Wednesday, January 2, 2019

December Monthly Wrap Up (2018)




Off the Blog:


Hey everyone!!  I can't believe that December has come and gone!  I had a wonderful Christmas as I got a lot of awesome presents such as a book tote bag, a "Nightmare Before Christmas" pop up book, Avengers: Infinity War DVD and Deadpool 2 Blu Ray!  I'm really excited about what the New Year will bring and I hope to have a great 2019!
On the Blog:

Unfortunately, I only read 2 books for this month and I wasn't able to reach the 80 books goal that I had set out for myself earlier this year.  But, at least I read a lot of great books this year!  Hopefully, I'll be able to read more books next year and actually reach my reading goal for next year!


Books Read this Month:




1.  Book Love by Debbie Tung  (NETGALLEY)
2.  Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call it a Team-Up by Joe Kelly 





Other Reviews and Activities Completed this Month: 




MISCELLANEOUS


1. [Miscellaneous]  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!




GUEST POSTS




BLOG TOURS

NOPE!!!


BOOK MEMES



DISCUSSIONS




OLD BOOK REVIEWS


NOPE!!!



READING CHALLENGE UPDATES


2018 Comic Book Bingo Challenge: 4 
2018 Discussion Challenge: 8
Monthly Key Word Challenge 2018
2018 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: 4
2018 European Reading Challenge: 1
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2018 : 3
Full House Reading Challenge 2018: 4
Humor Reading Challenge 2018: 8
2018 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge:
2018 Picture Book Reading Challenge: 20
2018 Beat the Backlist: 3
2018 Library Love: 4
Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2018: 13
2018 11th Annual Graphic Novel / Manga Challenge: 9
Book Bingo 2018: 4
Bookish's 2018 Reading Challenge: 2
2018 Color Coded Reading Challenge : 2
2018 Blogger Shame Challenge: 1
2018 Dystopia Reading Challenge: 1
2018 Reading Bingo Challenge: 3
2018 Reading Challenge Addict
2018 Read It Again, Sam: 6
2018 Try Something New Challenge: 4
2018 Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge: 2
Newbery Medal Challenge:


 Book Stats for December:
Total Number of Books Read: 2
Graphic Novels: 2
5 Star Reads: 1
4 Star Reads: 1
Average Rating: 4.5
Male Authors: 1
Female Authors: 1
Unknown Authors: 0
Series: 1
Stand Alone: 1
Re-Reads: 0
Total NetGalley Books for the Year: 9
Total ARC Books for the Year: 3
Total Edelweiss Books for the Year: 4
Total Reading Alley Books for the Year: 1
Total OnlineBookClub.org Books for the Year: 2
Total Re-Reads for the Year: 6
Total Number of Books Read for the Year: 38


Genre Stats:

Humor: 2
Science Fiction: 0
Horror: 0
Fantasy: 0
Drama: 1
Romance: 0
Paranormal: 0
Contemporary: 0
Historical: 0
Total Science Fiction Books for the Year: 5
Total Humor Books for the Year: 21
Total Horror Books for the Year: 2
Total Fantasy Books for the Year: 6
Total Drama Books for the Year: 2
Total Romance Books for the Year: 2


Blog Stats for December: 





POST SPOTLIGHT:






BEST OF THE MONTH: Book Love by Debbie Tung








Books Bought in December:


* This is more like one book I had received as a gift. I actually didn't do any shopping this month although I was really tempted to! So, here's the book I received in December:





January TBR:

* I still haven't read any books here, although I'm busy reading through an ARC that an author gave me.  So, hopefully I'll get through these books in January!








