The Voynich manuscript.

Who wrote it?
We don't know.

For what purpose?
We don't know.

What does it say?
We don't know.

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.

Do YOU know who won The Battle of Jenkins‘ Ear?

This is a 2 hour listen for me & all I can tell you is it isn‘t Jenkins‘ ear.

I‘d do better saying Britain and Spain really truly hated each other as they fought over land and other assets during peak colonization time.

I‘m American. I knew nothing of this war but being American I‘ve never really had to.

A great read if a bit hard to fully grasp.

It‘s hard to know how to rate this as it‘s like walking in at the middle of an epic movie.

Incal the comic series is a later continuation of a rather big deal, a French graphic novel series written by Alejandro Jodorowsky & illustrated by Mœbius.

Are you into *Dune*? Well Incal‘s artwork is that conceived for the abandoned film project *Dune* directed by Jodorowsky.

A bit of gore here. Also a character that‘s becoming crocodilian.

Dark Horse title. I knew I recognized the name “Assassin‘s Creed” but I‘m not a gamer so this is all new to me.

This isn‘t a game I‘d be endeared with TBH. Gory, lots of cut off heads flying & swords through the skull when their back is turned.

Art was interesting but as my friend used to say, “You don‘t like shoot-em up titles? Good luck playing the “United Nations” game.

Is that a real game because if so I‘m indeed interested. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I do have four older sisters but never really grew up with them, age difference. I sat with my sisters‘ kids at holiday events. With that I can‘t personally relate to the rivalry displayed in “Duel”.

But the message here is after a family trauma it may make things difficult to navigate for a while but true sisterhood love will win out!

My memory of playing volleyball. I‘m shorter than Hinata w/small delicate hands. It never was anything less than torture trying to serve a ball.

Tiny, titty, weak & slow. Hated it & all my teammates hated me. Plus that time I dislocated my pinky finger trying to return a serve. 😩

Never completely healed either. I can still tell my pinky right hand is the one that got dislocated.

BUT…great series, what 782 volumes? Don‘t care; reading them!

Red Hulk
Green Hulk
Blue Hulk
Crayola Box Hulk

Hulk has never been a fave superhero of mine but Hoopla was giving free borrows for multiple Jeph Loeb titles.

This was one. It‘s basically a graphic urination contest among Rainbow Hulks, Iron Man, Thor, the Fantastic Four & other cast members.

Decent read but it‘d be better if you had a decent amount of background info on the Marvel superheroes stable.

Disneyfied child‘s first introduction to Alice in Wonderland.

The art is beyond cute in Disney fashion but I have to wonder what age are you meant to start your kids on this book? You have to wonder will it intrigue or just confuse them?

That‘s pretty much Alice in Wonderland for all ages though, isn‘t it?

I was a bit underwhelmed with this one. Lots of action but the art seems rather primitive to be honest.

Only a little more research: This was the seed of Tezuka‘s better known Astro Boy, back to 1952.

“Astro Boy is considered one of the most important anime & manga series of because it was a pioneer in the industry…while also being the first Japanese animated series…effectively introducing anime to Western audiences.”

A great read, even if some of it hurts.

And no, Black People don‘t know how to fix racism. I can‘t say I know how either but it‘s White people‘s responsibility, White people‘s work.

My only recommendation is do not isolate yourself from Black art, Black literature, Black news, Black music, Black culture.

Appreciate but don‘t appropriate.

This is hard to rank. The art is glorious but quite violent & sexualized. The story, as it were, is as well. In brief the Kabuki are a team of female assassins working for a shadowy Japanese government group called the Noh.

Very, very Kill Bill before Kill Bill existed but you can bet Tarantino read David Mack‘s work. Apart from storyline is lettering often intense & hard to follow on blackwork.

A beloved series released on Dark Horse Comics.

Sorta sad about this one. I know it‘s a beloved book by many. I‘ll rank it “Pick” but had a rather hard time with it.

First being, boy howdy there‘s some dark material here. My bigger problem is with Stephen King: animal death, particularly in his early work. I know what he‘s thinking—he‘ll make a character bad by killing the animal—a cheaper thrill than immediately harming a human.

