Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts

The Pitch: The Adventures of Luther Woundup and His Magical Orange Ball Review

The Pitch: The Adventures of Luther Woundup and His Magical Orange Ball
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The Pitch: The Adventures of Luther Woundup and His Magical Orange Ball ReviewAs a native Sacramentan and avid science fiction fan, this book piqued my curiosity. The unusual, colorful cover grabbed my attention as I was browsing around Tower Books on Broadway. I bought it on a whim, and only put it down once before I was finished.
The book takes place in the near future in Sacramento, CA, in the familiar territory of downtown, on the Sacramento River, and at Raley Field (called Riders Field in the novel). Our protagonist (or is he? we're not quite sure) is Luther Woundup, a fiery redheaded sprite of a youth, who just happens to hearken from a planet called Spalding (the novel is not without its requisite sci-fi puns - but thankfully, Cabral humors us with a plausible explanation). If nothing else, this kid wants to play baseball, and bad. We soon learn that he's on a mission to collect energy from people to deliver back to his home planet - and where better to collect it than from 13,000 upbeat baseball fans? (Well, Arco Arena - but Spaldingians are apparently not into basketball.)
Luther's mission leads him to some interesting characters - Bo Wandele, a good-natured river rat with a bum leg and a homeless lisp; Susan "Mink" Minkin, a PR career woman for the baseball team whose only flaw is determination in the face of almost certain humiliation; and, believe it or not, a shockingly accurate Rush Limbaugh - who becomes more central to the story than one would ever think possible.
It's a really great book. Well written, funny, with lively characters and dialogue. We really LIKE Luther, and Bo, and Mink - and we're really rooting for them throughout the story. The plot is also very sophisticated for a "sci fi" piece. (I strongly hesitate to use that label, by the way - this novel would be enjoyed by anyone who just likes a good story.) It was interesting: After I finished the book, I felt like I was waking up from a vivid dream - I guess I was that committed to what I was reading.
I'm very much a supporter of local writers, arts and entertainment, and I think this book is just as good as anything else out there. I gave it four stars instead of five just because it felt a little rough around the edges in places, but it was truly worth reading. I wholeheartedly recommend this book - especially if you're a Sacramentan, a baseball nut, or a Rush Limbaugh fan/enemy (trust me, the character will appeal to both conservatives AND the "bleeding-hearts!")The Pitch: The Adventures of Luther Woundup and His Magical Orange Ball OverviewTo contact the author, please send e-mail to RAC@ThePitchBook.comFrom the moment Luther Woundup launches the orange baseball over the wall at Riders Field, Sacramento fans are introduced to the most intriguing mascot the game has ever seen. Luther bursts onto the field and into their hearts with the most ingenious, magical displays. But like a modern day Trojan Horse, the display serves as a ruse to collect human brain waves with an innocent-looking device invented by Luther's father, the reigning scientist on Spalding. The mission: convert the contents into cortesium, which is needed to save his people. At least, that's what Luther is told. Eventually, he learns the true purpose of his mission, pitting father against son in The Pitch

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The Cruisers Book 2: Checkmate Review

The Cruisers Book 2: Checkmate
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The Cruisers Book 2: Checkmate ReviewThe Cruisers: Checkmate provides the second book in The Cruisers series - but requires no familiarity with the prior book in order to earn attention and acclaim from newcomers. Here a group of gifted misfits who attend a school in Harlem for the brightest kids find one of their members is arrested for trying to buy drugs - which sets off a chain of decisions that will change their group. A fine story evolves.The Cruisers Book 2: Checkmate OverviewIn the second book of the CRUISERS series, Walter Dean Myers explores the world of competitive chess as seen through the eyes of a group of middle school misfits.
Sidney Aronofsky is one of the best chess players under age 16 in both the city and the country.When he's arrested for trying to buy drugs, it comes as a total surprise to those who know him. The expectations of parents, schools, and tutors pressure the young players.Sidney loves and wants to play chess, but dislikes the constant spotlight.He thinks that if he appears to be involved in drugs or a troublemaker he will be excused from playing on the school's team.In this book Zander and his crew is back, using the Cruiser school newspaper express their frustrations and triumphs.


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Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics Review

Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics
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Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics Review"Manga" is a first-rate introduction and analysis of one of the world's most significant new forms of art - Japanese comics. The book not only has beautiful artwork, much of it in full color, but also glossy pages in an oversize format. Gravett covers the visual history of manga from Osamu Tezuka to modern European comics that have been influenced by manga. There are chapters devoted to boys' (shonen) and girls' (shojo) manga, gekiga ("drama pictures" - a kind of gritty realism), sexually explicit manga for adult men and women, and a fascinating discussion of less mainstream manga done by idiosyncratic artists and editors. The illustrations are clear, well-printed, and very well selected - Gravett has a first-rate eye for some of the most gorgeous manga artwork, ranging from Riyoko Ikeda's "Rose of Versailles" through Masamune Shirow's "Ghost in the Shell, part 2" and the horror manga of Hideshi Hino. Mechas, swordfights, pretty girls, stalwart heroes, nymphomaniac Tinkerbells, beautiful men, Princess Sapphire, Akira, Dragonball - a wide and representative range of manga styles and genres are all included. The hardest part of doing the book was probably choosing what not to include in a finite number of pages! Together with the artwork - which is worth the price of the book - Gravett has written thoughtful, historically and culturally accurate discussions of the social, aesthetic, and political background of manga. These essays are also worth the price of the book. Until now, the only two substantive books about manga as a medium were Frederik L. Schodt's 1983 "Manga! Manga!" and his 1996 "Dreamland Japan." Gravett's book is a worthy successor to Schodt's, and is essential for any fan of manga, anime or cartooning - or anyone interested in popular culture in a globalizing, transnational world. And for anyone else - well, the art is just so beautiful and the writing so well done that you too should get it.
Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics Overview
Japan's output of manga is massive, accounting for a staggering forty percent of everything published each year in the country.Outside Japan, there has been a global boom in sales, with the manga aesthetic spreading from comics into all areas of Western youth culture through film, computer games, advertising, and design.

Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics presents an accessible, entertaining, and highly-illustrated introduction to the development and diversity of Japanese comics from 1945 to the present. Featuring striking graphics and extracts from a wide range of manga, the book covers such themes as the specific attributes of manga in contrast to American and European comics; the life and career of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy and originator of story manga; boys' comics from the 1960s to the present; the genres and genders of girls' and women's comics; the darker, more realistic themes of gekiga -- violent samurai, disturbing horror and apocalyptic science fiction; issues of censorship and protest; and manga's role as a major Japanese export and global influence.


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The Berlin Boxing Club Review

The Berlin Boxing Club
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The Berlin Boxing Club ReviewI received this book through the Amazon Vine Program and my initial reaction upon looking at the cover was disappointment seeing it was a teen novel. Well, there is truth in old sayings, "Never judge a book by it's cover." The book follows the path of a young teenager through the power grabbing years of the Nazi's. The protagonist does not relate to his heritage and does his best to "blend in" by hiding in plain sight, however when he is exposed to be of Jewish heritage he is forced to learn to fight back against overwhelming odds by making an unlikely alliance with a world class boxer.
The descriptions are brutal and the writing reminds me of another excellent book that my son read for 9th grade called "The Book Thief" and my guess is that many of the readers of that book will be reading this one and they and you won't be disappointed. An excellent read for any age.The Berlin Boxing Club Overview
Fourteen-year-old Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew. But to the bullies at his school in Naziera Berlin, it doesn't matter that Karl has never set foot in a synagogue or that his family doesn't practice religion. Demoralized by relentless attacks on a heritage he doesn't accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth to everyone around him.

So when Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German national hero, makes a deal with Karl's father to give Karl boxing lessons, Karl sees it as the perfect chance to reinvent himself. A skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but as Max becomes the mentor Karl never had, Karl soon finds both his boxing skills and his art flourishing.

But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: protector of his family. Karl longs to ask his new mentor for help, but with Max's fame growing, he is forced to associate with Hitler and other Nazi elites, leaving Karl to wonder where his hero's sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his dream of boxing greatness with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way?


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Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future Review

Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future
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Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future ReviewJournalist Tom Scocca spent several years in Beijing prior to the 2008 Olympics and wrote about his observations in this book. He is a fairly good writer and parts of the book make for a moderately entertaining read. But he really doesn't tell us very much about Beijing that is interesting or surprising. Often, Scocca only seems to be scratching the surface of the events and people that he describes without getting at their deeper cultural and historical roots.
Many of Socca's observations are the kinds of things that any tourist who has been to Beijing would notice. He begins by telling us that the "first important fact to know about China is that it has a lot of Chinese people." No, really!?! And here I thought that the capitol city of the most populous nation in the world was virtually empty. He also spends a lot of time talking about the basic architecture of Beijing, pollution and other things that anybody who has spent even a short time in China would be familiar with.
I have nothing against Scocca. He didn't say anything that was outright wrong or offensive. But he doesn't quite have his finger on the pulse of Chinese society to the same degree that Peter Hessler (River Town, Oracle Bones, Country Driving) or, to a lesser degree, Robert Gifford (China Road) and Simon Winchester (The Man Who Loved China) do. If you want to read a journalistic account of social change in contemporary Chinese society I would recommend one of those books over Scocca's.
"Beijing Welcomes You" isn't a bad read. I wonder why Amazon made it a "Book of the Month" over Ezra Vogel's forthcoming biography of Deng Xiaoping and Aaron Friedberg's recent "A Contest for Supremacy," however. Both of these promise to be considerably more insightful and more likely to teach us something about China's rise that we didn't know already.Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future Overview

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The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace Review

