Earth Hive: Aliens Book 1 (Steve Perry)

Earth Hive: Aliens Book 1

Steve Perry

Blurb: They come in silence like death in the night... They breed inside the living and kill at birth...Born on another world; they are perfect killing machines...They are Aliens

Wilks was a space marine with a near-fatal flaw: he had a heart. Billie was a child, the only survivor of a far-flung colony outpost. Thrown together in the last hellish night of an alien invasion, Billie and Wilks helped each other get out alive.

Thirteen years later Wilks is in prison, and Billie lives in a mental institution, the nightmare memories of the massacre at Rim seared into her mind. Now the government has tapped Wilks to lead an expedition to the aliens' home planet to bring back a live alien. But the competition on Earth to develop the aliens as a new weapons system is brutal. When Wilk's team departs on their mission, a trained assassin trails them. And what follows is no less than guerilla warfare on the aliens' planet - and alien conquest on Earth!

ISBN: 9780553561203 (Paperback)

Year: 1992

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 278 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page 

2. Wikipedia page for the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Aliens Wiki

5. Wikipedia page for other Aliens novels

A Drink Before the War - A Kenzie and Gennaro Thriller #1 (Dennis Lehane)

A Drink Before the War - A Kenzie and Gennaro Thriller #1

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: Summer in Boston.

The week before Independence Day. A city steeped in history and racial strife. A city abut to be ripped apart by an unspeakable scandal and a raging gang war...

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are tough private investigators who know the blue-collar neighbourhoods and ghettos of Boston's Dorchester section as only natives can. Working out of an old church belfry, Kenzie and Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician: uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline, a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential Statehouse documents.

But finding Jenna proves easy compared to staying alive once they have. The investigation escalates, implicating members of Jenna's family and rival gang leaders, while uncovering extortion, assassination, and child prostitution extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of state government.

ISBN: 9780553820546 (Paperback)

Year: 1994

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 334 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page on the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Goodreads page for the book

4. Author's official site

5. Review of the book

Beowulf (Caitlin R. Kiernan)

Beowulf

Caitlin R. Kiernan

Blurb: Who will come to the aid of the beleaguered King Hrothgar, whose warriors have become the prey of the outcast creature Grendel?

A grand and glorious story that has endured for centuries, this classic tale of heroes, gods and monsters takes on breathtaking new life in a remarkable new version for a modern era.

Brilliantly reimagined by acclaimed, award-winning author Caitlin R. Kiernan, based on the screenplay by the No. 1 bestseller Neil Gaiman and Academy Award winning screenwriter Roger Avary, it tells of a noble lord and a terrible creature who has brought death, blood and destruction to his kingdom - and of the great hero, Beowulf, who is called to a land of monsters to triumph where so many have failed...or to die as so many of the brave have before him.

ISBN: 9780553819373 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 371 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Publisher's book

3. Review of the book

4. Wikipedia page for the author

5. Goodreads page for the book

The Dragon's Call - The Adventures of Merlin #1 (Simon Forward)

The Dragon's Call - The Adventures of Merlin #1

Simon Forward

Blurb: When Merlin arrives in the great kingdom of Camelot he discovers a dark side to the bustling city: magic is outlawed on pain of death! If he wants to stay alive, Merlin will have to keep his unique magical talents a closely guarded secret...

ISBN: 9780553821903 (Hardback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 200 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page

2. TV episode the book is based on

3. Wiki for the episode

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Review of the TV epsiode

Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man (Tim Allen)

Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man

Tim Allen

Blurb: In Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, Tim Allen takes us through the rites of passage, from fixing up his banana-seat Stingray - which was fine until he decided to spray-paint it purple - to a discourse on the various 'sugar food groups.' He ponders why parents believe that kids don't want to eat the same thing every night, the nature of his mom's cooking ('What is cubed steak, anyway?'), and fun with BB guns. He reveals his earliest moment of sexual awareness, which occurred when he saw his first Playboy pinup, and realised that every woman is naked underneath her clothes.

In the chapter 'The Wonderful World of Guys,' Tim explains male behaviour in all its glory, including how guys behave around their best friends' girlfriends, guys at parties, and Things Men Never Want to ear ('Gee, I've never seen one quite that misshapen'). He shows how to tell the difference between flirting and hitting on someone, and recalls his early dating experiences, as well as his first (rejected) marriage proposal to his wife. There are helpful tips for dealing with women, such as how to answer the question, 'How do I look in this?' (Clue: Never comment on a woman's derriere), on women's accoutrements ('A woman will have sixty purses, and I still have the wallet I made in camp'), and on women's magazines. He ponders such questions as why women are always 'chilly,' when men are burning up; why men don't mind being called pigs; why women can't understand what men do in the garage all morning; and why the boats in bass fishing tournaments have to be so fast ('Are bass particularly fast little fish? Are Jim Bob and Sam Bob trying to run them down?')

