Katelisim's 2015

Happy 2015 Everyone!

I'm back for another year. I think this is the 5th year as part of the 75ers group. The past 2 years I've been a bit quieter due to a very busy schedule, but I promise I still love you guys and will be chatty when I can!

Links
2014 Thread
2013 Thread
2012 Thread 1 and blog (which I fully intend on resurrecting soon)
My local book club

Completed
1. Your Emails Are Bad and You Should Feel Bad. by Cards Against Humanity
2. The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
3. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
4. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
5. Death Note Volume 1
6. Death Note Volume 2
7. Death Note Volume 3
8. Death Note Volume 4
9. Death Note Volume 5
10. Death Note Volume 6
11. Death Note Volume 7
12. Death Note Volume 8
13. Death Note Volume 9
14. Death Note Volume 10
15. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
16. Prometheus by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
17. Death Note Volume 11
18. Death Note Volume 12
19. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
20. Invader Zim #1
21. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
22. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
23. The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski
24. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
25. Invader Zim #2
26. Invader Zim #3
27. Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman
28. Invader Zim #4
29. Invader Zim #5
30. A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

To start with a bit of fun, here's 2014's Book Meme:

Describe yourself: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Describe how you feel: Glitch

Describe where you currently live: House of Leaves

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: World After

Your favorite form of transportation: The Phantom Tollbooth

Your best friend is: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

You and your friends are: Dream Thieves

What’s the weather like: Winter Garden

You fear: Blood Child

What is the best advice you have to give: Hyperbole and a Half

Thought for the day: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

How I would like to die: Supernatural Enhancements

My soul’s present condition: Angelfall

1. Your Emails Are Bad and You Should Feel Bad. by Cards Against Humanity

This is a fun 35 pages of the horrible Cards Against Humanity team replying to emails sent to them via their website. It was distributed as part of their Holiday Bulls**t promotion.

If you're not easily offended (and in fact like pushing boundaries), I would highly recommend the card game. Especially as a group party game for the later hours crowd.

Next book club read: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Gifted to myself for the holidays: White Cat by Holly Black, John Dies at the End by David Wong, and Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Happy new thread, Katie!

Having played Cards Against Humanity quite a bit, I can only imagine how awful/awesome their emails would be.

Welcome back!

Looking forward to seeing what you read in 2015!

Happy New Year, Katie!

Hi Katie! *Hugs* :)

Welcome back and I love your meme answers!

>3 katelisim: LOL! I'll definitely have to see if we have that one at work. So heartless. ;) Btw, happy new thread! :)

*Star!*

Thanks for stopping by everyone!

>Micky: You could always email them to find out ;)

>Ape: *Return Hugs*

>Sara: I'm guessing your library won't have the CAH book. It was part of a limited holiday promotion and just went out in the last week or two. You should totally get the game though. It's right up your alley. Bonus: it's creative commons, so you can print your own copy for free-ish (less the cost of paper/cardstock and ink).

Happy new year Katie!

>12 katelisim: I did clink on the think, but there's this catch: "Making a set will take an hour and cost about $10." :*( Oh well. I'll keep my eyes out for it anyway. Thanks! :)

(Somewhat belated) Happy New Thread!

2. The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
I enjoyed this quite a bit. Demons, archangels, half-breeds, vengeance, betrayal, and quite a bit of heart. I'm on a slow burn kick, so fittingly, this takes a while to get "exciting" in the heart pounding kind of way, mainly due to world and character building. Also, some trigger warnings for self-destruction/suicide, drugs/alcohol, and violence (cause, y'know, demons vs angels will inevitably have the latter).

3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Blue-haired Karou lives a double life in Prague: high school art student and errand girl for a chimera wish-monger who raised her. After scorched hand prints start appearing on the wish-monger's portal doors, Karou becomes part of a hidden war that has raged for over a century and finds out truths that change her reality.

This was a book club read. I greatly enjoyed the first half. The second half had a very looooooooong flashback that I was torn about. Yes, it's intriguing and fits the story and yes, it's info we need to find out. But it was like 80 pages of flashback. It's a novella of flashback. And about 5 pages after we snap back to the present, the book ends. Honestly, I don't think I would've minded the extended flashback if the book didn't essentially end with it.

This, coincidentally, ended up being my 4th in a row with battle-hardened angels. All very different though. This one stands out with some very interesting tidbits from the 'enemy's' side, the chimera, and their society. I was especially intrigued by the wish-mongers business: buying teeth with wishes, and the relationships between the characters brought together by that shop.

