30. Paper GIrls: Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

Illustrated by Cliff Chiang
Colors by Matt Wilson
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
read the actual book at Barnes and Noble on Easter, 4-1-18
2016, Image Comics Inc., Berkeley, CA
144 pgs.
Graphic Novel
Finished 4/1/18
Goodreads rating: 3.86 - 35,618 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: 1988 Cleveland, OH

First page/s:  Erin is dreaming and thinks she's in heaven, being greeted by Christa MacAuliffe.

My comments:  I went onto Litsy to see what "comics"/graphic novels seems to be a top read in recent months and discovered a few titles, but this is the only one I could locate at Barnes & Noble.  There were lots and lots and LOTS of superhero comics/graphic novels, but not too many others.
      There were a couple of places in the story that no matter how hard you looked at the illustration or read the text, you couldn't quite figure out what was going on.  I skimmed through a second time and got a few answers...or at least answers that might have been correct, but satisfied me.  It was an okay read, and would be interesting to see what happens in Volume 2
     Erin is the "new girl" to the now-foursome that delivers the Cleveland paper together before dawn each morning.  Mac/MacKenzie is the pink-haired, swearing, smoking, unafraid of much leader,  Tiff/Tiffany is the darker skinned walkie-talkie owner, and KJ has the back ponytail and a bat mitzvah coming up.

Goodreads synopsis: In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.

March 2018 Reads

28. Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben

listened to on Audible
read by Steven Weber
2017 Dutton Books
368 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 3/29/18
Goodreads rating: 4.01 - 22,160 ratings
My rating:5
Setting: Contemporary NJ and PA

First line/s:  "The mark peered into the glass of whiskey in front of him as though he were a gypsy with a crystal ball."

My comments: Another riveting mystery by Harlan Coben.  Twists, turns, and lots of questions put you right their in the midst of the investigation with Nap.  I loved listening to Steven Weber read this, he did one heckuva job.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis: With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.
          Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for. 
          When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.

MOVIE - Sherlock Gnomes

PG (1:26)

Wide release 3/23/18

Viewed with Tristan, after school on Thursday, March 29, 2018

RT Critic: 27   Audience:  36
Critic's Consensus:  Sherlock Gnomes is sadly, utterly stumped by the mystery of the reason for its own existence.

Cag:  1

Directed by John Stevenson

Paramount Pictures

My comments:  Always fun to take T to a movie, just the two of us, and he enjoyed this.  But for me, yuckety yuck yuck.....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  When Gnomeo and Juliet first arrive in the city with their friends and family, their biggest concern is getting their new garden ready for spring. However, they soon discover that someone is kidnapping garden gnomes all over London. When Gnomeo and Juliet return home to find that everyone in their garden is missing there's only one gnome to call SHERLOCK GNOMES. The famous detective and sworn protector of London's garden gnomes arrives with his sidekick Watson to investigate the case. The mystery will lead our gnomes on a rollicking adventure where they will meet all new ornaments and explore an undiscovered side of the city.

17 Years to Commemorate - 48 Years to Celebrate!

March 26, 2018

Celebrating Steve's life on the date of his death

For remembrance, with love, lots of it.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (4/3) 17.00
MDI Sharks/Bar Harbor YMCA (3/18) 30.00

MOVIE - A Wrinkle in Time

PG

Widel release 3/9/18

Viewed date at 3/25/18 at Carlisle 8
IMBd:  4.2/10

RT Critic: 41   Audience: 33
Critic's Consensus:  A Wrinkle in Time is visually gorgeous, big-hearted, and occasionally quite moving; unfortunately, it's also wildly ambitious to a fault, and often less than the sum of its classic parts.

Cag: 2.5  It was okay.

Directed by Ava DuVernay

Walt Disney Pictures

Based on the book by Madeline L'Engle (which I've read many times, beginning when I was just a kid).

Chris Pine, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling

My comments:  Pretty over-the-top.  Not at all what I had envisioned in my mind after all the times I've read this book.  Meg was nothing like I'd pictured, nor was Calvin.  And Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which?  NOOOOOO!  Okay, so I forget about the book, and think about the movie as a whole, without the book.  How does that change my thinking?  That's when the over-the-top thinking kicks in.  Mindy Kaling's character, costuming, and setting di work okay for me....
          I love fantasy, I love sci fi.  For some reason, this just didn't do it for me.  DARN!  The music was pretty decent, though....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is a typical middle school student struggling with issues of self-worth who is desperate to fit in. As the daughter of two world-renowned physicists, she is intelligent and uniquely gifted, as is Meg's younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), but she has yet to realize it for herself. Making matters even worse is the baffling disappearance of Mr. Murry (Chris Pine), which torments Meg and has left her mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) heartbroken. Charles Wallace introduces Meg and her fellow classmate Calvin (Levi Miller) to three celestial guides-Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling)-who have journeyed to Earth to help search for their father, and together they set off on their formidable quest. Traveling via a wrinkling of time and space known as tessering, they are soon transported to worlds beyond their imagination where they must confront a powerful evil. To make it back home to Earth, Meg must look deep within herself and embrace her flaws to harness the strength necessary to defeat the darkness closing in on them.

