September Reading List

40. & 41. Left Behind: The Kids, books 31 & 32, by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins, and Chris Fabry.
39. The Divine Hours: Prayers for (pb), compiled by Phyllis Tickle
38. The Martian (ua), by Andy Weir
37. Batman Unmasked (hc), by Will Brooker
36. Star Wars: Kenobi (ua), by John Jackson Miller


Earlier in the year:

35. Faith of the Fallen (ua), by Terry Goodkind
34. Unintended Consequences (ua), by Stuart Woods
33. The Valley of Fear (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
32. Blood of Tyrants (ua), by Naomi Novik
31. Both / And (pb), by Rich Nathan and Insoo Kim
30. The Forgotten (ua), by David Baldacci
29.The Cat Who Robbed a Bank (ua), by Lillian Jackson Braun
28. Fairest, book 1: Wide Awake (gn), by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, and many artists
27. Ghost Train to New Orleans (pb), by Mur Lafferty
26. Hickory Dickory Dock (ua), by Agatha Christie
25. Saints Behaving Badly (hc), by Thomas J Craughwell
24. Justice League Dark, volumes 2 and 3, graphic novel collection. Written by Jeff Lemire, with art by Ray Fawkes, Mikek Janín, and others.
23. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (ua), by Steig Larsson
22. Identical (ua), by  Scott Turow
21. The Athena Project (ua), by Brad Thor
20. The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (ua), edited by Phyllis Tickle
19. Billion Dollar Batman (ua), by Bruce Scivally
18. Wonder Woman: Iron (gn), by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang and others
17. The Innocent (ua), by David Baldacci
16. Song of the Quarkbeast (ua), by Jasper Fforde
15. Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man (gn), by Carl Banks
14. Doom's Day, Book #1: Rampage (pb), by Danny Fingeroth and Eric Fein
13. The Guild of the Cowry Catchers: Book 5 (ua), by Abigail Hilton
12. Aquaman: The Others (gn), by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Joe Prado
11. Doing Hard Time (ua), by Stuart Woods
10. Star Wars: Scoundrels (ua), by Timothy Zahn
  9. Shadow Ops: Control Point (ua), by Myke Cole
  8. Little Black Sheep (Nook), by Ashley Cleveland
  7. The Last Dragonslayer (ua), by Jasper Fforde
  6. Before Watchmen: Comedian & Rorschach, by Brian Azzarello, J.G. Jones, and Le Bermejo
  5. Inferno Revealed (hc), by Deborah Parker and Mark Parker
  4. The Gearheart (ua), by Alex White
  3. The Great Fables Crossover (gn), by Bill Willingham, et. al.
  2. Silent Partner (pb), by Terrence King
  1. His Last Bow (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Review of The Martian

The Martian, by Andy Weir. Unabridged audio.

I tend to not read a ton of “hard” science fiction, preferring the more “space opera” style of SF stories. But I had heard so many good things about this book, from literature podcasts, from reviewers, from my librarian daughter … that I had to give it a listen.

The plot is pretty simple: a team of astronauts escapes Mars ahead of a huge sandstorm, but one of their crew (Mark Watney) is lost, presumed dead. Everyone presumes him dead. There is no way he could have survived. But he survived. And his crew is on their way back to Earth.

The novel is story of survival. Can this man stay alive long enough for NASA to mount a rescue mission? All he has are the food and supplies his crewmates left behind, their vehicles and hab unit, and his skills as a botanist and engineer.

Much of the novel is told from Watney’s perspective, including his regular log entries. As soon as this format starts to drag, Weir brings in NASA scientists, who through satellite imagery determines that Watney is alive. They develop a rudimentary communication system, and the book is off and running.

Despite the amount of math and science that Watney uses in figuring out how to extend his life, the book is quite readable. The tension inherent in the situation is nicely balanced by the humor that Watney bring to his situation. A novel of this nature runs the risk of falling apart at the end, but The Martian stays strong throughout and is a satisfying read from start to finish.

The movie rights for this book have been sold, and a Ridley Scott film starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain is currently scheduled for a Thanksgiving 2015 release. 

Source: public library

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

Grab your current read.

Open to a random page.

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From page 5 of The Equalizer, by Michael Sloan.

"The pimp was gone. He must've used one of the doorways now on McCall's left. McCall was angry with himself. He'd broken his cardinal rule of the last nine months and stepped into a situation that had absolutely nothing to do with him. He hoped his actions wouldn't come back to haunt him.”

