Category: graphic novels

Sean Fitzgibbon’s What Follows Is True

The Crescent Hotel is one of the most famous attractions in Eureka Springs, so it is also one of the most famous attractions in Carroll County. It has a long history and not just as a hotel. For a few infamous years in the 1930s, it was also a quack cancer hospital run by the infamous Norman Baker, who fleeced desperate patients and their families out of money.

Sean Fitzgibbon’s stunning graphic novel What Follows Is True: Crescent Hotel documents Baker’s rise and fall and his time at the Crescent while also contextualizing the story within the backdrop of the hotel and town’s more general history and the author’s time researching it all.

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Walk a Mile in My Shoes: November

This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For November, our theme is self-empathy, particularly telling your own story.

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Walk a Mile In My Shoes: July

This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For July, our theme is disability.

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Book Buzz: Canadian Indigenous Fiction, Pirates, Cairo, Poetry, Investigative Journalism, and Agatha Christie Classics

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For June, we’re looking at a novel about residential school survivors, a new fantasy series that melds history with pirates and magic, a fantastical graphic novel about modern Egypt, an anthology of poems, a new look at a tragic crime, and an audiobook of an old favorite.

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Keilan Morrissey’s Beach House

Kyle and Nicole are two young New York professionals, happy, in love, and excited for their much-needed vacation to Florida. They’ve rented a picturesque beach house with a stunning view . . . that includes a strange group of people. They wear dark cloaks and never seem to leave the beach. Kyle and Nicole are, by turns, puzzled, amused, and creeped out by their eerie neighbors. Why are they there? Why don’t they leave? And why do they want to talk to the young couple?

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What a Wonderful World: February

This year, our theme at the library is What A Wonderful World. We’re focusing on a different color for each month, and February’s is gold dust. To that end, we’re highlighting books at the library with that color (or something close to it ) on the cover!

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Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona

Nimona

Sir Ballister Blackheart is the resident villain. And like all resident villains, he has a backstory that totally explains how he went from a promising knight in training to a mad scientist. And like all resident villains, he often finds his brilliant plans foiled by the resident hero, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin.

That is, until the mysterious Nimona shows up. Nimona is a shapeshifter and an agent of chaos who dramatically increases Blackheart’s effectiveness while also ramping up the destruction factor. As Nimona and Blackheart tag-team to defeat his archnemesis, the shadowy Institution that runs everything, it soon becomes clear that they might not be the most villainous characters in the land after all. . . .

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David Carlson’s The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry

The Hunting Accident

Charlie Rizzo has spent his life thinking his father was blinded in a hunting accident as a child. Not that it has stopped his dad from living his life or enjoying one of his greatest hobbies — studying poetic masterpieces of world literature. It’s an unusual hobby to have in their 1960s working-class Chicago neighborhood, but Charlie never suspects anything out-of-the-ordinary with his dad. That is, until Charlie finds himself in trouble with the law. He then learns that his mild-mannered father was blinded in a botched robbery and did time for it in the Illinois State Penitentiary, where he was cellmates with Nathan Leopold. As in, Nathan Leopold of Leopold and Loeb thrill-killing infamy.

I had this book (a nonfiction graphic novel that combines true crime and poetry appreciation) recommended to me recently by one of my undergraduate English professors. I always enjoyed the books I read in her classes, so her suggestions are ones I always try to follow up on. And I was not disappointed. Thanks so much for the great suggestion, Leslie!

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Ask the Blogger: Death Note/Shaman King

 

To manga or not to manga.  For me, it was a big NEVER, until last week.  I know this may be an inflammatory statement on my part, for some of you.  But it is the truth.  I had never read any manga and had never really wanted to read it.

However, a few months ago when I was at Books in Bloom, some of our teen volunteers were taking a break at my table, and I made them give me reading suggestions. Bradley told me I needed to read Death Note, and Dustin recommended Shaman King to me. I finally got around to reading their suggestions, and I’m happy to report that my introduction to manga was an enjoyable experience. (Thanks for the great recommendations, guys!)

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book Set in a Different Country

For our last challenge, we stayed close to home, exploring books with Carroll County settings. I figured for this edition, we’d venture away from Arkansas and, indeed, the United States to do a literary tour of all seven continents.

These suggestions are specifically designed to meet the 2016 Library Challenge of reading a book set in a different country, but these recommendations are also perfect even if you’re not participating in the challenge. I selected 3 books for each continent and also tried to include a nice range of genres, everything from literary fiction to mysteries to nonfiction to romance. As always, if you’re interested in learning more about any of these books, just follow this link to our online catalog. From there, you can read more information, as well as check availability and place holds.

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