In this debut novel, Austin Grossman writes of the lives, loves, and traumas of superheroes. The story doesn't take place in the well-worn worlds of Marvel or DC, but the characters are all types (or combinations thereof) recognizable to anyone who knows comics: the near-invulnerable man, the mythological figure, the half-man/half-machine, the feral fighter, and so on. And what would a novel of heroes be without supervillains? The two viewpoint characters are Dr. Impossible, evil mastermind par excellence, and Fatale, a female cyborg with a cloudy past who has been asked to join The Champions, a super-group analogous to the JLA or the Avengers.

This rousing yet thoughtful novel is a beautiful counterpoint between the main characters. On one page the reader encounters Fatale's frustrations over not being able to sit in chairs that won't support her armor, and on the next Dr. Impossible is lamenting his tendency to leave crucial details of his doomsday devices unplanned until the last minute. Grossman plays his characters' agonies straight, exploring the psychology and lives of people set forever apart from the rest of humanity. Serious takes on the world of comics have been done before, in fiction and in comics themselves, but the author brings a deft hand at characterization to the project.

As much as this is a story about super-powered people, it's a story about humans in opposition, forced to live out their lives in circumstances they believe they don't deserve, or in other cases circumstances they believe is their due as the best of society. Grossman's style is economical and transparent, aside from occasional rhetorical flourishes that neatly match the action of the story. This novel will be a thrill for you if you enjoy comics and a fast-paced story that still takes time to explore the lives of its characters.

Cabell Library PS3607.R666 S66 2007

Hank Thompson, protagonist of Charlie Huston's slam-bang neo-noir, has not had an easy life. From a baseball accident that ended a promising career to a car crash that left him unable to drive to the bottles of booze that fill his apartment, this strangely gentle man never really caught a break. He was doing OK, though, until his neighbor left town and gave Hank his cat to watch... and the key hidden at the bottom of the cat's litter box. Various people come looking for the key, and that's when the fun begins.

The novel stands up next to James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia or Scott Smith's A Simple Plan, in both the dark settings and the violence. The seedy world of the characters includes beatings, shootings, robbery, torture, and worse yet. In this environment, it's not a question of whether a good man will go bad, but the manner in which it will happen, and how bad he'll go. Huston's narration and use of the first-person viewpoint is gripping, conveying the thoughts and fears of Hank Thompson very well. The plot twists and turns to some extent, but the action and violence of this story are what will keep you reading until 2 a.m.

Cabell Library PS3608.U855 C38 2004

Robert Dennis Crumb is one of the more singular artistic talents America has ever produced. His deeply weird and unfettered genius gave birth to the underground comix of the 1960s and helped to separate comic books from capes and wish-fulfillment, bringing about the field of alternative comics as we know it. His work, beloved by some, reviled by others, has had a giant impact on comics people, from writers to publishers to editors, and they've all got something to say about the man.

The style and length of these appreciations vary greatly, from Alan Moore's commentary on Crumb's impact on him as a teenager, to the Rev. Ivan Stang's vision of Crumb as trend-evading creator, to Matt Groening's relived glee as a childhood consumer of illicit cartoons. This book makes for a fine, episodic read, the perfect thing to pick up, read some essays, and put it down again for a few days. Whether you enjoy it or not depends on how much you like comics, the history of comics, general weirdness, and the reminiscences of aging hippies about the zany 60s.

Those unfamiliar with Crumb's work should probably be aware that his detractors have labeled much of it as variously depraved, racist, misogynist, and obscene. Crumb's response to such criticisms has typically been to acknowledge and apologize for his flaws. At the same time, he defends his work on the grounds artists often use to defend transgressive works — that censorship is not a good thing, and that artists need to overcome voices of repression.

Cabell Library NC1429.C83 L54 1998

Joseph Epstein's conversational little book is a pleasure to read if you've ever enjoyed looking down your nose at anyone, or if you've ever felt the horror of being looked on by those around you. For that matter, it's a pleasurable read if you enjoy thinking about all the weird tics and quirks displayed by people in their unceasing attempts to prove themselves ever so slightly better than their fellows. Epstein's manner is self-deprecating, but all the same, it's a pleasure to watch his own snobbism at work as he dryly skewers the sensibilities of social climbers everywhere. Almost the epitome of light reading, this book is perfect for the beach, or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Epstein roams through every aspect of life where we check the people around us, judging those below, emulating those above. He touches on clothing (bespoke and otherwise), schools (ivy-laden or state), and home décor (Picasso or pink flamingos). Epstein's life in academia, occasionally mixing and mingling with the tony, has given him perspective to speak on a broad range of society. Whatever his own predilections, he is a compassionate observer of human foibles, whether his own or others'.

