Seems geared towards people who are managers or self-employed. Not sure the advice will help me or not. Maybe if it wasn't a library book and I could fill out the worksheets.

There's a lot to say about this book! It is a somewhat left-leaning history of Los Angeles that was written in 1990, and is split into eight sections (counting the prologue): The story of socialist suburb Llano del Rio; the history of LA's dueling narratives as epitomizing either the American dream or a futuristic dystopia; history of LA's regional political and economic elites; the political rise of the Homeowners; the rise of police state architecture; the story of the LAPD's war on poor and brown people; the history of LA's Catholic Diocese; and finally, Fontana.
City of Quartz has aged pretty well. It puts events just a few years later, such as the Rodney King Riots and even the OJ phenomenon in perspective, and it even illuminates our current economic and political difficulties (especially the real-estate feeding frenzy crisis). The in-depth cultural and historical commentary (and the footnotes) reminded me of Infinite Jest.

This memoir is full of great stories both from the author's life, and from the lives of the prisoners he worked with. At one point, Steinberg suggests to an aspiring author that his pimp memoir needs more of the points of view of the women in his life, and I kind of wondered if many of the stories of the prisoners found their way into Running the Books because of a similar suggestion to Steinberg. In addition to his direct experiences working in a prison library, Steinberg also writes about Jewishness, Boston, and the history of prisons. I often wondered how much I should believe of his story. After all, I can't imagine maintaining anywhere near the level of integrity he had after working any job in a prison for 2 years.

Strong Female Protagonist is another superhero comic which attempts to imagine superheros as realistic people, in realistic situations. Originally a webcomic, SFP is less comic-bookish than Watchmen, or stuff by Daniel Clowes (e.g. Death Ray, Patience, or David Boring). Like to Daniel Clowes's comics, it can get pretty philosophical, but the philosophy is probably closer to what you'll see in SMBC-Comics or Existential Comics. I really enjoyed SFP, and I'm looking forward to reading the webcomic!

A good starting point for learning the early history of Hip-hop. I like the playfulness and humor of all the art.

Frank tells the story of how revolutionary imagery and ideas were co-opted by the advertising and financial businesses, and how free market ideology took over discourse about politics, education, high art, pop culture, labor rights, the environment, and pretty much everything else. The author can get a little hyperbolic at times, but this book goes a long way in answering questions like: "why do we talk about education as if it's a business?" "how is deregulation still taken seriously?" "why do we talk about government as if it's a business?" "why were the 90s so weird?" and "how did we get here?"

Pairs well with such Negativland albums as, Dispepsi, The Perfect Cut, Escape from Noise, Guns, and Crosley Bendix: the Radio Reviews.

Disturbing send-up of the superhero genre with unreliable narrator's coming of age story.

Kind of a macabre Jungle Book. I'm a sucker for fantasy with well characterized characters and setting.

Memoir of the author's odd family, life in Portland, love of animals (including wiener dogs), and short-lived band/romance with the guitarist from The Need. Does she really call Dr. Laura? You'll have to find out for yourself!

Interesting overview of hip-hop's early history, starting with the great blackout. Especially loved the depiction of Russell Rush Simmons.