Sunday, November 30, 2008

Fables: Homelands

by Bill Willingham, et al

The center story of this Fables collection is Little Boy Blue's quest in the Homelands. In the previous collection (or issue #31, if you've been following the comic) Blue took the Witching Cloak and the Vorpal Blade from the Fabletown armory and embarked on a mission back to the dimensional worlds from which the Fables came. His objective is to kill the Adversary, the conqueror of their homelands and to rescue his true love, Little Red Riding Hood. (Well, she's all grown up, so I should probably drop the "little".) It's a classic quest tale, fraught with dangers and wonders, and peppered from that magic/mundane mix that is the Fables series. And as an appetizer, you can enjoy the story of how Jack the giant killer, beanstalk climber and candlestick jumper built a Hollywood empire. Cool, huh?

Check it out.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

I confess

I must admit that I haven't been too faithful with posting my reviews. I've been writing many of them, but haven't found time to post them on here. (and on my LibraryThing and GoodReads accounts.) Of course, I've been back dating my posts, to reflect the date I actually finished reading the book, so those of you reading through my reviews years hence won't realize what a untrustworthy fellow I really am. So I thought I'd just fess up so that I can continue my laziness with a clear conscience. Anyway, I'm going to go post a book I finished last month now. have a good day.

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The Mean Seasons

by Bill Willingham, et al

This collection of the Fables series doesn't follow a single story line. Instead you get a little of this and a little of that--a tale of espionage, a two part flashback to World War II, an account of a concurrent election and multiple birth in Fabletown, and a bunch of long running plotlines that are woven throughout the issues reprinted here. Like the rest of the Fables collection, there's good characterization and interesting twists on the old nursery rhymes and fairly tales.

Check it out.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Fables: Legends in Exile

by Bill Willingham, et al

What if characters from fairy tales were real? What if they lived in the real world? How would they survive? How would magic and modern technology interact? That's part of the premise of the Fables series published by DC Comics' Vertigo line. In this series, the Homelands--the worlds of the people and creatures in our storybooks--have been invaded and conquered by an entity known as the Adversary, causing many to seek asylum in other dimensions. A fair number have ended up in our world, making their home in an apartment complex in New York State. They run their own little community there, complete with a mayor, sheriff and staff. In this first collection, Rose Red, the sister of deputy mayor Snow White, has apparently been murdered. Sherriff Bigby Wolf has to solve the case. Who killed Rose Red? Was it her boyfriend Jack Horner? Her secret lover, Bluebeard? Was it suicide? Or is it something even more diabolical? All in all, Mr. Willingham weaves an interesting tale, giving a new twist to many characters whom we've loved for years.

Gotta find space for it on my shelf.
LibraryThing link

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Dear Mr. Henshaw

by Beverly Cleary

This is the tale of Leigh Botts, a school aged boy and wannabe writer, as told in a series of letters* to Boyd Henshaw, the author of Leigh's favorite book. It's an interesting twist and Ms. Cleary makes it work well. It was a pleasure to read, though I didn't find the heart of the story, Leigh coping with his parents' divorce, to be exceptionally enthralling.
_____
*Well, actually that's stretching the truth a little bit. Read the book and you'll see what I mean.

It's fun waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Thief of Time

by Terry Pratchett

I looked for Night Watch at the Friends of the Library Sale. Didn't find it. Picked up this instead. It's also a Discworld tale. It's also amusing. It's about the building of the perfect clock--which is a bad thing. The first time they built one, time stopped. Fortunately it wasn't exactly perfect, so it broke and time was restored. This latest perfect clock, however, threatens to be new and improved. It must be stopped. Well, more like not started, since you can hardly stop before you start. Unless you're a time traveller or something. But since there's no time traveller here, they need to prevent the startage from, er, starting. You see? Oh, just read the book, already.

Eh, I'll keep it on my shelf--I've got room.
LibraryThing link

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Maniac Magee

by Jerry Spinelli

This is the tale of a runaway... Hey! What the heck is Sonlight trying to teach my kids here? This is the third runaway protagonist in a row. I should probably write them a letter or something. Anyway, the fact that "Maniac" Magee is a runaway is a secondary part of the character. "Maniac" is a classic... well, I don't what the label is. He's not quite the archetypical trickster, because he's not out to fool anybody. He's that type of magical personality--the person who can do amazing things, yet isn't self conscious about it. He's the innocent who steps into a setting and immediately and honestly brings the status quo into question by some child-like comment or by unknowingly breaking some social taboo. In this tale, the society that gets shaken up is Two Mills, Pennsylvania. The era of the story is unclear, but when "Maniac" arrives in Two Mills, the town is nice and orderly. The black folks live on the East End, the white folks live on the West End and everyone tries to keep to their own side of town. "Maniac", of course, goes where he pleases and makes friends and enemies on both sides of town in his quest for... well, why don't you just read the book to find that out. It's an enjoyable and somewhat quirky tale, well worth checking out.

LibraryThing link

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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Zachary Taylor

by John S. D. Eisenhower

This is a short and simple biography of President Taylor, volume twelve of The American Presidents series. (Once again I was unable to pick up a substantial bio that covered a president's entire life. I'll be glad when I get to Lincoln.) General Eisenhower does a pretty good job of covering Taylor's history. The focus of the book is on his military career, especially his actions in the Mexican-American War. Whether that's because Eisenhower himself is a retired General, or because that really was the predominant aspect of Taylor's life, I don't know. Still it's enough to give me a general picture of his life and times.

Go ahead and check it out.
LibraryThing link

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