Product "Half and Half Sweetened Instant Tea Mix, Iced Tea and Lemonade, 24.34 Ounce" by Lipton

About the Product: Lipton half and half lemonade iced tea mix has the freshness of iced tea along with the great taste of cool lemonade. This tea and lemonade flavor mix is a beverage the whole family will love to drink, and is an easy way to refresh your mealtime. With the delicious blend of thirst-quenching Lipton iced tea and the sweet taste of lemonade in simple to make mix, you can enjoy these great flavors anytime of the day.

My Review: I was very pleasant surprised by the effect the lemonade had on the iced tea. I would never do this mix voluntarily but at the end, it was a very nice combination of flavors. Initially I was worried about the fact that it was sweetened, but even that proved to be not a killer. The amount of sugar is enough to break the bitterness of the tea and the lemon and the final result is a very refreshing drink.

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Book "Khe" by Alexes Razevich

About the Book: Khe loves her simple life on a farming commune, until she discovers that her gift for pushing the crops is a death sentence. Fleeing across the treacherous wilderness, she makes her way to the city of Chimbalay, searching for the orindles who might save her. But Chimbalay has its own dangers. The Powers are there - the secret rulers who have chosen Khe to be the mother of a monstrous new race. 

Neither "man in space" SciFi nor classical fantasy, Khe deftly blends elements of both while satisfying those searching for something different. Readers looking for solid world-building and fresh and fully-realized characters will especially enjoy this book. 

A trust betrayed. A transformation that changes everything.

About the Author: Alexes Razevich was born in New York and grew up in Orange County, California. She attended California State University San Francisco where she earned a degree in Creative Writing. After a successful career on the fringe of the electronics industry, including stints as director of marketing for a major trade show management company and as an editor for Electronic Engineering Times, she returned to her first love - fiction. She lives in Southern California with her husband and one of her two college-aged children. When she isn't writing, she enjoys playing hockey and travel. 

She would love to have you join her on Twitter https://twitter.com/lxsraz and get to know you on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AlexesRazevichAuthor.

My Review: Very entertaining story, the author creates a very interesting world, populated with a race where the males and females live separately and once per year they reunite to mate. But that happens as an impulse that you cannot control, and our heroine misses this impulse and is sent for treatment. Initially the treatment seems to work, but then some side effects start to happen and the whole story develops from there. While seeking for a cure to her problem outside her village, she finds others affected by similar problem and she ended up finding the answer for a much more high level question, who are those entities that came to their world and caused the society to behave as they do nowadays. Very well written, characters full developed and environment well described. Nice cover. It took me around 10 hours to read the whole book.

I recommend this book to the permanent library of all readers that enjoy a very well written science-fiction book. I bought this book from Amazon.com and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinion expressed here is my own.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment!

Product "AVR-X1000 In-Command 5.1-Channel Networking Home Theater Receiver with AirPlay (Black)" from Denon

About the Product: The AVR-X1000 A/V surround receiver provides network functions that let you enjoy Spotify, Pandora, and SiriusXM Internet Radio, as well as AirPlay for enjoying content from your iTunes library stored in an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or a PC or Mac. It also supports the Denon Remote App that lets you operate the basic functions of the AVR-X1000 from your iPhone or Android device. With the addition of a separate power amplifier, the AVR-X1000’s multi-zone functionality lets other people enjoy music or video entertainment from a separate source in a different room while you enjoy your own programs in the main room.

My Review: This is a very powerful product, very easy to set up. The feature I enjoy most is the two-zone, two-source multi-room capability, that allows me to listen to my music in a room while my daughters are in a different room enjoying the home theater with their program. My previous receiver was a Sony STR-D615 that I have been happily using for the last 18 years. But this new one, being modern, have network capabilities, that really increases how fancy you can go on its usage. It is not fair comparing electronics products that were manufactured almost twenty years apart, but definitely if you have all the other electronics, you will have fun connecting them together and streaming all audio from your iProducts to this Denon equipment. Sound reproduction is very decent (I have JBL speakers) and with proper adjustments it matches the sound quality of my old faithful Sony. Go for it!

