The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

At the end of the last school year, I began reading the graphic novel The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Interestingly enough, I was started on this long series by a Facebook post with a quote from the book. I doubt that she knew what it was from, but online, the reviews were hot so I decided to start it for myself. Now, I had options as to how I wanted to read it and I decided to start on the 4 volume set with about 800 GIANT pages per book. (This was called the Absolute Sandman). The thing was seriously about 10-15 pounds (it was a whopper!). Regardless, I read the first volume between April and the beginning of June, 2011 and I recently finished the second volume this weekend.

First off, let's get the plot, shall we? The basics are simply that there are entities (gods I guess) that exist and the main ones are all from the same family (this is used loosely). The main-main characters are Dream (aka Morpheus) and his sister Death (yes Death is a girl). It is all about his "life." The story begins in a relatively modern world (1990's if my memory serves me well), but eventually goes all over the place in time. That's the gist, but the plot is much more complex than I am making it.

I am no fan of graphic novels (but I have managed to read a few), but this one was strangely captivating (probably due to some major adult content). Did that just make me sound like a pervert? hmm. What I meant to say was that the other graphic novels I read were very childish and Gaiman created graphic novel for a mature audience. (That sounds much better... let's go with the second). Although the plots to the separate stories were good, I found it may have been better if Gaiman had created a temporally correct progression. Another thing I wished he would have done differently is to exclude some of his mild nudity and slightly perverse minor characters. If I were I psychiatrist, I would wonder about this Neil fella. Regardless of all the little details that put me off, I would still suggest at least the first volume to everyone (everyone that wants to be blown away by pictorial awesomeness).

Happy Reading!

From A Buick 8 by Stephen King

          From a Buick 8 is a tale of a Buick Roadmaster that just isn’t… quite right. There is no motor and has a steering wheel that is too big. Not to mention that it doesn’t get dirty or scratched. If it’s scratched, it will heal over a couple of days. When it is found after the mysterious owner disappeared while ordering gas at a station, the local police in a small Pennsylvania town take it and keep it for over twenty years. Over those years, the car (if you can call it that) has done some pretty inexplicable things. As King puts it, it has abortions in which things from another world, dimension, or whatever comes here through the Buick’s trunk. But it is not just a one-way deal. Things from this world can go to the other world too. There is one policeman who takes a keen (almost unhealthy) interest in the Buick and all of its peculiarities: Curt Wilcox. When he dies in a drunk driving incident, his son Ned grieves by going to the police station and helping out by cleaning windows and things like that. It is by doing this that he discovers the Buick in a shed and is told its story by his dad’s companions.

         This book, which has an interesting plot, was incredibly boring. There were so few exciting parts, that I really considered putting this back on the shelf and forgetting all about it. But being me, I trucked on through it and was almost compensated at the end with the most interesting part of the entire book. I can’t ruin the ending for you all, but I can say the book can and probably should have been simplified to about 100 to 200 pages and it may have passed as a good book. Although the book itself didn’t grab my attention as I would have liked, one can’t ignore King’s terrific writing style. It kind of pains me to do this, but I rate this book as a 4 out of 10. Sorry Stephen, but you can and have done better.

Wizards of Mars review

I finished Wizards of Mars by Diane Duane a couple of days ago and decided to do the review before I forgot half of the plot (as in some unnamed reviews that I had done). It should be mentioned that this is the ninth book of Diane Duane’s Young Wizard series, which began with So You Want to Be a Wizard. I had read the first one way back when I was a young boy of 12 (about 2003). I had just started reading the Harry Potter series maybe a year or two before so I was hooked on fantasy books at the time (well fine… I am STILL hooked on fantasy books). Anywho, it is imperative that you read the entire series in order to understand the book. It was a few years since I read the previous book, Wizards at War, and I was utterly confused for the first two chapters until things started coming back to me. I was really considering re-reading the entire series, but if I did that, I wouldn’t even get this book read this summer.

                In this book, Kit finally sees if there is/was life on Mars. As we all know, Kit Rodriguez was a Mars fanatic for the last few books, so it just figures that Duane would do this eventually. There was just enough teenage drama to make me slightly nauseous and wish I had left the series alone. I also found myself embarrassed for the characters as Nita told aliens that they were “hooking up”… as if the aliens should know what the flip that means. But I digress, once one gets past the fact that this book was intended for young adults (or even the 12 year old from 8 years ago), it was a very good book. I found myself wanting to read the rest of the book in one night (about 300 pages… but I didn’t want to stay up too late so I left it be). I hope that Duane’s next book in the series aims its focus to the older readers that grew up reading her books. I would love her immensely if she did. :)

Update: I found out that the tenth book in the series is called Games Wizards Play. It's about a game to determine which young wizard on earth will get a internship-ish thing with the planetary wizard. I read the description and I get the feeling that it's going to have the same flaws as the previous one. I guess we'll see (hopefully not in another 5 years like the wait for the last one was).

