Originally posted by audrey_e at 15 The Sense of an Ending

Like many genre authors Swann appears to have wanted to take a swipe at a Chandleresque mystery. The initial problems with that are he does not have Chandler's way with words, or the ability to make his characters sound witty. At the same time a relatively complex mystery does not hit its stride until about 2/3rds of the through the title.

This is not a bad read, and I think Swann would have better served his reader if some of the small exposition dumps about this world had been spread more evenly throughout the book and not back loaded towards the end (and I know some will disagree with me on this).

Nohar is a bidpedal tiger. In a near future world humans bio-engineered animals to turn them into weapons of war. Tigers, lions and bears oh my (and literally). Nohar is descended from two combat veterans, and is scratching out a living as a private invetsigator.

Then Nohar is approached by a representative from a company who wants him to look into the murder of a political campign manager. Things do eventually progress in a reasonable manner to build an entertaining mystery/suspense tale.

Isham and Aagel are introduced who play larger roles in Swann's other Moreau books. Eventually Swann ties together the Moreau and Hostile Takeover books into his Apotheosis trilogy.

As character guides for a television show goes this is one of the better efforts, and I think much better than DK Book's other recent genre effort the Star Wars Clone Wars Character Guide. The information is very recent as it includes all of the doctors (except Peter Cushing) and many of the companions, including Clara.

There is a nice use of color photography where available, but I think the book places too much emphasis on the characters introduced during the 10th and 11th doctors tour of duty. It also feels, and some of this comes form casual reading in other places, that many of the older companions were ignored or given short shift. I mean really the main picture for Romana isn't Mary Tamm who played the character the longest?

Regardless if you have a soft spot for guides like such as I do, and are a Doctor Who fan see if you can find a copy for a reasonable price and you'll likely enjoy it.

There was this book series that I read probably sometime in the 2001-2008 time period I think and one of the books in the series I remember was that I think there was magic and darkness to it and someone(a girl possibly) was being locked up by someone who I think was evil and Im not sure but I thought she escaped, but that was only part of the book, I don't remember the rest. And then in another one of the books from the series there was a guy I believe, that his dad or mom, or someone was trapped over seas in a lighthouse or castle/tower and they went to save them but they were in bad shape, (I think), but the person succeeded in taking them back, or maybe not because they were better off there, but then they, or someone rode off on a horse as the end of the book. This book series was like a dark magical type of series that I think was new in the 2000's sometime.
Please help!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/pictures/130523-top-ten-new-species-animals-plants-science/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/pictures/130523-top-ten-new-species-animals-plants-science/#23859

Glowing cockroaches and a destructive fungus make the grade in Arizona State's list of top 10 new species of 2012.

I've been trying to remember the title and author of this book I read in high school but I couldn't. It's a drama fiction book mainly about a teenage girl who meets this popular jock and hooks up with him. They have a couple of flings and then the teenage girl gets pregnant. The teenage girl predicts that when she tells her boyfriend he will be happy with the news and that both of them will raise the baby together in a house of their own. Happily ever after fantasy thought of hers. When she told him the news, he punched her hard in the face yelling,"Whore!" which left a cut on the side of her face. When she arrives home she evens out the cut on the other side of her face and decided to make 'war paint' on her face with her blood. She goes outside and pretends she's a tree and tries to convince her mother to come outside because her mother never left the house ever since her father died of cancer. The neighbor calls the police and takes her away. She ends up in a mental institute or rehab to get help. Throughout the book there are different views by the best friend and the brother of the popular jock on how they see and deal with the situation.

The Elizabethan World Picture:  A study of the idea of order in the age of Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton by E. M. W. Tillyard
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The story starts with a mention of the reader, and the way the characters in the book perceive them - usually as nothing more than an overly large, protruding nose. Then the protaganist (the princess) takes over the story. She acts out the events of the book in which she's written. When she's finished she sometimes rides to the edges of the book, where she can cross into the dreams of the reader.

There's some unrest within the castle where she lives. Eventually, the court jester takes the throne from her parents, and has her cast out as a criminal or an outlaw of some sort. She flees the area, crossing over into the dreams of one of the previous readers. The book subsequently catches on fire and the entire work is destroyed.

When the reader whose mind she inhabits grows up, the princess convinces her to look into the book that she once lived in. They discover that it was likely privately published for personal amusement, and the girl re-writes the book with the princess' help (carefully omitting the jester from this version of the tale). After its publication, she crosses out of the girl's mind and into the book.

I can not for the life of me remember the name of this novel, although I recall I read it roughly six or seven years ago (not that this will necessarily be reflected in the publication date). Thank you for any help if you can give it!