All the Rage, Aaron McGruder

Last collection of Bookdocks strips. This book is split into three parts. The first part is the last of the comics before McGruder quit. Some of them are pretty funny.

The second part is a bunch of interviews with McGruder. I pretty much skipped this bit.

The last part is all about the controversy the strip created. In this section you're expected to reread strips from a few pages ago. About all of the controversy I experienced firsthand was letter in the paper asking why Boondocks couldn't be a NICE strip, like Jump Start and Baldo.

So if I got this book, I'd have to throw away more than half of the damn thing and rebind it.

Thank goodness for libraries.

Openly Bob, Bob Smith

Eleven years ago, when this book came out, Bob Smith was a terrific comic. Unfortunately, I don't think I've heard anything about him since.

This is a book of autobiographical essays, and it's pretty good.

The Nature of Balance, Tim Lebbon

One night, everybody asleep explodes. Apparently this doesn't just happen in England, where the book is set, though at least half of the world would be awake while England was sleeping.

Anyway, some survivors, including one guy with amnesia, get together and are tormented by a woman with chains bolted to her head and running down her throat.

Then it gets silly.

I have no idea why I finished this book, it was ridiculous.

Four Ways to Forgiveness, Ursula K. Le Guin

Four terrific stories dealing with two worlds just coming out of a system of slavery. I could have lived without the explanatory notes at the end, but I'm like that.