The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

I am exhausted after the holidays, and feeling a bit burnt out on blogging. The solution? Lots of short posts, I hope. I got this meme from On a Pale Star , who got it from Waiting For Fairies .... I can trace it back to livejournal, but I don't know where it came from before that. I like this meme, and it doesn't require me to read anything new in a hurry. I'll be continuing the weekly comics posts, dropping in occasional reviews, working on other projects and of course reading in the background, building up a new backlog. Here's the schedule. Posts start Tomorrow! As it appears, each post will be linked in the schedule below for easy browsing. Day One – Your favorite series of books (with more than 3 in the series) Day Two – A book that you wish more people had read Day Three – Your favorite recent book Day Four – Your favorite book ever Day Five – A book you hate Day Six – Your favorite writer Day Seven – A writer you don’t like Day Eight – Your favorit...

The Kinshield Legacy K.C. May, 2010 Premise: Gavin Kinshield is haunted by his family's history; his ancestor had been the bodyguard and champion of the last King, who died tragically and alone.  Now he is further haunted by a possible destiny, for it is beginning to seem like he is the only one who can decipher the King's Runestones and claim the throne to unite the land. This is a solid light epic fantasy, if that's not too much of a contradiction in terms.  It's nothing ground-shaking or mind-blowing, but I enjoyed reading it, and I had trouble putting it down by the end. The story isn't particularly strong on politics, and the world has a generic fantasy economy. I eventually figured out that the land hadn't been in anarchy for 200 years, but rather a 'king and lords' feudalism had devolved into a petty 'local lords' feudalism. It's a mostly human fantasy land, with a D&D-esque multiverse: (there's some sort of demon ...

Favorite Book this week: Green Lantern Larfleeze Christmas Special All books were new in stores on 12/22/10 American Vampire #10 (The Way Out, Part One) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Mateus Santoluco This is the start of a new storyline, and a great jumping-on point if you haven't been following American Vampire yet. And you should be, because it's awesome. This issue sees the return of Hattie, and some of Pearl's day-to-day life.   Batman Inc. #2 Writer: Grant Morrison, Penciller: Yanick Paquette, Inker: Michel Lacombe Maybe this would be interesting if I knew anything about Mr. Nobody or any of the newer “worldwide” heroes. But I don't, so this series is leaving me pretty cold so far.   Green Lantern Larfleeze Christmas Special Writer: Geoff Johns, Artist: Brett Booth This one-shot special was really fun. The style, the humor, and the “activities”are all great. The art is really lovely: highly detailed and quite amusing. The main plot involves Lar...

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens, 1843 With all the different adaptations I've been watching recently , I thought it was time to re-read A Christmas Carol. I remember reading this in grade school, although I think that we read the dramatization, not the prose. The most striking thing to me is how little is different. There are plenty of cute turns of phrase, clever bits of writing, but most adaptations of the story really do hit all the high notes. Particularly having just recently seen the Muppet Christmas Carol, I didn't think I added much to my understanding by reading the actual text. A few nice moments are missing from the films. I liked the sweet moment between Scrooge and his sister in the past, it really pushed the early softening of the character. There is a good comedic moment in the narration that precedes the second spirit. Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when t...

This is the Book Blogger Hop, hosted at crazy-for-books.com This week's question for discussion: "What do you consider the most important in a story: the plot or the characters?" Wow. What a silly question.  If you want to get into the nitty gritty, plot is the most important for some author's styles, character for others. A great plot will carry me through an otherwise uninspiring book, and great characters will make me interested in reading another book about them. I can't do without either, although good characters can disguise the lack of plot slightly longer than good plot can disguise the lack of characters. Series are more dependent on characters, short stories and stand-alone novels are more dependent on plot. I often think that I enjoy character-driven work more than plot-driven, but I usually can't stand works that have no plot to speak of, that rely solely on style or character. What I consider the most important is... the author. ...

Favorite Book This Week: Mouse Guard: The Black Axe #1 All books were new in stores on 12/15/10 Birds of Prey #7 Writer: Gail Simone, Penciller: Ardian Syaf, Inker: Vicente Cifuentes I haven't been picking this up for a while, but I saw the preview for this issue online and decided to jump back in. In general I love the Birds of Prey, and this was a fairly solid issue. I think the preview I had already seen was the best part, though. ( See it here .) Darkwing Duck #7 Writer: Ian Brill, Artist: James Silvani, Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse Check out the awesome retro cover (Cover B) on this issue! The Crisis on Infinite Darkwings continues, bringing in more references from old episodes (and other Disney properties...) and propelling our heroes toward confrontation with the bad guys. Of course, it ends on a big cliffhanger and a character reveal. Bringing back and upgrading an obscure villain doesn't always work, but I think this next part could be good....

The Complete Persepolis Marjane Satrapi, 2007 I don't read much biography or autobiography because I really like plot, and real life is often lacking in that.  However, I'm very glad that I finally got to this work. In case you've been living under a rock, Persepolis is a graphic novel relating the author's personal account of growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. This was one of those fantastic books that really made me think about how much I don't know, and how much I don't even know that I don't know. The book starts when she is quite small, and follows her through war and destruction, through travel and return, from a child's understanding to an adult life. One particularly striking bit was when she left to attend school in Austria, and seeing how many parents sent their children away once they saw what was happening to the country. She has a variety of typically teenage experiences in Austria, but the people she...

