Brunner's Bar

Slither I took a little break from this series but I'm ready to finish and find out what happens to Tom, Alice, and the Spook. This is listed as the 11th book in the series but really it doesn't fit in the story line. Like the 9th book, Grimalkin the Witch Assassin , this is a stand alone story. It almost seems like the this was a different project that was rolled into the series to draw it out a bit. This story has very little to do with Tom and his quest. It takes place in a different realm where they have never heard of Spooks.  This book is about a creature who lives off the blood of others and makes a deal with a local farmer. He will leave the farmer and his family alone if he will allow Slither to feed from the animals from time to time. Something happens tot he farmer and we learn that as long as Slither gets his two youngest daughters to safety then he can have the oldest.  There are a few references to Spooks and we have a pop in from one of the bigger

Bout of Books 12 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 of one thing or another, but this is a great opportunity to catch up. I have fallen behind on my Graphic novel challenge this year so I'm hoping to start off 2015 with a bang. 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 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books blog . - From the Bout o

Merry Christmas to all!!! Now I'm not so single minded to think that everyone celebrates Christmas and for those that read my blog I really hope you all have a very Happy Holidays. I do celebrate Christmas in my family'e life it lasts a little over a week. That's a long story I won't bore you with but we try to get as much out of this holiday as possible. Our kids are getting older and we do our very best to give them the best Christmas possible. Things are a little better this year for them thanks to my great job I got back in July. So we put up the tree and the lights and our Elf on the Shelf came for a visit. Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf. It is a cute idea but really a pain in the butt. Every year our elf Neighbor. My Son named him, comes on Thanksgiving night with breakfast fixings. Every day he is in a new spot in the house to watch the kiddos and report back to Santa every night if they have been good or bad. This worked great last year but thi

Graphic Novel Challenge 2015 I love this challenge. Comics are something that I have never grown out of and since my library carries a huge catalog of graphic novels I read more of them as an adult. The Other thing I love about this challenge is that it lasts all year round. I am always working towards my goals and planning what books I want to catch up on.  Like last year there are three levels to aim for this coming year.  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!) Last year I decided to go all in for the Silver Age challenge. I fell short with a total of 40 Graphic novels read at the time I posted this. I might be able to get one or two more in before the end of this year. I had some great things happen this year with my new job that I love but

The Night Eternal Well, I'm finished with the trilogy and I'm glad it's over. I wanted to like this series but by the time I got about a quarter of the way through this one I wanted to pack it in and move on. My stubbornness won out and since I had already read the first two I had to know how this was going to end.   My biggest complaint with this book other than it was just dull, was the fact that a few chapters in I hated all of the characters in this book. I like our little survivor team of Fet, and Eph, and Nora, but in this book things personalities change and I really didn't like the turn they had taken. I was amazad at how quickly Guillermo Del Toro made me hate characters I grew to like in the first two books. That kind of put me off the whole book fright from the start and I was only a few chapters in.  Unlike book two, The Fall , this once doesn't pick up right where the previous left off. This book begins 2 years later. A lot can happen in

Nightwing Vol 5 I did things a little backwards. I have only read Vol 1 of the New 52 reboot, but when this became available through Edelweiss as an Advanced reader copy I jumped at the chance to put my name in the ring. I was fortunate enough to be granted a copy from DC Comics and I am very grateful. Nightwing is one of my favorite superheroes. I always loved the lighter side Dick Greyson brought as Robin to the Dynamic Duo. When he left the cave to become his own man as Nightwing I was hooked. I always enjoyed the stories that he came back into to, and then when he was rebooted the first time with the new black and blue suit I collected every single issue till Battle For the Cowl when Nightwing's series ended.  I really liked this Vol even if I was a little lost at times. I have heard from friends what all is going on with Dick in his series so I wasn't spoiled by anything, but still a little lost. This book is a collection of stories from Dick's past. Startin

The Fall The Show the Strain was really good this first season. It renewed my interest in this trilogy. The first book wasn't as good as the television series in my opinion but I wanted to see where the story was going. This is definitely a middle book. Nothing really happens in this book until the very end and it really feels like that was just setting up the final chapter in this story.  So here comes the warning. I am going to mention some things that happened at the very end of the last book/show so if you don't wan't SPOILERS then I would stop here. If you have seen the show or read the first book you will be fine. If you don't care to read these and are curious to find out what O have to say then keep reading. I'd love the company. This book picks up right where the last leaves off. The Master has escaped and looks like an over cooked turkey. The sun may have burned him but it didn't kill him like it does the underlings. The Vampires have be

  Batman/Superman Vol 2 I was fortunate enough to be granted a review copy of this from DC Comics through Netgalley. I have enjoyed this series and wished it was a little better at the same time. The thing I really like about this series is the back and forth between Batman and Superman, but not the dialog but the internal thoughts of these characters. Batman will think something like Clark is a Boy Scout, and then the next text box is Superman thinking something like "I'm sure Bruce thinks I'm a Boy Scout". This non verbal back and forth shows just how close the friendship between these characters is.  The one thing I am not a big fan of is the cross over between our universe and the Earth 2 universe. I get confused as to which Batman I'm reading about, the younger one who has little experience or the older one that has this family and is not what Batman is about at all. The story in this was pretty interesting. It starts out with Mogul and his son whi

The Burning Girl I got this email from Netgalley offering two novellas from Lisa Unger. The premise for these two books was to not judge a book by its cover so there wasn't one when these came available on Netgalley for request. I really liked this idea. I must admit that a really good cover can make me want to read a book or on the flip side make me avoid a book at all costs no matter how interesting it might sound. I threw my name in for these and was fortunate enough to be selected to review this and the other book.  I was intrigued by the idea of a psychic who is finding out dark secrets about her past while trying to figure out the mystery behind the burning girl she keeps seeing.  I didn't realize it at the time I started this but this is the second book in the Whispers series. I read these two a little out of sequence but to be honest I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. This book reads like a single story and I didn't feel like there was

The Son of Neptune I'm not sure I know what to say about this book that I haven't already said in my review for The Lost Hero . I still felt like I have read this book before because of the parallels between the Percy Jackson series and of course the first book of this series. I know the two books in this series are supposed to be parallels but I again felt myself letting my mind wander away from the story. One thing I did like about this book was the fact that we are back with Percy Jackson. He is paired with new Demi Gods and in this case they are from the Roman version of Camp Half Blood. The constant bouncing between Greek and Roman references was dizzying at times. It was hard to keeo straight what gods they were talking about. It has been quite awhile since I have studied Greek and Roman Mythology in school so I was a little rusty. I feel like these book seem to be missing the level of action that was in the previous series. There is a lot of talking and not

The Lost Hero I really enjoyed the Percy Jackson series and both my wife and a friend of mine raved about this series. They liked this series better than the Percy Jackson one so I had high hopes. Well, I wasn't all that impressed. I knew going into this that it isn't going to be all about Percy Jackson but I really didn't care for the new characters. I also felt like I had read this book already. This one was so similar to The Lightening Thief  I could predict everything that was going to happen. To top it off this book opens yet again with a class field trip where property is damaged by some evil mythological creature.  I spent most of this book kind of bored as I just stumbled through. There were times that I thought I would just move on but decided to stick it out. In this book we have a new Demigod wake up with no memory and he is thrown into a new life with the kids of Camp Half Blood. Jason has to adjust to Leo and Piper who have fake memories of being fri