The end of Snakes and Ladders and BoB helped me push past my usual number of books read. COYER Summer starts tomorrow and BL-opoly is off to a good start, so I am looking at upping my BL/GR goal. I really need to write reviews at least once a week instead of writing all the reviews at the end of the month.

Goals:

BL/GR: 61/75 (80% completed)

Nixon Reading List: DNF the book this month

Challenges:

BoB Cycle 25 - 4 books finished and 3 IG photos

Snakes and Ladders - Finished

BL-opoly: earned $14.00

May Reading List

1. We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time by Jose Andres and Richard Wolffe - 5 stars

2. Better Off Wed (Annabelle Archer Wedding Planner Mystery #1) by Laura Durham - 3 stars

3. Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine by Dr. Damon Tweedy - 5 stars

4. The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis - 4.5 stars

5. Are You There Coffee? It's Me, Mom by Kianna Alexander - 3 stars

6. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Olsen and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim - 5 stars

7. Bitch Planet, Volume 1: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine de Landro - 2.5 stars

8. Bitch Planet, Volume 2: President Bitch by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine de Landro - 2.5 stars

9. Bombshells: United, Volume 1: American Soil by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage - 2 stars

10. Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton - 4 stars

11. American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson - 3.5 stars

12. The Making of the President 1972 by Theodore White - DNF

13. A Change of Fortune (Ladies of Distinction #1) by Jen Turano - 4 stars

14. On Distant Shores (Wings of the Nightingale #2) by Sarah Sundin - 5 stars

15. Summerset Abbey (Summerset Abbey #1) by T.J. Brown - DNF

16. Gentleman of Her Dreams (Ladies of Distinction #0.5) by Jen Turano - 2 stars

17. Then Came You (Bradford Sisters #0.5) by Becky Wade - 0 stars

Stats

Non-Fiction: 6 (5 read, 1 attempted)

Fiction: 11 (10 read, 1 attempted)

Print: 7

Ebook: 9

Audio: 1

Male Authors: 5

Female Authors: 12

AoC/LGBT: 3 (all AoCs)

Date Published: September 25, 2015

Format: Print

Source: Library

Date Read: May 16, 2019

Read for BoB Cycle 25

Blurb

Cartoonist Kate Beaton returns with all-new sidesplitting comics that showcase her irreverent love of history, pop culture, and literature. Collected from her wildly popular website, readers will guffaw over “Strong Female Characters,” the wicked yet chivalrous Black Prince, “Straw Feminists in the Closet,” and a disgruntled Heathcliff. Delight in what the internet has long known—Beaton’s humor is as sharp and dangerous as a velocipedestrienne, so watch out!

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Review

I had a lot of fun reading this collection of comics. I have never heard of Kate Beaton or her work before, but now I am a fan and looking forward to what she does in the future. Snarky, a little silly, but never dumb or punching down, the humor was pitch-perfect.

I always enjoy Kate Beaton's comics, even when I don't have any knowledge of the work she's referencing. My favorites from this collection are the Katherine Sui Fun Cheung comics. 

I had heard a lot of good things about Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant and since the premise of it (historical parody + comics) sounded intriguing I naturally thought it would be a winner for me. Well, I can't in all honesty say that it was a winner in my books. There were certainly some comics that I thought were really funny but I feel like those few didn't override my overall reaction of "wow this wasn't as good as I had hoped". I think this is largely due to my sense of humor. I know many people who would probably fall out of their chairs laughing at this (and many others who would totally give up within the first couple of pages). Essentially Kate has selected different little themes (based on historical figures, events, etc) and written short comics to accompany them. Sometimes she writes a little explanatory paragraph at the bottom but this isn't always the case. There is something very "Tumblresque" about her work which might be the biggest draw for you...or it might make you very wary.  I always feel strange giving a "negative" review especially when it's more a question of my taste and not really anything to do with the writing itself. However, this is my blog and I can only review books based on my own tastes (as well as basic stuff like grammar, setup, and so on). For me, this was a 3/10 and I'm not likely to search out any of Beaton's work in the future.

I think it's Poe's face in that last panel that does it for me.

Should I have put a warning on this?

The 'nemesis' series was a hoot. 

Top 2015 Book Releases I Meant to Get But Didn’t (original concept and this week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish)

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg

You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels edited by Tom Devlin

Step Aside, Pops! by Kate Beaton

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Ms. Marvel Volume 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson, Mark Waid, Takeshi Miyazawa

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger