Review: The Walking Dead (Compendiums 1 & 2)

Title: The Walking Dead Compedium 1 & 2

Author: Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn, Tony Moore

Series: Ongoing

Published: Compendium 1 2009, Compendium 2 2012 (First issue published in 2003)

Edition Read: Traditional Paperback

Level Recommended: Adult

Overall: I started watching AMC's The Walking Dead, and like most people who love zombie stories I found myself needing to read the original series. I was not, at all, disappointed.


Summary: (Compendium 1) Introducing the first eight volumes of the fan-favorite, New York Times Best Seller series collected into one massive paperback collection! Collects The Walking Dead #1-48. This is the perfect collection for any fan of the Emmy Award-winning television series on AMC: over one thousand pages chronicling the beginning of Robert Kirkman''s Eisner Award-winning continuing story of survival horror- from Rick Grimes'' waking up alone in a hospital, to him and his family seeking solace on Hershel''s farm, and the controversial introduction of Woodbury despot: The Governor. In a world ruled by the dead, we are finally forced to finally start living.


Review: It's fair to say that I love zombie movies, books, and now the tv series, The Walking Dead. (I've reviewed at least three zombie novels and a triology just on this blog. I should probably have a tag especially for it.) Around Valentine's Day I ended up buying both Walking Dead compendiums off of Amazon for half off the original price. I really, really wanted to know what happened in the original story after watching two seasons of Walking Dead on AMC. I pretty much couldn't stop reading from the moment I'd started. The Walking Dead the comic starts very much like the series. Rick gets shot just before the zombie apocalypse breaks. He wakes up in a hospital, and begins his journey into finding his family whom he hopes is still alive. The act of trying to survive leads Rick into making decisions he never thought he'd have to make with the final goal being the safety of his wife and son. Every decision Rick makes is to ensure his family's survival. 

Any Walking Dead fan has to read the original comics. The comics delve into a dark side of humanity and survival that truly had me asking if Rick's decisions were right or wrong. I asked myself how far I would go if my own husband or children were faced daily with the possibility of death not just from zombies but from other survivors.  The comics are not for children, but as an addition to zombie literature it is definitely a keeper. Zombies eventually become the background for the even scarier evil of humans fighting for what's left of the food, shelter, and ammunition. Even the "good" people eventually come to the conclusion that they have to do horrible things to survive. Some of those people become the villains of Rick's story, like the Governor. 

If you have been putting off reading the comics like I did then what are you waiting for? Go to your library, bookstore, or Amazon and pick them up! Admittedly the compendiums are pricy--Right now they are $32 on Amazon, and that is just not cheap.--but considering how many volumes you get in one book. Well, for me it was worth it. 

Recipe: Jannsen's Favorite Lasanga

While on Spring Break visiting a friend and her family in Oklahoma I read a recipe in Jannsen's blog, Everyday Reading. (Yes, I know I should be working on that Pinterest challenge. Hopefully I'll be playing catch up with that soon.) Since I wasn't working I thought to myself, "Hey! I could actually try out this recipe!" All too often do I see a recipe that I think would be good, but I don't try it because it's not something that can be made in 30 minutes.

This lasagna coupled with a salad and garlic bread fed six adults and one child with leftovers. I only made a couple of changes to the recipe.

1) I used ground turkey instead of hamburger. 

2) I didn't use any garlic salt per my friend's suggestion. 

3) I put some of the mozzarella cheese on top. Which I later learned left some water on the top of the sauce. It was okay though after a couple of napkins I sopped up that water and it still tasted pretty good.

I also learned that you can use seemingly strange ingredients, like cottage cheese and tomato soup, in a lasagna recipe and it tasted pretty good! In fact this lasagna was a real crowd pleaser all around. I can see why this lasagna was Jannsen's favorite. When I told the husband that I had made this lasagna with cottage cheese instead of ricotta his first  reaction was, "Uggh." I told him, "I know! But it was really good!" 

I have to warn you that this was not a throw together recipe. It took time to make the sauce, cook the noodles, put it together, and bake it. But, if you want to feed a crowd this is a pretty great recipe to go with. Everyone who tried it enjoyed it. 

You can find the recipe at Everyday Reading titled "Dinner is Served: My Favorite Lasagna." 

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder

Author: Marissa Meyer (Author Site)

Series: Book 1 of 4

Published: Janurary 2012


Edition Read: Paperback


Pages: 400


Level Recommended: Young Adult


Overall: I was so amazed by Meyer's Cinder that I found myself up late at night reading unable to put it down. The sci-fi aspects of this retelling make Cinder so wonderful I'm thrilled I didn't have to wait for Scarlet, the second book in the series. 



Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. 


What I thought: Even though I had heard how awesome Cinder was I resisted reading it because I wondered how a science fiction retelling of the story would truly work out. That and I was also halfway into the second half of the school year. Let's face it, I didn't get much reading done. One day a few weeks ago I was browsing the  YA section of my bookstore. I kept going past and returning to Cinder. I eventually took it home and read it finally finishing it during my Spring Break. Quite simply I fell in love with it. Yes, it has it's flaws. I knew exactly who Cinder was not too far into the novel. However, the end of the novel was still fantastic. 

My favorite villain was appropriately Cinder's stepmother, Adri. She was truly hateful when it came to Cinder, and lived up to how I have always seen her. Her stepsister, Pearl, parroting her mother's hatefulness. I especially loved Peony, and how deeply Cinder loved her. Queen Levana, the lunar queen, came out very much reminding me of a Snow White queen. 

I was so thrilled with this story that I'm sorry I didn't pick it up sooner. I've been looking for a great read that I could have a hard time reviewing because I think it's so awesome. Cinder certainly hit that goal for me. I'm sorely tempted to run out an buy Scarlet, the second book in the series. The only thing that's keeping me from doing that is that it will be a hardcover edition that doesn't match my paperback copy. 

Nerd problems. 

I loved this book. Run out, get it, read it.