David the hawk. The intelligent mindlessly sacrificed bird.

I‘m starting this series. Ive only stuck to the horror books. Book club covering Drawing bk 2

My Blind Date With a Book pic!

Wish the reviews were more enticing though.

(It came wrapped & everything! Well done, Fullerton Library!)

I wasn‘t impressed.

What could have been a decent story disappeared a third way in. Not very likable characters.

If you‘re in the mood for a time-waster read this would be it.

It has two kittens.

It‘s Jesusy. Which for all intents & purposes is an adjective.

I‘m fairly certain this is a graphic based on the author‘s novels.

Repairman Jack is a fixer of a variety of Really Bad Things ™️

Prime Bad Thing here is Scar-Lip whom we are told is a Rakshasa, a demon in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Folk Islam.

You‘ve likely seen its image in Hindi art images. I mean, you‘re a Bad Thing so the scar on its face is incidental.

A decent read from Dynamite Comics.

SKREE!!

This is sorta mess…unless you like nihilist techno-gore

The trick is to put techno or meta in front of everything. The human(ish) villains are the technopope, techno-admiral & techno everything else. Is the metabaron a hero? Well, he has no steroid arm protheses so there‘d that. At least he hasn‘t been blinded by the second Gen Golden Planet & had his arms & legs cut off Johnny Got His Gun style.

The series is a big deal among those it suits.

Morrey hero-worships his missing father who was a treasure-hunter. Morrey tried to follow in his footsteps, finds a genie-bottle, frees the genie & is gifted with the ability to change everything he touches to gold, hence “Goldfisch”

A coveted talent; he now must flee from potential kidnappers. When he accidentally turns his brother to gold he needs to find a costly artifact to free them both.

Fun addition: Morrey‘s companion otter Otta 🦦

It‘s hard to rate this one. I got it under Hoopla Free Borrow so..

Not a gamer, never been, never Sonic. I‘m not quite sure who audience is here. The art is nice, story a bit anticlimactic coz Sonic will always win, badnicks keep getting hit with hammers as that seems to be the weapon of choice.

What is Mr Eggman‘s deal? They‘ve made a comic movie about Sonic & Eggman?

Lost on me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Publisher here is IDW. Great company & still ongoing.

Okay, not great though. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I sadly don‘t know much about this character though with the mask & the name he‘s never been a hero.

I did recognize the name though. He wrote and created “Halt and Catch Fire” which is great and hope you all get around to

Here though Doctor Doom seems to be having a midlife crisis. If you‘re evil can you ever be thought & actually BE good? And was that shipping all human costs of climate change into a black hole a bad idea coz Doom thinks so.

Have any of you all ever tried one of these?

I mostly just do ebooks & audios but this intrigues…

I‘m obviously a non-recovering book addict. 🌹💝💌

The book I‘m working on isn‘t in system. Same name, author Elijah Grey. Check out *partial* trigger list:
-Digital sexual assault
-Asphyxiation
-Taboo relationship (professor/student)
-Degradation
-Murder
-Scarification
-Evisceration
-Sexual assault by a priest
-Torture
-Humans used as sexual objects
-Disturbing terminology for women
-Sacrifices
-Carving
-Stalking
-Occult rituals depicted in detail
-Blood letting
-Incorrect use of crucifix 🤯😳

I collapse, and his heaviness falls over me. We lay silently for an eternity while he bites the back of my neck and shoulders. I flip over and look around everywhere and nowhere. He returns to bed and snuggles beside me, tracing lazy circles around my navel. He turns and whispers in my ear.
“Tessa, I... want you to go away with me.
I want to take you to Ghana."

SOLD! Only my name isn‘t Tessa! ?

This one isn‘t yet in our system but same author: Saving Saul: A Second Chance Romance by Louise Lennox

Saul is a wealthy rugby player, checked out to make a living as a star chef. Tessa is a former actress that enters the Love, Unmasked competition.
They declare their love only Saul ghosts her & the entire competition

Tessa‘s heart is broken & what‘s the deal with Saul?

