Book picks similar to
Confucius and Opium: China Book Reviews by Isham Cook
five-stars
up-next
drama
sooner-rather-than-later
Dreams of Winter
Christian Warren Freed - 2015
But a terrible secret, known only to the most powerful, threatens to undo three millennia of progress. The gods are not dead at all. They merely sleep. And they are being hunted.Senior Inquisitor Tolde Breed is sent to the planet Crimeat to investigate the escape of one of the deadliest beings in the history of the universe: Amongeratix, one of the fabled THREE, sons of the god-king. Tolde arrives on a world where heresy breeds insurrection and war is only a matter of time. Aided by Sister Abigail of the Order of Blood Witches, and a company of Prekhauten Guards, Tolde hurries to find Amongeratix and return him to Conclave custody before he can restart his reign of terror.What he doesn't know is that the Three are already operating on Crimeat.
Gallery Pieces: An Art Mystery
Larry Witham - 2016
Formerly in Navy intelligence, he’s cast his lot in the New York art world. He’s landed a job with the venerable Medici Studios, which also contracts with the NYPD and FBI. On a winter morning, they’ve run a sting operation to track Russian art smugglers. The caper goes awry, but an odd bit of evidence remains: four art catalogs with graffiti markings.So begins Gallery Pieces, a story that will keep readers guessing until the end. Peale follows the clues where they lead. He meets a heavy at the Miami Art Fair, chases a mystery bidder at Merriweather’s auction in Manhattan, and crosses paths with a Brooklyn performance artist whose pranks are dangerously entangled in the Russian intrigues. Step by step, Peale enters an art world permeated not only by the avant-garde, but by the Russian mob, hackers, forgers, hipsters, and the history of art looting in Europe during WWII.When Peale least expects it, the catalogs lead him on another trail. He is drawn into a long-forgotten mystery surrounding his grandfather, Maxwell Peale, who had been a “monuments man,” a soldier who helped reclaim art looted by the Nazis. Peale is on his way to discovering paintings stolen in postwar Europe. Finding the culprits, however, brings him closer to home than he’d imagined.
Get Rich or Get Lucky
Max Nowaz - 2019
By chance he discovers a book of magic in the basement of a derelict property and he can’t believe his luck. Excited by his find, he invites his friends Dick and Charlie, to tell them about it. But things quickly take a turn for the worse when Adam inadvertently casts a spell which turns Dick into a crayfish. Adam is unable to reverse the spell immediately and while searching for the solution, leaves Dick in the garden pond, which gets flooded and Dick disappears. Dick's wife Rachael reports him missing and the police then accuse Adam of wrongdoing. Things continue to spiral out of control when Adam is burgled and the book gets stolen. He then discovers that a powerful, evil warlock is looking for the book. Adam finds himself in a race against time, to recover the book and thwart the warlock to stand any chance of bringing Dick back, if he can. From the author of the sci-fi adventure The Arbitrator, Get Rich or Get Lucky is a black humoured fantasy thriller that will have readers on the edge of their seats. It will appeal to readers who enjoy fantasy fiction, in addition to those who also enjoy fast-paced thrillers.
Perfect
Tricia Copeland - 2020
Five passionate paths to the perfect love.Chloe refuses to compromise when it comes to romance and success. Powering through her sophomore-level college business classes, she’s done with the effort of distance-dating her high-school sweetheart. But when he proposes just as she hits it off with a hunky basketball player, she worries following her heart could send her bright future to the bench.As Chloe matures becoming a rising star in the fashion industry, love knocks another four times. But while each potential suitor eventually pops the question, only she knows her ultimate happy ending.Whose arms will embrace Chloe when she chooses her forever man?Perfect is a standalone clean contemporary romance. If you like tender moments, lighthearted comedy, and endings you choose yourself, then you’ll adore Tricia Copeland’s option-filled tale.Buy Perfect to pick your ideal walk down the aisle today!
The Casebook of Elisha Grey
Isabeau Vollhardt - 2013
Cases include solving the disappearance of a multimorph (human/animal hybrid); the theft of a chemical formula for a badly needed pain relieving medicine; and the kidnapping of underage girls for recruitment into a household of odalisques (multiple brides). The technology of Atlantis and its contact with other continents is covered, as well as its ethics and mores.
The Eden Paradox
Barry Kirwan - 2011
A new habitable planet is discovered within reach, but the first two missions have failed to return. This is the story of the third mission to Eden. What really awaits the crew of four as they make the long journey to this supposed uninhabited virgin planet, and what is the link to the secret 900 year old sect known as Alicians back on Earth? While Blake leads the Eden mission, a young researcher named Micah discovers a terrible truth that threatens the very existence of humanity. Editorial Reviews: A science fiction thriller with terrific images and revelations. SF Author Gary Gibson The reader is pulled into an all too real future, with memorable characters, leaving the reader craving more. Lydia Manx, Piker Press Amazon Reviews: ★★★★★ Superb, well-crafted, quality Scifi. I immediately bought book two in the series! ★★★★★ This is Orson Scott Card quality scifi at half the price! ★★★★★ Best science fiction of the year ★★★★★ Masterful science fiction, refreshingly original ★★★★★ I lost sleep over this book! ★★★★★ A breath-taking and truly epic series ★★★★★ A fabulous four-book set, full of imaginative new ideas ★★★★★ Six stars…brilliant…this series is addictive If you loved Dune, Foundation or Ender's Game, you'll love the first novel in this epic, galaxy-spanning series.
