In anticipation of the movie "Batman v Superman" I thought I'd check out the Frank Miller Batman comics on which it was loosely based. My hope was to do so before seeing the movie, but a surprise screening at work messed up my timing. Fortunately the movie was pretty bad so I dismissed it and enjoyed the comic independently.

Depictions of Batman in my lifetime have successfully recast the character and rewrote the stories as dark, violent and brooding. So it's easy to forget that when this comic came out it was a revolution from the campy, family-friendly Batman of the old TV show and comics.

The story joins a middle-aged Batman, inspired to return from retirement by increasing crime in Gotham. Since retiring public sentiment has turned against heroes and he faces opposition from police and government, including from Superman who works invisibly for the United States. It's a fun read with lots of moral ambiguity. I'll definitely check out the sequel "The Dark Knight Strikes Again" at some point.

I picked this up at Powell's in Portland as part of my continuing quest to read "classics" which form the basis of many works and even whole genres in modern story-telling. After reading it was pretty obvious that most pirate stories owe quite a bit to Mr. Stevenson.

The book itself is a pretty standard adventure story featuring a young man coming-of-age. It's funny to think of it as "standard" though when it is one of the works that helped set the standard.

Although I liked the book, I wish I had read it when I was younger. In a few contemporary books I've read either the protagonist references Treasure Island as a source of childhood joy or the author of the book mentions it as partial inspiration. I feel like it is a book that is meant to be read first as a child and then returned to as adult and I've forever missed the first half of that equation.

Margaret Atwood is terrifyingly good at writing believable dystopian stories. She calls this "speculative fiction" rather than science fiction. There is always a fairly clear path between the world of today and the one she presents. "The Heart Goes Last" is no exception.

The book takes place in the not-to-distant future and the collapse of the middle class, especially on the east coast and the mid-west is complete. With little to no tax base municipalities lack the ability to provide basic services and crime is rampant. The story follows a couple struggling to survive in this world who are offered the opportunity to join a new walled town where they will be guaranteed a job and a home and everything they need. The only catch is that they, like everyone else in the town, spend every other month in prison. The care and maintenance of the prison and its prisoners drives the economy of the town allowing it to be self-sustaining. Of course there are darker motives behind the people running the experimental town and the main characters are quickly swept up into the intrigue.

The book was a fun, quick read and I can't criticize it too much. However I wish Atwood had spent more time exploring the broken world outside the town and less on the corporate greed and corruption behind it. She can be truly terrifying when depicting humanity's possible future and although the beginning of the book has that quality it quickly devolves into more of an adventure story. That isn't a bad thing, I just wanted more.

Heralded as one of the first great literary "comic books," Maus tells the story of a survivor of the concentration camps during World War II via a series of interviews with his son. The work blurs the lines between memoir, autobiography, biography and historical fiction as it is based on the real experiences of both the author and his father.

Maus later went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and along with "The Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" it was key in raising the profile of the graphic novel in the public mind. Graphic novels can be serious, adult, literary books.

Anyway Maus is a great read, although as one might expect the subject matter is rather heavy. Most of the atrocities we associate with the Nazi "final solution" are touched on but the tone of Vladek, the father, remains fairly positive. He survives using his wits and connections and a considerable amount of luck. He does not minimize the suffering but he also does not wallow in self-pity. I can't imagine living through something like that and coming out even half as well as Vladek does.

This book is important not just as a milestone for graphic novels, but as documentation of the horrors of the second world war and as a reminder to future generations of what can happen when people give in to fear.

At the behest of many many people I finally read The Martian. I saw the movie twice in theatres so there weren't a lot of surprises in the book for me. I think the biggest surprise was how similar it was to the movie. Some people had told me the book is way better, but actually I found them to be pretty similar. That is to say they're both super fun and entertaining.

The coolest thing about the movie (to me) is how well it captures the tone of the book. Everything happening is super serious and tense, but the main character's sense of humour helps smooth it all over. The balance between tension and humour is what makes both the book and movie so enjoyable.

I certainly recommend the book, particularly to enjoy during a relaxing vacation like I did.

Everyone I know who has watched Firefly loves it and despairs at the fact that there isn't more to love. So I was very excited when I found out that Joss Whedon had collaborated with some other writers and illustrators to produce a few graphic novels that add to the Firefly 'verse.

There are four collected volumes under the "Serenity" title released by Dark Horse comics and they're all pretty great. One volume is an adventure set in the same time period as the television series, another bridges the gap between the series and the movie, another provides the back story for Sheppard Book (!!) and the last deals with some of the fallout from the events of the movie.

Of course I am not satisfied and still want more, but that's how I feel about almost everything Joss Whedon does.

Another day, another collection of wonderful stories by Alice Munro. More than other collections this one definitely focuses on romantic relationships under stress and transition, but always in unexpected ways. One of the things I continue to find startling about Munro's work is the way she can destroy the state of a fictional world in just a few short sentences. Everything you thought you knew is torn down and replaced with something else.

In addition to the stories, Dear Life concludes with four semi-autobiographical works. These read very much like her stories but it is implied that they are loosely based on the early years of Munro's life. They're a fascinating look into some of the formative moments of an amazing author.

Ha! I made it! I completed the trip journal for weekend adventures in the second half of 2015 before 2015 was over. Hopefully my blogging in 2016 will be more regular. I doubt it though.

Through the JCCSF's Arts & Ideas series I had the amazing opportunity to hear Neil Gaiman talk earlier this year. The talk was originally scheduled to be in promotion of this book, but the day previous Gaiman's close friend and fellow writer Terry Pratchett passed away and so the talk (moderated by Michael Chabon) focussed more on the late Mr. Prachett. Eventually though the conversation did turn to this little book of excellent short stories.

The idea of listening to an author do a reading from their work has always struck me as a little bit odd. But I must say it was enchanting to hear Neil Gaiman read one of his short stories and even more so to hear him read a section of "Good Omens." Perhaps it was the accent.

Anyway, this book is full of fun and disturbing little stories, many of which are presented in creative and unusual ways. For example the story entitled "Orange" is simply the responses of a person to questioning concerning an unusual incident. The questions are not given, only the answers. It works very well, somehow still building suspense and coming to a climax despite the limitations of the format.

This collection also includes a short Doctor Who story set in the time of the eleventh doctor with companion Amy Pond. I loved the first person perspective from the Doctor's point of view here.

Neil Gaiman is awesome.

My blogging is falling behind, again. But part of the reason is an incredibly busy social calendar. In addition to seeing friends and attending lots of fun movie screenings at work I've been taking a lot of weekend trips this year to see more of the United States. I've written a trip journal for all such trips in the first half of this year. A second trip journal will appear eventually to detail the weekend trips for the second half of the year. Busy busy busy!