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Year End Book Report: The Best Books I Read in 2011

Posted in books, comic books with tags Book Report, books, comic, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Year End Books on February 7, 2012 by Paxton

Here we are, I finally begin my year end round up articles. In February. Sorry about that. I wanted to do it earlier but I wanted to give myself a little bit more time to finish off some movies and books that are eligible for this list. But, apologies aside, my lists are here.

As you know, back in 2009 I started keeping a book log with everything I read. It makes looking at this list easier. I keep it in a Google Spreadsheet so I can access it from any computer.

Here it is.

You can click the image to view it or just click here. So I perused this list and made my selections. Below are the best books I read last year (not including re-reads).

Unlike last year, I’ve split this list into books and comics/trade paperbacks. I read enough of both of them to create their own lists and it was hard to weed out stuff just because it was a comic in order to make room for a book. So, last year I only read three books that were actually released during the 2011 calendar year. Did they make the list? Read on to find out.

So without further ado, here are my favorite books I read in 2011.

Heroes of Olympus series – Rick Riordan – This is the sequel series to Riordan’s Percy Jackson series which made my inaugural best of list in 2009. It is currently up to book 2. Son of Neptune is one of the three books that was released in 2011 that I read. I loved the first book in this series, The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune is almost as good. Riordan has created a fascinating world and I long to return to it when book 3 comes out. And despite what Riodan had said earlier, Percy Jackson is all over this series. Especially Son of Neptune.

The Magicians – Lev Grossman – Wow, this book is really good. It’s billed as sort of a Harry Potter in high school, and I see the parallels, but this story is tonally a 180 from Harry Potter. From the friendships to even how magic is actually executed, it’s just completely different. And great. This book is great. I look forward to checking out the sequel, The Magician King. I’ll probably check out a few of Grossman’s other books, too.

Star Wars: Darth Bane trilogy – Drew Karpyshyn – This series was recommended to me years ago by my friend Dr Mike, but I was reluctant to read it because it was about a bunch of Star Wars characters I didn’t know in a time period I knew nothing about. Boy was I wrong. It’s amazing. This series needs to be the template for all the Star Wars books that want to focus on a specific character. Interesting origins, cool bits of Sith history. It’s just great. If you read Star Wars (or science fiction) at all, read this series.

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Reading and reviewing the original Wizard of Oz books

Posted in books, movies, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, Oz books readthru, reviews, Wizard of Oz on January 31, 2012 by Paxton

So, I’m a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz. I’ve been watching the movie since I was a kid. I’ve seen it countless times and I even own the soundtrack release from 1995 which included extended versions of many of the songs as well as a missing song (The Jitterbug) recorded but not included in the movie.

Around 2001 I checked out from the library the original Oz novel (above) by L Frank Baum and read it. And loved it. I even watched Dreamer of Oz, the TV movie starring John Ritter as L Frank Baum. Then, sometime around 2005-2006 I received the annotated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (see below). It’s a gorgeous hardbound book with all the original illustrations as well as a 100 page biography of L Frank Baum as well as very meticulous notations throughout the text of the story bringing into focus the impact this book had on society.

A year later I made the resolution that I was going to read all of the original Baum Oz novels. There are 14 of them. I even acquired the first three books from Paperbackswap.com in a bundled collection by Books of Wonder (also in the photo above). However, that goal was somewhat forgotten and I haven’t done anything about it. Until now.

I mentioned on the Nerd Lunch podcast recently (twice already) that in 2012, I’m picking this resolution back up and I’m going to finish the Oz novels. And to keep myself accountable, I’m going to blog about it. So a new feature is being created called Following the Yellow Brick Road which will chart my progress with each book. I’ll do reviews of each book as well as any ancillary material appropriate to that book. For instance, for the first three books there are Marvel comic adaptations as well as the original 1939 movie and the 1985 sequel, Return to Oz (which is an amalgam of books 2 and 3). I may throw in quick mini-reviews of that stuff as well.

So, in 2012, join the Cavalcade of Awesome through the Kansas twister into the enchanted land of Oz. I’m thoroughly looking forward to it.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen

Posted in books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Book Report, books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, vampires on October 14, 2011 by Paxton

Today is the final day of Dracula book week. Yesterday I looked at Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel. Today, I take a look at a semi-sequel to that novel. Fred Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape.

If this seems familiar, I reviewed a similar Saberhagen book back in 2009 called The Frankenstein Papers. My theme that year was, obviously, Frankenstein and I had just read Mary Shelley’s book. It seemed like fun to read a sequel to such a seminal work in horror literature. Saberhagen’s book told Mary Shelley’s story from a different point of view. Most notably, the monster’s.

Well, after deciding that I was going to try, again, to read Stoker’s Dracula, I wanted to read another book that did the same thing. Well, as the fates would have it, Saberhagen did the same thing with Dracula. He wrote this book which looks at the events in Dracula from the Count’s point of view. And it’s all narrated by the Count himself. Saberhagen’s Dracula would become fairly popular and would spawn a series of books featuring the title character. The second book even features Dracula facing off with Sherlock Holmes. So, needless to say, I thought this sounded very interesting so I read it.

