Graphic novels I read in Boston

I spent a lot of time at the library when I was up in Boston for a week, particularly in the teen section, where I got to read graphic novels to my heart's content. ^_^ I read 3 more volumes in the Sand Chronicles manga series, and a standalone book called "Hereville".

Unfortunately, there's not much for me to say in this review without spoiling all the books. It gets a lot more complex as the story advances and the characters get older. The love situation gets very confusing, because Ann and Daigo break up (nooo!) and get a new boyfriend and girlfriend, but it's complicated, because they both still love each other. It's a whole triangle, or love square, or whatever shape you want to call it... it's a messy love web. But it's still a great story.

I also read this fascinating book, "Hereville". It's about this Jewish girl with a big imagination who dreams of slaying dragons and being some sort of hero. She meets a witch and a talking pig and gets in crazy messes. I'm not sure how else to describe it to you, but it was particularly interesting to me, because I'm Jewish myself. There's a little bit of Yiddish spoken in the book and interesting Jewish traditions I didn't know about, and I liked that there were little footnotes that explained what these things meant. It was a quirky story that I enjoyed a lot and would probably recommend.

I'm back... again. =P

Hey guys... whoever is left reading this now...

It's been a month, but I decided to come back and post here after all, for a couple of reasons.

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One: I got a blog award! It's so pretty, isn't it? ^_^ I put it on the very top of my sidebar. I don't think I've ever gotten an award like this! I've been kindly mentioned on a couple other sites in the past (which you can see very close to the bottom of the sidebar), but haven't gotten an honor like this before.

I got my "Creative Blog Award" from someone who commented on my last post (you know, when I said I was completely done with book reviewing? =P). Her name is Dierdra Eden-Coppel, and she's a proffesional author/illustrator. Here's a link to her blog.

If you read the nice comment she left me, you'll see that in addition to giving me this award, she offered to interview me as an avid reader. Can you believe it? I couldn't when I first read it. ^,^

So yeah, I agreed to the interview and have, since then, submitted my answers to her questions. Dierdra told me that she'll post my interview on her blog on July 21st. I unfortunately won't be around at that date, so you'll have to keep your eyes peeled for it yourself.

Who knows? Perhaps as I result of my interview, I'll get a few more readers on my blog.

Two: I've read a few books that I actually really want to review! I decided I didn't want to let down any potential new followers, so I'm going to try making a come-back in reviewing. Lucky for you guys, I've had my hands on some pretty good reads. ^_~ You're welcome.

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Books 3 through 6 of the Maximum Ride series = total awesomeness! This James Patterson series is truly fantastic! I couldn't rave enough about his writing. I finished reading "Fang" just today, which is why I thought it was high time I get back to book blogging ASAP, before I forgot how I felt about this series.

I am so in love with the characters! Max, Fang, Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel are all incredible kids with full-fledged personalities that shine through-out the pages of the books. Max, the titular character, in particular, is one of my favorite bird-kids. She masterfully led me through the story, narrating most of the Flock's adventures (sometimes Patterson goes out of her head and writes in 3rd POV for the plot's benefit), and I hung onto her every word.

There's a little bit of everything in these books. Action, suspense, mystery, drama, humor, even a bit of romance. You've got kick-butt fight scenes, a love triangle (well, that was only introduced in the last book, but still), unexpected revelations, a good message about global warming, and a constant driving desire to just keep turning pages!

I wasn't able to before, but just now I reserved the next book, "Angel", from my library. Hopefully it will get here quickly! I hear it's the second to last novel in the series, followed by "Nevermore", which is slated for February of next year.

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I said in my last post that I'd wanted to read a couple of Dan Savage's other books, and I did. They were just as great as "Skipping Towards Gomorrah" had been. First I read "The Kid", which chronicled how Dan and his boyfriend Terry adopted their son. It was another fascinating look into the life of a gay person, as well as a peek into the world of adoptive parents-to-be. A wonderful true story that I sincerely recommend.

Next, I read "It Gets Better." I absolutely loved it. Dozens and dozens of touching short stories, essays, and interviews by the LGBT community (as well as a couple celebrities and politicians), assuring the reader that life isn't as hopeless as it might seem to some. True, the aimed audience is for gay teens, but I think this should be required reading everywhere, for every age. It's a truly inspiring message that I've stood wholeheartedly behind since the day I first learned about it. It's a message that I hope never, ever dies. It does get better. By the time you finish this book, I'm sure you'll believe it, too.

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So there you go. Bettina's Book Club is back in business. ^_^

Happy reading!

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. ^,^

Bone #6: Old Man's Cave, by Jeff Smith

I'm beginning to think I don't care for my strict book review form anymore. I'm the only one who really cares for statistics (probably because I'm a Virgo), and you're probably as tired of them as I am. You probably just skip the numbers to get to the real descriptions anyway. So I'm just going to tell you the facts straight up.

You know the book's title and the author's name because they're in the post title, so we don't need to worry about that. Also, in case you're curious when this book was published (I always am, because usually I find I like more recently published books than old, dusty classics) the graphic novel itself is from 2007, but since these used to be old comics they were originally published about 10 years ago. I also like mentioning how long a book is, because then you would know if you might enjoy such a book length. This Bone book has 118 pages of comic pictures, compiled into 5 chapters. So roughly 24 pages for each chapter. This was so easy to read that I tackled it in one day, easy-peasy. Today, actually, February 8, in one morning, one sitting. I find I can read the Bone books very quickly. Anway, this one was good. Bone is such a cute character. I'm not sure how to describe the story, since I haven't bothered to describe all the other novels, but I seriously reccomend the series if you haven't taken it up yet. It's kind of like, high fantasy, with dragons and a princess and talking animals and stuff. I think there are nine books in the series. I love graphic novels like these.

Yes, I think this is a much better way to do book reviews. For one thing, the cover picture is a lot bigger. For another, it makes it a lot easier for someone else to contribute to this blog. That's right. I'm not going to be the only one writing book reviews for long. At least, I don't think so. My friend, Jacoby, of Ditto's Pad and Picture Perfect, has expressed interest in being Team Members with me, which means more than one person can write a blog together. From here on out, you're gonna see which books the two of us enjoy. This is going to be fun, sharing a blog with someone on the oppisite side of the country! See you, Jacoby.

BTW, here is the link to the Boneville website. And I'm not very sure, but in the Bone Wikipedia article, it says there might be a movie about the series in the future, but it was only announced last year, so they're probably nowhere close to finishing. No preview of it yet. But keep your eyes peeled.