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by Johns, Geoff
Hal Jordan was one of the greatest Green Lanterns ever: a fearless hero who protected Earth and the galaxy. Unfortunately, his emotions got the better of him and he turned on the Green lantern Corps, slaughtering his friends and becoming the villainous Parallax. Now, years later, he has atoned for his sins and returned to earth reborn as Green lantern. But will anyone trust him? Jordan attempts to re-start his life where he left off, living in Coast City, working for the air force and saving the world when he can. Unfortunately, with villains like the telepathic Hector Hammond out to get him, it won't be as easy as he thinks to start again. An excellent tale of redemption.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by Johns, Geoff
It's one year since the events of Infinite Crisis, and the Teen Titans are a mess. Longtime team member Cyborg awakes after a year's inactivity to find that Superboy is dead, Wonder Girl has left the team for good and the team is filled with strangers. The only familiar face is Robin. As they try and bring their team back together, the Titans journey across the world and encounter Titans old and new, only to find that there is a traitor amongst them who means to tear the team apart. One of the best aspects of the Teen Titans stories is that they have more room for growth and fluidity than other superheroes. This fluidity has healed them before, but may now tear them apart.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by Waid, Mark
Hal Jordan and Barry Allen were better known as the silver-age Green Lantern and Flash, superheroes from the 50s and 60s, an age of brighter colors and less gritty melodrama. In these stories, Mark Waid brings these characters back into the spotlight by looking at several of their early team-ups and how their friendship worked. THese stories are in fact as much about the relationship between suave alpha-male Jordan and conscientious but bumbling Allen as they are about fighting monsters or beating up super-villains. As with the best comic book stories, they are about the characters behind the masks, what motivates them, and why people care if they live or die.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by Waid, Mark
The Fantastic Four are one of the best known superhero teams in the world, but they aren't really superheroes. Sure, they save the world from time to time, but they're much closer to being adventurers, discovering whe world around them, rather than fighting crime or stopping natural disasters. Mark Waid takes this idea on board in this first collection of his Fantastic Four stories. Here, we see them not as heroes but as adventurers, as scientists, and most importantly as a family. They still use their powers to fight evil, for example when attacked by Dr Doom, but their focus is discovery and changing the world, rather than just restoring the status quo. Inspired storytelling about classic comic character.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by Waid, Mard and Tom Peyer
Peter Parker is Spider-Man, TV star, professional wrestler, and hero to millions. He lives in a penthouse suite in New York with his adoring wife Gwen Stacy, and his long-suffering manager J Jonah Jameson. Wait, what? In the House Of M, Spider-Man has been given everything he ever wanted: money, fame, adoration, and the return to life of his first love. Unfortunately, as he soon discovers, something is eating away at his happiness from inside. Before long his world is falling apart and he has to find out who is responsible before it's too late. This is an inventive reimagining of an iconic character.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by Mikaelsen, Ben
First of all, get past the title. I would have called it "Boy gets mauled by Alaskan bear and is left for dead, alone, clinging to life for days, only to discover his small place in this very large world", or something like that. With great references to Native American culture, this book is truly inspirational and is told in a manner that will not allow you to take a break while between the book’s covers. Just when you think that it has a chance of getting cheesy, a character will turn the momentum on end and reveal their individual human nature. Time for me to start carving my own totem pole.
- reviewed by Jesse, ImaginOn, PLCMC

Michael Chabon discusses his new book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, a novel which imagines what would have happened had a real proposal to relocate persecuted World War II Jews to Alaska had actually happened. Chabon is a master of genre-bending, and is one of the few authors that gets away with it while still having his work marketed as general fiction at the major chains.

"I get excited by the idea of blurring the boundaries between different kinds of fiction," said Chabon, interviewed recently in his sunny backyard in a quiet corner of Berkeley. The result seems to be a kind of literary fusion cuisine, taking forms and genres "usually kept pretty rigidly separate and letting them bleed together and see what happens."

*****

"After The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, I thought it would be hard to ever top that," said Jennifer Barth, an executive editor and vice president of HarperCollins. "But this book stands on its own as an equally imaginative and exciting and also moving story."

The police officer in Policemen's Union, is Meyer Landsman, a detective who gets an unexpected case when one of the residents of the rundown hotel where he lives is found shot to death. Landsman, in the best tradition of hard-boiled, hard-luck heroes, is a mess. Chabon telegraphs a lot with a little when he has Landsman pick up "the shot glass that he is currently dating," as the book opens. Landsman must find out whodunit (and, for that matter, who was done) as well as why ? a question that leads to some seriously weird characters and the surreal world of messianic politics.

The dogged quest to uncover the true identity of the dead man, a former chess prodigy, unfolds in classic noir tradition, a familiar form that helps lead the reader into Chabon's imagined land of the Federal District of Sitka. "One of the reasons that I chose to work in the form of the detective novel is so that it would afford me the opportunity to explore and explain the world that we were moving in, to investigate it, literally, so that a reader that didn't know anything about it would be able to find out along with the main character," he said.

We always enjoy Michael's work and his latest book sounds quite interesting. The Yiddish Policemen's Union is getting rave reviews so far. You can usually read more about Michael and his work at his website, although right now the site seems to have a splash page, a schedule of appearances and not much else.

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TMZ.com is reporting that Britney Spears is planning on writing a tell-all memoir that will delve into her disastrous marriages, her head-shaving and how Kevin Federline nearly drove her to suicide.

