craso's books for 2008

For a complete list of what I have read please see posting #22:

Finished my first book, Fevre Dream, last night.

Still working on The Celts: a History.

Just started The Anubis Gates.

I finished my second book The Celts: a History and I am still working on The Anubis Gates.

Just finished The Anubis Gates. This was a really fun read. This is a time travel novel with many twists and a cast of very unusual characters. American Professor Brendan Doyle is asked to come to England to lecture on Samuel Taylor Coleridge by an eccentric millionaire. When he arrives he discovers that the lecture is just the beginning of a time travel vacation package for a group of rich intellectuals. Doyle gets lost in 1810 London where he meets Coleridge, an evil clown beggar king, a young woman disguised as a boy, a body snatching werewolf, a sorcerer and his duplicate, and Lord Byron. There are Egyptian gods, magicians and monsters. The action is fast and furious. Will he be able to get back to his own time or will he live out his life in the past? This book will keep you guessing until the very rewarding end.

I will be starting The Armageddon Rag next.

Three down, forty-seven more to go.

It is so neat to be reading posts from people who read multiple books at one time, like I do! Thank you Mel, thank you, Mel, thank you Mel for introducing me to LibraryThing.com!!!! Craso, what did you think of Fevre Dream? I've heard it was great.

Didn't like The Armageddon Rag so I started The Separation. The story was more about burnt-out hippies and less about the rock group. It just wasn't a story I could relate to.

No new Jasper Fforde book until 2009. Bummer.

Finished The Separation. Enjoyed it very much. Starting The Kingdom of Bones. Took two books off my master list that I lost interest in. Should be enough new books I will be interested in this year to fill the open slots.

Instead of getting bigger, my reading list is getting smaller. I just tried to read The Kingdom of Bones. A very disappointing book. It had everything I normally like - Victorian setting, mystery with an occult theme, historical figures - I just couldn't get into the story. Action sequences seemed boring, my mind kept wandering, I had to reread dialogue a couple of times to get the author's meaning. Not a very well written book. I thing I gave it a fair chance, I stopped reading after 150 pages.

Next Frankenstein: A Cultural History.

Just bought and started The Somnambulist. Also bought new hardback copies of Dune and Dune Messiah.

Finished The Somnambulist. Hope to finish Frankenstein: A Cultural History tomorrow. That's six books down and forty-four more to go.

Done reading Frankenstein: A Cultural History. Starting Eifelheim.

Didn't like Eifelheim so stopped reading it after 41 pages. The story was written way over my head.

Read In War Times and enjoyed it a lot. The plot follows the life of a young man in the army during World War II and on into the 1960s. The sections about life in Europe for American soldiers were very well written. Goonan based these sections on her fathers time in the military during the war. The main character is trying to create a device that will change human beings so they do not cause anymore wars. He works on the device for the better part of his life, through being a youngman hanging out in jazz bars to being a husband and father.

7 down and 43 more to go.

Just finished reading The Invention of Everything Else and wrote a review. I highly recommend it. Nikola Tesla, famous inventor and pigeon lover, is living out his last days in the Hotel New Yorker. He is haunted by memories of triumphs, failures and past loves. Louisa is a maid at the hotel. Her life consists of her eccentric father Walter, their homing pigeons and listening to radio dramas. One day the electricity goes out in the hotel and the only light is coming from under the door of room 3327; Tesla’s room. She becomes intrigued with Tesla and decides to befriend him. Using her hotel pass key she snoops around his room and discovers secrets from his past. Tesla catches her but forgives her because of their shared love of pigeons. Louisa then meets Arthur, who might be from the future, and they begin to fall in love. Walter’s best friend Azor, who has been gone for two years, reappears claiming to have invented a time machine. Walter hopes to use the machine to visit Louisa’s dead mother.

I enjoyed reading about these eccentric dreamers. Everything was a new adventure, something to look forward to. Nothing was out of the realm of possibility.

Reading The Glamour now.