Tim reveals how he used comedy to extract himself from dangerous situations while he served tim in prison. He discusses the impact upon his life of his father's sudden death in a car accident, as well as other issues such as the value of monogamy in marriage, the creative forces inherent in all men, and his belief that men without women are violent, sad, uninspired, and one-sided.

There are hilarious meditations on everything from butt cracks to why men lie, to why women think they're always right, to how to tell when a woman isn't interested (Tip: these are not female courting cues: when she's sucking her own elbow, scratching anyplace, or adjusting her underpants) - all with Tim Allen's trademark wit. It's a world of supercharged hemis, fart-lighting, beef jerky, and ogling 'Victoria's Secret' catalogs. 

ISBN: 1863594760 (Hardback)

Year: 1994

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 210 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Wikipedia page for the author

3. Review of the book

4. Goodreads page for the book

5. Buy from Barnes & Noble

Scab Pie: Barf-O-Rama Series #7 (Pat Pollari)

Scab Pie: Barf-O-Rama Series #7

Pat Pollari

Blurb: Pus 'n' Bugs.

Angela Plutnick's brother, Ukiah, is the creepiest person on the planet. When he's not picking his ugly, pus-filled scabs, he's doing weird experiments on his bug collection.

A recipe for puke.

Tonight, Angela's doing her mom a huge favor. Mrs. Plutnick sells homemade cakes and pies to local supermarkets - and tomorrow's delivery day. But she's really sick and Angela has to take over. Ukiah wants to pitch in too, but his sticky, crunchy scabs fall in the cake batter, and his yellow pus drips into the pie crust.

That's sweet nothing compared to what happens when Ukiah's pet maggots, roaches and daddy longlegs get loose in the kitchen...

Will anyone taste the different?

ISBN: 0553484133 (Paperback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 118 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Google books page

3. Article on the series

4. Wikipedia page for the series

5. Goodreads page for the book

Storm Peak - A Jesse Parker Mystery #1 (John A. Flanagan)

Storm Peak ( A Jesse Parker Mystery #1)

John A. Flanagan

Blurb: Jesse Parker, an ex-Denver police detective, has returned home to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to spend the winter working the ski patrol and taking it easy. But he is reluctantly dragged back into a world of violence and murder when a serial killer arrives in town.

After a skier is found murdered, Lee Torrens, the local sheriff, asks her old friend Jesse to help out with the investigation. As the pair work together, the embers of an old union re-ignite, but the killer continues to stalk the town, leaving little clues as to his motive. And his growing notoriety brings complications that will shake the foundations of the small town.

Are the murders the random acts of a psychopath, or a cold, calculated escalation of terror? No-one is safe.

ISBN: 9781741669534 (Paperback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Bantam

Pages: 355 (Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Google books page

4. Wikipedia page for the author

5. Good reads page

The Water Room (Christopher Fowler)

The Water Room

Christopher Fowler

Blurb: An oasis in the heart of Kentish Town, Balaklava Street is ripe for gentrification. But then the body of an elderly woman is found at No. 5. Her demise seems to have been peaceful but for the fact that her throat is full of river water...

For the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit, led by London's longest-serving detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, this curious death marks the beginning of a distinctly sinister investigation. And the new owner of No. 5 is understandably unsettled by the damp in the basement of her home, some particularly resilient spiders and the ghostly sound of rushing water.

Unearthing hitherto undiscovered secrets, the two octogenarian policemen learn that, in a London filled with the rich, the poor and the dispossessed, there's still something a desperate individual is willing to kill for. And kill again to protect.

Armed only with their wits, their own idiosyncratic practices and a plentiful supply of boiled sweets, Bryant and May come face to face with madness, greed and revenge in a wickedly sinuous mystery that goes to the heart of every London home.

ISBN: 9780553824681 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 430 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Another review

5. Blog on the book

Sacred (Dennis Lehane)

Sacred

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: Grief stricken over the accidental death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks - and so has the first investigator her father hired to look for her. And when the dying billionaire hires Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to continue the search for his missing daughters, they find that nothing is remotely what it seems.

Travelling from the windblown streets of Boston to the rum-punch sunsets of Florida's Gulf Coast and back again, they search for a woman and a man who could be saints or sinners, victims or victimizers, alive or dead. And the more Patrick and Angie discover, as they are led down a trail of half-truths and corruption into a dark and terrifying world, the more they realise that on this case, any wrong step will certainly be their last.

