Tootfinder

Just finished "The Daughters of Ys", a graphic novel written by M.T. Anderson and illustrated by Jo Rioux. Is apparently a telling on an ancient Breton legend, which explains some of the narrative devices and plot choices. The drawings are beautiful and the tale is interesting, but takes a royalty-focused and -friendly perspective I've grown unfond of at this stage in my life.
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Just finished "Breadcrumbs" by Kasia Babis. A super interesting graphic novel about growing up in 2000's and 2010's Poland. It's autobiographical, which naturally means lots of plot threads without clear resolutions (they aren't plot threads after all, they're real events). Lots of interesting info on Polish history and politics, which showed me way more than the occasional glimpses I get through social media.
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Just finished "Two Tribes" by Emily Bowen Cohen. It's a bit didactic and I didn't love the art, but if was interesting as a discussion of mixed heritage and out got into a lot of good details; I feel like it might be super interesting to a pre-teen audience. It reminded me a lot of "Twin Cities" by Jose Pimenta as well as some of Pimenta's other work, but IMO Pimenta is the superior artist and storyteller.
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Just finished "Juliet Takes a Breath" by Gabby Rivera. A truly amazing novel about queer Latina feminist self-discovery which shows off a vibrant range of feminisms and their contradictions. Reminded me of "Does my Body Offend You?" in terms of how it uses fictional but realistic situations to really grapple deeply with feminist and queer theory while making everything very accessible and direct.
The plotting, pacing, and characters are great, and Juliet serves as a vibrant and active main character rather than just a lens through which to explore theory.
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Just finished "If You'll Have Me" by Eunnie. A wonderful and very sweet sapphic romance graphic novel. I love the fact that it's set in a world where gay is the unremarkable default (there's a subtle token hetero couple that appear on a single page, IIRC).
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Just finished "It's Lonely at the Center of the Earth" by Zoe Thorogood.
CW: Frank/graphic discussion of suicide and depression (not in this post but in the book).
It feels a bit wrong to simply give it my review here as I would another graphic memoir, because it's much more personal and less consensual than the usual. It feels less like Thorogood has invited us into her life than like she was forced to put her life on display in order to survive, and while I selfishly like to read into the book that she benefited in some way from the process, she's honest about how tenuous and sometimes false that claim can be. Knowing what I've learned from this book about Thorogood's life and demons, I don't want her to feel the mortification of being perceived by me, and so perhaps the best thing I could do is to simply unread the book and pull it back out of my memories.
I did not find Thorogood's life relatable, nor pitiable (although my instinct bends in that direction), but instead sacred and unknowable. I suspect that her writing and drawing has helped others in similar circumstances, but she leaves me with no illusion that this fact brings her any form of peace or joy. I wonder what she would feel reading "Lab Girl" or "The Deep Dark," but she has been honest enough to convey that such speculation on my part is a bit intrusive.
I guess the one other thing I have to say: Zoe Thorogood has through artistic perseverance developed an awe-inspiring mastery of the comic medium, from panel composition, through to page layout and writing. This book wields both Truth and Beauty.
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That's a good question. #amreading #WritingCommunity
https://comicskingdom.com/macanudo/202

Macanudo Comic Strip 2025-11-15 | Comics Kingdom
Read the Macanudo comic strip from November 15, 2025, and check out other Macanudo comics by Liniers.

Just checked out some truly excellent books from the library to read to my 4-year-old:
Adèle & Simon by Barbara McClintock (things to find), The Marvelous Now by Angela DiTerlizzi and Lorena Alvarez Gómez (rhyming & positive encouragement about mood regulation), and Forts by Katie Venit & Kenard Pak (lovely ode to children's forts).
I had a wonderful reverse-Magritte moment reading Adèle & Simon where Simon loses his drawing of a cat and my kid pointed out one of the actual cats in the image. I said "No, that's a cat, we're looking for a drawing of a cat," before realizing that technically we were looking for a drawing of a drawing of a cat, and the thing my kid pointed to was indeed a drawing of a cat, just not in that category relative to Simon's frame of reference...
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Great idea. #amreading

5 out of 5 to Donut Economics
#amreading #climatechange #GreenGrowth Or #degrowth

Just finished "You and Me on Repeat" by Mary Shyne. A really sweet graphic novel about graduating high school (and all that entails socially and romantically) set in a semi-stable time loop (in small-town Illinois).
It's got a very comfortably loose fourth wall, excellent art, some really interesting plot twists, and it includes a healthy and subtle treatment of subtler racisms in highschool social and academic life.
