I am always on the lookout for interesting reading when the family visits Half-Price Books.  And given my ever-growing TBR pile, most often shorter works. With that in mind, I picked up: The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin at recently.  I thought it might be a good story to read to my daughter.  Plus, I have always loved dragon stories; and I figured this would be an easy way to introduce myself to the writing of George R.R. Martin.

Last night I needed some bedside reading but didn’t feel up to starting some of the non-fiction that is next in the pile.  So I grabbed this children’s story and read it in one sitting.

It turned out to be a rather simple story, but a creative and entertaining one.  Here is the plot summary from School Library Journal:

Seven-year-old Adara was born during the coldest chill of the coldest year ever, a chill that killed her mother during the girl’s birth. Ever since then, she has been a remote and chilly child, living for winter when the ice lizards come out and forming a bond with a mysterious ice dragon. When war comes and dragon-riding invaders threaten her home and family, the ice dragon helps her to thwart them, leading to its own demise.

The writing is simple like the story, but it has the sort of depth well written stories always seem to have: the sense that there is a great deal more to the world that the author isn’t sharing.  The medieval world that makes up the setting is recognizable but just mysterious enough.  Dragon’s as battle vehicles are not unique obviously, but the ice dragon with a connection to the weather is a unique hook.  The characters are not well developed but Adara’s past, and the resulting conflict with her family, adds enough tension and suspense that the minimalist storyline nevertheless pulls you forward.

All in all, I enjoyed The Ice Dragon.  It has the feel of a legend passed down through the oral tradition - simple but poetic and touched by both beauty and tragedy.  It is a quick sketch from a author who normally deals in the epic format.

It piqued my interst enough that I plan to read Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

Barnes and Noble video with the author below. Read the rest of this entry »

–> Free to Be…You and Me (The 35th Anniversary Edition, Hardcover) by Marlo Thomas and Friends

Description

Should I tell my boss what I think of him? How can I be more political and still be myself? I have to sack my friend or fire someone better. I am a foreigner and my views are ignored. These are typical conundrums faced by employees-and just a few of the hundreds sent every week to Lucy Kellaway’s popular “agony aunt” column in the Financial Times. Her sharp, down-to-earth advice is invaluable for anyone negotiating the minefield of the modern office. Whether it’s working with an ex-lover, firing a litigious employee, or dealing with accusations of racism, Kellaway’s advice for these common problems is always simple and practical-and essential reading for those trying to cope with troublesome coworkers. Better still, the guide provides the wisdom, rage, expertise, and folly of managers and experts.

–> Target: Patton: The Plot to Assassinate General George S. Patton by Robert K. Wilcox

Synopsis

He was the most controversial American general in World War II-and also one of the most successful, courageous, and audacious. As a post-war administrator of defeated Germany, he sounded alarm bells about the dangers of Soviet encroachment into Europe. Politically, he was a lightning rod-an outspoken conservative who continually embarrassed his superiors with his uncensored, undiplomatic, and unrestrained comments to the press. He was General George S. Patton Jr., old Blood and Guts.

In 1945, shortly before he was to fly home to the states as a conquering hero, he was involved in a mysterious car crash that left him partially paralyzed.

Two weeks later, just as his doctors were about to send him home to finish his recovery, he was dead.

The army ruled the car crash an accident, his death natural. Yet witness testimony on the crash conflicted, key players in the incident disappeared, official reports vanished, soldiers were ordered to keep silent, and there was no autopsy performed on the body.

Investigative and military reporter Robert Wilcox, author of Black Aces High and Wings of Fury, has spent more than ten years investigating these mysteries, and in Target: Patton he has written an electrifying account of the shocking circumstances-long hidden from the public-surrounding the death of America’s most famous general.

