Reviewing the Mail: Week of 7/25

Here's another week's worth of the mail -- all of these are books that I received for review, and I do hope to review many of them. But, just to cover them all, here's what I know or can tell about them without reading them.

First is Why Does E=mc2?: (and why should we care?) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, a popular science book by two noted particle physicists and professors about exactly what Einstein's famous equation means -- each element of it and in whole. It was published this month by Da Capo Press in hardcover.

And then, from a completely different kind of publishing plan, there's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty by Raymond Benson. It's the sequel to Benson's first novel based on the video game -- that one was just called Metal Gear Solid -- and it has more adventures of Solid Snake and similar deeply characterized individuals. And it will be published by Del Rey in trade paperback in November.

W.W. Norton's program of reprinting Will Eisner's graphic novels continues this month with three books Eisner created in the '90s:

• Life on Another Planet (originally published as Signal from Space), about the discovery of a mysterious radio signal of alien origin, was originally published in 1995.
• 1998's A Family Matter is one of Eisner's family melodramas, with a family gathering to celebrate their patriarch's 90th birthday -- and that, of course, is not nearly as happy and conflict-free as it might be.
• And Minor Miracles, published for the first time in 2000, sees Eisner look back to his childhood for inspiration one more time, as he "explores the everyday miracles of our lives."

And last for this week is a new collection of the first two years of the classic humor strip Bringing Up Father, by George McManus. When I say "classic," I mean it -- this is the real deal, from 1913-1914. NBM published this collection in July, and -- from those of us who have been hearing about Maggie & Jiggs for years, without having more than scattered strips to read -- I hope this is as good as I've been hearing it is, and that they are successful enough to continue reprinting it.

And, with that, I have to give the last word to Josh Ritter...

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Listening to: Josh Ritter - Me & Jiggs
via FoxyTunes