false 31 85 67 true 5668026 read 7 true 585246 currently-reading 11 true 585245 to-read 28 false 585458 comics 19 false 585420 fiction-sff 12 false 585407 nonfiction-general 8 false 585413 fiction-general 2 false 585423 poetry 1 false 590277 nonfiction-tech http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63369819 Un Lun Dun (Hardcover) by China Miéville
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/60676984 to: Ultimate Gnatrat (Paperback) by Mark Martin
bookshelves: comics
Mark Martin is a very funny guy who can draw like hell, and he tosses off bizarre sight gags and left-field dialogue like nobody's business. That said, I'm pretty sure Gnatrat makes no sense at all unless you're pretty familiar with the Frank Miller comics that it was parodying -- and you might wonder why bother, because parodying Frank Miller is like shooting big square-jawed fish in a dark gritty barrel. However, after shooting all the fish in the barrel, Martin jumps into the barrel and flies it to the moon. Of the ten million silly gags in this comic, my favorites are the ones that have nothing to do with Batman but are just pure surreal Duh-logic in a Goon Show style -- like the arch-villain bankrupting Gnatrat by ordering a pizza in his name every five minutes, or the other arch-villain who, when the police commissioner climbs in the window to arrest him, cackles "Fool! Do you think that is the only window in this place? If they can let you in, they can let me out!" Hee hee. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58857158 to: Bourbon Island 1730 (Paperback) by Lewis Trondheim
bookshelves: comics
Looks almost like a straightforward story about pirates and slavery, but there's a lot going on here. It's a thoughtful historical drama, a comedy of manners and a political satire, based on ugly events. I would totally recommend it for young adults, but older people will appreciate it on other levels too.

Most of the plots and characters are about escape: the fugitive slaves who just want to live, the naive ornithologist who wants to be a pirate, the pirates who are trying to be respectable citizens, the plantation owner's daughter who wants to join the fugitive slaves. And the whole book is an escape - you come into this strange place with more or less the same point of view as the ornithologist, that maybe this would be a good place to have adventures. By the end, it's clear that none of it is likely to work out that way, but it's not cynical; just an exhilarating trip that's also really sad.

It's got a deceptively light tone -- Trondheim's style is made for comedy, and not just because he always draws everyone with animal heads (using an ethnic category system like Maus, but more expressive); his timing, the way he draws action, everything is basically playful. (More than other Trondheim books I've seen, the backgrounds are very lush; the tropical foliage bursts across the panels with a kind of friendly wildness, and he saves most of his solid black inking for the plants, giving them a texture that reminds me a little of Tove Jansson's beautiful Moomin books.) But the writer uses this to sly advantage, because the darkest parts of the story are all about what we only barely see or just hear about -- all the things the cheerful colonialists have managed to ignore. In the most disturbing scene, with almost no movement, an ex-pirate turned rebel slave leader (drawn as a finely dressed, emaciated dog whose face is all bitter lines and shadows) whispers through a jail window to a newly-arrived slave (drawn as a tiny, nearly featureless, child-like puppy), tells him about the awful life that's in store, tells him it's hopeless... then throws him a knife and urges him to do some damage while he can. We see the result later, from a distance, in the corner of a panel, and none of the main characters notice. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58857518 to: Slow Storm (Paperback) by Danica Novgorodoff
bookshelves: comics
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58857043 Mason & Dixon (Paperback) by Thomas Pynchon
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40334756 to: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Hardcover) by Junot Díaz
bookshelves: fiction-general
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41951169 to: Coraline-Graphic Novel (Hardcover) by Neil Gaiman
bookshelves: comics
Good story; adaptation was a big disappointment. P. Craig Russell has done some great comics, and at worst he still draws a very pretty picture, but this was mostly flat and literal-minded. The characters aren't very expressive (Coraline, who looks about 15 and very conventionally pretty, often just seems bored and mildly worried) and, with a few exceptions, the backgrounds aren't either... so it's hard to tell why Coraline would ever think the other house or the Other Mother was particularly cool. If comics aren't really your thing, then this stuff probably won't bug you as much and you can just enjoy the story, but for me it's like watching a well-written movie where the acting and directing and set design and lighting are all kind of half-hearted. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40386644 to: The Count of Monte Cristo (Paperback) by Alexandre Dumas
bookshelves: fiction-general
]]> http://apps.facebook.com/good_reads/ check it out » ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31682420 to: Shiny Beasts (Paperback) by Rick Veitch
bookshelves: comics
This is not Rick Veitch at his best, it's often pretty clumsy because it was the '80s and it was Marvel Comics trying to be like Heavy Metal, so maybe this is just for obsessive fans... but some of these stories are kind of lovely and some are funny, and I'm just a sucker for his idiosyncracies. (Obsessive fans of Alan Moore may also want to check this out: it has one tiny Moore story that's probably the grossest thing he ever did, and the afterword has a hilariously over-ambitious plan for a whole cycle of stories that this little throw-away joke was supposed to be part of.) ]]>