Julie's Reads: The Graphic Novel Edition

 

Shows all panels of the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the events around William the Conqueror's taking of England in 1066 while providing a nice comic book style narrative. 

May be the nerdiest thing I have ever bought, and I'm so happy I did. 

Pages: 52

That’s right, your favorite princess, demon, and elf-hybrid-thing from Matt Groening’s popular animated series DISENCHANTMENT is now available in comic form! 

Pages: 224

Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin

Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin

During the Age of Exploration, the "Golden Age" of American piracy arrived, spanning from the 1600s to 1700s. At first, colonists supported pirates in a show of solidarity against the Crown. Later, they would vehemently oppose them. Vignettes reveal the true stories behind infamous pirates such as Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Captain Kidd, Henry Morgan, and Edward Low, as well as the involvement of well-known historical characters like John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and Ben Franklin in his printing and publishing days. The tales of these seafaring marauders, stripped of their usual misconceptions and stereotypes, reflect the precarious nature of life in colonial America.  

380 pages.

Julie's books

 

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

Pages: 400

Peter Aykroyd spent his childhood watching his family's parlor seances through the crack of a basement door. Here, for the first time, Aykroyd tells the strange and delightful story that inspired his son, Dan, to make the mega-hit, "Ghostbusters." Part history, part family legend, "A History of Ghosts "starts in 1848 in upstate New York, where the spiritualist craze first began. Aykroyd introduces the reader to notable mediums while telling the story of the development of spiritualism, interweaving a personal history marked by a fascination with ghosts and spirits with the larger narrative about the role the paranormal has played in our culture. Such legendary figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini appear and vanish.

Pages: 256

February Books

 

After having just graduated with a degree in shoe design, and trying to get her feet on the ground, Cindy is working for her stepmother, who happens to be the executive producer of America's favorite reality show, Before Midnight. When a spot on the show needs filling ASAP, Cindy volunteers, hoping it might help jump-start her fashion career, or at least give her something to do while her peers land jobs in the world of high fashion.

Turns out being the only plus size woman on a reality dating competition makes a splash, and soon Cindy becomes a body positivity icon for women everywhere. What she doesn't expect? That she may just find inspiration-and love-in the process. Ultimately, Cindy learns that if the shoe doesn't fit, maybe it's time to design your own.

Pages: 304

Laughing Shall I Die explores the Viking fascination with scenes of heroic death. The literature of the Vikings is dominated by famous last stands, famous last words, death songs, and defiant gestures, all presented with grim humor. Much of this mindset is markedly alien to modern sentiment, and academics have accordingly shunned it. And yet, it is this same worldview that has always powered the popular public image of the Vikings—with their berserkers, valkyries, and cults of Valhalla and Ragnarok—and has also been surprisingly corroborated by archaeological discoveries such as the Ridgeway massacre site in Dorset.

Was it this mindset that powered the sudden eruption of the Vikings onto the European scene? Was it a belief in heroic death that made them so lastingly successful against so many bellicose opponents? Weighing the evidence of sagas and poems against the accounts of the Vikings’ victims, Tom Shippey considers these questions as he plumbs the complexities of Viking psychology. Along the way, he recounts many of the great bravura scenes of Old Norse literature, including the Fall of the House of the Skjoldungs, the clash between the two great longships Ironbeard and Long Serpent, and the death of Thormod the skald. One of the most exciting books on Vikings for a generation, Laughing Shall I Die presents Vikings for what they were: not peaceful explorers and traders, but warriors, marauders, and storytellers.

Pages: 368

December Extravaganza

 

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.

Pages: 248

 

How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries, and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.

pages: 256

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Pages: 307

 

The Infernal Devices Series (Right to Left for proper order, I'm just too lazy to fix)

This one was a reread but I love it so. 

Tessa Gray gets wrapped up in the world of the Shadowhunters and is pursued by the evil Mortmain who says that Tessa is at the center of his nefarious plans with his clockwork creatures. An awesome love triangle ensues. 

Pages total: 1544

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

 Pages: 296

"Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us."

I am starting banned books week early this year with this difficult yet amazing graphic novel. The author does not hold back in describing the holocaust through his fathers experiences, and the experience of getting the story out of him. This is a book that I wish more people would read. It is so haunting and powerful in telling the duel stories, that of the holocaust survivor and their children trying to make sense of the past. 

