Author: Gene Ambaum

Custom Library Tarot winner!

Congratulations to Theresa from NJ (center) and her colleagues who won the custom Library Tarot cards. Thanks again to Macmillan Library Marketing for sponsoring the contest, and to Willow Payne for doing an amazing job on the art.

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Graphic Novel Review: Smell My Foot! by Cece Bell.

Smell My Foot! (Chick and Brain) by Cece Bell. Candlewick, 2019. 9780763679361. 70pp. Brain isn’t very smart. Chick likes to tell Brain and Spot the dog what they should have said, especially about what to say to be polite. Spot takes Chick home for lunch, which has two meanings. Chick doesn’t realize she’s on the menu, but Brain does. (Minor spoiler: Brain saves Chick.) Warning: features lots of foot sniffing, though that’s probably obvious from the cover. A funny, short graphic novel perfect for early readers, from the writer/illustrator of El Deafo.

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Guest Graphic Novel Review: White Bird by R.J. Palacio

White Bird by R.J. Palacio. Random House, 2019. 9780525645535. 220 pp Wonder is a multiple award-winning children’s book, the story of August “Auggie” Pullman, a young guy with facial deformities who has to deal with bullies in his junior high after he stops being home schooled. The biggest bully at Beecher Prep is Julian who receives the most extreme punishment for the way he treats Auggie. White Bird a sequel of sorts, or at least a related book — it’s a graphic novel told from Julian’s point of view when he Skypes his grandmother Sara (whom he affectionately calls “Grandmere”) for a Humanities project. Grandmere tells him about growing up in an affluent home in Germany where father was a well-respected surgeon and her mother was a math teacher. She was their only child and admittedly a little spoiled. Life was good until Nazis started raiding Jewish homes, schools, and businesses. Her mother was taken to a camp in Auschwitz. She didn’t […]

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Graphic Novel Review: BTTM FDRS by Ezra Clayton Daniels and Ben Passmore

BTTM FDRS by Ezra Clayton Daniels and Ben Passmore. Fantagraphics, 2019. 9781683962069. 300pp. Fashion designer Darla moves into a big apartment in an old building in the Chicago neighborhood where she grew up, the Bottomyards. Weird shit starts to happen. A dude working for the power company is pulled into the basement by some kind of duck-thing, then starts ranting about reptilian hybrids, and Darla and her friend find what look like entrails in Darla’s toilet. Cue a Scooby-Dooby-by-way-of-David-Lynch adventure with a bit of social commentary thrown in along with a few hilarious touches. My favorite character is Plymouth Rock, a rap star who dresses up as a pilgrim, and who also lives in the building. This is a small format, original graphic novel from two creators who have been hitting home runs lately: Daniels (Upgrade Soul) and Passmore (Your Black Friend). It’s a beautiful bit of grotesque weirdness in which the writing and art really flow, and that you […]

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YA Book Review: What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee

What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee. Simon & Schuster, 2018. 9781481476560. 199pp. (The page count is deceptive. The book has a few very short paragraphs of text on every other page, with the facing page having a single Chinese character for a number between one and 100, arranged sequentially.) Will walks to and from the dollar store where he works, to and from school, past places and people. He talks to Superman (a guy who lives on the street), to a kid who shows him the butterflies that land on his garage, and to his socially challenged but kindhearted boss, Major Tom. Will thinks about cornbread all the time, which is a way of thinking about his dad, who used to make it. And sometimes he thinks about his friend Playa, who was raped by three guys at a party after Will left. He hasn’t talked to her about that, or about his dad, or anything for a while. […]

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Book Review: The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain. Tor, 2019. 9781250209115. 167pp. After thousands of years, Melek Ahmar, the Lord of Tuesday, Most August Rajah of the Djinn, awakens in his stone sarcophagus. The spells that kept him there have rotted, like most of the earth. He soon meets a Hume who refuses to tremble before him, a pistachio eating Gurkha named Bhan Gurung who lives in a hovel in the mountains, with enough tech to create a healthy microclimate around him. Ghurung tells the djinn of Kathmandu, whose citizens are now governed by an impartial AI named Karma. They set out for the city because Melek Ahmar needs worshipers and is determined to rule again. Soon Melek Ahmar is trying to raise hell there, to have a little fun and get some respect. Gurung wants revenge, but that comes later. There’s a well-behaved sheriff in town, and he and his lover, a high ranking soldier, may […]

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Graphic Novel Review: Murder Falcon

Murder Falcon by Daniel Warren Johnson (writer, artist) and Mike Spicer (colorist). Image, 2019. 9781534312357. Collects #1-#8 and a bunch of covers, so it’s a good value at $19.99. Giant monsters are attacking but don’t worry, Jake brought METAL (and his guitar). When Jake starts playing, a muscular cyborg bird, Murder Falcon, appears and saves the day. The harder Jake shreds, the stronger MF becomes. If you need to know more than that, this book isn’t for you, though it’s worth noting that the art is fantastic, the writing is great, and there’s a lot of heart in this book. The monsters are amazing, too.

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Oh Josephine! by Jason

O Josephine! by Jason. Fantagraphics, 2019. 9781683962106. 174pp. Another book full of deadpan, four-panel perfection from Norwegian cartoonist Jason. There are four graphic novellas in this book. The first, in which Jason walks Ireland’s Wicklow Way, includes absurd moments like when he gets lost and imagines Bono and others commenting on a news story about his death. Napoleon appears in one, and in another there’s a crime and a woman trying to choose a name for her baby. My favorite is the short, absurd biography of Leonard Cohen — I have no idea how much of it is true I didn’t expected it to make me laugh so much. Highly enjoyable.

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Graphic Novel Review: Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame by Erin Williams

Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame by Erin Williams. Abrams Comicarts, 2019. 9781419736742. 295pp. Erin Williams wakes up, puts on her makeup, walks her dog, and takes the train to work. Some of the people she encounters are pleasant. One guy, a pain in the ass, takes the last window seat just to take it away from everyone else. Another reminds her of someone she took home when she had her period. A man in a blue suit keeps looking at her, making her feel both threatened and lonely. This makes her think about someone she met at her grandfather’s funeral, and when she finally saw him as a predator, she realized how desperately she wanted to be seen (and how he didn’t see her at all). This is a compelling string of consciousness look at not just Williams’ commute, but her relationships and her daily fight for control of her body, both in public and private. It’s darkness, […]

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Book Review: State of the Heart: Exploring the History, Science, and Future of Cardiac Disease by Haider Warraich

State of the Heart: Exploring the History, Science, and Future of Cardiac Disease by Haider Warraich. St. Martin’s Press, 2019. 9781250169709. 337pp with an index. Cardiologist Warraich writes about the history of heart disease in an incredibly compelling way, weaving personal experiences with tales of the history of the science. This includes many stories of poor research, ineffective treatments, and sketches of cardiology’s most famous and infamous personalities. My favorite parts in the book were about the importance of double blind studies, and how we as people are all apt to believe anecdotes without really looking into the details. He’s convinced me to look past the news stories I hear about medical treatments and to start looking for cold hard facts and citations. (I’m going to be even more of a a pain in the ass to my doctor from now on, basically. I’ll blame Dr. Warraich.) Overall the book gives a great sense of how far the treatment of […]

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