Blood Trade by Faith Hunter

The much anticipated release of Blood Trade by bestselling author Faith Hunter is April 2, 2013. She will be here on Saturday, April 6th to sign copies of Blood Trade and her other bestselling titles. This is a great opportunity to meet a bestselling author. Mark your calendars to be with us here. Find out more about Faith and her books on her web site http://www.faithhunter.net/.

Jane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker who’s always up for a fight–even if it means putting her life on the line…
The Master of Natchez, Mississippi has a nasty problem on his hands. Rogue vampires–those who follow the Naturaleza and believe that humans should be nothing more than prey to be hunted–are terrorizing his city. Luckily, he knows the perfect skinwalker to call in to take back the streets.

But what he doesn’t tell Jane is that there’s something different about these vamps. Something that makes them harder to kill–even for a pro like Jane. Now, her simple job has turned into a fight to stay alive…and to protect the desperately ill child left in her care.

The Spectrum Conspiracy by Craig Faris

The Spectrum Conspiracy is a complex political thriller that has the ticking clock intrigue of Angels and Demons and the fast-paced thrills of A Clear and Present Danger.

Devrin Crosby, is a suspended, but brilliant FBI agent, and a former alcoholic. He has a partner he can’t stand, who is dating the only woman he’s interested in, and a boss who is giving him one more chance. Crosby starts looking into irregularities in the “official” investigation of the President’s assassination. Everyone is convinced that the culprit is dead, but Crosby begins to uncover clues of a far more sinister plot.

A powerful government entity is using a covert operation called, Project Spectrum, to build a highly unstable thermonuclear weapon to sell on the black market as a Trojan Horse. Unaware of the weapon’s instability, their terrorist clients would store it at their most secure facility; possibility the same location where other weapons of mass destruction are kept. But the scheme backfires when the weapon is stolen and hidden in Washington, DC.

Crosby and his partners are thrown into a race to save our nation’s capitol from not only the thieves, but also government thugs, who are bent on protecting their ultimate anti-terrorist weapon, and the fact that they assassinated the President to keep him from exposing their ultimate anti-terrorist scheme.

The clock is ticking, no one is listening, and in order to save thousands of lives, Crosby will have to lose his best friend.

Additionally, when you purchase a $25.00 Gift Card, you will receive a 10% discount off the price of the Gift Card.

These offers will expire on Christmas Eve, 2012. So don’t wait!!

These cards may be redeemed for store purchases after Dec. 25, 2012.

Creative Yogurt Cooking

The “Creative Cooking” series was to cook books what Waterloo was to Napoleon. Everything from Crepes to Microwaves received special treatment at some point during the print-run of these “specialty” cook books. But, I think we can all agree that by far the MOST “special” is that creamy wonder, the volume devoted to “Creative Yogurt Cooking.”

Hey, man! It was 1978 and America was sipping the last dregs of its ’60s grooviness. Inflation soared, gas was scarce and the leader of the Free World was a fish-lipped peanut farmer. But we had one thing to hang onto in this time of uncertainty: yogurt. That’s right! In times of fiscal and nuclear unrest, we all can find comfort in a heaping plate of “Good Yogurt Gravy,” best served on the “Dutch Herring Salad” if you have any class. As the folks at Creative Cooking discovered, “yogurt is for everyone!” And by following their simple, easy to understand 19-step process of home yogurt production, you too could reclaim a little dignity through fine yogurt dining.

And truly, yogurt IS for everyone. For the disco set we have party favorites you can eat without breaking your rhythm: just knock back a cup or two of “Quickie Yogurt Breakfast In A Glass.” If the wheat germ doesn’t give you the energy to keep shakin’ it, the molasses and raw eggs surely will. And next time the Saturday Night Fever has you racked with chills, try a steamy cup of “Yog-Nog.” Nothing soothes a jive turkey quite like a mug of liquor-flavored Christmas soup!