(Via Robert Adragna)

This story is actually very interesting. Like I said, the conceit is similar to The Frankenstein Papers. The events in Bram Stoker’s novel are told from the perspective of Dracula himself. Saberhagen’s Dracula is much more refined than Stoker’s. He paints the group of vampire hunters in Stoker’s tale as a group of misguided bufoons. Especially Van Helsing who comes off as a bully or a thug. Many of Van Helsing’s actions in the original novel are called into question by Saberhagen’s Count, especially his decision not to tell anyone about Dracula being a vampire until it was too late. It was actually very entertaining reading passages of the book I had trouble following in Stoker’s novel told in a more clearly defined way in Saberhagen’s book. It made my understanding of the original more complete. Even more so than the Cliff’s Notes I purchased (Yes, I purchased the Cliff Notes for Dracula).

So, I can recommend this book. I don’t even think you need to read the original Stoker novel because this just goes over the same territory and does it more clearly. Reading it may help for you to get the experience of seeing the events from Dracula’s eyes as opposed to the original novel, but I just don’t hate you enough to tell you to read Stoker’s novel.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Posted in books, Classic literature, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, Uncategorized, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Book Report, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires on October 13, 2011 by Paxton

Day 4 of Vampire book week. Today, we look at the original vampire novel. The one that began the popularization of the vampire myths. Let’s take a look at Bram Stoker’s original Dracula.

I really enjoy doing AWESOME-tober-fest. It has given me a reason to read and watch books and movies I’ve always wanted to but never really “sucked it up” and made the commitment to do. Two years ago I read Shelley’s Frankenstein and I was surprised at how readable it was. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And based on that success, I was anxious to read Stoker’s Dracula.

Now, to be fair, I tried to read Dracula once already. It was back in the late ’90s when I was going through my “must read classics” phase. I couldn’t get through it. I remember thinking the first third of the book was good, but it completely fell apart after that. However, being older and wiser, I thought I could better appreciate it now. Besides, while not the first vampire novel, it certainly is what made them popular. Plus it influenced the original Universal Dracula with Bela Lugosi which would further the ingraining of vampires into popular culture.

Like I said, Stoker’s 1897 book was not the first vampire story. An essay published in the periodical Ninteenth Century in 1885 called Transylvania Superstitions discussed the mythical creatures. Lord Byron created a vampire story during the same night of ghost story telling that Mary Shelley created Frankenstein. Byron wouldn’t finish the story but John Polidori would polish it up and finish it as The Vampyre in 1819. However it was Stoker’s Dracula that popularized the monster. But it wouldn’t be until Universal’s 1931 movie based loosely (and I mean loosely) on the novel that Dracula would receive the popularity it currently achieves.

(Via Draculas.info)

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Posted in books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires on October 12, 2011 by Paxton

We’ve made it to Hump Day of vampire book week. Click the banner above to see all of the other books and comics I’ve looked at these past two weeks of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011.

Today I’ll be looking at Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the seminal Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (P&P&Z). The success of that book launched a niche publishing empire. Classic lit/horror mashups are still being released in droves. Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter. The Undead Land of Oz. Android Karenina. Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters. There was even a prequel to the original P&P&Z called Dawn of the Dreadfuls. I haven’t read any of those other books, but I read the original P&P&Z. It’s a surprisingly subtle book considering the title. Grahame-Smith deftly weaves his more outlandish story into the original Austen story with much success. There is a reason the book became a sensation, it’s well written. Grahame-Smith’s followup stuck to the same genre. It was to be today’s book; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and was released in Spring 2010.

In March 2010, I looked at the trailer for this book. Here’s that trailer:

Judging just from the cover and that trailer, you expect this book to be completely over the top. Like a Zack Snyder fever dream while tripping on acid. However, Grahame-Smith pulls a similar feat with this book that he did with P&P&Z, deftly combining a history of Abraham Lincoln and subtly revealing the secret existence of vampires in early America. The book is based on the assumption that it is revealing the contents of several of Lincoln’s “hidden” journals. All of which reveal the vampire secrets and his efforts to kill all the vampires.

The book begins with a chapter in how Grahame-Smith came into possession of Lincoln’s hidden journals. They were ostensibly given to him one day by a very mysterious person. Unfortunately, Grahame-Smith doesn’t ever go back to that introduction, but the story that follows is fascinating. It really does start off like you are reading a biography of our 16th President. Even after we meet the first vampire, it never completely takes off into Buffy the Vampire Slayer territory. It always stays true to the Abe Lincoln story, while occasionally detouring into vampires. And the way Grahame-Smith deftly integrates vampires into the secret history of the Civil War and slavery is just fascinating.

This book was surprising. I expected a ridiculous sendup of vampire movies/books. Something more along the lines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel but with Abe Lincoln. However Grahame-Smith has crafted a very good vampire hunter story that cleverly uses famous events in Lincoln’s life and turns them on their ear and somehow manages to make them, in some way, connect to this hidden vampire conspiracy. I was surprised, but pleasantly so. I definitely recommend this book and say be prepared for a story that is better written than this subject has any right to be.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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