BALANCING ACT BOOKS

First and foremost, I have to go through my usual Schpeel. I have been reading to my 9 year old daughter, every night , for her entire life. Once we got up to the age where we could start plowing through entire novels, I started keeping track of the books we read together. I made a list of these books and put them in order from Favorite to Least Favorite. These are all of the books she and I have read together, minus the Harry Potter series. Here is the current standings: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever School for Good and Evil The Dollhouse Murders School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Bunnicula Beezus and Ramona The Girl with the Silver Eyes Ramona the Pest Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Black Beauty Howliday Inn Pippi Longstocking Harriet the Spy This was the turning point for my daughter and I. Would we go all the way to book five, or was this series worth leaving on the lib

According to Goodreads, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone to my daughter in June of 2016. That would make me 34 and it would make her 6 at the time of us reading it. Since then, we have gone through the entire series, taking breaks every so often, reading between a book to three books in between. Now, in 2019, I am 37 and she is 9 and we have finally finished the series.      I had first read Deathly Hallows when it originally came out. I was late to the series. I also started off with Order of the Phoenix, since I had never read any of the books when they were originally released, and I was inspired after watching Goblet of Fire. I went through the final three books quickly and I picked each one up close to when they were released. Just like those of us that read the Song of Ice and Fire books before watching Game of Thrones, I felt like I had a deeper appreciation of the Wizarding World Characters and I understood many of the plot points that made sense in the

My friend Bruno recently introduced me to the Joyous experience of being an Iron Maiden fan. Metallica was my Metal of choice, when I was introduced to the genre, in my early teens. I would eventually go onto more niche bands, like The deftones or System of a Down, with the Occasional Slipknot. I had only heard Run to the Hills once or twice, but I always considered it to be a corny song. If I wanted to hear an over the top metal band singing about Swordplay, I would listen to Manowar. Little did I know, there was an entire world filled with devoted fans of Eddie (The Mascot for Maiden) who could sing along with every single song, from Fear of the Dark to For the Greater Good of God (My two favorites). Brazil is filled with Maiden fans, according to Bruno. I was surprised I had neglected such a wonderful fandom. Almost every single person in attendance in the San Antonio Stadium had a shirt with Eddie on it. I had never seen so many band shirts, for the band I was actually seein

First and foremost, I have to go through my usual Schpeel. I have been reading to my 9 year old daughter, every night , for her entire life. Once we got up to the age where we could start plowing through entire novels, I started keeping track of the books we read together. I made a list of these books and put them in order from Favorite to Least Favorite. These are all of the books she and I have read together, minus the Harry Potter series. Here is the current standings: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever School for Good and Evil The Dollhouse Murders School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Bunnicula Beezus and Ramona The Girl with the Silver Eyes Ramona the Pest Black Beauty Howliday Inn Pippi Longstocking Harriet the Spy I think that if I try to compare Percy Jackson to Harry Potter you are going to laugh at me. It is understandable. Though they are cut from the same cloth, Harry Potter has that fine, meticulo

Darrow, artwork from Peircebrownbooks.com Around the time I began reading Red Rising The Hong Kong Protests had just  begun. It was very common on Twitter to see posts by  Americans that were envious about the amount of passion, and bravery the Hong Kong Protesters were able to conjure up. We looked lame in Comparison. I have to admit, I felt pretty lame myself.    Reading Red Rising made me feel even more lame.   It has been a long time since I have read a book about Rebellion. Superhero comics make up 85% of what I read, on a regular basis. Superheroes tend not to Rebel. They protect the Status Quo and I definitely think there are certain powers that be that are happy they are the dominant narrative at this point. It isn’t just because us Nearing Middle Aged men need some childhood nostalgia laced escapism that that Marvel movies keep getting funded. Protect the Status quo, that is certainly the current Pop Culture Narrative. It is either that, or  at the very least, bring