a few words on February's reads...

So this was graphic novels theme month. And oh lordy, how I loved it! If I do themed reading months again next year (which I'm strongly leaning towards at this point), graphic novels will definitely get a month again. And it was super-duper extra fun because Chris and Lu read comics too! I already made posts about most of the graphic novels I read, but there were a few other books thrown in this month for various reasons, so here's a few words on those...

*Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol and Chiggers by Hope Larson and French Milk by Lucy Knisley and Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim and Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks. These first five I already half-assedly (that's a word, yes?) talked about here.

*The Pigman by Paul Zindel. An oldie, first published in 1968 I think--I actually could have read this book when I was a kid. Though if I did, I don't remember it. (And that is not a point against the book, it is a point against my brain and its powers, or lack thereof, of memory.) It's the story of two high school friends, sort of loner-ish except for each other. John and Lorraine. They would sometimes play a crank call game where the object was to keep the person on the line for as long as possible. And one day, they place a call that literally changes their lives. Lorraine calls a Mr. Pignati...and it marks the beginning of an odd, somewhat hard to navigate, friendship between these two teenagers and this lonely older man.

It's not as sweet as it sounds, however. I mean, it is beautiful watching the changes that come over all three of them. But there's a lot more going on here...and it's not all pretty. I hesitate to say much more, for fear of being spoilery.

Knowing very little about this book, I chose it for one of Gray's school reads. And yeah, I think it's a choice I'm happy about it. There are a few things that need to be discussed though. For one thing, the word "retard" is tossed around as an insult a few times. :( For another, there's a gag-worthy little sexist bit. I suspect that Gray will bring these both up with me, but if not, I will surely start those discussions.

*The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Wow. Yeah, seriously, wow. I read this book for Long-Awaited-Reads-All-Because-of-Ana Month...just didn't quite finish it in January. I loved it from the second I opened its cover and started reading...and honestly, that sort of surprised me. I've wanted to read something by Sarah Waters for a long time, and yet was somewhat intimidated. Well, that was pure foolishness! There is nothing intimidating about her writing. It is beautiful and down-to-earth and just so damn honest. Beautiful seems an odd choice of words, in a way, because honestly, this book destroyed me.

The Night Watch follows four people's intertwined lives. Some of the connections are strong and obvious, but others are brief and yet powerful. The structure of the book is interesting, and I admit that I doubted I would "approve" as I began reading. There are three sections in the book--the first set in 1947, the second in 1944, and the third in 1941--and I just didn't believe it possible to pull off the storytelling so effectively in this manner. Oh but Sarah Waters, she proved me wrong but good!

It is set in London, and as you likely noticed, during and shortly after WWII. It is told with beauty and with brutality and with subtlety in somewhat equal shares. We witness some of the overwhelming sacrifices, pain, unfairness, oppression that war brings to everyone, not just the soldiers in the field. Yeah, I really just can't explain why it is that I love this book so, but I do. Deeply. I know I'm supposed to be keeping these short, but I just had to share one of the 50 or so quotes I marked in the book:

He lost his footing, then righted himself and went on without speaking. Partridge was coughing because of the dust. Mickey was rubbing grit from her eyes. The chaos was extraordinary. Every time Kay put down her feet, things cracked beneath them, or wrapped themselves around her ankles: broken window-glass mixed up with broken mirrors, crockery, chairs and tables, curtains, carpets, feathers from a cushion or a bed, great splinters of wood. The wood surprised Kay, even now: in the days before the war she'd imagined that houses were made more or less solidly, of stone--like the last Little Pig's in the fairy tale. What amazed her, too, was the smallness of the piles of dirt and rubble to which even large buildings could be reduced. This house had had three intact floors to it, an hour before; the heap of debris its front had become was no more than six or seven feet high. She supposed that house, after all--like the lives that were lived in them--were mostly made of space. It was the spaces, in fact, that counted, rather than the bricks.

*The Dead of the Night by John Marsden. Yep, Max and I finished up the second in the Tomorrow series. And yes, we're still loving it. Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, there was one chapter that Max did not love. And this is mildly spoiler-ish, so do stop reading if you'd prefer. One word: sex. Max was not impressed. :p

Anyway, this book picks up where the first left off. And the first ended with some pretty major shit...so it was nice to be able to pick up book two and find out what happened. But because this book does continue the overall story line, it's a bit difficult to talk about about and avoid spoiling the first book. Suffice it to say that Ellie and friends are still trying to navigate this new world that's been thrust upon them, still trying to hold onto their own sanity. I love it for not trying to sanitize the ugliness of war and not trying to make these characters perfect. As much as I'm hoping for the war to end (and I've honestly no idea if it does by the end of this series), I'm really going to miss these characters when we've finished all the books. Luckily that won't be for a while yet.