A stint in rehab, a bitter divorce, a bizarre run-in with hair clippers -- Britney Spears' story has all the makings of a sensational novel. Those waiting to read about Britney's turbulent life in print, y'all, wait no more. Spears is gearing up to write a tell-all about life with ex-hubby/mooch Kevin Federline, in which she claims that the "Popozao" singer nearly drove her to suicide. Us too, Brit, us too. Spears has yet to settle on a publisher, but the book is expected to earn her more than $10 million.

Can this really be true? Because it hardly seems like a good career move at this point. She needs to get sober, get a new album finished, hire back her long-suffering manager, and -- this is key -- get a new stylist. As soon as possible.

Posted in Nonfiction

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How adolescence was invented, starting in the 19th century.

s1axter writes "A week and a half ago I received Linux Appliance Design by Bob Smith, John Hardin, Graham Phillips and Bill Pierce, published by No Starch Press. This is one of No Starch's latest titles and was released in the beginning of April. As a hardware/embedded systems guy I was really eager to get my hands on the book. For those who don't know what the book is about, it's about making an application specific utility, an electronic tool or "appliance" that can be used for a specific task. The book defines an appliance as "A device designed to primarily perform a single function" and that's exactly what they do." Read on for the rest of S1axter's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nirvana’s power owed a lot to its self-divisions: tortured lyrics, catchy tunes.

Were you a Sassy girl? I sure was, and NPR's spotlight on the magazine that was--as one fan recalls--"a glimmer of hope, a pinky-swear promise that the world could be a funny, smart, and even sexy place"--is now the subject of a new book. Wish I'd had an invite to that party!

An intriguing spin on The Bell Jar...I'll be curious to see if this new film adaptation succeeds in bringing out the "humor" of clinical depression.

I agree that reading the latest Thomas Pynchon feels like an endurance test, for which (in my case anyway) there seems to be no end in sight. See how one reader is faring here. I'm also shocked to see that this is available in audio--unabridged! Chops to the narrator.

It's about time. Bestselling author Jodi Picoult will write the next five issues of DC Comics Wonder Woman. --Anne

Markus reviews Riverrun, the initial instalment in the Trilogy of the same name by S. P. Somtow (aka Somtow Sucharitkul), and finds it a fascinating escapist Dark Fantasy, starring Vampires, Dragons, and the river that runs through the entire Universe, holding together all worlds – all wrapped up in a King Lear based background scenario.
A great book, aimed at the older Adolescent to Adult market.

Read the full review on Diversebooks

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston, a review from Christian Science Monitor by Larry Sears.

by Tomasi, Peter and Snejbjerg, Peter
War in heaven and war on earth collide in this excellent graphic novel. A group of American soldiers in europe in 1944 face off against a fallen angel and a batallion of nazis who will not die. They have to save not only the world but the whole of creation, and all they have on their side are pluck, ingenuity, a two thousand year old Roman centurion, and the holy light of the One True Cross. Pitched halfway between Hellboy and a John Wayne movie, this book is a lot smarter and sharper than its setup gives it credit for, making serious and worthwhile points about belief, honor, and standing against evil. An excellent read
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by Ross, Alex and Krueger, Jim
Dystopian visions of the future are a staple in comic books, with the excellent Kingdom Come being a fine example of the best of these. Earth X has the distinction of showing the future of the Marvel universe in a way that makes us question everything we know about its present. The story is framed as the visions of former hero Aaron Stack, who has not seen the earth since our time, and is trying to view and understand a world where the population have all mutated, the X-Men are all dead or retured, Tony Stark is a paranoid recluse, and the Celestials, beings humanity thought of as friends, are revealed to have exploited us to their own ends. Excellent dystopian storytelling.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

by David, Peter
In the universe of the House Of M, mutants are in charge and humans are their servants. So where does this leave Bruce Banner, when half the time he is a mild mannered scientist, and the other half he is the rage-filled Hulk? He is living in seclusion with an aboriginal tribe in the Australian outback, when an attack on his settlement leads him into an unlikely alliance with a band of human freedom fighters. The following adventure deals with issues of humanity, power, and trust in a way that most comics would not be mature enough to handle. This book adds another dimension to our understanding of this character and his motivations, as well as fleshing out the House Of M universe.
- reviewed by Ian, North County Regional, PLCMC

Of Song and Water by Joseph Coulson, a review from The Common Review by Donna Seaman.

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, a review from Powells.com by Gerry Donaghy .

In his much-anticipated and intermittently fascinating new memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” George Tenet writes that the words “slam dunk” were taken out of context.

• Best Novel: The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
• Best First Novel by an American Author: The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
• Best Paperback Original: Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara
• Best Critical/Biographal: The Science of Sherlock Holmes by E.J. Wagner
• Best Fact Crime: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
• Best Short Story: "The Home Front" by Charles Ardai, from Death Do Us Part
• Best Young Adult: Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready
• Best Juvenile: Room One by Andrew Clements
• Best Television Feature/Miniseries Teleplay: The Wire, season four
• Best Motion Picture Screeplay: The Departed by William Monahan
• Grand Master: Stephen King

In Daniel Mason’s new novel, a peasant girl looks for her brother in the big city.

George Kennan, a student of the Soviet Union and the human soul, was the architect of containment.