Habibi

An artistic and epic story that is a feat of drawing and literature.  Thompson (native of my hometown Portland) places his story of loss & love in an unidentifiable time period and a corrupted eden.  One understands why it took seven years for his sophomore release when viewing the intricately detailed pages of his book - they are at turns beautiful and grotesque.  I cannot recommend this to everyone - so much horror happens to the central children and it never truly attains a 'happily ever after.'  The artistry in Habibi surpasses his previous, award winning book Blankets, but Blankets realized its message and felt agonizingly truthful, while Habibi leaves one wondering what to make of it.  I still loved reading the story, seeing the depths of admiration Thompson expresses here for the beauty and familiarity of the Islamic culture, and enjoying the interweaving of stories throughout in an Arabian Nights style.  The power of a story is perhaps the main message the artist/author succeeds in revealing, and in this, I can be satisfied.  But I suspect there were a great many more messages trying to be heard.   I've never seen someone manage both words and drawings so beautifully as Mr. Thompson - he's really accomplishing something unique here.  But Blankets let me know that his writing can compete with any others (at least when it is his own tale) and so ultimately, he set the bar fairly high himself.  I'm hoping that his storymaking continues and improves to the point that his invented stories achieve the poignancy of his personal history.

October Reads Borrows and Bought

October Reads
The Male Brain - by Louanne Brizendine
Please Look After Mom - by Kyung-Soon Shin
Graphic Design For Non-Designers - Tony Seddon
Habibi - Craig Thompson
The Walking Dead Vol2 - Robert Kirkman (graphic novel)

October Bought & Borrowed
(Borrowed from the library)
Wild at Heart - by Barry Gifford
The Walking Dead Vol2 - by Robert Kirkman
(Purchased from Amazon and Powells)
The Male Brain (3 copies!) - by Louanne Brizendine
Habibi - by Craig Thompson
(Purchased from Friends of the Library sale - I'm an addict!)
Running with Scissors:A Memoir - by Augusten Burrows
Lies My Teacher Told Me - by James Loewen
Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - by Lisa See
Outlander - by Diana Gabaldon
Foucault's Pendulum - by Umberto Eco
How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents - by Julia Alvarez
Into Thin Air - by John Krakauer
The Witches of Eastwick - by John Updike
Reading Lolita in Tehran - by Azar Nafisi
Loving Frank - by Nancy Horan

Warning to Readers

My Latest Evangelism-Worthy Books

 

Louanne Brizendine blew me away and made me an annoyingly pest of my friends after reading The Female Brain in April.  I recommended it to all my (many) male colleagues with tween and teen daughters as well as anyone going through or supporting a spouse through menopause.  In addition I used many of the astonishing lab result finds to start (or stop) many a dinner conversation [e.g. did you know a mothering rat will choose the button that releases a suckling baby rat 100% of the time over the button that releases CRACK!?  the feel-good hormones released when nursing are a better high for the human-brain-hormone similar rats!].  Well, I figured The Male Brain would be similar but now-familiar fare since she often highlit the differences in males and females throughout Female.  Yet, once again, I was blown away by Brizendine's voice and data.  I planned to buy a copy for my sister who has a baby boy when I was in the first chapter.  Then I read the Teen chapter, followed by Mating, Parenting and Retirement chapters and the epiphanies kept rolling in.  So in the end I purchased one for myself and both my siblings and have started a new evangelization compaign for this captivating book.  It's non-fiction which I rarely deign to read, but it reads like a narrative, is short (1/2 of the book is just reference material) and divides topics easily into 5 life-stage chapters.  It is emminently readable, and hopefully for others - awesome.  Super-highly-hyperbolically recommended!  These two were probably my favorite books of the year so far (and I've read some great ones this year!) 

September Dregs

okay, catching up on the last of my September reads... two graphic novels and a book of poetry.
The two graphic novels this month were Anya's Ghost and Y: The Last Man Vol3. 

