Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.
It’s getting colder still down here—we had not one, but two big snows this week, which resulted in having no classes the Friday before break! Needless to say, I only left my dorm to get breakfast and lunch that day before I went back home. Hot chocolate season.
Despite the cold, it’s been an exciting week! Namely, I had the incredible honor of meeting Alison Bechdel!! She came to speak to my comics class, and I even had the opportunity to workshop some of my own artwork with her! It was such an unforgettable experience, and one I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. (And I didn’t ugly cry this time!!! Got a little choked up, though. She liked my Frankenstein phone case haha) And speaking of big feels, I’ve been reconnecting with my middle school self now that it’s confirmed that the Search for WondLa TV show is officially coming to Apple TV+ sometime next year. It’s times like this that make me wish I could deliver messages to my past self, just to tell her that her middle school dreams are coming true. This show better be good.
I’ve had more time to read this week, and it’s been a mixed bag, but I definitely found a gem or two amongst them. I stopped by the comics shop on the way home, and between all of those (me & all my silly little X-Men spin-offs) and Scattered Showers, I think I’ll have plenty to read this week.
Other than that, I’ve just been making an excess of hot chocolate (big thank you to my mom for supplying me with all those hot cocoa packets), drawing, learning some more Radiohead on guitar, and finishing the new season of the Great British Bakeoff. (Now I need to start watching the Holiday Bakeoff to fill the void…)
2022. It’s gonna be a momentous year for me—I’m graduating high school and starting college, after all! January’s been both fun and stressful, but I’d say it’s been a good start to this year so far.
GENERAL THOUGHTS:
Better than last January, certainly, but that’s a pretty low standard. I blame precalc.
After a barely snowy December, it’s finally felt like winter here. A little…too much so. I like snow, generally, but after the first few I start to get sick of the ice on the roads and waking up at 6 AM in the freezing cold. But that’s Colorado. At least the snow looks beautiful on the mountains.
My last semester of high school…I still haven’t managed to grasp it. But either way, it started out smoothly, and it’s gradually begun to feel more like…well, School. Lots of tests and quizzes to study for, which I’m not thrilled about, but I’m finally in a creative writing class, and I’m really enjoying it! I’ve gotten to write a lot of interesting poetry, and I feel a lot less nervous about reading it out loud now. I ended up stressing out about college a lot this month, but now that there’s more certainty in the future, I feel a lot better. And I think I’ll be very happy with where I’m going.
Editing the WIP has been on and off, but I’ve gone through the first initial read-through! Now that I’ve identified what needs to be done, I just need to tweak things here and there. I’ve been trying for years to be more open about sharing parts of my story with friends and family, and I’m getting closer, but I’m hoping sharing the story itself will be the next step. Kind of needs to be, anyway, if I want to get it published someday…
Other than that, I spent some time with family, got comics, went skiing for the first time since early 2020 (or was it 2019?), I got to see Danny Elfman live (which was AMAZING!!), watched the first two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett then timed out, re-watched Edward Scissorhands and Felt A Great Many Things, watched The House, and got around to drawing a little more.
I’ve also been getting more into X-Men lately—well, more than usual, at any rate. They’ve been special to me for years, but I haven’t been this much into them since…probably this time three years ago, freshman year. I think reading the newer comics has spurred it on again. There’s something oddly sacred about reconnecting with that part of my past self, of knowing that what gave her joy still gives me joy now. To know that I’ve grown so much since then.
I realized that I’ve never really explained where my blog name comes from—the “Mutant” part of “The Bookish Mutant” is a reference to the X-Men.
well said, Kurt. well said.
