Reading Report
I discovered the graphic novel area of the nice regional library near me and it was all over. I cleaned that place out. I really, really, really love graphic novels and if I had lots of cash I would stock my library full. In the meantime, the library is a nice option. And while graphic novels bring me absolute joy, it's a little bittersweet because more often than not, one goes through them very quickly.

So since Wednesday, I've read three (I got like seven). Here's the run-down:

• Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle. Delisle worked as an animator in North Korea for three months in early 2001 and drew an account of his experiences there. It's all charcoal and observant and funny and really goddamn great. In comparison to someone like Joe Sacco, though, Delisle is less about trying to get find out the true story (less of a journalist) and more about quick observations and impressions. Still, really good and highly recommended. He wrote one about working on Shenzhen and I totally want to read it!
  
• Mom's Cancer by Briend Fies. When his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, he started a comic strip about it and this little book is the finished product. It's fast, but honest and powerful. And the ending is kind of happy.
  
• Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi. It's a quick little read about an afternoon tea among her family of Iranian women where conversation is funny, juicy, and pretty progressive. A totally fun book.
• Blankets by Craig Thompson. This one is more of a novel form (it's a brick!), but it's still a fast read. Thompson writes autobiographically about his childhood a teen years, his struggles to fit into his rural Wisconsin background, his inner debates regarding religion and finally his teenage first love. It's good and smart and honest, but Thompson's character was kind of a fox, let's be honest. Not sure if he meant to draw himself that way, but that's the way it turned out, so it's harder to really get that he was terrorized in high school. I had also read Ariel Shrag's illustrated novels about her high school years (one for each year) and her junior year novel is mainly about her first love. While she doesn't tackle as many issues at Thompson, I think that her description of a first love gone awry can't be beat.