Authors Books

Matthew Wayne Selznick's debut novel is such a fun read. For kids who grew up in the 80's, there's so many aspects of this book that will bring you right back, and on top of all that... super-powers! Awesome, huh?

This is an excellently written, exciting and just fun superheroes novel. Set in the 80s it tells an alternate story where people with super powers come out of hiding.

I don't want to say too much about the plot, only that I recommend it highly.

I hope the author writes a sequel to this and does really really well, especially considering the project was done totally DIY.

This is better than I thought it would be. It starts off as though it is going to be a terrible teenage romance novel, and just keeps improving.
The setting is the 1980s, unashamedly. Some other reviews had mentioned 'The Breakfast Club'. While the movie is seen by the characters in the book, luckily, this is nothing like it. So, if like me you were one of the people that would have to paid cold hard cash to watch something like that, then don't worry, this book is way better.

Nate Charters is having a Buffy like experience at high school, as he is slightly odd looking, has strange eyes, and some feline type animal abilities. So, your usual yank high school jock types pick on him, needless to say. He does have a couple of friends.

Amazingly enough, he meets a cool girl that likes him, and horny inexperienced teenager instincts come to the fore.

Some after, a bombshell hits, politically. A scientist calls a news conference, and demonstrates that he can levitate, and change the color of any objects he feels like. He wants Sovereign political status for him and all people like him, and demands a meeting with Reagan, accusing all nations of the world of extreme human rights violations, when it comes to his people.

Needless to say, this is like throwing 10,000 sabre-tooth tigers among a bunch of very startled avian pests.

From there, things escalate. Nate writes an essay, assuming he is a Sovereign. One of the school bullies may be, as well. His mother pulls him out of school. The spooks come knocking.

Other people appear out of his past, with other agendas, and violence ensues.

We have elements of other milieu like The 4400, The X-Men, Runaways, and others all coming together, here.

Plenty of comic geek stuff here, too. Presumably Selznick is a Marvel fan. Lee and Ditko run a business, his family holiday house is at Kirby Lake, they hang out at Romita Park. His girlfriend throws a Mary Jane Spider-Man line at him. Although, there is a Donner Institute, and speaking of Buffy, Mr Giles is the man in charge of overseeing home schooling arrangements. Plenty of chuckles to be had, there.

The book ends at a resolution point, but could clearly be continued.

I could split hairs and call this a 3.75, I suppose. The editing is pretty good, considering.

A book that can basically be enjoyed by anyone. Clearly it is aimed at having a young adult appeal, but unlike a lot of that sort of thing, here teenagers seem to talk a lot more like teenagers actually do, than some ludicrous G-rated version of the same.

I would happily read more.

Remember when you first started reading comics? Remember when the X-men weren't completely worn out and tired? Remember when the 80s seemed fresh and new?

Even if you don't - you will after reading this coming of age supers origin story. This book is a testament to the power and quality of the indie press.

This book is just wonderful. I got in podcast form and is read by the author. I have listened to it three times now and I just downloaded it a few days ago. This is the cream of the crop in "free media". He does a great job and has said that he is pleased with the communities response. He has also confirmed that there will be future installments in the Sovereign Era series.

... if you like Faulkner. You'll enjoy the stories here; this is also a great starting point for someone just learning to appreciate the genius of this writer.

As someone who read Flannery O'Conner before ever getting near Faulkner, I must say that he does hold his own with these stories. For better or worse, Faulkner will always be near the top of great American authors. I say for better or worse, because some people can be greatly turned off by his novels, and the difficulty in reading them. While I've been greatly critical of him in the past, I'm still trying to learn and understand his modus operandi. It's been a rewarding learning experience, but one that hasn't been without some exasperation.....I still like O'Conner better!

This short story is twisted, but that's why it's so great. The story is dark and gloomy, but it is really interesting. A Rose for Emily recounts the story of an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson. An unnamed narrator details the strange circumstances of Emily's life and her odd relationships with her father, who controlled and manipulated her, and her lover, the Yankee road worker Homer Barron. When Homer Barron threatens to leave her, she is seen buying arsenic, which the townspeople believe she will commit suicide with. Faulkner based the story upon a true incident. The rose indeed was for his friend, Emily Grierson. In the story, the townspeople's points of views on Emily actually reflect the society's value at that moment to some extent. Emily feels that she is released when her father is dead.
However, I do not recommend this book if you might get scared easily. The ending might come as a surprise, but that's suspense. Go read it, if you like it a bit twisted.

After reading "A Mule in the Yard," "That Will Be Fine," and "That Evening Sun" I was reminded of why this guy is one of the greatest storytellers ever. I know, his writing can be dense and even a times nearly unintelligible, but patience and concentration pays off with Faulkner. And his use of point of view is amazing.

Amasing, strong and powerful. What else can one say about one of the best writers of the world?

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is T.S. Eliot at his best. He depicts an entire generation by painting a beautiful and tragic image of the one main character. Eliot's words are both flowing and concise, which is no small feat, and his metaphors and allusions are well chosen and relevant. This poem is absolutely worth reading several times over.


