03.30.09
Review: The Pessimist’s Guide to History Doris Flexner & Stuart Berg Flexner
We pessimists find the frenzy surrounding fear of 2012 to be rather amusing; the human race has always seemed to teeter on the brink of collapse, be it from without — in the case of meteors, earthquakes and the bubonic plague – or from within via nuclear weapons, genocide, or grotesquely greasy food combined with a sit-on-your-ass lifestyle.
I’ve found a book that illustrates the point beautifully, promoted as “an irresistible compendium of catastrophes, barbarities, massacres, and mayhem,” encompassing the past 14 billion years. From the St. Vitus Dance Epidemic of 1347 (which may or may not have resurfaced during the disco years) to Hurricane Katrina (“In a classic double whammy, the government response also devastates the Gulf Coast”), this detailed timeline proves that we’ve always been one step away from annihilation and, hey, things might be better off without us.
–Whitney
Zombies R Us: Taking On the Classics
Zombies are the new Vampires. The Twilight franchise is the peak of the vampy summit, and as we slide down the other side, we’re going to be mauled by decaying corpses eating their way to the top. As a fan, I could write an entirely zombie weekly column, but I’m limiting myself to recommending my two favorites of the moment.
‘Breathers’ by S. G. Browne is the first of a subgenre I never thought I’d see – Rom-Zom-Com: Romantic Zombie Comedy. Picture Adam Sandler as the misunderstood Andy, recently returned from the dead and living in his parents’ wine cellar, and Drew Barrymore as Rita, the sexy suicide he meets at Undead Anonymous; then picture it actually being funny, fast-paced and slightly gruesome.
From the modern to the classic, with an idea I deeply regret not having first: Jane Austen meets brain-eating zombie mayhem. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith is a re-working rather than a re-write: a comedic coupling of the original iconic text with an underlying zombie war. Now my favorite novel is my favorite novel with zombies. Perfect.
–Whitney
03.20.09
Author Joe Hill sponsors Love Your Indie Contest
Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box and 20th Century Ghosts (and son of Stephen King!) has posted a contest on his website to promote your local indie bookstore. Read on below as taken from his website (http://joehillfiction.com/?p=714):
Love Your Indie: The Contest
Okay, been thinking about this whole March-is-love-your-Indie-Bookstore month, and I realized trying to guilt people into going shopping with their local guy sucks. We don’t need guilt here; we need a contest. So here’s introducing March-is-love-your-Indie-Bookstore: The Contest.
03.09.09
The City and The City, by China Miéville
Somewhere in the world — perhaps in the weird middle-ground where Europe “ends” and the Middle East “begins” — is a place where two cities sit, not side-by-side, but one alongside the other. They are intertwined in space like two shifting thoughts, caught up within a fevered dream of dissonant architecture and shared but uncertain history. One is Besźel, caught in a slow, crumbling spiral of almost East European dissolution, and the other is Ul Qoma, waking up to the possibilities of the new era.
The citizens of each city go about their business and their lives, carefully unseeing one another as they walk, drive and play within a space they somehow share. If they should act as though the two cities were one — crossing over without permission, talking to someone from the other city, or colliding with their car on a “crosshatched” thoroughfare — they commit the crime of Breach. And the mysterious, anonymous forces of Breach will appear to clean up the mess, both swiftly and efficiently — sometimes harshly Read the rest of this entry »
