Top 5 Reads of 2011

It's been a while since I've made a list of things I like, so here you have the five reads I have enjoyed the most in 2011:

1. Bakuman

I have only read the first four volumes, but I can say this series is what I have enjoyed reading the most this year. And I know it's not a book, so sue me.

2. Changes

The twelfth book in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher is an awesome read, just like the previous eleven. Here you have my original praise for it.

3. Full Dark, No Stars

Everybody knows I love Stephen King, and this collection of four novellas I originally discussed here was a blast to read.

4. Keys to the Demon Prison

The last book in the Fablehaven series was a great way to close the saga. I already told you about it here, but don't take my word for it and read it for yourselves.

5. The Last Olympian

The last book in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series was as much fun as the previous four, and you need to start reading these novels if you haven't already, because you're in for a treat.

And that's it for this year. I realize four out of my five picks are series, two of them finite, two of them open-ended, which is not only interesting but must also mean something that escapes me. In any case, here's to hoping that 2012 brings lots of good reading material!

Reading List: July

As I knew would happen, I didn't read as much this month as I read in June, but I still got to enjoy several different books. This is what I read in July:

White Witch, Black Curse
The seventh book in Kim Harrison's great series, I already told you how awesome this book is here.

Blockade Billy
A novella by my dear Stephen King, Blockade Billy was a lot of fun, as I told you here.

The War Within Omnibus
I already shared my thoughts about this collection here.

Small Favor
The tenth book in the formidable Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, stay tuned for my review, coming out in just a few days!

And that's it for this month. I only read three books, but they were all written by favorite authors of mine, and they were all awesomely entertaining. Come back next month for more reading suggestions!

Reading List: June

I managed to read a lot more in my travels than I thought possible, and I am happy to see this month's list is so long. Interestingly enough, most of these books are nonfiction, an unexpected and unintentional pattern I only noticed halfway through the month, but they were very, very different from one another. I've already told you about most of these, but I thought I would compile the titles for you. This is what I read in June:


People Are Unappealing
Read my original review of this book by Sara Barron here.


No Touch Monkey!
Read my original review of Ayun Halliday's travel memoir here.


Shakespeare: The World as Stage
You can find my original review of Bill Bryson's book here.


Reading the OED
I already told you how entertaining I found this book by Ammon Shea.


Haunted Love
Check out my original review of Chris Gonsalves's spooky stories here.


Mientras ellas duermen
Javier Marías's short-story collection was great, as I already told you.


La tabla de Flandes
I'll tell you about this wonderful book by Arturo Pérez-Reverte very soon!

Time After Time
This book by Karl Alexander was awesome. More on it soon!

And that's it for June. Come back next month for more books and (hopefully) comic books!

Reading List: May

I tried to regain my honor by reading five books and a trade paperback this month. I doubt I'll be able to repeat this feat next month, but what can you do. This is what I read in May:

Iron Man: The Inevitable
I didn't like this miniseries at all. The story by Joe Casey left me indifferent (even worse: it bored me), and the artwork by Frazer Irving was a horrible mismatch for the story and the character. Call me crazy, but Tony Stark looked remarkably like Hitler, and I didn't find that funny or appropriate. Skip it if you haven't read it.

Something Wicked This Way Comes
I was curious to read this classic by Ray Bradbury, and it was an interesting story but kind of slow and not as compelling as I would have liked.

Are You There, Vodka? Its Me, Chelsea
I already talked about this hilarious book by Chelsea Handler here.

El último deseo
A very interesting read by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish (Ostatnie zyczenie in Polish) introduces Geralt de Rivia and his world, which develops throughout six more novels that I might just have to read. My friend Nash gave me the first two volumes as a birthday present, and even though it took me a couple of months to start reading the first one, I finished it in a matter of days. The mixture of fantasy, lore, and fairy tales is very original and ingeniously presented, and the main character is enigmatic, charismatic, and other adjectives ending in -atic that mean the book is a lot of fun to read. All in all, this novel was an unexpected treat, and I can't wait to read the next one. Thank you, Nash!

The Spider and the Fly
This oversized book is based on the cautionary tale by Mary Howitt, and is beautifully illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. You'll read it in a matter of minutes, but you'll spend a lot longer drooling over the artwork that accompanies the words. Great fun!

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
This gothic novella by Mathias Malzieu is also a steampunk tale of sorts, something you wouldn't be surprised to see as a Tim Burton movie. Malzieu is the singer of the French band Dyonisos, and this novella was the basis for their latest album, which must be an interesting collection of songs if they were inspired by this story. As it happens, I found the video for one of them, and it totally looks like the story I read, if that makes any sense, so check it out, and then decide if you'd like to read the book.

And that's it for this month. I will be traveling in June, so we'll see how many books I'm able to take with me. If you want to find out, come back in a month and all the secrets will be revealed!

