The Moomin Trove: an archive of all international and domestic editions
![The Moomin House (Finland)
[via Wikipedia]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb46685FGv1qjsf5ho1_400.jpg)
The Moomin House (Finland)
[via Wikipedia]
What we’re reading
Friday Reads Club is here, and we have a packed house with a bevy of picks. Enjoy!
Henry is living in Gotham City with graphic novel Batman: Hush written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Jim Lee:
The Epic 12-part Batman story arc featuring nearly every major ally and villain including his relationship with Catwoman. With dynamic and beautiful artwork by the amazing Jim Lee. This story should hold me over till I see THE DARK KNIGHT RISES on IMAX. Still sold out!
Elianna is diving into Nabokov’s Selected Poems, recently published by Knopf:
I’m often skeptical of poetry in translation, but am still curious about the way in which this book will amplify the English language readers’ vision of Nabokov’s world.
I’ve also been captivated by Hannah Tennant-Moore’s piece on eroticism in Henry Miller and female sexuality. You can read it yourself at The Paris Review Daily:
Justin picked up the latest August issue of GQ and is deciding whether to crack Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch or Ubik. Decisions, decisions.
P.J. is rereading the Patrick Melrose novels and also reading True Believers by Kurt Anderson saying only that it is “really good. Don’t want it to end. But end it will soon.”
Daniel and James are both in Donald Antrim’s grasp. Daniel just started Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World and is worried that things won’t end well in this “off-kilter, strange, and quietly violent Florida suburban universe.”
James is reading Lydia Kiesling’s outstanding review (see reblog) of Donald Antrim’s novels at The Millions, excerpt from the review below:
“Even very great writers don’t often write like this. So when you’ve surfeited yourself on hunger games and vampires and zombies and lukewarm bondage and everything else that dulled our synapses this year — when you need a new genius — don’t despair, choose Donald Antrim.”
Elizabeth is plowing through submissions and looking forward to picking up a copy of The Dream Team by Jack McCallum, which she plans to take on vacation next weekend. She hears “it’s amazeballs, terrible pun intended.”
Gabrielle is enjoying The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig, published by NYRB:
I had read Zweig’s other book Confusion a little over a month ago and loved it so when I saw that Community Bookstore in Brooklyn had chosen this one for their August book club I ran out and bought a copy. I’m looking forward to discussing it with people in a few weeks. Zweig is such a fun writer, focusing on interpersonal relationships and the quirky internal thoughts that lurk beneath the surface.
At the time he was writing, mainly during the 1930s, his novels were considered contemporary fiction. He questioned the conventional attitudes of his fellow Europeans towards sexuality and class. I wish he were alive and writing today. I’d love to know what he thinks of our current culture.
It’s also worth noting that this is one of Darin’s favorites and as soon as I’m done, I’m running into his office so we can gush.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
From creative genius Tim Burton (“Alice in Wonderland,” The Nightmare Before Christmas”) comes “Frankenweenie,” a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous.
Release date: October 2012
Heading over to Metropolis for a vacation to check out Superman’s stomping ground isn’t quite feasible yet, and the shuttle to Gotham City hasn’t yet commenced. But you can get these vintage travel posters for your wall. Dave Ault’s illustrations, covering Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and more DC Comics heroes, give you a minimalist mid-century travel feel.
SPOTLIGHT: CRAIG THOMPSON
This interview with Craig Thompson on KCRW’s The Treatment is amazing. Trust me.
Craig Thompson was raised in the Midwest by evangelical Christian parents who told him he was “worthless without Christ.” Although he ultimately renounced the faith of his parents, and moved to Portland to become an artist and writer, his experience as a child left an imprint on him, and has led to an exploration of religions and religious symbolism in his work, specifically within the shared foundations of Christianity and Islam. His first graphic novel, Good-Bye, Chunky Rice, came out in 1999 followed by the auto-biographical Blankets, which Time magazine named the best graphic novel of 2003. His latest graphic novel, the biblical, staggeringly intricate Habibi, is the story of a woman, Dodola, and a boy, Zam, whose unfortunate circumstances — slavery, homelessness, exile — lead them to each other. “Habibi” is an Arabic term literally meaning ‘my beloved’, and the story of the love that grows between Dodola and Zam is one that spans generations, cultures and religions. The book itself is 672 pages and took Thompson seven years to complete. Elvis delights in talking to Thompson about everything from slavery and self-loathing to childhood and love, who he counts among his inspirations — Art Spiegalman, among others — and why he thinks super-heroes are holding back the comic book medium.
Read an interview with Craig at Mother Jones
Check out his earlier graphic novels at Top Shelf
Greg Rucka has rocked the worlds of comics and novels for years, including memorable Batman writing, plus the Queen and Country series and the Atticus Kodiak books. But he might be best known for being a man who writes a lot of “strong female characters.”
People always ask Rucka why he chooses to write so many hard-hitting women. And now, to celebrate the release of his new novel Alpha, he’s explaining why.
Today’s links
Science Fiction Gets Social (Part 1) Kirkus Science Fiction Blog
One of the characteristics of great literature is that it says something meaningful about life. Science fiction does that, too, except that the perspective is usually seen from an outsider’s viewpoint and is often focused on society in general.
Being fond of subcategorizing as we are, science fiction fans call such fiction “social science fiction,” and it’s concerned less with the tropes usually associated with sf (like spaceships and technology) and more concerned with human activities and how people interact in groups. Or, to tie it back to the “science” label, it’s concerned with “soft” sciences like sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, theology, linguistics, cultural studies and more.
Writing in the Dark: Confessions of a literary night owl New York Magazine
The moon is maybe one sixteenth full—or empty, really, thin as the rim of a shot glass, clear and high in a very black sky. The stars are out in layers, not like the desert or the mountains but unusual for the northeast, millions of distant acquaintances amassed behind the more familiar constellations; Orion in his swaggery stance, Cassiopeia watching sideways from her chair in the sky.
Not that I am seeing any of that, now. I keep my eyes on the ground. I’m moving fast, and it’s dark, and I don’t want to fall. There’s a hill in front of me: up, and steep. I hear my feet and my breath. They should disrupt the nighttime quiet but instead they amplify it. Up, up, up, up, and then a sharp turn, then rocks and gravel, louder underfoot; then a downhill dip, the black hulks of two familiar trees, a flagstone patio, a door. I stop in front of it, lean against it for a moment, let my breath slow, look up. It is one-fifteen in the morning. I have just come home from a run.
How Cartoon Network Became a Haven for Some of the Best Independent Comic Book Creators Working Today Publishers Weekly
The Cartoon Network’s flagship show, Adventure Time has quickly gained a loyal fan base since its premiere in early 2010. Produced by Frederator Studios and created by Pendleton Ward, the feel-good, silly but smart show about Jake the Dog and Finn the Human’s fun-filled exploits in the candy-colored, post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo is that rare cartoon offering that appeals equally to both kids and adults. The Adventure Time licensed comic, published by Boom! Studios’ kids’ comics imprint, Kaboom!, has also been hugely successful. Since the comic’s release in early February of this year, the first two issues have already sold out of multiple print runs.
What book is on your night stand now?
There are a few. My current audiobook (Yes, they count; of course they count; why wouldn’t they?) is “The Sisters Brothers,” by Patrick deWitt. It was recommended by Lemony Snicket (through his representative, Daniel Handler), and I trust Mr. Snicket implicitly. (Or anyway, as implicitly as one can trust someone you have never met, and who may simply be a pen name of the man who played accordion at your wedding.) I’m enjoying it — such a sad, funny book about family, framed in a Wild West of prospectors and casual murder.
Bought at MoCCA Fest yesterday
Underwire collects the wise and witty autobiographical comics of an eloquent new voice on the comics scene: Jennifer Hayden, politically incorrect mother of two. These everyday observations about marriage, motherhood, and modern life are so perfectly captured, you”ll start to feel like a member of the family yourself! Here”s the wisdom that comes with wearing an underwire - and you don”t have to own a bra to enjoy it! These stories are about the little things that give us the big picture. Jennifer Hayden started writing and drawing Underwire as a webcomic. Since then, it has gained critical attention as a fresh indie comic about womanhood, parenthood, and being-in-the-middle-of-life-hood. Here are twenty-two of the original stories, plus seventeen new pages of comix and art created exclusively for this collection.
Alison Bechdel’s new graphic memoir, ‘Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama,’ is out on May 1st. There’s bound to be a ton of coverage. Here’s the early stuff.
From the best-selling author of Fun Home, Time magazine’s No. 1 Book of the Year, a brilliantly told graphic memoir of Alison Bechdel becoming the artist her mother wanted to be.
Maud Newton interviews Alison Bechdel for the Barnes & Noble book blog
One of my earliest, most powerful memories of my mother is playing this game where I would be a crippled child like the kids I would see at the orthopedic wing of the hospital when I would go to get my fallen arches checked up on. I was just fascinated with these children, with their external signs of disability, their crutches and braces and big shoes. There was something about that that I needed to reenact, and my mother entered into that imaginary space so willingly with me and in such an encouraging way. Even though I knew there was something weird about having this fantasy about disabled children, she didn’t sensor it. She encouraged me to go with it, and I feel like she probably did that with me in lots of imaginary games as a kid but for some reason this is the one that I remember the most vividly. And I speculate in the book that it’s because it was a fantasy that she shared to a certain extent as well.
Katie Roiphe reviews ‘Are You My Mother?’ for The New York Times
“Are You My Mother?” is among many other things a nuanced, sophisticated investigation of the impulse to write or create, the desire, shame, guilt, excitement and shadiness of the process. Bechdel, unremitting in her exploration of her motives, pins down and examines the moral ambiguity of the venture, the detachment and ruthlessness and terror inherent in exposing those close to you, along with the mysterious compulsion to do so.
Buy ‘Are You My Mother?’ at IndieBound or find it at an indie bookstore near you
This tumblelog is powered by Tumblr, and was designed by Bill Israel.
