By Golly, Ollie!

  • This graphic novel failed a saving throw | Welcome to Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl

    This graphic novel failed a saving throw | Welcome to Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl

    I’m wouldn’t call myself a passionate fan of Batman, but ever since Jon introduced me to some of his favorite graphic novels of the Caped Crusader, I’ve been hooked. I’ve only read five Batman graphic novels so far, but that number is ever-growing, so when, I discovered my library had the first volume of Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl, I couldn’t resist it.

    There were two really great things about Gotham Academy:

    1. The artwork. Yet again I’ve discovered a graphic novel with beautiful art, scenery rich with detail, and characters that were incredibly stylish.
    2. Maps Mizoguchi. She’s the Dungeons and Dragons-loving, kid sister of Olive’s (our main character) ex-boyfriend. She’s chipper and vibrant and she has all the best nerdy lines referencing her favorite table top game.

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  • Book Blind Date | Shakespeare Undead by Lori Handleland

    Book Blind Date | Shakespeare Undead by Lori Handleland

    I’ve mentioned it before, but I go in “blind” with almost every book I borrow from the library. It encourages me to select books I never would have otherwise because of perceptions of a genre or a style. This was the case for Shakespeare Undead by Lori Handeland. I picked up this novel for two reasons:

    1. I needed spooky books for my October “horror” series, and well…this book does have “undead” right in the title.
    2. The book cover features Shakespeare with vampire fangs, and apparently that’s all the convincing I need.

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  • A Spooktacular Coffee Table Book | Dead Inside: Do Not Enter: Notes from the Zombie Apocalypse

    A Spooktacular Coffee Table Book | Dead Inside: Do Not Enter: Notes from the Zombie Apocalypse

    Dead Inside: Do Not Enter: Notes from the Zombie Apocalypse from The Lost Zombies Community

    Released: September 2011
    Publisher: Chronicle Books
    Add to Goodreads
    ★★★★
    Synopsis: Post Secret meets World War Z in this chilling vision of the fallout following a global zombie pandemic. A gradual mutation of a virulent strain of super flu gives rise to millions of the undead, who quickly overwhelm treatment facilities and swarm cities around the world, leaving survivors on their own against a legion of the infected. This chilling story is told through the scraps of paper, scrawled signs, and cryptic markers left by survivors as they struggle to stay alive and find those they ve lost in a world overrun by zombies. Through these found notes and messages letters to loved ones, journal fragments, confessions, and warnings readers can uncover the story of what went wrong, and come to know the individual voices of those affected by the zombie crisis.

    My Thoughts

    When I was a pre-teen, I was a horror novel fanatic. Each trip to the library, I would bring home a stack of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books or Give Yourself Goosebumps (a choose your own adventure series) and devour them in one sitting. I’m not sure if I burned myself out or what, but I drifted away from this beloved genre shortly after puberty, and I haven’t looked back since (with the exception of Rot & Ruin and Dearly, Departed). This season though, I felt particularly festive and brought home stacks of spooky novels and two bags of candy corn (mostly untouched at this point and no, I don’t know why I thought two bags of candy corn was necessary). Not all the books I read gave me the heebie-jeebies, but they all succeeded in making me feel excited to celebrate October. Of course, all the 31 days/13 days of Halloween specials on teevee help, too (ABC Family has Hocus-Pocus and Casper on heavy rotation at the end of October, in case you’re a fan).

    I was actually a little weary when I started this project. I’m such a moody reader, so I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to stick to my plan. Fortunately, my library book choices are usually a win. Plus, I had a diverse mix of novels/graphic novels/genres to keep me entertained. The first book I cracked open was Dead Inside: Do Not Enter. In my post title, I’ve called it a coffee table book, although I’m uncertain of the type of person that would feature this on their coffee table. I would say myself, but I don’t have a coffee table, so it just sort of sat on the floor until my next library visit. Goodreads calls it a graphic novel. It’s both? Anyone could be entertained as they flipped to random pages to find photographs of notes scrawled on napkins or cardboard scraps. Yet, the artwork in this book is sequential, and it does tell a grim and heartbreaking story about humanity falling apart one zombie bite at a time. This book contains artwork and inspiration from the Lost Zombies website– a social media site that encouraged users to set up a profile and upload audio, video, and photographs to contribute to the Lost Zombie timeline. Unfortunately, the Lost Zombies community is more dead than the antagonists in this book (ie. the website is defunct). Dead Inside: Do Not Enter was a fun read though, and although it is brief to the point where I almost felt guilty adding it to my Goodreads Challenge, it would be a spooktacular gift for the zombie lover in your life (even if they don’t have coffee tables).

    What are your favorite zombified books, games or movies?

  • Earl Grey Lavender Tea is a Fickle Fellow

    Earl Grey Lavender Tea is a Fickle Fellow

    During college, I had a waxing interest in the Steampunk subculture– not to the point where I wore Steampunk-inspired garb– but I did have a handful of Steampunk bands loaded onto my iPod. Abney Park was my favorite. I also frequented Steampunk blogs, and it was through them that I discovered a webcomic called Wondermark by David Malki !. The comic wasn’t really Steampunk, although it did make the occasional reference:

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  • Going to the Library with a Theme in Mind is Like Going on a Scavenger Hunt

    Going to the Library with a Theme in Mind is Like Going on a Scavenger Hunt

    I had better success reading through my last batch of library loot. I only returned one book unread– Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton. I think I knew the day I pulled the book from the library stacks that I probably wasn’t going to read it. The premise of the book sounded interesting enough– a boy enters a house he thought to be abandoned only to find twelve people sitting about, and they end up exchanging ghost stories– but honestly I only picked it because there were not that many YA novels that fell in to the horror genre.

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About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.