"Some Cities Are Born Under a Dark Cloud": Gates Of Gotham

Okay! Here we go, finally, another post. As I mentioned before, I've been reading a lot of graphic novels lately. I decided to write about the recently released trade paperback Gates of Gotham (Amazon). This book was written by Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins and illustrated by Trevor McCarthy.

Gates of Gotham is the tale of how Gotham became the city it is today. This book is mostly set in the time period where Dick Grayson is Batman, and heavily features other members of The Bat Family, such as Damian and Cassandra. However, most of the story is told in flashbacks to the time when Gotham was developing. It is really wonderfully done-an intriguing mystery combined with stunning visuals. I definitely recommend Gates Of Gotham to anyone who is interested in the entire Batman/DC Universe as opposed to just Batman & co.


Speaking of visuals, the only contact information I could find was for Trevor McCarthy, the illustrator, so I decided to drop him a quick note. This is what I said:

"I recently read Batman: Gates of Gotham and I just wanted to let you know that I thought the art was gorgeous. It really helped me get immersed in the story. I've never before read anything that you illustrated, but I will certainly keep an eye out for your future work."

Well, that's it for today! Hopefully I'll have another post soon!

In Which I Explain My Absense

Yes, I've been missing for quite awhile. And the reason is this: I don't have a lot of time for novels. Actually, that's not entirely true. I just don't currently have the attention span for them. I've been reading graphic novels, mostly. They fit a lot better into my currently-hectic life. I really would like to get back into reading novels & blogging about them. Hopefully I will soon!

NaNoWriMo

Hello everyone! It's November and that means it's National Novel Writing Month! For those who don't know what that is, the goal is to get 50,000 words written by the end of the month. I'm participating and I currently have 11,726 words.

I thought it was about time to bring this blog back to life, and I thought that NaNoWriMo was a good way to do it. Quite a few NaNoWriMo participants have been published (the list is here), and I thought that the list would be a perfect place to choose my next book from. I ordered it today, and it should be here Wednesday. The book I picked was BreakUp Babe by Rebecca Agiewich. Hopefully I'll have a post about it later this week!

Have a great day!

"This isn't Metropolis, Captain, and not just because our guy works at night.": Gotham Central

It's been awhile! Sorry! And this post is a little different. I've been reading a lot of Batman lately, so I decided to post about one of the lesser known series. At least, lesser known by me. The authors are fairly well known, and there are a few, so I'm not going to write to them.

Basically Gotham Central (Amazon) is about the police force of Gotham City. The Batman series has always been pretty big on the strange relationship the police force has with Batman-do they prosecute his vigilantism or enlist his aid? And is it his fault that suddenly Gotham has a bunch of more insane than usual criminals running around?

Batman does appear (how could he not?) but really, the focus is on the police officers. I really like the viewpoint it provides. They are all human, fleshed out characters, instead of the filler they often are in the Batman series.

I've only read the first two of the trade paperbacks so far, but you should definitely check these out if you love the world Batman is set in.

I have another book to write about, so maybe I'll get to that tomorrow! See you then!

"I want to fall on the sidewalk right there and drag myself into the ivy.": Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why (Amazon) by Jay Asher took me forever to get through. I don't even want to write a blog entry about it at this point. However, I will soldier on through.

Thirteen Reasons Why is about a girl (Hannah Baker) who commits suicide. Before she dies she records tapes, which are directed at certain people, explaining how they played a part in their suicide. They are only intended to be listened to by the people on the tapes, but if they don't pass the tapes on to whoever they're supposed to, the tapes will be released publicly. Honestly, I think that in itself is rather horrible. But then some of her reasons are so petty... it left me rather frustrated with her.

The book is narrated by one of the people who receives the tapes. I won't give away why he's on the tapes... but when I finally found out, I was pretty annoyed. I don't like the narration style either-it jumps between the tapes and the narrator, and sometimes it gets a little confusing. Maybe that's because I was reading quickly, trying to get through the book.

Honestly, I'm glad I can't find contact information for Jay Asher. However, there is one thing I want to say in this book's favor: it appears to have had a positive impact on many people's lives. If you go to http://13rwproject.com, you'll find a ton of people who loved this book. What can I say? Maybe I just didn't get it.

See you next time!

Let's Talk About Independent Bookstores

Hello everyone! I apologize for my absence. I've been fairly busy. Right now I'm in the middle of two books. One is Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and the other is Bikini Planet by David S. Garnett. They are two very different books.

However, today I wanted to talk for a little bit about used & independent bookstores. Over the weekend, I went to an awesome book store in Cleveland. It's called Mac's Backs and their website is here. If you're in the area you should totally check it out. I got all 6 books you see to the left for about 15 dollars. It was pretty awesome.

Anyway, I don't particularly like to preach, but I just wanted to encourage everyone to support their local independent bookstores. Clearly, the bigger bookstores are having trouble-imagine how it is for smaller bookstores. They're definitely not easy to find, at least where I am. I'm going to be honest: I order almost everything off of Amazon. I only shop at Barnes & Noble and Borders when I have a gift card. However, I do like to pop into used bookstores whenever I spot them. You never know what you might find! I just discovered that Bikini Planet was only released in the UK.

Okay, that wraps up my preaching. Hopefully I finish something to write about soon. I'm not exactly loving Thirteen Reasons Why, so it's a bit of a struggle. We'll see though! Have a great day!

Author Reply: Jane Linskold

I got a quick reply from Jane Linskold, author of Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls. She said she still loves her novel and the original Betwixt and Between (the main character's dragon stuffed animal) has a "place of honor" in her office.

In other news, I've read a few graphic novels lately, though all by more known authors. However, I think they're worth making a post about, next time I don't have anything to post about. Some books on my To Be Read list include:
Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
and a ton more. So we'll see what I get to next! See you tomorrow!