Book Guys Update

At the Book Guys Show, we have recovered from our 100th episode party with some fun and interesting episodes over the Summer: I missed a few episodes, but here are some of the ones I appeared on:

In episode 104, we talked about the amazingly successful Reading Rainbow project on Kickstarter. We also played an interview I conducted with Chris Honeywell from The Two True Freaks podcast network. We mostly talked about his hobby of buying and re-selling items (including books) at garage sales, as documented on the podcast Garage Sale Gloat.

In episode 106, we talked to podcaster and novelist Tom Panarese, and also talked about a lot of great books.

In episode 107, we talked with people from ArtsVote.ca, as well as some great comics books and books.

The shows are available at the shows's main page, or via iTunes.

Review of Batman Unmasked

Book #37: Batman Unmasked, by Will Brooker. Hardcover. 

This book was recommended by comic book podcaster and blogger Michael Bailey, as part of a conversation we were having about academic and semi-academic works on comic books. Bailey told the story of this book to me, and I loved the concept.

As a graduate student in Pop Culture in England, Brooker was able to convince his university to fund his study of Batman “as a cultural icon.” As part of the first wave of comic book academics, Brooker’s experiences (which are included in the narrative) are inspirational to someone like me.  The growing acceptance among academics of studies in pop culture in general, and comic books in particular, has made the field easier for subsequent academics following in his footsteps.

Brooker starts his analysis with Batman’s adventures in the Golden Age, the period before and during World War II. He makes a compelling case that Batman was one of the few comic book characters of the time whose stories did not embrace an obviously pro-American patriotism. His analysis of the 1950’s comic book crisis arising from Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent, was impressively nuanced. His discussion of Werthamhimself was surprising and fascinating.

He then discusses the pop/camp nature of the 1966 Adam West television show, as well as the 1970’s comic book trend towards darker and more socially relevant stories. The last quarter of the book takes a look at the movie franchise the began in 1989 with the Tim Burton film.

The book is 15 years old, and some of the analysis and conclusions are dated, especially in discussing the issue of gay overtones in the comics and the 1966 TV show. But the vast majority of the book’s findings are still relevant, and this is one of the most readable academic books on comics that I’ve come across.

Source: public library

Review of Suicide Squad 1-7

Suicide Squad, volume 1: Kicked in the Teeth, trade paperback collecting issues 1-7, cover-dated September 2011 - March 2012. Written by Adam Glass, with art by Federico Dallocchio, Clayton Henry and others.

What good are supervillains? Well, if you can recruit them out of prison and send them on covert missions to reduce their sentences, maybe they do some good. At least they can do the jobs that superheroes are too upstanding and noble to do. In this version, Amanda Waller runs the squad, made up of King Shark, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Voltaic, Black Spider, and El Diablo. And what keeps the villains in line? That would be the nanite bombs that have been implanted into their necks.

It's a set-up that has been done many times before, including prior incarnations of the Suicide Squad.

Their first job involves containing a plague (of The Rot, from the Swamp Thing and Animal Man books) that has infected a stadium of 60,000 people. Only one of them is to live, an unborn baby who seems to be immune.

Then Harley hears that the Joker has been treated poorly in prison, and may even be dead. And she is not happy about it. And she manages to escape Waller and the Squad, which itself quite an accomplishment.  The last two issues in the collection, “The Hunt for Harley Quinn” storyline, tell her origin story as well as telling us her search for the Joker’s remains.

Harley is the breakout star of the book, although King Shark is an entertaining character, as well. The slimmed-down Amanda Waller is still a tough broad, but I agree with the complaint that she was more intimidating in her pre-New 52 body.  

 Over the course of the collection, which encompasses only a few weeks of "real time" at the most, we are introduced to a number of new Squad members. It seems that one thing the New-52 has plenty of is super-powered villains.

Source: Westerville library

Review of Kenobi

Book #36. Star Wars: Kenobi, by John Jackson Miller. Unabridged audio. 

In light of the coming new 7^th Star Wars movie, Disney announced that the scores of Expanded Universe (EU) novels that have been published over the years are officially out of “canon” in terms of the “official” Star Wars timeline. So it’s possible that this book may not “count,” whatever that term means. But nevertheless – I enjoyed it very much.

The background for the novel is Obi-Wan’s life as an outcast in pre-New Hope Tatooine. His friend Anakin has turned to the Dark Side, an Empire is forming somewhere in the Galaxy, and young Luke Skywalker has been hidden on Tatooine. Obi-Wan, calling himself “Ben” now, has taken the role of Luke’s distant protector, tries to blend in.

