Off the shelf

I have some good news to report regarding the Joe Bob Briggs reviews. At least it's good news to me.

John, to whom I send my reviews, let me know that they have somebody who will be taking over the site and reviews will once again be posted. I have about a half dozen waiting and I'll let you know if or when they become available. On the other hand, John didn't say if any new books would be sent out.

Since I can now concentrate on my own reading I've begun trying to go through the books co-authored by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. Just finished both BRIMSTONE (featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendagast) and the stand-alone RIPTIDE. I'm making it my goal to catch up on the Pendagast series and to read the rest of the books the two authors have written together & separately. Pedagast was originally introduced as a secondary character in the author's first collaboration, RELIC (made into a half-way decent monster flick), but quickly became a favorite, reappearing in several more books and taking on a life of his own.

As for non-fiction, I just began MEN OF TOMORROW: Geeks, Gangsters & the Birth of the Comic Book written by Gerard Jones. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, it covers the beginnings of the comic book industry, focusing on some of those individuals who helped to found it. It also documents the early lives of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of SUPERMAN, as well as how their creation was ultimately stolen from them by their publishers. Easy to see why the book garnered so many great reviews and stirred a bit of controversy in & out of fandom.