Laura Gilkey

From a liberal, July 20 2004

(Best with books like this to have it on the table where I stand)

I've read many of the recent Bush-bashing, liberal-energizing books (Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars . . .", Moore's "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country"), and I honestly think that this book is the best for someone who wants a good view into what liberals are so worked up about. Franken's book is often more humorous and a somewhat lighter read, so it may be better for you depending on your taste, but Ivins and Dubose here do the best job I've seen of setting out a well-reasoned, well-argued case, with not only the anecdotes but the numbers to back it up (although admittedly I… Read more

Exceeded my expectations, July 14 2003

I'll admit, I bought this book because a) I was interested in entering future Rising Stars of Manga contests, and b) I think manga opens up a lot of great possibilities for American comic artists and wanted to chip in my $ to support the venture. I went in with pretty low expectations about the content.

As such, I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of the stories have problems of one kind or another---several lack professional polish or a really substantial story, and still others suffer from a "too designed/overdrawn" look (the level of black/white contrast or stylization is about the same on all the elements and panels, giving a "noisy" effect to the overall pages and not letting… Read more

Wanted more crunchy bits, Dec 16 2001

There is a lot of good information in this book, but there were several lacks that made it less useful than I would have liked. Number one, it's not that useful if you're writing period fiction. I understand if this was beyond the scope of the author's undertaking, but some historical information would've helped me a lot.

Worse yet, especially as the book goes on, sometimes it begins to seem conventional, or to describe common scenarios, where fiction is concerned with the uncommon. For example, at one point it says "It takes an impressive hit to break the flat part of the shoulder blade." Like what? A blow with a club from a particularly strong person? A gunshot? I don't… Read more