"A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)"

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A quick update on words and stories that have entered my brain through the ocular nerve.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth by Mike and Louise Carey with art by Aaron Alexovich was very British. Louise is Mike's daughter, and the book was written for DC's very limited Minx imprint that targeted teenage girls. I learned teenage British slang that was popular in 2007 and therefore completely worthless to anyone at the current time, as it was no doubt hopelessly out of date before it hit the publisher. Not my favorite comic I read last week.

A. Lee Martinez seems to have written Monster specifically for me, or perhaps Lykaon. And I thank him for it. A fast paced easy read of a novel about a man who captures cryptobiologicals for the City. There's some big picture universe plot type stuff in there as well, but that's not the interesting part of the book. I liked the paper gnome Chester the best, and I liked the main character's name the least. It is Monster; and his job is to collect Monsters... I get it, I just don't get why his editor said "yes, that sounds good, people will dig that". All in all, a fun book, and really quick read,perfect for a few evenings at Denny's.

Speaking of short reads, I read two books from my childhood that I only vaguely remembered: From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler and The Girl who Owned a City. The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet actually mentioned FTMUFOMBEF and so I picked that one up the next day and really enjoyed it. It won the Newbery that year, and while I'm not worthy to judge that award, I will say it kept my attention even though I sort of remembered where the whole thing was leading. It's in that fun mini-genre of children's fiction that deals with urban survival by hiding from the grownups. I remember reading one about kids hiding in a shopping mall, and I know I've seen at least two Simpson's episodes that deal with running away and hiding in a large urban building. After that, I decided to re-read a book I loved as a kid: The Girl who Owned a City. I'm just going to say that it was hard to go home again. It took me about 75 minutes to read and I almost fell asleep/zoned out on multiple occasions. Maybe I remembered it too well and so there were no plot points that kept me going, or maybe after all this time I finally realized that the author is writing as an Ayn Rand apologist. OK I didn't really recognize that, but the Internet told me its true so I'm putting it out there.

I also finished off the most recent trade of Buffy Season 8. Well, most recent that the library has purchased. That puts me about a year behind the comic if I was reading it monthly, but that's good enough for me. It's a good comic if you miss Buffy and the art really really really captures the gang in a way a T.V. show or movie reunion now never could (stupid Ravages of Time!)

I have picked up two more books this week. One I grabbed on premise alone ( I love a good retelling of a well known story from a different point of view) but after giving it 50 pages I may have picked up the most challenging thing I've read since college. So to give myself a break every few chapters, I went back to the library and grabbed The Man who was Thursday; a book I have been meaning to read for a good three or more years it seems like. I'll let you know how it all turns out.