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Books Previously Recommended by Chris Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest
talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning,
sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited,
and well worth the wait. Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly
successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is
wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a
tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the
American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about? As the story
unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand
this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where
he is. And isn’t. And we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation
Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now
she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened
to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.
In the meantime, we are enthralled by Mazzucchelli’s extraordinarily
imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed
social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory
to the nature of human perception.
The Planets by Dava Sobel Sobel's purpose in this lovely and personal volume is to show us the planets as she sees them. Sobel offers intimate essays inspired by the planets in our solar system, which she describes as "an assortment of magic beans or precious gems in a little private cabinet of wonder—portable, evocative, and swirled in beauty." She frames each essay in a different light, using a particular planet as a stepping stone toward a discussion of larger issues. Her "Jupiter" essay becomes a meditation on astrology, while her essay on the Sun, which relates the actual birth of the universe seemingly ex nihilo, evokes the Genesis account of creation in both its themes and the cadence of its language. Put simply, Sobel's conceits work (even, remarkably, the essay on Mars written from the perspective of a Martian rock) because each beautifully frames its planet. An essay that begins with the story of Sobel's grandmother coming to the United States as an immigrant, for example, sets up the author's musings on the odd nature of Pluto as somewhere in between "planet" and "other." This resonant and eclectic collection—informative, entertaining and poetic—is a joy to read.
Old Man's War by John Scalzi John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.
Stitches by David Smalls This graphic memoir by noted children's book illustrator (and Michigan native) David Small tells a fantastic and heart wrenching coming of age story. Small had a truly awful childhood, with a vindictive and angry mother, a terrifying grandmother and a withdrawn radiologist father who gave him hundreds of x-rays when Small was a kid. Small came out of that childhood, alive yet scarred (physically as well as emotionally), with only one set of vocal cords. The other was removed during a surgery done when he was 14 to remove what he didn't then know was cancer. Luckily, Small had a caring therapist and a drive to be elsewhere, and has since become a well known artist. Small lets his hauntingly minimal images narrate his childhood struggles to both fit in with and escape from an indifferent and frightening adult world. Highly recommended.
Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson At the heart of a brilliant narrative that stretches from Renaissance Italy to the moons of Jupiter is one man, the father of modern science: Galileo Galilei.To the inhabitants of the Jovian moons, Galileo is a revered figure whose actions will influence the subsequent history of the human race. From the summit of their distant future, a charismatic renegade named Ganymede travels to the past to bring Galileo forward in an attempt to alter history and ensure the ascendancy of science over religion. And if that means Galileo must be burned at the stake, so be it.From Galileo's heresy trial to the politics of far-future Jupiter, from the canals of Venice to frozen, mysterious Europa, Robinson illuminates the parallels between a distant past and an even more remote future—in the process celebrating the human spirit and calling into question the convenient truths of our own moment in time.
My Footprint by Jeff Garlin Jeff Garlin shares his hysterical and eye-opening journey to reduce his waistline and his carbon footprint during the production of the seventh season of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Jeff Garlin has dedicated the filming of an entire season of Curb Your Enthusiasm to completely making over his lifestyle in two major ways—by lightening his physical and his ecological footprints. After many false starts, he believes that writing a book about the experiment is the only possible way to help him lose weight and go green. The hardest part of the endeavor is overcoming his food addiction—especially when craft service has a constant buffet of everything delicious you could imagine on set. In addition to cutting calories, Jeff accidentally falls into a love affair with pilates, sweats with Richard Simmons, and twice visits the Pritikin Longevity Center, which he says is "rehab for people who eat too much pizza." Larry David’s rooting for him. Jerry Seinfeld’s plotting against him. And his wife is just plain annoyed by everything. As far as going green, Jeff has always been a big recycler, but he has a lot to learn. For example, actor Ed Begley Jr. is the guy to call if you want to reduce your environmental impact. Jeff does, and it changes everything. He hopes that being healthy and green becomes a big part of who he is—if not now, when? |
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