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.

And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer

It seems pretty appropriate that the title of the post is "And Another Thing..." This feels a lot like an after-thought, seeing as I started posting book reviews here again with the great promise of regular updates, but then I fell back on the wayside. ~,~ Oh well. I guess I can't really promise you guys anything.

But anyway, here's a really great book that I read recently!

I bought "And Another Thing..." on one of the last days our Borders store was still open (R.I.P. Borders !,!). I've read and thoroughly enjoyed the other Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (or H2G2) books by Douglas Adams in the past. This series has a few zany characters, wacky story elements, and very witty ideas. This 6th book in a trilogy is no different. (*Double-take* O,o Yes, that's what it's referred to as, the 6th book in a trilogy. LOL)

I don't know how Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series (I like those books okay), got the opportunity to write this sequel, but I figured since it was an author I knew, it wouldn't be that bad a read.

Turns out he was pretty faithful to the H2G2 series while putting his own hilarious spin on it. ^_^ A lot of the old characters come back, like Arthur Dent, Trillian, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, and the Vogons, and there are lots of funny new characters too. (I was kind of sad though that the main character, Arthur Dent, didn't seem to have a lot to do in the story. He didn't have any major character development or anything. He was just... there. He was simply along from the ride, while all the other characters got to have their extremely interesting and unusual adventures.)

Some of the jokes in this book are really funny. You get put in a very silly state of mind when you read something like this, with every turn of the page leaving you thinking, "huh? oh, lol!" There's a lot of convenient and humorous world-building, and the whole story is actually pretty well-written. It felt like an H2G2 book, so I was happy. It wasn't the best, but it was decent.

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Oh, and another thing... lol. I've wanted to post this combo review for a long time now, but just couldn't get around to it. So here you go.

The Daniel X series, by one of my new favorite authors, the awesome James Patterson. ^,^ Now having said that, I wasn't absolutely crazy about this series... but I've got to hand it to JP. He sure knows how to keep you turning those pages. (It must be those dang short chapters and cliff-hangers. =P)

Anyway, the story follows a teenage boy named Daniel (who is secretly an alien) whose destiny is to be an Alien Hunter and protect Earth from bad guys. It kind of reminded me of Men in Black in that respect.

So how does Daniel fight off the alien villains? Well, this kid has one of the coolest and actually most imaginative super-powers I've ever read about: He can create. He can make just about anything he can imagine. From thin air. Just with the power of his mind. He can even make whole people, with full personalities! Oh yeah, and he has other super-powers too, like shape-shifting ability, genius intellect and mind-reading.

While the story and the story-world was pretty interesting, the thing that put me off most about the books is what an overly perfect character Daniel is. I mean, since he can create anything, things come really easy for him. It's almost impossible for bad guys to trick him. Yeah, he does have a couple weaknesses, like getting distracted by girls (hey, he's a teenager. What're you gonna do?) and being a bit cocky. But for the most part, he's a pretty flawless protagonist. I don't know about you, but personally, I prefer my protagonist with a couple flaws in him/her. Also, the books seem to have a couple of preachy messages, like "don't litter", and "read a book, it's better than TV". I don't know. Kinda weird.

Reading the graphic novel of the first book was pretty cool though. It was quite accurate and true to the story. I actually think I liked it a lot better than the book, because I could see what the characters were doing, and what the aliens looked like. Also, I love reading graphic novels because they are such a breeze. ^_^

If you're interested, the 4th book in this series, "Game Over", will be coming out this September. I think I'll give it a try, when I can get my hands on it.

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Oh, and ANOTHER thing! (I promise, this is the last other thing I'll mention. Then you'll finish this review. ^,~) I've also recently read the first 3 Maximum Ride graphic novels, based on the series also by James Patterson, and I gotta say, they are pretty awesome! ^_^

Having read "When the Wind Blows" and "The Lake House", I was kind of familiar with the flying children characters. In this series however, most of them were given different names. Except for the main character, Max, naturally. Also, unlike WtWB and TLH, these kids with wings are completely the main focus, instead of partially.

I'm still waiting for the actual first Maximum Ride book, "The Angel Experiment", to come in for me from the library. I bet it'll be worth the wait though. ^,~

Also, did you know that the 4th graphic novel was released just today? What a coincidence, huh?

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And another thing... no, I'm just kidding. I had you going for a second, though, didn't I? lol. ^_~

Graphic Novels

Here's a whole bunch of graphic novels that I've read in the last couple weeks. From right to left, these books are in order from least liked to most loved!

"That Salty Air" was just okay. It was a mildly interesting short story about a fisherman and his wife. The art and story of "Luuna" reminded me slightly (only slightly) of the Bone graphic novels. There were 3 small and round cartoony characters you're supposed to laugh at and a young attractive native girl. I wasn't a fan of the rest of the story, though. I read these 2 books while browsing in the library.

I finished the most recently published Cirque Du Freak graphic novel, "The Vampire Prince," as well. Ha, looks like I forgot to mention when I read #5. Well, suffice it to say I did, and that this series is still pretty good so far. But this book sure has a lot of fighting in it. 0,o

On Graham "Chop" Bradley's recommendation, I read "Sons of Liberty", by the Lagos brothers. Definitely a good read. Thanks, Graham. I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next installment. ^_~

My twin sister, Annette, actually turned me on to the next graphic novel, "Japan Ai." This is the manga journal of a real-life woman who goes sight-seeing in Japan with a couple of friends. Her stories are really funny, not to mention that the artwork portraying her antics are adorable and hilarious! Her description of Japanese culture was extremely thorough and complete, so it was as if I myself had traveled to Japan with her. It sounds like SUCH a different place than America, but it also sounds wonderful!

The best graphic novel I've read in these 2 weeks, however, has to be "Phoenix: A Tale of the Future", by Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy). What an amazing, mind-bending story that was. It takes place waaaay in the future, a few centuries or so from now, and... really, the story is too complicated to relate here, but it's amazing! You must read it!

Alright. I'm done. Now onto the short-stories.

Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon Hale

I seem to be reading a lot of graphic novels lately. I don't know what it is about 2010 that is making me read so many G.N.s, but I'm glad I'm reading some good stuff here. When the story is good and the art style is appealing, they are quick and easy reading. I think that's what I love about them. I can go to a book store or a library and leave having enjoyed another wild adventure.

Anyway, after just a couple visits to the library (once a few days ago and once yesterday), I finished my first book by Shannon Hale. How cool that it was a graphic novel. I've heard that my friend Q is quite the fan of Shannon Hale. Well, she has pretty good taste. Rapunzel's Revenge was a wonderful take on an old fairy tale, with a few certain changes. For example, Rapunzel escapes from her own tower (a taaaall tree hollowed out at the top) with her extremely long hair, which she braids and uses as a couple of lassos. (Go girl power!) Then she befriends a guy named Jack (who seems to be Jack from the Beanstalk story) and together they journey across the land so Rapunzel can settle the score with her "mother", the witch.

Quite action packed and well worth looking into. In fact, I've learned that this book actually has a sequel that was published at the beginning of the year. It's called Calamity Jack. I suppose it focuses more on Jack this time, but Rapunzel still follows him. From the cover alone, it looks great. Since I liked the first book so much, I've already reserved it from the library. I hope it comes in soon.

While at the library, I also had time to finish another graphic novel, though this one was really short. Wallace and Gromit are such a funny claymation duo. It's a very quick mystery about dogs going missing and since Wallace and Gromit are amateur sleuths, they get to solve it. Well, Gromit the dog does, anyway. Wallace just runs into dead ends, but ends up taking the credit anyway. Very sweet, anyway.

A couple graphic novels

Finally, my first book review in ages! This review is actually for two books, two graphic novels. One I liked very much (^_^), and the other one... not so much (0,o).

The one I read first was recommended to me by a new random blog friend. On first sight, I thought "Nuh-uh, I don't think it's for me." I don't know, something about the art-style, and the kind of genre... But I judge books by their covers way too often, so finally I read through it and gave it a try.

Harry Dresden, the wizard/detective and hero of this story, slightly reminded me of an Indiana Jones type, but with less of a sense of humor, in my opinion. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the story itself, but since it was a graphic novel I flew through the pages easily enough. I can kind of see why other people would like it, such as my friend, but sorry. Not my particular style.

Now this was a random graphic novel that I started paging through in the library. It's a superhero series about 6 kids who discover that their parents are actually super-villains. The teens band together, run away from home, discover powers of their own, and try to figure out a way to stop their evil parents from destroying the world. The story and the art-style seemed to come from the same Marvel universe of super-heroes such as Captain America or Spiderman, which was really neat.

I tell you, this book was HUGE! I later found out that it's because it was a collection of 18 of these Runaways comic magazines wrapped in one book. Because of it's size (and weight! *,*) I debated whether or not I should borrow it. The story seemed worth it though, and I didn't want to wait until our next library visit, so I took it out. I'm definitely glad I did. It was awesome! ^_^

My favorite thing about it, I believe, was the character development. I really think that by the end, all the characters had become slightly different people, in a good way. Oh, and what a surprising ending... I didn't see it coming at all! I thought I knew who would be the traitor, but I was dead wrong! It was the very person I never even suspected!!!

My final word: Definitely check out Runaways. And if it so happens to be your style, maybe try out the Dresden Files. I wouldn't, but no one's stopping you, right?

Chuck Berry: the Autobiography, by Chuck Berry (plus more)

The main read that I wanted to talk about today is one that I finished just yesterday. It's another autobiography about a famous musician I am a fan of, and this guy definitely made history. Chuck Berry (who is still alive and kicking at age 83, by the way! 0,o) is legendary for a dance move called the "duck walk" and for writing songs such as "Maybellene," "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Johnny B. Goode," "Monkey Business," "My Ding-A-Ling" and many many others.

Before reading this, I didn't know a lot about Chuck. All I knew were his great songs. But I learned a lot from this book that he wrote himself in the 80's. For example, not only is he a great song-writer, he's an awesome writer period. He's very poetic, making extremely good use of metaphors and rhyme. I also learned that Mr. Berry has gone to jail a few times. But he's not a bad guy at all, and his description of his experiences in jail weren't all that horrible. He is also very attracted to women, but he's only been married once in his life.

This was a very fascinating book. I highly recommend it to you die-hard fans of the old rock-and-roll heroes.

By the way, sorry that it has once again been so long since my last book review. I've read a lot of books since the last one, though most of them have been graphic novels that I read in one sitting in the library or bookstore: Cirque Du Freak volume 4 and Children of the Sea volumes 1 and 2. I also read a book called Here comes Everybody, a non-fiction book about how people are able connect much easier with todays technology. They can get organized and make friends without physically going anywhere. Anyway, it was a pretty good read, but I just kept putting off reviewing it.

I also finished reading an excellent writing book quite recently, called Spilling Ink, by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter. It was published just this year and was extremely helpful (unlike a most writing books I've read before). It got the writing wheels in my head turning again, at least. In my opinion, this is definitely something I would read over and over again, because it has great advice, and anyway, the writing is really awesome.

Recent books I've finished

I've been reading a lot of books in the last few days and I don't want to go through the trouble of giving each their own separate review, so here's all of them in one go.

Home, by Julie Andrews ~ I find it pretty interesting how I'm starting to get as attracted to reading biographies as I am to fiction. It's extremely educational, because you get to find out who the person behind all the fame is, what their family life was like and their whole outlook on life. Although this book doesn't cover her entire life, just from when she was born to when Walt Disney asked her to play Mary Poppins, it was written very well (apparently her daughter helped her write it ^_^) and I liked it very much.

The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book, by Bill Watterson ~ An adorable collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. I've seen these characters in the funny pages from time to time, but reading a whole book of them, I've got a much better idea of them. It's about a 6-year-old boy with the craziest imagination (Calvin), whose beloved stuffed tiger (Hobbes) is his imaginary best friend, like a big brother to him. They tease each other, cheat in their little games, and Hobbes likes to pounce on Calvin when he comes home from school, but it's plain to see that they are the best of friends. I like the strips when Calvin is the central character, though. The line drawn between his imagination and reality is very thin indeed. He can be the heroic Spaceman Spiff, and he sees his parents, teachers and his neighbor Susie (a girl across the street who probably likes him) as terrifying aliens holding him captive that he must escape from. What a world this kid lives in.

Your Erroneous Zones, by Wayne Dyer ~ I recently finished reading this with my sister, Annette. It took us a long time to read, since we read a chapter out loud to each other a day, and we didn't exactly read it every day. But I'm proud to have finished it, so I'm listing it here. While this is a very educational book, I wouldn't recommend it for light reading. It talks about identifying the negative behaviors you may have put on yourself over the course of your life and getting rid of them.

I also wanted to say that I'm close to finishing these 2 books: Here Comes Everybody, a book about how the World Wide Web and its myriad tools have changed the way people interact with each other, and the Visual Quickstart Guide Annette and I are studying to learn about Illustrator CS4. The latter book has been extremely helpful to my sister and I.

I have no idea what books I'm going to follow up with after these. I wonder if anyone actually reads these reviews. It appears that for the entire year of 2010 I've only gotten 1 comment a month. Am I just crying out to an empty area of cyberspace? Hmm, maybe what I've been reading lately isn't that interesting to other people... Well, this blog is meant for me to keep track of the books I read over the years, so I don't care whether I get commented on or not. It may give my ego a little boost if someone decides to let me know that I pointed out a good read to them, but I don't need it.

I never thought I'd say this, but perhaps there's more to life than just reading book after book...

Book News #3

Since I went to the library yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to post some more book news. We checked out a ton of DVDs, but also plenty of books. Before I get into that, I want to say that since The Compound, I've kind of decided to give reading fiction a bit of a break, and I'll be reviewing more non-fiction type books.

Currently I'm reading Dean and Me, which is a biography that Jerry Lewis, one of my favorite comedians, wrote about his years working with his straight man partner, Dean Martin, before they broke up. I'm pretty much halfway through, and it's really great so far. My sister and dad said I just had to read this as soon as I was done with all my fantasy reads, so I did. You won't have to wait too long for a review of this. ^_^

Once again in a library visit, I tackled a graphic novel in one sitting. It was the second Alex Rider book, and I think it's amazing that I was able to find it so soon after the first one! I wonder if I'll be so lucky to find the third graphic novel... I kind of doubt it. But anyway, this book was just as exciting as the one before it. It was very fun to pass my time in the library reading through Alex's adventure. It was interesting to me when he got his hair cut for the mission. He looked so different! But cool. The villain was really creepy, you just hate him. So weird how he cloned himself... the ending is quite a twist too.

Okay, now I'll get to the books we checked out that I'm very likely going to read in the near future. After the Martin & Lewis book, I'm not sure what I'll read. Annette has other non-fiction books recommended for me that I want to get to, but she decided to check this book out for herself. Since she and I have developed semi-different reading tastes, I don't know how she picks books. Random, I guess. =P Well, it's called Send, and it seems to be all about the subject of emailing, which I think is very interesting. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to it next.

Okay, now this book was NOT checked out for a bit of light reading. In fact, it's quite serious. It's a how-to book on how to use the computer program Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. All part of Annette and my digital education. We've gone through these type of books before, for learning Flash or Photoshop or how to write PHP code. We think of it like a 90-day college course. I'm not sure when this class will start for us, but if I happen to pick up some really cool tips from it, I'll try to share them with you. Or I'll just give a status update of how far we are into it.

This last book I checked out for myself. I've had my eye on it for a while on what I call the "Treasure Trove shelf". I probably won't get to it for a long time, but it makes me feel good just to have this kind of book nearby. I'll try to make this one last. Reincarnation, by Suzanne Weyn. I've never heard of her, but she seems to have written a couple interesting books. This opinion is purely based on the synopses on the inside covers, you understand. From what I gather, this one seems to be about a boy and a girl who keep running into each other through reincarnation. They never recognize each other in their different lives, but they feel the same strange attraction. I don't know anything beyond that, but I have a strong feeling that this one will be a keeper. ^_^

Before I wrap this book news post up, I'd like to add that I am also currently reading a manuscript that my awesome friend Graham Bradley is letting me read and critique, Ghost Machines. I've read a couple other of his books, which were simply awesome, and I do believe he has a non-fiction book that is in the process of being published. ^_^ So lucky of him! Anyway, I haven't gotten that far, just 3 or so chapters, but I still think it's quite good. I only read it in my spare time though, so I don't know how quickly I'll finish it. I'll definitely be sure to let Graham know as soon as I do! ^_~

2 Awesome Books!

Okay, I'm really, really sorry for not writing about any books for weeks! I've been very busy, and the books I have been reading are actually really big and bulky, and I'm reading them at the same time! These two books are The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown (I am very close to finishing this, so a review will soon be in order, I expect) and Planet Simpson, by Chris Turner (This book is incredibly huge! But I love it, because it continues to feed my new obsession over the Simpsons. ^_^)

I have also been quite lucky and honored to be a beta-reader for my good friend, Graham. (I'm sorry to be taking so long, buddy! ~,~) Plus I've been having many thoughts and ideas on the story I will write for NaNoWriMo. (If anyone feels curious about what my ideas are, just comment and show your interest.) As you can see, I've got a lot of stuff on my mind presently.

But today I finished a couple of short, quick books that I really liked, so here is my review of both of them at the same time. First, I read Simpsons Comics Royale, a book that, obviously by the title, had Simpson comics in it. That was really funny. ^_^ Reading comics of the Simpsons is just about as good as watching the show. (My sibs have recently taken to watching short clips of Simpson episodes on hulu.com. Some of them are really hilarious!!!)

Besides the comics, dispersed within the book are page-long insights, commentary, and personal stories by Simpson creator, Matt Groening. (How is the guy's name pronounced? I automatically think it's groaning, but I don't think that's exactly it. =P) Matt sounds like a really fun guy.

I think my favorite comic in the book was "Lisa's Adventures in Wordland," which was a spoof on Alice's adventures in Wonderland. Very funny. I hope to find more Simpson comic books soon. ^_^

The other book I read was one I picked up from the library yesterday, but finished today in only one sitting! It's called Dancing the Dream, by Michael Jackson. Yep. That's right. MICHAEL JACKSON WROTE A BOOK!!! (He actually wrote another book before this one, Moonwalk, which I hope to read very soon, because that book is biographical!) I loved Dancing the Dream! It was a book full of pictures of Michael and poetry that he wrote!!! Oh my god, if he wasn't already a poet in the way he wrote his awesome songs, he has become my favorite writer of poems ever!

Michael has such a way with words in this book. Most of his poems are prose and stories. They don't necessarily rhyme. But whenever he does choose to rhyme, the result is just... beautiful. No other word can do it justice. I love Michael Jackson's poems. It's incredible that I found yet another reason to love him. ^,^ I wish he'd written more.

Actually, I was a little vexed to discover that the copy I read was missing many pages, throughout the book! Where did these pages go? And what was written on them?! I can see that I will someday have to get another copy of this book, so that I can read it in it's entirety.

I would really like to share my favorite poems of his, so you can share in my incredible enthusiasm, but they are a bit too long, and I don't want to just post excerpts, because you simply must read the whole poem for the full effect. So I suppose I can't do anything more than hope that this review has inspired you to look for this book in your local store or library, because if you happen to be a big Michael Jackson fan, like I am, you just HAVE to see the incredible things Michael has to say to us.

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.