Wishes

Fifteen years after adopting a desperately wanted baby and changing her name to hide the child’s identity, Kate Summers finds her new life threatened by the arrival of Daegan O’Rourke, whose past is strangely entangled with Kate’s. Original.

Buy/More Info

Lost Souls

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson delivers her most harrowing novel yet as a young woman’s determined hunt for a serial killer draws her into a twisted psychopath’s unspeakable crimes.

Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz is lucky to be alive. Not many people her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and lived to tell about it. Her dad, New Orleans detective, Rick Bentz, wants Kristi to stay in New Orleans and out of danger. But if anything, Kristi’s experiences have made her even more fascinated by the mind of the serial killer. She hasn’t given up her dream of being a true-crime writer–of exploring the darkest recesses of evil–and now she just may get her chance.

Four girls have disappeared at All Saints College in less than two years. All four were “lost souls”–troubled, vulnerable girls with no one to care about them, no one to come looking if they disappeared. The police think they’re runaways, but Kristi senses there’s something that links them, something terrifying. She decides to enroll, following their same steps. All Saints has changed a lot since Kristi was an undergraduate. The stodgy Catholic college has lured edgy new professors to its campus and gained a reputation for envelope-pushing, with classes like the very popular “The Influence of Vampirism in Modern Culture and Literature,” and elaborately staged morality plays that feel more like the titillating entertainment of some underground club than religious spectacles. And there are whispers of a dark cult on campus whose members wear vials of blood around their necks and meet in secret chambers–rituals to which only the elite have access. To find the truth, Kristi will need to become part of the cult’s inner circle, to learn their secrets, and play the part of lost soul without losing herself in the process. It’s a dangerous path, and Kristi is skating on its knife-thin edge.

The deeper she goes, the more Kristi begins to wonder if she is the hunter or the prey. She’s certain she’s being watched and followed–studied, even–as yet another girl disappears, and another. And when the bodies finally begin to surface–in ways that bring fear to the campus and terror to the hearts of even hardened cops like Detective Bentz and his partner Reuben Montoya–Kristi realizes with chilling clarity that she has underestimated her foe. She is playing a game with a killer more cunning and bloodthirsty than anyone can imagine, one who has personally selected her for membership in a cult of death from which there will be no escape.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Lost Hours
Lazy author.

Yes?

YES!

Writes in one-line paragraphs.

Annoying?

HELL yeah!

Can I get my money back?

No–forget the money.

I want the hours back that I wasted on this piece of trash.

But I won’t.

Not ever.

Lost hours.

Characters–flat.

Leads–go nowhere.

Plot–ridiculous.

So many words spent on stupid descriptions.

Why?

WHY?!?

Hours lost.

Lisa Jackson, you owe me $7.99.

And the 20 hours or so it took to drag my eyes across this doodoo.

*headdesk*

THUNK!

4 Stars A good read
Kristi Bentz, daughter to New Orleans Detective Rick Bentz is heading back to college. She has enrolled as a student at All Saints College. A college that has been made famous not for the teachers or classes but because four women have all gone missing in a eighteen month span. The police believe the women are runaways.

Kristi wants to write a true crime novel. When she hears about the missing women, she decides to do some investigate work. Kristi learns that all of the women attended the same class with Dr. Dominic Grotto. Dr. Grotto teaches a class on vampyrism. One of Kristi’s old classmates, Lucretia Stevens tells Kristi about how she suspects one of the girls…a Rylee was in a cult. Now Kristi is really intrigued. What is Dr. Grotto’s connection to the missing women and could he be a vampire?

The only person Kristi can get to believe her that the women did not go missing on their own is her ex-boyfriend, Jay McKnight. As Kristi gets closer to uncovering the truth, it brings her just one more step closer to evil himself.

It was great to see Kristi and Rick Bentz back again. Detective Bentz is one of the most famous and one of my favorite detectives around. He may come off hard as nails but that is only because he really cares about the ones around him and would do everything he could to keep them protected. Lost Souls still featured Rick but this time he stepped out of the picture to let Kristi shine. Kristi definetly takes after her father. I liked this more supernatural approach that Mrs. Jackson took with Lost Souls but with still keeping in her usual fashion of producing a good thriller. All I have to say is when Rick Bentz is involved, no one inculding vampires stand a chance. Lost Souls leaves the reader with a cliff hanger that leading right into Malice the next book from Lisa.

1 Star No Bones on this Story
I really wanted to like this story. But for some reason, the author never got into the character’s heads. It was all surface writing, and alot of it filler material as well. I never got to know the 4 dead college students and why they did what they did. I found myself skimming alot of parts, hoping it would get better. The story could have been 200 pages shorter as well.

3 Stars Entertaining but disgusting
Kristi Bentz is finally pursuing her ideal career. She wants to be a crime writer. In order to do that she’s got to be in the thick of the case. Kristi Bentz has already been the target of two twisted serial killers but that hasn’t stopped her from living. On the contrary, she enrolls in All Saints College in Baton Rouge where four girls have already gone missing. Her father, New Orleans Detective Rick Bentz warns her against going back to school at All Saints.

She doesn’t listen. She arrives in Baton Rouge and throws herself into the middle of a creepy case where girls are going missing and secret cults are lurking. Normally romance and twisted psychopaths don’t mix, but Lisa Jackson makes it work.

From the beginning to the end this book keeps you intrigued. It’s a unique story and I’ve never read anything like it before. It’s amazing how the author can mix the disgusting and sick aspects of the book with the gushy love story.

Just a warning, before buying this book: Lost Souls is filled with gory details and necrophilia. If this book had a movie rating, it would be XXX. This book is not for the faint hearted. Be prepared to quite literally jump into the mind of a serial killer.

2 Stars I expected a little more. Not sure if I can put it in words.
Kristi Bentz has awakened from a coma and is trying to move on with her life. Having survived the attack of a madman (one of several) in the last novel (Absolute Evil), Kristi believes she can now see the future deaths of those she comes into contact with. Packing her things and leaving the comforts of home, Kristi heads to All Saints College to complete her education. Meanwhile, All Saints is experiencing a rash of missing girls; an increase in enrollment in some courses about vampirism; girls carrying their blood around their necks in vials; chat rooms; bloody martinis; and other dark issues. As Kristi decides that part of her education will include solving the “All Saints Missing Girls” case and writing a book, she finds that her life is in danger. Hoping to exclude her father from the investigation, Rick Bentz is dealing with other issues that include a wife who has a desire that he isn’t ready to address; and a daughter who wants to grow up while placing herself in danger. There were a lot of things to like about this novel, the killer wasn’t really original, but the motivation had tons of potential. A group of people who have varying degrees of dependence was extremely creative although I thought that there were things that could have been added and things that needed to be deleted. So when the “demons” are deleted, was I satisfied…somewhat, but would I get the next story in the series “Malice”, I am not sure. This one was somewhere between a 2.

Buy/More Info

Gods and Generals

In a prequel of sorts to his father Michael Shaara’s 1974 epic novel The Killer Angels, Jeff Shaara explores the lives of Generals Lee, Hancock, Jackson and Chamberlain as the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg approaches. Shaara captures the disillusionment of both Lee and Hancock early in their careers, Lee’s conflict with loyalty, Jackson’s overwhelming Christian ethic and Chamberlain’s total lack of experience, while illustrating how each compensated for shortcomings and failures when put to the test. The perspectives of the four men, particularly concerning the battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, make vivid the realities of war.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Great Book
I bought the book ‘Gods and Generals’ for my husband who is a history teacher and has been reading all of Jeff Shaar books. The book was unused, but you could tell that it had been on the shelf for quite a while. Great deal though, And great book if you are interested in the Civil War!