But, I know what you’re thinking. What about the regular folks who just can’t dig it? How about something for the masses, man? Well, Creative Yogurt Cooking has you covered. Liven up poker night with a refreshing round of “Pink Stuffed Cucumber!” (The “pink secret” is Ketchup! YUM!!) For the international set, Creative Cooking proudly offers “Eskimo Apples,” prepared the traditional Eskimo way with lots of yogurt, tropical fruit and kirsch. Why? Because nothing honors the culture of native tundra dwellers like curdled, creamy fruit-pitted mayonnaise served in a hollowed-out, 100-proof apple. Right on!

Still not sure? Then up your nose with a rubber hose! Just imagine the looks on your kid’s faces tonight as you lay down a sweating trencher of hot “Egg and Yogurt Casserole”. So hop in the shaggin’ wagon and make your way to The BooKnack, where a bygone world of cultured, dairy goodness awaits you…

Death’s Rival by Faith Hunter

On Thursday October 4th, 2012, we will be hosting Faith Hunter’s book release party from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm. Death’s Rival is the 5th book in the Jane Yellowrock series featuring the Cherokee skinwalker from the mountains around Asheville, NC. For more information about Death’s Rival, go th the authors web site, http://www.faithhunter.net

Picnics & Tailgate Parties by Sunset Books

It’s always a special time when you get your hands on any of Sunset’s vintage cookbooks. This particular volume deals with a serious problem that has affected us all at some point: How To Eat Outside and What To Eat Once Out There. But fear not! Sunset’s “Picnics & Tailgate Parties” has you covered! Featuring such classic recipes as “The Brown Bag Smorgasbord” and “The Desk Drawer Special”, this essential guide to summer fun also presents a myriad of refreshing hot-weather meals that are sure to make your family excursions unforgettable! When the temperature goes up, how about choking down a basket full of “Veal With Tuna Sauce?” Looking for more adventure on the lawn? Then try a family-size bowl of “Overnight Chicken Salad!” Nothing kills botulism like 24-hour old luke-warm mayonnaise dressing! Sunset’s “Picnics & Tailgate Parties” doesn’t stop with the kiddies, though. This indispensable volume includes a whole page devoted to “Bracing Libations,” including traditional picnic favorites such as “Hot Milk Punch” and that old-time classic, “Cranberry Glogg.”
Can’t get enough? Come on down to the BooKnack and take home your copy of Sunset’s “Picnics & Tailgate Parties” today!

Collector's Styles by Better Homes and Gardens

As a general rule, Better Homes and Gardens knows their target audience: the well-coifed soccer moms and garden enthusiasts who populate the suburban South like boll weevils in a cotton field. But occasionally, they reach out to a more… specialized element of the interior decorating community.

And by “specialized element,” I mean Hoarders.

BH&G’s “Collector’s Style” is a thinly veiled attempt to reconcile the needs of the average garbage gathering shut-in with the glamorous world of High Style. Sure, the book looks cheery enough. But if you read between the glossy photographs depicting towering stacks of porcelain chickens (p. 169) and cough drop tins (p. 126), a darker picture emerges.

Take “collector” S. Scott Mayers, who describes himself as “a soul therapist.” Mayers lives in a mid-century tsunami of crockery and yard sale flotsam, all of which is barely contained by the lava-red walls of his California compound. Or the Fosters, a St. Louis family of craft mongers who specialize in fantasy forest creatures, tooth-pick sculptures and “paintings by psychiatric patients.” The family is not pictured, though the abandoned lawn chairs in their dining room are thoughtfully accompanied by a monolithic rabbit made of bottlecaps.

The one thing that these people seemingly do NOT collect is punctuation:

“Collecting is an acquiring thing for us probably an obsession but a very good one.”

Better Homes and Garden’s “Collector’s Style” promises to demonstrate “innovative ways to avoid the atmosphere of an institutional setting,” perhaps overlooking the inevitable destination of most of their intended audience. So whether you’ve been stuffing busts of Napoleon in your fireplace for years (p. 85) or only just started stockpiling cats, “Collector’s Style” is the Better Hoards and Landfills book for YOU!

365 Ways to Cook Hamburger by Doyne Nickerson

This post is in honor of Doyne Nickerson, a true renaissance man and luminary in the fields of acting, advertising, writing, printing and hydroponic gardening.

In other words, everything except cooking.

