Spider-Woman Vol 1: Baby Talk by Dennis Hopeless (Writer), Javier Rodriguez (Penciler, Colorist), Alvaro Lopez (Inker), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist), VC's Travis Lanham (Letterer)

Spider-Woman, aka Jessica Drew, is pregnant and working with Porcupine and Ulrich, the reporter.  Her best friend is Captain Marvel.  Now its a month before the baby is due and she is taking some time off and is bored to death.  Carol, Captain Marvel, has recommended an alien hospital as being the best hospital to have her baby in and that she should check it out. So Jess goes one day to do just that.

When she finds the maternity ward, some Skrulls take it over and Jess is forced to fight back even though she promised her friends and her baby that she would take it easy.  She destroys the two Skrull soldiers and wins the adoration of her fellow pregnant aliens.  She gets ahold of Carol who is on her way, but she knows that more soldiers are on their way.  She enlists the help of the pregnant aliens and they all take care of the soldiers.  With the help of Carol and the hospital staff talking them through it, they get to a secure place but someone needs to go and talk to a doctor's head kept in storage to get the doors open in order for Carol and the help to get in and get them out.  Jess does this but the head says it could take six hours to get the doors open.

Meanwhile, Carol lets slip that the Skrull are after a thirteen-year-old prince so Jess decides to rescue the prince even in her condition.  Unfortunately, she goes into labor while she is rescuing him. They barricade themselves into a room with a doctor who performs a c-section on Jess who is determined to fight back after the surgery.

Can Jess fight her way out? Or will Carol make it in time to rescue them?  The last section of the book is about Jess taking care of her baby and adjusting to life with a newborn and the lessons to be learned.  Jess is a total badass even when she is crying over being worried about her baby.  The artwork is amazing as it shows the very weird hospital that is inside a black hole.  This book has humor and lots of action. I loved it and I give it five out of five stars.

Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Woman-Shifting-Gears-Vol-Baby/dp/0785196226/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=SPider-woman+baby+talk&qid=1575022835&sr=8-1

Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

This Nobel Prize Award-winning book takes a look at the incredible life of an incredible woman. Cleopatra inherited with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII the kingdom of Egypt to rule with the understanding that she would be the true ruler from her father when he died in 50 BCE.  She would begin the first of killing off her siblings with him but he would start it by beginning a war with her.  At this time Pompey and Julius Caesar were at war with each other and Egypt had pledged itself with Pompey, which put itself in a bad position because Caesar was winning and Pompey wanted a place to hide out in.  Egypt refused him, but they had given him support early on.

Cleopatra was in Syria and decided to approach Caesar by placing herself in a bag wearing her regal dress and impressing him with her intelligence and her charm.  She succeeded and he agreed to help her dispatch with her brother who drowned in the sea.  There was a chemistry between Caesar and Cleopatra and the two became lovers with Cleopatra delivering him his only child Caesarion whom Cleopatra named the co-regent or pharaoh of Egypt.  She and Caesar had a loving relationship, though they did take what they could from it.  Caesar--Egypt's riches--Cleopatra--land and recognition of her child.  But Caesar wanted to conquer Parthia just like Cleopatra's direct relative Alexander the Great instead of taking care of things at home.  And that led to him getting killed by the Senate, on March 15 44 BCE.

Octavian, Julius's grand nephew was awarded the role of Caesar by Julius's will.  This ticked off Mark Antony who had expected to get the job since he had spent so much time with him.  The two of them were a pair in search of a fight and they found it with the succession of Caesar.  But they would join together to fight off Cassius and Brutus and the Pompey brothers.  Cleopatra would have to pick a side and she picked Dulabella who it turned out had denounced Caesar without her knowledge. And her representative on Cyprus had sent ships to Cassius which she had forbidden.  She tried to command ships to get to Antony and Octavian but was blocked by Cassius and Brutus and had fallen ill and had to turn back.

When Antony's man had arrived to demand why she hadn't helped he saw her and knew that Antony would appreciate her and therefore told her she needed to go to Antony.  She arrived in Tarsus where Antony was on a ship with a purple sail and silver oars pouring incense off the side of the ship so the people on the shore could smell it. She was laying on a couch dressed as Venus with cupids fanning her and sea nymphs working the ship.  She sent the note saying "Venus was come to feast with Bachus for the common good of Asia."   They immediately became lovers.  She soon gave birth to twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.  Pretty soon Octavian and Antony are fighting over Cleopatra's influence in Antony's life.  In truth, Cleopatra had no influence over Antony.  He did what he thought was right and giving his children land made sense.  This would lead to a war between the two of them.

Cleopatra's reign never had a revolt. Her people adored her and worshiped her as Iris the goddess they worshiped.  She took care of her people.  Also, this was a golden age of women and had been for as long as her family's dynasty had ruled.  Men were subservient to their wives.  Women received education and had a say and could own property.   She wasn't beautiful, but her intellect was stunning and she was quite charming.  Someone tabulated the richest people in history and Cleopatra fell at number twenty-second with $95.8 billion behind John D. Rockafeller and Tsar Nicholas II, but ahead of Napoleon and J. P. Morgan and Queen Elizabeth II.  It was that wealth that the Romans sought.  She built the Lighthouse at Alexandria and manufactured gold.  "She convinced her people that a twilight was a sawn--and with all her might--struggled to make it so."  There's a reason we still talk about her--she was one of a kind--and the last of her kind. She brought the end of the Hellenistic Period to a close and changed Rome forever.  She was a complex woman whom people try to simplify into a sexpot or a femme fatale.  She was neither.  Instead, she was a brilliant woman who lost a kingdom and her life.  This book was truly excellently written.  I give it five out of five stars.           
Quotes

It is not difficult to understand why Caesar became history, Cleopatra legend.

-Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra p 5)

 And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.

-Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra p 6)

It’s a godsend, really lucky, when one has so few relations.

-Menander

And as was observed later in connection with Cleopatra, “Some women are younger at seventy than most women at seventeen.”

-Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra p 32)

One royal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.

-Euripides

Servant: What excuses shall I make if I am away from the house for a long time?

Andromache: You will find no shortage of pretexts. After all, you are a woman.

-Euripides

No one dances while sober unless he happens to be a lunatic.

-Cicero

Politics have been defined as the systematic organization of hatreds.

-Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra p 148)

As Dio observed later, democracy sounded very well and good, “but its results are seen not to agree at all with its title. Monarchy on the contrary, has an unpleasant sound, but is a most practical form of government to live under. For it is easier to find a single excellent man than many of them.

-Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra p 154)

Yet what difference does it make whether the women rule or the rulers are ruled by women? The result is the same.

-Aristole

For talk is evil: IT is light to raise up quite easily, but it is difficult to bear, and hard to put down.  No talk is ever entirely gotten rid of, once many people talk it up: It too is some god.

-Hesiod

As one of Caesar’s murders has noted, “How much more attention  people pay to their fears than to their memories!”

-Stacy Schiff (Cleopatra p 298)

A man who teaches a woman to write should recognize that he is providing poison to an asp.

-Menander

Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cleopatra-Life-Stacy-Schiff-ebook/dp/B003YFIVHW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13WAU7KB0SBBQ&keywords=cleopatra+stacy+schiff&qid=1574870210&sprefix=cleopatra+sta%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1

Uncanny X-Force Vol 1: Let It Bleed by Sam Humphries (Writer), Ron Garney (Penciler), Danny Miki (Inker), Scott Hanna (Inker), Adrian Alphona (Artist), (G Dextter Soy (Artist), Marte Gracia (Colorist), Israel Gonzolez (Colorist), Will Quintanma (Colorist), Christina Strain (Colorist), Davis Curiel (Colorist), Chris Sotomayor (Colorist), VC's Cory Petit (Letterer)

Wolverine tells Elizabeth Blalock aka Psylocke to look into her email where there's an email from someone who has some information for her so Elizabeth and Orro go in search of this person and it turns out to be Puck, a four foot eleven inches dynamo who was on X-Force with Wolverine and Elizabeth.  He tells them that there's a new mutant being held captive by a multi-armed ninja who sells drugs in a run-down building.

Elizabeth knows exactly who that is.   Her mortal enemy, Spiral who used to work for Mojo until he got tired of her and stranded her on Earth without the ability to transport between worlds, but she can still transport on Earth.  They find her and it turns out the girl is psychic and is the one providing the high for the people.  They are about to rescue her when Bishop, the time-traveling mutant arrives and takes her.  They follow Bishop, Elizabeth inside his head. Elizabeth realizes that there is a demon eating away at Bishop's mind.  Bishop insists that the girl is a revenant.   

This is a powerful book as Elizabeth begins to open up a bit to what she's been through.  The killing she's done, what Spiral did to her, the twisted love she experienced in Paris with Fantomex who is back and kidnapping her, and Wolverine who is having problems with how she is doing things.  This is a fantastic book and I give it five out of five stars.

Listed on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Uncanny-X-Force-Vol-Let-Bleed/dp/0785167390/ref=sr_1_4?crid=LIIWOVJAQRSU&keywords=uncanny+x-force+vol+1&qid=1574686690&sprefix=uncanny+x-force%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-4

Star Wars Darth Vader Vol 1: Vader by Kieron Gillen (Writer), Salvador Larrrocoa (Artist), Edgar Delagado (Colorist), VC"s Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

It was a time of great insurrection and the rebels were based out of a hidden moon of Yavin.  They had discovered a secret way to destroy the Death Star.  In a great battle, they take down the Death Star and strike a great blow against the Empire.  It's been nineteen years since Darth Vader was reborn on Mustafar and now Vader is in trouble with the Emperor for failing him.

The Emperor sends Vader back to Jabba the Hutt to continue his business with him, but Vader has already completed his business with him and instead goes back to meet with two bounty hunters with whom he wants to find a boy on the Millennium Falcon because he believes that Obi-Wan gave him his old lightsaber. But before he leaves he notices a man whom he believes that the Emperor is having to follow him because he no longer believes he can do good work. 

Vader comes across Dr. Apha's droids and destroys them and decides to go in search of her in order to have her help him create a droid army as he is looking for who is after him.  They come across creatures who are not Jedi and are not Sith but are being run by the guy who was following him when he was reporting to the Emperor.  Vader sees them as an abomination that must be destroyed and sets out to do just that.

