In a Hollywood-ready plot, an attractive woman named Joey is tossed off a boat by her husband, for reasons unknown. With the help of her friends and relations–including a loopy sheepherding brother from New Zealand–she sets out to find out what’s what. Come on in, Ben Varkentine says. The water’s fine.

indie, record reviews, zine, cd’s, bands,WonkaVision,Edited by Justin Luczejko,WonkaVision Magazine,Carl F Gauze

Star Trek, celebrity web sites, Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton,Just A Geek,by Wil Wheaton,O’Reilly,Ben Varkentine

Do you remember when girls wore slacks? - so hip! Traffic stops, men get heart attacks - so hip! Seems so strange Carl F Gauze took it like that…so hip it hurts!

teenage sexuality suicide drug use ,Generation S.L.U.T.,by Marty Beckerman,Pocket Books MTV Books,Daniel Mitchell

On The Avengers and in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diana Riggs’ best-known characters took revolutionary stances on sex, sexuality and feminism. A good look at this interesting woman’s life and career has long been needed; unfortunately, Ben Varkentine says, it still is.

Carl. F. Gauze peruses this crash-course introduction to the tenets of Islam, but he’s still left with unanswered questions.

Kathleen Tracy, The Avengers, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diana Rigg, Mrs. Peel,Diana Rigg,by Kathleen Tracy,BenBella,Varkentine

environment Zakin Naked anthology,Naked: Writers Uncover the Way We Live on Earth,Susan Zakin, editor,Four Walls Eight Windows,Eric J. Iannelli

With the anthology Naked, Susan Zakin hopes to rescue environmental literature from extinction. Eric J. Iannelli wonders if she can bring this endangered genre back from the brink.

zine, photocopy, punk, DIY,Stolen Sharpie Revolution,by Alex Wrekk,Microcosm Publishing,Jason Feifer

A great, valuable alternative to major media. But enough about Ink 19, let’s talk about the ‘zine community. Jason Feifer says it’s stronger when the ‘zines are better – and this DIY resource is the book to do that.

Indie, small press, SPX, comic, realistic story, great art, slacker,BOP! – More Box Office Poison,by Alex Robinson,Top Shelf Productions,Joe Frietze

No, it isn’t the Ben Affleck story. It’s a reprint of several stand alone pieces that comic creator James Robinson did not feel fit in with the overall story when the BOP omnibus volume was printed. Joe Frietze says it whetted his appetite for more, which in itself is more than anyone’s said about Ben Affleck in years, the poor dope.

After a century whose latter half was largely defined by its images, wish fulfillment and reflection each go into the filmed representations of our presidents, both fictitious and real. This book seeks to provide a thoughtful map to those representations; Ben Varkentine puts on his Indiana Jones hat.

After a century whose latter half was largely defined by its images, wish fulfillment and reflection each go into the filmed representations of our presidents, both fictitious and real. This book seeks to provide a thoughtful map to those representations; Ben Varkentine puts on his Indiana Jones hat.

There are seemingly millions of books on George W. Bush and the people who love him out there today, some of them funny, some sickeningly astonishing in their revelations. Ben Varkentine’s read a lot of them and frankly, he’s getting a little tired.

“There are now enough semiotics to allow less skilled minimalists to enter the one-way dialog, rising from nearly nothing to almost something.” No, seriously. Carl F Gauze says so.

After taking everything he wanted from Liberal Hollywood, Joe Eszterhas, author of Showgirls, now lives in the happy heartland of Ohio. How did he get there from here? This book answers that question, spilling many secrets in the process, and Ben Varkentine stumbles across the biggest: Good writing.

The rich and famous are being killed off, and it’s up to a gin-soaked private eye and his young, inexperienced partner to sort things out. Sound like a book you’ve read before? Trust me, Ben Varkentine says. You haven’t. You really haven’t.