A Cat's Tale: A Journey Through Feline History

 A Cat's Tale: A Journey through Feline History

by Baba the Cat as told to Paul Koudounaris

Pages: 288

Rating 5 out of 5 stars

This is a history of domestic cats through history, all around the world, told from a cat's point of view by Baba the Cat. The author describes different famous cats through history and why and how cats and humans relationships have changed throughout time due to politics, religion and agriculture. Baba also is  a very agreeable cat and poses for fun photos in costumes related to the culture and time period being discussed. The book also includes photos and news articles about cats around the world. 

Interesting facts and fun for any cat lover. 

Graphic Novels

 Attack on Titan Volumes 8-11 by Hajime Isayama

This series is so good. Hey, let's protect humanity-why the heck are you helping the monsters?! Wait... OH MY GOSH THEY ARE IN THE WALL. WHAAA??!? 

768 pages (192*4)

Plunge by Joe Hill and Stuart Immonen

Ghost ship suddenly shows up after being missing for 30+ years? Okay. Out in the middle of no man's (is)land in the Bering Strait? Cool. Zombies? Sure-wait... worms? Alien worms? Animated corpses controlled by alien worms? This just got interesting.

168 pages

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf

I knew of it, but I really didn't know about this event. Wow, the research that was put into this, hunting down the firsthand accounts and interviews of everyone involved. Backderf's work is always great. If you haven't yet read My Friend Dahmer I'd highly recommend it. (That title though! Of course I had that song stuck in my head all the way through it...)

288 pages

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado, Dani and Tamra Bonvillain

Excellent example of body horror. That stomach/sinkhole image will stick with me for a while. Also, why do dear-headed women keep showing up in the things I read recently? Maybe it's too much horror. Wait, no... you can never have too much horror.

160 pages

Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen, and Daniel Casanave

Yeah, I've been meaning to get to this one for a while. No, I don't think it's cheating to opt for the graphic novel adaptation. Honestly, I love reading about paleoanthropology and  early human history, so I may go back to the print at some point anyway.

248 pages

Buddha Volume 1: Kapilavastu by Osamu Tezuka

 

I really enjoyed Tezuka's Black Jack, and I've heard good things about this series so I thought I'd give it a try. It is really good! A fictional retelling of the story of the Buddha across eight volumes, this one starts with events leading up to and around his birth. There are a lot of fictional elements and even a few modern references, but mostly the artwork and story are stunning in their depiction of Ancient India. Very good start to what I am sure is an excellent series. 

400 pages

The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather

The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather

In Nazi-occupied Poland, Witold Pilecki accepted a mission to infiltrate a mysterious new camp called Auschwitz along the Reich's border. His goal was to report Nazi crimes and raise an army to revolt. For the next two and a half years, Witold smuggled evidence of the Nazis' atrocities to the Allies, eventually shaping their response to the Holocaust. Yet after his show trial and execution in 1948, Witold's name was forgotten for decades--until the 1990s, after Poland's return to democracy.  

528 pages.

Civil War Ghosts of Southwest Missouri

 Civil War Ghosts of Southwest Missouri
by Lisa Livingston-Martin
Pages: 128
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This book not only offers legends and folktales about ghosts but more detail about the Civil War in Southwest Missouri than I had studied in any of my history classes in school or college. Even if you are not interested in ghosts, IF you are interested in the Civil War this book is a good source of history. The author travels to spots that are supposedly haunted by spirits from Civil War times, mostly union or confederate soldiers who died in the area during the war. I even talked my husband into reading this because of his interest in the civil war. He is totally not interested in ghost stories and doesn't even like to watch scary movies or Grimm or Supernatural, but he read it for the history.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

So the librarian was asked to tell them what the most important things in the library were, in case that was all that could be saved, which reminded me of when Notre Dame was burning, and they didn't know if it was going to collapse, but the priest ran in to get the crown of thorns and the tabernacle. I'm fine. I'm in pain.
MISSOURI REPRESENTATION...but yeah.
Ok but I am loving this history.

337 Pages

The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 2: Political Scandal, Personal Struggle, and the Years That Defined Elizabeth II (1956-1977) by Robert Lacey

The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 2: Political Scandal, Personal Struggle, and the Years That Defined Elizabeth II (1956-1977) by Robert Lacey

Volume 2 of the official companion to the Netflix series The Crown examines the real-life issues that inspired the series, including the Suez Crisis, the race to space, the Duke of Windsor's ties to Hitler, and rumored trouble within the royal marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

304 pages.

The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 1: Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, and the Making of a Young Queen (1947-1955) by Robert Lacey

The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 1: Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, and the Making of a Young Queen (1947-1955) by Robert Lacey

The official companion to the critically acclaimed Netflix series offers an in-depth look at the early reign of Elizabeth II, highlighting the extensive research and additional material that helped form the show. Author and historian Robert Lacey serves as a historical consultant for The Crown.