Reading List: April

Well, I managed to read three books in between my work at the farm and the time I spent hanging out with my girlfriend. Also, I got to read some cool trades, so, all in all, April turned out to be a good month reading-wise. This is what I read:

Pandora Drive
This horror novel by Tim Waggoner was so wrong and so disturbing that some of the mental pictures it conjured will stay with me for the rest of my life. A gruesome but entertaining tale!
Lazarillo Z
I bought this book while I was in Spain because I thought it could be really funny. At the same time, I was afraid it would turn out to be a horrible waste of money, but the truth is somewhere in the middle. In the vein of Price, Prejudice, and Zombies, this is a retelling of the classic story adding zombies and creatures of the night to the tale. The result is interesting and amusing, and while it won't become a classic like the one it was inspired by, I don't regret having read it.

Cycle of the Werewolf
This is an old book by Stephen King I had never read before because it was fifteen bucks at Barnes & Noble, and, for such a short story, I thought it was overpriced. I understand it is packed with beautiful illustrations by Berni Wrightson, but I simply wasn't willing to spend the money. Enter Amazon, and their great deals, and yours truly ended up buying the book. And hey, it turned out to be a very enjoyable tale. I liked the structure, the very impressionistic descriptions, and the way King uses precise brush strokes to create this world and characters. It was a quick read, but tremendously entertaining.

Iron Man: Hypervelocity
A friend of mine let me borrow this Iron Man trade because the awesome Adam Warren wrote it a few years ago. You should know by now that Warren is one of my favorite comic book creators (both as a writer and an artist) thanks to Empowered, so I was interested in reading Hypervelocity. Warren did the layouts but not the finished artwork, yet the pictures were still pretty to look at. As for the script, both story and dialogue were pure Warren, and the overwhelming technobabble fit the character perfectly and proved how literate, inventive, and resourceful Warren is when it comes to using the English language. A fun read!

Mysterius the Unfathomable
I had been eagerly anticipating this trade by Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler, and it was a lot of fun. The story was weird, interesting, twisty, and very entertaining, and the artwork by Fowler was extraordinary. A terrific read!

And that's it for April. It seems like I've settled for two or three books and a couple of trades a month, so I guess that's what you should expect next month as well. Swing by then, and find out!

Reading List: March

Better late than never! Here you have everything I read in March:

Platinum Grit
I already shared my disappointment with this comic book here.

The Unearthed Cemetery Blues
A fun read I already reviewed here.

A Sketchy Past
I already told you about how awesome Peter de Sève is here.

The Walking Dead, vol. 11: Fear the Hunters
Robert Kirkman's series keeps getting darker and darker, with new and grim developments you would have never seen coming. How bad can things actually get? I shiver to think what's going to happen next, which is only one of the reasons why this series is so compelling.

Danse Macabre
I already commented on what I thought about this book by Stephen King here.

A Practical Handbook for the Boyfriend
The subtitle of this book, For Every Guy Who Wants to be One/For Every Girl Who Wants to Build One!, gives you an idea of how hilarious this book by felicity Huffman and Patricia Wolff is. Packed with good advice and lots of common sense, this handbook is a riot, and I guarantee you will laugh out loud more often than not.

And that's it for March. I know I didn't get to read a lot, but I was traveling and drawing and working at the farm, so I managed to keep myself busy all the same. Come back in a mere three weeks to find out what I will have read in April!

Reading List: February

Well, I think I managed to read more this month than I did in January. Still a far cry from what I was used to, though, but it's all good, since I couldn't be happier. This is all the goodness I read in February:

Madman, vol. 1
A friend gave me the first Madman trade because he absolutely loves it and he thought I should give it a try. I had stayed away from Mike Allred's creation because I didn't find the artwork appealing, and this book helped broaden my horizons. I'm still no fan of his pencils, but the stories were weird and whimsy and enjoyable, and I had a good time reading them.

The Duchess of Whimsy
I already told you how awesome the artwork by Peter de Sève is!

Flawed Dogs
This book by Berkeley Breathed is clearly geared for a very young audience, and it didn't really do much for me. The illustrations were pretty cool, but, other than that, the story left me indifferent.

Chew
This first trade of Image's great series by John Layman and Rob Guillory is fantastic, as I already told you.

Catch Me If You Can
The book that inspired the movie, Catch Me If You Can is written by its protagonist, Frank W. Abagnale (with Stan Redding), who recounts his glamourous life as a paperhanger, and how his boldness and charisma allowed him to travel everywhere in the world seducing the ladies. A million times more compelling than Spielberg's version, this book is a terrific read!

Grandville
A fun story written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot, this "scientific- romance- thriller" starring anthropomorphic animals was as bit as entertaining as the 11 O'Clock Comics guys said it was.

And that's it for February. Stay tuned for more rock'n'roll… I mean, book reviews.

Reading List: January

Last year I read a record 63 books, but I can already tell you I will not get even close to that figure in 2010, and it doesn't make me sad at all. At the rate I'm going, I think I'll read about a third of what I did in 2009, and that is fine by me. This is what I read in January:

X-Force, vol. 2: Old Ghosts
This second trade is still written Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle, but it is drawn by Mike Choi instead of Clayton Crane. I like Crane better, but Choi is also incredibly talented, so I enjoyed this book almost as much as the first trade. Like I said somewhere else, I never thought I'd be looking forward to reading X-Force ever again, yet here I am waiting for the third volume to come out!

The Sword, vol. 3: Earth
The Luna Brothers keep delivering the goods in the third trade of The Sword. As usual, I liked the story and dialogue a lot better than the artwork, and I can't wait to see how it all ends.

