I’m still not quite sure what to make of Black Dossier. I’m happy to see more LoEG, and pleased that where the comic is interrupted with diaries, books, and travel guides, these are not the same somewhat-dull walls of text that rounded out volume two. The majority of them are fascinating and entertaining, and bring much more life to the League’s history than vol. 2 did. My favorite was the recounting of how Mina got Nemo to agree to joining the League.

However, I’m missing the old league members (Nemo and Hyde seemed so much more interesting than Allan and sometimes even Mina). It also feels like we’ve missed out on so many amazing adventures, which we get to hear about secondhand through the diaries, comics, and book-segments. Moreover, I was not in love with the plot. Allan and Mina basically steal the Black Dossier, a series of documents that outline the history of the League and the generations who have served in it (before and after Mina’s League). What follows is a long chase story that involves James Bond, Bulldog Drummond, and the remnants of an Orwellian government. For a series that can be so smart, this plot seemed rather blah – I felt like this was mostly an excuse to give us League history and less about Mina and Allan’s latest adventure.

If you’ve read all of vol. 1 and 2, there are lots of references and visuals that you will get, and be pleased that you get them… just expect to spend a lot of time poring over the book. While this volume has skads of references to other literature and films, it’s become just as much a self-referential piece. The artwork is, as always, amazing. And that brings me to another thing… expect lots of sex and nudity. But shouldn’t you expect that from any work that includes a Tijuana Bible? Particularly an Orwell-inspired one? The 3-D section worked surprisingly well.

The League is back, newly formed (sort of… if you’ve read the last three books, particularly The Black Dossier, you know about this version of the League already) and it’s ready to defend London. Expect to need to sit down with a wiki after you read this (at least I did) to get all the characters and references. If you’re a LoEG fan already, that shouldn’t be new! Nemo’s daughter, Janni, really makes the story, with her departure from Lincoln Island and transformation working in the Cuttlefish Hotel. I had not expected to dislike Orlando so much, particularly after his/her feature in The Black Dossier made me so much more curious about this character.

The artwork, as always, is awesome. I felt like the story was somewhat lacking, though I felt the same way about The Black Dossier. The last book was a quick chase, with frequent and lengthy interruptions of the League’s history. Moore seems to resist the urge in this volume, with a rather short entry at the end called “Minions of the Moon,” which explores the League’s future. I’m really curious to see more of this iteration of the League, but it sounds like I’ll be disappointed, based on Moore’s plans for the next two volumes. I suppose, in a way, I’ve always been more interested in the other members of the League and less so in Allan and Mina.

Yay! I’m so glad the second Jellaby finally came out. Portia, Jason, and Jellaby come closer to finding out where Jellaby is from, while Portia gets a chance maybe to confront her father, who has been missing for years but seems mysteriously connected to Jellaby’s appearance. There’s monsters, there’s talking pigeons, and lots of carrots!

This was a fast-paced volume and it was over before I knew it. I really like how Soo shows Portia’s strengths and weaknesses… she’s so strong, but she’s also a young girl who’s missing her father and has trouble really keeping friends and letting them get close. Xolotl’s story (read the book to find out more!) is also sad, and it leaves me with a lot of questions. I have to think there will be another volume, to reveal more about the masked figure, Jellaby’s history, and Portia’s father, but the way this was ended made me almost think that this was it. I really really really hope that’s not the case! I would’ve also liked more Jason… because Jason is sweet and funny, and there’s obviously something going on there with his connection to Xolotl.

So… more please!

On a tiny note, Kean Soo’s note about the Food pavilion was hilarious.

It’s hard to explain just how awesome this series is or how much it makes you want to move to Canada. Well, maybe that second part is just me. Besides having the super awesome (I need another word besides awesome) characters and hilarious plot, this volume has one of Ramona’s evil exes, who has vegan powers. There’s a bargain store that makes people go blind with the sheer amount of deals. Ramona and one of Scott’s exes have an extreme fight using a giant hammer. And Wallace Wells cemented himself as one of my favorite characters when he forced Scott to listen to the sound of sizzling bacon to prove that everything does not suck. These books need to be read… and they need to be read by you!

“The Cracked Mirror” picks up where “The Hollow People” left off, with teenager Dante Cazabon, recently escaped from the asylum island where he and his friend Bea grew up, realizing his potential to tap into the Odyllic Force, a power to act outside of time and dreams. The country is controlled by the possessed Dr. Sigmundus, who rules citizens through drug-induced mind-control. The story opens with Dante searching for Bea and trying to reunite with the Puca, a group of freedom fighters. The narrative switches between Dante, Bea (who has been brainwashed and is now working at a museum dedicated to Sigmundus), and new character Nyro. Along the way, Dante discovers new powers and learns that he has a guardian angel and a long-lost twin brother, the evil Gallowglass.

The first book in the series, which seemed to borrow from “The Matrix” and Lois Lowry’s “The Giver,” showed some promise. However, this sequel is sloppy and has little appeal. This book is a classic case of being told, not shown, through below-average dialog and convenient plot devices. Characters are quickly introduced and go out of their way to assist Dante and Bea without any cause. It’s almost impossible to become emotionally invested in Dante because he is such a flat character. The chapters focused on Bea, Nyro, and Gallowglass have a bit more drive, but not enough to justify continuing this series. There’s another cliff-hanger ending, which might throw readers, but will most likely not encourage them to read the next book.

