Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh- Review

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

I love Hyperbole and a Half's blog.. that's where I first discovered this great comic.  I saw some comics on depression and it sucked me in. Here is the goodreads description:

This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book: Pictures Words Stories about things that happened to me Stories about things that happened to other people because of me Eight billion dollars* Stories about dogs The secret to eternal happiness* *These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness! 

This is a really nice book. What I mean by that is that the pages are great quality!  Honestly I was surprised.. usually I get these books that are based off comics and the pages are black and white on just normal paper.  This book's pages are printed on nice glossy paper and full color! I also enjoyed that the comics are more then comics... there are the pictures of course with the art work but usually a long story to go with it.  This makes the book worth purchasing to me.  Sometimes I'll get a book that's from comics and I'll read it in 20 minutes and done... that is totally a book to get from the library.  This book was a wonderful evening full of reading.

I have really only seen positive reactions to this book and I think it's because the author writes about situations that we have all been through.  The art work alone makes people relate.  I think to myself... I could draw that same drawing and tell MY story (actually I couldn't draw this drawing but still). Brosh's comics on depression are so good.  Anyone who has had depression would understand.  She talks about not taking back a movie to the video store.  Standing there just staring at it as it sits on the chair... knowing she should take it back.  But when you are depressed things like that just don't matter anymore.  Does anyone really care if the movie goes back???  I love as she fights with her own mind about this.  She posted about depression one time on her blog and then didn't come back to her blog for a long time!!  Like 2 years I think.  Then came back and wrote another amazing post on depression again.

I also love Brosh's posts about her dogs.  I did read a review where the reviewer said the stories were fakes and just parables of human lives.  I disagree with this! She has a simple dog and a helper dog.  They are hilarious.  I have cats.. so I don't relate as well to the dog stories but I have known enough dogs to sort-of understand.  These are the thoughts of the two dogs:

I also learned that Brosh changed some of her drawing from blog to book.  This doesn't totally bother me but I would've just kept them the same. I do see why this was done though.  I would like to see all the differences between all the drawings.

I really enjoyed this book.  I already enjoyed the comic so was really happy to see it collected into a volume that someone could keep on a coffee table or in a guest bedroom.   Seriously go and get this book... it will make you smile for a little while.  I also wish Brosh all the luck in the world dealing with her depression.... it is a tough ride.





The crystal ball says:

Sun is shinning!!!  Great day to go outside and read this book.

Borderlands Video Game Review

 

Borderlands

I've been debating a long time on weather or not to review Borderlands. I didn't end up finishing the game... DNF! I really loved the game... great first person shooter.  You get to explore a big world.  You get different jobs and these jobs are categorized as hard, tough, normal, ext. You gets levels and you try to do the jobs around your level.  If you don't then the jobs will just be too tough and you just won't be able to finish them. 

So I played and played this game.  Really it was hard... I mean.. at first I didn't realize that I shouldn't even try to attempt to do the jobs too high ranked for me.  So I tried this one job for like 2 hours and then gave up and went to bed.  Then the next day I tried again and went for a different job and then had fun again.  Yea... here we go!  Then I moved to the next jobs and stuck with the "normal" level ones and just couldn't get past!  I don't get it.

 Others that I have talked to about this game say it's best to play with other people.  If I was playing on PC I could join a group. I am playing on the PS3.  I only have one controller since we game more on the Xbox 360 so no one in my house can join up.  I suppose that I could run around and level up by constantly killing lower level creatures but I don't know.  I guess I am discouraged.  Which is a total bummer this game is actually pretty hard.  You can't put the game on easy either.. there is only one game type which I guess you could call normal. 

 

I won't even bother with Borderlands 2 since I can't even do this one.  Unless possibly on the PS4 you can group up with other people (I plan on getting the PS4 in the new year). I am very excited to hear that TellTale games is going to make a Borderlands game... now that game I know I'll be able to play and beat since Tell Tale games are easy.  There is even a trailer for the game already out:

Maybe I'll give Borderlands another go... I just wish it was easier on single player and that multiplayer wasn't really necessary.  Of course ... maybe I am just not as good of a player as I thought too.  No wait... that can't be it!

4 out of 10

Sunday Post

Let's chat about what's going on this week... on my blogs.. on other blogs... on the internet... and just everywhere!  Despite not reading this week.. the blog has been busy!  I link up my post to Sunday Post, Bought, Borrowed & Bagged, Showcase Sunday, and Stacking the Shelves. 


This week on the blog:

 

I participate in the Top Ten of 2013... my Top Ten Covers of 2013, Top Ten Books I read in 2013,  and Top Ten Books looking forward to in 2014.
I posted the craziest books that I wanted to get from Santa (no I didn't get them.. but still fun to look at).
I posted my newest Project Disney Post on The Jungle Book .. this is where I compare book to movie and usually there are some major differences.
This week I am also asking you... do you ever go back to blogs you commented on and check out the replies???  