Anya's Ghost starts light hearted enough, and then slowly adds on the creepy.   Without really trying to, the narrator addresses bullying, 1st generation immigrants trying to fit in with the pressure to honor the past, infatuation, teenage moral codes (or lack thereof), self acceptance and others.  At the same time, we have ourselves a ghost story with a 93-year old ghost 'girl' and the girl who befriends her.  The ghost really is a vehicle to offer some 'what would you do if...?' scenarios and it works well in this medium.   It's not world changing underground 'comix' but it's a fun and layered read.  I wish the author delved a titch more into the complex emotions that surround the betrayal of treating another the way you were once treated (and hated) out of fear of the past.  There is a lot of current (great) literature or movies out about this phenomenon of pursuing the frenemies in one's life rather than befriending those who need friends as much as oneself and who would prove far more loyal.  Anya's story had an opportunity to add more on the subject but really just touched it and moved on.  I'd still recommend this quick read.

As for Y:The Last Man, I'm on the third (of 5) compilations in these serial graphic novels but haven't yet discussed it much with the exception of my graphic novel rating entry.  This series keeps getting better as women decide if they want to recreate the conflicts that occured in a world with both sexes.  The majority of politicians, soldiers, pilots, violent criminals, and Fortune 500 CEO's have disappeared.  Where do we go from here?  And what do we believe about fate and faith now in the midst of the greatest apocalypse in earth's history?  And for Yorrick (yes, Yorrick - his dad was a big Shakespeare fan), the sole surviving male on earth - what is his responsibility to womankind... was he supposed to die as well or is he supposed to be the hope for a new mankind?  The trek across land and sea paces quickly while staying true to a time-scale of several years.  I can anticipate numerous take-offs of 'inspired-by' stories that follow or prequel other characters in this world instead of following the last man... because while his story is interesting, this is still at heart the story of a world of women reeling and coping with the remnants of human(and animal kingdom as well)-kind and a ticking clock for the expiration of life on earth.  Highly, highly recommended!

Finally, as a result of reading the slogged-through-it-and-can't-decide-if-I-liked-it-or-hated-it Hollywood by Charles Bukowski, I decided to check out one of his books of poetry to see what all the fuss was about.  In my mind, Bukowski seemed like a wanna-be Hemingway in the manner of self-destructive, womanizing, cerebral but soul-less jerk. 
I picked up Bukowski's post-humous book Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way…  (even his title irks me!) which was one of the few books available at the library and it didn't really help because it was written around the time that Hollywood was finished so any insights just compounded my I'd-rather-be-reading-Billy-Collins-than-this-asshole opinion.  I've spoken to a few women who obsessed over his earlier poetry in their adolescence so perhaps I should give him another shot... but then again, I'm in my 30's and will likely finding it just as tiresome since I know I would find myself as an adolescent quite annoying.

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale

I am happy that someone has returned to this tale so Disney doesn’t have the last word.  I remember attending the movie as a child fully expecting Ariel to die in the end (I did not yet understand that Disney has their own agenda when storytelling) so the "happily-ever-after" came as a shock.  (though "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was probably a worse perversion!).  This story takes licenses of its own but with a sexy, foreboding, "life-isn't-fair" feel that remains truer to the original... and a fairly faithful plot as well. 
Told through two female characters: the mermaid who longs for a human soul (and human man) and the human princess who values the magic revealed by the mermaid even more than love, family or her own life, the book rings with remnants of a storyteller's voice around a fire or over coffee in a bazaar or by candlelight in Shahrazad's chamber.  I thought it lovely and recommend it for any fairy tale lover!

The Man from Beijing and I Capture the Castle

This month my lady's bookclub chose two excellent books to read - The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  Vastly different, they both satisfied.

The Man from Beijing is my second Mankell read so far, the first being Faceless Killers (the first book of the Kurt Wallander mysteries).  Beijing is a stand-alone story with characters unfamiliar from Mankell's other books with the exception of the cold weather and countryside.  I appreciated the Kurt Wallander book as a true depiction of mystery solving via methodical (and often slow) police procedure.  This book contains minimal procedure and requires suspension of disbelief to follow the tale.  It is widesweeping (in geography and motivations) as the reader is taken from Denmark to London, Beijing and 1800's United States.  It is a far-fetched story of revenge, clashes of culture and tough decisions regarding whom to trust.  I appreciated the central character's authenticity but was disappointed by the number of coincidences that led to solving the case.  Ultimately, I found this a better story for learning something about early America and modern-day China than a mystery.  Mankell has his own impressive style and research behind the book again which is why I plan to return to his tales and I would still recommend the story for fiction readers, but I think die-hard mystery fans would find it troublesome. 

