SEPTEMBER READS

I was able to get an even more diverse variety of books read this month. I continued to mainly focus on making a dent in my physical TBR of already-owned books and I'd say I succeeded nicely at that goal. Interestingly enough, this is the second month in a row, my top read was not a fantasy book. 

1. SCRUM


I gave this a solid 4/5 stars

If you can get past the initial shock of the author's rather boastful writing style as well as the fact that the book can feel a little too idealistic or sales-pitchy, there is some really awesome content in here for anyone with even a passing interested in Scrum. It reaffirmed some concepts for me and also made me think about things that I hadn't pondered in a little while despite being part of a Scrum Team. Sutherland is one of the creators of Scrum, so this is definitely a must read for newcomers and Scrum veterans alike.  

2. BREACH OF PEACE


I rated this 4/5

Although it's a bit light on Character and Worldbuilding details, this dark, fantasy novella delivers on mystery and action served up at a delightfully fast pace. While this is not for the faint of heart when it comes to violence and gore, it does a great job with handling some truly harrowing moments and maintaining a sense of unease throughout it's 140 pages. 


3. WHITE SAND (VOLUMES 1-3)



The series overall was a 3.5/5 for me

The first two volumes of this graphic novel trilogy are some of the best that I have ever had the pleasure of reading through. Unfortunately, the final installment really dragged things way down for me when it had the perfect setup to deliver on a tremendous conclusion. Up until this third entry, I thought for sure that this series would be my top read for this month, but my disappointment in how it went dropped the whole trilogy down this list. It's a shame that I am left with such a sour note, but I will absolutely be keeping these in my collection if only to pick up the first two and revisit all of the stunning visuals. 

4. FORTNITE X MARVEL: ZERO WAR


I gave this a 3/5 for what it was

More of a little bonus read for me at the tail-end of the month, this promotional comics crossover is a fun little series for fans of the Fortnite video game (especially if they are also a Marvel fan). While I didn't love every aspect of it and am glad I read it digitally via the Marvel Unlimited app, I am still happy that I read through this. I had a decent time with it, but I don't think I will ever forgive the writer for how horrendously awful they managed to handle Spider-Man. 

5. THE FINAL HOUR


A 2/5 for me

Had I not received this as a gift from a family member, I would likely not have picked it up, so perhaps I am simply not the target audience in spite of my being a practicing Catholic. Overly indulgent writing, lackluster citation, and and overemphasis on demonic forces made this all feel far too fantastical to serve as quality spiritual reading for me. I think there is a segment of Christians that will love this book, but sadly I did not find myself in that group. 


Here's hoping that October will be another good reading month (by my standards) since there's a lot more books I'd love to get through that are already on my shelves! I am also working my way through Brandon Sanderson's WORDS OF RADIANCE on Audible and Elliot Brooks' PEACE AND TURMOIL on Kindle so I'll be continuing those as well. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: EVERYONE'S A ALIEBN WHEN UR A ALIEBN TOO

Image
Our world through the eyes of an alien... INTRODUCTION  No I didn't make some horrible spelling blunder in the title of this post, you're actually reading it exactly as intended. Given to me as a parting gift from a friend at work, EVERYONE'S A ALIEBN WHEN UR A ALIEBN TOO , is a charmingly misspelled adventure into the human experience. It's a piece of fiction that will warm your heart, make you chuckle, and slap you in the face with sorrow, often within the span of a single breath. It's honest and heartfelt in all of the ways that count with some adorable visuals and bold typography to go with it. While some would rightly argue that this is actually more of a graphic novel, the way it's formatted is actually far more like a children's book, just one that's written for adults. HOW I RATED IT  5/5  Though it can occasionally be found guilty of overreaching, this is one book that should really be read by anyone who has even a Grinch-sized a hear
Read more

REVIEW: MARVEL 1602

Image
INTRODUCTION  I mentioned in a post a while back that I wanted to try to read a bit of Neil Gaiman's work. Since I knew him as being quite accomplished both in the world of literature and of comics, I figured I should try one of each. For a novel, I read and reviewed STARDUST which I really liked. In the comic category, I know he's mostly famous for the SANDMAN series, but there are quite a lot of volumes in it and I wanted something a little shorter. So I landed on MARVEL 1602 , a sort of alternate reality where an astounding number of Marvel's most beloved heroes and villains all find themselves existing in a time period centuries before the one they are traditionally seen in. I was drawn to this work partly because of the unique art-style, but also because I love the idea of taking characters that normally exist in a contemporary time period and transplanting them into one from the past. I hoped to see brilliant re-imaginings of these characters, some fun action-pa
Read more

REVIEW: DRAGON AGE: THE SILENT GROVE (DRAGON AGE GRAPHIC NOVELS #1)

Image
A king and his rogues... THE SILENT GROVE  is a graphic novel set in the universe of the   DRAGON AGE video games that I'd picked up at a local comic shop a while ago, mostly because they didn't have what I was looking for and I like the Dragon Age franchise. HOW I RATED IT  3/5  Everything about this was just fine. The art, the story, the characters are perfectly serviceable, but I ultimately found this to be just okay as a tie-in story to the DRAGON AGE video game universe.  CHARACTERS This story stars three highly recognizable characters from the games: Alistair, Varric, and Isabela which is an interesting trio to say the least even though Varric and Isabela were both party members in DRAGON AGE 2 . One thing I will praise is that the writers did a good job of establishing each of them for readers who may not have played through the games which is a nice touch (even though other aspects are less accessible to newcomers). Where I think the characters falter is that there is
Read more