Yesterday I bought a copy of Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman. I read it and liked it a lot. I am a big Wonder Woman fan and I am enjoying the relaunch of her comic book.

Still reading The Glamour. Christopher Preist is a great writer.

Finished reading another mind bending novel by Christopher Priest. I didn't enjoy The Glamour as much as The Separation, but he didn't fail me with the twisty thought provoking ending. I know people don't like the way he leaves things open for interpretation, but I love it.

Started Expiration Date by Tim Powers and didn't like it at all. I have enjoyed Tim Powers books set in the past. This book is set in the present day. It is full of crazy people in a crazy city. Far to post-modern for me.

Picked up a copy of False Faces by Brian K. Vaughan. Nice little compilation of Batman and Wonder Woman stories by Vaughan. Started rereading Dune. Amazing story. I haven't picked up this book in over 10 years and I still remember every line.

Finished Dune today and started Dune Messiah.

Dune was the first Science Fiction book I ever read. I did an oral book report on it for English class in my junior year in high school. I think I read it the same year the David Lynch movie came out. It's still a great read.

Finished reading Dune Messiah. Not as good as I remembered, but I still gave it 4 stars. Starting Angelica tomorrrow.

Just finished Angelica. A great Victorian pschological thriller. Will start reading Rollback tomorrow.

So far I have read 13 books.

Gave up on reading Rollback. I didn't like when Don has an affair. I think he should've waited until Sarah had pasted away and then persued Lenore.

Started On Stranger Tides yesterday.

I am becoming confused as to what I have and haven't read so here is a list of what I have read.

1) Angelica
2) Dune
3) Dune Messiah
4) Batman: False Faces
5) Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come Volume 1
6) The Glamour
7) The Separation
8) Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman
9) In War Times
10) The Somnambulist
11) The Anubis Gates
12) The Celts: A History
13) Fevre Dream
14) Frankenstein: A Cultural History
15) The Invention of Everything Else
16) Superman/Batman: Torment
17) On Stranger Tides
18) The Automatic Detective
19) Kirby: King of Comics
20) Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2: No Future For You
21) The Dragon Done It
22) Angel: After The Fall Director's Cut Issue #1
23) Tales of the New Gods
24) Manhunter: Unleashed
25) Solstice Wood
26) The Inverted World
27) The Perfect Lover
28) Angel: After the Fall
29) The Grin of The Dark
30) The Bones of Time
31) A Nameless Witch
32) Anansi Boys
33) About Time
34) Chronospace
35) Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran
36) Sleep, Pale Sister
37) Lore of the Ghost: The Origins of The Most Famous Ghost Stories Throughout The World
38) Angel: After The Fall: First Night
39) The Light Ages
40) The Graveyard Book
41) Dragonsong
42) The Man In The Picture
43) The Blunderer
44) Superman/Batman Vol. 7: The Search for Kryptonite
45) The Eternals by Jack Kirby Book 1
46) Midnight Never Come
47) Wolves at the Gate (Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 3)
48) Ender in Exile
49) Too Many Curses
50) Fray

Finished On Stranger Tides and I am now reading The Automatic Detective. It's a fun little story.

I enjoyed On Stranger Tides very much. I like Tim Powers when he writes novels set in the past. I only read maybe two chapters of Expiration Date and set it aside. I guess it was too post-modern with the dark evil city and crazy people walking wround. With his books set in the 18th or 19th century you get more of an action adventure fantasy.

craso, oh do give us voyeurs a few sentences of comment on each of the books you read, pleeassseee. . . Can't promise to stop in too often (soooo many threads here and on the 75 Book Challenge group where I am), but I do like to look at others' reading and see what they thought about it. I do mean to get to In War Times someday; I very much enjoyed her Queen City Jazz. I enjoyed the first 2/3rds of The Somnambulist but didn't care for the the last bit (seemed silly); and well, it wasn't really about the somnambulist, was it? Enjoyed Anubis Gates years ago; and Angelica last year.

Did you read The Light Ages by Ian MacLeod? You might like that.

