Computers are not the only thing I am interested in. Not by a long shot. I have so many interests and hobbies that I haven’t yet mentioned on this blog. One of my interests is music. Some of you know I am a musician. I play bass in a local band. I have played guitar for more than 20 years. I love music. One style of music that has been a strong influence is the blues. Not only modern stuff like post-British-Invasion bands, but the old stuff, too. I also enjoy comics and manga and I’ve reviewed several titles that combine these with educational topics.
Legends of the Blues is filled with 100 one page biographies of blues musicians. The artists in the book were chosen by the author, William Stout, because he both loves their music and because he thought it would be fun to draw a picture of each of them. And draw he does! Stout calls on the style of R. Crumb as he creates beautiful portraits of each artist. Part of the process of selecting artists was that Stout had seen an older book by Abrams titled R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jass & Country. Stout tried not to repeat any of the artists from Crumb’s book, but in the end there were a couple he loved too much to leave out of his own book.
So, to the point. Who is in here? There are tons of big names you should recognize like Bessie Smith, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Blind Willie Johnson. There are also some less-well-known artists who music really deserves to be better known, people like Cow Cow Davenport and Big Joe Williams.
Each biography in the book lists the artist’s main instruments, when and where they were born and died, and some recommended tracks along with a one page synopsis of their place in the history of the blues. Each one is interesting and worth reading. Then, on the facing page, you have a beautiful portrait of the artist being discussed. Very cool.
That would be enough for me to give this book a recommendation.
There is a bonus that I did not expect and appreciate greatly. Accompanying the book is a CD of 14 songs chosen by William Stout. The CD is titled “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” and is an eclectic mix of traditional blues from both the juke joint and the Gospel sides. This CD includes several songs I have not heard before and did not have in my library, but which will be in regular rotation in my play lists from now on.
If you like blues, this book is worth the price of admission.
I live in the United States of America. It is an election year. The election is next month. The atmosphere is charged with political conversation and rhetoric. Some of it is based on knowledge. Some of it is based on fancy. Some of it is so obviously false that it is stunning that the speaker/writer believes that anyone will buy in to what is being said/written. On many occasions it is obvious that too many people have no understanding of economics, how an economy works, or even basic history. This book weaves all three together beautifully.
Economix: How Our Economy Works provides an up to date, well researched, well presented, and detailed look at the economy. The book presents multiple economic theories clearly and with a flair that is hard to describe but which will thrill all but the most dry-textbook-loving reader. It is a comic that is also a better textbook than most I have read, especially for people who do not already know the history of Western economic thought. Ever wonder what differentiates a free market from a controlled market? What has historically caused economies to grow or shrink? Why government spending, inflation, and interest rates matter and how each can affect an economy? This is the book to get you started.
As a bonus, you will also learn what differentiates capitalism from socialism from communism and other systems, what has influenced each, and what is driving and influencing the current worldwide and U.S. political and economic climates. Want to understand the basic ideas of the big and influential people in economic theory like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, or John Maynard Keynes or maybe the basic ideas that drive past and present Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Bank like Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke? This book will give you enough detail to help you understand the theoretical underpinnings of their policies and recommendations and it does so in a way that my (admittedly really smart) 10 year old can understand most of it.
If you ever mention the economy, but don’t really know with certainty what you are talking about, read this book. If you hear people being called “socialist” or “fascist” and wonder what that means, read this book. If you have heard of oligarchies and monopolies and don’t really know what they are or why they would matter, read this book. If you only read one book on the economy, read this one. Yeah, I’m recommending it that strongly. I got my copy for free, and I’m thinking of giving it away so that I can go pay for one and help support the author so that the book stays in print and finds a wider audience.
Oh, and the comic art is quite good, too, but suddenly that seems anticlimactic. Too bad, because that really isn’t fair to the artist, who is quite talented in his own right.
It has again been a while since I have reviewed a manga book. This is one of several atypical educational books that use graphic art to help teach difficult concepts or illustrate the action and another wonderful entry in the “Manga Guide to…” series that I have been reviewing.
The Manga Guide to Relativity follows the actions of a high school class president who steps in to save the rest of the students at the school who were being threatened by the school headmaster with a punishment for their lack of scholastic success. To save them, the brave student leader agrees to take a special summer course on relativity and write a report for the headmaster. The student doesn’t know what relativity is, but a kind and attractive teacher volunteers to teach him all about it. The story line is okay, but not as good as some of the other stories in the series. However, it still succeeds in its main task of easing the reader into the topic.