Internet Resources HN90.S6 E67 2002eb

Reviewed by Margaret Henderson, Education Services Specialist

American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists is a collection of writings by 25 female naturalists from the 19th and early 20th centuries, with short biographies provided by Marcia Myers Bonta. Bonta discovered these writings while doing biographical research for her Women in the Field: America’s Pioneering Women Naturalists, and she decided that people would enjoy the actual writings as well as biographies.

The biographies are very informative, covering family history, education, how the woman started her work, and a summary of the work done. It is interesting to note the wide variety of backgrounds that led to the love of nature and the urge to write about it. As Katharine Dooris Sharp wrote “She will do it because she was born to do it; because within her is the heaven-imparted kinship with Nature which is the open sesame to that kingdom of delight. But she will do it under difficulties.”

The writings show natural history at its best. Natural history was a popular pursuit during the time these women were alive, so most of the selections are in an easy-to-read style, although the author carefully chose selections and writers who would be interesting. All the selections are characterized by careful descriptions of interesting specimens, plant and animal, or wonderful locations. Many of these meticulous observations are still valid: the song sparrow behavior studied by Margaret Morse Nice, the aphid descriptions of Edith Patch, or the grasses described by Agnes Chase.

Several of the women were concerned about conservation issues before people were aware there was a problem. Susan Fenimore Cooper was warning about the misuse of natural resources in 1850; Margaret Morse Nice decried the destruction of songbird habitat; E. Lucy Braun worked to conserve eastern deciduous forests; and of course Rachel Carson fought against pesticide use.

Each author manages to draw you into her ‘world’. Wasps, aphids, spiders and other insects become quite fascinating. Anna Botsford Comstock wrote about Pantographa limata “... he was as interesting as a harlequin in his vivid costume of black and green. The black face was made grotesque by ten little eyes of assorted sizes, placed in circles, each one shining like an opal. His black legs were adorned at the joints with what a costumer would call ‘slashes’ that revealed a lining of green; on the segment nearest the body the black band was cut into gay points.” You feel the grandeur of forests we will never see again when E. Lucy Braun describes “Mountain magnolia and oil-nut, with here and there a mass of mountain laurel, are grouped with such perfection of design as only the Master Hand could plan. And all between are beds of ferns.” The need to conserve our forests and worry about the environment becomes quite clear. The passion and excitement all these women fell about their chosen subject comes through in all their writings.

Although most names in this book are not well known, some of the women corresponded with well known scientists of their day; Mary Treat corresponded with Charles Darwin about bladderworts, among other things. Others had respected scientists as their mentors; Graceana Lewis was encouraged by John Cassin, Curator of Birds at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. And some became the first female member of various scientific societies; Florence Merriam Bailey was the first woman member of the newly founded American Ornithologists’ Union

In an era when most people think women didn’t do much outside the domestic sphere, it is exciting to realize that there have always been women who like traipsing through the woods and writing about it.

If you enjoy these writings you might also enjoy more modern women afield. Margaret Lowman’s Life in the treetops : adventures of a woman in field biology (Internet Resources QH31.L79 A3 1999eb) and It’s a jungle up there: more tales from the treetops (Internet Resources QH31.L79 A3 2006eb) are excellent. In Search of the Golden Frog by Marty Crump (Cabell Library QL656.C35 C78 2000 Normal Loan) is another good biography of a female field biologist.

Cabell Library QH45.2 .B66 1995 (American Women Afield)
Cabell Library QH26 .B66 1991 Normal Loan (Women in the Field)

Election is elegant, funny, and eminently readable at 200 pages, and it made me want to read more of Tom Perrotta's work. The story is an engrossing stew of angst, backstabbing, politicking, jealousy, ennui, and sex, all set in the midst of a high school election. For various reasons the election turns out to be unusually hotly contested, and readers get to watch the lives of various students, teachers, and parents implode and expand in a variety of colorful ways.