This is the Book Blogger Hop, hosted at crazy-for-books.com This week's question for discussion: What is the thing you like most about reading book blogs? Is it the reviews, author guest posts, articles, giveaways, or something else entirely? Book reviews and articles, definitely. I like when a blogger reviews a book I haven't heard of in a way that makes me interested in picking it up. A great blog can even recommend a book that the blogger liked in a way that makes it clear that I would not like it. That's helpful. It's fun to read negative reviews as well, particularly of books I also disliked. I like when a blogger reviews a book I've read, because that can become a discussion. I appreciate well-thought out articles about reading, writing or bookstores, again, particularly when it inspires further discussion.   If that sounds like what I try to do here, you're not far off. As far as blogging is concerned I write what I would like to read. --...

Now that I've had my Kindle for a while, I thought I'd tell you all a little more about it. First, the positive. I like reading on the Kindle. It feels natural. I love that I can search the book for the part I'm looking for. I feel no hesitation about making notes in my Kindle books, while I almost never write in real books. The contrast on the Kindle 3 is sharp and clear. It usually refreshes very quickly. I adore the standby screens, most of them are really pretty. I like that it doesn't feel like a gadget. I don't worry about forgetting to turn it off and running down the battery or it making noise. When I put it down, it feels like a book. I just set it down, maybe I remember to turn it to sleep, maybe not, and it'll be waiting for me when I get back. I do have a few criticisms. I can use the keyboard with little difficulty, but the keys are very small, and I don't like the texture of them. I don't like using the symbol submenu, it is far t...

Favorite Book This Week : Star Trek: Khan Ruling in Hell #3 All books were new in stores on 12/8/10 Batgirl #16  Written by Bryan Q. Miller, Pencils by Dustin Nguyen, Inks by Derek Fridolfs This was a very fun issue. Solid writing, good art. I liked seeing more of Wendy, and I enjoyed the banter. I also like that these villains are just crummy punks with one good gimmick. Dark Tower: The Gunslinger- The Little Sisters of Eluria #1 Written by Peter David & Robin Furth Pencils by Luke Ross When the comic adaptations of the Dark Tower started with The Gunslinger Born a few years ago I collected the first arc, then quit. This seems like the start of a decent version of the novella The Little Sisters of Eluria. I like the art in this issue much more than the art in the earlier issues. I didn't like that they revealed the look of the Sisters in the first part! Way to defuse the suspense, guys. Star Trek: Khan Ruling in Hell #3 Written by Scott & David Tipton Art by Fabio Manto...

The Atheist's Guide to Christmas Edited by Robin Harvie and Stephanie Meyers, 2010 I loved this book. I didn't love every last one of the 42 essays, a few covered the same ground and a few I didn't completely understand because they depended too much on British Christmas traditions for the humor. But I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. The general vibe is what I expected: Christmas is much more about presents and food and family than anything else these days, and it's okay, as a nonbeliever, to enjoy presents and food and family, and not to be a nuisance unless the other person starts it. Simple. ...by way of summary let me say this: if only practicing Christians can use the word “Christmas,” then only Vikings can use the word “Thursday.”  -  Mitch Benn,“How to Stop Worrying and Enjoy Christmas” There are some compelling cases made for everything from why humans have celebrated midwinter since time immemorial to why one might want ...

This is the Book Blogger Hop, hosted at crazy-for-books.com This week's question for discussion: "What very popular and hyped book in the blogosphere did you NOT enjoy and how did you feel about posting your review?" Well, considering that though I'm now over 100 posts, very few of my reviews are about currently popular books, I'm not sure this question applies to me.   There are definitely books it feels as though everyone liked, that I didn't.  Actually I have an article I've written about that that I was thinking about posting today anyway... I guess I'll link it here as my answer. Literary Heresy -------------------------------- Also check out my holiday-themed blog: Mainlining Christmas Looking for a gift for a reader who has everything? Find a unique book in indie publishing!  ( Like, say, this one... )

Everyone has those books that you know you're "supposed" to like, but you just don't. Most of them are books you read in high school.  I've come around on some of those volumes since that time, understanding that I didn't have the mental architecture or context to appreciate them at that point. I mean, I'm not in a hurry to re-read Grapes of Wrath to find out whether it's any good, but I will admit that my complete and utter hatred of it had much more to do with it being assigned for summer reading than with anything in the text. There are plenty of books that are technically good, but just don't click for everyone. If you've gone all the way back in the archives, you probably saw my disappointed disdain for Little Women . But it can feel like you're the only one who doesn't like whatever the newest 'modern classic' is. I'm not a fan of One Hundred Years of Solitude , surprisingly.  I found it well written, but to...

It's a lucky week for me.  Due to Thanksgiving, New Comic Day was pushed to Thursday this week, which is great because I had to work for 12 hours straight on Wednesday. Also, it's a good crop of books. And of course, I don't see any contradictions in buying and loving an issue “suggested for mature readers” and one targeted for “All Ages” on the same day. The wide range is what I love about reading comic books. Favorite Book this week: Too Close to Call! All comics were new in stores on 12/2/10 American Vampire #9 (Devil in the Sand: Conclusion) Written by Scott Snyder Artist: Rafael Albuquerque A great wrap-up to this storyline. Well plotted, well drawn, with some kick-ass moments, awesome lines and new revelations. The ending was dark and lovely, and the little flashback at the top of the issue ties this entire arc together. Great issue! Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers #1 Writer: Ian Brill Artist: Leonel Castellani, Colorist: Jake Myler After...