READING AND BLOGGING:
I read 21 books this month! I put my Goodreads challenge at 200 books because I’m anticipating a hectic year, what with moving into college and all that. Either way, I’m surprised—and glad—to have gotten around to reading this much, however hit-or-miss this batch was.
this is the only audio of this song that I could find on YouTube for some reason?? anyways I love it & my creative writing teacher put the album cover as the header for his google classroom and it’s awesome
new spoon woo woo woo!!
new Mitski will be in our hands so soon!!! can’t wait!!
one of those songs I heard as a kid but only remembered a tiny bit of
at this point, the score for Edward Scissorhands is easily one of my favorite film scores of all time
a hit-or-miss album overall for me, but the highlights of it were incredible
DID I FOLLOW THROUGH ON MY JANUARY GOALS?
Colorado January hours
Set a reasonable Goodreads goal: yep, 200. Now that I’ve gotten through challenges where I’ve read 250-300 books (I still don’t know how I managed the 300 that one time…), I set it lower knowing that this year will be hectic, what with graduating high school and going off to college in the fall. (!!!!)
Start 2022 on a good note! I saw Danny Elfman live, for god’s sakes. If that’s not starting 2022 on a good note, then I don’t know what is.
FEBRUARY GOALS:
shamelessly whipping out this gif every year
Make another Black History month list—I’ve read so many amazing books by Black authors since last February!
Review some of the albums that are coming out next month!! (So many!!)
Actually post some art here, if I get the time…it’s about time
Today’s song:
That’s it for this month in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.
How is it that this week still felt so tiring even when I had a day off and a two-hour delay?
It’s been an alright week, though. Very cold. We got two snows in the span of two days, and it feels very much like January right now. Of course, my art teacher made us go on a walk to collect reference pictures…in 20 degree weather on a slippery path. I suppose I did get a good picture of the lake with a thin ice sign.
It’s been a slightly slower reading week, but I got through all of my library books and liked a good portion of them! Anthem was a rough ride, but most of the other books managed to lift me up a little. I haven’t been able to edit my WIP as much this week, but I finished my initial read through! Now I just need to run through and fix all the continuity errors (that I can catch) and flesh out some things that need to be fleshed out.
Other than that, I’ve just been drawing some X-Men characters (I should really post some of my art here at some point…I’ve been saying that for at least two years and haven’t done anything oof), studying, learning “Trimm Trabb” on guitar, and trying to stay warm. I also re-watched Edward Scissorhands last night, and needless to say, Felt Things
This is definitely a different post from what I usually do, but I had a lot of fun with this little project, and I thought I’d share it over here. 🙂
Some of my relatives came over to visit recently, and they gave me this amazing 3D-printed model of Nightcrawler from X-Men! (Thank you so much! And here’s the original model, if you want to check it out) So as a short project, I decided to paint him. This was my first time painting any kind of 3D-printed model, so this was a lot of fun!
Here he is before I started painting him.
First, I had to spray him down with some primer so that the paint would look a little better on him. It took a few coats because I missed some spots (read: a lot of spots), so it took about three or four spray-downs to get him mostly covered.
These were a few of the acrylic paints that I used for him, and here he is next to the general set up. (Big thank you to my mom for letting me borrow her paints hehe)
This is the general costume color scheme that I tried to go for. I didn’t need a whole lot of colors for it – red, black, and white for the costume, yellow for the X badge and his eyes, and blue for his skin. I found this great iridescent blue for his skin – it was definitely a little finicky on the first coat, but once I got a few coats on, it looked really cool!
Day 1 of painting! I got all of the colors on except for the black on that day, and I listened to a whole bunch of Car Seat Headrest the whole time.
Day 2! I got all of the colors laid down, and I added more coats to the colors I had already added. It still looked a little messy, but it was on its way! (And it’s a bit hard to tell, but the gloves and boots are painted too – they were just iridescent white.)
And here’s the final product! The last day of painting was just cleaning everything up (and painting the X on the badge). I was super happy with how it turned out – the paint on his skin and the black part of his costume looks so nice and shiny! He now sits on my bookshelf…right above my Nightcrawler funko pop. (Comfort characters, anyone?)
