Not a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.
How did I do with last week’s agenda?
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey: Finished previous week, reviewed this past week. Amazing book. My review is here.
Tempest Reborn by Nicole Peeler: Done! I laughed and cried my way through the final book in the Jane True series. My review is here.
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris: Finally started, will continue this week.
Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks: Done! My review of this graphic novel is here.
Read but not reviewed: I read the first three volumes in the graphic novel series Morning Glories — and will not be reading any further. I found the plot confusing, scattered, sadistic, and not terribly engaging. I continued reading the series beyond volume 1 only to see if the storyline would become clearer or if my impression of the books would improve. Neither happened.
Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis. My son and I are continuing our Narnia read-aloud, and enjoying it very much.
Fresh Catch:
My book haul this week is a bit more modest than last week. I bought one new book, picked up used copies of three books that I’d already read but didn’t own, and added an ARC to my list of upcoming reads:
And then on Thursday, I went to a lovely book event and got my copy of this book signed by the author:
I know I’ve raved about this book several times already, but seriously — I loved it! Check it out. (My review is here)
What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?
I’ve just gotten started with Dead Ever After, the final entry in Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series.
Next, I have a few library books waiting for some attention. I plan to read Doll Bones by Holly Black next, and then Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan.
The kiddo and I should be finished with Prince Caspian in the next couple of days, and I’m assuming that he’ll want to keep plowing ahead with our Narnia read. Not that I’m complaining! Besides being tremendously fun, I feel like I’m finally filling in a gap in my childhood reading history.
So many book, so little time…
That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.
In the young adult graphic novel Friends With Boys, Maggie has been home-schooled her entire life, but all that is about to change. Daughter of the police chief, little sister to three older brothers, it’s time for Maggie to face the real world… by attending public high school. It’s loud, it’s crowded, it’s overwhelming, but soon Maggie finds friends in dare-to-be-different Lucy and her protective big brother Alastair. To complicate matters, Maggie misses her mother, who abandoned the family for reasons left unexplained. And — oh, yeah, there’s a ghost. Maggie is haunted by the ghost of a woman who died of a broken heart years centuries earlier, and even though she doesn’t do much except hover around, Maggie would kind of like to be left alone.
The world has been a darker, lonelier, and far less quippy place since the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air almost ten years ago, in May of 2003. (Bow your heads for a moment of silence, please. Thank you). But the devoted fans of the Buffy-verse had not heard the last of the Slayer and the Scoobies. In 2007, Dark Horse Comics began publication of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 — in comic book format! Legions of fans cheered! Currently up to season 9 and going strong, the comics are written under the imprimatur of Buffy creator and geek god Joss Whedon, and are considered “canon”, for those who care about such distinctions. The comic follows Buffy and the gang forward from the end of the TV series, and it’s a wonder to behold.
again. A group of Arizona militia women cut off all trade through their state and, armed to the teeth, shoot anything that might threaten their autonomy. The religious are sure that the rapture has arrived — and left them behind. A new sex trade arises, as women desperate for a man’s touch seek out the next best thing in the arms of women who don fake facial hair and lower vocal registers. And radicals around the world sit up and take notice when rumors of a surviving male start to circulate.
Happy Monday! Looking back and looking forward…
In Ghostopolis, a boy with a terminal illness is accidentally sent off into the spirit world a bit ahead of schedule by an over-eager ghost wrangler. Once there, Garth befriends a skeleton horse, fights off all sorts of creepy bad guys, meets up with some surprisingly familiar ghosts, and has real insights along the way. There’s plenty of action, some dark and semi-scary dudes to contend with, but also a sense of humor and unexpected rays of hope. My son read this one a few months ago, and has been after me to read it ever since.
that doesn’t spend much time together, and the prospect of being out on the water without all the modern conveniences to distract them does not appeal to the kids at all. When a freak storm destroys their boat, the family is stranded on a mysterious island, where nothing seems exactly normal. Adventure ensues; is this island “bad”, or is there some other explanation for all the weird creatures, hidden passageways, and indecipherable markings? Naturally, in order to survive, the family has to work together, and the kids find themselves saving not only themselves but also their parents as they unravel the secrets of the island.