What does all of this mean?  And what does he find out about the mysterious boy who blew up the Death Star and has his lightsaber?  This was a really good comic that delves into Vader's life and makes him sympathetic.  I really did enjoy this book and give it four out of five stars.

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Darth-Vader-2015-2016-ebook/dp/B0153WYYOM/ref=sr_1_4?crid=127HKEVCHUHA9&keywords=star+wars+darth+vader&qid=1574435271&sprefix=star+wars+darth%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-4

Still I Rise: The Persistance of Phenomenal Women by Marlene Wagman-Geller

This book contains the incredible stories of women who have lived amazing lives that changed the lives of others.  For example, Irene Sendler lived in occupied Poland in 1940 during a typhus epidemic in the Jewish ghetto.  And like when she was in school and disagreed with the segregation policy and scratched up her religion section and went and sat in the Jewish section, she decided to go and help the Jews.  A group of them got medical badges to go into the ghetto. They snuck in supplies and food. Irene had an idea of sneaking out the toddlers and babies since they were hearing tales of death camps and she was trying to save the children.  She took down the children's information if the parents decided to give them up and wrote down what church, orphanage, or family they went to and put it into a jar and buried it under a tree.  In 1943 the Nazis were on to her and she had to go into hiding.  After the war, she dug up the jars and did her best to reunite the children with their families.  She might have remained unknown if not for the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem who in 1965 honored her with the Righteous Gentile award. In 2007 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize but lost to Al Gore. 

Fannie Lou Hamer was an African American woman born in Mississippi in 1917 and who didn't know her place.  She had two miscarriages and then went into the hospital to remove a tumor and wound up with a "Mississippi appendectomy" or a hysterectomy.  This got her fired up and involved in the Civil Rights movement where she found out she had the right to vote.  When she and a group of them went to the county seat to register to vote, they faced a literacy test and were forced to list where they worked and where they lived which meant that the Klan would know and they could lose their jobs and the Klan could attack their homes.  Which is what happened to her. She lost her home and her place on the farm sharecropping.  That just made her more determined.  When she and a group were headed out on a bus and stopped to get something to eat, the police arrested the others who had gotten off the bus and when she realized this she got off and made sure she got arrested too.  Realizing that she was a rabble-rouser they had some men beat her as hard as they could with sticks.  Fannie Lou Hamer continued to fight for voting rights and became known for saying during the Democratic National Convention of 1968, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!"  It made her the voice of voting rights.  In 2009 she was put on a US stamp.  Hamer never gave up and never stopped fighting.

Other women this book includes is Dr. Ruth who was a sniper in the Israeli Army and a educator on sex, Joan Rivers who fought hard to make it in a man's world of humor, Claudette Colvin the first woman to be arrested for sitting in the wrong section of the bus,  Mildred Loving who married a white man and fought a harsh legal battle to stay married to him, Carrie Fisher who battled bipolar disorder and Maya Angelou who grew up in poverty, rape, drugs, illegitimacy, and rose to become a famous actress and writer and whose poem is the basis of the title of this book: "You may shoot me with your words/ You may cut me with your eyes/ You may kill me with your hatefulness/ but still, like air, I will rise."   This is an incredible book that contains a list of unbelievable women who are too amazing to read about.  I really loved this book and I give it five out of five stars. 

Quotes

In the words of Oprah, “Turn your wounds into wisdom”.

-Marlene Wagman-Geller (Still I Rise:The Persistence of Phenomenal Women p 17)

Each one of us has the chance to be a rainbow in somebody’s cloud.

-Maya Anglou

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.

-Fannie Lou Hamer

When Carson asked if men ever liked her [Joan Rivers] for her mind, she responded that no man ever put his hand up a woman’s dress looking for her library card.

-Marlene Wagman-Geller (Still I Rise: The Persistence of Phenomenal Women p 120)

You know how they say that religion is the opiate of the masses? Well I took masses of opiates religiously.

-Carrie Fisher

Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Rise-Persistence-Phenomenal-Women/dp/1633535967/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3G07SKYO1HCEZ&keywords=still+i+rise&qid=1574255089&sprefix=still+i+r%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNFlWTlpGUUhVOUZNJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzg2MDcwMVJFNVZYWlBFQ0VBVyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTc1MjY1MlQyNzFNUjFXNFQyQyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Heart of the Moors by Holly Black

This book is based on the Disney movie Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.  It picks up where the first movie left off with Maleficent making Aurora Queen of Penceforce and the Moors or Queen of the humans and the fairies.  Prince Phillip had kissed her but his kiss didn't wake her meaning he didn't love her because it wasn't true love's kiss.  But the more time they spend together the more he falls in love with her. But the more time they spend together the more at ease she feels around him and the more she cherishes their friendship.

Aurora is forming a treaty between the fairies and the humans and to celebrate the signing of the treaty she is holding a fall celebration.  Lady Fiona is trying to push her brother Lord Alain on her but she would rather dance with Prince Phillip who loves the fairies, unlike Lord Alain.  She knows that Phillip is good with riddles so she decides to hold a riddle contest for her hand on the dance floor for the opening dance.

