In case the covers & titles of the Locked Tomb books don‘t scream FUN!!! to you, please know that they are SO much smart & bloody fun. I love the growing cast of sassy necromancers in this book, the metanarrative remix of book 1, & getting to spend some time with “tired dad” the Necrolord Prime.

Also I‘ve decided that these books contain the greatest Enemies to Lovers story ever told. As Gideon Nav might say, “Much Ado About Nothing can suck it!”

Author and Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Ridley looks at both the development of the Civil Rights movement in America and the weird world of DC comics continuity through the eyes of some of DC‘s Black, Asian, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ heroes.

By writing masterfully from the viewpoints of 6 different characters (nailing their individual voices) from the 1970s to 2010, Ridley deepens the DCU in gripping and thoughtful ways.

The previous Wayward Children book (Where the Drowned Girls Go) was the first one in the series that didn‘t totally rock me, but book 8 corrected the wobble!

This series is kind of evolving into the ultimate treatise on Portal Fantasy as a whole, examining their internal rules, plotting them on an all-encompassing map, and examining why we respond to them the way we do.

Such a great series! Highly recommended.

Jedediah Berry‘s 2009 weirdo noir The Manual of Detection was absolutely and very specifically My Thing.

Was thrilled to learn his second novel was coming out this year and oh my gosh just LOOK at it!

My book dance card is so full right now, but I gotta figure out a way to work this in before the end of the year.

#coverlove #bookmail

This is not exactly doing what it says on the tin. Yes, it is a first contact narrative about a marine biologist studying a colony of octopuses in Vietnam who have developed their own culture & language of symbols, but that‘s layered with linked plot threads about human trafficking, artificial intelligence, & meditations on the human condition.

An eco-science tech thriller that brought a humanist Michael Crichton* to mind. Recommended if you ❤️🐙

I felt my mind expand while reading this.

Gideon the Ninth (think Clue, but with a bunch of sassy necromancers in a rotting space mansion) was one of the most fun books I read last year and I am absolutely PUMPED to be #starting the sequel!

Max Gladstone tackles a lot (too much?) in his 6th Craft Sequence novel.

The juice of the series (besides the wonderful characters) is in the way Gladstone translates things like contract law, water rights, & student loans into his world of flying colleges and nightmare demons.

Not only does this one tackle colonization, startup culture, modern art, & SpaceX, but there is one heck of a train heist in a frozen desert made of dead gods‘ bodies!

#currentread

“Real magic can never be made by offering up someone else‘s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.”

Hey, Litsy! I know it‘s been literal years, but I just wanted to say that revisiting this book is an absolute joy!

The colony world that has forgotten its origins has been done before, & even done before by Tchaikovsky, but the maestro is just so clever at crafting his world & characters that I had a great time with this novella.

We alternate between the perspectives of a warrior princess & the wizard she turns to for help, who is really an anthropologist from old Earth studying her people.

A good read, and the 15th book I‘ve read by Tchaikovsky.

Devil House tells many stories, none of which you might expect when you see the cover.

Tales of childhood friendship, parental fears, medieval quests, domestic abuse, tales of the homes we make for ourselves & how we choose to defend them, are all nested within this narrative of a true crime writer haunted by the stories he has told & the one he is telling.

As beautiful, sad, & strange as Mountain Goats frontman Darnielle‘s previous 2 novels.

#Dedications Timely.

#Starting

“23 May 1981
On closer inspection it became clear to me that no one is on my side anymore, not a single person, none, no one, not a single one…. But I saw something the others did not see.”

For 3 years, Werner Herzog toiled in the Peruvian jungle to make a movie about a madman hauling a riverboat over a mountain by actually hauling a riverboat over a mountain.

His diary/documented descent into madness was a truly amazing read.

It‘s release day for Quentin Tarantino‘s first novel, based on his film, and I am just super interested in what this is even going to be like.

Especially since Tarantino‘s is talking up the possibility of becoming a full-time author after he makes his 10th film and then retires from directing.

Dig that vintage cover!

@vivastory this seems like it might need to be on your radar if it‘s not already.

I glanced at my shelves for a #yellow cover for #CuriousCovers and this one definitely qualifies.

Good book, too. Maybe the best of the Books of the Long Sun? It‘s either Lake or Nightside.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Truly one of my favorite covers of all time.