5 Stars Shaara is truly gifted! I loved this book!
I’m not a huge fan of Civil War history but I have a good bit of knowledge regarding that monsterous event as my own father was a true Civil War buff and I studied it a great deal in school. I came away from “Gods and Generals” with new respect for Generals Lee, Jackson, Chamberlain and Hancock. The story follows these key players from right before the start of the war to the march towards Gettysburg. Shaara takes the actual history and weaves it into a very compelling saga that brings much deserved respect to this horrible time in our history.

I love the way Shaara allows us to see the personal side of those involved in the war, especially Jackson and Lee. He must have spent years researching the subjects! For example, it was an eye-opener regarding Jackson’s painful losses and how that shaped his actions. The only negative is probably the contiuous nonsense about the “rebel yell” – but otherwise its an excellent book.

4 1/2 stars is probably most fitting. I would think it will become required high school/college reading – if it hasn’t already.

4 Stars Good Novel On The Early Civil War Years Just Before Gettysburg
“Gods and Generals” by Jeff Shaara is a good prequel to his father’s (Michael Shaara) title “Killer Angels” on the Battle of Gettysburg.

While Gods and Generals covers many characters from the South (James Longstreet, Jefferson Davis, AP Hill, Joseph Johnston, etc.) and the North (George McCllelan, Winfield Scott, Abraham Lincoln, etc.), there are four main characters:

1. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from the South.

2. Winfield Scott Hancock and Joshua Chamberlain from the North.

The narrative reads as if the character were speaking in the present tense and you are able to really feel that you are there as the event is happening (whether a battle, parting of ways between Northern and Southern army officers, etc.).

The narrative flows freely and I did not find myself becoming bored or impatient with the read.

Among the areas covered include:

1. Civil War battles such as 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and just before Gettsyburg.

2. Decisions various army officers (Lee, Hancock, Thomas, Armistead, etc.) had to make as to whether they would fight for the North or South.

3. Some personal history of soldiers’ wives (Lee, Jackson, Hancock, Chamberlain).

I am not usually a big fan of fiction, but in my humble opinion, Gods and Generals is a good read.

The book will appeal to many people: those who already have a good knowledge of the Civil War and those who would perhaps like to read an entertaining read on the Civil War before trying out more comprehensive and deeper titles on a particular aspect of the Civil War (specific battle, officer, politician, etc.).

Recommended.

4 Stars A Nice Complement to History Books
At the time this was written there are 240 reviews on this book so I will not go into details about the story but just my impressions of the book.

I liked the book due to its fast paced and “man on the ground” type of feel. Mr. Shaara writes well about battles and the history – in an overview sense – is mostly accurate mainly concentrating on Manassas, Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville.

As in most of Mr. Shaara’s books this one is also “historical fiction”, an oxymoron if you ever head one, and is a very interesting character study of the major players. I especially enjoyed the characters of Jackson and Chamberlin and give thanks to this book for sparking my interest in those two fascinating figures which prompted me to read more about them.

It is a very nice complement to history books and biographies I have previously read.

5 Stars Great start
A wonderful start to the Civil War trilogy. Perhaps a little too Confed-centric for my tastes, nevertheless we get to meet all the major players of the war up to the summer of 1863. Recommended. Beautiful presentation, btw.

Buy/More Info

America from the Air A Guide to the Landscape Along Your Route

An illustrated guide, in both book and CD-ROM, of landscapes seen from commercial airplane windows across the United States.

This is a guide to what an airline passenger sees from his seat while flying over the United States. Through its ingenious construction and a map of preferred flight paths, it’s easy to find those pages that correspond to whatever flight a passenger happens to be on, and then to identify features that can be seen from the air. The book marries geology, natural history, and human history for a glorious portrait of the continent, from the Atlantic City Boardwalk to Mount St. Helens.

