95:100 Shocking Elation by Stefon Mears

Cleon Johnson is an artist who creates more than a simple visual medium for people to enjoy. For those with implants, his art is keyed in to let them feel the emotions that he wants to convey in ways that mere words or images cannot possibly convey. He wakes on this morning of an artist's reception ready to face his adulation upon the opening of his newest exhibit only to find instead that he forgot to run some processes correctly and the people that went through it already have suffered horribly and the world that once couldn't get enough of his art was now ready to cancel him completely.

An interesting take on where technology can take us in the future and also how careful and mindful we need to learn to be when using it.



Page count: 22p/22,733p ytd/331,430p lifetime

94:100 Spider-Gwyn: Ghost-Spider Vol.1: Spidergeddon by Seanan McGuire & Rosi Kampe

Gwyn is generally just trying to kick it on her Earth, do band stuff, catch bad guys, the usual, when she gets pulled into another dimension and her usual transport back to her own seems to be broken. She hooks up with that universe's Peter Parker and Mary Jane only to find out that in this universe, Gwyn has turned into the Gwyn-Goblin and Peter and MJ want Spider-Gwyn to help them get their friend back.

That covers the first couple of issues in this graphic novel. The rest is dealing with the deaths of different Spiders across the multi-verse and Gwyn volunteers to help let those universes that have lost their Spiders know what happened to them so they aren't left wondering. By the end of that, she is feeling lost and deciding to stay home for a while but that's when Spider-Ham shows up and convinces her that she has to come with him.

So full disclosure, I'm not a huge comic fan (that's my husband). I enjoy the movies but really, my only true comic love has been Elfquest (seriously, go check it out. It's AMAZING!) but my husband keeps bringing stuff into the house and I've started picking out certain ones that I'm interested in. My interest is really simple; I have to have a reason to like the character before I even consider reading the comic, the artwork has to be at least reasonable (if it's too messy or ugly in my opinion, I can't get over it and will walk away without reading it no matter how good the story might be), and I tend to go for comics written by authors I like.  This means that I generally have zero idea of the other storylines that are going on with that particular character and how things all work together and I'm ok with that.

That being said, my first exposure to Spider-Gwyn was from the "Into the Spidervsere" movie.  I thought she was fun so when I saw that Seanan McGuire, a favorite author, was writing a comic series for her, I was in. I have zero knowledge of how this ties in with any other comics about Spider-Gwyn. The story was entertaining and didn't make me feel lost (which I appreciated) and the art was generally fine.  I'll keep going with this series.




Page count: 112p/22,711p ytd/331,408p lifetime

93:100 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

It's 1942, Bruno is 9 years old and is not happy to find out that his family is having to leave their comfortable house in Berlin and go to some house away from all his friends. It has something to do with his father being super important and The Fury trusting him with a super important job at Out-With.  Once they get there, it's worse than Bruno could have imagined with no one to play with and officers coming and going all the time. The he discovers the fence and there is a boy on the other side wearing striped pajamas who becomes Bruno's only friend, even if he must keep it secret.

As an approachable way to introduce some of the horrors of the concentration camps to children, this book is ok but really, it's best use is as a fantasy book.  The horrors are glossed over, Bruno acts much younger than his supposed 9 years with constant mispronunciations of things that would not have been common, especially in his own thoughts, and his sister is both too young too old for her supposed 12 years.  The fantasy is really that the commander's son would be allowed to walk right up to the fence and just have these playdates with a child on the other side with no idea why they were there and with no guards anywhere around ever. That does not seem plausible based on the books I've read by survivors.  The story itself is almost sappy sweet which, again, does not mesh with the horrors of the time and those living in the concentration camps. It's almost like it's trying to absolve those who perpetrated those horrors of their sins by making it seem like it was not so bad.  I'm glad I read it before giving it to my son to read. I don't want that history glossed over.

Page count: 216p/22,599p ytd/331,296p lifetime

92:100 Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis

This volume seems to be bringing everyone together after something separated them.  Peter's father looks to be coordinating with some other potential baddies that want to see the Guardians, and especially Peter, dead. Earth has been declared off-limits and the Guardians and Iron Man may be teaming up to keep it that way.

