Fruits Basket

Now here's an anime/manga series that has captured my imagination, heart and soul. ^_^

Fruits Basket is about a high school girl named Tohru Honda, an orphan who finds herself living with a very strange, but otherwise quite friendly family, the Sohmas, who have an unusual curse: whenever someone of the opposite gender hugs them, they turn into one of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

A fascinating premise, to be sure. But that's not what sold it for me. What got me hooked was the characters, all their incredibly unique personalities and the way they bounce off each other in often very funny ways. You can't help falling in love with every one of them. Like Tohru, who is one of the very sweetest and nicest people you will ever meet! There's quiet and pleasant Yuki, the rat, and hot-tempered Kyo, the cat, who both can't stand each other (Obviously, being cat and mouse.)

Move aside, Bella, Edward and Jacob. These 3 main characters are a love triangle done right! Both guys harbor secret crushes for Tohru, but she doesn't play favorites with either of them. She's pretty oblivious about their feelings, actually, but she plainly loves the pair of them. I wish she would pick one of them, but I find myself torn with who I want to root for sometimes. They both have such great qualities! That's how it should be, I think. Make the readers as unable to choose as the main character is.

The other characters are funny and very interesting as well. The adventures they have together are really awesome, with Tohru always learning more about the members of the Sohma zodiac along the way. I've seen the entire anime show, which was wonderful and full of heart, and have currently finished 12 volumes of the manga series. There's plenty still to go, though. Hopefully I'll let you know my thoughts when I finish up the manga up.

I can't recommend this series highly enough. It's got everything. Humor, romance, adventure, romance, mystery, valuable life lessons... Just trust me. If you're a fan of either anime OR manga, there will be something in it for you.

Bye for now!
Bettina

Hi guys. ^_^

Wow, has it really been almost 4 months since I posted here? I guess I have been a lot busier than I thought... Geez, does time fly!

I don't exactly read as much as I used to, but some of the stuff I've been getting into is fantastic. I got really tired of reviewing every single book I got my hands on, so from now on, I'll only give the Internet the best of my opinions.

I'm still reading the books of the Old Testament, but I'm glad I decided to stop reviewing those. (Actually, to be honest, I only picked it back up after a month of not reading them at all. Embarrassing. :P) I'm done with Samuel 1 now, so it's Samuel 2 next.

No review here, just me giving an announcement that I'm back, if you guys will have me. ^_^ But I do hope to bang out a few posts today. I've got 3 things I really want to share with the Internet that you will probably see very: The Fruits Basket series, John Green's books, and Farenheit 451.

Bye for now!
Bettina

Chobits, plus the rest of Absolute Boyfriend

I finished the manga series of Absolute Boyfriend online quite some time ago, and I've been wanting to do this review for a while. It's okay though, because I recently finished another series very much like it, so I'll just talk about both of them.

Absolute Boyfriend, as I explained in my most recent post, is about a girl who buys a hot robot who is designed and programmed to be her ideal boyfriend. She has to keep his true identity a secret from everyone while sorting through her feelings for this robot and her old childhood guy-friend who has a crush on her, but is afraid to admit it. Hilarity ensues. I loved reading this 6-book series immensely, due to the colorful characters and great premise.

In the last few volumes, however, some of the scenarios got a little crazy, things started happening without much explanation or reason, and the characters made decisions that didn't make sense for me. The ending is sort of predictable, but in a way, I guess it was satisfying... In any case, it was a cheerful, light-hearted romp that I, personally, liked a lot.

I'm still watching the Japanese tv show, or the dorama, based on the series, and enjoying that a lot. Currently I'm on episode 7 now. It keeps some elements from the manga intact, but the characters are largely different from their counterparts, and for some reason there's an emphasis on the characters trying to make the perfect desert? I guess because the setting is a company that produces fancy pastries.... Anyway, it's an entirely unique experience, one that I'm very much enjoying.

