Books Complex’s Best of 2009: The Top 25 Books

In 2009, we spent so much time putting together our retrospective of the last decade (click here for our “Best of the 2000s” series) that we almost forgot about all the memorable things that happened this year. Well, 2010 ain’t here yet, so we’re spending the last week looking back at all our favorite stuff, including albums, movies, girls, video games, sports moments, books, style trends, and websites. You might not realize it from our occasionally juvenile sense of humor, but the Complex staff is actually quite literate. Quite! This year we poured over everything from graffiti black books to revealing drug exposés. Read about all our favorites in the Top 25 Books of 2009 countdown…

Books VIDEO: Inside “Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary”

Looking to indulge your geek tendencies? Let us introduce you to the season’s must-have coffee table book, a little double-shot of nostalgia known as Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, which hit stores this week.

Acting as a comprehensive catalog of all LEGO Star Wars sets (and spin-offs) from the last decade, the book breaks down the facts and features behind every single ship and minifigure ever released. We recently caught up with the book’s author, Simon Beecroft, who was kind enough to speak to us about the various features. For a look inside the pages of the Visual Dictionary, watch the video below…

Books Style & Design 2009: “Lowboy” Author John Wray Interview

Never let it be said that Brooklyn author John Wray doesn’t know the value of a good book. “Girls like it when they see you bring a novel out of your messenger bag,” he says. And if only one book makes its way to your bag this year, Wray’s heady footrace of a novel, Lowboy, deserves the look (click here to buy it on Amazon).

Before we included Lowboy in our 2009 Style and Design package, we hopped on the phone with the half-Austrian, half-American writer as he was working on his next book at an European writer’s colony. He spoke to us about his nomadic childhood, his writing process and why being an author won’t get you more girls. Read the Q&A below…

Books Complex’s 10 Must-Read Summer Books

People can assume what they want, but there’s more to us at Complex than kicks, women and Twitter fights. It takes brains to be this fly, and we’re well-read like whoa, despite how this entire sentence is written. Not only do we have impeccable taste in literature, but we’re passionately devoted to making you a better person (or at least helping you pretend to be one), so we rounded up our favorite reads in recent memory in hopes that we can convince you to take a few books with you to the beach, on vacation, or wherever else you’re spending the last month of summer.

All are paperback, which means easy transport, and all have the official Complex co-sign. $150 for a pair of shoes that’ll be out in three months vs. $15 for a book that just might change your life? Get your paper up!

Books Book of the Week: Vans Off The Wall: Stories of Sole from Vans Originals

BOOK: Vans Book (published 6/09)

AUTHOR: Doug Palladini

FUN FACT: Vans has been holding it down for over 40 years and started making special customizaions in the early days of the company (when iD was still something that Freud talked about). Shoppers could bring their favorite fabric by the factory, and the Van Dorens would put together a pair of shoes for them that week. You can design your own Vans through the company site today.

WHY COMPLEX IS CO-SIGNING IT: While the kids are going nuts because Vans is O.G. skate, affordable, and there are about a billion colorways to choose from, this book breaks down a history of the company. History is boring, right? Author/curator Doug Palladini pre-empts your study hall whining by giving you the tales from the super heroes’ mouths. Chapters with skaters Tony Alva, Steve Caballero and John Cardiel; surfer Joel Tudor; music legends’ tales from the Warped Tour; and a photo essay on Frenchman Dimitri Coste’s crazy collection each show a facet of the company that you wouldn’t know otherwise. When it comes to reading we need a lot of pictures to look at, and this does the trick with 208 pages that include photographs by champions of the lens CR Stecyk, R. Grant Brittain, Art Brewer, and Trevor Graves.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PREVIEWS OF THE BOOK & BUY IT!

Books Book of the Week: Public Enemies

BOOK: Public Enemies (published 7/04)

AUTHOR: Bryan Burrough

FUN FACT: When Bonnie Parker was killed in a hail of 150 bullets alongside her boyfriend Clyde Barrow, her right hand was shot completely off!

WHY COMPLEX IS CO-SIGNING IT: Because we’re geeked up to catch the Michael Mann-directed, Johnny Depp-starring flick of the same name (in theaters next Wednesday), but we know it won’t be nearly as good as the book (unless it’s like 15 hours long, in which case, maybe we ain’t so excited to see it after all). Written by a longtime Vanity Fair contributor, PE tells the story of the 18-month crime wave in 1933-34 that birthed the FBI as we know it and gave America some of its most famous criminals: Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barker Gang…

In the midst of the Great Depression when folk were broke and everybody hated the banks (hmmm, remind anyone of a time we know?), the aforementioned group became cult heroes by criss-crossing the country robbing anything with cash and shooting at cops. Because local police had little authority to pursue suspects beyond state lines, a cross-dressing fat man named J. Edgar Hoover made a play to increase the power of his fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigations (thereby laying the groundwork for an immense amount of really serious fuckery in the ’60s and ’70s).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW & BUY THE BOOK

Books Phil Frost Book Is Out

Eccentric vandal turned contemporary artist Phil Frost has a new art book out. He’s one of the few artists who’s been able to successfully parlay his “high evolved form of tagging” and transform it into a signature style of art that’s highly recognizable and all his own. Frost describes his work as thus: “I believe [my work] is indigenous to myself. I believe that within every person there is an indigenous expression of themselves.” Sure, whatever you say Phil. The 162 page book features numerous full color images of the artist’s work and of course, the obligatory essay by Carlo McCormick as well as some words by artistic mystery man Pushead. $29.70, www.amazon.com

[Supertouch via C-Monster]

Books Is Your Girl Really A Secret Assassin?

