The unwritten: Inside man/ Mike Carey & Peter Gross

ISBN: 9781401228736

“Suggested for mature readers”.

Quite a complex fantasy story in a contemporary setting. I consider this one of the better showcase of the Graphic Novel format, where the story is intellectually and visually fleshed out between texts and illustrations.

The mood, plot-twists and tone is like “Fables” but without the fairy tale association. More contemporary and storyline is deeper, with overlaps of fiction and reality

This overlap even extends to the reader, by featuring realistically portrayed web articles, news casts and blog posts that follow Tom’s imprisonment.

Parts of it seem to borrow from the real life controversy over the Harry Potter series.

Tom Taylor is framed for murder, it seems. He is jailed and there’s a murder attempt on him while in prison. He escapes the prison with a magical door knob (a legacy of his father), only to find himself in Nazi Germany, before the outbreak of WWII. As a reader, I’m also brought along the journey, discovering a hidden quest of sorts with the protagonist.

The Question: The five books of blood/ Greg Rucka et al.

ISBN: 9781401217990

Contains adult-themed storyline.

The Question is a masked avenger/ vigilant. Renee Montoya tries to uncover a hidden cult whose religion is murder and whose influence extends to all segments of society, private enterprise and government. The Crime Bible is apparently being circulated, whose text preaches murder and mayhem. But Renee has some demons of her own to fight. And her intimate knowledge of the purpose and earlier versions of the Crime Bible puts her in danger of being the inadvertent disciple of evil.

The crown and other stories/ Rabindranath Tagore; translated by Ranjita Basu

The Crown and Other Stories
ISBN: 8129101815

These shorts would be excellent discussion topics for bookclubs. And among older children and teens, even adults. Different age segments would be able to talk about the stories from different viewpoints.

The writings are concise, though I suspect the translated works convey an old-style English quality that may seem more to “tell” than to “show” the reader, but still flavourful enough.

“The Crown” is about three princes, who are brothers. We learn how the youngest sows the seeds of discord, playing on the second brother’s need for affirmation to the first; and the eldest being seemingly too straight-forward for his own good.

“Giving and Owing” tells a tale that made me wonder if it is still happening today: a man marries off his daughter at an enormous amount of dowry he could not afford. He resorts to borrowing the money but still falls short. His snobbish in-laws ill-treat the daughter because of the inadequate dowry payments. The man is saddled with debts, his entire extended family suffers. Eventually his daughter passes on from neglect by her in-laws. Ironically they spend lavish amounts of money on her funeral and even incurs significant debt to do so.

P48. “The world is a scientific laboratory for the workings of Destiny”

Story structure architect: A writer’s guide to building dramatic situations & compelling characters/ Victoria Lynn Schmidt

ISBN: 9781582973258

As the title says, this is a guide for writers on how to create dramatic situations and believable and compelling characters.

I thought it’s also a good reference guide for media studies students, who may need to analyse/ critique plots and scripts.

I thought the various “scaffold” provides a way to plan the overall story. Writers often face the problem of not knowing how to continue (or begin, or end). Though this guide was not meant to be the prescriptive text, I thought it would help get past writer’s block.

The book comes in four main parts:
Part 1 – on drafting a plan
Part 2 – on building the story structure
Part 3 – on adding stories (this is the bulk of the book, explaining the “55 dramatic situations”)
Part 4 – on finishing touches (talks about research and how it applies to writing; famous authors say their secret to success is research; book poses a series of questions for consideration, to prompt for areas for further research).

P28. The traditional story structure has a clear beginning/ setup (Act I), middle/ development (Act II), and end/ climax & resolve (Act III). There are usually turning points at the end of acts I and II.

Structures include: The roller coaster ride, the Replay, Fate, the Parallel, Romance, the Journey, metafiction, the slice of life.

Example, the Melodrama elements has: in the traditional Act I, the hook, mood/ tone, villain, main characters, turning point. New elements are: conflict comes between characters, the villain could be one of the main character. The guide also poses questions for the writer, like “how does the character rub the villain the wrong way?”, “will you add betrayal to the turning point?”