Okay, I’m a Neil Gaiman nut, but it took me ages to read American Gods. And I think the book was overhyped to me. It really didn’t have the same appeal that Sandman did. Maybe part of my problem was listening to the audio version, which did not have great sound quality and the narrator was really awkward. He sounded like he should be reading with a corncob pipe in his mouth, which is fine for characters like Wednesday, Czernobog, and Hinzelmann, but terrible for Laura and makes it sound like your grandfather is reading you a lot of strange sex scenes. Blerg! On top of that, I really didn’t care for Shadow or for the in-between stories about how the gods came to inhabit America. The pace was just too slow and ponderous for me. Perhaps that’s what comes from reading too many comic books? :P

When I was in grad school, I signed up for a class called Death and Literature. The description sounded awesome and I was being a bit morbid. What it turned out to be was a philosophy class in literature class clothing, which resulted in me reading Heidegger for weeks at a time, only occasionally broken up by “She” or “Dracula.” The few moments of awesomeness did not make up for the fact that I was dragged through “Being and Time.” And that’s what reading “Street Gang” is like.

This is not a complete history of Sesame Street. This is a slog through the personal histories of several of the key players who created Sesame Street: Joan Ganz Cooney, Jon Stone, David Connell, Sam Gibbon, and Jim Henson. And when I saw histories, I mean you learn about their parents’ upbringing, their upbringing, schooling, weird relationships, everything! This book is hyper-detailed, bogging it down. What isn’t about family history is about how the show got funded, which has the potential to be interesting if we weren’t forced to walk through every step of the process. And, of course, we do. You finally get to the genesis of the show and its characters and stories in Chapter 12… so if you want just that, skip to page 166.

To finish my complaint on the book’s completeness, it skims a fair amount of the 1980s (compared to the detail of earlier chapters) and gives very little info on the mid-1990s and beyond. This is probably because management changed at the CTW and Davis does not fawn over these people. Elmo is the most-covered subject during this time period.

I’d also have to say that the writing structure is incredibly awkward. Readers are flung forward and backward and forward again in time within the span of a few paragraphs, all usually to tell a story that usually doesn’t need telling. Like did I need to know that Cooney’s personal assistant attended her abusive ex-husband’s funeral for her, so she could report back to her boss on how it went? Or should the moment Jane Henson steps forward to speak and Jim Henson’s funeral really be the time Davis first brings up that they had had marital problems?

That’s not to say that there aren’t fascinating stories about Sesame Street, its creation, and its creators. The book is full of them, but you have to be patient and dig around to get them, and I’m not sure it’s really worth your time. You do gain an appreciation for how ground-breaking this series was and still is. You also wonder if maybe it was a requirement that you have a terminal illness in your future, as much of the end of the book is dedicated to all the contributors to the show who died of cancer, AIDs, or other diseases. It’s kind of frightening how many people involved in the show have died.

I can’t say that I really recommend this book. Mostly, I recommend the middle of this book. Unless you’re looking for a history and finances lesson, with some Muppets thrown in for good measure.

I don’t even know what to say for this volume. I read it at work as quickly as I could, sneaking off to my desk to cry a little. This volume is heart-breaking, sad, sweet, a little funny, and wonderful. The retelling of the banquet myth sheds more light on the family curse. It’s hard to say anything else about the story without giving so much away. I will say that Hana-chan and Uo-chan get to shine in this story, even with relatively small parts.

Just… go and read this… now.

In this volume, we learn some history about William’s parents, see some of the aftermath of his and Emma meeting at his engagement party, a series of letters between Emma and William, and we meet Eleanor’s parents.

Ack, this is getting so good! Or it was good already, and I’m just getting more excited. Emma is changed after her trip to England, and the whole house seems to be involved one way or another. It sounds like there are a lot of Hans fans out there, and I don’t get it. But I do love Dorothea and her husband. Dramatic! Heh heh! But as Mori puts it in the afterward, we’re just waiting until the rich boy does something… and I want William to get on with it! I do like Emma coming out of her shell, though. And putting out fires.

By the by, the description of the book on GoodReads and Amazon is for the wrong volume. And it’s a spoiler. Boo!

First, I am a Tori Amos fan. I grew up listening to her and she’s always been one of my favorite artists. As someone who’s also a Sandman nut and enjoyed Tori’s appearances in those stories, I had some high expectations for this collection. And I did not like this book.

This felt too scattered. I don’t think many of the stories were well-told… I would’ve rather that a few songs had been cherry-picked for this book, and then given more depth. It’s all very pretty to look at, for the most part, and there are some good stories mixed in there. But they really begin to blur, even when I tried to space out reading the book. I didn’t care about the majority of the stories, and several felt very conventional and basic (Precious Things, Beauty of Speed, or Siren for example). Some explore the stories within the songs, and others just go for surface meaning (Boo to Bouncing Off Clouds!). And others are just plain confusing (Toast, Sugar, Leather, Ribbons Undone).

Stories I liked were Take To The Sky, Little Amsterdam, The Waitress (this is a great example of a story that actually took some time to be told and it worked out for the better), Winter, Baker Baker, I Can’t See New York, and Cornflake Cirl. Pandora’s Aquarium was one of the funnier, more literal translations of a song and its goofiness worked.

And cheers for Paul Maybury’s story for Crucify. A personal story with the song as background really worked… at least to me!