What are your thoughts on consensual polyamory, polygamy or polyandry? Why?

Would you rather read a book in print or on an e-reader?

What are you??

Grave Witch (Alex Craft #1) by Kalayna Price

Grave witch Alex Craft can speak to the dead, but that doesn’t mean she likes what they have to say . . .

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around . . .

To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life . . . and her soul.

I absolutely love the opening for this book! "The first time I encountered Death, I hurled my mother's medical chart at him. As far as first impressions went, I blew it, but I was five at the time, so he eventually forgave me. Some days I wished he hadn't - particularly when we crossed paths on the job." This is the foundation for the funky relationship Alex and Death have going on. I love how he is portrayed as normal with faded jeans and t-shirts. The idea of him as a potential love interest just spells trouble in my mind, but it would be awesome to see it work out. There is an incredible dynamic of tension whenever he is around because he loves to keep Alex guessing. She never knows if he is there to collect a soul or just wants coffee.

The plot revolves around a mystery -- several interconnected murders that have some ritual elements to them, the traces of which only Alex can see, which is what brings her to the attention of Detective Andrews -- but in the course of investigating them, she unravels some other interesting mysteries -- about Detective Andrews, her estranged father, her long-lost roommate, and her own magical gifts.

Excerpt: Chapter 1

What 2012 movie can you hardly wait to see?

I know a person who is looking for a job and I told them of a place where I saw a hiring sign......

They said, "I can't apply there. That place doesn't hire gay people."

It is sad. The person needs a job but one place that is hiring they cant apply at because they are a lesbian. You might say well why not apply and keep the fact that you are LGBT private? Well, if the person would be hired they would always have to be looking over their shoulder. In this state there is no protection for LGBTQ people. A job can fire you for being gay if they want...there is no law keeping them from doing so.

Linda Harvey of Mission America interviewed Gary Glenn, the head of the American Family Association’s Michigan chapter, during her radio show on how the Religious Right should respond to gay rights victories. Glenn, a prominent activist that Mike Huckabee calls his “very special friend,” warned that companies should be wary of hiring lesbian and gay employees because of what Glenn calls the “severe medical consequences” of being gay. Approvingly, Harvey argued that employers should take note that gays lives unstable lives and added, “I would not think of a homosexual person as a good employment risk”:

Glenn: Herman Miller, which is a major employer and corporation in Holland [Michigan], a furniture company, supported this so-called gay rights ordinance on the claim that it allowed them to attract the best and brightest.

Harvey: Here we go, yeah we heard that before.

Glenn: What ridiculous folly to suggest that only those individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences constitute the best and the brightest. It’s not really bright to engage in behavior that puts you at dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis, and according to various sources, premature death. So to suggest that engaging in that type of behavior defines someone as the best and brightest, which seems to be the line coming out of corporate America, is just ridiculous.

Harvey: You’re right. And higher rates of domestic violence and unstable relationships. I would not think of a homosexual person as a good employment risk, I just wouldn’t.

There is no federal law protecting GLBT people against discrimination, but there are such laws in some states. But if you don't live in one of those states, an employer can fire you or refuse to hire you because you're gay.

Many states, it is still perfectly legal for lesbian and gay employees to be fired (or never hired in the first place) simply because their employers discover, and disapprove of, their sexual orientation.

California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin all have laws on the books prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Thoughts?

This novel is set in 2045, at a time when it has become possible to scan and store one's brain into a new, virtually indestructible android body.

Jake Sullivan has a hereditary, potentially terminal disease. He lives his life in a state of utmost care so as not to trigger it, and knows that he, like his father, will probably die a young man. So when he hears about a new process, called mindscanning, he is intrigued. Immortex claims to be able to make a scan of your brain and duplicate your mind in an artificial body. The new body, the new you, will become the primary you, while the old you will live out the rest of your days in a luxury resort on the moon. The process, however, results in two Jake Sullivans. Flesh-and-blood Jake must renounce all ties to his earthly existence and live out the rest of his days in a deluxe retirement village on the dark side of the moon.

As a mindscan, Jake can finally face a future without the fear of imminent death. And he finds love with another mindscan, Karen.

But things begin to get complicated when Karen’s son sues for his inheritance, claiming that the mindscan is not his mother, his mother is actually dead, and he and his children are entitled to inherit. Now, the future of mindscans’ rights is on the line, as the question is raised: what does it mean to be a human being? To be an individual? What is it that makes us who we are?

The original version of Jake, consigned to die on the far side of the moon, has taken hostages there, demanding the return of his rights of person-hood. In the courtroom and on the lunar surface, the future of uploaded humanity hangs in the balance.

Mindscan speculates on the ethics of bio-technology, the nature of consciousness, and the meaning of life. In Sawyer's future socially liberal Canada contrasts sharply with the fundamental Christian-controlled USA.

This is a really good book. I loved it. Once I picked it up and got into the story I did not want to put it down. It was so good.

I just wanted to wish you a Happy Moo year. Have a great 2012.