Clementine Book Two by Tillie Walden. Image / Skybound, 2023. 978153325197. 296pp. I’m always reluctant to read a sequel to a great zombie story as I’m afraid they’re going to go over the same ground again. So, despite being a huge fan of Walden’s work, I didn’t quite start reading this even though my wife picked up a copy at ALA last year. I should have picked it up immediately. At the center is Clementine again — that’s her on the cover — and the other survivors of Book One, whom I’m not going to say much about in case you haven’t read it. This does what great YA books do — it makes you care about the central character as she figures out who she is. The ongoing zombie apocalypse complicates everything; this is set on an island that seems safe (but of course isn’t). There’s just a bit of romance, a whole lot more love and friendship, and the characters new to the book add to Clementine’s story in perfect, often intense ways. Make sure your library has the first two books in the series, and get the third when it’s published in 2025.

Ash’s Cabin by Jen Wang. First Second, 2024. 9781250754059. 320pp. I read Wang’s Koko Be Good to my daughter when they were, arguably, way too young for it, but they loved it anyway so I read everything Wang writes. I was at the American Library Association convention last summer when I ran into First Second’s Calista Brill, who told me this book is super special and not to be missed, and she was right. Ash recently changed their name and cut their hair short but their parents think it’s just a phase. It’s not. Ash wants to be a writer. Chase, their dog, seems to be Ash’s only friend. Ash is looking forward to the yearly family vacation at Grandpa Edwin’s ranch. (He’s the only person who understood Ash, and he died a few years ago.) When their family decides to go to Disneyland instead, Ash explodes. No one understands them. But their parents give them permission to go to the ranch and stay with their cousin, Reese, who will be there. But Ash secretly wants to do more than just take a trip to the ranch. Ash wants to go into the woods, find their grandpa’s secret cabin, and stay there forever. (Their planning starts with a bit of research and a trip to the public library. Woo!) I don’t want to say much more about what happens, but I think it’s worth noting Ash spends time in the woods with Chase (the story has an informed Hatchet vibe) and by the end, Ash doesn’t feel as alone as at the beginning. Worth noting: parts of the book were harrowing, both as a father and as someone lacking wilderness survival skills.

These are the “new” books I finished during my trip. Comedy Book by Jesse David Fox. My favorite book on standup comedy ever. Go listen to past episodes of Jesse David Fox’s podcast Good One — if you enjoy those (he mostly talks to comedians about a single joke of theirs) you’ll likely love this. No one thinks about comedy as much as or as thoughtfully as Fox.           Dog Days by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim A nonfiction graphic novel in which Gendry-Kim moves to the country and adopts multiple dogs, plus helps take care of a few others. It’s personal but less heavy than Grass and The Waiting, though it still has cultural significance and may help folks understand South Korea a little better. Gendry-Kim made me love her dogs Potato and Carrot, as well as others who appear in the book. (sample page below)         Jimmy’s Elbow by James Kochalka I needed a dose of silliness, and young Jimmy’s adventures with the talking spirit of his elbow — it comes to life after he whacks it on something — fit the bill. Gloriously ridiculous. (sample page below)           Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. And three of its sequels: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, and The Gate of the Feral Gods. These books are also ridiculous, and light reading in the best way. Aliens destroy human civilization and open doors into an underground dungeon across the globe. Those who enter become contestants in a deadly RPG-like reality show that involves magic, combat, leveling-up, convoluted storylines, sponsors, off-world royalty, and a lot of Earth culture that has been appropriated and adapted in the name of making a buck (for our new alien overlords). At the center of it all are Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Donut, whom you’ll love if you hate dogs (or just like cats who aren’t afraid to shit-talk them to their faces). So much fun. I’ve kept reading the series since returning home, and I’ve finished the 5th book. I plan to read book six and the newly released book seven soon. (Thanks for the recommendation, Mike!)