Now for the other series, Chobits. This was something my sister Annette came across when we were looking for other manga to get into. This is a very quick series to get through, at 8 volumes long, and carries the same themes of people falling in love with human-shaped robots. There are a few key differences, though. For one thing, it takes place in the future, and humans and their robots, or persecoms, live side by side. So the main character doesn't really have to keep it secret that he has a robot. Oh, and the story is told from a guy's point of view, not a girl's. The hero, Hideki, who is young and broke, finds a cute, long-haired, child-like female persecom lying around in the trash. Since they're so advanced, persecoms are very expensive. Excited at his good fortune, he takes her home and "turns her on". (Warning, younger readers: this carries a very innuendous double meaning. =P)

At first, the persecom seems broken, and the only thing she can say is "Chi", so that's what he names her. She has no memory, no data at all, but it soon becomes apparent that she's an incredibly powerful machine with unknown function. She has learning capabilities, though, so Hideki goes around teaching Chi everything, all while juggling cram school and his job. Even though everyone says it's impossible, that persecoms don't have emotions and only do as they're programed to, Chi slowly becomes aware that she is in love with Hideki. And even though he knows full well that she is a machine, Hideki can't help but fall in love with his persecom as well, as many have before him.

I think this series goes a lot deeper into this moral dilemma than Absolute Boyfriend did. Perhaps because, in this world, robots are more common-place. But why do people dream of making and using machines that are shaped like us, only smarter and more perfect in appearance? What happens when you develop feelings for those robots? Can you call it love, or are you just deluding yourself? How about the robot? Is it doing everything you ask, trying to please you, because it was programed that way, or because it actually wants you to be happy?

One thing this also gets deeper into is mature content, especially the anime. I don't want to point any fingers, but perhaps it's because it's largely taken from the male mentality? I don't know, Hideki sure notices how attractive his landlady, teacher and coworker are, and thinks a lot to himself how cute Chi is, but how he shouldn't be thinking of her that way, since she's a machine.

This manga was also turned into a tv show, only an animated one, much to my pleasure. The anime is hilarious, colorful, great quality, and very true to the story and characters with only minor changes. I've seen 3 episodes out of 26, and it is fantastic. I highly recommend both the manga and the anime. I can't find a good preview for the Chobits anime, but here's a collection of some of the show's funniest moments, to pique your interest. I'm sure you'll get quite a kick out of it.

Absolute Boyfriend

One of the most fabulous manga series I've had the pleasure of reading yet! I first learned about it when I saw the recommendations list in the back of the Sand Chronicles books.

Our heroine, a high-school girl named Riiko, is unlucky in love and doesn't have a boyfriend. She meets a strange business man who directs her to a website where she can customize her "ideal boyfriend". Thinking it's a game or something, she actually ends up ordering such a "figure" from this website, and the very next day she gets a special delivery at her door... a totally hot and naked guy! O_O She finds out that he is actually the robot she ordered, and when she "activates" him (gives him a kiss) and he comes to life, he brightly claims that he is now her boyfriend!

In my personal opinion, the robot boyfriend, whom Riiko names Night, is just a fabulous character!!! For one thing, he's absolutely cute (just take a look at him! ^_^). He reminds me of what a certain friend of mine looks like in manga form. To me, Night really is the perfect guy. He's sweet, caring, totally romantic, protective, really smart, has super-hero strength and agility, and all he thinks about is making his girl, Riiko, happy. He's always got this playful, innocent attitude and the most adorable smile on his face! You almost forget that he's not really human, but a robot specifically designed to be the perfect boyfriend.

Of course, there's also Riiko's childhood friend and school-mate, Soushi, for Night to contend with. I like Soushi well enough. He's like the underdog, a total contrast to Night. He's the strong, silent, studious type. He's a good friend to Riiko, and gets jealous when he finds she has a new boyfriend. It's a great love-triangle!

I read the first volume for real, but then I found a website where I could read the rest of the manga online, and so far I've read the 2nd and 3rd volumes, which are equally awesome! I believe there's 6 volumes in all, so I'll probably finish this very quickly.

