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Wonder Woman: The Circle

UPDATE: I didn’t think I would finish this book so soon. I forgot how quickly graphic novels are read. I loved the art in this book and the story was better than most of the Wonder Woman graphic novels I have read. I would recommend this for Wonder Woman fans. It is a strong 3 star read.

I started Wonder Woman: The Circle by Gail Simone last night. I originally got this after finding out that one of my local libraries has a very large collection of comic books, or graphic novels. Will someone tell me what the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel is please. I’ve always used comic book when talking about just one individual copy and graphic novel when referring to something like this book which is a collection of issues combined into one book. Someone please set me straight in the comments.

Anywho, the library, Yorba Linda Library, had this and I’ve always been into Wonder Woman, I mean she’s hot right? Last year I read The Secret History of Wonder Woman by by Jill Lepore, which was a little slow, but a great foundation to really understand the origins of Wonder Woman and those who created her. I was never into the early comics and I think I would have found them disappointing as Gail Simone points out in the introduction of this book.

It’s around $19 on Amazon so this goes into 2016 savings bucket! I saved $19 already this year on books because I got this from the library. Last year I saved over $800 on books because I borrowed them from the library. I really need to do a post on that as well.

I borrowed this in part because I’ve been slowly getting more interested in comic books in the last few years. I have been attending comic-con regularly with my dad (it’s kind of a tradition with us, and no we don’t dress up). Also, with the new Star Wars movie out, I know that a lot of what happens between episode 6 and 7 is being covered in the comic books and regular novels. I want to know everything so I’ve put somethings on hold and I also have plans to check out the local comic book stores soon.

There are a lot of Wonder Woman comics out there and I find it confusing to figure out where this one lies in the Wonder Woman timeline. I looked on wikipedia and I’m having trouble finding something that lays it all out on a timeline like the Star Wars novels are laid out on Wookiepedia.

I picked this up to read over the winter break, I took vacation from work, and I haven’t gotten to it until now because I was reading Shade Me.

What’s This?!

This is my new blog to post about the books that I am reading. I’ve been thinking of doing something like this for years and now finally here it is. I’ll be writing about the books I’m reading and writing reviews for those that I finish. More detail is on my about page. I read a lot so hopefully there will be lots of content on here. I read 87 books last year, let’s hope I can hit 100 in 2016!

Goodreads Stats – Number of books read each year

I’ve been trying to hit 100 for years. I almost got there in 2011 and I’m very excited to write about all the books I experience this year!

The Best Books I Read in 2015

Just as in previous years I’m writing a post about the books I read in 2015. I read 87 books in total, below is the breakdown. This year I’m adding a few metrics which I think will be interesting. Like, how much I saved by borrowing books from the library ($807.40) and what percentage of the authors I read were men (67%).

Fiction was the majority of my reading at 60%. Fantasy (20%) and Science Fiction (21%) being the largest portion of all genres. Read a few series this year, meaning I read 8 books by Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles), 3 from C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), 2 from Timothy Zahn (The Thrawn Trilogy) and 2 Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson). Paperback was the least popular binding at on 17% of my reads.

Most of my books came from the library (37%). Longest audio book I listened to was Capital at 1,503 minutes (25 hours), shortest was The Hamburger: A History at 180 minutes (3 hours). Total audio listening was 11,751 minutes (196 hours, 8.2 days).

Longest book I read was Hadoop in Practice (536 pages), which was for a class and I didn’t read every page. Next was All the Light We Cannot See at (530 pages). Shortest was 30 pages, a short story called Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo. In all I read 14,560 pages.

The longest it took me to get through a book was Capital (195 days), Michelle and I listened to it in the car. Shorts books included a lot of the Spiderwick Chronicles, in all I finished 12 books the same day I started them.

I finished the most books in July (20). The most popular book (according to goodreads) I read was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The least was Valkyrie.

So how does this year compare to previous years? Well, I read the most I have in the past 3 years, but still not as much as 2011, when I read 96 books. That big 100 is still just out of reach. Maybe this year…

Some of my favorite books of the year were:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Dracula

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

Falling Up

Tuck Everlasting

The Nixie’s Song

How Reading Changed My Life

The Wrath of Mulgarath

Siddhartha

The Field Guide

Departure

Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason

The Read-Aloud Handbook

Dark Force Rising

The Last Olympian

Shade Me Review

So I read Shade Me by Jennifer Brown. Before we get to the spoilers let me just say quickly that this is a very strong 4 on a 1-5 scale. The only reason I held back on 5 is because of a bit too much teenage angst for my liking. Although, not nearly as much as the Twilight books. Also, there were a hand full of times, that I caught myself thinking, come on Nikki really, that’s dumb, don’t do that. But this actually might be a reason to give it more stars not less because if you are talking to yourself while reading the book, its got you. Full disclosure, I entered a contest on EpicReads and was sent this book for free. It doesn’t get officially published until 1/19/16.

**Spoilers Below**

Continue reading Shade Me Review