Saturday, June 25, 2011

Tintin: The Complete Companion

by Michael Farr

The title pretty much says it all. This is a look at the series of comics created by Georges Remi, aka Hergé, filled with background information and photos for each volume in the series. Check it out, Tintin fans.

LibraryThing link

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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Relics

by Michael Jan Friedman

A novelization of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where the crew of the Enterprise D encounters Mr. Scott, the chief engineer of the original starship Enterprise. I picked it up as an alternative to owning the video. However, it seems to me that I enjoyed the episode a lot more than the novelization. Maybe I was too much in fanboy mode when watching the episode to realize that it was, in fact, mediocre. Or maybe the actors just added an appeal to the story that Mr. Friedman failed to capture. Or maybe the subplot he added--undoubtedly to bring the word count up to novel length--was just so weak that it dragged the quality down. I don't know. All I do know is that I've got another book for the Half Price Books stack.

'Tis merely waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, June 18, 2011

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

The world is filled with a variety of people groups, each with their own cultures, stories, legends and gods. At least that's true for traditional people groups. But what happens when you start mixing those people up? What happens when you get a nation of where the majority of people are of immigrant stock, like the United States? What is the traditional American culture? Who are the American gods? Mr. Gaiman plays with the idea of immigrant gods who have come to America with their worshippers and have had to adapt--like any immigrant--with a new culture and way of life. It's an interesting take on American culture woven into an interesting tale.

Check it out.
LibraryThing link

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Friday, June 10, 2011

Garfield

by Allan Peskin

(insert obligatory comic strip comment here)
This 1978 biography of James A. Garfield was pretty good. It not only covered the events of his life but also related it to the events that were happening in the country around him. (Which is good because my whole rationale for reading through presidential biographies is to get a better handle on American history.) In fact, I found that if anything was lacking in this biography, it was coverage of Garfield's family life.

As far as the subject of the book goes, I found Garfield himself to be somewhat unimpressive. In the beginning, as I read about his early life and religious upbringing--he came across as far more religious than his predecessors--I thought I might like him better than the other presidents. But as he traded his pulpit and classroom for a political stump and then a regiment I found him to be, ah, uninspiring. Despite the era, his life lacked the drama of Lincoln or Grant. Nor did he have the personality of Johnson or Hayes. What I did appreciate, however, was how Garfield played his part in the events of his day. This biography was especially useful in showing how the liberal party of the abolitionists started to become the conservative party of big business. All in all, like I said, it was a pretty good book.

Check it out.
LibraryThing link

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Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Blondie: The Bumstead Family History

by Dean Young & Melena Ryzik

So we're at my in-laws for a birthday dinner. At some point in the conversation, someone mentions that we have been reading through the Blondie archives. My sister-in-law mentions that she owns a Blondie book and as we move from dinner to opening presents, she fetches it from her bookshelf. I start skimming it and next thing I know I've missed the opening of a couple of presents because I'm busy reading about the 75th Anniversary extravaganza. (Ah, well, they weren't my presents anyway) My sister-in-law didn't have to twist my arm to get me to borrow the book from her.

The Bumstead Family History is a book commemorating the strip's 75th anniversary. It shows that humor is alive and well in the Young family and that Dean Young is as funny in the 21st Century as his father was in the 1930s. It's funny on it's own, or makes a great companion to Blondie: Volume 1 and Blondie & Dagwood's America.

Check it out!
LibraryThing link

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Monday, June 06, 2011

Where's My Jetpack?

by Daniel H. Wilson

An amusing, tongue in cheek look at icons in classic science fiction and how close modern technology has come to achieving them. The design is quite cool, with heavy paper, blue sides and a sci-fi blue, black and silver cover. But in the end, it's still just waiting room material.

LibraryThing link

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Sunday, June 05, 2011

Blondie, Volume 1: 1930-1933

by Chic Young

One of the classics on my shelf is Blondie and Dagwood's America, a celebration of Blondie's first 50 years with an historical essay and plenty of reprints. It was in that book that I learned about the strip's beginnings, the tumultuous courtship between flapper Blondie Boopadoop and railroad heir Dagwood Bumstead. The book has been well loved over the years--my children, my wife and myself have managed to totally dog ear the covers and trash the binding. Anyway, the other day I was browsing the stacks at the downtown library and noticed a new Blondie collection--the complete archive of the strip from 1930-1933 covering the full courtship of Dagwood and Blondie. Oddly enough, I thought about passing it by. I'm already in the middle of a couple of books and I didn't need to start another. But I grabbed it anyway, just for laughs. And laughs I got. While the plots are a bit twisted and continuity is often sacrificed for the sake of gags, Blondie was funny. Still is, now that we can read this book. So now I have another tome to think about buying and another volume to be on the look out for on the library shelves.

LibraryThing link

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