Arti­cle first pub­lished as Book Review: The Death and Life of Superman by on Blogcritics. About: The Death and Life of Superman by Roger Stern takes the saga of “The Death of Superman“, “Funeral for a Friend“, “Reign of the Supermen”, and “The Return of Superman“, which appeared in comic book form in the mid 80’s, and turns it to light reading. 418 pages Publisher: Bantam Books Language: English ISBN-10: 055309582X My rating for The Death and Life of Superman – 3 Buy this book from Amazon.com* Thoughts: The Death and Life of Superman by Roger Stern, a successful comic book writer, is a fast read for someone who wants to get caught up on the Death of Superman saga without reading the comics. There is a bit of suspense and mystery, but overall there are no surprises and little mystery. The story starts slow, does not have the “punch” of the comic book stories, but picks up pace towards the end. I was a bit disappointed because it seemed to me that the author just looked at the pictures of the comic books, and turned them into words, without adding any new insight. There are no character studies, smart twists or interesting tidbits….

These stories makes you appreciate where you came from, and what people have done to preserve our way of life. The most fascinating parts are not the stories of the men and women who went on to bigger and better things, but the stories of those who came home, settled down, and lived a full life.

Gwendolyn Brooks (7 June, 1917 – 3 December, 2000) was an award winning American poet. Ms. Brooks would have been 96 years old today.

A few days ago I reviewed Pepper: A History of the World’s Most Influential Spice by Marjorie Shaffer. The publisher has kindly gotten back to me offering one copy for a giveaway. To enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post. Give­away Give­away ends: June 13, 2013 US Ship­ping Addresses Only No PO Boxes Win­ners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, oth­er­wise an alter­nate win­ner will be picked Congratulations: balenette@

For a long time I have been collecting Superman “stuff”. At first it was little things, but later on became high-end collectibles (statues, movie props, cells, original comic art, etc). That was, of course BK (Before Kids), but now they at least have a well decorated play room in the basement. As well all know, the new Superman movie, aptly named Man of Steel is due to hit theaters June 14 so the local library promptly agreed to display a small part of my collection. Here is the display in all its glory. Yes, that is Christopher Reeve’s cape

Pepper: A History of the World’s Most Influential Spice by Marjorie Shaffer is a non-fiction book tracing history through the trade of black pepper

Elizabeth Coatsworth (31 May, 1893 – 31 August, 1986) was an American author known for her children’s stories and poetry for both kids and adults. Born in Buffalo, New York, Elizabeth was the daughter of a prosperous grain merchant. As a young girl, Coatsworth went to a private girls’ school. Her parents took her traveling with them, my age 5 she already visited the Alps and Egypt. Coatsworth as a Master of Arts from Columbia University. The author’s first published works appeared in poetry magazines and her first book, Fox Footprints, was published in 1923 and was a collection of poetry for adults. Coatsworth friend, Louise Seaman, founded the first children’s book publishing dept. at Macmillan. Louise is the one that convinced Elizabeth to write her first children’s book. The Cat Who Went to Heaven was published in 1930. The book tells the story of an artist who is painting a picture of Buddha for a group of monks. The Cat Who Went to Heaven earned Coatsworth a Newberry Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children”. Coatsworth won praises for her adult fiction as well, especially The Incredible Tales. Over the span of an incredible career, Coatsworth…

Armchair BEA – Day 3 – Literary Fiction Hmm… literary fiction – how do you even define that? What’s literary fiction for me could be utter crap to you and vice versa. Heck, I bet half of us (myself included) can’t even define literary fiction – which is why I Goggled it to find a good definition so I could at least write a post without looking like a complete idiot (part idiot is fine, I do it on a daily base). I’ve visited several sites, all by established authors, publishers and editors (and Wikipedia) and no-one seems to agree on what literary fiction actually is. However, the one common theme to all is that literary fiction is character driven rather than plot driven and is “elegantly written, lyrical, and … layered” – something so abstract and general that you’d be hard pressed to find two people who agree on what that means. So here is the problem, if someone asked me to read a character driven, lyrical book I’d probably pass on it. That being said, I read these types of books before and some I actually loved. So the questions still remain: what is my favorite literary fiction…

Today’s topic on Armchair BEA is out of my league, the question is about favorite fantasy/sci fi / horror etc. My brain is not wired for these type of stories, once in a while I can read a magic book like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell but that’s just about it. I tried to read Lord of the Rings several times, including listening to the audio book, because people told me how great it was and I kept thinking I was missing something. But I couldn’t get 100 pages in. Same with Game of Thrones. Same with Harry Potter. There are two genre fiction I like to read, those taking place in or around World War II – a subject which I’m fascinated about and novels about espionage (which are usually set around that time as well). But let’s face it, a good book is a good book regardless of genre. Sure we’re able to narrow down what we want to read based on a myriad of factors (author, cover, blurb) including genre.

About: The Geneva Option by Adam LeBor is a novel which introduces the reader to Yael Azoulay, a high-level UN staffer. The book is marketed as being the first in a trilogy by Mr. LeBor who is, by trade, an author and journalist. The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post. 368 pages Publisher: Harper Paperbacks Language: English ISBN-10: 0062208551 My rat­ing for The Geneva Option — 4 Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format* More Books by Adam LeBor Thoughts: The Geneva Option by Adam LeBor is a gripping thriller which introduces the world to a strong heroine. The world created by the author is raw and brutal, a world most of us would like to think does not exist. Yael Azoulay, the protagonist, is truly an international woman with no roots and no place she can call home. This is a fast paced book is entertaining on the surface but has a lot going for it in between the lines. The lose-lose deals Yael has to strike leave the reader feeling almost dirty but with the clear understanding that they must be made…