There are often books where you really can’t review it, you just have to tell people they need to trust you and read it. But when the book is 900+ pages, it’s often a hard sell. So, I will try to review Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, but do not believe that I will be successful in showing why this is an amazing book that should be read by everyone. But I will try. And it needs to be understood that this book isn’t about the plot. It’s about the characters and the setting and the atmosphere. So, let’s see what 1Q84 is.
Pluto manga review by Naoki Urasawa
I’m not usually a big fan of Manga. I know several people who are into it and, despite their recommendations, I had never bit the bullet and jumped in. Finally I decided to do so, but with a short series (and by short, I mean 8 volumes where each volume is about 200 pages) by one of the premier manga creators Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is Naoki Urasawa’s homage to Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and a retelling of Tezuka’s Astro Boy story The Greatest Robot on Earth. Not having read the original story, I couldn’t tell you who did it better, by Urasawa’s take is amazing and wonderful. Let’s see what happens in the story.
The Muppets movie review
Just to be clear, this is a review of the 2011 The Muppets, not the 1979 The Muppet Movie.
Its time to play the music
Its time to light the lights
Its time to meet the muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.
There was a lot of worry about the Jason Segal revamp of The Muppets, especially after it was slammed by Frank Oz. When the last of the major Muppet creators slams the project, it’s never a good sign. But I was pleasantly surprised. Rather than go back and show an origin (which would have basically been a retelling of The Muppet Movie), Segal (co-writer Nicholas Stoller and director James Bobin) decided to go forward and tell a current age story, one where the Muppets heyday is over and they aren’t popular any more. So, now:
Its time to get things started
On the most sensantional
Inspirational
Celebrational
Muppet-ational
This is what we call The Muppet Show!
Library Journal’s top 10 SF/Fantasy books for 2011
It’s a little early for the list (considering that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet), but Library Journal has their 2011 Best SF/Fantasy List up already. The two on the list that I’ve read are The Quantum Thief
Books I almost read
One of the issues I have with the library being my main source of new books is that I have little control over when things come in. This often leads to me having to return a book I’m enjoying because a different book that I really wanted to read came in. I mentioned before how I returned The Map of Time because REAMDE came in. I ended up getting The Map of Time back not too much later and was able to finish it. But this has started happening a little more frequently lately.
I had started Crossbones, but put it aside when Stephen King’s 11/22/63 came in (which in retrospect probably wasn’t a good tradeoff). And then it happened again. I had just started Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind when Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 came in (and I’m loving this book), so I had to set Rothfuss aside.
It starts getting a little frustrating to keep dropping and picking up books due to the whims of library delivery, but the alternative is blowing my book budget. So I think I’ll keep with my frustrations for now. The good thing about this is realizing how many good books are out there that I haven’t read yet.
If at First… by Peter Hamilton
I’ve enjoyed some of Peter Hamilton’s books over the year, but, since he’s a writer that turns out yearly 700+ books, it’s hard to keep up with his output. So, when I saw that he had written a free short story for the Kindle, I decided to to check it out. If at First… is a cute little story that touches on topics brought up in Hot Tub Time Machine of all places. So, let’s check out the little time travel(ish) story.
Monster Hunter Alpha by Larry Correia
In the first two books of the Monster Hunter series, Larry Correia basically wrote gun porn with monsters. There were characters, but they loved their guns and it shone through. In the third book, Monster Hunter Alpha, Correia decided to shake things up a little bit. Moving from Owen Pitt to Earl Harbinger and introducing a ton of new characters (many of whom are killed during the monster melee) was an interesting way to change things and it did work, but only part of the time.So, let’s see what’s up with Earl.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
I used to look forward to each new Stephen King book. Even if it didn’t scare me, it at least entertained me. But lately (and by lately I mean the last 10-15 years), I’ve been more disappointed by Stephen King books than entertained. And this doesn’t change with his latest 11/22/63, King’s take on JFK. It sounded interesting (as most of King’s books do), but the story just never coalesced and at times I was wondering if King got lost and started writing a different book before remembering what he was supposed to be writing about. So, let’s check out what went wrong.
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
Alison Bechdel is having her wonderful graphic novel Fun Home(my review), made into a stage musical.
Great talent is converging with playwright Lisa Kron and composer Jeanine Tesori adapting Alison Bechdel’s critically lauded graphic novel Fun Home to a stage musical via the Sundance Institute Theater Program.
See Art Spiegelman talking about Maus
If you have a spare couple of hours, go to YouTube and see Art Spiegelman lecturing at Sacred Heart University on Maus.