100 Books for 2009: (The 20th Five Books of 2009)

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100) Nightwing: Year One by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, finished November 22

You like Dick Grayson? Well, I liked this book. It was a nice look at how he went from Robin to Nightwing and if you, like me, have someone who will lend you such books, it's worth a quick read.

two evening which may or may not have been sequential

099) Witch Baby by Francesa Lia Block, finished November 20

I'm pissed off right now. I wrote probably a thousand words on this book and my relationship to it and the first book in its series but all that has now, three days later, disappeared from Blogger. I've never had this happen before and I am mad. I was quite pleased with what I had written.....

Sigh.

Well, here are the basics.

I picked this book up because I had been wanting to reread Weetzie Bat because reading that book was a revelation I thought I meet need to have again. But here's the thing: you can't "rehave" revelations. They come once and either you get it or you don't.

Weetzie Bat revealed to me a portion of my Baizzerrist self that I had not seen in years. Not with real depth since high school. That book turned a key and let out that portion of my writerly soul that finds beauty in whimsy and humanity in lightness. It's a different perception of the same world. And that discovery of myself allowed me to finally understand a book I had been starting and aborting over and over for the last four years.

Geez, I'm mad. I'm just not getting into this.

Anyway, reading Witch Baby at first was unsettling, because I wasn't having the experience I had with Weetzie bat. But about three quarters through I realized: the reason Witch Baby didn't read like my book was because I wasn't aping Francesca Lia Block's style --- she had merely opened the door back to my own style.

Blah blah blah. It was all very good, I assure you.

Anyway, WB1 was about luck to joy to luck with occasional downturns for flavor, whereas WB2 is about sinking deeper and deeper only to discover at the end that redemption had always been there.

Also, it was much more obviously "YA" --- can't say if that's because I knew it was this time or I was just less rapt or it was . . . whatever.

There is nothing worse than rewriting after losing something written.

four days

098) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rip Van Winkle The Spectre Bridegroom by Washington Irving and condensed and adapted by W.T. Robinson and K.R. Knight, finished November 8

My parents gave this volume to the Big O for Halloween last year and we read it for Halloween this year. The adaptation is breezey and fine and the illustrations by Alastair Graham move the story along rather than get in the way. For a series of classics kept desperately cheap (printed on the back: "SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE $5.99 YOUR PRICE $2.50"), Dalmatian Press has done a fine job. Really, unless you're morally opposed to abridged classics, these hardbound cheapies seem pretty dandy.

One warning: the back does include this copy:

Reading a classic story when you are
young opens your heart. Reading a classic
story again---anew---when you are older fills
your heart to the brim.

Never forget that.

a month

097) Green Monk by Brandon Dayton, finished November 7

The date listed was for my first reading which led to this review on Fob Comics.

I just reread it now, November 20, and I am vastly more impressed than I was the first time. This is an excellent story. I don't retract some of my quibbles, but this book is worthy and deserving of your close attention. Plus, it's cheap. Support an indie cartoonist. Click that link.

just minutes

096) Push by Sapphire, finished November 5

This book is short and the opposite of sweet.

If you're not familiar with, it, Push is the story of Precious Jones (now a movie) and how she was raped (and raped and raped and raped) by her father and molested by her mother and then things got worse.

Naturally, this is a story of redemption and of how this beleaguered girl comes back from below zero. No surprise there. And it earns that redemption.

When I started this book I was impressed by the way Sapphire wielded style. The book's in illiterate first person. Here's the first paragraph:

I was left back when I was twelve because I had a baby for my fahver. That was in 1983. I was out of school for a year. This gonna be my second baby. My daughter got Down Sinder. She's retarded. I had got left back in the second grade too, when I was seven, 'cause I couldn't read (and I still peed on myself). I should be in the eleventh grade, getting ready to go into the twelf' grade so I can graduate. But I'm not. I'm in the ninfe grade.

This worked for a long time (relatively speaking --- it's a short book). The brutal ugly language reflects the brutal ugly story of Precious's childhood. But about a half or three-quarters of the way through, I realized that Sapphire had slipped into gimmickry.

Now, I could make excuses for her. Precious's writing gets better as she learns how to write and we can't exactly expect someone who couldn't read at all until they were sixteen to have a great grasp of literary devices, but then this is fiction and too much verisimilitude makes me wonder if the author's out to lunch. How many times are you gonna have Precious write the same word three times for emphasis, huh Sapphire? (It probably doesn't help that I'm rereading Love That Dog Dog Dog right now now now which does the same thing over and over and over over over again.) And then when you sample another character's writing and she does the same thing? I start thinking you don't have that many tricks up your authorial sleeve.

Anyway, the book is about truly horrible things, but it rings true for a lot of kids around here. It's been the book du jour for a few thousand jours now. One kid saw me with it today and told me his mother made him read it a couple years ago (he would've been twelve or thirteen) and several girls have been passing copies around.

So I'm glad I read it for the social aspects, but this much hell in one tiny book is hard to take, even if the writing her beyond complaint.

