Geared up for one-a-day this month.
- NYer of 3/11/24. Arn on Haring's reputation: "The dust never settles--consensus seems perpetually just around the corner, but, since it would be better if it didn't arrive, it doesn't."
- NYer of 6/24/24. Gopnik reviews Charles Taylor's book on enchantment vs. enlightenment dialectic.
- The Nation of June 2024. Long depressing series on Project 2025.
- Good Girls Don't Die by Christina Henry. Stir together Truman Show, Stepford Wives, Cabin in the Woods, Hunger Games, and voila, feminista! Worst book I've read in a minute
- NYer of 7/1/24. John Fetterman's strange mix of progressivism and populism means he's one of the few sincere senators.
- Invincible Volume 13: Growing Pains. Eve is preggers.
- Invincible Volume 14: The Viltrimite War. Cool effect of blood splatter going out of panels.
- She-Hulk v2: Jen of Hearts by Rainbow Rowell. Fight club + wear fancy dresses and eat cake club.
- Eclogues by Guy Davenport. I recently saw an observation that Davenport writes a world where paganism and Xtianity evolved side-by-side. That can be seen from the first story ("The Trees at Lystra") set in the ancient world to the last one ("On Some Lines in Virgil") set in the roughly contemporary late 60s but saturated by history trailing back to the paleolithic.
- She-Hulk v3: Girl Can't Help It. The standout story was the book-club satire (with Patsy, Sue Storm Richards, Volcana, Misty and Colleen).
- Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, ed. Asprin. Brings some god-encounters to the table.
- Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa. Took a long time, but finally got back to this detailed tribute to Duckworld.
- Do a Powerbomb by Daniel Warren Johnson. He only deals with things he loves--in this case pro wrestling, inter-dimensional fight tournaments, and... family.
- Wonder Twins v. 1:Activate! by Marc Russell and Stephen Byrne. The best bit is the scene with Jayna in the form of an ant with the stinky "hero" Repulsor.
- Wonder Twins v. 2: The Fall and Rise of the Wonder Twins. Gen Z--no real prospects (unpaid interships) but unwilling to accept the status quo (sheltering Philo Math) or respect the old ways (freeing him from Phantom Zone). Boys are either inept (Zan) or toxic (Red Flag).
- Night Fever by Brubaker and Phillips. Standard issue post-Criminal product.
- Where the Body Was by Brubaker and Phillips. Slightly better. I like the map.
- NYer of July 8&15. Fiction issue.
- Wonder Woman: Dead Earth. Daniel Warren Johnson gives Princess Dianna the Mad Max meets Dune meets Kingdom Come treatment. Not the best thing ever.
- 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. ed. Lorrie Moore. Discoveries include Charles Baxter, Mary Gaitskilll, ZZ Packer, Benjamin Percy. And for first time, appreciation of Sherman Alexie.
- Susceptible by genevieve castree. Comics memoir of first 18 years. Troubled homelife with mother and her boyfriend, Amere and Amer. Occasional escape to her English-speaking father, Oeuf de tete.
- The Eternaut by Hecter German Oesterheld and Francisco Solanao Lopez. 300+ pages, but strangely like an EC comics Weird Science 8 pager.
- NYer of June 3, 2024. Hannah Goldfield on Hawaiian food in Las Vegas.
- City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter. Ersatz Fine Writing. Insufferably narcissistic main character. Notable lack of humor.
- Foster. This novella has the quiet gravity of a timeless classic.
- Artists Authors Thinkers Directors by Paul Hornschemeier
- Paris Review Spring 2023. Fun poem called "John Wick Is So Tired." Good story by MarieNDiaye called "Irreproachable.
- Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow.
- NYer of 7/22/24. Blade Runner, The Thing, Conan the Barbarian, Tron, The Road Warrior, Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist, and E.T. all came out within an 8 week period during the summer of 1982.
- The Michael Moorcock Library: Elric of Melnibone. Read side-by-side with the original. Nearly every scene is present--some dialogue trimmed along with exposition, but only a tavern scene about the mirror of forgetting is (I think) absent.
- NYer of 7/29/24. "The moon, the ocean--some things never change." Campbell McGrath, "Hummingbirds."
- Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock. It literally says Yrykoon could "make Melibone great again.)
