BW26: Sunday's Book Babble - Halfway through the year

 




It's week 26 in our 52 Book Quest and we are halfway through the year. My year thus far has turned into 'what are you in the mood for' which means lots of romance and dragons, librarians, and villains.  Can you just hear lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Just me? Oh well! I'm also enjoying rereading Nora Roberts back list which has been comforting as well as feeding my muse and inspiring me to be creative.

I'm still reading Patricia Brigg's Wild Sign and going to dive back into Night Huntress series by Jeanine Frost with Halfway to the Grave for our halfway challenge.

I finally added Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor to my stacks and look forward to reading it. Eventually, when I get a roundtuit. LOL!

Today I watch hubby mixing chemicals and paint together to try and screen print for the very first time,  the back of his amplifier. Saving money don't you know. He's been watching videos, but is asking me how and the why and what. As usual a 30 minute project has turned into a several hour one, with honey, I need....  🙃

Melvin Crossed Rainbow Bridge Today

 


Welp, it was sooner than later. My boy, my fur baby, my cat cuddling buddy, crossed the Rainbow Bridge this afternoon.  From birth to death, Melvin has blessed our life with so much joy and unconditional love. Will really miss him.

Bookish Notes - More Nora


I've finished my reread of Nora Roberts McGregor series and diving back into Charles and Anna in the Alpha and Omega series with Wild Signs. Enjoying finding out more about Bran and Leah's history. 

For our writers onboard I discovered Natural Readers, a great text to speech online program which is helping me edit my current wip. Between Grammarly and Natural Readers, spending a lot of time revising and editing.  

Poor Melvin, we're taking it one day at a time. The compounded medication is working well ,although we're having good days and bad days and he's still feisty . He's very persnickety about his food and what works one day doesn't work the next.  But he is getting weaker and I have a feeling he won't be sticking around for much longer. 

Guest Post -Sonic's 30th Anniversary and IDW Sonic 30th Anniversary Special Review

 

Aloha, Sonic Fans. It is I, CVGWJames, and we're back.

Today's a special day, folks. Why? IT'S SONIC'S 30TH BIRTHDAY, TRA LA LAAAAAAAAAH! That's right, everybody. It's been thirty years since our favorite blue hedgehog was born into the media universe and made his way into our hearts. Since his first game, Sonic has become very popular and, after so much trial and error, he's still as popular as ever. Thanks to the success of the Sonic movie, the hedgehog's popularity has grown higher than it has since it started to decline in the late 1990s.

I will never forget when I learned about Sonic's existance, around that time, I was only into Mario and LEGO. But eventually, I got my hands on a Sonic game i.e. Sonic Colors and the rest is history. I've played several Sonic games, watched almost all of the cartoons, read the comics and wrote numerous Sonic fanfics as well as done a boatload of Sonic fan art. The gosh darn beloved blue hedgehog has made such an impact on so many lives and inspired so many people around the world.

To think that, back in 1991, the thought of Sonic possibly making it to 2021 was unthinkable. C'mon, he'd just started. And back in 1999, if someone from the future told you that Sonic would be getting a movie that would make him more popular than ever in 2020, you'd probably be shocked. But, history is history, this is almost as real as a businessman running for president. So, speaking of Sonic comics, lets see how the current Sonic comic publisher, IDW, handles Sonic's 30th anniversary...

By releasing a special comic that involves CLASSIC SONIC, that's right, we're getting a special comic set in the Classic era. As you probably know, the main comic is set in the Modern era and SEGA has some restrictions in place against IDW using classic characters in the comic. But, by popular demand, there is a way to see classic content in IDW, IN A COMIC SET IN THE CLASSIC SONIC TIMELINE with not one, BUT THREE STORIES!

The first story "Seasons of Chaos" is written by Ian Flynn himself and sees Sonic and crew journeying through various zones based on the four seasons as they try to prevent the bad guys from getting all the Chaos Emeralds. It features the likes of not just Sonic, Eggman, Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Metal Sonic, but the return of Mighty, Ray, Tails Doll, Bean, Bark, Nack, the Heavy King and Metal Knuckles. All of whom have not been seen since either Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R as well as Mania or Archie Sonic.

