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By Nico Vreeland, on December 6th, 2012 [In this feature, we highlight a handful of the best book reviews appearing over the weekend in major newspapers. Follow it here.]
 Joseph Anton, by Salman Rushdie. Reviewed by Zoe Heller in the New York Review of Books.
This review has already made the Internet rounds: Zoe Heller calmly excoriates Salman Rushdie for his “lordly nonchalance” among other hubristic crimes. Our own nonfiction critic, Marc Velasquez, put Joseph Anton into his best books list just yesterday, stipulating that “Salman Rushdie is a pompous dick.” If you don’t mind pomposity, read the book. If you do, read the review. As for myself, as soon as I found out he’d written the book in third person, I took it off my to-read list.
The Revolution Was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall. Reviewed by Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times.
I know Alan Sepinwall best as the TV critic who sometimes calls into Bill Simmons’s sports podcast to talk about Breaking Bad. This new book (which he self-published, notably), tackles a dozen “millenial dramas,” like Breaking Bad and The Wire, and analyzes how each one was made and how it changed television. Kakutani fairly gushes over it, so if it sounds halfway interesting, take the plunge.
The Legend of Broken, by Caleb Carr. Reviewed by Elizabeth Hand in the Washington Post.
Tailor-made for fans of The Song of Ice & Fire (i.e. Game of Thrones), this epic fantasy novel weaves history into fantasy fiction. It takes place in the Dark Ages, in 745 A.D., in northern Europe, and seems to a good balance of depth and entertainment.
In brief: Arthur Conan Doyle’s diary about his term on an Artic whaling ship in 1880. … This review of two dueling memoirs (by M.I.A. and hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams) is pretty great. … Gabby Douglas already has a memoir out. … The L.A. Times scrambled to review Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, after it won the National Book Award. … A powerful entertainment lawyer has written a sci-fi graphic novel.
By Marc Velasquez, on December 5th, 2012 [As each year comes to a close, we ask our contributors to give us their favorite books from the past 12 months---and we let a few older ones slip in, too. You can follow the entries through the rest of the year here, and check out the picks from 2009, 2010, and 2011 while you're at it.]
 On Celestial Music by Rick Moody
This fantastic collection of essays pretends to be a book about music but is actually a book about life, and love, and hope. Really it’s about the best parts of being alive, though it does center on Moody’s eclectic musical tastes. And like any good essayist, Moody offers his readers a deeper appreciation of his subject matter—the subject matter on the surface and that underneath.
 Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D.T. Max
We all know how this book is going to end. And in many ways, this biography of David Foster Wallace is a road map plotting points to the inevitable tragedy. But because Max is so thorough in his research, his book provides great insight into one of literatures most complicated writers. This is worth reading if you consider yourself a fan of DFW, moreso than if you never understood why he was such a big deal. …
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By Aaron Block, on December 4th, 2012 [You can follow all of our contributors' best books posts here, and check out picks from 2009, 2010, and 2011 while you're at it.]
The Fourth Annual Aaron Block Awards, Celebrating Excellence in the Comics I Read This Year, Presented By Aaron Block
“Best Comic I Did Not Expect To Like” – Hawkeye #1-3, written by Matt Fraction, drawn by David Aja, colored by Matt Hollingsworth.
 Hawkeye #2 When Hawkeye was announced, I wrote it off as an attempt to cash in on the character’s appearance in The Avengers. On top of that, I haven’t been very enthusiastic about Matt Fraction’s writing in the past. I planned to pick up the first issue for David Aja’s art, but didn’t expect to stick around. Then the first issue turned out to have a unique look and voice, and a narrative concept unlike most anything else I was reading.
