” “I have no interest in Daisy.” “Yeah, I’m sure.” “I don’t!” “I saw the way you were looking at her.” “How? With my retinas? How else am I supposed to look at her? Did you forget about how I feel about you-know-who?” Gabe glanced over at Alicia. “Still?” “Yes!” “Seriously?” “Yes!” “She’s kind of a nutcase.” “I know. I don’t care.” “You should probably care a little. It’s useful information.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 148)

“You’re going to be one of our slow zombies,” Justin explained. “Do a practice walk for me.” Duane walked across the basement. “Okay, that’s more like a dance.” “I don’t feel like I’m dancing.” “Maybe you’re not dancing, but you’re walking with musical rhythm. Are you thinking of a song?” “I’m always thinking of a song.” “Well, try walking without a song in your head.” Duane walked across the basement again. “See, the problem is that you’re bouncing a little. You’re bobbing your head, and you’re snapping your fingers.” “I was snapping my fingers?” “Yes.” “That’s interesting. I didn’t realize that about myself.” “So what I’d like you to do is sort of shuffle and not dance like a theater student.” “Will do.” Duane walked across the basement once more. “Better,” said Justin. “Still snapping your fingers though. “I swear I’m not aware that that’s happening.” “It’s no big deal. How about when you walk, you look down at your hands, and if you see your fingers starting to snap, you can make them stop?” Duane walked across the basement for what Justin suspected would not be the last time. “Okay,” said Justin, “the fingers have stopped, but the head-bobbing is still very much a thing.” “It’s just so strange. I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned this to me before.” “Well, unless they were directing you how to walk like the living dead, it probably wouldn’t have come up.” “That makes sense.” “What I want you to do is think of your absolute least favorite song, something you can’t dance to, and I want you to sing it your head while you’re walking.” Duane nodded. Then he walked across the basement slowly and sadly with no rhythm. “Yes!” Another directing challenge overcome!

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 180-1)

 “I still want to make this movie, but I can’t have you acting all Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick the whole time. Ahab was not a well-adjusted man. This movie can’t be your white whale.” “I understand.” “And yet at the same time, I need you to be more like Ahab because what you were doing is like if he said, ‘I must kill the white whale! I must kill the white whale! Actually no, I’ll just kill a halibut instead.’…. I want you to be like Ahab if his goal wasn’t something ridiculous like to catch that specific white whale out of all the whales in the oceans, but he still wanted to catch something awesome. Like maybe a great white shark.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 191-2)

Doofy, the stuffed bear he had gotten for his second birthday, was not going anywhere. Forget that. Production of Doofy’s has been discontinued when their noses were found to be a safety hazard to young children, and they fetched a lot of money in online auctions, but…no way. Doofy stayed. Justin hated to sell all of his stuff, but he was too young for a credit card. He had three more years before he could get into crippling debt on his own…The doorbell rang. When he went downstairs and answered it, Gabe and Bobby were standing there on his front porch. Each of them was holding a cardboard box. “What’s that?” Justin asked. “Star Wars figures,” said Bobby. “Unopened.” “Aren’t those your dad’s?” “Yes. Someday I will suffer for this. Let’s make it worth it.” “I’ve got Simpsons figures,” said Gabe, “and a bunch of comic books.” “You guys don’t have to do this,” said Justin. “Yes, we do,” said Gabe. “We’re in this together. Maybe we’re spiraling into disaster, but is so, we’re spiraling into disaster as a team.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 206-7)

Look, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, but there is no realistic world in which slow zombies and fast zombies would coexist. You have to choose your side. When you watch the Super Bowl, you don’t get to root for both teams. You pick one, and you hope that the other one gets destroyed.

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p215)

This scene would work. It had to work. “It’ll work,” said George A. Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead. Justin could see right through him like Obi-wan Kenobi. “You just have to believe in yourself.” “Are you sure?” asked Justin. “A lot of my problems seem to be because I believed in myself too much.” “You can do this,” said Sam Raimi, wearing a transparent Army of Darkness T-Shirt. “I don’t say that about everyone. Some people can’t do it. And I tell them that to their face, and then I laugh at their tears. But not you, Justin. Not you.” “There’s no way you’ll mess this up,” said a conjured Peter Jackson. “When I made Dead/Alive all those years ago, nobody thought I’d go on to make a multibillion-dollar hobbit franchise. Now I could have all my enemies killed if I wanted. And I do want. And I have. But you shouldn’t because it’s wrong.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 246-7)

“When will you find out how you did?” Alicia asked. “I already know how I did,” said Justin. “It’s weird. When you study and know the answers, it’s a lot easier to gauge how well you did on a test.”

