I’m sure many of you have heard the name of Ellery Queen, at least by your ancestors. Or his books at least must be in the libraries around you. Who, exactly, was Ellery Queen? You have heard of Sherlok Holmes and Dr. Watson. Well, Ellery Queen was Holmes and …

Delete Him (Advice from the Girls on Healing a Broken Heart) is a super bonus good book and a must have! Written by Anna Claremont, this book is very useful for those of you out there suffering from the aftermaths of a break-up and wanting pretty much to …

This Thesaurus has become a permanent fixture on my desk. Having a Thesaurus in addition to a dictionary is very practical as it allows me to write better while searching for words which I don’t want to repeat but has the same meaning. It is a hard bound book …

This book for older children, Home Wars by Dorothy Reynolds Miller, is one of those books where the contents are much better than the cover. The storyline sounds just like any other book: a preteen whose family isn’t getting along. But the book itself is so well written that …

I admit I wasn’t too sure what this book was about when I picked it up. Something about the book’s title drew my attention and I liked the dark, grayish cover image it has. It looked a bit creepy and I liked that. The fact that the doorway the …

It is unavoidable not to come across unfamiliar words, whether I am watching movies, reading books or conversing with friends; I always learn new words. Consulting Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus has been included in my routine. I’ve acquired Collins for only Php 100 and yet it has given me …

The Hearse You Came In On, was written by Tim Cockney and published by Hyperion in 2001.
Hitchcock Sewell, an undertaker, was struck by the appearance of an unusual guest at a funeral wake. A woman dressed in tennis dress had wanted to talk about her funeral arrangements; she …

I checked out this book along with my four-year-old niece, who happens to be the big sister of an 11-month-old! Of all the books we checked out that day… all on the topic of families… this one was my niece’s favorite! I think she liked it because she’s so …

This book is hysterical. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I never thought I would, Because I an not into chick-lit at all.
Shawn Wayne is single, employed, hard’bodied, a former All-American, and looking for his ideal woman. He may have an obsession with ESPN’s SportsCenter, money, and going …

I had shied away from reading James Michener’s “Poland”, even though Michener is one of my favorite authors, because I was intimidated by Polish names. They often seem to me like an alphabet soup of consonants with only a stray vowel now and then to aid in pronunciation. I …

Monsoon, one of twelve Wilbur Smith novels in the widely-followed Courtney series, catapults us back to days of the powerful Dutch East India shipping company. Set in the days when piracy didn’t mean
illegal optical media copying but instead sailors with cutlasses and eye-patches plundering ships for booty and it’s …

I came upon Kathy Reichs after I learned that the TV series Bones that I enjoy so much is based on her novels and characters. Cross Bones is one of her later works in the series following the life and cases of her heroine Dr. Temperance Brennan as she …

Sundays at Tiffany’s is in a round about way a James Patterson book, but somehow I completely missed it. The book itself came out a few months ago, but they never really publicized it. I was looking through the ads in the Sunday paper when I saw an ad …

The Ransom of Red Chief is one of the funniest short stories I have ever had the pleasure of reading and I believe it to be one of O. Henry’s best works. To reveal too much of the plot would deny a new reader the absolute hilarity of the …

The Sins of Jesus, by Richard A. Muller, is a fantastic book. Do not let the title fool you, it is not about Jesus shooting people up or committing any crimes against humanities, it is about how Jesus was human. I am not a people of Christian faith, but …

If there was one complaint that I had about DC Comics’ “Final Crisis” event last year, it was the delays. Just about every book had a serious delay in the printing that led to the story coming out months late; mostly, from what I understand, the delay was …

Over the years I’ve read all of Agatha Christie’s mystery books, some of them several times. Despite this, every once and awhile I pull one out of the basement and read it. It’s almost like comfort food, especially those books featuring Miss Jane Marple. “At Bertram’s Hotel” by Agatha …

Surely I’m not the only one who’s had a hard time sorting through various translations of Madame Bovary. The classic version by Aveling comes convenient for Kindle-owners (the book can be downloaded for free). There are penultimate translations claimed to be more improved. I wasn’t quite …

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is an extremely good book and if I could recommend to schools for ordering a form of book for literature lessons, then this should be it. The author of this book is none other than Kate DiCamillo and the name itself represents …

Ok. 2nd book of the Circle of Magic quartet. After the damages from the earthquake (read this in Sandry’s book), Winding Circle’s defenses are now weak. Of course, the pirates are taking advantage to this. Therefore all 4 of our young mages - Tris, Sandry, Briar and Daja - …

Actor Patrick Swayze was largely known for his roles as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing and Sam Wheat in Ghost. However, his career spanned so many other roles, some with dynamic substance that let him flex his acting muscles. My favorites were Orry Main in the TV …

Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is a book that in some ways is very touching and in other ways, it is quite heartbreaking. Either way, this book never fails to have an emotional impact on me. This book looks at the lives of Lucille Ball …

Judith Orloff’s “Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength, and Love” is a book that is close to my heart. This book helped me out of a bad time. I was depressed and feeling so alone. Anxiety and panic …

The Amulet Of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) is about a world controlled by magicians, not the rabbit-out-of-the-top-hat ones either, these men can summon up demons and powerful beings from nowhere and order them to do their bidding. A boy called Nathaniel is the apprentice of a wizard called Underwood, who …

‘Addicted to Curry’ is a Japanese Manga, written by Kazuki Funatsu and drawn by Kazuki Funatsu. This is a light-heated series about a girl named Yui. Her father owns a curry shop called Ganesha, but the shop is failing miserably, and her father has run off to another country …

