Reading Sanctum Potpourri #1

Hello, Everyone! Thanks to all of you, our wonderful, loving followers, for your patience during the month of June as we tried to drum up new followers with our month long celebration of westerns called High June. The pointed truth is that we just LOVE this stuff, but we know that some of you don’t. We always try to feed our yayas with the hope that we get a response from you telling us that your into it, or telling us that you’re not into it. It helps us decide if we should quell our enthusiasm a little bit. Whether it should be a month long celebration or an occasional post. Help us out with a comment, please.

During that time, things have been especially difficult because the Beard has been without a laptop, so most of the work has fallen on my shoulders. There have been other challenges, but there’s no reason to cry over spilled milk. I’m not a crybaby like an orange haired “genius” that will remain unnamed, unmasked, and unhinged. We know that greater more important things have been going on in the world.

As a consequence of working tirelessly on the blog, our other responsibilities have fallen by the wayside. One of those things that have remained neglected were my reviews on Good Reads. Since I read constantly (3 or 4 books per week), I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Our newest feature will be quick reviews of some of the books that I’ve read recently and have yet to review. Over the past 2 years, I’ve curated all of the reviews I’ve written on GR. Because I’m OCD, (I wear it like a GD badge) every book I’ve read over the past 2 years has been read and cataloged with a review. If you want to follow me there, feel free. I’m The Mustache Louie Matos everywhere.

This is the third book in a series. I don’t know that I missed anything in reading this book without having the proper context that I might have had if I would have read the previous books. Still and all this is a book about two young women: Jane Blackwood and Miriam Cantor — who have been raised as sisters on the precipice of becoming full-fledged diabolists. World War II England is the setting of this story. Consequently, I got the sense that there would be a direct involvement with the war.

Tanzer weaves a story that is both horrific and whimsical with characters that are memorable and believable. Suspense is built with feelings of dread prevalent throughout the latter third of the book. If there is a complaint, I would say that it would be the first third of the book. It seemed a little slow, especially for a book that is the last of a trilogy. Maybe had I read the previous books I would have understood contextually if she were tying up loose ends from the previous books. All in all, I liked what I read, felt that the story merited my time and attention, and I would read this author again.

Whenever I read a first novel, it fills me with a particular joy. I feel like I’m about to embark on a new journey with this writer who has so courageously decided to share her work. I want to be as supportive and nurturing as possible because it’s the beginning of hopefully a forever relationship.

Mall is good, but not great. At its most profound level, it’s about the ills of consumption. You have a main character who is unhappy with her marriage. I couldn’t stand her. She falls into an alternate reality with vapid characters who are unhappy with their lives. They want to have sex, but even the sex they engage in is meaningless and unfulfilling. The mall is an enclosed environment that expects the consumers to feel joy in just existing. When that doesn’t happen. Take a pill. Did we really need another book about consumerism? Sorry!

I received this graphic novel as a digital trade paperback. It had not been completely colorized, but the story and pencils were finished. It was a beautiful story that you would think was more appropriate for the 1950’s, but alas, no. We still need to hear these stories. We still need to see these stories. We still need to read these stories. Until they resonate inside of our hearts, and we confront the uncomfortable truth within ourselves, we will continue to need these stories.

The story is predictable. Clearly, we are reading a comic book, but I still felt suspense. I still believed the main characters were in peril and felt that in this story there might very well be a moment of heartbreak. I will not assuage that thought one way or the other. The art work is gorgeous. Suffice it to say that it is the best graphic novel I have read this year (from about 20) and it has my greatest recommendation.

I think that I will end this here and set these up to post on a regular basis. Some quick cut reviews of books for all those like me that can’t get enough time to read, but still manage to do it anyway. Thanks for reading.