Batman: The Killing Joke

October 31, 2011 By 1 Comment

Title: Batman: The Killing Joke

Author: Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: March 2008
Classification: Graphic Novel

Summary from Goodreads:
For the first time the Joker’s origin is revealed in this tale of insanity and human perseverance. Looking to prove that any man can be pushed past his breaking point and go mad, the Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane. After shooting and permanently paralyzing his daughter Barbara (a.k.a. Batgirl), the Joker kidnaps the commissioner and attacks his mind in hopes of breaking the man. But refusing to give up, Gordon maintains his sanity with the help of Batman in an effort to best the madman.
My Thoughts:
If this book is to be hailed by Tim Burton, (the director of Batman and Batman Returns) as his favorite Batman story, then that alone should entice readers to pick up this epic tale.
Inisde the confines of this story, one of comic’s most sinister and cruel characters is given a backstory; The Joker. This story might not be as long as some other Batman tales, but it holds its own against any one of them. It would seem as though the synopsis of the story gave away a lot of the plot elements that make this tale so compelling. The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and seems dead set on crippling the life of the Dark Knight, even if that includes torturing those that matter most to him. The Joker does indeed paralyze Barbra Gordon and commits unspeakable acts against her. It would seem the Joker has finally snapped. And that is what makes this story so grand. Batman’s most prominent villain is set on making Batman break the one rule he has; not to kill criminals.
The artwork in the story seems to be as dark as its tone, and that sets the events in motion. The artwork works in sync with the story to make everything seem like a cohesive unit.
I found the origin story of the Joker to be a bit off, as I never thought we, the reader, should know the true story of the Joker. I thought he worked better as a mysterious character. It was later retconned that he is so insane that he probably doesnt even know his real life story. What is fact and what is fiction? It is all just a killing joke.
That appears to be my only complaint in regards to the story itself. I would like to make note to the readers of this review that if they happen to read this story, they should leave a comment in regards to the final panels of the story. The Joker has been caught and he has no where to run, so instead of trying something daring, he tells a joke. This joke holds a significant purpose in Batman lore and the final panel is left ambiguous in regards to the Joker’s fate.
It might be of importance to note that this story was part of the source material for Heath Ledger when he was preparing his role for the Dark Knight.
I do hope you all entertain yourself with this Killing Joke. It is to die for.

Filed Under: Graphic Novel

IMM 48: Vlog!

October 29, 2011 By 4 Comments

Big Thanks to Kristi (The Story Siren) for this great theme.

People Mentioned:
Stella @ Ex Libris
Angela @ Reading Angel

Filed Under: In My Mailbox (IMM)

Steel

October 27, 2011 By 3 Comments
Title: Steel
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: March 2011
Classification: YA Novel
Challenge: Outdo Yourself

Summary from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.
My Thoughts:
Jill is just an normal 16 year old girl who has gone on vacation with her family after losing a fencing match. She is just hanging out at the beach when she finds part of a pirate sword, she decides since it is only part of the sword she can keep it because no museum wants just a piece of a sword. Later in the day she finds herself on a boat tour with her family when she accidentally falls into the water. When someone grabs her to help her out of the water she finds herself among a crew of pirates. It turns out the sword piece that she found is very valuable, it was once part of a sword forged in magic by an evil pirate king.
I really enjoyed that this story mixes pieces of modern day with part of the past. I have never read a pirate book before so I was excited for this one. While at some points the story feels a little bit like the movies it does have it’s own flare. The writing is really what easily draws in the attention of the reader, everything is so detailed you will feel as if you are standing on the ship. While the descriptions of the scenes are rather beautiful there isn’t a whole lot of character development in this novel. A lot of the story centers around living the pirate life and describing everything that involved. Pirates are suppose to be the ones who hold all of the freedom out on the open sea after all.
Overall I really did enjoy the beautiful writing style that this book had. I did enjoy the characters even though I felt I didn’t fully get to know each of them. I feel that there is a great message in this book though that many people are glossing over. From average ratings on goodreads only being about 3.25 it seems many people struggled with the overall picture painted in this novel. The story isn’t just about the characters and the evil pirate king, it has a life lesson, you just have to find it. I say go into this book with an open mind because it is a story about adventure and understanding oneself better, not necessarily about finding love, which is a theme many people are attached to these days. Overall I give this book 4.5 hearts and I really now want to go back and read Carrie’s other book Voices of Dragons.
Quote:
“That’s right, sir, you have been captured by that bloody pirate queen, harridan of the waves and witch of the sea. And you are very, very wise to offer yourselves so freely. Though I rather wish you’d put up a fight- I’m disappointed I won’t be murdering you and sinking your boat. Now- one word of argument from any of you and I will.” She made a stunning picture standing before him, hands on hips, her coat buttoned, her high boots polished, her hat firm on her long, curling hair, and her face like that of an avenging goddess. Her mob of demons was arrayed around her.
~Pg. 74-75 Steel