*Wandering Son Volume 3 by Takako Shimuri and Sita's Ramayana by Samhita Arni and Moyna Chitrakar and Tyranny by Lesley Fairfield were talked about here.

*A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached and Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and The Lindbergh Child  and The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti, both by Rick Geary, and Castle Waiting Volume Two by Linda Medley and Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen and Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill and Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge and Retrovirus by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Norberto Fernandez and Avatar: The Last Airbender The Promise Part Three by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru and Lola: A Ghost Story by J. Torres and Elbert Or and Revival Volume One: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton (whew!) were all blathered about here.


*The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. The one graphic novel that didn't make it into one of the comics posts. I knew before I began that I would love this book--I mean, nearly everyone I know has already read it and loved it, so I pretty much knew I couldn't go wrong. And yet still I was slightly surprised by *how much* I loved it. And by how much I learned. (I swear I am amazed on a daily basis by the breadth of my ignorance!) Anyway, in case you've never heard of it, it's a coming of age sort of graphic memoir. Satrapi grows up in revolutionary Iran in a loving family, a family that believes strongly in freedom.

In the introduction, Satrapi writes:

...this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism. As an Iranian who has lived more than half my life in Iran, I know that this image is far from the truth. This is why writing Persepolis was so important to me. I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I don't want those Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq, who suffered under various repressive regimes, or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten.

Seems to me she did a beautiful job of doing what she set out to do.


*A Killing Frost by John Marsden. Max and I just finished this one. I really don't know what to say about it. Maybe if I had a little time to think about it, I could say something more helpful than it continues where the last one left off. Something more helpful than this series just seems to get better and better. Something more helpful than it, just as the others before it, kept the adrenaline pumping. But as I want to get this post up before March arrives, I guess this will have to do. I suppose I could mention that I'm feeling a bit shell-shocked. And that it got a bit tough reading this aloud through those final pages due to the tears and the snot and choking feeling in my throat. And that despite falling in love with so many characters throughout my life, I'm still sometimes surprised by how much fictional characters can burrow into my heart so deeply. I could just say that I really love this series. And so does Max. With a passion.


*****
And with March arriving tomorrow, it's time for food and gardening theme month! I might just be a little too excited about it though. Here's a picture of my possibles pile:

And this was after several weedings...I just can't cut it down any further. Which is sort of silly, considering I'll likely only get four or five of them read. :P

comics in February...part 3...

*A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached. Without a doubt, this is my favorite read of graphic novels theme month to this point. I wish I had the words to express how moving this book is...it is just so beautiful. But it is so utterly heartbreaking at the same time. Zeina Abirached was born during the Lebanese civil war and as a child knew no other way of life. While this book tells the story of just one night of her childhood, it manages at the same time tell a much broader story of life in a war zone. The foyer of her family's apartment is the safest place in the apartment building, and it there that she, her brother, and her parents live. In that one small room. And it also there that the others living in the building congregate when the bombing grows close. One day Zeina's parents go to visit her grandmother just a few blocks away and don't return home when expected. But during those hours, the children are not alone because the neighbors who share the foyer sanctuary arrive one by one, providing the community that the children, and adults themselves, need.

I'm sorry but I couldn't find any blogger reviews to share here, but I'm telling you--go read this book! Yeah, I loved it.

*Castle Waiting by Linda Medley. So I was in somewhat of a funk, and I needed something to cheer myself up. And yep, what better than a reread of one of my favorite books in the whole wide world to do the job. Oh my gosh, how I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE AND ADORE this book! It's the perfect feel-good book. Fairy tales and friendship and stories within stories within stories and ladies with beards and talking animals and loving acceptance of people for just exactly who they are. *happy sigh* Seriously, what's not to love here?

I swear I'd be tempted to start it over again right now...if I didn't have Volume II waiting right here for me. SQUEEEE!

Memory's review and Ana's review and Eva's review


The Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century and The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary. I've read a few of Geary's true crime graphic novels in the past, and enjoyed them all, so when I saw these two at the library, I immediately grabbed them. I love his very recognizable artwork--it's not what I'd call "pretty" but his bold, graphic style really appeals to me and seems to fit well the types of stories he tells. And the types of stories he tells are stories of true crime. These two volumes come from his Treasury of XXth Century Murder series, and the others of his I've read come from his Treasury of Victorian Murder series. And all of the books, at least the ones I've read, have something else in common--the murders all remain mysteries. While some, such as these two, may have been "solved" as far as the legal system is concerned, even they remain shrouded in clouds of unanswered questions. Another thing about his books--they all leave me wanting to read more about the particular cases. I don't say that because they feel incomplete, they just leave me wanting read more.

*Castle Waiting Volume II by Linda Medley. Oh my gosh, what can I say...it is every bit as wonderful, every bit as enchanting, every bit as humorous, every bit as heartfelt as the first volume. And I'm just so sad to have finished it because I want more more more now now now!!!

Ana's review and Rebecca's review








*Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen. It's hard to find the words to describe the power and gut-wrenching heartbreak of this book. And in a complete and total wimping out here, I'm not going to say any more but urge you to read Ana's review because it is just so damn good.

*Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill. Another for the win column. Neil, bookworm extraordinaire, already has a rough enough time in middle school, and high school is bound to be worse as his best friend and fellow book lover is being shipped off to military school by his fanatical mother. But there's more to Neil than even he realizes. And it is in fighting a proposed book ban on his favorite fantasy series that Neil finds that his voice does matter.

Review from The Literary Omnivore and one from Waking Brain Cells






*Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge. I have to say, this one sort of snuck up on me. Not that I didn't enjoy it from page one; I did. But by the end, I had fallen in love. I guess it's what you'd call a coming of age story. But it's also a story of growing into your creativity, of nurturing it, exploring it, and learning to embrace it wholeheartedly. The art in this book is absolutely beautiful! And the way it is put together enhances not only the art, but also the story itself...for while it is partially drawn in panels, just as often, it breaks free of that structure. I found every page a delight to look at.

Review at A Year of Reading and at Guerilla Librarian



*Retrovirus by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Norberto Fernandez. Okay, I had really high hopes for this one...science, retroviruses, greedy corporate bastards, and complicit governments...seriously, this could have been so good. Except that it wasn't. I was hooked for a bit, but then things just got too ridiculous for my tastes. And while I'm not averse to things like blood in a story, it just all felt a bit gratuitous to me in this book. And then we've got this awesome woman, Zoe, who is mega-smart and seems to take no shit from sexist jerks, but then as the story goes on turns into the stereotypical sexualized female of comics (and by this I mean that she is turned into a plaything for the audience--oooh, how many times can we figure out a way to show her breasts). And then on top of those things, the second half just felt incredibly rushed (though as this was where things got ridiculous, I wasn't really all that upset to see it end so quickly :P ). Sheesh--it sounds like I'm being mighty rough on this book, huh? I actually suspect there are lots of people who would enjoy this one, and hey, I just didn't happen to one of them. You win some, you lose some, right?

And I'm sorry to say I couldn't find any blogger reviews of this one.


*Avatar: The Last Airbender The Promise Part Three by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru. I'm not sure I can state my love for Avatar: The Last Airbender strongly enough. The show is made of so many bits of awesomeness that it just completely captured my heart. And well, these books that follow where the show left off...*happy sigh*...they're wonderful. I'm sort of in awe of the way that Gene Luen Yang was able to capture the entire feel of the show in these pages, everything from the humor and silliness to the deeply profound and difficult questions the story grapples with. While I sort of thought the second part of The Promise felt like filler, Part Three plunged me right back into everything I adore about this series, these characters, their world, their problems, their struggles to do what is right when right just isn't clear. God, how I loved this book. And yeah, I absolutely cannot wait until Part One of The Search comes out.

Ana's review and a review by fashion piranha


*Lola: A Ghost Story by J. Torres and Elbert Or. I'm honestly not sure what I think of this book. I found it both beautiful and unsettling. Definitely beautiful to look at with it's sepia-toned artwork, but a beautiful story as well. Sad. Almost disturbing at times. Filipino folklore, ghosts, gifts of second-sight. A lot of things for a boy to handle. And an ambiguous ending. Yep, I really liked it...but putting into words the reasons why, yeah, I'm just sort of at a loss.

Ana's review a review at Back to Books




*Revival Volume One: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton. Lives in a small Wisconsin town have been turned upside down. Even the lives of some of the dead. For on January 2nd, some of the dead come back to life. Not as zombies, but as themselves, just as they were before they died. Maybe. The townspeople now not only have to deal with their personal feelings, good and bad, about having their family members and friends and neighbors come back to life, but they're living under a quarantine while the CDC and government try to figure out what's going on. Add to that that media spectacle their lives have become...of course, the media are not actually allowed into the town so there's a lot of speculation and fabrication going on. Officer Dana Cypress, daughter of the police chief, is assigned to Revitalized Citizen Arbitration Team, the "task force" to deal with incidents dealing with the Revivers (the arisen dead). Dana has a complicated relationship with her father, but as he tells her, he needed someone he could trust. But Dana has a secret that may just destroy the trust her father has in her.