A free read on the Kindle. Looked potentially interesting but not sure that it's interesting enough to want to pay for it.


Page count: 144p/22,383p ytd/331,080p lifetime

91:100 Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi

Firdus grew up poor in Egypt and learned early on that men were the only ones who mattered in society.  She wanted to go to school and her uncle helped her but she soon found out that, again, she was subject to the whims of the man her ruled her life. She was thrown out because of the jealousy of her uncle's wife and now must learn how to survive on the streets as a woman in a patriarchal society. It's not long before she realizes that without a husband, her prospects are limited and she ends up a prostitute. Rather than diminishing her though, she is able to realize her own power in that position and is able to be beholden to no one until a man comes in and decides he will now be her pimp. Firdus can only take it so long before she kills him in order to reclaim her own agency. As a result, she is sentenced to death. This is a man's world after all and her agency does not matter.

A true story told by Firdus as she sat on death row. She wanted no clemency, since to have that was to give up her agency again and she would prefer death. Firdus suffers constantly due to the men around her but because she is a woman, that is her "place".  A moving and powerful story that is too familiar to too many women around the world. I can't say I enjoyed it because it's a hard read but it was gripping and important.


Page count: 142p/22,239p ytd/330,936p lifetime

90:100 Quality of Darkness by Stefon Mears

Patreon short story.  He's a businessman about to leave on a trip when he has to grab something from the office at night.  As he's there, the lights go out, all of them, completely, and then there are screams.  Now something is in the office with him and it knows he's there.

Fun little horror story.

Page count: 22p/22,097p ytd/330,794p lifetime

89:100 Final Girls by Mira Grant

Dr. Jennifer Webb has designed a new therapy combining virtual reality, a drug cocktail, and psychology for healing past trauma by introducing new traumas that force confrontations differently.  We start with the scenario of two sisters who had become estranged undergoing treatment to heal their relationship which consists of a throwing them into a scenario where they are trying to escape a monster in a corn field.

Esther Hoffman is a journalist for a science magazine who has always been skeptical about funky new treatments and has signed up for a treatment from Dr. Webb in order to debunk her methods.  Knowing that if Esther can't do so it will mean great press, Dr. Webb agrees.  That's where things go sideways because this is a Mira Grant book.

Mira Grant writes horribly awful things in well researched detail that seem to be prescient (please go read Feed and then look at today's news cycles if you don't believe me) so I really worry about how this one will turn out in the future.  But honestly, as usual with her work, I could barely put it down and this was after my 13 year old had been hounding me to read it as he is also a huge fan.


Page count: 112p/22,075p ytd/330,772p lifetime

88:100 The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch had just been told that his pancreatic cancer was now terminal and he had less than 6 months left to live when he was invited to give a "Last Lecture".   He knew that he had to take this opportunity to leave a record of who he was for his children so he wrote his book and gave his lecture for them more than anyone else, to let them know who he had been and pass along the things he had learned and would have told them eventually. 

Randy seems like a good guy and the book definitely shows his sense of humor even in the face of everything but his stories and advise definitely come from a place of privilege without understanding it.  He had a middle class background and ended up in situations with offers and mentors that most people will never get.  He was thankful for it but most of his advise just boiled down to work hard enough and it will happen for you which is unfortunately not true for many.  I can see why a lot of people enjoy it but I felt that it was a bit tone deaf that anyone else might have different experiences.


Page count: 206p/21,963p/330,660p lifetime

87:100 Badlands Witch by Carrie Vaughn

The second book in the Cormac and Amelia spinoff.  Cormac made a lot of enemies when he was a bounty hunter and thankfully most of them are dead...but not all of them. When he gets recruited by an archaeologist for a job and Amelia seems eager, they head off.  Now someone from his past is gunning for him and instead of just killing him has managed to steal Amelia away.  This leads Cormac to understand just how close he and Amelia have grown and how much he will do to get her back.

I'm enjoying getting to return to this universe with other characters and Cormac and Amelia is such an unusual pairing so that makes it doubly fun.  I've heard that there will be more and I certainly hope so.

