books

[dragonyphoenix]

Graphic Novels / Picture Books:

• The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice by Mike Carey, Peter Gross




• The Unwritten (Vol 1): Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity




• The Unwritten (Vol 2): Inside Man




• From Hell




• RASL




• Ms. Marvel: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona




• The Unwritten (Vol 3): Dead Man's Knock




• The Unwritten (Vol 4): Leviathan




• Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War by Fetter-Vorm and Kelman: Interesting. I definitely learned some history from this one. For example, there were riots when the North started using conscription.




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 1): Unmanned




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 3): One Small Step by Vaughan, Guerra, …




• Locke & Key (Vol 1): Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 4): Safeword – I started to get less interested with this story here




• Locke & Key (Vol 2): Head Games – still brilliant




• LumberJanes (vol 1): Beware the Kitten Holy – by Stevenson, Ellis, Watters, and Allen




• The Unwritten (Vol 5): On to Genesis




• Locke & Key (Vol 3): Crown of Shadows




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 2): Cycles




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 5): Ring of Truth




• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce




• The Unwritten (Vol 6): Tommy Taylor and the War of Words




• Ms. Marvel (Vol 2): Generatin Why




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 6): Girl on Girl




• Locke & Key (Vol 4): Keys to the Kingdom




• The Unwritten (Vol 7): The Wound




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 7): Paper Dolls




• The Unwritten (Vol 8): Orpheus in the Underworld




• Locke & Key (Vol 5): Clockworks – the kids use a key that lets them see the past. This volume shows how their father unleashed the demon that's been terrorizing them. As I was reading I really wanted to tell them – the father and his friends – “Don't do it!” although since it's the past I knew they would.




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 8): Kimono Dragons




• The Unwritten (Vol 9): Fables




• The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice




• Locke & Key (Vol 6): Alpha and Omega




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 9): Motherland




• Saga (Vol 1)




• Y: The Last Man (Vol 10): Whys and Wherefores – The ending disappointed me. I'd thought we'd learn what had caused the plague. We didn't. The love interest dies, but the world goes on. It wasn't enough.




• Shutter: Wanderlost (Vol 1) – Joe Keatinge, Leila Del Duca




• morning glories (Vol 1) – spencer, eisma, esquejo – It's reminding me of Nowhere Man, which was based on The Prisoner, in that the world's gone topsy turvy and the viewer has no idea why. Excellent so far.




• Number Cruncher by Si Spurrier – Wow! That was excellent.




• Hopeless Savages by Jen van Meter – stories from the lives of the first family of punk. This was fun.




• Revival: You're Among Friends (Vol 1) by Tim Seeley & Mike Norton – the dead return to life in a rural town.




• morning glories (Vol 2)




• The Woods (Vol 1): The Arrow – James Tynion IV, Michael Dialynas




• morning glories (Vol 3)




• Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster, More – DeConnick & Lopez: female superhero: yay! The bad guys are ugly; the good guys, good looking: boo. Guardians of the Galaxy show up in a let's bring in heroes everyone loves to boost this new comic; plus I didn't like the Guardians of the Galaxy movie so: boo. Plot, boring: boo. I won't be looking at more of these.




• Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton




• Revival (Vol 2): Live Like You Mean It




• morning glories (Vol 4) – I'd started losing interest with volume 3 but it's picked back up with this volume.




• The Woods (Vol 2): The Swarm




• Tippy and the Night Parade by Lilli Carre




• The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton




• Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore – as amazing as ever




• The Wicked + The Divine (Vol 1): The Faust Act – Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, Cowles: Oh my Goddess, brilliant!




• Morning glories (Vol 5) – It's gotten rather confusing. Time travel. One of the kids suddenly has superpowers. I didn't really follow it.




• Moving Pictures by Kathryn & Stuart Immonen – Canadian woman in France collaborating but also hiding masterpieces of art from the Nazis. I liked this one a lot.




• The Wicked + The Divine (Vol 2): Fandemonium: Just as amazing as the first volume.




• Morning Glories (Vol 6)




• Revival (Vol 3): A Faraway Place




• Revival (Vol 4): Escape to Wisconsin




• Revival (Vol 5): Gathering of Waters




• The Unwritten (Vol 11): War Stories and (Vol 12): Apocalypse – my roommie bought me the whole set for Yule so I was able to finish off the series on the solstice!




• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson – excellent!




• Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley

Novels:

• Station Eleven by Mandel, Emily St. John




• Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss




• Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis




• The Shadow of the Lion, Mercedes Lackey




• The Wood Wife by Terri Windling – lovely mythic tale. Why have I not read her before?




• 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff – nice but I liked the movie better




• A Canticle for Leibowitz -




• Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen




• The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins




• Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins




• Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins




• Daughter of the Empire –




• Redshirts – John Scalzi




• Random Acts of Senseless Violence – Jack Womack: Holy Shit! I totally need my own copy of this one.




• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley




• House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski: Odd but very interesting. I now understand what people find creepy in the Cthulhu stories.




• Tigana – Guy Gavriel Kay: In the past I've preferred his Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan, but this time I really, really liked Tigana.




• Courtship Rite – Donald Kingsbury: Still a great read




• Among Others – Jo Walton




• My Real Children – Jo Walton: She's fast becoming one of my favorite authors.




• The Just City – Jo Walton




• The Philosopher Kings – Jo Walton




• Captain Vorpatril's Alliance – Lois McMaster Bujold




• Adaptation by Malinda Lo – There are some young adult books that I adore, such as The Hunger Games. This novel isn't terrible and actually I found the first half to be quite intriguing, but I didn't believe the ending. It just wasn't plausible.




• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J. K. Rowling




• Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal – The idea, a Jane Austen-ish romance in a world with magic, certainly drew me in. The author definitely uses a number of Austen plot-points, for example there's an eligible and attractive young man romancing multiple women in the neighborhood. I personally found the Austen plot-points annoying; they only served to highlight that this author is no Austen.




• Maplecroft: The Borden Chronicles by Cherie Priest – Lizzy Borden vs. Cthulhu-like creatures. Surprisingly enjoyable read.




• The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler – quite different from the movie; I didn't really enjoy it until the end




• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix




• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince




• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows




• A Civil Campaign (Vorkosigan series)




• House of Cards by Michael Dobbs




• Komarr (Vorkosigan series)




• Memory (Vorkosigan series)




• Cetaganda (Vorkosigan series)




• Ethan of Athos (Vorkosigan series)




• Barrayar (Vorkosigan series)




• Brothers in Arms (Vorkosigan series)




• Mirror Dance (Vorkosigan series)




• Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. A friend did a “Which Banned Book Are You?” quiz and got this book. Since I'd never read it, I thought I'd give it a try. I think I'd have enjoyed it when I was a teen but I certainly wasn't a lot like those girls. I didn't have a secret club where we talked about boys, boobs, or menstruating. Actually, I was one of the first to get breasts, in the 6^th grade. It was embarrassing.




• I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest – in this YA book, a girl is kidnapped but everyone, outside of herself and the kidnapper, thinks she's dead. It's a great story, but, damn, that was just creepy.




• Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed – sword and sorcery fantasy set in a Muslim kingdom.




• Servant of the Empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts




• 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff




• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton – I'd seen this as a movie – long time ago – and I have to say the book makes things so much more clear. Also, I think, like Jane Austen's novels, this is the kind of book I have to read many times, to become familiar with, before I can tell if I like it.




• The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip




• Uprooted by Naomi Novik – What a fantastic book! I could hardly bear to put it down. The writing style is easy to read and the plot kept going places I totally did not expect.




• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – The library was giving these away and I didn't expect it to be all that good. Could I have been more wrong. Another fantastic book, this one for young adults. A boy's mother is dying and a monster comes calling.




• Archangel by Sharon Shinn – goto book for when I'm stressed




• Angel-Seeker by Sharon Shinn




• Jovah's Angel by Sharon Shinn – I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two which may be why the library doesn't carry it

Poetry Collections:

• Dart by Alice Oswald

Short Stories

• “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson




• “A Company of Laughing Faces” by Nadine Gordimer




• “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munroe




• “Separating” by John Updike




• “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton




• “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisernos




• “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko




• “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter




• “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol

Non-fiction

• Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea




• On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction by Brian Boyd

Photo Collections:

• The New Gypsies by Iain McKell