Crocheted little things: November 2013

Did I ever tell you how much I love collaborating with Galaxy press??

I get to read awesome books and then I can offer giveaways to my readers!

This time is not different.

I have been honored with received 3 titles from the author L. Ron Hubbard for Halloween and only now I'm getting around to post my reviews and giveaway because of computer troubles that kept me away for my beloved blog.

Reformatted the whole machine, lost pictures....I'm sure you get the picture and can sympathize!

But now I'm back with my reviews and a giveaway for you all with 3 winners! That's right! 3 lucky winners will get to win a book each! Which one will it be???? Hmmmm....

About the Author: L.Ron Hubbard was born March 13, 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska but spent his formative years in Montana. Son of a United States naval officer, by the age of 18 he had traveled over a quarter of a million miles around the world. Upon is return in American, he enrolled in the George Washington University and became an aviator. He kept traveling and writing about his discoveries but it wasn't until 1934 that he affirmed himself as pulp fiction publisher. Between 1934 and 1950, he wrote more that 15 million words of fiction in more than 200 classic publications under 15 other pseudonyms.

FEAR: Professor James Lowry didn’t believe in spirits, or witches, or demons. Not until a gentle spring evening when his hat disappeared, and suddenly he couldn’t remember the last four hours of his life. Now, the quiet university town of Atworthy is changing—slightly at first, then faster and more frighteningly each time he tries to remember. Lowry is pursued by a dark, secret evil that is turning his whole world against him while it whispers a warning from the shadows: If you find your hat you’ll find your four hours. If you find your four hours then you will die. . . .

My review: This is the first book I've read, I literally read it as soon as it came out of the package. Visually it caught my attention because the cover is different from the others book of L. Ron Hubbard, must be because it was probably one of the most recent works of this writer. Even Stephen King expressed his opinion about it, calling it "a classic tale of creeping, surreal menace and horror"....I had to find out how good was this book if the master of horror was so fascinated about it. And I can honestly say that the good reviews are totally right about it! The book starts like a ordinary book, then take a surreal, creepy and supernatural tone until the very last page when the extraordinary truth finally comes about. Up until the last page, you kinda scratch you head thinking: "Hmmm....where are we going with this??" You can't put it down until all of it makes sense. I think the suspense from this book is really entertaining and not even the final makes you hate the ordinary teacher James Lowry, even when the writers seems to try very hard to make you!

Carnival of Death: In the movie The Big Sleep, Bogart as Philip Marlowe follows a trail of decadence and murder on the dark side of L.A. But even that pales in comparison to the freak show found by undercover U.S. narcotics agent Bob Clark . . . in The Carnival of Death. Clark’s investigation begins with cocaine and leads to two headless corpses. Who is behind the slaughter? There are plenty of distractions—bright lights and beautiful girls—but Clark better find the murderers fast. Because the next head that rolls could be his own.

My review: This is the second book I read as the title intrigued me from the very beginning of my collaboration with galaxy Press, so I was able to finally have the chance to scratch that itch.

Although it has all the ingredient for a L.Ron Hubbard "classic" - the handsome,sentimental and always honest hero, the pretty girl, the mystery and suspence, the gruesome deaths - I must confess that I was a little disappointent is the story itself because I found hard to believe that one single law agent - one man - was able to solve a very intricate case without the help of anybody else. I mean, come on, even 50 years ago, which police officer would go by himself, without back up, and be able to gather and process forensic evidence and clues and run suspects interviews, get captured and escape all by himself, without stopping to eat and sleep???

I honestly found it hard to believe. So, a little artifact, but still a good story nonetheless.

Tomb of the Ten Thousand Dead: Before Indiana Jones was even a gleam in Spielberg’s eye, one intrepid pilot flew out of the sky . . . into a bit of hell on earth. Captain Gordon is flying a team of anthropologists to the mountains of the Middle East in search of ancient history. But the discovery of a long-buried map leads to high adventure, untold treasure, and cold-blooded murder. . . .

My review: This was the last book I read and it's different from the other because rather than be one long novel, it was a collection of 3 different stories that had one thing in common: death and how the person telling the story escaped it while others weren't so lucky. The first story gives the title to the whole book and it's about a pilot that found himself in the middle of nowhere with some very greedy and dishonest archeologists and that will do anything to find a very antique treasure.....anything!
The story I mostly liked tho is "Price of a hat", a tale happened in old Russia that describe a peculiar way of communicating a message that unfortunately never arrives to the right destination.

Now, for the giveaway!!!

The giveaway: {3 winners will win each 1 book!}

You must be 18 and older to enter this giveaway.
Open to US Residents ONLY. Sorry, international peeps!
This is a Rafflecopter giveaway with 2 mandatory entries and 7 optional entries with the possibility to tweet everyday for 2 weeks..... that's about 24 chances to win!
Contest will run from May 13th 2013 and will end May 27th 2013.

Good luck!