Tenth Muse Books

What’s the biggest book you’ve read recently?

(Feel free to think “big” as size, or as popularity, or in any other way you care to interpret.)

Big book (brick sized book):    

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  My G-Ma recently reread it and she wanted me to do the same.  So I did; it is still amazing and large…

Big in popularity:

The Sandman Preludes & Noctures by Neil Gaiman.  I love, yes love, Neil Gaiman.  This series has been around for awhile and though I have read all of his novels, I just finally read the first of this series.  Today I received the second, The Doll’s House.  Whoop whoop!

Big in scope:   

Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. It has it all: life and death, love and loss, family history and individual journeys, legends and fables, good guys and bad guys…and a few kick-ass women! BIG, BIG BOOK.   I will go so far as to say it may be my favorite book of the year. 

Yes, I Love  Russell Brand…

slightly dirty, blatantly androgynous; the man just oozes sex and giggles or giggles and sex.  His memoir My Booky Wook is Brand at his best…as himself.  He writes much the same way as he speaks and for that alone, I laughed.  He is well know for his brash need  to infuse humor into any situation–whether it be funny or not–and he applies this to his own life.  Funny and hot, what more could a girl want?

Funny reads with few words…

Cody, Mason and I giggled like the nasty children we are in the bookstore while perusing through this funny!

And just one more…

This is one of my favorite books!  I laughed…and yes, we all know the end…I cried.  But I laughed…the snort, can’t-catch -my-breath, might-have-peed type of laugh! Out loud.  In public. But it was okay because I passed the book along and soon I wasn’t the only one laughing.  So what’s the funniest book you’ve read recently?  What has made you laugh so  loud that you had to pass it along just to drag someone else down to your level of giggle-fits?

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?

(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)

“That was the summer Dill came to us.” Yes, To Kill a Mockingbird is pure summer to me–childhood, friendship and innocence.  Other books that capture the essence of summer for me include: Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

As for summer reading…well, while in college I couldn’t wait for summer break just to engage in reading that wasn’t required.  One summer I went through a French phase, reading Hugo, Camus, Voltaire and Dumas. None of which are regarded as beach reads or even necessarily involve summer; however, I will always remember reading Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years Later, and The Man in the Iron Mask, one after the other, laughing and crying, and realizing the true beauty of a hammock, blue skies, cold drinks, and swashbuckling friendship! Ahh…summer and dancing musketeers!

This summer I am re-reading Gone With The Wind with my Mama, as her Mama, my beautiful Grandmama, has just done so herself. So what about your summer reads?

Mariel suggested this week’s question

Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

Book Gluttony?  Is there such a thing as too many books?  Is it gluttony?  Addiction?  Love? Need?  Oh…yes, all of them and I have it bad.  I have books on shelves, in kitchen cabinets, under my bed, all over my car; even my roommate has to share closet space with my books.  I would estimate at this moment that I have about thirty books on my tbr list…and no, I have no control.  If I get a book in and I want it…I take it home.  Done deal. Mine. I have no guilt and truly figure, books hold well and I find comfort in the fact that they are there waiting for me.

J

Suggested by: Vega

Last Saturday (May 2nd) is Free Comic Book Day! In celebration of comics and graphic novels, some suggestions:

- Do you read graphic novels/comics? Why do/don’t you enjoy them?

Yes, I read graphic novels.  Growing up, I loved The Archies.  I so wanted to be Veronica…snotty, rich brat. Yes!  I also read some Spider-Man.  Usually one or both of my brothers would have some sort of comic book available if I longed for one.  But it wasn’t until I was in college that I realized that comics/graphic novels could be regarded as true literature.  I was enrolled in a holocaust reading class and Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman were required reading. My first thought—finally some lighter reading! Believe me, a semester of holocaust reading is, well—dark, depressing and really can you believe in humanity after all that?  So, mice and cats seemed an easy respite after Night (which everyone should be required to read!). But it wasn’t and its message was just as powerful as any novel or memoir I have read on the Holocaust.  I had originally thought that the pictures would detract, even perhaps trivialize, the subject matter.  Spiegelman expelled any such thoughts. Since then, I have read numerous graphic novels and can only say that when done well they are as full of interest, depth and development as a novel.

- How would you describe the difference between “graphic novel” and “comic”? Is there a difference at all?

I think the difference between comics and graphic novels is the length and plot development.  I believe, could be wrong, that comics are generally shorter bits of a continuing saga while graphic novels contain, in perhaps one or more books, complete plot and idea development.  I also think that the term graphic novel has been used to help broaden the audience of comics to a wider range of reader.

- Say you have a friend who’s never encountered graphic novels. Recommend some titles you consider landmark/”canonical”.

      I would highly recommend Maus I &II by Spiegelman, The Sandman Series by Gaiman, Fun House by Bechdel, and The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist by Chabon.