But don’t hold that against him! It takes a man who can think outside the box to judge the weighty issue of ground beef and deliver 365 separate and disturbingly original convictions against it. Doyne’s recipes are as impressive for their awkward alchemy of ingredients as they are for an unapologetic reliance on both MSG and wheat-germ.

He had the unique and unprecedented capacity to examine the humble hamburger and see a world of unrealized potential. Doyne saw it all and gave us the improbable (Hamburger Birds) as well as the redundant (Hamburgerbunburgers).

Who else could have conceived the need for the Sour Cream Stuffed Meat Loaf? Sure, it was a new idea in 1958. But can any of us today imagine eating meatloaf without a piping-hot geyser of curdled cream shooting into our mouths? It was Doyne as well who first introduced us to the topsy-turvy world of Hamburger Upside-Down Pie, and took us back to the tables of our ancestors with that Thanksgiving classic, Early American Chop Suey For One Hundred.

We can forgive Doyne’s later decline, and the troubled years he spent wandering the country, doing whatever he must in order to survive. His experiences during this dark time are evident in such classic recipes as “Piquant Balls”, “Pungent Balls”, “Beat Balls” and the unexpectedly tender “Balls in a Blanket”. And who could forget the pheonix-like triumph of Doyne’s “Cocktail Balls”?

So this one’s for Doyne Nickerson. This upcoming Fourth of July, as you beat the heat with a refreshing trencher of Lemony Meat Balls in Cream Sauce, say a silent “Thank You” to the man who made the day possible. Doyne, America owes you a debt of gratitude.

Thank you.

The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s status as a well-respected and prolific writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels is well known to any fan of those genres. Her career spanned decades, spawning epic worlds and inspiring legions of young women and men to embark upon rewarding careers themselves.

But first, she had to get this book out of her system.

“The Colors of Space” is Bradley’s fourth full-length novel, following such masterpieces as “Falcons of Narabedla: Rebellion of the Space-Zombies!” and “The Door Through Space: BEWARE OF THE 4-DIMENSIONAL DEMONS.”. The plot of her quaternary effort centers around the exploits of a glamorous and effeminate man named Bart Steele and his less sexy-sounding travelling companion, Raynor Three. Dialogue between the two space dandies ranges from bland overstatements (” Don’t look directly at the ship when it lands, even with your glasses on.”) to the sort of tortured logic usually reserved for game shows in Japan:

“I tried hard to save him, Bart. I did everything I could , I’m no murderer. I have killed him, yes… But I knew he was dead all along.”

The remainder of the novel consists of an epic quest to find, transport, and ultimately use and misuse a newly discovered weapon in the War on Humanity and Other Critters: a color nobody can see. (**Plot Spoiler!!** The color is Silver!!)

So if you’re in the mood for an exciting, futuristic space thriller where the men are women and the women are indecisive cats, stop by The BooKnack today and get in line for your copy of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Colors of Space!”

Picnics & Tailgate Parties by Sunset Books

It’s always a special time when you get your hands on any of Sunset’s vintage cookbooks. This particular volume deals with a serious problem that has affected us all at some point: How To Eat Outside and What To Eat Once Out There. But fear not! Sunset’s “Picnics & Tailgate Parties” has you covered! Featuring such classic recipes as “The Brown Bag Smorgasbord” and “The Desk Drawer Special”, this essential guide to summer fun also presents a myriad of refreshing hot-weather meals that are sure to make your family excursions unforgettable! When the temperature goes up, how about choking down a basket full of “Veal With Tuna Sauce?” Looking for more adventure on the lawn? Then try a family-size bowl of “Overnight Chicken Salad!” Nothing kills botulism like 24-hour old luke-warm mayonnaise dressing! Sunset’s “Picnics & Tailgate Parties” doesn’t stop with the kiddies, though. This indispensable volume includes a whole page devoted to “Bracing Libations,” including traditional picnic favorites such as “Hot Milk Punch” and that old-time classic, “Cranberry Glogg.”
Can’t get enough? Come on down to the BooKnack and take home your copy of Sunset’s “Picnics & Tailgate Parties” today!