One of my favourite summer memories as a child was going to the Confederation Centre Public Library in Charlottetown, PEI. My father is from PEI, so throughout my childhood my family spent some part of every summer camping on our land there and we made near weekly pilgrimages to the library to stock up on books to read on the beach. There was something very exciting about going to this library every summer, in part because all the books were in English (I grew up in Quebec City where English libraries are few and far between) and in part just because I’ve always loved books and libraries.
In the spirit of this memory, I sent my sister (who works in a library) a wish list of graphic novels and memoirs I wanted to read while I was visiting her in Nova Scotia. (I recently read and reviewed The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir by Laurie Sandell [my review], which inspired me to further explore this genre.) When I arrived at her house, the following pile was waiting for me (some of which I’d requested and some of which were her recommendations):
From top to bottom, the books are:
Of these, the only ones I didn’t read were the two Persepolis books as it turns out they were originally written in French. (Since I read in French, it makes more sense to me to read them in their original language, so I’ll be looking for them at my local library.) Instead, I read several of the other books twice! My reviews should be coming soon.
Although this is a bit of an unorthodox Library Loot post, I trust Eva and Marg won’t mind!
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Marg has the Mr. Linky this week!
In the spirit of this memory, I sent my sister (who works in a library) a wish list of graphic novels and memoirs I wanted to read while I was visiting her in Nova Scotia. (I recently read and reviewed The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir by Laurie Sandell [my review], which inspired me to further explore this genre.) When I arrived at her house, the following pile was waiting for me (some of which I’d requested and some of which were her recommendations):
Click on the photo to enlarge it.
From top to bottom, the books are:
- Salamander Dream by Hope Larson
- The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
- Chiggers by Hope Larson
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
- We Are on Our Own by Miriam Katin
- Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs
- Persepolis I: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
- Persepolis II: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi
- Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Of these, the only ones I didn’t read were the two Persepolis books as it turns out they were originally written in French. (Since I read in French, it makes more sense to me to read them in their original language, so I’ll be looking for them at my local library.) Instead, I read several of the other books twice! My reviews should be coming soon.
Although this is a bit of an unorthodox Library Loot post, I trust Eva and Marg won’t mind!
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Marg has the Mr. Linky this week!With thanks to Nymeth at things mean a lot, who also inspired me with her review of Salamander Dream.
I loved Fun Home, Chiggers, Persepolis I and II, and Skim!!! Have your read Maus I and II? If not, you seriously have to!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful sister! You arrive and all the books are just sitting there waiting for you. Love it.
ReplyDeleteI thought Persepolis was great but had no idea it was originally in French!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Library Loot. I don't think there's any such thing as an unorthodox Library Loot. It looks good to me, but I'm just starting here as well and like to twist "the rules" anyway.
ReplyDeleteLike BermudaOnion, I didn't realize the Persepolis books were originally in French either.
Sounds like a great Library Loot post to me!
ReplyDeletePersepolis I & II were my first ever graphic novels and I loved it!
What a great memory! And, looks like a fun pile. I'm looking forward to your reviews!
ReplyDeleteThere was an "incident" on your August 17th post, and now I'm afraid of commenting. =/
ReplyDeleteI like your library loot and how it's lined up. Very cool. =)
These look like fun! I'm so curious now about The Imposter's Daughter, I'm keeping my eye out for it.
ReplyDeleteI've read most of those; Love Fun Home. May I highly recommend the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and Fables by Bill Willingham. Both are usually found under comics and Fables is currently on issue number 90 or thereabouts.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome sister! And great pile. :D I've read most of these, though I have yet to get to Persepolis and my library doesn't have Skim. I desperately want to read it though!
ReplyDeleteI'm all about unorthdoxy, and as far as I'm concerned it's a pile of books from the library, so what's not to love about it? :)
I am impressed your sister went to get them for you. They look really good.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting and very specific genre to explore. I'll admit though that I wouldn't want to read them all at once. It seems to me like it's better (perhaps better is an inappropriate word, but I can't think of a better one) to integrate these, yes, slightly abnormal books into the average reading cycle. Treat them as you might a book from your favorite genre. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the reads. I've been curious to read a number of them for quite some time and would like to hear some more about them.
ReplyDeleteI've only read a few graphic novels but a bunch of these are on my TBR list. Hopefully, I'll get to them soon :)
ReplyDeleteHow nice to arrive to books! I've read several of these and have really enjoyed them. Looking forward to reading what you thought of these.
ReplyDeleteStaci, nope I haven't read Maus, although I've heard of it. I will add it to my wish list!
ReplyDeleteTi, it was great! The fun part too was that I'd sent her a huge wish list, so I didn't know which books she'd managed to find for me (except for a few titles like Fun Home and Persepolis).
Kathy, I was also surprised to realize Persepolis was originally written in French.
justareadingfool, thank you!
Marg, it was hard to resist reading Persepolis while I had the books, but it just makes more sense to me to read them in their original language.
Thanks, Amy!
Linda, you had me worried at first! (I thought someone had written something snarky on that post and scared you off.) I deleted your extra messages, so no worries. (Please keep commenting!)
Donna, I think you'd really enjoy The Impostor's Daughter -- you can borrow my copy if you want.
Gigi, thanks for the recommendations. I've heard of the Sandman comics, but not of Fables. I'll keep an eye out for them.
Thanks, Eva! I loved Skim -- I highly recommend it. I hope you manage to get your hands on a copy somehow!
Vivienne, since she works in a library, it wasn't too much trouble for her, although it did make for a heavy bag!
Anonymous Child, for me it was fun to read them while I was on vacation, since they were easy reads and I didn't actually have that much reading time.
Welcome to my blog, Samantha! I hadn't read any graphic novels or memoirs before The Impostor's Daughter (just the odd comic book when I was a kid), but now I'm totally hooked on this genre. I hope you enjoy the ones on your TBR pile when you do get around to reading them!
Iliana, I know, it was great. Of course I brought other books with me and bought more anyway...
She is sure sweet :)
ReplyDeleteI have looked briefly at Persepolis, I really should read it as I hears such great things about it.
Blodeuedd, Persepolis is most likely going to find its way into another LL post, as I want to read it too!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite summer memories as a child is also going to the library. I think at first I'd ride my bike there just to spend time in air conditioning, but I quickly got engrossed in perusing the shelves for just the right books.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely that your sister had that stack of books waiting for you upon arrival to her home.
Great post. :)