A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Sarah Jessica Parker" - An ancestor who was a '49er and an ancestress who was accused of being a witch during the Salem hysteria. Not a bad start to this series in the United States. It actually made my husband kind of want to look into his family's past. My own family's past is constantly getting revealed thanks to the patient work of my sister. I can see that I'm really going to love this show.

I actually have a few more shows on the DVR to watch, but I'm still over-TVed from the Olympics, so I haven't been keeping up. I should have a little more in two weeks (don't expect a review next week, I'll be at the Con).

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived this week, of books originally released February 17th and 24th:

• Green Lantern #51 - A tiny bit more of Mera, and even Aquaman and Tempest. Nothing special, though. I'm looking forward to the end of this crossover.
• Green Lantern Corps #45 - Guy is raging, Mogo is deus ex machina, whatever.
• Power Girl #9 - I really am surprised at how much I'm enjoying this book. The subplots are fun, the cast is cool, and the enemies are amusing and yet still threatening. It's just a good book all around.
• Justice League of America #42 - A bit confusing, until I remembered that this is set after Blackest Night. Then I recalled a little of what happened in the last issue and I think I followed it from there.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 - A bit of a standard story, if one exists for this version of Batman. Aquaman fan-art in the letter column.
• Tiny Titans #25 - Not enough Aqualad. *sigh* Funny take on the Lantern Rings, though.
• Incredibles #5 - Yay! Edna!
• The Tick: New Series #2 - um. right. Maybe I'll stop mentioning this one, since it's only very mildly funny, and not really my thing.


• Blackest Night #7 - Not at all what I was expecting to see happen. Not even close. I would say "oops" but that just doesn't cover it. As for Mera... Lex? Eeeuuuwwww.
• Blackest Night: JSA #3 - Bittersweet, particularly Jesse's role. Hey, at least New York is safe...
• Justice Society of America #36 - Attack of the Nazi-wannabes? I don't much like the framing sequence, just for its implications.
• Northlanders #25 - Everything about this book is brutal. It's good, don't get me wrong, but very brutal.
• Marvelous Land of Oz #4 - The origin of the Wogglebug! I'd forgotten that was in this story. Funny stuff.
• Usagi Yojimbo #126 - Wow, perfect solution to an unhappy situation!

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My library book this week was Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson. I read Three Cups of Tea a couple of weeks ago, and immediately put this book in for a hold. It is both better written and slightly more compelling in many ways than the first book. True, the first book lays the groundwork for what we see in this one, but in this book there is a definite sense of how Greg empowers the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan to pull themselves back together and rebuild their world. There were plenty of moments that I found myself gasping or giggling at the sheer absurdity of the situation, and many many more where I wanted to rush in with a hammer and package of nails to help. And more than a few moments when I felt rage that the Taliban has been allowed to destroy a peaceful religion in the eyes of the rest of the world. One very different thing in this book from the last is how Greg learns to respect members of the US military who are genuinely concerned with helping pull Afghanistan out of despair by rebuilding instead of bombing and how he starts to work alongside them, though not ever with them directly, to push schools into highly dangerous areas that have asked for help. I won't pretend to understand Pakistan and Afghanistan, but these books have given me an insight into cultures and beliefs that I wish every American had. Highly recommended. Go on, get 'em and read 'em.

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Agatha Christie this week was A Pocket Full of Rye from 1953. I put it in for inter-library loan, and the system decided to buy new copies, so I got to read a brand-new paperback. This mystery concerns a businessman poisoned in his office and found with a pocket full of rye. Miss Marple doesn't come into the story until 12 chapters have passed, but she immediately seizes on the nursery rhyme and eventually gets the entire thing figured out in detail. Aa usual, I didn't figure everything out, although I hit a couple of notes. I think the fact that the reader is always allowed to figure out a couple of the lesser mysteries is why Christie's writing is considered brilliant and not aggravating. Ah well, on to the next!

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Heroes: "Brave New World" - I really hate triplicate guy, and it's even worse when he's more than three. But hey, more Hiro, and most of the loose ends are tied up fairly nicely. Not a bad way for the show to end. *If* this is the end, which I kind of hope it is.
• Ghost Hunters International: "San Lucas Prison" - Costa Rica! That's an island that I wouldn't want to spend the night on, haunted or not. The animal life alone would scare me enough to keep me away. Ghosts are nothing compared to bats and snakes and spiders. And I think the wildlife really got to them on that trip. There wasn't a lot that I found convincing.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived last week, of books originally released Jan 20th and 27th:

• Green Lantern Corps #44 - Still not much of a fan of the Corps, but I like Mogo's appearance in this one.
• Power Girl #8 - *giggle* Oh, this one was good. This book is good. Nice mix of the humor and the serious.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13 - Bwah-ha-ha-ha! I'm not sure why the heroes felt they actually had to dress up as Batman, but it made for a fun story. I really liked Aqua-Batman.
• Tiny Titans #24 - Needs more Aqualad. But I really love seeing the Aqua-ohs continuing appearances. I love 'em. I want Aqua-ohs! I may have to make myself of box of Aqua-Ohs somehow.