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Just finished "Match Point!" by Maddie Gallegos, an excellent graphic novel about racquetball, dumpster diving, best friends, and pressure from Dad. The characters and their fromance are super cute, and while I'm sure some might find the ending too happy, I'm usually fine with seeing the aspirational version of relationships because it can serve as a good role model, while other narratives can help explain how to handle worse outcomes.
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Yesterday I finished "Marshmallow and Jordan" by Alina Chau. It's an excellent cozy graphic novel about a friendship between a wheelchair-using athlete and a baby elephant in Indonesia. It's got lovely vibrant art, an interesting plot, and a final twist that fits nicely.
Not sure it's totally realistic about the accessibility of water polo, and it's not #OwnVoices but the author made what to me seems like a good effort to be both respectful and neither too-positive nor too-paternalistic about disability. Would be curious to hear the perspective of someone who use mobility aids about this of course.
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Just finished "Kirby's Lessons for Falling (In Love)" by Laura Gao. I'd previously read her autobiographical graphic novel "Messy Roots" which was excellent, and this book continues that trend. Yet another complicated look at a Chinese-American immigrant experience, wrapped into a queer romance with a dose of spirituality in there as well. I think the background metaphor of falling is really strong, and gets used in so many senses it's beautiful.
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Just finished "Pearl" written by Sherri L. Smith and illustrated by Christine Norrie, based at least in part on "Hiroshima in the Morning", a memoir by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. A concise, wonderfully-illustrated, and fascinating story of a Hawaiian-born girl sent to visit her dying great-grandmother in Japan in 1941 and then trapped there throughout World War 2. I won't spoil things beyond that, but the book digs deep into the horrors of the war on both sides, showing just how cruel the geological ambitions of nations can be to people who belong to both cultures.
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Yesterday I finished "A First Time for Everything" by Dan Santant. A lovely autobiographical graphic novel about a summer foreign exchange trip between middle and high school with plenty of awkwardness but also some romance.
It perfectly captures the state of an awkward but also self-aware pre-teen/young teenager, and the various international escapades depicted are both hilarious and touching. Also fascinating to read about international travel circa 1989, which in many ways was comparable to stuff I remember from late in the 90s: parents seeing you off at the gate; expected to navigate a foreign city with just a map, etc.
A really fun book.
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Just finished "How I Made It to Eighteen" by Tracy White. It's a graphic novel with relatively simple art, but that ends up suiting the subject matter well: it's an autobiography focused on a stay in a mental hospital dealing with depression and bulimia.
It doesn't get as deep into mental hospital mechanics as I might have liked, instead focusing on the author's life, but in presenting both her own life, some flashbacks, and some perspectives from her friends, it's quite interesting. As is typical of real life, there's no neat resolutions to the various threads of interest because they're not imaginary plot lines constructed to wrap up neatly but instead are events that actually happened.
In any case as is par for autobiographical graphic novels, it was super interesting.
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Yesterday I finished "The Other Side of Tomorrow" written by Tina Cho and illustrated by Deb JJ Lee. Lee's "In Limbo" was an excellent graphic memoir, and this similarly has wonderful art, although I didn't make the connection until checking the authors after reading to the end.
This book is a realistic fictional account of two childrens' escape from North Korea via China, Laos, and ultimately Thailand where they could declare themselves refugees at a US embassy and get sponsored to live in America. Along the way they're helped by various members of the Asian Underground Railroad. I'll avoid spoilers but yet definitely encounter difficulties along the way.
The ending definitely hits different now (while also accentuating my disgust with the current US regime). Like "Libertad" that I also finished recently, the "escape to the US at the end" plot line is going to become less prevalent going forward, although Libertad involved a good measure of complexity around that point.
I was a bit disappointed in one of the later plot points where a different and more-real-world-probable turn of events could have served as a better message for society, with the "lucky" outcome as written reinforcing regressive notions of family, and as an ex-Christian the Christian elements of the story made me feel a way. I'm an agnostic, not an atheist though, and can respect the idea that those willing to risk torture and death for their faith have every right to stand by it and take inspiration from it. Most (very valid) critiques of big western Church institutions just don't apply to underground churches in northern China who are helping people escape the horrors of deep fascism.
Overall a really good book.
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Just finished "Class Act" by Jerry Craft. An excellent follow-up to "New Kid", and it deepens the exploration of racism in "New Kid" in a lot of different directions. I think the aspect I liked most was the handling of class/race dynamics but also the different explorations of fitting back into neighborhood communities.
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Just finished "I'm Awful, Thanks" by Lara Pickle. A good story that serves as a guide to managing emotions, although it's actually a cute story too, not just framing for the mental health discussion.
That said, I feel like it doesn't get far enough into the details of accepting self-control as our only form of real control vs. understanding that some events outside our control aren't fair or are others' attacks, and trying to manage our own emotions as our only response is a disservice to ourselves and others. Even further, I suspect that the HR resolution depicted here, while not impossible, is less frequent than much worse outcomes, which is part of a larger pattern of systemic assaults on our mental health that aren't totally solvable with individual emotional regulation.
Sure, leveling up one's control of ones own emotions and learning to accept and manage a range of emotions is super useful and it's a good thing overall, but the systemic problems of late stage capitalism are real, and making it seem like everyone is responsible for managing their own mental health in the face of these problems helps avoid confronting them.
Still, it's a good book overall, with vibrant art and a well-structured plot.
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Just finished "New Kid" by Jerry Craft. An excellent graphic novel about navigating middle school as one of only a few Black kids at a rich private school. I love how clear Jordan (the main character) is about the racism he encounters and how it affects him and his friends. Even though his parents have done a good job of preparing him for the realities he'll face, getting through them isn't easy. Still, rather than a book about "learning how racist the world is" this is a book about "navigating the expected racism" and it's a refreshing difference.
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Just finished "On Starlit Shores" by Bex Glendining. It's a really excellent graphic novel about grief, memory, and a bit of magic. I love the way that it isn't an adventure, and how completely usual the queer relationships in it are. The art is stunning, and the palette is especially excellent and truly harmonizes with the narrative.
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Just finished "Dream On" written by Shannon Hale and illustrated by Marcela Cespedes with colors by Lark Pien. It's a wonderful book about grade-school friendships and dealing with unhealthy social pressures.
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Just finished "Far Sector" written by N. K. Jemisin and illustrated by Jamal Campbell. I don't normally go for Marvel/DC comics stuff and this was a good reminder why. Jemisin's authorship was the draw for me here, as well as some curiosity about what I might be missing out on by avoiding the classic comics lineage. I won't go into too much detail about particulars, but suffice to say it ends up feeling to me line a very neoliberal story dressed up in a veneer of radicalism, which is not what I'd expected of Jemisin. Particularly in light of current events, the "good cops" aspects of the storyline ring truly hollow. There's still a lot of neat parts, but I guess I also wound up disappointed by the sci-fi aspects in a lot off ways. I truly think Jemisin is capable of better than this, based on her other (excellent) work.
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Just finished "I Shall Never Fall in Love" by Hari Conner. An excellent graphic novel about some queer friends (and more-than-friends) in Georgian England.
I'm not usually a fan of such settings as the imperial harms abroad on which those societies are predicated make it harder for me to sympathize with the characters, but this book actually addresses that (if imperfectly) and there's enough nuance for me not to hate it, so I really enjoyed the cute romance.
I just wish there were more historical narratives written from lower-class perspectives that didn't make their characters seem unintelligent.
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Just read "Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest" by Phoebe Wahl (to my kids but also for myself). It's a delightfully cozy and whimsical book, full of magical forest creatures and gentle community. What an excellent book.
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Just finished "Endgames" by Ru Xu, sequel to "Newsprints." I was happy to see the characters from the first book get their endings, but Xu feels incredibly out of her depth writing about the politics of empire and the power/complicity of the press, which completely dampened my enjoyment.
As just one example, there's a ton of interesting nuance to explore behind the idea of a disabled imperial ruler and how disadvantage/persecution (from which you have been effectively shielded) does not justify harming others. This book explores none of that.
I think it does serve as a great example of how severely one limits one's own imagination when one buys into the myth of nationhood as natural/inevitable/good. It's not that Xu's politics are especially authoritarian, I think, but that she's just (been kept?) resoundingly naïve, and so her plot resolution feels childish (or perhaps that's an insult to children).
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Just finished "Libertad" by Bessie Flores Zaldívar. An #OwnVoices novel about being queer in Honduras, both personally and politically, that grapples aptly with complicated questions of politics and belonging at a personal scale.
CW for domestic violence and lethal state repression.
It wasn't everything I'd hoped for from the cover, but my hopes weren't exactly reasonable and it *is* very good.
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Just finished "The Deep Dark" by Molly Knox Ostertag. An absolutely excellent graphic novel about monsters, childhood secrets, and how self-love refracts through romance.
