I absolutely ❤️ re-imagined takes on comic book characters. The writers take wonderful liberties with the characters and backstories, all set against a high-fantasy backdrop. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This is going to be difficult for me to write: but the show is better than the graphic novel. Maybe the writer felt the story needed to be hastened because it was a limited run series, but the show definitely delves further into everything. My hope is that the story lines in the subsequent volumes of the Umbrella Academy are fleshed out more fully. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

And with that 2022 season comes to an end…

All I can say is thank goodness for audiobooks and graphic novels! I did a considerable greater amount of reading this year even though I had far less time for sitting down with a book and a cup of coffee. (Though that does sound heavenly to me.)

If you want to explore the darker aspects of a character‘s personality, you hire Frank Miller to write the story.

Meant to post this yesterday! Hope you all had a #HappyFestivus

Congrats @MatchlessMarie on 100K!
#YearEnd100K

1) The Neil Gaiman Reader by Neil Gaiman
2) Hail Mary by Andy Weir
3) The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

Happy Holidays!

📸 :: Death Wish Coffee Co.

What can one say but Alan Moore has an incredible gift for storytelling? And Brian Bolland is one of my Top 5 Batman illustrators. This story shows — like no other Batman story — how the Joker and the Batman are two sides of the same coin. Tragedy struck them both but their madness took them different routes — one the road of the madman villain and the other the path of the obsessive vigilante.

Brian Bolland—he definitely drew my favorite Joker.

The incredible art of Brian Bolland.

Let‘s do a Alan-Moore-Frank-Miller/Batman Double with “The Killing Joke” and “The Dark Knight Returns”.

“This is the story of the extraordinary rise and epic fall of the Vanderbilt Dynasty. This is the story of the greatest American fortune ever squandered.”

Anderson is not pulling any of his punches here. 🫖

@Eggs #WondrousWednesday

1) The holiday markets in Union Square; snow in Central Park; a warm radiator, hot coffee, and a window from which to watch the city.
2) All I want for Christmas is the best holiday ever.
3) Tagged book.

Loid, a secret agent, adopted a little girl, whom he doesn‘t know is telepathic, and married a woman, whom he didn‘t know was an assassin. Now in order to keep the sham marriage appearances up, he meets his wife‘s psychopathic obsessive brother who secretly works for the state secret police. Hi-jinks continue as Loid tries to save the world.

Loid is one overworked spy in a sham marriage to an assassin after adopting a little girl with telepathic powers. Hijinks ensue as the odd couple attempt to give everyone the impression that they are a perfectly normal family. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This collection of writing by the incomparable Neil Gaiman was already well on its way to a 5-Star rating when I came to: Nothing O‘Clock (2013). Gaiman wrote Doctor Who fanfic and my nerdy little heart exploded. I. Can‘t. Even. Gaiman gets all the stars. All. The. Stars.

I find it difficult to label Robert Ray Hamilton as disgraced. He was taken advantage of by an unscrupulous social climber in Eva Mann, who thankfully never really benefited from her schemes and lies. The sad tale of Alexander Hamilton‘s great grandson checks all of the historical New York boxes: influential New York society, Tammany Hall, tabloid newspapers, a Hamilton involved in a brouhaha in New Jersey.

Happy National Coffee Day!

Book Mail! Received the ARC for this one today. Being a NYOONY (New Yorker Outside Of New York) the title alone had me curious. I‘m sure by the end of this one, I‘ll be well & truly home sick.

Book Mail! Really excited to read this. Thanks, MacMillan Publishing.

After the jolt to my soul of trudging my way through a novel by an author I normally greatly enjoy, I was gun-shy to pick up this book by the always brilliant Neil Gaiman. But alas, mere seconds into this audiobook book I was nestled inside the warmth of Neil‘s narration and the wonder of his storytelling. Fear not, Uncle Neil to the rescue.

Saddens me to say I need to walk away from this one for now. It‘s boring me to tears. I‘ve never experienced this with a John le Carré novel before. ?

Shocking, I know. Another le Carré novel for me. My old fallback.

