FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by V.C. Andrews: A Review

 

Flowers In The Attic was the debut novel of the late V.C. Andrews. It tells the story of the Dollanganger family as told by 12-year-old Cathy. Facing financial destitution, Cathy's mother tries to get back on her ailing father's good graces in an attempt to get a lofty inheritance. Apparently she "shamed" her family by marrying and having children--including Cathy, her older brother and fraternal twins--with her very own cousin. However, in order to do that, she agrees to have their spiteful grandmother-- who's a religious nut-case who looks upon them as if they were spawned from the Devil himself--lock them away in the attic to keep them out of sight of her husband who apparently has no knowledge of his own grandchildren's existence. At first, the children's mother visits them regularly and lavishes them with expensive gifts and keeps assuring them that soon her father will be gone and she'll receive a sizable inheritance and she can take them away so they can live a better life. However, her visits become more and more infrequent until she stops visiting them altogether. When she does start seeing them again, she announces that she got married to her father's attorney, much to her children's surprise and chagrin. It's during this time that Cathy and her older brother Chris become closer and closer, and it's their increasing "closeness" which leads to one of the more disturbing passages in the book (and I believe I'll just let you read that for yourself, all right?). Eventually the children discover that they're slowly being poisoned by their evil abusive grandmother and their own mother and they hatch a plan to escape the attic, which leads to some tragic consequences (and, again, I'll let you read the book to find out what those "consequences" are, OK?). This book, as you can probably already tell, can be rather disturbing at times and is probably not for the easily-offended, especially about religious matters. V.C. Andrews's books, as regular readers of her novels can no doubt attest, follow the same theme, i.e. seriously effed-up families who usually have some serious religious issues. (It kind of makes one wonder if Miss Andrews was writing from "personal" experience, if you know what I mean.) This book was also made into a rather lackluster movie starring Kristy Swanson (who's perhaps best known for starring in the movie version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the Ashton Kutcher vehicle Dude, Where's My Car?). A sidenote: After the death of V.C. Andrews, her books were so popular that her family decided to hire a ghostwriter to continue writing books under her name supposedly based on her own story ideas and such (as her many legions of fans will probably already know).

ELECTROGRAVITICS SYSTEMS Reports On A New Propulsion Methodology Edited by Thomas Valone, M.A., P.E. Foreword by Elizabeth Rauscher, Ph.D.: A Guest Review by Robert John Huffine







Along with the other works of Paul A. LaViolette Ph.D., this short book of 121 pages compresses most of the other of his interesting theories and speculations in this little 'blue book.' But even if the reader doesn't have the required minimum of college mathematics for applied physics in order to appreciate some of this book's sparse meanderings, what IS presented is otherwise as friendly to the matters at hand as one can hope for. My personal view on these things for my having started down this particular path, initially through the Free Energy Movement, is in seeing these people as part of a "Guy Fawkes" in the world-wide Occupy Movement. And obviously here, instead of having some young adults protesting the excesses of the Corporations, while just getting through college, we are instead reading what the seasoned graduates of America's colleges have to say concerning as realistic an approach to Free Energy as we are likely to get, not to mention the fantastic reality of various Black-Ops Anti-gravity researches. However, this book isn't written entirely by Dr. LaViolette. Banesh Hoffman makes a short chapter and there's compilations of formerly written material along with an appendix containing a collection of T.Townsend Brown's patents. If you're taking College Physics and are studying this material on the side, let's say you may have a friend who's interested in these historical and present-day conjectures, well then this would make for a good introductory pamphlet for them to have. Very interesting reading.

WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD HEBREW DICTIONARY by Hayim Baltsan: A Guest Review by Robert John Huffine

 

If after you've purchased a couple of two-way Hebrew/English English/Hebrew dictionaries, such as Ben-Yehuda's and say, the Bantam-Megiddo, this one would be a very good follow-up to have on your shelf. From pages 1 to 465 you have entries that are transliterated into English letters, but then each single entry has the normal unvocalized Hebrew spelling accompanying it. And from there to page 827, you have the English entry headings followed immediately by the Hebrew language equivalent and a transliteration of it's phrasing with an underline for where the accent falls on each word. I haven't owned this for very long so that I could say with certainty of any mentionable errors or mistakes. Personally, as a beginning-to-mid-level Intermediate Student, I love this book and plan on referencing from it quite often.

SEFER YETZIRAH -- The Book Of Creation (In Theory and Practice) Revised Edition by Aryeh Kaplan: A Guest Review by Robert John Huffine

For the few who are in the ''know'' about what this really is pertaining to, is important to fully understand what's going on here. There really is no "Golem-Making" of any sort going on. It's all a Midrashic-Remez-Sod interpretation by way of a Plaintext approach to teaching the various hermeneutically-based insights into Scriptures of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The various ''methods'' of "Golem-Making" are really a Midrash on the deeply-involved processes of "Code Making" and "Code Searching" Tools for extricating Plaintext (Peshat) insights into the Tanakh's arrangements of "Letters, Words and Phrases" and their various ''weavings'' of inter-connections in logical and concise formats for others to follow, easily and without hindrances. Churchianity types and "Messy" Messianics view this kind of material as though it were Witchcraft. But historically, that's part of what keeps them in the Darkness: Not being able or willing to sift through the wreckage of Hollyweird's aVersion of REAL Biblical Kabbalah Studies. But all too often, such folks eschew Talmudic Reasoning or other Historic Writings that would otherwise even verify their own Faith. With 398 Pages, a number of illustrations and charts, there are extensive notes referenced to the back of the book. It's Introduction alone holds 120 Notes just for itself. (Weiser Books, 1997)

