The Geographer's Library , Jon Fasman. Another book with a dissatisfying resolution, but great writing. Interspersed with the story of a small town reporter's attempt to get the truth about a professor's death are snippets of historical intrigue surrounding a set of objects. The author manages to make the objects themselves mystical and alluring, but the ultimate connection to alchemy seems hurried and unworthy of the lovely layout. Worth picking up for the beauty and potential of the story, more than the ending.

The Losers: Ante Up,  Andy Diggle- this Vertigo title is the one I always want to impulse-buy at the comics shop, and I may have to once I'm caught up with the trades. A solid, action-packed spy/revenge thriller like those I so adored in middle school.

Tunnel Visions, Christopher Ross.  Wonderfully patchy nonfiction that defies a proper genre grouping. Ross roamed the world learning what he wanted and earning enough to get by with a seeming ease that I envy. Tunnel Visions is a set of numbered musings and philosophical inquiries following his training as a member of the London Underground staff. Lots of lovely epigraphs and some wonderfully thought provoking bits.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris.  One that I read some time prior to actually reviewing. I don't usually go for personal essays, or creative non-fiction, as it is, but Sedaris has a way of making the most ordinary or embarrassing incidents amusing or meaningful. The brevity of each piece is another mark to his favor.

 

Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame.  Snagged from the $1 rack, this was good bus stop and interlude reading. Most of the essays are short and amusing, but there's nothing terribly embarrassing until you get to Irvine Welsh (surprised?).

Chicks 'N Chained Males.  Like the rest of this anthology series, its mostly parody and pastiche, but all pretty funny.

Drinking, Smoking and Screwing, Bob Shacochis, Ed. Despite the title, this anthology is extremely literary. Largely comprised of exerpts, most of the attention's given to screwing, with smoking coming in a close second and drinking far behind. Exerpts from Lolita, the diaries of Anais Nin, Fear of Flying, and other well-known works of scandal. The gem of the collection is Mark Twain's essay on cigars, brand snobbery, and how he came into the world asking for a light. Smoking was never writ better.

Girls Who Bite Back, Emily Pohl-Weary, Ed.   A bit of a hit-and-miss as a collection, this is split into equal thirds fiction, comic strip/art, and commentary/criticism.  The blend isn't terribly effectual or cohesive.  As the title suggests, all of the content is loosley linked by the idea of the assertive woman in the media, with specific attention paid to "superheroes" and women of color.  The criticism is lackluster - a few bits on the ever-present Buffy the Vampire Slayer (practically a cult in academia), autobiographical reflections on role models for queer girlhood, and an amusing dialogue between the "first" female videogame characters, from Ms. Pacman to Laura Croft.  The art is hit and miss, and some seems to miss the point of the collection entirely.  But the stories are, by and large, quite good.  Nalo Hopkinson's is head and shoulders above the rest.

McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories. The McSweeney's group has the dubious distinction of being self-consciously hip. They're knowledgeable about obscure disciplines in ways that Star Trek nerds would get beat up and ostracized for in high school, but they're so full of themselves that they get away with it. McSweeney's is academic geekhood with twice the academic ego - they want the literati and the populist audience both. And while they're extraordinarily good at marketing the literate hipster image, I'm not sure they promote their own ideology terribly well.

The Chick is in the Mail,  Esther Friesner.  More rather stupid woman-warrior bus stop reading