“Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary” by Brandon Mull

Tweet Back of the Book: Brace yourself for a shocking secret. Two hidden artifacts have been found. Three more remain unrecovered. More preserves face destruction as the Society of the Evening Star relentlessly pursues new talismans. Reading in Patton s Journal of Secrets, Kendra learns the location of the key to a vault housing one of the artifacts. In order to retrieve it, the Knights of the Dawn must enter a death trap a dragon sanctuary called Wyrmroost. The mission cannot proceed without stealing a sacred object zealously guarded by the centaurs. Anybody seen Seth? The race is on to acquire all five of the artifact keys to the great demon prison. Will the Knights of the Dawn conquer Wyrmroost? Who can stop the Sphinx? Can Vanessa be trusted to help? What artifact will be found next? Find out in Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary. Previous books in this series: “Fablehaven” & “Rise of the Evening Star” & “Grip of the Shadow Plague” Pages: 535 Published: 2009-03-24 Format Read: ebook The very worst thing about this book is that Seth still is dashing off into trouble. True, he thinks things through a little better this time, but he still isn’t listening to his elders… It’s a bit frustrating that one of the messages seems to be that “as long as you can justify it and it turns out okay, you can break the rules.” The very best thing about this book is Gavin. This was completely unexpected for me, although Raxtus’s big part felt a little rushed.

“Rise of the Evening Star” by Brandon Mull

Tweet Back of the Book: At the end of the school year, Kendra and her brother Seth find themselves racing back to Fablehaven, a refuge for mythical and magical creatures. Grandpa Sorenson, the caretaker, invites three specialists — a potion master, a magical relics collector, and a mystical creature trapper — to help protect the property from the Society of the Evening Star, an ancient organization determined to infiltrate the preserve and steal a hidden artifact of great power. Time is running out. The Evening Star is storming the gates. If the artifact falls into the wrong hands, it could mean the downfall of other preserves and possibly the world. Will Kendra learn to use her fairy gifts in time? Will Seth stay out of trouble? DeLaina’s Review on Goodreads.com: The themes in the book are excellent too. For example, the girl is a rule-keeper and the boy is a curious mischief-maker, and one of the central themes is obedience. At the end you figure out that a measure of disobedience was necessary to set in motion the events that eventually lead to the ultimate demise of evil, which could not have happened otherwise. Fascinating!!! (read the entire review here) I chose this book, obviously, because it’s the second in the series I’m currently reading. (The first is reviewed here.) Literary Merit: The conversations and the way the dialogue is written is wonderful. The books are written pretty well in general, but the conversations come across as genuine. There’s nothing unusually stilted about the relationship between Kendra and Seth. In fact, half of their conversations remind me of conversations I’ve had with my siblings. The detail of the world tends to vary, in my opinion. There are times when I can clearly picture the scene as it unfolds, and other times when it’s not so clear. Individual characters are usually detailed fairly well, while a setting not so much. This is understandable and allows my imagination to fill in the blanks, so to speak, but it seems inconsistent because other settings are extremely detailed. Plot: The plot is simple, but strong. For adult readers, you can usually see where the story is going, but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment. Younger readers, for whom the story is intended, shouldn’t have that problem which will make the twists and turns extremely exciting! Characters: Kendra is one of the main characters. She’s about 15 years old in this book (maybe 14, but I’m pretty sure it’s 15) and she’s a goody-two-shoes. She’s also a tattle-tale, a bookworm, and fairykind. (Read the books and you’ll understand that last part.) Seth is Kendra’s little brother. He’s around ten or eleven years old, and he’s a bit of a dare-devil. Courageous, reckless, and somewhat self-centered, he tends to cause a ton of trouble. He is almost the opposite of his sister, but he does have a good heart. There are tons of characters in this (and the other) books, but I’m not going to [read full post]

Super Stupor #4 by R.K. Milholland

Tweet This book is mostly about pedophiles, sex dolls, and pheromones. I’m just going to leave it at that… Oh, and there are two not-so-surprise endings at the end! :-p Pages: 36 Published: 2011-08 Format Read: real book

Super Stupor #2 by R.K. Milholland

Tweet Soo, there’s a little hanky-panky going on between enemies, some Mexican wrestling, and giant armed panda bear. If that isn’t enough to peak your interest, Randy reveals a secret about heaven on the last page! ^_^ Pages: 40 Published: 2009-08 Format Read: real book

Super Stupor

Tweet I feel as if I’ve been in a super stupor for the past few days. I’m lethargic, brain dead, and just sort of floating along. Last night was inventory night at work. For over 11 hours we scanned, counted, uploaded, caffeinated, audited, rescanned, re-uploaded, and finally finished. I won’t lie, I could do inventory all day every day and not be bothered. My problem was that we had to do it overnight! I’m getting on in years and I’m just too old to be staying up all night! Yes, all night. From 5:45p Tuesday evening to 5:00a Wednesday morning we were inventorying. On the plus side, I think we did well. :-) Anyways, this post isn’t supposed to be about my super stupor. This post is about Randy Milholland‘s Super Stupor comic books! In case you haven’t heard of Randy (in which case, shame on you), he created the Something*Positive webcomic. I recently bought the four pack of comic books and finished reading them a little earlier today! They were incredible! Funny, obscene, interesting, a little disturbing… In short, everything I expect and love from Randy! ^_^ I won’t lie, I’ve only occasionally read the Super Stupor comics that are available online. I’ve been meaning to read through them all, but never found the time. That being said, the comic books don’t disappoint! Here are a few mini-reviews about each book! Updated – 2012/01/12 I forgot that I had promised myself that no matter how short the review was they would all get their own post. So I just split them all into their own posts… Click the cover pictures below to read them all. :-)  

Wrap-Up: The Dystopia Challenge 2011

Tweet I finished this challenge with four extra books. I love the dystopian/post-apocolyptic genre. There’s just something about it that speaks to me… My list of nineteen books is under the challenge logo. I enjoyed every one of those books at least a little if not a whole lot. I would say that they’re all worth a read! “The White Plague” by Frank Herbert “Life as We Knew It” by Susan Beth Pfeffer “The Dead and the Gone” by Susan Beth Pfeffer “This World We Live In” by Susan Beth Pfeffer “Feed” by Mira Grant

Wrap-Up: One, Two, Theme 2011

Tweet I read exactly one book for this challenge. :-( I originally chose the challenge because I liked the idea of it and figured that I would finally read some nonfiction. Well, I didn’t. And the one book that I read for this challenge was read for another reason. It wasn’t until I was preparing the wrap-up that I realized I had read one of the books that was on my list. :-/ “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan