Looking for Your Next Book

Warning: This review addresses adult sexual and violent content.  Let me be very clear ... I knew NOTHING about this book, or the series of comics. I recognize Howard Chaykin's name as an artist with both DC and Marvel comics back in the 1970's (when I was a regular comic reader). The cover suggested an erotic series and I've read a couple of very good erotic-themed graphic novels in the past.  What I was not expecting was ... well ... this. This is full of raunchy sex, dark and kinky perversions, vampires, and lots and lots of blood. And don't get me wrong ... that's the good stuff! It's also got some raunchy sex, dark and kinky perversions, vampires, and lots and lots of blood that doesn't work so well. This is not going to be a popular opinion given how ardent some of author/artist Howard Chaykin's fans can be, but this didn't work for me. I need to note: when I downloaded my ARC from the publisher, it was not made me evident to me that my copy wa...

I am not an ardent Fleetwood Mac fanatic. I have perhaps four of their albums, purchased between the mid-1970's and mid-80's and of course I listened to them on the radio back in those pre-internet days. And while they are someone I listened to, they definitely took a backseat to bands like the Beatles, the Eagles, ELO, Queen, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and many many others. BUT ... when ranking my favorite albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is always in the top five, often my number one pick. Clearly I'm not the only person who really likes this album and author Alan Light (a senior writer to Rolling Stone magazine) examines the album, its ability to reach new audiences every generation, and why we seem to be constantly drawn to it. Light goes into some detail about the creation of the album. It seems to have been common knowledge to fans that the band was going through a lot of personal affairs and break-ups with each other and then writing songs about it, m...

 Science fiction readers of a certain age (let's say 60 and older) are probably going to really enjoy this because the authors (and artists) interviewed are generally authors we grew up with (Theodore Sturgeon, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, C.L. Moore, Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Kelly Freas, Anne McCaffrey, Frank Belknap Long, and many, many, many others), and they are talking about magazines and editors and publishers that, if we didn't read, we knew (or thought we knew) about them. There's plenty of dirt dished out - which editors paid well and on time, and which ones did not, how some got their start selling to one of the pulps, and how their stories got edited ... or how they didn't. I particularly enjoyed Frank M. Robinson's story about a time he'd been chatting with an editor of one science fiction magazine:  ...we talked over a story that he wanted me to write, and I went home and wrote the story. Realizing that they always changed the title, I didn’t b...

 It is 1888 and the world is on edge with reports of the brutal murders in the Whitechapel area of London and the still-at-large killer who's given the name Jack the Ripper. And for the man known as 'Jack' it isn't safe to spend too much time in London. He's already been pulled in for questioning by the police - along with a large handful of other men. Clearly the police are casting a wide net, hoping something will come of it, but it does motivate Jack to move on. New York, the Bowery. Tabitha is a Salvation Army girl. She preaches to anyone who listen about the Gospels, and talks a lot of The Ripper. Her roommate, Pearl, has also been a Salvation Army girl, but becomes a Medusa and leaves religion behind. Tabitha is convinced that Jack the Ripper is in New York, and she's not the only one. Investigators who have suspected the man have followed him to New York and let it slip so that all of New York believe The Ripper is living among them. What will happen when...

 What a joy to read Margaret Atwood. "A Memoir of Sorts" is a great subtitle for this book. Part autobiography, part memoir, part journal, part reflection on friends and loves, part essays on a wide variety of topics this book is hard to classify but what comes through is Atwood's easy, conversational style of writing. Reading this felt like sitting in a cozy parlor and listening to Ms Atwood tell the story of her life. Each time we sit down together she tells me something different. Sometimes it picked up where we left off the last time, and sometimes it was something she was just thinking about. I first discovered Margaret Atwood's work when I picked up her short story collection, Bluebeard's Egg , when the Fawcett edition was released in 1987. I worked in a book store at the time and I still remember unboxing it, surprised that we were getting a 'new' collection of short stories. I didn't think anyone published short stories in mass market editions ...

 I was/am unfamiliar with the Black Hammer graphic novel series, but when this came available to me and I saw Jeff Lemire's name, Geoff Johns' name, and Patton Oswalt's name in the credits I thought it was worth checking out. The book appears to be a graphic novel anthology. There are eight stories collected here, each written and illustrated by a different team of creators. Sort of an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone for graphic novel creators. And like just about any anthology, there were some stories her that I really liked and some that didn't reach me at all. The first story in the collection was "Transfer Student" by Patton Oswalt, illustrated by Dean Kotz (color by Jason Wordie). I did enjoy this but it wasn't particularly original and we could pick up on the gimmick very quickly. Think Harlan Ellison's "Jeffty is Five". I enjoyed the story of the working man Cthulhu. Imagine a horrific monster working like Al Bundy. Just the concept m...