24. Bite Me! by Dylan Meconis
Publication: Elea Press (October 2009), Paperback, 168pp / ISBN 9780982343739
Genre: Graphic Novel, Humor, Horror?
Rating:
Read: January 30, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary:

Vampires! In the French Revolution! With funny bits put in!

Review

Through a long and complicated process of clicking on random links in the search for historically-based funnies, I found Dylan Meconis’ Family Man, a webcomic about a dude in Germany in the olden days. With werewolves! And I loved it. (It’s still ongoing, by the way.) Once I was done with currently available offerings, I decided to check out DM’s first webcomic, Bite Me!, which was written between 2000-2004, when DM was first starting out as a Professional Artist Person.

I read the synopsis, I saw she had a store, I found the super awesome Bite Me! extra package that came with buttons and stickers and an AUTOGRAPH and I decided, what the heck, I like the author’s work, and I love funny historical comics (and vampire farces)– I’ll just buy the book instead of reading it online. So I did!

Anyway, to make a long rambling post short like I meant it to be originally: I loved it. It’s hilarious! You can see Ms Meconis growing into her style through the course of the book, getting her writing style down pat, and so on. I laughed more than a few times out loud, and I pretty much just grinned maniacally at the pages the entire time I read it. And while the print quality is a little bit fuzzy (because the originals were drawn on printer paper, which is, uh. Not good for reprinting, unfortunately), it’s not horrible and by the end I didn’t even notice it.

So: check out the website. You can read the whole thing online for free, or you can buy the paper version and support a wonderful artist. It’s worth it either way!

And

Find your own copy here!


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So I’m taking a Virginia Woolf class this semester, and while that means I could have gotten every book I needed from the library (which was my PLAN) I, er. Ended up buying all of them.

I was lured into it! I went into the bookstore for Persian Letters and BAM. Shiny, tempting books. So, you know, now I’ve got a Virginia Woolf collection. It’s a good thing I like modern fiction!

So far we’ve read The Voyage Out (I only made it halfway; I seriously hated it) and we’re onto Jacob’s Room. I like Jacob’s Room, and I’m underlining a lot of interesting, melodious phrases. But I’m dreading the end. If you know what happens at the end, you’ll know why. If you haven’t read it, I won’t ruin it for you.

One of the things I like about Jacob’s Room is how while it’s about Jacob, the person, he’s only ever a sort of background character. Most of what we learn about him is through other people’s perspectives, even if they’re only just sitting across from him on a train. Jacob gets to let out a few thoughts of his own, but they’re small thoughts, inconsequential. When he speaks, it’s mostly in monosyllables.

Plus it’s got that wacky, wacky modern fiction thing where stuff is happening but you don’t know where or when, characters are introduced in a way that gives you absolutely no information about them, and oftentimes objects are described in entirely oddball ways. Sometimes you don’t even know what’s being described until a page later, if that. Fun stuff, if you like that sort of thing. I tend to just hang on by my fingernails I hope I don’t get too lost.

Next we’re going on to Mrs Dalloway. Huzzah!

19. The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt
Publication: Tor Fantasy; Reprint edition (March 31, 2009) (originally published 2007), Paperback, 608pp / ISBN 0765360225
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Steampunk
Rating:
Read: January 25-26, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

When streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the attack. For Molly is a special little girl, and she carries a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state.

Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered existence in the backwater home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative’s murder he is forced to flee for his life, accompanied by an agent of the mysterious Court of the Air. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life.

Soon Molly and Oliver will find themselves battling a grave threat to civilization, an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but the two orphans are also aided by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue, and adventure.

Review

Okay, first off: this is not a YA book. It may star kids, and it may have a YA-ish kind of cover, but it’s definitely not for younger kids. Older teens, maybe, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving this to a 13 year old. It’s pretty gory, and there’s stuff that happens to the kids that I would NOT have wanted to read about if I was a kid. That said, The Court of the Air was one of the most interesting, exciting, and fantastic books I’ve read so far this year.

At its most basic, The Court of the Air is a steampunk sci-fi/fantasy novel set in alternative world where robots and humans live together in relative harmony, magic causes people to get into all sorts of trouble, and politicians “debate” with fighting sticks. It’s pretty awesome, actually, and there’s a lot of stuff in this book. So much stuff that, really, I don’t want to even talk about it and let y’all find it out for yourselves.

