blame

Is It You or Is It Me?: Why Couples Play the Blame Game
$13.95
I bought this book about 5 years ago. It has been one of the most life changing books I have ever read. Like the other reviewer said, you finally see how you contribute to the issues, and it isn't always the other person in the relationship with the problem. This gives you some great tools on how to talk with another person as to not initiate their defense mechanism, and instead on how to discuss issues calmly, and in a respectful way. I will be re-reading this book soon.....it is a great tool.

Beyond Blame: A Full-Responsibility Approach to Life (Technology for the Soul)
$9.95
I love this very easy to read book. It is a great reminder that our happiness begings with us taking full responsibility for the things that happen in our lives. As human beings, it is somewhat natural to want to blame others for the challenges we experience. Mr. Berg reminds us that where we are right now in our lives has everything to do with the choices we've made, and that we need to take full responsibility for those choices.

BLAME! Volume 10 (Blame (Graphic Novels))
$9.99
If you like your manga with very little dialogue, nightmarish and claustrophobic environments, and a cyberpunk atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife, `Blame!' is for you. The brain-child of Japanese creator Tsutomu Nihei (Wolverine: Snikt!), `Blame!' is a surreal and cerebral journey through an ever-expanding mechanical city, whose few inhabitants are either horribly pale cyborgs in fantastic gothic outfits and a penchant for violence, or dirty colonists with an unfortunate habit of getting the way of said violence.

This is one of few instances where the world created in a comic or manga is so utterly immersive and subconsciously mesmerising that the reader can simply enjoy the experience without having to really worry about following a standard type of story. The immeasurably enormous City itself is the star of the series, a gloomy claustrophobic nightmare of cramped tunnels and cavernous voids, whose vast interior requires long periods of travel punctuated by sharp quick violence. As well as the often occurring chunks of explosive action, the journey through the city and its effect on the reader is the focus of the story, and Nihei makes no suggestions otherwise. This is not your typical comic.

Blame! primarily follows a silent loner named Killy and his endlessly searching for the "Net Terminal Genes", a gene long-ago corrupted in the human body, yet the only way for people to access the `Netsphere'. Control of the Netsphere is humanity's only chance of averting total extinction, courtesy of the Safeguards whose primary programming is the noble desire to protect the City, which means destroying all living creatures which do not possess the net-terminal genes (pretty much everybody). The rival Silicone Creatures are attempting to find and destroy the genes (as well as just about anything or anyone they happen across), as are dozens of rival human factions or clones who are striving to find the genes for their own purposes. To even things out, Killy wields a small handgun with unfathomable destruction properties, and assists anybody who doesn't try to kill him.

With the stage set, Nihei adapts a unique style and illustrative technique light years away from what most westerners would associate with manga, heavily focused on the environments, taking the time to spend panels devoted to the never-ending interior of the city, in which its few characters become lonely parasites. The experience affects the reader in an understated yet utterly mesmerising way. Unlike many manga which fail to capitalise on the strength in black and white artwork (and of course the western counterpart which usually fails to capitalise on the strengths of colour), Nihei builds each panel with rough sketched pen lines, building layers and achieving a highly textured darkness. The few flashes of white come from the pale and sickly skin of the City's inhabitants, the pulpy insect larvae, and of course, the occasional glare of an explosion. The end artistic product is exquisite and like nothing you've ever seen: moody, dark, heavy and lived in, organic yet utterly cold and mechanical. Its something akin to the work of H.R. Giger or Zdzislaw Beksinski, haunting, disturbing and magnetic, yet much more spontaneous. Nihei also doesn't resort to excessive gore or sexual content (barely any of the latter), which a pleasant surprise for a series which comes so close to being cyber-horror at times.

In this final tenth volume, the once-again transformed Sanakan fights to destroy the hostile cyborg Silicone-creatures, while Killy is given an orb which houses a `pure' embryo, commencing the final part of his journey to the edge of the City. The culmination of the series is no less confusing than the journey thus far, but somehow still strangely satisfying. Does Killy succeed? The answer isn't exactly straightforward, but upon closer examination, the clues are all there to put together a reading which makes sense of the ending. Another person might come to an altogether different understanding of it all (as well as the book's themes), but I don't mind, and neither does Tsutomu Nihei. Anybody who has been avidly reading this series with the hopes that somehow the tenth and final volume will suddenly delve into long periods of dialogue and exposition will of course be disappointed, but of course not surprised.

Those with a taste for the cyberpunk genre and thoroughly engaging nightmare imagery will love this series, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Especially if you like your manga simple, colourful and humorous. Pick up `Blame!' from the first volume, but for a taste of what to expect from this haunting series, any of the volumes will suffice. Read in a relaxed and private setting, preferably when sleepy. Good stuff.

Jamesland
$15.95
Although slightly uneven writing. Best if you like philosophy mixed in with the story, which the author does well.