Brunner's Bar

Lightning Strikes Twice Let me start off by thanking Net Galley and DC Comics for allowing me to read this book for an honest review. I have been very lucky to have been able to read the Rebirth comics of my favorite heroes.  Barry Allen has a lot to contend with in this book. It starts off a little confusing to be honest with you. We find Barry working CSI on a case that is very similar to his mother's death while having visions of Zoom and Wally West. However, Wally comes out of that vision and is back running along side Barry for a few pages. Now here is where I get confused. I didn't read a lot of Flash during New 52 but I did before that. I remember Wally West and him being Kid Flash, but now we have another Wally West who is Iris West's Nephew who also has a touch of the speed force. What book explains the two Wally's? I have to read that one.  Anyway, this all happens in the first few pages and that is all we get of the visions and return of Wally

The Drowning Welcome to Rebirth and a new start for Aquaman. The king of Atlantis is working very hard against the wishes of his people to bring the Atlanteans and the land dwellers together. Arthur has created a land bridge embassy to allow the heads of governments can meet with the heads of Atlantis and come to an understanding as well as get to know one another.  While trying to bring two worlds together a dark soul is hellbent on revenge and he is planning on doing whatever it takes to bring Aquaman down. Black Manta is going to destroy Aquaman and get his revenge for his father that Aquaman killed. To make matters worse, a new secret organization have plans to undo everything Aquaman has worked so hard for and bring about a new war between the Atlanteans and our world. Here is one of the covers from an issue in this collection. Gives you a sense of just how dire the situation is. Not only is this a new beginning while keeping up with the events of New 52 but we get a

The Extinction Machines This book gets right to it. Squid looking things are attacking the citizens of the world and enslaving them. The League is doing what they can to stop this but something is not only holding them back but steeling their powers. The purge is coming right before the Awakening. Flash looses his speed and the Lanterns loose their light. Those people under the control of these alien things chant that their power was stolen by the Justice League and they are taking it back.  The team is a little different than where we left it in New 52. The staples are there, Batman, Wonder Woman, Barry Allen is the Flash and Aquaman are the heavy hitters. Cyborg is taking a bigger roll in this team but we have two new Green Lanterns and a New Superman. You read that right, a new Superman. Lantern Baz was around in New 52 so he has some miles on him but Jessica is new to the corp and she is still having issues with her confidence. If you haven't read up to this point in

The Wind Through the Keyhole I tend to spend some time thinking about my reviews before I put cursor to blog. I was looking over my first review when I read this book originally and I took some time to think about this. I have come to the same conclusion that where this is fun to revisit with old friends, this really doesn't have much to do with the Dark Tower series. Allow me to explain. This book picks up right after Wizard and Glass . Our Ka-Tet of Roland, Eddy,  Susannah , Jake, and Oy are heading further down the path of the beam after leaving the emerald castle. On their way the feel a storm brewing and seek shelter. While tucked up in an abandoned building Roland plays story teller. This is where our series stalls and the stories begin. Our Ka-Tet is only in the book at the very beginning and the very end. The rest of this is two stories from Roland's past and the days when Gilead still stood.  Stephen King has a foreword where he says that he was really happy

Fantastic Mr. Fox My son is a huge reader and I couldn't be happier. He reads books like crazy and is grade levels higher in his reading level. I wasn't a big reader until I was in high school so I am really excited that he loves reading so young. My 3 year old daughter is the same way and my wife and I love it. We don't have much spending money but if the kids want books we buy them even if we shouldn't. For Christmas my son got a Roald Dahl boxed set and he couldn't wait to start reading these. I never read any of his books so I was ok with taking a break from Harry Potter to read these as a family.  This book is pretty short. We plowed through this in 3 days. There are a lot of pictures throughout the book and Conner loved that. This is a cute story. Mr Fox has been stealing from three farmers and they have tried and tried to stop him. Finally an opportunity presents itself and the three farmers trap him and his family in their den. The rest of the boo

Order of the Phoenix As I have mentioned in previous reviews my wife and I are reading these books with our 7 year old son. We take turns reading a chapter and it has taken us a long time to finish this book. We love how excited he gets when we read these book and then watch the movie. This is one of my favorites for so many reasons.  So the Order of the Phoenix is all about this secret group of wizards and witches who are dedicated to standing up to Voldemort and his Death Eaters. This group included Harry's Parent's back in the day so Harry is desperate to become a member. However, secret wars aside Harry has to return to Hogwarts for his fifth year. It is at school where Harry meets one of the most evil, most hated, and horrid villains of all time; Dolores Umbridge. Has anyone else felt that the most secure place on Earth has this revolving door for villains? Here is where the spoilers for earlier books come in. In book 1 Voldemort is riding on a professor, book 2

