Books

This was a really cute book that featured a really cute slow-burn romance. I loved the dynamic between Lara Jean and her two sisters and their father. I was happy to see that the book featured a functional, loving family (although I do get a little tired of the "dead mother" trope). The Covey family had their own holiday traditions and quirks, which to me made them jump off the page. Despite being close, each sister had secrets hidden from the others, which leads into the biggest thing I enjoyed about this book - the moral ambiguity. There were no clear answers, and lots of moral grayness.

However, I did have a lot of issues with this book. I think a lot of it is personal preference. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, this book was just not for me.

My biggest problem with this book was the misleading blurb. If you read the blurb of this book, you'd think the plot is this:

(New York, NY – February 10, 2016) Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, announced today that it will publish a script book based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, a new play by Jack Thorne. The Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book will be published in print in the United States and Canada at 12:01 a.m. on July 31, 2016. Published in hardcover under Scholastic’s Arthur A. Levine Books imprint, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (ISBN 978-1-338-09913-3; All Ages), the eighth Harry Potter story, will be priced at $29.99 U.S. and $39.99 Canada. The script eBook will be published by Pottermore simultaneously with the print editions by Scholastic in the US and Canada, and Little, Brown Book Group in the UK.

It's once again that time of year -- when we look back at the things we loved last year and try to determine which ones were the best of the best ("of the best, sir!"). The best movie, the best television show, the best books, the best comics -- and the people who brought them to us.

So, after a nomination process that makes the Iowa Caucus look like a standard up-or-down vote system, we've settled on the list of nominees below. But, we always recognize the fact that the readers may know better than we do, so each category has an "Other" option where you can put in what we missed.

Unfortunately, to avoid the potential for ballot stuffing (to the best of our abilities) the form below requires that you be logged into your Google account. If you don't have one (and why wouldn't you?) then you won't be able to participate.

So let the voting now commence...and good luck to all the candidates and write-ins.

When I first started reading comic books, one of my favorite titles was TEEN TITANS. Not because they were the sidekicks of the heroes, or even that they were close to my own age, but that they were kids with powers, and were prone to getting into (and reacting to) situations the way kids would react. There was impetuousness, recklessness, infighting, crushes, jealousies, and the formation of lifelong friendships.

So when I learned that UGLIES writer Scott Westerfeld (joined by Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti) had released a new book, and that this book was about teenagers with superpowers, how could I possibley resist? Hence, this review of ZEROES -- they're like heroes, only not.

Fear is a part of life.  Whether you’re young, old, or somewhere in between, there's probably something you fear.  As we grow older, many of these terrors are outgrown, although some stick with us throughout our entire lifetimes.  Conquering fear is a buzzword of the modern world, but in reality, management is truly the best medicine for those things that frighten us.  

There's a new kid in school at Ducard Academy this year. His name is Bruce Wayne, and he's a little too curious for his own good. But he can't stop himself from getting involved from investigating the strange happenings: the bullies led by Bane, the gang of clowns who roam the halls, the always-angry Coach Zod, and the ever-present shadowy ninjas who stick to the shadows of the school.

Perhaps the most frightening book you'll read this year is Rodman Philbrick's YA novel THE BIG DARK.

Imagine the worst power outage you can think of. Now add to this the fact that the power is just not out, but that the very basics of producing electricity have been stripped away -- no batteries, no generators, no hand-crank flashlights. Every modern mode of transportation, communication and commerce are simply gone.

A long time ago, at a PC far, far away (it was an Excel x286, and I sprung for the extra good SVGA card and monitor), I logged into the fledgling cyberspace. In those days you had to have a sheet of paper with the phone numbers for local Bulletin Board Systems and dial into them. If you wanted to go to another one, you had to hang up your connection and dial the next one. Your phone line stayed busy during all this, so the house was peaceful as nobody could call you. There wasn't much in the way of email, but there were lots of discussion boards.

And then came the day things changed. In a simple discussion filled with barbed sarcasm that would become the de facto method of communicating online, I saw two characters.

:)

By this point, your house and emails have already been bombarded with Super Spectacular Toy Catalogs, Door-Buster Sales Schedules, Black Friday Secret Deals and Cyber Monday Email Tips for you to get the most out of your holiday shopping. And you've probably already noticed that the toy market has already been defined as to which toys are the ones you have to go get.

Lost in the miasma of metamorphing robots and not-quite-for-real pets is one of the simplest yet most enduring type of toy: the stuffed animal. But for a market that's been super-saturated with everything from the zoological to the crytpozoological to even the microbial, it takes something unique if a plush is going pique a child's interest.

