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When Dan Kerr was hired to find missing missing heiress Grace, it seemed like this was going to be a pretty straight forward and predictable graphic novel. Was still worth reading, but maybe not a full price purchase. Within a very short few pages I was caught up very nicely in a strange paranormal ghost story. This was great! All of the paranormal scenes were solid and felt strong and creepy, but not trying too hard. The air around a returned spirit is ice cold and can freeze a living human to solid ice. The girl, Grace, is the catalyst for this entire affair. She has some sort of undisclosed power, attracting spirits and somehow allowing a limited control over them. I hate to be a downer on this graphic novel- but unfortunately I cannot avoid it. The entire plot was driven by a very awkward and heavyhanded main character. Kerr was (unsurprisingly) known to be the father of the missing girl. He was largely useless and most every scene he was in was purebluster and testosterone. T...

Nadya Tolokonnikova (Nadya Tolokno) has been in the news for several years as the band femenist punk band Pussy Riot created memorable disruptions. Eventually arrested for Hooliganism while singing Anti-Putin songs, Tolokno was locked up in a long chain of rights crushing prisons. In her book, Tolokno tells a compelling story of how persistance and resistance are unarguably intertwined. Quote: What happens to different things when they are placed in boiling water? - Soft things like eggs become hard. - Hard things like carrots become soft. - Coffee dissolves and permeates everything.. The point of the parable is this: Be like coffee. In prison, I am like coffee. How much more needs to be said about strong vocal women intent on being catalysts of change? Just read this book. Interesting highlights from Read and Riot include - For than 20 quotes I wanted to put in my review before selecting the above - Knowledge that this book was not translated, instead weitten in engl...

Before St. Petersburg, before Leningrad..  Petrograd Russia during the first world war was a hotbed of allied forces, spies, and double agents. With key global forces actively entrenched in frontline combat against the Central Powers, a shift in alliances would have broke the back of the Allies. England catches wind of Russian interest toward brokering peace with Germany. Doing so would take Russia out of the war, diminish ground forces and our world would have a different history.  In Petrograd, the Tzarina is being led successfully toward peace by a frightening but bold Russian Holyman/Charlatan by the name of Rasputin. He is known for his commanding gaze, political prowess, understanding of the common man, and virile but sexually polluted member. Rasputin has England in a fearful corner imagining the upcoming shift in power dynamics. “Murder is the emperor of political action” Over the years I have read a number of smaller articles about the dicey she...

While my wife and I worked on projects in our office, Elizabeth Gilbert was in my ear. She was not eating, praying, or loving- she was documenting personal experience as a creative mind. Gilbert was an audio backdrop that was interesting and kept me attentive while my mind drifted into a media project. At some point I stopped listening and hat to start over while at work. It was a different headspace entriely, but still kept me attentive while I was indepth on product management backlog grooming and maintenance. Interestingly, while I could easily understand the artistic output and correlations of the audiobook, a great deal of this book turned out to be cross discipline. As Gilbert was studiously dictating ideas and concepts that are tied to the creative and artistic processes, I found that the book was easily transportable to the technical realm, which is creative in a different vein. Key phrases stood out as did most anecdotes- such as a quote from her mother advising that ...

Published in 1988, this book tracked the beginning to ‘middle end’ of the Sears story. It is a nice little time capsule. The Author, Donald Katz (Audible Founder/CEO) recently rereleased the book with an updated foreword that touches lightly on the post ‘88 years and changes. At the time of this writing, the Audible version was free to all, even those (such as me) who are not Audible subscribers. At the beginning, Sears had a winning playbook. Stacking its personnel via the loyalty of military servicemen returning home, Sears built a permanent workforce and a brought in nearly 1% of the US national GDP. Through breakdowns in management, distributing regional propriety over all decisions, and ignorant disregard for competition; the market ownership toppled. The Big Store details the cowboy behavior of the Sears management and uses no less than three references to ‘Son-of-a-Bitches’ in the 600 pages. Management success is outlined and measured by the number of open-heart surger...

I am getting very excited for an upcoming non-fiction release, Julian Doyle’s The Monumental Secret of the Crucifiction. The book investigates details and documentation that may lead to an interesting and logical conclusion that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross as is told around the campfire. The shift in perspective to lend credence to medical delusion and purports social chicanery that a major religion bases its core on. With the book release occuring on May 20th, I am hoping to get my grubby reader mitts on a copy. Point of note- Being a huge fan of Monty Python, I can’t say the Julian Doyle’s name was one I remembered. Editor to key films such as The Life of Brian and other TerryG’s Brazil/Time Bandits, I was dar too captured by the cinema to see his name. These films influenced me greatly, so now that the puzzle pieces fit.. ————————— Release Date:  20 th  May 2018 Genre:  Non-Fiction Page Count:  217 Publisher:   Chippenham Bo...

When I picked up an advance copy of this (March 2019 release), I grabbed it purely because my elder spawn would love it. I figured it would be good because Tadd Galusha was the driving artistic force, but I had no expectation it would be something I would be more excited about than my dino obsessed kiddo. Cretaceous is the tale of a Tyrannosaurus Rex family. Mother and Father, hunting, get separated- causing one to be slaughtered. Infant T-Rex stays alive after the annihilation of it’s nest. The remaining T-Rex parent hunts a pack of Albertosaurus Sarcophagus who are stalking the last child The art on this is phenomenal. Wide sweeping two page spreads, unusual (but not overtly artsy) camera angles keep the images interesting. The only text in this book is the occaisional onomatopoeia smacking and crunching through the book.