C Gockel Writes

Book Review: The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity by Timothy C. Winegard

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I love this type of book! It traces the ripples of one pivotal stone toss across the waters of human history—or in this case, the ripples of grass through the steppes. Horses were a mode of transportation, a machine of agriculture, and a weapon of war for nearly 5,000 years. This book traces their domestication, their adoption as a mode of transport, and their eventual importance in warfare. It’s surprising, informative, and entertaining.

Highly recommended!

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Featured Sci-fi: Catseye by Andre Norton

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Featured Sci-fi: Catseye by Andre Norton

$1.99 as of December 21, 2024
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The “imaginative . . . intriguing” far-future novel about the telepathic bond of friendship between human and animal—from the New York Times bestselling author (Booklist).
 
Exiled after his home planet was turned into a military outpost following an interstellar war, Troy Horan is relocated to the planet of Korwar. Under the watchful eye of the police state, he lives in the Dipple, a restricted area for subcitizens. He works as a day laborer in an interplanetary pet shop and has no idea why animals from Terra, a third-rate power, have been imported to Korwar—or why he has the ability to silently communicate with them, especially the kinkajou.
 
But a murder forces him to flee with his animal friends into the Wild, where mysterious, sealed ruins conceal Korwar’s most fiercely guarded secret. With no one he can trust and an entire government under siege, Troy leads his extraordinary band of warriors in a final bid for freedom none of them may survive.

Featured Fantasy: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

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Featured Fantasy: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

$1.99 as of December 19, 2024
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*RECOMMENDED: McKinley’s prose “sucks” you in, and her forthright heroine keeps you reading.

Although it had been mostly deserted since the Voodoo Wars, there hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years. Rae Seddon, nicknamed Sunshine, head baker at her family’s busy and popular café in downtown New Arcadia, needed a place to get away from all the noise and confusion—of the clientele and her family. Just for a few hours. Just to be able to hear herself think.
 
She knew about the Others, of course. Everyone did. And several of her family’s best regular customers were from SOF—Special Other Forces—which had been created to deal with the threat and the danger of the Others.
 
She drove out to her family’s old lakeside cabin and sat on the porch, swinging her feet and enjoying the silence and the silver moonlight on the water.
 
She never heard them coming. Of course, you don’t when they’re vampires.
 

Featured Sci-fi: Yestertime Series by Andrew Cunningham

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The handwritten note was in a dusty trunk that sat in a cave untouched for 150 years. What did the words mean? When journalist Ray Burton finds the trunk near the Arizona ghost town of Hollow Rock, his life changes in an instant.

Something in the trunk shouldn’t be there.

This begins a dangerous journey of discovery bordering on the impossible. A discovery that will affect the past, the present, and the future.

Featured Fantasy: Virginia Creeper (Mystery House Series: Book 10) by Eva Pohler

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Featured Fantasy: Virginia Creeper (Mystery House Series: Book 10) by Eva Pohler

99¢ as of December 19, 2024
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Colonial Williamsburg has secrets.

During the holidays, Ellen, Tanya, and Sue want to go to the most Christmassy town in America, which Google says is Williamsburg, Virginia. While they’re enjoying the magnificent light display at Busch Gardens and touring Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown, they sense someone following them. They quickly realize the creeper is not among the living.

At first, their efforts to communicate with this unknown entity provide no answers. Little do they know that he will share his message on his own terms, in his own way. The unsettling truth he shares will rock their world, but it may give them a chance to bring peace to dozens of American Revolutionary War heroes who have been lost for centuries–that is, if they can convince the creeper that they are on his side.

If you can’t get enough of Karen White, Heather Graham, Bobbie Holmes, or Jana Deleon, then this “perfect mix of fun and scary” paranormal mystery is for you!

The books in this series can be read in any order.

Grab your copy of this ghostly adventure today!

Featured Fantasy: Elven Shadow (Court of Rebellion Book 1) by Kathrin Hutson

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Featured Fantasy: Elven Shadow (Court of Rebellion Book 1) by Kathrin Hutson

99¢ as of December 17, 2024
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An elven prophecy. An unwanted crown. And a shifter who ruins it all…

Joining the underground organization of magical vigilantes known as Shade was supposed to help Rebecca Bloodshadow keep her head down, reinvent herself, and hide in plain sight. Sweeping the criminal garbage off the streets was supposed to be an added bonus…not the greatest threat to her plans.

When a mission goes terribly wrong under incompetent leadership, Rebecca’s first mistake is to react. Her second mistake is becoming part of the coup herself, succeeding, and being voted in as Shade’s next leader. That was not the goal, but she can’t refuse the position now. Not if she wants to keep her past—and her identity as the Bloodshadow Court’s elven heir—a secret from all of Chicago.

Not so easy now thanks to Maxwell Hannigan, the shifter who distrusts her just enough to start digging into the truth of her past.

Despite blocking his attempts to expose her secrets, Rebecca finds herself entangled in a battle of wills with the shifter—and the infuriatingly hot-and-cold attraction growing between them. As pieces of her old life catch up to her in the Windy City, though, destiny and duty and prophecy all come knocking with a vengeance. Rebecca’s still determined to define her own destiny, but can she pull it off no matter how much blood winds up on her hands?

Fans of Charlaine Harris and Patricia Briggs will love this next action-packed Urban Fantasy Adventure set in International Bestselling Author Kathrin Hutson’s Accessory to Magic Universe.