Favorite Blog Posts from Around the Blogosphere: 


☀  Cait @ Paper Fury discusses about #HYPEYOUR5 | 2018 YA BOOKS THAT ARE CRIMINALLY UNDER HYPED…!!
☀  AJ @ Read All the Things!  discusses about Discussion: A Brief List Of Oddities Discovered In The Comments Section
☀  Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction discusses about My (Everlasting) Quest to Catch Up on Review Books. Let’s Discuss.
☀  Jessica @ a GREAT read discusses about  Favorite Christmas Movies
☀  Greg @ Book Haven discusses about Vintage Science Fiction Covers  
☀  Sam @ We Live and Breathe Books discusses about Characters Behaving Badly
☀  Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight has a list of BOOKISH BUMMERS OF 2018  
☀  Elley @ Elley the Book Otter discusses about Holiday Romance ~ Movies
☀  Jeann @ Happy Indulgences discusses about 2018 BLOGGING & READING STATS



This will be linked to The Book Date's Month in Review and A Cocoon of Books Best of the Bunch! 





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Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday #70: Top 10 Books I Read in 2018!


Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme that was formerly created at The Broke and the Bookish but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. 


This week's top 10 Tuesday topic is  "Top 10 Books I Read in 2018!" Even though I haven't read as many books as I would have liked to, I still managed to read a lot of fantastic books last year!

So, here's my top 10 Books I Read in 2018 (in no particular order, of course)!


1.  The Martian by Andy Weir







2.  A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness









3. This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab








4. Immortal Flame by Jillian David



5.  Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Book 1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa





6. Saga Volume 7 by Brian K. Vaughan
7.  Saga Volume 8 by Brian K. Vaughan







8.  Book Love by Debbie Tung
9. Jughead Volume 2 by Chip Zdarsky
10. I Hate Fairyland Volume 3: Good Girl by Skottie Young






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[BOOK REVIEW] Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call it a Team-Up by Joe Kelly








Title:  Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don't Call it a Team-Up

Author:  Joe Kelly, Fabian Nicieza, Daniel Way, Kevin Shinick, Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, and Christopher Hastings

Artist:  Pete Woods, Patrick Zircher, Eric Canete, Carlo Barberi, Aaron Kuder, Mike Hawthorne and Jacopo Camagni

Genre:  Action / Superheroes / Humor

Year Published: 2016

Year Read:  2018

Publisher:  Marvel Comics

Source:   Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 13+ (Some Language and Violence)

 Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository



Introduction:

Now, I personally had never picked up a “Deadpool” comic book before since at the time, I was not that interested in reading anything about “Deadpool” despite his huge popularity.  It wasn’t until I watched the “Deadpool” movie starring Ryan Reynolds that I started getting (a bit) interested in the character and I have been trying to figure out where I needed to start reading about “Deadpool” in the comics. So, yeah thanks “Deadpool” movie for getting me into the comics (a bit)!  I had gotten several different recommendations from fellow readers and some have said that I should read either Joe Kelly’s run or Daniel Way’s run.  Since neither run was really available to me at the moment, I had decided to read this collection of stories where Deadpool teams up with Spider-Man called “Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call it a Team-Up” since I had been reading lots of “Spider-Man” comics before this and I must say that this collection was quite good!

What is this story about?

This is basically a collection of issues collected where Spider-Man and Deadpool teamed up with each other.  So, here are the issues featured in this collection and my ratings for each one:

Deadpool (1997): Issue #11:  ★★★★★

Written by: Joe Kelly
Artwork by: Pete Woods

When Deadpool and his prisoner Blind Al ended up going through time, they ended up in a timeline that takes place in the 47th issue of the 1960s “Amazing Spider-Man” series. In order to not to change the timeline, Deadpool and Blind Al have to masquerade as Peter Parker and Aunt May respectively.  They also found out that the only way to get out of this timeline is to find a younger Weasel and convince him to build a time machine for them to go back into.

Cable and Deadpool: Issue #24: ★★1/2

Written by: Fabian Nicieza
Artwork by: Patrick Zircher

Cable and Deadpool are working together to obtain a secret project called “Cone of Silence” and Deadpool is sent out to provide a distraction towards Spider-Man so that the plan can go by smoothly.

Amazing Spider-Man: Issue #611: ★★ 1/2

Written by: Joe Kelly
Artwork by: Eric Canete

Deadpool and Spider-Man ended up getting into an insult match when they meet up with each other again, while a more sinister plan involving Madame Web is brewing in the background.

