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Sex Criminals, Vol. 4: Fourgy!
Sex Criminals, Vol. 4: Fourgy! by Matt Fraction Illustrated by: Chip Zdarsky Series: Sex Criminals #4 Collects: issues #16–20 Published: 2017 Length: 136 pages I not sure why I keep reading these. After the initial premise was set up, the plot has really gone nowhere. There’s been some character development, and we’ve fleshed out the world a bit, but nothing is happening. It’s a bit frustrating because the character development is actually great. The relationships and the problems that come along with them have depth and feel genuine. A lot of the humour is still really on point, and Zdarsky’s art is great. It all feels a bit wasted, though.…
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Peter Pan
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie Published: 1904 Narrated by: Jim Dale Length: 05:16 (207 pages) I don’t think I ever actually watched the Disney version of Peter Pan. I know the first bedroom scene, from it appearing in many other movies, but all my other knowledge is probably from the 1991 movie sequel Hook, which as a nine-year-old I loved. I actually didn’t even realize until recently that J.M. Barrie was Scottish. To die will be an awfully big adventure. So I went into this with little knowledge of the actual story but thinking I knew what to expect, and I was surprised at how dark this turned out to…
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Saga, Volume 8
Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan Illustrated by: Fiona Staples Published: 2017 Publisher: Image Comics Length: 146 pages Collects: issues #43-48 I am still very much enjoying this series. I feel like the plot was getting away from them a few volumes back, but the jump forward in time and has really brought everything together again. I love the whole cast and the interactions between them. Petrichor has turned out to be a fantastic addition, adding a great mix of humour and unhinged aggression to the story. The way Hazel has turned to her as a confidant and friend, against her will in many ways, is a great subplot…
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Candide
Candide by Voltaire Published: 1759 Narrated by: Don Hagen Translated By: Unfortunately, no idea. Length: 03:45 (129 pages) A young man named Candide is living a simple and easy life in a Baron’s castle in Westphalia (born and raised, on the playground is where he spent most of his days). He’s caught kissing the Baron’s daughter and is thrown out of the castle (Jazzy Jeff style, I assume), and then spends the novel wandering from one adventure to the next. In his youth, he was tutored by the castle’s educator, a religious philosopher who taught him the ways of optimistic theodicy, which states that they live in the best of…
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American War
American War by Omar El Akkad Published: 2017 Narrated by: Dion Graham Length: 12:22 (352 pages) This is one of the books nominated in the Canada Reads 2018 competition. I’m not a huge fan of how the Canada Reads debates are structured, but it’s a good resource for finding some noteworthy Canadian novels, which I’ve been meaning to focus on a little more. This story takes place at the end of the 21st century in America. After climate change forces a ban on fossil fuel across the country, the southern states break away from the union and start the second civil war. The protagonist, Sarat Chestnut, is just a child…
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Akira, Vol. 1
Akira, Vol. 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo Format: Hardcover manga Series: Akira #1 Publisher: Kodansha Comics Originally Published: 1984 Length: 359 pages I haven’t read this series before, and I haven’t watched the popular 80’s movie adaptation of this, yet I somehow found myself ordering the 35th Anniversary Box Set after seeing it on sale. I don’t have much experience at all with manga, but this is a classic of the genre and something that influenced science fiction as a whole, regardless of medium, so I’ve been wanting to read it for a quite a long time now. It’s a beautiful collection of all six hardcover volumes and an additional art…
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Acceptance
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer Published: 2014 Series: Southern Reach #3 Length: 341 pages This is the third novel in the Southern Reach trilogy and a fitting conclusion to the series. Conclusion may actually be too strong a word, as there’s a lot left open, but I was happy with how the story finished. The basic idea of this trilogy is that members of the Southern Reach agency are monitoring and examining a town and its surrounding area, Area X, where strange phenomena have occurred. The border to this area isn’t visible, but once you walk through everything changes – the inhabitants have been wiped out, decades of time seem to…
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February in Review
Books Acquired: None. Books Read: Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan Candide by Voltaire Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie Sex Criminals, Vol. 4: Fourgy! by Matt Fraction Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson February! My least favourite month! I should remember every year to just lock myself indoors with a glass of whisky and a good book. My #Ardbeg came in a cool tin case! It's the warehouse gift case, made to resemble their distillery building. A post shared by Rob McMillan (@mcmillan) on Feb 24, 2018 at 11:20pm PST That is basically what I attempted this month, but I…
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Man’s Search for Meaning
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Published: 1946 Narrated by: Simon Vance Translated By: Ilse Lasch (maybe?) (from German in 1959) Length: 04:47 (184 pages) The first half of this is Viktor Frankl’s memoir of the time he spent in various Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. It’s a harrowing, yet in some ways inspiring, look at daily life in those camps. He was a taken from his job as a psychiatrist, brought to the camp, separated from his family, and stripped of everything, including his life’s work – a draft for his newly developed approach to Psychotherapy called Logotherapy, which would eventually go on to be practiced in…
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Published: 1962 Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne Length: 05:32 (246 pages) While not quite on the same level of The Haunting of Hill House, I still really enjoyed this. Shirley Jackson is a master of atmosphere and characterization, particularly at taking somewhat bizarre characters and writing them in a believable way. My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I…