Could it be MURDER? 🗡️

Spicy story, true love 🌶️🥵

See, there was a reason beyond being poor I never went on a French class trip to Paris!! 😰

A recent read but I‘d rate it a 3.0 out of 4. Reasons: Surface crush was an unless character. Adds nothing & currently sports an unattractive military skinhead.🧑‍🦲 Beyond that it is scary but it could have been much better; the premise ended up being in the realm of ridiculous.

But a good read if you‘re in the mood for a YA thriler. 🕵️‍♂️💀💀💀

I *so* needed this read! The art is adorable & the running gag of endless silly rhyming even more so.

Here‘s the short, sweet succinctallo: Buffalo Fluffalo thinks he‘s toughallo because of his impressive fluffalo until a torrent of rain comesallo.

Oopsy doodallo, now you‘re small & bedraggledallo!

Only size isn‘t everything, sillyallo!

We all love you just the way you are…allo! 💕

This is a grim vision of what *could* happen in the modern United States if the economy slides further into economic decline & our foreign enemies decide that‘s the time to attack & invade.

The setting here is a small Southern town in Tennessee, with all its petty rivalries & dysfunction.

Dystopia, you say? Here you go!

This is the first volume of six.

This pic needs to be more explicit. 🤭

Jason and Ahmed are nurses & coworkers. Jason has long had a crush on Ahmed but unfortunately Ahmed has a downer boyfriend, Mark. They visit the Carnival of Mysteries something something doesn‘t really matter

When Mark & Ahed break up it‘s open season on each other‘s bodies. They can now share each other‘s love & bodies. Mostly the latter, explicitly

Tasteful but wing dings & tongues a-waving 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

I adored this when when it came out…🤔

TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO 🤨

Like this book‘s child is in Grad School 😠

I so hate getting old. 😖🤬🖕🏻

Entirely too much enthusiasm over JV Volleyball IMO.

This manga has around 43 volumes?! 😨

“The Dos and Donuts of Love” is oh so sweet on representation. The Fluffy Bengali and her ex-Twainese girlfriend on opposite sides of the donut shop wars yet further conflict results when they become competitors on the Junior Irish Baking Show. There is rivalry, out-of-control egos, there is sabotage. There are pastries enough to make you very, very hungry!

Enjoy the Irish accents, enjoy the “Drive Me Glazy” donuts! 🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩

Largely derivative, less dangerous Harry Potter School of Combat on flying horses only Harry is a young girl.

Elyra is the daughter of an herbalist, a path she‘s ready to follow, only she gets the scary/bad news she‘s been drafted into Pegasus warfare training.

She struggles with being dismissed as a mere country mouse among royal level mice. She makes an enemy jealous ‘mean girl‘. She catches the eye of two attractive men only one‘s a prince.

This is a hard book to rate being a product of the New Era. Kay Harper is an orphan with a horrible governess who also practices witchcraft but with two otherwise caring caretakers. Kay idolizes his grandfather who was blamed for stealing or losing a pirate clerical treasure

Talking cats, owls, rats & otters. Or could the things they show him in his treasure-hunting dreams be real or just dreams?

There is animal death but offhand to the plot.

1. The Battle of the Nutcrackers, obvs 🩰

2. I have not yet read this one about the Shackleton expedition but I do have it, as well as Worley‘s take. I went on a spree collecting mountain climbing accounts & other like, already read a few takes on the 1996 Everest climb, Rainbow Valley, don‘t cha know. I myself cannot understand the high mountain-climbing urge. I don‘t wanna die when tis easier to look at pics of it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@TheSpineView

Get creative, kids! Spaghetti Pizza! Betty Crocker approves!

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/spaghetti-pizza/63ae508b-aa7b-4c9a-915d-75a...

To review, it‘s Disney. Cute pictures with a great message though it didn‘t do much to actually explain that *caring* isn‘t a zero sum game.

(Another Hoopla freebie!)

Bad kids smoking the whacky tobaccy in the Edwardian era.

I‘ve never read any Patricia Briggs but I know she‘s a long running paranormal author, werewolf & coyote shifters in this case.

Decent read & art but I don‘t know much of Dynamite Comics. I think they‘ve made a trend of publishing established series comics.

