Reseña de ARC: Little Witches: Magic in Concord

 +Digital ARC gently provided by publishers and netgalley for an honest review+

Little Witches: Magic in Concord 

by  

Leigh Dragoon

160 pages

Expected publication: August 27th 2019 by Oni Press (first published August 2019)

ISBN:1620106485 (ISBN13: 9781620106488)
Edition Language: English

 BLURB: A charming and magical graphic novel adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN!
Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg March are four sisters living in Concord with their parents—Father, who's tending to soldiers fighting in the Civil War, and Marmee, who teaches the girls simple but effective witchcraft. The Marches have to keep their craft quiet, as there are many in Concord who see magic in a bad light—especially after things have begun disappearing.

 When Mr. Laurence, a witchfinder, moves in next door to investigate the missing objects, the girls fear for their livelihood. But he turns out to be a kind old man, and his grandson, Laurie, quickly befriends the Marches. As the cold winter blusters on, the girls continue their education, even as missing objects soon turn into missing people.
Things take a turn for the worse when Jo and Laurie try investigating on their own, and a dangerous storm takes hold of Concord. There's powerful magic at play here—stronger than anything the Marches, or even Laurie, has ever seen before. Can they hope to defeat it? Or has the magic already become too strong for them to fight against?

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Age Range: 8 and up

Grade Level: 3 - 4

I was curious to read this book, which is an adaptation of the beloved classic Little Women by L.M. Alcott, with the proviso that the March sisters here are witches. Good witches, mind you, keeping even their ideas of Transcendentalism.

The plot is similar: four sisters living with their mother in Concord during the Civil War; the father is absent in the aforementioned war minding the wounded. The fact that they are witches is a fact known to all, as well as the existence of magues. So this is a historical fantasy / alternative reality. 

Reseña de ARC: Unicorn Bowling (Phoebe and Her Unicorn #9)

 +Netgalley ARC gently provided by publishers and Netgalley for an honest review+

Unicorn Bowling (Phoebe and Her Unicorn #9)

by 

Dana Simpson

176 pages

Published April 23rd 2019 by Andrews McMeel Publishing

ISBN:1449499384 (ISBN13: 9781449499389)

Edition Language: English

Series: Phoebe and Her Unicorn #9

BLURB: The NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING series Phoebe and Her Unicorn is back with all-new sparkling tales of best friendship. Whether they're visiting Camp Shimmerhorn or fitting unicorn hooves for bowling shoes, Phoebe and Marigold find magic in every moment. A unicorn in bowling shoes is quite a STRIKE-ing sight. But for nine-year-old Phoebe Howell, it’s just another fun outing with her best friend, the illustrious unicorn Marigold Heavenly Nostrils.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cute n' Fluffy.

I think Phoebe and Marigold adventures in everyday school and summer camp are kind of addictive because I had no intention of going for another of this books -again in form of comic strips and other longer short stories with the summer camp- and here I am.

This book is clearly intended for classroom discusion about the changes bringed for modern technology, the virtue of practicing for piano lessons (or rather for the importance of practicing to get better without magical short cuts), about gender roles, and that internet is nice but be careful with the things you post about other people (or the badness of simply bullying when you hurt other people feelings).

Reseña: Running the Snale (relato corto)

"RUNNING THE SNAKE" 

by 

Kage Baker

 Publicada en: Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 128

May 1st 2017 by Wyrm Publishing 

My Rating: 3.5 politeistas stars

La fallecida Kage Barker en este historia corta trata acerca de un embacucador: Will Shaxpur que toma ventaja de todo esto de los numerosos templos que se levantan en un Londres con una reina pagana que es la imagen de Boudicea con sus druidas, y hay una tolerancia por gran numero de deidades.

Inventar una religion en ese entonces era más fácil. Que se te muera un feligres de sangre noble seguida siendo igual de complicado y mortal en ese entonces.

Es entretenida en su forma de relatar un pequeño misterio-intriga.

Reseña: We Who Live in the Heart (relato corto)

"WE WHO LIVE IN THE HEART"

 by 

Kelly Robson.

