An "evil" breeds and develops new creatures in a desert surrounded by mountains. In the series of 4 books, these creatures try to escape their desert first east, then south, west, then north. the "good gods" can help the people living around the island that contain the desert to defend themselves. There are 4 gods, 2 girls, 2 guys, all siblings. They all live as animals in the world, and usually enjoy life. They can't directly fight the evil, and only help the humans by showing them where good ore is for weapons, or by speeding up their ships with currents, moving icefields, erupting volcanoes (that's the second book) etc.
The series is written with a huge humor, and the books all have two authors. The world contains of faraway islands with medieval type technology that has problems with the church, and the indigenous people living directly on the island. One of the indigenous people is  a great leader that learned as a child to connect with its prey, so his arrows never miss. he becomes a tribe leader in book two.
Every time evil encounters a threat, it can make itself better (but apparently never wins).

Tags: animals

This is a fantasy book that I read several years ago. Single author.

First, a bunch of teenagers are stolen from a village in a mountain.
The relatives and a hunting party pursue the thieves for days, taking a risky shortcut through some narrows with water rafts and almost drown. They still miss the child stealers and their prey. They have to enter a city and bid for their own relatives in slave auctions. Once they have them all back, they get trapped into a rich person's home for the exchange, and find some ancient scrolls there.

They escape onto a boat, thereby setting the harbor front on fire (I think), stealing a sea chest from the rich person / harbor. They are pursued and escape through shallow water into a bay that is full of fish that eat the boat and their captain. The rest escapes to the beach, which is a solid 200m high sheer cliff. Some awesome free climbing ensues, in which only a woman is capable of climbing those cliffs. Her lover, brother, and the rest of their band come up later. They then flee through the contryside, and discover that the chest contained war plans of some poerfull enemy or other. No wonder they were pursued. they than have to travel with skis through snow, and almost freeze - end up in a hot cave with a curse (some virus or other), and the girl discovers she can do some old, forbidden magic to heal everyone.

Tags: fantasy, magic
Current Location: Canada

A friend recently described to me an interesting-sounding short story that she read long ago; she cannot remember what it is. It was a story in which, whenever two people had sex, they shared (all? some?) of their knowledge with one another. So if you have sex with someone, they thereby learn lots about you and what you know. One scene involved lesbian sex intended to help one of the parties to prepare for an exam. My friend thinks that one of the central characters might have been named 'Carrie', but she's not sure.

Any leads?

http://tarhearted.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/they-changed-the-grading-system-and-f-is-for-fantastic.html

I hope everybody had a relaxing 4th of July weekend. I know I did. In fact, some of it was forced relaxation, as I developed a weird fever and had to stay in one night.

Have you guys heard of the Fox Reality Channel? Oh my god, it's the worst television programming ever. By worst, I mean the BEST, obviously. My fever sweats only made it more enjoyable.

First I watched a show called Sex Decoy: Love Stings, which seemed to be a trashier version of Cheaters (if you can imagine that.) This is a reality show wherein those who suspect their partner is cheating send in a sexy decoy to tempt them into confirming their suspicions.

There was a commercial for another show wherein scantily clad women show off their boobs and bootie to a panel of douche bags who, if they like what they see, raise their pelvis to say "schwing" a la Wayne's World. This is a timely reference if ever there was one.

Clearly, quality programming.

My favorite commercial was for Flirty Girl Fitness, an at-home workout that utilizes sexy dancing and a stripper's pole. And it even comes with a pole!

Women who buy into this sort of thing often talk about how empowering it is. I don't know though. I kind of don't buy the whole post-feminist "I can be a stripper and a feminist" mentality. As my good friend's Upper East Side grandmother once told her, "You can grab a man by his brain or you can grab a man by his balls, but you can't do both."

I'm reminded, of course, of the lovely Lulu from John Waters' masterpiece Polyester, and I leave you with her:

Hello, I am currently working in a small public library. I was thinking of buying bookcat for organizing it. Has anyone used it?

blue tracery of veins
my body divided
a knife, a sword
a blade undecided

not chosen
in time
a moment frozen
in mind
a subliminal message
but you are not mine

all these fated meetings
not leading
to a lifetime of love
not lasting
in the role where I am
not starring
but rather feel as though
I'm starving

not your choice
not your plans
just your luck;
just your chance.

I'm beginning to wonder if i dreamt this book up but here goes...

It was either a picture book or a children's book i saw in passing about a black man caring for a young boy he found one day. either the man or the boy or both are homeless and it chronicles their day to day life. I think perhaps the boy was a minority also, either latino or asian.

Again, i've been looking for this book for a while now and i'm not too sure if i made it up in my head or i've got the details all wrong.

Either way, thanks for any help you all can give!

Tags: children's

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

I'm looking for a short story that my father read many many years ago (as early as the mid 50's but he really can't remember exactly when he read it.) It was a sci-fi story about an astronaut who crash landed on Mars and he ended up in this sentient city. Every night the city would get smaller because it was cannibalizing itself to provide the man with air and food and water. At the end of the story the man wakes up and the city has turned him into a Martian.

Hopefully this rings a bell for someone, because my father has been going on for ages about how awesome this story was and I really want to read it for myself.

Tags: aliens, lost book, sci-fi, short story

Hello!

I'm looking for a baking book, one that's about simple and easy to make cookies and bars. The front was a brownish color, with a large heart shaped cookie on the front with powdered sugar on it. The cover also has 'Cookies' in all caps, near the top of the book. It was published a little while ago, like maybe in the late seventies? I'm sorry, that's a total guess, but the book itself didn't look recent.

I really, really hope someone knows what I'm talking about, because I accidentally sold my copy at a yard sale and that book had the BEST blondie recipe EVER.


Thanks in advance!

Tags: found book, lost book
Current Deep Dark Secret: nervous
Current Fantasy: Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger (Propellerheads remix) | Powered by Last.fm