A
Good read to skip through with friendly visuals. It lightly touches on a variety of subjects (only a mention of hypersomnia though. RIP)
instead of lucid dreaming I might just be having sleep paralysis so that's something for me to look deeper into. I also like how it covered sleep by age but I was really happy to see it does touch on sleep for people pre, peak, and post menopause. It doesn't get mentioned very often.
Hickory-Dickory-Dock the will is in the clock!
My partner and I finished this fun Nancy Drew puzzle with a lot of the iconic covers. We decided to read whatever book was the last piece. There wasn't an audiobook of that particular title when we were on our road trip so we started with #1. We had a blast listening to this because Nancy Drew is such a Mary Sue type of character and so we were making jokes along the way, which added a star for me because of the experience...but it was also a solid kids mystery that showed Nancy as very capable for a 1930's girls adventure story. She has her own car and can change a flat tire! Go, Nancy!
Additionally, this type of genre just isn't found anymore. It helps me piece together the drama/mystery elements of venture bros. and appreciate that aspect more too.
This was a fine read. My partner and I listened to this in the car...We are really open with each other but we did get a few conversations from this book. We've been together for 14 years, and reading this made us mostly just feel bad for other people who have partners they can't openly communicate with about their wants/needs. We also wanted a bit more balance between the two hosts, but it was mostly Vanessa. It was fine. But honestly, being we hated each other until we started talking and now we have great sex is just a weird take...it's just weird and puts a lot of pressure for people who probably aren't like that.
It was an ok read. I would only recommend it to couples who could use some new conversations but honestly if you are reading this book you probably need couples' therapy instead.
One of my favorite things about comics is when something clicks into place when you read enough. I had a volume of a superman/batman team up where they mention their friend who died because they couldn't work well together....THIS IS THAT! I love it when that happens and it happens mostly in comics because of all the continuity that might cross paths again.
Anyway, this is actually a great volume. The opening was very catching to see the duality of the batman/superman criminal types side by side. Seeing how they each do things and the environment of their cities. (BTW I love Gotham's Gothic theme and this is the first time I've seen metropolis as an Astro/jetson's type theme? I LOVED it) It goes year by year so you also get to see how DC events has impacted them and their relationship evolving. They characterize them really well in these issues, the layout is clear, and the BODY LANGUAGE is fantastic. They nailed batman by leaning into him being a black figure/shadowy moving around and with the bright superman it really makes for some excellent panel/artwork when paired together.
Aside from a couple of hiccups, I enjoyed this a lot! 4.5 - closer to a 5 than a 4
The opening story has a really ambitious layout and it pulls it off! Every thing flows really well and is really clear about character movements. - The rest of the volume is great too...but the first is really showing off!
Art and coloring is great - story continues with Dick trying to fund the city so that crime is reduced. Nightwing is his own hero and it's really great to see him with ties to his friends and Both supermen. Just great to see him get a good understanding of his character.
Barbs seems bit of side kick to me unless she's in the batsuit where she is more strongly batman vibes - which I love. With her history and burnside I thought they were pushing her a bit more to take that role. It's good to see here too.
I took off a star for the stupid dog. This dog always shows up and is there to prove how bad the villain is by having them point a gun at it! Just lazy writing..
I've abandoned this one. I haven't read Metal, and so I'll do that first and determine if I'll pick up this book again.
My initial thoughts are that the joker/batman is sick looking - kinda reminds me of hell raiser. I liked the art on the back. The gun batman is meh to me.
Despite the other batman universe/alternate versions of himself- ironically, it makes our batman out of character even more? This is why I dropped it, but I'll give it another try by reading metal.
The art by Gabriel Picolo is fantastic. If you haven't seen his other illustrations of the Teen Titans they are atmospheric and he creates great scenes with them that bring out so much character in them...while making them cool teens. Fantastic.
The art in here is still good! The story is still lacking and is really holding things back. I hope when they get Starfire that things will start happening for them but there is a lot to be desired. I wish there was a story that could pair with Gabriel's art better.
I'm not sure why Damien is here?
Closer to a 4 than a 3.
You are either going to love or hate the art style. First, I wasn't completely a fan. As I read on I thought it was really unique, well drawn, the layout was fantastic! The art grew on me! I really liked it by the end - the layout really shines I think! Flows really easily and keeps up with the pace.
The story was a bit meh for me - It felt like a classic Batman type villain with him using other mystery novels. I have some recs. to add to read, but unless you know them it's not really that much fun? But, I was interested. This happens a lot already in other books, so why not a comic book? I thought it felt classic batman.
Sometimes the story feels a bit bumpy, I like the aspect of Tim finding himself a bit deeper because he's in such an interesting position as a bat-family member.
Pretty good!
Solid read it was quick and fast-paced. The author has several in the series, so there is a little world building that's a little bumpy but sets up an interesting series, I bet.
I always imagine with dragons it would be a twist on the damsel in the castle, this was comfortably more beauty & the beast! It was done pretty well, and the dragon character was sweet, actually. Refreshing takes on patience and understanding after our main character gets out of a physically abusive relationship and rebuilding herself. I really like the take of signing the demon contract but they are actually really good and set it up well enough - the triggering thing for me is when the dragon took off her birth control amulet in the heat of the moment and those demons swooped right in to save the day (imo - they eneded up being the conflict so booo. I thought this was great that they were looking out for her this way) and yeah, this was his fault. She tries to play it off as hers, but that's bs.
Anyway, if you have tokophobia, there is stuff in here that is awful to make your way through. I didn't know what this book was about, but I've learned my lesson to read up on stuff in this particular book genre.
Read this for free with the “Big Library Read on Libby”. I got about 60% through it and then dropped it. It was written well and I think I would have finished it if I didn't have a hold come in.
It's about a 2/5 for me - smooth read.
This was more of a personal touch story. The main character kept a child that came from SA. This handles things well and the author chats about it before the start of the book. People will have their own opinions on this. For me, I just thought the kid was annoying - This is why I don't really read things with a kid character because they are just kinda like plot device to me? Compared to J or YA reads when they are the main character on their own adventure. I had nothing against her decision to keep the child - this was this character's choice to make.
A really nuanced horror with 3 unreliable narrators - it's a piece of work that I combed over a couple of times and always surprised by the very sudden end. Fantastic, no beats are missed by Emily Carroll's story telling and the ART is absolutely astounding. Great choices of fantasy colors vs. the black and white reality.
There is so much to unpack here. The mother & sister that the main character lost, misremembering stories, counterfeit money and unable to tell real from fake at her grocery store job, fantasy, grief, and maybe even some sexual repression. (and more!) There is a ton that is hard to miss, but you could spend an endless amount of time talking about each portion goes together and what that might mean to our character/story.
I love the art and I feel like the writers really understood the characters because the dynamics are great! I really thought it was great when a villain's monologue about vengeance with it focusing on batman is a great example of this. I'm really excited to read more from this line!
It's funny, I thought this was really great and when I finished it I saw Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions also just recently read it too in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrk-A04GYck
Absolutely captivating! A fantastic coming of age story about finding love both romantically and platonically as Valentina has a year to find what love is. Is her family always cursed with heart-break? Is it better to just be numb then to feel it all crashing down?
Great story, great characters, and all round great message about connection and making that effort.
The art was really what was saving this graphic novel, for me. I was hesitantly hooked and it really feel flat for me the more I continued. There are segments of this graphic novel which are entire text - So, every reader if different but this wrecked the pacing for me and put it to a stand still. I skimmed.
I think they did a decent job getting so many characters in, especially for such a short story span.
It's been a while since I've been back into DC things. I grab the occasional and a lot of them have made notes of this saga. So, now I'm caught up!
This one is a bit of a collection of what I'm guessing what all the other series were doing during the joker war? It was an ok catch up, some stories I think are a bit more compelling than other and the art was solid. So over all 3 - it was an ok read!
I'm still not sure what all happened, but I have a general overview. When Joker was doing a role reversal that really was a moment that gave me chills.
This is my first Danielle Steel book, I've seen her be really popular at the library. I'm also getting married so I thought I'd give her a try! It's a 1.5 for me.
This has a nice perspective for a down-on their luck in love wedding planner and her observations into other peoples love lives. It's really an interesting perspective on the romance genre side, I thought this was a great premise!
It's nice, I wish there was a little more nuance besides she was engaged twice and things didn't work out...until they did! It's fine, it's a romance. I LOVE her stance on no children...but then basically the entire book is about having children! If you have tokophobia like I do then you'll skip many sections of this book entirely. I wouldn't recommend. Because what starts off as a little, then turns into A LOT and there is description.
Readers have said this felt repetitive and I agree. I think some of it is that it's just visiting the situations over and over again and nothing much has drastically changed so then revisiting them feel like a wedding planners “right on track” kinda planning style. It was ok, I had this on x3 speed so it flew by.