Open Thread: Top Posts of 2016!

Open Thread: Top Posts of 2016! I’m sure you all know how top ten lists work, so let’s get straight into it! Top Ten Posts of 2016 1. Book Review: The Financial Expert 2. Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura 3. Open Thread: Minicon 51 Report 4. Comic Book Review: Batman Deathblow After the Fire 5. Book… Continue reading Open Thread: Top Posts of 2016!

Book Review: Curiosities of Literature

Book Review: Curiosities of Literature by John Sutherland This is a book of trivia, factoids and amusing stories about the world of literature.  The author is a professor of English literature, so he knows his stuff.  The book is organized by loose themes, beginning with food (both as featured in literature, and as eaten by… Continue reading Book Review: Curiosities of Literature

Comic Book Review: Essential Tomb of Dracula, Volume 2

Comic Book Review: Essential Tomb of Dracula, Volume 2 mostly written by Marv Wolfman and art by Gene Colan. When the Comics Code restrictions on horror were loosened in the 1970s, DC primarily went in for horror anthology comics, while Marvel Comics based entire series around horrific heroes and villains.  One of these was the… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Essential Tomb of Dracula, Volume 2

Anime Review: Hataraki Man

Anime Review: Hataraki Man Hiroko Matsukada is an “editor” at Jidai, a weekly magazine.  What this means in practice is that she researches and writes articles, as well as working with at least one outside author who submits a serialized novel for the magazine.  At 28 and still single, Hiroko sometimes worries that she’s missing… Continue reading Anime Review: Hataraki Man

Open Thread: Top Ten Lists 2015

Like many bloggers, I keep a close eye on the stats of which posts get traffic, and it’s time to reveal the winners for this year.  You all like list posts, right?  So here are the reviews you the readers felt were important in 2015. Top Ten Posts of 2015 Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura Book… Continue reading Open Thread: Top Ten Lists 2015

Open Thread: Reading Challenges

Back in November, some folks in the Booklr community of Tumblr organized a challenge called #readwomen.  The idea was to deliberately read books written by women for pleasure in December.  For full participation, every book should be written by a woman, but I opted to just increase the proportion by picking from my to read… Continue reading Open Thread: Reading Challenges

Magazine Review: The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate

Magazine Review: The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate edited by John Gaterud Yes, this is yet another literary magazine; I picked up a bunch inexpensively at the book fair.  This one seems to take its title from Jack Kerouac’s writing; this first issue was published in 2007. The index is unusual for this kind of… Continue reading Magazine Review: The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate

Book Review: Fresh Fear

Book Review: Fresh Fear edited by William Cook Horror anthologies are like a box of chocolates.  One story might be crunchy frog, another spring surprise, while a more disappointing one is just maple cream.  (Seriously, maple cream?)  This is because horror tends to be a balancing act between what the writer finds scary and what… Continue reading Book Review: Fresh Fear

Open Thread: Minicon 50 Report

Over the Easter weekend, I went to Minicon, the Minnesota Scientifiction Society’s yearly convention.  This was the 50th convention, although not the fiftieth year, as a couple times early on it was held twice yearly.  To mark the milestone, the convention ran four days instead of the usual three, and had a whole bunch of… Continue reading Open Thread: Minicon 50 Report

Open Thread: Happy New Year!

2014 ends, and 2015 begins, so let’s see what this year’s top ten lists look like. (You like top ten lists, right?) Top Ten Posts of 2014 Comic Book Review: The Forgotten Man Graphic Edition Comic Strip Review: Spacetrawler Book 1 The Human Seat Manga Review: Weekly Shonen Jump (USA) Book Review: Insurrections of the… Continue reading Open Thread: Happy New Year!