So there you have it! For my first time painting a 3D-printed model, I’m pretty proud of myself.
Happy Saturday, bibliophiles! I can’t believe it’s almost March…
Last week, I got approved for not one, but three eARCs (!!!) which are all loaded up on my Kindle at present. I recently got around to reading the first of the three, and I’m SO EXCITED to see it go out into the world! A Dark and Starless Forest is just the kind of diverse dark fantasy that we all need.
Derry is one of eight magical lost children living in the woods. Though they are not related by blood, they all possess different types of magic, and they all live under the roof of their caretaker, Frank, who helps them hone their Alchemist abilities. But when Jane, the oldest of the siblings, goes missing in the dark woods beyond their home, Derry is determined that she’s still alive. As she tries to get to the bottom of Jane’s disappearance, she and her siblings confront dark secrets about their upbringing, and that their caretaker may not be the kindly man he makes himself out to be.
TW/CW: Death/disappearance of loved ones (siblings), fantasy violence, body horror, frightening situations
Thank you to Edelweiss+ and HMH Books for Young Readers for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I was intrigued by the premise of this one, but wow, I didn’t expect to be blown away as much as I was! A Dark and Starless Forest was such a rich and dark fantasy, and a page-turner in every sense of the word.
First off, I was so glad to see all of the representation in A Dark and Starless Forest! Derry, our protagonist, is plus-sized, and among her siblings, there’s several Black and Latinx characters, a nonbinary (they/them pronouns) character, a trans girl, and several Deaf characters; and beyond that, it’s implied that most of them (if not all of them) are queer, and two of them were confirmed to be on the asexual spectrum. It was such a joy to see such a diverse and unique cast of characters as the stars of the show in this novel, and I’m sure that I’ll be recommending this one to lots of people!
What also stood out to me was the unique relationship shared by all of the siblings. Most of them aren’t related by blood (save for two sets of twins), but they’re such a tight-knit community, in tune with each other’s comings and goings no matter what. Each of the characters had such distinct personalities, and there was clearly so much care put into each and every one of them. They were all so caring towards each other, and they stuck together until the end.
Beyond the characters, I loved the dark fantasy aspect of A Dark and Starless Forest! It’s more of an urban fantasy (real-world, but with fantasy aspects woven in), but there’s no shortage of gripping suspense and creepy plot twists. Without spoiling anything, there was definitely a sensibility about it that reminded me of some of the darker X-Men storylines, and I loved seeing how the story unravelled. (I guess the X-Men parallels go beyond that – the relationship that the siblings have is certainly akin to the denizens of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Mutant and proud.) Hollowell hits a perfect balance between showing the tender side of the siblings’ magic and showing the darker, more body-horror side to it.
At its heart, A Dark and Starless Forest is a story of sibling-hood, a story of resistance and uncovering hidden truths, and a story of sticking together against all odds. It’s a beautiful found-family story, and even though the ending was more bittersweet, it made me feel so warm inside at some points.
All in all, a dark but tender story of family and magic that’s sure to enchant so many readers. 4.25 stars!
Happy Thursday, bibliophiles! Such a relief that the week is almost over…
I mentioned last week that I’m starting to do some mini review posts, so this is my first stab at it. I have a little sticky note function on my laptop where I organize all my blog-related post ideas and such, and I realized that I had WEEKS worth of books to review for my Book Review Tuesdays, and I wanted a way to review more of them without stretching everything out too long. (If I do, I tend to forget certain details of the books.) So, I have a solution: this won’t be on a schedule, but I’ll put three or more books into one review when the mood strikes me, or if I’ve just been reading lots of good content. Without further ado, here’s my first batch of mini reviews–books that have nothing to do with each other, but ones that I rated all 4 stars!
