Bridget Colontonio has commented on (13) products.

Sway by Zachary Lazar

Bridget Colontonio, March 21, 2008

Author, Zachary Lazar has done the extraordinary. He has taken three unforgettable icons of the sixties and bonded them together in a haunting, mesmeric novel that will immediately transport you back to that turbulent era. Before you even begin the first page, the author states that this book is a work of fiction. That statement alone is about the only bit of fiction I found in this book, but it is, as the author notes, “products of the imagination”. Perhaps it is because Zachary Lazar brilliantly depicts these people and their lives so accurately and effortlessly that it seems quite factual.
The three icons he fluidly intertwine happen to be, Bobby Beausoleil (the first member of the “Manson Family” to be arrested for the brutal murder of music teacher, Gary Hinman), avant-garde, underground filmmaker, Kenneth Anger, and The Rolling Stones. Namely, Brian Jones, founder of The Rolling Stones, his relationship with his drug-addicted, yet exquisitely beautiful girlfriend, Anita Pallenburg, (who leaves Brian Jones for Keith Richards), and Brian’s untimely, tragic death. The one that seems to bind all three together is Kenneth Anger and his unique brand of films. Some, having starred Bobby Beausoleil, and another having captured the chaotic spectacle of the 1969 free concert at Altamont Speedway, that turned into one of the most violent days in rock history. The author also touches on Kenneth Anger’s fascination with the occult and a fictional book called The Sephiroth, which seems to find it’s way into most of the characters hands at some point and which the author vaguely implies was one of the reasons the sixties ended so tragically.
This book is somewhat a recollection of what made these people who they were. How The Rolling Stones attained their distinctive style, and what pushed Brian over the edge from which he would never recover. And yet other questions yet to be answered, such as: What lured Anger to the occult to begin with? What could lead a common boy like Beausoleil to commit such a heinous murder? This book is a straightforward look into the lives these people may have had, before we turned them into supernatural stars. One thing is for sure, Zachary Lazar, did his homework on these people and created a vibrant tapestry that still manages to weave a certain aura of mysticism that can only be found in the that ethereal age known as The Sixties.

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The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

Bridget Colontonio, February 20, 2008

Eric Weiner wrote this book to make us happier, and he succeeded. A self-described “mope”, he embarks on a journey to find some of the world’s happiest places, and perhaps more importantly, to find out why they are so happy. A longtime foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, he has seen and reported his share of adversities and misfortunes. But now he wants to explore the flip side of all this misery.
His quest begins in The Netherlands, at a place called, the World Database of Happiness located in Rotterdam. Here, he learns many trivial facts about happiness, but he doesn’t get any closer to the answer to his burning question, who and where are the happiest people and why? From here, he heads out to nine different countries in search of the answer. Along the way, he meets a variety of interesting, unforgettable, and yes, happy people. From each of them he takes away what happiness (and unhappiness) means to them despite their global positioning. Upon his return to America, he recalls the many anecdotes told to him about what makes a person or a place happy, and he comes to a certain conclusion, and possibly, the answer to his burning question.
Eric Weiner has revealed to us that happiness can be measured in many different ways in several different countries by religion, culture, and even politics. And we’re all in search of happiness, yet we tend to forget that it sometimes comes with a price, perhaps not always monetarily, yet an expense nonetheless. So was it worth the search? Find out by reading The Geography of Bliss and you decide wherein happiness lies.

Also, if you read this witty, insightful book, you must visit the author’s website at www.ericweinerbooks.com. Here you will be able to enjoy a slideshow of the photos of Eric’s incredible journey in the search for happiness.

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Tales for the Midnight Hour by Stamper

Bridget Colontonio, October 25, 2007

"A full moon in the sky, The clock strikes twelve...These are the Tales For The Midnight Hour". This is the ominous warning in the beginning of this creepy compilation of short stories for kids. Chock full of spooky stories to keep the little ones on the edge of their seats (and probably up all night with all the lights on). Seventeen stories altogether make up this frightening little book of torrid tales that some may even remember from their own childhood. On rainy days when I would pester my mother and complain that I was bored and had nothing to do, she would say "go read something", and off I went to make a fort out of her best linens with flashlight in hand, and my first choice of reads would be this little book of horrors. As a child, my favorite story was "A Free Place To Sleep", and all I can say is that after reading it, I certainly didn't get any sleep.

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The Man with the Red Bag by Eve Bunting

Bridget Colontonio, September 26, 2007

Kevin Sanders is a typical twelve-year-old with a penchant for writing mystery novels and in on a sightseeing tour with his adoring Grandmother, he gets a chance to solve a real one. Also taking this trip is a mysterious-looking man with bushy-black eyebrows and moustache, carrying a red bag the tour company provided very close to his body. His name is Charles Stavros, and he claims to be Greek. Right away, Kevin doesn’t trust the man, or his red bag, and suspects he is up to something. He enlists the help of his newfound friend, Geneva, to try and figure out just what he’s hiding in that red bag. Along the way, you’ll also get acquainted with other colorful passengers, some who share in Kevin’s suspicions. Follow them through some of the most beautiful and awe inspiring sites to be seen in America, all the while, Kevin keeping a keen eye on Charles Stavros and wondering which landmark he plans to carry out his “plan of attack”.
When the truth is revealed, you will be amazed and saddened. A cleverly written book that will have you looking, or not looking, at people quite the same way.

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Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

Bridget Colontonio, September 19, 2007

You know the saying, “If You’re Lucky Enough To Be Irish…You’re Lucky Enough”. Perhaps Ms. MacKayla Lane should adopt this motto, for she herself is an adopted Lassie from the Emerald Isle just beginning to accept the fact of who, and more importantly, what she is. We follow MacKayla Lane, a sidhe-seer, to Ireland on a mission to avenge her sister’s death and to fulfill her dying request, to find the Sinsar-Dubh, the million-year-old book that goes beyond mere witchery and is downright dangerously powerful. “Mac’s” ability to sense what we cannot helps her, and her cohort/employer, Jerricho Barrons, come closer to the answers she seeks. Along the way, what they encounter is almost more than Mac can bear, but knows she must continue to probe the deepest darkest corners of Man and Fae before The Lord Master, who’s also responsible for the death of her sister, can bring any more malicious terror to the world of Man, which has already begun. This second book in the series finds a stronger, fiercer, and a more daring Mac sharpening her unusual characteristic traits, and when offered help she’s naturally suspicious of everyone and everything, as she very well should be. However, we meet a few new characters that will either hinder Mac or help her in her quest with what she needs and what needs to be done. Will she be able to face and defeat the nightmarish monsters that no mere man can conjure up in order to save us? Or will she succumb to living a life far worse than a mortal death? Find out in this exciting second book in Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series.

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