Willy Wisely, singer/songwriter

Fell by Warren Ellis, Illustrated by Ben Templesmith.  Issue 9; $1.99 each issue; www.imagecomics.com.

Righteous little reads (graphic literature) that don't need to be read serially.  They're dark and contemptuous, sometimes banal in their antiestablishmentarianism (hmmm spell check still doesn't like that word), but always beautifully haunting, with deep insinuations into the character of our hero and villains. They came recommended by the staff at Flying Colors Comics in Concord, CA -- a great store, where I played a "grand re-opening gala." Record store retailers might be aching, but comic book stores are hoppin' with people... misfits all.

Jen Paulson, writer

I have a stack of rock and roll magazines I haven't had time to read in the past couple weeks that I finally devoured very recently. I picked up a copy of The Source at the airport before I left that was a different read for me entirely. For some odd reason I have been wrapped up in the articles of Vanessa Grigoriadis online ever since I heard she did the recent Rolling Stone article (depressing as all get-out) on Britney Spears. She did this piece on that Manhattan Gossip site Gawker for New York Magazine late last year and it really made me think.. I really have been meaning to get to the bookstore to read that Charles Schulz biography that came out last year.

John Munson - Photo from MySpace

John Munson, musician, The New Standards, Semisonic

Well, I started with a mission to read Anna Karenina this winter... and got about halfway through it before I ran aground. It was pretty great right up until it became a chore. With 400 + pages still staring back at me I had to say, "No!" What I loved about it was the intense plotting, the sense of inevitability.

I just re-read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. The Vietnam war inspired a lot of great writing, but to me nothing touches O'Brien. I read it because I had a book about the Iraq war recommended to me, The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell, and I read it and found it... not terribly inspiring. I'm sure that Iraq will produce writing on the level of O'Brien's and I'll be on the look out for it. As horrible as it all is over there the human drama of it is important to look at and reflect upon... and hopefully learn from.

New books I've finished this season: No Country for Old Men. Chilling and great. Seems like it got mixed reviews, but I loved it. Cormac McCarthy's bleak vision matches my own wintry feelings about our times. The Road (also by McCarthy), which I read last year, is really great too.

Barry Thomas Goldberg, singer/songwriter

I'm reading Ulysses. I'm trying to read the greatest works of literature before I get too old to see. I would never have understood this stuff when I was younger and now at least, I have some comprehension

Matt Vannelli, musician, Bella Koshka

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. A satire about society in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Does it get much more wintery than that? Satan and crew arrive to manipulate the working class. Hmm...how does Bulgakov really feel? Despite the blatant oppression, there is a bit of optimism. The sacrifices Margarita makes for the Master makes my insides all warm. The Master's novel about the relationship between Jesus and Pontius Pilate reveals itself in many ways in the ongoing theme of good vs. evil throughout the entire book as well. This Master and Margarita is amazing. If the time machine ever gets invented, going to the Soviet Union in the 1930s might not be my first stop.

Cindra Halm, writer/teacher/poet

A Sideways Look at Time by Jay Griffiths. A sort of feminist critique of the different ways that humans have/do experience time, in different cultures, for different individuals, in different eras, etc. Exceedingly interesting, with topics on "festival" time, how men and women experience time in different ways, the distinctions of time by the Greeks, etc.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. When I read Southern American writing, I think, Finally! Somebody who thinks like I do! I love the languorous sentences, the highly metaphorical and decorative phrasing, the outrageous names of characters. Poignant, sensual, and inflectional. One of the best portraits of desperation anywhere.

Duende by Tracy K. Smith. She was here in November to read at the Plymouth Congregational Church's reading series. Stylistically, it straddles several "types" of poetry, and in content, the duende, or Spanish term for a restless spirit, provides common ground. I'm reviewing it for RAIN TAXI's spring issue, so look there for more!

The Best American Poetry, 2004, edited by Lyn Hejinian. More full of experimental and innovative poetry than the usual, because of editor Hejinian's (the guest editors shift every year) LANGUAGE poetry background and focus. I'm using this as the text for my Loft class right now. Go out of your comfort zone!

Lives of Mapmakers: Stories, by Alicia Conroy. I've been dipping into this great first collection of striking and enigmatic stories by local gal and RAIN TAXI contributor since it came out about a year ago. Some short, some longer, some other-wordly, some down to earth, some intellectually gripping, some pure heart.

Jonathan Rundman, singer/songwriter

Chronicles by Bob Dylan. Finally got around to this one a couple years after it came out, and I just finished it on an airplane last week. I enjoyed the descriptions of Minneapolis and New York in the ‘60s, but my favorite chapter was called “Oh Mercy.” It’s the late ‘80s and Dylan is visiting with Bono, touring with Petty, and recording with Daniel Lanois in New Orleans. The ‘60s Dylan is otherworldly and legendary that it seemed kind of unreal, but this ‘80s Dylan was really accessible....struggling with his career, feeling washed-up, having trouble writing songs, trying to catch a wave in the studio, hanging out enjoying life with his wife. A very good read for anybody in (or interested in) showbiz or the creative arts.

Tasha Baron, musician, Black Blondie

I just read a bunch of Jonathan Kozol books. He hangs out at public schools and churches in the South Bronx with the kids and teachers and parents there and writes about them. I have this image of an eight year old falling down to his death in an elevator shaft that was supposed to be fixed indelibly imprinted on my retina alongside the statistics about the absurd cuts in public housing inspectors and school health care workers that Giuliani made. I learned about that in Amazing Grace. Then I read Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope and I thought Kozol got a little bit sappy in that book. There is this cute little feisty girl named Pineapple in that book whose story he follows. I love kids, so I am a sucker for that kind of thing. He talks about how there are inner-city schools where secretaries walk from room to room with trays of psychotropic medicine that they hand to children listed on a dosage schedule. I also read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini about the friendship of two boys growing up in Afghanistan. It read kind of like a Stephen Spielberg movie. Riveting at first but then became so unbelievable that I was almost laughing. I've heard his second book is better and I think I am going to read that next. I am also going to read a book by Barack Obama next.

DJ Kulkielka, musician, Hojas Rojas

I just read The Road by Cormac McCarthy—fucking awesome—and am currently reading Hearts In Atlantis by Stephen King—which is OK.

Dragich, singer/songwriter

Dan Dragich - Photo by David de Young