MADreads

Race, ball

A review of Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm

Satchel Paige: Striking out Jim Crow is a fast read (less than 90 pages) which is more a story of the segregated South than a biography of Satchel Paige. The author, UW-Madison alumnus James Sturm, throws a curveball ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on August 19, 2008 | 0 comments

Read: Black and White

A review of Tekkon Kinkreet by Taiyo Matsumoto

The 2008 Eisner Awards (the "Oscars" of comics) were announced last week at the San Diego Comic-Con. The winner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan is ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on August 6, 2008 | 2 comments

The perfect number is lonely

A review of 5 is the Perfect Number by Igort

I caught an earworm tonight. It is Harry Nilsson's golden oldie, One ("is the loneliest number") as sung by Aimee Mann. You know, her cover featured in the film ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on July 21, 2008 | 1 comment

Vegetarian, vampire?

A review of Life Sucks by Jessica Abel

Life Sucks provides a funny spin on the seemingly endless spate of vampire fiction. At least, this was my first encounter with a vegan-wannabe vampire slacker ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on June 6, 2008 | 0 comments

Walking wounded

A review of Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan

Set in contemporary Tel Aviv, Rutu Modan's Exit Wounds is ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on May 21, 2008 | 0 comments

Healing journey

A review of Gone Boy by Gregory Gibson

April 16, 2008 marked the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, which ended with 33 people dead (32 murders and one suicide). The intervening year has seen other school shootings, although thankfully not with the body count suffered in Virginia. If you've struggled like everyone else to understand and make sense of it, then read on. Gregory Gibson's ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on April 23, 2008 | 3 comments

Fabulous stories from the father of the comic strip

A review of Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips by Rodolphe Topffer

"You can write stories with chapters, lines, words: that's the actual literature. You can write stories with a succession of graphic scenes: that's printed literature. You can also do neither one nor the other, and sometimes that's the best!" UCLA Art History professor David Kunzle has assembled, translated and annotated the ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on February 25, 2008 | 0 comments

Small fish, big story

A review of The Most Important Fish in the Sea by H. Bruce Franklin

A species of little fishes which I had never heard of before is the subject of a fascinating new book. Rutgers English professor H. Bruce Franklin, an enthusiastic saltwater angler, sounds an eye-opening environmental alarm in ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on November 29, 2007 | 0 comments

Escaping a dragon

A review of Dragonslippers by Rosalind B Penfold

Dragonslippers: This is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like by Rosalind B. Penfold is a beautifully rendered, painful-to-read graphic novel. Rosalind Penfold was a successful businesswoman who fell in love with the man of her dreams --who also turned out to be a ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on November 7, 2007 | 0 comments

Mother goose (and father goose too)

A review of The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich

The honking of migrating Canada geese is the sound of autumn in this part of the country. As flock after flock passes by overhead, it is easy to think of the birds as having a collective identity. The Geese of Beaver Bog by ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on November 3, 2007 | 0 comments