Mailbox Monday - July 20

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

How is it Monday again? Oh, right. Every day seems the same now that we are pretty much trapped in our houses together. LOL! Sometimes you just have to make a joke to lighten the mood. We are blessed to be healthy, so that's a good thing.

After a rough week, I drove to visit my mother-in-law so that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law could have a break. She had been with them since March and they haven't gone anywhere considering the pandemic. I'm not sure I would want to camp in the middle of a heat wave, but I am sure the change of pace is good.

As for me, I'm enjoying my new Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Unlimited. I've even watched a movie or two. With the gift card from my birthday, I bought the following two cookbooks that arrived this week.

I scooped up these two Kindle freebies.

I promoted this book when it first came out, but never had a chance to read it for the tour.

These are the books I grabbed through Kindle Unlimited. The first one I grabbed for curiosity's sake. I have a three-month free trial. If I don't read anything off my list, then I will cancel before October.

I have two more books arriving this week. I'm in the middle of reading one that will take me a while, so I will probably need to break off and read the next book I have scheduled for review in August.

That's it from my neck of the woods. What did your mailbox hold? Anything good you would like to share?

Mailbox Monday: May 18

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

It really should be a sin to be as busy as I am. My work has taken over my life and the house looks like a tornado blew through it. Sigh. I sure don't want to waste any time I have with the family by spending it cleaning. I hope it slows down soon.

So, I finally did it. I broke down and borrowed the first Harry Potter book from the library. I got it in audio format since it will never get read otherwise. The Lil' Diva had sworn off HP until this year. Now, she is reading them faster than I can get them for her. Have you read them? What did you think?

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry, an orphan, lives with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. One day just before his eleventh birthday, an owl tries to deliver a mysterious letter—the first of a sequence of events that end in Harry meeting a giant man named Hagrid. Hagrid explains Harry's history to him: When he was a baby, the Dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, attacked and killed his parents in an attempt to kill Harry; but the only mark on Harry was a mysterious lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. Now he has been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the headmaster is the great wizard Albus Dumbledore. Harry visits Diagon Alley to get his school supplies, especially his very own wand. To get to school, he takes the Hogwarts Express from platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station. On the train, he meets two fellow students who will become his closest friends: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry is assigned to Gryffindor House at Hogwarts, and soon becomes the youngest-ever Seeker on the House Quidditch team. He also studies Potions with Professor Severus Snape, who displays a deep and abiding dislike for Harry, and Defense Against the Dark Arts with nervous Professor Quirrell; he and his friends defeat a mountain troll, help Hagrid raise a dragon, and explore the wonderful, fascinating world of Hogwarts. But all events lead irrevocably toward a second encounter with Lord Voldemort, who seeks an object of legend known as the Sorcerer's Stone…

The next one arrived for a book tour in June. It sounds really good. I love southern fiction.

The twelve stories in Kate Blackwell’s debut collection illuminate the lives of men and women who appear as unremarkable as your next-door-neighbor until their lives explode quietly on the page. Her wry, often darkly funny voice describes the repressed underside of a range of middle-class characters living in the South. Blackwell’s focus is elemental—on marriage, birth, death, and the entanglements of love at all ages—but her gift is to shine a light on these universal situations with such lucidity, it is as if one has never seen them before.

What did you find in your mailbox?

Mailbox Monday - October 20

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

This one came in per my request to review:

There is a great legend that has been passed down through generations about two young boys who would change history. One was destined to become a great king. The other was a druid, and his guide, mentor and friend. This is the tale of the meeting of Arthur and Merlin and how they changed the fate of magic.

This other one showed up unsolicited:

In Fire Birds Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests, award-winning science author Sneed B. Collard III challenges society s negative views toward natural forest fires. By focusing on the research of biologist Richard Hutto, Collard reveals the complex relationships between fire and thriving plant and animal communities. The book especially focuses on the heavy use of burned forests by dozens of bird species and debunks the idea that burned forests are worthless wastelands.

Besides delivering a powerful environmental message, Fire Birds couldn't be more timely. With record numbers of acres burning every year, pressure to suppress wildfires and salvage log burned forests has never been greater. Stunning photographs and clear text deliver the message that recent fire policies have been backfiring badly.

What showed up in your mailbox last week?

