It’s not a good idea to write a review of a book when your eyes are still wet with the tears it caused you to shed. So I waited an entire day to see if the raw emotion evoked by David Small’s graphic memoir Stitches would abate a little before I told you about this [...]
Posts Tagged: 56 books in 2009
27
Dec 09
Everything Matters!
Even before he’s born, Junior is told exactly when the world is gonna end. He’s told, in utero that the world will end June 15, 2010 when he is just 36 years old after a giant comet smashes into Earth and obliterates life on the planet.
Heavy.
That’s how Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr. opens and [...]
21
Dec 09
Quintessential dicklit
Nick Hornby is at his best when he writes about music. He has that inexplicable ability to convey what music means in a way that seems incredibly personal to him and yet universal at the same time. He’s so good when he writes about music that it often seems like he’s the first one to [...]
12
Dec 09
Totally Killer almost killed me
Note: If you want to see some discussion with the author of Totally Killer, head on over to this post on MN Reads
I picked up Totally Killer by Greg Olear because of the cassette on the cover, which I spied on his Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay. There’s something in my genetic makeup that makes [...]
25
Nov 09
Await Your Reply wrecked me
I finished reading Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply two weeks ago, and it wrecked me. I haven’t been able to read more than ten pages in any book since, which kind of makes sense considering Chaon’s novel is so fucking good it blew my mind.
This is the kind of novel that when I sit back [...]
23
Nov 09
American Born Chinese
While reading American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, I had to consistently remind myself that it was graphic novel for young adults. Without that reminder I found myself growing a little weary of the premise — dealing with racism in America, trying to find your identity, etc.
But when I kept in mind that this [...]
16
Nov 09
Essex County
Last week I was talking with my writing teacher, Dale, about graphic novels. I was reading one before class started and he, pretty unfamiliar with the form, was curious what a lit snob like me thought of them.
I told him I was pretty new to the form myself, having only started reading graphic novels [...]
4
Nov 09
Andromeda Klein
Andromeda Klein is a skinny, goofy-haired seventeen-year-old girl with disorganized collagen which causes her to have fragile bones and bad hearing. Because that’s not enough to make her a high school misfit, she’s also got a couple of wacky parents (Mom’s addicted to online role-playing games and Dad’s a conspiracy theorist) and is dealing with [...]
31
Oct 09
Love is a four-letter word
I’ve grown leery of the essay anthology after the horrible experience I had reading Things I Would Have Learned in English 101 if I Hadn’t Skipped Class to Have Sex, I mean, Things I Learned from the Women Who Dumped Me. The book was so awful and cliched that I feared I had be scarred [...]
19
Oct 09
Asterios Polyp is probably smarter than I am
If you read about graphic novels at all, it’s hard to escape the accolades being heaped upon David Mazzuchelli’s Asterios Polyp. If you believe the hype this book is like the second-coming of Jesus here on Earth to show us the beauty and wonder of the graphic novel form.
Really, they (reviewers & readers) are [...]
24
Sep 09
We really do need to talk about Kevin
Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! You need to read We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. It’s the kind of book that the minute you finish it, all you want to do is talk about it with someone.
I have to admit this novel languished on my bookshelf for years. I remember [...]
19
Sep 09
Shortcomings, a totally accurate title
The good thing about reading a mediocre graphic novel like Shortcomings is that it only wastes an hour or so of your life. So really, you can’t get too hopped up about it.
The story here centers around 30-something Bay-area denizen, Ben Tanaka. He’s a cranky, self-absorbed buzzkill of a character who denies that he [...]
15
Aug 09
I Kill Giants
Barbara Thorson’s got a few problems. She’s a smart and smartass weirdo fifth grader with big glasses, problems at home, a fondness for funky head gear, mostly of the animal ear variety — bunny, mouse, fox, and a slew of imaginary fairy friends. She also has a strange hobby, killing giants.
This graphic novel, [...]
8
Aug 09
In the Shadow of No Towers
A few months ago my friend Wolfdogg loaned me a couple of post-9-11 anthologies that contained a bunch of short graphic (as in pictures and not extremely, grossly detailed) stories about the artist’s reactions to 9-11. I dove into one of the books and about half-way through put it down. I couldn’t continue.
It’s not that [...]