-Jeff Strand (The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever p 260)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Zombie-Movie-Ever-ebook/dp/B017HX13L2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508243567&sr=8-1&keywords=greatest+zombie+movie+ever

If Someone Says "You Complete Me," RUN! Whoopi's Big Book of Relationhip's by Whoopi Goldberg

I have a couple of confessions to make. When I picked up this book, I assumed (yes, I know) that it was a humor book, as Goldberg was the author. I got it at the library on the new bookshelf and I'm afraid I never pay attention to where the book is on the shelf. Of course, I could have looked at the good ole Dewey number on its spine, but I didn't. What I'm trying to say, is that this is, in fact, an actual book giving advice on relationships. That being said, its a really good one and, of course, a funny one. She's a sight better than any of the doctors or "therapists" who write such drivel out there. Second confession. I only got a bit over half-way through. I skimmed the rest. I still feel confident telling you that this is a great book, it just happens that she was getting into stuff that I already knew or didn't apply to me.

Her second Chapter, I Want To Know What Love Is, deals with separating the reality of love and relationships with the fantasy we get from music, movies, television, and books. Do you really want to be married to a vampire? Life is not a fairytale and you are not Cinderella.  Those love songs we all heard growing up can give one a real false sense of what to expect from a relationship. It would be nice if our love life could be like a Beatles song, or John Legend's "Good Morning". Or as she says about the movies: "An Officer and a Gentleman. Pretty Woman. Fifty Shades of Grey…Footloose. The Enchanted Cottage. Grease. Twilight. Can’t Buy Me Love. The Notebook. (Or any fucking book or movie by Nicholas Sparks.) Then there’s Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind, Maria and Tony in West Side Story. Really? You’re going to die for love after knowing each other for less than twenty-four hours? I love that movie, but come on! “But its true love!” some will say. But it ain’t real, people. It’s a movie."  Real life is waking up to that person every day for the rest of your life (or at least a very long time), snoring, drooling, stealing the covers, and doing all the other things that are going to irritate you and that other person dealing with all the things that you do that will irritate them and saying I can accept that. 

Another thing that I believe is really rather important is making sure you are actually ready to be in a relationship. Are you willing to put in the time and effort and work required of a relationship? These things aren't magic. It takes elbow grease and lots of hard work to make this happen. As she says" If you’re not willing to do the work, which requires a bridge, requires you to give and for the other person to give to you, if you’re not willing to hear why he’s upset, if you’re not willing to hear all the things that you need to hear in a relationship, then maybe it’s not for you. That’s why I’m not in one—because I’m really someone who needs to figure out what the cat wants. I spend a lot of time in the cat box." I'm more of a dog person, myself, but you get the idea. 

You also need to think about why you want to be in a relationship. Because it is perfectly OK to be single. And marriage should never be the goal. "So if think getting married is the be-all and end-all of your life, then you really need to think about why you feel that way. If you’re going to do this and get married, really understand yourself and what it is you think it’s going to do for you. If you’re doing this because you’re lonely, don’t do it. If you’re doing this to prove a point, don’t do it. If you’re doing this to get back at somebody, don’t do it. If you’re doing this because your mother wants you to, don’t do it. If you’re doing this because you figure, “What the hell,” definitely don’t do it. It takes some strength and energy to go against all the cultural expectations, but it takes even more to live a lie, to get divorced, to fight with someone every day, to be confused or unhappy or untrue to yourself."

Two other important things are knowing when to reveal which secrets (such as you might have difficult having kids or that you wear a wig will come up at different times) and rules of civility (no texting or talking on the phone at the table or in the middle of a conversation, clean up after yourself, replace the toilet paper roll, use nice words, don't use words that are belittling or disrespectful, always knock on a door before entering, don't talk with food in your mouth, don't interrupt when someone else is talking (you aren't listening if you do), know when and how to apologize, be kind, tell the truth, and most important, treat them like the friends they are). It's amazing that she feels the need to put these things in, but I know for a fact why she does because I've seen plenty of people out there that do not follow some or all of these things.  

