(original review, 2012)


I was just thinking earlier this week about the 4 dimensions of rituals that Mervin Verbit, a sociologist, wrote about: content, frequency, intensity and centrality. And, although he was talking more about religious rituals, I think they apply to most other kinds of rituals in our lives too. And, I think that if our everyday rituals include these 4 dimensions in the right proportions, they can allow us pay more attention to what we’re doing and give us the space to be more creative. Note that I'm not suggesting that rituals, in themselves, can make anyone more creative - rather that they enable some of the right conditions for creativity.

 

 

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Kung Fu Space Barbarian’s Guide to Writi... Very short and concise explanation to writing text adventures.
Looks mostly at the "interactive fiction" side of things, but the ideas could be applied to any style of choose your own adventure story.

For more reviews, check out my blog Craft-Cycle There was nothing necessarily wrong with this book. It was entertaining and funny to the degree I expected of a George Beard and Harold Hutchins original. However, I think Dav Pilkey kind of wrote himself into a box with the Captain Underpants/Super Diaper Baby series. The book greatly lacked the gross-out humor of the other books. It was still good, but I missed that raw disgust I felt when Super Diaper Baby literally fought a piece of poo or when Captain Underpants got eaten by a giant toilet. There was a little, tiny glimmer of gross stuff in this book, but it pretty much just stopped at purely-liquid puking (that really just looked like water). This may sound weird, but as a grown-up, I wanted this book to be grosser. Having said that, I still liked the story. It was still ridiculous like the others with a weird, all over the place plot. But I would say this one relies more of awesome-ness elements (cavemen, dinosaurs, kung-fu, time travel) than gross-out humor.

Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Speci...

 

 

This comic is about a girl challenged at her school because of her reputation as a fighter and the consequences of the fight.

 

Quite good although not particularly original in places, this comic is worth a look and is quite clearly illustrated.

 

 

This is a good book with realistic characters. My biggest complaint is that it wasn't long enough. I wish we would have gotten a more in depth look into Tanner's struggles. I cried during Allie's depression in [b: Summer of My Dissent|13232610|Summer of My Dissent|Christian M. Frank|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348732169s/13232610.jpg|18427405] and wept during Katie's in [b: Underlake|20939763|Underlake|Kia Heavey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393676198s/20939763.jpg|40310425], but I didn't cry through Tanner's depression at all in this book, and because of that I don't think that Tanner's character was as strong as Gabriel's. Gabe never, at least as far as I can tell, suffers from a severe depression the way that Tanner did, so the fact that he didn't make me cry isn't as disappointing as the fact that Tanner didn't make me cry. I enjoyed seeing Gabe struggling to have patience and kindness even as Tanner was disrespectful to everything about him and his lifestyle, and I could identify with that. I was glad that we saw him crack sometimes, and do things that he regretted, which made him seem more human. I'm not saying that Tanner's struggles weren't real, but the only times she seemed truly desperate in a way that might have made me cry was when we were hearing Gabriel's point of view. I think it would have improved the book if the moment when she told Gabriel she was going to do something crazy if he didn't help her would have been from her point of view, and if we could've heard her thoughts leading to that moment. Because we didn't hear her thoughts, it's never even clear if she was considering suicide or just running away again, and I think it would have been more powerful if we had heard her thoughts in that moment.

Because I have more in common with Gabriel, it was just easier for me to identify with him. Because I don't have that much in common with Tanner, it was very important that she gain my sympathy, and she did, but not as strongly as she could have.

In spite of my complaints I really did enjoy this book. It addresses issues such as drugs, alcohol, addiction, overdose and the corruption of Hollywood, as well as some discussions on remaining pure for marriage.

If this is book one, where is book two?