The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace
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The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace Review
Competition for disposal income spent on recreation and entertainment is probably more intense now than it has ever been before. On any given day, we have so many choices and all of them have direct or indirect costs. This is especially true of sporting events, many of which are televised. The title of this book refers to someone whose financial support is increasingly more difficult to attract and then sustain. According to Rein, Kotler, and Shields, "All sports need to be constantly adapting and if necessary changing to accommodate a competitive and fragmented marketplace." Their book suggests how to achieve that objective by adopting and implementing a "strategic approach that emphasizes fan connection, innovative segmentation, brand-building, and sustaining market share."
In essence, marketing either creates or increases demand for whatever is offered. With regard to the sports industry (at all levels from local youth and school teams to professional leagues and international competition such as the Olympics), the authors assert that those responsible for marketing must reinvent their thinking in terms of athletes, teams, leagues , and events in order to differentiate them from competition which, yes, includes the option to commit no hours and dollars whatsoever. Instead of buying a ticket to a baseball game, for example, and probably purchase food, beverages, and merchandise while attending it, why not stay home and watch the same game on television? Or instead watch another television program or DVD? Or read a book such as The Elusive Fan? Or go for a walk in the woods?
In this volume, Rein, Kotler, and Shields address questions such as these:
1. How to connect with "the elusive fan"?
2. How to reinvent a sports brand?
3. How to generate the transformation of that brand?
4. How to implement the brand's transformation?
5. How to communicate the brand effectively?
6. How to sustain the fan connection with the brand?
7. Which sports branding initiatives have been most successful?
8. What lessons can be learned from them?
9. What is the future of "fan connection"?
10. How to respond effectively to "the most elusive fans who are just now being born"?
This brilliant book will be of substantial value to decision-makers in the sports industry who must decide how to market what they offer to an increasingly more crowded marketplace but I presume to suggest that it will also be of great interest and value to others who also struggle to understand -- and then respond effectively to -- the increasingly more "elusive" consumers within those decision-makers' marketplace.
I especially appreciate the fact that Rein, Kotler, and Shields devote relatively little attention to theories, hypotheses, etc. and spend most of their time rigorously examining real-world examples of those organizations which have achieved marketing success by initiating and then sustaining the aforementioned "strategic approach that emphasizes fan connection, innovative segmentation, brand-building, and sustaining market share." They are a commendably diverse selection of effectively marketed sports brands (both individuals and organizations) and include the Kentucky Derby, Maria Sharapova, owner Mark Cuban the Dallas Mavericks, the University of Vermont men's basketball team, general manager Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics , South Lake Carroll (Texas) High School's football program, the Professional Bowlers Association, NASCAR's Daytona 500 (the "Great American Race"), and the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team. However different they are in almost every respect, all are successful sports brands because each "has transformed into a strong, identifiable, and differentiated brand and is an example of how to execute two critical brand differentiation tools - [begin italics] benchmarking and innovation. [end italics]"
In the final chapter, Rein, Kotler, and Shields identify and then discuss six successful "drivers" of successful sports brands (please see pages 295-306) and as I absorbed and digested this material, it struck me that the same "drivers" (after appropriate modification) could achieve the same marketing objectives for almost any other category of brand, especially as most products and services have by now become commodities in their respective marketplaces which are also "crowded" in ways and to an extent which are unprecedented.
Trace the etymology of the word "fan" and you will learn that it is an abbreviation of the word "fanatic" and probably first appeared in England in 1525, referring to an "insane person," from the Latin word fanaticus. Winston Churchill once explained that a fanatic "is someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Although Rein, Kotler, and Shields limit their attention to the sports world, I again suggest that their probing and illuminating insights also have direct, indeed compelling relevance to most (if not all other) market segments and categories. Moreover, that relevance seems certain to become even greater in years to come.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Michael Mandelbaum's The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do; also D. Stanley Eitzen`s Sport in Contemporary Society: An Anthology.The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace Overview
Sports are a multibillion-dollar global business that will continue to grow by leaps and bounds into the foreseeable future. The bad news is: It's never been harder to attract, engage, and retain the sports fan.

Today's sports fans are bombarded by choices. Traditional sports, such as baseball, football, and basketball, compete for fans' dollars with snowboarding, lacrosse, poker…even paintball. The old business formulas, developed in the age of three TV networks and creaky stadiums, no longer apply.

World-renowned communication expert Irving Rein, international marketing guru Philip Kotler, and communication specialist Ben Shields deliver an innovative new business model centered squarely on fan satisfaction and retention. They give you the tools to transform your sports product into an enduring brand-immune to the vagaries of winning and losing-that quickly adapts to changing market conditions. Along the way they illustrate their points with fascinating case studies, including

Manchester United's transformation from a plucky home team to a billion-dollar international franchise
Professional golf phenomenon Michelle Wie's quest to maximize her talents and marketability
Southlake Carroll High School football team's benchmarking of professional and college football programs to build its own brand
Daytona International Speedway's reinvention of fan intimacy

Combining expert analysis with field-tested strategies for winning hearts and minds, The Elusive Fan is your guide to surviving and thriving in today's ever-widening world of sports.


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