Madame Xanadu, vol. 1: Disenchanted
The guys at 11 O'Clock Comics kept recommending this book, so I went ahead and got it, and boy were they right. The story by Matt Wagner is great, and the artwork by Amy Reeder Hadley is unbelievably good. If you are interested in reading a good story mixing magic and the fate of different cultures and civilizations, do not hesitate and pick up Madame Xanadu. A terrific read!

Northlanders, vol. 1: Sven the Returned
Another 11 O'Clock Comics recommendation, Northlanders turned out to be an exhilarating read. I wasn't too sure about the artwork by Davide Gianfelice at the beginning, but it quickly grew on me and I ended up really liking it. However, it was the interesting story and awesome dialogue by Brian Wood that kept me turning the pages. Plus, it's a book about Vikings, which makes it even cooler.

Papel y plástico
This book by Oscar Lombana was a surprisingly nice walk down memory lane. Since it deals with toys from my childhood, I was elated to see lots of almost-forgotten stuff and how badly I used to like them and play with them, and for that if nothing else, it was worth reading.

The Chase
This book by Clive Cussler is basically a detective story in the West that takes place in the first decade of the 20th century. Needless to say, the mixture of a very appealing time period and the detective's attempts to stop a bank robber and murderer on a rampage made me enjoy this book immensely.

And that's it for January. I did not read a lot, but I really liked everything I read. Let's see what happens next month!

Reading List: December

To compensate for last month's paucity, I have managed to read twelve (12!) books this month, bringing my total count this year to 63 books and 62 graphic novels or trade paperbacks or whatever you want to call them. 63 books is only a little bit over half of what Stephen King read this year (100 books), but it is my personal best since I started keeping track of what I read in 2001 (2005 held the record with 62 books, but not anymore). And now that you've had more than enough useless statistics, this is what I read in December:

Kushiel’s Dart
A disappointing novel by Jacqueline Carey, I already told you about it here.

What-the-Dickens
A somewhat entertaining story by Gregory Maguire, I already told you about it here.

Gears of War
The first graphic novel I read this month, this trade collects issues 1-6 of the regular series, and I have to say I was not very impressed. The story by Joshua Ortega, who wrote the second game, is not very interesting, and the artwork by Liam Sharp left me indifferent. The characters do talk like they do in the game, but other than that, the games are much more entertaining than this comic book.

Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star
A terrific book by Brandon Mull, I already told you how great it is here.

The Grand Tour
Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer join forces again in this utterly forgettable follow up to Sorcery and Cecelia, a book I haven't read, and that, given how little I enjoyed TGT, I never will. I just didn't care about the characters or the story, and even though I have a feeling I should have found the story fun and entertaining, I did not.

The Infernal City
A compelling novel by the great Greg Keyes, I already told you about it here.

Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague
An amazingly fun yarn, I already told you how awesome it is here.

Puff, the Magic Dragon
Where the Wild Things Are
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
I read these three classic children's books because all my girls were making fun of me for not being familiar with the stories. Plus, they were a great way to beef up this list. I know, I know --I'm shameless.

Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary
Have I told you already how awesome this series is? I think I might have, but I'm not really sure. At any rate, the last book comes out in March, and I can't wait to get it!

Lo que no vengo a decir
The latest collection of articles by the wise Javier Marías, Lo que no vengo a decir is a great read, both because of what he says and because how he says it. I love the way he writes, and I usually find myself agreeing with what he is saying. If you've never read anything by the Spanish author, you're certainly missing out.

Off Season
A bloody tale of death and cannibalism by Jack Ketchum, Off Season was gruesome fun, and definitely not for the weak of stomach.

Deadpool: Secret Invasion
The second graphic novel I read this month, I bought it because I like Deadpool, and because the artwork by Paco Medina looked amazing. It was a fun read, and beautiful to look at, yet I don't know that I'll continue buying the series. We'll see...

Nightmare World
In this first volume, Thirteen Tales of Terror, Dirk Manning and a variety of artists tell, well, thirteen tales of terror. There wasn't any story I didn't like, and the artwork was acceptable in most of them. (The cover illustration is still my favorite, though.) All in all, it was a fun read, and I will probably get the second volume when it comes out.

So that's it for 2009. Here's to another sixty books next year!

Reading List: November

It looks like I have read surprisingly little this month. As a matter of fact, I can't recall another month in the last six years in which I read this little. How did this happen? Well...

1. I did watch the first season of Hex (more on that soon), and the eighth season of Scrubs.

2. I watched weekly episodes of Flashforward, V, and Plutón BRB Nero.

3. I spent a lot of time playing Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia.

4. I devoted a lot of my free time to an illustration I was commissioned to do. (More on that soon.)

5. Some of the books I read I didn't particularly enjoy, which means I took a long time to finish them.

All these factors combined prevented me from reading too much, so I will try to compensate next month. Let's talk about the three books I actually read.

Fablehaven
A friend let me borrow this book by Brandon Mull, and I really enjoyed it. It is a book for young adults, and it deals with teenagers, magic, and strange events. Fablehaven is the first book in a series, and I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to turn it into a movie (or a franchise), so I'll be paying attention to IMDB.

