Review by Lexy Aydelotte
It begins with a man (i know right) but suddenly he dumps one of the most lucid justifications for a violent feminist revolution I've ever hears and I was floored. Worth it for that one chapter. For sure.
Review by Lexy Aydelotte
Not great. It really is just a drunk white dude in 1950s puerto rico who thinks he's the bees knees. Spoilers: he's not.
Review by Lexy Aydelotte
Review by Lexy Aydelotte
I love me some sickly sexy Brautigan. 1 Part cynicism and the rest of it is mayo. He is spinning you around and it is hard to say if the fish you're eating is the one you caught but it sure tastes fresh. Fans of writing will enjoy his wit, fans of plots will be lost and probably never found.
Review by Lexy Aydelotte
I like riddles a lot and JL Borges. They are both cool in my fridge, friend. This book has brilliance in it. Bite-sized but heavy. My thoughts return to these tales and turns them over years after reading them. Beware of revelations.
Faves: The Dead Man, Dreamtigers, The Captive, Borges and I,
Review by Kryssanne Adams
The plot thickens while Percy naps! Wake Up is a feel-good story, perhaps a little predictable at times, but it's a fun read. It shifts the spotlight onto his mother, and it's rare that you get to read a book with an elderly woman as a protagonist. Malkasian's storytelling doesn't disappoint as she navigates Percy's Mother's past and present as a super(-duper-ultra)centenarian and a prankster.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
Beautifully drawn and adorable! How to be Happy is a series of comic strips using a slew of mostly unnamed characters in various unrelated settings. Most of these short stories involve navigating sadness, grief, and change.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
La Perdida has a slow unfolding, somewhat melodramatic plot that takes place mostly through conversation. And it's full of stereotypes of Mexico. It's not an unpleasant read, but the protagonist's sense of entitlement combined with her refusal to save herself drove me up a wall!
Review by Kryssanne Adams
The plot of Panorama Island is not nearly as engrossing as the Maruo's illustrations. This is one of the most beautifully drawn books I've encountered. With lots of large illustrations of the island and the performers who live on it, it's a quick fluffy read that's not entirely unsatisfying.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
FIRST OFF you should know that you will get hooked on this story and it leaves off as soon as the pace picks up--it's only volume 1 in a brand new series. Doctor Melody McCabe is a badass scientist invited to live aboard a space station to study a little girl who somehow streams the "innernet" directly through people's brains. McCabe is smart, stubborn, and determined to complete her job without getting entangled in the annoying social dynamics of her workplace. Her primary concern outside of work is the safety of her cat, Jeffrey, who lives back on Earth.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
It's hard to call Patience a love story. It's a story about regrets, a heteronormative unhealthy relationship, and time travel (of course) as the protagonist tries to find the person who killed his wife. It's an interestingly compellingly weird story that'll keep you guessing what Clowes will throw out next.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
When I first started reading Big Kids, I was diggin' DeForge's art style and color palette but overall had a "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude toward the story itself. It follows an adolescent summer where a young boy grows up. Sort of.
And then there was an unexpected twist where the story became (I think?) metaphysical and nothing was as it seemed to be before. From that midpoint on, the imagery and events become stranger and stranger until there's no going back.
Unless maybe the boy regresses or gets torn to shreds.
I'm going to keep thinking about this one.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
TW: this book contains several depictions of awful men & rape.
As a person who was once a meek and shy teenager girl, I dreamed of being a badass. Being barely courageous enough to ride the city bus into town alone at seventeen, I never would've imagined at the time that it was possible to hitchhike across Europe with a sleeping bag and the clothes on my back. So of course I was totally engrossed by this story.
My feelings toward the book oscillated between fondness for Ulli and disgust for the way men treat her throughout the story. I began to feel protective of her and at times got upset with her for decisions, but overall was satisfied with the way she deals with each curve ball her travels throw at her.