#bird #CuriousCovers @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

I would call Batman “sir” too.

This was actually way better than it had any right to be.

I am almost done with James Tynion IV‘s astoundingly good run on Justice League and he manages to make this adventure with Batman and the Turtles clever and fun.

My one complaint is that it was a bit short. The last, I kid you not, 45 PAGES are all variant cover art.

#Starting

Two great tastes that taste great together!

#horse #curiouscovers @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

#Starting this Christmas gift from my brother about my favorite living filmmaker.

This is going to strictly be a night read because my 6 year old can totally read now.

The cafeteria was off-limits this year and students had to eat lunch in our classrooms, so my 2nd period worked their way through the entirety of Avatar: The Last Airbender during our lunches*.

I finally picked up the comics that begin right after the last scene of the show, and I‘m so glad I did! For fans of the show, volume 2 “The Search” is all about Team Avatar tracking down Zuko‘s mom and it is such an emotional ride!

Hey, Litsy! I‘ve missed you!

Our school system had kids back in the classroom starting last September, so the mix of planning, teaching, and grading for both In Person and Remote kids coupled with the constant low-grade anxiety of having to be in a room full of people everyday in the midst of the pandemic caused my reading to falter significantly (we‘re talkin‘ like 5 novels since January)...

but now IT‘S SUMMER! Time to read!

“I‘ve never understood all this fuss people make about the dawn. I‘ve seen a few and they‘re never as good as the photographs, which have the additional advantage of being things you can look at when you‘re in the right frame of mind, which is usually around lunchtime.”

THAT. DUNE. TRAILER. #Dune2020

https://youtu.be/n9xhJrPXop4

This is highly recommended for

A.) fans of Lev Grossman‘s The Magicians trilogy
B.) fans of Syfy‘s The Magicians show
C.) anyone who is not familiar with A and B, but thinks “college kids at Murder Hogwarts” sounds intriguing.

Vol. 1 of this comic book continuation of the novel trilogy‘s universe is GREAT. When elite magic school Brakebills starts admitting hedge witches just as a magic war begins, shit gets real.

Now this... this is some Grade A comic bookery right here.

Bryan Hitch‘s run started with a bang but he hit the exact same notes in his next 5 volumes & I was ready for a change.

Christopher Priest wrote this astoundingly good volume, which kicks off with Batman making a mistake. He was tired. Someone died. & the rest of this book deals thoughtfully with the ramifications while also providing alien cockroaches.

What more could you want?

I was hoping this would be a big win, but it ended up just being the perfect example of pretty good, a solid 3.5 stars.

Blade Runner Ash is a pretty good character with a pretty good mystery to solve and a pretty good supporting cast. I would even use that qualifier on the artwork.

I will probably tell myself that I will check out vol. 2 at some point and then forget to do it.

#Starting this Litsy favorite, a gift from a friend.

More than anything this felt like a lower-stakes gender-swapped Ender‘s Game, but I mean that as a compliment.

Melpomene Murray is coming of age on one of the first asteroid colonies, a necessity for the human race as Earth‘s systems crumble. Teen drama blends with some great sci-fi as Melpomene uncovers the complex layers of social engineering & manipulation that have gone into raising her generation, the 1st born in space.

Hey! It‘s my yearly post about watching Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot on the last night of summer vacation!

I discovered a trio of M. Hulot books online which I got to share with my kiddos so this is actually a bookish post this year

Back to work on the morrow, thankfully with no students due in the classroom for a few months at least. It‘s going to be a weird school year, but tonight it‘s just me and M. Hulot on the beach at Saint-Marc-sur-Mer

Reading on the back deck on the last night of summer vacation.

#SummerOfShort3

Vol. 4 of this incarnation of the League is notable for:

1.) continuing to feature interesting & involving conversations between our heroes

2.) overloading me with nostalgia for the late ‘90s by featuring two characters from that era.

Prometheus made his villainous debut in the very first issue of JLA I bought back in 1998 & Aztek was a member of the team during that same era. Both characters were Grant Morrison creations.