Mailbox Monday - January 27

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

This isn't book related, but I have to ask: is anyone else out there getting magazines they didn't order? My daughter has had magazine fundraisers at school the last two years, so I ordered a couple of magazines. Suddenly, I'm getting regular issues of magazines I've never ordered, and they are increasing in number. First it was Shape. Next came ESPN The Magazine, which I have no use for. I have even less of a use for Maxim. Even my hubby isn't interested in them. What a waste of time and materials.

Okay, I'm officially off my soapbox now. Here's what arrived this week in the way of books. This first one is another used title I bought for research.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Bancroft Prize, the Parkman Prize, the Avery O. Craven Prize, and the Trilling Prize, and finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award This "masterful treatment of one of the most complex periods of American history" (The New Republic) made history when it was originally published in 1988. It redefined how Reconstruction was viewed by historians and people everywhere in its chronicling of the way in which Americans -- black and white -- responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. This "smart book of enormous strengths" (Boston Globe) has since gone on to become the classic work on the wrenching post -- Civil War period -- an era whose legacy still reverberates in the United States today.

The following books came unsolicited:

Everyone who lives around Duckling’s pool is in a tizzy: Beaver hasn’t put on his hat, and now the sun’s burning his head; Squirrel has lost her nuts, and now she’s hungry; and Bear has knocked over his jar of water, and now he’s thirsty. So it’s just as well that Duckling’s around, ready to help out the rest of the animals with his gifts!

It’s a Gift! is a tender tale about the solidarity and generosity that’s so necessary in modern life. This moving story will encourage the youngest members of the family to share without expecting anything in return.

The boy with the feather headdress told stories without saying a word. The boy whose legs formed the shape of a heart communicated with that special language that comes from within. With his hands, his face, his smile and his eyes, he could communicate everything his listeners needed to hear. Walking Eagle's tales awoke deep emotions, conveyed a sense of solidarity, and created bonds between hands and hearts of different tribes that lasted forever.

Walking Eagle: The Little Comanche Boy is a magical tale about nature and harmony between the different peoples of the world, reminding us of the power of stories to bring out our very best from within the deepest part of the human soul.

Andrea’s mom doesn’t understand how an old box full of holes can be of any use, but her daughter is just over the moon about her latest acquisition—and rightly so! When she takes off the lid, the little girl pulls out holes in all shapes and sizes that lead her to discover remarkable characters who fill her room with amazing stories.

The Box of Holes is a bewitching tale that shows us how our imaginations can fill in many gaps in our lives, bringing smiles to our faces that we should never, ever give up as lost.

The Sparkling Elves loved the Things in the Air, those things that nobody can see, but which are there all the same. With their brightly colored clothes and their bright, gleaming smiles, they’d spend the whole day fluttering around, looking for flying surprises. And when they found them, the elves held them tightly until the Things tickled them inside. But one day, the Snouty Witches appeared, gray and gloomy, to take the Things away!

The Things in the Air is a tale that will fill your air with surprises and fill your child’s face with a huge smile that no one will be able to wipe off — not even the Snouty Witches!

Kindle freebies this week are:

Could They Fulfill Their Dreams in this Untamed Land?

Driven by desperation, Grace Hawkins must forsake the affluent comfort of her upbringing to save herself from an arranged marriage. Disillusioned by her father's insistence, she forges a daring plan to escape the sinister hand of her intended.

Peter Colton sees the Alaskan gold rush as an opportunity to establish his family's fledgling shipping business. An unexpected partnership enables him to pursue those dreams and opens the door to an aquaintance with Grace, who has purchased passage north.

Drawn together by need and circumstance, Grace and Peter form a faltering friendship. But when her deserted fiance continues to manipulate her loved ones, can she find peace in the wake of his wrath?

Blogger's note: I've read the first chapter of Peterson's novel and it intrigued me. 

The Kingdom of Soron bustled with activity as preparations for the Fall Festival began. Lively merchants, hardworking farmers, and musicians eagerly awaited this event of harvest and joy. This year’s festival was even more important, as they celebrated Princess Madeline’s betrothal to her knight champion, Daniel
.
Celebration quickly turns to disaster as Prince Paulsen returns with curious demands, either Princess Madeline will be his, or no ones. Rejection turns to obsession and battle is declared.

In a tense struggle to decide her future, Princess Madeline must choose where to put her trust… in the king’s tried and true plan, the wizard’s cryptic messages and maps, or her own sense of bravery. Follow Princess Madeline on this adventure as she battles evil in an attempt to create a future of love and magic.