–> City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York by Beverly Swerling

Publishers Weekly

The sparkling latest in Swerling’s historical series (after City of Glory) about the Turner and Devrey families and the growth of New York City takes place in the decades leading up to the Civil War. While in China, merchant Samuel Devrey trades a cache of opium for the beautiful and young Mei-Hua, whom he secretly ensconces in New York and marries. Samuel also marries saintly heiress Carolina Randolph and tries to hold together the two households, though Carolina eventually cools to Samuel’s secretiveness and brutish behavior, and begins to return the ardor of Samuel’s cousin, Dr. Nicholas Turner. As Nicholas campaigns to improve conditions and fund research at Bellevue Hospital, he’s drawn into Samuel’s secret life, saving Mei Hua’s life after a botched abortion and later delivering her daughter. This highly entertaining novel suffers whenever the villainous Samuel is not on the scene, and though the last hundred pages drop off in intensity, there’s still much to commend in Swerling’s great eye for detail, convincing and conniving characters, and subplots that really flesh out 19th-century New York.

–> The King of Swords by Nick Stone

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of Stone’s chilling second thriller, set in the early 1980s and the prequel to Mr. Clarinet (2007), Det. Sgt. Max Mingus and his black partner, Det. Joe Liston, think a decomposed body discovered in a primate park in Miami, Fla., is just one of the city’s more bizarre murders. But when a tarot card—the ominous King of Swords—is found in the victim’s stomach and his entire family killed, it’s clear something darker is at work. The detectives are soon hot on the trail of a young Haitian pimp and his fortune-teller mother, who are thought to be linked to voodoo gang leader Solomon Boukman. Rumors abound about Boukman’s human sacrifices and allegiance to the voodoo god of death, Baron Samedi, but few have actually seen his face. With police corruption rampant, Mingus and Liston realize that in order to take down Boukman, they’ll have to hunt him alone. The violence is every bit as gruesome as in Clarinet, but Stone expertly harnesses it to propel his multilayered saga of good, evil and everything in between.

–> Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge by Elizabeth King Humphrey, Julie Whitaker, Susan Aldridge

Book cover via Amazon

From the Publisher

Refresh your memory, make new discoveries, and quiz yourself on facts you once learned and may have long forgotten-just pick up this handy reference to have all the answers at your fingertips.

Wish you were that person who could answer any question? Can’t find just the right thing to say to start a conversation at a cocktail party?

This book offers hours of fact-finding pleasure with a huge collection of intriguing and useful facts, plus quizzes to improve your knowledge. You can gain valuable information about a myriad of subjects-with just a page or two devoted to each topic-presented in clear, easy-to-understand language. And, best of all, you will be on your way to becoming a Know It All!

There are 10 sections-Understanding the Universe, The Story of the Earth, The Story of Life, Exploring the World, Invention and Discovery, Conflicts of the Modern Age, Structure of Society, Religion and Philosophy, Artistic Endeavors, and Quizzes. Sidebars such as “Conversation Starters,” “In the Know,” and “In Fact” provide at-a-glance tidbits of information. At the end of each chapter are “Test Yourself” quizzes that can be taken at any time to give your brain a workout and prove how much you’ve learned. Each quiz has “Research Notes” sidebars that point you to the pages in the book that discuss the subjects covered in the quiz.

All of the content has been thoroughly researched and written by a team of experts to convey the basic elements of knowledge across a variety of topics and areas of interest. Know It All provides the essential knowledge for every subject and then some.

–> Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed by Christopher Horner

Description

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) comes Red Hot Lies, an exposé of the hypocrisy, deceit, and outright lies of the global warming alarmists and the compliant media that support them. Did you know that most scientists are global warming skeptics? Or that environmental alarmists have knowingly promoted false and exaggerated data on global warming? Or that in the Left’s efforts to suppress free speech (and scientific research), they have compared global warming dissent with “treason”?

Shocking, frank, and illuminating, Chris Horner’s Red Hot Lies explodes as many myths as Al Gore promotes.

–> Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs by Robert Spencer

Description

Most terrorism experts agree: it is not “if” we are attacked again, but “when.” Yet the assault has already happened. A silent battle is being waged on our nation everyday. Not with guns and bombs, but via covert sources: Islamic charities, the ACLU–even presidential candidates. They are all pawns in a stealth holy war. Unwittingly advancing the jihadist agenda not by violence, but through endeavors designed to acclimate and subject us to Islamic law–just the way Osama bin Laden wants it. In Stealth Jihad, bestselling author Robert Spencer exposes how a silent but lethal movement is advancing on the U.S. and calls upon Americans to resist it–before it’s too late.

