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Dana Barrett

Registered Since: 2008-10-13 18:03:04

Profile: Dana Barrett, host of the soothing sounds of the Paging Authors Podcast as well as account rep in the ATL office, is a book lover and broadcaster extraordinaire. Before coming to Better World Books, Dana owned and operated an independent bookstore in the Atlanta area. She also hosts a local radio show where authors clamor to get in the door as they pass through town on tour. She's kind of a big deal.

Posts by Dana:


Spooky Book of the Day: October 22

Posted by Dana on 10.22.2010 at 9:00 am

Today I’m getting witchy and going back a couple of years to an oldie but a goodie from Alice Hoffman who I think deserves a place on the list!

PRACTICAL MAGIC by Alice Hoffman

From the Publisher:

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women had been blamed for everything that went wrong in their Massachusetts town. And Gillian and Sally endured that fate as well; as children, the sisters were outsiders. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, but all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One would do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they shared brought them back-almost as if by magic…

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 21

Posted by Dana on 10.21.2010 at 6:31 pm

Weeeee… I could not be more excited about today’s pick. Aliens AND vampires!  Woo hoo!!

OUT OF THE DARK by David Weber

From the publisher:

Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity’s cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died.

Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed.

His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity–but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force.

Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity… until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth.

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 20

Posted by Dana on 10.20.2010 at 10:19 am

Today we’re going ghostly with prolific writer and New York Times Bestseller Heather Graham.  What was that noise?  Did you hear that?  Just the wind you say?  Look out behind you…

GHOST SHADOW by Heather Graham

From the publisher:

There are those who walk among us who are no longer alive, but not yet crossed over. They seek retribution… vengeance… to warn. Among the living, few intuit their presence.

Katie O’Hara is one who can.

As she’s drawn deeper and deeper into a gruesome years-old murder, whispered warnings from a spectral friend become more and more insistent. But Katie “must” uncover the truth: could David Beckett really be guilty of his fiancee’s murder?

Worse–the body count’s rising on the Island of Bones, and the dead seem to be reenacting some macabre tableaux from history. The danger is increasing by the moment–especially as Katie finds herself irresistibly drawn to David, who may be responsible for more than just one killing….

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 19

Posted by Dana on 10.19.2010 at 1:06 pm

If you are wondering if I am studiously ignoring Twilight, I am.  But if you’re a fan, don’t get mad at me… I’m only ignoring it because it has already gotten plenty of play and I wanted to share some awesome alternatives for lovers of the other-worldly who have already read all of Twilight!  So – today, I thought I’d take a dip into the vast world of Young Adult Occult.  (I dare you to say that three times fast!).

BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE by Annette Curtis Klause

From the Publisher:

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meatboy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really — human or beast? Which tastes sweeter — blood or chocolate?

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 18

Posted by Dana on 10.18.2010 at 4:00 pm

For those of you who are huge Kim Harrison fans… I apologize for taking this long to get around to her work.  Today’s pick is the first in the The Hollows series and begins the story of witch and bounty hunter Rachel Morgan.

DEAD WITCH WALKING by Kim Harrison

From the publisher:

The underground population of witches, vampires, werewolves–creatures of dreams and nightmares–has lived beside humans for centuries, hiding their powers. But after a genetically engineered virus wipes out a large part of humanity, many of the “Inderlanders” reveal themselves, changing everything.

Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter with the Inderland Runner Services, is one of the best at apprehending supernatural lawbreakers throughout Cincinnati, but when it comes to following the rules, she falls desperately short. Determined to buck the system, she quits and takes off on the run with an I.S. contract on her head and is reluctantly forced to team up with Ivy, Inderland’s best runner . . . and a living vampire. But this witch is way out of her league, and to clear her name, Rachel must evade shape-changing assassins, outwit a powerful businessman/crime lord, and survive a vicious underground fight-to-the-death . . . not to mention her own roommate.

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 17

Posted by Dana on 10.17.2010 at 10:56 am

In this season of ghosts and witches (not to mention our current fascination with glittery vampires and legions of snarky undeadsters) we sometimes forget about the more general and encompassing category of monsters.  But not today, friends. Not today.

ON MONSTERS: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears by Stephen T. Asma

From the Publisher:

Monsters. Real or imagined, literal or metaphorical, they have exerted a dread fascination on the human mind for many centuries. They attract and repel us, intrigue and terrify us, and in the process reveal something deeply important about the darker recesses of our collective psyche.

Stephen Asma’s On Monsters is a wide-ranging cultural and conceptual history of monsters–how they have evolved over time, what functions they have served for us, and what shapes they are likely to take in the future. Asma begins with a letter from Alexander the Great in 326 B.C. detailing an encounter in India with an “enormous beast–larger than an elephantthree ominous horns on its forehead.” Read more…

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 16

Posted by Dana on 10.16.2010 at 2:37 pm

Take one part famous historical expedition, mix in one famous Sci-Fi writer, throw in a dash of huge scary monster and you have the recipe for many a sleepless night.

THE TERROR by Dan Simmons

From the Publisher:

The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. When the expedition’s leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the Terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape. A haunting, gripping story based on actual historical events, The Terror is a novel that will chill you to your core.

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 15

Posted by Dana on 10.15.2010 at 9:55 pm

For today’s spooky pick, let’s take a different look at Dracula with the debut novel by Elizabeth Kostova.  The book came out in 2005 and became a huge bestseller.  And if you’ve already read and loved it – get ready for Kostova’s next book THE SWAN THIEVES coming out next month.  In the mean time without further ado… today’s pick:

THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova

From the publisher:

When a teenage girl discovers a medieval book in her diplomat father’s library, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, 20 years earlier, in a search for his mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding his certainty that Dracula–Vlad the Impaler–was still alive.

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 14

Posted by Dana on 10.14.2010 at 3:50 pm

I’m a little under the weather today and feeling like the walking undead – so I thought why not go back to Zombies?  We’ve done classic horror – now let’s do classic mixed with horror:

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

From the publisher:

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.’ So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, sword fights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.

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Spooky Book of the Day: October 13

Posted by Dana on 10.13.2010 at 2:29 pm

Thanks to Nicole who commented on the blog the other day and reminded me that no Spooky Book of the Day List could be complete without Edgar Allan Poe.  So today in honor of the creepiest number next to 666… I give you… Edgar Allan Poe:

THE COMPLETE TALES AND POEMS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE by um…yup… Edgar Allan Poe

From the Publisher:

All of the tales by the master of the detective and the macabre story. 53 of his best-known poems plus essays and criticisms.

From Me:

Yeah – let Edgar speak for himself…I mean really – THE TELL-TALE HEART… that still creeps me out.

Have you missed any of our selections?  Simply scroll through the blog to see the rest, or go to this handy dandy page that lists all the picks so far!

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