Outlander is one of those books I picked up about a dozen times in various bookstores and then put down without actually buying it. It has a lot of elements I go for–WWII! Britain! Conspicuously well-groomed and progressive men-of-the-past! Time travel!–but for whatever reason, the back of the book never grabbed me. And I heard rumblings that the book had some problems, which I will get to later. Outlander is the story of Claire Randall, an English woman freshly back from WWII where she served […]
This book made me HUNGRY
I read this whole book in the bathtub and made myself very hungry reading the recipes. I seriously need some Mexican food right now! “Tita knew through her own flesh how fire transforms the elements, how a lump of corn flour is changed into a tortilla, how a soul that hasn’t been warmed by the fire of love is lifeless, like a useless ball of corn flour.” Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita and Pedro. They fell instantly in love when their […]
Good Plot, Good Characters, Great Setting
Hey look, it’s an urban fantasy that actually takes place in a realistic urban setting. There are people of many ethnicities and the city has pockets of different cultures. These writing choices by Daniel José Older really lend the fantastical elements a heavy dose of realism. It’s refreshing. That realistic setting and Older’s imaginative world building made Half-Resurrection Blues a very enjoyable read. Carlos Delacruz isn’t really alive, but he’s not quite dead either. He’s an inbetweener, someone who lives between the world of the […]
Comedy Comes from Pain.
Volume 2 of Gary Duggan and Brian Poshen’s Marvel Now run starts off with a blast from the past. A “lost” Deadpool issue has been found in the back of a file cabinet and we get to see Peter Parker and Tony Stark in Deadpool’s universe. The “flashback” is a delight. Deadpool saves everyone while pissing them off at the same time. Classic Deadpool. Fast forward to where we left off. Agent Preston is unhappily ensconced in Deadpool’s brain. Necromancer Michael and Ben Franklin are […]