#SummerOfShort3

#ManicMonday #LetterS @JoScho

Favorites starting with S:

- Book: The Scar by China Miéville

- Author: Dan Simmons

- Movie: Say Anything

- Band: Secret Lives! of the Freemasons (a North Carolina band that was a favorite during my hardcore college days)

- Song: “The Suffering” by Coheed & Cambria (Despite the title this is actually an upbeat bop! The video is a love story between a mermaid & a centaur!)

One more week of Summer Break to go, so I‘m closing it out with this science fiction novel set on a hollowed-out asteroid space colony in the far distant future of 2025.

Looking back through Litsy, I noticed my last 2 summers have ended on clunkers so I hope this rocks.

If nothing else this book smells of musty used book stores and joy.

#Starting #SummerOfShort3

Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, Mother and Crone, are in need of a Maiden to round out their archetype but their best option, Agnes Nitt, is busy getting involved in a murder mystery at the Ankh-Morpork opera house.

What follows is Sir Terry‘s remix of The Phantom of the Opera (more Lloyd Webber than Leroux) & it is a whole lot of fun - although Agnes & her story were quite complicated & I‘m still processing my feelings there.

Discworld book 18

This perfect book covers the life of David Bowie from the fight over a girl in 1962 that permanently dilated his left pupil to the last concert of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars in 1973*, accompanied by truly astounding imagery by Mike Allred and colored by Laura Allred.

Hyperbole is the only logical reaction to this phantasmagoric biography. If you have ANY interest in Bowie, get your hands on this thing.

All the love. All the stars.

“...when you have ruled out the impossible, what is left, however improbable, ain‘t worth hanging around on a cold night wonderin‘ about when you could be getting on the outside of a big drink.” - Corporal “Nobby” Nobbs (pictured) on the Art of Deduction

#SummerOfShort3 #DiscRead

And just dig who wrote the introduction! #GaimanGang #SummerOfShort3

#Starting this gift my brother gave me a few months ago for my birthday. The card said “Ground Control to Major Tobey” which was a nice touch.

Just... just look at it!

@Bookwomble is this a part of your collection?

#SummerOfShort3

Hey! The final volume actually used text & images in a complimentary fashion to tell an adequate story! Alas, the same can not be said of the prior 2 volumes.

Even for a hardcore Sanderson fan or Cosmere completist, this trilogy just feels sooo skippable.

Also Dynamite, the publisher, refused to release a statement of support for Black Lives Matter & commissions work from a group of artists that is anti-diversity in comics. Screw those ass hats.

My new Science Fiction mask is Out for Delivery from Litographs.com!

A little more color than my solid black ones.

Me, texting my dad who just had knee replacement surgery a quote from my #CurrentRead

#SummerOfShort3 #DiscRead

#ManicMonday #LetterR @JoScho

Favorites starting with R:

- Book: Railsea by China Miéville

- Author: James Robinson (turns out there are a bunch of James Robinson authors, but I mean the one who wrote the Starman comic, so I put a picture of Starman)

- Movie: The Royal Tenenbaums

- Band: The Ramones

- Song: “Run, Gunner Recall, Run! The Town Wants You Dead!” by The Prize Fighter Inferno

John Lennon journeys to his island off the coast of Ireland in 1978 + magic.

How to read it:

- In big gulps. You can‘t dip in & out whenever (my usual reading style).

- It will take a while to hit the rhythm, but once you‘ve got it DON‘T SLOW DOWN. Keep your eyes moving. Slow down & all is lost.

- Keep a pen handy to mark the lines that sear into your soul.

- When you get to Part 6, pause to be in awe of what the author does.

- Enjoy.

11. I have always enjoyed memorizing. I can do several poems and a bunch of Shakespeare.
12. I could eat chips and salsa all the time without ever stopping.
13. I own so many movies that I keep the discs in 9 huge CD folders, organized by genre of course.
14. My outsized love of books & movies is rooted in a fundamental love of story.
15. Oh my gosh you guys this one time I met Neil Gaiman.

Thanks for the #15FactsAboutMe tag @vivastory

This was less not good than the previous not good volume.

There‘s a bit more character work. The overly complex plot is now simplified to the point of being boring - basically Kenton has to go around town asking politicians to not vote to disband the Sand Masters. He fights some assassins and a monster. That‘s it.

Also while reading this I read an article about the publisher‘s sleazy business practices* which did not help matters.

#SummerOfShort3