Filed Under: Young Adult (YA) Review

Incarnate

October 26, 2011 By 4 Comments

Title: Incarnate

Author: Jodi Meadows
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: Jan 2012
Classification: YA Novel
Challenge: Outdo Yourself
Summary from Goodreads:
NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

My Thoughts:

Things start off pretty well with what seems like a great fantasy adventure. The beginning is a little slow but that is how fantasy novels normally start off, so I was fine with the beginning journey that Ana and Sam needed to take. Ana and Sam are traveling to get to the city Heart so that Ana can find out if she really is a no soul and what her birth means. Great theory in concept but everything becomes a little wacky when dragons, council members, religous aspects, sylph, and an evil mother are all added into the mix!

Once all those things are added the story becomes a little complex yet boring at the same time. Even though there are all of these elements going on the story moves really, really slowly. To add to the complex mix of creatures, governmental and religious issues, the characters do not really stand out. Ana is a little boring because she doesn’t know how to interact with all the rest of the people. Sam, the guy who she is living with, is also very boring. He is so afraid to get close to Ana that he steps lightly around her the whole novel.

Overall, nothing about this novel really compelled me to continue reading the story. I was bored for 2/3rds of the novel because everyone and everything seemed to move very slowly. There really isn’t a whole lot of action until the end portion of this novel and the great religious undertones of this novel just didn’t work for me in the end. About the only thing that did work was the ball that they had during the end of the novel, I did love seeing Sam dance with Ana. This one only gets 3 hearts from me.

Filed Under: Young Adult (YA) Review

Guest and Giveaway

October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Today I am a guest over at Danielle’s Blog, Romance Book Junkies
I am over there to talk about Halloween and do a giveaway.
To see what stories I’m giving away head on over to her blog and check it out.
While you are there you can follow her and check out all her other great Halloween Spooktacular posts that she is co-hosting with Donna @ Book Lover’s Hideaway.
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Everneath

October 24, 2011 By 4 Comments
Title: Everneath
Author: Brodi Ashton
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Publication Date: Jan 2012
Classification: YA Novel
Challenge: Outdo Yourself
Summary from Goodreads:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she’s returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld… this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

 

My Thoughts:
I’m not going to lie, the cover is what drew me into reading this book. I really didn’t know anything on what the book was actually about but just knew that I had to read it. This is one book were being a cover whore from time to time actually paid off before the story inside was certainly worth the time it took to read it.
Starting off the story is a little confusing because you are thrust into a weird world called Everneath that you know nothing about. Everything in the beginning is very fast and it can seem overwhelming at first. This quickly evens out when Nikki is officially back on the Surface, which is her normal life on Earth before she left with Cole, who is an Everliving.
After the beginning of the book I was still excited to be reading and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Over time though things did slow down and I felt like I was waiting for something big to happen. I felt like in the middle of the book I was enjoying the story, considering I was still reading like crazy, but I felt like I was missing something. I continued to feel this way for most of the story, I can’t quite put my finger on it but I felt like something needed to happen!
Overall, it took me all the way till the end to really enjoy this book. The beginning and ending are beautiful but there are some slow parts in the middle of the book where things could have moved a little bit faster. I really did like the story and most of the characters, but I did struggle to like Nikki for most of the book because I felt she made some horrible decisions. However, by the end I was close to being in love and in awe of this book. The ending really makes the entire message of the book stand out and this book really was a great mix of teenage emotions, greek mythology, and true love. I’m not going to tell you this book was happy so if you are expecting something light and airy this isn’t the book for you because it is dark and rather sad for the whole novel. It almost depresses a person to a certain extent but the ending, even though it is a cliffhanger, makes the whole sad journey worth it in the end.
This one gets 4.5 hearts from me for making me remember just what it means to be a teenager and be in love and have such strong emotions. It was a beautiful, yet hauntingly sad book that everyone should read, plus the cover makes it something beautiful to have on your keeper shelf.

Filed Under: Young Adult (YA) Review

Dewey Read-a-Thon

October 22, 2011 By 6 Comments
Well it is time for Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-Thon!!
I know I must be crazy to be up at 5am Arizona time just to read all day but it is what I’m planning on doing.
So on to the pile of books that I have waiting for me tomorrow.