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

The overall plot of Best Served Cold is of this woman, Monza, who loses everything, almost including her life. After she is carefully looked after by an old man, she runs away and seeks revenge on those that have taken everything from her. She hires the best killers to aid her in her quest, never really believing that she would succeed. It wasn’t until after I read the book (actually it was just a few seconds ago) that I learned that this is a stand-alone novel following Abercrombie’s First Law series. I am usually not one to just read a book in the middle of a series, but it can definitely be read alone with no knowledge of the other books.

This is the first book I read of Abercrombie’s, and I thought his overall writing style was good. This book in particular was well written.  In the beginning, we see Monza as a heartless person. It isn’t until the end of the book that we see that she has been a victim her entire life. I am not much for reading about war and gore and swearing (which there is a lot of in this book) but somehow I ended up enjoying the book. I am not a fan of  gore so if it would skip the battle scenes, I think it would have captured my interest a little more.

"The Grass is Singing" and "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" Reviews

Everyone has seen or heard about the hit show on Showtime called Dexter (and if you haven’t, WATCH IT NOW; this blog will still be here), and I'm sure you loved it as much as I did. It is about a serial killer hero that kills only bad guys but a double life as a blood splatter analyst for Miami Metro Homicide. Very succinct, but very accurate description I think.  When I heard that the show was based on books by Jeff Lindsay, I was literally jumping with joy. I actually found out when I got the second book for Christmas last year (apparently the book store employees had no idea which book was the first in the series). From there, I ordered the rest of the series earlier this year and just read the first one,  Darkly Dreaming Dexter, this summer.
 I adored the book. Lindsay was hilarious at just the right moments and literally took my breath away at the end. One thing that I really liked about the franchise (so to speak) is that the writers of the show didn’t just copy the book. The ending of the book and the end of the first season are immensely different, so that was a shocker for me. I thought the book was a little short though. I know it is a series, but I had hoped that the book would end with the end of season 1, but it seems as though this wasn’t the case. I don’t know what the next book has in store, but I really want to read it. I should never have gotten so far in my reading; then I could be reading it right now! 

                The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing is about a murder of a white woman in Rhodesia when segregation was still the norm. After discussing a little about the murder, the story leads us to the beginning of the victim’s life. We as readers are slowly taken down the road of insanity as the women loses more of her mind with each passing heat-filled day. (Not unlike the abnormal heat wave that I am experiencing in Ohio… well, maybe not as bad, but it’s still hot.) The story was told extraordinarily well. I was kind of dragging myself to read it because it didn't seem very interesting to me, but after the initial confusion, I ate the book up. I was truly amazed at the feeling that Lessing had put into the story.

                Be on the lookout for the review of the book I am currently reading, Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. It may take a few months to write, but I will get to. Have faith!

So Many Books

In the past month, (since my summer break began) I have managed to read four extremely interesting books. I shall review each of them in their own turn. The first that I finished was The Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my supervisor at the library I work at forced me to read it. Interestingly enough, I greatly enjoyed it.  It is what I would call an historical fantasy although that is not accurate. I thought that this could actually have happened (minus the dragons, which incidentally is the reason for the fantasy label). The Game of Thrones is centered in a place called the Seven Kingdoms (Westeros) which has a king and each of the seven high families is lord over a particular portion of the Seven Kingdoms. The main characters are from the Stark family, who are “wardens of the north.” The majority of the book is basically about finding the truth regarding the rightful heir to the king’s throne (this is a HUGE understatement, but I am tired. If you want to find out more about the book, go to Wikipedia, or just watch the HBO show).

Now for my thoughts: I felt as if it had a lot of suspense. One thing that kind kid of stunk was the overall confusion that I felt at the beginning of the book. Martin just jumped right into his story without any kind of backdrop. After about 50 pages or so, the confusion just kind of wore off and I just became immersed in the book. The books jumps from different viewpoints, which would normally bother me, but I felt as though it just increased the suspense. My favorite viewpoint was Daenerys Targaryen, the sister of the king that was usurped about 15 years or so before the story takes place. The end of the book was a giant cliffhanger, so I am very eager to start the next book, but I have way to many other books to stick to one series for too long.
The second book I read was the Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. You all must be thinking WHAT!! You haven’t read The Hobbit? What is wrong with you? And my answer is that I was just never interested in reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and prequel) after I saw the amazing movies. I still do not plan on reading the trilogy, not because I didn’t like The Hobbit (because I loved it), but because the movies ruined any kind of surprise that the book may have offered. I definitely underestimated Tolkien. I loved his witty writing style. I found myself chuckling along with the story. There were a few boring parts to it, but it was really quite good.

The rest of my reviews are forthcoming.