I really liked the mix of magic and technology, since that seems to me to be the best way to make a steampunk world (although I may just be biased because I love urban fantasy so much), and I liked how there were two protagonists instead of just one. Molly, the one who’s good with machines, was somewhat of a bland noodle for me. I don’t think she got nearly enough character growth as Oliver did, and even though making her good with machines was an interesting twist (normally a dude would be the machine-person, and a chick the magic-person) I wish she had gotten to do something more than just run from assassins. Oliver got to kick tons of butts, but Molly just mostly got captured a lot.

The other characters were hit-and-miss for me. I really liked Molly’s new friends that show up later, and Oliver had some potential interesting compatriots as well. But I kept forgetting which politician was which, and whether they were actually important or not, and some secondary characters showed up in the beginning and then faded away. There was also at least one plot point that never seemed to go anywhere, for that matter. Oh! And some typos/wrong punctuation.

Because it only focuses on one country/city, you don’t really get to see what the rest of the world is like. I was constantly wondering what was going on in Asia, or America, if they were like this country was. And for that matter, where was this country? I’m thinking it’s England based off the accents and slang, but you never really know. I actually found that really frustrating– if I’m reading an alternative history, I want to know where it turned alternative and what went alternative, especially in regards to geography. A map would have been nice, as well. Plus now I just found this review which says it’s NOT an alternative Earth, but a whole new world. Oh, dear.

Also time. When the hell was this? the 1500s kept being mentioned a lot, but is that the 1500s parallel to our world, or an alternative 1500s that’s actually in the future? No idea. I did think that the plot really followed the French Revolution pretty closely, however, especially in the rise and fall of the revolutionaries and the new regime/old regime changeover. With new Added Communism.

It was the little things that failed me, I think, but the big things were enthralling enough that I didn’t really notice the problem with the little things until nearly the end, when I was waiting for the fight scenes to start. I think this is the deciding factor for those who either love The Court of the Air or hate it: if you like steampunk technology, alternative worlds, interesting and unusual protagonists, and robots, you’ll probably like this book. The bits where the writing/story fails won’t really bother you. If, however, you don’t like those things, or are a real stickler for story, then you might not like this book. I’d still recommend trying it out, however, especially if you liked Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

The only place where the story-failing bits got to me was the end, which I won’t talk specifics about, but which (mostly) disappointed me. It does leave some room for a sequel or two, however, and whaddaya know: there they are.

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound

Other reviews: Strange Horizons Reviews | Fiction Fanatic | Stella Matutina | Grub Street | Tia Nevitt | Deluded Visions | The Wizard of Duke Street

I think my downfall with steampunk books is that I really like steampunk technology. Is this book as good as I thought it was? Or was I just blinded by the steampunk-magic combo?

You can read chapter one here, btw.

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13. & 21. Barefoot Gen Vol. 1 & 2 by Keiji Nakazawa
Publication: Last Gasp (September 2004) (originally published 1973), Paperback, 288pp / ISBN 0867196025 | Last Gasp (September 2004), Paperback, 240pp / ISBN 086719619X
Genre: Fiction, Graphic Novel, WWII
Rating:
Read: January 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

Volume one of this ten-part series details the events leading up to and immediately following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Volume two, The Day After, focuses on the days following the bombing of Hiroshima, as the living victims struggle to survive in the aftermath.

Review

Don’t be fooled by the cover(s): this isn’t a happy-go-lucky story. It’s about the time immediately before, during, and after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during WWII, and it’s graphic. It’s graphic in the art, yeah, but also in the emotions portrayed and the experiences held within.

See, Keiji Nakazawa has first-hand experience of atomic bombs and their effects because he was there when it happened. I’ll quote something from Wikipedia:

He was born in Hiroshima [in 1939] and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not been evacuated died in the bombing except for his mother and an infant sister who died several weeks after the bombing.

Barefoot Gen is his story, even more than just being the author/artist, and his emotions come through quite clearly. It’s a story about the bombing of Hiroshima, yes, but it’s also a story about the people that survived it (or didn’t), about family and war and everything else tied up into WWII. It’s horrifying and it’s heartbreaking, and I don’t think I’ve been this affected by a WWII story since reading Anne Frank’s diary. There’s something about seeing what happened to people during WWII that’s more effective than just words are. It was like being constantly punched in the gut.

It’s not all depressing, however (although it gets pretty freakin’ depressing). One of the themes is to not give up, even if you’ve been trampled on and pushed down. (The final volume is actually called “Never Give Up”.) There’s some wonderful scenes with Gen’s family in the first volume, especially with Gen’s father who’s an anti-war protester. And watching Gen staying courageous and hopeful even after everything that’s happened to him kept my heart warm, when otherwise I think I would have been sobbing after every page. The emotions in Barefoot Gen aren’t superficial, they’re deep and real, and they speak volumes.

The art isn’t overwhelmingly wonderful (it’s that weird 1970’s thing where everyone’s constantly sweating for some reason) and sometimes the dialogue takes right turns into soap opera territory. However, that’s pretty much the way manga was back then: done in a completely different way than we’re used to now. You just have to adjust for the differing sensibilities, I think. And since it’s the story that matters I think we all can look past Barefoot Gen’s faults. It’s a really upsetting story, but one that’s important, and though I think it’ll be a while until I can make myself read the next volume (there’s ten total), I feel obligated as a human to read it, and to learn.

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound

Other reviews: Saffron Tree | Panel Patter | Read About Comics

Two things I kept thinking while reading Barefoot Gen (besides “this art kinda sucks”):
1. How the hell could we have let this happen?
2. We must never let it happen again.

I also thought it was really illuminating to be reading about what happened in other countries besides Germany/America/England/etc during WWII. For all the history classes I was forced to take in high school, I don’t think we ever learned anything about what was going on in Japan, why they joined the war, what happened after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, etc. Nothing about China or Korea. It was all just kind of “Pearl Harbor-D-Day-Allies-and then we bombed the crap out of them and won the war!” It just seems sort of…blinding.

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20. Paper Towns by John Green
Publication: Dutton Juvenile (October 16, 2008), Hardcover, 305pp / ISBN 0525478183
Genre: Fiction, Teen
Rating:
Read: January 29, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life–dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge–he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues–and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Split Review

I reviewed this with Alita! :D Half of it’s here and the rest is on Alita’s blog. It was a lot of fun, though I’m sure I forgot to ask questions I thought up over the weekend. Curse my lack of note-taking skills! (But mucho thanks to Alita for agreeing to do this with me!)

Alita: John Green’s Paper Towns is one of those books I had heard a lot about around the blogosphere, I’m sure you did too. What kind of expectations did you have when you first cracked it open?

Anastasia: I was already familiar with John Green (and his brother) through their vlog project back in 2008, and which they’ve continued since then (you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers). From his videos I assumed that a) because John Green was funny and quirky and sweet, b) his books would be the same, and c) I’d like them as much as I liked him. But I wasn’t really expecting anything in particular regarding plot or style. Just sort of…general feeling?

What about yourself? Had you heard of John Green before coming across reviews on book blogs?

Alita: Last year, right around the time I started my blog, I sent out a request for book recommendations to my friends, and one of my friends handed over Looking For Alaska. I started that one with no previous knowledge of John Green and was, well, pretty blown away. Needless to say, I was expecting quite a lot from Paper Towns, and although I had heard it was better than LFA, I put off reading it fearing it wouldn’t live up to those expectations. Boy, was I wrong!

Anastasia: I know a few people who have put off reading Paper Towns because they loved Looking for Alaska so much, but I come from the perspective of reading Paper Towns first and THEN LFA, and I think Paper Towns is much more elegant and engaging (though LFA was still good, of course). So I didn’t have anything hanging over me like you did. Was it hard to push past that feeling of “this can’t be nearly as good as LFA”?

Alita: Actually, not at all. That probably has something to do with the fact that I waited, oh, 4 or 5 months before reading Paper Towns. By then I was just excited to read another JG book! And like you said, PT is so much more elegantly written, that once I started I couldn’t really make any comparisons to LFA.

Paper Towns is oh-so wonderfully written, which made it so easy to love. Actually, it was like I didn’t have a choice but to love it!

I think we’re both of the same mind of this being an awesome book. What did you love it? Or, what made you first think “Okay, this is going to be a fantastic read”?

Anastasia: It started off with a bang–quite literally, because Quentin and Margo find a body of a man who has committed suicide. The whole scene is so morbid and yet funny that I couldn’t help but think that Paper Towns would be a great book. The writing did it, mostly, but also Quentin himself, who is a dork and a half but not a creepy one. Just sort of a normal, teenage…dork!

I think the end also clinched Paper Towns into my “most favorite books EVER” list, but that’s a spoiler so I won’t say anything more about it. Just: I really appreciated that twist, that it wasn’t cliched nerd-hot girl story.

