Ms. Marvel vol 6: Civil War II by G. Willow Wilson (Writer), Adrian Alphona (Artist), Takeshi Miyanzawa (Artist), Mirka Andolfo (Artist), Ian Herring (Colorist), Irma Knivila (Colorist), VC's Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

In the previous comic she has been busy working with the Avengers. So busy she hasn't noticed that Bruno is dating a girl named Mike.  Jealousy rouses its ugly head.  But she doesn't have time for that.  A relocation organization is using her face to promote it causing bad feeling in the neighboorhood.  They are wanting to change the neighboorhood into something different and are handing out purple goo drinks that are causing people to turn into zombies.  Dr. Faustus is behind it all and now he has Bruno working for him in a zombie state so Kamala goes to Mike for help.

In this comic, Captain Marvel calls upon her to join a task force that Kamala will lead that will pick up criminals before they commit a crime.  This seems like a big weight off of her shoulders.  Ulysses the Inhuman is able to predict who will commit a crime and where and he's working for Captain Marvel.  Things go well at first, but soon someone she knows is arrested for the crime he's thinking about committing and Kamala sees this as a bad idea.  But can she go against Captain Marvel?

Bruno will get deathly hurt in this squirmish and Kamala must deal with the aftermath of their friendship if he survives.  Interspersed are flashbacks to her family history going back to Karachi which add a bit of flavor to this mix.  It isn't easy going against your hero even when your friends are urging you to do so.  Kamala must make a fateful decision one that will leave repercussions on the series.  This is still a stellar series that I love and this book delves deep inside Kamala and her history to tell a story that is topical yet timeless.  I give it five out of five stars.

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Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

A convict with a thirst for revenge. [Mattias]

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. [Jesper]

A runaway with a privileged past. [Wylan]

A spy known as the Wraith. [Inej]

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. [Nina]

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. [Kaz]

Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker, leader of the Dregs gang is offered a huge sum of money, enough to give his boss twenty percent and the rest of the crew $4 million Kruge each to break into the unbreakable Ice Palace and get Bo Yul-Bayur out. Bo is a Ravkan who has managed to turn jurda, a caffeine-like substance into jurda pardem, a lethal drug that makes the user addicted and turns their Grisha powers up on high.  Fabrikators can turn metal into gold or make very lethal weapons out of it.  Each has their reason for wanting the money and Nina wants to see Mattias broken out of jail that she didn't mean to put him into and this job would free him.  But nothing goes right on the job and Bo turns up to be dead with his son Kuwei has taken his place and is searching for an antidote to jurda pardem.  Nina takes the jurda pardem to save them and to make Wylan look like Kuwei so that when the trade is made if Kaz doesn't get his money he will not have risked Kuwei.  Which is a good thing since Van Eck who hired them, double crosses them and takes Inej captive.  

This book opens with them looking to find where Van Eck has stashed Inej by breaking into his lawyer's office and looking through his books.  They figure out where Inej is but decide to kidnap Van Eck's pregnant wife to ensure that they get Inej back.  A trade is made on the bridge and they get Inej back.  Kaz, who admitted his greatest fear to Inej, that he hates being touched and that's why he wears gloves all the time cannot allow Inej to make him weak so he pushes her away a bit.  

Mattias and Nina have a hard row to hoe with Nina still craving the juda pardem even though she purged it out of her system on the boat ride back.   Her powers have also changed. She is no longer the normal Heartrender she was before but can call bones to her to do her bidding.  She must deal with this unnatural use of her talent and Mattias must somehow cope with the fact that she is the enemy that he grew up hating.  

Wylan finds out things about his father that he never knew and comes to loathe him even more.   Jesper's father comes from back home because the loan on his farm is now due and he doesn't have the funds and is hoping that Jesper does along with an explanation as to what has been going on.  Jesper lies to his father in hopes of not having to tell him that he is a gambler who was in debt.  

Kaz has a plan to end Van Eck by having him arrested for market's fraud when he takes a mechanical weevil and destroys the sugar silos that are owned by him and betting on sugar being in short supply by putting money in the market under their names for sugar stock.  But nothing goes according to plan.  Van Eck is not working alone and that makes him more dangerous than ever because he wants to destroy Kaz and his gang.  Will Kaz be able to figure out a new plan in time to save them all?

