It’s pretty tough to write a bio of a famous person who’s become well known for curmudgeonness. Bill Murray notoriously doesn’t like to play by anyone’s rules, to the extent of replacing his agent with an answering machine at an 800 number. So Robert Schnakenberg, instead of interviewing him, put together a kind of nerd trivia encyclopedia, a volume with short entries arranged from A-Z on topics related to the star. (He’s previously done similar books on Christopher Walken and […]

Out next month is an entertaining guide to the history of Doctor Who as seen through the different versions of his character over the years. The Doctors Are In, by Graeme Burk and Robert Smith, covers each Doctor, previous and modern (including “The Warrior” played by John Hurt). As part of their effort to answer “What made him the way he is? What motivates him?”, each chapter, one per version, includes the following sections: A profile of the actor and […]

I don’t read a lot of children’s books, although they have certain similarities with comics. I found Luna Luna, though, refreshing and relaxing. Sam Ryan wrote and Hazel Mitchell illustrated this Zen-influenced fable about a little boy trying to capture the “misty summer moon, streaked with green and red and yellow and purple” he sees out his window. Each page spread consists of an illustration, full color with a predominant use of blues and purples, faced with several sentences of […]

Stan Lee has leant his name to a new series project. This time it’s prose, co-written with (former Helix editor) Stuart Moore. The Zodiac Legacy is a new young adult novel, intended to start a series, about Steven Lee, a young man who stumbles into a mystical ceremony. A powerful man, full of hubris, is trying to take all the powers of the Chinese Zodiac into himself, but Steven winds up with the Tiger power, based on his birth sign. […]

Jeff Mariotte is known for writing a number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics and tie-in novels, but under his full name, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, he also writes his own stories. His newest novel, published by WordFire Press, is out tomorrow. Empty Rooms is a “dark thriller” covering “gritty issues that include child abuse and Detroit’s economic woes”. Empty Rooms introduces Detroit police detective Frank Robey, a comic book-loving former FBI agent-turned-cop whose obsession with the case of a missing […]

Nick Hornby has written some of the best portraits ever of obsessive fandom in Fever Pitch and High Fidelity, but I haven’t read many of his newer works. When I heard that his most recent novel, Funny Girl, was about a beautiful young woman who wanted to make people laugh in 1960s Britain, I thought that sounded like a great book for me to try. I love pop culture, pop history, and women struggling to break through artificial entertainment barriers. […]

I may have a few, slight political qualms, but the upside to having a niece going through the “princess phase” means it’s easy to find books for her about subjects she’s interested in. These are targeted a little older than she is, but I like giving her something to aim for that she’s interested in, as well as anticipating reading them with her. Dear Princess Disney Press, $12.99 US, Ages 6-8 This storybook has the fun of letters included that […]

Confessions is a short horror novel translated from the Japanese. It’s got a middle school setting, so manga fans might find it of interest, particularly if they enjoy creepy, behavior-driven stories like Another or Nijigahara Holograph. Each of the six chapters presents another viewpoint on the same set of events. We open with the teacher saying goodbye to her class on the last day of school — but instead of the usual good wishes, she announces her retirement. She’s leaving […]