Alita: True, it could have very easily been the cliched ‘Nerd Boy loves Popular Girl from afar’ story, but JG twists it into something so much more than that.

For the rest of the review, please visit Alita’s blog!

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound

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17. Piratica by Tanith Lee
Publication: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (September 27, 2004), Hardback, 304pp / ISBN 0525473246
Genre: Adventure, Alt. History, YA
Rating:
Read: January 23-24, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

Artemesia is the daughter of a pirate queen, and she’s sick of practicing deportment at the Angels Academy for Young Maidens. Escaping from the school, she hunts up her mother’s crew and breezily commands them out to sea in a leaky boat. Unfortunately, Art’s memories of her early life may not be accurate-her seasick crew are actors, and Art’s infamous mother was the darling of the stage in a pirate drama. But fiery, pistol-proof Art soon shapes her men into the cleverest pirate crew afloat. And when they meet the dread ship Enemy and her beautiful, treacherous captain, Goldie Girl, Art is certain that her memories are real. The Seven Seas aren’t large enough for two pirate queens: Art will have the battle of her life to win her mother’s title–and the race for the most fabulous treasure in pirate lore. This gaudy, outrageous tale sparkles with swordplay, skullduggery, and salty language–not to mention over-the-top comedy!

Review

Immediately upon reading the first page of Piratica I was sucked into it, and it kept my interest and enthusiasm right up until the end. I’ve never read a Tanith Lee book before this one, although her name did seem familiar to me, but if her other books are like this one I think I may have discovered one of my favorite YA authors.

That’s not to say that Piratica doesn’t have problems– it’s a little bit melodramatic and the plot takes suspension of disbelief to its limits– but Piratica’s romanticism and adventuresome plot and delicate handling of the heart’s thoughts makes up for those stumbles.

Delicacy and melodrama don’t seem to go together, but the melodrama was mostly in the dialogue and some parts of the plotline. The delicacy was in the character’s interactions with each other, in the way they fell in love with each other, for instance. The combination is kind of a weird one, but Tanith Lee’s writing manages to pull it all together and keeps it from being annoying or stilting. Plus, I think melodrama goes well with pirates, don’t you?

Art is a weird character: I really liked her, but she has a tendency to be stubborn, close-mouthed, and sneaky. Good qualities in a pirate, I think, but they don’t really make me trust her. Art also has a fixation on her mother, which is understandable but somewhat frustrating when I want her to find her own destiny– not just follow her mother’s. She’s tricky, that one, and I hope being in love doesn’t cloud her judgment or something in the sequel. (She doesn’t really seem the sort who’d do that, anyway.)

The other characters vary from campy and humorous to mysterious and intriguing, and they made a good supporting cast. Piratica is mostly about Art, but it’s also about the people surrounding Art, and it’s not all pirate antics. It’s about family, and love, and trying to recapture something that was lost. It’s also just really, really fun.

Piratica isn’t your typical high seas adventure book, and though it toes the line between “too much” and “just enough,” it’s supremely enjoyable and makes for a pleasant Saturday afternoon. There aren’t nearly enough books with female pirates as leads, either, so that’s worth a look at least. Plus, swordfights!

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound

Other reviews: Rixosous | Green Leaves of Paper

The sequel! I WILL read it.

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Okay, so I’ve come across a few posts lately where someone has submitted one of my posts in a review round-up or for a blog carnival and that someone was NOT ME. It really freaks me out that people are going around submitting things on my behalf and I want whoever it is to stop, please.

If you want me to participate in carnival or review link-up, email me the details and I’ll decide if I want to do it or not. Please don’t submit anything under my name because that’s creepy and, more importantly, dishonest.

I understand if you thought it was a good idea because you wanted to promote my blog/posts/whatever, but seriously. Don’t do it. Good intentions become decidedly less so when they’re done on the sly.

A couple other bloggers have been having this same problem, and I think we’re in universal agreement that it doesn’t make us happy.

Thanks.

Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Hiya! Welcome to Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. I'm Anastasia, and I'm the head honcho around here. I review books, talk about book-related things, and occasionally have something witty to say regarding the publishing industry. I focus my reviews mainly on fiction, specifically YA, fantasy, adventure and sci-fi, with some dabbling into other genres (sometimes even non-fiction).

Please note that I am not the author of any of these books. If you want to contact the author of a book, please try Googling the publisher first.

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5 birds = Loved it!
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