Wednesday, August 19, 2009

BOOK REVIEW: THE ZOMBIE COOKBOOK by Various Authors

WOW! I LOVED this book!! The Zombie Cookbook is comprised of several short stories, poems, and recipes that include the use of zombies. I'll go over each one individually.
"The Wokking Dead" by Ms. Fabian is a funny 'ZombieBusters' type of story, taking place in a Korean restaurant, Seoul Food. Using paint thinner, chainsaws, flame throwers and even Super Soakers loaded with their own zombie-killing concoctions, this group of 'Busters is not one to be played with! "Secret Ingredient" by Ms. Haselton, has Annie and Sam, owners of the L-Double-J Ranch, hiring a zombie named Clete to help her out in the kitchen! Although Anne is definitely not fond of having a zombie in her kitchen, despite Sam's defense that Clete is well-trained, and can cook a damn fine meal, she can only tolerate this very mismatched cooking duo for so long, and comes up with a tricky tactic to put an end to things once and for all. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer! "A Zombie Named Clete" by the same author is a tiny tribute poem to the zombie in the aforementioned story. "Beer-Battered Zombie" is a recipe by Ms. Butcher that had me in a fit of tears--You'll be saying "Ew!" while laughing your head off at the same time! "The Right Recipe" by Ms. Neiswender tells the tale of Paul Clemmons, Food Editor of Zombie Cookbookery Publications International. Checking through his emails containing comments about the latest book of zombie recipes, (while ignoring the badly-spelled death threats) he gets an unexpected surprise from a pizza delivery person that'll put him in the position of the one being eaten instead of the zombies! "Quick & Easy Zombie Pastie" by Ms. Sender is another recipe that made me say, "Holy crap!" while laughing my butt off again. This particular recipe invloves the use of puffer fish as well, and does double duty as a 'refreshing smoothie'! "Express Cuisine" by Ms. Marshallsay, has Ruby, a tired secretary trying to get home on the train, facing a grave dilemma and a bloody brawl when a few zombies are discovered on board, the reason for the dilemma even more strange! "Brain Food" by Ms. Girtman is a flash fiction piece that packs a lot of the 'yuck' factor as a zombie husband tries a bit of an experiment on his quickly-decaying wife. "Brain Salad for Dummies" by Mr.Virtes was a very amusing short containing ingredients to keep a zombie off your trail while you escape them. (Leaving a TV on helps a whole lot too!) "A Zombie’s APB" by Cinsearae S. has the tale being told by a ranting, raving, ticked-off zombie, fed up with eating humans, as he claims we don't taste good anymore! Being so over-medicated, and pumped full of 'chemicals' and with occasional non-organic parts in our bodies, he gives a few hilarious incidents that prove his point, not to mention an idea to lure in only 'au natural' people for his kind to eat! "My Big Fat Zombie Wedding" by Ms. Fabian was a really cute, 'wedding of the century' story, as a human and zombie get married, not to mention the other paranormal guests that come to the reception, plus a special recipe for an 'Intel on Ice'--almost tempting, except for one ingerdient, lol! I also loved the cool intro from a special metal band from Amsterdam, called "The Zombie Cookbook"! Check them out at thezombiecookbook.com! Lastly, the artwork contained in this tome, done by George Silliman, compliments the book perfectly, not to mention the book cover itself, done by Ms. Santiago!
The Zombie Cookbook is kick-ass, 'pee-your-pants' funny, and definitely worth checking out! For those with a dark, twisted, sick sense of humor, GET THIS!! 5 Stars! Available at DamnationBooks.com! Find it HERE!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

HP & The Half Blood Prince--REVIEW

Okay, so I FINALLY got some decent seating arrangements in the movie theater and no morons to bother me or annoy me. Yay for once!

As for the movie--of course there would be tweaks--it wasn't too bad. They threw in some stuff that never happened in the book of course, and I was pretty disappointed with the ending. Here I was, expecting to see the big showdown between Hogwarts and the Death Eaters, and all we get is Bellatrix jumping up on a dining hall table, kicking around some dishes and utensils, breaking some windows and blowing out all the candles in the hall. I'm like, "WTF?!?! That's ALL they're gonna do?!?!" And there was no funeral for Dumbledore! Another disappointment! I did, however, like what Hogwarts did in the event of his death. The glow from everyone's wand dissipating the Death Eater skull cloud was pretty cool.

Was it me, or was Lavendar Brown even more annoying than she was in the book? lol.

Again, not sure if it was me, but something about this installment seemed a bit...empty. I know these stories are getting darker and more involved, but that 'oomph' was missing in this one. Everyone was stellar, don't get me wrong, but once more, they tried to cram everything into 2 hours. If someone never read the books and only watched the movies, one would think the movie was really awesome, but for us who have read them, we know what is supposed to go where, what was left out and what was added, lol.

Draco is ugly. I don't care what anyone says. he is not 'hot' to me, lol. He sprouted into this wiry, goofy stringbean of a kid. Harry has gotten to be very handsome though, and Hermoine is beautiful! Still can't say much for Ron, though, lol.

The cave scene was pretty cool--all those dead bodies, yeesh.

Overall, on a scale from 1 -5, I give this one 3 1/2.

My faves so far have been the first 2 and Goblet of Fire.