Since I have been chastised for not entering more info about the books I am reading I will tell you a little about the book I just read, The Automatic Detective. The story is about a robot that becomes self aware and wants to live as a citizen of Empire City. His friends next door are kidnapped and he becomes a detective and searches for them. He unconvers a plot that effects the lives of everyone living in Empire. He also becomes a little more human along the way. This is the first time I have read A. Lee Martinez. He seems to be a humor author in the vein of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams.

I am currently reading Kirby: King of Comics and hope to finish it tonight. I knew he revolutionized the way comics were drawn with his forshortening of figures that make them come off the page and right at you, but I never realized what a wonderful artist he was. Some of the drawings in this book are so detailed especially a comic he did on comission later in life called Street Code. The two page layout of the New York street with cars and kids and street vendors is gorgeous.

After I finish the Kirby book I am going the start Sovereign Ladies. I just rented Elizabeth I with Helen Miren and Jeremy Irons and it has inspired me to start reading this book.

I finished Kirby: King of Comics. Kirby had a style of drawing that changed the way artists draw comics. He didn't confine his characters to the small square panel, but let them burst off the page. When writers got all the glory and the money, Kirby started his own unique comic that he both wrote and drew called The New Gods. He kept going even when his output was great, but the paycheck wasn't. I learned a lot about the artist and am looking forward to buying reprints of his work.

I will be starting Sovereign Ladies tonight. I think I will also start reading a few short stories in The Dragon Done it.

I have decided not to continue reading Steampunk. The first story was boring. I couldn't keep up with all of the characters in the second story. The third story was beautifully written, but very dark and depressing.

I am still reading Sovereign Ladies and The Dragon Done It. The later is a lot of fun. The characters in the first story, The Long and the Short of It, were introduced by Mike Resnick in the book Stalking the Unicorn: A Fable of Tonight. This book will be reprinted in paperback and released around the same time a new installment in this series Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight is published. I have put both novels on my want list. I am also interested in the Carnacki character, created by William Hope Hodgson, in the story The Whispering Room. There are a few compilations of his short stories out there. I have finished the first section of Sovereign Ladies, the Mary Tudor section, and I am working on the Elizabeth I section. I have been interested in the British monarchy for a long time, but this is the first book I have read about the reigning queens.

I bought Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2: No Future For You last night and read it today. I liked this volume better than volume one. Faith and Giles work together to stop a high born British slayer and her Irish warlock from killing Buffy.These characters are two of my favorites. Putting together the Rouge Slayer and the Watcher was a great idea. They are total opposites so the story becomes part My Fair Lady and part The Avengers.

There is a “one shot” story at the end called Anywhere But Here. In this story we learn why we haven’t seen Willow’s girlfriend Kennedy and why Dawn is gigantic.

Still reading Sovereign Ladies and The Dragon Done It. The later has had its ups and downs so far. A few are the stories are excellent, most are mediocre, and some are bad. I'll do a full review in a few days. The former is going pretty good. I am in the middle of the section on Mary II.

I just finished reading The Dragon Done It an anthology of detective / fantasy short stories. The stories represent several different detective fiction styles; private detectives, medieval monks, and Sherlockian pastiche. Overall, the quality of the stories is uneven with a few great tales, mostly mediocre ones, and some awful work as well. Here are my thoughts on the ones I enjoyed.

We start out with tongue firmly planted in cheek with “The Long and Short of It: A John Justin Mallory Story” by Mike Resnick. The main character originated in a novel called Stalking the Unicorn: A Fable of Tonight. In this story two circus performers, the tallest man and the smallest man, ask John Justin to find the magician who made them average height. The detective is aided by his middle aged female side kick, his pet cat person, and a talking mirror. The story is fast paced and funny with a dash of sexual innuendo.

We jump over a few stories to the next good one, “The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds” by Neil Gaiman. As you may have guessed from the title, this story is full of nursery rhymes. Jack Horner is hired by Jill Dumpty (you just know they will eventually go up a hill) to investigate her brother, Humpty Dumpty’s murder. Even though the nursery rhyme plot device has been used before, most effectively in Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, Gaiman pulls it off well.