–> Our Longest Days: A People’s History of the Second World War by Sandra Koa Wing

Description

“This was life as it happened and there’s nothing more fascinating than reading history through the words of those who lived it.”-Publishing News

This is a powerful, detailed, and warming story of World War II told through the previously unheard voices of those who described the home front for the “Mass Observation” project. Using diaries that have never been published before, this book tells the story of people falling in love, longing for a good meal, complaining about office colleagues, or mourning allotment potatoes destroyed by a bomb.

–> More From Our Own Correspondent: With dispatches from Misha Glenny, John Simpson, Caroline Wyatt, and many more by Tony Grant

Description

Since 1955, From Our Own Correspondent has been one of BBC Radio 4’s flagship programs. Every week correspondents from around the world report on stories behind the headlines. After the huge success of From Our Own Correspondent, this new companion volume brings more exhilarating dispatches to armchair travelers everywhere.

Here, some of Britain’s most celebrated reporters describe much more than would normally come into a news story; their stories offer a context and a unique insight into history as it unfolds. They have a unique perspective-sometimes transmitted live to the sound of gunfire-and offer an important background to the world.

Book cover via Amazon

–> American Rifle: A biography by Alexander Rose

Amazon.com Review

Given the title, American Rifle is a book that many potential readers might dismiss without a thought. Don’t do it: Alexander Rose’s peculiar “biography” is not written for gun enthusiasts–though they’ll certainly enjoy it–but for anyone interested American history from George Washington to the Wild West to Iraq. Drawing on original sources ranging from Samuel Colt to the soldiers who depend on the weapon the most, this book is an exhaustive history of the rifle’s place in American culture, not only as an instrument of war, but also as a driver of technological innovation and advances in mass production that helped propel the United States into its role as both a military and economic superpower. Once you start, American Rifle will have to be pried from your cold, dead hands before you put it down.

–> The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver

Synopsis

When a night-time call to 911 from a secluded Wisconsin vacation house is cut short, offduty deputy Brynn McKenzie leaves her husband and son at the dinner table and drives up to Lake Mondac to investigate. Was it a misdial or an aborted crime report?

Brynn stumbles onto a scene of true horror and narrowly escapes from two professional criminals. She and a terrified visitor to the weekend house, Michelle, flee into the woods in a race for their lives. As different as night and day, and stripped of modern-day resources, Brynn, a tough deputy with a difficult past, and Michelle, a pampered city girl, must overcome their natural reluctance to trust each other and learn to use their wits and courage to survive the relentless pursuit. The deputy’s disappearance spurs both her troubled son and her new husband into action, while the incident sets in motion Brynn’s loyal fellow deputies and elements from Milwaukee’s underside. These various forces race along inexorably toward the novel’s gritty and stunning conclusion.

The Bodies Left Behind is an epic cat-and-mouse chase, told nearly in real-time, and is filled with Deaver’s patented twists and turns, where nothing is what it seems, and death lingers just around the next curve on a deserted path deep in the midnight forest.

–> The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down by Peter D. Schiff

Description

In the wake of falling stock and real estate prices, the American economy is poised for a decade-long bear market, so says Peter Schiff. After he accurately predicted the current market turmoil, savvy investors should pay attention–and start protecting their assets now, before the markets take their toll. The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets shows investors how to stay safe and stay liquid during economic downturns.

Using economic history as a guide, Schiff looks at the bear markets that followed the bull markets of the 1920s and 1960s to predict what the American economy will look like after it corrects for the tech and real estate bubbles of the 1990s and early 2000s. Combining financial, economic, and political perspectives, Schiff looks at what worked in those earlier bear markets and predicts what strategies are most likely to work over the next ten years. In the end, Schiff argues that the next decade will most closely resemble the 1970s, complete with inflation, rising interest rates, and soaring commodity prices. This reversal of trends will make past investment strategies obsolete and pose a challenge for investors trying to build and protect their wealth. Smart investing will always pay off; the key lies in using the best strategies for the market at hand. For investors who see the writing on the wall but don’t know what to do about it, The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets offers a timely, critical answer.