Page count: 83p/21,757p ytd/330,454p lifetime

86:100 The Asian World 600-1500 by Roger V. Des Forges & John S. Major

Review from 2011:
Middle School History covering China, Korea, India, and Japan from 600AD-1500AD.  I really enjoyed the presentation and learning more about this period of time in Asia.  Interesting to see how religion spread through the different areas and how it would change in accordance to the needs of the people of that region.  I found it fascinating to learn that the Korea had a movable metal-type printing machine 50yrs before Gutenberg made his movable type press.  There were lots of little tidbits like that which makes the history much more fun and accessible to the middle schooler and even to those adults (like me) who tend to find history dry and boring.


Page count: 176p/21,674p ytd/330,371p lifetime

85:100 Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant

So many people had been immunized that herd immunity became taken for granted. Then the anti-vax movement came and the herd immunity weakened and we started seeing diseases we thought had been wiped out forever make small comebacks.

Then came Morris's Disease which was new but presented like measles even in an immunized little girl who had a pediatrician for an aunt.  A little girl who became ill while visiting DisneyWorld with her parents and didn't want to miss out on a second of her last day so didn't let them know her throat hurt or she felt bad.  A little girl who then flew home while she was burning up and ran into her aunt's arms at the airport.

A little girl who died after infecting who knows how many people.

After the pandemic has spread and the dead mourned, the living are trying to put things back together again and that's when the awful truth starts coming out about the side effects of Morris's Disease and Dr. Isabella Gauly, the aunt of the little girl, is one of the first to be told.  She has a plan that may not be entirely legal or ethical but may give the human race a chance for survival and herself a chance for atonement.

As always, Mira Grant knocks it out of the park in doing the research and adding in the medical details to make this truly horrifying in a "this shit could really happen" kind of way with characters that are both sympathetic and complex and that twist at the end to drive things home.


Page count: 128p/21,498p ytd/330,195p lifetime

84:100 Dark Divide by Carrie Vaughn

A spin-off set in the Kitty Norville series but focusing on the strange relationship between Cormac and his new mental guest, Amelia, since he got out of prison and Kitty's arc is over. 

Cormac and Amelia have been asked to come to Donner Pass to investigate the death of one of the docents who starved to death in a cabin full of food.  It certainly seems to have a possible supernatural cause but is it merely some type of haunting based on the tragedy from the past or something even more sinister.

I thought that the twining of Cormac, a supernatural bounty hunter, and Amelia,a deceased witch, taking up residence in his head was a great idea when it first happened in the Kitty series and I really enjoy that Ms. Vaughn is now giving us stories of the two of them as they learn how to navigate the world and exploring how they can work together.


Page count: 94p/21,370p ytd/330,067p lifetime

83:100 Urban Enemies Anthology by Various Authors

We finally get to hear from stories from the Villains point of view in this new anthology.  17 of them in fact.  These are all from existing series with established worlds, most of which I didn't know previously or only in passing.  I bought it primarily for the stories from Kelley Armstrong and Seanan McGuire with interest in the ones from Jim Butcher,Kevin Hearne, Carrie Vaughn, and Faith Hunter and because I will usually get introduced to at least one or two new authors that look interesting.

To that end, I really enjoyed the two stories that I bought it for.  I felt that they did a great job of giving stories that enriched the worlds but at the same time served well as stand-alone introductions to them.  Butcher's didn't fare so well as even though I have read all the Dresden files books, I could barely remember this villain and didn't care about him or this story that much.  Kevin Hearne's from the Iron Druid is with characters that are later in the series than I have read but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the tale.  I enjoy the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn and maybe this serves a nice intro to newbies of the series but it just fell flat for me but really enjoyed Leo's story from Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series.  However, I do feel that one might be harder for readers not familiar with the world to get into.

The new author that stood out to me from this anthology was Diana Pharoh Franics with a tale from her Horngate Witches series.  Never heard of the author or the series before but definitely want to check it out based on this story. 

Other than these, none of the other stories really stood out for me.  Many of them were simply meh and just didn't interest me at all, some were total slogs to finish, and a few were ok but not interesting enough to me for me to go out and read more by that author.  So in all, 5 of the 17 were worth the price of the book, a few more were fun, but I'd say that at least half of the book was just not my cup of tea which was definitely disappointing.