Author: Gene Ambaum

Nights Season One Part One written by Wyatt Kennedy, art by Luigi Formisano. Image, 2024. 9781534397743. Publisher’s Rating: M / Mature. Contains Nights #1 – #5. I was looking at the staff picks shelf in Seattle’s Phoenix Comics & Games, […]
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Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley. RH Graphic, 2024. 9780593177631. 208pp. Knisley and her family adopted the apricot-hued Linney when she was an adult, and it feels like she was already full of personality, which Knisley’s drawings […]
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The Employees: a workplace novel of the 22nd century by Olga Ravn. Translated by Martin Aitken. New Directions, 2023. 9780811234825. 144pp. I love short novels by poets, and I saw this one on many Staff Picks shelves in independent bookstores […]
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Several people told me I had to visit The Vault of Midnight when I was in Ann Arbor giving a staff day keynote in October, and I’m super glad I stopped by. This is one of my favorite comic book […]
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First Test (Protector of the Small Book 1) by Tamora Pierce, graphic novel adaptation by Devin Grayson and Becca Farrow. RH Graphic, 2024. 9780307931566. 160pp. It’s been over 20 years since I read one of Pierce’s YA fantasy novels, but […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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) […]
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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 […]
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