You all read up on Patricia Briggs & Kim Harrison? Pretty old school urban fantasy writers I assume.

“The whole family will love celebrating the holiday season with Christmas Stories! With more than 20 Christmas carols and holly jolly tales, this Keepsake Collection is sure to be a new family tradition. You can even personalize the book to make it extra special.

• Includes A Visit from St. Nicholas, The First Christmas, and more!
• More than 20 Christmas stories & songs!

(Closing out my Hoopla freebies & the absolute best is The Nutcracker!)

Book isn‘t yet in our system: The Rain People by Jin Bo, Yi Yusun (illustrator)

“As a boy sits alone watching spring's first rainfall, he sees that the drops are turning into tiny people, who invite him to join them.”

Lovely book! I‘m not an art expert but I think the art is watercolor. The short of it is the boy joins the Rain People to enter the River of Sorrow and when they do life is restored to the land. This could be from Chinese folklore.

The action art in this one is exceptional!

And I *so* hate volleyball! It always hurt my baby hands & I even got a dislocated finger from trying to return a ball!

Boo! Volleyball you suck! But this is a great manga! 🤩

Decent read. I kept thinking is this someone famous, a famous artist or punk rock musician?

Well, no, not really. He is very famous for originating the Afro-Punk scene and Afropunk Festival which has now gone global. Noice!! 🎸

Movie is out-of-print though, not on streaming anywhere and a DVD will set you back close to $100 ! 🤑

The image is Tennessee in the Civil War so is *not* representative of the events in this book…or not so much anyway.

The setting is Tennessee & the modern breakdown of society seems TOO probable. Scary & unsettling, conflicts between the three main families in Burning Hollow. Already civic breakdowns then add in a foreign government (Russia?) declaring war against the United States.

Heavy, disturbing stuff. Wish I weren‘t facing this alone!

So, so good! This is the second in this series. In the first entry Marius the cemetery boy sought for the return of his mother, lost in Hell.

Happy ending…Only she didn‘t come back quite right; you all know the tale. Marius must take a dangerous voyage to Hell himself for the return of the part of her soul she lost.

Seeped in Southern & New Orleans folklore, mysticism & creatures, the good, the bad, the somewhere in between.

⚜️⭐️✨⚜️🌟✨⚜️

"Come see me sooner next time, child. I have more books than I can count. There's no better friend in the world than one with a library."

This was a bizarre, oftentimes scary, a bit sad and yet so lovely read

Our main characters are Crow, an unsettled young man who knows nothing of his origins yet needs to find the answers as fate in the form of bloody-feathered bird-demons destroying everything & everyone he loves

He‘s joined in this quest by Simeon, an out-of-time roustabout at the Carnival of Mysteries. The Carnival is a series of loosely-connected Achillean love stories ⭐️✨🌟

Pic: Arden & Caroline committing Christmas tree felony 😲

Fun femme-love centered & outright *sweet* book 🍬

I can‘t personally identify being in love w/my best friend who then becomes famous & wants to play at being real girlfriends to help her land a coveted roll. I mean, listen, I liked my high school bestie fine b/I don‘t do redheads ❌

I joke obviously but if you‘re still looking for a cute Xmas read this is the one. Indulge yourself! 🎁💝

I‘m assuming I‘m at pace with most here? I‘m already at the place where whenever I have a free moment I feel I need to stop wasting my time and get back to reading. 🧐

A visual comprehensive coverage of how the science fiction genre was begun, who the major figures are, where it seems going.

This doesn‘t only name-check the books but the graphics, the manga, the films and tv shows.

A smorgasbord in other words. I wouldn‘t say this is a volume you can just breeze through; write down the names and recommendations as you go. 🛸🚀👨‍🚀🤖👽

From genus called Proailurus 30 million years ago to Pseudaelurus 20 million years ago to Felis silvestris lybica, Africa wildcat to Felis catus

They likely tamed themselves to live with us by preventing mice & rats in our grain storage. There‘s no firm data they came to us visa Ancient Egypt but we do know they were prized, worshipped, mummified

But adore the art & images & worship Sekhmet & Bastet.

Is this not the least we can do for them?