Soulless: The Manga, Volume 2 by Gail Carriger (author) and Rem (artist). This manga version of Changeless, the 2nd book in the wonderful Parasol Protectorate series of novels, is a rather delightful affair, even for someone like me who doesn’t typically care for manga-style illustration. While I occasionally found the artwork a bit too cartoon-y, there are moments and scenes that are just wonderfully conveyed, including the Scottish settings, the steampunk gadgets and gewgaws, the fashion (and rather atrocious hats), and some of the interplay between main characters. I would never recommend the manga version as a sole introduction to Gail Carriger’s work, but for anyone who’s read and enjoyed the series, these manga volumes are a nice, amusing side dish.
past week, I had the pleasure of reading the 2nd volume in season 9, On Your Own, as well as the 2nd volume in the spin-off Angel & Faith series, Daddy Issues. Reading these comic series are like visiting with old friends. The gang (or most of the gang) is back! We get to hang out with Buffy, Willow, Spike, Xander, Dawn, and more. The series remains true to the characters as they existed in the TV series, but with a natural growth and progression through the ensuing action. While the season 8 plotline was a bit more convoluted than was truly necessary for good storytelling, the season 9 plot so far is engrossing, surprising, and yes, even touching. Meanwhile, I’m finding myself much more interested in the Angel and Faith spin-off than I thought I’d be, as the two team up to atone for past sins, right some wrongs, deal with visits from important figures from their pasts, and put some bad guys in their places. Both of these volumes were quick but engaging reads, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
ly in love and gobbled up the entire series as quickly as I could. Which left me completely bereft once I realized I was all caught up and had to simply sit and wait for the next volume to be released. (Side note: Fables, Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland is due out in January 2013!). Luckily for me, two new side projects were released in 
November: Werewolves of the Heartland, a stand-alone volume centered on Bigby Wolf — only my very favorite character from the Fables ‘verse! — and volume one of a new ongoing series, Fairest, which focuses on some of the female Fables. Both of these, while enjoyable, were more or less filler for me. Werewolves of the Heartland follows Bigby on an adventure alluded to in the main Fables series, in which Bigby sets off in search of a new safe location for the Fables in exile. I won’t get into too much of the plot, but it’s nice to see Bigby in action again — although for the most part, it just left me hungry to return to the main series. (January, hurry up!) Fairest was fun, but I’ll have to see where the series goes as a whole. Volume 1 focuses on Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty), Ali Baba, and the Ice Queen. Interesting and entertaining, but again, it mostly just whets my appetite for the main body of the series. Still, for a Fables fan, these are good choices for the in-between months.
A Wrinkle In Time (or more accurately, according to the book jacket, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson) was my next choice. This was such an interesting reading experience. It’s been many years since I’ve read the original novel, yet it made such an indelible impression upon me that I approached the graphic novel with some misgivings, wondering how on earth it could succeed in capturing the essence of Madeleine L’Engle’s masterpiece. Fortunately, the graphic novel does a wonderful job of conveying the spirit of the novel, with simple but expressive illustrations that portray the characters’ emotions and struggles quite well. Meg in particular comes across in a manner so true to the novel — full of doubts and insecurities, driven by love for her family, confronting her anger and frustrations on a daily basis, and trying to become her own person while caring for those she loves. My only hesitation about this edition is that, in a way, it moves too fast. The journey to find Meg’s father and all the events surrounding it happen quickly, and I wonder whether a person reading the graphic novel without having read the original would get the same level of emotional impact. I enjoyed it a great deal, but it’s no replacement for the “real thing”.
Bookshelf Fantasies 