Fraction and Aja make the most of the done-in-one approach. Particularly Aja, who often breaks pages into micro panels without overwhelming the reader, or slowing the pace of the story. A typical mainstream comic book offers maybe two or three stories a year, broken up into 5 and six parts. And while that approach can be rewarding, it’s refreshing to see a creative team making the most of a single issue. It’s also possibly an ideal approach for the burgeoning digital market – new readers intrigued by a preview on the Marvel Comixology app might be more satisfied to pay for a story that begins and ends in 20 pages. Or they might not, in which case the sharp storytelling, sardonic tone, and purple palette courtesy of colorist Matt Hollingsworth will bring them back for the next issue. …
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By Aaron Block, on December 3rd, 2012 Author: Scott Tracy Griffin
2012, Titan
Filed Under: Graphic Novels, Other
Find it on Goodreads
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
5 |
| Depth..... |
5 |
| Art....... |
9 |
In November Dark Horse Comics published a one-shot comic titled The Once and Future Tarzan, which details the adventures of Tarzan in the future when the ocean levels have risen. I haven’t read the entire thing, but when an eight-page excerpt appeared in Dark Horse Presents #8, which I reviewed in February, I noted it was “terrible.” With hindsight I’d say it’s probably unfair to judge an excerpt so harshly, but the pages felt stiff, and the concept odd. Is a sci-fi reimagining of sorts the only way for a classic character to be relevant again?
At the time I didn’t know that the publication of the full issue would coincide with the 100th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan of the Apes, and the release of several Tarzan and Burroughs-related materials, including Scott Tracy Griffin’s Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration. Knowing that, the revival makes more sense, but it doesn’t answer my central question: is the Tarzan property so moribund that it has to be drastically altered to reach an audience? …
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By Nico Vreeland, on November 30th, 2012  Author: Robin Sloan
2012, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Filed under: Literary, Mystery
Find it at Goodreads
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
8 |
| Depth..... |
4 |
[WARNING: This review contains one minor spoiler about the book's premise and central theme, and the theme is the book's best asset, so I feel it's necessary to include. Skip the second paragraph if you want to go in completely fresh.]
I hadn’t read anything about this novel when I started it. From the title, I was expecting a nostalgic ode to physical bookstores and a standard-model 20-something slacker love story, like a Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium for the book nerd set.
I did not expect a novel whose central theme necessitated a battle between the book-scanning robots at Google and a cabal of physical-book traditionalists.
While there are stock characters and stock plot devices, the immediacy of that grand theme carries enough weight to counterbalance them. This book gets quite close to being a quality read, but then the novel is finally done in by what you might call Sloan’s “flow.” It’s not his style, exactly, not his prose, and it’s not his characters. It’s how things happen in his scenes. It’s how he directs the action, because—even though the book is narrated by its main character—Sloan’s hand can be felt unmistakably on every page. And that’s not good.
…
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By Sean Clark, on November 29th, 2012 Author: Caleb Scharf
2012, Scientific American
Filed Under: Nonfiction
Find it on Goodreads.
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
7 |
| Depth..... |
10 |
I really enjoyed reading this book. That said, having finished it about a week and a half ago, I’ve already forgotten most of what I read. That’s not an indictment of the book–Scharf does a great job in putting astrophysics into palatable bites for laymen–so much as it’s indicative of how difficult to really fathom so much of the subject matter is at its roots.
This is a book all about black holes, and how they work. I’d always thought of black holes as weird anomalies littered throughout space that suck things into some great unknown, perhaps other dimensions. While the latter part of that may be true, the black holes Scharf describes are far from anomalies. Black holes, it seems, are fundamental components of the universe: engines (hence the title) producing and consuming enormous amounts of energy that power a universe and possibly even multiverses of immeasurable complexity.
Ever wondered why so many galaxies, including ours, form giant spirals? Well, it’s because there are super massive black holes at the center, gobbling up infinite amounts of matter and cramming them into a near-infinitely small space. Woah.
The sheer scales of Scharf’s subject matter is astounding. He’ll show a picture of a blob, and explain it’s billions of galaxies, each larger than our own. He does a great job of breaking the information down into entertaining, easy enough to understand ideas. If you want the info to stick with you more than superficially, though, you should probably read the book a little slower than I did.