Jason Howe and girlfriend Marilyn / Photo: Jason Howe

This dude’s was. Photojournalist Jason Howe fell in love with his girlfriend Marilyn and later found out she had a slightly sinister secret life: an assassin for death squads in Columbia. Howe set out for the countryside of the coke-torn country to interview and profile the real deal Columbians about the internal politics of the drug trade. That’s where he met his girl Marilyn. She invited him to come meet the fam and allowed him to use her house as a sort of home base, allowing the photog some freedom in patrolling around the region and shooting the coca fields and the paramilitary soldiers that guard them. After gathering what he needed, he left for a few months, but eventually returned to see Marilyn. It was then that she dropped this bombshell:

Books Stan Lee’s “Election Daze”

Superhero sellout creator Stan Lee, who’s ruined countless comic icons by taking them onto the silver screen has a whole new cast of characters to slay, this time setting his aim on politicians like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, President Bush, among other newfound political celebrities like George Clooney,
Chuck Norris, and Stephen Colbert in his new book “Election Daze.” Lee, who’s most often associated with superhuman idols like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, took his famed comic book format and transposed it to political humor. His new book features funny dialogue balloons accompanied by eye-catching photos from Capitol Hill shutterbug, Lauren Victoria Burke. According to Lee, the political arena sometimes offers more unbelievable material than his best fiction, “It's a great change of pace from writing fantasy tales, although sometimes politics seems more like fantasy than my own stories.” The caption-filled easy read will be available at the end of March and is available for pre-order online now. $9.95, www.atlasbooks.com

Books The Three Thug Mice “Bomb Hard”

As we mentioned, each week a new webisode of the Three Thug Mice will be released. Now showing is “Bomb Hard,” featuring the voices of Patty Dukes, plus graffiti writers: FUZZ ONE, KET, TEAM GO, MIN-ONE, GHOST, KIT 17, and STAK. Go watch it now or shoot pigs for fun instead.

Books Stagg Street Shop Opens Up To Raise Money For Book

“Courtney Cruz on the floor,” 8×10 glossy, signed

Ellen Stagg, the photographer responsible for lensing the erotic beauties on Stagg Street, has announced that she is publishing a book! To help raise money for her fleshly endeavor, she set up the Stagg Street Shop to sell, among other things, signed, 8×10 prints of her work including the above shot of the lovely Courtney for $100 a piece. The first 100 people to buy a print will also get a free copy of the book when it’s published later this year. The proposed 200 page coffee table book will feature countless erotic images and will showcase the full breadth of her sizzling shots. Do the right thing for yourself'as well as your fellow man'and contribute to a very just cause.

Books Marveling At Marvel Comics

Good news for the comic book afflicted. Marvel is offering up a big selection of their comics online. Marvel Unlimited has 250 free samples to browse through now, and if you want full access to thousands of titles, they’re charging $9.99 a month or a discounted $59.88 for an annual subscription. They’ll be adding 20 new titles weekly and the collections include both contemporary and vintage Superheroes, including back issues of “Spider-Man,” the “Incredible Hulk,” “X-Men” and the “Fantastic Four,” among other crowd favorites.

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Books Norman Mailer Had ‘The Faith of Graffiti’

Pulitzer prized author, journalist, founder of the Village Voice, filmmaker and tireless button pusher Norman Mailer passed away this Saturday. Although he’s renowned for his countless award winning works, we’ve always known him for his lesser known essay that served as the text for the groundbreaking book, The Faith of Graffiti. It was an oversized masterpiece with photos by Mervyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar detailing the mysterious emerging art form on NYC’s subway trains. The notoriously tough guy author intellectualized the graffiti movement in its early beginnings'’Faith’ was published in 1974'when hand styles were still being developed and most of the letters were very primitive. Mailer was fascinated by the art form, writing, “What a quintessential marriage of cool and style to write your name in giant separate living letters, large as animals, lythe as snakes, mysterious as Arabic and Chinese curls of alphabet.” In honor of the pugilistic legman and the groundbreaking book on graff, we’ve assembled some excerpts and images:

Books Stylin’ And Profilin’ Hip Hop Culture

Although a lot of cats claim to be “80s babies” only a select few truly grasp the time period that spawned dookie chains, high-top fades and some of the best Hip Hop to ever hit the streets. Luckily for the young'ins photographer Janette Beckman has catalogued photos from when she was pounding the pavement taking flicks of the underground scene of DJs, b-boys, fly girls and graff writers in a new book titled “The Breaks: Stylin' and Profilin' 1982-1990.” Included in the book are top-notch photos of icons from an earlier era like Africa Bambaataa, NWA, Eric B and Rakim, EMPD, De La Soul, Rick Rubin, the Beastie Boys and a whole lot more. The book is now available and can be scooped up here, check some imagery after the jump.

Books Borat’s New Book Is Great Success!

Borat/Photo: Eatmenow

His name a Borat'Sacha Baron Cohen’s parodying, anti-Semitic, woman hating, Eastern bloc alter ego'he come to U.S. and A. to promote new book. And despite the droves of kids that came with their parents to Borders bookstore in LA on Wednesday night, Borat didn’t pull any punches for their sake, declaring “Wahwahweewah! Very nice! There are many childrens here!… You are gypsies? I can buy you?” He even paraded his own dirty-faced gypsy boy clad in tighty-whities to help promote and launch his new R-rated laced book, Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation. It was officially released on Tuesday and should receive a stiff condemnation by the country of Kazakhstan any day now. The faux travel guide and cultural almanac is an invaluable resource:

Packed with helpful tips, BORAT offers off-the-beaten-path recommendations and “will instruct you on all you needing know” for your next family vacation, be it at home or abroad.

Check out some Sexy Time! flicks from the event.