2018 Finalist: Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award.

Publicada por: Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 128 
Mayo 1, 2017

My rating: 4 stars

Un relato corto donde en una era post-cataclismo y lejos de la Tierra, la gente vive bajo tierra, pero todos no estan conformes y asi los rebeldes investigadores y cientificos y aventureros descubren que pueden vivir en forma parasitaria dentro de unas criaturas que son unas especies de balones aereos vivientes. La forma en que esta planteada es original en caunto a la organizacion de la sociedad distopica y en formas recuerda a su reciente obra "Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach", Pero eso de criaturas que deben soportar humanos excavanadole dentro? brrr, me recuerda a la pobre Moya, y porque no me gusta el steampunk de otras novelas con sus criaturas vivas que son manipuladas para servir de naves.

Igual, muy interesante. Debates morales y sociales.

Reseña: La llamada de la luna (Mercy Thompson #1)

La llamada de la luna (Mercy Thompson #1)

by 

Patricia Briggs

 

320 pages

(first published January 31st 2006)

Original Title: Moon Called

ISBN: 8492461071 (ISBN13: 9788492461073)

Edition Language: Spanish

Series: Mercy Thompson #1

Teaser: La llamada de la luna es el inicio de la historia de Mercedes Thompson, un atractiva mujer que cambia de forma y se convierte en coyote, que tiene como vecino a un hombre lobo dominante y que por las tardes trabaja como mecánico en el taller del vampiro Stefan. El mundo de Mercy es muy similar al nuestro, salvo que el Otro Mundo comienza a salir a la luz debido a las tecnologías modernas.

My rating: 4,5 estrellas por ser una de mis favoritas.

Debe ser como la cuarta vez que la leo.

Mercy Thompson has in mind to keep afloat his car workshop and how to keep her neighbor in his toes, when a very young werewolf in search of work and who seems to run away from home, comes to trigger a series of events. Deaths, conspiracies, a look at this world alien to humans.

«Los lobos, los de verdad, no suelen ser animales despiadados a menos que estén asustados, heridos o acorralados. Los hombres lobo son siempre despiadados, siempre están dispuestos a matar.»

Mercedes Thompson es una mecánica de autos WV con un taller propio en el estado de Washington. Es mitad nativo americano, hija de madre soltera adolescente con un vaquero de rodeo, y es una "caminante" (skinwalker) que puede convertirse en un coyote. No sabe bien lo que es, pues no conoce a nadie más como ella. Pero fue criada junto a una manada de hombres-lobo, asi que de ello si sabe bastante, sobre todo de lobos dominantes, que ella respeta porque no es tonta, pero que no la mandan a ella pese a todo el desbalance de poder. Su ex-jefe y dueño anterior del taller es un fae, pues en su mundo éstos han sido dados a conocer por sus superiores los Señores Grises. Pero todavia nadie sabe de brujas, ni de licantropos, ni de vampiros.

Reseña: Sun, Moon, Dust

 Sun, Moon, Dust 

by 

Ursula Vernon

 

Relato corto

Publicado por: Uncanny Magazine Issue 16: May/June 2017

My rating: 4.5 stars

La última voluntad y herencia de una abuela es una espada enjoyada que deja a su nieto. La espada es mágica y alberga 3 espiritus que se encargan de enseñar el arte al portador de la espada por varias generaciones y generaciones. Sin embargo , el joven no es más que un apacible granjero cuya mayor ambicion es tener un cultivo bueno para no pasar hambre.

Ursula Vernon (A.K.A. T. Kingfisher) es una de mis autoras favoritas, tiene enorme imaginacion y buena pluma. Siempre es un deleite leerla.

Reseña: Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl #1)

Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl #1)

by 

Eoin Colfer

280 pages

(first published April 26th 2001)

ISBN: 1423124529 (ISBN13: 9781423124528)

Series: Artemis Fowl #1  

 BLURB: Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius, and, above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn't know what he's taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These aren't fairies of bedtime stories; these fairies are armed and dangerous.
Artemis thinks he has them right where he wants them...but then they stop playing by the rules.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Artemis Fowl es un antiheroe de 12 años, un genio criminal que viene de un legado familiar de gente dedicada a hacer ganancias por cualquier medio necesario, y aunque de vez en cuando hacen algo legitimo, se aburren y vuelven al mundo criminal. Cuando inicia la historia, Artemis hace años que se maneja solo junto a su fiel guardaespaldas Butler (de un largo legado de Butler que han servido a los Fowl). Su padre lleva años desaparecido, probablemente por la mafia rusa, y su madre vive en un estado de depresion recluida en su pequeño mundo en su habitacion. 

