Brunner's Bar

Balck Box Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have been on a mad rush to catch up on all of the Michael Connelly books I have missed. I’m going to be really bummed when I finally catch up because I have read some amazing books in the last month. Black Box opens with the LA Riots in 1992, a topic that has been referenced a few times in the Bosch series. Bosch is called out to try and help anyway he can because the police are horribly outnumbered. While bouncing from homicides he comes across the death of a photographer and begins to investigate the case. Something about this one sticks with him and he wants to find out what happened, but then he is taken off of it and the case goes to the Riot division. It never gets solved. 20 years later Bosch links a bullet from a recent case to the death of this photographer. Finally he can try to close this after all these years. I guess I expected more form this book. The other Bosch novels I had read recently like The Drop were real

Balck Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell I’m not going to lie to you, Black Canary and Zatanna are two of the hottest characters in the DC Universe. What guy wouldn’t want a woman screaming at him and able to make him just disappear (Sarcasm). Wait, that sounds like the beginning of a murder mystery or horror novel. I like these characters; I like Black Canary and her relationship with the Green Arrow. They make a really good superhero duo, and Zatanna has had some really cool story lines in the Batman books. You can see I haven’t really read these characters on their own, but I have enjoyed the stories they have been in. I still really liked the Wedding of Green Arrow and Black Canary, that was a great story line.   When I saw Black Canary and Zatanna paired in a book while browsing Edelweiss I had to request it. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed it. In this book Black Canary infiltrates a group of female thieves to st

Attack of the Fiend Another chapter in the Last Apprentice series and these are always fun to read.   Not going to lie, these are my fluff books. I can breeze through them and not have to give it much thought. I can get right into the story and really enjoy them. It is also a nice reprieve from some of the more intense mysteries I read on a regular basis. We all have those books that you can rely on to be enjoyable and yet easy reads; these are mine right now. I am so hooked on this series that I can’t get the next book fast enough. In this book the Spook and Tom are on their way to Pendleton which is home to the witch clans. There is trouble brewing that could lead to powerful evil being unleashed. Tom and the Spook need to find out what is going on and stop it before it becomes too late. A lot happens in this book and there were times that if I wasn’t paying attention I had to go back a page or two to catch up. We get to learn more about witches and the clans; we also get

Zero Year- Secret City Batman is my all-time favorite superhero and Scott Snyder has done an absolutely amazing job writing the story line since the New 52.   I have loved every one of the volumes he has written. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic writers up there with Geoff Johns who has written Green Lantern and Flash. This was a great book but I have to be honest, I’m tired of the Batman origin story. That is one story I feel needs to stay the same as it was first written and not changed to much. Scott Snyder did a great job keeping to the story I know and love, but his little additions were pretty cool. We get a little more of an origin to Edward Nigma (The Riddler) and the Joker as part of his becoming Batman tale. Snyder did throw in an Uncle for Bruce which felt off to me. I have been reading Batman for a very very long time and I have read all that I can and I don’t remember an Uncle. Maybe I’m wrong, comment and let me know. I can admit that I don’t kno

Batgirl Vol 4:Wanted I have really been meaning to read Batgirl since New 52 started for the single reason that Barbara Gordon is back. She has always been one of my favorite characters and I loved her as Oracle when she was paralyzed from the waist down. Not going to lie, I also used to like the relationship between her and Dick Grayson (Nightwing), but that seems to be missing from this reboot. I was approved to read this as an ARC through Edelweiss by DC Comics and I couldn’t wait to read this one which is why I started at 4 instead of 1.   I’m a little out of the loop obviously since I started with Volume 4, but this was still a really good book and only peaked my interest to get the previous ones. Poor Barbra has been through a lot apparently. She killed her psychotic brother by accident which means Commissioner Gordon is out to bring her down and arrest her; little does he know that Batgirl and his daughter are the same person. She is also dealing with a new versio

Death of a King I never thought I would say this but Aquaman is Badass!!! Geoff Johns does an amazing job of making a character who was made fun of by other comic book heroes cool. I was never a fan of Aquaman before the New 52, but now I look forward to the new volumes coming available at my library, or being offered on Netgalley or Edelweiss. I can see why Aquaman was made fun of for so long, he can talk to fish big deal, Superman has a bunch of powers and Batman has impressive gadgets. Since the New 52 Johns has made Aquaman a strong likeable character and that seemed like an impossible task. In Volume 4 Aquaman is dealing with the aftermath of Atlantis’s attack on the world. He has been made king of Atlantis and has to deal with not only the public’s unease towards the people of Atlantis, but now there are futuristic weapons all over the ocean floor being stolen and sold on the black market. On top of all of this some of the citizens of Atlantis are not happy with their ne

