SDCC 2024 Treasure Haul and Vlog!
Hello everyone! For this month’s video, I talk about my recent vacation to San Diego and Comic Con! I had such a blast there. It was my second time at SDCC (the first was all the way back in 2019) and it was such a treat to nerd out, buy cute art, and read a ton of books by the pool!
Comic Con Highlights
There’s always so much to do at SDCC. You really need to pick and choose which panels and events to go to because you’ll probably need to wait in line for a long, long, time. I like to pick a number one event per day of con. Here were mine!
Wednesday (Preview Night): a great day to get a lot of shopping done!
Thursday: the Spongebob Squarepants 25th Anniversary Panel
Friday: finishing my book club book in time to join the video call later that day
Saturday: my signing with Bryan Lee O’Malley (and come in early enough to get into his panel)
Sunday: go to Verbatim Books and then relax!
Treasure Haul Highlights
As an early birthday gift to myself, I bought a lot of goodies while I was at Con. I was so pleased to buy a lot of great books and art (especially a lot of printmaking pieces!). Highlights include:
Buying tons of books at Prism Comics and receiving a free green ita bag!
Buying tons of books at Silver Sprocket, which is a small indie publisher of comics that I adore. I was also surprised to find a lot of unreleased comics available for sale exclusively at Comic Con!
The wonderful art of Victoria Llama, aka Panty Cat.
Books I Read While on Vacation
I read a ton of things while sitting at the pool and drinking wine. It was quite magical. During this time I rediscovered the joys of reading on an e-reader! I can’t say if this is a fact or not, but it felt like I was able to read faster with an e-reader than a physical book!
Violence was his first language. A nameless Deaf teen escapes his father's basement after years of imprisonment. Bloody, alone, and without language, he stumbles through the Saskatchewan prairies and lands in a psychiatric facility, where he meets Felix, another Deaf teen. Felix-cunning and ambitious-teaches the nameless narrator Sign Language and begins to mold the abused teen's mind. But mold into what?
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
The ten letters collected here are arguably the most famous and beloved letters of our century. Written when Rainer Maria Rilke was himself still a young man with most of his greatest work before him, they are addressed to a student who had sent Rilke some of his work, asking for advice about becoming a writer. The two never met, but over a period of several years Rilke wrote him these ten letters, which have been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of readers for what Stephen Mitchell calls the "vibrant and deeply felt experience of life" that informs them.
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky.
In the first two books alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, a lumpy bed, a deadly serpent, a large brass reading lamp, a long knife, and a terrible odor.
Sissy and Lola are best friends, next-door neighbors, and now... murder solvers? When Sissy picks up a lost flip-phone and follows the instructions from the stranger on the other line, she and Lola are flung into an investigation of a grisly crime. With each new phone call, the girls are dug deeper into a conspiracy that threatens their lives--and possibly their friendship. But with no way to escape the dreaded calls, the only way out is to unravel the mystery.
Alessandro senses his devotion to the monastery slipping away, haunted by regret over the years he believes he's squandered. Torn between duty and desire, he takes a daring step to confront his suppressed lust. Seeking a solution, he summons a supernatural being to assist him. But can he withstand the shame of abandoning his position and his faith to satiate his long-neglected desires?
The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow
The Saint of War spares the life of a servant girl so she can fulfill her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior in this short story of love and loyalty by New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow.
Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story?