Asi que Artemis conspira con encontrar una gran ventaja para hallar a su padre y obtener mucho, mucho dinero. Sus investigaciones le han llevado a descubrir que existe un mundo secreto de hadas y decide apoderarse de su oro... facil ¿verdad? Pues no. Pero eso no amedrenta a este villano que tiene planes sobre planes en marcha.

Reseña: Diez negritos

Diez negritos 

by 

Agatha Christie

223 pages

Published June 22nd 1983 by Editorial Molino (first published November 6th 1939)

Original Title: Ten Little Niggers

ISBN: 8427200153 (ISBN13: 9788427200159)

Edition Language: Spanish 

 

SINOPSIS: Diez personas reciben sentadas cartas firmadas por un desconocido Mr. Owen, que las invita a pasar unos días en la mansión que tiene en uno de los isltoes de la costa de Devon. La primera noche, después de la cena, una voz los acusa, de ser culpables de un crimen. Lo que parece ser una broma macabra se convierte en una espantosas realidad cuando, uno por uno, los diez invitados son asesinados en un atmósfera de miedo y mutuas recriminaciones. La clave parece estar en una vieja canción infantil: «Diez negritos se fueron a cenar, uno se ahogó y quedaron nueve. Nueve negritos trasnocharon mucho, uno no despertó, y quedaron ocho...»

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reto popsugar 2019 #29. Un libro que viste leyendo a alguien en una serie o película(*)

“I remember a text that hung in my nursery as a child. ‘Be sure thy sin will find thee out.’ It’s very true, that. Be sure thy sin will find thee out.”

Unas cartas enviadas por un señor Owen , quien ha adquirido recientemente la Isla del Negro, reune a 10 personas diferentes en dicha isla. Por trabajo, vacaciones o para relacionarse. ¿Qué podia salir mal? Una isla en medio del mar, desconocidos aislados con un pasado con sus yayas, cuando mucho unos dias perdidos.

Pero una vez alli las rarezas pasan a convertirse en un juego de eliminación.

Reseña de ARC: Kidnapped by Vampires (The Z Team #2)

 +Digital ARC gently provided by Netgalley and publishers in exchange for an honest review+

Kidnapped by Vampires (The Z Team #2)

by 

D.E. Daly

 64 pages

Published January 15th 2019 by West 44 Books

ISBN: 1538381893 (ISBN13: 9781538381892)

Series: The Z Team #2 

Language: English

BLURB: The Z Team is pretty sure nothing else is coming out of the old railroad station. They're ready to retire. However, when people start going missing in town, the Z Team gets back together to fight their next challenge, which are vampires.

My rating: 2.6 vampires on the railroads stars

Level: 9-12

The Z Team is a party of 3 middle schoolers who are clearly influenced by our remembered Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though here is named as 'Sunny the Monster Masher') in a light version of Eerie Indiana it seems.

The Zephyr Terminal is again the focus of supernatural problems, and the friends Chloe, Malik y Justin have to find it before something worst may happen to their close ones.

It's a cheesy adventure, with preteen and teens problems of homework, tests, and sisters not listening to younger siblings. And of course vampire lore thrown in the mix.

Reseña: Blart: The Boy Who Didn't Want to Save the World Blart: The Boy Who Didn't Want to Save the World

Blart: The Boy Who Didn't Want to Save the World

by

Dominic Barker

319 pages

Published February 1st 2006 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (first published 2006)

ISBN: 074758074X (ISBN13: 9780747580744)

Edition Language: English

Series: Blart #1

BLURB: Blart is not an average boy. He lives on a pig farm with his grandfather and doesn't care about being heroic or famous or legendary, but he does know that if you want to catch a pig you have to sneak up behind it and take it by surprise. So when a great wizard visits and explains that humankind depends on Blart joining his quest, Blart says no - until the wizard threatens his pigs. Reluctantly, Blart embarks on a very epic quest stuffed with brilliant characters: a feisty princess who likes dragons, a warrior who's a big softie at heart, a disaffected dwarf, and evil Zorab, trapped in a mountain, waiting for his minions to dig him out...

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Shelves:  adventure-and-action, anti-heroe, fantasy, magia, parodia, read, teen-protagonist, witches-wizards

Blart is a 14-year-old swineherd, coward and selfish and ugly , who is taken by force by a magician to stop a supervillain.