If you’re interested in space, watch shows like The Universe avidly, and enjoy the popular science Malcolm Gladwell-style of book, give this one a go. It’s fascinating.
Similar Reads: Remarkable Creatures (Carroll), Into the Silent Land (Broks), How We Decide (Lehrer)
By Sean Clark, on November 28th, 2012 [As each year comes to a close, we ask our contributors to give us their favorite books from the past 12 months---and we let a few older ones slip in, too. You can follow the entries through the rest of the year here, and check out the picks from 2009, 2010, and 2011 while you're at it.]
2012 has been a tumultuous and extremely busy year for me, and my recreational reading pace has consequentially dipped below what I’m used to or where I’d like it to be. On top of that, none of the books I did read this year wowed me with a sense of lasting importance quite as much as I’d have hoped or have experienced in previous years. But there were a few that caught me by surprise and proved quite enjoyable. So, these are my picks for favorite books from 2012.
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The Twenty Year Death, by Ariel S. Winter
I had pretty low expectations for this ambitious title. A 700-page debut novel emulating three acknowledged masters of crime writing is a tall order. Winter pulled it off with aplomb, writing three distinct yet linked mysteries that shone–and for once a book actually delivered on the hype.
Read my review here.
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 Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan
I love McEwan, he’s one of my favorite authors, so I’m a little biased. This is not his best book (that would be The Cement Garden), but Sweet Tooth offers exactly what I want from McEwan, pristine writing and complex, compelling characters. I haven’t quite finished this novel yet, so the jury’s still out, but so far I’m content to include Sweet Tooth on this list.
Look for my review later this month.
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 The Sugar Frosted Nutsack, by Mark Leyner
This quasi-epic-poem is not a book for everybody. It is a bizarre, at times difficult and obtuse read. But it’s also a brilliant piece of writing the likes of which doesn’t come around all that often. If you’re up for putting in a little effort, you find the experience rewarding.
Read my review here.
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 Company of the Dead, by David J. Kowalski
Another one that caught me by surprise. While not a technical marvel, the book overcomes writing that vacillates between pedestrian and slightly above average, with a fun, compelling, and at times quite complex time travel plot. If you want a quick, albeit lengthy, read about a time travel causality loop effecting an alternate history wherein America is occupied post-WW2 by Germany and Japan, give this a shot.
Read my review here.
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Honorable Mention: Dinosaur Art, by Steve White (ed.)
I started getting a number of review copy art books this year, a trend that I hope continues into 2013. While I really enjoyed Scott Campbell’s The Great Showdowns as well as others, this one nabbed my heart because well, it’s full of dinosaur pictures. There’s only one stegosaurus, which is a shame, but otherwise: stellar.
Here is my review.
By Sean Clark, on November 28th, 2012 [In this feature, we highlight a handful of the best book reviews appearing over the weekend in major newspapers. Follow it here.]
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Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan. Reviewed by Janelle Brown (Los Angeles Times).
I’ve been on the lookout for reviews of Sweet Tooth the last couple weeks, and disappointed there haven’t been more. I’m partway through and really enjoying it, but more for the writing than the somewhat dry plot. Brown is much more tepid on it, but I can’t really argue with her reading of the book. Despite that, and despite being scared of the “‘Atonement’-like twist” Brown warns, so far I’m content to keep Sweet Tooth as one of my top picks for this year.
Find it on Goodreads.
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In Praise of Messy Lives, by Katie Roiphe. Reviewed by Dwight Garner (New York Times).
“Lean and literate…with a frightening ration or velocity to torque” is an eloquent way to describe a collection of essays, and a description that almost singlehandedly sells me on this book. I don’t know anything about Roiphe, but her apparant reputation for getting under people’s skin piques my curiosity. Sticking this one on my Christmas list.
Find it on Goodreads.
