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Book Reviews
The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Book
Author: Roben Ryberg
Publisher: Lifelong Books
Genre: Cooking
Pages: 200
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When you think of gluten-free baking, the following adjectives might come to mind: dry, crumbling, flavorless, depressing. An interesting foreword from a food lab at Texas A&M University explains why this is so (it has to do with the binding proteins in gluten), and why starches of some sort are necessary for the tastiness and texture of cookies, gluten or not.
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Veganize This!
Author: Jenn Shagrin
Publisher: Lifelong Books
Genre: Cooking
Pages: 250
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Before I even began a recipe, this vegan cookbook had a few strikes against it. Its writing and presentation style is somewhere between zine quirkiness and more serious instruction. I don’t mind a dollop of personality with my recipes, but I found the intros, large type (forcing recipes needlessly onto two or three pages) and layout to be distracting. It’s not eye-blurring like some cooking zines (no annoying handwriting, cutesy illustrations, or casual approach to measurements or cooking times), but there are obvious opportunities here to tighten the layout and make it an easier read.
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The Art of Hammer: The Official Poster Collection From the Archive of Hammer Films
Author: Marcus Hearn
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Film
Pages: 192 pages
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Just like the Drew Struzan’s movie poster hardcover book from Titan Books, The Art of Hammer is another impressive photo book showcasing the poster art from Hammer Film Productions. This is the first ever collection of rare photos and images compiled into one book! Movie and classic horror fans will greatly appreciate this book! I know I do!
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Bob Marley and The Golden Age of Reggae
Author: Kim Gottlieb-Walker, Jeff Walker, Cameron Crowe, Roger Steffens
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Music Photography
Pages: 160 pages
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You don’t have to be a reggae fan to enjoy Bob Marley and The Golden Age of Reggae. Just being a fan of music and music photography will suck you into this hardcover book from Titan Books.
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Scam: The First Four Issues
Author: Erick Lyle
Publisher: Microcosm
Genre: Punk Zine
Pages: 288
Retail Price: $16
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Scam is a long-running but sporadically released zine (7 or 8 issues in 20 years, I think, though author Erick Lyle has released a number of side zines). This massive book collects the first four thick issues.
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The Art of Drew Struzan
Authors: Drew Struzan & David J. Schow
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Movie
Pages: 160 pages
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Don’t know Drew Struzan is? I’m 100 percent sure you would know if saw the artwork he has created for over the past 30 years! Drew is an illustrator, artist, painter and just a master at what he does. He has done over 150 movie posters for some of the biggest Hollywood movies including all of the Star Wars films, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Blade Runner, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and many others! Drew has also done a lot of album covers as well. This book is the ultimate coffee table book to own if you’re a movie geek!
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Xerography Debt #26
Author: Davida Gypsy Breier (Ed.)
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: Review Zine
Pages: 52 pages
My feelings for perzine-reviewing XD haven’t changed from my rambling review of their last issue. Briefly: I get that heartwarming nostalgic feel towards review zines and I’m glad XD is back. On the other hand, their policy of printing only positive reviews weakens their authority and does a disservice to the reader – if everything is good, how do you know what’s REALLY worth your time and money? (Also, not alphabetizing or indexing the reviews remains an irritant.)
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Al Burian Goes to Hell
Author: Al Burian
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: Mini-Comic
Pages: 82 pages
This comic follows Al Burian as he complains about his life and wallows in existential emptiness. The illustrated vignettes of “my life sucks” is interspersed with passages from Dante’s Inferno, just in case the ridiculous amount of self-pitying was too subtle for you.
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How to Make Soap Without Burning Your Face Off
Author: Raleigh Briggs
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: How-To
Pages: 10 pages
Raleigh Briggs is a cheerful and charming writer and I recommend picking up her heftier Make Your Place, which is a useful guide on crafting nontoxic variations of household cleaners and other ubiquitous dangers.
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The Darkness to the West
Author: Adam Gnade
Publisher: Punch Drunk Press
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 42 pages
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This short novella follows the unnamed protagonist – a Portland transplant and a stand-in for Gnade, I’m guessing – through a summer in Virginia, where he’s holed up to write a novel. Beyond that setup, there isn’t much of a story. Rather, the novella is comprised of bite-sized vignettes of dialog, anecdotes, and impressions of the people and places around him during his travels. Think Cometbus.
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Jetpack Dreams: One Man’s Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was
Author: Mac Montandon
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 261 pages
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Jetpacks are synonymous with the unfulfilled promises of the future. It first appealed to the Greatest Generation through Buck Rogers, and then teased their kids through James Bond. And while many sci-fi visions have come to pass, and rather unexcitedly at that (I’m looking at you, moving sidewalks), jet- and rocket-powered devices for single-person flight remain elusive.
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Xerography Debt #25
Author: Davida Gypsy Breier, Ed.
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: Zine
Pages: 64
Retail Price: $3
The 25th issue of this review zine is their first with the Microcosm seal o’ quality. The editor explains the partnership a little defensively (as there will be inevitable conflicts of interest with Microcosm being a big zine/indie book distributor), but I think it’s great that XD is back in print and has good distribution behind it.
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