What I've Found Around the Blogospere:
A Bookish Heart is doing a new game with bloggers this time based on Harry Potter!  Last time around I did participate in the Hunger Games she hosted.. I was invited this time around but it is really time consuming so I had to pass.
Let's put James Franco on the cover of all books!!
Captivated Reader talks about Authorgraphs which is kind of neat.  Authors autograph your ebooks! 
Another Novel Reads explores Tarot in The Raven Boys book.  I love Tarot cards so I find this interesting and well researched. 
Plus EVERYONE needs to check out this wonderful post from A Bookish Heart. For Christmas she has listed every blog that has ever commented on her blog in presents so we can all discover new blogs.  Honestly this is amazing and wonderful. 

Books Books Books
This week I made a quick stop into the library despite being so busy and there were so many books waiting for me!  Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich and Allegiant by Veronica Roth are the ones I am looking forward to most.  Love you library!  I am already done with Takedown Twenty and loving it so far. I also finally upgrade my Nook Color.  I love my Nook Color... but it is slow and I can't play games on it.  So I bought a Nexus 7.  I did a lot of research and it was a better buy then the Kindle, the Galaxy and the Nook HD.  (I did really want the iPad mini but the price tag was just too high).   I put the Nook app on it so I can still read all the Nook books I bought.

Well that's it for this week... hope your week was fun and even with the holidays you got a lot of reading done!

Comments... do you read the replies???

Comments... we all want them... but what about the replies??? Lately I have been thinking about comments.  I reply to every comment I get.  RARELY though has anyone actually come back and commented back to my reply.  Which makes me question... do you ever go back to a blog you commented on to see what the author of the post had to say to you???  I often wonder if my replies are a waste of time.  I also try to visit back each blog that comments on my posts and see what they are talking about.

If you do go back and read blogger's replies to yours is it because you are using say.....Disqus? I like how when I go to a blog with Disqus it shows blogs that replied to my comments. As we all know since most of you reading this is a blogger... we love comments.  I enjoy reading what people think of my posts.  I mean... when you sit around and take the time to post something you usually want people to be entertained.  So of course comments mean a lot to bloggers.  I love comments WAY more then I love page views. I even love when people leave trackbacks on my blog.  Trackbacks really are links to your blog so those who visit my blog can see yours.  A circle of love (or commentluv which many of you have on your comments).

Here is the problem with Blogger.  We really can't do commentluv without installing intense debate .  You have probably seen this on some blogs.  If I am going to download one or the other though I would rather do Disqus.  I like the style of it better and more people seem to have it. I like Blogger ... I know a lot of people don't and have switched to Wordpress but I plan to stick with Blogger for now.

I would really like to know... as a reader of blogs... do you ever go back to a blog and respond to a comment?  If you do... do you actually physically go back to that blog?  Or do you use a commenting system to see that there was a response to the comment (like Disqus)?  Do you just not check back for comments that the blog owner may have written to you?  Only maybe 1% of my blog comments have someone come back and respond the the reply I made. If you use Blogger have you made the switch the Disqus commenting system?  How was the transition?

When you reply to comments do you (typically)

EDIT:  I don't know why the results of the poll are only showing in edit mode... so here are the results so far:

1.  7 vote
2.  6 votes
3.  7 votes
4.  11 vote

Project Disney- The Jungle Book

Project Disney: The plan is to tackle all of the Disney films, re-reading the classic stories and tales that inspired many of them and to look at how the changes the filmmakers made, the new elements they introduced and the essential elements they kept. We will, of course, be talking about the films as movies as well, saying why we enjoy them and what some of our favorite moments are, but our focus will be on looking at them as adaptations. For the films that are not drawn from any one work we’ll be looking at some of the possible literary influences that we see in the stories. Project Disney is inspired by Picture Me Reading.

"The bare necessities of life will come to you" This week's Project Disney is the Jungle Book based off the book with the same name by Rudyard Kipling.   The Jungle Book consists of eight stories ( Mowgli’s Brothers, Kaa’s Hunting, Tiger! Tiger! How Fear Came, Letting in the Jungle, The King’s Ankus, Red Dog and The Spring Running –) about Mowgli our star boy who grows up in the jungle.  I really liked this book.  It was a little hard to read at times since it was old fashioned writing.  But I have to say it brought out a lot of emotions and I was really sad at the end of the book.

Much of the same characters are in both the book and the movie.  We have Mowgli, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther, King Louie the king of the monkeys (the King is not in the book but the monkeys are), Kaa the python, and Shere Khan the tiger.  Most of the characters are sweet and nice in the movie.  In the book they are totally different.  Mowgli is naked throughout most of the book, which just makes sense since he is in the jungle.  His feet become so hard that he barely notices that there are thorns in it. Baloo is actually a bear that teaches all the wolves cubs the Laws of the Jungle.  He is a teacher for Mowgli.  Baloo is very old by the end of the book .