The next story is “The Whistling Room” by William Hope Hodgson. Hodgson wrote in the early 1900s and was a contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft. This story is in the Sherlockian vain with the main character, Carnacki, sitting in his parlor after dinner relating his adventure to dinner companions. This is an eerie tale. I have added a compilation of Hodgson’s Carnacki stories to my want list.

“Doppelgangster” by Laura Resnick is a funny story but it does not belong in this anthology. The main characters are mafia types who are being killed off by black magic. This is another story with great use of language; each character has a New York or New Jersey accent. Unfortunately, there are no detectives in the plot line.

Mike Renick’s, “The Adventure of the Pearly Gates” is a Sherlockian story. Resnick shows much affection for our friend Sherlock Holmes in this story by describing what happened between “The Final Problem” and Sherlock’s eventual return.

The last one that I enjoyed was “The Detective of Dreams” by Gene Wolfe. The ending of this story is very spiritual and was so unusual that I had to go over the characters dreams again and again to figure out what I missed. It is written like a Victorian tale with first initials instead of full names and it takes place in Europe. An unnamed detective who is relating the story to us is asked to find the Dream-Master. It’s a very moving and thought provoking story. Again, I have added the short story collection this came out of to my wish list.

I've put Sovereign Ladies away for awhile. Read about Midnight Never Come in Locus and picked up a copy. The story takes place in Elizabeth I court and in an underground faery court. I'm 102 pages in and I am enjoying it very much. The fae plot line reminds me of War For The Oaks. I also like the Elizabethan setting.

Had a great time book shopping today. Went to the comic book store and bought three comics and two graphic novels. I am including Angel: After The Fall Director's Cut Issue #1 because it isn't just a reprint of the first issue. The writer, Brian Lynch, comments on added and deleted dialogue in a section at the back of the book. I have been waiting to read this storyline for way to long.

I also bought one new novel and a non-fiction book I saw a couple of months ago. I am thrilled to find so many books in one day. I had to drive across town to get them, but it was worth it.

I've finished reading Midnight Never Come. This is the story of two courtiers; a young man, Michael Deven, who is in the Gentlemen Pensioners in Elizabeth I court and a fae woman, Lady Lune, in the Onyx Court of Queen Invidiana. The Onyx Court mirrors Elizabeth's court and lies beneath London. Deven is on the rise in his court while Lune has fallen from her queen’s grace. They eventually band together to break a pact that Invidiana has made so that both courts will survive.

It was a quick enjoyable read. The beginning is about courtly life with politics, spies, and plotting. Near the end, the story becomes a fairytale with curses and lost loves. Invidiana is dark and evil like a classic wicked fairy or witch. Elizabeth is portrayed as she always is; strong, smart, vain, and willful. It was this mix of fantasy and history that made me interested in reading the book.

Tonight I will start reading Solstice Wood.

Just finished reading Tales of The New Gods. This is a very uneven collection of stories written after Jack Kirby's New Gods were original printed. A few of the stories by John Byrne were good. They explored the back story of Desaad, Darkseid, Metron, and Scott Free. I enjoyed the first Mister Miracle story. The use of the circus ring master as narrator was very clever. As the stories go on the artwork gets bad and the stories are open ended. The first section up until the introduction of The Forever People is pretty good. I never understood the appeal of The Forever People. I'm not to interested in cosmic hippies.

Still reading Solstice Wood and will probable start Manhunter to day.

I just posted a review of Manhunter: Unleashed. This is a very intelligent and well illustrated graphic novel. The main character is Kate Spencer a defense attorney by day and the crime fighter Manhunter by night. She has a full life as an attorney, a mom and a friend. Her friend's are crime fighters as well and have their own stories intermingled with hers.

