I can’t believe that Mr. Joyce had to to end the fourth book in this series on cliffhanger! I don’t know if I can take much more of this and will be waiting on the edge of my seat for book five to be released.
Truly, I enjoyed just about every page of The Sandman and the War of Dreams. This book is so wonderful! William Joyce is able to create perfect imagery in his writing, starting with Mr. Qwerty crying out the words of Katherine’s stories to Sanderson Mansnoozie discovering Nightlight’s past to the overarching story of the battle with Pitch. I was entranced by every word!
Have I mentioned yet how absolutely enamored I am with Nightlight? I am dying to learn more about this boy who has never slept and where his story will go in future books… Perhaps, he will get his own book in the series?
I think the only thing that disappointed me in this book is Pitch’s fate. In the deepest part of my heart, I long for there to be a redemption arc for this character. I want for him and his daughter to reconcile and finally be allowed to have their happily ever after together. Sadly, I do not think that this will happen.
Sometimes, in stories, not everyone gets to have a happy ending. No matter how much we wish it were otherwise.
I do have two titles for Two Book Tuesday this week. My favorite thing about this week is how odd the two books are, lol.
First, we have a book that I desperately wanted to find and read. Sadly, I couldn’t remember the title or author, and I barely remembered the cover art and general premise of the story. Emily B., a co-worker of mine, was kind enough to help me dig through the depths of the internet until we found it!
A strange mixture of science-fiction, dystopian fiction, and historical fiction, I first read The Cure when we lived in Baltimore, MD. If you are a fan of the recently-popular Divergent series, then The Cure is right up your alley with “factions” and forced conformity into these factions. Deviants are criminals with only two options: to die and be recycled or to accept a mysterious cure that is supposed to bring them back into the fold.
Gemm, a deviant and the main character of the story, chooses to take the cure and suddenly finds himself living the live of a 16-year-old Jewish musician in 1348 at the beginning of the Black Death. As a young reader, this book was such a great experience that is has stayed with me over a decade later and is a title that I re-read every few years.
The absolute terrible part of this whole search process is that the library no longer owns this title and I need to look elsewhere if I decide that I want to read it, which I do. I cannot put into words the sense of betrayal I felt that this book was no longer available at my library. I have to wonder if this is how most patrons feel when we go through a period of healthy weeding of our collections.
And the second book I have for you this week is Beauty written by Hubert, with art by Kerascoët.
Apparently, I placed an Inter-Library Loan request for this title a few weeks ago and it finally arrived… The strange thing is that I don’t remember anything about the request or the book itself! So, I find myself with the opportunity to read a pretty great looking graphic novel that I may not have otherwise picked up.
Originally, this was going to be a one-time post about five fictional women in media (television, film, books, etc) that inspired or influenced me in some way but then I realized that there were more than five of them. I couldn’t choose just five, so this may become an ongoing series of posts about awesome ladies!
First we have Margaret “Peggy” Carter from the television show Agent Carter. First seen in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 as a no-nonsense British officer working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), Peggy was responsible for rescuing the scientist Abraham Erskine, creator of the Super Soldier Serum.
Now, I realize that the show could be better, but with the bar set so low for female lead media, I believe it did a pretty good job. While the show has many faults ranging from a predominantly male cast, no memorable characters of color, and a somewhat superficial stance on feminism, Agent Carter does have one brilliant thing going for it… Strong ladies.
(image source: @AgentCarterTV)
After the end of World War II, Peggy Carter continues to work for the SSR and, as far as the audience knows, is the only female agent in existence. Most other women in the agency have been relegated to telephone operators and/or secretarial positions.
Although her abilities are continuously ignored by her male counterparts and superior, Peggy is quick-witted and sharp enough to use their underestimation of her to her advantage:
When ordered to watch the phones, Peggy calls the operator and instructs her to forward all calls to the briefing room; there will be no keeping Peggy from important meetings.
To further her own agenda, Peggy serves coffee and is able to glean vital information about her investigation when her male co-workers dismiss her to the background.
When Howard implies that she is overly emotional due to being on her period, she verbally smacks him down with a quick, “You don’t get to use my reaction to your lies as a reason for your lies.”
Peggy Carter is a tough, resilient woman who stands strong even when no one is on her side. She doesn’t put up with being mistreated by the men or women around her and will protect her friends from the same mistreatment.
Even through all of the vicious fights (and believe you me, she can kick butt harder than most of the boys) Peggy never forgets that she is a woman; she uses feminine things like perfume and lipstick in the line of duty as easily as she uses her fists or a gun. There is something very empowering about seeing a woman kicking butt and taking names which I appreciated.
And while Peggy learns that she doesn’t need to do everything alone, she doesn’t need the men around her to rescue her from danger. She is quite capable of rescuing herself, thank you very much. Throughout the show, Peggy gives us little gems and tidbits of advice that are applicable in everyday life, but my favorite quote is this:
“I know my value. Anyone else’s opinion doesn’t really matter.”