A series of panels that really stood out to me showed Lust as a teenage girl walking off of a train. Men stare at her, and out of their eyes come billowing squiggly hands that grope her. Without any dialogue, she expresses feelings that many women suffer through every day.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
When I first picked up Percy Gloom, I had doubts about it. I didn't immediately get into the style it's drawn in, and I couldn't help but see Percy as such a strange, annoying, whiny little mama's boy, but Malkasian's style of storytelling quickly won me over. Despite his shortcomings and constant grumbling tummy, I started to really admire Mr. Gloom for sticking to his word and finding his place in a strange world instead of slapping himself to death, which apparently comes easily to Glooms.
Review by Pi
I checked this out thinking it was a sequel (it was originally filed under Sci-fi), but it turns out that it is a series of essays from 1958 about propaganda, mindwashing, overpopulation, and a little about the environment. It's definitely dated- he unknowingly professes the miracle of DDT before they knew how terrible it is and talks a lot about Hitler's propaganda methods, but still has interesting things to say about dystopian futures and compares the roles that Brave New World and 1984 have in the 1958 world.
Interesting exploration; dated, but still worthwhile. Don't expect a sequel; expect intellectualism.
Review by Sam Swicord
Great intro to important subject.
Review by Kryssanne Adams
House of Leaves totally fucked with my brain and even pierced my dreams in the weeks after I finished reading it, yet I've heard that Danielewski himself calls it a love story. It's interestingly formatted--the author (character, not really the author) finds an old man's manuscript, which is an analysis of a film that was never made (or was it?!). The film opens with Navidson finding that his house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside by 3/4 of an inch, and eventually he and a team get lost inside of the house during an exploration, but there's more to it than that. With increasingly frantic notes from the author in the margins, this book itself is a labyrinth to be explored.
Review by Nick Vassallo
My introduction to the library! The first book I ever picked up here, and it's magic. Still the coolest designed thing I've found in the lib; it feels like it was compiled and generated in some sort of alien art ship and then deposited via satellite ray to Earth. A mind-expanding warp into the world of graphic novels via an eclectic array of different artists, and wrapped together with a wonderful essay at the end. Take a night or two to really sit down and pour into this bad dad. It gives it back in spades. A joyful package of work and design! I give it a futuristic two thumbs up! Or five stars, or whatever the hell system we use around here.
Review by Nick Vassallo
Whatever happened to that Waking Life night planned at the lib? Bring it back, this movie made me feel like I was being born and engaged me in a way that spawned a new lease on life and then many a conversation with friends. Linklater is a brilliant director who deserved an academy award either for this movie or for boyhood or for his amazing single-handed revival and longevity-increasing continued adherence to the seventies bowl cut. Truly astounding. Everyone and their mother and their bloviated PETA-baiting pet parakeet should watch this movie. It'll make you think! And possibly send you over the edge if you're locked in a self-reflective genius-verging (speaking about an acquaintance here) neuroses of life examination and big question answering. So do be careful! And probably let the parakeet roam around a little more. Right on, Ric!
Review by Nick Vassallo
Woah, we have movies in the library? Even if we don't anymore, we should have this one! Just watched and cannot get out of its headspace or the gravitational pull of its emotions. Music is absolutely knock you on your back amazing. I nodded off for five minutes and when I woke up, suddenly it was a nonstop gas pedal pressed down going 110 fifty minutes of emotional and spiritual sensory nightmare, but somehow beautiful and somehow I don't wish I didn't see it and in fact find something remarkable and resounding and expressive in it, like if people got together and watched this movie it would be cathartic in seeing how humans are so vulnerable and can be so taken away by challenging spiritual forces in life like drugs or pain. Made me feel like we are all human and crave a certain kind of comfort you only find in the womb and that humans in general are still babes in the woods in a lot of ways and so be sympathetic to your fellow man and woman and thankful for rising above to the clearer waters. Really beautiful movie, with a soul of abandon, and an extremely powerful sensory experience. Direct on, Darren!