Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

A young Confederate war soldier (Inman) goes AWOL and begins a long journey home to the mountains of North Carolina to his long lost love (Ada).  Along the way he meets marauders, bandits, guards looking for outliers, an old witch, a family who tries to turn him in for the reward, a wayward preacher, a young woman whose husband was killed in the war, among many others.  Meanwhile, back home Ada is trying to survive on her fathers farm hopelessly until a young half-Cherokee woman (Ruby)comes to her aid.  A great read and I can't wait to see the movie. 

Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry

"I am the wild west, no show about it.  I was one of the people who kept it wild...."  Calamity Jane.  An old woman in Montana mud writes a letter to her daughter in the East.  Her name is Martha Jane, but everyone in the west calls her Calamity.  This is the story of Calamity's last days.  Here you will find Indians, beaver hunters, saloons, gunfighters, frontier history, everything you could possibly want in a western.  Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley along with other Western legends go with Buffalo Bill Cody to London to play in the Great Wild West Show.  I love Larry McMurtry and everything I have read by him has been exciting and well written. 

                                                           

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Zora Neale Hurston wrote in a rich cultural style that I have read no where else.  She fluently goes from 3rd person proper English to Old Harlem black slang.  This book is considered to be the autobiography of the author, however I believe it is also considered to be fiction. The story is set in the South, in the 1920s, with the main character being a young woman named Janey.  Janey first lives with her old grandmother who marries her off to an older man who is very abusive to her.  She runs off with a another man to Southern Florida where they open a mercantile type store in the Everglades.  She lives with this man for years until his death.  She continues to run the store until a young man comes in one day and steals her heart.  She lives with him until a great hurricane comes and breaks open the lake and they along with others make a break North on foot.  Absolutey wonderful!  Its been a long time since I read something so rich and cultural.  Every character is full of life.  Ms. Hurston has been ridiculed by her peers for not giving her black characters the normal self-pity and white hatred that is so popular among many black authors. 

Life on the Other Side by Sylvia Browne

Life on the Other Side by Sylvia Browne.  Sylvia Browne is a psychic who claims to know what is it like in the afterlife or on the Other Side.  Heaven I suppose.  

First of all she claims that we are the ones who chart our lives on Earth.  Everything from who our family will be and everything that ever happens to us.  We have been to Heaven and back to Earth in the form of reincarnation many times and when we go to Heaven we will remember every life we ever lived.  And each life has a purpose.   Most interesting to me is her vision of what Heaven is like.  Everyone in Heaven is 30 years old no matter how old you are when you died.  Also the temperature is an even 78 degrees and it is daytime always.  We move around by simply thinking ourselves where we want to go.  The Other Side is 3 feet off the ground of Earth.

Every person supposedly has a spirit guide here on Earth and in Heaven who helps us.  Each person has an angel or angels with them.  Also, she says that some of us have the ability to travel outside of our bodies astrally and can visit the other side from earth.   

There is also a left door on the Other Side where dark entities go.  Apparantly dark entities can change their ways and rejoin us in reincarnation.  After living a successful life on Earth they can enter Heaven normally.  

The Other Side is supposedly a mirror image of Earth and our physical appearance on Earth is a mirror image of us in Heaven.  So that in Heaven our organs would be on the opposite side. 

Sylvia also claims that there are beings in other galaxies and that they have their own Other Side but all are children of God.  She describes a mother God named Azna who is a great healer and can answer specific prayers for help from us on Earth. 

She describes in detail spirits, ghosts, angels, and psychics.  I found this book very interesting.  While I don't exactly believe everything, I did find that somehow it brought me closer to God. 

 

The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu

The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu.  Given the fact that this book is very exotic, sexual, and vivid, you won't believe some of the things this woman supposedly did, I couldn't put it down.  Countess Elizabeth Bathory.  Heiress to millions in Hungary, she was a cruel, satanic, witch like being, who murdered thousands of young virgins and bathed in their blood because she believed that this was the secret to keeping a youthful appearance.  She was cruel and torturous to all of her servants, and just about anyone she came in contact with.  She was eventually found out and was put on trial for her crimes by her own family.  Instead of being put in prison, she was put in a dungeon- like room in her own castle to live out the rest of her life alone.  The book also tells the story of one her modern day ancestors, Blake Bathory, who is an immigrant journalist in America, and is called back to Hungary to try and take back his lands and money.  In essence, two Bathory stories intertwined together.  Read it!

Upcoming reviews on what I'm reading now!

The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu.  A fact/fiction book of a real woman who allegedly murdered thousands of virgins to bathe in their blood.  She believed that this was the secret to keeping a youthful appearance.  I'm just about finished with the book and will review it in it's entirety at a later date.  Check back soon!

Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.  The story of two British surveyors who are best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that is considered the Mason Dixon line.  A very large book and it will take some time to finish and review. 

Voodoo Child by Michael Reaves.  Murder and dark magic prowl the New Orleans Streets. 

The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women.  Short stories from the likes of Anne Rice, Chelsea Yarbro(one of my favorites), Ellen Kushner, and many more.

Life on the Other Side by Sylvia Browne.  While personally I am a skeptic of psychic ability, I find this interesting and will be finished with it soon.  Check back soon for review!

Happy Reading!

21 Days To Baghdad by Time Life Books

The inside story of how America won the war against Iraq.  Time's photographers and correspondents provide exclusive, eyewitness accounts of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  In just three weeks, U.S. and British forces sprinted 350 miles from the Kuwait_Iraqi border to downtown Baghdad.  Although a lot has happened since this book was written, it is a complete account of the first 21 days of the war.  I read the whole thing in one sitting.  Some very graphic photographs and quotes from everyone from Bush to Saddam to the Iraqi people and the people of America, etc.  Check it out!