Dark Warrior Unleashed by Alexis Morgan

Reading Level: Adult
(4 out of 5)


This a new series by Alexis Morgan. If you are familiar with her she also writes the Paladin series. In her new series she introduces the Kyth. They are a species of people that feed off energy, good or dark. They have lived for thousands of years. They have a Grand Dame who rules her people and has a special team of Kyth called Talion enforcers. They keep the peace among their kind. Ranulf Thorsen has served his people for a thousand years as an enforcer and just wants to be left alone on his mountain, but the Grand Dame has other plans for him. He has to work with his bitter rival Sandor Kearn to track down a rogue Talion and take him out. They also have to play bodyguards to a woman named Kerry, who is a Kyth but doesn't know it. The rogue is after her and Ranulf will protect her with his life. If you like fantasy and romance you will most likely like Ms. Morgans books.

What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)


The story of Alex and James is told in alternating chapters. It starts with Alex goes to James and back and forth. Alex and James are brothers and they have drifted apart. James is a senior and popular. Alex is a junior and starts his junior year by drinking Pine Sol at a party. All Alex's friends have ditched him. Alex finds a friend in his neighbor and is befriended by one of James friends Nathan. Nathan gets him interested in cross country running and Alex makes the team. Alex is happier than he has been in a long time. James is just wanting to get out of town and go to college. Over the course of the year he and Alex reconnect and he realizes that once he gets out of town coming home won't be so bad.

Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford

Reading Level: Young Adult

(4 out of 5)

This book chronicles fifteen year old Jeff's 45 day stay in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He wakes up there on New Years Day after having tried to commit suicide. He doesn't understand why he is there. He doesn't think he belongs with the rest of the "nut jobs" as he calls them. From the start of the book you wonder what would have compelled him to take his own life. Slowly the wall that Jeff has built up around him starts to crumble and you get to know the real him. Jeff starts to realize that suicide was not the answer.

Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen

Adult
(4 out of 5)

This book is a very fast read. It is only 82 pages and about half of those pages are pictures. In this book Mrs. Quindlen talks about Beau. Beau is her beloved black Labrador retriever. She reflects on his life from a puppy to old age, and eventually death. This book is for dog lovers and dog owners. I found myself nodding or laughing at different things in this book because I could so relate. Towards the end I started to sniffle because you knew his life was coming to an end.

Below taken from http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/annaquindlen/.

“The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen about her beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau. With her trademark wisdom and humor, Quindlen reflects on how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau’s, and on the lessons she’s learned by watching him: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure herself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise her nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, “I smell bacon!”Of the dog that once possessed a catcher’s mitt of a mouth, Quindlen reminisces, “there came a time when a scrap thrown in his direction usually bounced unseen off his head. Yet put a pork roast in the oven, and the guy still breathed as audibly as an obscene caller. The eyes and ears may have gone, but the nose was eternal. And the tail. The tail still wagged, albeit at half-staff. When it stops, I thought more than once, then we’ll know.”Heartening and bittersweet, Good Dog. Stay. honors the life of a cherished and loyal friend and offers us a valuable lesson on our four-legged family members: Sometimes an old dog can teach us new tricks (2/13/09).