The Pile Includes:
~ The Name of the Star (Audio + Book Format)
~ Try Not to Breathe
~ Incarnate
~ Don’t Breathe a Word
~ Unleashed
~ Fox & Phoenix
~ Sweet Venom
~ Witch Eyes
and
~ You Against Me
Obviously I do not read this fast so there is no way on Earth that I will read all of these books. My hope is to read about 3-4 books and listen to an hour or so of the audio for when I’m really tired and can’t hold a book up anymore.
Hopefully I’ll put all of my updates and mini challenges on this page as well.
I hope everyone has a great read-a-thon!
———————————————————
Well everyone it is currently 5am!
So Shesten, who hosts the read-a-thon has some basic questions for us readers.

1)Where are you reading from today?
Arizona
2)Three random facts about me…
My favorite food is strawberries, I have no hand-eye coordination, and I don’t eat meat.
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
Lol well the picture has about 9 books and my ereader is with me as well.
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I would like to get through about 3-4 books, 1000 pages is my goal.
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

This is actually my first time doing this read-a-thon.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
2. How many books have you read so far?
About 3
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
The Name of the Star
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
I made sure all my homework was done and that everyone knew to leave me alone!
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
I haven’t had too many interruptions.
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How many people are participating!
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
It is great as it is.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
As a reader I would get more sleep the night before hand. I went to bed at midnight and got up right before five am so I’m already pretty tired.
9. Are you getting tired yet?
Yes, I am a little tired but I can work through it, probably will be stopping around hour 20-21 though.
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?Having water by you is a must, I get headaches very easily especially from reading for too long so water helps to keep the headaches away. Also don’t be afraid to deviate from your book list that you planned out for the day.

UPDATE 1: 7:50am
So I’ve been reading for about two hours total and glad I finally finished the book I started weeks ago.
Now time for some breakfast!
Just Finished: The Mephisto Covenant (pg. 282-435)
Total Pages Read: 153

Total Time Read: 2 Hours

UPDATE 2: 10:30am
So right about now the read-a-thon has been going on for about 5.5 hours, I have read for four of those hours.
I’m going to be taking a break now to do a few things, like shower and do laundry, boring I know.
Read so Far: Finished The Mephisto Covenant (pg. 282-435)
and
Try Not to Breathe (pg. 1-123)
Total Pages Read: 275
Total Time Read: 4 Hours

UPDATE 3: 1:30pm
Well I didn’t get a ton of reading in since the last update do to all of the regular every day things I had to do.
Read so Far: Finished The Mephisto Covenant (pg. 282-435)
and
Finished Try Not to Breathe (pg. 1-233)
Total Pages Read: 385
Total Time Read: 6 Hours

UPDATE 4: 5:30pm
I decided to deviate from my list of books and go with a verse book to help get me back into the kick of reading. Now it is time for dinner before reading some more of Incarnate, which is a little slow but I have hopes it will pick up soon.
Read so Far: Finished The Mephisto Covenant (pg. 282-435)
Finished Try Not to Breathe (pg. 1-233)
Finished I Heart You, You Haunt Me (pg. 1-226)
Started Incarnate (pg. 1-115)
Total Pages Read: 726
Total Time Read: 9 Hours

UPDATE 5: 8:00pm
Well I have had dinner and a little time to relax and read more of Incarnate.
Hopefully now I will be good to sit back and read for the rest of tonight into early in the morning.
Read so Far: Finished The Mephisto Covenant (pg. 282-435)
Finished Try Not to Breathe (pg. 1-233)
Finished I Heart You, You Haunt Me (pg. 1-226)
Started Incarnate (pg. 1-208)
Total Pages Read: 818
Total Time Read: 10.5 Hours

UPDATE 6: 1:00am Last Update
Well I have been up for 20 out of 24 hours on only four hours of sleep, so it is bed time for me and I couldn’t read even one more page even if I tried. For anyone still reading, good luck!
I didn’t exactly meet my goals since I cheated and read a verse book so that accounted for a good chunk of my page count. Oh well, I’m still happy with what I got done and now I have four books to review tomorrow.

Read so Far: Finished The Mephisto Covenant (pg. 282-435)
Finished Try Not to Breathe (pg. 1-233)
Finished I Heart You, You Haunt Me (pg. 1-226)
Finished Incarnate (pg. 1-372)
Total Pages Read: 982
Total Time Read: 13 Hours

Filed Under: Uncategorized

IMM 47: Vlog!

October 21, 2011 By 5 Comments

Big thanks to Kristi (The Story Siren) for this great weekly theme.