Maleficient overhears Phillip rehearsing his speech to Aurora about how he loves her and she threatens him with bodily harm if he does that.  Aurora catches wind that something is up and Maleficient says that he can't walk with her in the Moors without first having dinner with them first.  Maleficient tries to scare him off with a frightening dinner, but Phillip does not scare so easily.  He attempts to tell her that night, but Maleficient prevents him.  The next time he has a chance to talk to her alone he does tell her and she not only tells him no but does so with horror on her face.  He is heartbroken.

He gets forced to compete in the contest and when he gets down to him and Lord Alain she gives him a riddle she gave to him a few days ago and he answers "I don't know." leaving her with Lord Alain as her dance partner.  Lord Alain and Lord Ortolan, Aurora's treasurer are up to something, mainly getting Aurora and Lord Alain together.  But Aurora doesn't want to be with anyone. Maleficient has raised her to protect her heart.

The action really picks up when Maleficient and Phillip get kidnapped and the pages will really fly and you'll be glued to the book as the excitement soars.  This was truly a gripping novel that will keep you reading to the very last page.  Aurora is sweet and good, but not overly so and Phillip is goofy in his lovesickness over her.  Maleficent is mean, but not evil. Not anymore. Aurora changed her.  This truly is a fabulous book and I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

Being in love had nearly destroyed Maleficent. Denying love had destroyed King Stefan. And King Stefan’s inability to love Queen Leila had probably ruined her life, too. Love was terrifying in its power. Love was just plain terrifying.

-Holly Black (Heart of the Moors p 166)

And if I’m wrong, than nothing is fair because we didn’t even get a love story. He didn’t kiss me one time when I was awake. If he was going to betray me, he should have at least kissed me first.

-Holly Black (Heart of the Moors p 270)

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Moors-Original-Maleficent-Mistress/dp/1368045618/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XH520O2GD5QY&keywords=heart+of+the+moors&qid=1574081807&sprefix=heart+of+the+%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1

Rat Queens Vol 4: High Fantasies by Kurtis J. Wiebe (Writer), Owen Gieni (Artist, Colorist), Ryan Ferrier (Letterer)

In the previous comic, Hannah's dad has gone before the Council and attacked them for not being what they should be.  It turns out that the last time years ago when Hannah was a child her dad took down the evil Council for its practices and installed those who were involved in the revolt as the new Council.  Hannah and the gang are heading to her hometown to visit her father because she hasn't heard from him in a while and is worried about him.  Dee wants to end her religion by killing their god.  But she needs help and luckily her brother happens to be there attending his fifth anniversary at the Mage University.  Her atheist brother is shocked to find out that there is a god in the first place.  But he has information on Hannah. Things she hasn't told her friends.  She entered a pact with a demon to help her with her school work and was sent before the Council and banished from the University.  While there she attacked the Council.  But it wasn't really her it was the demon working through her who did so.  Hannah's other secret is that she is half-demon herself.  Dee's brother helps her get rid of their squid god, but unfortunately, it goes to the Rat Queen's home base of Palisades.

The Rat Queens go adventuring when they run into Vi's twin brother and his group of fellows he calls the Cat Kings which include an old mage, a fungus druid, and a walking mushroom.  He intends to follow her and help her out whether she needs it or not and hopefully knock some sense into her and get her to come home.  When they go up against a dragon, the Rat Queens take it down in hilarious fashion while her brother stabs it in the eye once it's down.

They meet The Chorus, a group of four creatures who hunt down religious cults but don't seem to do anything about them.  They were headed toward Palisades to look into the Squid problem.   The next day the Rat Queens and The Cat Kings head out and do something they vow never to do again: Loot a temple.

This book is hilarious in true Rat Queen's fashion.  Vi is a bit heartsick because Dave is under the Squid cult's spell and Hannah is embarrassed about her father staying with them and the things he does.  Braga the Orc is looking for a new group to hang with.  And Dee and Betty are having a blast.  This was a great book that I really loved.  I give it five out of five stars.

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Rat-Queens-4-High-Fantasies/dp/163215899X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YGEQSHGIV28I&keywords=rat+queens+vol+4&qid=1573828425&sprefix=rat+queens%2Caps%2C259&sr=8-1

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

This book is about Albert Einstein 's first wife, Mileva "Mitza" Maric, a Serbian woman with a limp whose parents didn't believe she had any hopes of a future with a husband but was rather brilliant with math and science and could possibly have a future as a professor and doing research.  Switzerland was a progressive country that was allowing women into its colleges and universities and Mileva was accepted into Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich.

She took up lodging at Engelbrecht Pension an all-girl boarding house where she became friends with Milana, Ruzica, and most especially Helena who also had a limp. She had never had friends before.as.She was always teased and ridiculed. In class, Dr. Weber was particularly hard on her because she was a woman and because she was Serbian. One student reaches out to.her and that student was Albert Einstein.  He flirted shamefully with her and she turned him down.  Her friend Ruzica talked her into going into one of the cafes where Einstein and his friends were having an intellectual discussion on science and she found herself drawn into the discussion. When Einstein found out about the women's playing music after dinner he showed up uninvited with his violin to play with Milena.  The other women don't much care for him, though.