Each two-page spread features an aerial photo with captions identifying features passengers will see and an essay interpreting the features. Each chapter is a Flight Corridor, with pages sequenced to follow a trip from takeoff to landing. Because many flight paths overlap, the fifteen corridors cover the forty most heavily traveled flight segments in the continental United States, plus many others. In many regions of the country, readers will have a new page to read about every twenty minutes. The entire book is also on the included CD-ROM, which can easily be used on a laptop in the air.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars For those who love a window seat on the airplane
Great explanations of all those sites that you see from the window when flying across the USA.

5 Stars Great for Pilots and Dads alike!
Got this for my father-in-law and grandfather for Christmas – both of whom are former pilots. They especially enjoyed reading about things they had flown over but never known about. The entire family enjoyed the great photography, descriptions, and the CD-ROM in the back cover. We are all now taking turns looking at the CD-ROM – it’s a great little perk!

5 Stars Air Tour
Fabulous book with CD. A must have for the constant traveler or sighseeing buff.

1 Star Such unrealized potential
The idea is excellent – what, exactly, am I flying over right now? Selecting the most traveled air routes in the country is a great way to constrain the scope to a manageable effort. Unfortunately, this is a great idea that is very poorly executed.

For starters, the routes are very confusing to follow as they often have alternate paths. Just show me what LA to New York looks like, don’t divert my attention by diverting me to Las Vegas or Phoenix or whatever.

Second, the pictures aren’t very good. It is safe to say that very few of the pictures were taken from the window of a commercial jet. As a result, the view is not even close to what you would see from your window seat (unless you regularly fly in a satellite).

Again, a great idea. And kudos for making it a low-cost paperback. But the execution is poor.

4 Stars Interesting gift, needs more pictures
I bought this book as a gift after a review in Wired. It has major routes, and large area pictures of main land features and discussion of the routes. I wish it had more pictures, more analysis, and and more blowups of the land features. Perhaps looking at the images by computer on the CD (which comes with the book, and which is a copy of the book) would allow zooming in on features in more detail (which I haven’t tried). I was a little disappointed in the book expecting even more discussion and analysis of ‘what one sees from air’. Most of what was pointed out I already knew. However, my spouse has taken the CD on several trips and hasn’t complained.

The pictures are still great.

Buy/More Info

The Queens Smuggler William Tyndale Trailblazer Books 2

Thrilling adventure stories introducing young readers (ages 8-12) to Christian heroes of the past. Sarah Poyntz is the daughter of an English merchant who operates a shipping business from Antwe

Buy/More Info

Michael Jackson death tape appears online on www.enggineeringforum.com

London, Feb 24 (Inditop.com) A new Michael Jackson video has appeared online – one which has recorded paramedics declaring pop legend dead. Femalefirst.co.uk

Michael Jackson News and online store featuring a selection of music, shirts, … Michael Jackson MP3’s will play on iPod® and all MP3 players

DX03 Music Icon Michael Jackson Bad Version announced the be released by Hot Toys!

Captain EO, a musical spectacular featuring the late Michael Jackson, has reopened at Disneyland after closing more than 10 years ago.

A recording of the moment paramedics first announced Michael Jackson’s death has been found online.

The voice on the tape – which is believed to feature a Los Angeles Fire Department medical calling ahead to the UCLA Hospital in Santa Monica – cou?

A dramatic recording revealed today is believed to detail the moment paramedics broke the news of Michael Jackson’s death

Lely High Coach Dave Miller. (Photo by Scott H. Shook) To a casual observer, Friday’s football game between Lehigh and Lely might seem like a classic mismatch.

NEW YORK (AP) — Television viewership will fall without Tiger Woods, but the networks that air the sport can handle the setback. That’s the word from media analysts as CBS faces the possibility of covering the Masters Tournament just weeks from now with the scandal-beset Woods conspicuously absent.

WASHINGTON — Straight from the ballroom of the Marriott, a production that portends either the coming world domination of the Republican Party or its crackup.