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Book "Child of the Ghosts" by Jonathan Moeller

In the process of transferring our blog to a brand new domain, this archived post has been adapted to BooksCrier.com

About the Book: For fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Sword & Sorceress", Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, and Jennifer Roberson, here is a new story of a woman's fight against an ancient evil.
When her life is torn apart by sorcery and murder, young Caina Amalas joins the mysterious Ghosts, the legendary spies and assassins of the Emperor of Nighmar. She learns the secrets of disguise and stealth, of assassination and infiltration.
But even that might not be enough to save her.
For the evil that destroyed her family seeks to devour the entire world...

About the Author: Standing over six feet tall, Jonathan Moeller has the piercing blue eyes of a Conan of Cimmeria, the bronze-colored hair a Visigothic warrior-king, and the stern visage of a captain of men, none of which are useful in his career as a computer repairman, alas.
He has written the DEMONSOULED series of sword-and-sorcery novels, the TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS urban fantasy series, THE GHOSTS series about assassin and spy Caina Amalas, the COMPUTER BEGINNER'S GUIDE sequence of computer books, and numerous other works.
Visit his website at: http://www.jonathanmoeller.com
Visit his technology blog at:
 http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed

My Review: This is a very entertaining book, with a plot very well constructed and characters enjoyable. Our main character is a young lady named Caina. She lives in a world surrounded by sorcery and nobility. Her mother was denied a formal sorcerer training for lack of aptitude and she joins an alternate clan that plays with dangerous sorcery, the necromancers. She sells her daughter Caina to the most powerful of the necromancers' sorcerers, Maglarion. After a close call with death, Caina manages to escape from Maglarion and joins a legendary society called the Ghosts, that act as spies and assassins for the Emperor of Nighmar. The Ghosts were summon by her father before he died in the hands of Maglarion. Caina is trained on how to disguise and stealth, how to infiltrate and murder. She becomes a powerful weapon for the Ghosts in their fight against the sorcery. And the story develops in a very fast pace and all the plots and twist should be savored with delight. There is a sequel to this book named "Ghost in the Flames" that I placed in my "To Read" list and I intent to do that in the first opportunity I have, as I am really curious to see how the life of our heroine Caina will develop as a Ghost nighfighter.
I recommend this book to the permanent library of all readers that enjoy a very well written book with an young adult theme. I bought this book from Amazon.com and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinion expressed here is my own.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment!

Balance of June

During the month of June, I reviewed the following:

Books:
- "The Long Steep Path" by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Read my review.
- "Timecaster" by J. A. Konrath. Read my review.
- "Heaven 2.0" by Scott Haworth. Read my review.

Other Products:
- "Pujols Quick Stick - Underload Speed Training Bat" by SKLZ. Read my review.
- "SpeedSac - Variable Weight Sprint Trainer"  by SKLZ. Read my review.
- "Fastpitch Reaction Ball - Softball Agility Trainer" by SKLZ. Read my review.
- "Catapult Soft Toss Machine - Baseball Trainer" by SKLZ. Read my review.

Book "Heaven2.0" by Scott Haworth

About the Book: Having been born in the 28th century, Mike Kepler never believed in the existence of Heaven or Hell. The myths of the old faiths had been abandoned and replaced with the teachings of The Church many centuries earlier. The young physicist is shocked to learn that there is an afterlife when he is recruited by the Taipei Corporation. It was created by a team of scientists rather than God.
Mike's job is to travel to the past and save people at the time of their deaths using advanced medical technology. The individuals are then brought back to the 28th century, judged on the sins they committed and sentenced to an eternity in the artificial Heaven or Hell. Mike quickly learns that the project is far less noble than it appears. He discovers that many of the people sentenced to eternal torment in Hell do not deserve their fate. When a hero he extracted from the past is convicted simply for being gay, Nick decides to fight back against the Taipei Corporation.

