Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. 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 16 of  Mama Maggie, by Marty Makary & Ellen Vaughn.

"But even though she looks like a nun, she is not. A former marketing executive and university professor, she ventured beyond the borders of her priveleged life in Cairo and found something she'd been looking for. Though she looks ethereal, she responded viscerally to the pain of the people who live i the ghetto, with a core of stee to set things right that had been so wrong."

This Week in Reading

BOOKS: 

Sable, by Mike Grell, page 170 – 222. 

Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis, pages 102 – 242.                 

 

COMICS:
All-Star Squadron Annual 3
Captain America Annual 5

Dollhouse one-shot, 1 – 5

Lone Hawk, Graphic Novel

(More) Podcast Appearances

Over the last few weeks, I have had the privilege of appearing as a guest on a number of podcasts. There are a few more to be recorded and released in the near future, but here are three that have been recently released.

Ryan Daly invited me on to be part of his Secret Origins podcast. On episode 17 of that show, we spoke about the issue 17 of that title, which featured an almost word-for-word retelling of the original story of one of my favorite Silver Age characters, Adam Strange.

I also talked with my long-time podcasting friend Stephanie Zimmer. A few years ago, I wrote about the end of her personal journal podcast "From Darkness to Light." I recently appeared on her television-themed podcast TV Rewind. Along with her other guest Reshanda, we spent episode 234 talking about Doctor Who, Survivor, Master Chef, Gotham, and much much more.

 I thank these podcasting buddies for their hospitality. It is always a pleasure to podcast with such excellent colleagues.

This Week in Reading

BOOKS:

Callahan’s Con, by Spider Robinson, COMPLETED. Review here.

Sable, by Mike Grell, page 132 – 170.
Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis, pages 1 – 102.

COMICS:
Ex-Mutants Special Edition
Gotham by Midnight 9
Ms. Tree Quarterly 1
Project Nemesis 1
The Spectre 14

Review of Callahan's Con

Book 37. Callahan’s Con, by Spider Robinson. Unabridged audio.

This is the last novel in the series, and was a fitting finale. As I have written before, it started as humorous short story collections, and slowly grew into a novel series involving time-travel, alien invasions, crazy characters, and lots of bad puns.

Having moved from Long Island, Jake and his crew have set up shop in Key West, and find themselves up against a pair of formidable antagonists: a third-rate mobster operating a protection racket, and an officious bureaucrat investigating the home life of Jake’s mega-genius daughter. Faced with these issues, the group decides to avoid the bureaucrat for as long as possible, and run the greatest con in the history of time travel on the mobster.

These new characters gave Robinson a chance to do what he does best, which is to put absurd characters in absurd scenarios, while also telling compelling science fiction stories. As is not unexpected for a series finale, the plot involved various characters in mortal peril. And after the team pulled together again to save each other, one was struck down by the most boring of causes: disease.

Robinson did a fine job putting a finishing touch on the series. The characters are given a final adventure worthy of their powers and personalities, and the characters’ sad farewell to one of their own becomes our sad farewell to all of them.

Source: public library

This Week in Reading

BOOKS:

Callahan’s Con, by Spider Robinson, pages 74 – 244.

Sable, by Mike Grell, page 65 – 132.

COMICS:
Constantine The Hellbalzer 4
The Jam Urban Adventure 1
Punisher: The Prize OGN
Red Hot 1 & 2
Showcase ‘94 11

Podcast Guest Appearances!

Over the last few weeks, I have had the privilege of appearing as a guest on a number of podcasts. There are a few more to be recorded and released in the near future, but here are three that have been recently released.

Ryan Daly invited me on to be part of his Secret Origins podcast. On episode 16 of that show, we spoke about the issue 16 of that title, which featured a pretty boring re-telling of the origin of the otherwise great character, Warlord.

I also talked with my podcasting buddy Michael Bailey on his fine "Bailey's Batman Podcast." We spoke about the excellent hardcover collection "Batman From the Thirties to the Seventies" on episode 24 of the show. This was a formative book for both of us in our comic reading history, and I had a great time chatting with him about it.

On a totally different note, I was invited on to the game-themed podcast No Consoles for Old Men. I am not a hard-core gamer, but when they decided to do an episode on casual games, I volunteered. I joined hosts Bill Robinson and Scott McGregor, and guests Sara Tonin and Christopher J Warden, to talk on episode #9 about Facebook games, and iOS games like Spider-Man Unlimited and Please Stay Calm.

I thank these podcasting buddies for their hospitality. It is always a pleasure to podcast with such fine comrades.