Tag / Amber Benson

by admin

Prolific Authors 2015

bookshelfWay back in December of 2011 and again in December of 2013, we took a look back at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 51 books from 42 different authors.  There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Once again, we will be limiting ourselves to the now 54 authors from whom I have read more than one book.

Author Name Current Total 2013 Total Difference
Nancy Holder 13 13 0
Greg Rucka 13 12 1

Greg Rucka moves into a tie for my most-prolific author, thanks to his latest which I read last year.  Assuming he stays on the same schedule, he should take the lead by himself sometime next year.

Christopher Golden 12 12 0
Stephen King 12 10 2

After years of being ignored, Stephen King adds 2 new titles to his total over the past 2 years.

Richard Castle 9 5 4
Brad Meltzer 9 8 1

The top 5 rounds out with Brad Meltzer and Richard Castle, who put up the largest increase in the last 2 years. Continue reading →

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Book 19 (of 52) – The Golden Age Of Death

The Golden Age of Death - Amber Benson

The Golden Age of Death – Amber Benson

It’s been nearly 2 years since I last checked in on Amber Benson’s Calliope Reaper-Jones series, so it seemed like a good time to dive into The Golden Age of Death, the final installment of the series.  While fantasy is certainly not my favorite genre, I was on board for this series due to Benson, whose work as an actor I’ve admired.  While the last entry, How To Be Death, seemed to turn a page by mixing up the pace, this book was back to the tried and true formula of someone scheming to kill the newly installed grim reaper.

While I certainly enjoyed this series, otherwise I would have bailed a long time ago, I would be lying if I said they were easy for me to get through.  Even finishing up the last 120 pages of so took me well over 2 hours.  Benson has started a new series, about witches of some sort, but I’m not sure if I’ll follow her over.

by admin

Prolific Authors 2013

bookshelfWay back in December of 2011, I took our first look back at the authors I have read the most dating back to high school.  Since that time, I’ve read 34 books from 31 different authors.  I don’t think there is going to be much movement since then, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time.  Once again, we will be limiting ourselves to the now 47 authors from whom I have read more than one book.

Author Name Current Total 2011 Total Difference
Nancy Holder 13 13 0
Christopher Golden 12 12 0

No change to these two, who owe their totals mostly to Buffy and Angel tie-in novels.

Greg Rucka 12 11 1
Stephen King 10 9 1

Both of these long time favorites increased their total by one book.  Rucka’s newest is due out next summer and is already pre-ordered.

Michael Jan Friedman 8 8 0
Brad Meltzer 8 7 1

Brad Meltzer pulls into a tie for the top 5 with another author of tie-in novels, mostly Star Trek: TNG and Lois & Clark. Continue reading →

by jim

iTunes Top 100 Artists: #1-10

itunes_image

My latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 2 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 100 artists that I’ve listened to as of 8/21/2013, according to iTunes. Today we finally get to the top 10 and the end of this journey.

#1: The Beatles

iTunes stats: 665 plays

The boys from Liverpool used 95 different songs to make up this total.  The most impressive thing is that the total should be higher, as all of the counts got reset back to zero when the remastered albums came out in 2009 and I deleted all of the old versions and ripped the remastered versions.

#2: Garbage

iTunes stats: 614 plays

I have seen this band live 4 times over the past 11 years, and look forward to doing so again in the future.  There are 112 songs, many of which are live versions, that made up the total.

#3: Foo Fighters

iTunes stats: 425 plays

Only 39 songs put the Foo Fighters in third place with nobody on their tail.  I saw the Foo Fighters with Weezer back in 2005 and would love to do so again.

#4: The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

iTunes stats: 307 plays

Back in 2001, during the sixth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the show produced a musical episode as Buffy and the Scooby Gang battled the musical demon Sweet.  The following year, the soundtrack was released, and those 21 songs make up this total.  One of the standouts was Amber Benson, who autographed my copy of the CD at a Wizard World appearance back in 2004.

#5: Tegan and Sara

iTunes stats: 274 plays

An even 50 songs combined to make up this total for the Canadian sisters.  I saw them live back in 2005, less than a week after the Foo Fighters/Weezer show and the same day the White Sox won the ALDS against the Red Sox.  It was a busy week.

Continue reading →

by jim

Book 13 (of 52) – How To Be Death

How To Be Death - Amber Benson

How To Be Death – Amber Benson

Amber Benson returns for the fourth installment of her Calliope Reaper-Jones series.  This one breaks the mold a bit, as it does not feature someone trying to kill Calliope in order to stop her from taking over Death Inc, but instead is more of a murder mystery, where our heroine works with an investigator to figure out who stole the handbook to her new job and, in the process, murdered Daniel’s date in her room.

The curveball that Benson throws in this penultimate book in the series gave this book a much different feel than the earlier installments.  The new head of Death Inc spends much of the book investigating the murders taking place around her.  Benson also sets up the characters for the next book, set the following day, if the end of this one is any indication.