I Capture the Castle has gained many fans as a result of its recent re-printing.  The book was out-of-print for decades after its introduction to the world after WWII.  Thank goodness - It is a delight! 

I've read numerous books in the past year taking place in England so the eccentricities of the characters are nothing new.   Aside from the characteristic scenery, mouldering architecture and quirky characters though, this book could be a wonderful coming-of-age story for any land.  The narrator Cassandra voices the tale through her diary which is a difficult task for an author to pull off effectively.  She succeeds in injecting the exuberance, ecstasy and agony of teenagedom throughout Cassandra's tale and the ending was satisfyingly real (which means unsatisfying unlike most rom-coms today).  I highly recommend reading this book - especially for the literature lovers out there as she loves alluding to Jane Austen, quoting poetry (did everyone memorize poetry in the first half of the century!?) or starting interesting debates such as "Would you rather have a little Jane in your Catherine or a little Catherine in your Jane?" - now really, don't we all want to have that discussion?!

September Reads Borrows and Bought

September Reads
Blade Runner or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick
Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon
Sifting Through the Madness for the word, the line, the way by Charles Bukowski
The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Male Brain by Louanne Brizendine
Y: The Last Man (Book 3) by Brian Vaughan and others (Graphic Novel)
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (Graphic Novel)

September Borrowed & Bought
(Borrowed from Library)
Blade Runner by Philip K Dick
Sifting Through the Madness for the word, the line, the way by Charles Bukowski
The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Male Brain by Louanne Brizendine
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
How to Discipline Kids without Losing Their Love and Respect by Jim Fay
Graphic Design for Non-Designers by Tony Seddon
(Purchased from Amazon & the death of Borders)
Y: The Last Man Vol 3 by Brian Vaughan
Blackout by Connie Willis
The Wolverton Bible by Basil Wolverton
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
American Dream by Norman Mailer

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Ok, I seem to be too verbose on my summaries monthly so I'm going to break up the books from now on as (or as close to as my schedule allows) they are finished.  Today starts the back-log of Sept reads... one of which was Blade Runner formerly known as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but redubbed due to the amazing Ridley Scott movie of the same name.  I read this as a part of Portland's FIRST RULE OF BOOKCLUB group which reads a book, discusses and then watches the movie in one of our lovely local (and locally-owned) theatres!  I'm SO glad this was a pick because I might not have read the book otherwise (I rarely read sci-fi as I prefer it in the movie medium!)

I'd seen the movie already so I had a visual feel in my head that starts and ends with the eerie lighting & shadows, cool filters and a futuristic cityscape that Scott does so well.  But the book was so much more of a philosophical experience than a visual one really... which I loved.  The opening scene between husband and wife (Harrison Ford's character is married here and not remotely an android as the movie hints he might be)was as much humorous and familiar as it was frightening and reminded me of Farenheit 451.   Our hero doesn't wonder if he's actually human but he DOES wonder who holds humanity between humans and androids in this tale... and he increasingly questions his loyalty through the story despite moving forward with his profession of "retiring" rogue androids on earth. 

The moral decisions and issues of faith that are faced were so compelling and thought-provoking.  The book & the movie are so unique in theme and voice that Ridley Scott has really created something completely new which I have to admire for its own sake.  However one is missing something if one doesn't also experience the book.   I found the shared experiences that are part of the global religion both creepy and profound and sharing the journey of our hero/anti-hero matched that experience.

I highly recommend this story for all readers - not just genre lovers.  It is a stimulating and complex read.

August Reads Borrows & Bought

August's runaway winner (although it was an all-over interesting and enriching month of reading) is The Forgotten Garden, a book our bookclub chose to read and that was a delight to dive into.  It is compared to The Secret Garden in reviews and with some reason... they both have gardens.  Forgotten starts a little slow like Francis Hodges Burnett's novel does and Burnett makes a brief appearance in the tale.  Otherwise though the main similarities are the great female characters (in this case several generations of women across continents) and the feeling of wonder as you fall into the magic of the tale.  It's not perfect, especially in laying out the foundations of the personalities of the characters, but its memorable and satisfying and I'll return to it for a second (or more) reading in the future!

