Brunner's Bar

Criminal This is another re-read for me. Since catching up on all of the Karin Slaughter books I had missed by starting very late in her series I just decided to keep going to try to get current again. I actually won this book through Goodreads as an advanced reader copy and was so excited to win. I of course reviewed this book after reading it the first time but had forgotten quite a bit about this book. My original review can be read here .  After I started reading this for the second time I went back and read my first review. I gave this book 5 stars and I had no idea why. The story is all about these young working girls getting kidnapped and killed both in the 70's and in present day. The book starts out kind of slow and the constant change between 1975 and present day was really tiresome. Since both time periods have Amanda Wagner as one of the main characters it was tough to figure out when I was at times which just drove me nuts.  Half way through the book I r

Sorcerer's Stone I'm going to start this post and review being honest. I rated this book when I first joined Goodreads in 2010 but I have never read this book and I had no idea until recently. My son is almost 6 and my wife has been dying to read these books to him for a long time. We decided he was old enough to understand them and really enjoy it. My wonderful wife has been reading this book to me and my son for the last month or so. We just finished reading it and of course watched the movie with popcorn and a non-alcoholic Butter Beer shared among the three of us. The best part of this whole experience was seeing the smile on my son's face and the smile on my wife's face when he would beg her to keep reading. It was amazing and I'm sorry it ended. We have 6 more books so i know I will enjoy this for quite awhile and then get to do this all over again when my daughter is old enough.  I didn't jump on the Hogwart's express until the 5th book cam

  Batman Eternal Vol 2 I have my favorite comic authors and Scott Snyder is one of the best. Him and Geoff Johns are geniuses. Scott Snyder has had an amazing run on Batman and he didn't disappoint with this book. There is so much in this epic story line that had some of my favorite villains showing up as well as appearances by other members of the Bat-Family. There was also a nod to the Knightfall story when Batman was broken.  This book brings one of the most dangerous characters Batman has aver faced. Hush is back and ready to kill Batman. When Hush was first introduced it was one of the best stories I have ever read. I was so excited to see back. Since he knows everything about Bruce and his history there is no one who has a better chance to finally best Batman. To make matters worse, Commissioner Gordon is in Blackgate prison and Alfred is in a coma from a concentrated dose of Scarecrow's fear toxin. If Batman is going to stop Hush from Gotham he will need some

Fool Moon I'm on my short little re-read journey with the Dressden Files. I have only read the first 5 books in this series but I wanted to re-aquatint myself with these before I moved for ward since it has been a few years since I read these. Plus with my wife reading these it helps to keep a dialog going and remember what she is talking about. It is also funny to go back and read my review of these books on Goodreads. I have really come a long way in my reviewing. I'm not sure my old one made a ton of sense.  During any re-read I hope to pick up on some of the little things I might have missed the first time and enjoy it even more. I have to agree with my original review as well as all the others I had read. This was a pretty good book but not as good as the first. Storm Front really got me hooked on this series but this one didn't deter me from continuing on. If you can't guess it from the title this book is all about werewolves. Thankfully these are the

Pure Insanity I have been very fortunate to get picked for some really great books by DC Comics through Net Galley. When I saw they were doing a new version of Suicide Squad I had to check this out. I haven't read any of the books so far and I have always thought I would catch up on those at some point. With the new movie coming out next summer I wanted to start getting all of the information I can in case there are holes in the movie story that I will want answers to.  This book begins with some major issues for the team. There is a new boss in the office who is calling the shots and not very well. We also see the addition of Black Manta and Joker's Daughter join the team which causes some obvious tension. Sent to find out what the Russians are planning they are blindsided by robotic soldiers called Rocket Reds. While running for their lives our squad gets split up. Deathstroke is taken to someone who wants to offer him a job, while Deadshot is taken pris

The Fall I know I say this a lot but I have to thank NetGalley for introducing me to John Lescroart. I got an email from them telling me to check out his book The Ophelia Cut and the summary sounded really interesting. I requested it and was approved. That book hooked me on Lescroart's work and I look forward to each new book. I have yet to go backwards and read all of the ones I have missed but for now I am perfectly content. I have to admit that The Ophelia Cut really needed to be read after the books that came before so I had a lot of questions. I checked out Lescroart's web site and ended up emailing him. He was a great guy and personally got back to me to answer my questions and talk about his books. I was really impressed with how much he cared for his fans, and new readers. That is really what hooked me on his writing.  The book opens with a young woman being thrown off a bridge after a struggle to her death. The young woman's death raises controversy over

