I'm back again.

Sorry for skipping out for about 2 weeks. I feel a little guilty about shirking my reviewing responsibilities. Not because I think I'm disappointing any readers, mind you (I stopped worrying about that a long time ago.) I just care because if I'm not constantly vigilant, I won't remember all the books I read this year.

So here are the 3 brand new posts I put up today. Graphic Novels, Short Stories, and Nightlight. Please enjoy them!

Nightlight, by The Harvard Lampoon

This book is freakin' hilarious! A complete parody of the Twilight Saga, this thin parody will give you a barrel of laughs with every page turn. Seriously, I dare you to try reading it aloud and NOT feel the urge to giggle. XD

The characters are Belle Goose and Edwart Mullen. (Clever names, are they not?) Belle is waaaay crazy and self-absorbed. She doesn't make any sense with her ramblings and thought-processes, but that doesn't stop her from being funny. When she catches sight of pale, handsome, but terribly geeky Edwart, she is positive that he is a vampire. (Is he? You are certainly left guessing until the very end.)

Since this book was little over a hundred pages, I finished it really quickly. Sometimes I read a few choice passages aloud to my brother and sister, and it never failed to make us l.o.l., or laugh out loud, if you prefer.

Yeah, so definitely check this out. It is as good as (if not better than) any of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books. Trust me. You won't be sorry reading this book. (Unless you die of laughter.)

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.

Girl Parts, by John M. Cusick

I saw this book in a bookstore in Boston, and I was fascinated by the synopsis on the inside flap. As soon as we got home to Florida, I reserved it from my library and in a few short days I had it in my hands. I pretty much gobbled the whole thing in one day. Here's the story:

This robot girl, a Companion named Rose, is programmed to help "disassociated" David Sun make real, emotional connections with an "actual" person. An interesting proposal, since with all the internet stuff and texting and things of that nature, it would be easy for teens to get lost and forget what making friends and having boundaries really means. She has this thing called an Intimacy Clock inside her, which tells her when it's okay to touch her at certain points of the relationship. If you touch her inappropriately, she gives you an electric shock. Reward and punishment system.

However, it's easy to forget that Rose is really a machine, not a person. She may look like a girl, but she doesn't have everything that a girl has. *hint hint* When David discovers this, he pretty much dumps her, and she's left heartbroken. Well, the nearest thing a robot could call heartbroken, anyway. Luckily, Rose makes friends with a boy named Charlie, who is a sweet, real guy who doesn't share David's disassociative problem, though he is a little shy and a loner. But he really does care for her, even if she is a machine. In the end, Charlie helps Rose learn to move on and become her own person.

This story was interesting, but I do have a few gripes with it:

1: There's a lot of bad-boy stuff in here. Cursing, drinking, drugs, and all David thinks about is going around the bases with Rose. I mean, it's horrible how much he and his stupid friends treat girls like objects (although in Rose's case, she actually is an object, but still). Personally, I don't go for books like that. It doesn't set a very good example for real teenagers.

2: I wasn't totally convinced that Rose was, in fact, a robot. I don't know, perhaps if you're able to suspend your belief and imagine that there's a company in Japan (Sakora) that makes absolutely perfect androids that think and seem to act human, you can enjoy the story. But she acts and moves too much like a human. She was just too perfect, if you know what I mean. Her thought process had a bit of a technical side to it, but she still seemed to think like a real girl.

3: The ending really seemed to fall flat. Sorry to spoil it for you, but in the end, Rose simply disappears. I have no idea what happened to her. Maybe she was taken away by the Sakora people and decommissioned. Maybe she ran away and started a new life for herself, one without David or Charlie. (I don't see why she couldn't have stuck with Charlie, but then again, she is a robot.) So with Rose gone, both boys get new girlfriends that they're happy with and everyone lives happily ever after. Really John? Really?

In conclusion, I'd say this book may look appealing by the attractive cover, but don't be fooled by it. Your time will probably be better spent with another book entirely.

How They Met and other stories, by David Levithan

After I returned those Odd short story books to the library, I was scanning the shelves for another anthology that I could glean inspiration and learn from. (I want to write my own collection of short stories now. ^_^) So I found this. Now by the cover, it looked like this would certainly be my kind of book. I've tackled short stories about magic and odd things, and now I was ready to read short stories about love. Awesome!

What I didn't know, and what the inside cover didn't bother to tell me, was that about a third of the stories were about gay couples. O,o

Now I certainly don't have anything against gay people (one of my best friends is gay ^_~). It's just that I'm not used to reading from the perspective of a gay person. It was just... different for me. Hey, I wouldn't have minded if one or two stories were about gay couples, but we're talking about 7 out of 18 stories here. The very first three stories, in fact, were gay. So yeah, this kind of affected my opinion of the book as a whole in general.