ISBN: 9780553818260 (Paperback)

Year: 1997

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 447 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official page

4. Review of the book

5. An interview with the author

Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane)

Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

Blurb: US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando.

As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C?

The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane...

ISBN: 9780553824483 (Paperback)

Year: 2003

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 414 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Author's official page

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Review of the book

5. Google books page for the book

A Walk to Remember (Nicholas Sparks)

A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks

Blurb: When I was seventeen, my life changed forever...

It's the late 1950s in the little town of Beaufort, North Carolina, and for the handsome and popular Landon Carter girlfriends have never been in short supply. But when a twist of fate finds the newly elected student president without a partner for the all-important Homecoming Dance, Landon becomes the reluctant escort of the last person in town her would ask out.

The daughter of the local Baptist minister, the shy and retiring Jamie Sullivan is an outsider who seems content to live in a world apart from other teenagers - she takes care of her widowed father, rescues hurt animals, helps out at the local orphanage and always carries a bible with her schoolbooks.

But this chance meeting would change their lives forever. Dazzled by Jamie's spirit and integrity, Landon falls hopelessly in love. Then Jamie reveals a secret...

With its timeless themes of the joy of giving, the pain of loss and the life-transforming power of love, this unforgettable story will stay in your heart forever.

ISBN: 1863252088 (Paperback)

Year: 1999

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 240 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Author's official page for the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Good reads page

5. Trailer for the film on Youtube

Bad As I Wanna Be (Dennis Rodman with Tim Keown)

Bad As I Wanna Be

Dennis Rodman with Tim Keown

Blurb: Fifty percent of life in the NBA is sex. The other fifty percent is money. On an April night in 1993 I sat in the cab of my pickup truck with a rifle on my lap, deciding whether to kill myself. I don't expect Scottie Pippen to forgive me for what I did to him. I don't expect him to forget about it either. I've been homeless. I've worked at 7-Eleven. I'm a real person, with real experiences, not some image that somebody in the NBA office created. When you talk about race in basketball, the whole thing is simple: a black player knows he can go out on the court and kick a white player's ass. I used to go through the whole routine - dress up, wear makeup, act like a girl. Those guys in San Antonio can kiss my ass, especially Gregg Popovich, the general manager...Popovich wanted to be the guy who tamed Dennis Rodman. Madonna looked at me all sexy and said, 'You're staying with me, in my room.' How much do you really want to win when you have as much money, attention, and fame as Shaquille O'Neal does? White women get into relationships with black men because they think the sex is going to be better. I knew I would have been just another nigger if I didn't play basketball. I wanted to be white because I was black, and black was never the right colour. I left the table-by-myself-and went to see Madonna. We were in a stairwell, and she was saying, 'You love me. You want to be with me. Leave with me right now and forget your girlfriend.' The Spurs might be more of a basketball team if David Robinson didn't freeze every time they play a big game. You're going to have to find a way to stop me on your own, bro, and nobody's found it yet.

ISBN: 0733800556 (Paperback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 259 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Author's Wikipedia page

3. Review of the book

4. Google books page

5. Rotten Tomatoes page for the documentary of the same name

I'm Not Really Here (Tim Allen)

I'm Not Really Here

Tim Allen

Blurb: In his number one New York Times bestseller, Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, Tim Allen regaled us with tales from the male-female front. Now, in I'm Not Really Here, he takes a look at men in midlife - and their relationship to wives, children, friends, the universe, God, and why it's so tough to get a good night's sleep.

The book opens with Tim suddenly waking from a strange dream. He's been reading late into the night about today's hot scientific topic - quantum physics - and what he's learned about the nature of reality really disturbs him. Fortunately, he's got plenty of time to mull it over. Tim's wife and daughter are going away on a camping trip, and Tim is left at home with their dog, Spot. At first, he's excited at the opportunity to eat what he wants (bologna and potato chip sandwiches), watch the sci-fi videos he loves, and finish the 1946 Ford he's been restoring so he can deliver it to a car show on Monday. Unfortunately, he can't find the final part: a one-of-a-kind hood ornament. He encounters very strange coincidences, meets people he doesn't know who seem to know too much about him, and wonders if his life is half full or half empty.

As he roams from room to room, Tim ponders how we wind up sounding like our parents when we raise our own children ('Don't stir your ice cream into soup!'), men's fascination with pricey gadgets ('Does this drill bit set really cost $89,000?') and how romantic 'chemistry' really works ('It's all based on salt'). He describes his own rise to celebrity and what it's like to buy groceries without wearing a mask. He explores the allure of hot cars, the temptation of fast-food chain prizes which seem to be getting bigger and bigger all the time ('I'll have the happy meal and the Harley, please'), and his obsession with his place in the cosmos.

I'm Not Really Here deals, in the Toolman's inimitable way, with some of the urgent questions a man faces at midlife, from 'What is real?' to what should he eat for breakfast ('The gummy cinnamon buns or the cereal no one can pronounce? Moose lips. Mouse licks'). This book is a culmination of a five-year journey of self-discovery. It will surprise and challenge, make you wonder and think, and induce laughter on every page.

ISBN: 0733800637 (Hardback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 255 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Author's Official Site

3. Good reads page for the book

4. First chapter of the book from the New York Times

5. Google books page for the book

Succubus Shadows (Richelle Mead)

Succubus Shadows

Richelle Mead

Blurb: Georgina Kincaid has formidable powers. Immortality, seduction, shape-shifting - child's play to a succubus like her.

Helping to plan her ex-boyfriend's wedding is a different story. Georgina isn't sure which is worse - that he's marrying another woman or that she's having to run around trying on bridesmaid dresses. Still, there are distractions. There's a new succubus in town who seems intent on corrupting Georgina's soon-to-be-wed-ex.

But the real danger lies in the mysterious force that's taken to visiting Georgina's thoughts. Soon she's going to discover who she can trust, who she can't - and that there are far worse places than Hell in which to spend eternity...

ISBN: 9780553825756 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 281 (Fiction)

Links

1. Series official page

2. Good reads page

3. Author's Wikipedia page

4. Buy from the Book Depository

5. Review of the book

The Widow of the South (Robert Hicks)

The Widow of the South

Robert Hicks

Blurb: If God was watching that Indian summer afternoon of 30 November 1864, some say he would have been looking at the continent of America, in the central part of a state called Tennessee, at a little town called Franklin - where a terrible battle was about to begin.

Within a few short hours nearly ten thousand men would be dead, and the lives of many others changed utterly; none more so than that of Carrie McGavock, who would find her home taken over by the Confederate Army and turned into a field hospital. On the field of battle, a seasoned Southern soldier, Zachariah Cashwell, would drop his gun and charge forward into Yankee territory holding only the flag of his company's colours.

In the pain-filled days and weeks that followed, both would find a form of mutual healing that neither thought possible.

In an extraordinary debut novel, based on a true story, Robert Hicks paints an unforgettable portrait of a woman who, through love and loss, found a cause. Known throughout the century as the Widow of the South, Carrie McGavock gave her heart first to a stranger, then to a piece of hallowed ground, becoming in the process a symbol of a nation's soul.

ISBN: 059305590 (Paperback)

Year: 2005

Publisher: Bantam Press

Pages: 432 (Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Goodreads page

4. Author's Wikipedia page

5. Official site of the book and author

La Prisonniere (Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi)

La Prisonniere

Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi

Blurb: Malika Oufkir has been a prisoner for most of her life. Born in 1953, the eldest daughter of the King of Morocco's closest aide, she was adopted by the king to be a companion to his little daughter. Malika grew up at the royal court of Rabat, locked away in a holden cage, among the royal wives and concubines.

But in 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Nineteen-year-old Malika, her mother and her five younger brothers and sisters were thrown into an isolated desert gaol. Innocent of any crime, they were locked away in increasingly barbaric conditions for fifteen endless years.

Like a modern Scheherazade, Malika kept up their spirits by telling them stories every night. Finally, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and made a daring escape. Recaptured after five days, the ensuing public hue and cry resulted in house arrest rather than a return to prison. But it was only in 1996 that Malika was finally permitted to leave Morocco to begin a new life in France.

ISBN: 9780553813029 (Paperback)

Year: 1999

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 397 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Author's wikipedia page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of the book

4. Buy from Fishpond

5. Google books page

The American / A Very Private Gentleman (Martin Booth)

The American (A Very Private Gentleman)

Martin Booth

Blurb: The locals in the Italian village where he lives call him Signor Farfalla - Mr Butterfly. He is a discreet gentleman who spends his time studying rare butterflies.

But Farafalla's real profession is deadly. He considers himself an artisan, not for the butterflies he paints but for the guns he creates for assassins.

Farafalla has resolved to make his next job his last. Then, perhaps, he can settle down comfortably in the Italian village he has grown to love and enjoy the remainder of his life without constantly looking over his shoulder.

But a treacherous circle is closing in on him...

ISBN: 9780553825725 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 384 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's page at Wikipedia

2. Buy at Amazon

3. Author's page at Macmillan

4. Summary of the book

5. Blog on the film and book