bookblogging
May. 24th, 2008 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeNovels/prose books:
Heyer, Georgette: The Grand Sophy
(oh my. Now I know why this book is written of in the typed equivalent of hushed tones of reverence and awe; it's just wonderful. Sophy's a freakin' force of nature, a natural law, an accurate predictor of your fortune in life. Trust in the wisdom of Sophy: if she likes you and she is laughing, your life will be happy; if it is otherwise, you are doomed.
Heyer at her best. Highly recommended as pure, delicious fun).
Graphic novels:
Eisner, Will: A Life Force
(in this book, human beings are metaphorically equated with cockroaches, in all their skittling glory. This is neither as depressing nor as disgusting as it sounds. Eisner is a humanist. He is very intelligent and very aware, and very willing to plunge into the dark side of human existence, but he also fervently believes and convincingly argues that we're worth it, and life is worth it, and that somewhere in the profane mess that is life is meaning.
I really like reading his books, because I believe that, too).
Tan, Shaun: The Arrival
(human kindness and generosity do not stop an alien world from being terrifying, but they help you learn to survive long enough for the strangeness to stop being so frightening.
I kinda like to think I would have picked up on this being a visual metaphor of the immigrant experience without having being told so before I ever saw the book, but you never know. I don't know how to praise this work without repeating myself, but it deserves great praise and to belong in every graphic novel collection).
Baker, Kyle: You Are Here
(both the author and the work are recommended! My introduction to Kyle Baker was his take on Plastic Man, which gave me sort of a warm fuzzy predisposition towards him that has been well-rewarded by his other works. I really enjoyed this book. It's an unusual variant on comics art: panels of art accompanied by captions of dialogue (unusual in the sense that it's not commonly employed, not that it's unprecedented). Anyway, it reads very smoothly, like Prince Valiant if you increased the panel count by a factor of ten and allowed for a lot more to be conveyed by the art. Baker's a wonderful artist, very skilled at cartooning and narrative art, and a clever, insightful writer besides.
The ending is really not what I expected, but it was honest, and I appreciated it. I think I trust him, in the sense that I feel that I can cast myself on his artistic whim without fear of being disappointed, or needing to qualify what I'm reading).
Clugston-Major, Chunna: Scooter Girl
(I didn't finish this, but I did read enough to determine that I didn't like this any better than Blue Monday, and it's probably better for both Clugston-Major and myself if I stop trying to force myself to read her books, which for whatever reason make me want to throw up).
Heyer, Georgette: The Grand Sophy
(oh my. Now I know why this book is written of in the typed equivalent of hushed tones of reverence and awe; it's just wonderful. Sophy's a freakin' force of nature, a natural law, an accurate predictor of your fortune in life. Trust in the wisdom of Sophy: if she likes you and she is laughing, your life will be happy; if it is otherwise, you are doomed.
Heyer at her best. Highly recommended as pure, delicious fun).
Graphic novels:
Eisner, Will: A Life Force
(in this book, human beings are metaphorically equated with cockroaches, in all their skittling glory. This is neither as depressing nor as disgusting as it sounds. Eisner is a humanist. He is very intelligent and very aware, and very willing to plunge into the dark side of human existence, but he also fervently believes and convincingly argues that we're worth it, and life is worth it, and that somewhere in the profane mess that is life is meaning.
I really like reading his books, because I believe that, too).
Tan, Shaun: The Arrival
(human kindness and generosity do not stop an alien world from being terrifying, but they help you learn to survive long enough for the strangeness to stop being so frightening.
I kinda like to think I would have picked up on this being a visual metaphor of the immigrant experience without having being told so before I ever saw the book, but you never know. I don't know how to praise this work without repeating myself, but it deserves great praise and to belong in every graphic novel collection).
Baker, Kyle: You Are Here
(both the author and the work are recommended! My introduction to Kyle Baker was his take on Plastic Man, which gave me sort of a warm fuzzy predisposition towards him that has been well-rewarded by his other works. I really enjoyed this book. It's an unusual variant on comics art: panels of art accompanied by captions of dialogue (unusual in the sense that it's not commonly employed, not that it's unprecedented). Anyway, it reads very smoothly, like Prince Valiant if you increased the panel count by a factor of ten and allowed for a lot more to be conveyed by the art. Baker's a wonderful artist, very skilled at cartooning and narrative art, and a clever, insightful writer besides.
The ending is really not what I expected, but it was honest, and I appreciated it. I think I trust him, in the sense that I feel that I can cast myself on his artistic whim without fear of being disappointed, or needing to qualify what I'm reading).
Clugston-Major, Chunna: Scooter Girl
(I didn't finish this, but I did read enough to determine that I didn't like this any better than Blue Monday, and it's probably better for both Clugston-Major and myself if I stop trying to force myself to read her books, which for whatever reason make me want to throw up).
no subject
on 2008-05-26 01:25 am (UTC)I picked up The Arrival to flip through absently and had to sit down and read the entire thing. And then buy it on the spot and pimp it out to everyone who asks me in-store for GN recs. It's beautiful. And I love the turnip-lemur-cat!
no subject
on 2008-05-28 01:18 am (UTC)I promise not to reject Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero out of hand if I run across it!
She's clearly a very talented artist, and a clever writer. I just seem to loathe the product of her art and writing as they channel her worldview. It happens.