The 55 dramatic situations (for creating believable characters as well) include: “Vengeance for a crime and Rehabilitation”, “Revolt and Support”, “Adultery and Fidelity”, “self-sacrifice and self-preservation”.

Example: in the “enigma and invention” situations involving a Seeker and Interrogator, the questions posed are “what is the main cause for the seeker to approach the Interrogator?”, “how do the seeker and Interrogator meet?”

StarCraft: Frontline. Volume 1.

ISBN: 9781427807212

Published by Tokyopop. Science Fiction manga aimed at the teen market.

Based on the popular Blizzard video game series. Warfare among the three sentient races: Humans, Protoss (aliens who seem to be of a higher shamanistic culture), and Zerg (brutish Alien-like predators).

Stories:
Why We Fight – perspectives of the three different races and motivations for the war.

Thundergod – a conniving and self-serving Thor operator who gets greedy in his search for a lost treasure.

Weapon of war – a psionic boy; embattled humans facing decimation from the Zergs.

Heavy Armor Part 1 – battle between two humans: a mentee against his mentor who’s gone crazy.

Includes a preview of the Warcraft (graphic novel, also by Tokyopop).

Lost Squad/ written by Chris Kirby; art by Alan Robinson; lettered by Kel Nuttall

ISBN: 9781932796414

This is like “X-files” meets “The A-team” meets “Indiana Jones” meets “Hellboy” meets “X-men”.

Enjoyable stuff. Got me turning the pages to discover more quirky juxtaposition of ideas and Good Vs Evil action.

It’s the beginning of World War II. The Nazis use of technology and arcane knowledge is winning the war: Nazi mages command demons and zombies, rocket-propelled shock troops and armoured spider tanks. They are also seeking historical artifacts that could enhance their occult powers.

The Lost Squad is a specially assembled motley crew of soldiers, with special training and/ or abilities.
They are led by US army Captain Boudreau, an ex-priest (who has to dig deep into his faith again, to save a young girl and his comrades).
Major Smithenry, a British on attachment, is a powerful mage and is hinted to be very long-lived.
Corporal Berg, demolition expert.
The Kansas Kid, sharpshooter and has the ability to read minds.
Sergeant Lymangood, seasoned veteran and wildly unpredictable, with a personal baggage he needs to rid.
Jose Morales, an ace with a bazooka.
The “Chicago Boys”, Chance, Tinker and Evers. The three seems to look alike and have fast healing powers (clones?).

Wished there was more. The last chapter killed off most of the lost squad members.

Futurama: The time bender trilogy/ created by Matt Groening; story by Ian Boothby

ISBN: 9780061118074

If you enjoyed the TV series, then this is more of the funny stuff from Matt Groening.

Four chapters of the same fantastic, parodies and satirical dialogues and situations. I thought the gags are just as funny and goofy.

Bender, Leela, Fry and Cubert (the clone-son of professor Farnsworth) end up getting into trouble after trying to enrol Cubert in a school off-world.

Then they return to Earth and find it totally abandoned. Next they have to save Earth from being claimed by aliens. Then they have to rescue the population of earth, who have been sent back in time by an accident. Leela, Bender and Fry are sucked back into different parts of time, in more crazy unbelievable situations: Leela in mythological Greece; Bender in puritanical North America, and Fry in an alternate battlefield Earth. Of course, all’s well that ends well.

Fundsupermart/ 4Q 2009

ISSN: 17938945

Articles cover India, China, Hong Kong, Brazil, Malaysia.

P26. “Protect your equity portfolio with three resilient assets”. Examines different “asset classes” as a means of further diversification. Compares against 2008 financial crisis, which affected global markets. Summary – (1) Japan stock market and Yen have low correlation to other equity markets; (2) Gold as a hedge; (3) Bonds having low or negative correlation with equities; (I thought the article explains basic financial/ economic principles; great for layperson investor).

