Shift by Tim Kring and Dale Peck

Shift by Tim Kring and Dale Peck
978-0307453457
Crown Books

Did LSD kill JFK?  

As far as tag lines go, that is a show stopper.  And, ostensibly, that is the question that Shift, by TV producer Tim Kring and author Dale Peck seeks to answer.  It does, kind of.   As well written and compelling as this novel is, I walked away unsatisfied, confused and unsure of what the authors were attempting.  

A slightly boring upper class graduate student, Chandler Forrestal, is given LSD by a reluctant prostitute, Naz.  Naz, acting under coercion by the CIA, also takes the acid.  The drugs do something to Chandler, giving him extra-sensory abilities and immense physical capabilities.   Chandler and Naz soon cross paths with a vicious CIA agent known only as Melchior, who sees Chandler as his ticket to something else.  Cuba, Timothy Leary, the FBI, former Nazi scientists, Russian spies, high class prostitutes, and the Mafia all get mixed into the sprawling, fragmented narrative.

Hey Look -- It’s Another Scott Pilgrim Review!

So, my sweet husband took me to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for our anniversary.  I would make a pithy comment about the 12th year being “comics” but, for us, every anniversary is the comics anniversary.

So, Scott Pilgrim.  I liked it, I liked it a lot.  But that was pretty much a given.  What’s more surprising is the parts I expected to dislike didn’t bother me so much.  

You see, I love the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.   I also love Edgar Wright.   I like Kieran Culkin, and Brandon Routh and Chris Evans.  I like Beck.  I like video games and 8 bit art.  So, most of this movie is in my wheelhouse.

Royal Historian of Oz #1

Royal Historian of Oz #1
Tommy Kovac and Andy Hirsch
Diamond Comics Order Code 978-1-59362-194-9
Slave Labor Graphics

It is very unusual for me to read a monthly comic.  I am totally a wait-for-the-trades type of girl.  However, when the editor-in-chief puts a comic in your hand, and tells you he thinks you’ll like it, a lady feels an obligation, you know?

In the near future, teen Frank Frizzle has had it with his dad.  Dad’s a writer who is obsessed with becoming the “Royal Historian of Oz” -- the author who continues the legacy of Frank L. Baum by writing new stories.  However, Jasper Frizzle’s Oz stories are terrible, and Frizzle family is in a constant state of near poverty.   However, when Jasper Frizzle discovers a way to travel to Oz, he sees it as his ticket to legitimacy.  So he starts borrowing (a.k.a stealing) people and things from Oz, and brings them to this world for “research”.  This of course attracts attention in Oz, and the powers that be decide to do a little “borrowing” of their own...

Dear DC ...

Please make this --


http://purgetheory.blogspot.com/2010/07/ww-manga-blah-blah.html


-- happen. As a mom and a teen librarian, I'm telling you there is an audience for this book.


Thanks,

The Eternal Ones by Kristen Miller.

The Eternal Ones by Kristen Miller.
Razorbill,  978-1595143082
Release Date: August 10, 2010


Haven Moore has lived her entire life in rural Tennessee.  Ever since she was young, Haven has had visions of a life that was not hers.  As Haven grew, she suppressed the memories of Constance and Ethan, a pair of doomed lovers from turn of the century New York.  When the visions return, Haven is compelled to leave Snopes City and seek out Ethan, who she believes has been reincarnated as a notorious playboy, Iain.  She also seeks the help of the Ouroboros Society, a group dedicated to helping those with memories of past lives.  However, neither Iain or the Society is what it seems, and Haven finds herself on her own, not knowing who to trust.


I am not the target reader for this book.  Star-crossed lovers, meeting across time, fated to relive old patterns -- the whole concept puts me off.  It’s to Miller’s credit that I found this book both engaging and suspenseful.