But when you have the force, a lightsaber, and a concern for people at the bottom of society, it’s hard to keep a low profile. Ben involves himself in the drama of a small mining settlement, and even finds himself falling for a widow who owns a small retail establishment. The plot involves the business and politics of water harvesting, which is critical on a desert planet.

I read John Jackson Miller’s short story collection “Lost Tribe of the Sith,” and reviewed the collection here. Those stories took place in the distant past, and it was nice to see Miller take on a story in the “current day” Star Wars universe. Luke does not appear, but there are plenty of other familiar references (Jabba the Hutt plays a part in a subplot) to place this book firmly in the “world” of Star Wars. His ability to balance the story and the Star Wars setting was very positive.

The production of this audiobook is excellent. The foley work is skillfully performed, but not intrusive, and the music in the background is (as would be expected) very good.

Source: local library.

Marathon podcasts

I have posted before about "podcast marathons," days where I listen to many hours of podcasts episodes. But recently, some of my favorite shows have themselves released "marathon" episodes, individual shows well over three hours long each. 

The Doctor’s Companion, episode #200. Scott Carelli and his co-hosts Cassandra and Nick prepare for the start of the Peter Capaldi run on Doctor Who by talking about every episode of the Matt Smith era. There are a lot of episodes in that run, so this terrific episode clocked in at over 4 hours, 18 minutes.

The Tony Kornheiser Show, Best of May 2014. During Mr. Tony's annual summer break, the unofficial same-day podcast feed releases "best of" episodes every week or so, summarizing each of the prior 10 months of episodes. This one was more than 3 1/2 hours long. And very well worth it. 

Geek Brunch Retro-Cast, episode #39. Regular hosts Mike & Chris were joined by Darrell Taylor, explaining how this one went 3 hours, 16 minutes.As usual, the hosts talked about comics from the seventies and eighties, as well as dissected an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. 

No Agenda. This twice-a-week show is one of my favorite podcasts, and often runs over three hours, when there is enough news to discuss and media to analyze.

August Reading List

35. Faith of the Fallen (ua), by Terry Goodkind
34. Unintended Consequences (ua), by Stuart Woods
33. The Valley of Fear (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
32. Blood of Tyrants (ua), by Naomi Novik
31. Both / And (pb), by Rich Nathan and Insoo Kim
30. The Forgotten (ua), by David Baldacci

Earlier in the year:
29.The Cat Who Robbed a Bank (ua), by Lillian Jackson Braun
28. Fairest, book 1: Wide Awake (gn), by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, and many artists
27. Ghost Train to New Orleans (pb), by Mur Lafferty
26. Hickory Dickory Dock (ua), by Agatha Christie
25. Saints Behaving Badly (hc), by Thomas J Craughwell
24. Justice League Dark, volumes 2 and 3, graphic novel collection. Written by Jeff Lemire, with art by Ray Fawkes, Mikek Janín, and others.
23. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (ua), by Steig Larsson
22. Identical (ua), by  Scott Turow
21. The Athena Project (ua), by Brad Thor
20. The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (ua), edited by Phyllis Tickle
19. Billion Dollar Batman (ua), by Bruce Scivally
18. Wonder Woman: Iron (gn), by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang and others
17. The Innocent (ua), by David Baldacci
16. Song of the Quarkbeast (ua), by Jasper Fforde
15. Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man (gn), by Carl Banks
14. Doom's Day, Book #1: Rampage (pb), by Danny Fingeroth and Eric Fein
13. The Guild of the Cowry Catchers: Book 5 (ua), by Abigail Hilton
12. Aquaman: The Others (gn), by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Joe Prado
11. Doing Hard Time (ua), by Stuart Woods
10. Star Wars: Scoundrels (ua), by Timothy Zahn
  9. Shadow Ops: Control Point (ua), by Myke Cole
  8. Little Black Sheep (Nook), by Ashley Cleveland
  7. The Last Dragonslayer (ua), by Jasper Fforde
 6. Before Watchmen: Comedian & Rorschach, by Brian Azzarello, J.G. Jones, and Le Bermejo
 5. Inferno Revealed (hc), by Deborah Parker and Mark Parker
 4. The Gearheart (ua), by Alex White
 3. The Great Fables Crossover (gn), by Bill Willingham, et. al.
 2. Silent Partner (pb), by Terrence King
 1. His Last Bow (ua), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle