Brunner's Bar

The Silmarillion I'm not a big fan of the sci-fi or fantasy genre, but I love The Lord of the Rings books and the Hobbit. My dad read these books to me as a bed time story when I was nine. I loved the world of Middle Earth and all the different creatures that lived there. Years later when Peter Jackson made The Lord of the Rings into a series of movies it only strengthened my love for these books and their characters.  When the first installment of the Hobbit came out it sparked talk of Middle Earth with my Dad again. He kept telling me that a lot of what is in the movie version of the Hobbit is taken from this book. He said it gives a history of Middle Earth before the events of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Of course my interest was peaked, and he gave me his hardback first edition. I was thrilled because my dad and I don't talk books much these days. He doesn't have time to read, and I barely find time myself to keep my nose in a book. It was also wonderful

The Shadow Vol: 3 So the book was not as good as I had expected. The plot was a little slow, and the dialog was cheesy. It was kind of fitting because it felt like the old radio drama. I wasn't around to listen to it live, but I have heard some of them. In this book The Shadow is after a homicidal nun who is out to dispatch her own brand of justice on the sinners of the world in hopes of saving their immortal soul. Homicidal nun did sound promising, but I guess I expected more along the lines of action. It took three quarters of the book for a really good action sequence to happen, and then it just sort of ends. Maybe I was being to picky, but I wasn't all that impressed with the action in this book. The art work isn't to bad in this book. I was expecting some amazing scenes from Alex Ross, but was saddened when he only did the covers. I have defintly seen much worse art work, but I felt it lacked detail. The faces were not really there and felt as if I was looking a

Rocketeer and the Spirit This is exactly what the title implies, Pulp Fiction. This was a lot of fun to read. I remeber when the movie The Rocketeer was first released. I watched that movie almost a hundred times before our VHS copy wore out. I loved the idea of being able to strap a rocket to my back and fly around without a care in the world, although as an adult I tend to wonder if I would have burnt my pants right off turning that jet pack on for the first time. Seventeen years later The Spirit was brought to the big screen in the same style of Sin City. As bad as The Spirit was, I loved that movie. It is still one I watch from time to time when I'm in the mood for a cheesy comic book movie. When I was browsing the graphic novels on NetGalley I was really excited to see these two characters paired together. I jumped at the chance to read and review this title. After I downloaded it I realized that this was writen by Mark Waid. He has written some huge story lines in th

Realm Knights I have read a few of the Grimm Fairy Tales graphic novels, and I have liked them. When I read the description of this book and saw it was going to include Snow White, Captain Hook, Robyn Hood, Van Helsing and others I had to get it. I was fortunate enough to get this from NetGalley for a fair and honest review.  This book started out strong. Kronos, the father of the Titans, has escaped from the Underworld and is in search of his scythes which will give him the power to take over the world. Titans, fairy tales and gods oh my. I really wanted to see where this was going. I was expecting more. This seems like it was vol 1 of the Realm Knights series, but the whole book was a continuation of other series. I felt I really should have read 3 or 4 other graphic novels to understand what was going on with the characters. They each have their own series it seams, and this book picked up where the others left off, so I was a little confused at some of the references. 

Confessions of a Murder Suspect I am not usually a fan of YA, but I was interested when I read this description and then saw it was a giveaway on Goodreads. I don't usually win those, but I had a good year and won this book also. I have enjoyed James Patterson in the past, so I figured his YA would be pretty good. This book is a collaboration between Patterson and Maxine Paetro. I have not read any of her stuff nor have I read the Women's Murder Club series by them, so I was curious to see what this book was all about.  There were quite a few technical issues with the book that I wasn't a fan of, but I will get to those in a minute. Let me start with what I liked about this. I really liked the story, and it held my attention. Sad to say I had the whole thing figured out about 8 chapters in, but I couldn't stop reading this because I wanted to know if I was right or not. The idea of a murder committed in a locked room with no way in or out was really interestin

Bosch I'm a big fan of Detective Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly's main character who is both brooding and a loner, while still having a heart that cares about the welfare of a city. Bosch is the type of character that seems so one dimensional at first but has so many layers once you get into the stories.  I have always felt that Harry Bosch had a noir feel to the character. I could see him in my head like Humphrey Bogart. I also tend to picture him as myself from time to time because I relate to the character a little. For years I have had this image of Bosch in my head. He is a character who I could turn to when I need a good adventure or escape.  For the first time ever we get to meet Harry Bosch on screen, and Amazon.com is making this happen as part of their Prime Instant Video. Amazon has created several shows that they are allowing customers to view for free, rate them and then ultimately decide which becomes a series.  I will admit that I was nervous going

Teen Titans Vol 3 I was fortunate enough to win this book through a Goodreads giveaway. I was so excited because I love the Death of the Family storyline in the Batman comics. I was really looking forward to seeing this side of the story. I hate to say it, but I was kind of let down.  I love the Death of the Family story line because the Joker is back and crazier than ever. He is on a mission to kill all of the different members of the Bat family like Red Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl. Joker feels like they make Batman weak, and he wants the old, darker Batman back. It was more fun then. This book opens up with Batman telling sort of an origin story of how Tim Drake became Robin. This I really liked because it told the story from Batman's point of view, and I really enjoyed this part. Once the origin story passes we see the Teen Titans on the hunt for Red Robin in Gotham city. They also ask for the help of Batgirl to find him.  The Titans story line was just ok. There