Bout of Books day 5 progress

Books in progress:

1. Baghdad Without a Map and other misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz from nickel27 in 2013
2. Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley (audio book listening with Elengil)

Books  Finished:

None finished

Bout of Books Day 4 progress and Challenges

Challenge: If You Like This, Try This:

 “If you liked, 

 you should try 

because the stories included continue the adventures of the crew of the Firefly class ship Serenity and set up what events after the film ends

(I would recommend all 3 of the graphic novels out so far I'm looking forward to the current comic run coming out in book format soon)

Books Finished:

1. Old Shirts & New Skins by Sherman Alexie

Books in Progress:

1. Baghdad Without a Map and other misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz from nickel27 in 2013
2. Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley (audio book listening with Elengil)

Thoughts on what I have read today:

1. Old Shirts & New Skins: very powerful imagery used in the poems in this collection. I loved these early works by Native American poet Sherman Alexie. 

Bout of Books Day 3

Not much reading today.  Today was a day of getting stuff ready for classes next week, a bit of video gaming, and taking a relative to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Which has to be my favorite so far of the Marvel Movies  because of the humor and setting (space!with aliens!). Although the first Thor still stand high on the list of great Marvel movies as well. I've always loved the space setting comics though I never read many comic books growing up. The Silver Surfer was one of the comics my dad shared with me as a youngster that I absolutely loved.

Book finished:

1. 1. Hero by Wing Shing Ma

Thoughts on what I have read today:

• I loved the film Hero when it came out. This comic adaptation was beautifully drawn.

Bout of Books Day 2

Books finished:

1. 1.  Dragon Moon by Rebecca York from thegoaliegirl in 2013. 
2. Your Lover by Seungwon Han (graphic novel) from K00kaburra in 2014
3. The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains: A Tale of Travel and Darkness with Pictures of All Kinds by Neil Gaiman This is in my PC. It was a recent birthday gift from several close friends.

Books in progress:

1. Hero by Wing Shing Ma
2. Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley (audio book listening with Elengil)

Thoughts on what I have read today:

• Dragon moon was exactly what I expected. A nice steamy and quick paranormal romance. It is 9th in a series but stands well alone. I have been picking these up piecemeal so have not actually read any of the books that were published prior to this one.
• Your Lover: The story was complicated and overly angsty and dramatic. I thought this was a graphic novel  about the historical love between Parisian painter Marie Laurencin and French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Instead I got a contemporary story set in Korea (my fault for not reading the back blurb well enough I guess.
• The Truth is a Cave in the black Mountains: This is probably the best graphic novel I have read all year., I loved the story (But Mr. Gaiman's short stories almost never disappoint). The artwork matched the bleakness and dark thread running through the plot, an I thought the mixture of paintings, pen & ink drawings, and comic style panels  complimented the story incredibly well.

book review: Tula Station by David Toscana

This was very different from the books I have been reading recently.

The book follows three different stories. First is the tale left behind in a journal by the friend of the author about his interviewing Juan Capistran (who says he is his grandfather), and the events leading up to the night of the hurricane when the author of the journal disappears. The second story is that of Juan Capistan and takes place in Tula, Mexico in the late 1800's to early 1900's. The third story is that of the town of Tula and it''s rise in Mexican politics and eventual decline during the war for Independence...

The book alternates between the intertwined stories and lets us see the love, and hatred and pain that shapes the lives of the individuals and the town.  I actually loved this aspect of the plot best. You get to learn each of the main characters over a period of years (even though the whole book covers a matter of weeks in the modern time). The book was written using papers given to the author by his "dead" friends wife who after finding them many years after his disappearance believes her husband did not die during the storm but instead ran away with another woman. As we read the story further  the reasons that influence this decision become more evident.

Bout of Books Day 1

Book(s) Finished:

1. Tula Station by David Toscam (started reading at page 176 read until end at 276) 100 total pages read.
This  came to me from bookstogive in January of 2014.

Books read but not finished:

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (e-book read in waiting room this morning)

2. Dragon Moon by Rebecca York - read   The first 39 pages. 

Bout of Books 11 Read a Thon Goals

I sort of forgot about this blog last semester due to the amount of work I had to do. I will be starting my final semester of classes next week, before student teaching in the spring. So, I have a chance to sit down and read this round of the Bout of Books Read a Thon. So Yes! I will participate this time :)

Here are my goals:

Time Devoted to Reading

• As this is my last week before classes I will be reading as much as I can all week. I do have one day of training to attend so may only get commute time reading done that day.

My Goals

• Read down some of the bookcrossing registered book pile both books from other members shelves as well as my own.

Books to Read

• The list is undecided at the moment. I plan on starting with Tula Station by  David Toscana which I have about 100 pages left in then go onto Dragon Moon by Rebecca York (new read) and finish