Just warning you: as you can probably see from the cover of the first book... Night likes to get naked. O_o He's always asking Riiko when they can, uh, do it. So this series may not be for young readers who haven't gotten the talk about the birds and the bees. =P But for the rest of us, it's totally awesome. ^_^

Something else I was happy to discover is that Absolute Boyfriend was developed into a Japanese drama series, called "Zettai Kereshi". I've seen 2 episodes of it so far, and it is amazing! Just warning you though, the drama differs wildly from the manga, like a ton! For example, the characters aren't in high-school; they're young adults in a business setting. For another, Night is much more of a robot, and more easily damaged. He's not as hot as he seems in the manga, but he's cute enough. The character of Soushi is completely unrecognizable. He's not Riiko's childhood friend, but her lazy boss who just starts developing feelings for her.

But really, I'm watching this drama for the main actress who plays Riiko. She is just adorable! Also for the novelty of the thing. I love seeing a foreign TV show, listening to the characters speak Japanese (I read the English subtitles), and getting a little taste of their amazing culture! Anyway, it's an interesting story. What if you had a robot boyfriend?

Take a look at the trailer for the series, and see if it doesn't hook you into it.

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.

1 James Patterson, 2 Jeffrey Browns, and 3 Hinako Ashiharas

Well, it's been over a month since my last book review post. I'm not sure I'll do a great job reviewing here, but I just wanted to keep a record that these are some books I've read recently, that are really good. You might want to look into them.

For example, I read the 7th book in the Maximum Ride series, "Angel", a few weeks ago. I wanted to review it much earlier, honest I did! I just kept forgetting to get to it. Sorry. =( But it was definitely an awesome book, just like the rest before it. I thought it was weird that it was called "Angel", though, because the character Angel didn't seem to be that important in the story, in my opinion. It's still mostly Max's story. Anyway, there was great love-triangle romance going on, some awesome action scenes, and it ends on a cliffhanger, so I'm going to look forward to the next book in the series, which I hear is called "Nevermore". I wonder if it'll be the last adventure...

I believe I read these over a week ago. Pretty recent. This author, Jeffrey Brown, has a very fascinating art style in his graphic novels. Extremely sketchy and cartoony, but the characters still seem like real people. Both books are based on true stories from Jeffrey's life, about his relationships with old girlfriends. "Clumsy", his first book, is very non-linear and all over the place. Really random. But I still enjoyed it. I appreciated, though, that "Unlikely", the prequel about his first girlfriend, had more of a definite time-line that I could follow. I didn't like her as much as the girlfriend in "Clumsy", but it was a good book.

Warning: both books contain very mature material. Not for young readers' eyes at all, if you know what I mean.

Finally, the last time I was at the library, I was scanning the shelves for a good manga I could get into, and came upon this charming series: Sand Chronicles. I read the first volume in one sitting at the library, and liked the story so much that just before we left, I grabbed the 2nd and 3rd volumes and checked them out. I'm quite happy I did. ^_^

Basically, it's a coming-of-age series that follows a young Japanese girl, Ann, on her trials, tribulations, and budding romance. It starts off when she's 12, when she and her mother move from Tokyo to a small village. Ann's mom dies suddenly, so her grandparents take care of her, and the friends she makes in that village help her cope. There's the hot-headed boy, Daigo, who Ann kind of has feelings for, and a brother and sister, Fuji and Shiika, who come from a wealthy family.

After that, there are lots of stories, such as Ann and friends going to a summer camp together, her moving back with her father to Tokyo for high-school, and her romantic long-distance relationship with Daigo. Fuji, who is more the quiet, strong-silent type, seems to have a crush on Ann, and near the end of Book 3, it seems Shiika has a thing for Daigo. Needless to say, this Shojo manga is heavy on the romance. Personally, as I grow older and more mature, I really like that in a series. ^,^ There is also a lot of neat Japanese culture throughout the books, which is one of things I love most about reading manga, or watching anime.