Japan in the sixteenth century was a time of massacres and darkness. An era, in which the applicable law, the law of the sword. This novel was written by Kitami Masao, the label this the Swordless Samurai. This novel presented the Japanese in the 16th century, with Hideyoshi as …

I was amongst the first people who got to read Super Biz Buzz by Abhishek Kapoor. After reading it, I have to say this is one of the greatest Business Marketing books I have read since quite some time. It comprises of 50 amazing real business success stories. Each …

The modeling industry is a tricky one, I know that just by watching reality shows on models and all that. Not to stereotype, but I think the job is quite pressurizing and how one wants to lead to it, sometimes girls resort to all sorts of stuff just to …

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and last installment in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I love this book even if this is not my favorite in the series. The development of the plot is just astonishing. I really love reading this book (in fact, I …

“The Adventurous Four” was a book I received as a present many years ago a little before I became a teenager. It was the first novel I had seen written by Enid Blyton, as I was used to seeing books with collections of short stories written for children by …

Dan Brown’s book Digitial Fortress is a really good book! This story is about a code-breaking machine at the NSA that comes across a code it cannot break which results in lots of problems for all the people involved. The NSA uses a cryptographer, Susan Fletchers, to help figure …

In 2007, I bought Time For Kids Almanac 2008 With Fact Monster for myself. Not that I’m fed up reading novels full of text from the beginning till the end—”not a sight of pictures at all; reading novel leaves visual to our imagination. Nevertheless reading books with colorful pictures …

I’ve always had a sick interest in serial killers and their crimes so my mom bought me Lethal Intent by Sue Russell. This is a biography of the now infamous Aileen Wuornos, played by Charlize Theron in “Monster”.
The book gives great detail about Aileen’s home life as a child, …

A few days ago, I was looking for a romance book that made me laugh and wasn’t too full of drama. Well, Scoring Wilder was exactly what I was looking for!
When Kinsley Bryant, one of the best soccer players of the university league, meets Liam Wilder, professional soccer player …

Iceland’s Bell is a historical novel by the Icelandic writer Halldor Killjan Laxness. It has been translated to several languages, so finding a copy in a language you can read shouldn’t be a problem. The first part is about the farmer Jón Hreggviðsson and his battle with the Icelandic authorities. …

I actually borrowed this book from my local library and ended up enjoying it very much. This story is about a young woman (Susannah) whose main goal for her life is to work her way up the corporate ladder. She has no desire for marriage or kids and …

This novel is geared toward young teenage girls - probably 12 and up. It is a wonderful story of the adventures of an American girl who goes off on what is basically a clue hunt through Europe.
The story starts when the girl seeks out some memories of her aunt, …

In the fourth book in this series, Kevin Kerney becomes Deputy Chief of the State Police. Between the books, his romantic interest in third book doesn’t pan out, so he’s without a woman in his life. On the plus side he has inherited 6400 acres. Although there will be …

I’ve liked the idea of being a soccer fan ever since I was in high school, nearly fifty years ago. Despite this I have only attended one professional soccer game, have never touched a soccer ball, and had never watched an entire soccer game on television until recently. Since …

At Risk by Patricia Cornwell is a forensic crime based novel. It was on the New York Times Bestsellers list. And so I figured it would be a good, entertaining read.
The characters are well-written and dynamic. Each character seems to have their own motivation, and it’s very clear who …

I intended to buy Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Middlesex” back when it was published and awarded the Pulitzer Prize, a good couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I was short on cash then, and before the book hit the library shelves, I forgot about it. Still, when I noticed it at a …

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, wrote The Inheritance when she was seventeen. It was her first novel, but she never submitted it for publication. It wasn’t published until 1997.
I was pretty excited to read this, since I’ve read her books from the time …

When I first started reading “Entombed” I was not sure what to expect. The author Linda Fairstein begins the story when a young girl is assaulted and almost raped SVS director Alexandra Cooper and Mercer Wallace realize that after a four year break a serial rapist has returned to …

This is one of those horror books that have a twist ending. I admit I probably should have seen it coming, but I didn’t. I suppose it’s kind of clever, too, as long as you don’t figure it out before the end. Mainly this is a teen thriller about …

For anyone who is curious about what it is like to grow up in a large family, The Color of Water beautifully describes the life of a huge family struggling to make ends meet. James McBride tells the tale of his bi-racial family growing up in New York …

I had intended to read only a chapter or two on Julia: Her Life by James Spada because my boyfriend left it lying at his home. It is his younger sister’s novel and I was bored with nothing much to do. As he took some longer time to …

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko is actually a great book for middle school aged kids. I found the story complex enough to enjoy myself, while simple enough that younger readers can understand the themes. (Sort of a something for everyone kind of situation). If …

Dead Souls was written by Ian Rankin and first published by St Martin’s Paperbacks in 2000.
Inspector John Rebus was indeed worried his colleague, Jim Margolis had committed suicide; a released pedophile, Darren Rough, was staying in a community with children, and the son of his ex-flame was …

Now, this complete Calvin and Hobbes set is about $90.00, and it’s quite worth it for die hard fans.
The author of this story is Bill Watterson, and he has conjured a good writing on the musings and antics of both Calvin and Hobbes. I managed to read the …

I was waiting for Scion of Ikshvaku since the day it was announced by Amish Tripathy. I had read all three books of his previous Shiva series, the blockbuster which have sold more than 60 million copies.
Scion of Ikshvaku is the first book of another series by Amish. It …