About the Author: Scott was born in the wagon of a traveling show. His Momma used to dance for the money they'd throw. Pappa would do whatever he could... Well, not really. That would have been a lot more interesting though. He was actually born in the suburbs of Cleveland.
After existing for several more decades, Scott graduated from The Ohio State University in 2004 with a degree in history and political science. Six months later he decided he wanted to be a writer, which made the degree largely worthless. Oops.
Scott has written many novels in genres ranging from science fiction to political satire. He tried combining the two genres once, but he didn't think anyone would be interested in a sex scandal involving the President of Blargon 7.
When not writing, he enjoys being asleep.
He currently lives in central Ohio, or as you might know it better as, "that state I fly over on my way to a state I care about."

My Review: This is a very interesting and entertaining story, very well written, about a futuristic world where science was able to create Hell and Heaven. The company responsible for this implementation is called Taipei Corporation and it recruits the most brilliant minds on Earth to work for their project, based on Mars. But the way the judgement happens is not completely "fair" and the company needs to fill some quotas for Hell as well as for Heaven and that causes some good people being sentenced to Hell. Mike Kepler is a young physicist that is recruited and when he notices those anomalies, he starts to fight the structure, and he is not alone on that fight. He has the help of his mentor and other surprising help from inside the corporation.
Very entertaining reading, brilliant idea, I recommend this book to the permanent library of any science fiction lover. It will keep you entertained for quite some hours. It took me around six hours to read the whole book.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment!

Product "Catapult Soft Toss Machine - Baseball Trainer" by SKLZ

About the Product: Use the Catapult Soft Toss Pitching Machine to work on both the offensive and defensive aspects of your game. Use regulation baseballs for soft toss or to practice footwork and glove-hand ball transfer. Or use 9" plastic balls for pop fly practice. The unit adjusts for height and distance and serves balls every 8 seconds.
Features:

• Spiral ball funnel holds up to 8 regulation size baseballs.
• Automatically tosses balls every 8 seconds.
• Adjustable height and distance.
• Use with AC Adaptor or 4 D Batteries (not included).

Catapult Usage:
1) Add baseballs to machine:
Prior to starting the machine add up to 8 balls to the Spiral Ball Funnel.
2) Adjust ball flight angle:
Before adjusting the ball flight angle turn the Catapult off. Loosen the trajectory lever knob at the front of the machine. Adjust leg up or down to adjust the ball flight angle. Tighten trajectory lever knob. Stabilize Catapult by adjusting the rear stability bar. Unscrew knobs on both sides of the bar and adjust height so that the bar rests on the ground. Secure into place by tightening each knob.
3) Adjust ball throwing distance:
Using the adjustable distance knob, tighten to increase ball throwing distance, loosen slowly to decrease ball throwing distance.
4) Power up machine:
The Catapult runs on 4 D Batteries (not included) or with the provided AC Adapter. If using the AC Adapter, connect to the side of Catapult Base below the power switch. If using batteries flip the Catapult over. Press down on the black tab and slide the battery cover off. Install batteries as shown. Turn product ON to power up and OFF to power down. Ensure all persons and pets are clear of the Catapult and the path of the ball before powering on.

My Review: This is a good practice equipment, very easy to assemble and you can use almost immediately after receiving it. But do not think it is a pitching machine, because it is not. It will never reach the speeds of a real pitcher, but it is still good for practicing hand/eye coordination and reaction time. My daughter uses it with the 9" plastic balls for pop fly practice.

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Product "Fastpitch Reaction Ball - Softball Agility Trainer" by SKLZ

About the Product: Reaction Ball fielding aid is perfect for improvement of hand-eye coordination and reaction time. Volley the Reaction Ball between two athletes, or rebound it against a wall. Upon landing, the ball will bounce in an unpredictable manner. Repeating these steps will improve your speed and coordination.

My Review: This is a very useful product (at an honest price) to improve reaction time and hand-eye coordination. Upon throwing the ball at the floor, it will bounce in an randomly manner and it will keep the kids in their toes to catch it before it bounces again. Excellent training speed. Your reflexes will be tested at their maximum. Use only outdoors...

