Snark! The Hearald Angels Sing: Sarcasm, Bitterness, & the Holiday Season

Snark! The Hearald Angels Sing: Sarcasm, Bitterness, & the Holiday Season is by Lawrence Dorfman. I have had this book on my shelf for some time, but when the Christmas decorations went up in Wal Mart the day after Halloween I pulled it off the shelf and laughed myself silly. It is the perfect read for the seriously jaded and terminally Scrooge-like among us. A charming way to spend an hour or so between now and Christmas.

Ratings: 10th grade - 7 out of 10 - P (profanity) - AC (some mature thematic content).

The Historian

The Historian is by Elizabeth Kostova. This is an absolutely wonderful book! It is filled with history, and yet has enough fiction to make the history not only palatable, but fascinating. It is the story of a young girl who finds herself in the midst of a modern day search for Dracula. To find and kill the vampire she, and virtually everyone she knows, must search out the true history of the real Dracula, Vlad the Impaler. The story takes us across continents, in both the past and present and makes Vlad Dracula come to life in a way the typical Dracula story never seems to. This book was the inspiration for a friend of mine to plan a trip through Hungary, Bulgaria, and into the Carpathians to visit Dracula's castle, the pictures are beautiful! A Reader's Corner Highly Recommended Read.

Ratings: 11th grade - 10 out of 10 - V (violence) - AC (some mature thematic content).

Horrorstor

Horrorstor is by Grady Hendrix. What to say about this book? It's like Poltergeist in an IKEA, okay weirded out yet? The story takes place in an IKEA rip-off, and it admits to being so, called Orsk. Weird things seem to be happening in the store at night so the deputy store manager, Basil, decides to catch the culprit before the corporate suits arrive the next day. He enlists the aid of two other employees, Amy and Ruth Ann, and they decide to patrol the store overnight and find out what's going on. The group finds themselves joined by Matt and Trinity, two want-to-be ghost hunters, who believe the store is haunted - unfortunately for everyone, Matt and Trinity are right. There were parts of this book that had me laughing out loud and parts that scared me silly. I have never read a humorous horror story before, but I really enjoyed it. The humor made the horror a little easier to read, but the book was still scary. The book is also laid out like an Orsk sales catalogue which describes in detail at the beginning of every chapter the wonderful furniture offerings available at Orsk. I was surprised by how much I liked this book, and so...I recommend it to all fans of horror, and even those who aren't.

Ratings: 11th grade - 9 out of 10 - V (Violence) - AC (some mature thematic content).

The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Mary Seacole in Many Lands

The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Mary Seacole in Many Lands is by Mary Seacole. A fascinating biography from the point of view a mixed race Jamaican woman and her travels throughout the British Empire in the mid to late 1800s. She travels to Panama, London, and even travels to the Crimea to assist the soldiers during the Crimean War. The memoir is definitely a work of its time, but well worth the read. It is also from a non-white perspective which makes it more fascinating.

Ratings: 9th grade - 9 out of 10.