Book Binge

Recently I’ve been rather under the weather and because of my illness I’ve been unable to do much reading, that’s what happens when you have a constant headache.  So, after my massage yesterday I made a pit stop to The Book Vault (my friendly neighbourhood book shop) to find some graphic novels.  

Well an innocent stop to look for a few books I could possibly read ended up costing me quite a pretty penny.  But I think I left with some good finds.  The guy that works at the shop gave me three cue cards full of suggested reading material.  I gabbed some of his suggestions as well as a few I thought might be of interest.  So, without further ado here are the goodies I picked up:

Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  Something about this book intrigued me, I don’t normally read superhero books but this one came highly recommended.  I haven’t read any Batman material and given the recent hype surrounding the caped crusader.  

Not that long ago I started watching the 1960’s Adam West Batman series.  You just cannot write camp like that anymore.  I cannot help but chuckle to myself all the time with the ridiculous plots and lines found throughout the show.

For those of you avid readers of this humble blog you’ll know that I love the Fables series by Bill Willingham.  So I picked up this 6th installment Fables: Homelands.  I’ve already devoured the first five in the series and I’m always ready for the next in the series.

This will definitely be read by weeks end.  I’m not sure what it is that just makes me fall for these books.  It’s one of a few series I’ll own before too long.  

I couldn’t pass this one up because the title made me laugh out loud in the bookstore, this is something that rarely happens when I’m hunting the shelves for books.  god the Dyslexic Dog by Brian & Philip Phillipson and Alex Nino.  I’m betting it’s going to be terrible but I thought why not give it a shot?  I’m kind of looking forward to being disappointed by this one.  Flipping through the pages I can tell it may even cause pain while reading.  Should be a good time!

I really enjoy fairy tales and have always been fascinated with the Brother’s Grimm and the way they told the tails.  This is one of the books I read as soon as I got home and I have to say there were some parts I really enjoyed but others I just didn’t like.  

Grimm Fairy Tales Volume 1 by Joe Tyler and Ralph Tedesco contains: Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty and Robber Bridegroom.  This is one I thought would be worth checking out.

Kingdom Come seemed to be the one he was probably most excited about.  As a result it was one I had to pick up right away.  Mark Waid and Alex Ross bring us the superheroes we are all use to in the not so distant future.  They are older and some slightly forgotten.  

Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl is a comic I remember stumbling across this comic when it first came out.  And loved it because the humor is dark and exactly something I’d come with.  So I picked up the first two in the collection of three Noogies and Wedgies by Roman Dirge.  If you’d like a sample of the humor you can check out the animated versions of some of these stories here.

Finally, I picked up a zombie book.  The Walking Dead Book One is fabulous!  I picked it up and couldn’t stop reading it.  I loved every aspect of this book.  And given the rise in all things zombie these days I thought I should pick this one up.  Robert Kirkman’s story of the walking dead seamed like something I might enjoy so I picked it up.

 

I’d be curious to know if there are any favourites you may have out there.  What comics/graphic novels have you fallen for that I should perhaps look into next?

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Weekly Review #8

Well I guess this past week made up for the previous week.  I got three books finished and got a giveaway started.  I guess I have several reviews I should get working on and posting on here but I keep finding other things that I want to talk about on here so the reviews get left behind sometimes.  Another bookish type thing that I got do yesterday was a trip to Toronto to see The Color Purple: The Musical.

If you’ve been reading this post for a while you’ll know that I spent some time talking about Canada Reads last year and I’ve started to keep tabs on what’s going on in the world of Canada Reads 2009. So to celebrate great Canadian literature I’ve decided to host a giveaway.  I’m going to give the drawn name the winning novel in this years Canada Reads.  I’m really excited to see what others have to say their best Canadian novel is.  Since some people have asked already the giveaway is open to everyone!  Enter and good luck!

This week I finished reading Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow then I got several other started and finished.  This week I also had the joy of reading Fruit by Brian Francis (this is the first book I read for Canada Reads 2009), Murder at the Prom by Peter DePietro (this was actually some required reading for the community theatre group I’m helping get off the ground), and the 3rd installment of the Fables graphic novels (Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham, with illustrations by Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha).  Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for some reviews to come.

Well it’s been a busy week and it was nice to end it off yesterday with The Color Purple and then the Oscars.  A great way to end a week.  Until next time happy reading!

Fabels A New Twist

This graphic novel had everything a mystery and humor. The best part of all was that all the characters were familiar, somewhat. There wasn’t anything about this book that I didn’t enjoy and I’m actually looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I picked up this because I read a review of it on another blog but, and I’m sorry for this, I don’t remember what blog it was. I’m not sure if the one who did the review reads this please send me an email with the link so I can add a link to end of this post. That goes with anyone else that’s read the book as well.

The story revolves around the possible murder of Rose Red (sister of Snow White). There are a number of classic fairytale characters that are suspects or involved in solving the case. This is the first book of the series we learn that all the fairytale characters have been exiled from their original homelands and are forced to live in our world. The creatures that have been exiled are living on a farm known simply as “The Farm”

The Bad Wolf is the in charge of the investigation. It should also be noted that he is no longer a wolf, rather a human. The book really kept me in the story, I didn’t want to put the book down once I started. It was really fantastic and I’m looking forward to the second book. If you haven’t yet read this it’s one that you should definitely check out, Fables: Legends in Exile would be a great introduction to graphic novels.

I also must mention the incredible art work that is found within the covers of this book. They are very detailed and full of colour. The art work is reason enough to get this book, and you get a little idea what it’s like from the cover art. If you like that you’re sure to love what’s found inside. Lan Medina’s work is incredible and it should be admired for what it is. I cannot accurately describe them well enough so I’ll just let the art speak for itself.

Other reviews of this book

http://somereads.blogspot.com/2007/08/fables-vol-1-legends-in-exile.html