Brunner's Bar

Garment of Shadows I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. Any pastiche I can get my hands on to keep the adventures of Sherlock going I will get. I had high hopes for this series, but after reading this book I am finished. I read the first book in this series, The Beekeeper's Apprentice and it was pretty good but not the best Sherlock story. This book I was fortunate enough to win in a giveaway, and where it is book twelve in the series they can usually be read as an individual story from what I have read.  This book opens up with Mary Russell lost in Morocco suffering from amnesia. Ok, this sounded interesting, and I was curious what caused it and how she was going to get her memories back. I was bored. The whole amnesia thing just dragged on and never seemed to really produce a lot of interesting reading. There is another plot that is going on that ties into the amnesia, but by the time I got there I didn't care about it at all.    This was a book I was really co

Monkey Me and the Golden Monkey I love to read to my kids when I get the chance. Lately I have been working 2 jobs, so I'm never home. I work six days out of the week, and four of those days I am at both jobs. I feel like such a horrible parent because I'm not home and when I am I'm dead tired. Even though I don't have a lot of time to read to my son right now I am always looking for good children's books to read to my son. Scholastic was kind enough to let me read this when I requested it on NetgGalley, and I am so glad they did. I really loved this book. It was so cute and the perfect book for my 4 year old.  This book is about a boy with a lot of energy, and like any boy he is always hungry. While visiting the museum he sees a bowl of fruit that is supposed to have been treated to make each piece huge. Grabbing a banana he rushes off to see the dinosaurs and munch that banana before anyone realizes it is gone.  This banana may have been treated to make

Robyn Hood: Wanted Vol 2 I have really enjoyed the Grimm Fairy Tale graphic novels. Some are hit and miss, but others like their take on Sleepy Hollow are pretty good. When I saw this one on NetGalley I had to give it a read. Now I am sorry I didn't read Vol 1 first. This has an interesting twist to it. Of course the obvious twist is that Robin is actually Robyn, but the world of Sherwood Forest is another dimension. Robyn gets pulled into this other realm to save the people there. There is a bit of magic and almost supernatural themes in this book. I liked this one. The artwork was pretty good, and the story really held my attention. Still I wish there was more to the plot, and I also wish I would have read the first volume. There were things referenced that I missed since I hadn't read it. The characters in this and the way the author brought his own twist to the classic tale of Robin Hood made this worth the read. I will have to try to find Vol 1 so I can fill in th

Graphic Novel Challenge 2014 As most of you know I am a huge comic book geek. I read as many as I can through NetGalley, my library, and any other way I can get my hands on them. I stumbled onto this late last year and found that this challenge was for me. When I joined I had already completed the challenge but still included the graphic novels I read last year just to see how many I read. There were a few that didn't make the list because I took a break from blogging. This year there are three levels to pick from. These are the levels: Levels Modern Age : read and review 12 books during the year (that's only 1 book a month) Bronze Age : read and review 24 books during the year (Can you handle 2 books a month.) Silver Age : read and review 52 books during the year (Are you up to a book a week!) I think I am going all in. I will be trying for the Silver Age. 52 graphic novels seems like a lot, and I don't have the same amount of time to read this year as I did

World War Z I was very reserved when it came to watching this movie. I love zombie movies, but I read this book and seem to be the only person who didn't like it. The book for me was a real snooze fest. The whole book was survivors telling their stories of the war. It needed more to it, more action or plot, and more zombies. I had a hard time picturing the events that the survivors were talking about because the detail just wasn't there I thought. So when I saw they were making a movie about this book I decided to wait till rental. I am also not a fan of Brad Pitt, so right there this was one I didn't care if I ever saw. Still my wife was interested in seeing it, and when it came available at our library we checked it out. I was shocked at how much I liked this movie. The trailer did look promising, but after my disappointment with the book I didn't know what to expect. This movie is basically the before of the book. It isn't some post apocalyptic Barbra W

Insurgent Let me just get this out of the way now. I was disappointed. The first book in the series, Divergent, was a very slow read to me, and I was wondering if I was ever going to get into the book. Right at the end the action picked up in Divergent, and I was hooked. When it was over I couldn't wait to get the next book and continue on. The ending saved Divergent for me because I almost stopped there. Once I was able to get Insurgent from the library I was ready to find out what happened. This book opens up, and the action that was so heavy in the end of Divergent was missing. Maybe I am wrong here, and I am fine if I am, but it seemed that instead of keeping with the pace of the last book this one was a step back. This book opens with the aftermath of Divergent and how the characters reacted to it. I felt like there was time that passed, and I missed it. The beginning of this book felt like there should have been a novella before it or at least a preface. Apparently the

Worst Books I Read in 2013 Everyone has a book or two that just rubbed them the wrong way. I had a few this year, but for the most part 2013 was a great year for books. Currently I am reading a book that could be a good candidate for Worst of 2014, but I am to far invested to give up now. Rarely do I give up on a book. I am stubborn and have to see everything I start through to the end. This past year was the first time I DNF a book because I just didn't want to waste anymore of my time. This was another NetGalley acquisition that I was really excited to read. I am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and the fact that this story was about Conan Doyle and Dr Bell as they solved a mystery of their own excited me. Boy was I wrong. This book was so dull I could barely keep my eyes open while reading. I found my mind wandering as I read this because any other thought was more interesting. I made it over half way through this book and the story just felt stagnant. I couldn't force m

January is always a time of reflection for me as well as a time to set goals. Most of my goals fall by the wayside as the year goes on as do many peoples', but I at least set goals. Part of my goal setting is what I want to read this year. Most of us avid readers have an idea of what we want to read in the coming year, and the rest is just happy accident. Before I get into my favorites and worst books of 2013, I am going to set some goals. Goals: For the past few years I have been wanting to re-read all of Jeffery Deaver's books. After years of searching and hunting I have almost all of them in hardcover first editions, but I also have the two books he doesn't have in his list of works. These were his very first books that are no longer in print because he is not a fan of them, but after a ton of searching, my self and my mother found affordable copies of these for my collection. Both books have now been signed by Deaver himself. This year I want to start my re-read. I

  This is my first year participating in  The Perpetual Page Turner's End of Year Survey.  I found this on a friend's blog and had to do this. I'm new to blogging and I haven't been doing it a year yet but this will be something I do every year now.  1. Best Book You Read In 2013? (If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2013 release vs. backlist) There were a few that just blew me away this year but if it comes down to one book I would have to say  The October List by Jeffery Deaver . This book was written in reverse and was tough to get used to for the first few chapters, but once I got used to it the suspense seemed even more impressive.  2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? The Passage by Justin Cronin It sounded good but I was not amused.   3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2013?  I didn't know what to expect when we read  Invention of Hugo Cab