Cassian & K-2SO

From Goodreads:    StarWars.com is excited to announce Star Wars: Rogue One — Cassian & K-2SO Special #1, coming in August from Marvel. Written by Duane Swierczynski with art by Fernando Blanco, the 40-page one-shot will reveal how Cassian, one of the top intelligence officers of the Rebel Alliance, met K-2SO, a reprogrammed Imperial security droid.












My Thoughts:

-    This was a very strange and very short intro to these two characters.

-    Cassian and K-2SO should have their own book. I hope it is coming sometime.

-    I can't believe this is just one issue. I want to know more!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Could Re-Read Forever

Created by The Broke and The Bookish in June 2010 and moved to The Artsy Reader Girl in Jan 2018

Top Ten Books I Could Re-Read Forever

This is a fun prompt! A lot of the books I'm listing are the first books in series, and I would read the whole series forever.

 
 
 
 
 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Goodreads Says:    Picture the magic – discover J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world with glorious full-colour illustration by Jim Kay, winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal.

An extraordinary creative achievement by an extraordinary talent, Jim Kay’s inspired reimagining of J.K. Rowling’s classic series has captured a devoted following worldwide. This stunning new fully illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban brings more breathtaking scenes and unforgettable characters – including Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Professor Trelawney. With paint, pencil and pixels, Kay conjures the wizarding world as we have never seen it before. Fizzing with magic and brimming with humour, this full-colour edition will captivate fans and new readers alike as Harry, now in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, faces Dementors, death omens and – of course – danger.

My Thoughts:

-    This is my favorite book in the series, and it was SO much fun to see it illustrated.

-    The pictures are amazing! I loved the drawings of Buckbeak, the characters, and the landscape. It was awesome!

-    Gnome was scared of some of the pictures. She had a nightmare about grindylows, and the dementors creeped her out. She really liked the story though. She especially loved the ending.

-    I love the new characters introduced in this book. This book and its characters are so pivotal in the series, and readers learn SO much. 

-    I LOVE LOVE LOVE that these versions of the book aren't translated. I love all the British lingo. 

Previous Books

Eliza and Her Monsters

Goodreads Synopsis:    Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

My Thoughts:

-    This was a really great story about figuring out who you are, what you want to be, and how you fit into the world. 

-    This reminded me a little bit of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

-    I liked Eliza. I could relate to her on several levels. 

-    I also liked Wallace. I liked how he was shy and only wrote notes to her at first, but then he talks more and more. 

-    I loved all the webcomic stuff. It made me want to get back into it and read a bunch. 

-    I definitely understand having an identity online and wanting to live in that space, but reality doesn't go away. I wish Eliza had come out of her shell a little more and had a bit more character development. I feel like her problems were only semi-solved.

-    Eliza's parents were so clueless and pushy. If they really wanted to get to know their daughter, they should have shut up and listen. Not everyone is the same!

-    I liked the little excerpts of the webcomic and Eliza's artwork.

-    Overall, this was a good read. 

Ahsoka

From Goodreads:    Fans have long wondered what happened to Ahsoka after she left the Jedi Order near the end of the Clone Wars, and before she re-appeared as the mysterious Rebel operative Fulcrum in Rebels. Finally, her story will begin to be told. Following her experiences with the Jedi and the devastation of Order 66, Ahsoka is unsure she can be part of a larger whole ever again. But her desire to fight the evils of the Empire and protect those who need it will lead her right to Bail Organa, and the Rebel Alliance .










My Thoughts:

-    I can usually read any Star Wars book in any order, and I know what time frame I'm in, who the characters are, and what has happened and will happen. This book was different. It takes place between The Clone Wars and Rebels. I love Ahsoka, but I don't know much about her. I'm on on Season 3 in The Clone Wars. I wish I had finished the TV series before picking this up. I was too excited to read about Ahsoka though. I have SO many questions now!!

-    This was a really fun book, and Ahsoka is swiftly becoming one of my favorite Star Wars characters. She is awesome! There are very few characters from this time period that I like, but Ahsoka is snarky, talented, and has a fun story. 

-    I kept wondering why Anakin's nickname for Ahsoka is Snips, but this book helped me find out! Yay! It is because she has snippy remarks. I love that!

-    I love learning more about the Star Wars Universe, and I learned several things from this book. I learned more about kyber crystals and how Jedi construct their lightsabers. It was really cool! 

-    While this book answered a lot of questions, I gained several more. I don't know if there will ever be an end to my Star Wars questions. There is SO much content!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I No Longer Want to Read

Created by The Broke and The Bookish in June 2010 and moved to The Artsy Reader Girl in Jan 2018

Top Ten Books I've Decided I'm No Longer Interested in Reading

This is tricky because I usually delete these off my TBR list and forget about them.

 
 

 

 

 

Tales from Silver Lands

From Goodreads:    Atmospheric woodcuts illustrate this Newbery Award–winning collection of 19 South American folktales. Charles J. Finger heard the tales firsthand from native storytellers, whose fables of talking animals, witches, giants, and ordinary people in supernatural settings provide remarkable insights into regional values and culture.

