Air Guitar by Dave Hickey

Air Guitar

by Dave Hickey

10 Words: A challenging read forcing one to think more about art. 

     This book was read as apart of my summer of art project. I have been joining people all over the world in participating in art assignments given to us by a mixture of artists. We are reading this book in order to expand our mind and think about art a bit more fully. The full review has been posted on the blog I have created for that project. It can be found here.  

Walking Contradiction By Nancy Jane Moore

Walking Contradiction

 By Nancy Jane Moore

10 Words: Future worlds, Future worries. All based off current problems extended.

     Walking Contradiction is a collection of seven short stories. Each story is set in some time along the Earth's future. All the stories are self contained, but I do think a few of them are directly related. It also feels like its possible that they all are related.
     The stories talk about the consequences of the actions of present day people living on earth, the way we have treated natural resources, the way we are often at war.  They expand and explore the direction our actions could take us, and show a not too hopeful future, yet for the most part it is one that is trying to redeem itself.
     My favorite of the stories happens to be the first one, the one the book is named for. Walking Contradiction. The main character of the story is a detective, what makes them different is that they are niver male or female. They are Ambigendered, a person who has both sets of working sexual equipment (thats the way the story explains it). She is asked to investigate a group who are called The True Virgins, a group who chose to remove their gender completely. It makes for an interesting contrast and comparison story when a person who has embraced both genders is forced to face the ideas of a person who has chosen to move beyond gender. The disgust she feels over the idea that these people would want to creat an artifical way of reproducing themselves.
   

The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World Comics, By: Robert Jordan, Chuck Dixon & Chase Conley.

The Wheel of Time

The Eye of the World Comics

By: Robert Jordan, Chuck Dixon & Chase Conley

10 words: Epic story meets stunning visuals, worth the read... or re-read. 

Wheel of Time was a large part of my high school years, along with The sword of Truth, (and Harry Potter...). The sad part is that my interest in following the epic long book series (14 books...) ended way before the books came to a conclusion (the last one being released last year).  The last one I read when it was released was new Spring... and I think I only got as wad as the path of Daggers... though I am not completely sure... to be honest I started getting tired and frustrated with the series and started to feel that a lot of words were used to describe nothing happening... 

That was years ago, and I still believe that there was something important being told by the series, as well as something to it that I enjoyed. That was why when the first book came up as a comic apart of the Humble Dynamite 10th Anniversary Bundle I felt like it would be a good use of $15. 

The Comic did not disappoint me. It told the first story of the series very well, showing the events in a beautiful way. At the start I had a bit of trouble telling which boy was which, but I feel that was intentional... we are confused the way the dark one is confused. The looks of the Three Rivers boys are so similar, that its there actions that distinguish each boy from each other. Making them the person they are more than the way they look. 

Book one doesn't explain itself, it doesn't have any problems with tossing you into the confusing world of Andor. It keeps you, the reader as in the dark about the situation the characters are in as the main characters are themselves. This feels right to me, the characters are seeing the world they live in for the first time and we are as well through there eyes. There is no pre-required knowledge to this story and it doesn't attempt to throw that at you in any way. You never feel like you are missing something, or that things are being over explained it has a good balance. The Comics follow this balance, with the added benefit of being able to show you and not having to tell you things. Like the differences between the different towns or grand places they travel to. 

The Wheel of Time is an Epic read, 14 books in total. I have added them to the giant list of things I wish to read (which seems to increase every two weeks or so when new Humble Book Bundles come out...), but its definitely one I suggest at least book one is (I do kinda remember it not keeping its pace well... but we will see how it goes as I read the next book). Also if you feel like reading a story in a different kind of way, this comic does the book justice.  

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved 

by Toni Morrison

Read as Apart of Crash Course Literature 

10 Words: Dark actions stemming from dark actions, consequences will always haunt.

     Beloved is the story of an African American Lady named Sethe who escaped slavery. Adventualy though  her masters found her and her children, in an attempt to protect them from being returned to life as a slave - which she felt was no life at all -  Sethe attempted to kill her children, and actually managed to killed her 2-year old daughter. 

     This act meant that there was always a missing place felt in the home. Her sons never forgot the fear she felt of the slavers and the fear they felt of her and so as soon as they were able they left the home. They all feel that a ghost of that child lives with them in their home. 

     This story goes on to express the way those surviving this event, and there past as a slave do the best they can do to honor the past but to continue onto a new life as time moves on. 

   This book shows the pain and mental trouble someone who is treated as the slaves were treated goes through. It shows the love that a mother can have, and the pain she went through to keep her children safe from the worst possible life she can imagine. The book  is doing its best to show us how the unstable lives slave had took a toll on the people that lived them. 