The last book in the series came out earlier this year.  I’ll need to pick it up at some point.

by admin

iTunes Top 100: #76 – 95

itunes_image

My latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 2 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, it is now time to look at digital music with the Top 100 songs that I’ve listened to as of 6/2/2013, according to iTunes. Today we look at the 20 songs tied for #76 with 16 overall plays.

#76: The Beatles – Eight Days A Week

Although it was a huge American hit, the group did not think highly of the song and they never performed it live.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 8/14/2012

#76: The Beatles – Paperback Writer

The single went to the number one spot in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 5/20/2013

#76: Bell Biv Devoe – Poison

This 1990 hit from New Edition spin-off also appeared on Volume 2 of my mix tapes, and has been listened to three times since then.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 5/16/2013

#76: The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Overture/Going Through The Motions

Performed by series star Sarah Michelle Gellar at the beginning of the musical episode in season 6.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 4/28/2013

#76: The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Under Your Spell

Amber Benson performs the song which writer Joss Whedon called “pornography” and “probably the dirtiest lyric I’ve ever written, but also very, very beautiful”.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 4/28/2013

#76: The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Standing

Performed by Anthony Stewart Head as a ballad to Buffy that she does not hear, unlike the songs revealing truths elsewhere in the episode.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 5/15/2013

#76: Cracker – Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)

Charted at number 1 on the US Modern Rock Tracks, arguably breaking Cracker into the mainstream.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 11/9/2012

#76: Darling Violetta – Angel Main Theme

The band performed 2 songs in a third season episode of Buffy before being tasked to perform the theme to the spin-off.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 5/16/2013

#76: Dr. Dre Feat RBX And Snoop Dogg – Let Me Ride

This 1994 Grammy Award winner for Best Rap Solo Performance also appeared on Volume 11 of my mix tapes, and has been listened to twice since then.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 2/5/2013

#76: Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench

The first single from the band’s second album, the song chronicled the disintegration of singer/song writer Dave Grohl’s four-year marriage to Jennifer Youngblood.

iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 4/24/2012

Continue reading →

by jim

The Year In Books

With the year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the books I’ve read this year, 24 in total and 18 if you exclude the graphic novels.  Of those 24, 6 were graphic novels, another 6 were non-fiction, and 3 were TV show tie-ins.  Overall, I did a good job of clearing out the “to-read” drawer, as 9 of the 18 books came from there.

The 8 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Eliot Asinof
Hugh Delehanty
James Patterson
Len Berman
Marcos Breton
Phil Jackson
Ray Bradbury
Sammy Sosa

Amber Benson, Brian K. Vaughan, and Pia Guerra were the only authors I read multiple times in 2012.

Greg Rucka’s Alpha and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl were the only books released in 2012 that I read in 2012.

I revisited the work of 5 authors that I had not read since the previous century:
Stephen King 1993
John Grisham 1996
Scott Adams 1997
Ketih R.A. DeCandido 1999
Mel Odom 1999

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Being off for most of December certainly helped pad the total a tad bit. Continue reading →

by jim

Book 15 (of 52) – Serpent’s Storm

Serpent’s Storm – Amber Benson

Amber Benson returns with the latest Calliope Reaper-Jones adventure, which shakes up the status quo a little and forces Callie to face her true potential and go from being Death’s daughter to Death herself.  Of course, she couldn’t do so without first dealing with a plot to by her sister and the devil to take over purgatory and declare war on heaven.

Benson goes a little darker in this third entry in her series, and it resulted in a quicker and easier read.  I started this on the plane to Belfast, read some more during down time in the hotel, and then finished it up in one sitting yesterday afternoon.  Benson has certainly grown as a writer, and I’m certainly looking forward to the next installment.

by jim

Book 8 (of 52) – Cat’s Claw

Cat's Claw - Amber Benson

Amber Benson returns with her second offering in the Calliope Reaper-Jones series.  This time out, Calliope, more comfortable with her lot in life as Death’s daughter, makes a deal with the guardian of hell’s gate that puts her future on the line and takes her to purgatory, ancient Egypt, and Las Vegas.

Benson certainly has the voice of her heroine down, but the story here lacked some of the stakes that made the first outing so enticing.  Things were moving along fine until the end, where everything seemed extremely rushed.  Hopefully, this was just a bit of a sophomore slump and that the next book will be a return to form.

by admin

Book 9 (of 52) – Death’s Daughter

Death's Daughter - Amber Benson

Death’s Daughter is the first in a series of books following Calliope Reaper-Jones, a low-level assistant navigating Manhattan and, by the way, the heir to Death’s throne.  Someone has kidnapped her father, so she must take up the mantle to find him before she is framed for the kidnapping herself.

The multi-talented Amber Benson strikes out on her own with this series, having previosly teamed up with Christopher Golden on previous works.  Here she crafts a believable, insecure woman thrust into a job she isn’t sure she wants or is ready for.  It did take a few tries before I really got into it, but once I did, I ran through the book at a nice clip.  There are two more books in the series (so far), so I’m sure I’ll be checking back on Calliope’s further adventures soon.