Tonight I finished reading Solstice Wood. This book reminded me of Little Big. It's about a close knit community that lives on the boundary between our world and fairy. What made me think of Little Big is the quirky Lynn family. They live in Lynn Hall and are entrusted to keep the fairy world from spilling into our world. Iris uses the ladies of the local fiber guild to stitch the doorways to the otherworld closed. She doesn't realize that her own granddaughter is part fey. You could say she has closed off her relationship with her granddaughter by believing all fey are evil and need to be kept out. Other characters are judged by their appearances. Can you trust the Rowan family, because they live alone in the woods? Another theme is loss; Iris's husband dies, Tyler's father has died, Sylvia's mother died when she was young and she never knew her father. Characters also get lost in the woods. It's this feeling of loss that brings the family together. The book is about family and friends and the ties that bind.

Will start a new book tomorrow night.

Reading The Inverted World by Christopher Priest. I love his writing and so far this book is great. His work really makes you think and you have to pay a lot of attention so you don't miss anything.

Yesterday I finished The Inverted World and today I wrote a review.

The story is about a moving city and the reason why it moves. The social structure of the city is divided into guilds. The main character becomes a part of the guild system and through him we learn about the city.

Sections of this book are written from different points of view. This is done seamlessly and gives us a variety of ways to look at life on this world. In this way, the reader questions who’s seeing the world as it really is.

Christopher Priest’s novels usually deal with different perceptions of reality. The way the city dwellers see the world in this novel is very bazaar.

I enjoy Priest’s work because you have to think while you are reading his novels. He will also leave the ending open for interpretation, although this story does have a satisfying conclusion.

Today I will be starting another Priest novel, The Perfect Lover.

I finished reading The Perfect Lover. This is another "questioning reality" story from Christopher Priest. A group of scientists create a device that projects a person’s consciousness into a future reality. It's meant to be a social experiment that will some how help people in the present. Everything goes hunky-dory until the sadistic ex-lover of the main character barges into the project.

The book was a quick read and far more conventional than The Inverted World. A good read, but not Priests best.

Next book is The Grin of the Dark.

I finally found a copy of Angel: After the Fall at my local Borders. I bought a copy of Angel: After the Fall #1 Director's Cut to hold me over until the hardcover compilation was in stores. It was great discovering what happens to the characters. The next compilation will be even better with more about what happened right after the fight in the alley way that ended the television series. This volume explains where everyone is a few months after the apocalypse. Los Angeles has become a hell on earth. No one can get in or out. Different demons have divided up control of the city. Angel's group has split up and are trying to save what humans and un-evil demons they can. It was a little hard to read the Joss Whedon banter, but I eventually got the hang of it.

Still reading The Grin of the Dark.

I just finished The Grin of The Dark and posted a review. The book was very intense and full of frustration. The main character is desperate to revive his flagging movie critic career. Everyone except his girlfriend and her son seem to be against him. He is trying to research the life and work of a forgotten silent film comedian. Everytime he finds a newspaper article or a piece of film it gets destroyed. In the end he realizes that he should have given up the pursuit while he had the chance.

Will decide what my next book will be tomorrow.

The Inverted World sounds intriguing. Thanks for your comments on it. I haven't read much Christopher Priest.

I have just finished reading The Bones of Time.

Kathleen Ann Goonan weaves history, sociology and science fiction into an enjoyable story. She brings the characters to the fore-front and leaves the science fiction elements as tools to reach human goals; such as finding a true love or creating a better world. Hawaiian history plays a part in the story with Princess Kaiulani, a romanticized royal who would have been queen if the U.S. hadn’t made Hawai’i a territory. She died tragically at the age of 23. King Kamehameha also figures prominently in the storyline because the kahunas consider his bones to be magical and the Homeland Movement uses them to clone new Kamehamehas. Some of the science fiction elements of the story are time travel, nano technology, cloning, gene manipulation, a generational space ship, and the metaverse. Technology used to alter human beings is considered evil whereas living a simple life like the original Hawaiians is good. At times the mathematical jargon was hard to comprehend, but I understood where the story was going so I didn’t let it slow me down.

