Category Archives: Book Reviews

In which the reader shares his thoughts on the books that possess his imagination throughout the year.

Art/Photography, Book Reviews, Nonfiction

Junk Beautiful ~Sue Whitney & Ki Nassauer

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Junk Beautiful ~Sue Whitney & Ki Nassauer

–published 2008
–Taunton Press
–204 pages
–5/5 stars

They say every woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure…or something to that effect. 😉 Junk Beautiful is all about the treasure. Among other things, the approaching summer has brought with it a desire to redecorate. How much the budget will actually allow is a mystery at this point, but I decided to feed this desire by scouring my local library for decorating books to start the creative juices flowing. On my second trip for this specific purpose I discovered this amazing book.

Those of you who read my review of Michael de Meng’s book,The Secret of Rusty Things, or any of a number of Friday Favorites artist features know that I am particularly attracted to found art projects, be they pieces of art or creatively re-purposed items, like those featured in Junk Beautiful.

I am fully prepared to admit up front that the “trash” vs. “treasure” viewpoints may come into play as I expose you to this book. Wherever you stand on the issue is fine by me, I know what I like, and I am beyond thrilled that the found art aesthetic is becoming more and more prominent in magazines, books, and on various online sites. It sparks my imagination and stirs my creative juices.

Continue reading Junk Beautiful ~Sue Whitney & Ki Nassauer →

Book Reviews, Comics, Science Fiction

Ministry of Space ~Warren Ellis, Chris Weston

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Ministry of Space ~Warren Ellis, Chris Weston

–published in graphic novel format December 2004
–Image Comics
–96 pages
–4.5/5 stars

Warren Ellis is something of a phenomenon in the comic book industry, consistently putting together series that garner well deserved attention. That being said, I hadn’t read any of his work until a year or so ago when I got caught up in his excellent series, Freakangels. His more well known work, Planetary and Transmetropolitan, are works that I had never gotten into when they began and have yet to read. More and more, however, I am discovering that Warren Ellis is a name synonymous with quality storytelling, and he seems to have a particular talent for being able to tell a good story in a very brief amount of space.

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Book Reviews, Fantasy

A Game of Thrones ~George R. R. Martin

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A Game of Thrones ~George R. R. Martin

–published 1996
–Bantam Books
–807 pages
–1997 Locus Award Winner, 1997 Hugo Winner, best novella, for Daenerys portions of the novel.
–5/5 stars

It doesn’t take much to get me to read your favorite book. Really, it is pretty simple. First you simply buy me the book and tell me several times how much you enjoy it. Then you wait…for years. When a goodly amount of time has passed, you take me to a convention to hear the author speak and read a chapter from his forthcoming book in the same series…a mere week before your latest birthday celebration. Like I said, simple.

While this may sound facetious, this is a fairly accurate portrayal of the events that had to come together before I began reading the first book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones. Once I started in earnest, Mr. Martin’s storytelling took over and in a mere three days I finished this enormous volume. It wasn’t just the fact that I couldn’t put it down, it was that I did not want to put it down. For anything.

I am an avowed chunkster hater. I have also been quite vocal in the past about my dislike of long, drawn out book series, particularly ones that have yet to be finished. And now, The Others take me, I’m hooked!

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Book Reviews, Film, Film News, Science Fiction

Remembrances of A Long Time Ago…

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This past Saturday evening the combination of anticipation for the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society’s Conquest 41 coupled with the sounds of my daughter and her boyfriend playing Lego Star Wars on the Playstation 2 reminded me that I hadn’t indulged in any celebration of the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. I wasn’t about to let May get away without my own personal acknowledgment of a series, and most especially a film, that has had such a profound effect on me.

I quickly visited the basement library to bring up a few goodies to help me celebrate, one being the Roger Kastel autographed print of my favorite piece of Star Wars art, the post image for The Empire Strikes Back. This was a lovely surprise gift given to me a few years ago by Deslily.

Over the next 24 hours I would re-read a beloved Star Wars novel, watch The Empire Strikes Back, and travel back in time down a road littered with memories so palpable that they could have happened yesterday.

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Book Reviews, Non-genre fiction

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: A Novel ~Jonathan Safron Foer

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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: A Novel ~Jonathan Safron Foer

–published 2005 (hardcover)
–Mariner Books
–368 pages
–5/5 stars

Oskar Schell, the primary narrator of Jonathan Safron Foer’s award-winning novel, is not a normal nine-year-old boy. He is intelligent to the point of being precocious, he is constantly using his imagination to concoct wild inventions, and he idolizes Stephen Hawkings. Oskar Schell is also a boy in great pain–his father died in the World Trade Center two years before the events of this story. His adventures begin when he discovers an envelope with the word ‘Black’ written on it, hidden in a vase in his father’s closet. Within that envelope is a key that does not fit any of the locks in the Schell home. Realizing that this is possibly a clue left by his father, Oskar sets out to find the lock that fits this mysterious key.

A lock and a key…

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