Thank you, ma'am, but I believe I've reached my incest quota for the year.

week+

Previously:

095) Rift by Todd Robert Petersen, finished October 24
094) Book of Mormon Stories illustrated by Jerry Thompson and Robert T. Barrett, finished October 8
093) Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, finished October 5
092) The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye by Kirkman Walker Ottley Crabtree, finished October 5
091) The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, finished October 2
090) Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1, Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, finished September 30
089) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, finished September 24
088) Tales From the Bog by Marcus Lusk, finished ~September 18
087) The Complete Peanuts 1969-1970 by Charles M. Schulz, finished September 13
086) Crush by Murphy Hall, finished September 1
085) Full Color by Mark Haven Britt, finished August 31
084) Manhunter: Forgotten by Marc Andreyko et al, finished Aug 25
083) Glacial Period by Nicolas de Crécy, finished August 20
082) House of Mystery primarliy by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, finished August 19
081) The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring, finished August 19
080) Runaways Vol. 3: The Good Die Young by Brian K Vaughan et al, finished August 15
079) Runaways, Vol. 2 by Brian K Vaughan et al, finished August 13
078) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, finished August 10
077) Runaways, Vol. 1 by Brian K Vaughan et al, finished August 10
076) Essex County Volume 1: Tales From The Farm (Essex County) by Jeff Lemire, finished August 8
075) A Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare> by Jeremy Butterfield, finished August 8
074) How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do by Dr. Sharon Moalem, finished August 6
073) We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson, finished August 6
072) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, finished July 29
071) The Left Bank Gang by Jason, finished July 22
070) The Juggler of Our Lady by R.O. Blechman, finished July 22
069) Waterwise by Joel Orff, finished July 22
068) The Saga of the Bloody Benders by Rick Geary, finished July 22
067) 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (And 5 Others That Didn't Help) by Benjamin Wike, Ph.D., finished July 21
066) We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson, finished July 11
065) Hooper Haller by Dean Hughes, finished July 18
064) Stay (MS) by Moriah Jovan, finished July 15
063) The Question: The Five Books of Blood by Greg Rucka et al, finished July 14
062) Daisy Kutter: The Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi, finished July 13
061) Gravity vs. the Girl by Riley Noehren, finished July 11
060) The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, finished July 1
059) Letters from a Nut by Ted. L. Nancy, finished June 21
058) The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling, finished June 21
057) Lowboy by John Wray, finished June 16
056) One silent sleepless night by Spencer W. Kimball, finished June 14
055) Blue Beetle: Boundaries by Sturges/Albuquerque/Coelho, finished June 6
054) [title in flux] (MS) by B.G. Christensen, finished June 5
053) Invincible Volume 1: Family Matters words by Robert Kirkman, pictures by Cory Walker, finished June 3
052) Der Ostwind (MS) by Kohl Glass, finished June 2
051) The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde, finished June 2
050) The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton, finished June 2
049) Superman / Madman Hullabaloo! by the Allreds, finished May 29
048) Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting by Jim Posewitz, finished May 26
047) Brave and the Bold: Demons and Dragons by Mark Waid et al, finished May 20
046) Atonement by Ian McEwan, finished May 20
045) Love and the Light: An Idyl of the Westland by Orson Ferguson Whitney, finished May 20
044) Tales Of The Batman: Tim Sale by Tim Sale and some motley group of writers, finished May 17
043) Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street by Ed Brubaker et al, finished May 13
042) Aztek - the Ultimate Man by Grant Morrison), Mark Millar, Keith Champagne, Steven Harris; finished May 11
041) Cypher by Brad Teare, finished May 7
040) My Faith in Frankie by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, Marc Hempel, finished May 5
039) Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg, finished May 5
038) Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison et al, finished May 4
037) 1000 Steps To World Domination by Rob Osborne, finished May 4
036) 110 Per¢ by Tony Consiglio, finished May 4
035) Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker, finished May Day
034) All Star Superman, Vol. 2 by Grant Morrison, and Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, finished April 22
033) All Star Superman, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison, and Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, finished April 20
032) Bound on Earth by Angela Hallstrom, finished April 19
031) Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul by Grant Morrison and colleagues, finished April 18
030) Madman Atomic Comics Volume 2 by Mike Allred with Laura Allred, finished April 14
029) For a Good Time by K. Voss, finished April 11
028) The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, finished April 11
027) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, finished April 6
026) Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey by Karen Wilkin (essay) and Edward Gorey (art), finished April 5
025) Owly: A Time to be Brave by Andy Runton, finished April 1
024) Blue Beetle: Endgame by John Rogers and Rafaele Albuquerque, finished March 29
023) Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars by Rogers, Torres, Albuqerque; finished March 26
022) The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968 by Charles M. Schulz, finished March 25
021) Blue Beetle: Road Trip by various, finished March 25
020) Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, finished March 18
019) Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, finished March 17
018) The Proviso by Moriah Jovan, finished March 16
017) An Ensign to the Nations: History of the Oakland State by Evelyn Candland, finished March 7
016) Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, finished February 27
015) Batman: The Black Glove by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel and J.H. Williams III, finished February 23
014) The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston, finished February 22
013) Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, finished February 19
012) Blue Beetle: Shellshocked by Keith Giffen and Cully Hammer, finished February 18
011) The Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, finished February 17
010) Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, finished February 18
009) Superman: Red Son by MJR&M, finished February 11
008) The Best American Comics 2008 edited by Lynda Barry, finished February 9
007) The Blot by Tom Neely, finished February 6
006) JSA: Darkness Falls by Goyer, Johns, et al, finished January 28
005) The Road by Cormac McCarthy, finished January 24
004) Poor Sailor by Sammy Harkham, finished January 19
003) The Waitress was New by Dominique Fabre and translated by Jordan Stump, finished January 19
002) Stagger Lee by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix, finished January 12?
001) The Arrival by Shaun Tan, finished January 8

the first five, 1-5
the second five, 6-10
the third five, 11-15
the fourth five, 16-20
the fifth five, 21-25
the sixth five, 26-30
the seventh five, 31-35
the eighth five, 36-40
the ninth five, 41-45
the tenth five, 46-50
the eleventh five, 51-55
the twelfth five, 56-60
the thirteenth five, 61-65
the fourteenth five, 66-70
the fifteenth five, 71-75
the sixteenth five, 76-80
the seventeenth five, 81-86
the eighteenth five, 86-90
the nineteenth five, 91-95