My copy, ft. some shells that I’ve collected from beaches over the years (kind of proud of this pic skdfhshf)
For their whole lives, Effie and Tavia have felt like it’s them against the world. Living as Black girls–and sirens, at that–in the middle of Portland is no easy task, and the world is set to subdue them by all means. In the midst of a siren trial and a celebrity’s revelation, the girls are forced to keep their identities under wraps–but the resurfacing of Effie’s past and a fatal accident from Tavia may put their lives in jeopardy.
✩
This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and one of the books I bought for my birthday. There’s hardly any quality YA mermaid/siren literature out there, and I’m glad to say that we can add this to the pantheon of siren books that deliver! Of course, it isn’t without its flaws; I liked both Tavia and Effie as characters, but their voices writing-wise felt nearly indistinguishable. The writing was casual and conversational, which was both a blessing and a curse–it made the world feel genuine, but it had a tendency to drag some of the prose/plot down at times. Morrow does such a wonderful job of incorporating all these mythical creatures into our world, and she combines both Western European and Central African mythos in terms of them, which I loved.
And without spoiling anything, I LOVED the twist with Effie. No rhyme or reason, just loved it. All in all, a timely piece of magical realism!
My library copy ft. a few issues of Giant Sized X-Men (1975 & 2020)
Caleb Michaels has it all–good grades, a stable home life, and he’s the star of the football team. But something is shifting inside of him; not only has he become incredibly attuned to the emotions of others, he can see them as they appear. He thinks he’s crazy, but Dr. Bright, his new therapist, has the correct wording–Caleb is an Atypical, someone born with abilities far beyond the normal human being.
As he grapples with his newfound powers, he meets Adam, a loner with magnetic emotions. They grow closer together and begin to fall for each other, but can Caleb keep his Atypical secret?
✩
Dr. Bright has INTENSE Professor X vibes, and I am 100% HERE FOR IT.
Even if you aren’t familiar with The Bright Sessions podcast (like myself), this a superpowered romance that is not to be missed! The writing instantly hooked me, and I blew through the first 100 pages in no time, enjoying every bit of it. Much of the dialogue felt authentic and genuine, and Shippen does a wonderful job of developing Caleb and Adam as characters, as well as their romance. It’s just such a feel-good, heartfelt gem of a contemporary sci-fi novel. I can’t wait to read A Neon Darkness now!
All in all, The Infinite Noise is a must read for fans of both LGBTQ+ romance and superhero sci-fi!
My library copy, ft. my backyard and a cool filter
Up until the age of 11, Tarisai has led a sheltered life, shielded from the outside world in an enclosed mansion with only servants and tutors–and her mother, if she’s lucky–for company. But when her mother sends her off to compete for a place on the council of Aritsar’s Crown Prince, she realizes that she bears a powerful curse–if she is chosen, she will have no choice but to kill the Prince in cold blood.
Tarisai finds the family she never had in the council, but the curse continues to haunt her. Will she give into the curse, or be able to forge a path for herself?
✩
I absolutely didn’t expect to like this novel as much as I did! Raybearer really has it all–rich, African-inspired mythology, detailed worldbuilding, political intrigue, actions, demons, you name it. The best aspect for me was the cast of characters–though some were not developed as much, Ifueko has created a cast with impeccable chemistry that you can’t help but root for. Sanjeet was my personal favorite character–he reminded me so much of Kal from Aurora Rising 🥺
The Lady is also a very compelling antagonist, and I loved the morally gray turn that the book takes in the last third or so. There’s some important themes about assimilation and family, making it for a timely fantasy.
All in all, a multilayered and compelling fantasy with a lovable found family!
GENRE: Fantasy, high fantasy
MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Today’s song:
NEW EELS
BOTTOM TEXT
That’s it for these mini reviews! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme created by Lauren’s Page Turners. All you have to do to participate is pick a book from your Goodreads TBR, and explain why you want to read it.
The novel I’m going over today is a far more recent addition to my TBR. Found family vibes and powers? Consider me completely hooked.
Let’s begin, shall we?
GOODREADS MONDAY (8/10/20)–THE INFINITE NOISE by Lauren Shippen
Caleb Michaels is a sixteen-year-old champion running back. Other than that his life is pretty normal. But when Caleb starts experiencing mood swings that are out of the ordinary for even a teenager, his life moves beyond “typical.”
Caleb is an Atypical, an individual with enhanced abilities. Which sounds pretty cool except Caleb’s ability is extreme empathy—he feels the emotions of everyone around him. Being an empath in high school would be hard enough, but Caleb’s life becomes even more complicated when he keeps getting pulled into the emotional orbit of one of his classmates, Adam. Adam’s feelings are big and all-consuming, but they fit together with Caleb’s feelings in a way that he can’t quite understand.
Caleb’s therapist, Dr. Bright, encourages Caleb to explore this connection by befriending Adam. As he and Adam grow closer, Caleb learns more about his ability, himself, his therapist—who seems to know a lot more than she lets on—and just how dangerous being an Atypical can be.
So why do I want to read this?
I usually cut out the blurbs and such from the Goodreads synopsis, but I figured I would share the one at the bottom of The Infinite Noise:
“What if the X-Men, instead of becoming superheroes, decided to spend some time in therapy?”
-Vox, on The Bright Sessions
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand you had me at X-Men.
This one’s based off of a podcast, which I’ve never previously heard of, but I’m willing to go in completely blind. (I really don’t listen to podcasts much at all, for reasons I can’t place.)
That aside, this novel sounds so exciting! The Infinite Noise sounds like a superhero story with a unique, introspective twist. Not only do we have some great LGBTQ+ representation, I’m excited to see Caleb’s powers; there’s something that makes me so happy to see a male character with powers connected to his emotion. In a society that all too often belittles men for crying and feeling emotion, here we have a character who’s going through the all-too-human struggle of exploring his own emotions–and his superpowers. So that’s a wonderful step, and a necessary one in the pantheon of superpowered literature.
In short: I’m here for a timely, progressive, and romantic superhero story. GIMME ALL THEM X-MEN VIBES!
Today’s song:
That’s it for this week’s Goodreads Monday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
I found this tag over at G-Swizzel Books, who was also the creator of this tag. As I am a MASSIVE X-Men fan, I knew I had to take part in this tag at some point. X-Men: Apocalypse, although it isn’t the best of the X-Men movies, will always have a special place in my heart, as it was the first one that I got to see in theaters, and my first introduction to my favorite character, Nightcrawler.
Let’s begin, shall we?
MYSTIQUE: Name a female lead who is a strong and flawed character
Elloren from The Black Witchcertainly has her fair share of flaws, but one of the most beautiful parts of the novel was watching her character development, and her growth into a formidable woman.
CHARLES XAVIER: Name a character who is a good mentor/instructor
I immediately thought of Captain Siege from the Heart of Ironduology–intimidating, but still fair with all of her crew, and a mother figure of sorts for Ana and the rest.
QUICKSILVER: Name a fast-paced book that you read in one sitting
As was…expected, I tore through Aurora Burningin one sitting. I was just as enraptured as as I was with book 1, and then the ending had to destroy my feelings like that…
BEAST: Name a book you were intimidated by before you read it
Going into All Out of Prettywas fairly daunting, judging from the subject matter, but although it was an incredibly rough novel, it was still one that was completely worthwhile to read.
NIGHTCRAWLER: Name your favorite character that is a creature of the night (Werewolf, warlock, vampire, faerie, etc.)
Sidenote…MY BOY! MY FAVORITE MEMBER OF THE X-MEN!
When this part of the tag mentioned werewolves, I immediately thought of Remus Lupin from the Harry Potterseries. All I’ll say is that he deserved so much better.
HAVOK: Name an underrated character that deserves more attention
After reading Aurora Burning, I’d have to say Zila Madran. I already liked her character, but now that we’ve gotten so much necessary backstory on her, I hope she’ll take a more central role in book three.
CYCLOPS: Name a character who struggles to control their power (could either be a superpower or a position of authority)
Zoey fromSawkill Girlsis certainly a prime example, what with her powers showing up COMPLETELY without warning, poor thing. Plus, I had to sneak this in here because THEY MAKE AN X-MEN REFERENCE WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT TRIGGERING HER POWERS…which is the perfect segway into the next part of the tag…
JEAN GREY: Name a character who had a traumatic incident happen in their past
March from The Smoke Thievescertainly fits the bill, poor thing…I mean, to have his entire family slaughtered as a child most definitely had a major, negative impact on the rest of his life.
THE FOUR HORSEMEN: Name four villains to create your ultimate villain squad that could potentially take this world apart
I’m finally out of school for the year! Officially halfway through high school…whew…
But anyway, the AP exam and finals weren’t all that bad. For a few classes, they canceled finals altogether, and others just had a paper or a lab report in place of a written test (REJOICE!). I did pretty well on almost all of them, but we’ll see about AP…
Other than that, I’ve had a good week and a half since I’ve taken a break. I got into an unfortunate loop of finding one good book to read, then having a slump of three- or two-star books in between. Luckily, I did get a fair amount of good books in. I also listened to a lot of Spiritualized, thanks to my dad (and by a lot, I mean a LOT), got to a scene that I’ve been picturing in my head for YEARS on my WIP, and the weather’s starting to warm up, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Now, back to our scheduled program.
I found this tag over at SMELLFOY CAN READ?, and the tag was created by Elisabeth Paige and Joana Sousa. As a (pretty much) lifelong fan of all things Star Wars, I was absolutely ELATED to find this tag.
My first thought was Alosa from Daughter of the Pirate King. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to be a captain of a formidable pirate ship at the ripe old age of 17.
LEIA ORGANA: Best or worst love triangle
On another note, this is my favorite movie line of all time. Hands down.
Leia does not deserve the subject matter of this part of the tag…
I…hate love triangles in general, but for now, I’d just say the love triangle in the Hunger Gamestrilogy. 50% because Gale is repulsive, and 50% because that’s sadly what a lot of people tend to remember/take away from the series, as opposed to…y’know, the dystopian commentary and whatnot…
LUKE SKYWALKER: A rising star author, or a new author you’ve discovered and absolutely love
I’ve just started to discover Sy Montgomery’s nonfiction novels, and even though I’ve only read The Soul of an Octopus, I absolutely ADORED it. I have How to Be a Good Creatureon my list as well.
ANAKIN SKYWALKER: A book or series that started out well and then became bad
Without a doubt, the Shatter Meseries. I was already salty about how the trilogy ended (Warner is awful, change my mind), but then after book 4, it just took a sharp left turn into the flat-out ridiculous. Such a shame.
QUI-GONN JINN: Worst character death (SPOILERS)
Hmm…lots to choose from…
My first thought was Zin’s death in The Battle for WondLa. (Yes, we’re going back to that…) He was one of my favorite characters, but he did NOT have to go out in such a completely twisted way…I won’t go into the gory details, but it’s rough to read.
HAN SOLO: A book with a lot of sass
Aurora Risinghas no short supply at sassy, sarcastic writing, and the same can be said for the characters. (*coughcough FINIAN coughcough*)
EMPEROR PALPATINE: Best world-building
I think The Black Witchtakes the cake for this one. There was clearly so much care put into everything from the history to the magical races, and everything in between.
BEN/OBI-WAN KENOBI: A book you went in with low expectations and that blew you away
“General Kenobi…”
I didn’t have high expectations for The Looking Glass, but I was pleasantly surprised by the lush writing–not to mention, the great music references.
YODA: A book that taught you something or that made you grow
On Writing: A Memoir of the Crafttaught me volumes about the essentials of writing. I still try to take Stephen King’s advice to heart.