I took a long trip last fall to Singapore and Nepal. Here’s some of what I reread, and one book I read for the first time, plus a few fails, too. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (2nd in the series) and The Penderwicks in Spring (4th in the series) by Jeanne Birdsall. This series has become a go-to comfort read. My daughter and I originally read this when they were a kid, and I had to dive back into it when I was missing them and my wife. I forgot how brutal The Penderwicks in Spring is, with Batty (the youngest Penderwick sister) overhearing one of her older siblings say something terrible (it involves their mother, who died just after Batty was born) and then failing to communicate with anyone about it for a while. (I reread the third book in the series earlier this year, which is why I skipped it during my trip.) No Room at the Morgue by Jean-Patrick Manchette Most of Machette’s short crime novels (translated from French) are excellent, and there are a few graphic novel adaptations by cartoonist Jacques Tardi available in English, too. This isn’t my favorite of Manchette’s novels, but I enjoyed it quite a bit; it involves a down-on-his-luck detective (he’s a former policeman) and a beautiful woman. It felt much more like a classic Raymond Chandler story than Manchette’s other books.       Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. by Rob Delaney The darkest parts of Delaney’s autobiographical essays deal with his alcoholism and its consequences, but they still make me laugh out loud. I think I’ve read this book three or four times now. (This means I’m soon going to have to rewatch his TV series Catastrophe again in its entirety.)       Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks. After discovering Banks’s Culture series in Kathmandu in 1999 — it’s my favorite science fiction series — I was nostalgic for it during my recent trip to Nepal. I picked up a dusty copy in a used bookstore there, a throwback to the good old days when I had to dig though piles of paperbacks I had never heard of to find something interesting. (Now most books in the stores there are new, in plastic bags, well-organized, and almost as expensive as they’d be here.) This book (the third in the series) is as good as I remember. It’s concerned with war and soldiering and those with a natural talent for both. Rereading it I started to have the sense that I’d hated the ending when I first read it. And I was right, those last few pages suck, but I loved it right up until then. I tell you this only so you can stop reading it if you have that feeling, too. Fails: Maigret and the Tramp by Georges Simenon. I’ve tried to read several Maigret books, but despite my love for short mysteries I haven’t really enjoyed any of them. I forced myself to finish this one. I’m still not sure why they’re so popular. (If you know which one of these I should start with, please tell me which that is. I have one more on my shelf, but I’ll probably give it away.)         The Dog of the South by Charles Portis. True Grit is such a great book I thought I’d read Portis’s other four novels on my trip. I brought along the Library of America collection that contains them all. But reading this was like reading a well-composed joke that didn’t make me laugh; I could see why it would be funny to someone, but I didn’t care. I set the book aside for later.

Return to Eden by Paco Roca. Translated by Andrea Rosenberg. Fantagraphics, 2024. 9781683969310. 178pp. This graphic novel opens in a cosmic moment of nonexistence to begin to explore the ninety years of its subject, Antonia’s, life. (She’s Roca’s mother.) It feels odd at the beginning, but it brilliantly introduces the comics format (along with photography, which the book also uses) as a way to fix moments in time. And it sets up what I found to be a perfect ending (wow!) but you have to get there by reading the book (no peeking ahead.) (I’m talking to you, Silver.) Antonia grew up in post-WWII Spain, and the book contains the three photographs of her that were taken before she was twenty. In one she’s with her older sister Vicentita and her husband. In the next, she’s holding a little girl on a toy horse (she was the girl’s nanny). And in the third, she’s at the beach with a few members of her family in 1946. It’s this last photo that’s very important to Antonia — near the end of her life, after she’s moved to a new apartment, she can’t find it, and she asks God for help to make it turn up. This photo is also at the center of the book, which tells about Antonia’s life by exploring her family members, their relationships and personalities, and the world Antonia lived in as a young woman. And that all sets up the magical, perfect ending, too.

Castle Swimmer Volume One by Wendy Martin. Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 9780593833814. 268pp. Includes episodes 1 – 19 from Webtoons plus a never-before-seen chapter. The god of the surface creates a beautiful golden mer named Kappa. He’s more commonly known as the Beacon, and he has a key role to play in the prophecies of various undersea peoples who have been awaiting his arrival. Often the prophecies he’s involved with don’t play out exactly as folks think they will. Kappa doesn’t really want to be the Beacon, but he doesn’t have a choice. Jump to 20 years later. Different groups think their prophecy is the most important, and all are awaiting the arrival of the Beacon. But he’s been imprisoned in the Castle of the Sharks, where Prince Siren is supposed to kill him to break the curse on his people. So the people who want Beacon to fulfill their prophecies (and not to die) plot to free the Beacon from the Sharks. But maybe they shouldn’t worry — Prince Sire continues to make excuses for not killing Kappa, and the two become friends (with a hint that they may become more than friends later). This is a beautifully drawn undersea tale that looks like it will turn into a full-blown romance, maybe in the next volume. My favorite thing about it is its leisurely pace; Martin loves the world and the characters enough to let the story develop instead of racing toward plot points. You can still read the story on Webtoons in its original format starting at https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/castle-swimmer/list?title_no=1499&page=21 