‘My name’s Blart. I look after pigs and I’m with Capablanca who doesn’t.’

I was going to give it 3 stars until it got pretty boring and dumb from the middle almost to the end.

Imagine a parody of The Hobbit in a basically Python-esque way, with a Dudley Dursley at its worst as the protagonist.

Reseña: Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach 

by 

Kelly Robson

240 pages

Published March 13th 2018 by Tor.com

ISBN: 1250163854 (ISBN13: 9781250163851)

Edition Language: English

BLURB: Discover a shifting history of adventure as humanity clashes over whether to repair their ruined planet or luxuriate in a less tainted pass.
In 2267, Earth has just begun to recover from worldwide ecological disasters. Minh is part of the generation that first moved back up to the surface of the Earth from the underground hells, to reclaim humanity's ancestral habitat. She's spent her entire life restoring river ecosystems, but lately the kind of long-term restoration projects Minh works on have been stalled due to the invention of time travel. When she gets the opportunity take a team to 2000 BC to survey the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance to uncover the secrets of the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reto Popsugar 2019 #40: sugerencia de un reto anterior (de un autor favorito tuyo)

Historia nominada al Nebula.

De Kelly Robson solamente conocia "Las Aguas de Versalles", una entretenida fantasia histórica, y esta vez nos trae una historia post-apocaliptica con mensaje ecológico y anticapitalista.

When the plague babies had moved to the surface six decades earlier, in 2205, they’d been determined to prove humanity could escape the hives and hells and live above ground again, in humanity’s ancestral habitat. First, they’d erected bare-bones habs high in the mountains, scraping together skeleton funding for proof-of-concept pilot projects. For the first few ecological remediation projects, the plague babies donated their billable hours, hoping to lure investment and spark population growth.

Reseña: Violeta se fue a los cielos

Violeta se fue a los cielos 

by 

Ángel Parra

188 pages

Published 2006 by Catalonia

ISBN: 9568303359 (ISBN13: 9789568303358)

Edition Language: Spanish

BLURB: Ángel Parra relata anécdotas y recuerdos inéditos sobre su madre. Memorias íntimas que sirvieron de base al director nacional Andrés Wood para llevar al cine la vida y obra de esta excepcional creadora chilena reconocida en el mundo entero.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reto Popsugar 2019 #5. Un libro escrito por un músico

«Los recuerdos rescatados de tan lejos son nada más que eso, imaginación única e irrepetible. Aun haciéndolos míos, no puedo responder de su autenticidad, y es eso lo que más gusta.»

Como bien dice otra reseña, estos son los recuerdos que nos deja Ángel Cereceda Parra acerca de su madre, la inolvidable Violeta Parra Sandoval. La Violeta ya no está, tampoco Ángel.

Reseña de ARC:Blossoms in Autumn

 +Digital ARC gently provided by Netgalley and publishers. My thanks and my thoughts all mine+

 

Blossoms in Autumn 

by 

Zidrou

Aimée de Jongh (Illustrator)

 141 pages

Published March 20th 2019 by Europe Comics

Original Title: L'obsolescence programmée de nos sentiments

ISBN13: 9791032805862

Edition Language: English

BLURB:  Ulysses, a widower for several years, loses his job as a mover at age 59 and loses his sense of being. Mediterranea, 62 and never married, loses her mother and officially becomes the oldest member of her family. Fate brings them together and helps them to much more than just heal

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Graphic novel. Literatura francesa.

Art - 3.5 / 5

Story - 1 / 5

There are many things in the story that rubs me the wrong way, so... it's not of my liking. And since this is just my personal taste, well, that.

Blossoms in Autumn, -which in French is called "The programmed obsolescence of our sentiments"- is about two aging people who know each other and get together. Ullyses with 59 years old is lay off from a moving company, the loneliness and emptiness of his days is well told. While Mediterranea, with 62 years, still works in a cheese factory, she is going through her own crisis of loneliness after the death of her mother whom she cared for.

Newsflash - Life does not end at 50, or at 60. And I must say (coming from a family that mostly lives after the 90s and a hundred years) not even after that. And yes, they still have sex in some cases. I mean, my maternal grandfather was a hardworking , mean, and lecherous man until the day he died at 96 years old.

But it is Ulysses wich bother me. He repeats again and again that 'he hate reading'. STRIKE ONE. I don't know if that hints at problems like dyslexia? but srly? not good.