I'll be picking up the sequel. I'm quite curious how Karou moves forward after her discoveries that finished this one.

hmm.. I've got that one on my list. :) Great review.

I hope you enjoy it when you get around to it. I hear it was quite the popular title when it came out.

I picked up the 2nd book from the library, but have only had time to read the first chapter that's like 2 pages long, lol. It was very funny -- quite the stark difference from the serious ending of the first book. Very enjoyable opening for a sequel :)

Good :) Looking forward to it.

Quick updates!

--I co-hosted a convention last weekend (and is a huge part of why there's been a reading drought). All went smoothly and was a ton of fun!

--Daughter of Blood & Starlight was put on the back burner to get to my book club reads, which are. . .

--The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (about 80ish pages in, and I'm really enjoying it so far)

--The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Updates:

--Finished The 5th Wave. 3 Stars. Review is written for mah frand's bloggy. Should go up sometime soon-ish and I'll link to it.

--About 330 pages into The Bone Clocks.

--Night Circus has been picked for an upcoming book club

--Manga ahoy! The full series of Death Note (12 volumes) was picked for other book club. That'll buff up my book numbers, lol.

>22 katelisim: That is so cool Death Note was picked! :) You guys should finish with watching the movies.

I've own the movies! At least the first two, anyway. I haven't seen the one about L. Watched the anime too forever ago when it used to be on tv :)

>24 katelisim: Too cool! :) I've only seen the first one and the one about L (avoid that one; it's pretty bad). I haven't watched the anime, so I'll have see if we have that one at work. Thanks! :)

Review of The 5th Wave is up here.

I've made it through the first 4 volumes of Death Note. The anime aligned pretty close (if not perfectly) so far. Though, I remember the anime feeling a bit more tense/suspenseful than the manga -- but maybe that's just because I didn't know what was gonna happen or that I watched it during high school.

Oh! AND I finished a video game-- South Park: The Stick of Truth! Which I absolutely adored. It's like Skyrim mixed with LotR, but instead of high fantasy, all the references/bosses/magic/etc is South Park related. Basically if you like SP, you'll like this game. If you don't like SP, you'll hate this game.

More productive than I thought I was, haha.

>26 katelisim: Congrats on getting through the first four Death Note books. :) The South Park game sounds like fun, even though I haven't played a video game in ages. I'm glad you liked it!

Up through volume 10 of Death Note. We already had our book club meeting, but most of us didn't quite finish the series in time. (And since I saw the series, I already knew the ending). I still plan on finishing it up though :)

A few months ago, I signed up for LootCrate to try it out. This past month included a Bravest Warriors comic book. Looooove the animated series, so I'm excited to read this!

Finished another video game too. Puzzle Agent. It's Telltale Games' first project set in the Grickle world by Graham Annable. Point and click adventure / puzzle game that's very reminiscent of Fargo (as a Minnesotan, can confirm the game hit some solid regional affectations and oddities). Not the best puzzler I've played, but perhaps one of the quirkiest.

>28 katelisim: Woo hoo! 10 down; only a few more until you're done. :) Btw, I checked out the Death Note series, and I saw something called Death Note Black Edition. Is that just a different cover or an entirely different series? Oh, and how did the book club meeting go? I'm guessing not everyone was into the series, because mangas/graphic novels are generally super fast reads.

Showing my ignorance once again: what's LootCrate? I hope the comic book for Bravest Warriors is as good as the animated series. :)

Hmm, I can't say I've heard of any of those video games. And I'm surprised Fargo has a video game! Is it based on the movie or the TV series? Or both?

The Black Edition is a mini omnibus. That page has regular manga versions of 1 and 2. So same content, fewer overall books.

LootCrate is a subscription service that sends a themed box of nerdy stuff every month (you can go month-to-month or buy prepay several months). Last month was "Unite" which featured Bravest Warriors, Rick & Morty, Avengers, and Power Rangers items. The month before was "Fantasy" and featured Harry Potter, Princess Bride, D&D, and Game of Thrones items. The crates are pretty solid value-wise (around $20/month w/shipping), as long as the theme appeals to you.

Whoops! Might've worded the game description a little wonky. Fargo doesn't have a game (as far as I know). Puzzle Agent just has a very Fargo feel with the dry, quirky, and northern Midwest humor. You play as an agent from the Puzzle Research Division of the FBI who is sent to investigate an eraser factory that supplies the White House after they begin communicating via puzzles.

>30 katelisim: Oh, gotcha! Thanks for clearing that up for me. :)

That does sound interesting. Thanks for the LootCrate link; I'll have to check out their site.

