Brunner's Bar

The Dream Thieves In an earlier post for The Raven Boys , I mentioned that my wife and I got to meet Maggie Stiefvater at a book signing. She is a really funny and approachable person, and that makes me want to read her books even more. I finished The Raven Boys and thought is was pretty good, but due to a sudden reveal at the end I really wanted to move on to this book. I liked this book more than Raven Boys. This book seems like it was written for guys. Assassins, street racing, nightmares, and drug induced dream therapy was something I could easily see in any Jason Statham movie. This book revolves around the hunt for a welsh king that Gansey is borderline obsessed with finding. The bulk of this story revolves around Ronan who is tormented by nightmares and has the ability to pull objects from his dreams. While all of this is going on, the Ley Lines that were awakened in the previous book are unleashing a power the boys just can't understand. I have read a lot of re

Green Arrow Vol 4 I have always liked Green Arrow. He isn't one of my favorite superheroes, but I always had respect for the character. He is very much like Batman when it came to having billions of dollars and cool gadgets, but Oliver Queen always seemed like the opposite of Batman. Queen seemed to love the party scenes and being every bit the playboy billionaire, but Bruce kept it as low key as possible. Still, I really like the story line that Kevin Smith wrote, and I enjoyed the Green Arrow/Green Lantern Story line as well. When the CW put out Arrow last year I was excited to see a live action version of this character. I really like the show even with all of the changes they have made to the mythos of the character. When I was able to grab this book for an honest review I jumped at the chance.  I guess I was expecting more from this book than I got. I wasn't a big fan of this story, and the artwork was even worse. DC has had a lot of amazing artists work on their 

The Turning I didn’t know what to expect from this book, nor did I really have high aspirations for this book right from the start. This had a really cool cover, and I think it was a Goodreads recommends based off of something on one of my shelves. I have had this sitting in my to-read list for a while now, and I was in need of a book fast, and this was all the library had available that I wanted to read. I really liked this book, and I’m so glad I read it. As I said, the cover was really what drew me in, and the summary sounded like this couldn’t be all bad. The book is written as a series of letters. Jack is spending his summer on an isolated island in a very creepy house with a housekeeper and two children whom he is tasked with entertaining. He is writing his girlfriend and dad, and this is how we get the story. I listened to this in audio book and loved it. Each letter is read by a different voice actor so you really get the feeling like you are sitting with these char

Allegiant I’m done!!!! I am finally finished with this series, and I can say without a doubt I am not impressed. It seems that people either love or hate this series, and I would lean away from love. I didn’t hate this series, but for me, my ratings of these books   just keep dropping. I liked Divergent and gave it 4 stars, but the only reason I rated it so high was the ending of that book was pretty good. The rest of the book was just boring. I read Insurgent, and that one I gave 3 stars because all it seemed to be was filler. Just something to keep fans hooked until book three. I usually save my ratings for the end but I’m just going to say it. This book only gets 2 stars from me. There were quite a few things that irked me about this book, but I can’t talk about them all, or I might spoil an ending or something, so I will do my best to make sense without ruining any thin plot lines. The biggest thing with this book and the series was the constant “I love you. I hate you.”

Veronica Mars “A long time ago, we used to be friends but I, haven’t thought of you lately at all.” That opening song has brought back so many memories, and I must ask that you please forgive me. I am about to really let my inner nerd out on this post. I remember when Veronica Mars first started. I wasn’t a big fan at first, but there was something about that sarcastic teen detective that grew on me. My wife and I watched the first season, but because we worked so much in the evenings we missed most of season 2, no DVRs back then. Season 2 came out to DVD and I bought it right away. We happened to have the weekend off, and we watched the whole season. Big fans from the start, we were crushed when the show got canceled. There was talk of a spinoff show with Veronica as an FBI agent, and I think there was a trailer, but nothing ever came of it. Then I read an article on engadget.com a while back that said there was a Kickstarter campaign to get a Veronica Mars movie made.   I rea

Monkey Me and the Pet Show I love reading to my son. I don't get to do this very often but I love this time that he and I get to spend together. Awhile back I was fortunate enough to get approved for the first in this series by Schoolastic through NetGalley. My son and I loved it and when I saw this was available for approval I threw my name in. Again I was privileged to have the opportunity to read this for an honest review by Schoolastic through NetGalley.  Oh what trouble our little Clyde got into in this book. Clyde is tired of getting hassled by The class bully, Ross and her cranky dog. So Clyde gets the bright idea to try and beat them in the local pet show. He is going to have his sister enter him as Monkey Me. Of course there are risks to being out in front of judges as a monkey not knowing when he will turn back to a boy, but Clyde is ready to show off his stuff. While participating in the pet show Clyde begins to see that there is more going on then poodles on

The Ocean at the End of the Lane I have not read much by Neil Gaiman, but he has been an author who has always intrigued me. I saw the movie Coraline and have the book still to read, and I have always been interested in his comic series Sandman. The first book of his I ever read was The Graveyard Book. I entered to win it in a Goodreads Giveaway right before it first came out, and when I didn't win I thought it was interesting enough to read anyway. It took me awhile to get into that one but I really liked it. I went through the same thing with this book. I entered to win this book and then the audio book but didn't win either. I was still really interested in reading this, so I put my name on the reserve list at the library. Finally I got around to reading this book, and I am so glad I did. This book was weird, and at first the biggest collection of random thoughts, but it was engaging, entertaining, and it held my constant attention. This is a book for adults, and

The Raven Boys Lately I have been trying to be more open to YA books. I really liked the Hunger Games series, and my wife is a big fan of the genre. We really enjoy talking about books together, so I want to know why she likes them so much. She reads some of the books I like, and I read some of hers when she thinks it is a story I might like. This was a book she thought I would enjoy, so I added it to my to-read list a long time ago. When the second book in this series, The Dream Thieves, was released, we saw that Maggie Stiefvater was going to be signing the book at our local library. My wife wanted to go, and I am always up for a book signing.  Maggie Stiefvater was hilarious! She was so energetic and fun to listen to. We really had a great time. She was also really nice and let us get a picture with her. She kept talking about this car she bought. She uses it in her books and after a book release party let her fans take spray paint and have at it. The graffiti is reall

The Valley of Fear This marks my 100th Post on my blog, and I can't be more proud to post my first Sherlock Holmes review here. I have written many reviews on the Conan Doyle Holmes books as well as many Pastiches on Goodreads and Amazon, but this will be the first here. If I couldn't post a review on a book by Jeffery Deaver or Stephen King for my 100th post, I am so glad that it will be a Sherlock Holmes review. I can't believe I have written 100 posts. It seems like just yesterday I was starting my blog and begging for followers. I might not have as many followers as other bloggers and even less of those followers I think actually read my posts, but for those that have remained loyal, I thank you. It is always nice to get comments on my posts because then I know they have actually been read and enjoyed. I have been a huge fan of the detective since I was a child but seemed to get more into the character and stories about a year before the new BBC Sherlock debut.