Blogger's note: I already have the other two books in this series. Now, I just need to make time to read them.

What is something that arrived in your mailbox this week?

Thursday Books: Sir Thursday, The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 4 by Garth Nix

The stellar fourth book in Garth Nix's masterpiece series... now in paperback!

On the fourth day there was war...
Following their adventures in the Border Sea, Arthur and Leaf head for home. But only Leaf gets through the Front Door. Arthur is blocked because someone . . . or something . . . has assumed his identity and is taking over his life.
Before Arthur can take action, he is drafted by Sir Thursday and forced to join the Glorious Army of the Architect. While Leaf tries to banish Arthur's doppleganger on earth, Arthur must survive his basic training, avoid getting posted to the Front and work out how he can free Part Four of the Will....

Age Range: 8 and up
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; Reprint edition (January 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0439436575
ISBN-13: 978-0439436571

Emerine's Nightmare by Anna del C. Dye Giveaway at A Family Friendly Blog

Title: Emerine's Nightmare

Author: Anna del C. Dye

Blog: Linda Weaver Clarke’s A Family Friendly Blog

Giveaway Link: http://lindaweaverclarke.blogspot.com/2012/10/interview-with-fantasy-author-anna-del.html

Genre: Fantasy

Giveaway Dates: Oct 24 - 31

Open to: International

Book Spotlight: The Canker Death by James Bottino

When the reclusive, cynical systems administrator, Petor Fidelistro, discovers that one of his own servers has been cracked late one night, he makes it his personal business to track down the perpetrator. What his search uncovers thrusts him, unaware, into a mad shifting between worlds, time and alien minds.
Fighting to keep his grip on reality, and forcing him to cope with his past, Petor finds himself uncontrollably transitioning between sentient minds that range from semi-conscious to dominant, from beings whose bodies and identities he can control, to those who control him so fully as to be unaware of his presence.

As the story unfolds, Petor gathers clues in a twisting mystery that sends him shifting between the mourning child Nanzicwital; the golem giant Faskin; the lascivious, female ambassador Desidia; and Nokinis, an insane prisoner with whom Petor battles for mastery of his own memories. As he struggles to make sense of what is happening to him, Petor finds himself embroiled in the tumultuous upheaval of a ubiquitous society that transcends life, itself.

Read an excerpt!

I’m not writing this damn thing because I really think you ought to care – though you should. Everyone should, everywhere. Hell, I don’t even want to care, myself.

Now, I don’t know when it all started, so I’m going to begin from when I first began to notice stuff happening, out of the blue. I didn’t have any warning. There were no portents, no eerie feelings that made my hair stand on end. There was just me, working, like I always do, on a computer.

Let’s get something straight: I’m not some half-witted, hip web jockey who meanders around the Internet squandering time looking for “cool” web sites. I work on the net. I design the computers that house the sort of useless information absolutely everybody just has to see these days. I design the networks the world’s lusers use to instantly message their lame-o friends about lame-o garbage.
So there I was three days ago – was it only three days ago? Was it a week? How many days? It’s so hard to tell sometimes. Well, whatever it was, I was still at work, and damn tired.

As a matter of fact, I had just dozed off and had had yet another one of those flying dreams, where I feel as if I am myself and yet somehow not myself. I remember the color of everything seemed wrong in that dream, like I had been wearing some trippy purple shades, or something, but I hadn’t been. And then, as I was flying, I changed again and was someone else, but, somehow, still, I was myself.
Dreams. I’m sure mine are no more or less strange than anyone else’s. I remember I awoke with a start and instinctively glanced at the clock. I was relieved to see that it was just a quarter past eight. I’d only drifted off for a few minutes. I was alone. All of the lusers had already gone home.

Well, Yury was still there, pushing three squeaky-wheeled trash cans past my door on his way out. It was the sound of the trash cans that had woken me up. I rubbed my eyes and smiled at him. His jacket was on, and he looked about ready to call it a night.

“Hey Yury,” I said, for some damn reason.

“Hello Mister Fidelistro,” he said as a smile flickered across his thin lips.
“How’s Kirill? How’s he doing?”

“The same,” he said, while looking hard at some empty spot on the floor and absent-mindedly placing his right hand on his heart.

“If there’s anything I can do…”

“Only pray, Mister Fidelistro.”