THE SNOOPY TREASURES
Written by: Nat Gertler
Thunder Bay Press
$34.95

(Not Quite) The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell helped us to define the classic Hero's Journey. It involved someone reluctant to take up the call but eventually forced into it. (It involved a bunch of other things, too, but that's the Cliff Notes of the Readers' Digest version. Just watch STAR WARS Episode IV and you'll have the gist of it all.)

So, let’s start this off by mentioning I’m a seasoned art teacher who’s extremely crafty and can basically figure out anything with good instructions and supplies. However, one thing I’ve never learned (and not for lack of trying) is crocheting and knitting. I’ve bought books, I’ve watched videos, and have created nothing but a tangled mess of string and pointy, steel weapons for my cats to bat around the house. When the opportunity to review Star Wars Crochet came up, I was all hero-with-a-cape-standing-in-the-breeze! I shall take on this challenge, learn to crochet, and create adorable, pint-size Star Wars characters while doing it!

My two-year-old son Nathan absolutely loves to brush his teeth.  I know!  It’s that awesome!  He will say “toothbrush” or “brush teeth” and then patiently wait while my wife or I get him started brushing.  He takes over for several minutes and absolutely loves every moment.  Granted, he mostly chews on the brush but he still enjoys the idea of what’s going on.  Sometimes we have to stop him from brushing the furniture or other items nearby.  You know, for the sake of being sanitary.  It’s wonderful to know that Nate’s already taken to brushing.  There are so many things to worry about as a parent, here’s hoping trips to the dentist because of cavities won’t be an added trouble.

Within the last year I've finally gotten into THE X-FILES with a vengeance. I'm not a complete noob to the seminal series, but I had never been a regular viewer either. I had seen some episodes and caught both films in theaters, but that's about it. My wife was an immense fan growing up, and I had other friends that swore by the series, so I was pretty aware of much of the mythology, the best episodes, and even the big baddies like Krycek and Cancer Man (i.e. Cigarette Smoking Man). I always planned on hitching my wagon to the series and watching it through. A while back I purchased the first few seasons on DVD, but I never went on a huge run. Finally, Netflix made it simple to digest each episode.

Now, I don't want to come on like the mayor's wife or anything, but aren't you excited for the six-episode event in January?

The charge is "STAR WARS has dumbed down the perception of science fiction in the popular imagination." Jeff Ritter of CriticalBlast.com represents the Prosecution. 

The very notion of STAR WARS being somehow responsible for “dumbing down” modern science fiction seems preposterous. Of course, the notion is not entirely objective—how does one quantify merit or mediocrity in art, which by its very nature is subjective? How does one quantify the tangible effect of a film from 1977, that wasn’t expected to do much business itself, has had on movies, television, video games, novels, graphic  arts, American and even global pop culture more than 30 years later? I’m sure somebody with a better mind for statistical analysis could find numbers to crunch in this regard, but I find it to be less of a matter of arithmetic and more of a matter of personal taste. Since I can only speak for myself, allow me to take you on a little flashback to the halcyon days of my youth.

Half the fun of going to Archon is visiting with old and new friends, and sitting in on interesting panel discussions.

The other half of the fun is rushing around breathlessly to those panel discussions, lugging with you about a hundred pounds of books and visual aids, which you rush to get put up before the first guests arrive.

Today, we are wrapping up our coverage of JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS.  

Like the last two reviews I did, these books are both classified as Young Adult books. SMUGGLER’S RUN stars Han and Chewbacca. LOST STARS introduces two new characters that have a major impact on the STAR WARS universe. More on that later.

We got another pair of JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS books to review today, with one featuring Luke Skywalker and the other with Princess Leia. As I mentioned in my review of AFTERMATH, the bulk of these books are set during the Original Trilogy, not in the JOURNEY TO STAR WARS timeframe.

Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens - The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure by Jason Fry

Hardcover - $12.99
Kindle - $6.46
Published by Disney Lucasfilm Press
192 Pages

Last Friday was Force Friday! As part of their build up for THE FORCE AWAKENS, Disney released a lot of new Star Wars merchandise, including boatloads of new toys. One thing that got a little lost was they also released several new novels set in between RETURN OF THE JEDI and THE FORCE AWAKENS, under the umbrella title of JOURNEY TO THE FORCE AWAKENS. There is also a comic mini-series coming out on Wednesday called SHATTERED EMPIRE that falls under this banner.

The machine-gun patter of clicks was interrupted rhythmically by the ding and zip of the manual carriage return, advancing the page another line and preparing for another string of text. The room was close, cloying with the June humidity of 1963. In a corner, the radio provided background noise with the help of The Chiffons. Over the writer's shoulder, his friend and partner leaned in, peering at the latest completed paragraph before grunting editorial approval. The writer continued at a feverish pace -- a few more strings of machine-gun clacking, a few more dings and zips, and he grabbed the top of the sheet, pulling it free with a whine of protest from the typewriter roller.