A new Neal Stephenson book finally hits the shelves, clocking in at 1,044 pages of sweet, crunchy goodness. If you haven’t read Neal Stephenson before, you should probably question your indie cred in the mirror for a while. Try investing in some horn-rimmed glasses, or delve into an obscure musical genre to make up for your sheer lameness to this point in life. Instead of occupying Wall Street, you should occupy your couch for a week with this book, for Neal is the The Hold Steady of modern writers. You’re a little sad to see him for sale in Walmart; you wish for the old days when it was j...
It all started at a VFW hall in Middletown, Conn., in 1986. My friend being held back in the second grade finally paid off, as we now had access to a car in our sophomore year. We piled into his mom’s Toyota Corolla and made the 45-minute drive. No GPS, no Internet. PCs barely existed, and cell phones were the size of shoeboxes. We found the gig the way you found anything cool in 1986: You drove around until you saw skaters. There were about 20 of them, tricking on ramps outside a nondescript building that looked like a warehouse. An old man took our $3, looking askance at our regalia: Ja...
Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit From the Goon Squad” made headlines (and a certain bookstore owner with a first printing just a little wealthier) when it won the Pulitzer Prize for Best American Novel a couple months ago. The big question for the reader is whether or not the book is destined to be an American classic, like recent winner “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, or a dreary snoozefest like Jonathan Franzen’s Pulitzer-losing (runner-up is too kind) “The Corrections.” I hate to damn “Goon Squad” with faint praise, but this reviewer found it to be an enjoyable and quick rea...
Bologna is a lovely Italian city nestled in the Po Valley with beautiful fountains, red-tiled roofs, the oldest university in the world (1088), narrow streets, motorbikes — the whole European deal. In the book world, Bologna is home to the Bologna Book Fair, where Americans and Europeans make the deals for translating and publishing children’s books in those countries. It’s an important book fair because it crystallizes what books will be coming out in the young-adult book market in the next year. As it turns out, the authors, publishers and literary agents of two continents have all ...
Bologna is a lovely Italian city nestled in the Po Valley with beautiful fountains, red-tiled roofs, the oldest university in the world (1088), narrow streets, motorbikes — the whole European deal. In the book world, Bologna is home to the Bologna Book Fair, where Americans and Europeans make the deals for translating and publishing children’s books in those countries. It’s an important book fair because it crystallizes what books will be coming out in the young-adult book market in the next year. As it turns out, the authors, publishers and literary agents of two continents have all ...
Ever been out with someone who texts the entire time you’re talking to them? They’re not paying attention, that little jingle goes off constantly, you get to hear, “One sec, what was that?” about 12 times. I recently had a guy in the shop asking if I had a certain book. He would read the title, and I would look up the publisher and tell him how much and how fast I could get it. While I did that, he was looking it up on Amazon to calculate if it was cheaper or faster with their shipping. Like nine books. I asked him why he even came in to a store, as he was obviously more comfortab...
“Dude, where’s my jetpack?” I loved this T-shirt when it made its debut (threadless?) a few years ago. It appears to be based on an article in Discovery magazine from 2007, where the authors had the revelation, that, in fact, the future was here and it sucked. Flying cars? Nope. Jetpack? Nope. Aliens? Nope (well, microbes, maybe, whatevs). Warp speed? Nope. Lightsabers? Nope. Nada. All we get is some news analyst tool rubbing his smartboard on CNN, or the lurking dread of someone trying to instant chat you on Facebook. My first reaction to the realization that technology is actually...
“The Love We Share Without Knowing” by Christopher Barzak I was working in the shop one day, and Molly, one of the Buzzbin editors, stopped in and asked me what the next book review was going to be. She suggested that reviewing a love story, the month being February, might be the way to go. I was unsure, as I had read nothing but my usual obscurantist literature for several months (which I can write a two-word review of right now: “loner overdoses”). I had nothing, love being a literary topic best avoided by adults. Then I remembered what would easily qualify as the greatest c...
For decades, anyone who’s endured Art History 101 has encountered a rote lecture about the camera. Ever since its invention, all “good” painting has distanced itself from realistic portrayals, as cameras do a much better job of capturing reality. It was abstract artists like Picasso, Mondrian and Pollock who did work worthy of gallery shows, black clothes and public attention. The art majors will balk, but I’ll say it: abstract expressionism is good shorthand for blobs of paint that make you think, “Did a four-year-old do that?” You’ll know it’s AbEx if you ...
The Witch of Hebron & The Windup Girl Hello Buzzbin readers! Before I launch into this review, I wanted to take a second for thanking you for supporting a great magazine like Buzzbin, local retailers like the ones that advertise herein and for coming to events like First Friday in Canton, or Zombie Walk in Massillon. There is a definite feeling in the air that fun things are happening in NE Ohio, and we are, in fact, not the worst place in the United States to live. So, thanks! Now, on to the end of the world… Nuclear bombs, genetically modified organisms, global ...
The last six months have been consumed with news of doom, be it the creeping black death unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico, Lovecraftian sinkholes in Guatemala (Google “sinkhole images” right now if you haven’t already) or the toppling of swarthy semi-European states. In response, I wanted to lighten it up a little bit for everyone and review a creepy, poignant and hilarious (no, really) book about iconic American killers. Serial killers are pretty fascinating, especially to Ohioans because they’re all from here. Don’t think so? Charles Manson? Ohio. Jeffrey Dahmer? ...
Springtime in Massillon marks the rebirth of beauty and love throughout the city. The dreariness of winter is shaken off by the joie de vivre, the love of life, of young people everywhere, choosing prom dresses at Linde’s or ball gloves for the next season of Little League. Tire swings are repaired and picket fences painted to a gleaming white shine. Fishing poles are carefully brought up from well-organized basements, respooled with care and that old red tacklebox of dad’s is lovingly filled with sinkers and floaters, colorful lures and hooks for the season ahead. In the book world, s...
South Park-style mockery And we love it! I have a cousin that’s been struck by lightning. Twice. The first time I stepped on Kent State campus I took the wrong bus and spent two hours in Stow, missing my whole first day of classes. I brought some new ideas to show my boss, and got fired in the meeting. I lost out on a promotion because an interviewer in Michigan thought I was in a different time zone and called me an hour early. I was showering and missed the call then he wouldn’t give me a second interview. We’ve all had difficult moments that make us feel like bad luck is the...
By Fred Van Patten “Sniveling little sycophantic shits,” thought William Shatner, looking from the limo’s back seat. The limo pulled past the front entrance of the hotel and headed for the back. “Thank God I don’t have to deal with them. Yet.” A crowd of several hundred people milled about the colossal arched doorway. Some were dressed in Starfleet uniforms, some dressed as police officers, some in lawyerish suits. Most were simply dressed in jeans and t-shirts. Many of the shirts had Shatner’s face plastered on the front. Shatner looked at the people a...