Helena and Milena have made a pact to not have a man in their lives and to focus on their careers.  But soon, Helena has found a man to love and has broken the pact.  So, Milena doesn't see why she has to keep the pact too, especially when her mother is encouraging her to pursue romance even though her father is against it.  Einstein and Milena have talked about marriage and while Einstein has graduated now and is looking for work, which is hard because his teachers aren't giving him good recommendations due to his absentees from class and his disrespect toward them.  Milena took a semester off her second year in order to cool off her feelings for him and got behind in school which meant that she had to wait another year before she could take the test.

Einstein talks her into taking a vacation at Lake Como where they can make love before they get married.  Milena comes back pregnant and Einstein won't marry her without a steady job.  She flunks the exams due to her pregnancy and he refuses to come to her home to talk to her parents about the pregnancy.  He has a lead on a job in the Patent Office but for now, he's tutoring.  She takes the train up to the next stop to see him but he refuses to take the train up to the next stop to see her.  Eventually, her money runs out and she must go back home furious at him for not seeing her.  She has a baby girl that he asks her to leave with her parents six months later because he got the patent office job and he listed himself as unmarried and he can't show up with a child in tow.  So she does for now.

On a paper they worked on together he asks that she take her name off of it in order for him to get better job prospects when he shows it to a friend.   A year later their daughter comes down with scarlet fever and dies. On the way home riding the train, she comes up with the Theory of Relativity.  The year 1905 was known as Einstein's Year of Wonder.  He published four groundbreaking papers.  Milena's name was supposed to be on them but he took her name off of them.  She was furious. This cracked their marriage.  Not to mention the infidelity.  Einstein was a real bastard.

While this book plays a little fast and loose with the facts in that no one really knows what really happened and the author is imagining what she thinks happened, it is indeed a possibility.  You really feel sorry for Milena who loses everything in her association with Einstein.  This was a really good book that tells an incredible story.  I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

 I had become the embodiment of the old Serbian phrase, Kuca ne lexi na zemlji nego na zeni; the house doesn’t rest on the earth but on the woman.

-Marie Benedict (The Other Einstein p 175)

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Other-Einstein-Novel-Marie-Benedict-ebook/dp/B01ENNQ274/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1GCC8JQ0ZKQZQ&keywords=the+other+einstein+by+marie+benedict&qid=1573645064&sprefix=the+other+ein%2Caps%2C330&sr=8-2

The Whole Town's Talking by Fannie Flagg

In the 1870s Lordor Nordstrom left Sweden for America and sought good land to build a dairy farm on and he found it in Missouri.  When he had settled he put out ads in Swedish American newspapers for others to come and settle the area around him and they did along with two Germans and a Norweigan and by 1880 they had built a settlement they called Swede Town.  He set aside land for a cemetery in 1889 called Still Meadows and every originating family would get plots for free.

Lordor had gone to other Swede Towns close by but had not seen a woman to marry. So someone suggested he do a mail order bride and advertise in the paper for one.  So he did.  Katrina lived in Chicago and worked as a servant in a large household.  When she saw the ad she was curious and responded and sent back a picture of herself. Lordor sent her a picture of himself and that must have been enough because she agreed to marry him.  The two would fall in love and have two children, neither of whom had an interest in running the farm.  But the neighbor's son was very much interested in the cow business and Lordor took Andor under his wing and taught him everything he knew and then when he got too old to run the farm anymore he sold him the farm for a reasonable price with his promise that it would stay in the Nordstrom family (Andor married Katrina's niece Beatrice).

Andor and Beatrice tried very hard to have a child and had a couple of miscarriages until when they were thirty-six years old and they had Hanna Marie who sadly turned out to be deaf.  They had her home taught sign language and reading and writing until she was old enough to go to college and then they sent her off to college in Boston.  When she graduated she came home with a young man named Michael who was a little slick for Andor's tastes.  But Andor promised his wife he wouldn't look him up, which was a shame as he wasn't what he seemed and Hanna Marie marries him and her life doesn't go so well after that.

This book is filled with a cast of characters. I've only shown you a few.  Beatrice's sister, Elner is another one and she is a hoot.  Everyone loves Elner.  She collects animals and meets the most unusual people out on her farm.  Also, Lordor is the first person to die and go to Still Meadows but not too much later his wife joins him and the two talk to each other out there.  And as others join them the dead are talking up a storm at the cemetery while the living is talking all around town.  It's an interesting way to do a book.  In order for the dead to find out what's been going on is for someone to die and let them know or for someone to tell them at the gravesite, which rarely happens.  This book will make you angry and feel like throwing it against a wall.  You'll get so attached to the characters.  And want to kill some of them.  Flagg has done it again.  I give this book five out of five stars.

Quotes

Oh, I don’t know, Beatrice. Momma said having babies is awful painful. I think I’d just as soon have a litter of kittens myself.

-Fannie Flagg (The Whole Town’s Talking p 147)

She knew exactly where her behavior came from and how silly it was, bur, on the other hand, if she didn’t clean those blinds, who would?  She wasn’t drinking or taking drugs or robbing banks; she just had a thing for Clorox.

