Book Analysis Watchmen, a 12-part series of comics or “graphic novels” written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons in 1985, is a critically acclaimed tale that has been lauded as the “coming of age” moment for the comic book industry. The story surrounds events as occurring in an alternate timeline of American history […]

Book Analysis Watchmen, a 12-part series of graphic novels written by Alan Moore, takes an untraditional route in describing the escapades of caped crime-fighters. In contrast to the typical stories involving superheroes, The “Watchmen”, as they are called, are so flawed at times in the story it becomes difficult to differentiate these supposed “heroes” from […]

Book Analysis Fantastic Mr. Fox is a tale that was written in 1974 by British author Roald Dahl that follows the exploits of a fox and his efforts to feed his family. In the story, Mr. Fox, in order to prevent his family from starving, steals livestock from the neighboring farms which earns him their […]

Book Analysis Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel of the Harry Potter series, written in 1999 by J.K. Rowling. The series follows protagonist Harry Potter and his adventures in witchcraft and wizardry at the mystical school of Hogwarts and his battles with users of the more sinister forms of magic, referred […]

Book Analysis A Scanner Darkly, written by Philip K. Dick in 1977, is a science fiction novel whose narrative serves as a commentary for the drug-saturated period that was the 1970’s, as seen by Dick himself. The story follows Bob Arctor, an undercover narcotics agent, who accidentally becomes hooked on a popular hallucinogenic while on […]

Book Analysis No Country for Old Men, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy in 2005, follows the events surrounding three central characters: Sheriff Bell, Anton Chigurh, and Llewelyn Moss. The story focuses on Moss as he attempts to escape his mortality at the hands of Anton Chigurh, a hitman hired to retrieve the large sum […]

Book Analysis Harvey Pekar’s series of comics titled American Splendor follow Pekar’s own life in Cleveland, Ohio. Subject matter can range from his job to his bouts with cancer but, for the most part, the focus is on the negative aspects of his life. Pekar utilizes these negative chronicles in his life to twist them […]

Book Analysis The Orchid Thief is a novel written by Susan Orlean that follows her real-life experiences with Mr. John LaRoche, an eccentric and very intelligent man whose passions often border on the obsessive. The book documents the arrest and subsequent trial of Mr. LaRoche in response to his involvement and orchestration in “orchid poaching” […]

Book Analysis Michael Cunningham’s book, The Hours, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written in 1999 that surrounds the lives of three women as they struggle with the satisfaction (or lack thereof) that they feel about their lives. The three women, Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughan are each shown to have deep regrets as […]

Analysis of the Book Pride and Prejudice, a novel written by English author Jane Austen in the early 1800’s, was a book that served as a sort of a satirical social commentary on a multitude of subjects. The plot surrounds the same period as the book’s own publishing and touches on subjects such as gender […]