The Story of Gumluck the Wizard Book One by Adam Rex. Chronicle Books, 2023. 9781797213231. 134pp. I picked this up because I loved Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday. I kept reading it because it has one of my favorite dedications ever (it involves raccoons) plus his drawings are top-notch. The story in this chapter book is, too. Gumluck is super positive, but his attitude allows folks to take advantage of him and his abilities. People are rarely satisfied with the results of what he does for them, whether it’s the woman who needs a dress for the harvest dance, the man who wants huge muscles, or the overly entitled prince demanding love. Gumluck is heroic, though, and all he wants is to be recognized for that; he wants to be named Harvest Hero. That seems super unlikely given how the contest works (it’s fixed) and the fact that he’s more the subject of ridicule and not admiration. (Gumluck’s friend, a raven named Helvetica, who seems to have a terrible attitude, narrates throughout, and tries (but repeatedly fails) to explain how things really are to Gumluck.) Worth noting: When Helvetica has had enough of the townspeople’s attitudes, she poops on the heads of everyone in the market. That’s a friend! (The page is not very graphic.) There are already two books in the series, with a third to be published in the spring of 2025.

Adrift on a Painted Sea by Tim Bird with paintings by Sue Bird. Avery Hill, 2024. 9781910395820. Tim Bird’s mother, Sue, painted throughout her life, though she took a break when she was at university. She started painting again in her spare time after Tim and his sister were born, though, and enjoyed taking classes to expand her skills. (When she was little, she wanted to be a marine biologist, which explains why she painted so many pictures of the sea.) This is the story of Sue, and of Tim remembering her after she has passed away because of cancer. Bird includes memories of her earlier in life, and later when she was sick and in the hospital — and they are the sort of memories I’ve had of loved ones just after they’ve died, so it made me feel as if I knew her. She surrounded her family with art. She was very well-loved. And she left behind a small mystery. Tim Bird’s comics are amazing, but even better is the way he brings his mom’s paintings (as well as a few other non-comics images) into this graphic novel so they work as part of the narrative. Worth noting: This book has a perfect ending.

Mary Tyler Moorehawk by Dave Baker. Top Shelf, 2024. 9781603095365. I’ve never read a graphic novel that’s this heavily footnoted. I had an early PDF of this from the publisher, but after reading a few pages, I decided to hold off reading it until I had a physical copy. I could tell it was a book I was going to have to spend some time with, and that I was going to be flipping back and forth a lot. It also felt like it was going to be amazing. I was right on all counts. (Even Baker’s introduction has multiple footnotes, and he describes the book this way: “…The book so dangerous it could unmake you. The book that is so labyrinthian that I am tempted to call into questions if…or when I could have ever made it.”) The comics are “black” and white and pink. (“Black” because the book is more penciled than inked, though there are some inks, too.) They tell the story of a young woman facing off against multiversal villains. Every odd-numbered chapter opens with a two-page spread, a crowd scene summarizing characters that may appear in that chapter. These are weird and brilliant and will probably remind you of your favorite science fiction /fantasy / espionage cartoons. Even numbered chapters are articles from the journal Phyisicalist Today, also authored by Dave Baker, about the TV show Mary Tyler Moorehawk. These articles and character summaries and the action in between formed a weird and wonderful whole in my brain (hole in my brain?) that felt like it was pulling me toward the book’s multiverse, or at least toward some vast conspiracy theory. It was odd and impressive and made this one of those books I need to dive into again (maybe starting from the middle next time) to give me a better sense of how it does what it does. Recommended if you like horrific monsters drawn cartoonishly, villains from old pulp stories, and heroes with a lot of heart.  

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnnick (writer), Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott (artists) and others. DC Comics, 2023. 9781779521354. Contains #1 – #3. The story of the Amazon starts with seven goddesses who gather in Olympus because they’ve seen enough of the subjugation and abuses of men, and of their crimes against women. Six of them take action together despite Zeus’s idea of justice; each gives something of themselves to the original Amazons. The warriors they create are more than mortal., and they are doomed. The story of Hippolyta, a mortal who will eventually become queen of the Amazons, begins with her abandoning an unwanted baby girl in the woods. When she tries to return to save her, she’s discovered by four men who do not intend to help her. The Amazons save her, and she longs to join them. Hippolyta sets off in pursuit of them and a different life. The art in the book is spectacular, both realistic and otherworldly. My favorite thing is the pacing, though — the way the art, layouts, and lettering moved the story forward perfectly, panel to panel and page to page. The graphic novel’s oversized format makes it all more enjoyable.