I've liked other stuff by Ostertag, but this is definitely my favorite of hers so far.
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Just finished "The Raven Boys," a graphic novel adaptation of a novel by Maggie Stiefvater (adaptation written by Stephanie Williams and illustrated by Sas Milledge).
I haven't read the original novel, and because of that, this version felt way too dense, having to fit huge amounts of important details into not enough pages. The illustrations are gorgeous and the writing is fine; the setting and plot have some pretty interesting aspects... It's just too hard to follow a lot of the threads, or things we're supposed to care about aren't given the time/space to feel important.
The other thing that I didn't like: one of the central characters is rich, and we see this reflected in several ways, but we're clearly expected to ignore/excuse the class differences within the cast because he's a good guy. At this point in my life, I'm simply no longer interested in stories about good rich guys very much. It's become clear to me how in real life, we constantly get the perspectives of the rich, and rarely if ever hear the perspectives of the poor (same applies across racial and gender gradients, among others). Why then in fiction should I get more of the same, spending my mental bandwidth building empathy for yet another dilettante who somehow has a heart of gold? I'm tired of that.
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Just finished "Roller Girl" by Victoria Jamieson, a graphic novel about navigating preteen social changes, dyeing your hair, and of course, roller derby! It's got a great subplot about dealing with complicated feelings, and I like that it doesn't tie things up neatly with a bow at the end.
I actually know the rules of roller derby now.
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Just finished "Maybe an Artist" by Liz Montague. A really nice graphic memoir that centers in identity and the choices we make growing up about careers faced with so much pressure about "succeess" in society.
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Just finished "Age 16" by Rosena Fung. It's an excellent semi-autobiographical graphic novel about beauty standards, being fat, and how these things echo down generations, connecting 1954 Guangdong, 1972 Hong Kong, and 2000 Toronto.
The art is lovely, as is the message of accepting your body and standing up to your family when necessary.
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Just finished "Hunger's Bite" by Taylor Robin. A pretty great graphic novel bringing paranormal horror elements to a Titanic-era transatlantic voyage. I loved the characters and I had quite good plotting, which is not always a strength of graphic novels...
I think one of my favorite threads was how the villain's heteronormative assumptions became a small part of their downfall.
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Just finished "Fitting Indian" by Jyoti Chand and Tara Anand.
Indirect CW: alcohol, self-harm, and suicide.
A graphic novel about mental health issues, being a second-generation Indian immigrant in America, international trauma, and both peer and family bullying. Beautifully illustrated and of course gripping given the subjects.
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Just finished "Check, Please" volume 2 by Ngozi Ukazu. I had read volume 1 earlier and enjoyed it; as I said at the time I'm a bit uncomfortable with such an uncomplicated portrayal of a subculture that's usually quite toxic, and even though it gets addressed a little bit in volume 2, it's not really unpacked very much. I do see the value in aspirational contemporary fiction here though, so I'm definitely happier about this angle than I was after volume 1. In any case, hockey, baking, and gay romance continues to be a very entertaining combination from Ukazu's pen, and overall I enjoyed the series quite a lot!
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I'm reading "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren and it's both fascinating and beautifully written. Usually I wait until I'm done to post a review, but I wanted to share this excellent excerpt as a teaser:
"So how to combine a liter of fluid with active agents, customized according to the patient's weight and status, while keeping everything sterile? If this is for the ER or the ICU, we have about ten minutes to make it happen. Fortunately for the patient, there is a sleep-starved teenager apprenticed to a chain-smoking barmaid in the basement who is ready for action."
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Just finished "Valor", edited by Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton. It's a collection of re-told fairy tales with female protagonists and includes a mix of comics and written stories. Lots of great stuff, even if my distaste for monarchy soured it a bit for me (not all of the heroines are princesses, at least). Has a lot of cool queer romance in it.
I think I liked "The Steadfast Tin Automation", "Black Bull", and "Eggchild" best overall.
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So... My college has a zine section in the library, which is already amazing, but this week I decided to check some of them out, and there are a few in a section for fictional and/or true stories. The one I grabbed was "Funwater Awesome" by Zach Mandeville, which turned out to be, indeed, awesome. It contains both real and fictional accounts of small-town Washington state, with both the mysteries of death and the happiness of small absurdities being big themes. Seems like there's at least a #2 and a #3 that were published, so I'll think about trying to get my hands on them. Maybe as instructed I'll mail $3 to Zach's address and see if he's still got any copies kicking around (or if he even still lives there since #1 was published in 2006).
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