Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Review

Hey guys! Just when I had reserved time to blog, my internet went away. Hopefully it can be reinstated soon but for now, I'm at the library writing up some posts to be released every couple of days. The good news is, without internet to distract me I've had time to read up a storm! Today is the review for the great book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

I was really quite excited to dig into this book! I had requested it at the library and asked to borrow it from some friends so my best friend bought it for me for my birthday! I loved this book. I love history but I actually haven't read a lot about Abraham Lincoln. I knew some of the basics that everyone else knows about the 16th president but nothing really about his life or where he was from. This book made me want to get a biography of Abe to cross check what I read in the book! Maybe the biography won't tell me if he chased vampires to avenged his loved ones, but it will tell me if Abe was engaged before Mary Todd and how many children he had and what happened to each one.

This book was written by someone who had been handed Abraham Lincoln's personal journals and who had been instructed to write what really happened. The author uses stories and facts about Lincoln and mixes them with "passages" from Lincoln's journals. I expected this to read just like a journal but I was happy to have the author's voiced mixed in to explain a circumstance or term.

This book shows Abraham throughout his life, from the time he shot his first turkey to his death. Just like in life, there is a flow throughout the book, its not constant violence or dazzling speeches. It shows him as a happy child with his mother, to an adolescent burning with rage, to a young politician losing his first race. We see Abe in love, as a doting father, and a stressed president trying to lead this nation through a civil war, a war that is more than what the history books tell you.

I personally really liked this book. I liked the author's voice. The way characters showed up again and again throughout the book and the twist at the end that I won't say anymore about! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history or who is trying to get someone else interested in history, I know I'm curious about Honest Abe's life now. There is violence but it isn't gory and it isn't constant. You feel for Abraham and you care about what happens to him. I can't wait to see the movie in just a couple weeks. This is a book you want to pass around your friends so you can discuss it!

If you've read Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter leave me a comment and let me know what you thought about it! I thought it was quite amazing, do you agree? Or are you planning on reading it now, after reading my review?

Teaser Tuesday

It's that time again! My teaser this week comes from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.  

click for Amazon page

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

I now have 67  followers that stayed with me despite my hiatus and so I flipped to page 67. I haven't reached the page yet but reading it, I can't help but posting more than 2 sentences!

So my first teaser phrase is:

"I felt the wooden stake in my fingers. I could do anything. I was a god." 

(see? Those sentences needed each other to make any sense.)

and my second teaser phrase:

"It was true. Until that moment there had been room for doubt. But now I saw it with my own eyes. Now I knew. Vampires were real." 

(I needed to include that.) 

What do you think of my teaser sentences? Do they make you want to add the book to your TBR pile? Leave me a comment about my teaser or a link to your teaser! :) 

I'm Back!

This semester kicked my tail and so I had to let the blog fall to the side. But the semester is over and I  am back! Below you'll see all the books I need to read and review! I only included two of the books I bought myself in the stack because I want to read the books people sent me to read first. I'm working through the stack now and I hope to post some reviews this week or early next. :) Right now I'm reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith!

Thank you all who stayed with me through my hiatus. Also, would y'all be upset with me if I started talking about letters and postcards on the blog? My grandmother gave me her mom's old typewriter the other day and I want to spread the joy of letters and postcards and get lots and lots of pen pals! :) Do you want to be pen pals? If so, let me know!

My "new" typewriter! Excuse the mess. :/

Guest Post from Bryan Cohen

Bryan Cohen here, guest poster and author, promoting my new book The Post-College Guide to Happiness for The Happiness Blog Tour. I'm giving away free digital review copies of the book and doing a giveaway for paperback copies, audio copies and even a Kindle Fire! Read on and check out the info below the post. “We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.”
— Epictetus


Are We What We Think?

 I always loved the slogan of the healthy eating lifestyle I used to hear all the time as a kid, “You are what you eat.” I thought it was silly in that I certainly wouldn’t turn into a fish if I ate some salmon that night, but it certainly conveyed an important point about regulating what you put into your body. While most people don’t realize it, the exact same is true for your mind and your thoughts.

We’re surrounded by negative advertising, negative commentary in television shows and movies and even negative lines of conversation from our best friends and loved ones. It’s tough to stop all negativity from hitting you in one way or another, so the best thing you can do is learn to deal with it and modify it positively if possible. But what about the things that happen to you that you think of as being negative; what can you do about those?

 Of course, an ancient philosopher has the answer to the question. The things that happen to us that are less than positive aren’t making us depressed or down in the dumps. We’re making ourselves feel that way. It’s actually up to us to be optimistic and positive when these situations occur. Now, you might be saying, “But I just lost my house, my spouse, my job, etc. How could I not construe that as negative?”