To be fair though, the stories that were about straight couples were quite good. The author certainly kept me guessing. O,o He usually wrote in the first person, so it was a little hard to figure out sometimes whether it would turn out to be a gay story or a straight story. But I liked the guy's writing style. The fact that I bothered to finish this book shows that it wasn't all that bad of a reading experience.

Maybe this book was false advertising for me, personally, but don't let that stop you from picking this book up yourself. Who knows? Maybe you'll like it.

Demon Spawn, by *. ***** ******

I don't exactly know if I'm at liberty to discuss this, but if I get any complaints about it, ANY at all, I promise that I will take this post down in a heartbeat. I won't mention any names, except for the title of this fantastic book-to-be. I've just been bursting to share the news (if I may) that I recently finished my role as beta-reader to a novel called Demon Spawn. It was an amazing experience in every way. ^_^

I have served as a beta-reader for my friends more than once before, but this time I had the privilege to read and give my honest opinion on an established, quite popular author's manuscript! I received the book in installments of several chapters each, and he sent me the last couple chapters just before sending it out for his publisher to read. How did I get such an honor? I got connected through a very close blog friend who was thoughtful enough to recommend me highly to the author, because he was specifically looking for a "female teen reader" to give her take on the story.

I've been on this wild ride since early May, and now finally, after about 3 whole months, the author finished his writing and I finished reading. It was amazing! Now from the very beginning I promised him that I wouldn't share the story with anyone, so I can't say anything or give this book a proper review. But I will say this: Remember the name DEMON SPAWN. It is an incredibly awesome read you will NOT want to miss when it goes public. That is all.

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.

Jim Henson: The Works, by Christopher Finch

I remember taking this book out in the past, but not being really into it. Perhaps I just looked at the many pictures in it. (This book certainly has a LOT of pictures!) But this time around, I took a closer look. I read the entire thing cover to cover, even the little captions that go under the photos, and the profiles of the different Muppet characters, and bios on Jim Henson's colleagues and friends.

After reading this book, Jim Henson has definitely become one of my top 10 heroes. He did such amazing things in his lifetime, and ultimately changed the world! Besides being partly responsible for the success of Sesame Street and the Muppet show, and making incredible Muppet films, he did a lot of stuff that I was unaware of.

For example, in his college days, when he was just starting out, Jim and his future wife, Jane, did this TV show with puppets called "Sam and Friends". Kermit was one of the characters, only he wasn't actually a frog at that point. More of a lizard-like abstract character. Oh, and they did absolutely hilarious commercials with puppets! (Click this link for a collection of Wilkins Coffee spots. Wilkins and Wontkins are so funny!)

Jim Henson also made these incredible films that had nothing to do with any of his Muppet characters, but made great use of skilled puppetry and animatronics. I've seen 2 such movies, "The Dark Crystal" and "The Labyrinth", with my twin sister, and I thought they absolutely rocked! They are such great stories, and all the puppet characters seem so real and alive! Jim Henson was an absolute genius, just for helping to create these films alone.

The last thing I didn't know was the exact day Jim Henson that died. May 16, 1990. ~,~ It's sad that such a great guy like Jim had to die. But he left quite a legacy behind him, that's for sure. I highly recommend reading this book. Don't worry if the size of it appears daunting. Even looking at the pictures makes it all worth it. ^_^

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.

Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, by Ian Halperin

I've put off writing this for as long as I could. But on this blog, I normally pride myself on posting about ALL the books I read, whether I thought they were good or not. Honestly though, I wish that I could have un-read this particular book...

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty obsessed with the late Michael Jackson, which is why I try to reserve all the books about him I can from our library. His music is great, but what I really love is the person behind the music. He's my all time favorite hero. Or was. I'm not so sure anymore... this book has introduced some new thoughts and ideas into my head, thoughts I would gladly have gone without my entire life.

Before reading Unmasked, I'd had a vague knowledge that Michael had gotten into some court trouble, about molesting young boys or something, but I never believed that for a second. After his death I had seen so many of his music videos, interviews, and other footage of him on YouTube, so I thought I knew the real him. It just couldn't be in his nature to do something as wrong and disturbing as... doing that to kids. But this book gave me a big wake-up call, bringing to my attention all the details of these (to me) strange and mysterious stories.

I read about the 1993 scandal with Jordan Chandler (I absolutely hated his dad, the fake dentist. That guy was so evil and greedy!) and the 2003 one with Gavin Arvizo. It's simply unbelievable. Throughout learning about all the facts, I kept the idea that MJ was innocent, but if that's the case, then it's terrible how many people went to the tabloids and sold their lies for ginormous amounts of money. Even people who worked for Michael! And children! Michael always believed that children always told the truth, but these guys must have been forced by their parents to tell outrageous lies about their idol, just so they could be richer. It's almost enough to make you lose faith in humanity in general. ~,~ What was disgusting to me, especially, were the lies that were told using sodium amytal, a drug that is supposed to be a truth serum, but is actually proven to plant false memories that make people think they were abused by people.