322 pages.

The Millionaire and the Mummies by John M. Adams

The Millionaire and the Mummies by John M. Adams

With his rags to riches background, Theodore Davis was perhaps the most famous archaeologist of the early 20th century. His discovery of many of the tombs within Egypt's Valley of the Kings ensured him a place in history. However, when Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun, Davis would fade into obscurity, though his findings remain as important to understanding the history of Egypt and its pharaohs as ever.

363 pages.

The King's Deception (Cotton Malone, Book 8) by Steve Berry

Cotton Malone and his fifteen-year-old son, Gary, are headed to Europe. As a favor to his former boss at the Justice Department, Malone agrees to escort a teenage fugitive back to England. But after he is greeted at gunpoint in London, both the fugitive and Gary disappear, and Malone learns that he’s stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdown—an international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets.

At its heart is the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, who is set to be released by Scottish authorities for “humanitarian reasons.” An outraged American government objects, but nothing can persuade the British to intervene.

Except, perhaps, Operation King’s Deception.

Run by the CIA, the operation aims to solve a centuries-old mystery, one that could rock Great Britain to its royal foundations.

Blake Antrim, the CIA operative in charge of King’s Deception, is hunting for the spark that could rekindle a most dangerous fire, the one thing that every Irish national has sought for generations: a legal reason why the English must leave Northern Ireland. The answer is a long-buried secret that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire forty-five-year reign of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, who completed the conquest of Ireland and seized much of its land. But Antrim also has a more personal agenda, a twisted game of revenge in which Gary is a pawn. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone is caught in a lethal bind. To save Gary he must play one treacherous player against another—and only by uncovering the incredible truth can he hope to prevent the shattering consequences of the King’s Deception.

Historical/government conspiracy novels are my guilty pleasure, and I have extremely positive memories of the early Cotton Malone books.  They are well-written, suspenseful, and have just enough historical information thrown in to give context.  But - I never finished the series.  I stopped in the middle, years ago, with this book.  So, I thought I'd give it another go and thus could move on in the series again.  

This is not good.  There are SO MANY opportunities for it to be amazing.  But no dice.  It feels forced, the historical elements are overdone and throw you out of the story rather than enhance it.  I found the characters flat, the suspense weak, and worst of all, the plot completely unengaging.  I just didn't really care what happened.  

So - please pick up some of Steve Berry's early works featuring Cotton Malone.  The Alexandria Link is great, as is The Venetian Betrayal.  When you hit this one - read the summary.  I'll be moving along with book 9, and hopefully he can pull it back together.  I rooting for you Steve!

2/5

640 pages

How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg

How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic read, just like How They Croaked, which I read (by force, for a committee I served on--because why would I want to read a dry nonfiction book about how people die--yuck), and then absolutely loved (by choice--because I absolutely wanted to read every single word in both that and this funny, fast-paced, honest book that tells the truth about historical figures).

I hope they will create more books to match the first two. I would definitely read them all, when normally nonfiction has me taking a step back and giving books the cranky side eye

I highly recommend this nonfiction gem to anyone, though it's great for the middle grade crowd. You don't even have to like history all that much to be interested and amused by these charming, well-told stories. I suspect you'll find that if you open the book and read just one story, nothing will stop you from reading the entire thing. This is a clever concept and format, and I'm completely captivated and always learn something new when I pick up one of these books.

Book 61 read in 2018

Pages: 208

Extraordinary Black Missourians: Pioneers, Leaders, Performers, Athletes, and Other Notables Who've Made History by John A. Wright, Sr. and Sylvia Wright

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Missouri TV personalities such as Julius Hunter, news anchor, journalist, and author, musicians W.C. Handy and Count Basie, and politician Freeman Bosley, Jr. are some of the black Missourians who are in this wonderful book.  240 pages.

The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 by Richard Lytle

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Many train lines were using the hub in this area.  A sleeping engineer crashes into a traveling circus train.

Audio:  3 hrs. 6 min.

Print: 109 pages

St. Louis: An Illustrated Timeline by Carol Ferring Shepley

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Home of the World Series St. Louis Cardinals, Art Museum, Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, recording artist Nelly, Opera Theatre of St. Louis founded in 1976.  In 1958, the St. Louis Hawks beat the Boston Celtics for their only championship and later moved to Atlanta.  In 1954, St. Louis school board prepares for Brown vs. Board of Education.  Charles Lindberg crosses the Atlantic Ocean in the airplane named the Spirit of St. Louis.  213 pages.