This book has amazing characters and sharp dialogue.  Each chapter is told from someone's point of view and you really get to know these characters even more than before from the other book.  This series ends with this book so sadly this is the last of these characters you will see, I guess, though she has written other books set in the same world so anything is possible.  I hated letting them go I had grown so attached to them.  This book is a must read of the highest order.  I cannot recommend it enough and give it five out of five stars.  I'd go higher if I could.

Quote

You are a stolen painting, Kuwei.  Too recognizable to sell on the open market, too valuable to leave lying around. You are worthless to me.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom p 46)

Better terrible truths than kind lies.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom p 56-7)

Knowledge isn’t a sign of divine favor. Prosperity is.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 71)

Zoya used to say that fear is a phoenix.  You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 188)

He’d started to think of Jesper as fearless, but maybe being brave didn’t mean being unafraid.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 203)

I think you’d flirt with a date palm if it would pay you any attention.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 235)

We endure all kinds of pain.  It’s shame that eats men whole.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 283)

I don’t hold a grudge. I cradle it. I coddle it.  I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the best schools.  I nurture my grudges, Rollins.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 300)

Nina glanced from Inej to Kaz and saw they both wore the same expression.  Nina knew that look.  It came after the shipwreck, when the tide moved against you and the sky had gone dark. It was the first sight of land, the hope of shelter and even salvation that might await you on a distant shore.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 314)

And that was what destroyed you in the end: the longing for something you could never have.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 419)

Suffering is like anything else.  Live with it long enough, you learn to like the taste.

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked House p 478) 

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Rat Queens Vol 3: Demons by Kurtis J. Wiebe (Writer), Tess Fowler (Artist), Tamara Bonvillain (Colorist), and Ed Brisson (Letterer)

The Rat Queens are Betty, a hippie halfling thief whose idea of a meal is drugs and candy, Hannah, a rockabilly elven mage, Violet a dwarven warrior who shaved her beard and then there's Dee, an atheist human who is skilled in combat has magic abilities and can heal, who comes from a family who worships a squid deity named N'Rygoth.  In the previous book, they were asked to find a woman named Bernadette and an assassin of the Black Khali may be involved.  Dee's husband shows up and tells them that the Haruspex Requiem was stolen. This is the death mask worn by the high priestess of their religion that absorbs all of their knowledge upon their death to be transferred to the next high priestess who wears it.  The Rat Queens have found Bernadette and all they can do is fix her so she is back to normal and not spouting nonsense but she will still be blind.  A man named Gerrig has stolen the Haruspex Requiem with plans destroy Palisade the town he created.  He doesn't have the papers with the spells so he is using what he knows from memory to call to the creatures from the abyss causing the others to hallucinate mostly bad things that will distract them from coming after him. Dee has the spells he needs.  Dee winds up becoming the High Priestess of N'Rygoth.

In this book, 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.

Can the Rat Queens survive this new information and attitude from their friend Hannah?  These strong women will be tested and fighting their way out may not be possible.  This is a great series and this book continues the fun and danger these amazing women go through.  Hannah will be tested mightly and push herself away from her friends so what will they do to help her if anything?  I really loved this book and I give it five out of five stars.

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Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

It's raining toads and that portends that something is off in the universe.  Harry Dresden is still in trouble for causing the war between the Red Court of Vampires and the White Council of Witches.  He needs to go before the council.  However, he's spent the last several months holed up in his lab trying to find a cure for vampirism so that he and his girlfriend Susan can be together again.  She still hasn't fully turned because she hasn't taken a life yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Harry gets a visit from the Winter Faerie Queen Mab who bought his indenture to his godmother and wants him to do three tasks for her. The first is to find out who killed a man whose death appears to be an accidental fall down the stairs.  She is being accused in Faerie of his murder and wants her name cleared.  Harry turns her down.

Then Harry goes before the White Council who want to trade him to the Vampires for an end to the war.  But the war probably wouldn't end even with him being turned over, his few friends argue for him.  And Harry can bring the safe passage to them in the Nevernever by working for Mab who helps to control it.  It is decided that he should go on trial to determine whether or not he is a wizard.

On this trial, he will bring peace to the Faerie Kingdom.  Not an easy task for anyone.  It turns out that the dead guy was the Summer Knight of the Faerie Court, a possible human task performed this time by a human.  This is why the courts are planning on going to war.  The Summer Court is weak without the Knight's mantel and its near midsummer which is when the Summer Queen is strongest so she feels the need to bring the fight now while she has a chance.  Oh, yes, there are three queens on each side and the Winter Knight as suspects.

Also, a suspect is the newly arrived Elaine from his past who supposedly died in a fire he accidentally set killing his mentor.  She is the Summer Ambassador to his Winter Ambassador and has been hanging out in the Summer Court for a while.  Billy and the other Alpha werewolves show up to help him when he needs it as does the cop Murphy who is having trouble recovering from her last encounter with things supernatural.

In this book, Harry is not really working with Murphy like he did in the other books because the suspects are all mostly Supernatural and can't be locked up.  Harry will be temped mightly by both Courts, Winter and Summer, to make a bargain with them.  He will have to show them he really is a strong wizard to be able to navigate the Courts and survive.  But this is Harry and surviving is what he does best and this book shows that to its fullest extent.  This book lives up to the strong others that came before it and shows why Butcher is one to read.  I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

For me, chivalry isn’t dead; it’s an involuntary reflex.

-Jim Butcher (Summer Knight  p 123)

I’m thinking that if this dilemma grows any more horns I’m going to shoot it and put it up on the wall.

-Jim Butcher (Summer Knight p 125)

I’m pretty sure lurking in a dark alley to mug me with your apology isn’t the usual way to go about saying you’re sorry. But I didn’t read that Mars-Venus book.

-Jim Butcher (Summer Knight p 220)

You foil a Faerie Queen. Survive your own execution. Get away from certain death.  And get stuck up a freaking tree.

-Jim Butcher (Summer Knight p 376)

She was also mad. Loopy as a crochet convention.

-Jim Butcher (Summer Knight p 412)

The only people who never hurt are dead.

-Jim Butcher (Summer Knight p 436)

 Listed On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Knight-Dresden-Files-Book-ebook/dp/B000OCXG46/ref=sr_1_1?crid=HO2Q9ZSU1CDW&keywords=summer+knight+dresden+files&qid=1562586332&s=gateway&sprefix=summer+kn%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-1

Star Wars: Lando Double or Nothing by Rodney Barnes (Writer), Paolo Villanelli (Artist), Andres Mossa (Colorist), VC"s Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

Kristiss is a woman from a planet, Kulgroon, taken over by the Empire. Her people turned into slave labor to work on droids all day.  She is hunting down Lando Calrissian to bring guns onto the planet and to her people in order to enact a revolution and get her people off the planet and somewhere safe.  Lando isn't really interested at first until she promises to pay off an old "acquaintance" who is now hunting him down thanks to her.

Elthree, Lando, and Kristiss split up once they reach the planet. Elthree, being a droid goes inside the building and blends in with the other droids and looks for ways to help from the inside.  Kristiss gets caught by the Empire and Lando could leave without selling her the weapons but its easier to sell her the weapons than to find another buyer so he stays to rescue her.  Lando gets caught up in some trouble of his own in the Wastelands of Kulgroon by a race of people who live there.

This is a great comic and the witty banter between Elthree and Lando really make it so.  The two of them going back and forth are so funny they make the book so worth reading.  Lando, of course, is worth reading about on his own.  The art is excellent and the storyline is amazing.  This is a wonderful book and I give it five out of five stars.

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Jessica Jones: Blind Spot by Kelly Thompson (Writer), Mattia De Iulis (Artist, Colorist), Marcio Takara (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist), VC's Cory Petit (Letterer)

Jessica Jones is in trouble once again with the cops when she is found kneeling over the dead body of Dia, a former client, in her office.  The cops have nothing and Matt Murdoch, once again, helps her out and gets her out of an interrogation room.  It turns out Luke Cage was worried when she didn't come home and her name was on the news.

