Lit Times Are Good For This Gal

Hello,
How are y'all? I've had a great week! It was full of many highs of the literary kind. On Sunday I attended a matinee of a production of Frankenstein done in the radio show style. The production was really awesome with 4 actors reading all the parts. From what I know it was faithful to the plot line of the original book. I've never read Frankenstein, perhaps I'll give it a shot.

On Saturday was the Utah Humanities Book Festival and I was able to see some author panels. It was fun seeing Ann Cannon, who is a local author. I highly enjoyed a panel with Sara Zarr and Paul Fleischman where they questioned each other. If you want to read Zarr's fine blog, click here. Zarr is the author of Story of a Girl, which was nominated last year for the Newberry. She is also very nice. I was shocked that she remembered my name. Anyway it was fun, although still very low-key. I hope next year there's more that I'm interested.

Tonight I went to another meeting of the Hard Boiled Book Club. I've mentioned it before, to read that click here. Again it was another fun evening of discussion moderated by the mysterious Zach Sampinos. Our discussion centered around the book In the Miso Soup, which is reviewed below. This is a book I would never pick up on my own. Sampinos has thus far done an excellent job finding books that are off the beaten path. It was good times.

Well enough about how awesome my life has been lately. Onward! To the Reviews!

Reviews
Apocalypse Handbook
I picked this up because it looked amusing and is written by a writer from The Daily Show. I found this book very funny in a black humor sort of way. It's very easy to go broad when talking about a subject as crazy as the end of days. While not really highly substantive and serious, I wanted a silly book. This fit the bill.

Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 2
Bendis continues his reboot of Spiderman starting from the beginning. In this story arc young Peter Parker fights the Kingpin and starts work for the Daily Bugle. I love the humor and characterization that Bendis brings to this story. In this volume he makes mistakes and then beats himself up for it. This reminds us again that Parker is just a teenager and he's still learning. Also Bagley continues to bring amazing art to the panels. I love his splash pages.

In the Miso Soup
As mentioned above this is a book I would never pick up on my own. The story revolves around the relationship between Kenji, a japanese guide, and Frank, a strange American. Kenji is hired by Frank to help him traverse the Japanese sex industry. Slowly tension builds as Kenji starts to believe that Frank is a serial killer. There's a lot of interesting ideas and themes, which are not really followed through on. Murakami seems intent on commenting on the objectifying of women in the sex industry, yet does not really stick to any clear statement. On top of all this is an unreliable narrator which makes you waiting for some kind of twist. That twist never comes. This is a book that I think climaxes about half-way through but then slows up to an ambiguous ending. So a great first half is squandered by a ponderous second half.

What's In My Bag
Books
TBA

Magazines
Out

Comic
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane #3

Check Out Count: Fluctuating

Comic Pull List: Northlanders #11, Superman #681, Trinity #22

Have a Great Week! Book Slave.