The first of the stories, "A Tale of Three Tails," tells of an age when the rat had a tail like a horse, the rabbit had a tail like a cat, and the deer's tail was plumed like the tail of a dog. "The Magic Dog" recounts an act of kindness to a stray animal that helps overcome a witch's curse. In "The Calabash Man," the creatures of the jungle assist a suitor in winning his bride, and in "El Enano," a greedy troll's insatiable appetite leads to his downfall. Packed with adventure and full of surprises, these and other stories emphasize the importance of hard work, courage, and loyalty.

My Thoughts:

-    This was SO boring!! I had a hard time getting through this one. 

-    The folk tales are stories withing stories within stories. It was weird, and there was no point to these stories. 

-    This was the best book they could come up with for the Newbery Award? Ugh!

Anne of Green Gables Read Along

Hey friends! It has been a while since we've hosted a read along. The wait is over!

Jenni has never read Anne of Green Gables, and we are going to fix that!

Schedule

Chapters 1-13: March 1-11

Chapters 14-26: March 12-22

Chapters 27-38: March 23-31

Discussion Posts

March 11 on Suey's Blog

March 22 on My Blog

March 31 on Jenni's Blog

Twitter

We will be having twitter chats! They will be announced later.

Please use #GreenGablesRAL for all your thoughts, questions, comments, Gilbert swooning, etc.

Movie Night

Yes, we will be watching the Anne of Green Gables miniseries after the read along!

More on this later!

We kick off on March 1! If interested, please sign up and tell your friends.

How to Train Your Dragon

Goodreads Says:    Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a truly extraordinary Viking hero known throughout Vikingdom as "the Dragon Whisperer"...but it wasn't always so. Travel back to the days when the mighty warrior was just a boy, the quiet and thoughtful son of the Chief of the Hairy Hooligans. Can Hiccup capture a dragon and train it without being torn limb from limb? Join the adventure as the small boy finds a better way to train his dragon and become a hero!










My Thoughts:

-    This is one of those very rare occurrences when I like the movie better than the book. In this case, the movie is WAY better, in EVERY way.

-    The story and characters were a bit bland, and I felt like I was supposed find humor in a lot of the book, but I didn't.

-    Movie Toothless is so awesome, and book Toothless is SO different. He is such a snob, and I just couldn't come to grips with that this was the character awesome Toothless was created from. 

-    This book was made for younger people, and it was too young for me. I should have read this with Gnome. I'm sure the target audience will appreciate this book more than I did.

-    I recently found out that David Tennant does the audiobook!! I completely missed out on a fun experience. I wasn't going to finish the series after I read this, but now I'm rethinking my decision. 

Happy "Crap I Forgot" Day!

I've often been told that I'm the dude in my marriage.

Here is an example of why:

I always forget Valentine's Day and our Anniversary. Yup, my hubby has to remind me, a lot.

He always asks what I want to do for Valentine's Day, and I usually respond with something like, "Is that coming up again!?" Ya, I usually just blow it off to worry about later. Then hubby will say something like, "Are we exchanging gifts?" To which I will usually reply, "I don't care." This is not a trap for my husband, I really don't care. The last couple of years, hubby has been telling me that he got something for me for Valentine's Day, so he doesn't even ask, he just buys me something. I really don't deserve him. So I am usually scrambling on Valentine's Day trying to figure out what to buy him before he gets home from work. I'm pathetic, I know. I did better this year though, I bought his gift yesterday! Ha!

Hubby also wants to go out for a romantic date on Valentine's, and I really don't. He wants to get a sitter and go to dinner somewhere nice, and I say, "Why can't the girls come?" So we always go out to eat somewhere fun for Valentine's, but our whole family goes because, I love my kids and I don't get why they can't come too. Hubby always reminds me that when they come, it isn't a date, but whatever.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope your Valentine is nicer than me. I should really try harder, maybe next year.

Top Ten Tuesday: Love Freebie

Created by The Broke and The Bookish in June 2010 and moved to The Artsy Reader Girl in Jan 2018

Top Ten Book Romances

This one is a love freebie, and I'm going with my favorite romances in books. These not only include some of my favorite couples, but I love the way they fell in love as well.

 
 
 
 
 

Snow White: A Graphic Novel

Goodreads Synopsis:    Award-winning graphic novelist Matt Phelan delivers a darkly stylized noir Snow White set against the backdrop of Depression-era Manhattan.

The scene: New York City, 1928. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL." In a moody, cinematic new telling of a beloved fairy tale, extraordinary graphic novelist Matt Phelan captures the essence of classic film noir on the page—and draws a striking distinction between good and evil.

My Thoughts:

-    This book went by SO fast, but I really enjoyed it.

-    There is very little dialogue, but the artist puts a lot into the illustrations. 

-    This is the classic tale, but set in the 1920s. It was awesome. I wish there had been a little bit of a twist to the story.

-    I picked this one up on a whim, and I'm really glad I did. 

Fan Art Friday: Nightmare Moon

Today is Gnome's birthday, so I decided to showcase her favorite show and her favorite pony.

I was really happy with the variety I found. There are so many art styles and mediums. There were also some disturbing and weird things out there, some bronies need serious help.

All the artwork is linked. If you'd like to express appreciation to the artist, please do so!