Deadpool (2008): Issues #19-21: ★★★★★

Written by: Daniel Way
Artwork by: Carlo Barberi

When a mysterious hit man (I am sorry, hit monkey) ends up killing various people in the city who have committed crimes, Spider-Man and Deadpool are forced to work together in order to take down this hit monkey once and for all!

Avenging Spider-Man: Issues #12-13:  ★★★ 1/2

Written by: Kevin Shinick
Artwork by: Aaron Kuder

When Spider-Man ended up being trapped in his own dreams, it turns out that Deadpool had set him up by making him free his client the Hypno-Hustler from jail.  The Hypno-Hustler then ends up making Spider-Man hallucinate in fighting his foes and it is not long before the Hypno-Hustler hypnotizes Deadpool too!

Deadpool (2012): Issue #10:  ★★★

Written by: Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan
Artwork by: Mike Hawthorne

Deadpool ends up working with Spider-Man in order to take down Daniel Gump.  But little does Deadpool know, Spider-Man’s body is currently being taken over by Doc Ock, after Peter Parker had “died” in the previous issues.

Deadpool Annual: Issue #2: ★★★★ 1/2

Written by: Christopher Hastings
Artwork by: Jacopo Camagni

When the Chameleon caused Spider-Man to hallucinate various innocent people into being the Chameleon, Deadpool ends up taking over Spider-man’s mantle in order to locate the Chameleon and save Peter from these hallucinations.

What I loved about this story:

The writing: I hit the jackpot in actually getting a collection of stories that features both Deadpool and Spider-Man.  I have been trying to find a way to get into the “Deadpool” comics, whether it would be through one run or through a collection of issues that would help me determine which run I should spend my time reading. Well, I must say that I found some of the issues in this collection to be pretty entertaining!  Some of my favorite issues in this volume (judging by the ratings that I gave for each issue) are “Deadpool (1997) Issue #11,” “Deadpool (2008) Issues #19-21,” and “Deadpool Annual Issue #2.” In “Deadpool (1997),” I loved the way that Joe Kelly wrote the time traveling story arc with Deadpool going back in time to the original 1960s “Amazing Spider-Man” run as I was laughing my head off with Deadpool acting like his crude self while dressing up as Peter Parker while insulting Peter’s friends (especially with him making fun of the Osborns’ hairstyles)!  In “Deadpool (2008),” I loved the way that Daniel Way wrote both Deadpool and Spider-Man as it was entertaining seeing them work together to take down a hitman who happens to be a monkey!  In “Deadpool Annual,” I loved the way that Christopher Hastings wrote this story as it was quite entertaining seeing Deadpool act like Spider-Man and seeing his enthusiasm at taking over the mantle while Spider-Man is knocked out.  I was happy to see Deadpool and Spider-Man interact with each other since I always wanted to see how Spider-Man and Deadpool would act around each other.  It was interesting seeing Spider-Man be the sane, straight man to Deadpool’s wacky wise guy as it made their relationship with each other much more entertaining!

The artwork:  The artwork in this volume was quite creative and gorgeous to look at, especially the artwork done by Pete Woods, Carlo Barberi and Jacopo Camagni.  I especially love the artwork in “Deadpool (1997)” as I loved the mixture of the modern artwork with the 1960’s artwork and it just made the story even funnier whenever we hear Deadpool’s crude comments clash with the family friendly 1960s artwork.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I gave this volume a four-star rating was because even though there were a couple of issues that I did enjoy in this collection, there were other issues that I did not enjoy as much and that brings the rating down a bit.  I did not enjoy the “Cable and Deadpool” and the “Amazing Spider-Man” issues that much since they were pretty bland to me and there were some issues like “Deadpool (2012)” that were just okay.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Spider-Man / Deadpool Volume 0: Don’t Call It a Team-Up” is a great volume for anyone who is a huge fan of both Spider-Man and Deadpool and I would definitely give this volume a try!



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