27. The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

listened to on Audible
read by the author, and boy do I love to hear her read her work!
2017 William Morris
342 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 3/24/18
Goodreads rating:  4.02 - 9552 ratings
My rating: 5 !!!
Contemporary small-town Alabama

First line/s:  "Superheroes have always been Leia Burch Briggs's weakness.  One tequila-soaked at a comic-book convention, the usually level-headed graphic novel artist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.  She remembers that he was tall, black, and an excellent French kisser - but not much else."

My comments:  This was a fabulous book.  Beautiful, fluent, often comical writing.  One heckuva story.  I listened to the author reading this herself and it was like a special gift.  I've read a lot of good books recently, but this one will go down as the best I've read in a long time.

Goodreads synopsis: With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of Gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality - the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.
          Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs' weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman. 
          It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She's having a baby boy - an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old's life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel's marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she's been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.
          Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family's freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.

PICTURE BOOK - Noah Webster's Fighting Words by Tracy Nelson Maurer

Illustrated by Mircea Casusanu

2017, Millbrook Press

HC $19.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:

My rating:  5

Endpapers: Solid orange - with a note from N. Webster

1^st line/s:  "Noah Webster was a proud American, even as a little boy. 'I began life ... full of confidence in my own opinions,' he once said."

My comments:  What an interesting "character" in American's history!  This book introduces facts that make Noah Webster really come to life...and Tracy Maurer has done it in a clever manner...by pretending Mr. Webster is editing her writing with comments that he would probably have made himself.  Excellent idea, and it made the book extra fun to read.  Although there's a lot to look at on each page, it's not overwhelming, and I, who usually love lots of bright colors, love the muted browns with lots of orange and the collaged look of each page. It all works together really nicely.

Goodreads:  Noah Webster - famous for writing the first dictionary of the English language as spoken in the United States - was known in his day for his bold ideas and strong opinions about, well, everything. Spelling. Politics. Laws. You name it, he had something to say about it. He even commented on his own opinions! With a red pencil in hand, Noah often marked up work that he had already published. So when Noah's ghost came across this new picture book biography, he couldn't help but make a few suggestions!

MOVIE - Peter Rabbit

PG (1:35)

Wide Release 2/9/18

Viewed Thursday, March 22, 2018 with Tristan in a Carlisle recliner, fun!
IMBd: 6.4/10

RT Critic: 60   Audience:   61
Critic's Consensus:  Peter Rabbit updates Beatrix Potter's classic characters with colorfully agreeable results that should entertain younger viewers while admittedly risking the wrath of purists.

Cag:  3/ liked it, and Tristan liked it a lot

Directed by Will Gluck

Columbia Pictures

Based on the book by Beatrix Potter

My comments:  I went to this thinking it was animated (and dreading it).  However, it wasn't animated, the faces on the animals were a RIOT! and the movie itself was entertaining.  Not boring or snooze-worthy at all!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Peter Rabbit, the mischievous and adventurous hero who has captivated generations of readers, now takes on the starring role of his own irreverent, contemporary comedy with attitude. In the film, Peter's feud with Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) escalates to greater heights than ever before as they rival for the affections of the warm-hearted animal lover who lives next door (Rose Byrne). James Corden voices the character of Peter with playful spirit and wild charm, with Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley performing the voice roles of the triplets, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail.

26. Princess Cora and the Crocodile by Laura Amy Schlitz

Illustrated by Brian Floca
Listened on Audible AND read the BOOK
2017 Candlewick Press
74 pgs.
Mid Grades Fairy Tale
Finished  3/21/18
Goodreads rating:  4.01 - 1029 ratings
My rating:  4

First line/s: When Princess Cora was born, her mother and father thought she was as perfect as a snowflake."

My comments:  I purchased this book through Audible for a ridiculously low price - can't remember how low, but like maybe 99-cents.  Because I've loved everything I've read by Laura Amy Schitz previously, I couldn't pass it up.  Oh, does Davina Porter read this beautifully!  She has the easiest-to-understand British accent and is just a joy to spend time with.  The story is adorable, but I really think that I need to see the illustrations - that's the only problem with an audio book that has illustrations.  So I won't make an actual review of this until I have sat down with the book itself and take in the pictures.  5/5 I have done that now.  They've really fun.

Goodreads synopsis: A Newbery Medalist and a Caldecott Medalist join forces to give an overscheduled princess a day off and a wicked crocodile a day "on." 
Princess Cora is sick of boring lessons. She's sick of running in circles around the dungeon gym. She's sick, sick, sick of taking three baths a day. And her parents won't let her have a dog. But when she writes to her fairy godmother for help, she doesn't expect help to come in the form of a crocodile, a crocodile who does not behave properly.

