Mike's Pick of the Week:

Metal Gear Solid 4.
Hideo Kojima wraps up one of the most beloved video game sagas of all time this week when MGS4 debuts. Spoiler reports tell us that this game wraps up ever single dangling plot thread from the entire series and sees Solid Snake off in next gen style. If you were on the fence about picking up a PS3, this is the game you've been waiting for to convince you.

Larry's Pick of the Week:
English as She is Spoke, "...a 60-page pamphlet printed in Britain in 1883, consisting of selections from Pedro Carolino's The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English, which had been published a few decades earlier. Carolino's work was a phrase book, containing English words and phrases that a foreigner could use during travel in the British Isles. However, there was one problem: Carolino had no knowledge of English whatsoever."

Ah, the honest attempt at communication, gone spectacularly awry.

Mark Twain loved the book so, he wrote an introduction to the 1887 American Edition: "In this world of uncertainties, there is, at any rate, one thing which may be pretty confidently set down as a certainty: and that is, that this celebrated little phrase-book will never die while the English language lasts. Its delicious unconscious ridiculousness, and its enchanting naiveté, as are supreme and unapproachable, in their way, as are Shakespeare's sublimities. Whatsoever is perfect in its kind, in literature, is imperishable: nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect, it must and will stand alone: its immortality is secure."

Julian's Pick of the Week:

Bigfoot: I Not Dead by Graham Roumieu

The third book in Roumieu's Bigfoot (after In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot and Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir) is now available. Bigfoot continues to present us with his own bittersweet take on life in the woods, people's (wrong) perceptions of him and the trials and tribulations that life presents when you are a big, hairy missing link are as funny as ever.

Erin's Pick of the Week:

Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball: My girl, Emmylou, has a new album coming out today that, naturally, I haven't heard. All I Intended To Be isn't available yet because people never want to leak the good stuff, you know? Wrecking Ball came out in 2005 and was produced by...wait for it...Daniel Lanois. Yes, that Daniel Lanois got his little electronic hands on sweet Emmylou and the result was, surprisingly, excellent. Never big on writing, though capable, Ms. Harris reinterprets a sterling collection of songs, ranging from Steve Earle to Jimi Hendrix with an alternative bent, as opposed to her usual folky country sound. Again, stay with me, it's good. Neil Young provides backing vocals on two tracks and, man, Emmylou can sing with people. My personal favorite track, however, would almost have to be the haunting "Deeper Well", written by Lanois and Harris with writing credit also going to troubadour David Olney. So, we'll probably pick up the new stuff today but you better believe I listened to Wrecking Ball last night.

Ash's Pick of the Week:

Eternals vol. 1 (Marvel): I'll admit - I'm the last guy who is a historian of comics; I'd rather read tomorrow's stories than yesterday's. Every week, tons of reprints hit the comics shop that I don't jump out of my chair to mention, but I'll make a case for all of the Jack Kirby reissues that we've seen recently, because the man was telling stories in ways that we still haven't caught up to. Eternals is the book that followed Kirby's New Gods, and 19 issues of human evolution, alien intervention, and the looming judgment of the Celestials are collected over the course of two volumes. Recommended for die-hard Kirby fans or those looking for something totally off the wall.

Rich's Pick of the Week:

Freddie & Me by Mike Dawson. The new graphic novel, collecting a story that Dawson has been previously publishing on his website, is a heartfelt memoir about his childhood as a huge fan of the band Queen. Everyone has a band or a musician that they were really into in their formative years and for Dawson it was Freddie Mercury and Queen. Not always the coolest of rock stars for a kid to be into. And when Freddie Mercury died, it hit poor Mike really hard. I've read a nice chunk of this online and look forward now to seeing it in print.