What Are You Reading?

Thought I would get a new thread going. I am just starting Morning Glories 1

Most of my graphic novel collection are collected editions of comic books I've read. Some are comic books that I'm reading that first came out in comic book form. I am about to start reading Alias (Jessica Jones), but first, I need to finish off the Jack of Fables collections.

I am reading Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. I also just started Beyond: The Queer Sci Fi and Fantasy Anthology.

Just finished "Just So Happens", in the middle of "There" (actually forgot about it till just now as it's sitting on the shelf), and almost done with "Polina" (highly recommended, it's originally French and is amazing). Also started "Injection" last night but that might be more comic than graphic novel?

Have been meaning to get Nimona! How is it??

Since a few of you mentioned comics perhaps the group should be called "Comics and Graphic Novels." What do you all think?

You might want to look at the established groups

http://www.librarything.com/groups/tag/graphic+novel

Thanks for the info Martha Jeanne.

Graphic novels are almost always just comics put together in a single book so I don't think we need to change the title. About 3 months ago I started doing a "Comic of the Day" thing on facebook so I've been reading a comic a day and posting the covers along with comments. Currently I'm reading "Y the Last Man (vol 9) : Motherland".

Just been invited on this group- kind of busy with other stuff right now, but sitting on my nightstand are Jeremie Dres- We Won't See Auschwitz and Joe Sacco's Journalism and Safe Area Gorazde. As I posted on Violet's Wall when invited I read graphic novels when I can't handle other kind of texts thanks to a chronic disease sapping energy sometimes. I only got into them a couple of years ago and sort of like biographical or historical themes.

K-Train, I am in the same situation as you. I have a chronic illness and for some reason am not interested in any kind of book except graphic novels. I started reading them a year ago and am hooked.

re: group name – actually, looking at the other groups (thx marthajeanne), keeping this group to "graphic novels" works well. makes it a bit more obvious it's not about DC/Marvel comics.

So- I have been reading graphic histories and memoirs in the main -in and out of the usual novels, etc. I thought I'd try reading something so completely different to what I normally would (comfort zone and all that and maybe learn how others view the world). I have never seen Game of Thrones and roll my eyes with anything with dragons, crystals, superheroes, etc. I wanted to find out why fantasy and dark fantasy are so popular- so I read a Neil Gaiman Sandman book. Easy to read- I found myself laughing constantly at its glibness. Verdict. I read another one. I read vol. 5 to start and then vol. 1. Why? They are so superficial -I read them late night after trying to write essays for University. They are great for when you are tired just need a distraction. I still can't work out why they are so popular though? Any thoughts?

I just finished Palestine by Joe Sacco. I think his comics journalism is great. His best was still, in my opinion, Safe Area Gorazde.

I have a couple of Joe Sacco's books on my "bedside to read" table. I'm still pottering along reading The Sandman series at night. They are kind of mindless 'blah blahs" to unwind with after trying to complete university assignments. Not the sort of thing I'd ever thought I'd read, but there you go.

I recently finished reading a Manga version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables . Different. I would consider that a graphic novel, sort of, as it isn't traditional manga in that it's not a series (I hope that I made sense). Although Manga Classics do several other versions -- I want to try their take on Emma next.

I have Fables 13 waiting for me -- that'll be next!

I just finished The Tale of One Bad Rat - I'd been kind of avoiding it because of the dark theme (sexual abuse) but Bryan Talbot's treatment is very sensitive and creative.
Aya: Life in Yop City is waiting for me at the library - I read Aya of Yop City a while back and I'm happy that the series is collected in omnibus form now so I can read the rest.

I just picked up Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel at my library and read it while I was there. Quite enjoyable if you are a fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. She wrote the text and then went looking for an artist. At the back of the book she talks about how they collaborated which I found interesting.

Visited the library again today and finished another graphic novel which I believe would be called manga. In Clothes Called Fat is about an overweight girl who is picked on by a glamour girl she works with. This girl even goes so far as to sleep with the overweight girl's boyfriend. She thinks it will solve everything if she loses weight but finds that doesn't work. I didn't really care for the artwork which I thought portrayed the women as more Caucasian than they should have been.

The autobiographical graphic novel (can they still be called a graphic novel when they are really nonfiction?) Ramshackle: A Yellowknife Story by Alison McCreesh was very well done. I've never visited Yellowknife and it is unlikely that I will but after reading this novel I know feel as though I could find my way around it.

I just finished Dark Night: A True Batman Story by Paul Dini, which tells the story of how he was mugged and badly injured in the '90s and how Batman helped him cope. It's amazing, and the art is very evocative.

Susceptible by Genevieve Castree is another autobiography which covers the author's childhood years. She was raised by a single mom in Quebec. Her mother was quite young when she had Genevieve and she remained quite immature. She alternately ignored or smothered her daughter. Genevieve had quite a few mental health issues but by 18 she had managed to achieve separation from her mother and start to live her own life. She died this summer of pancreatic cancer. This is one of the most powerful graphic novels I have ever read.

I should have been adding reviews of graphic novels I read here! I see a couple of other suggestions of graphic novel autobiographies above; here is another:

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic / Alison Bechdel
4 stars

Alison Bechdel grew up in the 1970s. Her family lived in a huge home, a home her father was constantly fixing up. Her father was a high school teacher and a funeral home director in a small town, and though Alison didn’t know it, he was gay. Alison herself realized she was a lesbian when she was in college. The book looks at her life while she was growing up, and in particular, her relationship with her often-distant father.

I really enjoyed this. It is a graphic novel and I liked the mostly simple artwork. Many of the literary references were over my head, though (Alison and her father shared a love of reading). The chapters mostly focus on a particular topic, so one would mainly focus on her father’s death, one on growing up around the “fun house” (nickname for the funeral home!), another her father’s restoration projects, etc. So, although it generally went in chronological order, it wasn’t completely. I still thought it flowed well, though.