I think there are 10 books in the Sand Chronicles. I'm sure I'll glide through all of them in a heart-beat, when I get my hands on them. Lol.

Dramacon 1 & 2, by Svetlana Chmakova

I started reading Book #1 of Dramacon in my library, just to pass the time. A few pages in, however, the artwork and story and characters drew me in so much that when we had to leave and I hadn't finished reading the manga yet, I was sad. (As a rule, I don't check out graphic novels, since I usually read them so fast that there's little to no point in taking them home with me.)

Lucky for me, I was able to find a website where I could the rest of the manga online, so I was able to finish it at home! ^_^ Of course, it was kind of annoying how slowly every freakin' page had to load. I read the sequel as well, and thankfully I was able to read 2 pages with every load. I would have read the next one, but it doesn't look as if it's available online right now. No matter. I'll just review these two books here.

What a funny story! It's about a shy teenage girl named Christie who goes to her first anime convention with her friends, who are con-veterans. (I've never been to an Anime Con myself, so I could totally relate with her.) She has a boyfriend, Derek, but he doesn't pay much attention to her. He'd rather make goo-goo eyes at the hot costumed chicks. During the convention, Christie keeps bumping into this handsome and friendly (but mysterious) guy who wears shades all the time, named Matt, and she develops a crush on him.

She also meets a Manga author/artist who is a huge hero of hers, which I loved, because it makes me think of when I'll someday meet some of my own heroes. I hope I can be half as lucky as Christie in my encounters. There's a lot I'm not mentioning here, like the other friends Christie makes and all the drama that unfolds between her and Matt, but I'll leave that for you to find out.

---

Dramacon #2 was also very nice to read. Christie comes back to the same Anime Con a year later, graduated from high school, with a new haircut, and brings a new friend, Beth, who is the noob this time instead of her. (I love it when stories come full circle. ^,^) Together they make some new friends, but Christie also runs into Matt again, who she hasn't talked to since they said goodbye... and he has a girlfriend! O,o

I liked this book okay, but was sad that the story didn't focus so much on the romance between Christie and Matt than it did on Beth and her dreams to be an artist. See, she and Christie make a comic together, and they try to sell it at the Con. Christie writes it, and Beth does the artwork. Beth gets offered for a job at a manga publishing company, but she's hesitant to take the job. Something about her mother not wanting her to be a starving artist... I don't know, I wish there was more Christie and Matt! Because I loved the romance between them in Book 1. ^,^ Oh well. It was still a good read.

I've heard that the 3rd book is a little bit better, so I'll keep my eye out for it. I definitely liked this manga series a lot, and highly recommend it. It was funny, had a romance I could root for, and had very entertaining drama.

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.

Boston Books

It seems that since coming to Boston I've been a little behind on book reviews, so here I go.

The first awesome book I read was finished in one sitting at the Newbury Comics store in Faneuil Hall. Flight Volume 7. I love the Flight series. Every time I read a new volume, I think it's the best collection of short story strips ever. This time is no different. There are some very talented artists and story-tellers that contributed to this book. If you haven't picked a Flight book before, I sorely suggest you do. It's a fantastic reading experience. I'm not sure how many Flight books there will end up being, but I hope Kazu Kibuishi keeps printing more!

I finished this book next. Another collection of Calvin and Hobbes. We got it from the library. So adorable. ^_^ What a hilarious dynamic duo those two are.

The library that we go to in Boston is awesome! It has a big teen section with LOTS of graphic novels, and comfortable chairs to read them in. I've probably whiled away hours reading GNs, but this book, Earthboy Jacobus, is one I remember the most and I think most deserves mention and review. I once read another book by the same author called Tommysaurus Rex, but that was before I wrote a book blog. I liked the familiar art style, and the story was intriguing. It was about a boy from some kind of alien parallel universe who somehow ends up on Earth, and an ex-army guy adopts him and raises him like his own son. The boy, Jacobus, has a weird black mark on his hand. There is some coming of age and a big alien battle near the end. For me, it was a good story, and I liked it.