–> The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War by H. W. Crocker III

Description

Get ready for a rousing rebel yell as bestselling author H.W. Crocker, III (Robert E. Lee on Leadership) charges through bunkers and battlefields in The Politically Incorrect Guide(TM) to the Civil War. Crocker busts myths and shatters stereotypes as he profiles eminent–and colorful–military generals while taking readers through chapters such as “The Civil War in Sixteen Battles You Should Know” and culminating in the most politically incorrect chapter of all, “What if the South Had Won.” Revealing little-known truths, like why Robert E. Lee had a higher regard for African Americans than Lincoln did, this is the “P.I.G.” that every Civil War buff and Southern partisan will want on their bookshelf, in their classroom, and under their Christmas tree.

–> Holy Headshot!: A Celebration of America’s Undiscovered Talent by Patrick Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein

Description

Holy Headshot! is an amazing collection of the funniest, strangest, most captivating performers’ headshots and resumes you have ever seen. The book throws open the door to the casting director’s office and gives an entertaining peak into the amazing — and sometimes bizarre — world of show business. Authors Patrick Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein poured over 50,000 headshots to put together this remarkable gallery, which showcases everyone from aspiring amateurs who are striving to live out their Hollywood dreams to seasoned professionals that you might recognize from the big screen. A celebration of our national obsession with getting famous, Holy Headshot! offers up plenty of “What were they thinking!?” hilarity, but just as often you’ll find yourself rooting for the characters that populate its pages.

–> An Intimate Understanding of America’s Teenagers: Shaking Hands with Aliens by Bruce J. Gevirtzman

Description

Alicia is so obsessed with being popular, she does things that would shock her parents, if they knew. Hector is aware the gang that wants him to join may be the death of him, but he will not decline. Sam was a baseball star, but can’t play the sport he loves anymore because he is wracked from football injuries, a sport his father will not let him quit. These are just a few of the teenagers readers will “meet,” in this candid book authored by a 34-year veteran high school teacher. Voted Teacher of the Year and Coach of the Year, Bruce Gevirtzman shares with us the results of his years spent talking with teenagers about topics from life and lust to depression and death. Revealing honest, poignant words shared in conversations, classroom talk, interviews, surveys, and journals, Gevirtzman takes us inside the minds of today’s youths, and also contrasts them with teenagers of decades past. Topics include teen thinking and secrets on issues from sex, drinking, and drugs to peer pressure, self-imposed standards, and beliefs about what is important, and painful, in life. Including interviews with fellow teachers, Gevirtzman’s book is threaded with one recurring truth: “Sadly, instead of parents and teachers and lawmakers and the public looking out for our kids, today’s kids are largely left to fend for themselves,” he concludes. Not only will general readers and educators find great insight in this work, it will be of interest to students and scholars of adolescent psychology, clinical psychology, and social work.

–> Fatal Vows: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson by Joseph Hosey

Description

In October 2007, twenty-three-year-old Stacy Peterson vanished from the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, leaving behind her husband and children. Retired Police Sergeant Drew Peterson, thirty years Stacy’s senior, steadfastly asserted his innocence and maintained that his wife had simply fled their tumultuous marriage and run off with another man.
Throngs of journalists and camera crews besieged Peterson’s quiet suburban cul-de-sac, but the ex-cop seemed to relish in this newfound limelight. As exhaustive searches for Stacy’s body turned up nothing and suggestive clues led nowhere, questions were raised: about their unusual marriage, about Stacy’s past vocal concerns for her safety, and about Drew Peterson’s bizarre public behavior in the wake of Stacy’s disappearance.

Then, in February 2008, came a startling development. After a second autopsy, the unusual death of Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, was ruled a homicide. Three and a half years earlier, Savio had been found dead in the bathtub of their home,but in light of Stacy’s curious disappearance, Kathleen’s body was exhumed and the case was reopened.

Two of Drew Peterson’s four wives, it appeared, had met untimely fates tragic and unexpected but hardly coincidental.

Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Stacy’s friends and family and even Drew himself, Chicago-area reporter Joseph Hosey presents the most researched account of the Stacy Peterson case yet. Still, as the charges against Drew Peterson mount, one haunting question remains: Where on earth is Stacy?