Ooooooo. The cover to “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is pretty sweet. I still think it’s quite hysterical that the adults in England get their own separate “adult friendly” cover so nobody will know they are reading a kid’s book.

Oh … hell yeah!

Simply put, “The Ruins” is one of the most disturbing books that I have ever read. It works a level above the typical horror novel. After finishing it last night at 1:00 a.m., I lay in bed turning over the events of the story in my mind. It took a long time to get to sleep.

Well not really … but here are two books that are on my brain right now.

“The Ruins” by Scott Smith
(Dr. Phibes, I am looking in your direction …)

“Thirteen Moons” by Charles Frazier
(Available October 3, 2006)

The next volume of “The Complete Peanuts” (1961-1962) will feature Schroeder on the cover. It’ll hit stores in October.

Charles Michael “Chuck” Palahniuk (born February 21, 1962) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for the award-winning novel “Fight Club,” which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He has one of the largest centralized followings of any author on the Internet, based around his official web site. His writings, similar in style to those of such peers as Bret Easton Ellis, Irvine Welsh, and Douglas Coupland, have made him one of the most popular novelists of Generation X. Some of his other novels include “Invisible Monsters,” “Survivor,” “Lullaby” and “Haunted.”

For you Peanuts fans, don’t forget that “The Complete Peanuts: 1957 -1958” will be out this month.

As the 1950s close down, Peanuts definitively enters its golden age. Linus, who had just learned to speak in the previous volume, becomes downright eloquent and even begins to fend off Lucy’s bullying; even so, his security neurosis becomes more pronounced, including a harrowing two-week “Lost Weekend” sequence of blanketlessness. Charlie Brown cascades further down the hill to loserdom, with spectacularly lost kites, humiliating baseball losses (including one where he becomes “the Goat” and is driven from the field in a chorus of BAAAAHs); at least his newly acquired “pencil pal” affords him some comfort. Pig-Pen, Shermy, Violet, and Patty are also around, as is an increasingly Beethoven-fixated Schroeder. But the rising star is undoubtedly Snoopy. He’s at the center of the most graphically dynamic and action-packed episodes (the ones in which he attempts to grab Linus’s blanket at a dead run). He even tentatively tries to sleep on the crest of his doghouse roof once or twice, with mixed results. And his imitations continue apace, including penguins, anteaters, sea monsters, vultures and (much to her chagrin) Lucy. No wonder the beagle is the cover star not only of this volume, but of the collector’s slipcase.

Let’s see … that means there are only 21 more books and 10-1/2 years until the “Complete Peanuts” is all published.

Now we move from porno musicals to kid’s books! Unless you live under a rock, you should know that we are only one week away from the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” I am so totally primed for this book … having not read any press on it at all. For “Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix” I was all about reading up on what “might” be going down in the world of Harry. Not this time, though. I almost slapped Scott when he offered to share some spoilers. Next Friday at midnight I will be at my favorite local book store to pick up my copy … and I’ll get to drool over the cute bookseller as well.