BW39: Sunday's Book Babble - Banned Books Week


 



It's week 39 in our 52 Books Quest and this week is Banned Books Week. The theme for Banned Books Week this year is "Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us." Banned Books Week was created in 1982 by the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom, in response to challenges and requests to ban books from libraries and bookstores due to their content.

Poems and poetry collections, and poets have also been censored throughout history including Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. I have the book on my shelves, so will have to dive in to see what the fuss is all about.

I finished True Dead by Faith Hunter this week. So good with many surprises, a lot of vampire history and politics while Jane figures out her role as Dark Queen. 

Currently reading a contemporary g rated romance series The Hudson Sisters by Mariah Stewart and on the 3rd book The Goodbye Cafe.

Good story about two estranged sisters and a half sister they didn't know about who are forced to work together to renovate an old theatre in order to earn their inheritance from mutual father.  

Have also read Stewart's Chesapeake Diaries series as well as all her romance suspense FBI Books which are quite good. 

Guest Post -James M's review of IDW Sonic Issue 44

 


The Zeti Hunt is over and the Deadly Six have returned to the Lost Hex until further notice. Hi folks, James M here and I'm back with a little review of IDW Sonic issue 44. As you probably know by now, we've reached the finale of the Zeti Hunt arc and a Metal Virus plot thread had been wrapped up.

Ian Flynn did a phenomenal job with cleaning up after himself, besides, who wants the Zeti to be hanging around on Sonic's home planet after what happened near the end of the Zombot saga. Meanwhile, we learned more about Belle's past with Mr. Tinker aka amnesia Eggman while the puppet bot girl is being held hostage by Doctor Starline.

 The Chaotix rescue her, but its too late as Starline got some data from Belle and is about to use them in a project that will be seen in issues to come. So, what now? We'll be finding out soon, very soon. It looks like IDW Sonic's momentum is not slowing down and Sonic is riding high this year and will continue to ride high for years to come. Anyways, hope you have fun out there...

-James M







BW38: Sunday's Book Babble - September Equinox


It's week 38 in our 52 Books Quest and Autumn is upon us. The sights and sounds of autumn are my favorite time of year with the wind rustling through the branches, and the crunch and crackle of fallen leaves. All the shades of yellow and orange and purple and red form a colorful palette on which to play.  

"Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love — that makes life and nature harmonize.  The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot, letter to Miss Lewis, 1st October 1841"

Finished J.R. Robb's Forgotten in Death, another great entry in the In Death series. I kept thinking I know who did it, but nope that person wasn't it, then the one, but nope.  I was right there with Eve as she followed the clues and finally figured it out. 

Started Faith Hunter's True Dead and also dove into the middle of a new to me author and O'Halleran Security International series by T.J. Logan with # 3 Deadly Deception. (One of the freebies from a week or so ago)  Enjoyed it enough to get the kindle unlimited #1 Deadly Secret

We watched Ford vs Ferrari tonight which was quite good and recommend if you  want to know more about the beginnings of Carroll Shelby, his relationship with Ford, and racing. 

BW37: Sunday's Book Babble - Book Lust


 It's week 37 in our 52 Books Quest and I have a case of Book Lust. To me, reading is as necessary as breathing. Without my books, I get very cranky.  I love the stories that make you sigh as well as the ones that make you hold your breath and forget to let it out.  The ones that grab you and pull you into the world of the characters, the ones that make you want to dive into the world of the book and not let go. The ones that make you think, and the ones that make you laugh out loud or cry.

The ones that make you wish you had the imagination to write, along with the ones that make you want to throw them across the room for various reasons. The ones that stay with you long after you've finished the book.  And the ones that make you want to revisit them over and over again.

If you can't tell by now, I have a case of book lust which brings me to Nancy Pearl, the author of Book Lust and so much more. 

It was just announced that The National Book Foundation will be presenting to Nancy Pearl the 2021 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community on Nov 17, 2021. 

Book LustMore Book Lust, and Book Lust to Go are so much fun to peruse, but I have to admit to getting lost in rabbit trails while looking up books which of course had lead to a startling long wishlist and an ever growing TBR stack.  Pearl even has a Book Lust Journal in which to record your thoughts on stories. Check out Pearl's Podcasts, her interview on How Reading Informs the Person That You Are, and the Millions interview about her first fictional novel George and Lizzie and Getting Out of Her Own Skin.

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I’m still ensconced in Darynda Jones world of Charley Davidson and currently on book #11 Eleventh in the Grave.  Once I’m through with the wild and wacky world of the grim reaper, angels and demons, ghosts, mystery and murder, J.D. Robb’s latest in her Eve Dallas series Forgotten in Death is waiting in the wings.  

Books I've added to my virtual stacks are Heather Grahams second book in her Krewe of Hunters series Heart of Evil and the 2nd book in S.K, Dunstall's Stars Uncharted series Stars Beyond and book lust lead me to getting 10 urban fantasies as well as military romances from the freebie list Karen posted the other day. 

BW36: Sunday's Book Babble - Numbers


 It's week 36 in our 52 Books Quest and the goal this week is to read a book with a number in the title. I found this poem which I fell instantly into like with:

I fell in like with this poem the instant I read it. 

I fell in like with this poem the instant I read it. 

 

NUMBERS BY MARY CORNISH

I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.

I like the domesticity of addition—
add two cups of milk and stir—
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.

And multiplication’s school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.

Even subtraction is never loss,
just addition somewhere else:
five sparrows take away two,
the two in someone else’s
garden now.

There’s an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out
box by paper box,
inside every folded cookie
a new fortune.

And I never fail to be surprised
by the gift of an odd remainder,
footloose at the end:
forty-seven divided by eleven equals four,
with three remaining.

Three boys beyond their mother’s call,
two Italians off to the sea,
one sock that isn't anywhere you look.


So, what is my favorite number? Glad you asked. My answer to favorite number is 42.  Yes, that.

I'm immersed in the strange, yet hilarious world of the Charley Davidson 13 book  series in which Charley is the grim reaper written by Darynda Jones

Finished (#1)  First Grave on the Right, (#2) Second Grave on the Left, and currently on #3 Third Grave Dead Ahead.

All of which match well with our challenge of the week. 

We just finished watching Cruella which was excellent.

Guest Post -James M's IDW Sonic Double Review of FCBD 2021 and Issue 43

 

Salutations again, James M here and we're gonna be doing a double review for IDW Sonic's latest releases, the Free Comic Book Day 2021 special and issue 43. For me, this is to make up for not reviewing the FCBD 2021 issue before issue 43 dropped. Anyways, so what's up in IDW Sonic.

With the Free Comic Book Day issue, we're taking another trip back into the Classic Sonic timeline with a story about Tails discovering Amy Rose's secret hobby as a writer and artist. After he sees Amy's stories, Tails starts showing people her work and we see Mighty & Ray make another appearance and, among the others who see Amy's work is none other than Honey the Cat, who makes her triumphant return in IDW Sonic (in the Classic era anyway). After the story ends with Sonic seeing Amy's work, we get a recap of the main IDW Sonic story and a small preview of the next upcoming arc.

Jumping over to IDW Sonic issue 43, part three of Zeti Hunt was intense and decently written with action from the start all the way to when the Zeti go down and Sonic learns that Belle has been kidnapped. Part 4 is shaping up to be something big very soon when it drops, all thanks to the latest IDW Sonic issue. The future of Sonic looks promising with nothing that can stop Sonic as he spin-balls through his 30th anniversary year with no road bumps or cruel restrictions enforced on him.

Well, people. This is where we sign off, for now.

Bye.

-James M