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By Dan Marvin on November 26, 2009
I dare you not to like Stubbs and Bernadette by Levi Montgomery. Double dog dare you! This book made me late for work on more than once, its that hard to put down. There is something so compelling and sweet about the way that Montgomery describes Bernadette, you just want to shield her from the world. Bernadette in this case is Bernadette Elsbeth McIntyre and the name is bigger than the girl that wears it. She is described as a waif, an elf, a sixteen-year-old in a twelve-year-old’s body and you’ll be able to immediately picture her. There was always someone in everyone’s High School that resembles her. She is the artsy girl, the one that doesn’t dress just right, the one that never quite fit in.
Posted in Dan Marvin, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Young Adult/Juvenile | Tagged coming-of-age, CreateSpace, Fiction, impulse control, levi montgomery, literary fiction, love story, Stubbs and Bernadette, teenagers, young adult |
By Dan Marvin on October 20, 2009
Cursing the Cougar is two books in one. Which book you like says a lot about you as a reader. The first book is a lushly written coming-of age story that crests and falls on the emotions of the characters. This is the kind of book they don’t write anymore but should, Jane Eyre in blue jeans holding a torque wrench. The second book-within-a-book is a taut psychological thriller complete with deranged bad-guy and brief glimpses into a warped mind. While it would be easy to dismiss Cursing the Cougar as lacking in direction, it’s actually in the intersection of these two tales that we realize that life is LIKE that, sometimes evil visits our slowly simmering lives and turns up the heat.
Posted in Dan Marvin, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Mystery/Suspense | Tagged cursing the cougar, levi montgomery |
By Dan Marvin on September 24, 2009
I can guarantee you’ve never read anything like The Sophisticated Savage. Part scholarly essay, part interview, and part soul-baring diary, Carla Seidl weaves a tale that is hard to put down. What you will likely discover is that you end up finding out much more about Seidl than you do about the title character. Whether you end up empathizing with her or shaking your head, you will be right inside her head during a fascinating time in her life.
Posted in Biography/Memoir, Dan Marvin | Tagged amazon, Carla Seidl, Dan Marvin, Ecuador, ethnology, Galapagos, Huaorani, Islands, Jungle, simplicity, The Sophisticated Savage, Travel, Waodani, Waorani |
By Dan Marvin on August 9, 2009
The King, Father, and Mother is reminiscent of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, not quite as good as the Davinci Code but still a compelling read. In Eric Rhodes’ book, we follow three men, separate in time but connected by an Irish hillside and a mysterious stone.
Posted in Dan Marvin, Historical, Mainstream/Nostalgia | Tagged Christianity, Crisis, cycles, divine, druids, Economic, fund, Gnostic, Gnosticism, hedge, HOLY, Hospitaller, investing, Ireland, knights, knowledge, monk, novel, Ogham, reincarnation, soul, spirituality, Sufism, Templar, time, tribulation, Trinity |
By Dan Marvin on July 10, 2009
I was excited to get my copy of Altered Life, a detective thriller from Keith Dixon. He was nice enough to send me a copy all the way across the pond and I dove into it the same day it arrived. The description on the Lulu page hooked me: ‘Altered Life transplants the attitude and pace of the American private eye story into a contemporary English setting.’
Posted in Action/Adventure, Dan Marvin, Mystery/Suspense | Tagged altered life, keith dixon, Lulu, lulu.com, mystery, POD, private eye story, thriller |
By Dan Marvin on June 5, 2009
At the risk of sounding like a movie review, Trident’s Fury is an enjoyable romp. Suspend your disbelief for 335 pages and just go with the flow and you’re in for a riveting ride complete with pirates, explosions, and ancient runes to unravel. Reading the book, you’ll think you’re at the movies, watching Harrison Ford escaping time and again from avenging Nazis, bent on world domination. Only this time his name is Ethan Darringer.
Posted in Action/Adventure, Dan Marvin | Tagged Action, adventure, Indiana Jones, matthew scott baker, pirates, Treasure, trident's fury |
By Dan Marvin on May 22, 2009
It’s interesting that Life’s a Gas was published on the 25th Anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because it will appeal to the same, slightly ‘off’ sense of humor as the Guide but it includes more modern innovations as cell phones and Eminem. It also has a bit more implied (and actual) sex, usually with holograms or shape shifting aliens, so don’t say that I didn’t warn you.
Posted in Dan Marvin, Humor, Science Fiction/Fantasy | Tagged comedy, Dave Holland, douglas adams, Fiction, hitchiker's guide to the galaxy, Humor, Life's a Gas, sci fi, the guide |
By Dan Marvin on May 2, 2009
Without the benefit of super hearing, Alphonse cowered beside his bed and wondered when it would be over. The noise had started well after he was in bed. Like most nights, he had tucked himself in bed. He made the best out of an oversized t-shirt since he had no pajamas to wear. The food in the pantry had run out two days before and the sound of his stomach rumbling was the last thing he heard before falling asleep.
Posted in Dan's Briefs | Tagged briefs for the reading room, Dan Marvin, flash fiction |
By Dan Marvin on April 21, 2009
So, you’ve got a book on Lulu and you’re ready to go. You’re just about to sign up for their distribution package, have them assign an ISBN number and get your book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You’re almost an author, right? But wait… there’s a catch.
Posted in Dan Marvin, Getting Published | Tagged Dan Marvin, Getting Published, Lightning Source, lulu.com, Self-Publishing |
By Dan Marvin on April 18, 2009
Do you know the picture of the little fish about to get eaten by the bigger fish, himself about to become dinner for a larger fish, and so on? Turn the fish into a variety of mutants and aliens held together by nanobots, and you have a pretty good starting point for reading Elysian Fields. Typically I try to give you a plot summary, a few quotes, and an idea of what you’re getting yourself into by reading the book I am reviewing. In this case I’m going to have to send you in without the wisdom of my council because there’s just way too much for me to try to make it make sense to you.
Posted in Dan Marvin, Science Fiction/Fantasy | Tagged aliens, andy bryenton, elysian fields, Lulu, lulu book review, lulu.com, sci fi, science fiction |