-Fannie Flagg (The Whole Town Is Talking p 346)

“Mrs. Bell, at what age did you begin to feel old?” “Well, the last time they took my picture for my driver’s license, it nearly scared me to death. ‘Mercy’, I thought. ‘When did my eyes get so squinty and all those chins show up?’ It’s best not to have your picture made or hear your voice on a tape machine. It can really depress you. I thought I was still cute, but I was wrong. I was an old lady with an old lady’s voice. It sure wrecked my high opinion of myself.” 

-Fannie Flagg (The Whole Town Is Talking p 401)

Although they really liked her, most people thought Tot was tough and bitter. Ans she could say some pretty cruel things. But bless her heart, the truth was that all along, she had been hopelessly in love with a man who wasn’t there. Unrequited love will turn even the sweetest people bitter.

-Fannie Flagg (The Whole Town Is Talking p 453)

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Towns-Talking-Novel-ebook/dp/B01BJSOEDU/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TUCIHLC57SPX&keywords=the+whole+town%27s+talking+fannie+flagg&qid=1573473892&sprefix=the+whole+town%27%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-1

The Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 16: Deadpool by Brian MIchael Bendis (Writer), Mark Bagley (Penciler), Mark Brooks (Penciler), John Dell (Inker), Mark MCKenna (Inker), Danny Miki (Inker), Mark Morales (Inker), Jimy Palmiotti (Inker), Jaime Mendoza (Inker), Justin Ponsor (Colorist), Richard Isanove (Colorist), Laura Martin (Colorist), VC"s Cory Petit (Letterer)

Peter Parker has broken up with Mary Jane because it is just too dangerous for him to date anyone. But that's before he meets Kitty Pryde of the X-Men who can take care of herself.  She wears a different costume so they can try and make an attempt to date while outside of the costume.  After bringing in the Ringer, Kitty takes the electronic transport back to the mansion and Parker goes home.

But someone looking like Storm and Wolverine attack her at the mansion and the plane is sent back to Parker.  He hops on and is tricked by Kitty into getting aboard a ship with some of the X-Men head out to Genosha where they are kicked out of the plane.  He's met there by Colossus who tells him about being tricked himself.  They run into Scott and find the same story with him and figure out what they are dealing with a shapeshifter as well as someone named Deadpool who was paid to get them all on the island and let them fight with his Revealers, those who have had modifications done to their bodies.  

Nightcrawler and Storm show up to help and soon they find that they are being televised on TV by Mojo.  And soon Spider-Man and Kitty's romance is no longer a secret.  Who will win the ultimate battle?  Also included is a comic about Blade and a comic with Daredevil and the Punisher and how Spider-Man learns some hard truths.  

I"ve always loved the Deadpool comics, but this wasn't the Deadpool that I've known and loved.  He wasn't witty and funny like Spider-Man often is and he wasn't the good guy, or at least the guy in grey.  The other two comics were excellent and powerfully written.  I'm going to knock it off a star for Deadpool's portrayal while giving it four out of five stars for a still stellar book.

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Spider-Man-Vol-16-Deadpool/dp/0785119272/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ultimate+spider-man+deadpool&qid=1573220751&sr=8-1

I Have a Bad Feeling About This by Jeff Strand

Sixteen-year-old Henry who is a geek and afraid of everything including sea horses and lobsters get talked into going to a Survival Camp run by a scary looking dude named Max, by his parents and his best friend Randy.  He arrives there and there are only three other campers there beside him and Randy. Stu, Jackie, who has green hair and is younger than the rest of them, and Erik, who is more adept than the rest of them.  Max tells them to turn over the electronics they weren't supposed to bring or it will be destroyed when he finds it.  So they madly scramble to give over phones, iPods, game boys, and the like.  But Jackie is holding out and Max stomps on it.  Henry for some reason gets up the guts to talk back to Max and tells him he can't do that or tell them to do push-ups.  Max begs to differ and Henry finds himself doing pushups till he pukes and sleeping outside that night.

While he's outside that night he meets Monica from the music camp a few miles away.  Henry thinks she's hot and nice and really cool.  But when he asks to use her phone to play a game on it he sees a message from her roommate about how her boyfriend had texted her looking for Monica.  She hasn't said anything about a boyfriend so Henry hasn't given up on her yet.

The first day there Henry hits a bullseye on the archery field.   The next day he isn't so lucky. He and Randy team up to build a shelter outdoors.  It falls apart and catches fire leaving Max to wonder where he went wrong.  The other team only did marginally better.  That night Monica will bring some friends from her camp to the Survival Camp. While Henry doesn't have to sleep outside, he sneaks out to wait for Monica in case she arrives.  Monica wants to scare the boys inside their building and they do by screaming a bit in front of the boys' cots.  They freak out for a second but then are pleasantly surprised.  Until Max arrives with a gun and shoots up the ceiling scaring everyone.  Henry tells him to calm down that it's just some girls from the other camp and Max calms down.  He tells the boys it's alright if the girls come over but they need to be quiet. But the girls don't come back over and the boys have no luck finding their camp in the dark.

Every time Henry has to run, he has a tendency to trip and fall on his face.  Not to mention he can't run very far.  Then the Survival Games have started. You can get hit three times in the chest or twice in the arm or leg counting as one hit.  There are weapons in boxes around the forest as well as other goodies.  While they are off playing the game, Max gets a visit from the mafia who is owed money by Max's boss who told them that Max was actually his partner and who had the money. Max explains this to them and that the kids have left for the summer.  They kill Max just as Henry is coming back to camp after being the first person to get killed by Erik.  Henry manages to get away from them and runs into the woods finding Erik who he tells what is going on, but Erik doesn't believe him at first.  But once he does it becomes only a matter of time before the others come back to camp and meet up with the bad guys so they must find a way to protect the others.

What follows is a madcap adventure of the campers versus the bad guys in a hilarious adventure fit for the movie it will eventually be turned into.  This camp will teach Henry that there are more important things to fear than seahorses and that he could have spent a good deal of time swimming rather than being afraid of the water and that he's tougher than he thought he was.  Monica is one tough girl who can seriously kick ass.  Randy is pretty tough himself and a good best friend to have.  Erik isn't all he's cracked up to be.  This book is funny as hell and I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

Wilderness Survival Tip! Rest forty-five minutes for every hour that you hike. If you’re hiking fast or over rough terrain, increase that number to forty-nine. Hiking isn’t any fun if your legs get tired.

-Jeff Strand (I Got a Very Bad Feeling About This p 29)

Wilderness Survival Tip! If you need to start a fire, you and burn the pages of this very book.  Yes, you’ll hurt the author’s feelings, but that’s okay. Your life is more important.  (If you’re reading this as an e-book, setting it on fire is not recommended.)

-Jeff Strand (I Got A Bad Feeling About This p 42)

Wilderness Survival Tip! I hate to be Mr. Obvious but really, the best way to survive the wilderness is to stay inside. Sure, the outdoors has some cool stuff to see and do, but is it that cool?

-Jeff Strand (I Got a Bad Feeling About This p 75)

You can’t start a fire on purpose, but you can build a shelter that bursts into flames when if falls apart?  How is that even possible by any known laws of nature?

-Jeff Strand (I Got a Very Bad Feeling About This p 77)

“Sir?” asked Henry. “I drank the water too.” “Why?” “Because Randy asked me if I thought it tasted funny. It did, but we figured maybe you just put some weird flavoring in there.” Jackie raised his hand. “Sir? I drank some too. They asked if I could identify the flavor.” “And what did you think it was?” “Wheatgrass.” Max sighed. “Stu? Erik?” “I smelled it,” said Stu. “Can these parasites get in through your nose?” “Normally I’d say no, but I think you’d find a way to make it happen.”

-Jeff Strand (I Got a Very Bad Feeling About This p 84-5)

Henry if you drown in water that doesn’t even come up to your waist, I will go after your entire family. I mean it.

-Jeff Strand (I Have a Very Bad Feeling About This p 103)

Items Henry felt would have been useful when he was rushing out to attack a gun-wielding madman: a pitchfork, a pickax, a power source with a cord he wouldn’t trip over, ninja stars, an automobile with iron spikes on the front grille, a voodoo doll of Chad, a cow to use as a shield, three machetes tied together, a wheelbarrow filled with broken glass, Jackie Chan, A fully charged Taser, a shockingly vicious gerbil, a water pistol that contained acid instead of water (but not acid that would eat through the gun itself, which would be inconvenient), an aerodynamic wrench for throwing, a backup wrench  for bashing, bottle rockets, a chainsaw that would start on the first three tugs, a gun, rotten eggs, Excalibur, a baseball bat (wooden or aluminum---no preference),  a shaken-up can of Moutain Dew, one of those metal things you use to poke a burning firewood, an artificial limb (To use as a bludgeoning device not for locomotion), better shows, a bullwhip, a bull to whip, some variety of rocket, Captain America’s shield, Thor’s hammer, Black Widow’s costume for Monica to wear, a reliable flamethrower, a spear, an electric razor (which would do no real damage but might cause Chad to stop and thing Why is he running at me with an electric razor? Which would prove to be a deadly lapse of concentration), a potted plant, an orangutan, something with poison on it, a laptop computer that he didn’t mind breaking over somebody’s head, the power to control space and time, a lengthy screwdriver, a totally badass-looking piece os wood covered razor wire and rusty nails, roller skates, a tire iron, a javelin—come to think of it, the roller skates wouldn’t be very helpful on the uneven dirt ground, so he canceled that wish—a Model 1881 Gatling gun with the Bruce-style feed system (U.S. Patents 247,158 and 343,532), a pocketknife, a shark, and/or a scimitar.

-Jeff Strand (I Have a Bad Feeling About This p 167-8)

 Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Have-Bad-Feeling-About-This/dp/1402284551/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TYHNXYJZXPI9&keywords=i+have+a+bad+feeling+about+this+jeff+strand&qid=1573035003&sprefix=I+have+a+bad+%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1

   

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen

 Ava blames her brother-in-law's death on herself because he was at her house and supposed to stay the night while her sister was at the hospital on-call but he left and she couldn't keep him there that New Year's Night and he drove drunk and died.  She slowly pulled away from her sister, Lucy and lost herself in the bottle.  She also got behind on writing her book of recipes.  So she decided to go to Maine for inspiration to a house called Brodie's Walk where the previous tenant left in a hurry making the rent cheap.  Also, two carpenters would be working on the widow's walk and the turret.