Graphic Novel Challenge It is beyond that time again. Time to sign up for the Graphic Novel Challenge for 2017. I have to say that last year was a big flop for me in the reading department. I took the plunge and pledged to read 52 graphic novels and only did 22. I had big dreams of getting all these advanced copies and catch up on all these series I have missed out on like Preacher and American Vampire. Instead I got a few books of these series and didn't continue. This year I plan on doing better. I want out of my reading funk and I hope comics is the way to do it.  This is one of the few challenges I look forward to every year. The levels for this are as follows: Modern Age : read and review 12 books during the year  Bronze Age:  read and review 24 books during the year  Silver Age : read and review 52 books during the year Golden Age : read and review 104 books during the year Wish me luck as I try to read the level I haven't reached the entire time

The Death and Life of Oliver Queen I have been waiting so long for Rebirth and then it finally comes out and I not only have no time to read but I hit the biggest reading funk I have been in in forever. I bought Rebirth #1 the one shot special and have not had a chance to read it. This is my first book since Rebirth and I loved it. Thanks to Net Galley and DC Comics I was able to read and review this.  I have had the DC All Access app on my phone and it is one I open almost daily. I remember reading an article title. Oliver Queen is DEAD!!! and nearly fell out of my chair. How can you start off an event called Rebirth with killing off one of your bigger characters? I had to read this and was so excited when my approval came through.  This book takes us back to the Green Arrow before New 52. I read one or two books of New 52 and really didn't like what Oliver Queen had become. This is back to the Oliver Queen I have known and loved. The book begins with homeless peopl

Call to Arms So much has gone on in the Walking Dead that I was anxiously waiting for this next chapter. It has been out for awhile and I really should just start buying these but for the time being I still put my name on the reserve list long before it is even released. If you haven't read the books up to this point then you may want to stop here. In the last book Rick was attacked by an Alexandrian, Carl and his girlfriend have been Exiled to the Hilltop, and the Whisperers are letting Alexandria be for now.   What can I say about this book but Holy Crap WOW!!! So much happens without a ton of action but just enough violence to make this an almost perfect book. We find out exactly what Rick plans to do after his near death attack. Negan plays a bigger role in this book which was both awesome and massively confusing.  I loved this book and really wish I could say more but I don't want to ruin a single panel. So this is going to be a short one. I do wish there wa

The Troop I had been dying to read this book for so long. I got the advanced reader copy from Netgalley but never had time to read it. I remeber when this came out the big thing that made me want to read this more than anything was the quote from Stephen King. "The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn't put it down. This is old-school horror at it's best." -Stephen King I thought it the master of Horror found this that terrifying it had to be good. Well, let's say this isn't the first time King and I have  disagreed. So this book is about a Boy Scout troop that has gone to an island for their yearly camping trip. While there they encounter a man running from something that has a hunger that can't be satisfied. He is being eaten from the inside and is contagious. The sickness drives the victim crazy and causes them to slip into madness and eat anything and everything to satisfy the hunger. I hate to say it but I didn't find this sca

If you are like me you judge your year based on the book s you have read. I know, this makes no sense but a die hard book lover totally get this concept. I may not have had a ton of stellar books in 2016 that I read, but I can say this is the first year I didn't have a single 1 star read. I didn't have any books I hated but quite a few I was just disappointed in. So here we go.  So let's kick it off with a recent one Star Wars: Bloodline . The hype for this was so misleading. This was supposed to be the book that explains how Ben Solo becomes Kylo Wren. Instead it was all about politics and during the election season this was the very last book I wanted to read. It was written well and I could see if I was a bigger Star Wars fan I would have probably enjoyed this more. I was just very disappointed. I wanted this book to be more, and had much higher expectations. I found my attention wandering and being just bored at times. I don't feel this book is worthy o

Reading through my last few years best of and Goals post I noticed one there is one common thing I try to do every year. I try to find more time to read my hardcovers in the comfort of my home with a cup of coffee or frosty glass of beer. Year after Year I seem to fail at this so I'm not going to have this as one of my goals this year. As of my last years goals I didn't find that reading time, I did start my re-read of the Dark Tower series but didn't start re-reading Jeffery Deaver's books. I also didn't begin a Christmas week reviewing Christmas movies and shows.  Goals So they what are my goals for this year. Well I hate to do it but I just want to get out of this Reading funk. I have set a lower goal this year for Goodreads at 65. I'm basically taking a step back a bit from reading in hopes that by stepping back it renews my vigor to read and write. I did review w alot more movies in 2016 and I would like to keep up with that. There are a ton

Welcome to the new year and thank you for spending it with me and my blog. I have been away for awhile and I have been in both a reading and writing slump. It has been probably a month since I finished a book. I have hardly read any comics and haven't listened to an audio book either. So many things I wanted to accomplish with my reading and writing and my blog that just never came to be.  Do not think for a minute this is going to be one of those sad depression confessions with how the post started off. I'm fine that I didn't get around to everything I wanted to do. I'm a little sad that this is the first year I didn't complete my reading goal on Goodreads. I could have adjusted the number down just so I could complete it but that would be cheating and I had already dropped the number mid year. Life was so busy for me and my family towards the end of 2016. My son has been doing great in school and I couldn't be more proud. My daughter is growing up s