When Ian Flynn talked about pitching SEASONS OF CHAOS, he sounded very excited. C'mon, he misses writing most of the characters who show up in the story. I will say, I was impressed by the writing of this and it was a very entertaining read. Ian knows how to write Sonic, now if only SEGA was willing to make certain characters like Mighty and Ray more than classic-exclusive characters. Anyways, let's talk about the other stories...

"Sonic Learns To Drive" is a fun one, especially since it introduces a new character and sees Sonic learning how to drive. At the end of the story, he kinda gets the hang of driving right as he learns that Eggman is attacking. This one is written not by Ian Flynn, but by four new writers. Can't name them all, but they seemed to be very passionate about Sonic.

Finally, we have "Doctor Eggman's Birthday", a harmless little tale about Eggman on his birthday. This one, like the last two, is set in the Classic Sonic timeframe. This one was written by Gale Galligan, who seems to be pretty good. Now that I've talked about ALL three stories, what do I think of this comic?

It's pretty good, very well-made. SEGA was very generous again and Classic Sonic is quite good, as long as the higher-ups focus on the current incarnation of Sonic and not shoehorn Classic into the modern era, which has annoyed the heck out of the fans to an extent. Happy 30th birthday, Sonic. May your days always be as special as your fans' days, to 30 more years and beyond...

-CVGWJames





BW25: Sunday's Book Babble - Summertime


 It's week 25 in our 52 Books Quest and Summer is officially here. Happy Father's day to all our dads! It's officially Summer in our neck of the woods and we are a hot 105 degrees at the moment.  Thank goodness for air conditioning!

We are free at last, at last, and can ditch our masks if we choose. I felt slightly naked as I went grocery shopping Saturday as if I were forgetting something. Little did I realize the mask had also been effective at masking odors as well. Perfume, chicken cooking in the deli, something slightly burnt at the hot wok, disinfectant. Hmm? Although it’s nice to see all the smiles as well as grumpy faces, I still felt the need to check my pocket for my mask. It’s become a security blanket. I may need it a bit longer. 

Melvin is a bit thinner but feisty as ever, and it's been a battle of wits deciding who is going to give first every time I drop a pill down his throat.  I really need to trim his nails. Ouch. He faked me out this morning and spit the pill out after about five minutes. Little devil!  Our vet finally saved the day and my hands and I picked up compounded medication today.  As long as he's eating and feisty and not in pain, we'll keep plugging away until he tells us when.

It's crazy hot out so we are curled up cozy and cool with hubby reading Unsettled about climate science, kiddo is reading Ghostbusters, and I’m reading Devon Monk’s Wayward Souls (#1 Souls of the Road) about a couple, one slightly more than human, the other a spirit, stuck on route 66 searching for a magical journal. I’m hoping Monk will write a sequel at some point because I really like these characters. 

Guest Post -James M's review of IDW Sonic Issue 41

 








Salutations once again, IDW Sonic fans, its time for another story arc. But this is a special one, we're hunting Zeti and Ian Flynn is back to write this one. That's right, Ian Flynn has returned to the writer's chair to take care of a dangling Metal Virus saga plot thread: The Deadly Six and the fact they're still on Sonic's world. This one is pretty good so far, Ian's not held back by that much limitations from SEGA.

Right off the bat, we start out with a battle between Sonic and Eggman in a snowy village and Eggman gets angry when Sonic calls him "Baldy McNosehair". That's right, most of the fans aren't the only people who don't like that joke from Sonic Colors. The Meta Era haters have made themselves heard, a nice nod to the 2010s before Sonic moves into a fresh new era.

Moving away from Sonic vs Eggman, Zavok reunites with the other Zeti and they start causing mayhem and destruction that attracts the attention of The Restoration, leading to Tails contacting Sonic at the end of the issue. Just like that, "Zeti Hunt" has begun. I will say, Ian did a great job, I'm impressed with the writing and the characterizations are pretty colorful.

With this issue behind us, its time to look forward to the rest of the arc and enjoy some Sonic 30th Anniversary goodness that involves Sonic's past self aka Classic Sonic. Later, fans. This issue gets a 9/10, no big flaws, nothing worth hating. It's just pure Sonic goodness.