“I’ll do that,” I said. Maybe someday I would. “Night, Yury.”

He nodded and wheeled the trash away towards the freight elevator.

Poor Kirill, such a sweet kid. He has this incredibly wise, quiet look about him, like he knows absolutely everything in the world. I’ve gone to visit him in the hospital a few times since he started living there.

There’s no better proof that life isn’t fair than what happened to Kirill. All the rat bastards in the world just keep screwing us all while an innocent kid like him gets a short life of tubes, needles and pain.
So, anyway, I was working, as I said, and I had just remotely accessed my servers at home to check the logs when I noticed a username I didn’t recognize: erudire1. Intrigued, I started snooping through the log files to see when the account had been created, and by whom.

It only took me a few seconds to figure it out. I leaned back in my chair, nodded and smirked to myself. The answer was all too obvious: I had been cracked.

After a minute of mad pounding on my crappy Microsoft keyboard, I found out how it had been done. I had been running several services. The one in question was the file transfer protocol daemon (ftpd).
I had the server daemon running wide open, so any anonymous person could log in and see what files were there and download them. I code for a number of open source projects, and my site is directly linked to those same projects, as well as being routinely indexed by every search engine on the net. It’s not as if I were keeping it secret.

Of course, I knew leaving the sever open for any anonymous person to access was something of a security risk. However, I didn’t have any top secret data on that particular machine. Besides, no one had ever tried to break in before.

I looked up and skimmed through the specs on the exploit. The weird thing was, this was an old hack; I thought this security hole had been plugged upstream. It was kind of a pain in the ass to tell for certain, what with certain vendors backporting patches but leaving the version numbers unchanged. Damn broken package systems … Still, if it hadn’t been plugged, I was certain that hacking the ftpd wouldn’t be hard to do, but there really was no reason to, nothing to gain. It would sort of be like trying to break in through the back door of an abandoned church when the front door was hanging open.

So, I was more intrigued about why anyone would bother to break into my server than upset about the fact that it had been done. Overall, it took me just under ten minutes to reverse all the damage I could find and lock out the person who had “broken in”. Plus, of course, I uninstalled the vendor’s version, downloaded the latest source code for the daemon straight from the project’s development page, then compiled and installed that one. And then, just to be sure, I changed the config, moved the port to a non-standard value, cycled the daemon, and plugged the NAT hole so the standard port was shut off to the world. I figured I’d setup something better, later. As things stood, it was just too damn bad for scanners and bots.

Maybe I should have stopped there. Maybe I should have left well enough alone. Maybe then I wouldn’t be in this mess, and she would still be alive.

Read the reviews!
"The Canker Death by James R. Bottino is a mystery, a spiritual awakening, a suspenseful and funny book with complex characters and worlds. This book reminds me a bit of Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series and also reminds me that good ideas are still out there amidst the plethora of over-worked, tired concepts prevalent in our world today.

How did the author slip in symbolism and deep themes all the while entertaining us with the “full monty” of sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll and stuff that explodes? I’m not sure, but by the time I’d finished The Canker Death, it made me laugh, cry, hang on by the seat of my pants, and shout “SEQUEL!!!” (although the book does stand well on its own.)

Also, while reading, I found the Vitruvian Man map full of symbols, character names and concepts to be a provocative and neat little extra feature. I highly recommend this original tome!"

- Amazon Reviewer RIBH

"The Canker Death takes a hold of the reader and doesn’t let them go until the end."

--The Hot Author Report

PURCHASE AT AMAZON!

James R. Bottino’s life-long interests mix esoteric and disparate fields of study. By day, his foremost influences have been the study of literature and the art of writing. Following these pursuits led him to read anything he could in these areas and to complete every under-graduate and graduate course available to him in the field of creative writing. Following this line, he taught high school English throughout the 1990’s, focusing on the teaching of writing.

By night, when no one was looking, he studied computer systems / networks, computer languages, and operating systems, learning anything he could in these areas, first as a hobby, and, finally, as a career. This mixture of literature and technology served as the inspiration for the The Canker Death’s protagonist, Petor.

James currently lives in a suburb of Chicago, with his wife, daughter, two Australian cattle dogs and far, far too many books and abstruse computers.

You can visit his website at TheCankerDeath.com.

March Paranormal and Fantasy Event: Princess for Hire by Jamie Grey

After winning his kingdom in a legendary poker game twenty years ago, Princess Mina’s father loses the kingdom just as easily. Now alone and penniless, Mina must rely on her swords to support them both.


When the princess-turned-mercenary is offered a contract to save a prince that will pay enough to keep her father laid up in luxury for yet another year, she and her business partner snap up the deal. Dragons and all.

But when she’s faced with a seedy mage and a prince who doesn’t want any woman to rescue him, Mina quickly learns the so-far-unseen dragon is the least of her worries.

Read an excerpt!
 
We made our way down a long, empty hall. It was eerily quiet, dust motes circling in the air as we passed. Though I tried to be silent, my boots still rang loudly on the bare floor.


“What now, boss?” Galt asked, eyeing the set of stairs at the end of the hall.

“We keep looking. He’s got to be here somewhere.” I sounded braver than I felt. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to fighting a fire-breathing dragon; they were notoriously hard to kill. I forced myself upward, creeping around the corner of the staircase only to stop in astonishment. Instead of another long hallway, we stood at the edge of a great library. The roaring fire in the hearth cast a golden glow over the leather bound books lining the room.

At the far end sat a huge, soft chair with a young man lounging in it, a book propped open on his knee. He looked up as we moved out of the shadows and then jumped to his feet, dropping the book with a thud. “Dammit! Not another princess!” He shoved his hands into his pockets

and glared at me. “I told my father what it would take to get me home. So he sends another blasted beauty queen? I am sick and tired of this.”

Galt and I exchanged confused glances. I bit back a slightly hysterical giggle. I could hardly be called a beauty queen in my stained cloak and tattered tunic. “Are you King Randalf’s son? We were told you needed rescuing.”

The man sighed as he tugged a hand through his perfect blonde hair. Fine wrinkles webbed his eyes as he frowned. “Why do women always think men need rescuing?”

“Because they haven’t the sense the Maker granted a horse’s ass?” Galt flashed me a warning look as my temper began to rise. If this was the prince, then he obviously wasn’t in any danger. So why was King Randalf paying me to bring him home? And where was the dragon that guarded him?

PURCHASE PRINCESS FOR HIRE AT MUSEITUPPUBLISHING.COM! ALSO AVAILABLE IN A KINDLE EDITION!

Writer. Geek. Tech enthusiast. Tea diva. Jamie Grey is either a multi-faceted young-adult author or a commitment-phobic escapist. Probably a little of both.


Residing near Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jamie spends her days writing as an instructional designer. At night, she tries to create fantastic worlds populated with remarkable characters. Some days are better than others.


You can reach Jamie via email at greyjamie1 (at) gmail (dot) com


Her website is: http://www.jamiegreybooks.com/
Her blog is: www.jamiegreybooks.com/blog
Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamie_grey

Kim Hanks and Save the Best for Last

In Save the Best for Last, Zwick Lamps, a secret admirer to Whitney Barnes, got targeted by a genius son of the past evil family that had lived in Green Oasis Town for the past centuries. However, it was once before Zwick had finally discovered his supernatural powers that were only known by the isolated old woman Tabitha, a misfortuned lady whose husband died on their wedding day.

In the aftermath of a fire rampage, Zwick Lamps is framed and prosecuted. Karl Hamilton got convicted and he was beheaded to death, a capital punishment for his misdemeanors in the town. Though, all along elites had thought that their town was then safe. Unfortunately, they later realized the evil and the bangle had rose again which raised people tension and eye brows as the entity haunted the town. Screaming with frustration, it seemed unstoppable, untouchable and above all magic spells. It was on the bicentenary day when it had to reunite with its ancestors after the sacrifice.

But Zwick driven by pain of his own past experiences, and tragedy, He was determined to do everything in his own powers to save her and green oasis town from evil. He had realized how much ruthless it was on people's lives. He didn't want to see history repeating. But in the rush to the deadline, his efforts are halted by the moon eclipse. Making Zwick short of time to find her dead.

About the author: Kim Hanks is the author of Save The Best For Last, a fantasy adventure debut from the author! Critics have compared this book to an example of hugely popular genres and reality in the novelists craft and have described it as a strong, good, and multilayered fantasy adventure written with a hand that is both sure and light.

Kim has a full time job and is a graduate of Cambridge International College with a degree in Human Resource Management. He lives in Dubai.

For more information please visit his website at http://www.kimhanks.net/