Yay! More Harley Quinn

As I was leaving work yesterday, I said to some of my work mates "Yay, I'm going to the comic book store"

Their response: "Oh your so funny" thinking I was joking. As you can see I wasn't joking. I was in fact off to buy a joker (not the joker but close enough)

Purchased the new Harley Quinn #0 and raced home to read it straight away.

This was a great idea with each artist getting a page each and having a conversation with Harley about how she wants to be drawn and that she doesn't want to be a stereotype. 

If I remember correctly this was the one they got in trouble from for drawing her naked and committing suicide, but they seem to have dropped that out.

This also set up the first of the series with her having a visit from a mysterious man in a dark car telling her she has inherited a 4 story house.

Can't wait for the next installment! 

Literary Photo Challenge Day 10: Best POV

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was the first Gregory Maguire book i had read. I picked it up really cheap at a "middle of the mall" book sale tables because it was ripped but the title was too interesting to resist, that and the art work of the cover. 

*spoilers*

The POV part comes right at the end when you think you have been hearing the story of one of the ugly stepsisters the whole way through but it is actually the sister that is mute and they think retarded. Great twist and great POV switch up. Really should re-read it.

Once again spoilers.

Snow Crash was my first Neal Stephenson book book second hand (its bee well loved and I wont lend this copy to anyone because its about to fall a part.) There are a couple of scenes in it from the point of view of a dog that has gone through a cyberman type process but that isn't obvious to begin with. Good little tension builder.

So I couldn't decide today so i gave you all two but i don't think anyone will complain. 

Literary Photo Challenge Day 9: Cliff Hanger

These two are like the worst cliff hangers ever! And there isn't even the threat of someone dying, which is the lazy mans cliffhanger but you just want to know what happens next.

These books are form my school library but i was lucky enough to walk in when the library lady was unpacking the books and I got to read them first.  Just goes to show that if you are nice to your local library staff they let you get in first with the books.

Panic (Wildfire Chronicles Vol 1.) By K.R. Griffiths

Panic is a apocalyptic zombie-esque secret society driven disaster story set in the rural village of St. Davids in Wales. The ball is set rolling with the landing of steel canisters in the back yard of one of the villages’ houses that results in the first “zombification” resulting in the typical struggle for survival.

One thing made me love this book and would prompt me to actually buy the further volumes of the series. That was the fantastically vivid descriptions of the carnage and the fast nature of the story telling.  The story writing doesn’t labour over the small unimportant details of the scenery or talk down to the reader by explaining who everyone is and their back-story in more detail than necessary.

However, what makes me think again was the lack of trigger warnings for one or two of the scenes at the end.  These sorts of this might be where the human condition goes to during this sort of event but please lead up to it with something to at least warn the reader of what to expect.

Well paced, fast read with a typical cliff hanger ending to keep you coming back. 

3.5 stars.

I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers. 

Book Photo Challenge Day 8: Happily Ever After

I first read Threshold in year 12 and completely fell in love with her and her writing.

Threshold has an amazing twist "Happily Ever After" ending and I was devastated to find that at the time it was a stand alone book. This was rare even back then. So I read her other books.

What made it amazing for me was the maths involved and it being set in a fantasy world. Interests were colliding on the page in front of my very eyes.

Then, a few years ago, I was in the bookstore with my partner looking for books to take on a holiday with us and i found "The Serpent Bride" and i think I swelled with delight when I realised that is was a continuation of the "Threshold" world and story. I then tried to explain my reaction to my partner and give him a sense of how important it was that I start reading this book right now or I would die on the spot but couldn't get the words out over the hyperventilation.

Photo Challenge Day 7: Dream Cast for Favourite Book

You will notice that there are no photos accompanying this post. “This is odd” you think to yourself, and you would be correct.

I struggled greatly with this one. So much so that I didn't post anything yesterday because I was mulling over which of my favourite book to cast and who to put into the roles until I came to the conclusion that the best cast I can ever come up with is the imaginary people that appear in my mind when I am reading.

I create all new characters in my head when I am reading with the help of the authors descriptions and my own imagination. Very rarely do these people look like movie stars. Occasionally they look like people I know but I don’t sit down and while away my time, wistfully imagining movie stars as book characters when I could be reading.

I simply don’t care that much to conduct such a thought experiment. Its great if you do and that is what you enjoy, I just don’t.

That being said, it would then be a bit hypocritical of me to get angry or frustrated at studios for casting certain people in my favourite book roles, but I don’t unless they do a ham of a job at it and that just comes down to bad acting or poor direction.  I won’t name names but we can all think of a terrible adaptation that caused the end of hope for the rest of the books in a series (cough Inkheart cough cough)

So I say my dream cast for my favourite book(s) is the one that I imagine in my mind and that doesn't translate well to a photo....yet. 

Literary Photo Challenge Day 6: Most Anticipated This Year

I heard about The Bone Season a week or two before it came out because of Tumblr posts about this new, young, highly thought of university student that got a huge book deal without actually having published a book; Samantha Shannon. I thought, wow, in this day and age of the indie publisher, this Shannon must be brilliant. 

I was not disappointed. Plus, considering I work in a high school, I  told my librarians about it too.