"The Girl's Guide to Werewolves" By Barb Karg

Title: The Girl's Guide to Werewolves: All You Need to Know About the Original Untamed Bad Boys
Author: Barb Karg
Published Year: 176 pages
Published Year: 2009

If you have any interest about werewolves at all, this is a good reference for all things werewolves. Not only does the author provide historical reference stories and legends in general about werewolves, she goes one step further and looks at the cultural aspects of werewolves in film and books. The title is accurate, as many of the undertones that are used in the book are directed at girls or the female population rather than the male population. An example would be how the author portrays the hunkiness of certain actors in their roles as werewolves. You won't find a guy referring to another guy as hunky too often.

The book is set up well, as it flows well and throughout the entire book if there is something that can be referenced back to another chapter the author puts a notation in to see that previous or future chapter. In addition to this, each chapter is set up well with headers for the different paragraphs which enables the reader to find and locate portions they are interested in quickly.

One warning I will provide to the reader is that if you have not read or seen some of the movies that are mentioned within this book, there can be spoiler alerts. In order to fully explain some of the plots and the werewolf connections, the author has a tendency to tell the whole general story of some books without a warning that she will be giving away what happens in the end. As a cultural example this is good as it brings more understanding, but if you have not read one of the works and you do not want a spoiler alert, you will want to skip over some sections. Luckily the author titles all the paragraphs in a way so the reader can identify which sections they want to skip over.

Another criticism I have is that there is no bibliography included within the covers of this book. Since it is a work of non-fiction and does include historical references as well as current events it is one thing that I look for. There is an index but no bibliography. It would have been nice to see where she pooled all of her sources from for my own comfort and for further study as I like to do.

"Haunted Houses of California" By Antoinette May

Title: Haunted Houses of California: A Ghostly Guide to Haunted Houses and Wandering Spirits Revised & Expanded
Author: Antoinette May
Published Year:1990
Pages: 231 pages

Just a quick ghost story book. May provides first hand accounts as well as eye witness testimony including testimonies from well-known psychics such as Sylvia Brown. She also provides a detailed bibliography for more sources to investigate. The book is not just set up with ghost story after ghost story, it is set up geographically. This is a helpful tool because if you are interested in just a certain area, then you can focus just on that specific area.

Here are the haunted locations you will find within these pages:

• The Easkoot House
• The Haunted Doll House
• The Valley of the Moon Saloon
• The Madrono Manor
• Migliavacca Mansion
• The Haskell House
• The San Francisco Art Institute
• The Montandon Townhouse
• The Haunting of Alcatraz
• The Mansions Hotel & Restaurant
• The Rengstorff House
• The Peninsula School
• The Atherton House
• The Wheeler Office
• The Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve
• Kohl Mansion
• The Moss Beach Distillery
• The Red, White and Blue Beach
• The Stevenson House
• Bindel's Restaurant
• SUnshine Villa
• Brookdale Lodge
• The Winchester Mystery House
• The Ghost in the Haunted Toy Store
• Pacheco Pass
• The Vineyard House
• The Sutter Creek Inn
• The Nevada County Historical Museum
• The Willow Hotel
• The Laney House
• Thelma Todd's Garage
• Heritage Park
• The Elke Sommer0Joe Hyams House
• The Queen Mary
• Rancho Jamul
• The Thomas Waley House
• Casa De Estudillo
• Hotel Del Coronado
• The Fallbrook Enterprise
• Horton Grand Hotel

As you can see from this list not all of the locations are well known which is a nice change from the countless ghost story books that only focus on the major attractions. I personally enjoy learning about the other haunted locations that have not been totally commercialized and used to turn a profit.

"Disclosure" By Michael Crichton

Title: Disclosure
Author: Michael Crichton
Published Year: 1993
Pages: 497 pages

Yes another Crichton book, but don't worry I still have more of his works to read! One thing that the reader needs to do with this book before they start it is look at the year that this book was published. Trust me, it will be helpful while reading this book since the book deals with the inner workings of a high-tech firm. I kept reminding myself of how old I was and what I was doing in 1993 along with what technologies were actually available at that time. It did help me out a ton in staying in with the time period and not comparing it too much to our current times with all the technical advances we have made since 1993. Now on to what this book is about.

Disclosure takes place within a high-tech firm, with the action taking place at its Seattle location primarily. I say primarily because there are communications with other divisions not within the United States as well as India during the course of the book. What is going on is that the high-tech firm is merging with another firm that is not a high-tech company but has the financial backing to take the high-tech firm further and do more with the research they are doing plus expand their own market to be competitive with the bigger companies in their market. Add in a sexual harassment case of a man versus a woman which is not your typical happening and the action intensifies. Of course knowing Crichton, this is not the only thing going on. Why the sexual harassment took place and how it plays into the merger itself is all part of the mystery that Crichton presents and you will be second-guessing what is really happening all the way to the end, at least I was.

One thing I loved about this book is that the setting takes place in Seattle. I have spent my entire life in western Washington, and so of course have been to Seattle many times. As I have gotten older I have been able to explore more of it and recognize places that I have heard and read about but never really paid any attention to until like I said I got older. The offices of the high-tech firm where much of the stuff is going on is right in Pioneer Square which I have more and more recently come to love for its history and its current setting. Add in some other spots like the Four Seasons (I've never been outside of it, but love to walk outside of it) and the ferry ride to Bainbridge Island and I feel a little at home reading this book. That's all my personal thoughts though.

In reality it is a good book and brings some ideas to light that need to be taken more seriously even in today's world 18 years later.

