KateKintail's Book Journal

I signed up for a reading log swap last month and again this month. I thought it might be nice to post the log here as well.

I like to read and earread (the short way of saying “listen to on audio”) a lot of things at once; my attention likes to wander, I’ll admit. And I read a variety of things.

Here’s a list of books I read during March but haven’t yet finished (i.e. books in progress):

• The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Audio)


• Kisses for Elizabeth: A Common Sense Approach to Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care by Stephanie Zeman


• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol 1: The World According to Peter Parker by Bendis, Lafuente, et. al.


• The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser


• A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Here are books I finished reading during March:

• The God Box by Alex Sanchez: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/128354.html
  I loved this. It’s the 5th book of his I’ve read and my favorite of them all—and I’m neither religious nor gay! It was a lovely, engaging story that gave me a lot to think about and explored things I’d never read before in books. Great, likeable characters as well (a good character practically makes a story for me).


• Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Audio and print): http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/126741.html
  I read this because it was on a special shelf in the library. It was a beautiful telling about a population of people I’d never considered. I knew kids were groomed young, but I didn’t realize all the details of the programs and how invasive it was. The pictures and stories were terrible, beautiful, uplifting, and haunting.


• Goliath by Scott Westerfeld (Audio): http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/125836.html
  The conclusion of the Leviathan trilogy involves deception, love, secrets finally being revealed, Pancho Villa, and Nikola Tesla. What more could you want? It’s an alternate version of World War I where the Axis powers go kind of steampunk with steam-driven machines and mechanics and the Allied powers go Darwinist with fabricated beasts—some of which are living ships! It’s a fun series with a satisfying ending.


• The Manual of Aeronautics: An Illustrated Guide to the Leviathan Series by Scott Westerfeld: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/127121.html
  Having just read the series, it was fantastic to get some gorgeous details of the characters and vehicles in the series. A well-crafted and thought-out book that was beautiful to read. You can easily fall deeply into this world.


• Mile 81 by Stephen King (Audio): http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/125442.html
  A boy has an adventure at an abandoned rest area that involves a car that eats adults. Yeah. It’s Stephen King doing what he does best: short stories with super neat concepts you can’t tire of (like you can with a long novel of his) and kids who look at the world a little differently than adults might. There’s also a bonus short story that was quite good.


• The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios by Yann Martel: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/125395.html
  This book has been haunting me for weeks at the library, wanting me to read it. I usually find that literary short fiction leaves me feeling stupid. I had to WORK to get these stories, and I’m still not sure I understand them entirely. But I really enjoyed them once I figured them out as much as I did. I’m so glad I finally gave them a chance.


• Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 3: Double Trouble by Bendis and Bagley: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/126101.html
  This volume has nothing to do with the next 3 I’m listing. This is your typical Spider-Man. He’s not my favorite superhero, but it was a good, typical collection of comics.


• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol 2: Chameleons by Bendis and others: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/126365.html
  I stumbled upon this at the library. Peter is “out” to his friends and family. And he’s got the Human Torch (Johnny) from the Fantastic Four and Iceman (Bobby) from the X-Men living in his house. What a fun concept! And it’s not too cutesie or teen oriented either. The dialogue is exceptional and enjoyable. And the storyline is deep and gut-wrenching at times. I obviously liked it enough to track down other volumes in this series, though I read them out of order.


• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol 3: Death of Spider-man Prelude by Bendis, Lafunte, others: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/127754.html
  I loved the presence of some Avengers in this one and tying up some loose ends from Vol 2.


• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol 4: Death of Spider-Man by Bendis, Bagley, others: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/128229.html
  As you might guess from the title, this story does not have the happiest of endings. But it has a lot of great moments and as noble and touching a death as you can expect in Marvel comics.


• Gotham by Gaslight by Augustyn and Mignola: http://katekintailbc.livejournal.com/126466.html
  An extremely clever alternate reality of Batman, set in the US during Victorian times. Batman’s origin story is so simple that it translated well, but it was only the backdrop for a larger story: Jack the Ripper comes to America!

So that’s it! I think that’s the most I’ve read in a long time… but a lot were graphic novels, and those go fast. It was a fun variety this month, though!

I wish you happy reading in April (my birthday month!). I got StacyReneeArt’s reading log today and she pointed out April 2nd is Children’s Book Day and April 28th is the Great Poetry Reading Day. So I plan on reading special books on those days.