3 novels, 2 days

May has clearly been a month of graphic novels. I have read 6, 4 of them in the pass 5 days!

I think I'm addicted.

I mean in the past 24 hours I have read 3!


I started with this....

Bone: Eyes of the Storm by Jeff Smith

Which lead to this.....
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

And ended with this.....

Twilight: The Graphic Novel Volume 1 by Stephenie Meyer, Art and Adaptation by Young Kim

First of all I would like to say,

Hi my name is Elizabeth and I am a twilight fan. [now you say "Hi Elizabeth"]
( I will not be ashamed!)

Anywho, I really like all three of these graphic novels. Obviously, I couldn't put them down.
I was excited to read the next installment of Bone and like it just as much, if not better, as the first two volumes. In fact I would like to give it half a star more than the others because I find the more I read the better I like it. Once I have finished all nine volumes I will go into more detail but for now Bone: Eyes of the Storm gets 3.5 of 5 stars.

Persepolis 2 : The Story of a Return is the continuation of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, both by Marjane Satrapi. I first learned of the books in my young adult fiction class and was entranced from the very first page. Persepolis is a story of young Marjane dealing with growing up in war-torn Iran. At 14, her parents decided it is to dangerous for her to continue living there and send her to school in Austria.

That is where Persepolis 2 picks up. She shows of her life in Austria and the hardships she had to face there while in high school. It also tells of here return to Iran at age 18 and how she felt about the country she left and the country she returned to.

These graphic novels are a wonderful coming of age tale for any young girl. Despite being set in war-torn Iran and the European Culture of the 1980-90s, I really think any teen girl can relate to Marjane. I think what I loved best about these novels is that , like Maus I & II, they are based on a true story, in this case autobiographical. In addition to being relatable, I found it really taught me more about the politics in Iran ( for that time), I learned things that I thought I'd never really know or understand. 5 of 5 stars!

Now for Twilight: The Graphic Novel.
I read it in an hour. It's only half the story of Twilight the novel but there is a volume 2. The story is exactly the same. Except there are pictures.

And let me say the pictures were weird. When you read a book, you always get an image of the characters in your head ( at least I do!) and then you see the movie and then one of two things happens.

1) The actors are exactly how you pictured the characters.

2) The casting directors got it all wrong. WHAT were they thinking?

This graphic novel just added a third look into the mix. The artist is from Korea, she did a phenomenal job on the artwork but have you ever pictured the Twilight Characters in Manga?
If that's even what it's called.....
It wasn't bad, it was just weird.

This book wasn't really that big a deal, I read it cause I'm currently addicted to graphic novels and I really just wanted to read another one.
If you are like me and addicted to graphic novels read it, the pictures ( thought not my idea of the characters) are amazing!

If you are a twilight fan and need a new fix, read it. It will satisfy your craving.

If you can't stand twilight and wish Edward Cullen would die, I don't suggest you read it. It's not gonna be your cup of tea.

But I liked it, it was alright. Not a 5 of 5 stars great but it still gets 3!

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere was originally a novel by.... you guessed it,

Neil Gaiman!

I'm betting most of you don't know who Neil Gaiman is but I'm also betting that you actually do. In addition to writing Neverwhere, he also wrote Coraline, Stardust and The Graveyard Book.

He didn't, however, write Neverwhere, the graphic novel.
Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry did. They just took his novel and added pictures.

At first I was unsure whether or not to read the graphic novel because I have the novel sitting on the book shelf just waiting to be read. But it was the last week of May and I had only read 2 books and I can read graphic novels in one day. So I read it.

I didn't really like it. I don't know if it was the gruesome pictures or the somewhat confusing story line. Either way, I didn't like it.

Which makes me nervous about reading the actually novel. Which I was excited about...
now I'm just nervous and slightly scared.

I guess I'll just have to read it and see.

2 of 5 stars!

FAIL.

So I failed you.

or me.

Both?

Or maybe it just feels that way with all the disappointment on Vader's face......ha ha!

All I have to say is you can't read 'em all.

The past couple of weeks I have attempted to read two books that I just can't find ( more like want to find) the motivation to finish them.

They aren't bad books or ill written, they are just not for me. And you think I would LOVE a book titled So Many Books, So Little Time ( Sara Nelson). It's basically a book written in 2002-03 that follows the same format and idea as this blog. She reads a book a week for a year. I just couldn't get into it.

I tried.

I failed.

The other was Love Comes Softly ( Janette Oke), which I was super excited to read this book as well as the rest of the Love Saga Series. I love the movies, how could I not love the books?
It was the language, it was written in that old timey, redneckish/hickish, bad grammer english and I just couldn't take it. I think I really just had trouble understand it as a whole. It was a period piece and I'm sure that's closer to how they talked then and there. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

Now, I'm not here to judge. At least I"m trying not too!

Before I failed on Sara Nelson's novel I did read here method of what to do about books she just can't finish. As a reviewer she would tell her editor to find someone else to read it. She wouldn't review a novel she didn't complete and neither will I.

And that's that for now.

Summer Reading Programs for Kids

I've already told you about Borders Triple Dog Dare ( read about it here) but there are a few more opportunities for summer reading programs and free books! Unfortunately for me, they are all for kids, boo!

Other Summer Reading Programs to Check out.....

