Saturday, July 18, 2009

Flight # 6

It's really been too long since I posted about a book. Especially since I'm home and nothing is really distracting me. Well, truth is I'm reading a bunch of books at the same time, but I don't have my heart in finishing them. This Deepak Chopra book (you ever hear of this guy? He's Indian and he's a big spritual teacher, I don't know), and that classic Huckleberry Finn. I don't know, Huck's adventures are much too episodic for my taste. You know the kind? Like, too many pointless adventures and not enough driving plot. I guess a lot of books in those days went like that. That's why I don't really like reading classics, but I look forward to when I find the next Jane Eyre style classic.

But let me get back to the book I'm supposed to be reviewing. I went to Borders yesterday (finally! ^_^) and I was trying to "hunt" for The Hunt for Dark Infinity (ha ha. Play on words). Buuuuut I couldn't find it in the end. ~,~ The first 13th Reality was on the shelf, but not the second. I was disappointed. I really wanted to get more ahead in that particular story. It's sooo good!

So I had to find some other books to pass the time with. I found Fablehaven 2, (which I once started on a library shelf) and I enjoyed reading a couple chapters of it. Brandon Mull's writing style is pretty cool. For some reason, I think it reminds me of my own. Hmm. Well, when I got to Chapter 5 I decided to give Fablehaven a break for another time, and I looked for the graphic novel section to see if I could spot any attractive covers. And I found this! The 6th (last?) edition to the awesomely random Flight series. I can hardly believe that I started reading this series just this year...

Well, I read the entire thing in one sitting, and I loved it! The cartoons were all funny, as always. I really wonder how those comics writers do it, weaving the story and pictures so seamlessly together. My favorite cartoon was the first one, about the fox. Strange that it came in every book after it's debut. I guess because it always said, to be continued..., so they did. Well, at the end of this cartoon, there was no to be continued..., so I guess it really was the end. Maybe that means it's the end of the Flight books too. I hope it's not. But I'm going to assume it is. Since this book came out this year, we'll probably have to wait a long time for the hypothetical Flight #7 anyway. So 6 might as well be the last.

This series is awesome. I read this in just one sitting. All the previous books are just like this. I highly recommend Flight for those who haven't tried it. Since they're all cool pictures and comics, they won't take too much of your time. ^,^

Monday, July 13, 2009

Thin Threads and Sloth

This review is definitely late in posting, so I thought I'd get to it.

Thin Threads: Life Changing Moments, is a book of inspirational stories that was compiled by one of my mom's best friends, Stacy. It's going to be a series, kind of like Chicken Soup for the Soul or something. I read this while on Annette's and my flight to Boston and the first couple days after we arrived. I finished it quickly.

All the stories that are in this book are really great. There's a couple about people who get into big accidents and get stuck in wheelchairs, but they accept it and go on to lead a good life. There are a few tales about how people met their future spouses that were either romantic or pretty funny. (One girl met her husband online, while the internet was still a brand new thing! How wild!) There are lots of stories about how people started the business of their dreams, or got a brand new outlook on life because of a small event, or they ask for something really hard and the next day it's theirs! I think there's a story for everyone, and the great thing is that they're all apparently real stories. I highly recommend it. 'Nuf said.

Now Sloth, on the other hand, is a graphic novel written by Gilbert Hernandez, a guy I know absolutely nothing about. In fact, I took this book off the library shelf without knowing anything about it, except it was a graphic novel and the drawing style looked cool. It was... alright. The story is about teens who are stuck in a small town, and there seems to be alternate universes where one of them goes into a coma for a year. Confusing, I know. See, first the guy goes into a coma, and then comes out of it a year later, to find a few changes. His loving grandparents take care of him and he's got a girlfriend and a best friend that explore a lemon orchard because it's the stuff of urban legends. And then, halfway through the book, the story changes so it's like the girlfriend is the one that had the coma, only things are different in her world. Her grandparents are mean to her, and the guy is only her crush and the best friend is actually a super-famous rock star or something.

As you can see, it was just a really weird story. But I'm glad it was in comic book format, because I don't think I would have understood it or even been interested in this story if it was in normal novel form. Still, I would give it a 1 on a 1-5 scale. I don't recommend it. But at least I read it so I could tell you guys it's not interesting. Thin Threads is a much more fulfilling read.