No worries. I just assumed you were comparing the game to another game (Fargo's). :) Puzzle Agent does sound like fun, though, because I loved Fargo's humor.

If you're in the mood to try it out, Puzzle Agent is only $5 on Steam or the Humble Bundle store. I snagged it while on sale for $1 (also got the sequel and Jurassic Park on sale at the same time for a total of $8 -- all older games by the now super popular Telltale Games).

I bought the Telltale Jurassic Park game on PSN recently for something like 80 cents. I've played the first couple of chapters and it's nothing compared to their more recent works, but it's not completely terrible. Kind of. :)

I haven't played it yet, but I know that Telltale definitely took a few games to find they're stride. I'm just so on the JP hype train right now for the new movie (and I love all the movies anyway) :D

Yeah, me too! If I had the money, I'd totally pre-order the LEGO Jurassic World game. I'm super psyched for that. But I'll probably have to wait a year before I can pick it up for an affordable price. :(

I'll almost certainly see the movie in theaters though. I was such a huge fan of the originals ones as a child!

Dang! I didn't even know they were making that! I'll prolly try to snag it on a steam sale.

I'll def see it in theaters. I've seen them all in theaters so far -- even the 20yr anniversary. Can't break that tradition, haha. Though I'll most likely go on $5 Tuesday :)

Yep, and LEGO Jurassic World will cover all 4 movies too! All the screenshots on Amazon are from the first movie, and it looks great! :)

IT'S ADORABLE! AND I WANT IT NOW!
*keep it together, Katie, keep it together*

Yep, that is exactly how I feel. :)

15. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, 4 Stars
An interesting and unconventional tale. I don't really have a good way of explaining it well. Not even sure what genre to call it -- it's a bit literary fiction, fantasy, mystery, magical realism, with a dash of dystopia. Some sections could've been shorter. If the description sounds interesting to you, give it a read.

16. Prometheus by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This was the Project Gutenberg version that was free in the iBook store. It was in a play format and ran about 50 iPhone 4-sized pages. Also, completely in German. I already knew the gist of the story, but can't really say it became clearer here -- I only understood maybe 1/4 of the actual sentences, haha. Learned some new German words that I had trouble pronouncing, but didn't really look up any unknowns that I could pronounce. Was just in a foreign sounds mood today, not learning, if that makes any sense.

17. - 18. Death Note volumes 11 and 12
Which concludes the series.



19. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
There's the old folklore and fairy tales about changelings -- children from the not-quite-human side of things being swapped for human counterparts. The reasons why vary from story story. In Yovanoff's The Replacement, the main character Mackie is one of the rare changelings to survive into his teens in a town that steadfastly refuses to acknowledge any oddities to itself. Of course this means Mackie has to work really hard to mask his allergy to steel & iron, as well as do everything not to be noticed. But he is forced to navigate his dangerous and hidden heritage when mysterious monsters start showing up and the latest swapped human's sister refuses to accept the status quo.

>42 katelisim: Love the cover for that one. :)

Sara: That's definitely one of the things that drew me to it :D

>44 katelisim: I don't blame you. It's awesome! :) For some reason, I think I've seen another cover like that one, but maybe I'm thinking of A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore or Pubert's crib in Addams Family Values. *shrugs* Either way, I love it. I wish they turned book covers into posters, or bookmarks even.

20. Invader Zim by Jhonen Vasquez
One of my favorite-est tv shows was cancelled many moons ago. Fandom was so great that t-shirts and other products were continually produced. Then it happened: a new story was to be released, not on tv, but in comic form. And my need for quirky, dark humor wrapped in adorable-ness can be fulfilled once again.

Only wish the comic was longer. . . .

21. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Dystopia fantasy. Quite enjoyable. Read it in half a day. Protagonist finds out she can control electricity and the weather gods saw fit to send a huge thunderstorm with TONS of lightning while I read the final battle. Perfectly timed and totally not a coincidence ;)

Hi! I'm here to lurk for book recommendations a little bit as I get my LT thread-watching groove back under my feet. :)

Hi Melissa! Find anything that landed on the tbr?

Not a ton of books on the list so far this year, but I hope it helped you find a new read :)

22. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
This.... is actually quite different than what I imagined when I read the synopsis. I was expecting a much stronger tie to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a la American McGee's super creepy video game.

While I see the similarities in certain scenes, it definitely has more of a contemporary YA approach to everything -- including a few conventions that I'm a bit over, like insta-supernatural-lusty-attraction, teenage drama, and a brief love triangle. Luckily I read this when completely exhausted from a looooong couple weeks at work, so I was much less bothered than usual, and in the mood for some serious fluff, haha.

