Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Very Whedon Christmas!!

In a nod to the holiday season, I'm pleased to announce the first-ever Whedon Christmas Shopping Guide here at Solomon Mao's!
Joss Whedon his own bad self!
In the comments below you'll find a (hopefully) wide selection of the best writing on the work and worlds of Joss Whedon, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dollhouse and beyond, by some of the most brilliant and talented minds around. Here at last are the perfect gifts you've been searching for, and just (barely!) in time for Christmas! 


At this point I have to give a nod to John Scalzi, who's series of Whatever Shopping Guides inspired this little effort. You should read his blog and books too!


Here's the rules:


This comment thread is for authors and editors of books on the works of Joss Whedon and the Whedonverses only. Please do not leave other comments, as they will be removed by the moderator.


1.) Posts by authors and editors of books only. If you are not the author/editor of the book you're posting about, please do not post.


2.) Your book must currently be in print and available.


3.) One post per author, please. Those among you who have authored/edited more than one book, feel free to post about multiple works, but all in the same post please.


4.) Please keep your description of your book brief and entertaining, as if you were talking to someone at a signing who might buy your book!


5.) Include a link to your book at an online bookseller. You can use standard HTML link scripting, a useful guide for which can be found here.


6.) Feel free to share and link to this blog post on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, or any other social media.


7.) As noted above, comment posts that are not by authors/editors promoting their own books will be deleted by the moderator.


Okay: now tell us all about your book!

11 comments:

  1. Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice, Hanukkah, or even Saturnalia - a copy of Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon is, without a doubt, an excellent "choice" for any holiday gift-giving occasion! Divided into four sections, the chapters explore Whedon’s handling of purpose, family, redemption, and zealotry throughout Buffy, Angel, Fray (poor Fray – hardly anyone writes about her!), and Firefly/Serenity. Curl up with a chapter while celebrating your seasonal ritual sacrifice! (Pie not included.)

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  2. Christmas is the season of Angels so what better gift to give then a copy of Reading Angel: The TV Spin-off with a Soul (I.B. Tauris, 2005) or Angel: TV Milestone (Wayne State University Press, 2009). These are the first two books to exclusively focus on Angel, and they explore Angel in a wide range of ways, including the show's Film Noir influences, issues of masculinity, comedy, horror, gender, and, of course 'giant tentacle spew' and the joys of Angel as a puppet. If you are a fan of Angel then these are the books for you. Have a happy holiday season. All the best Stacey Abbott

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  3. Once you’ve read Stacey Abbott’s wonderful volumes, round out your Angel collection with The Literary Angel! This collection is the perfect gift for you or the literature-lover in your life, covering literary influences and intersections between Angel and authors ranging from Sophocles to Sartre, from Dostoevsky to Orwell, from Mary Rowlandson to Nella Larson. Other chapters look at Angel as a medieval romance figure, Lorne as a postmodern bard, Harmony’s parody of female vampires, Lilah as legal femme fatale, and the elusive Numero Cinco in the Mexican wrestling luchas libre mascaras tradition. Throw in some After the Fall comics, detective fiction tropes, feminist abuse survivor narratives, and the question “Will the real Charles Gunn please stand up?” and you or your loved one will certainly be doing the Snoopy dance over this volume. Happy Holidays! Tamy Burnett & AmiJo Comeford

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  4. For the teacher in your life, why not try [url=http://astore.amazon.com/slayagetheonl-20/detail/0786459646]Buffy in the Classroom[/url]? Every essay in this compilation is written by teacher on how they've integrated Buffy into a wide variety classrooms. Chapters include how spoilers affect teaching, as well as how to use the series to teach morality and ethics, film production, history, feminism, and even Shakespeare.

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  5. So much goodness here!! Aside from hosting the Buffy Rewatch on my blog this year (with many of the fine folks above featured in it!) I've written a complete episode guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer called Bite Me! and a complete episode guide to Angel called Once Bitten. In the latter book I feature interviews with various Angel cast members, including a long interview with Alexis Denisof (Wesley) where he discusses the evolution of his character from his first appearance to the end.

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  6. For anybody studying the Buffyverse, treat yourself to my book: The Buffyverse Catalog: A Complete Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in Print, Film, Television, Comics, Games and Other Media, 1992-2010. Clocking in at a hefty 260,000 words and 6,000 citations, this guide covers everything ever written, recorded, or produced about the Buffyverse. The book is essentially a very complete bibliography - the most complete ever created on a TV series. It covers academic writing such as essays, books, and journal articles (all heavily annotated), as well as fan production, parodies, comics, interviews, documentaries, DVDs and CDs, novels, games, and fan magazines. Foreign language materials are also included, as well as many rare and unique items. The book is essential for anyone writing about or studying the Buffyverse, and also should have a place in most academic libraries (send a recommendation to your local college library - most libraries will act on student and faculty recommendations).

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  7. Holiday lightness & brightness not your thing? You and/or your Whedony loved ones need Buffy Goes Dark: Essays on the Final Two Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Television, edited by Lynne Edwards, Elizabeth Rambo, and James South. All the confusion, anxiety, anger, mayhem, sex, violence, consumerism, and gender anxiety, plus good vs. evil, life, death, life again, power, and love. Two essays on the fan-polarizing death of Tara, an analysis of what goes into a [Jane] "Espensode," and a defense of writer/producer Marti Noxon are among the essays that make this collection a must for every Whedon fan-scholar library.

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  8. I see Elizabeth has already mentioned the UPN years collection. So, I'll add the old chestnut Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (Open Court: 2003), which, I see, for those with handheld electronic devices, is now available for Kindle and iBooks.

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  9. To read what the Master himself has to say about everything from Donald Sutherland (*!*!*!) to crochet, Joss Whedon: Conversations makes a perfect gift. The interviews range from the listy to the reflective to the businessy, all very brilliant, of course.

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  10. If you have fun reading German books or just like looking at 100 well printed color and b/w images of Angel & Spike you should buy “Der sympathische Vampir: Visualisierungen von Männlichkeiten in der TV-Serie Buffy” (Frankfurt/ New York: Campus 2011), covering topics like the visual construction of vampiric masculinity.

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