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Hallucinations, by Oliver Sacks. Reviewed by Melissa H. Pierson (Barnes & Noble Review)
Do I like Oliver Sacks. Yes. Do I want to read a “first-person literal travelogue [in which] experimentation followed a scholarly grounding in the literature of drug taking: he downed LSD, Artane, morning glory seeds, morphine, and others, and the result is a phantasmagoric addition to the library that already contains De Quincey, Baudelaire, Huxley?” Absolutely.
Find it on Goodreads.
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Quickly: A Nolan Ryan cookbook? Why not? Try Choose Your Own Adventure Hamlet! WaPo has their Best Books of 2012 lists up. We’ve begun running ours this week, look for my picks later today and follow the others’ as they come in here.
By Mike Beeman, on November 27th, 2012 Author: Kevin J. Anderson
2012, Titan
Filed Under: Sci-Fi
Find it on Goodreads.
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
7 |
| Depth..... |
4 |
Anderson’s entertaining The Martian Wars offers a return to the gilded age of science fiction for an H.G. Wells-inspired mash-up, a fast-paceed romp through many of the author’s best-known works.
Anderson’s novel begins in fact, with a young Wells studying with T.H. Huxley, grandfather of writer Aldous Huxley, a man known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his aggressive proselytization of the new theory of evolution. Anderson introduces his fictional conceit early on, when Wells, speculating on extraterrestrial life with Huxley, muses:
Perhaps even now the Martians are regarding Earth with envious eyes.
Even casual fans will recognize this dialogue as an appropriation of War of the Worlds’ opening lines. Anderson’s first chapters continue in this vein, introducing the reader to many of Wells’ best-known plots and characters, including Dr. Moreau, the Invisible Man, and of course the Martian invaders, whom Wells soon learns are planning for the invasion he warns of in his then-unwritten novel. …
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By David Duhr, on November 26th, 2012 [As each year comes to a close, we ask our contributors to give us their favorite books from the past 12 months---and we let a few older ones slip in, too. You can follow the entries through the rest of the year here, and check out the picks from 2009, 2010, and 2011 while you're at it.]
I spent most of 2012 wishing I could put down my current disappointing book in favor of the next disappointing book. Many novels I read this year were just plain bad (and not even worth mention), while others were overhyped and overlauded to the point of absurdity. (See the corrective C4 review of The Yellow Birds, and my own.)
Only two 2012 novels really surprised me: partly because they were so much better than I expected, and partly because they both come from Texas.
 One of them I read for review, and then immediately reread off the clock just because I couldn’t help myself. That was Stephen Graham Jones’ Growing Up Dead in Texas. Jones has had some success as a genre writer, but here he steps into literary … well, literary everything. The plot concerns a (fictional) 1985 cotton fire that devastated a small West Texas cotton town. Stephen Graham Jones, the semi-fictionalized writer, returns to present-day Greenwood, his childhood home, to write the story of the fire and subsequent events (a fatal car wreck, a school bus shooting). He reconnects with and interviews the major players, and also fills the reader in, bit by bit, on his own past. But is the writer who he really says he is?
This book is literary fiction, memoir, true crime and good old fashioned whodunit in one package. Highly recommended, and the best book I read this year.
 The other Texas book that hit home for me was Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, the strongest (so far) novel to come out of the Iraq War. What’s more impressive about that is that the book is set almost entirely at Texas Stadium during a Thanksgiving Day Cowboys game, where Billy Lynn and the rest of his unit are being honored for heroism displayed during an intense firefight. Billy, already physically and emotionally exhausted from battle, is subjected to various meet-and-greets with George W. Bush-like Texas conservative hawks, and during walks around the stadium he soaks up American culture with fresh eyes and comes to wonder if it’s worth fighting for. (Hint: It’s not.)
This one is a rich satire, laugh out loud funny (for real), but also at times devastating. Very much unlike The Yellow Birds, it deserved its spot on the NBA finalist list. …
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