Goonan is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I hope to read more of her books in the near future.

Next book is A Nameless Witch.

I just finished reading A Nameless Witch.

A witch cursed with beauty, a white knight, a demon duck, an enchanted broomstick, and a troll go on a quest to save reality from an illusion welding sorcerer. This book was humorous and a quick read. As with most journeys, our witch heroin learns more from the journey than from the confrontation with the socerer.

The next book I read will be Anansi Boys: a novel.

I finished reading my latest book, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I have only read two solo Neil Gaiman books, Stardust and this book. I enjoyed Anansi Boys much more than Stardust. It was extremely well written and reminded me of Good Omens a book Gaiman wrote along with Terry Pratchett.

Charlie Nancy grew up with a father that was constantly embarrassing him. His father joked, told silly stories, dressed outrageously and sang karaoke. His death was almost a relief to Charlie until he found out he had a brother named Spider. Spider comes to stay with Charlie and turns out to be just as annoying as his father was. He turns Charlie's life upside down, but then again maybe Charlie’s life needed a little shaking up.

I am interested in Greek and European mythology and folklore. I have never been interested in African or Caribbean folklore. I found the gods much like the ones in Navajo stories. The trickster god in this book is a spider and in Navajo tales it's a coyote.

The next book I am going to read is a book of short stories by Jack Finney called About Time. Jack Finney is one of my husband’s favorite authors and this is one of his books.

Have you read Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore? It features on the Coyote trickster. If you liked Anansi Boys, you might try it when you need another light read :)

Here is a little about the latest book I read. About Time is a book of 12 short stories by Jack Finney. All the stories are well crafted and easy to read. Some of them are dripping with nostalgia and this can get in the way of the fantasy elements. My favorite stories were "Such Interesting Neighbors" and "Lunch-Hour Magic." The later is about a young man who spends his lunch hour prowling small shops in New York. One day he finds a magic shop and his life changes. The former is about new neighbors with strange and interesting ideas about what life might be like in the future.

Keeping with the time-travel theme, my next book will be Chronospace.

Just came home from B&N with a copy of Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor. I started reading it in the store so I will keep on reading it along with Chronospace.

Today I finished reading Chronospace and Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran.

I had no idea Andy Taylor was writing a tell-all. I was so excited when I found it in the bookstore. The dust jacket blurb put me off a bit - "widely acknowledged to have been their musical driving force." What? Are you kidding me? Every Duran Duran fan knows it was a mutual collaboration. Yet when I read the book I didn't get the impression that Andy thinks he is any better than the rest of the band. Infact, he has mostly good things to say about his bandmates. They may have overindulged and had a couple of rows, but Andy never says he disliked the other members of Duran Duran.

I stopped following Duran Duran after Roger and Andy left the group. It was great to read about what happened between then and now. Andy also revealed that Duran Duran were not as squeeky clean as their publicists wanted their fans to believe. I am not a teenager anymore and this didn't come as a shock. Drinking and drugs are a part of the music business. I'm sure that in twenty-five years a member of the Joshua Brothers or whatever the newest squeeky clean teenage group is, will write a tell-all that blasts the myth.

Chronospace was much better than I expected. It's fast past, easy to read, and has enough time-travel paradoxes to keep the reader interested. The chapters are broken down by different time periods until the characters meet in one time. One story is about Dr. Murphy who writes a non-fiction article speculating that UFOs are time-machines. In the future, the crew of the time-ship Oberon travel to the past to gather information on the Hindenburg disaster. A rift is caused in chronospace and an alternate worldline is created that leads destruction.

Like I said, the story is great, but the book editor should be fired. I have never read a book with so many printing errors in my whole life. Every page had either a word left out or double words. The book I read was a hardback first edition. Hopefully later printings were cleaned up.

My next book will be Sleep, Pale Sister.

Last night I finished Sleep, Pale Sister.

This is a very gothic story with lust, drugs, madness, revenge, and murder. An artist, Henry Chester, marries his young model Effie. He has pschological issues involving religion and his mother which causes him to be guilt ridden about having sex with his wife. Henry is cruel to Effie and tries to control her by giving her laudanum. She turns to a lover, Mose. Mose introduces her to the local madam, Fanny, who knows Effie's husband because he frequents her brothel. Fanny concocts a plan to extort money from Henry, but Effie and Mose don't realize that Fanny has her own motives for distroying Henry's life.

Each chapter of this book is told from a different characters point of view. This helps you to understand Henry's cruelty, Mose's selfishness, how easily manipulated Effie is, and Fanny's dark motives. This book was very hard to put down. The story was very engaging.

My next book will be a little book about the folklore behind popular ghost stories called Lore of the Ghost: The Origins of The Most Famous Ghost Stories Throughout The World.

Last night I finished reading Lore of the Ghost: The Origins of The Most Famous Ghost Stories Throughout The World. A fun read for Halloween time. Each chapter is about a different type of ghost story; hitchhiking ghosts, haunted dwellings, phantom vehicles, etc. The author then gives plausible explainations both scientific and cultural. Many ghost stories can be linked to folklore about fairies. People may have told stories about seeing fairies in a certain area and then as the years go by the story changes to ghosts.

Will be starting The Light Ages today.

I picked up a copy of Angel: After The Fall: First Night on Sunday. It wasn't as good as Angel: After The Fall. The best part of the book was "Groosablog" a recap done by Groo. Spike's story was good. I didn't like the art work in Connor's story, but I did like the running monologue he has in his mind about "what would father 1, 2, or 3 do" in a similar situation. The art work and prose in Lorne's story fit his personality. My favorite story was Wesley's although the depictions of Wesley and Fred varied. My second favorite was Kate's story even though we were back to the bad artwork from Connor's story. Still, it was nice to see Kate again. Gwen's was good, but I don't know why her character has gotten so big in the comics. She was only on two episodes. It must be because she is the only one with real superhero powers. The Civilian story was okay. Gunn's story was good. The parts with Betta the wise acre telepathic fish were okay. I don't particularly like the character though. I guess I didn't like this one as much as the first one because there was no Angel. Angel is the glue that holds this story together. I like the other characters, but they work better when Angel is in the middle of the action.

Still reading The Light Ages and liking it very much.

I just finished reading The Light Ages. The book was very much in the vein of Dickens. Even though the world is full of magic in the form of a substance called "aether" it still is corrupt. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There is hope though for a new age, a "Light Age."

The next book I will be reading is The Graveyard Book.

Well, I just finished reading my 40th book, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Maybe I will make it to 50 by the end of the year.

This was a fun book. I don’t read many works written for young adults. I picked this one up because I had already read the fourth chapter, “The Witch’s Headstone,” in a short story anthology. I was actually very excited about getting it.

Setting the story in a graveyard is very much like something Ray Bradbury would do. I also see the parallel between this story and “The Jungle Book” which Gaiman remarks about in the Acknowledgements.

My next book will be Fairies and Fairy Stories by Diane Purkiss.

I changed my mind about my next book and read instead Dragonsong. Menolly belongs to Half-Circle Sea Hold where fishing is their life’s work. Unfortunately for her, she is inclined towards music, not gutting fish. She is shunned for her musical ability and runs away. While away from the hold she is caught during Threadfall and takes shelter in a cave that contains fire lizard eggs, smaller cousins to the dragons. She feeds and takes care of the little creatures and they become her loyal friends. This changes her fortunes and she soon comes into her own.

McCaffrey’s world building is fantastic. The dragons and fire lizards are portrayed as such sweet loyal friends. The fire lizards are dainty and elegant and the dragons are big and friendly.

Music was a big part of my life when I was younger. That is what drew me to this book as a teenager. I was happy to find that I still enjoyed it after so many years. I plan to reread all the Harper Hall series.

I picked up a copy of The Man in The Picture on Halloween night at Border's and it is going to be my next read.