I am fascinated by Showalter's take on zombies though. It's completely different than any I've read. There was definitely substance at the beginning and end.... just got lost in teen sillyness there for a while. I'll be reading the sequels from the library at some point.

The red queen is on my list. :) Truthfully I am trying to find more books that I can get on audio. I am quickly realizing with the amount of cross-stitching I am doing that I am quickly going to run out of the audiobook side of my TBR list while I'm staying in Africa. So I've been rushing around trying to increase the list. And since I no longer have a physical library to visit I've had to do it the long way, looking for recommendations based off of books I've read and liked. Luckily I've found quite a few now and feel better. Red Queen is one of those on audio. :)

That makes sense. I haven't listened to any audio books. I got a Terry Pratchett audio from the library once.... but the disc had been badly scratched, so that failed miserably.

Do you listen to podcasts? One that I highly recommend is Welcome to Night Vale. It's done in the style of a small town's public radio... but this town is filled with strange and mysterious happenings. Episodes are around half an hour. And they are coming out with a book in the next month or two. Which I'm super stoked to get :)

I've never listened to podcasts, no. Never thought about it actually. But I might checked out Welcome to Night Vale. A story is story, no matter it's format :)

My full review for Alice in Zombieland is up!

Sounds like a good book!

23. The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski

At about an hour, this was a much quicker read than I anticipated. My previous Danielewski books were tomes that feel like labyrinths, with text formatting that borders on the maniacal (but that I adore). T50YS includes a much milder foray into creative formatting -- which probably reflects that this is a re-release+ from an extremely limited project years ago.

It feels like a verbal folk tale transcribed into long-form poetry. While disorienting during the first few pages, I ended up really enjoying it, though I can see how it would remain difficult and confusing for some readers.

Totally recommend. If you're not used to experimental novels/weird format, this is a much easier read than his other works and would be a great library-check-out-intro to the format.

And yes, although tricky to see in the pic, the book jacket is textured :)

>56 katelisim: Wow, so that one's not the size of a textbook? I'm shocked! ;) I haven't read any of his books, but I did notice how experimental his writing is. One of the books I flipped through, there were pages of foreign text, not to mention just random, all-over-the-place words, like this. For book purists (sentences = paragraphs = pages = chapters, etc), he must give them the most headaches. :D I'm glad The Fifty Year Sword was worth it!

Haha, yeah. I love House of Leaves and quite enjoyed Only Revolutions but they are definitely not for everyone. Your example is from the Whalestoe Letters, which was included in the print version of HoL. Those specifically are written from a character who's in a mental institute and happens to be the mother of a main HoL character.... but he's not what you'd call a 'reliable narrator' so it could all be machinations of his own crazy mind. And that is just one example of why folks should ease their way in with T50YS, hahahaha.

I was wondering what excerpt that came from. Thanks! :) I haven't read any of his books, but I have eyeballed House of Leaves (I think the only book we have of his at our branch). Ooh, I like unreliable narrators, so I might get into that character. I've read a few books like that, and a lot of people bash books like that, but I tend to enjoy them. I'll definitely have to give Mark Z. Danielewski a go sometime. He's been on my radar for quite some time. I just think the size of his novels are what keep me from checking them out at work.

Not gonna lie -- HoL is a long, dense, complicated read. But I adore it. I think you'd like it as well. It's definitely one that you have to be in the right mood for and be prepared for it to be 1 week+ of time.

It also switches between characters -- it's essentially a story within a story within a story, or maybe more accurately, a narrative that inspired a story that deeply affected our poor unreliable narrator who may or may not be crazy. Story-wise, I have a feeling you'd really enjoy. I'm just always slightly hesitant to recommend cause of format and writing style (it's been a successful recommendation like 1/8th of the time).

Honestly, I've lost my ability to full-heartedly recommend it because of those odds :(

I'm pretty sure I'll take you up on the recommendation. But I have to make sure I have that free time to dedicate myself to that one book. I rarely have time to read as much as I'd like, so I'll say your 1 week will probably equal 1 month for me. ;) But he is still on my want-to-read list, even though I've heard varied reviews of his books. I've flipped through one or two of his books, and even though they're out there, I'd like to see where the stories go.