Barnes & Noble -
Get your child (grades 1-6) to read 8 books and record them in the Passport to Summer Reading; turn them in for a free book!

Pizza Hut's Book It
From June 15 - August 15, any kid who is in K-6 and reads five books has a chance to win a summer prize package!

You can also check local libriaries, bookstores or schools for more!

When I was a kid, I remeber participating in Book It and a program at my local library. Wish I could do it now!

Ahhhhhhhh, to be a kid again!

How many have you read?

"From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it." -- Groucho Marx

100 Books People should have Read

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

1. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2.The Lord of the Rings-JRR Tolkien
3.Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
4.Harry Potter Series- JK Rowling
5.To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
6.The Bible
7.Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
8.Nineteen Eighty-Four- George Orwell
9.His Dark Materials- Philip Pullman
10.Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
11.Little Woman- Louis M. Alcott
12.Tess of the D'Urbervilles- Thomas Hardy
13.Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare ( This really should be it's own list!)
15. Rebecca- Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit- JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong- Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch- George Eliot
21.Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchel
22. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
23.Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath- John Steinback
29. Alice in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows- Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield- Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
34. Emma- Jane Austen
35.Persuasion- Jane Austen
36. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis (Why is this not included with number 33?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin- Louis De Bernieres
39.Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh- A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm- George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code- Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney- John Irving
45. The Woman in White- Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables- L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From the Madding Crowd- Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies- William Golding
50. Atonement- Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi- Yann Martel
52. Dune- Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm- Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy- Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind- Carlos Ruiz Zafo
57. A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time- Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men- John Steinback
62. Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History- Donna Tratt
64. The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road- Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure- Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jone's Diary- Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick- Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
72. Dracula- Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden- Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes from a Small Island- Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses- James Joyce
76. The Inferno- Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons- Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal- Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession- A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple- Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day- Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance- Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web- E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven- Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90.The Faraway Tree Collection- Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93.The Wasp Factory- Iain Banks
94.Watership Down- Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces- John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town like Alice- Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers- Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables- Victor Hugo


The number I have read = 14 ( shown in bold)
The number I have sitting on shelf waiting to be read = 7

How many have you read?

Bone, Out from Boneville and The Great Cow Race

Bone by Jeff Smith is a series of graphic novels (9 in all) about 3 bone cousins. Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone have all been run out of Boneville. These graphic novels tell the story of the cousin's misadventures and attempt to get back to Boneville.

Along the way the get stuck in a deep forest valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures.

Rat Creatures, Dragons and Opossums! OH MY!!!

I read the first two of the series, Out from Boneville and The Great Cow Race. Now you might be asking yourself, why did she read those?




Two Reasons:

1) They were recommended by one of my favorite professors
(Julie Stepp, you are the best!!!)

2) I found them at a yard sale for $0.25 each!!!

I honestly didn't expect to get into this series, but I did! This graphic novels ( like most graphic novels) were very quick and easy reads but they are to be continued.....

Which means I have to find the other 7 and I bet I won't find them at a yard sale for a quarter. : (

Anyway, I would recommend these novels if you are under 15 years old, just like to read, need something quick or colorful to read or you trust my judgment wholly and completely ( Ha Ha, I know I'm funny!).

But seriously, these are really good graphic novels for kids ( my guess would be about 8 & up).

Cute little endearing story that I'm completely addicted to, probably will never be on school reading list or considered a classic but I liked it pretty well. 3 of 5 stars!

Borders Double Dog Dares Ya!

Do you love to read?

Do you want to earn a free book?

Are you under 12 years old or know someone under 12 years old?

If you answered yes to all of these questions then you have been Double Dog Dared by Borders books stores!

Anyone under 12 years who fills out the form and reads 10 books can come to the store to recive a FREE book!!!!

You can find out more information and the form here.

Are you up to the challenge?

My favorite travel book.....500 Places to take your kids before they grow up

So I've been kinda lazy and busy lately so I haven't read as much as I would like, so instead of just not writing anything, I'm going to start sharing some of my favorite books, last week I showed you my favorite cupcake book and this week it's travel. Look for more to come, as well as reviews!

This has been one of my favorite travel books for a long time, even though I don't have children I still want to take myself to all these places. Although, that didn't stop me from trying to convience my mother that she should take me to all these places before I grow up, it was a losing battle from the start! :(

Like 1000 places to see before you die, I think this book is slightly better and more attainable. I can barely imagine being able to go to 500 places, forget about 1000.

The best part of this book though is that is all KID friendly! Duh, you get it right?

One of the best features of the book is at the end of each place it has a space to that says, "Why they'll thank you...." Bascially why you should take your kids there and why they'll love it!

So far in my short 26.5 years I have only been to 20ish of these sites, I hope to experience all of these places on day! Oh yeah, it's includes sites from all of the world!

My New Favorite Baking Book....."Hello, Cupcake!"

This is my absolute favorites baking/cupcake book, just look at the pictures...how could it not be? And not only do all the designs look professional and amazing and cute but it's easy.

Or at least it seems easy, I haven't actually had the time to test them out. But I've read the directions for each creations and the only one that seems hard is Van Gogh's Starry Night! (See picture below, it's amazing looking!) Another great thing about these cupcakes is that you don't have to have any special equipment or ingredients. Everything used can be found in average kitchen or grocery store!

Don't they just look good enough to eat?!

There is also a 2nd Edition called What's new Cupcake! I can't wait to look through and try that one!