My Herb Garden / Mother's Day

 So last week, I went home for Mother's Day and decided it was a perfect time to look over my herbs. They seem to be getting along pretty well (I am sure that they love all the rain that we had). This is a picture of the chives that took over my herb garden last year. I regrettably had to pull some up... I guess my mom can use them in some tasty dishes.

Yep, they are still pretty wild looking.

 This next picture is of my cilantro (Yum!) Last year I didn't get a lot of cilantro. Hopefully that changes this year.

 This is the oregano! It has been looking bad in the past couple of years, but it looks good now!

.... And the peppermint. I got this from my aunt who got it from someone else. It keeps trying to  creep into the rest of the garden (thus the brick "wall").

Now, I am not sure about this, but I am hoping that it is sage. I love sage. Mainly because it tastes like rosemary and I can never get rosemary to stay alive for more than a season.

Look at all that wood, even after I told everyone in my compost post that wood should never be used in compost. So I had done this before I knew better and am still trying to take all of the wood out :(

Now, to get away from the herbs for a minute, I love lilacs and I just couldn't NOT take a picture of ours...

 Lovely, isn't is?

Here is our awesome apricot tree (I may tell you the story behind it later) with it's bounty of fruit

Well, not bountiful yet, but you just wait.

And to prove I didn't just laze about over Mother's Day weekend, here is the cake that I made for my mom.

And YES, I know that it has many faults, thanks for noticing. What's that? You didn't notice? ... uhm, there arrrrre no faults, I was just ... joking. That's it. I was joking


Update: some of the pictures seem to have been lost. I will try my best to re-upload them; if I can find them that is.

Update on My Reading

     Wow, I did not imagine that it would be this hard to get a copy of the Game of Thrones book at my libraries (yes I belong to 3 libraries. Is there a problem?). You all must be thinking that I should just buy it if I want to read it so badly, but I typically don't buy books from authors I haven't read yet. There is nothing I would hate more than to buy a book that I hate. (gives me shivers just thinking about it) 

     Sooo, I probably won't be reading it until the summer (what a bummer, right?), but on the bright side, I think now would be a good time to read The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. This book was given to me by someone who was just going to throw it away. How terribly sad :'( Let's hope for an awesome read!! Happy Reading All!

Perhaps I shouldn't have title-cased that last sentence... oh well, I think it sends the message better. :)

Jane Eyre ... Completed

     Whew! I just finished reading Jane Eyre, I know that it took a long time, and I must say that it is an awesome book. I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will begin at the end (is that too corny?).

     I thought the ending was fantastic. I had my doubts as to what the ending was going to be, but luckily for my sanity that Jane Eyre ended as I ... more or less hoped (I will let you all find out for yourselves). Brontë should be applauded for her exceptional work, even more so because it came out in 1847. I have read books from the same era and have hated them. Heck! I have read books from this era and hated them. Charlotte Brontë wrote a captivating (I NEVER use this term lightly) novel that I hated putting down. Now this must be where you all are thinking, "Then why did it take you so long to read?" To which I reply that college life is busy. "Yeah, 'busy' [with air quotes]" you must think. Yes, I am busy with school, not partying like SOME people I know. (actually, I know no partyers. I am part of the nerds.)

      Now that Jane Eyre is read, I will now read  The Game of Thrones. Not because the show just came out, but because it was highly recommended by my supervisor.

If you were wondering, I would say that I was very much talking to myself. Is that a problem? "No it's not Brad. Don't worry about what they think." o.O

Making Your Very Own Compost

I am only on my second batch of compost in two and a half years, and when I watched countless gardening shows, they always said that the compost was supposed to only take a few weeks to complete. Well, mine obviously never did; in fact, the last batch I made took almost two years to finish! I decided I needed a little help from the library. I checked out the book Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost by, well, Mike McGrath and read the 112 pages in just a few days.

                I will start out by reviewing the book as a whole and then give you all the dirty details ;) The book was an amazing find in the midst of so many composting books that simply went over my head. I think what really made me like the book so much is that he included humor throughout the book that was actually funny. I love this type of informational nonfiction (don’t be hating on my made-up type on nonfiction)! As I kind of got at before, the book is really easy to follow and makes composting sounds really simple, as it should be. McGrath goes through the process of setting your system up, what to put in it, and even dedicates a chapter to vermiculture (using worms to make compost). Let’s get to the main attraction now shall we?

                As I mentioned before, my first attempt at composting didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Let’s see if you can tell what I did wrong: my family was cleaning up a wood pile one fall and there were tons of leaves all over the ground. So everything was scooped into this bin we have (leaves, bark from the wood, grass clippings and the occasional rock). I decided it would be best if the compost was topped by a tarp so the water didn’t get out (or in when I forgot to take it off before it rained).  Then it was time to wait… two years.

