Currently reading
A Walk Through the Wheatfields: The Missing Journals of Vincent Van Gogh
Progress:
45/214 pages
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (Mr. Lemoncello's Library #1)
The Children of Húrin
The Fall of Arthur
Blood's Pride
Backlash
hidden
Magic's Pawn
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
Black Amazon of Mars and Other Tales from the Pulps
Too bad Jennifer Worick doesn't want to punch the over-use of puns in the face. Also, it turns out that I don't really like reading books about what other people hate. I don't share the author's bitterness over most of the things in the book and she came off sounding like an unpleasant, self-absorbed person.
The story started off rocky, and I don't really care for Barbara's dialog, though I do appreciate the sensitivity with which Simone dealt with Barbara's return as Batgirl. Mostly, though, she just read as a spoiled girl with a lot of growing up in store for her. This series has potential but its inconstancy kept me from investing too much into the story and I don't know what to think by the fact that I was most interested in the appearances of Nightwing and Batman. She's her most interesting in her relationships with these characters, so I'm not sure what that says about her on her own. However, heaps of praise for Ulises Arreola. His coloring was easily the most enjoyable part of this book.
The only good thing about this book is Hickman's first issue of Fantastic Four at the very end. Even then, the inclusion of it is very out of place.
The illustrations were pretty and really the heart of the book. The story was far from interesting, however.
I guess I read this out of order; I wasn't aware it was part of a series. I'm hoping that accounts for why I didn't understand what was going on. Otherwise it was an interesting read.
It's clear this book was written by two people because the quality of the writing and planning was inconsistent. One moment the writing is lyrical and clever and the next it's a mess of stereotypes and cliches complete with an abundant abuse of the word 'rather'. The characters were colorful but unexpectedly one-dimensional. Still, the world was imaginative and intriguing and I particularly enjoyed the creation of the mechanical dragons. I wanted to like it more than I did and it's unfortunate that the relationships in this book could be likened to the whimpering, sappy teen melodrama of the CW, and that the ending was incredibly rushed, and the mechanical dragons factored into the story far less than the title suggested, seeing as the book was named after one.
As a graphic novel, this book was not very interesting. I don't think I could recommend it to someone of the age it was meant for.
This cover bothers me. Why does Cyclops look like he's speed skating into the picture with a 'Heeey!'
Bird Songs in Literature: Bird Songs and the Poems They Have Inspired
I liked the idea of the audio book, but I was disappointed to find the reader talked about the poetry, reciting only a few lines of each poem rather than reading the entire poem. My cat appreciated the bird songs, though.
It's a nice, simple, charming story that doesn't require too much involvement and serves as a good starter for introducing younger generations to the fantasies of Neil Gaiman.
It's a good story but the audio book lacks a lot of the words' artistry from the physical pages. The reader was also a bit dry, so I'll read the next book but I'll skip the audio.
The idea of it seemed to be an interesting one but the characters are not enjoyable to read about and their slang is alienating. In the end I don't know what I was reading about and I feel as though I've wasted my time on something that was still a thought in the author's head.
I guess this was "Cry Me a River" Namor and a whole lot of Atlantean drama that I now realize I don't care at all about. I think I prefer Namor as a character in someone else's feature. At least the art wasn't terrible, most of the time.
Wool (Wool, #1)
Wool is a genuinely enjoyable, short read. It is not laden down with over-complicated sci-fi themes and jargon and for once I actually felt like I was privy to the voice of a straight-forward, rational protagonist. I definitely look forward to learning more about this world and having my questions answered in the following books.
I don't know, the cute, dreamy illustrations I think were better off on their own. The boy was a little too self-righteous for my tastes. It's one thing to teach about responsibility and preach against greed but it's another thing to presume to know what and how much a person needs.
