Choices, comics, czars—and zombies

From zombie spoofs to comics, there’s a lot of new content on BookPage.com this week. A few highlights are below—click the book titles to learn more:

• Behind-the-book essay about Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith
  John Harrington wanted to be a fireman, as I recall. Jodi Amlingmeyer wanted to be a teacher. I think Jason Ault wanted to be President of the United States. And me? I got up in front of my fifth-grade class and said this: “When I grow up, I want to write a prequel to a best-selling book about English girls who kill zombies with kung-fu.”

• Review of George, Nicholas and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter
  There are history books that entertain and others that offer information; some are well-researched and some are well-written. In George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, Miranda Carter has given readers a book so complete that it possesses all of those qualities.

• Review of The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
  Coke or Pepsi. Bush or Gore. Sink or swim. If asked to select from any of these pairs, you might assume taste, political affiliation and basic human nature would influence your respective choices. But in Sheena Iyengar’s view, it’s more likely that emotional ties to a brand, the randomness of where a name appears on a ballot and the notion that survival is still possible are what swayed you in one direction or another.

• Behind-the-book essay about Big Nate: In a Class by Himself by Lincoln Peirce
  I’m a real believer in the light bulb moment—not the Encyclopedia Brown version, in which all the clues fall neatly into place and the mystery is solved (ah-ha!), but the type of real-life experience in which a relatively small event creates a spark that inevitably becomes something grander and more exciting. When kids ask me “when did you know you wanted to be a cartoonist?” I tell them about my light bulb moment.

Which will you read first?