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I Am Malala
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai Published: 2013 Narrated by: Archie Panjabi (introduction by Malala Yousafzai) Length: 09:55 When Malala was first up for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2013, I saw an interview with her and was amazed at how strong a speaker she was for her age. I got goosebumps listening to how passionately she spoke about women’s right to education. It felt obvious right away that she was someone who, given the time and resources, could really make a difference. She didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize that year, but she was the co-recipient…
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A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle Published: 1962 Length: 211 pages I remember occasionally coming across this in my father’s book collection when I was young. I nearly picked it up to read a dozen times, but I always chose something else. It has a really pulpy cover, so I just assumed it was an old generic fantasy novel. I mean, there’s a Zardoz-esque floating head and a winged centaur on the front, what was I supposed to think? It wasn’t until I was well into my twenties that I discovered this is a young adult science fiction classic and is apparently beloved by many. It’s a shame actually,…
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Chew: Omnivore Edition, Volume 4
Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Volume 4 by John Layman Illustrated By: Rob Guillory Format: Hardcover Comic Collects: Chew #31-40 Published: 2014 Publisher: Image Comics Length: 272 pages Finally, the fourth omnibus of Chew has been released. The wait between these editions can be torturous, but at least there’s no chance of getting burnt out on them. Not the ideal way to read through a series, but I actually don’t mind too much. I like having an annual release to anticipate, and these oversized editions are just too nice to ignore. I’ve really liked the last couple of books for the humour and the creative ideas, particularly around the invention of…
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Trouble With Lichen
Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham Published: 1960 Length: 204 pages John Wyndham is one of my favourite writers. His novels are beautifully written, and his stories feel fresh and innovative, despite being written half a century ago in a genre that is always building and expanding on itself. Unfortunately, Trouble With Lichen wasn’t my favourite of his. I still enjoyed it, but it didn’t hold my attention the way his novels typically do. I am making my way through the entirety of his bibliography, so I guess it’s inevitable that I’ll come across a few of his novels that fall a bit short for me. The premise is fascinating.…
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The Scar
The Scar by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko Published: 1996 (2012 translation) Translated By: Elinor Huntington Narrated By: Jonathan Davis Audio Length: 15:17 I started listening to this just after I had finished playing The Witcher 2. It’s a game in a series based on The Witcher books by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski and developed by CD Projekt RED, a Polish game studio. It was a great game, but the main character is a uncharismatic misogynistic bore that women inexplicably throw themselves at. The main character in The Scar, Egert Soll, is very similar to this at the beginning of the novel. I, rather narrow-mindedly, was beginning to think this was…
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September in Review
Books Acquired: None! Books Read: The Scar by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham Chew: The Omnivore Edition, Volume 4 by John Layman September was not a very bookish month for me – two novels and one graphic novel. I’m not breaking any records right now. Meanwhile my girlfriend is burning through those chunky Diana Gabaldon novels like she’s planning to head back in time herself soon. She should probably be the one with the book blog. I held off buying any new books for the month, which is a small victory I think. Movies watched: Welcome Aboard – Sometimes you just want to watch a…
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Terry Pratchett isn’t Jolly
A friend sent me this great article that Neil Gaiman wrote for The Guardian. He discusses the common misconception that it’s simply the humour that drives Terry Pratchett’s writing when it’s really much more. Still, by the top of the hour it was all over. We went back to our hotel, and this time we took a taxi. Terry was silently furious: with himself, mostly, I suspect, and with the world that had not told him that the distance from the bookshop to the radio station was much further than it had looked on our itinerary. He sat in the back of the cab beside me white with anger, a…
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Seconds
Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley Format: Original Graphic Novel Originally Published: 2014 Publisher: Ballantine Books Length: 336 pages I’m a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim, so when I saw that Bryan Lee O’Malley had released a new stand-alone graphic novel I had to pick it up. It’s also loosely about food and I love food. I’m what’s referred to as an easy sell. Katie is in a frightening, exciting, and stressful point in her life. She’s transitioning from being head chef at a popular restaurant that she helped open four years ago to opening and co-owning a new restaurant. Her partner and her had to decide between two locations, and…
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Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Published: 1990 Length: 400 pages Jurassic Park stands as one of my all-time favourite movies. I saw it in the theatre three times, and again last year when it was released in 3D, and I’ve seen it countless times on video since. I just love it. It’s just as good today as it was back then, and the special effects really stand up, unlike any of the horrible sequels. I was mainly reading fantasy as a teenager, so I never picked up the novel, despite the endless recommendations to do so. In the last decade, with unfortunate snobbery on my part, I wrote Crichton off…
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Saga, Volume 3
Saga, Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan Illustrated by: Fiona Staples Published: 2014 Publisher: Image Comics Length: 144 pages Collects: issues #13-18 This series has been consistently fantastic since the first issue. That makes for excellent reading but also boring blogging, so I’ll keep this fairly brief. It’s just great, plain and simple, so I’m afraid this will mainly be gushing. In this trade, Vaughan went back and explained what was happening behind the scenes during the end of the last story arc – the same scene but expanded and following other characters. Similar in concept to the time overlap that George R.R. Martin used in book four and five…