For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle Overall, an alright read. I picked this up from the clearance section because I like zombies and I like poetry. Figured it would be good for a quick read. Part of the problem with this book was that it wasn't really a good fit for me. It was a little gory for my taste. Yes, I know, it's a zombie book, but some of the poems were just a little too icky for me. Plus, the same images kept popping up over and over again, which got a little boring. Yes, we get it, you like to write about toes and eating hair. The other issue I had was that the haiku is not the most exciting poem. They are fairly easy to write and not all that impressive to read. Because of this, the book got a little dull at times. It was a neat idea to write an entire story in this manner, but the end result was kind of lackluster.  Plus, the whole zombie story wasn't that interesting. The basic plot is that a survivor finds the haiku journal and you the reader get to read the strange journey of a man as he becomes a zombie (and continues to write haiku for some reason). I was a little confused about this. So zombies can't remember how to use doorknobs, but can remember what a haiku is, how to write a haiku, and also how to actually write (as well as type- I don't even know why a zombie would type poems and then tape them into the journal, really confused about that)? The set up was interesting. Interspersed in the book are photos (why was the zombie taking pictures?), drawings, and miscellaneous items (teeth, blood spatters, hair). Again, not sure why a zombie would think to include such materials in the book it insists on carrying around. With all the grabbing and attacking, you'd think the zombie would have dropped the book a lot sooner.  Anyway, I think the idea for this book was better than the execution. A zombie story written in any form of poetry is an interesting task. However, in this case, the story is pretty basic (and didn't really make any sense), some of the gore is a little over the top, and the haiku format isn't that interesting.  Fine for a unique and quick read for zombie fans.

Bird Brains: The Wild & Wacky World of B... Bird Brains is an illustrated book that talks about the various ways birds learn and function. I thought it was interesting that it was illustrated via drawings, and not actual photographs. Coming right off of reading It's a Fungus Among Us, it definitely required me to shift gears a little bit. Not just because of how the birds are pictured, but also because of how the information is conveyed. (Very straight-forward presentation with little to break up the information into smaller, easier to digest bits.)

This is a good book for young readers who are developing a serious interest in birds. The pictures are bright and colorful, the line spacing is good. I didn't particular care for the font, but I can't say that it is a negative thing either. Each bit is broken into sections according to the type of brain a bird has. It's probably best deliberately looked through with breaks between the sections. I found my attention wandering about halfway through, and it was hard to stay on task.

There is some very interesting information in Bird Brains: The Wild & Wacky World of Birds. I particularly liked the bird skeleton near the beginning. I didn't know birds had wrists! Though, to be honest, I never much think about bird wings beyond what spices I want on them when I'm hungry. But beyond that, the amount of songs some birds can memorize, the tricks that some of them can pull off to get food, it's all very neat. It is obvious that the author has a fascination with birds and did his best to craft a book that would showcase that appreciation.

Not a book that's high on my personal recommendations list, but for the right type of young reader, it may be the perfect gift.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book via Edelweiss for review consideration.

The Bride Wore Brains delivers exactly what its title and cover promise. I am easily misled but this time all ended gorily-ever-after and I couldn’t be happier.

Here’s the gist: Bridezilla wants a perfect wedding and is determined to get it no matter who she ticks off. The wedding party spends some time bantering, fighting, smoking pot and ogling each other as they do their best to stay out of the bride’s way. But things go awry when one of the groomsmen starts vomiting out his insides . . . And that’s when the real fun begins! At first most of these people think they’re being pranked but they quickly realize it’s real when their friends start turning an unappealing shade of gray.

People are eaten, secrets are revealed and a few surprising character turn-arounds happen. It was sarcastic, horrifying and a terrific black comedy that is as gory as they get.

I have to admit I was very worried there for a while because the writer spends an enormous amount of time setting the scene and fleshing out the characters, most of who were terrible people. Think frat boys and spoiled cheerleaders. I also could care less about wedding drama.

But the payoff is well worth it. You really start to despise some of these self-centered, obnoxious people and cannot wait for a few of them to get eaten. Or maybe it’s just me having these thoughts?

In the end, the biggest surprise for me was that I ended up not entirely despising a few of the characters who I completely despised in the earlier chapters. The reluctant bridesmaid was the only one I could tolerate early on and she turns out to be not only bitingly sarcastic but smart and resourceful too. Fleshy, one of the groomsmen, is a silly pervert who embraces his ridiculous reputation and inserted some comic relief exactly where it was needed and he wasn’t so bad in the end, after all. I won’t spoil the rest by blabbing on any longer but the amount of characterization is exceptional in this short story.

It’s a short book and well worth reading if you like your horror gory and your humor black. Just stick with it, I promise it gets good once the blood finally starts flowing.

This books fascinating. I've only read a small amount, but I've already learnt so much. It's not too hard going considering the subject matter, but it's one I'll be taking slowly.  If you're at all interested in the brain or neuroplasticity and want to know how disabilities and illness can possibly be overcome, pick this up.

Okay....so...after having read Lucy's and Derek's book, comes the dreaded Cassandra and Julian book...

And I am sorry to say, that I didn't like this. I was able to finish it, but, I really couldn't care less about these two boring, gorgeous _blond god and goddess _ people!

 

Cassandra continues to be her same boring self, and in this one she doesn't have the excuse of not being the main character. She is the main character, and Lucy still has to come up with one of her mad schemes because Cassandra is hopeless :/ in "coming up" with anything.

 

The thing is I couldn't see the romance between Julian and Cass as anything more than a simple infatuation between two gorgeous beings...

Cass fell in love with him when she was a young girl, and after that, there was it.

From Julian's part, the thing that he's constantly saying is how beautiful Cass is.

 

The plot, inspired in Oscar Wilde's, The Importance of Being Earnest, manages to be more insane than the original play, and suffice to say that I like witty things, not insane ones.

 

Oh, and Cassandra blaming Lucy for everything that had happened, didn't made me a happy reader.

Yes, she ends up coming to her senses for one phrase or two, but that, just accentuated all that I hated about Cass. Her inability to take charge of her life, and of her responsibilities.

Oh, and when she finally says something along the lines of; I've had it. I will take control of my life from this day forward!

And I was like: girl, it was about time!

And then she says something like this: I am going to join a Convent!

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yeah, Cass, that will teach them..

 

 

 

Oh, and how everything in the end gets presented with a nice red bow?( except for the bloke who dies, but we never knew him, so, no problem right? o_O)

I hated it.

 

Bottom Line: loved the first volume of this series...and I am sure that I am going to love the next one, because it is Gareth's and Jane's book! :)

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I just hope Cassandra and her Julian don't appear all that much!

 

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