Book Update: February 2012 Books

FEBRUARY 2012
(Very very late)

I'm really really really beyond late with this one. Practically a full frakin year. I started this originally way back at the end of February 2012 for a beginning of March posting obviously that didn't happen. Partly because I am super backlogged on my doing book reviews and partly because I am extremely lazy at some things.  I wonder if I will ever get around to doing any more book reviews or reviews of anything. So here is the stack of dead wood I got way back in the month of February 2012.

Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside 

by Stephen Cole

First up is a book from the new series of Doctor Who from an author I already have a few DW books from. Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside by Stephen Cole features the 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). This book was the book to read for September in the Sci-Fi Book Club I'm in at Goodreads.com. It is a very good story. I don't want to spoil anything but it features the return of a monster that made it's Doctor Who debut in Season One, well technically Season 27 or something but Season One for the current rebooted series. The story would have been a pretty exciting episode for the show. This series of the current Doctor fills the hunger for new Who episodes when the show is between seasons or during the mid-season breaks just as the classic "New Adventures of Doctor Who" series filled the hunger during the non-existent years.

Next we have the two books from the spin-off series of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. of course. Now with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. there were 23 novels printed in the US with only 16 printed in the UK in a different order with different covers but the same story on the inside. To mix things up a bit and to confuse things The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. only had two novels printed in the US but four printed in the UK, yet there were five different stories. The first US GFU book is the same story as the UK book 2 again with different cover (slight variation in style but same posed picture from star Stephanie Powers) where the US book 2 was not printed in the UK.

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.: The Birds of a Feather Affair

 by Michael Avallone

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.: #2 The Blazing Affair

by Michael Avallone

Next up we have a book I got from the MLB Insiders Club. The 2012 Baseball America Almanac. Oddly the cover for this is slightly different from the one I saw online and the cover that my collection tracking site GoodReads has for it so I need to add it. This is the complete stats book that covers the previous season 2011. Since the Nationals did so well in 2012 I will need to get the 2013 Almanac when it is published. 

V Series

To Conquer The Throne

by Tim Sullivan

I am in the final stretch of my collection of the US printed V Books. Of the original series of books this book is the next to the last one to get To Conquer The Throne by Tim Sullivan.

I finished up my V Book Conquest with The Oregon Invasion by Jayne Tannehill. Now I have all the US published V books, someday I might try for the UK published versions.

From the Classical Literature aisle I picked up a second copy of Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

First my original copy which is falling apart.

 Then we have the other version I plucked off of Ebay,

with the classic cover I'm more used to.

Then I found a copy of a book I have wanted for a long time. I have had the first book for ages and ages since it came out then this book I didn't know about until a few years after it was already very hard to find. Scroogie #2: Hello There, Ball! by Tug Mcgraw I think this was the book I got via the Barnes & Noble from an affiliate book seller. I forget how much I got it for but it was a bit high by my normal standards but I really wanted this book. This has the rest of the comic strips. I also in a fit of insanity bought an auction lot of Scroogie Comic strips clipped from the newspapers also from Ebayabout 70 or so total the seller claimed it was a "complete run" but it is only about half the run. Oh well.

Next we have a book that is similar to a book I think I talked about months and months ago (or maybe not I'm too lazy to check my older posts) The Little Pun Book assembled (edited?) by Robert Margolin published by Peter Pauper Press.

Following the PUN theme I got two books that my family had ages and ages ago at least the second book. Both are picture books by a photographer Bruce A. McMillan they are Punography and Punography Too. Each is very short only about 30 pages or so. He shows a series of four photographs that show some kind of progression and visual representation of a pun. Some of them are cute, and some are just plain awful. There are even a few that make you say "Huh?"

That is it for my February books I also got 3 books in July and 1 in August. I think I will combine those two months when I get around to them.

G.I. JOE: The Rise Of Cobra

Destro: What did you say your unit was called?

General Hawk: I didn't.

I watched my DVD copy of the 2009 G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra Movie. This is a mini-review first because I don't feel like giving a full fledged review and second because I need to crank out a blog entry before July comes around.


G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Is a very cool action adventure movie. Plenty of testosterone, and some estrogen in this guys flick. Basically it is based on the characters that Hasbro toys created in the early 1980s for the rebooted line of G.I. Joe Action figures. When they shrunk the 12" "Boys Doll" down to a little 3" action figure. The basic plot line deals with some nanotechnology war heads being stolen by The "Joes" arch-enemy group Cobra. The only things that really brings the movie down is some of the flashbacks that tell each of the main characters and supporting characters origins and background stories. These stories give audience viewers who are not familiar with the newer G.I. Joe (A Real American Hero) characters and stories that were told in comic books, a cartoon series and an animated movie or two.

Now the real reason(s) I like this film. Well not the only reasons but it is nice to have some eye candy while having an action movie frat party.

One of the things that Hasbro did when they created the mini Joes toys was to have some female characters. For "The Joes" the good guys there is sexy redhead Scarlett.


Brought to life in the movie by the lovely Rachel Nichols. I wonder how single she is if she is?


Reason enough? I thought so.


Then for the villainess er Baroness the just a lovely and sexy Sienna Miller.


And here is some of the action sort of.


As I said just a sort of mini-review. Oh I almost forgot one of the things I wanted to mention. Christopher Eccleston (of Doctor Who fame as Doctor Number Nine) plays the main bad guy James McCullen/ Destro. Overall I liked the film, even if you take the women out of the equation. I gave the film 4.5 out of 5.