false 16 106 106 true 5664743 read 0 true 535857 currently-reading 0 true 535856 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81411930 to: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy (Hardcover) by Bill Simmons
Here's the problem with being a huge fan of a prolific columnist: When you've read every single word a guy has squeaked out for 7-plus years, you start to know all his (or her, I suppose) jokes, all their beats and all their tendencies. You lose the element of surprise.

So when it was announced that The Sports Guys new basketball book was more than 700 pages, I cringed. Not sure if I could take that many pages of Karate Kid jokes and Celtics handjobs. My infatuation with the guy has died wuite a bit over the last year and a half, and I absolutley planned to avoid this monstrosity. But goddamn Amazon roped me in for like $12, and I couldn't pass it up. I put it next to the shitter and away we went.

For the most part, I was very pleasantly surprised. Yeah, a lot of the jokes and riffs are familiar, and huge chunks are just over-expanded versions of ideas he shat out in columns ad nauseum over the years, but for the most part, I was entertained. There isn't a single person who knows the NBA better than this guy. As one of the last true basketball fans alive, that means something to me. And except for an entire chapter devoted to tongue-bathing Bill Russell's taint, Simmons manages to keep his Boston-centric blatherings to a minimum. Even the Russell chapter is digestable because it destroys Wilt Chamberlain at the same time, and that is always a good thing.

Anyway. If you haven't been exposed to Simmons nonstop for the last decade, and you give a shit about the NBA at all, give her a read. It's beter than you think. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77491853 Craig's review of Dies the Fire (Dies the Fire, #1)
by S.M. Stirling

Yes! FEEL THE HATE!
That was likely the best three minutes of my day. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77226183 to: Daredevil: Return of the King (Paperback) by Ed Brubaker
Fuck, this volume means that Brubaker is done on Daredevil. I gotta say, for a character that more or less has the same shit happen to him time and again (romantic interest killed or maimed, secret ID outed, etc...), Brubaker managed to spin the same old stories in a way that actually advanced the arc of a 60-year-old character. It woulda been nice to see what he would have done with DD as leader of the Hand. He certainly set up Andy Diggle (Brubaker-light) with a number of decent possibilities. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77225603 to: Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Premiere HC (Hardcover) by Mark Millar
Mark Millar can eat a dick. Ooohh, huge landmarks get destroyed! Big Ideas abound! Widescreen action on every page!

Sigh.

This asshole just keeps writing the Ultimates over and over again. And even that book was just Millar ripping himself off on the Authority, which was just Millar ripping Warren Ellis off.

Pretty art, though. In a CGI kinda way. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76704339 to: Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned (Paperback) by Brian K. Vaughan
Went to a cabin in the north woods and read all 10 volumes of Y: The Last Man over Halloween weekend. Reading this story in damn near one sitting showed me how goddamn perfectly executed it was from the very beginning. Over their five-year journey in a world with only one male (of any species) left alive, the small and tight cast grows, changes and more or less behaves like real people, emotionally and graphically. For a comic that lasted five years, the fact that the art is not only consistently perfect but subtle and funny throughout is pretty amazing.

Vaughan also manages to explore themes like gender issues and patriarchal societies without blasting you in the face with them. The themes are there to service the story, and not the other way around.

Also, there's monkey and dick jokes on every other page.

I gotta say that this is one of my 3 favorite comic book tales ever, and I've read a shit-ton of comic books. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76259025 Alissa's review of The Witches of Eastwick
by John Updike

Not to mention the bitchin' new TV show! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76097806 to: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Paperback) by Jonathan Safran Foer
If I enjoy one more book recommended by Oprah, I'm going to seriously start questioning how I live my life.

Anyway, I liked the hell out of this book. Once you get past the fact that it's narrated by the World's Smartest and Most Interesting Nine-Year-Old (I'll bet he drinks Dos Equis!), it's a pretty engaging and sad yarn. Even the, er, tricks employed by Safran Foer only get old towards the end. Definitely worth a spin, despite Oprah's involvement. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74165029 Jake's review of Dune (Dune 1)
by Frank Herbert

I'll just watch the movie. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74271795 to: Daredevil: Lady Bullseye (Paperback) by Ed Brubaker
Any appearance of Iron Fist penned by Brubaker is ok with me. And, lookee! DD was framed for a crime he didn't commit! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74270201 to: Daredevil: Cruel and Unusual (Paperback) by Ed Brubaker
Taken on its own, this chapter is a good, kinda depressing yarn. Here, Matt is crazy out-of-his-mind with depression over his wife's newfound insanity, courtesy of Mr. Fear. The rest of DD's 'Scooby Gang' drag him kicking and screaming back into the world of the living by guilting him into not feeling sorry for himself...or something. Meanwhile, everyone wink-wink knows that Matt is DD and that causes all kinds of problems. Whatever. Taken on its own merit, it's a great tale of woe-is-me angst. In the grand Daredevil scheme of things,though, the story calls out the problem with the typical ongoing superhero series.

How many times are we telling this story? Kevin Smith did the whole depression thing when he killed Karen Page. Frank Miller did it when Elektra bit it. Bendis did the whole not-so-secret-identity thing. Brubaker's been tapping the secret ID well quite a bit, too. They're all great stories, but Jesus, how long can we keep this crap going? How many girlfriends can get capped before a guy just...stops? How many times can a Famous Lawyer get hauled into police custody for a crime his alter-ego committed before he gets disbarred? He was IN PRISON, for Christ's sake.

Anyway. Good story. Just one I feel like I've read a few times before. ]]>