I felt so sorry for Michael. But even if he was innocent on the sexual allegation counts, it was plain to see that he wasn't so innocent on other counts, such as getting addicted to drugs, and running into debt. It's just so sad, how he started to lose his touch, especially in the months leading up to This Is It. He got so sick, I don't know why he went ahead with it. Near the end, it actually seemed like he was suicidal, which is just so sad. He couldn't have possibly done 50 concerts, so he would rather have died than disappoint his fans.

In the beginning, the author, Ian Halperin, had been under the impression that Michael was guilty of the molesting charges, but by the end, with all the information he'd picked up, at least he saw that it wasn't all black and white. I've learned kind of the same thing. I will never believe that my hero, Michael Jackson, would do anything to hurt the children he loved, but he's not perfect. He made mistakes in his life too, being human, just like the rest of us. When I closed this book, I remember feeling a little... out of it. I thought I would never like Michael Jackson again! So much information in my head, I wish I had never learned any of it. Like they say, ignorance is bliss. I wish I was able to go back in time, to when my picture of Michael Jackson was untainted. But this cannot be so.

Happily, in the end, I am still one of Michael's biggest fans. His music is amazing; of that, there is plainly no doubt. And the inspiring values that he tried to instill in humanity... making peace in the world, working for a healthier planet, giving all that you've got, being more like a child, having real love... will never lose their strength or importance.

I hope those who read this will be able to give their thoughts on my latest read.

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...

Serafina67 *urgently requires life*, by Susie Day

OMG, this book was really cute and funny. I found it in the library on the Treasure Trove shelf (where else?) and started looking through it. Basically, it read like the blog of a 15-year-old girl who lives in England and has a lot to talk about. There were much misspellings and internet shorthand, or "IM-speak", but for a person who has been blogging for well over a year, it was easy for me to read.

I actually took quite a long time to read this, because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to check it out, with all the typical teenager drama there might be in it, so I only read it in installments whenever we came to the library. Eventually though, I felt it was okay for me to take it back home and finish it up (it only took one sitting 0,o).

So here's the story. Serafina67, a newbie blogger on ULife, decides she wants to have a few resolutions for the new year: Be completely honest and post almost every day, become skinnier (she has a slight weight problem), make her parents happier (they're divorced and Dad has a new girlfriend who he'll marry soon), make blog friends, and get a boyfriend. All these things she must accomplish before April 22nd, her magic Happiness Deadline date. It's not her birthday, but it's special to Serafina for another reason.

It's a little episodic, but only in the way that an actual blog in real life is episodic, so it was fine with me. The posts were even followed by comments, when there were any, so it felt like I was actually keeping up with an actual person. I loved that! The blog author herself, Serafina, is funny and intellectual, a little wild and self-deprecating at times, but really a character you could pretty much relate to. I enjoyed the fact that she wanted to write stories, or VTNs (Very Thrilling Novels). I don't know if she wanted to really go anywhere with them, because she kept dropping her stories, but still.

In addition to Serafina, there is a great cast of other funny voices in her blog: her faithful commenters. There's Patchworkboy (who actually ends up being her boyfriend! ^_^) and Daisy13 and Frantastica and a whole range of others. It makes the blog-format of the story so much more complete and real with comments. It's a wild ride with many twists and surprises (but of course, what is life but a wild and unpredictable ride?), and at the end there's an especially shocking revelation that you would never have guessed at if you were following the story. The end is definitely my favorite part.

If you like reading blogs, then I do believe you will enjoy reading this thoroughly entertaining blog in physical book form. (It makes me wish that I could turn my own blog into an actual book. If anyone comments, would you know if this is possible?)

Dull Boy, by Sarah Cross

Originally I'd intended for this book to be a very light read, but I went ahead and sped through it just like I'm usually prone to do. Once again, I dug up another little treasure. ^_^ Mostly the book reminded me of the movie Sky High, because it's about kids with super-powers and the main guy has super-strength and flight. But there are a lot of things that makes this book stand out in my mind as unique, and I really enjoyed myself. The characters "performed" quite well and the humor was pretty clever. A bit of bad language pops up occasionally, but I didn't mind it.

