Reading in June

   It's Canada Day! A day to celebrate the Our Home and Native Land, the True North Strong and Free! Even though I sometimes say, "what is your deal, Canada?" I do truly love this place where I live. I mean, come on, it's beautiful. Have you SEEN the Rockies? Here's to mountains and beavers and Canada geese and healthcare and saying "eh" and making fun of Americans without them realizing it. It is our way.


   800 miles of paved road! Truly, a monumental day. Rick Mercer is king of keeping a straight face. 

   Enough overt patriotism, let's get to the books. Here is what I read in June:

•  Smoke Gets in your Eyes / Caitlin Doughty: when I finished reading this book I told my mom how I want to be buried, and thought about writing a will. Basically, a good, interesting, sometimes morbid read that inspired action. A+.
• Saga, v. 3 / Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples: OMGOSH READ SAGA NOW, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
• Y: The Last Man, v. 3 / Brian K. Vaughan, et al.: this story is more nuanced than I remember and I'm so glad. I'm waiting on volume 4 at the library.
• The Secret Adversary / Agatha Christie: sometimes you just gotta re-read some Tommy and Tuppence to clear your heart and mind.
• Ms. Marvel, v. 2 / G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona: still good, still totally on board with this.
• Chew, v. 1-3 / John Layman, Rob Guillory: chicken as a controlled substance?! Yes.
• Revival, v. 1 / Tim Seeley, Mike Norton: a zombie-ish story that's nothing like The Walking Dead! Yes please. 
• Sandman, v. 1 / Neil Gaiman, et al.: the art is...distinctly of its time. But the story is engaging so far so I think I shall continue with it.
• The Initiates / Etienne Davodeau: SO GOOD, READ THIS NOW.
• Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Deadpool Killustrated / Cullen Bunn, Dalibor Talajic/Matteo Lolli: thoroughly underwhelming. A distinct lack of the kind of Deadpool hijinks I know and love which is weird considering these books feature Deadpool traveling through various universes to kill everyone from Captain Nemo to Tom Sawyer to all the Marvel heroes while being chased through space and time by Sherlock Holmes and a crack team that includes Mulan. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DELIGHTFUL, but was boring instead.
• Mind the Gap, v. 1 / Jim McCann, Rodin Esquejo, Sonia Oback: yes, very good, volume two come to me soon.
• Starship Troopers / Robert A. Heinlein: did you know that it is possible for science fiction to be more political than Dune? I didn't either! But it can! Robert A. Heinlein has OPINIONS and he means to SHARE THEM.
• Perfume / Partick Suskind: bonkers, but in a good way. I tried to tell a friend of mine what this book was about and she said "you read weird books." Highly recommend.
• Graceling / Kristin Cashore: firmly in the "meh" category with a side of "what the hell." Don't bother with this one. 

   SO MANY COMICS. I've been on a serious comics kick. If I had to recommend one book out of these, I'd have to say Saga all the way with a caveat for adult content.

   I've been pretty lax on the book-review front lately, who knows if that'll change much over the summer. I have rocks to climb and camping trips to go on and a river to float down. July is here and boy do I love summer. I am already sunburnt.

   ALSO, bonus recommendation: if you like podcasts and you like spooky things and you like storytelling then get Lore into your ear-hearts at your soonest opportunity. It is GREAT.