Reviews and Comments

This book started to concern me when it said that Marxism would be pro-zombie as it would view them as the proletariat -- which is ridiculous, zombies don't own the means of production, they're a plague on the workers.

It lost me completely when it started showed a picture of a woman in a miniskirt, holding a zombie head on a spike while talking on a cellphone and feeding fast food to a five year old, with the caption "Debates about whether women can “have it all” are likely to persist during the apocalypse." And keeps going with a chapter that talks shit about feminism. (See the quotes to the side for details.)

Fuck this book. Aborted.

Suckered again buying a book at 2 am because all the reviews gave it 4 or 5 stars. Gah.

The protagonist isn't so much a character as she is a bundle of complaints. The idea of "ghosts" and the callback to a pre-apocalyptic world with a supersoldier is never really credible, particularly the science gadgets the ghost has, and the ending is ridiculous.

Empowered goes in for a board review and debrief of her activities in Volume 8. And has a really shit day, as her activities have made her a villain magnet, resulting in her having to take down multiple opponents or play them off against each other.

Empowered is one of those comic books that just shouldn't be as good as it is. There's a depth to it which makes it believable and fascinating even when not in the middle of a punch up, and while the characters are intentionally ridiculous, the situations (and how Emp gets out of them) are better thought out than 90% of the "straight" comic books you'd find.

I have to say that this is not a book, or even a series of vignettes. It's more like someone's idea of a creative writing workshop: every time the book hits a wall, change characters.

I hate this guy so much.

Fucking awesome.

In some ways, the best sign of a "magical fantasy" book is when you can't call it "young adult" and the characters aren't wish fulfillment fantasies. To the contrary, the protagonist, Carolyn, is utterly terrifying to everyone around her, even the non-human ones. Humanity is a choice, but humanity is also a habit, and Carolyn (and her brothers and sisters, the Pelepi) are out of the habit of thinking of themselves as human. And maybe they're not, any more.

Cringe inducing.

Is good book

It is very nice book. I like it very much. There's almost too much plot, though. Also, a bit unrealistic.

Good solid book with good advice on every page.

Somewhat relieved now that my cats are not THAT bad. Eeesh.

I saw this guy on Animal Planet. I wondered how on Earth he got onto TV, or into cats. You don't find out why the TV show, but you do find out why cats -- Jackson Galaxy was an addict, and working at a shelter gave him something to live for.

It's hard to read Galaxy's discussion of drugs, and harder to read the withdrawal. But the hardest thing is reading the realization that he can't be the most important thing in the world and be able to listen to anyone else. In order to do his job, and pay attention to how a cat sees, he has to learn compassion, silence and humility. This kinda sucks for him.

The first essay, about her mother, is fascinating. The rest of it... Do I really care that she wanted or didn't want kids, was in hospital, met Nora Ephron and Joni Mitchell, loves her dog, and doesn't like cooking? No. And amount of careful reflection is going to make me care. It would be interesting to see her look and talk about her husband directly, but she's very careful not to make him the focus of her gaze.

And oh my god, the... entitlement(?) with which she claims the title of "lesbian" despite not actually having any sexual attraction to women. Or calling transexual women "trannies" -- it's clear she has no idea how rude she's being, or how much like her mother (who is "intellectual" because she likes people who look smart) this behaviour is.

It's clear this man reads the same blogs I do. I don't quite believe the characters, but the setup is all too believable.

Using "Marcy Wheeler" as a character was a bit much though, and it took a while to realize he hadn't included Firedoglake.