Brunner's Bar

Justice League Vol 4: The Grid I can’t believe I am going to say this. I am not a fan of the direction the New 52 Justice League is going. To make matters worse the story line is being written by one of the best comic book writers out there. I have praised the writing of Geoff Johns countless times. I know when the Justice League has gone through reboots in the past there is always bumpy roads as the heroes learn to work as a team. I expect that in Volume 1, but even in Volume 4 there still seems to be trust issues, and awkwardness. I’m also not a fan of the personality of Superman and Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is a diehard warrior that would rather solve a dispute with her fists and talk later, and Superman almost seems disconnected from the people of Earth. Wonder Woman has always been a strong Amazonian warrior, but she used to have empathy and cared about people. Superman has a loner sort of demeanor like Batman tends to and it just doesn't fit with the classic Superman

Green Lantern Vol 4:Dark Days For years I have been a huge fan of Green Lantern and the Corps. These series have had some of the best story lines, and battles I have seen in a comic book. When Geoff Johns took over the writing on the Green Lantern series I was thrilled. He quickly became one of my favorite Comic book authors and I read every book I could get my hands on no matter who was the hero. I have followed his amazing story lines with Green Lantern until his term ended. Now the reins have been passed and Robert Venditti took over the future of Hal Jordan. I was nervous at first because I have never read his stuff and I knew I would constantly compare him to the genius of Geoff Johns. On top of that, the previous story lines for GL have been so strong I was afraid this was going to derail the whole thing. I was pleasantly surprised. I liked this story and there was a lot of hard decisions that Hal Jordan had to make. There was more emotional depth to Hal's characte

206 Bones The first book I read by Kathy Reichs was Monday Mourning and I loved it. I can’t remember why I decided to read her for the first time but I'm so glad I did. After that book I started to buy every one of her books available in hardcover.  I have had so much on my to-read list that I just couldn’t wait to read that I have let the Brennan series fall to the side and I am several behind. I have decided that I want to catch up on her books and Michael Connelly’s. They are some of my favorite authors and it's time to blow the dust off these books and revisit some of my favorite characters. Either I have grown out of Kathy Reichs’s books or this just wasn’t one of her best. I was bored with the whole thing and by the end didn’t care how it wrapped up. I was even really annoyed with Brennan as a character. The book opens up with Brennan kidnapped and in a concrete room and then we flash back to what led up to it. Towards the end it seemed like Kathy Reichs forgo

This Sorrowfull Life These volumes only hold six issues like most graphic novels but it almost feels like less. I fly through these very quickly and since they are just the next steps in a much bigger story the events in this book seemed short and like they went by too quickly. Usually this is a good thing because that means I was really interested in what I was reading, but I almost feel cheated because I wanted more. Good thing there are a lot of other volumes for me to read still. These books are so difficult to review because it is so hard to write one without spoilers. These are just chapters in a much larger story so if you haven’t read up to this volume then almost everything could be taken as a spoiler. I’m going to try my best but I have a feeling these Walking Dead post will be shorter than my usual reviews. Let’s start with the writing, Robert Kirkman does an amazing job developing his characters and every volume seems to bring more and more depth to these fict

Curse of the Bane I was really impressed with The Revenge of the Witch so I couldn’t wait for this book to come in at my library. I am hooked and looking forward to all the other books in this series. Sometimes I like coming in late on a series because, it looks like the last book in this series just came out. Now I can make my way through books 2-13 without having to wait a year to see how this ends. I liked this book, but it wasn’t as strong as the first in the Last Apprentice series. I felt it had more down time and sections where I was just waiting for something to happen. Still I was really intrigued by the Bane.   This is a creature that has yet to be bested by a Spook (Demon Hunter). The only thing that could possibly be done is to attempt to contain it. In this case it is in the catacombs beneath Preistown. Our story opens up with the death of the Spook’s brother after a scrape with a very difficult Boggart. The Spook decides to attend his brother’s funeral and fina

The Keeper It has almost been a year since I started blogging, and when I began I made sure to join Netgalley. I have gotten a lot of great books through them and have gone outside my comfort zone and found some authors I never would have tried otherwise. John Lescroart is one of those authors that I am glad to have found. I had never read his work before but had seen his name around the bookstore. The summary of his last book, The Ophelia Cut, sounded interesting, so I got it and really enjoyed it. That book was listed as a one shot, but there was a lot of reference to something that happened in an earlier book. I spent most of the book lost and trying to figure out what Lescroart was referring to. I decided to take a shot, and I emailed John Lescroart to see which book this was from and if I could get a little clarification on some things. I was shocked when he wrote back the very next day. He was so apologetic and kind in his response. He answered all of my questions and t