DARTH VADER: Favorite Villain
Hmmm…it’s a hard decision, but I’ve have to go with Magneto.
All hail Sir Ian McKellen
I TAG ANY FELLOW STAR WARS FANS WHO WANT TO PARTICIPATE!
Today’s song:
Soccer Mommy + Jay Som =
That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, take care of yourselves, and may the Force be with you!
Comfort food. We all have it. It comes in all shapes and sizes, and no matter how deep into the dark places we may become entrenched, it will always bring immeasurable joy to us. So this is sort of an appreciation post, but more just musings on a few books and movies that not only help me get through it, but are just fun to read/watch over and over, and they never get old.
BOOKS AND COMICS
Heart of Iron–Ashley Poston
Ever since I read Heart of Ironfor the first time on a magical trip to Chicago, it’s been my go-to whenever I reach a reading slump, or just need a little bit more sci-fi fun in my life. Also, Jax. ‘Nuff said.
Pumpkinheads–Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks
This one’s a more recent addition to my list, but no matter the time of year, Pumpkinheadsis especially good for curing all that ails you. I mean, it helped me recover from the initial speechless shock after seeing Joker in theaters, if that’s any proof. (And that was a seriously rough movie…so well-done, though)
B.P.R.D. vol. 2: The Soul of Venice and Other Stories–Mike Mignola
Let me make myself clear: in the grand scheme of all things B.P.R.D., The Soul of Veniceis nowhere near the peak of mastery that this comic series has achieved. But that’s not at all to say that it isn’t a ball of spooky, paranormal fun from cover to cover. Part of why this is one of my most frequently re-read trades is for a few reasons, but the most important one is that, like Heart of Iron, is that it brings back some of my fondest memories, those from when I went to Sequoia National Park one spring break. We stopped in LA before the drive there, where I got this at a comic shop just about a month before it closed. I spent almost the entire trip reading and re-reading that trade, even though I had…oh, three or four books loaded up on my Kindle?
One of the first major comic series that I came to love (and collect in its entirety), Courtney always manages to dredge up so many happy memories for me when I go back and re-read any of the separate volumes. Of course, I end up crying (*coughcough THE COVEN OF MYSTICS coughcough THE FINAL SPELL coughcough*) every time, but it’s worth it. [sniffles] I swear…
MOVIES
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW FANTASTIC THIS MOVIE IS. Aside from being one of the rare sequels that surpasses its predecessor, it speaks to me as a person. I mean…a bunch of misfits and weirdos just trying to get through life. (And trying to take down an invincible, supernatural army, but, y’know, that’s just part of the job.) Over the past three or four years, it’s played such a big role in my life, and I know for a fact that I will never grow tired of it.
X2: X-Men United
Again. Misfits just trying to get through life, with some world-saving on the side. After all the criticism these films have gotten over the years (mostly for The Last Stand, that first Wolverine solo, Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix), it’s so sad that they’ve been pushed aside in the grand scheme of superhero films. For if you think about it, these three two original X-Men movies (we don’t talk about The Last Stand) set the standard for the modern superhero movie. For lack of better words, the X-Men movies walked SO THE ENTIRE MCU COULD RUN. There. I said it.
Anyway, X2 was what rekindled my love of X-Men a few years ago, and in the span of about a year and a half, I’ve been able to watch it a good 5 times, and it will never. Get. Old.
All of the Star Wars movies (minus The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, you know what you’ve done…)
Star Wars. Need I really say any more?
Today’s song:
I’d already heard a few songs off of Strange Mercy before, but I downloaded the rest of the album a few days ago, and I am STUNNED by how phenomenal it is.
So what’s your comfort food? What books, comics, films, and more will you never be able to stop re-reading/watching? Let me know down in the comments!
That just about wraps up this post! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
The Bookish Mutant 