Perrotta's style will quickly draw you into the narrative, and the reader's viewpoint rotates between several different characters. The events look much different, depending on who's talking at any given time, whether it's the overly entitled Tracy Flick or the hapless Mr. M. Among all the electioneering and typical high school drama, there's also a substantial amount of sleeping around and inappropriate relationships, teacher-student and otherwise. Perrotta presents his characters as humans, warts and all, and these entanglements are handled neither with simple finger-wagging nor with Nabokovian glee. This novel also inspired a film adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick.

Cabell Library PS3566.E6948 E43 1998 (novel)
Cabell Media and Reserves DVDs PN1997 .E44 2006 (film)

Charles Schulz is known worldwide as the creator of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and all their other friends who anchored thousands of funny pages from 1950 to 2000. Among all the comics that have come and gone over the years, Schulz's Peanuts has stood the test of time. It was difficult at best to grow up in the United States in this period and not be in contact with Peanuts in some form or another: the comic strip, the television adaptations, the merchandise.

The interviews and appreciations presented in this volume vary in focus and length, ranging from 1956 to 1999 in date and including the exhaustive interview Schulz gave to comics publisher and editor Gary Groth in 1997. They provide remarkable insights into the life of the man behind this amazing American creation. Some are intriguing, some heartwarming, and some confounding. While it is never easy to hear hard things about idols or loved ones, this book displays the great man's strengths and weaknesses. While some interviewers glossed over the rough spots, others stuck doggedly to their guns, particularly Groth in his quest to understand Schulz's relationship with and attitude toward the commercialization of Peanuts.

If you have an abiding fondness for Peanuts or comics in general, you will probably enjoy this book. The details of Schulz's life, from little red-haired girls to his service in WWII, make for fascinating reading, and no one with a heart could fail to enjoy this beloved cartoonist's stories about the genesis and lives of his pen and ink creations.

Cabell Library PN6727.S3 Z4625 2000

Reviewed by Mayra Rivas, member of Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas

Every day many of us get caught up in our own lives and take for granted the rules and rights that we have to live by. Some of us don’t realize how lucky or unlucky we are to live in a day and age where equality between men and women is far better than it was in the past, but is still not perfect. Women’s Rights, edited by Jennifer Curry, goes into extreme depth and detail outlining the history and outcome of women activists all over the world and the laws that they have helped change. The book does not just talk about the right to vote, but also the right to an education, to drive, to claim rape, to choose when to have a child, etc. It involves not just political rights, but also human rights and rights that control the life and body of a woman.

Rights and fights for women differ from country to country. While women were fighting for contraception and abortion rights in the U.S., women were fighting for their own battles in less developed countries. In the end, women all over the world have stepped up to fight for what they believe in.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a universal bill of rights that would essentially equate men and women all over the world. It is referred to constantly in the book. It has been pending for almost thirty years, yet some countries have yet to accept it. Comparisons are made in the book between countries on the pay that women and men get, and on the percentage of women holding office. It talks about the way religion and culture affect women rights. It analyzes the scriptures of Islam and Christianity and the way they are interpreted. It is very informative and provides excerpts from a wide range of sources. Other chapter in the book discuss prostitution and sex trafficking, violence, taboos (and why women are afraid to go to the law once they have been raped or abused), prostitution, sex trafficking and its comparison to under-paid illegal immigrant workers.

Throughout Women’s Rights there are many examples and statistics that deal with the oppression women face everyday. There are even surveys and cultural trends that demonstrate why in many ways men are preferred to women in countries such as China and India. This book is definitely an eye-opener and provides insight to issues being faced all over the world regarding women.

Cabell Library HQ1236 .W65253 2005

Reviewed by Delmy Hernandez, member of Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas

This book is exactly what the title says it is: nine incredible stories about extraordinary women. These aren’t your everyday women who go to work and live life day by day. These women live every day as if it were their last. They go to the extreme and do the unthinkable.

Take Libby Riddles. For many of us, going outside in the cold is a hassle (I know it is for me). For her, it is part of her job. She is a sled dog champion and it is not as easy as telling dogs to mush. Although she is covered in layers upon layers of clothes, she can still feel the freezing whip of the Alaskan wind. Although she competes with many big burly men, it was she who toughed it out and won the Iditarod Sled Dog Race after so many years of male victories. She even treats her dogs with an extra touch of care. It took determination and courage to get to where she is today.

