Lisa
Graphic novel / Interactive media experience about the ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic and how it impacts the everyday lives of citizens. Much of the graphic novel is centered around the health and welfare of children and mothers unintentionally swept up into the aftermath of a conflict they don't have any stake in. Like so many geopolitical events that don't happen in the Western world, I hadn't read a single thing about this and was just depressed reading it. It's very illuminating. Didier Kassaï's art pairs well with Marc Ellison's photography. Not the kind of graphic novel one “enjoys” but worth reading and drawing attention to.
Perfect book to snap a reading slump. It kept getting more and more implausible that people kept believing in this charlatan. Important people! I went into this almost completely cold. I only had vague notions that Theranos did something with blood draws. This was well explained without being pedantic, didn't overly repeat itself, and walked a great line between helping an uninformed reader like myself understand the science and litigation piece without getting too in the weeds.
If you like non-fiction at all I recommend this.
I think the last time I was so shocked about untaught history was reading King Leopold's Ghost.
This is an exhaustively researched look at American foreign policy in the Third World post WWII into and through the Cold War. As evinced by the title, Indonesia and the horrific coup eliminating Sukarno are the focus. The methods by which the CIA influenced this coup and used it as a model for orchestrating dozens of other coups across SE Asia, Central, and South America round out the second half. This book is hugely enhanced by all the first hand testimony Bevins collected.
Highly, depressingly recommended.
Spoiler alert (lol it's ancient) if you have never read The Tempest:
Prospero really asked a lot of Ariel in this play. I don't know where my frame of reference is, maybe it's living in this pro-union moment in America; solidarity to the workers always whether they're humans or little island sprites. But I was just shocked at what Ariel was putting up with and I was absolutely certain that Ariel was going to lose his/her/its shit and murder Prospero. Like I was just bracing myself for a rampaging sprite.
Anyway, I completely misread the vibe of this 400 year old play. I just finished it and Prospero has a huge change of heart, sets Ariel and Caliban free, and willingly gives up his magic. There's also a love story.
It's pretty good. It's quotable.
I love Lisa Congdon's art and I needed a book written by someone sharing my name for a book challenge. This is a nice collection of interviews with contemporary artists about establishing voice in work. The advice is fairly straight forward. Practice a lot and keep making art even if you feel like your art sucks. It's 100% true, and I wish I'd stuck with it when I was younger.
I can't say that there was anything truly profound but I am not that young and if I were a young person starting out in the art world I think there's a lot that could be taken from this. It's very encouraging and the art world can be tough, so props for that.
My favorite comic artist writing a memoir? I have been waiting for this one to come to the library for months now. It's a beautiful read about her time working in the oil sands of Canada. Topic I was totally unfamiliar with. It's got the same wry wit as Hark! A Vagrant. She went through a lot, I thought to myself many times that I would not have been tough enough to endure working there. The first quarter of the book about the shackles of student loan debt resonated with me so, so much.
The art in this is an absolute delight. I was expect a true graphic novel format with a unified narrative and this book doesn't function as such. It's fairly loose, more like a scrapbook. But it has a tremendous amount of heart and it's clear there was so much research put into the endeavor. If you're interested in women's sports or the history of baseball in general, I'd highly recommend it.
This is an interesting look at 10 (I think it was 10) landmark psychological studies. Some of them are well known: the birth of the lobotomy, some of them were wholly unknown to me: the Harlow monkey experiment, the Lost in the Mall experiment. From a purely informative standpoint, I liked the book okay. The author definitely had a narrative bias, one she didn't shy away from. I felt this the most in the chapter about opioid use, which felt extremely dated (pub date 2005). I struggle to imagine a book being written today being so shockingly cavalier about the recreational use of opioids.
If you're interested in psychology and want short chapter discussions on some well known psychological experiments, maybe give it a look see.
This was a fascinating look at the end of the Raj and one disillusioned Punjabi man's quest to assassinate the British leader of Punjab, Michael O'Dwyer. O'Dwyer presided over a massacre I'd never heard of, the Jallianwala Bagh. This reads like a thriller, it's very well paced. It has a very pro India bent, so due to the topic will find yourself sympathizing with the machinations of an assassin. However, O'Dwyer was presiding over a hate crime with absolutely zero shred of remorse, so pick your more palatable atrocity?
I wanted to learn more about every aspect of of this book.
The artwork in this is fantastic! It's equal parts beautiful and goofy. The character/creature design is terrific. The story is great too. I pre-read this for my son to read because I thought the length of the book was a little off-putting for a young reader, but the story is so well done I know he will be through it quickly.
Can't wait to read the next volume!
Rating an autobiography is hard because it can feel like you are essentially rating someone's life. What I can say about this is it is readily apparent Jeannette wrote this herself (I would presume not the norm for celebrity autobiographies) and it is very well written.
She had a horrible childhood and I had absolutely no idea. I grew up watching Nickelodeon and still watched some of the shows even when I'd “aged out” of them, and iCarly was definitely my favorite from that period of time. Sam was the best part of iCarly. She was just hilarious.
She was living a horrible lie, supporting her family, her mom was actively putting her in mental and physical danger. In many ways, this is such an upsetting read.
I am so glad that she is making choices for herself. She deserves that and she put in so much work to get there. And somewhat selfishly as a viewer of the show, I'm glad Miranda was such a supportive friend. I was bracing myself for something very sad there, and it sounds like their relationship is built on real honesty and friendship.
A thousand trigger warnings in this book for just about every unsettling thing you can think of.