Ava is visited by a ghost, Jeremiah Brodie, the man who built the house 150 years ago who was lost at sea.  He promises she will get what she will deserve and that no harm will come to her as long as she is under that roof.  He knows she has a dark secret and that she did something bad that needs to be punished for and he's just the man to eke out that punishment and the pleasure.

She finds a much-beloved cookbook and an expensive Hermes scarf in the house that belonged to the former tenant, Charlotte, and she tries to send them back to her at her home in Boston but they come back to her. So she drives up to Boston to try to return them to her in person but her neighbor says she's still in Maine.  Her only forwarding address is the PO Box back in Maine and they say they don't have a forwarding address for her but that her box is overflowing.  On top of that the police have discovered a washed-up dead body of a woman.  Could it be Charlotte?

Dr. Ben Gordon, the local catch in town, is interested in Ava, but after nights with Jeremiah will a human man ever be enough again?  She goes out with him and tries really hard to like him because he's so nice, but she just can't seem to feel anything.  The police believe that the carpenter Ned Haskell is the one who killed the woman found because he was suspected of killing a girl who went missing five years ago.

Ava seeks out the help of a ghost hunter who believes that she needs to leave the house or she'll be trapped there forever until she dies.  Cut off from everyone.  That the ghost has a type and she fits the bill and the house has a long history of women dying alone in the house.

This is an interesting book that is part ghost story part story of punishment and redemption.  Ava is punishing herself for a mistake that anyone could have made and formed an unnatural relationship with a ghost who partly scares the hell out of her.  And she can't seem to find her way out of the bottom of a bottle.  You feel sorry for Ben who is so nice that Ava isn't giving him a chance.  I really loved this book. It lives up to Gerritsen's previous great work.  I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

There’s something about a warm and purring cat pressed against you that sets the world right.

-Tess Gerritsen (The Shape of Night p 18)

A ghost, afterall, is every woman’s perfect lover. I don’t need to charm or amuse him, or worry that I’m too old or toof at or too plain. He won’t crowd my bed at night or leave his shoes and socks strewn around the room. He materlializes when I need to be loved the way I want to be loved, and in the morning he conveniently vanishes into thin air. I never neeed to cool him breakfast.

-Tess Gerristsen (The Shape of Night p 68)

We keep our darkest secrets to ourselves. We keep them, most of all from those we love.

-Tess Gerristsen (The Shape of Night p 196)

Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Night-Novel-Tess-Gerritsen-ebook/dp/B07MYLYTN6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37G8MBD21XKZU&keywords=the+shape+of+night+tess+gerritsen&qid=1572885064&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sprefix=the+shape+of+%2Caps%2C208&sr=8-1

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Jody Houser (Writer), Emilio Laiso (Artist), Paolo Villianelli (Artist), Oscar Bazaldua (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist), VC"s Clayton Cowles (Letterer)

 
Jyn Erso is separated from her father at a young age when the Empire kidnaps him to go and work on the Death Star.  Her mother is killed in the process.  She is raised by Saw Gerrera a member of the Rebel Alliance who leaves her when she is sixteen.  Jyn has been arrested and is in Imperial hands.

An Imperial pilot arrives on the doorstep of the Resistance saying he has a message for Saw Gerrera and he was sent by Gallen Erso that what the Empire has been working on is a planet killer.  The job is to get Jyn Erso out of prison so Captain Casian Andor and the robot KayToo (K2SO) go to break her out and she resists KayToo's attempts to help her until he forces her to go.  They need her to get them through the door to Saw's encampment.  They tell her she'll go free if she helps them.

They run into trouble with Imperial Guards and the Kyber Chrystal watchers Chirrut and Baze help them by getting rid of the Guards.  Jyn gets them into see Saw who is interrogating the pilot.  He has a message from Galen who says that he slipped in a defect into the design of the Death Star in the reactor module that would blow it up to bits.  But they need to go to Scarif to get the plans to see where to drop the bomb.  The Empire has decided to test the Death Star on the city they are in so they must head out quickly.  In the Imperial ship, the pilot stole they leave with Captain Andor, KayToo, the pilot,  Chirrut, Baze, and Jyn.

They head to Yavin 4 to the Rebellion Base to talk to the leaders about Gallen's message and what to do about it.  The different people argue and eventually, they come to a consensus that they shouldn't try to go and get the plans.  But the group from Jedha believes they should and plans on going anyway. Some of the soldiers agree to go with them.  They decide to name their ship Rogue One and take the Imperial ship.  Admiral Raddus sends troops along to help them when he finds out they've gone.

At the end of this comic is another comic that tells the story of how Captain Andor met KayToo and how he came to reprogram him while on a mission.  Jyn is a tortured young woman who loses her family all for the Rebellion cause and yet still fights for this cause because it's the right thing to do.  Captain Andor has a special relationship with the amazing KayToo who speaks its mind and Andor has to make hard decisions.  This book is filled with very interesting characters that won't all make it to the end.  I loved this comic and give it five out of five stars.

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Rogue-One-Adaptation-ebook/dp/B076C2KMC9/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Rogue+one%2C+a+star+wars+story&qid=1572622468&s=books&sr=1-6