Full Game Storm; Chickens Clash Tonoharu; Crows Escape Tales; Mighty Spider-Man Ends

[maribou]

Full Spectrum, edited by Billy Merrill and David Levithan
Essays, with a dash of poetry and fiction, by young LBGTQ adults. It was marvelous.
(98/200)

Philadelphia Chickens, by Sandra Boynton
Marvelous in a totally different way, this was a kids' musical - the book has the score, lyrics, illustrations, etc and it comes with a CD. Deathly adorable, and very well-made.
(99/200)

A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows, by George R. R. Martin (reread)
Plowed my way through these again while waiting for A Dance with Dragons to come out. I enjoyed them even more on the second read-through - I didn't get all impatient for my favorite characters' viewpoint chapters the way I did last time.
(100/200, 57/100; 109/200, 65/100; 111/200, 66/100; 116/200, 70/100)

Tales from the Ur-Bar, edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray
Pretty forgettable despite a fun premise (Gilgamesh doomed to keep bar forever). I enjoyed the Ian Tregillis and Laura Ann Gilman stories a whole lot though.
(101/200)

Escape from "Special", by Miss Lasko-Gross
Blunt, affecting graphic novel about being a kid who is different.
(102/200, 58/100)

Tonoharu, vols. 1 and 2, by Lars Martinson
Delicate and heavily illustrated story of a guy teaching English in Japan. Very interesting.
(103/200, 59/100; 104/200, 60/200)

Ultimate Spider-Man, vols 12: Superstars, 13: Hobgoblin, 14: Warriors, 15: Silver Sable,16: Deadpool, 17: Clone Saga, 18: Ultimate Knights, and 19: Death of a Goblin, by Brian Michael Bendis et al
My favorite was the Clone Saga. It's probably obvious that I'm really digging these - reading them is like falling through a wormhole to being 13 and (blissfully) doing nothing all summer.
(105/200, 61/100; 106/200, 62/100; 107/200, 63/100; 108/200, 64/100; 112/200, 67/100; 113/200, 68/100; 114/200, 69/100; 117/200, 71/100 )

The Mighty Queens of Freeville, by Amy Dickinson (ARC)
Warm and readable, slightly disjointed memoir of being a single mom and learning to "fail up".
(110/200, 72/100)

Between Two Ends, by David Ward (ARC)
My reading of this book suffered because it reminded me a lot of E. Nesbit. I love E. Nesbit, and this just wasn't quite as good, and I kept thinking about that while I was reading it. Really unfair of me, but there it is. It's a good story, charmingly told, though, so if you know some fantasy-loving kids that haven't read and reread E. Nesbit obsessively, I bet they would really dig it:).
(115/200)