So the first thing that separates Dull Boy from Sky High is that there's no high school busting with super-kids. It's about a few rare teens who discover they have powers (who knows how or where they got them. It's not genetic) and strive to keep them a secret from their parents and society in general, while also trying to figure out how to use their powers for good. The boy, Avery, knows that he has to be very careful with how he uses his power. While strength is great for rescuing a kid from under a heavy car, it's not so cool to break your wrestling opponent's arm. Besides, you can only pass these incidents off as extreme adrenaline for so long. He also has to hide from his parents the fact that most every night he goes out and flies on patrol, on the lookout for crime, or some way he can do good and make himself useful, just like he imagines a real super-hero would. I mean, why would he have those powers if he wasn't meant to use them in some way?

This is where the story really picks up. He discovers that there are others just like him. There's Catherine, a moody cafe waitress with incredibly sharp nails, perfect balance and an affinity with cats, Darla, the proud genius who is the brains behind a modest club of super-friends, Sophie, who can will her body to stick to any flat service (yeah, a little weird, but useful) and Nicholas, whose power seems to be a bit more on the dark side, though he desperately wants to control his power and be good and not just cause destruction. Then there's this icy woman named Cherchette (saying it reminds me of Georgette) who offers to take Avery somewhere where he doesn't have to hide what he is. Better keep your eye on her. Also look out for Jacque, Cherchette's somewhat equally cold son, who seems to infiltrate Darla's super-group by being Sophie's boyfriend. Who knows what he's all about...

And that's pretty much all you need to know. Oh, except for the fact that as Dull Boy draws to a close, it suddenly turns out that the ending is very open-ended, so it very much appears that there will be a sequel. Awesome. Well, it'll probably take a while for the next book to come out, since this one came out just last year, but if I'm looking for another quick entertaining read sometime in the future, and the sequel is available, I'll have my eye on it. In the meantime, enjoy Dull Boy.

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.

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

I actually finished reading this late last night. Naturally, I was too tired to write a review, but from now on I'm going to do my best to, once I turn the last page of a given book, write a review immediately. I have to do what I can to fight my procrastinative nature (not sure that's a word, but whatever).

My reason for picking this book up is that I absolutely loved the animated film version, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. (I embedded a trailer at the bottom. Although the book wasn't bad, I think I would have been better off if I hadn't seen the movie beforehand, because I kept thinking of how awesome that story was, and the book just couldn't live up to it. ~,~

The book and the movie couldn't have been more different. Well, at least the beginning answered a lot of back-story questions I had while watching the movie. But everything that follows Sophie (the girl cursed with old age) entering and becoming a part of Howl's castle was absolutely nothing like I expected would happen. There are a couple added characters and scenes in the plot, and nearer the end I believe it became almost episodic. Like the Time Quake, the conclusion only came in the last chapter, and it was much too quick and happy to be entirely satisfying.

So my advice is to not necessarily read the book at all and just check out the movie, because that is truly awesome, engaging and rewarding story. However, if you're honestly curious and want to give the book a try (it isn't all that bad, after all), I suggest reading the story before you view it, because then you can appreciate how much better the movie is. This is rather than experiencing it the way I did, having the movie in my mind and getting let down by the book.

Posting this review has made me realize that I've forgotten to embed trailers of movies based on books I've read in a few reviews. I'm going to fix that now...

My 2009 Books

104 books this year. Can you believe it? I can't. Just look at this wall of book covers...

I've completed 6 series this year, and they are the Books of Ember, the Twilight Saga, Before the War, Once and Twice Upon Marigold, the John Lennon poem collections, the two Stargirls, and the two available Future Stories. Total books: 20

With these 6 series, Erec Rex, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Robert Langdon adventures, 13th Reality, 39 clues, and the Hunger Games, I only managed to read 2 books in each respective series. That makes 12 books in that category. (6 x 2, duh.)

All these books are part of a series, but I've only read 1 from each of them. In most cases, it's because it's only the 1st book in the series, but in a couple cases it's the 4th, or the 10th. 16 books.

All the graphic novels I've read: 22. Mostly thanks to a couple wonderful series, Bone and Flight.

Okay, all these novels are meant to stand on their own. As far as I know, anyway: 17

Nonfiction books: 14

And 1 book that Jacoby has reviewed that I didn't read about yet.

These are all the books I have read this year!!! It is simply amazing. I wish that I could have most all these books in a library, but at least they are stored away in my mind.

I'm not sure whether this counts or not, but this year I've also been fortunate enough to read a couple of unofficial books (aka, as of yet unpublished books), called "Sidewinder" and "Lunaratus", which were both written by my wonderful friend, Graham Bradley. He posts regularly on his own review blog, Graham Chops, and on his personal blog, On a Grahampage. Great blogs, but more to the point, really awesome books! ^_~ Graham is currently looking for a publisher for both these books. I very much hope he finds someone to make these stories a reality for the general public. I'm crossing all my fingers for him.

That is my First Annual Wrapup! (You don't want to know how long it took me to get each and every picture!!!)