By Sam on November 3rd, 2011
Posted In: 52 Books/52 Weeks
A modern fairy tale by the author of Persepolis that inverts a number of genre tropes. From rewarding the knowledge-seeking woman to giving her agency to save the prince rather than vice versa, this is a pleasantly updated, charming story. It’s worth noting that this is an illustrated storybook, not a comic.
Book: 49/52
Buy The Sigh at Powell’s
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
By Sam on October 26th, 2011
Posted In: 52 Books/52 Weeks
A gripping biography of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King. The book examines the weeks leading up to and following King’s assassination in minute and colorful detail, painting Ray as a cunning, mentally ill, bizarre man. I’d never encountered so much detail on Ray before, making this compelling reading.
Book: 48/52
Buy Hellhound on His Trail at Powell’s52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
By Sam on October 19th, 2011
Posted In: 52 Books/52 Weeks
Another of Jackson’s excellent, subdued supernatural New England novels (following The Haunting of Hill House). This one focuses on two (or is it one?) odd sisters who are old money outcasts in their village and the mystical and social barriers they erect to maintain their position and privacy. Well worth a read.
Book: 47/52
Buy We Have Always Lived in the Castle at Powell’s
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
By Sam on October 12th, 2011
Posted In: 52 Books/52 Weeks
These are the first books—Tales from the Farm and Ghost Stories—from the Essex County trilogy of stories about Canada. I wanted to love them, but found them hard to connect with. Lemire’s art is appealing craggy, but his stories so dry, so cavernous that it’s hard to engage with them.
Books: 45-6/52
Buy The Complete Essex County at Powell’s
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