Otherwise, I bopped all around genres - some due to recommendations or a 2nd book club (Fermata and Hollywood), and some due to their classical nature and a desire to keep spreading my tastes or due to it catching my eye at the local bookstore display  (The Great Impersonation and Angelology).

With Borders bookstores going out of business (for real this time) and a surprise Amazon giftcard, I've been hard-pressed to refrain from buying sprees so I'm sitting on my hands figuratively through September to balance out my banner month of new books in August!  Highlights from purchases are/were The Forgotten Garden which I first read from the library but loved enough to own and reread, and I, Claudius which is a bi-annual favorite read and which I lost by enthusiastically loaning it out in years past.  My used copy from Amazon.com looks almost exactly the same as my old copy!  I have a lot of reading and a lot less acquiring to do this next month!

Books I Read Again and Again

I'm about to start a book I read about every 2 years and it started me thinking about books that I read again and again.  I basically keep every book I think I might read again some day or that I want to recommend to someone but these are the ones I have read 3+ times and will keep coming back.  Some (Twilight anyone?) aren't exactly the height of literature but are addictive and some are true classics that are both well written and enlightening.  The primary list is as follows:

Classics

1) I, Claudius by Robert Graves

2) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott 

3) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
5) Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling 

Modern Fiction

1) The Princess Bride by William Goldman
2) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenger
3) Twilight series (somebody stop me!) by Stephanie Meyer

Fantasy

1) Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
2) The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

Children's or YA Lit

1) The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
2) Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
3) Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Graphic Novel Top 10 (ish) Part 2: Honorable Mentions

This is just a quick list + descriptions of graphic novels that were great but didn't make the Top 10 (they round out the top 20 instead).  They are in no particular order because they all hit a similar "great-but-not-the-best" rating.

Y: The Last Man - Imagine all the male creatures on earth were wiped out in an instant... what does that mean for the typical duality-based struggles we are used to on earth?  War, Labor, Creation and Protection of Offspring, Politics etc...   It's a finely drawn and well-thought out concept that follows the lines of post-apocolyptic writing with the exceptions that half of the world is still alive but with skewed experience (i.e. most as in >90% politicians, soldiers, pilots in the world are male).

Aya - Probably the first book I've seen showing a prosperous African nation.  The Ivory Coast is aptly portrayed here as the home of Aya, a typical (if more studious than her boy-crazy friends) young girl growing up in her homeland.  There are obvious cultural differences but most of the time her life and city are as familiar as the small town homes many Americans grew up in.

Stitches: A Memoir -  This is a pretty dark tale told from a young boy's perspective so it won't appeal to all readers, however I found it an amazing coming-of-age/overcoming your crazy-family story full of hope or maybe just sheer stubborness in not living out one's family destiny.  I recommend it for anyone who grew up feeling like the crazy one because of the people influencing their life.

The Color of Earth (also ...of Heaven & ...of Water) - This is a trilogy tale of a young girl/maiden/woman in Korea (each book covering one phase).  It is beautifully drawn and lovely in its content.  I loved especially the story of young love from the first book.

The Walking Dead - I'm going to have to join the chorus out there shouting that the graphic novel is far better than the television series.  And the television series was decent as far as the zombie plots out there go.  I'm not sure why the series made the changes it did but I think they lost some great character development and story-telling along the way.  The drawings are bold and sure-handed which I appreciated, especially if a great percentage of the pictures are going to be dedicated to the grotesque undead. 

Maus (Book1) - I haven't been able to locate the sequel through my library so I've only got half the story, however the tale that looks back through the author's father's eyes leading up to his entry into Auchwitz, is stunning.  We walk through the daily grind of life in Poland in the years leading up to his internment as slowly and inexorably the scenery changes from bad to worse.  Along the ride though we get insights into the family dynamics, personality tics and modern-day concerns that remind us of the very humanity (or in this case, rodentry) that was put on hold for years in the camps.  Strange to say, but it was a delight to read.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (or other Scott Pilgrim tales) - For those familiar with the movie (HIGHLY RECOMMEDED!), the film version is super-dedicated to near panel for panel faithfulness to the original.  I actually prefer the film because I liked the 'look' better than the cartoon-y characters from the graphic novel but the former wouldn't exist without the latter and the latter is pretty-darn good.