When Jessica goes to her office late the next night to review the case, which tells her that Dia was a troubled girl who wanted to get out of an abusive relationship and was looking for a reason like a cheating boyfriend, she is shot in the head--and survives.  She wakes up in the hospital and everyone just assumes that she is bulletproof, but Jessica knows that she died that night and somehow came back to life.

Misty Knight stops by and tells her that she isn't the only D-lister superhero that has been shot and killed recently.  White Rabbit, Skein, and Elsa Bloodstone have all been shot recently.   Jessica hunts down Elsa and finds that she is alive and well but had a similar experience to herself.  It turns out that Elsa had contact with Dia too who had come to her for help in killing her because she was a monster.  Which might mean that Dia had powers.

She hunts down Dia's house and goes there only to find Dia there alive and well.  It turns out that Dia has the ability to wish something into existence and after wishing her powers onto her boyfriend things went from bad to worse.  Then hoping to escape him she went to Jessica's office which was unlocked and she sat down and wished that she was free of him and her dead body appeared on the floor.  She didn't think, she just ran and stayed in hiding from the boyfriend.

So who saved Elsa and Jessica?  Is there an answer to this mystical problem?  Yeah, Dr. Strange makes an appearance which is awesome.  I really love the artwork in this book.  This is a great comic with lots of action and a bonus scene at the back of them planning Dani's birthday party which is really cool.  I give it five out of five stars.

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A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway talks about many topics in his atrocious book A Moveable Feast.  He covers his dislike of F. Scott Fitzgerald as a person.  Skiing in Austria with his young son Bumby and his wife Hadley.  His friendship with Ezra Pound. His acquaintanceship with Miss Gertrude Stein and her wife Alice P. Tolkas.  It talks about his writing and how hard it can be sometimes to get time to write.  This book includes unfinished sketches he had written and placed them in the back of the book.

His friendship with Fitzgerald was a rocky one in that Fitzgerald was friendlier to him then he was to Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald was an alcoholic. Not that Hemingway likely was one too.  They were just different kinds of alcoholics.  Fitzgerald was bright and brassy until everything wasn't type of alcoholic.  Hemingway was the calm and quiet drink your troubles away type of alcoholic.  Hemingway liked The Great Gatsby and saw talent in Fitzgerald if only he could get his act together.  But he hated his short stories. Which I can't believe because I've read Fitzgerald's short stories and they're brilliant.  Yes. Confession time. I'm more of a Fitzgerald person than a Hemingway person.  I've never liked Hemingway and only read this book for my book club.

His relationship with Miss Gertrude Stein was an interesting one considering Hemingway's machoness wouldn't allow for gays to exist.  He even says so in a conversation they have that he keeps a knife on him for the purpose of killing any gay man that comes on to him.  What surprised me was Stein's response in that "the act male homosexuals commit is ugly and repugnant and afterwards they are disgusted with themselves.  They drink, take drugs, to palliate this, but they are disgusted with the act and they are always changing partners and cannot be really happy." But that women do nothing disgusting between themselves and therefore happy and healthy.  It's hard to believe that a gay person would believe this of another gay person. 

I honestly hated this book.  Though it was interesting to read about how they went skiing back then.  There were no ski lifts so you had to walk up the mountain to the top to ski down it which was dangerous.  It was mostly filled with Hemingway's usual style of macho bullshit which I cannot abide.  This wasn't so much a book about his time in Paris in the twenties as a "look at how great I am" vignettes.  And the last one was the worst because he blames the breakup of his marriage on his third wife when it was likely his fault.  I give this book one star out of five.

Quotes

“Is Ezra a gentleman?” I asked.  “Of course not,” Ford said. “He’s an American.”

-Ernest Hemingway (A Moveable Feast p 78)

They say the seeds of what we will do are in all of us, but it always seemed to me that in those who make jokes.in life the seeds are covered with better soil and with a lighter grade of manure.

-Ernest Hemingway (A Moveable Feast p 86)

Listed On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Moveable-Feast-Restored-Ernest-Hemingway-ebook/dp/B002F08230/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+moveable+feast&qid=1561984395&s=digital-text&sr=1-1