"Dust to Dust" By Tami Hoag

Title: Dust to Dust
Author: Tami Hoag
Published Year: 2000
Pages: 480 pages


It seems that everyone has their own secrets or skeletons in the closets and this work of fiction is full of them all. In Dust to Dust, Hoag brings back characters from her previous work Ashes to Ashes. When I started this book I was a bit on the apprehensive side due to the fact at how gory and violent her previous work was. However, this one is not as dark, and it focuses more on secrets and lies throughout the book. These secrets and lies will keep you turning the pages until the very end. Just when I thought things were wrapping up, Hoag drug me back in for more surprises.

In this book of her's the focus is on a couple homicide cops who are investigating the supposed suicide of and Internal Affairs officer. Everything at first seems to hint towards suicide, then the coincidences just keep piling up along with the victim and body count. Hoag leads the reader down trails of investigation and also the realization of inner demons. Add in the personal lives full of chaos of the lead investigators and you have one heck of a page turner. I would suggest reading Ashes to Ashes first since some of the character development starts in that book and there are characters that show up throughout this one that were introduced in that previous work.

I will also say if you are looking for a good crime thriller with good and bad cops, pick this up and read it. It was a page turner for me and it drove me nuts when I would get too tired to continue on. I am looking forward to reading more of her books in the future.

"Attack of the Killer Facts!" By Eric Grzymkowski

Title: Attack of the Killer Facts!: 1,001 Terrifying Truths About Little Green Men, Government Mind-Control, Flesh-Eating Bacteria, and Goat-Sucking Vampires
Author: Eric Grzymkowski
Published Year: 2011
Pages: 313pages

I often get asked where I get all my useless facts that I am known to just share. Well, Gryzmkowski's books are one awesome source of this information. I have read other books that he has compiled, and I was not disappointed with this one. What he does, is he takes different categories and shares straight out facts about though categories. The best part is that he also leaves his own commentary with each fact. I also love it because you do not have to go through long pages of why the fact is there and why he put it in his book. Each one is straightforward and includes the resource cited of where he got the information from.

Some of the facts that he provides are not some that everyone can handle, so read at your own risk. Luckily he does label each chapter and gives an idea behind what fact treasures you will find in each one. Throughout the book he labels it as a bathroom reader, however I enjoyed just picking it up and reading a few pages. A perfect book for those times you want to read something but you are not sure if your focus will remain throughout the whole reading section. You don't have to read the sections consecutively.

"By the Light of the Moon" By Dean Koontz

Title: By the Light of the Moon
Author: Dean Koontz
Published Year: 2002
Pages: 460

When I looked at the publication date for this book the thing that came to my mind was "Wow, that wasn't too long ago. And then I remembered what year it really is, wow how time flies. Anyways, Koontz was writing books in the 80's, the 90's, the 2000's and of course still is writing today. I think some of his writing style has changed in some of his works. He still writes about the unknown and includes lots of passion in his novels. One thing I did miss from this novel of his is the absence of a golden retriever. For those of you that have read other works from Koontz, you'll understand what I mean. For many of them he includes dogs, primarily golden retrievers, which I find comes from the love of his dog Trixie he had for many years. But that is not a reason to not read this book, it is still worth the read (yeah I know I say that a lot, what can I say, I have my favorite authors and Koontz is definitely on that list.).

For this selection, Koontz takes us into the lives of two brothers and a female that are strangers until one night when they both are injected with a strange liquid by another seemingly stranger. What happens then is they embark upon an adventure of trying to find out what this concoction they have been injected is, who the stranger was and how it will change their lives. As with other Koontz's books, the mystery deepens the more the pages turn. Not knowing what is going on or why things are happening in the order that they are keeps the reader wanting to continue turning the pages.

Now its your turn to read the book and see if there really will be a happy ending.

"Sphere" By Michael Crichton

Title: Sphere
Author: Michael Crichton
Published Year: 1987
Pages: 498

Slowly but surely I am working my way through Crichton's works. Its even more entertaining since I am not reading them in any order like date published, or alphabetical. Since getting into his books, I find myself wondering if I should have read them in chronological order by the year he published his works. However since I am so far along, I will just continue to read them as I grab them off of my shelf or out of my boxes of books.

"Sphere" is one Crichton book that I saw the movie before I read the book. I didn't even know there was a book until I was browsing through a bookstore one day (I find this one of the best ways to pick books out, you never know what you're going to find until you room aimlessly around a book store) and I spotted "Sphere". Since I have enjoyed other works of Crichton and I remembered the movie, I was instantly intrigued by what this book may hold. And just like other books of his that I have read before this one, I was not disappointed.

Crichton writes a tale of finding an unidentified spaceship on the bottom of the Pacific ocean. Luckily the depth at which the ship is located is shallow enough (I feel funny typing that since it is 1000 feet) for a team of navy divers and some civilian scientists to go down and live in a bunker type set up next to it while they investigate it. Strange things happen during the investigation and the team meets and "alien" entity that speaks to them and tries to communicate with them. The sphere that the title is referring to is an object found within the ship and the scientists try everything they can to get into it. What is inside this sphere is a mystery and what it may unleash can be terrifying.

As with his other books, Crichton takes scientific knowledge, makes is easier to understand while at the same time adding in adventure and some treachery. Many mysteries abound in this work and he keeps the pace going which in turn keeps the reader turning the page. Definitely another must read by Michael Crichton. And I am lucky enough to still have some of his works to read after this one.