A representative of crime/noir - The Black Diamond Detective Agency by Eddie Campbell.  This one has a western bent to it as well but hits two goals for me: 1) it covers Eddie Campbell who is a great contributor to the genre but who's other pieces didn't hit the top o'the list for me & 2) it represents all the crime/noir pieces out there that the graphic novel is SUCH a perfect medium for.  I like classic film noir but usually in small increments (i.e. "Brick" is a fabulous out-of-the-ordinary noirish film with just enough of a light touch, whereas "The Maltese Falcon" is formulaic) and the same goes for novels (Mickey Spillane is a from-time-to-time escape but easy to overdose on).  In graphic novels you get the heights of the Look and Feel of classic noir along with the expected doses of the formula: femme fatales, red herrings, hard-boiled PI's and gritty dialogue.  And it doesn't bore you with its familiarity.  I've seen better as a representation but couldn't remember or uncover the title despite my huntings.  So this'll do and it has the added bonus of the shout-out to Mr. Campbell. :)

So that's it for graphic novel's folks... until Rabbi's Cat 3 is translated or Marjane Satrapi puts out something new!

July Reads Borrows Boughts

Summer flus led to a limited reading list this month but the selection at least held some diversity.  I read many a graphic novel this month to complete my Top Ten List , then finished off a memoir, non-fiction science book & a girly beach read.  None of the latter make it into my 'must-read' list but they were all somewhat entertaining.  I'd recommend Tina Fey's Bossypants out of the lot for some really great laughs and a very human insight into her dazzling self.

Graphic Novel Top 10 (ish) Part 1

For my list, I am only considering ‘original graphic novels’ much like original screenplays in which there was not a book or movie in existence first…. For instance, the Matrix graphic novel, while beautiful and excellent, does not count as the movie preceded the graphic novel’s release. My one exception is Genesis because the origination has been in existence FOREVER and I would also like to encourage all books of the Bible to be turned into a graphic novel!  I tend to be really picky about visuals as well so you won't see the Sandman listed here (though it tops most lists) because, while complex, I HATE the graphics and can't get past them.  So these will all have reasonably 'pretty' graphics from my point of view.

In Order (Top rated first):

#1 (&2-3) Marjane Satrapi’s memoirs… I already mentioned Persepolis I & II, Chicken with Plums is my next favorite and Embroideries is in the top ten, so I’ll group them together for 1st-3rd place. Chicken with Plums tells Satrapi’s uncle’s history as a romantic, a musician and a family man surrounding the premise that he has chosen no longer to live after his wife breaks his favorite instrument in a fit of rage. It is soon to premier at the Venice Film Festival (Persepolis was made into a film as well). Embroideries is an Iranian version of the “Sex and the City” martini conversations… this time around tea with the Iranian matrons and daughters. It’s a great reminder that there is more alike than different between the Persian and Western cultures.

An added bonus:the graphics are delightful.

#4 Genesis as portrayed by R. Crumb.   This celebrated underground comix artist (depicted by James Urbaniak in “American Splendor” with Paul Giamatti) takes the entire book of Genesis, every chapter, and graphically portrays the stories, ‘begots’ and characters therein.  I’ve never cared much for his stylized humans (they’re usually somewhat grotesque and unlikable) but it works well to engage the reader here and remind one that the book of Genesis, far from being a morality tale, is about humanity and our hit-and-miss relationship with God.  I’m hoping he carries on with Exodus and the rest of the gang!
 

#5 Watchmen by Alan Moore (I know, I know… EVERYONE says this! (at least it wasn’t #1!!).  Considering that this is an incredibly familiar yet complex and fantastic world and that it was written during the age of Star Wars (the counter Mutually-Assured-Destruction Reagan program, not the space-cowboy trilogy), corrupt politicos, gang and drug problems on the rise and the dwindling of the comic-book genre, this story is a true coup.  Alan Moore has produced some other works (Promethea is often mentioned for example) and is a big hero in the graphic novel space but I haven't found anything as creative or rigorous as this in his repetoire.  Instead of the laziness of superheroes with unlimited powers, we're following fairly normal people who once took it upon themselves to become superheroes and are now obsolete and even marginalized.  It captures the sense of an era and people let down by their power structures and facing the real possibility of the end of their world.  The superheros struggle with whether they even want or should try to salvage humanity and the world.  Lovely. (or dark, whatever)
#6-8   These three sort of tie for me as they each have amazing graphics, amazing dialogue and amazing philosophies to contend with.  I'll start with the most familiar and end with the most foreign (to me). 

