Working on some site things.

I am designing my own layout for this blog. It's just taking me awhile to get everything right as I have never done one specifically for blogger. I know this layout is lovely but I feel that since I have been in web design and development for over 10 years I should have my own layout.

I used my free domain name to be directed to here. When I get it up it will be chimericalreading.com

I am also hoping to finish up the Nightside Series by Simon R. Green and doing one very detailed review about the series in it's entirety. It was very hard to review the books individually as there are so many of them and only a few hundred pages each. I am very excited about this.

I am also trying to figure out a way to post the numerous free layouts I have made for people to use here. Let's hope I am not getting dense in my age and can figure it out soon.

Lots of exciting stuff! I've been busy.

Book Giveaway: The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Nicole@My Book Views is hosting a giveaway of The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks!

Click here to enter: http://my-book-views.blogspot.com/2010/02/giveaway-last-song.html


Thank you Nicole!

Teaser Tuesdays

Hosted by MizB

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


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The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green

Page 360

The next room was a trap.

I recognized the place the moment I entered it. The room was called Time Out, and it was full of ornate clocks and timepieces from across the centuries, covering all four walls with everything from water clocks to atomic devices.

Book Giveaway: Countess of Scandal

Book Soulmates is hosting a giveaway of Countess of Scandal by Laurel McKee!

You can enter here: http://booksoulmates.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-tourgiveaway-countess-of-scandal.html

Thank you Book Soulmates!

Book Giveaway: The Crazy School

Sumanan@I Read is hosting a giveaway for The Crazy School by Cornelia Read!

You can enter here: http://sumanam.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/the-crazy-school-by-cornelia-read-a-review-giveaway/

Thank you Sumanam!

Book Review: American Gods

This book is amazing. It reminded me that Neil Gaiman is not only a genius, but the master.

Shadow is the main character in the story. When the book starts off, Shadow is doing the last few days of his 6 year sentence, in which he would be serving 3, for almost beating to death 3 men where he acted as the getaway driver in a robbery. Before I get any further into this review, let me say that Shadow is so well written, and I really connected with him. I found myself in a whirlwind of ...more This book is amazing. It reminded me that Neil Gaiman is not only a genius, but the master.

Shadow is the main character in the story. When the book starts off, Shadow is doing the last few days of his 6 year sentence, in which he would be serving 3, for almost beating to death 3 men where he acted as the getaway driver in a robbery. Before I get any further into this review, let me say that Shadow is so well written, and I really connected with him. I found myself in a whirlwind of emotions, but I definitely was falling in love with him as a character.

Shadow's life, however isn't without complications. A few days before he is to be released Shadow unexpectedly gets called to the warden's office. He tells him he is going home early, Laura, his wife, his everything, died in a car accident. The journey home is where Shadow's life changes.

When Mr. Wednesday, a strange and pale man Shadow meets on the plane ride home back to Eagle Point, and to Laura's funeral, approaches him about working for him, Shadow refuses. He has a job waiting back for him in Eagle Point, as a trainer at the gym he worked for before he got locked up.

Or so Shadow thinks.

When he finds out his employer and best friend was killed with Laura in the car accident, he reluctantly agrees to be Mr. Wednesday's body guard, muscle, errand boy, driver, and whatever else, for a fee of $1,000 a week, a fee which Shadow picked.

Shadow's journey is incredible and heartbreaking, and the sheer strength that he possesses through a dead and adulteress wife, secrets about his own family, encounters with Gods long forgotten and living like pauper humans, new gods that roam the world revered, and the war of ages, Shadow always remains Shadow.

This book left me screaming for a sequel, and not Ananasi Boys whose storyline is based off of one of the characters. I want more about Shadow.

Book Review: Liquid Soul

Mr. Carter's first novel not only is an impressive offering to the Psychological Thriller genre but is so well written and believable that you almost feel you are reading a nonfiction recounting of events by the actual perpetrator. Very few authors I have read actually succeeded in getting inside the psyche of a serial killer with any amount of believability.

Meet the man with no discernible name, with no discernible features, in no discernible location. He is any man that you may se...more Mr. Carter's first novel not only is an impressive offering to the Psychological Thriller genre but is so well written and believable that you almost feel you are reading a nonfiction recounting of events by the actual perpetrator. Very few authors I have read actually succeeded in getting inside the psyche of a serial killer with any amount of believability.

Meet the man with no discernible name, with no discernible features, in no discernible location. He is any man that you may see walk down the street and merely glance over without a second thought. This man however is special, he is addicted to something he calls Liquid Soul.

He starting getting addicted to Liquid Soul when he was mugged and in self defense pulled his pocket knife and cut the man. The moment his blood reached his hands he felt the man's soul leave his body and join with his giving him not only a glimpse into moments in the man's life, but the feeling of becoming the man during the experience.

He knew then he couldn't stop. He had to find others. He had to see what man people tic.

Then came the celebrity, the mother, the boxer, the bodybuilder, the CEO, the child, the old man, the policeman, the psychopath, the homeless man, among a few others. He decided to build his own family, make them apart of something since they shared themselves with him, he had to give something back.

After all, they were still kind enough to talk to him after they died and be apart of this glorious new world he was building with his new found gift.

This book will make your skin crawl and disturb you in ways I can guarantee you that you haven't been before no matter how many other authors you had read in this genre. The only question I have after closing the back cover is when will Mr. Carter thrill me with another offering?

Book Review: Dirty Little Angels

It's very hard to review this book, given it was a light read at just under 200 pages, but let me give it a shot.

Hailey Trosclair is a 16 year old teen living in New Orleans and dealing with personal demons raging war across her family. Her mother, Lena, having had a miscarriage a few months earlier and is now bedridden with her own grief and depression, her father, Jules, a laid off alcoholic who is hiding an affair rather unsuccessfully, and her brother, Cyrus, who just can't seem to...more It's very hard to review this book, given it was a light read at just under 200 pages, but let me give it a shot.

Hailey Trosclair is a 16 year old teen living in New Orleans and dealing with personal demons raging war across her family. Her mother, Lena, having had a miscarriage a few months earlier and is now bedridden with her own grief and depression, her father, Jules, a laid off alcoholic who is hiding an affair rather unsuccessfully, and her brother, Cyrus, who just can't seem to stay out of trouble and wouldn't even if he could; these are the characters that set the stage.

Cyrus has recently come into the acquaintance of a man named Moses
who while in prison got the idea of opening a drive-thru style church with the idea that people could drive up in their cars and get handed scripture. He had amassed some followers, mainly troubled youth, and Cyrus was more than happy to go along and cause a little mayhem.

One night their antics went a little too far and while Moses and Cyrus were beating up a pedophile they were trying to teach a lesson to, it seems he suffered a brain injury and died a few days later as a result.
That's when suspicion, betrayal, paranoia, and a breakdown of mental stability come into play.

I read this book was compared to literary classics such as To Kill A Mockingbird but frankly, I didn't see it. I would almost compare it to a shortened and water downed version of Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, just with less social posturing.

With that comparison made I do not want to make it sound like the writer isn't talented enough to tell a riveting story, he just didn't give me enough time to get involved with the story and it seemed like the story he was trying to tell didn't quite fit into the number of pages he allowed himself. However, for a fast read it did stand on it's own.

New blog, old reviewer.

Most of you know me from Ninth Factor, as hosting issues ensued, not being allowed to update my wordpress due to their own issues (and this lasted for months) I canceled the hosting and am moving it to another company, but it will no longer be a book blog. So, a long story short, I'm back. ;)

I have read a few books and I can not wait to post the reviews and bring you amazing giveaways!

Enjoy!