24in48, where we try to read for 24 hours out of 48, has come and gone once more. I managed 13 hours, which considering my usual average is 2, is excellent and I will take it. I attribute this to genuine planning this time and a remarkable lack of things to do that weekend.
What did I finish!
The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
Captain Phasma by Kelly Thompson (comic)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
DC Bombshells Volume 1 (comic)
The Punisher: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 (comic)
Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall
The Good.
It was actually all pretty good, so I'm gonna give a quick recap so you can decide if it strikes your fancy or not.
The Summaries
The Witches: Salem, 1692. This is a breakdown of everything that happened before, during, and after the Salem witch trials of 1692. I loved the beginning because Stacy Schiff gives you a good idea of the awfulness of life in New England in the 17th century, and it also helps you understand how the trials happened, because everything seems to have sucked, so how about also there are witches. THAT BEING SAID, hot damn, this book needed an editor. It's over 400 pages of dense detail that you do not need unless you're writing a scholarly paper.
Captain Phasma. This is set between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi and exists to explain how Phasma survived. It took me 10 minutes to read and is mainly a bunch of drawings of Phasma looking super cool. I like her character a lot, but not enough to read the entire novel about her (which, what? Hasn't she gotten like 10 minutes of screen time total across two movies? what is going on). I'd library this (which I did!).
The Daughter of Time. HO MAN. I'm an occasional reader of mysteries, but I don't seek them out. This popped off the shelf of Chicago's new downtown bookstore The Dial, and I read it in a day. A hospital bed-ridden detective is bored out of his mind and he decides to try to solve some historic mystery. He chooses Richard III and the two princes (did he kill them or not?). It came out in 1951 and it is amazing. I want to read more Josephine Tey.
DC Bombshells: Volume 1. I mainly like this because the women of DC all look super cool as 1940s ladies. It's all set during WWII and everyone looks great. The actual storyline is fine. Harley Quinn meets Poison Ivy and is immediately in love with her and that is 100% my favorite part, because those two. <3
The Punisher: The Complete Collection, Volume 1. I have very specific tastes most of the time with comics, and one of them seems to be People Seeking Justice, but in a shoot people kind of way. It's a very Dextery logic, and one I do not approve of in real life, but thank God for fiction, amirite. Anyway, I hadn't read Punisher before or watched the show. The opening is Frank Castle in Vietnam, where some horrifying things happen, and then he seems to make a pact with Evil so he can kill as many people as he wants and not die. I could be misinterpreting. Probably not. After the Vietnam part, I liked this muchly. Frank Castle seems kind of...not an actual character with a personality so much as a means to have someone who just kills a lot of people.
Mars Evacuees. Jenny from Reading the End sent me this because she is great and knows I love middle grade fiction. An alien race has descended on Earth and is making it freezing, because that's how they like things. Humans are fighting back, and the main character (Alice) is removed from her school and sent to a colony on Mars to train for the army. I thought this would be a pretty lighthearted book, so I was extremely taken aback when a Lord of the Flies situation occurs partway through and then a lot of reminiscent-of-The Martian type survival. That kind of stuff stresses me the hell out, so halfway through I was like agghhhhhhhhhh, but the book won me back by the end.
Participate in the next 24in48! The next one's in July and it's an A+ way of striking a few books from your TBR shelf.
What did I finish!
The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
Captain Phasma by Kelly Thompson (comic)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
DC Bombshells Volume 1 (comic)
The Punisher: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 (comic)
Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall
The Good.
It was actually all pretty good, so I'm gonna give a quick recap so you can decide if it strikes your fancy or not.
The Summaries
The Witches: Salem, 1692. This is a breakdown of everything that happened before, during, and after the Salem witch trials of 1692. I loved the beginning because Stacy Schiff gives you a good idea of the awfulness of life in New England in the 17th century, and it also helps you understand how the trials happened, because everything seems to have sucked, so how about also there are witches. THAT BEING SAID, hot damn, this book needed an editor. It's over 400 pages of dense detail that you do not need unless you're writing a scholarly paper.
 |
| Maybe just cut some stuff is all I'm sayin' |
Captain Phasma. This is set between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi and exists to explain how Phasma survived. It took me 10 minutes to read and is mainly a bunch of drawings of Phasma looking super cool. I like her character a lot, but not enough to read the entire novel about her (which, what? Hasn't she gotten like 10 minutes of screen time total across two movies? what is going on). I'd library this (which I did!).
The Daughter of Time. HO MAN. I'm an occasional reader of mysteries, but I don't seek them out. This popped off the shelf of Chicago's new downtown bookstore The Dial, and I read it in a day. A hospital bed-ridden detective is bored out of his mind and he decides to try to solve some historic mystery. He chooses Richard III and the two princes (did he kill them or not?). It came out in 1951 and it is amazing. I want to read more Josephine Tey.
DC Bombshells: Volume 1. I mainly like this because the women of DC all look super cool as 1940s ladies. It's all set during WWII and everyone looks great. The actual storyline is fine. Harley Quinn meets Poison Ivy and is immediately in love with her and that is 100% my favorite part, because those two. <3
The Punisher: The Complete Collection, Volume 1. I have very specific tastes most of the time with comics, and one of them seems to be People Seeking Justice, but in a shoot people kind of way. It's a very Dextery logic, and one I do not approve of in real life, but thank God for fiction, amirite. Anyway, I hadn't read Punisher before or watched the show. The opening is Frank Castle in Vietnam, where some horrifying things happen, and then he seems to make a pact with Evil so he can kill as many people as he wants and not die. I could be misinterpreting. Probably not. After the Vietnam part, I liked this muchly. Frank Castle seems kind of...not an actual character with a personality so much as a means to have someone who just kills a lot of people.
Mars Evacuees. Jenny from Reading the End sent me this because she is great and knows I love middle grade fiction. An alien race has descended on Earth and is making it freezing, because that's how they like things. Humans are fighting back, and the main character (Alice) is removed from her school and sent to a colony on Mars to train for the army. I thought this would be a pretty lighthearted book, so I was extremely taken aback when a Lord of the Flies situation occurs partway through and then a lot of reminiscent-of-The Martian type survival. That kind of stuff stresses me the hell out, so halfway through I was like agghhhhhhhhhh, but the book won me back by the end.
Participate in the next 24in48! The next one's in July and it's an A+ way of striking a few books from your TBR shelf.
 |
| Just like that. |
This all sounds most excellent. Excellent, I say! This kind of readathon just sounds so intimidating, but maybe one day I can participate. That Stacy Schiff book sounds cool, but I think I’d feel the same way about it that you do.
ReplyDeleteALICE you are not the only person this year who has given me the feedback that I called a piece of media delightful when it actually contained some incredibly dark elements. And that I am selling things wrong. And that I need to maybe be a little less quick on the draw with the word "delightful." So I have taken this into account and will do better in the future.
ReplyDeleteeeeexcellent! Okay so honest confession - I've read "The Witches: Salem, 1692" TWICE but each time, my interest fades and I find myself slogging through the book. I manage to finish it every time, but I end up speed-reading the last few chunks. I refuse to give up on this book, but life is short! :'(
ReplyDelete13 hours is SO GOOD. And the Hocus Pocus gif is basically perfect.
ReplyDeleteI won a copy of The Witches and I own Cleopatra and have yet to read either one. And I would LOVE the dense detail so I need to scoot this one up on the TBR list! I love middle-grade fiction, too! :)
ReplyDelete