Feeling Lucky
M.S.M. Barkawitz - 2021
Others are only too real in this modern-day thriller set amid the chaos of a global epidemic and a cultural uprising that set the world ablaze. She's Lucky one day-Jackie the next. Actress or con artist? Avenging angel or gold-digger? Hunter or prey? Straight or lesbian? Black Lives Matter activist? Only she knows the truth. Or does she? Controversial? No doubt. And all the while-the pandemic kills.
Primed For Revenge
Carolyn M. Bowen - 2019
Then her life turned upside down after a disagreement with her boss at Birdman & Birdman.Leaving the office, she was swiftly kidnapped and taken to her assailants’ hideaway, beaten, and raped. With no memory of whom she was put her at a disadvantage with her captors. Through gritted teeth, she promised a day of repercussions for their actions while mentally visualizing her revenge.Warned by her assailants to keep her mouth shut or else, she was delivered to her home. Not recognizing her former living quarters, she was careful in exploring her options for regaining her memory.Piecing together the reasons for her kidnapping brought her into contact with people, some she could trust and others risky. The problem was the amnesia prevented her from recognizing the difference.Tapped for crime once nudged her toward caution for something afoul was going on at Birdman & Birdman. She prepared for a fight. With a vision of fury she made a chilling decision – never to be a victim again.
Jeremy and the Witches’ Medallion: The Witch Hunt
Randy Gauthier - 2020
While combining modern day narrative and medieval times, there is magic, witchcraft, talking animals and English history to take a reader on a thrilling adventure that they will never forget.
Dodging Satan: My Irish/Italian, Sometimes Awesome, But Mostly Creepy, Childhood
Kathleen Zamboni McCormick - 2015
Michael’s Catholic school outside Boston in the 60s and 70s, takes refuge in her wacky misunderstandings of Bible Stories and Catholic beliefs to avoid the problems of her Irish/Italian family life. Her musings on sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, and God the Father’s romantic life will delight readers. Bridget creates glorious supernatural worlds—with exorcisms, bird relics, Virgin Martyrs, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the ‘holy’ in holy water—to cope with a family where leather handbags and even garlic can cause explosions. An avid Bible reader who innocently believes everything the nuns tell her, Bridget’s saints, martyrs, and boney Christs become alive and audible within her. While the nuns chide her sinful ‘mathematical pride’ and slow eating habits, God answers her prayers instantly by day, but the devil visits nightly in the dark. Scenes run the gamut from laugh-out-loud Catholic brainwashing of children, to heart-wrenching abuse, to riveting teenage excursions toward sex. Young Bridget tries to make sense of a world of raging men and domestically subjugated women and carve a future for herself, wrestling with how God and men treat women. Her Italian female relatives—glamorous Santa Anna, black-and-blue Aunt Maria, sophisticated Eleanor with a New York ‘Fellini pageboy’—offer sensual alternatives to the repression of her immediate family. She prays fervently that “despite God’s bizarre treatment of married women... some [girls] might still discover ways to have a great time without being a nun.” Dodging Satan is the flip-side of l'Histoire d'une Âme by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux authored by a twentieth century American girl chomping on a blue-gum cigar while she talks to a confidant about God and sex.
In Our Bones
Pernell Plath Meier - 2020
Hers was the last generation to grow up before the economic collapse that followed the Corona pandemic. Amidst roiling climate chaos, the government has been taken over by extremists, incompetents, and con-men who tear the country apart while clinging to power. Lauren is swept up in the madness when she falls for the wrong man. She’s looking for love and safety, but Bryan becomes distant and abusive as he obsesses over White Sharia and deepens his ties to the racist patriot militia group. Lauren worries about the safety of her sister and nephew, who is mixed-race. Will Lauren escape from Bryan and keep her nephew safe from danger? In a world where values are tested and morality is unsettlingly murky, Lauren must break free from the constraints in her mind to protect her family.
Back To You
Steve Bates - 2021
But Eddie sees through the disguise, takes an unexpected ride, and demonstrates it to his boss at a failing cable TV network. Through a series of adventures, the time machine becomes damaged, friends become stranded, and history gets changed in many ways—some dangerous, all humorous. Two romances—one quite unconventional—blossom along the way. Back to You is a hilarious science fiction romp in the tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
UNDER THE BUS
Kyle Keyes - 2021
Hobbs Creek Police Chief, Alvin Phillips believed it was his lucky silver dollar. The Six-O-Clock news refused comment because the incident did not relate to the Corona virus.
Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll
Harry F. MacDonald - 2020
He was the guy Carly Simon was really singing about and the missing slice of ‘Bye, Bye Miss American Pie’. I guess that when you keep the company of rogues, the only way to go is to keep on rogueing.
Mourning Grey: Part Three The Guardians Of The Temple Saga
Marie Montine
Being the prophised woman to end the last Empian, she is conflicted as she has also grown close Lharkin's family. She vows to stop the next war from happening so that everyone could survive: the humans, the vampires known as Kins, and the Empian she had fallen in love with: Lharkin.Distracted with uncovering the temple's history and secrets, Cassandra doesn't see her best friend's depth of despair, and that Audray holds the greatest secret.In Cassandra's final attempt to bring Lharkin back to the LIght, she finds out the shocking truth he has been hiding from everyone, except Audray, and it is then she understands why her friend has been so distant. Cassadnra wonders who is really pulling the strings: Lharkin or the Dark Guardian of the Night Realm.Part Three is the exciting conclusion to Mourning Grey, full of devastating surprises, battles, and magic. Will Cassandra fulfill the prophecy? Or follow her own heart?