No matter what holidays you're observing this December, it's time to get festive! Joy! Celebration! Comics!
Wait…comics?
They’re not just for kids! If all you know about comics is what you find in the Sunday paper, it’s time to take another look. Graphic novels can be funny, heartbreaking, intense, and insightful. They are stories juxtaposed with art; graphic novels entertain and inform the reader!
This month’s fiction picks are all-new too: books that will elicit a laugh, make you smile, and remind you about what is worth celebrating in this season of celebrations.
Here are a few titles you’ll find on our display this month:
Graphic Novels
Jeremy recommends: Big Questions, or, Asomatognosia: Whose Hand Is It Anyway by Anders Brekhus Nilsen.
To me, Big Questions, or, Asomatognosia: Whose Hand Is It Anyway is opera meets graphic novel. What begins simply as birds chatting about food and philosophy eventually turns into a sprawling opus on power, fate, sensemaking, and death. Written over a decade, this book also offers a chance to watch an artist’s skills grow as the frames continue. Big Questions, or, Asomatognosia: Whose Hand Is It Anyway is BIG (literally and figuratively), but well worth the investment.
Jeremy also recommends: Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me by Sarah Leavitt.
In this heart-wrenching memoir, Sarah Leavitt recounts her personal experience of having a parent with Alzheimer’s. The graphic format does well to convey the fear, confusion, and anger both she and her mother go through during the early signs, the diagnosis, the tests, and the slow cognitive decline. Mixed into the sadness are anecdotes of her mother’s life and the moments they shared throughout it. The result is a beautiful story of life, love, and the struggle of dealing with a disease that changes us.
Heather recommends: Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore.
The Joker as philosopher? His big idea is that the only thing separating the average, well-adjusted Gotham citizen from the psychos in Arkham Asylum is a single, solitary, really bad day. And he intends to prove his point as only the Joker is capable of doing.
Fiction
Taryn recommends: 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates by Walter Carruthers Sellar and Robert Julian Yeatman.
This is a tongue-in-cheek reworking of the history of England. The title says it all, but this is a MUST READ for anyone who vaguely remembers university.
Heather recommends: Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster.
If you like to choose your own adventure books (who doesn't!) and enjoy Jane Austen (ditto!), you'll love this little dalliance amongst Jane's characters and their stories. Just don't get stuck in the attic with Fanny Price like I did!
Looking for an infusion of joy, a quick read during the holidays, or the discovery of a whole new genre? Come see what else is on the second floor in December!