MOVIE - Love, Simon

PG-13 (1:49)

Wide releale 3/16/18

Viewed 3/19/18
IMBd: 7.9/10

RT Critic: 91   Audience:  89
Critic's Consensus:  Love, Simon hits its coming-of-age beats more deftly than many entries in this well-traveled genre -- and represents an overdue, if not entirely successful, milestone of inclusion

Cag:  4/Liked it a lot

Directed by Greg Berlanti

20th Century Fox

Based on the book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

My comments:  I've heard people reflect that this is a sweet movie, and it is.  The actor that played Simon did a really good job and portrayed the character well.  His car full of friends seemed a little bit too unreal, however.  As did his picture-perfect loving family.  Just a little too picture perfect, I think.  I did like the way that as he kept sleuthing out his unknown pen pal he envisioned the possibilities typing his return messages.  The assistant principal was a real hoot.  Very enjoyable movie, recommended.  

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it's a little more complicated: he's yet to tell his family or friends he's gay and he doesn't actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he's fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing. Directed by Greg Berlanti (Riverdale, The Flash, Supergirl), written by Isaac Aptaker & Elizabeth Berger (This is Us), and based on Becky Albertalli's acclaimed novel, LOVE, SIMON is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love.

25. Bird Box by Josh Malerman

read the book - received from @Kaye - Listsy  #Passport
2014, Ecco
262 pgs.
Adult Dystopia/Horror
Finished 3/17/18
Goodreads rating:3.98 - 49,950 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Anywhere, USA contemporary (dystopian) times

First line/s: " Malorie stands in the kitchen, thinking.
     Her hands are damp.  She is trembling.  She taps her toe nervously on the cracked tile floor.  It is early; the sun is probably only peeking above the horizon.  She watches its meaager light turn the heavy window drapes of softer shade of black and thinks,
     That was a fog.
     The children sleep under chicken wire draped in black cloth down the hall.  Maybe they heard her moments ago on her knees in the yard.  Whatever noise she made must have traveled through the microphones, then the amplifiers that sat beside their beds."

My comments: This is not a book I would have ordered, or bought, or borrowed.  Its blurbs, reviews, and summaries sound too scary and disconcerting.  But the book was put in my hands and I opened it and read the first short chapter.  I was immediately hooked.  It's sad. It's depressing.  But it's fascinating.  Apparently it's being made into a movie and I can't imagine how that could be done successfully because so much of it takes place in the total absoluteness of darkness, blindfolded or eyes-shut darkness. Yes, it's going to be a scary movie, and yes, I'm going to go see it!

Goodreads synopsis: Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.
          Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
          Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.

PICTURE BOOK - A Boy, a Mouse, and a Spider: The Story of E. B. White by Barbara Herkert

Illustrated by Lauren Castillo

2017 Henry Holt & Co. 

HC $18.99

40pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.29 - 318 ratings

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers" Bright lime green

1^st line/s:  
"When young Elwyn White
lay sick in bed,
a bold house mouse
befriended. him.
Elwyn made a home
for his companion.
If his mother knew,
she would not approve."

My comments:  This is a lovely, gentle picture book, as I picture E. B. White to be lovely and gentle. The three page author's note at the end are the perfect short biography for me.  What a great read-aloud picture book for kids to go along with the reading of Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web , or The Trumpet of the Swan.  I'm SO glad that kids are still reading these books today...published in 1945, 1952, and 1968 respectively! 

Goodreads:  A lyrical biography of E. B. White, beloved author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, written by Barbara Herkert and illustrated by Caldecott honoree Lauren Castillo.
          When young Elwyn White lay in bed as a sickly child, a bold house mouse befriended him. When the time came for kindergarten, an anxious Elwyn longed for the farm, where animal friends awaited him at the end of each day. Propelled by his fascination with the outside world, he began to jot down his reflections in a journal. Writing filled him with joy, and words became his world.
          Today, Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web are beloved classics of children’s literature, and E. B. White is recognized as one of the finest American writers of all time.
          A Christy Ottaviano Book

MOVIE - Tomb Raider

PG-13 (1:58)

Wide release 3/16/2018

Viewed March 16, 2018

RT Critic:  50  Audience:  56
Critic's Consensus:  Tomb Raider reboots the franchise with a more grounded approach and a star who's clearly more than up to the task -- neither of which are well served by an uninspired origin story.

Cag:  3/Liked it - good entertainment

Directed by Roar Uthaug

Warner Brothers Pictures

Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins

My comments:  Totally stupid and unbelievable, but really fun to watch.  She would have been dead at least a dozen times, and at the very least not been able to get up andmove afterwards, never mind fight and run and blah blah blah.  It certainly kept me entertained, though.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father's global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he's truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can't understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad's last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn't be higher for Lara, who--against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit--must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider.

MOVIE - Black Panther

PG-13 (2:15)

Wide release 2/16/2018

Viewed March 11, 2018
IMBd: 7.4/10

RT Critic:  97  Audience:  79
Critic's Consensus:  Black Panther elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights while telling one of the MCU's most absorbing stories -- and introducing some of its most fully realized characters.

Cag: 4.5

Directed by Ryan Coogler

Marvel Studios

My comments: What an amazing set, costumes, sound - the music was just great.  It was a really good movie and a really interesting story, with usual major battle scenes; good versus bad throughout.  Black panther will make a nice addition to the Avenger's crew, it was nice to be able to see from whence he came!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  "Black Panther" follows T'Challa who, after the events of "Captain America: Civil War," returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T'Challa's mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.