Indigo Springs
This book by A.M. Dellamonica is one of the books I was referring to a couple of paragraphs ago. The premise was interesting, but the pace was too slow, the dialogue stilted and very unrealistic, and I just didn't like the way the story unfolded or how it was told. As it happens, the only thing I enjoyed in this book was the gorgeous cover by Julie Bell.
It took me forever to finish Indigo Springs because I had no interest in reading it after a while, but I forced myself to continue... which happened really slowly. As a matter of fact, I took a couple of breaks in between chapters to read some passages from Ovid's Metamorphoses and a handful of chapters from Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart. In the end, I did return to Indigo Springs and suffered through its pages until the torture was over.
There is a sequel in the works I will make sure I don't buy.

T is for Trespass
The best book I read this month hands down, and one of the best books I've read this year. I told you all about it yesterday, so go enjoy my musings there.

Other than that, I have been reading Kushiel's Dart, which is also very slow-paced in the beginning, and ridiculously long. I am on page 500, and the book has over 900 pages, but now it's getting more and more interesting, so maybe I'll be able to finish it faster than I thought. At any rate, I hope December brings a lot more books!

Reading List: October

Well, October was packed with comic books and manga and not so many books. I guess I'll have to read more books than graphic novels over the next couple of months if I want to bring up my total for the year. At any rate, this is what I read this month:

--> S is for Silence
Another Kinsey Millhone adventure by Sue Grafton, it took me longer than usual to get into the groove of the story, but once I got there, I enjoyed the book immensely. The bad news is that there is only one more book out on paperback, and after that I'll have to wait for a year before I can read the next one!

Locke & Key, vol. 2: Head Games
Another mindbending tale written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez. I think I liked the first volume better, but that doesn't mean this one wasn't all sorts of awesome, because it was.

Transformers: Stormbringer The artwork by Don Figueroa was amazing. I could just stare at every single panel for hours, and I would find new details every three seconds. This, my friends, is how the Transformers are supposed to be drawn. Unfortunately, the story by Simon Furman was boring and derivative (an enemy from the past so powerful everyone has to work together to destroy!), which is a shame, because the visuals are out of this world.

Assassin’s Creed Limited Edition Art Book What a coincidence that I found out about this book at the same time I was replaying the game. needless to say, I bought it immediately and read it pretty quickly. It is a comprehensive look at the making of the game, yet I wish there was more. Then again, even if the book was twice as long, I'd still be clamoring for more. If you love the game like I do, then you must buy this book, simple as that.

I Shudder This book is a collection of essays and stories by Paul Rudnick, the man who wrote In & Out and Addams Family Values. I thought the book would deal with Hollywood and screenwriting, but it doesn't, and I was therefore disappointed. The book is entertaining, and the "I Shudder" chapters are pretty hilarious, but, overall, I didn't like this book as much as I was hoping.

The Goon, vol. 9: Calamity of Conscience It took me so long to read volumes 7 and 8 that volume 9 came out and I had just finished the previous two. This volume closes the story arc that started in book 7, and it is dark and grim and depressing. At the same time, it is a great read, and I have to tell you guys once again to start reading Eric Powell's phenomenal series. Knife to the eye!

Wolverine: Old Man Logan As I said before, I liked the story, but I hate Marvel for putting it out the way they did. Still, definitely worth reading.

Nightmares & Fairy Tales, vol. 4: Dancing with the Ghosts of Whales
I bought this TPB written by Serena Valentino and drawn by Camilla D'Errico, and while it was whimsy and weird and mostly enjoyable, it really wasn't anything to write home about. Plus, I thought the book would benefit from a more polished and finished look.

Bastard!!, vol. 1
The first volume in Kazushi Hagiwara's series, Bastard is funny but sort of a one-trick pony. I liked it, but I am happy I borrowed it from a friend instead of paying for it.

The Titan’s Curse
The third book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, it took me a while to really get into the story (kind of like what happened to me with S is for Silence). Once I did, though, the book was a lot of fun, and I certainly enjoyed the second half!

Tag & Bink Were Here
I reread the silly adventures of Tag and Bink before I let a friend borrow them, and they still made me laugh. Kevin Rubio's script is funny, and Lucas Marangon artwork is just right for the story. Hilarious!

Battle Angel Alita
For the last century or so, James Cameron has been saying he wants to turn Yukito Kishiro hit manga into a movie. I don't know if that will ever happen, but having watched the first season of Dark Angel, which Cameron produced, I can see lots of common elements. The book was fun, but I think I would enjoy the movie version much better.

Bastard!!, vols. 2- 5
If the first volume felt a bit repetitive, imagine how I felt after I finished the fifth one.

American on Purpose I already told you how much fun I had with Craig Ferguson's autobiography, so just go ahead and buy it!

The Walking Dead, vol. 9: Here We Remain I hadn't read Robert Kirkman's incredibly successful book in a while, and I found volume 9 as fun and grim as the previous installments in the series. Great writing, but I'm still not a fan of the artwork.

The Walking Dead, vol. 10: What We Become Yet more horrible things happen to the main characters. And I hear they're turning the book into a TV show, so we'll see how that turns out.