Okay, I'm going to have to say that I really freakin' enjoyed this one. A bit bloody and violent, but the story has me hooked. Rich read it too, and now we're both eagerly awaiting Volume 2. Unfortunately I couldn't find any blogger reviews to share.

I can't believe that graphic novel theme month is almost over already--it totally flew by. I hope to fit in a couple more before the end, but I won't come close to the sort-of goal I'd set for myself. That's s not a big deal though--one amazing book would have have made the month worthwhile, and believe me, I've read more than one amazing book. :)

comics in February...part 2...

*Wandering Son Volume 3 by Takako Shimuri. Oh, I love this series so much. *hugs* Of course, it's harder than ever for me to talk about it as this is volume three. (I talked about the first two volumes here.) The series follows the lives of two now 6th-grade transgendered kids. In this volume, life is in some ways getting harder for them. A special journal that they both wrote in and exchanged was taken by another student and thus many of their personal feelings put on display. Imagine how hard that would be on anyone, let alone two kids working through their gender identities. My heart broke for Takatsuki and Nitori at times. They are both such incredibly lovable characters. But to say that these books focus solely on being transgendered would be a lie. They're about growing up and about friendship and about family. They're about life. And they are exquisitely drawn.

Review of this volume at Experiments in Reading and Ana's review of the first two volumes and Chris's review of the first two volumes

*Sita's Ramayana by Samhita Arni and Moyna Chitrakar. Wow. Yeah, this book is simply amazing. Everything about it. It is a re-telling of the Ramayana, one of India's great epics dating back thousands of years. And as one might guess from the title, Sita's Ramayana is told from Sita's, Rama's husband, perspective. In a short, but very interesting essay at the back of the book, I learned that female re-tellings of the Ramanyana are not at all unusual, some go back hundreds of years, and unsurprisingly have been kept alive through oral stories and folk songs. One of things I loved so much about this use of Sita's perspective was summed up nicely in this afterward by V. Geetha:

And rather than divide the world up into good and bad, right and wrong, Sita's vision encompasses all those who suffer, endure and ultimately bear the consequences of what kings and wars do--and this includes not only women, children and ordinary people, but also animals and birds.

The art in this graphic novel is bold and vivid and powerful. And in another short, very interesting afterward, I learned a little bit about how this book came to be. Patua as an art form goes back centuries in the Bengal region of India. It combines oral storytelling and performance with painted scrolls. The talented artist of Sita's Ramayana, Moyna Chitrakar, comes from the Patua art tradition. It seems both an adventurous and logical leap to transfer her talents to graphic novel form. And she does it beautifully.

Review at Buried in Print and well, that's all I could find.

*Tyranny by Lesley Fairfield. This is a haunting, honest, frightening look at anorexia from from the inside. While this is not a memoir, the author herself battled anorexia and bulimia for many years, so it seems safe to say that her perspective is a knowledgeable one. This book follows Anna through her high school days when her body image ideas start to become skewed. It is shocking to see just how fast her life begins unraveling...and yet I know this really happens. To be perfectly honest, while this book ends on a hopeful note, it ripped my heart out getting to that point. The pain and self-loathing that seems part and parcel with eating disorders is so utterly heartbreaking.

Review at Chick With Books and at Reading Through Life and at Puss Reboots

comics in February...

Loving this month's graphic novels theme. Loving. And I've finished my first few. Now, I'm delusional...I've set myself this sort of loose goal of reading 49 comics this month. And seeing how I find it a struggle to write reviews ever, the idea of writing 49 (you know, in my dreams) in a month is just horrifying. So, in typical Debi fashion, I'm wimping out...instead, you shall get a few sentences on my reaction to the book and a few links to posts by people who are far more talented than I.

*Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol. Okay, truthfully, I did not fall in love with this book. Which is not the same as saying that I didn't like it, of course. I did like it, in fact, I enjoyed it very much! And I'm sort of at a loss as to why I didn't love it. The art is seriously awesome. I found Anya to be an incredibly believable character. And I found the story intriguing. Honestly, I can't really think of a single thing I didn't like. And yet. *shrug*

Carl's review and Ana's review and Darren's review

*Chiggers by Hope Larson. *sigh* I really didn't love this one either. I didn't actively dislike it, in fact, like with Anya's Ghost, I don't think I could think of a single that that bothered me. And I did most definitely adore the art. But overall, I just wasn't blown away. Honestly, I'm sort of wondering if it was simply my mood, with both this book and Anya's Ghost. Maybe I've just put unrealistic expectations on my reading experiences because I'm so giddily excited about graphic novels month. Who knows.