Blankets by Craig Thompson is the graphic novel answer to the film "Saved" which fundamentalists called 'meanspirited' and I saw as a revelatation for my friends who thought the film was a satire until I told them it was my adolescence.  It's essentially the author's memoir about growing up as a fundamentalist Christian striving to be worthy and faithful to his God, parents and faith and struggling in the face of ill-conceived small-town morality, peer Christian's horrendous behavior and the misunderstanding of his own poetic soul and artistic talents.  It would be the fundamentalist Christian version of Chaim Potok's The Chosen - drawn with beauty and artistry.  I saw myself, my other now-jaded friends and those we left behind in our home town(s) in this tale.  The particular struggle of trying to honor one's parents while rejecting their dogma especially hits close to home.  I'm not sure if mainstreamers are as touched by this story, but I would recommend it anyways and evangelize it to those who grew up in the far right.

The next is the Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar which I chose as less foreign than the third selection because it takes place in a foreign place so the strangeness feels right  ('right' not being the adequate word by any means but it'll do).  This book has it all: 1930's historical Algeria and Paris, Judiaism, Arabic-Jewish relations, anti-semetism, philosophy, struggles with faith, love and family tensions.  And the narration of the cat who learns briefly how to speak and uses his speech to take on the resident head rabbi in Talmudic debate is truly a delight.  The follow-on book (same name + "2") is beautifully drawn but more of a set of connected short-stories with an historical backdrop rather than the depth of the first book.  (Note: the third has yet to be translated to English from its original French)  I'm a fan of Joann Sfar's work anyways since whatever he writes tends to be beautifully drawn (either from his own hand or in collaboration) and full of a sense of whimsy.  His other works are worth checking out.

Finally: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang blew me away as one of the best works out there addressing second-generation Americans searching for their identity in the only country they've ever known as home while straddling parental and familial expectations of respect and duty to where their ancestor's originated.  Honestly, it would probably be at the top of my list (after Persepolis) if not for the sometimes comical graphics which annoy me.  Granted, when they're used, the PURPOSE is to annoy -- they usually crop up when the central character is showing his view of his 'backward' origins that cause the wanna-be-cool Chinese youngster to cringe.  Ultimately the narrator comes to terms with his Chinese-ness as a critical component of his identity and embraces it as part of his coming-of-age as yet another awkward teenage American.  Everyone can identify with these feelings and yet the specific struggles of non WASP-raised adolescents are unknown to WASPs which makes the book terribly relevant and eye-opening.  I think I'm unable to really read memoirs anymore unless they're in this type of format now!

#9 Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.  I'm perhaps cheating a bit here by including this one because there are actually no accompanying words in this book.  However, I think words would take away from the emotion and depth the 'reader' attributes to the story from their own interpretation.  This is not a child's picture-book.  It is a tale of love and loss that happens when one party outgrows another despite one's belief in a committed, unending relationship contract.  Spielberg/Kubrick's "A.I" doesn't even come close to the depth (and tears wrought) of this story. 
While I'm at it, I'd like to sneak in another no-words special-mention here which is sort of a child's book.  If you ever have the opportunity to see The Arrival, check it out as it really brings home a picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words by telling the tale of immigrants looking with fresh eyes at a foreign world (food, plants, people, signs).  It's incredible and incredibly drawn.  Sorry, I digress.

Finally - #10 - Whiteout by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber.  The artist mention is critical here because the story wouldn't make it without the amazing use of negative space by the artist to depict Antartica as it's own character.  (Actually, it went through a different artist for each edition for awhile and they were each amazing - Lieber was just the final one & the one who continued on Whiteout 2 which is also great).  Once feels notes of familiarity with the recently popular Scandinavian mysteries that are flooding the English market now and introducing their bare, cold, unforgiving Scandinavian landscapes as the vehicle for mood, foreshadowing and characters' internalizations.  I've heard the movie doesn't even come close. 