Peggy Carter
These are just a few things that I like about Peggy Carter. If you’re interested in her then you should watch the show. Also, I will be posting about other women from this show, because they deserve to be talked about. Who would you like me to write about?
Believe it or not, until my sister reminded me, I had entirely forgotten that it was Spring Break this week! With my Tuesday evening suddenly free, I decided to go to to the theater and see Kingsman: The Secret Service since I’d heard how fun it was.
Please note that this post will contain spoilers. If you have not yet seen the film, you may want to skip this post.
Just a short post this week since spare time has been quite sparse. 🙂
I’ve been spending most of my free time studying for Midterms and haven’t had much time to spare for “fun” reading, so this post will be about two books that I was really excited to add to my want-to-read list.
Spork by Kyo Maclear is a children’s picture book about, you guessed it, a spork! Poor little Spork doesn’t fit in with the rest of the cutlery in the drawer; the spoons think him too point and the forks too round. Will he every be picked for mealtime?
The art style for this picture book is right up my alley and is something that immediately drew my eye to the title. In addition to teaching young children about tolerance of others and learning that individuality is a-ok, “Spork” looks like it could very easily be one of the cutest little books I’ve read this year.
And the second book that I’m excited to read (I’ve just checked it out from the library) is Mort(e) by Robert Repino.
Mort(e) is a very unique take on human extinction… The Colony, a race of intelligent ants that have been working for thousands of years to eradicate humans are taking the next step in their war effort. They turn the surface animals into high-functioning beings who will rise up to kill their human masters.
The main character of this novel is Mort(e). A former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is looking for his pre-transformation friend – a dog named Sheba. In order to find his long lost friend, Mort(e) will travel to one of the last human strongholds and there he will discover the source of EMSAH (a human bio-weapon) and perhaps will find the answers to his questions.
Once the craziness of Midterms has passed, I plan to crack open “Mort(e)” and read it in the evening, while keeping “Spork” for my next 15-minute break at work.
I’ve just finished chapter one, “How Snug Is Your Hobbit-hole?” and the main idea that came out of this chapter is the sense of home that a person can have, not necessarily in a place, but in an idea or memory of that perfect, safe environment that they consider home.
This is one of my all-time favorite science-fiction novels. Interestingly, it is published fan-fiction (more on this at a later date) about the television show Star Trek: Voyager. It is my favorite out of all the different Star Trek series and movies.
Originally, I read this book as a young teenager of perhaps twelve or thirteen years of age and it remains to this day the only title that I have ever had to skip to the end just so that I could be reassured of a happy ending.
Fire Ship follows Captain Kathryn Janeway as she recovers from severe injuries and learns to cope with the knowledge that her ship, and friends, have been destroyed. That she failed to bring the home, as she’d so-often promised to do. Alone in the Delta Quadrant, aboard an alien ship, and with no other options available to her, Janeway does what she does best… She survives, takes life by the horns and comes out the other side of things the victor.
I remember crying, smiling, and feeling absolutely heartsick while reading this book and I cannot wait to start it again. It’s not often that a book has such an impact on me that I remember it even years later.
So, two books that I’m thinking about this Tuesday. What are you reading?
I was cleaning out my inbox and found an email from Dictionary.com from way back in 2014! Yeah, I know I should clean my inbox out more often, lol. Anyways the word of the day for November 30 was specter, of which the British spelling is spectre…
Now, some of you may be aware of this but I’ve been playing a lot of Mass Effect recently and the first thing I thought of when I saw the word of the day was the video game that I’d (by November 2014) devoted more than 100 hours of my life to.
In the Mass Effect trilogy you play a Commander in the human Alliance Navy. Commander Shepard is a Spectre, one of the elite agents that answer only to the Citadel Council and basically have free-rein to get their assignments done in whatever way they feel is the best way.
This means that you can either play as a Paragon Shepard and unite the galaxy by building alliances or you can choose to be Renegade Shepard and, basically, rule through fear and bullying. Either method will bring you to the climactic end of the Mass Effect trilogy and no matter which you choose, you may have lost some friends along the way.
I’m on my third play-through of this trilogy and I’ve played mostly as Paragon because many of the Renegade choices are actually quite distasteful to me.
Have you played the Mass Effect trilogy? What did you think about it?
The other Spectre that came to mind is the recently announced addition to the Bond movie franchise. Starring Daniel Craig as Bond, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as the Quartermaster, and Ralph Fiennes as M (you will be missed, Judi Dench).
Based on the highly popular book series by Ian Fleming, this latest movie has me excited before I’ve even seen the first trailer or stills! I’ve enjoyed the Craig-Bond movies and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next one…
I may have to go back and watch all the movies that came before, just to be prepared. Also because I haven’t seen the Sean Connery movies in quite a while and… well, Sean Connery!
Meandering Michelle 