I love this book so much. Not innocence through a child‘s eye, but pure, unadulterated right-and-wrong without the pessimism of adulthood. I read this book annually, to remind me that Atticus‘s philosophy of wearing another person‘s shoes means having to wear the vile and ignorant soles of Bob Ewell.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

@TheSpineView

So much better than the previous in this series. The Epilogue is definitely the most cliff-hangerish of the five and I can see why fans of the series are frustrated by the slothly manner in which GRRM cranks out material. We may never know how it all ends, and be left with the speculation of and alternate ending produce by the television production.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1) Kinda. There‘s an unsent email sitting in my Drafts Folder with book titles stretching on and on and on and on and on… well, you get the picture.
2) TBR? You all act there‘s a plan. 😂 There is no plan. 😂

83% complete which means only 8 1/2 more hours to go!

Nope. Halfway into this comic, I am still lost and have no idea what‘s going on.

This tea 🫖 is scandalously delicious.

Finally picked up The Amazing Spider-Man 🕷 No. 900. #spiderman #sinisterseven #books #WritingCommunity #author #authors #amreading #amwriting #amediting #writers #BookTwitter #BookWorm #bookstagram #comics #comicbooks #marvel

Started this the other day.

I realize that this is only a 10-part comic miniseries, but much like Scott Snyder‘s “Clear”, I need this one to continue. The ending, while answering so many of the questions that Season One (the first 5 issues) created, conjured so many more questions. Milli and Mae are going “home” but what of the others? How will Milli and Mae adjust to their new reality which runs antithesis to their entire upbringing? Oh, I need answers. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Loved the first one; let‘s see if Season Two can ramp up the plot more.

A spy thriller where each of the three main characters must not only hide who they really are from the world, but also from each other as they pretend to be a family. The tension of not wanting to be found out plays nicely with the characters desire to be known and understood by someone. A wonderful beginning. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Promised a friend I‘d check this out, and figured there‘s no time like the present. Reading right-to-left is a bit challenging though.

Happy #PubDay! 62 Years Young, and Atticus Finch is still not the hero of the original YA novel. (Pro Tip: Scout had it right all along).

#FirstLineFridays

In a break from the norm, my annual rereading of TKAM will be via the audiobook because I was scanning the NYPL Overdrive site, and this edition is narrated by Sissy Spacek. Sissy. Spacek. I‘m all in.

#Bookmail from over the long weekend.

Dystopian Ice World — I wasn‘t sure about this at first but the plot developed quickly, giving me just enough backstory to create adequate questions in my mind but also answering enough to create more questions and pushing the narrative forward at a rapid pace. Can‘t wait to delve into Season Two. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The outsider POV of Nick Carraway—much like Fitzgerald‘s own outsider position during the Gilded Age—gives a wonderful, detached view of the opulence of the time. Knowing the social hierarchy of the day, Gatsby was also very much an outsider with his “new money”. That is very much the thesis of the book—not only the wretchedness of the rich to the poor, but the rich amongst themselves. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

So during the birth of my second child and the ensuing insanity of life, my library audiobook for A Dance With Dragons expired. So I picked up Gatsby for the first time since probably high school. This version is free on Apple Books and is read by Aaron Burr… I mean Leslie Odom Jr.

Sometimes I wish that comics had a beginning, a middle, and an ending. And sometimes I read a comic like “Clear” and wish it would go on forever. Well, maybe not forever but longer than a 6-issue run on Comixology. I‘d give more stars if I could. Amazing how Snyder crafted a fully realized story in just six installments, with a rich MC, as well as a deep philosophical theme centering around escapism and technology immersion. Incredible ending!

Take a pinch of Batman (no super powers). A pinch of Ironman (alcoholism). A pinch of Superman (journalist). This is what makes up The Black Ghost. Is it cutting edge comics. No. But it's fun (meant in the best way). I wish Season One had been longer so they could develop the story a bit more. There was a lot of character building and the ending felt rushed.

I‘m about a fifth into the book so far, and already it‘s 💯 better than Feast of Crows. My only critique at this point is that sometimes it‘s difficult enough to keep track of the myriad of characters, but now GRRM is jumping around in the timeline as well.