Another installment of the excellent 33 1/3 series of books on seminal albums. This one is only nominally about GN’R. It’s really about the end of a the blockbuster album phase of the music industry, the decline of metal in the face of grunge, and correcting the shaky record that is memory.
Buy Use Your Illusion I and I at Amazon
Book: 55/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Oct 16, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
A collection of short comics about Lane’s “Great American Mythological Drama” – think diners and Elvis, hoboes and criminals, dive bars and fast cars. A really solid debut collection. Lane shows pleasing Charles Burns and Dan Clowes influences, but is clearly his own artist as well. I look forward to his next book.
Buy Abandoned Cars at Amazon
Book: 54/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Oct 13, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
The annual anthology of true crime writing from the country’s leading magazines. While always great books full of fascinating stories, it gets depressing to read the same broad outlines of people and the crimes they commit or are victims of year after year. It’s just an unpleasant commentary on the human condition.
Buy The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 at Amazon
Book: 53/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Oct 10, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Just a houskeeping note: I’ve stepped down as the editor of Rhode Island Home, Living & Design magazine. I had a great 18 months in the position and am sorry to be moving on, but my workload has been so substantial this year that I needed to free up more time for my own writing, to say nothing of rest and relaxation. So, the issue on the stands now is the last one I edited. Elisabeth Herschbach, one of the magazine’s writers, has taken over as editor. I wish her, and Paul Anselmo, the publisher, nothing but good luck and look forward to seeing where they take the magazine next. I’m sure it will be great places.
Oct 07, 2008 | Categories: News | Leave A Comment »
Hammett’s second novel; I liked the first, Red Harvest, better. Though the prose and dialogue are a lot of fun, the plot felt too driven by the need for the book to continue and less by the characters. Perhaps the book was overplotted – I just didn’t want to continue after a while.
Buy The Dain Curse at Amazon
Book: 52/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Oct 05, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
A modern retelling of the Bluebeard legend (I did my own version at Split Lip), with art by my collaborator Sami Makkonen. A great debut for Genco, who updates the story well while retaining a dreamy sense of fairy tale. I’d love to see more comics adapting fairy tales and folk ballads.
Buy Blue at Amazon
Book: 51/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Oct 03, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
The conclusion to Umezu’s 1970s kids apocalypse story in which a full schoolhouse is sent into the future after a disaster. Every volume has some “oh my god,” Lord of the Files-style moment, making each installment awfully, disturbingly pleasurable. The series ends on a downbeat note, which was both surprising and appealing.
Buy The Drifting Classroom at Amazon
Books: 48-50/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Oct 01, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
