Tootfinder

Enjoying the framing of Le Carré's Agent Running in the Field, where it's clear from the beginning that the main character has already confessed his sins to 'the Office'.
I did pause reading once I saw how it might all end in calamity, but I'm glad I picked it back up #Bookstodon #LeCarré #AmReading

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Lovely piece found in my #lrb backlog about handwriting, the brain and the “line that is not stupid”
Anne Carson · Beware the man whose handwriting sways like a reed in the wind #psychology #amreading

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "Song of A Blackbird" by Maria van Lieshout. It's an excellent and extremely timely historical fiction graphic novel about rediscovering a family connection that was severed by war, and the Dutch Resistance figures under Nazi occupation who saved many lives, in some cases at the cost of their own.
Despite being fiction, it's very closely grounded in historical facts, and the inclusion of photographs within the illustrations is really cool.
Now is an interesting time to be thinking about the fates of Nazis, collaborators, their victims, and the resistance, as well as how we remember them all. I especially liked the section at the end about the real historical figures and their fates. So "fascinating" that none of the Nazis were executed or died in prison (mostly they did serve long terms before their release), even those who oversaw mass killings and deportations to concentration camps. I'm a prison abolitionist and not a fan of state capital punishment, so on *some* level this seems like an outcome I should be happy about, but I somehow doubt that the state was this lenient for all prisoners during this time period...
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "Mimosa" by Archie Bongiovanni. A super cool graphic novel about a queer friend group in their 30s and their drama. I think it does a prey great hob portraying both fixable and unfixable lapses and how things evolve as a result.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "The Phantom Scientist" by Robin Cousin, translated into English by Edward Gauvin. It's a book I really enjoyed, although of course being an academic computer scientist it pushes a lot of my buttons. The idea of an "Institute" fated to descend into chaos, a systems expert tasked with slowing that process, and researchers whose results are a bit too effective for their own good is a catnip setting for me, and the points about epistemology although somewhat diluted are quite nice.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "Macunado: Welcome to Elsewhere" by Liniers, which is apparently a collection of newspaper comics. It's excellent and reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes, Minus, and Azumanga Daioh or Nichijou.
I'll always love a bit of meta in comics and Liniers sprinkles it in wonderfully here and there.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "Bunt!" written by Ngozi Ukazu, illustrated by Mad Rupert, with colors by K. Czap. A really fun and well-written graphic novel about crappy college financial aid and a ridiculous softball team of misfits. It's light-hearted but also touching, and has a wonderful cast with lore that's introduced deftly: a great balance of just enough exposition supported by a whole lot of implication and background art details to flesh out 8 supporting characters in a single book.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "Dawnrunner" written by Ram V, illustrated by Evan Cagle, with colors by Dave Stewart & Francesco Segala and lettering by Aditya Bidikar. It's a graphic novel that's heavily Evangelion-inspired, and while the artwork is *fantastic*, I felt that the story was kinda meh. The overall plot setup and big points were predictable, which I don't mind, but several of the details got lost or didn't bind into a coherent message, and the final philosophical conclusion doesn't stand up to the setting or even really make much sense. These days I'm finding myself with much less patience for sci-fi stuff that doesn't tackle social problems, presenting a society where they're driving forces but then not bothering to even try to ponder how they might get resolved. The art is as mentioned excellent though, so I won't say I disliked it overall...
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

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).
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Just finished "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas. In an unusual twist of fate, I had read "Concrete Rose" earlier, which gave me a rich backstory to relate things to. "The Hate U Give" is really good, but I found the resolution of King's arc slightly disappointing, even though the ending was strong. It's definitely not my place to judge Thomas' perspective here, but I do think that the book's broad popularity including among more liberal audiences probably stems at least in part from the way it allows a "the cops have issues but are ultimately-necessary/sometimes-positive" reading that undermines the strength of the core message.
In the end I like Concrete Rose better, but they're both great and I'll be putting Thomas' other books on my to-read list.
#AmReading #ReadingNow