Books We Love
NPR, Books We Love | | November 23, 2022
5 D+Q on NPR Books We Love 2022 List!
Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories by Rumi Hara
The Peanutbutter sisters are descendants of an immigrant who “ditched his foreign name” to rename his offspring after a quintessential American food. But in recycling waste into a thriving business, riding hurricanes, and hitchhiking on whales, the sisters’ adventures are less about assimilation and more about reinventing the universe. Visual and linguistic jokes abound in other Rumi Hara tales: True love literally becomes “tree love” when two lovers are conjoined by their tree-heads; Mad Max and the parable of the Tortoise and the Hare infuse a post-apocalyptic, intergalactic race of “living things” that use repurposed vehicles to conquer harsh climate and forbidding terrains. Hara’s bold visions remap America in a time of environmental degradation, systemic prejudice, and lingering pandemic effects.
The Third Person by Emma Grove
When Emma Grove began seeing a therapist, Toby, she had a very clear goal in mind: receiving approval to start hormone therapy. Instead, she found herself facing a combative therapist who seemed to think that there was more going on than Grove was telling him. In her debut graphic memoir, Grove illustrates the conversations she had with Toby as slowly, bit by bit, she began to realize that he was a right. Moving, funny, and brilliant, Grove’s account of what it was like to live with and learn she had dissociative identity disorder is a must-read.
Time Zone J by Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet is back! Renowned for the brutally frank “Dirty Plotte” series and numerous books, the ’90s comics star quit drawing more than 20 years ago. She’s stored up a lot of feelings in that time. Her recollections of a love affair she embarked on back in 1989 sprawl turbulently across every page of Time Zone J – they even bleed onto the book’s endpapers. Doucet’s crowded compositions may be overwhelming, but her reflections on humanity are more tentative and nuanced than they once were. Still, even 20 years older, Doucet is as dangerous as ever.
Ducks by Kate Beaton
This autobiographical graphic novel gives the kind of honest look into someone’s life that feels rare when social media encourages us to share only our happiest moments. In it, Kate Beaton, author of the popular webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, shares the brutal reality of her early professional life. As a new grad who needs to pay back her student loans, she moves to an isolated part of Canada for a job in the male-dominated oil industry. The beautifully drawn Ducks offers us a haunting look at the isolation and misogyny endemic to the profession – as well as small moments of hope and tenderness.
Birds of Maine by Michael DeForge
Science fiction meets natural history in Birds of Maine – a slice-of-life-ish study of a futuristic lunar bird civilization. Michael DeForge’s bold, playful colors and trippy-but-scientific illustrations transport you to a weird and wonderful world where the internet is cool and economics isn’t real. Don’t be distracted by the fungal laneways, library orgies, or universal worm diet – these birds are preoccupied by the same dramas as you and me – completing manuscripts, falling in love, bands breaking up. This book invokes a healthy balance of hope and angst for the future.
The Peanutbutter sisters are descendants of an immigrant who “ditched his foreign name” to rename his offspring after a quintessential American food. But in recycling waste into a thriving business, riding hurricanes, and hitchhiking on whales, the sisters’ adventures are less about assimilation and more about reinventing the universe. Visual and linguistic jokes abound in other Rumi Hara tales: True love literally becomes “tree love” when two lovers are conjoined by their tree-heads; Mad Max and the parable of the Tortoise and the Hare infuse a post-apocalyptic, intergalactic race of “living things” that use repurposed vehicles to conquer harsh climate and forbidding terrains. Hara’s bold visions remap America in a time of environmental degradation, systemic prejudice, and lingering pandemic effects.
The Third Person by Emma Grove
When Emma Grove began seeing a therapist, Toby, she had a very clear goal in mind: receiving approval to start hormone therapy. Instead, she found herself facing a combative therapist who seemed to think that there was more going on than Grove was telling him. In her debut graphic memoir, Grove illustrates the conversations she had with Toby as slowly, bit by bit, she began to realize that he was a right. Moving, funny, and brilliant, Grove’s account of what it was like to live with and learn she had dissociative identity disorder is a must-read.
Time Zone J by Julie Doucet
Julie Doucet is back! Renowned for the brutally frank “Dirty Plotte” series and numerous books, the ’90s comics star quit drawing more than 20 years ago. She’s stored up a lot of feelings in that time. Her recollections of a love affair she embarked on back in 1989 sprawl turbulently across every page of Time Zone J – they even bleed onto the book’s endpapers. Doucet’s crowded compositions may be overwhelming, but her reflections on humanity are more tentative and nuanced than they once were. Still, even 20 years older, Doucet is as dangerous as ever.
Ducks by Kate Beaton
This autobiographical graphic novel gives the kind of honest look into someone’s life that feels rare when social media encourages us to share only our happiest moments. In it, Kate Beaton, author of the popular webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, shares the brutal reality of her early professional life. As a new grad who needs to pay back her student loans, she moves to an isolated part of Canada for a job in the male-dominated oil industry. The beautifully drawn Ducks offers us a haunting look at the isolation and misogyny endemic to the profession – as well as small moments of hope and tenderness.
Birds of Maine by Michael DeForge
Science fiction meets natural history in Birds of Maine – a slice-of-life-ish study of a futuristic lunar bird civilization. Michael DeForge’s bold, playful colors and trippy-but-scientific illustrations transport you to a weird and wonderful world where the internet is cool and economics isn’t real. Don’t be distracted by the fungal laneways, library orgies, or universal worm diet – these birds are preoccupied by the same dramas as you and me – completing manuscripts, falling in love, bands breaking up. This book invokes a healthy balance of hope and angst for the future.