Can you imagine living in a tree? For two years? That is exactly what Julia Butterfly Hill did, another woman who caught my attention and stood out from the rest. Because so many redwoods were being cut down in California to make way for development, there eventually weren’t enough trees to stop an enormous mudslide that cut through a neighborhood. This occurred because the redwoods weren’t there to catch any of the mud. Just a few days later permission was given for another set of redwoods to be cut down. Julia felt that she needed to do something. After looking for support and ways to help, she decided to climb one of the oldest redwoods, 180 feet tall, in protest. Not only would she stay there, but she would live there. She refused to climb down until the life of the redwood, named Luna, would be spared. She encountered much conflict and didn’t receive very much support. She overcame obstacles such as having to shower and use the bathroom at such a high altitude and braving strong winds and the cold in order to show what she believed in. These are only two out of nine amazing women who prove that you have only one life to live!

Cabell Library HQ1410 .M39 2005

Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby is a tour de force among graphic novels, regarded by many comics scholars and aficionados as an instant classic. The story follows Toland Polk, a young white man growing up and coming to terms with his homosexuality in southern Alabama during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. Along the way we meet his friends and family and other members of the town where he was born, each with their own story to tell.

Cruse’s storytelling is sure and restrained, and Toland’s journey is neither caricature nor pity party: he’s a young man with flaws, and you get to see him at his best and his worst. Cruse’s art is a fine example of mature draftsmanship -- reminiscent of R. Crumb’s crosshatching or Thomas Ott’s finely detailed scratchboard style. At the same time, the characters have a rounded, cartoonish quality that’s both amusing and disturbing, which in some way softens the blow when Toland witnesses horrible events, from beatings to knifings to lynchings.

Gay Liberation and the struggle for LGBT rights runs parallel in many respects to the history of the struggle for civil rights for people of all races. Cruse shows this in many ways, from the direct parallels between all the unrest of the 1960s and the gay rights struggles that followed directly on their heels. It's impossible to say when and how gay rights might have developed with the Civil Rights Movement, but as it is, the one owes a great debt to the examples of passion and pride set by the great black leaders of the 1960s, from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Malcolm X.

Cabell Library PN6727.C74 S86 1995

Reviewed by Lillian M. Redd, Library Specialist I

Two hundred and fifty years of internal combustion miasma. Two hundred and fifty years of ingrained forced acceptance of a life of hard labor, broken family ties, lost identity and servitude. Four million enslaved people. Generations upon hopeless generations grievously passing on a culture that flaunted their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

During the Great Depression (1936-1938), the federal government decided to record the remembrances of these older former slaves. As part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), this project became the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives, of which this title depicts the lives of those persons living on plantations in South Carolina.

Before Freedom... is about real people; not just numbers, not just statistics, but true-to-life stories that give us a peek into their everyday lives. Here are day-to-day occurrences and descriptions; some written in dialect, others interpreted by the federal worker to provide clarity.

It’s all here:

Sunrise to sunset labor
Branding of slaves by judiciously tacking on the owner’s surname as their own
Acceptance of physical abuse
Abomination of family separations
Hint of wide-spread slave breeding

Yet, for all those generations who endured the destruction and corruption that was placed upon them, we see a people who were inventive and creative. Their hard scrabble lives showcased their ingenuity while belying a system that was not theirs for gain.

Cabell Library E445.S7 B44 1989

Reviewed by David Folmar, CLUAC Member

The book is a subversive statement in itself, masquerading as a book of graphics about the last great age of illustrated movie posters. It is really an examination of the so-called “Blaxploitation” movies of the 70’s and what they meant to the community of filmmakers then and now. The poster art is beautiful in a way that modern poster art for movies is not. It is heroic and informative and showcases the best of the illustrator's art of the period. The book, however, is so much more. It is a collection of interviews with the artists who made the black movies of 70 and the artwork that helped define them.

The interviewees include stars of the period like Pam Grier, Rudy Ray Moore and Isaac Hayes as well as movie makers like modern creative forces Ice-T, Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino. They educate they reader about how the black movies of the 70’s were both a breakthrough for the black community and a chance for black actors to get work that let them star inside the Hollywood system. They hold that, far from being simply exploitative of the black community, they were part of a film movement that helped a lagging Hollywood system and proved a breakthrough for the black actors of today like Will Smith and Denzel Washington. The movies themselves also gave voice to a community that previously had no voice, and myths to a people who lacked heroes that were not just imitations of established, white-accepted roles for the black community.

Cabell Library PN1995.9.N4 M32 1998

Reviewed by Patricia Selinger, Head of Preservation

It was a tense moment. Sojourner Truth was about to speak at the second Women’s Rights Convention in 1851. Truth had been making many Americans uncomfortable as she spoke publicly of the hypocrisy of democracy when racism and sexism were tearing the country apart. Her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, was published the year before and she had joined an abolitionist speakers bureau. Her supporters secured her a place on the program. As soon as she spoke, ongoing discussions halted. The elegant, privileged white feminist women at the meeting, who thought they could speak authentically for slave women, were quiet. Truth’s life stood in stark contrast to theirs, and she spoke much more persuasively than they could. She called on women who did not want her to speak or join the discussions to face their hypocrisy. She denounced men in the audience for withholding rights from their mothers, sisters, and wives. The question, “Ar’n’t I A Woman” perfectly captured the difference between black and white antebellum women.

Deborah White, a distinguished professor of history at Rutgers University, wrote a concise book on the development of stereotypes of slave women as well the horrors they were forced to face in their daily life. She describes well the issues and differences between slave and free women. While all women of the time were powerless and exploited to a degree, black women experienced an extreme form of persecution. Extensive footnotes authenticate her research and work. White proposed that the female slave trade had little to do with the woman’s ability to work; instead, it had everything to do with physical attractiveness and the black woman’s ability to have children -- children to benefit the slave owner alone. In essence, slave women were little more than sexual objects. White persuasively documents how the stigma persists to modern times. Black women have no era in history where they were respected or held privilege as a class in American society.

Nine years later Sojourner Truth was speaking again, this time on the abolition of slavery. Rumors circulated in the audience that Truth was actually a man posing as a woman. Men demanded that she show her breasts to prove she was a woman. She did, saying that it was to their shame that she did so. At that time, “No” seemed to be the answer to the question “Ar’n’t I A Woman”. White argues that the black woman is still waiting for an affirmative answer.

The text of the speech “Ar’n’t [Ain’t] I A Woman?” can be found online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.html. The book was White’s first publication and won the Letitia Brown Memorial Book Prize.

Cabell Library E 443 .W58 1985

Mortal Love is a fascinating novel that spans the lives of various poets and artists and musicians over a hundred years as they encounter a mysterious woman. For each of them, she ("Larkin Meade" in the present day) is both lover and muse, inspiring in each the most powerful work they will ever produce. Elizabeth Hand's writing is densely sensuous, her words aptly evoking the artistry of her subjects, and almost poetic in its intensity. Many historical figures appear in this work, including some notable Decadents and members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The novel's viewpoint switches repeatedly between characters living at different times. It takes a little while to get used to these changes, and sometimes the thread of the narrative almost passes out of prose and into poetry. That is to say, if you let yourself go and allow the story wash over you, you may find it easier to navigate some of the changes. The story, and the many twists and turns it takes through art, love, madness, folklore, obsession, and mystery are well worth your time.

Cabell Library PS3558.A4619 M67 2004

Yes, The Time Traveler’s Wife is about time travel. And at its center is the love story of Henry, the charismatic time-traveling librarian, and his wife Clare. Yet to categorize this strange, lovely novel as fantasy or romance would be somewhat misleading. It is certainly not a love story of the classic boy-meets-girl variety. Indeed, Henry DeTamble first meets Clare when she is six, and he is nearly middle-aged, swept back in time during one of his involuntary time traveling episodes. Years later (or earlier?), after many travels to Clare’s childhood, they meet again. As Clare’s life progresses in a (normal) linear fashion and Henry flip-flops through time, the narrative leads one to question the ideas of causality, coincidence, destiny, and fate. It all appears to be a Möbius strip, as Clare tells Henry when she finally meets his present-day self; does knowing about the future then cause one to change it?

Despite the time travel episodes and flashbacks, Niffenegger does an excellent job of moving the narrative forward with enough semblance of chronology. Passages are clearly labeled with the dates and the characters’ ages; while initially confusing, one soon learns how to read the organization of the story within the time travel framework. Indeed, much of the beauty of this novel is from the use of this compelling, bizarre context to explore the very ordinary, human themes of love, marriage, and death. Despite some first novel flaws (too long, too much), The Time Traveler’s Wife is a compelling, haunting read worth picking up before the movie arrives in cinemas.

Cabell Library PS3564.I362 T56 2003