It's so nice to be back at our home in the Valley. Jo is still adjusting after a month of radiation treatment. At the moment she's having an early afternoon nap. Still appointments and chemo to follow but that is all here. So far only a couple of appts with doc's back in Victoria and that's not until Juneish. I guess I have no excuses not to get some yard work done.. And maybe give the car a nice treat by washing it. It was so good on our weekly trips back and forth between Victoria and here.
While she's having and before I head upstairs to sort some laundry, here is my latest reading update.
Completed Books (since my last update)
"I read the novel version of American Gods back in 2017. I watched some of the TV series about it when it came out. So when I saw American Gods, Vol. 1: Shadows by Neil Gaiman I thought I'd give it a try.
Yeah, it was as good as the others and it follows Shadow as far as his visit to the funeral parlor with Mr. Ibis. It was all very familiar and there wasn't anything really new from the book but the artwork was excellent.
Will I buy the other graphic novels if they come out... probably not... After I bought a number of Gaiman's books / graphic novels, I began to read about disturbing allegations about him and I did get rid of a few of the books I'd purchased but I did keep this and read it anyway. (Gaiman has denied the allegations...) I have a book on the Art of Neil Gaiman but it's by someone else, so how does that fit in? Anyway, 3.5 stars...."
"It's been too long between the first graphic novel in the Brzrkr franchise and BRZRKR, Volume 2 by actor Keanu Reeves. That's not a good or bad thing, it's just chronology.
It was relatively easy to get back into the flow of the story. B is a sort of half mortal, half god who has lived for thousands of years. He remembers his mother but not his father. He has managed to stay 'hidden' by always joining armies and fighting in their midst.
B is now the subject of experiments by some organization who wants to find the source of his original power. They've been examining him and conducting experiments and the leader (although the 'leader' seems to be followed around by a floating orb that may in fact be his boss) is getting frustrated because B can remember some things, but not enough. The boss wants to conduct Project X, which as I understand it, means burying him in a hole deep in the ground and forcing B to use his power to escape and then they will somehow follow the energy to B's beginning??
Suffice it to say it's an ok story, confusing somewhat and I hope #3 provides more of an explanation. I hope so as I believe it's the final in the series. It's ok, the artwork is good. I'm just waiting for it to go somewhere. (3.0 stars)"
"I enjoy exploring the world of graphic novels and have especially enjoyed the work of Brian K. Vaughan; Saga and The Paper Girls. But I think so far that I've been enjoying Y: The Last Man, the most. I just finished Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3: One Small Step and it was excellent, a page turner.
I love the characters. I think the art work is beautiful and the story is so fantastic. As a bit of a recap, something (a plague, maybe) has destroyed every creature on earth with a Y chromosome. So there are no men left (I write that, gritting my teeth in despair). However, it seems that it wasn't perfect. There two men left. Yorick a part-time somewhat successful magician and his pet monkey, Ampersand.
Women for all over are either trying to kill Yorick, to get him to start the world over again, or to protect him until 'they' (the big They) can discover what caused all males to die. Yorick, a special agent named 355 (she works for the president) and a geneticist, are heading to her lab in San Francisco to conduct tests on Yorick. Yorick's mother, another politician, wants him brought back to her so she hires an Israeli special ops team to get him. Of course they have their own plans.
In this volume, we are introduced to a Russian agent, Natalya, who has come to the US because a Soyuz space ship is supposed to land in Nebraska, bringing a Russian cosmonaut (male) and two American astronauts (one male, one female) as the crew. She is to return the cosmonaut back to Russia. The group decides to work together. They plan to bring the crew to a top secret installation, with a 'safe room' where the men can be kept safe until the cause of the plague can be discovered and hopefully eradicated. The Israelis have different plans of course.
So much is going on and it's so beautifully presented. But I won't tell you any more because you need to read it. At the end of this chapter, there is a 2nd small story about a wandering minstrel show, made up of women who go from town to town presenting plays. It's a neat little story and it seems our team meets up with the... at least the monkey does.
It's just such an entertaining, well crafted and drawn story. I can't wait to see what happens next. Check it out. (4.0 stars)"
"You always know what you're going to get with a Stephanie Plum mystery. Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich, the 11th book was no exception.
Things you expect - Sexual tensions between Stephanie, her boyfriend Morelli and also her mysterious friend, Ranger; Humor; fun and games with Grandma Plum (especially at funeral viewings); more fun and games with her ex hooker pal, Lula, exploding cars (mostly those belonging to Stephanie, and an interesting action-filled story.
What was new in this one - Stephanie, trying to sort out her life, decides to quit being a bounty hunter and turns her badge back in to Vinnie, her cousin. Someone is sending Stephanie threatening notes and people keep dying or being injured around her.
Stephanie is trying to find a new career, trying to discover who is trying to kill her, also helping with her sister, Valerie's wedding plans. This is not going well. Stephanie's dress will be eggplant purple. She lied and told them she had played the cello and now is expected to play at the wedding. And she is looking after Morelli, who was one of the victim's of Stephanie's stalker.
It's all fun and games and sexiness. I've always thought that Stephanie Plum is one of the sexiest protagonists in fiction and she's got two sexy men in her life. Decisions, decisions for poor Steph. The story moves along nicely, Trenton NJ has to survive her and Lula as they chase down bail bonds defaulters (Yes, even though she has quit, she still assists Lula) and will Valerie's wedding be a success? Check it out. (3.5 stars)"
Currently Reading (since last update)
"Starring Albert Campion, bland, blue-eyed, deceptively vague professional adventurer, and Great Aunt Caroline, that formidable and exquisite old lady, ruling an ancient household heavy with evil. Uncle Andrew is dead, shot through the head. Cousin George, the black sheep, is skulking round corners. Aunt Julia is poisoned, Uncle William attacked. And terror invades an old Cambridge residence. (Publisher’s description)"
"When writer and ex-deb Bennis Hannaford discovers the body of super-heiress Kayla Anson in the family garage, her visit to Litchfield County, Connecticut, is reluctantly extended. Bennis's hostess, Margaret Anson, presents an icy version of the grieving mother, cut out her late husband's will--until now. And when Gregor Demarkian, ex-FBI man and Bennis's lover, arrives from Philadelphia to consult with local police, a media blitz storms in as more suspects crawl out of the woods.
Kayla may have been too blindingly rich for her wild, private school chum; her older, socially ambitious entrepreneur boyfriend; and a divorced, downsized bookkeeper selling her furniture to survive. As Gregor maps out distances, location, and motives, Halloween descends on the dark, silent hills. From a skeleton sprawled on the cemetery caretakers' porch to more deadly mischief and mayhem, the countryside is brimming with secrets. And a killer is about to strike again..."
Nothing much ever happens in Millville, a small, secluded Middle-American community—until the day Brad Carter discovers he is unable to leave. And the nearly bankrupt real estate agent is not the only one being held prisoner; every resident is confined within the town’s boundaries by an invisible force field that cannot be breached. As local tensions rapidly reach breaking point, a set of bizarre circumstances leads Brad to the source of their captivity, making him humanity’s reluctant ambassador to an alien race of sentient flora, and privy to these jailers’ ultimate intentions. But some of Millville’s most powerful citizens do not take kindly to Carter’s “collaboration with the enemy,” even under the sudden threat of global apocalypse.
Decades before Stephen King trapped an entire town in Under the Dome , science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak explored the shocking effects of communal captivity on an unsuspecting population. Nominated for the Nebula Award, All Flesh Is Grass is a riveting masterwork that brilliantly reinvents the alien invasion story."
Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.
Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers."
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