Ana's review and Jeane's review and Stacy's review

*French Milk by Lucy Knisley. Irony-->this one I loved, and I really didn't think I was going to. Despite the fact that I don't think I've ever heard a bad word said about this book, I just had this nagging feeling that it wasn't going to do much for me. But well, the author pretty much managed to charm the pants of me. There was one moment when I thought, "Well, aren't we the little snob?" and more than one moment when her talk of food literally made my stomach queasy. And yet still I really did enjoy the heck out of this one.

Andi's review and Jill's review and Eva's review

*Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim. Woohoo...I think I'm on a roll now--I absolutely LOVED this one!!! I have a feeling that I should be embarrassed to admit this, but I'd never heard of this book before I saw it on the library shelves. The cover alone made me snatch it right up. It was the right decision, because this book is a definite delight! The art is fantastic. Really fantastic. And the story--*happy sigh*--quirky, charming, loud out loud funny at times, and ultimately just plain awesome.

Darren's review and well, I couldn't find any more reviews (I'm not very accomplished at searches)...but Vasilly read it and said that of the 31 books she'd read that month, this was one of the three that really stuck out

*Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks. And another one to love! So glad Lu recommended this one. :) Again, I loved the art! So many talented comics artists out there, aren't there? And I really enjoyed the story as well. In a way, it was sort of a quiet story. About high school life. With the twist that Maggie is just starting high school after having been homeschooled her whole life. (The only reservation I have about the book stems from that part of the story--the "but what about socialization?" crap that is so often pulled out at the mere mention of homeschooling--is sort of alluded to here. I won't go into it now, because frankly, the subject has been played out in too many conversations I've had to have over the years. But if you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, I do discuss it a bit in this post.) Anyway, while that irked me a bit, it in no way ruined the book for me--especially because Maggie and her brothers are such awesome kids. I really did love the characters--Maggie, her brothers, her new friends Lucy and Alistair. I loved the variety of relationships between the siblings. Oh, and there's a ghost. :)

Lu's review and Darren's review

And that ends round one of comics in February. I'd really hoped to have had more read at this point, but what are you going to do, right? Winter break is coming in just a week and a half--and I'm really hoping to loose myself in these lovely stacks then. :)

looking forward to February...

So. On that loose schedule I made myself for blogging, today should be a "book day." But well, ummmm, yeah...haven't finished a book in ages. I am actively reading three books that I'm loving the hell out of...but for me, "actively" does not equate to "quickly." Being the last day of the month (though I think the gods have been playing fast and loose with time because it sure doesn't feel like we've knocked off an entire month of this year already), I could write a little monthly reading wrap-up. But I'm still harboring unrealistic hopes of actually finishing a book today...and if that happened my post would be inaccurate, and we simply cannot have that.

These guys here are the ones currently being read. The Night Watch and Bad Science for Ana's and Iris's Long-Awaited Reads Month. *sigh* I sooooo wanted to finish them this month. It's still possible--I've got about 260 pages left between the two of them and we are between quarters in homeschool so I could take the day off and the howling winds and blowing snow make it seem like the perfect day to just curl up with a big old mug of tea and read away. (The Dead of the Night is the book Max and I are currently reading.)

These beauties here are part of the reason I'm so over-the-top excited for February--graphic novels theme month!!! (If Rich minds that I appropriated the entire top of our dresser because of my giddyness to see so many possibilities in one place, he has not voiced it to me. I'm assuming he doesn't, as he is pretty much always supportive my varying strategies for amusing myself.)

And yes, of course the various piles are categorized.

The library pile.

My pile of comics borrowed from my fellow family members--and yes, all the human members are represented...the stack of mangas from Annie, the Amulet books from Max, the mythology ones from Gray, and the rest from Rich.

Odds and ends I haven't yet read. Fiction.

The series, some in progress, a couple yet to started.

Odds and ends I haven't yet read. Non-fiction. And yes, beside that pile The Shining. My one non-theme book for the month because I just can't resist #shineon with Ms. Jill.










So. Where should I start??? What should I read first??? And second??? And third??? (You know, if I actually ever finish my current reads.) You must help me--this many choices is overwhelming! (In a good way, of course.) And while we're at it, are there others I really need to get my hands on???