The last one on my list points out a theme to me about why each of these hit the top 10... I felt like I learned something or changed somehow with each example.  Either it helped me understand an era, place or demographic better, or it helped me get in touch with pieces of my own past and growth.  And this is perhaps what further separates graphic novels from serialized stories or comics for me... they can achieve as much as any literary masterpiece in the library.
Honorable Mentions coming soon....  (I just can't stop at 10!)

Graphic Novels Discussion

There isn’t a definitive requirements list for establishing what a graphic novel is, and isn’t and I’m sure to offend die-hard fans of the genre so I’ll preempt this description with the declaration that I’m explaining for those who aren’t yet fans…

My Definition: A Graphic Novel is a complete story told through pictures with dialogue and narration in which the character or characters progress through plot points similar to a literary novel. It falls somewhere between an illustrated novel and a serialized comic.

My Graphic Novel Experience:

Great Illustrated Classics introduced me to Ben Hur, Captains Courageous, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Sherlock Holmes, The War of the Worlds and other classics before I ever read the literary originals. These had one black and white drawing per page of writing in the abridged books and kept the tales moving along well. These hooked me on classics (especially adventure classics like Ben Hur and Captains Courageous).

I wasn’t reading superhero comics at the time (I was allowed Archie comics and Sunday comics but that was about it!) so these were my first experience of a story told through words and pictures. I never did become a comic book reader (though I love comic book movies!) likely because I felt too old for the medium once I was allowed to read it. Also, the comic book tales were serialized and not necessarily continued with the same authors or artists so they told short stories with new gimmicks every time rather than one complete story arc. The mythology of the characters becomes well developed (see any of the “[Insert Superhero] Men: The Ultimate Guide” books for references) but the stories themselves aren’t compelling or educational. We get to identify with the characters (teenage angst, isolation, etc) but not grow as a result of their stories.

Then along comes a graphic novel…. Propelled by graphics, yet full of beginning, middle & end story arc(s) that shows uses both the literary media and the graphic one to tell a tale that we take away a great deal more of. Whether memoir or fiction, these stories can move one as much as a book, or inform one where the printed word alone would be ignored.

I don’t remember my first graphic novel, but the one that hooked me on the genre (and made me take it seriously) was The Complete Persepolis , a compendium of Persepolis I & II which chronicled the author’s childhood and teens as a young Iranian woman (In Iran and France). I was blown away… not only did Iranians seem so relatable, but it put the last 30 years of political engagements with the U.S. into a completely different context. This was both the easiest and most engaging way to learn history ever! The author does a great job telling (true) stories as evidenced by her other works as well.

I’ve even discovered a favorite publisher: First Second (now owned by Macmillan) – they seem to have the right combo of story & good graphics for me. Eddie Campbell, Joann Sfar, Gene Luen Yang & others favs of mine are published with them.

So now, I’m a fan, and bound to add my own “Top 10”-ish List to the plethora out there.

Bibliophiles Alternative to Cosmo Relationship Quiz

I came across this link from the Not Martha blog and it tickled me.  Ladies, if any of your chosen or sought-after mates name one of these books as their favorite, BEWARE!

Favorite Books of the Secretly Jerky

If your man doesn't fall into one of these, congrats!  However, we've all men that guy who's favorite paperback was Salinger's Catcher in the Rye - so we can all enjoy the breakdown of his issues here!

2nd Half June Reads Borrows and Bought

The second half of the month capped off 2 books that were about as opposite as one might find aside from comparing reading a scientific journal to erotica.  I read them in parallel so it was a bit discombobulating  (what a great onomatopoeia!) 

Let's get the girly beach read out of the way first: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

I could denigrate the book as a fluff piece but its really as good (and better written) as most of late that attempt to describe the often complex relationships that form between women, particularly when formed in adolescence. The reality is that these friendships are more intimate than most marriages which means the good, the bad and the very ugly come into the relationship. They're usually more subtle than Margaret Atwood's portrayal in Cat's Eye and this is a decent description. So, for female psychology... sure, check it out. Here's your warning; the author, like the narrator, attempts to set-up the reader into a false dichotomy: either you love the vain, selfish, thoughtless but vivacious beauty, or you side with the loyal, smart, average and maligned narrator (best friend to the beauty). The truth is, they're both bitches. Of course the queen bee takes the cake and I dutifully hated and rooted against her, but the narrator is a spineless, passive-aggressive leech who doesn't learn a thing through her experience stealing the beau and never identifies what she wants. Dissatisfying to finish. The only reason I would want to read the sequel (which promises to be worse due to being from the point of view of the queen bee) is to hope for some actual growth in the characters to resolve my annoyance with this book.