Maze by J. M. McDermott

Maze

By: J.M McDermott

10 Words: Lost, Confused, and Wondering. The end is never in sight.... 

... and I mean that for both the reader as well as the characters. This book really didn't make sense to me. It jumped between the lives of different people as they just tried to survive in a strange and confusing place that those living in know as The Maze. The stories reflect different events that happen over many different years in the maze. 

     The book is built strangely, and is non cathartic, which is a complicated thing to attempt to do... but left me lost reading the story and I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it, if it wasn't for my determination to give it the best try I could because I was given it for free. 

     Yet given that the story doesn't make sense the writing is well done, the world described well and you can see that things are happening, that the world exists and that there is something strange but important going on here... its just disappointing that you are never really able to tell what that is... 

     

Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker by Ed Piskor

Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker

by Ed Piskor

10 Words: One mans entertainment is crossing lines that aren't exactly illegal... 

    Wizzywig is a Graphic Novel that follows the life of Keven Phenicle, a really smart kid that goes from hacking phones to phone companies and computers.  Keven is a smart kid who likes to sort out puzzles, this leads to him learning to look at the world in a way that everything is a type of puzzle, and he has the idea that if the actions you are taking benefit more people than it harms that its not bad. This way of seeing the world leads to him selling bootlegged computer games (which accidentally infects computers with a virus he didn't intend to create) and hacking the phone company so that there clocks are inverse (and saving people money for calling during peak hours). He exists at a time where his actions with computers and phones are unexpected, new and no one has a way of defending or expecting the actions he takes. He's not doing anything that is really illegal because no one knows what he is doing... or how.
     This means that the law is not ready for him when he does get caught, and he gets trapped behind everyones angar and expatiations of repayment. He also gets stuck not being able to find a place in the world that will take advantage of the way he thinks or his abilities.
     Was (is ) Keven a real person? Thats what this book had me thinking the whole time I read it. I think (from reading the afterword) that the events and actions he took are based on the feats of a bunch of different hackers combined into one fictional man. Though in a way it feels like they all fit, like the story is very much possible... though I am not impressed with the idea a man could be locked up in prison for 5 years without his trial... thats scary to me. 

     This is an interesting story and a well made graphic novel. If you like graphic novels its definitely a good one to read, especially since this book can currently (June 3 and the next 8 days) be bought in the Pay as You Want section of the current Humble eBook Bundle. If you like reading e-books I suggest you check it out, its a great way of getting books. 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

By: Katherine Boo

10 Words: Look into life that is so unreal it feel fictional.

     The most important part of this book felt like it was the thank you section at the end. This to me was so extremely important because it make the book real. The events real. When reading the main part of the book itself the whole thing felt like fiction... like it was a story... that life couldn't really be like that... how could anyone value others so little, how can anyone be so envious or willing to walk all over those around them who are in a situation that is no better than their own... 

    This book is a collection of stories of the lives that were being lived by the poorest people in a town that the world believed to be modern, productive and prosperous. The stories are real, they are the stories collected by the author over three years. She has done what I felt was a valid job at showing me, a White Girl from Canada, the lives of those a world away. 

   The stories felt so unreal, they show strength and creativity. They show kids forced into doing whatever work they can just so that there families can sustain themselves. The stories show the internal struggle over attempting to do what one believes to be the right thing - (such and not becoming a thief) - when the world rewards those who do it. The stories make you appreciate a world where you can trust in those outside, that you can trust the police to do what they are expected, and the biggest problem you have is that you are making minimum wage at a crappy service job... while attending University.

P.S
     So I have a few more thoughts based on what John Green says to keep in mind in his vlog last friday, He talks about luck and how we don't really attribute it to situations but I don't really agree with the weight he is giving luck. I don't like luck, I believe that a single person has a lot more control over the outcome of a situation than the idea of Luck allows for.  Its not Lucky when a publisher likes your book, the publisher likes a book because they have learnt how to read and recognize a well written work as well as understanding what the potential customer base for that peace is and they understand that if they published it they are likely to make money from it. This isn't luck, there might be some luck in the first book but that's not the case for this book (or a book written by John Green which he might be referring too because he is being humble).
     I don't think that luck is really apart of this book, or the lives of these people. They all make choices, take actions that affect themselves and their community.  It wasn't bad luck that got Adul and his father in trouble, it was the actions of his Father, His Sister, Fatima and him that got him there... along with a corrupt justice system...
     The Idea of Luck bothers me, One's actions creates a situation, they can then respond to that situation to the best of their ability or not. The results is not Lucky... the result just is.