Friday, August 18, 2006

I had forgotten to blog about a book that I recently finished - Fun Home by Allison Bechdel. I was reminded because Boing Boing happened to have a review of it today.

I can't remember where I heard about it - probably in the Powell's newsletter. I was intrigued because it's a graphic novel written by a woman. I find it interesting that I've never read a graphic novel. Seems like graphic designers and artists would be all about graphic novels...

I think I had never read one because I always associated them with comic books and I always associated comic books with boy things. Comic books, video games, role-playing games... none of it ever really interested me.

Anyway, I was instantly interested in the book. She seems to use a lot of narrative devices that remind me of movies. The drawings are great (kind of comic-booky but not really) and the story is well-written. I like how she goes back and forth in time, re-examining important points in her life.

The Boing Boing post mentions some hidden flaps in the hardcover book. My library copy didn't have those, so I'm going to have to go check it out in the book store.

And I might have to check out some other graphic novels while I'm there.

Now I'm almost finished with my book group book - The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I need to haul ass, because we're meeting tonight. It's a pretty quick read. It's about a 15-year old boy in post-war Germany who has an affair with a 35-year old woman. They break up and he discovers that she's on trial for Nazi war crimes. Sounds kind of depressing, but it's not.

I was initially hesitant because it's an Oprah book. Some of the Oprah books that I've read, I've hated. I know people complain about them being depressing. That's not the problem. Mostly I just didn't like the characters. I'm thinking of The Book of Ruth and Songs in Ordinary Time. But I also liked some, like What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Ellen Foster, and of course Toni Morrison's books.

But this one is good so far!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi.. I'm Trish... I'm drunk...

I read a graphic novel once called Maus. It was pretty good. Leon's mom gave it to him for Chanukah. That woman never liked me, I swear... She always made me feel like I was personally responsible for The Holocaust. But she did give me a really good book called The Feminine Face of God that I highly recommend for some non-fiction spiritual reading.
Also, if you know any cute single men... apparently some girl named Melissa needs a hook-up.... ;P

Please excuse any spelling errors. Like I said at the begining, I'm drunk.