P46. Interview with BNP Paribas Asset Management Brazil, on Brazil’s emerging economy.

p54. Another interview, with investment manager of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Limited, on emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Thailand).

P58. On UCITS funds (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities).

P70. Interview with Robert P. Miles (expert on Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway). Suggests passive investors can benefit from low cost index fund and dollar cost averaging and compounding over time. Analyse what could go wrong for the company, in addition to what could go right. Understand the business you are investing. Consider management quality, and finance yardsticks like ROE, margins, retained earnings. Ability of the business to generate cash flow in future (“intrinsic value”: present value of cash flow generated by an investment in the future). To remain rational, control emotions, avoid buying when everyone is buying and selling when everyone is selling, importance of patience.

P71. “An investor’s guide to Islamic funds”.

P78. “Signs of an asset bubble in China?”

P82. “Bottom-fishing: will buying the worst performers give the bets future performance?” Article suggests it may not. Advise is to make the usual considerations in investing rather than pursue a bombed-out stock.

P86. Article explaining what is Yield-to-Maturity in evaluating bond funds. YTM is the expected returns when bond is held to maturity, assuming no default and coupons are reinvested at same rate. As invested amount increase, YTM decreases. Cautions against assuming a low bond price equals low yield. “The appropriate thing to do would be to buy bonds or increase bond holdings when the yield is high and decrease when the yield is low”. Advise is to compare yield of bonds than their performance (price) charts. Some fund sites provide YTM info.

P90. On ETFs (like mutual funds but can be traded like shares). Has ETFs for bear markets.

Brevity 2: Another collection of comics by Guy & Rodd/ Guy Endore-Kaiser & Rodd Perry

ISBN: 9780740768408

Reminded me of Gary Larson. Mostly single panel captioned comic.

Good stuff when you want something to chill out after a day’s work.

Between water and song: New poets for the twenty-first century/ edited by Norman Minnick

ISBN: 9781935210078

You need a certain level of consciousness/ mindfulness to appreciate poems. I suppose that applies to most aspects of life. The best and most expensive wine in the world tastes like water if we merely gulp it down.

Some poems in this collection made me re-read it over and over, replaying the imagery in my mind’s eye. Some poems just make me want to go “Yeah!”

The title itself was pure poetry (probably taken from the title of a poem by Maria Melendez, who’s also featured). I mean, “between water and song”… the sound that water makes while bubbling through a brook and cascading down a fall. Akin to a song, and yet not quite. But not to mean it’s incomplete, for poetry is music in a class of it’s own.

Excerpt:
“It begins in the leaves,
a hush that precedes all weather…”
- Kevin Goodan’s “Theories of Implication”.

Some are concise, right to-the-point, profound in its simplicity. Like Ruth Forman’s “Risk”:

You cannot discover
new oceans
unless you have courage
to lose sight of the shore

Jay Leeming’s “Apple” is another favourite of mine, bringing out new perspectives from a seemingly ordinary thing (i.e. the fruit). I read this with a touch of familiarity and wonderment:

Sometimes when eating an apple
I bite too far
and open the little room
the lovers have prepared,
and the seeds fall
onto the kitchen floor
and I see
that they are tear-shaped.

BTW, Leeming’s “Supermarket Historian” is another nice one. And I’m not the only one who thinks highly of his works.

I’m inspired to write about my childhood, as a poem, after reading Terrance Hayes’s “The Blue Terrance” (excerpt):

I come from a long line hollowed out on a dry night,
the first son in a line of someone else’s children…

The collection is edited by Norman Minnick.

Featuring:
Ruth Forman
Ilya Kaminsky
Malena Morling
Kevin Goodan
Jay Leeming
Terrance Hayes
Luljeta Lleshanaku
Sherwin Bitsui
Maria Melendez
Valzhyna Mort
Eugene Gloria
Brian Turner
Joshua Poteat
Maurice Manning
Chris Abani
P312 – poet’s biographies.

In-cover page says: “The publication of this book has been made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.”