Uncanny X-Men: Lovelorn Part of my X-Men marathon, I'll tell you more about it soon. For the time being, suffice it to say that I enjoyed it.

Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood
Not as good as Lovelorn, yet still enjoyable. More on that soon.

Utopia
The Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover was fun to read, but I wish Dodson would have drawn everything and not just the X-Men issues. As a matter of fact, I think Dodson should draw pretty much every comic on the planet. I think I need to get some original artwork by him!

The Battle of the Labyrinth The fourth book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, it was also great fun to read, and it probably was my favorite in the series along with the first one. The problem is that now I have to wait for the last volume to come out in paperback next year, because it just came out in hardcover. I'll have to find other books to keep me entertained until then.

And that's if for this month. Only two left before the year's over, and then, I get to choose my favorites for the year. Stay tuned!

Reading List: September

I read five really cool books this month, and I sprinkled that literary goodness with some entertaining manga and a bunch of amazing Goon pages. This is what I read in September:

Hellsing, volumes 1 and 2
A friend let me borrow this popular manga by Kohta Hirano that I had never read before, and it was a lot of fun. Hellsing is ridiculously gory and violent, and the mixture of vampires, religious agents, and over the top action is a lot of fun.

Smoke and Mirrors
This is a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, and I loved almost all of them. Gaiman is incredibly good at mixing everyday life with magic and the supernatural, and this book was a blast. If you've never read anything by the British author, take a look at these tales. I highly recommend them!

Hellsing, volumes 3 and 4
These were the last two volumes I read because my friend Brock didn't have any more. Once again, Hellsing proved to be a fun read, and now I want more!

R is for Ricochet
Kinsey Millhone returns in her eighteenth adventure, which is, like her previous seventeen outings, terrific fun to read. Can Sue Grafton do no wrong? I certainly hope so!

The Lightning Thief
This is the first book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and I loved it. The author mixes Greek mythology and modern-day characters deftly and manages to weave a past-paced tale of adventure, fantasy, friendship, and betrayal. Like the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Percy Jackson's adventures are intended for a younger audience, but adults will enjoy them as much as the target audience. As a matter of fact, the movie based on this book (the first of five) opens in February, and you can see the trailer here. If the film is half as good as the book, it will still be great!

El juego del ángel
Carlos Ruiz Zafón's follow-up to his massive hit La sombra del viento, El juego del ángel is as much of a compulsive read as his previous bestseller. The ending of this one is more open than La sombra del viento, and you might want to talk to your friends about what their interpretation is. Regardless of what you decide happened in the end, it doesn't really change the fact that El juego del ángel is a magnificently written story with phenomenal dialogue and great characters, and that you will love every single page. So go read it, and then come back and offer your insights!

The Sea of Monsters
The second book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Sea of Monsters is as much fun as The Lightning Thief was. Heavy on mythology, there are many echoes from The Odyssey all throughout the novel, and its fast-pace and non-stop action make its 280 pages a superfast read. I already bought the third one!

The Goon, vol. 7: A Place of Heartache and Grief
Eric Powell's The Goon is back, and this seventh volume is chock-full of quotable lines, dark humor, obscene violence, and laugh-out-loud scenes. At the same time, this book is really messed up, and some parts, such as the incendiary criticism of Oprah and The Secret will leave your jaw unhinged. You must read his book!

The Goon, vol. 8: Those That is Damned
More Goon goodness in this grammatically-challenged volume eight of Eric Powell's fantastic comic book. How could you not love characters like Franky? How could you not die laughing when he explains that karma is "when somebody tries to rip you off and ends with a knife to the eye"? How could you not be reading this book?

And that's what I read this month. Come back in thirty days for more (hopefully) great reads!

Reading List: August

It feels like just the other day I came back from San Diego and wrote the list for July, but another month has gone by, and I have read some more books. Let’s see what I feasted on in August:

Empowered, vol. 5
Yet another fun entry in this hilarious series by Adam Warren. I actually got this volume signed by the author at the San Diego Comic Con, and while it wasn’t as awesome as volume four, it was still a terrific read.

Mandy’s Shorts
This book by Dean Yeagle is divided into three short stories starring Mandy, Yeagle’s prone-to-lose-her-clothes heroine. The artwork is phenomenal, and the stories are terribly cute, and I will certainly buy more books by the author. I also met him in San Diego, and he signed the book for me and drew a quick head sketch while we chatted about his visit to Valencia many years ago. A great read!

Q is for Quarry
Yet another Kinsey Millhone adventure by Sue Grafton, Q is for Quarry is actually based on an unsolved case. Grafton takes the known facts and takes them in a completely imagined direction that actually makes sense and also makes for a thoroughly entertaining read. Go Kinsey!

The Pillars of the Earth
I already gushed about how incredibly brilliant Ken Follett’s novel is. Go read it. Now.

Remote, vols. 1 through 7
A friend wanted to read this manga series by Seimaru Amagi and Tetsuya Koshiba, and I decided to re-read it so I could actually talk about it with her. (Needless to say, I had forgotten pretty much everything except for how much I liked it.) And I am pleased to say Kurumi’s adventures are as much fun the second time around as they were the first time!