The Reversal Michael Connelly is one of my favorite authors. I have been a big fan of Harry Bosch almost from the beginning. I started a few books into his series but have since gone back and caught up. Now I am behind on his more recent books so I'm working on catching up. I hope to be all caught up by the end of this year. When the Lincoln Lawyer came out I was interested in seeing what Connelly was going to do with the character. I knew the story would be well done, because I really like Connelly’s writing and style, but I am not a fan of the courtroom dramas. I have read a Grisham or two and I find them kind of dull so I was worried I would feel the same about Mickey Haller. I was impressed with how well Connelly writes Haller’s character and the twists and turns that are in these books keep me interested the whole time. This book was amazing for many reasons, but for me the biggest reason was that this book had Bosch and Haller as well as other characters from the tw

Die Trying This is going to be one of those reviews that is going to be hard to write. I think I will start out with my rating, and if you really want to read while I ramble then that’s your decision. I liked this book, but I wasn’t blown away by it. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. Jack Reacher is a likeable character, but right now I don’t see a lot of depth to him. This is only the second book in the series, and maybe I’m missing something, but it just seems like there could be more to him. The plot was also predictable. Still, it was an entertaining read. I have only read the first two books in this series, and maybe things change later, but I noticed a formula to these two books. Reacher is a former military man roaming from town to down doing odd jobs until he finds trouble. There is a girl whom he falls for through the whole book. No home, no job and not a care in the world, but he seems to find the one town with terrorists or something that takes up at least two hundr

Revenge of the Witch For someone who is not really a fan of YA I sure have read a lot of it lately.   In my defense I had no idea that this was teen fiction, and it was the only book I had on my to-read list that I could get from the library right when I needed a book. However, I really liked this book, and I am so glad I found another series to read. My interest in this book began when I had seen a teaser for the movie Seventh Son. I’m a fan of Jeff Bridges, and the little bit I saw looked like this is going to be a great movie. Shortly after the mention of this book being made into a movie Goodreads had it as a giveaway. The summary seemed like it would be interesting, and free is free right? So I threw my name in for it, and didn’t win. I finally got around to reading this, and I couldn’t stop. I was so glad to have 7 hours at work to listen to this book without stopping. The book starts a little slow because of setting the scene and characters. I have read books tha

The Best Defense  I am a huge fan of the Show Walking Dead. I love Zombies and great characters, and the show, as well as the graphic novels has both and so much more. My wife and I were hooked from the very first episode and after two and a half seasons of the show we decided it was time we read the comics. Friends of ours who have read these said we were missing things from the story and that certain events might make a little more sense had we read the comics. We read the first 4 volumes of the Graphic novel s and then just got caught up in other things. Well I just picked up this book from the library and I’m so glad to be back with Rick and the rest of the group. This volume starts right where Volume 4 ended. The groups had just come upon the prison and were in the process of making it safe for everyone to live.  Here we pick up with the end of the process to make things safe and Glenn decides with the help of some swat riot gear he wants to syphon gas from the cars in t

Frozen I can't lie. I really enjoy Disney movies. It is one of the many things I have never grown out of, but now I have an excuse to watch them. I have kids. I'm also secure enough in my manhood to say that I really enjoyed Tangled. At the time I was a big fan of Zachary Levi who was the lead in one of my favorite television shows Chuck. I also really like Mandy Moore, I had a crush on her way back when, so I have enjoyed most of her movies. I had heard a lot of great things about Frozen from friends and family. I even heard a lot of great things from just random strangers. For example, on my way home from my day job I decided to stop and buy Frozen the day it came out so my wife and kids could have a special movie night while I was at job number 2. While I was standing in line to check out, this mom behind me started to gush all about how great this movie is and I was making a great choice buying it. Needless to say she was buying it also. I didn’t mind the review.

Firestarter I'm a big fan of Stephen King and I would like to think I can be considered a "Constant Reader". It was only a few years ago that I really got into his books and now I am on a mission to read everything by him. Whenever I need a new book to read and there isn’t anything really grabbing my interest on the top of my to-read pile I can rely on a King novel to keep me company. I was in just such a need and my library had this one ready to go. I wasn’t sure if I was going like this after reading the summary, but I want to read all of King's stuff so I felt it was time to read this one. Now that I have read it I am kind of torn on what I think about this book. King is an amazing writer and I have loved so many of his books, but occasionally there are those that just leave me feeling underwhelmed. This was one of those. This book starts out with two very interesting characters; Andy and Charlie are on the run from a government like agency. As the book