This is a book I checked out from the library. It's a collection of 15 short stories from the author of Howl's Moving Castle and House of Many Ways. I haven't finished it yet, though I only have a few more stories to go until I'm done and can give it a proper review. But for now I really must say that Diana Wynne Jones is quite the creative writer. I love reading short story collections like this. They give me so many ideas, and lots of inspiration. They make me want to do better than just writing poems. I can probably write a decent short story, if I only set my mind to it. Anyway, I highly recommend this book. It gives you such an inspiration boost. Look for a review of this very soon.

Oh! Wait, wait! I almost forgot to mention something important! In less than 2 weeks, on August 31st, I'm going to be meeting another famous author! The amazing Suzanne Collins, the genius behind the Hunger Games trilogy, is coming to our library to promote Mockngjay, which is coming out in stores very, very soon, I believe. I am very excited for this event. How incredibly fortunate that I'll still be in Boston at that time. ^_^

The only thing is that it was mentioned that Suzanne won't exactly be signing books, per se, because something's wrong with her wrist, I think. But she'll be stamping each book, and I believe she'll allow pictures to be taken, so that's great. I can still prove I met her. ^_^ The event will be "First come, first serve" though, so I don't know how early I'll have to go to insure that I get to meet her. I hope I can talk to her and ask her questions. Shaking her hand will be awesome, at the very least.

That's it, I guess! Until next time, my fellow book lovers. ^_~

Calamity Jack, by Shannon Hale

What a nice follow-up to Rapunzels Revenge this book was. I read it all in one fell swoop, and it was fantastic. As I predicted, Jack was more the focus of this story. New characters were introduced, hilarity ensues and it seems that everyone lives happily ever after. (Although the last frame is highly suspect. Is it a cliffhanger? Does it indicate a future sequel? I have no idea.)

I liked the prologue, Jack's back-story. Very informative. It flowed right into the present time pretty smoothly. It's funny that Rapunzel still kept her long braid lassos even after she'd had her hair cut off in the last book. I liked the villain, that mean old giant. He was just as horrible as Rapunzel's witch mother, and I liked seeing him go down in the end. I definitely recommend reading this graphic novel, as well as the one that precedes it and any that will succeed it.

I didn't get to finish this book (we had to return it to the library), but I though I might as well mention it. It's quite a well written self-help book that was originally written by Dr. Phil, and this book was adapted by his own son. Pretty darn cool. Very good life strategies indeed are included in this volume. All you really need to know are the 10 principles that are covered in it:

1 ~ You either get it, or you don't

2 ~ You create your own experience

3 ~ People do what works

4 ~ You can't change what you don't acknowledge

5 ~ Life rewards action

6 ~ There is no reality, only perception

7 ~ Life is managed, not cured

8 ~ We teach people how to treat us

9 ~ There's power in forgiveness

10 ~ You have to name it before you can claim it

If you'd like to learn about and understand these principles in better detail, then read this book.

Cirque Du Freak #2 & #3, by Takahiro Arai

When I visited Borders today, I remembered how much I'd enjoyed reading the first Cirque Du Freak manga novel (see link here), so I looked for the next in the series, found it, and settled myself down against the book shelf for another wild adventure with Darren Shan, half-vampire.

No sooner was I done reading book #2 when I got up, found #3 and sat down again, plunging right through the next story and finished that in a wink as well. If my speed in reading these books is any indication of how much I liked them, then I loved them! And I really do. ^_^

By now I believe I've gotten used to the way manga books read from right to left. No matter which direction the reading goes, the stories are super-awesome! After Darren becomes a vampire, he joins the Cirque Du Freak and makes a couple loyal and true friends, like Evra the snake boy, and Sam, a young out-spoken boy who reminds me somewhat of the character Chuck from James Dashner's Maze Runner. Unfortunately, just like Chuck, Sam dies a very noble and sad death. ~,~ (Sorry for that spoiler!)

In the third book, a year passes by before Darren and Evra have their next adventure. The reader learns the difference between vampires and vampaneeze and Darren gets his first romantic interest. A little interesting how that springs about, actually. I don't know how much I liked his girlfriend. But anyway, the book ends very well, and I liked it.

I got to read just a little bit of book #4, like 30 pages, before it was time to leave the book store. From what I read so far, this looks like a great adventure as well. 6 years pass between novels this time (half-vampires age 5 times slower than humans, so he still looks like a teen. Convenient, huh?). For some reason he has to go to this vampire meeting, and I left off of the part where he and his mentor, Crepsley, are up in the mountains and meet up with a vampire General, Gavner Purl. He seems like a good character. He's a friend of Crepsley, anyway.

I can't wait to get back to Borders and read the rest! The sad thing is that I think either this book or the 5th one is the last in the manga series, and in the actual series there's, like, a dozen books. I wonder if, when I finish the manga series, it'll be easy to pick up with the regular books. Well, in any case, I recommend this graphic novel series a lot!

Twilight: The Graphic Novel, by Young Kim

I went to the library today and I happened to find this in the graphic novel section. How can one possibly resist? ^_^ I read the entire thing in one sitting. In one word, it's... incredible. I know the story pretty much inside and out, having read the book and seen the movie a couple times, but reading the graphic novel seemed to give me a whole different experience. I liked it. I really, really liked it.

The artwork is fantastic. The characters are drawn very well, a mix between what they look like in the movie and how I imagine them when I read about them, and the background was very realistic, almost like a photograph sometimes. The style just really appealed to me, and that's good, because when I pick up a graphic novel, if I don't like the way the art looks and the story doesn't hold my interest, I won't read it. But this was amazing.

Really, this book almost made me feel the same things as I did when I read Twilight itself. I was pretty disappointed when I found out it ended smack in the middle. I hope the next volume comes out soon...

Also while I was at the library, I picked up a very special book that I'd reserved not too long ago. Moonwalk, by Michael Jackson himself! I can't wait to read this and share my thoughts about it with everyone! ^_^ This will undoubtedly be a review you won't want to miss.

This is the super-awesome drawing that Michael actually drew at the front of his book. His self-portrait. ^_^ What an artist!

A couple books

Okay, I need to be a LOT better at posting book reviews after I finish them. It would take way too long to write proper reviews for each of these books, so I'm going to do it in one whole shebang. One thing all these books have in common? They receive a hearty thumbs up from me, but for different reasons.
I finished the Michael Jackson biography first, and, since I'm such a huge fan of him, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. ^_^ Funny enough, I got to reading it while I was researching for my Michael Jackson Tribute speech for Toastmasters (see this link). This book had so much! There were chapters about his 2 marriages, a chapter with a list of most of the notable awards he won over the years, even a few chapters that were transcripts of interviews he did, like the one he did in 1993 with Oprah Winfrey. I liked those chapters best. ^_^ I like what people say about him well enough, but anything Michael says just makes me admire him even more. I highly recommend this to MJ fans.

Num8ers was quite a fascinating read too. I found out about it because of a review from the Latiener Gang. They certainly picked a winner, in my opinion. It's about a girl who knows when people are going to die by seeing the numbers of their date when she looks in their eyes. It's a pretty great love story, but (and I'm sorry to spoil it for you) it ends sadly. Like the Latieners say, the ending will really surprise you. I'll warn you though, this book's kind of for mature readers, if you catch my meaning.

Lastly, there's the Elmo book. Now, I'm not a really big fan of Sesame Street, let alone Elmo, but this book was very informative, because it was written by a guy who was right behind the scenes of things. It's mostly a biography of the life of Kevin Clash, the voice and puppeteer of Elmo. His story is pretty sweet, and it made me think about how many people are actually affected by the famous little red muppet monster.

There's actually one more book I wanted to mention. I read it in Borders very quickly the other day. It's a manga graphic novel for Cirque Du Freak. I know a movie of this came out just last year, and I've been slightly curious about the story for a while. I'm not really used to manga, since you have to read from the right end of the book to the left end, but as graphic novels go, I liked it. ^_^ It comes in a whole series, and I look forward to going through all the rest.

