reviews

Everything's Temporary Author: Katherine Heiny Life is a compilation not only of choices made, but opportunities missed, choices left to go to seed until the option to choose is gone, a collection of mistakes and might-have-beens and should-have-dones. Standard Deviation captures the complexity of all this choosing. It follows the introverted Graham who left his power-suite wife for his chatty and enthusiastic mistress, and is never quite sure that he made the correct decision. While he loves Audra for her quirky freshness – she’s anything but easy to live with. Heiny has a way of taking seriously flawed characters, the quintessence of [...]

The Ultimate Bore: Or How to Draw Like Rob Liefeld Author: Jeph Loeb Illustrators: Joe Madureira and Christian Lichtner After chowing down on Skittles and watching Wonder Woman and Spiderman: Homecoming, I decided it was time to return to the super hero universe . . . and to do so, I had to finish the final Ultimates compendium: Who Killed the Scarlet Witch? The darkness, stiflingly conveyed via 90s grit, has never been my favorite representation of stolid Marvel characters, although the detailed, vibrant artwork rendered by Bryan Hitch has always enhanced the experience. However, the Ultimates 3 collection, which contains the final five volumes of this Ultimates series, is mixing [...]

The Junk that Binds Author: Rachel Hoffman During Lent, last year, I had given-up book purchasing and was suffering the consequences. Imagine how excited I was when my husband, a mischievous glint in his eye, showed up with a surprise for me – a brand new book: Unfuck your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess. While handing the gift over, Trav hopefully said, “you’ll really read it, won’t you!?” My husband is a neat freak for the most part. I am an unrepentant pig. The problem with me is three-fold; 1) I appreciate and enjoy a clean house but it’s just [...]