-James M



Bookish Notes - Depressing reads and clearing your palate

 

Welp! Well The Sworn Virgin was a completely depressing read, full of angst and family feuds and honor killings.  Not a necessarily happy ending, just a moving on and hope things get better.   Clearing my palate with a reread of Nora Robert's McGregor family series - Playing the Odds.  

Today I'm trying to reinvent the wheel and creating a graphic file for the screen print on hubby's latest amplifier  We lost our screen printer person and can't find another locally at the moment.  Once I've got this thing recreated, can email the file off to a printer who can create the chassis labels.  They want a vector graphic file (a what?) and oh by the way, they say to use Corel draw or adobe, neither one of which I'm familiar.  So working it up first in Microsoft Publisher to get all the measurements correct, then maybe I'll be able to export it into something usable for them.  So much fun. 

BW24: Sunday Book Babble - Next 52 Books Bingo category --- Different cultures

 


It's book week 24 in our 52 Books quest and our next 52 books bingo category is all about different cultures. 

According to livescience.com:

"Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.


The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition goes a step further, defining culture as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group."

From historical fiction to contemporary fiction to non fiction, there is a wide variety from which to choose to read and learn. As we all know, literature opens our eyes and minds to different places and times, cultures and ideals.

*****

For our 52 books bingo read, I'm currently reading The Sworn Virgin which is based off the true life sworn virgins of Albania in the early 1900's. Before I stumbled across the book, I had never heard of such a custom.

I finished Stars Uncharted which was really good. The poor characters were put through the ringer as they raced across space on a quest to find a lost world and riches with the villains one step behind.

Also finished Heather Graham’s Phantom Evil and thought I pretty much had it figured out by the mid point and a plot twist had me pleasantly surprised. Interesting ensemble of characters.

I went on an ebook shopping spree and new acquisitions this week:  The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4), Tess Gerritsen's Choose Me, and Hilary Davidson's Her Last Breath, Rachel Caine's Sword and Pen (#5 Great Library), and Patricia Brigg's Wild Sign (#6 in her Alpha and Omega series) 



Guest Post -James M's review of IDW Sonic issue 40

 









Welcome back, folks. IDW Sonic the Hedgehog issue 40 is here and, along with it, the finale to Evan Stanley's Test Run story arc. The momentum did not stop as it accelerated all the way to the end, the action was great and the finale was perfect. Plus, at long last, we have answers regarding Belle. Prepare for spoilers people, Bell the Tinkerer was created by... DOCTOR EGGMAN, when he was Mr. Tinker.

That's right Eggman's Mr. Tinker legacy lives on through Belle as she will be helping Sonic and friends fight the evil version of her father from here on out. However, you gotta feel sorry for Belle after learning the terrible truth about her own creator, but at least Eggman didn't install some sort of evil software program inside Belle's mind that could make her join her father's empire any time.

With "Test Run" over, what did I think of it? It was creative, flawless storytelling, Evan and the writing team did an excellent job. It's nice that SEGA is permitting creative freedom in some form, especially since this is a Sonic comic based on the video games. Besides, having the comic be strictly in-line with the game universe would hamper/stifle creativity to no end.

IDW Sonic gets better and better with each new release and continues to make new fans and longtime fans very happy as long as the writing is not childish and the Sonic characters are the characters, however, we must keep in mind that IDW Sonic is 40 issues into its run and its been 3 years since it started. The comic is walking, it has to walk before it starts to run and goes all out with anything.

Get ready, fans. The next issue will see the return of Ian Flynn and the beginning of a new arc that involves the Deadly Six, Zeti Hunt should be fun and the preview for part one confirms that the story will be flat out fun from the beginning. Anyways, see you all later. 10/10 for this story.

-James M




Bookish Notes - Krewe of Hunters





I started a new to me series Krewe of Hunters by Heather Graham Phantom Evil about a paranormal investigation team.   Don't know how much of the series I'll read since there are 35 books. I'm enjoying Phantom Evil right now. 

"Though haunted by the recent deaths of two teammates, Jackson Crow knows that it’s the living who commit the most heinous crimes. As a police officer using her sometimes-otherworldly intuition, Angela Hawkins already has her hands full of mystery and bloodshed. Under the oversight of Adam Harrison, Jackson and Angela will join a newly formed unit of the FBI, with the extraordinary opportunity to use their psychic talents.

And the first assignment calls to them too strongly to resist. In a historic mansion in the French Quarter, a senator’s wife falls to her death. Most think she jumped; some say she was pushed. Yet others believe she was beckoned by the ghostly spirits inhabiting the house—once the site of a serial killer’s grisly work. In this seemingly unsolvable case, only one thing is certain: whether supernatural or all too human, crimes of passion will cast Jackson and Angela straight into danger."

BW23: Sunday Book Babble - Chanson d'Automne by Paul Verlaine

 

Courtesy of World Wide Media

It's Book week 23 in our 52 Books Quest and today is the 77th Anniversary of the D Day invasion when allied forces launched operation Overlord to free northwest Europe from Nazi occupation. 156,000 United States, British, and Canadian troops stormed five beaches that day in a large amphibious assault.   One historical tidbit is the French Resistance had been told the invasion would begin shortly after the first three lines in Paul Verlaine's Chanson d’Automne was read on BBC's Radio Londres in a real time radio broadcast 

 

Chanson d'Automne

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon coeur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

 Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;

 Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

 

Autumn Song

translated by Arthur Symons

 When a sighing begins
In the violins
Of the autumn-song,
My heart is drowned
In the slow sound
Languorous and long

Pale as with pain,
Breath fails me when
The hours toll deep.
My thoughts recover
The days that are over,
And I weep.

 And I go
Where the winds know,
Broken and brief,
To and fro,
As the winds blow
A dead leaf.

 

We honor those soldiers who fought and died in service to our countries.


***************

Currently reading S.K. Dunstall's Stars Uncharted which is a quite fascinating space story so far: 

"Three people who are not who they claim to be:

Nika Rik Terri, body modder extraordinaire, has devoted her life to redesigning people's bodies right down to the molecular level. Give her a living body and a genemod machine, and she will turn out a work of art.

Josune Arriola is crew on the famous explorer ship the Hassim, whose memory banks contain records of unexplored worlds worth a fortune. But Josune and the rest of the crew are united in their single-minded pursuit of the most famous lost planet of all.

Hammond Roystan, the captain of the rival explorer ship, The Road, has many secrets. Some believe one of them is the key to finding the lost world."


We watched Blade Runner 2049 last night which was full of twists and turns and just when thought we'd figured it, out,  it twisted again. Slow moving dark film but it was really really good. 

Bookish Notes - Jasper Fforde, Roxanne St. Claire, and J.R. Ward. Oh my!


I finished The Eyre Affair. Fun and intriguing story with book hopping and bad guys trying to rewrite stories or killing characters off which really affected the books. Had to keep reminding myself it was alternative  history fiction so stop trying to make sense of the historical aspects.  All the way through the book I was trying to figure out what she sees in Landen and if things will ever work out for them.  Made me want to read Jane Eyre again since that story took center stage for a while. 

Also finished Roxanne St Claire's latest in her Dogmother series with Faux Paws. Cute romance involving a runaway bride who is a animal communicator which is a fancy way of saying pet psychic and an nuclear engineer who is a linear factual thinker and sparks fly when they try to help a rescue dog. 

Silly love story cleared my palate for the next intense Black Dagger Brotherhood read, J.R. Wards Lover Unveiled 

"Sahvage has been living under the radar for centuries-and he has every intention of staying ‘dead and buried.’  But when a civilian female sucks him into her dangerous battle with an evil as ancient as time, his protective side overrides his common sense.

Mae has lost everything, and desperation sets her on a collision course with fate.  Determined to reverse a tragedy, she goes where mortals should fear to tread- and comes face to face with the Brotherhood’s new enemy.  She also discovers a love she never expected to find with Sahvage, but there can be no future for them.

Knowing they will part, the two band together to fight against what Mae unknowingly unleashed- as the Brotherhood closes in to reclaim one of their damned, and the evil vows to destroy them all…"