Now on to the gritty crime noir epic....

The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy....pretty much 180degrees from Borrowed except perhaps for seeing every characters dark side (some of them don't have light sides) and disliking all of them. The 1960's tale starts (and never ends) with JFK's assassination in Dallas and continues along a reasonably explained trajectory of consequences for the cast of characters involved. It's impressive & overwhelming and I had to wonder if the frenetic prose is due to the author partaking of similar uppers as his characters.  I was grateful I'd seen "The Aviator" and some History Channel Mob pieces as well as read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and even "The Help" because I would not have been able to track most of this otherwise (its like a Russian novel for #'s of characters and their nicknames). My generation wasn't taught the recent history of our parents so we're ignorant of the events of most of the 60's and I certainly didn't grow up with all the racial slurs spouted in these passages! This was a revealing, thought-provoking take on what might have been behind the very real events and motivations of the movers and shakers in the Kennedy, Vietnam and Civil Rights era(s). Warning: this is beyond Elmore Leonard for grit.... Leonard is a tourist's sampling of noir compared to the violence here that compounds one's horror with the sneaking suspicion that much of it must be true.

I broke my fast for new books big time towards the end of the month due to a lovely gift card I couldn't resist spending ... I'm very much looking forward to reading and gifting these (the parenting book is a gift I don't currently need myself though I LOVE the title The Three-Martini Playdate!) in the month(s)to come.

First Half June Reads, Borrows & Bought

I finished two books in the first days of June so my month is artificially weighted this round.   To get a jump on this, I'll split my record into first & second half this month.  Good news: I've made it through half the month without borrowing or buying any new books (whew!).

China Mieville came to Powells at the end of May, inspiring me to pick up a couple of his books and hear his reading (or rather his delightful vocabulary and British accent!).  He writes what some call "weird fiction" but I would describe as a cross between steam punk and modern lit.  I'm always on the lookout for new, smart takes on fantasy since I love the genre but have to filter through a lot of crap to find the gems.  It's been awhile  since I've attended a book reading and this time exceeded my expectations for a few reasons - 1) Mieville is marvelously clever and a joy to listen to (and fun to look at!) & 2) the audience made for excellent people-watching and they asked interesting questions rather than the pretentious I-worked-on-this-question-for-a-week-so-I-would-sound-deep questions I'm used to cringing at during modern lit author readings (or worse, poetry readings!).

My first reading of Mieville was his foray into children's books & while the tale didn't blow me away, it encouraged me to read more if only to see how he continually creates new worlds to explore.

Now, to hit the highlight of the month so far...  my book club read The Help by Kathryn Stockett several months ago and I chose to read the alternate book instead because I thought the story would be heavy and depress me.  I didn't hear much of the conversation about the book but in the intervening months, a friend here and there have mentioned how much they liked the book and wanted to discuss it.  Then, with the impending movie (and I like Emma Stone so I'll likely see it), I finally decided to plunge in and read the tale. 
I was blown away.  I found the characters so incredibly vivid and believable, and could empathize alike with those breaking with and those brainwashed by their culture.  The story has a little bit of everything; a girl establishing her independence, racial issues, class issues, familial love and conflict, danger, history, loss and hope.  Instead of a story of ignorance and blame, this was a story of one woman's emergence from Plato's cave and the myriad impacts in her life both difficult and wonderful.  If there is a moral to the story, it matches that of "Mean Girls:" we are all women facing similar challenges in the world... if we would just help each other, we can change our lives and our futures for the better.

May Reads, Borrows and Bought

This was a month of sampling multiple books at once before knuckling down to finish any.  As a result, 3 of my books completed the first week of June which sorely tested me for my chronological reporting.  However, I will stick to the facts and use this as an excuse to say a little more on my fewer reads than I normally post for a respectible number. 

Despite the few completions, this was a banner month for picking up books: the library had a sale, an author came for a book reading to Portland, and Borders had too many great coupons!  As a result, my vice is extremely apparent this month but I'm excited about the selections and already anticipate getting through several in the month of June!