We all have tough circumstances to deal with. The incredibly hard ones are almost impossible to see in a positive light. The medium and light inconveniences such as missing the last train and stubbing your toe; those are the kinds that you can whether with optimism and a good attitude. The really stinging jabs of life are going to be painful no matter what, but it’s up to you not to dwell on them for the rest of your life. It’s not the things themselves that take us down a peg; it’s our thoughts about them. If we concentrate on the parts of our lives that are happier and healthier, those things don’t go away, but we’re more able to deal with the day-to-day aspects of living.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve dealt with great tragedy in my life. I wasn’t accepted to every school I applied to, I’ve lost some relatives and acquaintances and I’ve had some financial troubles, but there were no major, unexpected events I’ve had to cope with. These circumstances will come at some point, but I plan to keep my head above water by staying positive and strong during times of woe. As long as I can control my thoughts, I will keep myself happier over the long term.
 --

 Bryan Cohen is giving away 61 paperback and audio copies of The Post-College Guide to Happiness and a Kindle Fire between now and May 7th, 2012 on The Happiness Blog Tour. All entrants receive a free digital review copy of The Post-College Guide to Happiness. Bryan hopes to give away at least 1,000 copies during the blog tour. To enter, post a comment with your e-mail address or send an e-mail to postcollegehappiness (at) gmail.com. Bryan will draw the names at the end of the tour. Entries will be counted through Sunday, May 6th.

Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor and comedian from Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in English and Dramatic Art and a minor in Creative Writing. He has written nine books including 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids: First Grade through Fifth Grade, Writer on the Side: How to Write Your Book Around Your 9 to 5 Job and his new book, 1,000 Character Writing Prompts: Villains, Heroes and Hams for Scripts, Stories and More. His website Build Creative Writing Ideas helps over 25,000 visitors a month to push past writer's block and stay motivated. 


Feel free to follow along with the tour at The Happiness Blog Tour Hub Page or on the book's Facebook Page. 


_____________


Thank you so much for approaching me for this guest post Bryan! You certainly brought up some interesting points. I've long known that if I just smile and pretend to be happy that sooner or later, my bad mood floats away. 

Teaser Tuesday Time!

Hey guys! I'm sorry I haven't been posting like I should- school's been crazy but I wanted to take this time to post a Teaser Tuesday! :) 

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading where you grab your current read and post two non-spoiler sentences from a random page. I am currently reading The Replacement Wife by Eilen Goudge. The Replacement Wife is about: 

From New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge comes a poignant new novel that asks the question, “What would you do if you were told you had only six months to live?” For one professional matchmaker the answer is heart-wrenching: She must find her husband’s next wife. 

Camille Hart, one of Manhattan’s most sought-after matchmakers, has survived more than her fair share of hardships. Her mother died when she was a young girl, leaving her and her sister with an absentee father. Now in her forties, she has already survived cancer once, though the battle revealed just how ill-equipped her husband Edward is to be a single parent. So when doctors tell Camille that her cancer is back—and this time it’s terminal—she decides to put her matchmaking expertise to the test for one final job. Seeking stability for her children and happiness for her husband, Camille sets out to find the perfect woman to replace her when she’s gone.

But what happens when a dying wish becomes a case of “be careful what you wish for”? For Edward and Camille, the stunning conclusion arrives with one last twist of fate that no one saw coming.

At once deeply felt and witty, The Replacement Wife is an unforgettable story of love and family, and a refreshing look at the unexpected paths that lead us to our own happy endings.

Doesn't it sound awesome?! I'm really enjoying it so far and since I now have 66 WONDERFUL GFC followers I flipped to that page and found: 

Camile felt her stomach turn, imagining her dad and Louise doing what she herself had  done with Tim Watkins, a boy in her ninth-grade class with whom she'd made out at Serena Hughe's Christmas party the year before. 



"I'll always be your mom no matter what. But your dad will need someone to help look after you and your sister when I'm gone." 

I'm really enjoying The Replacement Wife so far and I can't wait to get to this page!


*By the way, I have very many books that I've read recently that I will post reviews of so watch out for that!

Interview and Giveaway with Judy Serrano!

Hey ladies and gents! :) I had the opportunity review and interview Judy Serrano, author of the Easter's Lillys series! 

The first book in the series is called Easter's Lily and follows Lilly who went from an affair with a lowly gangster to being married to the head of the organization. In Brother Number 3 the story continues about the gang brothers and it was this book that I interviewed Ms. Serrano about!

Coming in third place was something that was all too familiar to Hector Montiago. As his strength and grounding personality pushes him into first place with the woman he loves, lines are crossed and sides are chosen. In the second book of the series, Brother Number Three depicts family ties in a light unequal to any other. Lilly tells the story of how the brothers unite in the effort to recover her missing son, as blood becomes both the indestructible bond that holds them together and the opposing force that pushes them apart. They fight temptation, while the enemies of the Montiago cartel unleash their wrath, only to discover that the true danger lies within.

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I have always loved to write. I started with poetry and songs but I wrote my first novel when I was 12. My two passions were singing and writing and I apparently chose the wrong one. I was a singer for most of my young life and after I went back to college decided to try my hand at an adult novel. It was so much fun that it became addicting and before I knew what happened I had a handful of Easter’s Lilly stories.

What made you decide to write such an amazing sounding thriller series about a gang organization? 

My intention was to write a book about my successful marriage. When I put my fingers on the keyboard, my characters took me on a journey way far away from where I had first intended. They are still doing that to me, even with the new series I am writing.

Can someone read your books out of order or does the series need to be followed book-by-book?

 I highly recommend reading the books in order. There is so much background necessary to understand the psyche of some of these characters. Plus, I think it helps to find out what is so irresistible about the dangerous Montiago brothers.

Are your characters startling real to you? Do you have a gang living in your head? :) Have you ever had the times we all hear about when your character grabs the story and yanks it away from you? 

My characters are all very real to me. One of the reasons I haven’t stopped writing Lilly yet is because I know I will miss her and the family so much. My characters totally take me, I do not direct them. A lot of my story lines come from dreams. I am anxiously awakened from my sleep only to dart over to my MacBook and start typing some notes down. It is always a mystery to me where my characters are going to land.

Thank you Alex so much for letting me appear on your blog today. I hope you have enjoyed the read.

Thank you Ms. Serrano for agreeing! I can't wait to read this series- it sounds really really interesting!

Download this free book on Amazon!

I had the author of an awesome looking book get in contact with me a while ago asking me to let you know that the book is going to be FREE today! That's right, FREE! The promotion starts today and goes to at least the 29th so go ahead and grab your copy! I know I'm looking forward to reading it! 

Click on the cover to go to Amazon and download your free kindle copy of Don't Let the Fairies Eat You (Looking for the Witch)  an anthology by Darryl Fabia and Julie Fabia! 

Within, you won't find fairy tales meant for children at bedtime.

Collecting thirty stories of wonder and mischief, Don't Let the Fairies Eat You is inspired by a time when misbegotten pregnancies and meat pies made of men were as expected in fairy tales as magic spells and happy endings. At times amusing, at others unnerving, Don't Let the Fairies Eat You revels in the primal nature fairy tales once had, and invites you to enjoy the wildness of every story.

The following is a list of the stories you'll find inside the book.

Sacrifice of the Cats - A feral cat leads a child through a labyrinth on the Sacrifice Day.

Calling the Ladies - With his magic pipe, a young man can get any girl, even ones he doesn't want.

Hunting Grounds - Hannah can't escape her pursuers, whose shapes change with the land itself.

In Her Service - One girl cannot disobey, no matter who or what instructs her.

Dansi and Lyri - In the time of giants, humans are prey, but two sisters conspire to outlast them.

Elephant Funerals - The dry season has come and an elephant herd begins a perilous search for water.

The Fairy-Blood Curse - A young page is fed up with one knight's abuse and a fairy offers her assistance in revenge.

Boy-Hunt - Baelin only wanted a bite to eat while the lord was out hunting--now he's the prey.

Broken Horse - A man catches a wild horse to be sold for racing, but the horse has other intentions.

No Shelter - Three battered soldiers trek through a wintry wasteland while something hunts them from the battlefield.

Krampus the Generous - The good children get presents in the winter. The bad children get Krampus.

Delicacy for a Giant - A hungry giant traps a woman and her sickly newborn.

Legs - A witch's brew gives a legless knight the chance to grow back his lost limbs, but they aren't what he expects.

Briar Thorns - A dutiful boy is caught in a witch's deadly game.

Half-Heart - A man loses half his heart, leaving a gap in his chest that twisted creatures wish to fill with evil.

Ica and the Troll - A troll forces a traveler to help him find a princess.

The House of Dreams and Promises - A tale of a warlord's lonely wife and the fool who loved her.

The Shadows are Coming - When bandits raid her village, all one little girl can do is hide.

The Cold Thing - Winter may bring snow, and leave blood in its wake.

Serpent's Tongue - A witch's curse turns a woman's tongue as venomous as her words.

The Horn of Plenty - In a plague-blasted land, one starving family finds a magic basket of everlasting food.

Old Wolf and the Gremian - By sparing a fairy, a wolf expects to get food, but the fairy instead plans to get even.

A Night Without Souls - Two makers of magic dolls want a night of peace in their noisy village, no matter the cost.

Wedding the White Death - In the land of a thousand demons, Anzi fears only one.

Melemity, Esty, and Lality - Three brothers desire a beautiful fairy bride, but other creatures have their sights set on the foolish men.

The Fevering Child - No one wants Elise to be pregnant, not her father, not the priest, and not the three strange men who want her baby out.

The Graveyard Agreement - Two impoverished boys stumble upon a deal that could make them more money than they ever dreamed.

Thunder Horn and Fire Box - The demons Io and Nao have decided to steal the land's fire and thunder.

Art of Begging - The secret to getting anything from anyone passes to a destitute woman before her journey through a nightmarish wilderness.

Death Dance - A dying man's wager with Death leaves most of his children deformed, except two who inherit Death's power.

And the winner is....

Honey Tea Thyme's great giveaway of the sample of honey ended Friday and rafflecopter decided the winner was...... MEGAN! :) I've sent Megan an email and then the shop owners will send out the honey. :)

If you weren't lucky enough to win the sample, then you still should visit Honey Tea Thyme and try some of their lovely honey! Their honey is delicious and you can try a sample for only $3.00!

I want to thank Honey Tea Thyme for this giveaway and for letting me ask them some questions about their delicious honey! :)