Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 2nd, 2022 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Adored The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor, by Shaenon K. Garrity & Christopher Baldwin. This graphic novel is a loving yet hilarious homage to gothic novels, of which our heroine Haley is a great fan - so great that she’s initially thrilled when she finds that she’s slipped into a pocket universe built around the aesthetics of gothic novels! There’s a castle with a grimly forbidding housekeeper, a ghost, and three brothers: the gruff, brooding lord of the manor, the endearingly stupid wastrel youngest, and the middle brother, who is either a hot-headed hearthrob or a devil-may-care quippy type, he hasn’t decided which yet.
The creators have found an iron-clad excuse to present all these intensely tropey characters at PEAK tropetastic glory, and it is INDEED glorious. Tons of fun. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes gothic novels, or even if you’re not into gothic novels in particular but do enjoy seeing authors play with tropes.
On a more serious note, I also read When Stars Are Scattered, a graphic novel memoir co-created by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson, chronicling Mohamed’s childhood in a refugee camp after fleeing the civil war in Somalia. I love childhood memoirs and I love Jamieson’s previous books (Roller Girl and All’s Faire in Middle School), so you will be unsurprised to hear I loved this book - although head’s up, it is MUCH more serious than Jamieson’s earlier work, which is not surprising given the subject matter.
Continuing the graphic novel theme, I wrapped up the available Phoebe and Her Unicorn books with Unicorn Famous. New Phoebe and Her Unicorn books appear to come out at a pretty good clip, however, often two a year, so hopefully another one will trot along soon.
What I’m Reading Now
littlerhymes and I have begun to read Little Women! I’m thinking I might do a weekly post about it - is that something that people would be interested in? As of now, we have finished chapter 3, and I realized with surprise that the 1934 Katherine Hepburn adaptation (which I recently watched) actually followed these first few chapters extremely faithfully; I had forgotten Jo’s deliriously melodramatic play, but indeed! that’s in the book.
What I Plan to Read Next
Andrea Wang’s Watercress, which won the Caldecott Medal and a Newbery Honor this year.
Adored The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor, by Shaenon K. Garrity & Christopher Baldwin. This graphic novel is a loving yet hilarious homage to gothic novels, of which our heroine Haley is a great fan - so great that she’s initially thrilled when she finds that she’s slipped into a pocket universe built around the aesthetics of gothic novels! There’s a castle with a grimly forbidding housekeeper, a ghost, and three brothers: the gruff, brooding lord of the manor, the endearingly stupid wastrel youngest, and the middle brother, who is either a hot-headed hearthrob or a devil-may-care quippy type, he hasn’t decided which yet.
The creators have found an iron-clad excuse to present all these intensely tropey characters at PEAK tropetastic glory, and it is INDEED glorious. Tons of fun. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes gothic novels, or even if you’re not into gothic novels in particular but do enjoy seeing authors play with tropes.
On a more serious note, I also read When Stars Are Scattered, a graphic novel memoir co-created by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson, chronicling Mohamed’s childhood in a refugee camp after fleeing the civil war in Somalia. I love childhood memoirs and I love Jamieson’s previous books (Roller Girl and All’s Faire in Middle School), so you will be unsurprised to hear I loved this book - although head’s up, it is MUCH more serious than Jamieson’s earlier work, which is not surprising given the subject matter.
Continuing the graphic novel theme, I wrapped up the available Phoebe and Her Unicorn books with Unicorn Famous. New Phoebe and Her Unicorn books appear to come out at a pretty good clip, however, often two a year, so hopefully another one will trot along soon.
What I’m Reading Now
littlerhymes and I have begun to read Little Women! I’m thinking I might do a weekly post about it - is that something that people would be interested in? As of now, we have finished chapter 3, and I realized with surprise that the 1934 Katherine Hepburn adaptation (which I recently watched) actually followed these first few chapters extremely faithfully; I had forgotten Jo’s deliriously melodramatic play, but indeed! that’s in the book.What I Plan to Read Next
Andrea Wang’s Watercress, which won the Caldecott Medal and a Newbery Honor this year.
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Date: 2022-02-02 01:21 pm (UTC)Oh! I read this recently (thanks to my local library), and thought that it was very good! ^_^
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Date: 2022-02-03 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-03 05:33 am (UTC)It's interesting because I saw *A LOT* of buzz about a graphic novel which dealt with similar themes [but which was much darker/much more confronting/not suitable for people under 15]
The Best We Could Do is a 2017 illustrated memoir written by Thi Bui. It chronicles Thi Bui's parents' life before and during the Vietnam War, their escape from Vietnam when Bui was a child, and their eventual migration to the United States as refugees.
I started reading The Best We Could Do recently, but was forced to take a break because it contains:
- the parents telling their child about a violent sexual assault that happened in the past
- the parents telling their child about domestic violence that happened in the past
- the parents telling their child about a wide-spread famine in which many people starved to death that happened in the past
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Date: 2022-02-02 03:06 pm (UTC)Ooh, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
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Date: 2022-02-03 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2022-02-04 05:57 am (UTC)