SEX & THE SERIAL KILLER by Jennifer Skully: A Review

Sex & The Serial Killer is a romance novel by author Jennifer Skully. It's about a woman named Roberta whose husband Warren finds an ex-girlfriend named Cookie with his wife Roberta's help who'd been missing for years. Cookie is found living in a small town in California called Cottonmouth. With Roberta's urging, Warren goes to "visit" Cookie in Cottonmouth and later informs Roberta that he intends to stay with his long-lost love. Feeling dejected, Roberta decides to follow Warren to Cottonmouth where she changes not only her appearance but also changes her name to Bobbie in an attempt to show her hubby what he's been missing. However, instead of trying to win said hubby over, "Bobbie" finds herself attracted to her "bad boy" next door neighbor a rather reclusive "artist" named Nick whom locals believe is an actual serial killer. As you can probably already tell, Sex & The Serial Killer is not your typical "romantic" fare. Yes, it contains the requisite number of "love" scenes one would come to expect in your typical romance novel (though, seeing as how it was published back in 2005, said "love" scenes may seem rather tame compared to the 50 Shades Of Grey-style "love" scenes of today!). But what I really found interesting about this book--besides, of course, the "love" scenes!--was that the plot actually kind of mirrored my own life. You see, I myself lived in a small town--which, of course, shall remain nameless--where the townsfolk spread all types of wild-ass rumors about me (and I believe I'll just keep those "rumors" to myself, all right?). Of course, unlike the "hunky" Nick, I didn't have a hot woman like Roberta/"Bobbie" to support me (in more ways than one!). I'm not sure if author Jennifer Skully has had any real-life "experience" in small towns and their various hypocrisies and/or bigotries and is therefore speaking from "personal" experience. In any case, Sex & The Serial Killer will no doubt appeal to the (mostly female) fans of the romance genre and could also very well appeal to those who would normally not read a romance novel--and, yes, fellas, I'm looking at you!--and are looking for something a bit different to read and therefore enjoy. (And, of course, you'll have to read the book to see whether or not Nick turns out to be an actual serial killer!) 
  

IN PRAISE OF HARLEQUIN BLAZE

Before there was 50 Shades Of Grey, there was Harlequin Blaze for ladies who wanted to get their naughty fix. Harlequin Blaze is, of course, an imprint of romance novel stalwart/powerhouse Harlequin. Blaze is arguably its most popular--and, of course, edgier--imprint. HB started off as a sort of mini-imprint for its already existing--and now-defunct--line Temptation, which, at that time, was Harlequin's hottest imprint. Blaze would ultimately surpass it in popularity and then replace Temptation altogether starting with Harlequin Blaze book #1 the aptly-titled Notorious by Vicki Lewis Thompson. As a red-blooded American male, I'm not ashamed to admit I've been an avid reader of both the Temptation and especially the Blaze lines (although it's admittedly been a while since I've read either lines since I've gotten into an "urban fantasy" kick in terms of my casual reading). I at first started reading these books because I, being a "freelance writer" myself, wanted to try to break into the romance market mainly because, next to religious and "self-help" titles, romance is one of the biggest-selling genres in the publishing market (and you can, of course, probably figure out how well THAT went!). But I found myself actually enjoying reading these titles, especially when I started reading titles within the Blaze line. I've got to tell ya, my jaw actually dropped when I read my very first Blaze novel--which was His Hot Number by Shannon Hollis, for those of you who are interested (which I'm sure are more than a few of you!)--and I got to the naughty parts! Of course, just like with 50 Shades Of Grey, some--or many--ladies will likely try to argue how the Harlequin Blaze books, just like the Grey books, are "erotica" rather than outright pornography. And let me reiterate, just as I pointed out in my previous post about the Grey novels, the REAL "difference" between "erotica" and outright porn is that "erotica" has a few more cute little euphemisms for the naughty bits! I mean, when you have frank depictions of what's being done to those naughty bits, then there's a VERY fine line between "erotica" and--that's right!--PORN. You know what I mean?

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THE HUNT FOR ZERO POINT by Nick Cook: A Guest Review by Robert John Huffine

 

The Hunt For Zero Point by Nick Cook is a "Black Programs" classic. As a Jewish Believer in Yeshua, I was outraged by the facts that have surrounded a one, Hans Kammler, who history has accredited with the initial building and layout of the Concentration Camps during World War Two. This covers how the Germans indeed had the Atomic Bomb first through a series of interviews, declassified governmental documents, and an incredibly investigative-reporter's method of uncovering the historical deluge of sorts, in the sifting through the popular disinformation still being currently fed to the general public. Included in this book are relevant issues of the experiments of Dr. T.T. Brown who helped lead the Radar Development during WWII and in his subsequent findings made public in the 50s concerning anti-gravity research that invariably led to the B-2 Bomber today. In 291 pages, with a 10 page index. 16 pages of black & white photographs.