Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Undercover examination of life on minimum wage in America.
Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category
Nickel and Dimed – Cannonball Read #19
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010I Play Video Games: Arkham Asylum
Monday, August 30th, 2010We’ll get into what’s going on with the running joke known as my review of Shadow of the Colossus another time, but for now let’s stretch the game-reviewing muscles with last year’s critical darling, roundly praised as the best comic book game ever made.
Because I’m nothing if not sensitive to the needs of our audience, I’ve taken a suggestion from the Baker and written a much shorter review than I did for Far Cry 2. However, because this is 50% my website and I ought to be able to indulge myself pretty much at will here, I’ve also written a much longer review, full of particulars that you don’t need to know about, and put it after the jump. I think everyone ought to be happy with this compromise.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Source: Retail
Paid: $20
Play Time: ~15 hours
Batman: Arkam Asylum is one of the best third-person action games I’ve ever played. It bashes up platforming, sneaking, and brawling in a something-for-everyone formula that almost never falters, especially in the “predator rooms” where Batman uses his speed and stealth to outmaneuver the Joker’s gunmen until they begin to panic at every shadow. The story and voice acting are top-notch, and the environment is varied, convincing and fun to navigate. Character models and textures are strangely exaggerated, but the game otherwise looks gorgeous.
The boss fights are probably the weakest segments, but they’re a small part of the overall game. Arkham Asylum is a must-play for Batman fans and those who enjoy action games generally; pretty much every gamer ought to at least try the demo.
Hit the jump for the long version.
The Outlaws of Sherwood – Cannnonball Read #18
Friday, August 27th, 2010The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley – retelling of the classic English tale of Robin Hood.
Dead Men Do Tell Tales – Cannonball Read #29
Saturday, July 24th, 2010Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist by William R. Maples, Ph.D. & Michael Browning.
My husband is an anthropology student and brought this book home. I caught him giggling and outright laughing as he read it so I picked it up as soon as he was done.
The early chapters deal with different means of body disposal, burial, dismemberment, etc. Other chapters focus on specific cases or famous corpses. No detail of the anthropologists work is spared and triumphs and enduring mysteries are presented side by side. The most affecting chapter is the one dealing with the identification of the remains of Tsar Nicholas and his family. Maples presents the most probable circumstances of their deaths. I was horrified when I read that the women had hidden jewels in their corsets that then acted as bullet proof vests. When the bullets didn’t kill them the Bolsheviks bludgeoned them to death.
Maples is the kind of person who should be in charge of everything. His elegant and inspiring prose evinces a passion for the truth, a clear vision of duty of the scientist and a commitment to the equality of all people. Each chapter begins with a passage from a poem. Not just fragments that seem pithy but truly affecting passages, evidence of a sensitive mind and a well read scientist. Instead of being gross or off-putting his candor regarding everything from how maggots consume a corpse to the effects of shark stomach acid on human bone had me smiling throughout the book. At times I laughed out loud at incredibly gruesome details. At other passages I wept quietly, moved by his sincere depth of feeling towards the victims he strives to identify.
Books like this are obviously inspirations for procedurals like Bones. Unlike Temperance Brennan, Maples is not hiding from humanity in academia. He is bringing humanity into it and restoring it to those who some other has stolen humanity from. Even as he is literally re-membering their corpses and returning their identities, he is confirming their membership in the human race.
If you like police procedurals such as C.S.I. or Bones this is a must read. Inspirational and fascinating!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Cannonball Read #28
Monday, July 12th, 2010The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. Murder mystery with Scandinavian flavor. Minor spoilers.
The Black Dahlia – Cannonball Read #17
Saturday, July 10th, 2010The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. Neo-Noir murder mystery.
I have never wanted so fiercely for someone to kill themselves as I wanted for Bucky Bleichert to blow his fucking brains out. (more…)
Snow Crash – Cannonball Read #16
Thursday, July 8th, 2010Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Seminal Sci-Fi.
Chalice – Cannonball Read #15
Sunday, July 4th, 2010A Door in the Hedge – Cannonball Read #14
Thursday, June 24th, 2010A Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley. Fantasy short story collection.
Covet by J.R. Ward – Cannonball Read #12
Sunday, May 30th, 2010Covet by J.R. Ward. First in her Fallen Angels series. High quality paranormal smut.
Covet is the first book the J.R.Ward’s new Fallen Angels series. Each novel follows Jim Heron, a man with a mysterious and troubled past who is approached by heavenly agents. They recruit him to be their agent in the final contest between heaven and hell. Seven souls are at stake, each one afflicted with one of the seven deadly sins. In Covet, Vin DiPietro is afflicted with greed. He is a rapacious land developer in the process of buying up and developing pristine tracks of wilderness. Jim must intervene in Vin’s life to save him from damnation.
Jim is opposed by a demon and assisted by two Harley-riding, leather-jacket-wearing fallen angels. He gets additional help from Marie Therese, the romantic heroine. She and Vin share a meaningful look early in the book. and it’s off to the races! Their relationship helps keep the book firmly in the romance vein. We all know how the book is going to end, Vin and Marie Therese get their Happily Ever After. As she is a prostitute, this takes a bit of doing, but what is love without trials and tribulations. The suspense in the book comes on Jim’s side of things. His story and its resolution are far from certain and I will definitely be keeping up with his further adventures.
As this is the first book in the series a fair amount of of the book is concerned with setting up the series. I like the high concept for the novels. Instead of the standard girl meets vampire, vampire gets girl, vampire loses girl, girl gets vampire back and they live sexily ever after plots of her first series the Black Dagger Brotherhood Ward is branching out. I like that she is trying to change up her game and try a different tack. At the same time, the novel is still set in fictional Caldwell, NY, the setting of the the Brotherhood novels. There is significant fan service in the book, with several Brotherhood characters making cameos. As an artist, she is seeking creativity through constraint. I am interested to see how she resolves the series as the purported resolution of the contest that Jim is acting in is the end of humanity’s tenure on the Earth.
-fh
P.S. In a lovely and realistic touch, Jim and Marie Therese only ever have safe sex. They are both cognizant of the fact that unprotected sex with someone you’ve known for two days is a bad idea, especially when one of you is a sex worker.
