By Any Other Nerd

Hades' Daughter by Sara Douglass My rating: 3 of 5 stars Note:  This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe. This review addresses both the book and the audiobook. The first book in Sara Douglass’s quadrology begins with the myth of Theseus breaking free of the famous Labyrinth and winning the love of Ariadne, mistress of the Labyrinth and sister of the minotaur, Asterion. However, like many Greek heroes, Theseus’ pride and arrogance brings about his downfall and ultimately all of Greece’s demise as well. When Ariadne cannot bear him a male child, he abandons her on an island and takes her sister. Ariadne recruits Asterion from beyond the grave to gain revenge on Theseus. Flash forward a hundred years and we find Brutus who carries the lineage of the Trojan prince Aeneas, aimlessly wandering the ocean searching for a home for the landless Trojans. While set aground one night he is visited by a visi...

What else can be said about classics besides, well, they are classics?  These are books that are part of the long tradition of trying to unpack 400 years of systematic inequality in the United States (and beyond).  These are the books that so much of the great contemporary writings were born from.   I did not compose this list with a working definition of “classic”--rather, as I looked at each title, I thought about how often I see it come up, referenced, or mentioned in later books or considered how old it is.  Some seem barely old enough to be called classics but they have captured the zeitgeist of our world and have been lauded for decades, so it’s hard to say.   To me, the value of this list and the reason I continued to add to it is because for many readers, these names are either unknown or known but not read.  In spending time with the classics, it has provided me an opportunity to more fully appreciated how many generations of marginal...

It's that time of year where the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA for short) is putting out its annual  call for proposals for the regional conference  at Worcester State University Worcester, Massachusetts, the weekend of October 19-20, 2018.   As some of you know, I am the Area Chair for Teach and Popular Culture.  Here is a working definition of what that area entails: This area focuses how to teach popular culture, which may include sharing unique approaches to: Teaching courses focused specifically on “popular culture” Teaching courses on an area within popular culture (e.g. courses that focus on the content and cultural aspects–not necessarily the “how-to” aspects of comics, video games, horror, Harry Potter, baseball, The Beatles, etc). Teaching mainstream courses using popular culture (e.g. baseball statistics for explaining, statistics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer for explaining political theory, Star Trek for exploring bio...

The Dark Tower by Stephen King My rating: 4 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  Stephen King wraps up his decades-spanding epic as well as his career with The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. Our gang of gunslingers is fast approaching the dreaded Dark Tower where the Crimson King awaits them. In this racing tale of death and destiny, Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy battle their way through different worlds suffering losses and barely surviving the increasing chaos that consumes the universe. Their mission is threefold: stop the Breakers from destroying the Beams of the Tower, make sure Stephen King survives a potentially life-ending car accident, and survive it all to see the Dark Tower. Since the fifth book (Wolves of the Calla, published after 1999), Stephen King has placed himself as an active, even essential figure in this story. Reminiscent of works like “The Neveren...

Today, I deliver the Liberal Arts Lecture at North Shore Community College.  In the tradition of my work in openness and open access as well as in the theme of the lecture, I am making the slide deck and the script for readers here.  I will turn this into a video at a later point but for now, you can enjoy taking a look at what I've created. I'm uber-excited about this as the topic, the event, and the location are all near and dear to my heart.  Thus, the opportunity to talk about a topic I'm passionate about in a field (liberal arts) that I treasure in a place that I love (North Shore Community College)--well, it's an immeasurable honor.   The subject matter has been swirling in my head for years and so the opportunity to put it together in this format and share it with colleagues, friends, family, and community means a lot fo me.  I hope you enjoy it (if you attend or watch it at a later date) and let me know what you took from it.   ...

March proved to be another excellent month of reading books that were utter delights to read and learn from.  I managed to finish off 4 physical books so that's a win and have plenty of books to talk about this month.  I would have more but some great ones are under review embargo, alas.  Besides enjoying these books, be sure to check out my ongoing series, Books for White Folks, here are its' current entries:  Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 .   Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge For many white folks, the title might fool them into thinking this book embodies the worst conjured stereotype of people of color activists who demand equity, equality, and fairness after centuries in which democratically republics have often failed to uphold these.  But, they might be surprised that Eddo-Lodge's writing is welcoming, enlightening, and filled with history and deconstructions of racism in modern society that many white f...

My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy by Nancy Cartwright My rating: 3 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  This review is focused on both the book and audiobook. It can’t be said that Nancy Cartwright, the fantastic voice behind the infamous Bart Simpson, doesn’t love her job. To help emphasize her devotion to her career, she has written, “My Life As a 10-Year-Old-Boy.” In this autobiography of both her and Bart’s life, Cartwright gives you the intimate details of what goes on behind the animation curtain. This audiobook fits perfectly into the canon of Simpsons' literature that includes episode guides (authorized and otherwise), comic books, social impact books, religious influence books (no joke—“The Gospels According to the Simpsons.”), and other books on the topic of America’s favorite animated family. Cartwright, an established voice over talent before “The Simpsons”, spends the fi...

So in this post, we’re tackling some of the great fiction other there to enjoy and trust me, THERE IS SOOOO MUCH OF IT.  The collection here represents everything from literary powerhouses (Baldwin, Ellison Hurston Morrison, Walker) to phenomenal sci-fiction & fantasy (Butler, Jemisin, Okorafor) to contemporary writing  (Butler, Diaz, Hall, Ng, Stone).   Fiction is always a great place to explore identity since we know that fiction does build empathy and allows us a way of stepping into the shoes and experiences of another to see their world.  The authors provided here offer us many insights and considerations through lenses that the typical white person is not likely to see or appreciate unless they do their best to spend some hours walking through these fictional worlds.   There are many great books among this list but for me, the all-time, still-punches-me-in-the-face-whenever-I-read-it, book on the list, is Beloved by Toni Morrison .  ...

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding My rating: 3 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  This review is focused on both the book and audiobook. Helen Fielding shows us that not only can she write a novel, but she can develop a new endearing character and evolve her writing to a higher level unseen previously. In "Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination," Fielding introduces us to Olivia Joules, a smart and sophisticated journalist, whose vivid imagination often gets the best of her. Rather than being a star reporter as she often fantasizes, Joules operates out of the lifestyle section, covering cosmetic launches and perfume parties. Her misconceived sense of reality prevents her from returning to her position as a genuine news reporter. But Olivia’s ambition and zany brainstorms won’t be set back by a mere demotion. Olivia is destined for...

Well, we know I like to write letters to the editor , because well, it's just something I've had a tendency to do over the last 8 years.  Since moving to Watertown, I haven't really done much along those lines, often being inundated with other projects (ahem, see the PhD Chronicles !).  But I've been reading The Watertown News , the local paper on a regular basis and an Op-Ed showed up that I couldn't resist.  The original post was from MA State Senator, William Brownsberger who argued for putting in cameras that autocapture street violations .  I did not quite agree with his arguments (to no one's surprise). Here's some of what I wrote: "As someone who works with technology on a daily basis, I appreciate Brownsberger’s effort to convince us that cameras and computer programs can help us. But his message confuses me. He hints that municipalities would use this tool transparently and conservatively, yet also tells us that this method will be a l...