Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers (v 1), by Brian Michael Bendis

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers (v 1), by Brian Michael Bendis, 136 pages

So this is going to be coming out as a movie in 2014- and I had never heard of it.  The story is actually really interesting- Peter Quill grows up as a boy without a dad- until the day that his mother is murdered by aliens who set out to kill him because it turns out that his dad is kind of a big deal among other aliens.  So he becomes Star-Lord, and somehow teams up with a cast of characters, one of which is Rocket Raccoon, a wise-cracking raccoon in a spacesuit, which was all I needed to know to enjoy it.  For some reason, Iron Man is along for the ride, which is fine.  This book is really more of exposition- letting you know who these characters are, what their motivations are, and setting the tone for an intergalactic war.  Definitely has potential as a movie.  (Oh, especially since I found out that Chris Pratt is going to be Star Lord! Always happy to see that guy working).

The Shining by Stephen King

The Shining by Stephen King, 688 pages.

Everybody and their grandmother has heard of "The Shining," so I'm going to try make this brief.  "The Shining" is a novel by my personal favorite author, Stephen King.  It has been turned into a movie, a miniseries, and parodied on "The Simpsons," plus King has recently written it a sequel, which I plan to read eventually.  Why does this matter, you ask.  Well, being the King fan that I claim myself to be, and having seen the story in all the aforementioned forms of media, I figured I should read it.

As I said before, virtually everyone knows the story.  Jack Torrance takes a job taking care of an old hotel in the Colorado Rockies, he drags his wife and his son along, and crazy adventures await the Torrance family, as the hotel is haunted...or sentient.  It's hard to tell sometimes with King's writing.  But anyway, Jack's boy, Danny, has a gift called the shining, which is kinda like psychic powers that let him tap into other peoples minds and see things that don't actually exist, but they also kind of do.  The family ends up getting snowed in, some weird and spooky stuff happens, and Jack finally loses his marbles and...

*SPOILERS*

tries to kill his family.  It all boils down to the climax, which the movie, the mini series, and the Simpsons episode don't fully encapsulate, so I won't spoil that.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book.  It has a good enough pace that made me want to keep reading.  The setting was great, the characters were relateable and realistic, and there were no slow points like a lot of other of King's work.  So yeah, read this book.  It was worth it.