A double issue super-spectacular! Or I just forgot to post March.
Mr Dimock Explores the Mysteries of the East, Dimock
A renowned academic on the topic of Indian religion writes about his time living with his family in India in the mid-fifties and early sixties. He writes charming anecdotes interlaced with stories from Indian philosophy. Nice. Three stars.
Tiny Tyrant, Trondheim (review book)
Enh. Really aimed more at an elementary audience than a teen one, the jokes are pretty kid-ish, since the hero is a super-spoiled kid king. Sort of like Ritchie Rich but less nice. And because it’s French, it can have stereotyped presentations of both Chinese people and Detroitians. One star.
Sardine in Outer Space 3, Guibert (review book)
Another French graphic novel, again aimed at a young audience. Should volume three already be consumed with self-conscious in jokery? One star.
Goosebumps Graphix 2: Terror Trips, Stine (review book)
Graphic novelizations of the RL Stine Goosebumps books. Pretty good for what they are. Not great lit, but I would definitely give them to a reluctant reader and/or 6th grade boy. Two stars.
The Transformers: Infiltration, Furman (review book)
I have always been kind of amazed at how the UK has it’s own comics industry that is so similar yet different from the US industry. Like finches on Galapagos or something. This one is British but combines threads from both the UK and US past series of Transformers comics. It’s trying to give a serious back story to the robots that turn into trucks and stuff. Perhaps I remember the toys too well to like this. One star.
My Pet Virus, Decker
Good premise (humorous telling of youth and adulthood with HIV and hemophilia), poor execution. Maybe he needed a co author or better editor? One star.
Batman Year 100, Pope
Dystopic Panopticon-ey future with underground Batman. How can it go wrong? By being sorta boring. I really liked the new getup, though (steel-toed work boots and long underwear!). Two stars for the outfit.
Black Hole, Burns
Graphic Novel with a Novel form factor, literary fiction type telling of a plague turning 70s teens into monsters. Super compelling and spooky, but someone has to do a straightforward adventure spinoff to tell how the plague starts and ends and have some flawed mutant heroes or something. Four stars.
No magic bullet: a social history of venereal disease in the United States since 1880, Brandt
Very savvy look at the social movements against venereal disease and their flaws in the face of the reality of human behavior. The book was written in 85, so it cuts off before some more very interesting movements, but is otherwise very thought provoking and well argued. Four stars.
Scientific American Cutting Edge Science (series, titles reviewed: Fighting Infectious Diseases, The Nanotech Revolution, The Future of the Web, and Extreme Engineering) (review books)
Reason number skidillion why I dislike the publisher Rosen: These are attractively and sturdily hardbound books that cost $32 a pop. The contents are articles from Scientific American from TWO OR MORE YEARS AGO. The copyright date on the books is 2007, but there are no articles from 2007 or 2006 in any of these books. These cutting edge books. Even the further reading section is directly from the old article, and there is no update of any of the content, even when further studies have been done. No stars!
Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner
Interesting, and a quick enough read that I can see how it would get to the bestseller list. Not super compelling, though. Three stars.