Thanksgiving

This is a reprint from last year, but all of this still applies:

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In honor of Thanksgiving, which is tomorrow (in the US), I am listing book I am thankful for. These are not necessarily my favorite books, but books that have impacted me, books that I am glad exist, glad that I have read. There are listed alphabetically, so as to not imply an order:

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle. This was the first "real book" I ever owned. I assume it was a birthday present, from when I was maybe 10 years old or so. I still own it.

The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien. I remember reading it at the school library. I don't think I checked it out, I just remember going there regularly and reading a few pages at a time. It opened my eyes to the world of fantasy fiction, a genre I read regularly to this day.

The Holy Bible. For inspiration, wisdom, and truth.

Superman from the Thirties to the Seventies. A hardcover collection of Superman stories, published in the early seventies. 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. I read this in high school, and it was the first time I could not put a book down. I was up until almost 3 AM one night to finish it. I re-read it every 5 years or so.

The World of Pooh, by A.A. Milne. We owned a hardcover version of this volume, which contains both Winnie-the-Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. I loved these stories, from having them read to me, to when I was able to read them myself. Somehow, my older sister managed to snag this book for her kids.

Podcasting Update!

We have had done some terrific interviews with authors and audiobook narrators over the last few months for the Book Guys, but our editor's video-editing software crashed, and those episodes are still a few weeks away from being published. I will post the links when the shows are published.


Getting my (with my daughter) little podcasting network up and going over the last 3 or 4 months ago has been fun, as well. We recently had our first episode with a guest, and one of the podcast's released its 10th episode. Another show will be releasing its episode #10 soon, as well. The episodes are available at the podcast website or via iTunes.

I have been a guest on two episodes of another comic-book podcast, although those episodes have not been released.. And in a few days, I am scheduled to be a Skype-guest on another show. My experiences as part of the comic book podcast community have been universally positive.

Books #56 & 57.

Left Behind: The Kids, books 29 & 30, by Jerry B. Jenkins, Tim LaHaye, and Chris Fabry. Paperbacks.

As I have written here before, I am a completist, and when I finished the Left Behind series a number of years ago, I started working my through the Kids versions of the books.And once started, I don't want to finish. I read them two at a time, two or three times per year. Maybe some time in 2015 I'll be done.

As I have written before, there is a level of impressive work here, in being able to tie in this series to the greater "adult" stories, where events and plot has to coincide.

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 the prologue of W is for Wasted, by Sue Grafton: "Two dead bodies changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I’d never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue."

Comic Book Review: Static Shock 1-8

Static Shock, volume 1: Supercharged, trade paperback, collecting issues 1-8, by Scott McDaniel, John Rozum, and Andy Owens.

Static was the most successful character in the Milestone line of comics, which was DC’s attempt in 1993 to address the issue of minority underrepresentation in comics. He ended up with his own animated series, and was the only of those characters to find themselves with a book in the New 52 initiative.

Virgil Hawkins is a super-smart teenager with electricity-based powers, and a family that suddenly has an extra person in it; his sister seems to have been cloned, and nobody knows which is the original and which is the clone. This makes for a very strange and stressful family dynamic. In these stories, he goes up against a range of underground bosses, but these characters (such as Mr. Piranha and the Pale Man) are lackluster.

There was some talk that DC Comic’s “New 52” initiative from 2011 was about re-making their comics in the image of their arch-rival, Marvel Comics. Former Marvel executives were in charge, and many former Marvel writers and artists were hired for the reboot. Static Shock stands out from other DC titles in that it actually takes place in New York City, which is an interesting change for DC Comics. There are specific references to locations, and I imagine that this was pretty accurate. The risk of getting information like that wrong is just too high.

Another “Marvelized” aspect of this comic was Virgil’s similarities to Peter Parker, mostly in his humorous quips. But they seem stale and inauthentic, and the attempt to make a Spider-Man for the 21^st century just fell flat.

The reception of the book was unenthusiastic, and sales were never strong. This collected includes all eight of the issues published before the book’s cancellation.

Source: public library

Book 55: I Shouldn't Be Telling You This

I Shouldn't  Be Telling You This, by Kate White. Paperback.

Kate White is the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, and the author of  a number of novels. This is her fourth foray into the areas of self-help and business advice.Although pitched to women, most of the "51 gutsy secrets every woman should know" apply to men, as well. Perhpas the ones that relate to fashion and hair may be specifically for the ladies, but that type of advice were in the minority.

Some of the advice was basic and not earth-shattering, such as "go big or go home." But the strength of the book is White bringing her own experience to the book, telling us how she has worked her way through the magazine industry, landing the top job at a top magazine.

The tips on resumes and interviews were especially strong, and most of her "18 people principles" seemed applicable to me. In this category, I liked not dragging the boss into every inter-office squabble, and that even in the sanest workplaces, you can come face to face with a psycho.

The book is a quick read, organized into short chapters, ranging from 2 to 10 pages.This makes it esy to pick up and skim at any time, and the advice is given in reasonable-size bits. I mentioned in a review of another self-help / management book, that that author tended to indulge in "humble brags." White does that as well, and I am beginning to understand this as a trope of this type of book. If the point of the book is that this advice is her story of business success, she does need to regularly mention her business successes. Fair enough.

Source: received free from the the publisher, in preparation for an interview the author on the Book Guys show.

Book 54: Inferno

Inferno, by Dan Brown. Unabridged audio.

I have read all of Dan Brown's novels, and have liked them to varying degrees. This one moved (mostly) away from the religious world to the art world, but other than that, this book was similar to his prior novels. If that works for you, than you ought to enjoy this one, as well.

The epic poem The Inferno is the jumping off point for this novel, as are famous works of art inspired by the work. From there, the conspiracy runs to a cabal of trans-humanists who want to dramatically cut the world population. And they have an interesting method about how to do that.

There is a lot of problem-solving, puzzles, and a whole range of such brain-teasers that only Robert Langdon can solve. There are a lot of coincidences and moments of good fortune that occur, a few more than I would prefer.

One of the strengths of the novel is the pacing. The novel takes place over a very short period of time, and that certainly helps the reading experience. The fast-moving nature of the book helped me overlook some of the book's shortcomings.

source: public library