My uncle recommended reading a Dr. Siri Paiboun Mystery several years ago, and I finally picked one up. It's delightful: A quick read, fun, and well written. I like mysteries with detectives from other times and places: 1975 in Laos certainly counts! It's a quirky mix of the supernatural world of spirits and ancestors and the here and now concerns of not getting blown up by corrupt officials who are threatened by Siri's pursuit of truth.

I was raised Catholic, post-Vatican II, on a college campus, in a guitar-mass kind of church. Theologically I am probably more a child of Jesus Christ Super Star (the original soundtrack) than of catechism. I hoped to learn something about the inscrutable Catholic doctrine of the trinity. I love the central notion that the motive force of all things is relational, but ultimately I neither get it, nor do I grasp it. Both may be required.

I picked up this book after watching The Two Popes. It's Pope Francis' major statement on the environment and humanity's obligation to save the planet. The approach is ecological (everything is connected) and humanitarian and deeply critical of our capitalistic narratives of progress. I am glad I read it.

A romp through dreams where--along with our protagonist Robert-we meet a number devil. He introduced us to twelve types of numbers (squares, Fibonacci sequences, factorials, etc), some of their unique characteristics, and a thing or two about math.

http://www.librarything.com/work/6528/reviews/177942866

Anyone at #DBW2019 in Nashville? Digital Book World is a conference for publishers. Just curious.

I finished this but never reviewed it. I recommend it highly. DeForge is way out there!

Bad pic, good book. I love reading this series. Not only are they pretty well written, but you feel like you're getting a bit of an insider's tour of Sweden. It is like taking a mini vacation to Scandinavia.

Sunday morning weirdness

I generally like the comics I've read by this author. This book did not live up to my expectations. It was a quick read. The Chicago Tribune's blurb about it namechecks Chandler, Pahlaniuk, and Burroughs... it's not even in the neighborhood . Meh.

Airplanes are great for finishing books. This one was cool AND I learned a lot. A broadly journalistic accounting of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," which is arguably his most loved and most influential recording. Lots of info about the years and works leading up to the album, the recording session itself (one night!), and what came next. Lots of interviews with a ton of different people, musicians, producers, label executives, fans and family.

The problem with reading books about music is that I keep stopping to listen to something... I'm really enjoying some sessions from 1959, right now. A Love Supreme didn't come out until January 1965. It's going to take forever to get through this one!

My last book of summer vacation. Another fast read. Kept me engaged, and I am happy to have read it, but I won't be running out to read the sequel anytime soon.

Final book of vacation and my first Graham Greene story ever. I blurbed this one as #booktomovie earlier this year, but it turns out it was written as a movie plot and then published later. I remember really liking the movie. The book moved right along and kept my attention.

Light vacation reading fun. I enjoyed it.

"A story of detection" in which the principal mystery goes undetected, but not unsolved. A charming novella. Chabon has been one of my favorites for the past several years.
This short book served asked an excellent counterpoint and complement to my light vacation reading this year.

A Chester Drum novel by Stephen Marlowe. A private eye with an office in Geneva gets caught up in a hunt for Spanish Gold with geo-political implications, including potential nuclear annihilation. An international spy thrillerwith a pulp cover. I gave it a pick because it's a quick fun read--good for summer vacation.

Dark, dense, intense, intimate. It seems almost commonplace to talk about how well suited graphic novels are to autobiography--this book is one of the best of that genre that I have read. A young boy grows up with an epileptic older brother. The family struggles through round after round of treatment and hopes for cures that never pan out. The stress and psychology of the drama unfolds across years. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

First book of summer vacation. It's a 2005 graphic novel I picked up for $5 at a book fair this year. My cousin turned me into it when it came out. I flipped through it then, but never got a copy. It's fantastic ... it's a densely drawn and told story of a boy growing up with a severely epileptic brother. A brutally honest and vulnerable autobiography. #comics

Good series, good book. Makes me wanna listen to Horses over and over and over.

Finished this fantastic book on a plane tonight. It has been on my list since the movie came out. Can't recommend it highly enough.

After reading a lot of bits of books for the last few months I finally finished one... I like this series and this author. Often silly but entirely fun.

I just realized that I happily bounce between books by a deeply committed and highly intellectual calvinist (Marilynne Robinson) and an anti-religious humanist (Kurt Vonnegut). I claim both as favorites.

Just finished the last interview in this book: Chris Ware and Art Spiegelman talking about comics with Hillary Chute. What a treat! The book is filled with so many great interviews with lots of comics heros ... Charles Burns, Lynda Barry, Joe Sacco, Alison Bechdel, and so many more. Great book.

I am glad I read this old book. It has been on my shelves for years, and I am not even sure when or why I picked it up. I know the author as an art critic from his book Ways of Seeing. This book of stories and poems about post-war peasant life in the French Alps is beautifully written and engaging.

The Third Man directed by Carol Reed, 1949. Starting Joseph Cotton, Orson Wells, and Alida Valli. Screen play by the author. Classic. #booktomovie

I just put this title at the very top of my wish list. How did I not know about this book??? The AACM and Art Ensemble of Chicago (now 50 years old) occupies a hallowed spot in American Music History. Recently they've been occupying a lot of my headspace.

A quirky book of stories, essays, and poems. Good reading on a Sunday morning.

What a beautiful little book. I flipped back and forth about whether I liked it and even went so far as to tell a friend not to bother with it... I almost bailed. In the end, though, I couldn't put it down and I totally fell for it. It's a memoir of loss and grief told through stories of travel, dreams, and nothing, really.

It's morel season!!!

Finally finished Freshwater. It's very good. Emezi brings a new (to me, at least) perspective about existence as many. It's a spiritual story of madness, being inhabited by Gods, spirits, and multiple personalities.

Just finished this weird and wonderful book. It was a necessarily slow read and anything but straight forward. You have to be willing to give yourself over to surrealism and the real work of making sense of collage ... Something like a story slowly emerges from fragments of text and illustration. Art, sex, and the human struggle with both... What more could you want?

This book continues to amaze me. This page: "his wife; / he took / her extra ticket / to the Ring / her huge carving / of splendid / sound / he emerged from / the Opera / that / huge engine of torture"

I'm about a quarter of the way into this book and it's great so far. Compelling. It's also the first book I have picked up because of a mention on litsy. (Thanks @sprainedbrain )

I'm a sucker for Seth's Palookaville. This story chronicles the search for more information about a little known cartoonist of the 40s and 50s. It's full of introspection, melancholy, love, and dedication. A casual encounter with a single comic strip becomes a mission to learn more. It's a beautifully slow-paced book where each panel brings depth. Even landscape and architecture become characters that frame and deftly move the story along.

A John Porcellino (King - Cat) collection. So nice! Also a nice view of the evolution of a comic. This collection comprises strips written between 1988-1999 and a few from 2004. #comics

Doing the math (it always comes out the same): a business trip to Philadelphia + some free time on a Sunday afternoon = a visit to Fat Jack's Comic Crypt. I like this shop. #comics

Love this book of interviews with cartoonists. Today I am reading Chute's interview with Charles Burns, a favorite since the eighties when I first started reading comics for real. RAW was a revelation. How can you go wrong when experts start talking in depth about things they love and share? #comics

I'm not much one for the style of writing but the plot was terrific and full of intrigue. A little slow to start perhaps but it picks up and maintains a pretty good intensity as you get into it.

Over 80% in and I have no idea how this thriller will end. Lots of balls in the air and conflicting interests all around... Putting off my plan to box up books for donation to the book fair to find out (hence the messy pile in the background).

Waiting for my dealer to service my car.... Seems like appropriate wating room reading.

Just finished reading this catalog from the Ruth Asawa exhibit put on by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. The exhibition was fantastic and the catalog does a good job of illustrating the depth and breadth of Asawa's work. Three essays and a comprehensive survey of her sculptures as well as a number of her drawings. Highly recommended.

I finally finished this book of essays. A long and intense read--absolutely worth taking slowly. It presents a compelling ontology founded on humanism and Christian faith. It's profoundly soulful.

Just started this gorgeous book a friend gave me this summer. It's a "treated novel" .. . Art on top of pages, little traces of the original story showing through, selected to tell a new story.

Hard to go wrong with McKeever's bold style. #comics
#graphicnovel

I returned to this book after watching the movie "Never Look Away" (intense and thought provoking). About Beuys'drawings Walter Schade says, "Drawing and painting watercolors helped him to gain comprehensive awareness of his view of the world and man". Art. A quintessential human endeavor.

Great watercolors and a good story. I am digging the Descender series. Just finished vol 2.

Anybody read this one? A local homeless guy recommended it. Looks interesting.

Great story by Jeff Lemire, author of Sweet Tooth. Art by Dustin Nguyen. Empathetic boy bot in the middle of interplanetary conflict and struggle ... Can't wait to find out what will happen to poor, sweet, little Tim-21

Can't believe I wasted a few days reading this book only to find out that I read it back in 2007. Until now I have never reread a book without any glimmer of recognition! Skip this pithy self-help book: "There is a simple solution to email overload: don't become overloaded." Oh. Thanks for the tip.