Lucas Blogs About Books

The Intro Welcome back to Whan That Month — Lucas Blogs About  The Canterbury Tales . As you might have guessed, this is my new monthly feature about my plan to read Geoffrey Chaucer's  The Canterbury Tales  in a year or less. Last month I wrote about The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Tale, and The Cook's Tale, which I collectively dubbed The Canterbury Tales of Ribaldry. This closed out what's known as the first fragment — did I mention that although I'm planning to finish reading all of The Canterbury Tales , Chaucer never finished writing all of  The Canterbury Tales ? This month I'm going to cover the second fragment which begins with: The Man of Law's Introduction This is the start of the Second Fragment (at least in the Ellesmere manuscript ) and we begin with Harry Bailly noticing that it's 10 in the morning on April 18th. He then gives a relatively lengthy speech about the need for them to hurry up if they're all going to tell...

At least the cover is badass! So, what's this book's deal? Well, it's a comic book written by Christopher Cantwell ( a writer and filmmaker  who has the misfortune of sharing a name with  a racist shithead ) and drawn by Salvador Larroca, with coloring by Guru-eFX. It's about Victor Von Doom, the arch-nemesis of the Fantastic Four. If you aren't familiar with him, he's basically an evil version of Iron Man crossed with Doctor Strange who's also the dictator of the fictional Slavic state of Latveria. So . . . a grounded, relatable protagonist for a change. Well, it's not for a lack of trying on Cantwell's part. In Doctor Doom, Volume 1: Pottersville , Doom is isolated (as usual) in Latveria, stewing over the positive media attention garnered by Reed Richards and Tony Stark's latest cooperative scientific endeavor: a green energy project that involves creating an artificial black hole on the moon. Wait—what? Don't worry, i...

I could have waited until evening to take this photo, but I didn't. So, what's this book's deal? This is the first entry in Abby Howard's young reader paleontology comic series Earth Before Us, it's called Dinosaur Empire . Wait a minute, is this one of those books that tricks kids into learning by presenting educational material with a loose narrative? Yep! It follows Ronnie, an elementary school student who recently received a zero on her dinosaur quiz and is freaking out about her future academic prospects. This attracts the attention of her neighbor, Miss Lernin, who is hanging out in a recycling bin for reasons that are "not important." In any case, Miss Lernin uses science magic to take Ronnie back in time to the Mesozoic era so that she can learn all about dinosaurs and ace her make-up quiz. So . . . it's kinda like The Magic School Bus ? Yeah, but without Lily Tomlin. You know that The Magic School Bus  was a serie...

Black Lives Matter. A simple, declarative statement asserting something you'd think would be uncontroversial: the lives of black people possess inherent value. It's not an exclusionary statement. Nobody is suggesting that only black lives matter or that black lives matter more than other lives. Yet because the United States hasn't reckoned with the legacy of slavery, segregation, and systemic racism, simply saying "Black Lives Matter," attracts all manner of bad faith responses.  By now we all know the circumstances of the death of George Floyd. If you've seen video or photos of Derek Chauvin's knee pressed against Floyd's neck, it's hard to describe it as anything less than murder. Chauvin and the three officers who helped him restrain Floyd and who stood by and watched as Floyd pleaded for his life are now facing homicide charges . However, this is not an isolated incident. The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Eric Ga...

Ya gotta have pink hair! So, what's this book's deal? Oh, it's the fifth volume of Kamome Shirahama's fantasy manga, Witch Hat Atelier . Oh, right, you think it's got cool art and a fairly standard story. I do. I take it you're still enjoying it? I keep reading it, don't I? You do. This volume continues directly from Volume 4 which ends with— Wait! Don't you want to warn people that this blog will have teh SPOILARZ  for Volume 4 ? I think you just did that for me. You're the worst, Lucas. I know, look how far we've gotten without any substantive discussion of the book. When do we ever feature substantive discussion? You've got me there.  Anyway, you'll recall that Witch Hat Atelier  is about Coco, a young girl who discovers two things: 1) that witches do magic by drawing seals with special sigils; and B) that you shouldn't draw signs you find in strange books. Because you...