Bagheera is also a dangerous panther and friends with Mowgli.  In the book Bagheera is actually born in a palace in India and escapes.  His life is the opposite of Mowgli where Mowgli grows up in the jungle and then goes to man.  In the movie instead of the wolf pack taking in Mowgli Bagheera does.    The wolf pack is much more important in the book.  They are Mowgli siblings and parents and care for him a great deal.  In the film you really don't see much of the wolves. Shere Khan in the book wants to kill Mowgli from the moment he shows up in the jungle.  He has a lame leg so it makes it harder for him to hunt.  Shere Khan is actually the one who chases off Mowgli's parents in the book which is why he ends up in the jungle to begin with.

Kaa is very smart in the book and helps Mowgli tremendously. He becomes a good companion too. In the movie he is always hypnotizing everyone with his crazy eyes (even Shere Khan which is pretty funny). Mowgli meets him twice in the movie.  One of the times Shere Khan comes and interrogates Kaa who then decides he is done with Mowgli.  In the book Kaa takes Mowgli to great treasure guarded by a Cobra.  I wondered if later in life Mowgli goes back and finds the treasure again (the book stops before we can read about Mowgli going back to man).  I also find it funny that the movie Kaa keeps getting knots in his tail.

Monkeys.. the monkeys are just as bad in the book as in the movie.  They want Mowgli to teach them how to make shelter and use their hands.  But being monkeys they become uninterested fairly quickly.  This is one of my favorite musical songs in the movie.  In the book, when Kaa, Baloo and Bahgeera rescue Mowgli they really get beat up. The battle is much worse in the book where in the movies it turns out fun with Baloo even dressing up as a female.  Luckily the monkeys are very afraid of Kaa.  This is the only time in the book you get to see Kaa use his powers of hypnotizing, he only does it to the monkeys.

Now comes the battle with Shere Khan and Mowgli. In the movie... it is much much nicer then what you read in the book.  Baloo and Mowgli end up fighting with Shere Khan.  Mowgli wins but setting Shere Khan's tail on fire when a lighting strike hits a tree.  We have Bagheera show up and then Baloo gets up and is just fine, though we think he died.  Now for the book.  In Kipling's version Mowgli has had it with Shere Khan, and it ready to face him.  Mowgli is banished to man's village and thinks if he takes out Shere Khan he will be allowed back into the jungle with the wolves.  Mowgli's wolf brother comes and tells him that Shere Khan is waiting for him to kill him.  So Mowgli takes the heard of buffalo to stampede Shere Khan, and then he fights him when he is down.  He then takes Shere Khan's coat back to the wolves who accept him back in.

I really enjoyed the book... it made me appreciate the movie even more since I know more background.  Mowgli learns to speak the language in the jungle of all the different creatures.  The end of the movie is sweeter then the book.  The book when Mowgli says goodbye he is seventeen years old and all the animals themselves have really aged.  They wanted him to go to man and have children and be happy.  Mowgli himself was getting old to be in the jungle and was having a hard time getting the animals to respect him. There really weren't any fun times in the jungle in the book and that's why I enjoy seeing the movie where Mowgli has a lot of fun. 

Check out the rest of my PROJECT DISNEY:
Snow White
Cinderella
Peter Pan
Treasure Planet
Sleeping Beauty
The Great Mouse Detective 
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Princess and the Frog
Pinocchio 
Fantasia 
Beauty and the Beast
Lady and the Tramp
Alice in Wonderland
The Rescuers
The Rescuers Down Under
Tangled
Oliver and Company
Mulan
The Little Mermaid
Bambi
101 Dalmatians
Frozen
Fantasia 2000
The Emperor's New Groove
The Sword in the Stone
Aladdin 
Atlantis
The Aristocats
The Lion King
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Robin Hood
Hercules
Pocahontas
Dumbo
The Black Cauldron 
Mary Poppins
Lilo and Stitch
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Make Mine Music
Tarzan
Fox and the Hound 
Melody Time

Top Ten Books looking forward in 2014

 This event runs for five consecutive days, the last full week of the year – Monday, December 23rd to Friday, December 27th. Five days in which we share of some of our favorite lists and we invite ALL of YOU to join in on the fun and share your lists with everyone too!  It is hosted by FIKTshun , Magical Urban Fantasy Reads , and Two Chicks on Books.

 Today's post is Top 10 Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2014 (This list should be comprised ONLY of books released in 2014)

These are in no particular order:

I love this series!  Daughter of Smoke and Bone (book 1) and Days of Blood and Starlight (book 2) were both great to me.  So I really can't wait to get this trilogy finished! Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor looks pretty neat.