Batman Arkham Knight: Vol 1 I am envious of all of those who have played these Batman Arkham games. I am a little behind on my game systems and my beautiful children take my time that used to be filled with gaming so it all works out. Still I would love to play these games and if I ever do get a Playstation 4 I am buying all of them first. Since I can't play them I enjoy reading the companion graphic novels. Thanks to DC Comics and Net Galley I was able to read and review this.  I have to be honest and say I was kind of let down by this book. It took forever to get going and when it did I still wasn't all that excited to be reading it. Gotham is starting to put itself back together after the Arkham disaster and Bruce Wayne is doing his best to rebuild the city and make it a place people can call home again. While trying to fix everything the Penguin and Harley Quinn are trying to tear it all apart. Penguin because he wants to rule all of Gotham and Harley because she

  Candy and the Cankersaur I'll be honest for a moment. My blog isn't all that popular and I get that, but I have fun doing that and that's all that matters to me. I use my blog to seek out advanced reader copies of books so I can feed my addiction for good books. This is one of the few books that I have been sought out to read by an author. I don't have much time to sit down and read these days because work keeps me busy when I'm there and my kids and wife get my attention when I'm home. I tend to not request books that aren't comics and I read mostly audio books. Well, this is a kids picture book and like always, I jumped at the chance to read a book to my kiddos.  I took a chance and thanked the author for sending it. Jason was great getting back to me when I had questions about this book and that really helped me plan out this review. Most kids books have some sort of lesson to learn by the end of it; like eat your vegetables, be nice to your

The Starling Project Jeffery Deaver has done a few books for Audible with his character Harold Middleton. The first two books, The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet were serial novels. This means they had a chapter at a time released on Audible and Deaver wrote the first and the last chapter of the book but everyone in between was done by different mystery writers.  This book is strictly written by Jeffery Deaver and it is a novella not a full novel. This is only available in audio version right now, but it is totally worth it. This book not only continues the story of Harold Middleton but this is done by a full cast of characters with sound effects, and a really cheesy sound track. It was great.  This book has Middleton and his team of volunteers trying to find information on who are what the Starling is. Starting out the book with a secret assault on what I think was a drug lord to take his harddrives to find any information they can about the Starling. Let's

Die Again I have been a long time fan of Rizzoli and Isles and when the show came to TNT years ago my wife and I love it. The characters are so different in the show than in the book that it is nice to have the difference. In the books Rizzoli and Isles are not as close as in the show. The stories switch between the points of view of each character. Isles is also a goth type loaner instead of this rich fashionista that she plays in the show. I definitely like Isles more in the show than the book. Rizzoli is a great detective with a great personality which is in both the book and the show, but I like the book character because she is a mom and married to FBI Agent Gabriel Dean. I wish the show would take the character down this path because I really like the conflict that arises with Rizzoli about trying to be this tough detective while still being a mom.  This book is all about a couple grizzly murders that mirror how an animal would be gutted after the hunt. The book starts

Storm Front So to be honest this is actually my second read of this book. I have a bunch of friends in the book world who have been big fans of this series. A few years ago I decided to step out of my comfort zone of mysteries and thrillers and give Sci-Fi a try. I was hooked from the very beginning and I liked it so much I begged my wife to give these a try too. She really likes the YA fantasy/Supernatural books about Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies.  I figured this would be right up her alley. Well she finally got around to reading these and is just as hooked. I have to admit that I have only gotten as far as the 5th book so I have a lot of the series left to read. There were just other things that came up.  Since my wife is reading these I wanted a refresher. This book is just as fun to read after the three different ways I have been exposed to this story. My first time reading this was in book form, then I read this in graphic novel form which was great. The story is b

Invasion of the Snore Snatchers My wife and I love to read to our kiddos. When I was getting advanced reader copies from Scholastic through NetGalley I stumbled on Super Schnoz and the Gates of Smell . It is the definition of goofy boy book. A few weeks ago we were at the library and this book was on a table for fun summer reads and I had to pick it up.  Reading it to my son was fun for two reasons. First of all I love his laugh and every time there was some mention of snot or a booger blast he would giggle. That's one of the best sounds on earth. The other reason I enjoyed this was becuase I would look over the top of the book and see my wife roll her eyes or shake her head at the sheer stupidity of different parts of this book. It was pretty funny.  This book picks up right after the end of the first book. Our Honking Hero is happily enjoying expanding his smell dictionary with his enormous nose. However, the town of Denmark New Hampshire is being ripped apart by t

The Regulators I wasn't all that impressed with Desperation but I had heard that this book was similar so I wanted to see what it was all about. Fist let me say that this was an interesting book from the standpoint of how many other books have influenced this or were influenced by this book. There are aspects of the Shining, Under the Dome, Desperation, and the western feel at times can be reminiscent of The Dark Tower but that is kind of a stretch.  Tak is back but this time he has left the confines of the town of Desperation. Here is the thing that really drove me nuts for the first few chapters. Having read Desperation I know most of these characters already except they are not the same. This is hard to explain without giving something away so I will just say it is an adjustment. This is a completely different story from Desperation and I went in thinking this would be a sequel. That was my mistake. If you are reading this and you want to read this book don't make