You'll have to let me know what you think when you get around to reading him. I've had some very good conversations around his stuff :)

24. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Finally got around to this one. I really enjoyed it, though it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

It definitely has a 'down the rabbit hole' and 'off to Neverland' vibe to it, but much less fantastical, and much more of an old-timey surrealness. Very intrigued on where the sequel goes and if it will keep its sense of wonder, or if it will take a darker turn towards a more typical dystopia.

25. - 26. Invader Zim #3-4

I actually read these earlier and just forgot to log them.



27. Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman

It was adorable. The only kid book I've read by Gaiman before this was The Graveyard Book (I did watch the Coraline movie though). All three of those have quite the range of feel, from curious and melancholy, to creepy, to whimsical, yet all very Gaiman. I'll definitely have to read his other children's pieces to see where they land on the scale.

*Hugs*

Hi Stephen!

>63 katelisim: & >64 katelisim: Awesome reads, as always! :)

I try ;P

Oh, almost forgot the books I just got!

The Familiar by Mark Z. Danielewski: I was coveting my brother's copy on Thanksgiving and I magically got it on Xmas, haha. It's funny too. He was a huge non-reader, and I got him into it with Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Daniewlewski's House of Leaves (which is a HUGE tome that should've intimidated him away). So this was a neat flip.

Only Superhuman by Christopher Bennett: Snagged at the Dollar store. They also had several copies of The Demon Trapper's Daughter that I highly considered buying to distribute and proselytize the series. And it still might happen, haha.

#28-29: Invader Zim #4-5

30. A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

This is a complementary novella of Ender's Game. It's set early in Ender's time at Battle School and mostly follows the character Zeck (but we do see Ender a bit, as well as Dirk). Zeck is an extremely religious pacifist forced into soldier training. He sticks to his beliefs, which doesn't earn him an easy time, especially since religious practices are banned. When a Sinterklaas inside joke is overlooked by the commanders, he sees it as his ticket home. But it just leads to Zeck being ostracized and a rebellion using Santa gifts as its weapon.

This did start heavy with the crazy religion, which worried me after seeing/hearing some of Card's personal beliefs. But after the first couple chapters, you get past the preaching (literally, in the form of Zeck's minister father) and return to more familiar Ender territory where religion exists and informs character's decisions but never becomes too preachy. HOWEVER, I think Card did do a disservice by only briefly involving non-Christian's involvement (Battle School is very diverse), though he may have been being cautious due to his reputation.

Overall, a pretty good dollar store find. I probably would feel less happy with it if I paid the original retail $15-ish though, since it's only 126 page....

Year-end meme!
This year's was actually quite difficult with only 15 real options (because of the multiple volumes) for the 14 items. Most of the answers either make the weirdest possibilities or don't make any sense at all without some questionable tie-in explanation, haha.

Describe yourself: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Describe how you feel: The Bone Clocks (Oy, the yo-yo-ing weather definitely has my joints feeling old, heh)

Describe where you currently live: Alice in Zombieland (I didn't fall down a hole to a land of zombies, but did have a lot of change this year)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Your favorite form of transportation: The Space Between (Ooooh, just think about it in terms of theoretical science, warping/folding the world's space so you just step right through it.... or like X-men's Nightcrawler travelling through a dimensional rift that's connected to all points of the world)

Your best friend is: Invader Zim (Or at least I wish I could be friends with Gaz and Gir)

You and your friends are: A War of Gifts (If only all arguments could be battled with nice and considerate gifts...)

What’s the weather like: The 5th Wave (it's been all sorts of weird progressions the last few months)

You fear: The Replacement (Bodysnatchers are a totes terrifying concept)

What is the best advice you have to give: Your Emails are Bad and You Should Feel Bad.

Thought for the day: Fortunately, the Milk (which we actually had today, so I could actually eat my cereal)

How I would like to die: The 50 Year Sword (I think this is more honorable than my other choice. Though Death Note is equally qualified and much more morbid sounding)

My soul’s present condition: Prometheus (I will metaphorically carry fire and light forward to 2016!)

>69 katelisim: Congrats on being your brother's dealer! ;) But better yet, congrats on your Christmas present. That was cool of him. *ahem* I mean, of Santa.

Those are awesome snags at the Dollar Store! :) Sometimes they have some amazing buys, and, of course, for super cheap.

>72 katelisim: Love it! :) Re: milk in your cereal, I learned from a friend's dad to use water instead of milk. o.0 It was kind of a weird, cheap trick I learned that I don't recommend passing on. :D And agreed: Death Note sounds morbid, though The 50 Year Sword sounds horrifying!

>72 katelisim: Those are great answers !

I wouldn't have guessed that you had a limited choices by your answers, Katie! :)