The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Beyond Uhura Nichelle Nichols, 1994 This was an awesome memoir. The Trek stories were fun of course, but it was really the span of Nichols' career and interests that intrigued me most. She was often in the right place at the right time to meet important directors and performers, and it's always enjoyable to get new perspectives on important movements in theater and dance. I feel a little silly saying it, but it is more affecting to have some stories told by someone you feel like you know – even if you only 'know' them from being a fan. Stories like when she loses a big contract when she refuses to sleep with a producer. or is assaulted and threatened when on an out of town job alone. A personal account of sexism and racism is simply more moving than statistics. The chapters dealing with her family and her heritage were fascinating: both moving and highly entertaining to read. Her account of every part of her life seemed very fair-minded. Her verbal pic...

Provenance of Shadows (Star Trek Crucible: McCoy) David R. George III, 2006 These books have been tempting me from the shelf of the local library for a while now, and I finally broke down and borrowed this one. I used to read Star Wars novels, but I haven't read much licensed fiction in a while. Premise: During the episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” Doctor McCoy went back in time, and created an alternate timeline. Kirk and Spock restored history, but on some level, McCoy both returned to the Enterprise with his friends and lived out the rest of his life in the 1930's. This book started strong.  I really enjoyed the beginning; it was fun and fast, and the idea of following alternate McCoy was great.  The problem was, it couldn't sustain its pace. The book is split between alternate McCoy living in the past and standard McCoy (of course, no relation to 2009's New!McCoy) living in the 2200's.  The story following AltMcCoy is actually really strong ...

This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is:  How many books do you read in a week? And in what format do you read them, or listen to them? It's wildly changeable for me, largely dependent on the rest of my life. The high mark is probably 7-9 books, the low mark zero, like last week. Since my job (freelance theater, mostly Stage Management/Wardrobe) ranges from nonexistent to 80-plus hour weeks, my reading varies similarly. My average is probably 1-5 books per week, depending on thickness/density of prose, mostly read on the subway. I read variously on my Kindle or hard copies from the library, depending on what I feel like reading.  Next Week here at the Bookshelf: STAR TREK WEEK!

Favorite Issue this week : X-Men: Legacy, but it was really close! All issues were new in stores on 5/25/11 American Vampire #15 (Ghost War Part 3) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Rafael Albuquerque, Colors: Dave McCaig As usual, the only thing wrong with this issue is that there aren't more pages! The tension of this plot is rising: Henry and the soldiers cut off, Sweet with them, Pearl on her way, I'm left wanting so much more. (Although, this book does include a huge ad for Super 8 that is a mini comic in its own right, and an awesome looking preview for the upcoming AmVamp mini!) Ruse #3 Writer: Mark Waid, Artist: Minck Oosterveer, Colors: Antonio Fabela This was a stronger issue than the last one. Tension is running high in this title as well as Simon and Emma's unknown enemy continues to close in on them. The dialogue and narration was more compelling this month. X-Men: Legacy #249 Writer: Mike Carey, Artist: Rafa Sandoval, Colors: Matthew Wilson ...

Special Event Coming! Read about my upcoming Star Trek Week here! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at  The Broke and The Bookish This Week's Prompt is: Top Ten Books you lied about I'm sure there were some, but I'm having a hard time thinking of any. I can't even think of any books assigned for school that I "lied" about reading (i.e. didn't read but passed the test or whatever). And more than once I felt like a chump for actually reading those books, let me tell you. I can think of a few bookish lies I've told in my time, though: 1: No, I wasn't reading (when I was supposed to be doing xyz). 2: Sure, I've heard of (book that you think I should have heard of). 3. No, I've never read fanfic (certainly never wasted hours on the damn addictive stuff). Generally, if I've read something, I'll own up to it. Well, depending. There are a handful of romance/erotica type books I've made it through that I don...

Okay all you lucky people, it's time for another game of "Lindsay reads way too many books on one subject and/or theme!" I love Star Trek. I've always liked Star Trek, but only in the past few years have I really grown to love it. So of course I attempted to destroy my young and fragile love by reading a flood of related media. I've got reviews coming up of a bunch of memoirs, a couple novels, plus I'm going to revisit my small collection of Trek related comics. Next week, my friends, is old school. Wall to Wall Original Trek. Here's the schedule: Monday May 30: Provenance of Shadows (Novel) Tuesday May 31: Beyond Uhura (Memoir) Wednesday June 1: Reading Star Trek Comics: The Past Thursday June 2: I Am Spock (Memoir) Friday June 3: Harbinger:Vanguard (Novel) Saturday June 4: Up Till Now (Memoir) Sunday June 5: Reading Star Trek Comics: The Present Book Blogging - The Final Frontier!

Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) Stephen Sondheim, 2010 First off, this feels almost like a reference work, so don't expect to just sit down and read through it unless you're an even bigger musical theater geek than I am. Most of the text is lyrics, just as it says, surrounded by annotation, photos and additional information. It's an interesting hybrid: there is information about the development of some of the shows, but a large amount of the commentary is either self-deprecating nitpicking about his own lyrics or tangents about the merits and flaws of many classic Broadway composers and lyricists. I think someone with an exhaustive knowledge of classic Broadway composers would get more out of his opinions of them than I did. It's still an interesting series of pieces detailing various techniques or habits, but without the ability to mentally call up obscure works of the other artists immediately, comprehension sometimes got a bit muddy for me. ...