T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland is like the fourth season of Family Guy. It's more of the same from a source that has produced quality work in the past, but falls short this time. Family Guy and T.S. Eliot are each known for their strange connections; T.S. Eliot once compared a skyline to a patient etherized on a table, and Family Guy once compared Ronald Reagan to a toaster. However, in both the newest season of Family Guy and The Wasteland, the randomness gets confusing and just not worth it. Here is how to write a poem like The Wasteland. Copy and paste an introduction and a conclusion from an alternative religion book, come up with some outside the box metaphors, and fill the rest in with pirated foreign literature.

--Ian M.

While I am only an amateur when it comes to poetry, I believe this collection will satisfy any reader looking for a stimulating and engaging experience. I was introduced to T.S. Eliot in my high school English class and read only two of his poems from this collection: one, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and two, The Wasteland. If I had more time to spend with these poems and really analyze them, I would get even more out of them.

TS Eliot portrays an intriguing setting in The Wasteland. He alludes to various religions and gods. In particular, Eliot portrayed a modern European society lacking a sense of unity and control. He makes eccentric references to anything from religious structures, blooming flowers, praised figures, historical events, and influential European cities. After reading this poem, I highly recommend reading the novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. This piece by McCarthy was strongly influenced by this particular poem.

Who is Prufrock? In Eliot's, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, he depicts a modern middle-aged man who is very self-conscious; he does not dare speak of love to a woman, which is ironic to the poem's title. The poem epitomizes the frustration and self-consciousness in any human being, which makes it easy to relate to the character. What reader does not enjoy finding familiar satire between the lines of a love poem?

Eliot also references Shakespeare's Hamlet in The Love Song, alluding to his personal insecurity and mental weaknesses, as well as his incapability to handle love appropriately.

Though this is only a small window into T.S. Eliot's assorted collection, I hope I can give you an apposite perspective on his engaging work. I recommend reviewing this collection and strongly encourage spending time with these particular pieces.

Faber and Faber has recently announced they will print "The Complete Prose of T.S. Eliot" in a gargantuan seven-volume set!

Also announced the much anticipated, eagerly awaited second volume of Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922 edited by Mrs. Valerie Eliot, as well as a completely revised edition of the first volume which will include nearly 200 letters that has surfaced since the initial printing!

Both the seven-volume set and the second edition letters are due out late 2008.

To the all the Eliot nuts out there, this is good news. To those who have not read Eliot's Selected Essays, they are as affecting as his poetry, as important as Johnson, Arnold, and Coleridge in the their times.

His language is effortless in its flow and it is conducive to deep meditation in its style. After reading 'Prufrock', and the 'Hollow Men' I got the sense that this is something truly withstanding and classic - one of our bards of the 20th century.
Only a handfull of modern poets stick in my mind - Elliot, Cummings, Rilke, and Yeats are among them!

I'm not at all rating this book five stars; that's my rating for T.S. Eliot's plays. This book was the typical library edition and has everything wrong with it: the cover of an old, wise Eliot (why not a young maverick one?), "Complete" in the title when it's not at all complete, big, heavy, hardback and way too literary looking for the passing reader to crack the cover.

But look how much T.S. Eliot you already know. The Wasteland may be a maddingly obscure poem sequence built around a book by Jessie Weston, but Pete Townshend used the idea in a song: "Teenage Wasteland." You know from another song that T.S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" said that life was measured out in coffee spoons. We all know that Old Possum's Book of Practical...plays out dramatically in a musical titled for the last word of that book...Cats. You could have tackled (or rather relaxed with) his most famous poem sequence, Four Quartets and the accompanying readers' guide by Thomas Howard.

But for all those bits of poetic imagery, you still might not stumble on the plays. I've never seen one of Eliot's plays put on, but they make wonderful reading. As an astute reviewer suggested, don't get this volume, which leaves out two of the five plays (or six if you include "Choruses from the Rock," which is not among the best). That reviewer also provided the helpful advice to track down the Faber edition which really does have all the plays. Some of them, notably Murder in the Cathedral, are available in single editions. But don't miss The Confidential Clerk, The Cocktail Party and The Elder Statesman for a great reading experience.

The only other play I know that reads this well is J. M. Barrie's original play of Peter Pan. Murder in the Cathedral is notable because it falls in the Church of England (Anglican) tradition of putting on plays at the Canterbury Festival. Charles Williams also wrote plays related to this event (Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury), as did Dorothy L. Sayers (The Zeal of Thy House, The Devil to Pay). All of which is to say that there is a lot of great dramatic writing to be rediscovered as reading as well as performance (see also my review of Christopher Fry's plays A Phoenix Too Frequent and The Lady's Not for Burning). Many Sayers readers are also aware that she wrote the first radio play for the BBC on the life of Jesus (and updated it to common language), as well as essays on her experience dealing with the Gospel accounts in dramatic form. The best known of these is "The Dogma is the Drama," available in various collections.