The Wheel of Darkness
Another Pendergast adventure by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, The Wheel of Darkness takes place after The Book of the Dead, the third and last book in the “Diogenes Trilogy”. As it’s usually the case with Preston and Child, this novel is a non-stop rollercoaster of a thriller, and I certainly recommend it to any fan of the genre, even though the ending was a bit weak.

Remote, vols. 8 through 10
The last three volumes of this fun series, I read them quickly and I enjoyed them a lot. Just like the previous seven.

And that’s it for August. I only read three novels, but the fact that The Pillars of the Earth is a thousand pages long compensates for it. At least in my mind. See you in September!

Reading List: July

I didn't think this was going to happen, but I ended up reading a lot this month. I doubted this would be the case because I spent July traveling, first to Spain and then to San Diego, and I was surrounded by people all the time. However, I managed to find some time to read while hanging out with friends and family in Spain, and then books came in handy in San Diego when I had to wait in line for hours to get into the notorious Hall H. But let's see what I read this month.

P is for Peril
Yet another outstanding Kinsey Millhone adventure by Sue Grafton, I can only recommend P is for Peril the same way I've been doing with every book in the series. Go Kinsey!

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
This collection of essays by David Sedaris is very funny and kept me entertained on the plane while I was flying over the Atlantic Ocean. If you're looking for some humorous nonfiction, give Sedaris a try. I don't think you'll regret it!

Bringing Down the House
This book by Ben Mezrich became the movie 21 last year. The subtitle of the book, The inside story of six MIT students who took Vegas for millions pretty much says it all. The book tells the story of the MIT Blackjack Team, and what happened to them. Needless to say, I rented the movie on DVD immediately after I finished this very enjoyable book, but I think I'll save those comments for another day. I know, I know: I'm shameless.

Territorio comanche
The Arturo Pérez-Reverte novella that made the Spanish author several enemies, Reverte uses Territorio comanche to tell the reader what it feels like to be a reporter in the middle of a war. The author spent countless years as a war correspondent, and you can see there is no fiction in this book but true stories instead, several tales and events and musings and horror Reverte got to experience first hand. There is also I movie I've never seen, but the book is all sorts of good.

Corazón tan blanco
Spanish author Javier Marías explores marriage and secrets in this great book. He talks about what could have been, what will never be, what could be, and what will be. He talks about knowing when you'd be better off not knowing, and how the things we don't know about people are as important (if not more) as the things we do know. Sounds confusing? Well, Marías tends to pack lots of ideas in his novels, and he does so with pervasive symmetry, melancholy, and beautiful prose, and I usually find it difficult to summarize his stories. Therefore, instead of reading what I have to say about his work, go ahead and buy one of his books. Or three. Or seven.

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite
I had read all sorts of positive reviews about The Umbrella Academy, a comic book written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Ba. I had kept away from the book because the artwork looked very Mignola-esque, and that is a style I don't particularly care for. However, a friend had bought it and insisted I borrowed it, so I read the whole thing in one sitting, and came to the expected conclusion: while I enjoyed the story, the artwork simply didn't speak to me. So, if you like this style of illustration and you enjoy retro-flavored sci-fi, do not hesitate and check out this book. If, on the other hand, you don't find the pictures all that appealing, find a friend who owns the book and check it out. You've got nothing to lose, right?

20th Century Ghosts
A collection of short stories by Joe Hill, 20th Century Ghosts is packed with excellent tales by the New Englander. There are some scary stories, some melancholy stories, some unexpectedly touching stories, and some weird stories, but I didn't find a single tale I didn't like. Reading this book felt like watching a season of Amazing Stories: you knew you were going to find something off-kilter in every single story, but you never knew exactly what you were going to find. Would it be dark and creepy? Humorous? Plain unsettling? Check out this book and find out for yourself!

Mortadelo y Filemón: ¡… Y van 50 tacos!
This comic book came out last year, and it celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the incredibly popular characters created by Spanish cartoonist Francisco Ibáñez. I hadn't read anything by him in a really long time, and I found this book truly hilarious. A great purchase!

I Love You, Beth Cooper
Larry Doyle used to write for The Simpsons and then decided to write a humorous novel, a book which has just been turned into a movie starring Hayden Panettiere, of Heroes fame. ILBC takes place on graduation night, a night that keeps making unexpected turns, especially if you are Denis Cooverman, the main character of the book and the one who professes his love for Beth Cooper in his graduation speech right in front of hundreds of people. This declaration will keep coming back to haunt him all night long, and will bring with it other, more lethal friends. I read most of it on the flight back from Spain to the JFK airport, and I laughed so much I can't wait to see the movie, which will almost certainly disappoint me. I'll keep you updated.

El club Dumas
I had actually read this novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte when I was in High School, and I had such fond memories of the book that I made the potential mistake of reading it again. Fortunately, I loved it as much as I did the first time, and I can therefore recommend it to everyone. El club Dumas mixes reality and fiction, The Three Musketters with different characters and events, and keeps the reader guessing as to what's going to happen next. The main character, a book hunter named Lucas Corso, is tremendously appealing, and his efforts to figure out what's going on and how the many different pieces of the puzzle fit together are great fun to read about. Besides, this book kept me company while I was in line at the San Diego Comic Con for hours on end, so I have that extra something to be grateful for. Go buy this book!