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Product "SpeedSac - Variable Weight Sprint Trainer" by SKLZ

About the Product: Build explosive leg drive out of the blocks with the SpeedSac. This variable weight sled allows you to strengthen your lower body muscles by resistance training, similar to metal sleds. Practice exploding from a set position, improve your dash time, and increase overall speed. With removable weights, the SpeedSac allows you to adjust the towing resistance. You can also use the handles on the bags to perform various upper and lower body exercises such as lunges or front raises.

Features:

• Includes 3 durable weight bags that can be filled with up to 10 pounds of sand (30 pounds total). 
• Sled material won't harm grass or mark wood floors. 
• Adjustable leash length to accommodate athletes of any size. 

Sand not included.

My review: This is a very nice set of exercise equipment that will help you exercise your leg muscles. After 20 minutes exercising you will discover muscles that you never new were there, as they all will be hurting like hell.

The sealing of the packages is excellent, so you do not make a mess after filling the bags with sand. I use my bags in my basement and there is no sign of sand anywhere. My wife would be very mad at me if that was the case...
The product comes with a workout poster. On one side, we have recommended drills for only the speed sack and on the other side, a 6 week workout program that combines the speed sac with other SKLZ products, and both have beginners/advanced adjustments. A DVD with instructions is also included in the shipment. The DVD gives demonstration videos for most of SKLZ products. Each video demonstrates regular speed and slow motions with different angles so you can see and teach proper form.

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Book "Timecaster" by J.A.Konrath

About the Book: Talon Alalon is a timecaster--one of a select few peace officers who can operate a TEV, the Tachyon Emission Visualizer, which records events (most specifically, crimes) that have already happened.
With crime at an all-time low, Talon has little to do except give lectures to schoolkids--and obsess on his wife's profession as a licensed sex partner.
Then one of her clients asks Talon to investigate a possible murder. When Talon uses the TEV to view the crime, the identity of the killer is unmistakable--it's him, Talon Avalon.
Someone is taking timecasting to a whole new level and using it to frame Talon. And the only way he can prove his innocence is to go off the grid--which in 2064 is a very dangerous thing to do. 
Time is not on his side.
Featuring all of the action, thrills, and humor of other Konrath books, but set in an outrageous never-before-seen future, the Timecaster series is ecopunk on super steroids. Add in healthy doses of sex, some characters from Konrath's previous books (Talon is Jack Daniels's grandson), and a lot of outrageous ideas about technology, society, and politics, and Timecaster is a book that will appeal to anyone who likes to be entertained, even if they don't dig on sci-fi.

About the Author: JA Konrath is the author of eight novels in the Jack Daniels thriller series. They do not have to be read in chronological order to be enjoyed, but for those who want to know it is: Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, Cherry Bomb, Shaken, and Stirred.
Jack also appears in the novels Shot of Tequila, Flee, Spree, Three, Timecaster Supersymmetry, Banana Hammock, and Serial Killers Uncut, as well as the short story collection Jack Daniels Stories, and the novellas Floaters and Burners.
Last Call, the ninth Jack Daniels novel, will be available in spring of 2013.
Konrath writes horror under the name Jack Kilborn, including the bestsellers Afraid, Trapped, Endurance, and Draculas. Haunted House, the next Kilborn thriller, is coming mid 2013.
He has sold over a million ebooks.

My Review: This is a very entertaining book, with some excellent ideas in terms of futuristic technologies. The idea of being able to record past events is fantastic, and it is the basis of the plot. Our hero (Talon) is one of the few officers who knows how to operate a device that records the past. This device is mostly used to solve crimes. But leaving in a society with no crimes is also challenging and Talon soon finds out that it can disturb the minds of people. He investigates a crime that just happen to figure out that he was the murderer... and now his mission is to figure out who is trying to frame him.
I bought this book at Amazon.com in its electronic version. Very entertaining story, it took me about 11 hours to read the whole book. I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves science fiction. You will not be disappointed at all.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment.