November 16, 2012

The Diviners by Libba Bray

I have been scared by a book before but never have I had a nightmare from one.  It happened within the first 100 pages of this almost 600 pager but by then I was hooked and continued on.  Evie O’Neill has a gift, although presently she only uses it to impress people at parties.  When she gets caught up in a “rumor” using her gift, she is sent off to live with her Uncle Will, curator to The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, in New York City.  It’s 1926 and New York is filled with speakeasies and flapper girls, and Evie doesn’t really see this as quite the punishment her parents believe it to be.  The moment she steps off that train her life takes a far different path than what she had expected.  Soon after her arrival, a young woman’s body is discovered beneath the Brooklyn Bridge with mysterious brandings.  Evie’s Uncle is called to the scene to help decipher the occult symbols and Evie discovers that her party trick gift can be far more useful.  She is determined to help track down the killer before more dead bodies surface.  The story follows many others with certain gifts and by the end Bray has set the stage for far more things to come. 

November 2, 2012

Seth Casteel's Underwater Dogs





Who doesn’t love lively, up-close photographs of adorable faced dogs? Casteel takes it several steps further by photographing dogs from an uncharted and unexpected perspective: underwater.  Dogs are baited with colorful tennis balls to dive into pools headfirst and their snouts are then snapped from beneath the surface.  Underwater Dogs is a serious mood booster.  I can’t wait to chuck my dog into a pool.