The Indianapolis 500 Yearbooks are a valuable addition to any Indianapolis 500 memorabilia collection. There are various authors such as Donald Davidson and Carl Hungness but all of the authors did an excellent job on these yearbooks. They should be in your collection too.

The Whitney Biennial is the kind of exhibition that critics love to hate.My recommendation is to ignore thae critics, see it for yourself and buy the catalog. This is a great book for those who love contemporary art. The essays on the exhibition and on the individual artist are informative and well written. The plates are also great.

I was very skeptical about this book because I usually don't think of one-shots as being all too good. I wasnt dissapointed with this graphic novel at all. It had amazing art and enough interesting stories before Daredevil became the Man Without Fear; back when he was the boy with plenty of it.
Unfortunately, the origins of how some things went down (like Elektra's introduction) are different than they were in Frank Miller's original comics in 1980 (also featured in Frank Miller Visionaries Vol. 2). I guess it's just filling in the blanks to what we did not know before. Either way, this book is a masterpiece to any Daredevil collector or just someone interested in his story.

This story retells the origin of Daredevil starting with him as a normal kid. It really is not until the end we get to finally see Double D in his superhero costume. This story is violent and has some minor language but its the way, I think, Daredevil should be told.

I bought these original issues that make up this trade paperback back when they first came out. Anyone who knows anything about comic books knows that when Frank Miller writes Daredevil, you don't miss it. Frank Miller carved his niche on Daredevil as an impressive artist, then later we discovered he was even more masterful as a writer when he took over the writing duties as well (see Daredevil Visionaries vol. 1, 2 and 3). Frank Miller's legendary run on Daredevil had long since past, and he had gone on to do works that he would become even more famous for; most notably his work on Batman for DC with Year One and The Dark Knight Returns (both equally fantastic). When it was announced that Miller would be doing a mini series called The Man Without Fear (essentially Daredevil: Year One) everyone interested in the medium knew it would be something special, and it was.

Now Daredevil: The Movie is out after months and months of previews; previews that made me dread the release of this hollywood mucked up movie. Everytime I'd see a preview I'd think back to this definative Daredevil story. Not really knowing what the movie was going to be about, I would think there could be no better story for the film than this. Rather than digging the originals out of their storage, I decided to purchase the TPB not only so I could relive the magic, but so that I could let my girlfriend appreciate the real character and story before the film polluted her. She was interested in the movie (from the previews) and I knew we'd for sure be seing it. But I wanted her to see for herself, rather than have her suffer me trying to explain how the film missed.

Needless to say, she read it (too fast I feel) and loved it, and I didn't have to explain anything. The movie missed the character and story just as I knew it would (see my review of the film) and now she's reading through the Daredevil Visionaries set. And this is someone who's never really read or been interested in comics.

This book is amazing. The writing, while perhaps not Frank Miller's best, is deep and meaninful. He continues to prove to the world (that won't listen) that comics can be a legitimate medium of literature. John Romita Jr's art was just starting to come into it's own the time this series was drawn so is a litte rough around the edges in places, but wonderful none the less.

If you know anything at all about the medium, you don't need to hear anything I just said. You already know it. But if you are new or curious about it, this book is for you. And it's 10 times better than the movie.

Saddam Hussein has become one of the most well-known figures in the Arab world. Unfortunately for him, it's because he's notorious. This little 1990 book (268 pages with intro, bibliography, appendixes, etc.) was published as an inexpensive trade paperback before the world's campaign to remove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait (1991).

While the book is very dated (12 years ago as of 2002), the information regarding Saddam Hussein's rise to power and the history of Iraq from its' creation by the British is still very valid. While I find it a little difficult to read about some of the things that Saddam Hussein had done, I feel much better informed about him and will be ready with facts next time his name comes up at the lunch table at work.

The book is divided into 11 helpful chapters that cover just about anything someone would want to know about Iraq and the events that eventually led to Desert Storm. It is a well- supported novel with several appendixes with maps, bibliographies, a Human Rights report, and other useful information. The authors are from The New York Times newspaper and Harvard University so it would be a good assumption that they don't hesitate to criticize President Bush's 1990 US government. While they criticize the government, I don't think they overdo it and I don't think they would upset a genuine US patriot.

Another good novel to read, in this vein, is "Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography" by Efraim Karsh.

CONCLUSION:

A great inexpensive novel to learn more about Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Recommended.

I listened to an Audio CD version of the play and I regret to say that I found it unmoving. The Brooklyn accents of the characters seemed to fade in and out on occasion and they deep dark revelations about their personal lives seemed to be revealed without much emotion most of the time.

I really had high hopes for the drama but felt it was more gimmick than gripping.

I found Broken Glass interesting but disappointing. One expects the film to hold a much deeper secret and comes away from it thinking "This story has already been told." The three main actors, Margot Leicester, Mandy Patinkin and Henry Goodman, are all marvelous and far better than the script allows. I found Elizabeth McGovern a rather strange choice for the role of Dr.Hyman's wife. I own this film because I'm a huge Mandy Patinkin fan, but I wouldn't have spent the money otherwise.

The dimensions of healing placed in contradistinction to the tyranny of complaint.