I finished reading The Man In The Picture. I well written little gothic ghost story. I will never look at a Venetian carnival scene the same again.

My husband has talked me into to reading Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99 by Ray Bradbury.

Ignore message 56. I was repeating myself so I deleted is.

Moving right along, I finished Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99 by Ray Bradburytwo nights ago. Somewhere a Band Is Playing was a lovely nostalgic novella. Leviathan '99 just didn't work. This work was originally a BBC radio production with Christopher Lee. I would love to hear it!

My next book is a reread of The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith. This is the only Highsmith mystery I have ever read. I became interested in her work after I discovered my favorite Hitchcock movie "Strangers on a Train" is based on her novel. Unfortunately, I can't figure out which of her mysteries to read next. Maybe someday I will pick up another one of her books at a used book store, like I did with The Blunderer, and just go for it.

>49 craso: I picked up the Joanne Harris at a library sale some months ago. Your description of it reminds me vaguely of Angela Carter's short novel "Love", not sure why. Perhaps it is the gothic or the love & madness.

I just finished The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith. This guy was an idiot. He was so worried about loosing his friends that he lied to them and all of his lies came back to haunt him. I don't think he was a bad person, he just made a lot of really bad decisions.

I finished reading Superman/Batman Vol. 7: The Search for Kryptonite by Michael Green
today. Great story. I can always rely on this series to be good. Superman and Batman are on a mission to find and destroy all the kryptonite. Superman says he is doing this so he can be a more effective superhero. The question is, if Superman is totally invincible then how do we stop him if he goes rouge?

I'm also reading Ender in Exile and Eternals by Jack Kirby Book 1 TPB.

I just wrote a review for The Eternals by Jack Kirby Book 1 by Jack Kirby. This is the first Jack Kirby story I have read. I enjoyed it very much, although a lot of fans don't believe it is one of his best. I hope to fine more to read at my local comic book store.

Still reading Ender in Exile.

The Buffy Season 8 Series just keeps on getting better and better. This volume really felt like the television series with a mixture of humor and tragedy. Poor Xander, he can never catch as break. Bringing Dracula back to the show was very funny. He isn't really with the times. I don 't know what to say about Buffy's liaison with Satsu. I don't think Buffy is gay, yet I don't know how this will eventually be resolved.

Still reading Ender in Exile. Started out slow, but got more interesting once the ship took off. Ender is still out smarting all of the adults.

Somehow I forgot the post a message after I finished Ender in Exile.

After Ender Wiggin saves the world from alien invasion the rulers of Earth don’t know what to do with him. Ender is a hero and since he is so young, they fear he could be used by adults to take over the world. It is decided by the people who love him that he should be kept away from home. He is sent to Shakespeare Colony to become its governor. His sister Valentine leaves Earth to be with him. The rest of the story is about his voyage, his discoveries on the world that was first colonized be the formics, and how he reconnects an old friend with her lost son.

My next book is Too Many Curses.

I finished read Too Many Curses. This is a sweet little story about a house full of cursed beings and Nessy their caretaker. The afflicted beings are a family with Nessy as the parent. They band together when the going gets tough and they all truly care for one another.

The next book I am reading is part of An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler. It's the first novel The Quilter's Apprentice. This will be my 50th book! I am so excited!

Well I gave up on The Quilter's Apprentice. It was just to normal for me. Maybe if the mansion was haunted...

Drum roll please.........I did it!!!!! I read 50 books!!!!!

My last book is Fray by Joss Whedon. Melaka Fray is a young woman living in a rough world. It's the future Manhattan now call 'hattan. She survives by steeling for a fishman named Gunther. One very bad day a man lights himself on fire in front of her while claiming she is the chosen one. She is the new slayer only she has no memory of the other slayers. A demon named Urkonn becomes her trainer. He is puzzled by her ignorance. She has all the power of a slayer yet she doesn't have a link to them. Urkonn teaches her how to kill the "lurks" or vampires. He tells her that a vampire leader will open the gates to hell and she must prevent that from happening.