The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Favorite Book This Week: Jimmy Olsen All books new in stores on 3/30/11 Age of X: Universe #1 Avengers Writer: Simon Spurrier, Pencils: Khoi Pham, Inks: Tom Palmer, Colors: Sonia Oback Spider-Man Writer: Jim McCann, Artist: Paul Davidson, Colors: Antonio Fabela Neat idea: this issue (one of two) follows other Marvel Universe characters in the alt-world of Age of X. The Avengers are broken, evil and/or deranged. Sue Storm's story is particularly fractured and interesting. I look forward to the second half. It will hopefully link up with the intro frame from this, which implies nasty things for the Avengers' fate next time. The Spiderman-story is complete in this issue, and it's short, sweet, sad and satisfying. American Vampire #13 (Ghost War Part One) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Rafel Albuquerque Colors: Dave McCaig Oooh, I like this new story arc. The focus is on Pearl's husband Henry, and his story is poignant and complex. My only complaint i...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and The Bookish This weeks list: Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition Okay, there are a few possible directions to take this. First I'll cover a couple folks who deserve more credit for how influential they were, then some semi-obscure to obscure authors I'm fond of, and finally I'll move on to some up-and-comers. Onward! 1. Lord Dunsany One of the granddaddies of all genre, who has somewhat fallen out of common reading. If you're a fan of fantasy, and you haven't read The King of Elfland's Daughter , you have some homework to get to. (Also see my review here ) 2. Raymond Chandler Nothing simple about his brooding pulp detective novels; this is prose so sharp you could cut yourself, and he deserves more readers from all corners of the reading world. 3. Peter S. Beagle I've seen enough copies of the recent collection of his short fiction ( review here ) at the library to think that people are read...

Before the Storm: Eden Trilogy, Book 1 Marian Perera, ebook 2010 Premise: Alex is a concubine in the stronghold of Stephen Garnath, who is trying to bring the scattered baronies under his military might. That is, until she's given away to Robert, possibly the only man who might stand up to Stephen's armies. Alex and Robert have to decide whether they can trust each other long enough to figure out why she was placed with him, before his province is overrun. I found this a fascinating book because of how willing it is to live in the margins. At times it's like a romance, but it has a strong action plot-line. It toys with steam-based technology in a magic/medieval setting without ever stepping into steampunk cliches. I really liked that. Alex is great fun to read, Robert solid and well developed, and I loved the wide range of the supporting cast, especially the other women. The plot is fast-paced and fun, the romance convincing and sexy, the politics intrig...

Before I get to the Blog Hop, a bit of history. Today (3/25/11) is the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Out of that tragedy came many of the fire safety, work safety and child labor laws that many of us now take for granted. Honor the 146 women and girls who died: remember their story. Read up on  Wikipedia    Summary from  Feministing , focused on the role of unions Article from WNYC: From the Triangle Tragedy, Unprecedented Reform Watch the American Experience Documentary  (This is really great, if you have the time) (And now to change tone entirely...) This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is: Q. Inspired by the inane twitter trend of #100FACTSABOUTME, give us five BOOK RELATED silly facts about you. 1. My taste in media is somewhat diverse, but universally geeky. For example: my two absolute favorite comic book series that I'm collecting right now are Darkwing D...

Favorite Issue this week : New Mutants #23 All books new in stores on 3/23/11 New Mutants #23 (Age of X Chapter 4) Writer: Mike Carey, Pencils: Steve Kurth Inker: Allen Martinez, Colors: Brian Reber I enjoyed this issue: decent pace of new revelations, good character beats, pretty artwork. I'm continuing to like this alt-world plot and all the character tweaks. I thought the minor characters' reactions to Magneto apparently killing Rogue and Gambit (at the end of the previous issue) were really good. I like Legacy/Rogue a lot. Between teaming her up with Gambit, and using Kitty as another focus character, this event is hitting a lot of my favorite X-Men soft spots. Supergirl #62 Writer: James Peaty, Artist: Bernard Chang Colorist: Blond I had to read this issue twice just to understand what was going on. That's never a good sign. For all the running around the characters did, I felt like very little happened. Not much in the way of new info this issue, a...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Prompt: Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves (all those things that annoy you in a story, with book covers, bookstores...) Ranting is fun! In no particular order: 1: Perspective Switching This drives me up the walls. If the author is writing in Close Third Person, and switches which character the reader is following, there had better be a chapter break, or at least a section break. And if it switches, worst of all, in the middle of a scene, there had better be a darn good reason. I sometimes think that authors who do this have problems conveying what a character is thinking without being 'in their head', and that's just lazy writing. Every so often there will be an author who can pull it off, but mostly I hate it. 2: Confusing Names You can check out my entire post on naming for details. I should add that I understand. Names are hard, and creating names that work together, that sound like they...

Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1) Octavia E. Butler, 1987 Premise: After a horrible war, few humans were left alive. Lilith Iyapo lived through the war, only to awaken in a featureless room. Who brought her here, are they rescuers or captors or something more complicated? And what plans do they have for the remnants of humanity? Dawn is a brilliant, moving book. I realized that I had never read anything by Octavia Butler - one of the few highly successful African-American women writers of Science Fiction - so I set out to remedy that. I'm very glad that I did. Lilith is a strong, complex character, and the reader sees the plot unfold entirely from her perspective. Her struggles - within herself, with the Oankali, with other humans - prove her to be smart, adaptable, human and fallible. How her personal convictions grow and shift while she learns more about her situation make up the greatest part of the drama. It won't be giving much away to tell you that Lilith and t...