                Let’s take a breather… alright, ready to go! So the first thing that I did wrong was to trust my 15 year old sense of knowledge on the workings of compost. The second thing that I did wrong was add wood to my compost. And the most important thing that I did wrong was not to keep it continually moist and not have stirred it up. Like I said above, after two years, the compost came out okay, but compost shouldn’t take so long or at least the compost I want to make.

                McGrath shows us a direct and successful way of creating your very own compost, or black gold as he likes to call it. The first thing you have to do is find something and or somewhere to put you compost-to-be. It can be in a pile, but it would be best to use a bin made from small-holed caging with a wooden frame. Or it is even better to use the composters that have a handle to stir all of your ingredients together.

                The next step is to add all of your ingredients. The most important thing that McGrath stressed is to keep your brow-dry to green-wet ratio approximately 5:1. By brown-dry, he means primarily chopped leaves (except black maple leaves: they will kill your plant) but straw is a good substitute. The green-wet ingredients can be a whole slew of things. There are dried grass clippings (just be sure to add them slowly to the dry ingredients while stirring), kitchen scraps that have been cut up to good sized chunks (egg shells and tea bags are a very good addition), manure from herbivores only (not cat or dog poo!!) and plants that haven’t seeded yet. Then there are coffee grounds you can add. Actually, Starbucks has a “Grounds for Gardeners” program in which they will give you free grounds if you ask them about the program (I live in the middle of nowhere, so there are no Starbucks close to meL). You can also add seafood products that are chopped up (just make sure there is a lid over your bin or critters might have a feast). Just remember NOT to add meat, dairy, and the insides of the eggs to your pile. What will happen, you ask? Weeeellll, let’s say your bin will blow up and move on (that was an attempted joke by the way).

                Wow, are you still with me after that long paragraph?? If you are, you are true gardeners, or just have nothing better to do (no judgment). So the last step in the process is to mix it ever week until it has an earthy smell. Then spread it on your garden and be amazed at the awesomeness of composting.

Book Information:

Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost, Mike McGrath

Copyrighted 2006 by Mike McGrath

ISBN:1402733984

(again, this isn't MY compost... I really need to get my own pictures up here)

Jane Eyre Movie!?

     About a month ago, I was watching previews for upcoming movies at 1 am. Why was doing such a time-wasting activity so late at night? Well, the simple answer is that I am a college student. The... who am i kidding. The real reason is pretty durn simple too. I was bored and didn't want to go to sleep. Getting back to the subject at hand, I found to my amazement a preview for Jane Eyre. I was delighted, but not because I read the book. My interest is instantly piqued in any movie that originated as a book. Even more so when I have actually heard of the book before.

     That same night, I grabbed my iPod and got a copy of Jane Eyre to read. Now, if you haven't gotten a book before on your iPod / iPad or whatever else you have, then I would suggest trying it. There are so many free books to get that are really cool. Keep in mind that these free books are old, I think earlier than 1920 or something, but you can still get some really great books. My favorite site to get them from is amazon.com, though. Barnes and Noble has a good selection too, but I just prefer Amazon. In order to get the ebooks from Amazon, you need to download their free Kindle app at the app store. 
     I regrettably am not finished with the book yet, but I can tell you that so far, it is very, very good. It is hard to tell with an ebook, but I would say I am close to half finished with it already. And before any judging starts, this isn't my usual pace with books. I decided to read it during school, which can be just asking for bad grades. This, if anything, should tell you that Jane Eyre is an exceptional book. Enjoy reading!!

About Me

Hey Everyone!
     My name is Brad this is my blog! I, as I assume many of you do, have many interests. The two that I spend most of my free time doing is reading and gardening. I figured, if I am going to start a blog, why not combine both of the things that really get me excited. Although I can make no promises, the majority of the content of the blog will be on these two topics.

 

      I usually only read books for fun, but occasionally I will read books to get some information out of them (usually by beating them senseless). Honestly though, one thing you will find out shortly is how devoted I am to keeping my books in perfect condition. I may post a blog describing just how anal I really am. (WARNING: you may think that I am OCD, but who says I'm not? Well, there is that pesky voice in my head, but that is an entirely different story.) Oh yes, getting back to my initial topic, my favorite genres include thrillers and fantasies, but I will pretty much go for anything. Many of the non-fiction books I will discuss will be about gardening.

     So gardening. I am pretty much a beginner. Enough said. Mainly, I am an herb gardener, but I fiddle with fruits and vegetables here and there. 

     This is what my blog will be about. I hope you continue to read and comment on how I am doing. Any comment is a good comment in my book. Well, scratch that. There can be hurtful comments that can take one to the edge of insanity, but no one would do that would they?

Note: Neither of these pictures belong to me. Mainly I am too much of a nub at this to know if using them is technically illegal. :|