Tim Lieder

40. Being Full of Light Insubstantial by Linda D. Addison - I don't really know how to review poetry well. It's poetry and my ability to approach poetry on its own level and say something smart about it can feel utterly pathetic. The first part of this book feels distant for me, but as the book goes on the poems become more intimate and emotional. There's a cosmic sense of purpose to the poetry toward the end. I quite enjoyed this one. I don't know what else to say about it.

41. Teen Titans Go! Ready for Action by J. Torres et al. - I like Teen Titans Go for the juvenile humor but also for the way it just doesn't take any of its premises seriously. The movie will always make me love it for the way that they had to fix their mistakes by sending Batman's parents down crime alley. My favorite story in this particular one is a video game one where people keep getting pulled into the videogame by Cyborg's enthusiastic opponent. Mostly this is for the bright colors and the shifting art styles. I quite loved it.

42. The Walking Dead volume 26: Call to Arms by Robert Kirkman - Negan kills Alpha. I don't think this ends the Whisperer story, but the main point is that Negan kills the lead Whisperer so that's pretty much that. Also the horrible kid who hit Carl with a brick is dead now too. That whole family is gone because of the Whisperers so they aren't all bad. But why that family was such a big deal is beyond me. They were basically just entitled rednecks. But Negan killed the kid and then got in with the Whisperers and killed Alpha. So that's fun.

43.Bob's Burgers Medium Rare by Various - When Movie Bob cited Bob's Burgers as the working class sitcom you should be paying attention to instead of the overrated new Roseanne, I couldn't help but agree. Bob's Burgers is one of my favorite cartoons and the comic book is...well, it's pretty great. I can't remember anyhting about it, but it let the writers have freedom with tone and character enough that it was a decent experience. So yes, I read the Bob's Burgers graphic novel. At least the first one. It was funny. I guess that's it.

44. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1910 by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill - Did this one or Black Book come out first? The first two LXG collections were classics in their own right and then Alan Moore got self-indulgent. Black Book gave us an immortal Mina and Quartermain going through the 20th century with references to pop culture deep cuts. The beat novel was awful but the Jeeves & Wooster Cthulu story was quite good. This is less confusing than that one, but it is still a bit indulgent. This is the trilogy that ends with Moore declaring Harry Potter to be the anti-Christ, with his Harry Potter character killing off the Hogwarts. But this one, this particular one is slight and I wouldn't even bother if not for the fact that it mostly gets the Pirate Jenny song as a major theme.

Nemo dies (it's been enough time) and his daughter Jani wants nothing to do with him. In between the rest of the team trying to deal with Crowley and learn about the evil promised one, Jani gets a job and gets called Jenny as a woman sings many more verses of the song. They don't all fit with the rhyme scheme. Sadly, Alan Moore gets lazy and includes a rape scene. It's not like Jani couldn't get frustrated with being a servant and called upon her pirates without the rape. The whole point of the song is that the servant just can't wait to get the pirates to kill off the bosses. The rape just cheapens it.

45.The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen - This was the basis of the pilot for the Rizzoli and Isles show and I can see why this became the pilot instead of the first book as this seems like the first time Isles is introduced. The relationship between Isles and Rizzoli is professional and Rizzoli is much closer to the rest of the characters in the book. Mostly Rizzoli is chasing after a serial killer who is corresponding with The Surgeon from the first book and she's still traumatized by the Surgeon torturing her and trying to kill her. The Surgeon is playing mind games and it is fast paced enough not to get to hung up on some details. I will definitely read another Tess Gerritsen. I've been burned by writers before (Charlaine Harris being one prime example. One book and I love her. Second book and I am so over the "every monster wants to fuck Sookie" plot). I would have also preferred that Rizzoli caught the murderer in any way beyond getting kidnapped by him. I must say that if I read another Gerritsen book, I really hope that Rizzoli just catches her by working the case.

46. The Death Stench Creeps GYO by Juni Ito - Oh man, body horror is disgusting. I want to say something academic about how it is a great depiction of the fear of disease and dying as our very limbs betray us, but this book is about a disease that makes people smell bad and then has them expel gas from their mouths and butts. So we got a lot of farting which is then used by magical machines to run themselves on gas. Oh man, so disgusting. There are a couple short stories that seem more like jokes than horror stories. Like the one where Dad gets stuck beneath the supporting beam and does not want to be moved because the house would come crashing down. So he dies there. There's also one where people shaped holes end up in a mountain and they go into them. That's it. That's the story. Also they get all bendy in the tunnels.