And that's it for July. Come back in a month to find out what I read in August!

Reading List: June

Ah, summer vacation. It’s so easy to read when you have nothing else to do… And to compensate for last month’s lackluster choices, June has been packed with cool books and comic books.

The Sword, vol. 1: Fire
The new series by the Luna brothers is as riveting as their previous efforts (the incredible Ultra and the extremely entertaining Girls). Just like it happened with the aforementioned books, I enjoyed the compelling story and the great dialogue a lot more than the artwork, but the visuals are still good enough. All in all, The Sword is shaping up to be another amazing series!

Avengers: The Initiative, vol. 1: Basic Training
Avengers: The Initiative, vol. 2: Killed in Action
Avengers: The Initiative, vol. 3: Secret Invasion
My friend Brock let me borrow these books written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage, and drawn by a variety of artists. The best penciller is, by far, Stefano Caselli, whose dynamic and incredibly expressive style is nothing short of spectacular. The story itself is entertaining, but I wish more characters that die stayed dead forever. And yes, I understand this is a Marvel comic and people are therefore going to come back from the dead, but I think this crutch is doing the book a disservice, seeing as the premise for The Initiative lends itself to introduce new characters on every issue if need be. Basically, The Initiative is the book in which new superheroes go to boot camp to train and get their license to use their powers. So, if this is the training grounds for superpeople, you can kill as many characters as you want and keep bringing new ones into the book. The KIA story arc is lots of fun, and lot of people die. Then, when you find out that well, all of those heroes actually kind of survived, it certainly diminishes the impact the story had. But maybe I’m just weird.

Proven Guilty
The eighth book in The Dresden Files series, I already talked about how awesome it is here.

Victory of Eagles
The long anticipated fifth installment in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, I wrote about what a great book this is just yesterday.

Harley Quinn: Preludes and Knock-Knock Jokes
Harley Quinn’s adventures as written by Karl Kesel and drawn by the great Terry Dodson are more fun and less silly than I thought they would be. Dodson’s artwork is superb, and he draws a very dynamic, very round (in all the right places), and extremely cute Harley Quinn. Kesel’s stories are entertaining, and I like his alliterations and plays on words. The only problem is that pretty much every character uses both puns and alliterations when speaking, resulting in every character sharing the same voice. I think it would have been better if only, say, Harley, spoke like that. When you have everyone doing the same thing, it just doesn’t ring true. Still, this trade is a very entertaining read!

X23: Target X
Written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, this is the second X-23 miniseries, and it is a lot of fun. Kyle and Yost know how to tell a compelling story and how to write true-to-life dialogue, and when you combine this with the jaw-dropping artwork of Mike Choi and Sonya Oback, the result is a terrific read.

White Night
The ninth book in The Dresden Files series, I already told you why you should read it here.

The Collection
I had already read six novels by Bentley Little, and I was understandably curious about this book of short stories. The Collection features thirty-two tales by the horror author, and I would be hard pressed to find one I didn’t like. The subject matter is usually shocking and disturbing, and even though Little’s prose is not exactly beautiful, his stories pack a good punch, and I couldn’t help but keep reading them one after another. If you like horror, you should check out this book.

The Sword, vol. 2: Water
The second volume of this awesome series by The Luna brothers is more action oriented, as Dara faces one of the big three. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

And that's it for June. Let's see what I manage to read in my travels next month. Probably not as much, but whatever I read will hopefully be as good as what I read this month. Enjoy!

Reading List: May

May has turned out to be a lackluster month in terms of the books I’ve read. I didn’t dislike any of them, but except for the Kinsey Millhone adventures, these month’s novels left me quite indifferent. Let’s see what I read…

Laura Rider’s Masterpiece

In this book by Jane Hamilton, the Laura Rider of the title engineers an affair between her husband and another woman so she can study it and write about it in the novel she is planning on writing. I thought it sounded perilously like chick-lit, but I also thought it was an interesting premise. As it turned out, it was more the former than the latter, but at least it was mercifully short.

Girls, vol. 1: Conception

Girls, vol. 2: Emergence

Girls, vol. 3: Survival

Girls, vol. 4: Extinction

I read the first volume of this bizarre story by the Luna brothers back in 2006, and when I bought volume two the following year, I reread the first trade to remember what the whole thing was about. Well, two years after reading the second chapter in the series, I finally bought volumes three and four, and proceeded to read the whole thing from beginning to end. And what I said before still holds true: Girls is a strange sci-fi and horror story about small-town people, their pettiness, and how they deal with each other when an unexpected catastrophe shakes their world. I don’t want to give too much away, because a lot of the joy of the book lies in figuring out what is going on, but I will say that the dialogue and the personalities of the different characters are pretty awesome, and the characters feel real and are a great example of the way people react to crises. You could certainly do worse than reading this weird but fun saga.