• Green Lantern #50 - Mera's statement that she never wanted children almost fits continuity. Her pregnancy was very dangerous and I think she knew it would be. So children may have never been in her plans. As for the rest... eh. This crossover will end soon.
• Blackest Night JSA #2 - They got me, too. Yikes.
• Justice Society of America #35 - I really enjoyed Wildcat's box. Just give him a foe he can't punch his way through. Heh.
• Justice League: Cry for Justice #6 - Is this over yet?
• Justice League of America #41 - Ah, this was clearly meant to come out AFTER Blackest Night and Cry for Justice were over. Either that, or someone is teasing us. I'm not very happy that I read this before everything finished. Other than that, the story is the familiar tale of forming the Justice League... yet again. *sigh*
• Astro City: The Dark Age - Book Four #1 - Hammered home that the boys are no longer good guys (were they ever, really, though?). Looking forward to seeing how this ends.
• Northlanders #24 - The baddest guys always seem to survive, don't they?
• Marvelous Land of Oz #3 - Best. Cover. Ever. Love this one. Nicely true to Baum's original, and I bet a lot of folks don't have any idea about this incident in Oz history.

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My library book this week was The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. Despite my husband's retort that there is no such thing as a people who can love books too much, the title of this book is correct. It's the story of a thief who casually steals rare books, never once thinking that he's in the moral wrong. Bartlett delves into the motives of the man, and paints a very striking portrait of him. It's not a pleasant one. I'm with the booksellers who want him in jail, and really felt for them while reading the book. It's like someone who is a huge braggart trying to take center stage, but the folks around him are by far more interesting characters because the braggart is just, in the end, another self-absorbed liar. All-in-all, the book was a fascinating look into the world of rare books, with an obvious emphasis on the darker side. Certainly worth reading if you are a bibliophile, although the actions of the main character (and the author) will no doubt pain you.

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Fortean Times #255, December 2009. While the November issue came "on time", the December issue never came. In fact, I got issue 256 first, and realized I'd missed an issue. I contacted the distributor again and they actually got back to me quickly and sent out a replacement copy AND a new copy of 256, which was so badly damaged that I had to tear some pages to open it. So I'm less annoyed at them now. I confirmed that they have no control over the way the books are sent anymore, they supply the addresses to a clearing-house that then sends the magazines out. So appealing to them to bring back envelopes isn't going to work. Grrr. At least I eventually got my magazines in readable shape.

The cover is about Masonic London, and has an image that evokes the Da Vinci Code and Dan Brown thrillers. The cover story explores the idea of London as a city designed by Masons after the Great Fire... or what it would have been if they had their way. An ok article, nothing special. I suppose it'll resonate more with me if I ever get a chance to visit London.

Strangedays has the usual mix of fun, fantastic, weird, and silly. I liked the image pages, and the story of a cat that takes a bus daily. They also have the unexpected squirrel picture that went the rounds on the internet not long ago. They also have a number of man-sized creature reportings from all around the world, with a couple of vaguely interesting pictures. The Science column has a follow-up on Colony Collapse Disorder. The Archaeology column had a report of an intact witch bottle found and X-rayed. The Classical Corner is about Pompeii, and mentions Doctor Who only in passing. Ghostwatch is about physical interaction with ghosts. The UFO Files has more on the dangerous Chinese Lanterns, which are responsible for a lot of UFO sightings and are dangerous to livestock and dry fields. I've even started seeing local news reports about Chinese Lanterns, but that's for another write-up, I think.

In the Blasts From The Past column, we get a medical description of a man-fish. The poor guy suffered from ichthyosis and it sounds like it was a miserable state to be in. There is another article linking Masonic imagery to Western literature. Then we get an article on Manly P Hall. The Forum section has a two-page article on orang bati which was a cool look at how people see the mysterious. There is also an examination of how Western civilization used and perceived the Chinese Book of Changes. And then into the Reviews section, which was as strong as it usually is. Nothing jumped out as "must read", but I enjoyed the reviews. And the letters were greatly enjoyable as usual, too. So overall, a pretty good issue.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist