Drew Struzan: Oeuvre by Drew Struzan and Dylan Struzan. Introduction by George Lucas. © 2011 Titan Books. ISBN 9780857685575. Hardback. Art History / Pop Culture. 314 pages. Source: review copy provided by the publishers.

If you are a movie-goer, and especially if you are a film buff, you should be familiar with Drew Struzan’s work. He has designed some of the most iconic movie posters of the last thirty years — from Star Wars, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and E.T. to Harry Potter, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Walking Dead — as well as stamps, record covers, trading cards and promotional artwork. Star Wars creator, writer and direction, George Lucas calls Struzan, “the only collectible artist since World War II.”

This extravagant coffee table book offers full-page prints of his work, over 250 pieces of art (including never before seen personal pieces), and a foreword by none other than George Lucas himself! Drew’s wife of forty years, Dylan, provides us with an intimate look at the man himself and his legacy through her prose.

This is definite must-have for movie buffs and geeks! 5/5.

Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land, edited by Jamie K. Reaser and Susan Chernak McElroy. ©2008 Hiraeth Press. ISBN 9780979924637. Trade Paperback. Bioregionalism. 160 pages. Source: review copy provided by the publishers.

Synopsis: Do you remember the first time you feel in love? Within these pages you will find love stories, rapturous love affairs with the land, shameless seductions, betrothals, vows exchanged, marriages of the soul, heartaches, partings, healings, and renewals. The authors are the courters and the courted…Their landscape paramours embrace them and they grow forth from within.

Review: Courting with the Wild contains 16 anecdotal eco-romances and renewals detailing the moments when the contributing authors felt the love of the land blossom within them. Along with recollections of their fervent rendezvouses with nature, Courting the Wild also provides practices for readers to use in improving their relationship to the land.  Read more

Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days by Vanessa Farquharson. © 2009  Mariner Books. ISBN 9780547073286. Trade Paperback. Green Living / Memoir. 267 pages. Source: review copy provided by the publishers.

Review: Sleeping Naked Is Green is a blog-turned-book much like Julie & Julia but instead of dealing with a woman’s trials through cooking, this tackles an eco-cynic’s journey into green living. It chronicles 366 consecutive days in the life of Canadian film critic, Vanessa Farquharson.

Reading as an anecdotal memoir meets handy tip guide, Sleeping Naked Is Green has that friendly conversational tone one expects from blogs. Each chapter is a month and each day features one green change the author made such as using a handkerchief instead of tissues (March 20th) or walking home from work twice a week (October 1st). Read more

Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween by David J. Skal. © 2002 Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781582342306. Hardback. Sociology. 256 pages. Source: library book

Synopsis: Using a mix of personal anecdotes and brilliant social analysis, Skal examines the amazing phenomenon of Halloween, exploring its dark Celtic history and illuminating why it has evolved-in the course of a few short generations-from a quaint, small-scale celebration into the largest seasonal marketing event outside of Christmas.

Review: Death Makes a Holiday really does not start out well. The introduction to the book (‘The Candy Man’s Tale’) tells the depressing story of a man who brought the tainted Halloween candy urban legend that every parents fears to life back in the 1970s. By swapping out the sugar in a “pixy” stick with cyanide, Ronald Clark O’Bryan murdered his own son and would have taken the lives of three more if their parents hadn’t sent them off to bed without candy. What a way to open a book, eh?

After that gloomy tale, I almost decided not to read it at all, but I’m glad I stuck with it because it did improve.

Chapter One (‘The Halloween Machine’) focuses on the origins of Halloween in Ireland and Scotland (and the evolution of the jack-o-lantern from turnip to pumpkin), and how it grew from a night to in which to pay respects to the deceased, to a night of candy and consumerist mayhem that we have today.

Chapter Two (‘The Witch’s Teat’) centers around the age-old archetype of the witch (though the chapter really seems to figure more heavily on the Salem Witch Trials and the commercialization of such a tragedy of American history more than anything else). This section also contains a good bit about the fight fundamentalist Christians put up every year to warn this nation of the “Satanic” dangers of this “evil” night [*insert big eye roll from reviewer*].

Chapter Three (‘Home Is Where the Hearse Is’) delves into haunted houses, the Halloween staple of America, by talking about some of the residences that go all out with lavish decorations (I tip by hat to you and your Exorcist display, Bruce Burns) and amazing props. Did you know the Playboy mansion spends about $500,000 every Halloween? Well, now you do.

Chapter Four (‘The Devil on Castro Street’) concentrates on culture wars, mainly that of the gay community. I had no idea that in the years following WWII it was illegal to knowingly or unknowingly sell liquor to a homosexual in California, and that the only night a year the local authorities lifted this ban was Halloween. There’s some very interesting stuff in this chapter for those interested in LGBT history and oppression. A good bit seemed to center around Harvey Milk, and it left me even more curious about the film and what it might possibly contain regarding the Halloween fights. Judgment Houses, the Christian equivalent of haunted houses, are also discussed here as well as the fights to remove Halloween from public schools.

Chapter Five (‘Halloween on the Screen’) draws parallels between the seemingly spectral beginnings of film (with the magic-lantern apparitions of Spiritualism which eventually lead to cinema) and the dark and melodramatic themes Halloween evokes. The two are a match made in heaven…or is it hell? A good many of the first films made were macabre in nature (The Phantom of the Opera and Nosferatu for instance) and this chapter traces the steps of Halloween’s growth in cinematic history, from the classic and macabre to the screen screams and gore.

The book ends with an afterword comparing September 11 and October 31, and how on September 11, the worlds of the living and the dead were thrust upon each other (“The world watched, stunned, as its greatest metropolis became its greatest necropolis.” [pp 183]). It begins with how America as a whole has a problem with death, despite our outward joviality in mortality at Halloween: “Divorced from their religious roots, both pagan and Christian, ancient customs of honoring the departed were long ago transmogrified into consumption rituals for the living. Rubberized images of zombies, vampires and other monsters recalled to life have replaced the heartfelt memories of real ancestors.” (pp 183). It goes on to tell how the tragedy of September 11th sent shockwaves through Halloween.

Skal talks about how America holds death at a distance, unlike our neighbors in Latin America who hold it close in celebrations like Días de los Muertos, or the Days of the Dead, which takes place on November 1-2. He also mentions the differences in attitudes of funerals and wakes in America as compared to say our Irish cousins, for whom death is a boisterous occasion. Lots of food for thought contained here for those who struggle with the thought of death and subsequent celebrations of it.

Overall, a brief but excellent sociological look at one of our country’s favorite nights. Here’s a quote which I think sums it all up: “Halloween is a holiday that refuses to play by anyone’s rules. Unpredictable and unrepentant, Halloween also remains stubbornly unofficial and underground, and this may be the key to understanding the tumult that regularly erupts in its name.” (pp. 153)

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Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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