In honor of last week’s Comic Con in San Diego: 

With The Dark Knight breaking every box office record imaginable and comic book superheroes dominating all kinds of media buy viagra cheap online, it makes sense that these extra special heroes are making their way in to the literary world.Book Design Review shared two new titles with this common theme buy viagra cheap online, but there are so many more! Though I’m a big fan of comics in all its forms, I thought I’d share some new(ish) fiction titles are all about everybody’s favorite genetically modified/super-genius freaks.After the jump take a look at some of the books taking the literary world by storm.

PS - I’m not including our previous Genre X selections Fortress of Solitude and American Gods since we’ve chatted about them enough, but they certainly apply.

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photo courtesy of er3465

Ever since EW came out with its cult classics are generally guaranteed to generate debate - buy viagra levitra.Or buy viagra levitra, if you’re like me and you like to travel the world through your library, you might be interested in these great literary translations. Buy viagra levitra: want to expand your music horizons? Check out this three part list of “The Strangest Albums from the Biggest Artists“. Buy viagra levitra: and if you really have some serious time to quench your list cravings, check out Whitney Matheson’s “Lists and Countdowns” section of her Pop Candy blog.If I were to make some lists of my own, Whitney would definitely hold a top position for “Coolest Job” and Pop Candy would win hands down for “Best Pop Culture Blog”.

We’re very pleased to announce August’s genre X selection,  I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by local author Stephanie Kuehnert.   We wanted to use our unique and diverse group to give Stephanie’s first book the thoughtful reading it deserves, and then invite her to attend next month’s discussion.  There will be time for a frank discussion of the book, as well as a Q and A for the author.

Here’s a review from Booklist:

Punk rocker Emily Black’s daddy is a guitar player, but he set his music aside to raise her on his own after her mother disappeared.Emily grew up reasonably together and rebellious in a small Wisconsin farming town notable for its outlaw music venue, River’s Edge, where she and her best friend graduate from sleeping with potential “rock gods” to starting a band of their own - buy viagra without prescription.Their rapid success is the standard-issue rock-and-roll dream, but debut novelist Kuehnert makes it new by marshaling tonic energy and 100-proof candor to create a high-speed, switchback tale; buy viagra without prescription.Although the plotline about Emily’s miserable mother and die-hard father is almost too over-the-top, it adds dimension to Emily’s rocketing rise and painful plummet; buy viagra without prescription.And Kuehnert is acidly incisive and full-out entertaining as she tells a classic tale of an artist coming into her own, revels in raw punk-rock power, dramatizes just how difficult it is for women musicians to be taken seriously, and reveals that the scariest thing isn’t getting up on stage but lowering your guard and falling in love - buy viagra without prescription.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone was published in July by MTV Books.  This is great because it gives us a chance to read something that’s just hitting the marketplace, and provide the author with some rare in person reader interaction.  However, it also means that the book won’t be held at the Main Library because of its popularity.  If you’d like to get this book, feel free to place a hold on one of the library’s nine copies.  If you’d rather buy this one, there are copies at several bookstores in Oak Park and its easy to get ahold of online as well.

This selection is in keeping with our Chicago theme not only because the author lives in Forest Park, but because the main character comes from our Windy City.  Music also plays a significant role, and I think that any obsessive fan will appreciate Emily’s passion for punk.

We hope you can join us for what should prove to be one of our most interesting discussions.  We’ll be at Molly Malone’s (the Snug) in Forest Park on Tuesday, August 26th at 8 pm.  Be ready to rawk.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to last night’s discussion of The Time Traveler’s Wife; buying cialis online without prescription. It was really nice to discuss this book so near and dear to our hearts with each of you. I’d say that overall the title has received the best reception of all the books we’ve chosen to date. This is certainly due buying cialis online without prescription, in part, to the fact that author Audrey Niffenegger so seamlessly incorporates the city of Chicago into her narrative - an element we all found to be a big draw as natives of the Chicago area. Of course, there were still those wonderful and inevitable points in the discussion that we couldn’t agree on exactly what was happening, or intended - buying cialis online without prescription.After arriving home with visions of Henry & Clare still dancing in my head, I scoured the web to find out more about what Niffenegger herself has had to say about their delicately crafted world.

Upon the book’s publication in 2003, several lengthy, telling interviews with Niffenegger were published online - buying cialis online without prescription. Buying cialis online without prescription: easiest to find are those with Bookslut and Contemporary Literature, both linked from the author’s website (currently under construction but still worth a gander).  However, it was an interview she did with fiction blog Writer Unboxed that I found to be particularly insightful.  This one stands out not only because it was published a full three years after the book, but as the most relevant to the content of our discussion last night.  In it, Niffenegger unveils her process for keeping track of Clare and Henry’s individual timelines, shares her thoughts about TTW as a work of science fiction, entertains the idea of a sequel about Alba, and anticipates her own disappointment with the upcoming film adaptation.  Just to be certain I haven’t horribly paraphrased anything, you should read the full interview here.

Buying prescription viagra on line: if you’re joining us for tomorrow’s discussion of Audrey Niffeneger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, then it’s likely that you’re already acquainted with the books central characters - Clare and Henry.  Well, it’s no coincidence that we decided to hold our discussion only months before the movie based on the novel is scheduled to be released.  The book has been a long time favorite of ours and, to tell you the truth, we’re a little hesitant to fall equally in love with the film.

Keep in mind this film adaptation has been eagerly anticipated by everyone from readers of the 2003 best-seller to actors and directors.   This could be because then couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston acquired the film rights to the book before it even hit store shelves (though I prefer to think it’s because the story and characters are just that compelling).  Among the actresses rumored to be portaying Clare were Kate Winslet and Jennifer Garner.  Pitt himself was rumored to step into Henry’s shoes while also taking producer credit with his company Plan B.  Perhaps most interesting and exciting was the idea of seeing the book interpreted through the eyes of Academy Award nominated director and auteur Gus Van Sant who was signed on to direct the film briefly in 2005.

With the exception of Pitt snagging producer credit, none of these things will be happening.  Instead, we’ll see it girl Rachel McAdams take on the role of artist Clare Abshire and the Incredible Hulk’s Eric Bana as time traveling Henry DeTamble.  Directing is relatively unknown Robert Schwentke.  Filming for this Chicago-centric story began last November in Ontario and is slated for release on none other than Christmas day, 2008.

So, now that all is said and done, how do you feel about the upcoming film?  And if you’re ambivalent about the casting, who are your dream Clare & Henry?

If you’re a book lover looking to fill a little naked wall space then look no further.  Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the trendsetters over at Urban Outfitters have culled a great little collection of vintage book prints.  While I think it’s safe to say that these books were judged by their cover, there were no mistakes made in the selections.  There truly is something for everybody with authors ranging from the heavy hitting Beats (Kerouac, Burroughs, and Bukowski) to Sci-Fi favorites (Philip K - buyviagra cialis.Dick) and a cornucopia of classics in the mix (Vladimir Nabakov & J.D.Salinger to name a few). 

If you’re gaga for cover art even half as much as I am you’ll enjoy seeing some lesser known covers.  Some of my favorites include Corgi editions of Nabakov’s Lolita (pictured above) and Burrough’s Naked Lunch, 1st editions of Philip K; buyviagra cialis.Dick’s Ubik and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and Charles Bukowski’s There’s No Business illustrated by R. Buyviagra cialis: crumb.  However, if I had to choose one it would undoubtedly be Tennesse William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, designed by mid-century graphic design giant Alvin Lustig.

And the best part?  They’re framed and ready to hang.  Having an eye for good design and a small budget for framing that’s music to my ears.  Enjoy more images of these beauties below the break.

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Once again thanks to everyone who attended last month’s discussion; cealis lavetra.Despite the absence of blog postings last month (sorry folks, we won’t let that happen again) , we still managed to gain interest from new people!

After talking it over with the group, we have decided to pursue our first series of “themed” reads for the next couple months.So beginning in July genre X will be reading a variety of books that relate to Chicago in different ways.We’re looking to maximize the experience through the blog as well as some creative variations on our normal book discussions.

Our first Chicago related read was a no-brainer for us here at genre X, as it is a huge favorite of ours that we’ve been holding in the queue of possible reads since the group’s inception; cealis lavetra.To say that The Time Traveler’s Wife takes place primarily in Chicago is an understatement; cealis lavetra.The windy city plays such a strong role in the book that it could practically be considered a main character. It only makes sense then that author and visual artist Audrey Niffenegger resides in the area and actually teaches at Columbia College.Here’s a review of The Time Traveler’s Wife from Publisher’s Weekly:

This highly original first novel won the largest advance San Francisco-based MacAdam/Cage had ever paid cealis lavetra, and it was money well spent.Niffenegger has written a soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes, and one that skates nimbly around a huge conundrum at the heart of the book: Henry De Tamble, a rather dashing librarian at the famous Newberry Library in Chicago, finds himself unavoidably whisked around in time; cealis lavetra.He disappears from a scene in cealis lavetra, say, 1998 to find himself suddenly, usually without his clothes, which mysteriously disappear in transit, at an entirely different place 10 years earlier-or later.During one of these migrations, he drops in on beautiful teenage Clare Abshire, an heiress in a large house on the nearby Michigan peninsula, and a lifelong passion is born; cealis lavetra. Cealis lavetra: the problem is that while Henry’s age darts back and forth according to his location in time, Clare’s moves forward in the normal manner, so the pair are often out of sync. Cealis lavetra: but such is the author’s tenderness with the characters, and the determinedly ungimmicky way in which she writes of their predicament (only once do they make use of Henry’s foreknowledge of events to make money, and then it seems to Clare like cheating) that the book is much more love story than fantasy.It also has a splendidly drawn cast, from Henry’s violinist father, ruined by the loss of his wife in an accident from which Henry time-traveled as a child, to Clare’s odd family and a multitude of Chicago bohemian friends - cealis lavetra.The couple’s daughter, Alba, inherits her father’s strange abilities, but this is again handled with a light touch; there’s no Disney cuteness here - cealis lavetra.Henry’s foreordained end is agonizing, but Niffenegger has another card up her sleeve, and plays it with poignant grace - cealis lavetra.It is a fair tribute to her skill and sensibility to say that the book leaves a reader with an impression of life’s riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills.

Please join us for next discussion on Tuesday, July 22 at 8 pm at Molly Malone’s (the Snug) in Forest Park; cealis lavetra.