Awesome People mentioned:
~ Candace @ Candace’s Book Blog
~ Michelle
~ Loretta @ Between the Pages

Filed Under: In My Mailbox (IMM)

Crossed

October 21, 2011 By 4 Comments

Title: Crossed

Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: Nov 2011
Classification: YA Novel
Summary from Barnes and Noble:
The hotly awaited second book in the dystopian Matched trilogy
In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky – taken by the Society to his certain death – only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.
 
Cassia’s quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander – who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia’s heart – change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.
My Thoughts:
My review of Matched was posted a few days ago and if you read that or if you watched my opinion video on hype that I did with Johnny you know my feelings on Matched. Just incase you didn’t watch/read either one of those then let me honestly tell you that I was disappointed in Matched, I expected a lot more from it. Now once I had finished Matched I wanted to start Crossed, not because I loved Matched but, because I was hoping that the story was going to move along faster in Crossed. Sadly, I got a story that was even worse than Matched!
Crossed starts off a few months after the events of Matched and Cassia still hasn’t gotten to Ky. Which means that for a lot of the story these two are just struggling lovers trying to find their way back to each other in the war torn border land (border districts?, don’t even remember the name of these anymore because I want to erase Crossed from my mind). So while I thought Crossed would move the storyline along faster I got the opposite, Crossed is even slower than Matched was. I WANT ACTION!!! I want a kiss ass girl who is going to actually break out of her bubble, instead I still ended up with this girl who could never break that bubble. Cassia is not strong enough to ever think about defying the order she has lived in for so long. Even when she goes looking for Ky, against the rules, it doesn’t feel like she is actually doing anything!!!!!
*Waves White Flag* I give up…. I got about 250 pages into this one before I gave up. Plus the writing in this one was hard to follow at times because the chapters went back and forth between Ky and Cassia, sometimes they would say I thought this and I sat there saying wait Cassia would never say that, then I had to remember I was reading from Ky’s perspective for a few pages before going back to Cassia’s perspective. Since this was a book that I didn’t finish it gets 1 heart.

Filed Under: Young Adult (YA) Review

Tempest

October 19, 2011 By 6 Comments

Title: Tempest

Author: Julie Cross
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: Jan 2012
Classification: YA Novel
Challenge: Outdo Yourself
Summary from Barnes and Noble:
The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.
 
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
 
Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
 
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.
Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

My Thoughts:
Wow I just finished this book a few minutes ago and I really don’t even know where to start.

This was one crazy ride right from the beginning of the book. Early on in the book after Jackson’s “normal” life is somewhat established for the reader, everything quickly changes. Holly, Jackson’s girlfriend, is shot and is dying as Jackson jumps to 2007 with no way back to save Holly. Since Jackson is stuck in 2007 he has to make the most of it by finding out where everyone that he cares about is. This means he needs to find his dad and find Holly and his friend Adam.

Everything from this point on in the novel gets very complex and slightly confusing as this version of time travel is sort of explained. At the same time there are a lot of freaky things going on in Jackson’s 2007 world that he never knew about, family secrets might just be coming up to the surface.

Overall, I feel like I don’t want to say too much about the story because I don’t want to ruin any of the shocking surprises for any readers. I will say that I loved the characters, if nothing else they pull the book together. I ended up loving Jackson’s character and Holly was great as well. I feel in love with their relationship and I feel that it is relatable to how people can feel in real life about relationships and the L word. I also loved that Cross wasn’t afraid to give us the view of older teens, since Jackson is 19 in the book. Sex and real relationship problems that older teens have are brought up in this book and I admire Cross for doing that in a YA novel.

While I did love the characters and the fact that this book is for older teens I felt that at times I couldn’t wrap my head around the actual storyline. There are so many things going on at any given point that it really does make your head spin, this certainly isn’t a light read in terms of the complexity of the storyline. Let me warn you right now the ending is a cliffhanger and had this book been my own instead of a copy that I got through an ARC tour site I would have thrown it across the room. I’m just torn because the storyline was very complex, a little too much for my taste but I was so involved in the story that I was crying at parts and other parts I was laughing and in the end I was furious. I think it is the mark of a great book to make me feel so many things all in one book, yet I am still torn if the story gave me everything that I wanted….I think I need book two in order to decide this. Ms. Cross please write faster!!

I give this book 4 hearts and the rating is only so low because of me being very torn on whether or not this was the book for me. So I’m leaving myself conflicted about this book and I can’t wait to see what others think about it as the release date gets closer.

Filed Under: Young Adult (YA) Review
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