And I promise, the next book I finish will get an immediate review. Peace out!

Some Graphic Novels I've read

I love graphic novels, but usually I read them so fast and in one sitting, in the library or in the bookstore, that I doubt whether or not they should count in my book count or not. Well, last night I read a really cool graphic novel, so I decided that now would be as good a time as any to bring up some of the books I've read this year that I neglected to review.

First, there is Zot. I read this in my Borders, on the first Friday of the year, I believe. Well, it was a Friday. Anyway, I was attracted to the book right away, because of it's author, Scott McCloud. This guy has written a bunch of other books: Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics. And guess what? All those books are written in a comic format! It's really cool to be learning about comics as you're reading them. So I read all of these a couple years ago, and when I saw this book, I quickly picked it up and read as much as I could before we had to leave. I couldn't finish it, unfortunately (I'll have to wait until we go back to Borders again), but here's what I picked up.

Zot is about 2 worlds. There's our Earth, where teenage girl Jenny (I think that's her name) lives, and then there's an alternate Earth, where there are flying cars and robots and world peace, where the boy nicknamed Zot lives. Even if he lives in an idyllic reality though, Zot's world has supervillains, and he's the hero who saves the day with his rocket boots and gadgets and boundless optimism. He never loses on his world. At the beginning of the book, I immediately think I'm missing something, because it's from Jenny's point of view, and it seemed as if they were already tentative boyfriend girlfriend, and she knew about his world, but she was missing him because he hadn't shown up for a while. But I kind of got up to speed, and there's cool saving the world fights, and Zot kind of realizes that on our Earth, he doesn't always win and stop the bad guy. Like I said, I'd have to read more to find out what happens, but I'm definitely going to pick this book up next chance I get.

It was probably sometime last week when I read this book, Dead High Yearbook. It was at the library, and I read it all in one shot. This graphic novel was... okay. Not something I'd rave about or recommend to everybody, but the stories were kind of good, and I really liked the artwork. See, I wouldn't be reading any graphic novel if I didn't like the look of it's artwork. This actually seemed to be a bunch of different styles, because it was by different artists. It was a collection of stories about the supernatural deaths of some high school students. It reminded me a little of the Twilight Zone or something. I wonder if there will be any other books like this in the future. I think it hinted at the end that there were more, but maybe those stories won't be told. I don't know. I don't need to get my hopes up.

Finally, the last book I want to talk about. I read this, too, at the library, in just one sitting. The art attracted me immediately, plus I remembered that a friend had once recommended the series to me. (Thanks Rainy! ^_~) It was a graphic novel adaptation of Alex Rider, Stormbreaker. Really a cool story. It takes place in England, and it's about this teen boy named Alex Rider, whose uncle is a secret agent, but Alex doesn't know it. One day the uncle is killed, and Alex finds out that all his life he's been trained to one day take his uncle's place. It's funny, because the first thing he says when he discovers the spy headquarters is, "Is this Hogwarts?" He gets all these gadgets and, predictably, uses them all in the course of the story to defeat the villain and his evil plot to take over the world.

In graphic novel form, I thought the story was really entertaining and funny. It was like when I read the graphic novel to the first Pendragon book, and found that I loved the series! Later I discovered that there are a couple graphic novels that come after this one, so I might find these and go through the first 3 books in the series that way. I don't know if I want to read the actual books. I might, but I won't count on it. There is also a movie of Stormbreaker, which I've posted a trailer to, but I'm really hesitant to watch it. Since it was a graphic novel, it was fun to notice all the scenes I'd read about when I saw them in the preview, but I've heard that the film actually isn't that good. It's a little too cartoony, and the believability of it flies out the window. It's an awesome story in book form, though not in a live action movie.

I'll try to be a lot better at reviewing the graphic novels I read in the future! I promise.

Coming up next, very soon: Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde.