Below are posts associated with the “media” type.
📚 bookblog: Le dit des cigales (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
Bon, ce tome-ci a été moins intéressant pour moi que le précédent, mais ma fille l’a beaucoup aimé. J’ai trouvé qu’il se passait trop, qu’on n’explorait pas trop la magie dans la série, etc. Pourtant, c’est mignon. En plus, le prochain tome a lieu en Alsace, ce qui sera fort intéressant !
📚 bookblog: 2nd Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)
If I didn’t like the first book in this series as much as I remembered but was generous in my rating because I appreciate what it’s doing, I liked this second book more than I remembered but am harsh in my rating because I don’t appreciate what it’s doing. This book reads less as an extended conversation with 2 Nephi than as a wide-ranging, largely apologetic treatment of Latter-day Saint theology that happens to frequently reference 2 Nephi.
📚 bookblog: Imaginary Jesus (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)
There’s a really interesting quasi-theological question at the heart of this book, and I’m rereading it for the first time in over a decade because I think it will be useful for a sermon I’m scheduled to give in a couple of months. What “imaginary versions” of Jesus do we create for ourselves and how do they get in the way of our connecting with the heart of Christianity.
There’s also a goofiness to the book that almost works. I don’t think it quite lands, coming off as what I imagine a trying-too-hard youth pastor might deliver, but if it did land, it would be right up my alley.
📚 bookblog: 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I remembered liking this book a lot when I first read it five or so years ago, so it was actually kind of disappointing to reread it now. There was a lot of it that didn’t feel relevant to me or that I felt I disagreed with. That said, I appreciate Spencer’s work a lot, and there are some great observations in here, so I’m trying to give it some grace in my rating.
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Ten (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
Still good! Not the most life-changing of the series, but enjoyable. I have heard good things about some of the issues in Volume Eleven, so I’m really looking forward to getting that.
📚 bookblog: Real Tigers (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
Another good book in the series. It’s impossible to read these without comparing them to their TV adaptations. I think the adaptation of this one made a number of wise choices in what it cut, what it changed, etc., but there are a couple of original bits that I would have liked to see preserved.
📚 bookblog: L'île presque (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
Joli, ce livre ! On l’a depuis quelques mois, mais on n’a jamais convaincu notre fille de le lire avec nous. En relisant la série Brume, on a découvert qu’un quatrième tome va bientôt sortir, et ma fille a insisté qu’on attende pour lire la troisième, comme ça on ne devrait pas trop attendre pour le quatriême.
Grâce aux taxes douanières que notre cher président impose à tout le monde, il est douteux qu’on puisse faire livrer le nouveau tome de cette série-là, mais en attendant, on a enfin réussi a commencer cette série-ci.
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Nine (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)
I felt like this one didn’t stand out to me. I’ll gladly keep reading, but this was the most “meh” so far.
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Eight (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
This continues to be unexpectedly good. I enjoy how self-referential it’s becoming with time—not the indulgent kind but the rewards you for paying attention kind. This is my second-to-last TPB I have out, and I’m already feeling like I need to reserve some more.
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Seven (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
This volume wasn’t life-changing, but I’m hooked on the series now, and I’m enjoying even the bits that aren’t what won me over.
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Six (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
The Watchman parody in this volume is as good as the Superman one in the last. The self-references are also good, and I’m interested in the “maybe I don’t need to do this” theme (even if I didn’t put the book down myself when challenged to).
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Five (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
Okay, I still find myself repeatedly wondering if I really want to be reading this, but this volume was good. Three of the four issues had lines that I could write sermons around. For such a weird, creepy series, when it gets meaningful, it really lands.
📚 bookblog: The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
This is good! It’s another book that I took too long to read, so it’s hard to review when I took breaks for other books between sections.
It’s a very Doctorow book. I mean this in three ways: First, it makes an impassioned plea for a niche-but-important tech cause. Second, it overlaps with his fiction writing in really obvious ways. Third, it reads like an extended blog post (which I mostly mean as a compliment).
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Volume Four (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
This volume wasn’t as hopeful as the last collection I read, and I have mixed feelings on the level of creepiness in these stories. The palindrome comic and the one happy story kept me going, but I’m not as keen on this series as I was a few days ago. Let’s see how things go in the next TPB.
📚 bookblog: Ice Cream Man, Sundae Edition, Volume One (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
Kiddo was off school yesterday, so we took a trip to the library, where I saw the first 7-8 TPBs of this series on the shelf. I nearly checked out the first four, but on second thought, I put them back. This series shouldn’t work for me. It’s not my preferred style of art, it’s full of body and existential horror, and one of the reasons I put those TPBs back is because I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I tried reading them.
📺 tvblog: Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I dragged this season out over too long to fully appreciate it, but it was a fun sendoff for the series. It’s the only Star Trek series I’ve watched in its entirety, and I think it might be my favorite!
📚 bookblog: Dead Lions (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I remembered this book being overly complicated and the TV adaptation being far superior. Revisiting it, though, is shifting my opinion. I think the TV adaptation does a good job of streamlining the story and connecting it to the broader franchise, but even if the original plot is convoluted, I think it’s better than I first gave it credit for. I also continue to appreciate Herron’s writing tics and what they add to the story that you couldn’t so in television.
📚 bookblog: La forêt des âmes perdues (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
Ça continue à être tout mignon et à faire marrer, cette série ! Je suis bien content de la relire avec ma famille.
📚 bookblog: Slow Horses (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
This was a delight to read. While the Apple TV adaptation is excellent (I can’t help but imagine the book’s characters as the show’s actors), revisiting this reminded me just how good the source material is, too. Herron likes to play with the audience in a way that a TV show can’t capture, and some of the best lines from the adaptation are taken straight from his writing. What a gem.
📚 bookblog: Le réveil du dragon (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
Elle est jolie, cette série ! On l’a lue en famille au début de l’année, mais j’ai convaincu ma fille de commencer une relecture. On aime beaucoup les dessins, j’adore le langage (que je n’arrive pas à traduire parfaitement), et j’attends avec impatience le deuxième tôme.
📚 bookblog: Rogue Protocol (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)
This wasn’t bad, but I just didn’t find it as interesting as the first. I know the whole series is beloved by many, but I’m wondering if I just like the first novella? I ought to keep going to see if persistence pays off, but I had trouble sticking to this listen, so I think it’s time for a break.
📚 bookblog: Invincible, Compendium Three (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I definitely read this one too fast, but if I hadn’t, I probably would have gotten hung up more on the continued blood and gore, which I continue not to like.
As with the rest of the series, though, there’s plenty that kept me coming back, and even the stuff I don’t like is consistent(ish) with the universe that these creators have established. The happy ending is satisfying, the big swings are still interesting, and Eve gets treated better in the final arcs than in earlier stories (though I think they could have done even better by her). It’s a good series, despite my reservations, and I hope it never gets rebooted.
📚 bookblog: Invincible, Compendium Two (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I didn’t realize how quickly I made it through this! I wrote something in my review of the first compendium about the interesting things that Kirkman can do without being bogged down by a broader continuity, and that certainly applies here. I appreciate the big swings he takes and his willingness to shake up the story and leave it shaken up rather than a creep back to the status quo.
📚 bookblog: Artificial Condition (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I really like the first novella, and this one isn’t bad, it’s just hard to live up to the strong first start. I’d like to continue working on the series, since I know it’s all well regarded, but I don’t remember many of the details from the first time I tried this, so let’s hope it sticks more this time.
📚 bookblog: Invincible, Compendium One (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
I have some mixed feelings about Invincible, though they obviously are positive enough for me to start a full series reread. In college, I used to own a hardcover collection regrouping the first several TPBs, but I gave it away when moving to grad school. I was bothered by the violence and gore then, and now I can add to that the casual homophobia and ableism of the early 2000s and the low-level objectification and misogyny that are in most superhero comics. There’s some not to like in this series.