false 90 798 594 true 5626028 read 2 true 180849 currently-reading 202 true 180848 to-read 151 false 188646 comics 106 false 188650 fiction 71 false 188665 history 36 false 188642 music 34 false 188660 poetry 30 false 789030 memoirs 24 false 188657 politics 20 false 188643 cinerama 16 false 188645 always-rereading 14 false 832130 economics 14 false 1145572 art 14 false 400020 psycho-sociology 11 false 789022 humor 11 false 188644 sports 8 false 361180 overrated-drivel 7 false 789031 journalism 5 false 1271438 essays 5 false 789027 travel 5 false 703257 food 4 false 1126228 math 4 false 1522454 language 4 false 2347155 biosphere 4 false 931994 philosophy 4 false 789288 crime 3 false 1110257 reference 2 false 3477220 c2h6o 2 false 4533091 corporeal 2 false 3678709 labor 2 false 3758722 sex 1 false 4154428 academe 1 false 3477238 scribblers 1 false 2775280 everyones-a-critic 1 false 1431656 currently-rereading 1 false 656319 architecture 1 false 3046424 weaponized http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78559642 to: Sleeper Season One (Paperback) by Ed Brubaker
bookshelves: comics
Wow. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54835741 to: All Star Superman: Volume 01 (Hardcover) by Grant Morrison
bookshelves: comics
I don't know what it is about Grant Morrison -- he's got a vivid, slightly nutzoid imagination, and dig his insistence on walking his own path. But there's always something too detached and cruel -- Brechtian even -- in his stories. Bob Schreck's over-the-top intro here announces this book as "proof positive that magic is indeed alive and well", but I dunno. There's just something irritating and un-magical about giving Lois Lane some superpowers (and a hawt outfit), or having the Man of Steel test himself against Hercules and Samson (zzzzzzz). Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant give it all a dreamlike rainbow-bridge visual style -- which I like a lot -- but on the whole I'm not to eager to read volume two. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78558670 to: Whiteout (Paperback) by Greg Rucka
bookshelves: comics
The mystery itself is pretty standard fare -- a subzero McGuffin -- but this works because of the location (Antarctica) and the protagonist, U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, who seems to harbor a vivid hatred of males in a very male-dominated continent. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77273725 Mark's review of Guards
by Ken Bruen

Yeah, he's great. I actually discovered him 'cause he wrote the forward to one of Ed Brubaker's 'Criminal' comix... ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77273725 to: Guards (Paperback) by Ken Bruen
bookshelves: fiction
"There are no private eyes in Ireland. The Irish wouldn't wear it. The concept brushes perilously close to the hated 'informer.'" And yet this Irish booze-noir mystery begins in the standard way: the smoking hot dame seeks ex-Guard Jack Taylor out (in his pub, rather than a Spade & Archer style office as per Amerikay) with tales of her teenage daughter's mysterious suicide. Things get thick and strange, Taylor stumbles about taking and depositing clues (while citing several great obscure books -- he's a random reader). His devious BFF Sutton (also ex-Guard, and a painter) and his frail ninetysomething bartender Sean are key characters. And, well, this is Ireland in 2001, so things don't quite pan out normally. In fact it's a mess: our sleuth even tries to get sober at one point and ends up fucking things up as a result. Not that things worked better while he was shaking off hangovers and shagging his client, mind... A beautiful mystery story, and I can't wait to read the next installment. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77271436 to: The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye (Paperback) by Robert Kirkman
bookshelves: comics
The opening gimmick is copycatted from '28 Days Later': hapless dude (in this instance a likable cop) wakes up in hospital to find himself amidst a silent zombie apocalypse. But then Kirkman takes us on a much more tedious ride, involving burly square-jawed males, freckly twentysomething goils and grisly brain-eating zombies. The comic demonstrates that zombies can be just as dull and predictable as us campfire-confessional humans. The saving grace is Tony Moore's art -- axes splitting heads in half, zombies tugging jugulars with their teeth (in the rain), grizzled cop on horseback trotting into desolate Atlanta. (Speaking of which: if this shit is set in ATL, why only one brief black character, and zero queer characters?) Worth a look for Moore, but don't expect much more than that. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1350.Balconeers Mark joined the Balconeers group. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76326528 Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince (Paperback) by Budd Schulberg
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76326506 Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star: And Don't Have Sex or Take the Car (Hardcover) by Dick Moore
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76312295 The Book of Ebenezer Le Page (Paperback) by G.B. Edwards
bookshelves: currently-reading
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