When she gets to the chapter on red flags you really need to pay attention. There are always red flags when a relationship is going wrong. I had a relationship that if it was a football field (either one guys) there were so many red flags on it the refs would have been up in the stands taking red ties and scarfs and handkerchiefs from the spectators to throw more on the field. I saw all the red flags. I knew something was wrong, but unlike a lot of people I was not in denial exactly, I was just too frozen to act, which is just as bad. We all know the reasons for ignoring the red flags: I don't want to be alone, what about the kids, my biological clock, or as a friend of Whoopi's said: "I just wanted someone to have dinner with." Ignore these flags at your peril. You wouldn't ignore them if it was your brother, father, or best friend, though, would you?

In the rest of the book, she covers sex, dating when you're over fifty, divorce, prenups, and how to let go of that old relationship to begin a new one.  The Marquis de la Grange once said: "When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice." If that is the case, then you could not ask for a better one than Whoopi. She is the best friend, the wise grandmother, smart alacky sister, all rolled up in one. She has lived a lot in this life and has done a great deal of thinking and learning along the way. We can all benefit from her words of wit and wisdom. 

Quotes

There’s nobody more complicated than a human being. Straight, gay, black, white, or “other”-it doesn’t matter. The position we put ourselves in is incredibly complicated—mostly because we complicate it.
-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN!: Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships P 6)

Or listen to (“You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”. Really? There’s someone out there who  is going to make you feel like a “natural woman,” as if you were an “unnatural woman” to start with? Or “As Long as He Needs Me,” from the musical Oliver!, where Nancy sings about Bill Sykes, who has pretty much beat the shit out of her, and she is saying, “This is my man, and I’m going to be with him even though he doesn’t do any of the things that he is supposed to do, just because I think that, deep down, he needs me.” What the hell is wrong with this woman?

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships  p11)

Think about “I say a Little Prayer”: “The moment I wake up/ Before I put on my makeup, / I say a little prayer for you.” Come on. Really? What the fuck? You should be saying a little prayer for yourself, so you can get through the day. If you’re going to take a minute to pray, pray that you get to your job on time without getting hit by a bus or getting mugged, or nothing happens to you on the subway or crossing the street. This idea that you have this love…it’s not really real. It’s kind of wonderful to be in that heightened state, but it’s not real. Maybe I just look at it as a prelude to problems, because at some point you will be sorely disappointed. Which is when you will start saying a little prayer that this person will just go away.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships   p12)

I blame these songs for messing me up, for setting me up to fail. Don’t get me wrong. They are all great songs. I love these songs. They just send the wrong message: A lot of Stevie Wonder, especially “I Believe (When I Fall in Love, It Will Be Forever.”) The whole album that this song is on, Talking Book, pretty much covers the entire trajectory of a relationship. It is amazing, but you are going to want to break out the scotch when you listen to that one. Any of the love songs from West Side Story, but especially “One Hand, One Heart.” So now we all want to be Siamese twins? “My Girl.” Providing sunshine on a cloudy day and some of these other acts of God the Temptations sing about is a lot of pressure to put on someone. Do you really want to take that on and be that guy’s girl?

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships   p 12-14)

I am a huge movie buff, but that shit can mess you up. In a way, popular culture conditions us to find someone who makes us happy which many of us take to mean “Just find someone, whether they make you happy or not. Just find someone or you won’t be  considered normal.” That’s why so many people rush into relationships that make no sense.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships  p16)

An Officer and a Gentleman. Pretty Woman. Fifty Shades of Grey…Footloose. The Enchanted Cottage. Grease. Twilight. Can’t Buy Me Love. The Notebook. (Or any fucking book or movie by Nicholas Sparks.) Then there’s Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind, Maria and Tony in West Side Story. Really? You’re going to die for love after knowing each other for less than twenty-four hours? I love that movie, but come on! “But its true love!” some will say. But it ain’t real, people. It’s a movie.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships  p 19)

And by the way, can anyone explain how vampires, who have no blood in them, get an erection?...Just asking.

-Whoopi Goldberg  (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships p23)

While some of us may think we have a soundtrack to our life, none of us gets our own movie soundtrack. This means that we may have songs that have been important to us at times in our life, our history, but none of us has an actual soundtrack playing in the background. In Manhattan, with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, you hear Gershwin in the background while they are walking down the street. That’s not happening in real life. No one hears fucking Gershwin when they are out walking. You hear, “Honk, honk, move!” You see dogs pooping. You hear people talking loudly on their cell phones. You’re exposed to all that. In the movies, none of that. That should tell you to be really careful in how movies relate to your real life.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships  p22)

I’ll just put it to you this way: Girl, you’d better know how to do things yourself. You’d better learn how to protect yourself, and don’t start fights you can’t finish. If you want something hung up on the wall, learn how to handle a hammer. You don’t want to wait for somebody to do it for you. That’s not why you want a relationship. If you want somebody to do stuff for you, get a handyman. It’s cheaper, especially if you’re going to divorce him. Handymen don’t want to get in the bed. He’ll just pee in the bathroom, that’s all, and hopefully in the toilet and not the sink, like some men I have known. The only problem you’ll have with him is he won’t put the toilet seat down. But what man does?

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships  p31)

If you’re not willing to do the work, which requires a bridge, requires you to give and for the other person to give to you, if you’re not willing to hear why he’s upset, if you’re not willing to hear all the things that you need to hear in a relationship, then maybe it’s not for you. That’s why I’m not in one—because I’m really someone who needs to figure out what the cat wants. I spend a lot of time in the cat box.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships   p 39)

If they complete you, they can deconstruct you as well.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships p 41)

So I say if you think getting married is the be-all and end-all of your life, then you really need to think about why you feel that way. If you’re going to do this and get married, really understand yourself and what it is you think it’s going to do for you. If you’re doing this because you’re lonely, don’t do it. If you’re doing this to prove a point, don’t do it. If you’re doing this to get back at somebody, don’t do it. If you’re doing this because your mother wants you to, don’t do it. If you’re doing this because you figure, “What the hell,” definitely don’t do it. It takes some strength and energy to go against all the cultural expectations, but it takes even more to live a lie, to get divorced, to fight with someone every day, to be confused or unhappy or untrue to yourself.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships p 44-5)

When people show you who they are, believe them.

-Oprah

Believe me, Prince Charming will turn into Darth Vader once you get him into divorce court.

-Whoopi Goldberg (If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN! Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships p 167)

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Someone-Says-You-Complete-Relationships/dp/0316302015/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463422329&sr=1-1&keywords=if+someone+says+you+complete+me+run

 

 

 

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown by Holly Black

Even if you have sworn to never read another vampire novel, you should read this one.  Unlike the others where the vampires are sexy with tortured souls who only need to be loved, this one puts the tale in the stark reality of what vampires really are: amoral, bored immortals for whom humans are either a snack or a toy, and surviving means treading a fine line.  If you become bitten by a vampire, you become Cold.  You will know if you are Cold within forty-eight hours and then, if you do not drink blood for eighty-eighty days, you will remain human.  If you do not, you will become a vampire.  Another way to become a vampire is to drink from a very old vampire more than once.

Once you are Cold, if you're family have not locked you up in the basement for the duration, hoping for your survival, or if you become a vampire, you must go to a Coldtown.  The TV and live video feeds of the most famous Coldtown, in Springfield, Massachusetts, is run by an old vampire named Lucien, where he makes the life of Coldtown appear alluring to those on the outside.  But once you enter Coldtown, infected or not, you need a token to get tested to get out.  You can have others on the outside raise money to provide you with one, or you can get one for turning in a vampire.

At the beginning of this book, Tana wakes up in the bathtub of a farmhouse of a friend, where she had been at a party the night before, only to discover that everyone is dead, except her now ex-boyfriend, who is tied to a bed with a vampire tied in special chains against a wall.  The vampire tries to tell her that Aiden has been bitten and to be careful, but she ignores him and removes the duct tape from his mouth and almost gets bitten.  So when the vampire warns her that there are other vampires in the building still and that she must get out, she takes both of them, Aiden and Gavriel.  She puts the vampire in the trunk to both protect him from the sun and them from him.  On her way  out the window getting them out, a vampire's teeth scratch her leg and she realizes she might be infected.

Tana's mother was infected when she was ten and after hearing her beg for help for thirty-four days, she steals her father's keys to the basement and goes down, only to have her mother begin to gnaw at her arm.  Luckily her dad is there to swing a shovel and decapitate her mother.  You cannot get infected by someone infected, only through a vampire.  This left her and her young sister Pearl without either parent, as her father sunk into a deep depression over the ordeal.

To save her family and her future plans she has with her remaining friend, she heads to Coldtown.  At the last stop gas station, they meet Midnight and Winter, a girl and boy twins who have been waiting for years to go to Coldtown to become vampires.  Midnight keeps a blog with a video feed.  She is not even scared when Aiden loses it for a moment and takes a chunk out of her throat.  Tana plans on turning Gavriel in, who wants to go there, so she can get a token to get out, when she is clear of the infection.

But Coldtown is not what it seems.  Its a dog-eat-dog world.  Gavriel gives Tana some money and a very valuable garnet necklace.  She uses the money to buy supplies after escaping the room Midnight and her friends have placed her and Aiden in, hoping that he will feed off her and become a vampire and turn them.  The only reason she goes back is that Aiden has her token.  When she does come back, all hell has broken loose.

With the help of Jameson, a young man who helps others in need, and Valentin, a girl who works in a pawn shop and loves Jameson.  Tana is forced to go to the Grand Ball in Lucien's compound in order to find Aiden and get her token back.  What she sees is horrible acts of violence and depravity of the worst kind.  Somewhere is Gavriel, who turns out to be the Thorn of Istra, a vampire who worked for the master vampire, Spider to rid the world of "accidents" such as those who get infected and must be put down before the world can discover their existence.  This ends when a vampire named Carlos, goes around the United States infecting people left and right, who they in turn infected others, leading to Coldtowns and the discovery of vampires.  Gavriel was put in a prison and tortured beyond anything you can imagine and becomes insane, though he does have his lucid moments.  Gavriel was turned by Lucien and he is seeking payback.

Tana comes to care for Gavriel and he for her, but both know it's a set up for failure.  By the time you get to the end of this book, and yes it does have an ending of sorts, you will be demanding a sequel.  This book was published in 2013 and I can only hope that Black has just finished a sequel and will be publishing it soon.  You become so attached to these characters and invested in the story that you do not want it to end.  If she does not write a sequel soon, she will be hearing from me, and I hope you as well, because this book demands one.

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Girl-Coldtown-Holly-Black/dp/0316213098?ie=UTF8&keywords=the%20coldest%20girl%20in%20coldtown&qid=1463143450&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Blood Magick: Book Three of the Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy by Nora Roberts

I have to say that after reading and enjoying quite much the story of Connor and Meara, I was really looking forward to the story of Branna and Fin and the final match against the evil Cabhan.  Sadly I was a little let down.  The tension between the two is still there, as well as the spark.  Across the three books, Branna has been slowly trusting and believing in Fin more and accepting his help.  She has come to believe, as the others, that he is necessary to ending Cabhan.  But she refuses to give in to her desires for Fin because of Cabhan's mark that he wears and what might happen if she does.

In a dream state, the two are taken to Cabhan's hidden cave, back in time, and discover that he has made a pact with a demon, whose power is on a  red stone Cabhan wears around his neck.  The reason they have never been able to destroy him is that the demon heals him and keeps him alive.  They must destroy both.  But how do you destroy a demon and when is the right day to attempt an attack?  They've already tried two magical days, the summer solstice and Samhain, without success.  They also realize they must have the help of Sorcha's children, the original Dark Witches.

Cabhan continues to taunt them and lurk about, attacking them when he can, but quickly escaping when they respond.  When they finally figure out a plan of attack, they must find a way keep Cabhan from knowing of it and so they distract him.  The end game is rather a let down in that it doesn't last very long and is rather uneventful.  After three books, I wanted it to go out in a bang, not a whimper.  Its still a good book, and if you've come this far in reading the series, you have to read it to conclude it.  I just wish I had gotten more bang for my buck.

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Magick-Cousins-ODwyer-Roberts/dp/0425259870?ie=UTF8&keywords=blood%20magick%20by%20nora%20roberts&qid=1463142813&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1