The book covers all the main questions and topics you would expect such as the definition of relativity, the Urashima Effect (where times slows down as speed approaches the speed of light), mass and the contraction of length (again, as speed approaches the speed of light),and the difference between Special Relativity and General Relativity. Each chapter contains a manga section with an introduction to and discussion of the topic. This is followed in each chapter by a more detailed and technical section filled with equations and deeper explorations of the chapter’s subject.
I’ve studied physics, and although I am rusty, I believe the book is accurate and it is quite clear. The story created to assist with that presentation is kind of silly, but does fulfill its mission of making a difficult topic a bit more approachable and the science communicated in both the manga and the technical sections is clear and well expressed.
My kids are too young to really understand all of the details of the topics covered in this series, but they continue to read the books with great interest. Most of the science is above the grade level even of my oldest (age 9), but their attention remains fixed on the art and the story and the kids are absorbing some of it as they read.
Overall, I would say the book is a success and recommend it without reservation for anyone wanting an accessible introduction to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and how it changed our understanding of physics.
I had very high hopes for this official history of a well respected world leader. The publisher, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. sent me a review copy last fall and I was immediately impressed with the artwork. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as impressed with the writing.
The history contained in the book is accurate to the best of my knowledge, and Mandela’s life is certainly interesting enough for me to force my way through reading the entire book, but the narrative style is dull and unsuited to the graphic novel format, where one could tell the story much more effectively using images and dialogue instead of treating the artwork as mere illustrations to accompany walls of text.
The bottom line here is that if you are looking for a biography of Nelson Mandela that has good information and nice illustrations, this book is worth your time. If you are looking for a quality graphic novel, using the criteria generally considered for rating items in that format, you will be disappointed. The quality of the art is better than adequate, good even, but the failure to truly adapt the narrative style to the format being used was disappointing. I am glad I read the book for the history it contains, but I ended up giving my copy away after I read it as it is highly unlikely I would read it twice.
I first read about this graphic novel adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic book about a month ago. I was immediately intrigued. The original book is one of my all time favorites and I wanted to see if a graphic adaptation could do it justice. In short: it does.
Tim Hamilton and the folks at Hill and Wang, with the blessing of Ray Bradbury, who writes the introduction to the book, have produces a beautiful and well crafted retelling of the classic story that is both true to the original and able to stand on its own.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Guy Montag is a fireman, only in his world firemen don’t put out fires, they start them. Books are banned and are the target of the firemen’s activity. One day, Montag meets a person who intrigues him with her joie de vivre. He has never met anyone so alive and vibrant and he wonders why. He also begins to look at his own life and realizes he is not happy, that there is something missing. The rest of the tale revolves around his struggle to find meaning in a sterile, inoffensive world where everything is brought down to a common denominator of homogeneous agreeability. I won’t spoil your enjoyment by revealing more than that.
Those of us who know the story well will note a few details are missing from this adaptation. Like when a movie is made, in this graphic novel it appears that some details of the written story were sacrificed to enable a cleaner telling in the new medium. Again, to avoid spoilers I won’t mention here what has been left out, but I will say that the overall structure and message remain intact and the story does not suffer from the loss. Instead, those who move from this as an initial taste will find the book richer and even more enjoyable.
What about the artwork? That is the main point here, isn’t it? I loved it. The artist chose a wonderful style to convey the emotion and action that is reminiscent of the minimalism of 1940s propaganda art, with a limited color palate on each page and just enough detail to convey the main point. Please don’t read that to mean the art is simple or simplistic. On the contrary, Hamilton does an amazing job of choosing which details are most important and distilling the scenes down to only those which further the plot, emotion, or scene. Extraneous information is nowhere to be seen. That can only be by design and due to the disciplined intent of the artist. Detail that is useful is everywhere, and throughout the book the art complements the text beautifully while taking nothing away from it. That is an achievement.
I confess, I am a reader. I always have several books being read concurrently, stashed here and there for convenience. Fahrenheit 451 is a book I have read several times and which I love. I admit there was some trepidation when I heard about it being adapted into a new form. In this case, none was needed. I am not only pleased by the quality of the graphic novelization, but happy to recommend it. In fact, this makes me want to request a few other classic novels to be adapted, not as replacements, but as introductions to whet the appetites of the curious in the hopes of satisfying their initial curiosity about the works as well as convince some who might not otherwise to delve in and read the originals. Now, I wonder where I put the publisher’s email address?