BOOK: Religion – Ruining Everything (2015)

RELIGION: Ruining Everything Since 4004 B.C. Year: 2015 Author: Zach Weinersmith Length: 261 pages Much like SCIENCE: Ruining Everything, RELIGION: Ruining Everything is another collection of webcomics from "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal" (SMBC). Basically, these two topics cover the vast majority of Zach Weinersmith's comics. This book can act as a primer for anyone who wants to start reading this webcomic but happens to not have the internet (for some reason). This printed collection of webcomics still manages to capture the humor and hidden jokes present in the online versions of these same comics, but with a few extras sprinkled in to make long-time readers pick it up as well. While not nearly as biased as The Holy-Bible Unabridged, no religion is safe from being the butt of Weinersmith's jokes in this collection. It did help that the distribution of jokes about these different religions seemed to be fairly well balanced in this book. And even as someone who considers themself a Christian, I could...
Read More

MOVIE: A Separation (2011)

A Separation Year: 2011 Rating: PG-13 Length: 123 minutes / 2.05 hours Regardless of where you live on this planet, plenty of scenarios are just as likely to happen in Tehran as they are in Toledo. This is where A Separation (2011) pulls its strength. Set in a mostly modern Iran, A Separation is a series of dramatic twists that could probably happen to anyone. After all, tons of people have to deal with elderly parents with Alzheimer’s. There are plenty of divorces for trivial and non-trivial reasons. Good help is hard to find and even harder to afford. The combination of these things results in a gripping narrative that’s only given a distinctive Iranian flavor by its cultural limitations. If anything, A Separation shows how difficult it is to be a woman in a Muslim country. It’s not impossible, but certain limitations become evident when the strict religious rules of the Quoran come into play. It was nice to see a more liberal version...
Read More

BOOK: Foundation (1951)

Foundation Year: 1951 Author: Isaac Asimov Length: 518 minutes / 8.63 hours For years, people have asked whether or not I have read the penultimate science fiction series that is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Up until now, I could not say that I had. While I knew the series by its name, I hadn’t ever heard any comparisons or even knew what these books were about. This probably should have been my first indication of what to expect. I wasn’t expecting anything other than its notable status as a pillar of classic sci-fi. If anything, the fact each “section” of Foundation is its own short story says volumes about the origin of the genre. Set within the same universe, Foundation follows five different groups across the timespan of a couple hundred years. Asimov explored a few different concepts and spent most of this book in world-building mode. I’ll applaud his ability to remain fairly consistent across these different stories, but the fact that there isn’t much...
Read More

BOOK: Speaker for the Dead (1986)

Speaker for the Dead Year: 1986 Author: Orson Scott Card Length: 850 minutes / 14.17 hours In this sequel to Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card continues to provide a smartly-written plot that causes the reader to think about death in a whole new way. While the first book in the series gave some thought-provoking insights into war, simulation and the dangers of following orders, Speaker for the Dead examines cultural differences, religion, and the humanity of individuals who acted like monsters during their lives. Instead of moving on from the life of a deplorable person, Card manages to show the reader that a person's life is made up of all its truths: the bad included with the good. While Ender Wiggin seemed a little young in Ender’s Game, by Speaker for the Dead he’s aged into a wiser and much more complex character. His experiences in the first book helped to set him up as the universe’s devil and savior, a unique attribute set for...
Read More