Gears of War: Aspho Fields

I’m not sure I can blame author Karen Traviss for what this story turned out to be. There are two stories being told in this book. One, in the past, deals with events that took place long before the first Gears of War game. The second one, in the present, happens in between the two games. And still, not much is told or revealed in either one. My guess is that Traviss had her hands tied because the people at Epic didn’t want her to reveal some information that will ostensibly be revealed in the third game of the series, and that made it very difficult to do pretty much anything. Still, the story is entertaining, and the characters feel like the ones I know and love from the game, but the fact that this book was so irrelevant made me a little angry.

N is for Noose

Leave it to Sue Grafton to provide some solid entertainment with her awesome alphabet mysteries starring private eye Kinsey Millhone. Good old Kinsey experiences the joys of a close-knit community that doesn’t want to give up their secrets in this chapter of the series, and, as it’s usually the case, the book is a fun ride from beginning to end.

O is for Outlaw

I actually started reading The Company (see below) before I got to O is for Outlaw, but halfway through the book I had to put it down and read something that was actually entertaining before I felt I could continue reading Parker's story. Enter Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, and all my fictional woes were suddenly gone. A shame I keep reading faster than Grafton writes, since I'll run out of books to read soon!

The Company

If I said that Aspho Fields was irrelevant, then K.J. Parker’s The Company is as pointless (if not more so) as Traviss’s book. I enjoyed Parker’s Engineer trilogy, but I know s/he (“K.J. Parker" is a pseudonym, and it’s not clear whether the author is a man or a woman) likes to keep a slow pace throughout her novels and sometimes offer excruciating details that are not all that relevant. Still, since this was a standalone novel, I thought the author wouldn’t have too much time to digress and regale the reader with pointless information. And while that is mostly true, the whole book is pretty pointless in and on itself. I won’t reveal what the story is about, but once I finished it I realized it hadn’t really done anything for me. The characters weren’t very compelling and, silly as this may sound coming from a fantasy buff like me, their names were so freaking strange that it was hard for me to feel close to them or even know who they were without having to stop and think about it for a couple of seconds. In the end, I just kept reading, and while the story is somewhat interesting and the moral ambiguity of the main character, General Kunessin, is, as it tends to be the case with Parker’s “heroes”, fascinating, it is not enough to overcome the dullness of the whole thing. At least it’s only four hundred pages.

And that's it for this month. Come back in thirty days to see what I read in June. I can only hope it will be more rewarding than what I chose this time!

Reading List: April

This is the month I finished drawing Worlds Collide, so the number of books I read went up quickly after I was done with the comic book. Let's see what I read in April.

L is for Lawless
Another fun Kinsey Millhone adventure by Sue Grafton, the alphabet mysteries are super quick (and super fun) reads. Highly recommendable!

In a Sunburned Country
I reread this book by Bill Bryson, and I ended up thinking what I thought the first time around: I want to visit Australia. Hilarious and very informative, now I know to watch out for the taipan snake, the funnel web spider, and the all-time champ, the box jellyfish. (Just the deadliest creature on Earth.) And seeing how warm Australia is, maybe I should consider moving there despite the many and equally horrible ways to die that lurk in the shadows of this mesmerizing country.

Dead Beat
The seventh book in The Dresden Files, this novel by Jim Butcher is yet another winning entry in the series. More about it soon!

M is for Malice
Kinsey Millhone is back, and this time she has to deal with a family and their long-lost brother. And lots of malice, obviously. Fun!

Locke & Key
An amazing graphic novel by writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez, this trade is a great read. This is Joe Hill's first comic book, and it is as creepy and suspenseful as his novel Heart-Shaped Box. As for the artwork, Rodriguez knocks it out of the park illustrating this dark, twisted tale in gorgeous detail. You really want to check out this book!

The Darkness Compendium
I've been working my way through this huge trade since January, and I finally finished it. The reason it took me so long is twofold. On the one hand, is is thicker than the phonebook. On the other hand, it was slow work because --well, because it's not very good. The story was mediocre at best, and spectacularly uninteresting for the most part. The best issues were the first six, the original series written by Garth Ennis and Marc Silvestri. After that, you really don't need to read the remaining thirty-four issues. Regarding the artwork, it is consistently solid, with issues drawn by Silvestri, Joe Benitez, Billy Tan, David Finch, Clarence Lansang, and a beginning Clayton Crain (there's even an issue drawn by Nash's beloved Brett Booth), but after all the hard work I've been doing recently regarding storytelling, I was surprised to see that, for the most part, the pictures were pretty, but the storytelling was poor in most cases. I am not saying my storytelling is better than theirs, but I've been thinking about storytelling and sequentials a lot for the past six months, and this made what I consider bad storytelling really obvious and hard to ignore in this book. I found it very surprising, but I guess it helped me learn what not to do. And I don't want to sound snooty here, but having read Locke & Key while I was reading The Darkness made matters even worse: after having been blown away by Gabriel Rodriguez's storytelling and Joe Hill's well-crafted story, reading The Darkness was kind of a sad, lackluster experience by contrast. At least, I hear the current Darkness series written by Phil Hester is infinitely better, so maybe I'll get the first trade and keep supporting Top Cow.

And that's what I read this month. I have another good story about The Darkness (you'll like it), but I think it deserves a post of its own. Now I need to go back to what I'm reading right now so I can write about it next month. Have fun, and pick up Locke & Key!