This series is fabulous.  I really love the idea of this whole.. old souls vs new souls.  This is one series where the cover actually caused me to pick the book up and read it.  Incarnate and Asunder were both pretty amazing so I have high hopes for this one too.  Infinite by Jodi Meadows is one book I can't wait for.

 I wish there was a cover for this book already!   Shadow and Bone (book 1) and Siege and Storm (book 2)  I thought were good.  The second book got a little off the story to me but still enjoyable.  Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo is going to be an Epic ending.  Oh and the short stories Bardugo writes are pretty amazing too!

I think this is a neat dystopia series.  I wouldn't have ever read it if it weren't for my book club picking it for our monthly read.  This is another trilogy I'll be finishing in 2014! Blood Red Road and Rebel Heart were good starter books though I did feel Rebel Heart was one of those slow second book in a series.  Dust Lands #3 Raging Star by Moira Young is a book I can't wait to get my hands on.

I just recently read the first book, The Diviners and loved it.  I am not sure why the publishers changed the cover art before the second book is even out?  I liked the original art better myself. Lair of Dreams hopefully keeps the whole 1920s theme going perfectly!

I have been waiting for Locke and Key Volume 6 Alpha and Omega FOREVER!  This is the final arc in this wonderful graphic novel by Joe Hill illustrated by  Gabriel Rodriguez.  If you are interested in getting into graphic novels this series is a perfect place to begin.  I am excited to read it but sad that the series is finished. 

I'll be honest... I didn't think that Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children needed a sequel.  I really liked it as a stand alone.  But since there is going to be a sequel... well of course I am going to read it.  I don't know if the pictures in Hollow City are going to be ones Riggs found in flee markets again... but I sure do hope so!

Now... some of you may know this, I love comics!  I don't write a review for every comic I read because... well I think everyone would be like..snore.  But I love love the Fables comics and am sad that they author Bill Willingham announced that the end is coming.  I think in 2015 the last comic in the series will be written.  BOO!  Looking forward to Camelot volume 20 that is coming out in 2014.





Well... those are my eight picks!!  I can't wait to see what everyone else is looking forward to! 

Follow Me Friday!

 

This is the day of the week where we get to know each other better by answering a question devised by our lovely hostesses Parajunkee & Alisoncanread.  And now for this week's question....

Q. Merry Christmas! What books did Santa stuff your stocking with this year? Do a holiday book haul. PICTURES!!

A. Well I didn't get a huge book haul like some people may get.  But I did get a Yoga book and a pocket edition of the Hobbit that both my husband and I are going to share (hahah!!).  I am also getting a new tablet with some money I received... I have the Nook Color but Barnes and Nobles isn't really updating that anymore.  I think I am going to get Nexus 7, my mom got a new Nook HD but I am a little nervous about Nook since I don't know if they will keep the Nook going or not.  I don't really feel like taking a picture... lazy OK!  Sooo you will just have to imagine how cool that Hobbit book is.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

Top Ten Tuesday - leave me a book Santa!

It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the wonderful blog at The Broke and the Bookish! This week's topic is Top Ten books I want Santa to leave me.  Soooo since this is from Santa and everything from him is free.... I have to pick EXPENSIVE books!

These are in no particular order:

1.  Madonna: Sex.  I love Madonna... always have.  Since I was a little girl in the 80s.  I remember she had this book come out called Sex.  I wanted it so bad.  I would go by the bookstore and couldn't even look in it because it was in this plastic cover.  To this day I haven't been able to look at this book.. it's hard to find and out of print.   I want this book Santa... please!

2. Last year for Christmas I bought my husband the paperback Harry Potter set.  We had been reading our hardbacks to death.  IF I had any idea there would be a new set our I would've never bought those.  So now I just can't see any reason to buy yet ANOTHER set.  Soooo Santa please bring me these for free!

3.  If Santa could bring me something that I could gift to my husband it would be the Superman Files. It's made to look like a scrapbook.  It has Daily Planet Clippings, and Kryptonian artifacts.  300 pages of Superman fun!

 4.  I just want the entire collections of the book covers that both Barnes and Nobles Leatherbound Classics and Penguins Clothbound Classics!  I mean AMAZING!  The whole Collection.. all of them!!! 

5.  ALL first edition Stephen King books.  Enough said:

6.  Limited Edition Graphic Novel Locke and Key by Joe Hill illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez.  I mean limited edition graphic novels are usually pretty amazing... like this set:

7.  Santa... all I really want is for George RR Martin to PLEASE FRICKEN finish A Song of Ice and Fire.  I mean... is that too much to ask?  So for Christmas I would like book 6... The Winds of Winter.  In fact... I would like to finish off all the series I'm reading so I would like those books too.

You know what... it's late Santa and that's all I can think of right now.  And why get greedy right?????  Please bring me all these gifts.  I promise I will display them for all to see.