Trouble in Mind What could be better than one of Deaver’s amazing stories? How about a collection of twelve amazing stories; I love his short story collections almost as much as his novels. With this collection I get a bunch of different stories with Deaver’s classic twists and misdirection all in one great book. I really enjoy short story collections because I can sit and read a whole story in a very short amount of time. That comes in handy these days with how little time I have to read. I also like to be able to read a short story if I am stuck in something else I’m reading. It’s a nice break from a full novel sometimes and I usually go back to the novel and enjoy it more having set it aside for a while. Just like in Deaver’s Twisted and More Twisted collections, there isn’t a bad story in this. I of course have my favorites but they were all a lot of fun to read. Writing short stories is really tough, as a writer you have a very small window to introduce your character

The Drop Harry Bosch is one of my favorite detectives. He is on the list with Sherlock Holmes, Batman, and Lincoln Rhyme. I love each character for different reasons, and I love Bosch becuase he is written in a noir style. He reminds me of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. It has been a long time since I have read a Bosch novel and this was like stepping into fond memories. Bosch has been working different aspects of the police force now that he has his preteen daughter living with him. Bosch is working overflow cold cases. When DNA from a cold case comes back form the labs, if there isn’t an officer to work it, they fall to Bosch. He is desperate for a case and not only does he get his wish, but two cases fall in his lap. The first case is the murder of a girl from 1989, the DNA came back belonging to a man who would have been 8 years old at the time. Thinking this has to be a mix up at the lab Bosch is tasked with investigating the mix up and make sense out of these results.

Tomorrow is the start of Bout of Books and I'm sure there will be very little reading on my Monday I am planning a trip to the library. I might include that in my update for Monday just to make that update interesting. So make sure you check back to see how our trip to the library goes. I'm really excited about participating. The last time I participated in this was in August of last year and I was kind of reserved in my goals. If I have learned one thing about these events, it's that the only thing that matters is how much fun you have, not if you beat your goals and grind them into dust. The overachiever in me is hoping to crush my goals. Goals I have a bunch of graphic novels I need to read so I can catch up to where I should be in my Graphic Novel Reading Challenge 2014. I pledged to read 52 graphic novels this year which is one a week. That hasn’t happened. So I plan on trying to get several read.   For Comics, I want to finish Batgirl Vol 4: Wante

Batman/Superman Vol 1: Cross World Batman has been my all-time favorite Superhero since before I could read, and Superman has been a close second. I really enjoy the friendship that seems to always be in these stories no matter how many times DC reboots their series. Of course Batman feels like he has to have a backup plan in case the Man of Steel goes berserk, but they still find a way to trust each other. This book really captured this friendship very well. Anyone who has read DC comics for some time knows that there is more than just one universe. Earth, Earth 2, Earth Prime and many many more have different versions of our heroes.   In this Book Batman and Superman run into the Chaos Bringer and she sends our heroes to Earth 2. Why she does this we don’t know till the very end, but when our Batman and Superman run into their younger counterparts the story gets interesting. Earth 2’s version of Superman and Batman haven’t found that friendship or trust yet. They fight co

Night of the Soul Stealer Questions answered and Secrets revealed; well sort of. There has been very little said about the Spook in the first two books, but in this one we finally get some answers to the questions that have been on my mind since the very begining. I really liked this book, mostly for these glimpses into the Spook’s past. The plot isn’t really strong but being able to get some answers to some of my questions was worth the read. In this book we don’t have just one plot line, but two. A mysterious man shows up at the Spooks residence demanding the Spook return what he stole or else. Dark Magic circles this man and Tom wonders if he is another Spook or something more sinister. The second plot line is about what lies in the basement of the Spook’s winter home. When I say winter home I'm sure your first instinct is to think beach house, but that is not the case. This home is colder, and darker than the one he lives in the rest of the year, but with the winter co

It's that time again and I am excited to be able to participate in this round of Bout of Books . I have had my slumps this year because I am so busy with my two jobs, but this is a great oportunity to catch up. At one of my jobs I am allowed to listen to music while I work and of course I choose audio books to listen too. I have been able to catch up on a lot of older books on my to-read list and I am loving it. In case you don’t know what Bout of Books is all about here is a little blurb: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal . It is a weeklong read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 infor

The Fifth Witness The next book in my attempt to catch up on all of the Connelly books I have missed is The Fifth Witness. This book is a Mickey Haller story and as much as I like Connelly, I wasn’t as impressed with this one. Maybe it was because I loved  The Reversal and I kept comparing this to that one the whole time. I still like this book but the level of suspense that was in The Reversal just wasn’t in this. Haller is back to being a defense lawyer but instead of working out of his Lincoln town car he has sprung for an office a few blocks from the court house. He has decided to move on to real estate cases involving foreclosures. Not the same attention getting cases as murders, but Haller is looking to settle down a bit.While working on a case the man who is denying his client the chance to save her home winds up dead and she is the prime suspect. Haller has to pull out all of the stops to try and defend a woman that has evidence stacking against her. This is your tr