My Summer Reading

Here's what I read and truly enjoyed this summer.

I have to go back to school tomorrow for the first of four days of professional development. While I have a habit of only saying that school only starts when the kids arrive because PD days just involve a lot of showing up and not doing much, it does mark the end of spending a lot of time reading.

When people ask me how my summer was I going to tell them it was fulfilling. I spent a lot of time working with kids while teaching comics classes. I had an engrossing week at Kenyon College geeking out about books with dual enrollment teachers. And I got to take a fantastic vacation to the Adirondacks. And oh yeah, I’ve spend the last few weeks working on my newest graphic novel, and my efforts to crowdfund it instead of going with a traditional publisher like I did my previous two.

Anyway, on to the books! I read a lot of books that I had read before, and I have indicated that next to the title.

Any why am I in these photos? Because everyone seem to like to see people.

Beloved, Toni Morrison (reread)

I read it in college, but hadn’t read it since. A Kenyon professor is a huge fan and even has a few Beloved related tattoos, and she gave me a copy to keep.

I didn’t remember anything about it at all, really, but it is a genuine masterpiece and a book I loved for all its heartbreak and agony.

The Known World, Edward P. Jones

Another book centered around slavery, and another remarkable book. An interesting, well developed set of characters. This one is high on the NYT’s list of the best books of the 21st century, which is why I read it.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon (reread)

Another book I read, but didn’t remember much about. I picked it up because I love comic books and was excited to read a story that was adjacent to the creation of Superman since the movie was coming out.

It was a lot longer than I expected, but I think I bought into it more this time. I’m sure I read it 20 years ago, and probably wasn’t ready for it. At the same time, there was more about comics than I remembered, and it made me want to track down the comics that were created to replicate the work of the two main characters.

Superboy, the Superdog of Krypto, various

Allow me to geek out a bit. I am a huge fan of Superman, especially the Silver Age comics. However, I had never spent much time with Superboy. Faced with a shortage of Superman comics I hadn’t read, I turned to Superboy, who was written and drawn by a lot of the same people, in this nice collection of stories.

And you know what? I thought the Superboy comics were better! Something about a teenage superhero appealed to me and Otto Binder wrote some terrific stories that were free of the weird robot gimmicks that the Superman comics lean on. Each story is self contained and only takes a few minutes to read. Great stuff—a relic of a past era.

There’s a collection of comics from the Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane comics that I’m eager to read next.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Emil Ferris (reread)

(I tried unsuccessfully to make the cover my head).

I bought this at the Book Nook in Saranac Lake where I was doing a signing. I always like to buy something where I sign, and I wanted to read Volume One again before reading Volume Two, so I bought it.

I didn’t appreciate it the first time I read it, but holy smokes! I loved it this time. I don’t know if you can call it a comic book as much as a series of exquisite illustrations on notebook paper with narration. It largely concerns itself with the brutal life of the protagonist’s mother. But the narrator is half human half werewolf, and there’s an undercurrent of monster movie and comics ephemera throughout. It’s the work of a truly original voice, and something that I think even those who don’t like comics might appreciate.

Mister Miracle, Alan Moore

I say Alan Moore loosely because he denies any involvement with this title. The art is by various British comics artists.

I had somehow missed this in my Alan Moore phase when I read everything I could by him. Although now that I think about it, this might have been a hard title to find.

I found it a little purple prosey at times, but this is based on a clever idea: when you have a superhero like Shazam that is summoned by a boy who becomes him, what is truly going on? It’s a mind bending tale that had to have been quite shocking at the time it came out—it’s not for the faint of heart. And yet it’s just amazing what Moore did here. And the art is amazing, with layouts I couldn’t possibly think of, much less execute.

And yes, this picture is from the summer. I’m in the Adirondacks, and it really was cold enough to need jeans.

The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

The first book in a series. It was recommended to me by another teacher who loves sci-fi, which is not my jam, but I respect her taste in books and decided to give it a try.

What a cool world the future will be according to Chambers! The characters felt very real, and while most of the book is just the characters going about living their lives in space, it was nice to see a future world when everything seems to have worked out ok. I liked it so much I bought and read the second one and I plan on picking up the third one today. Even if you don’t like sci-fi, give it a try.

Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult, Bruce Handy

(I returned this to the library so I don’t have a picture of it)

I read about this book somewhere and knew I would like it and grabbed it from the library the next day. It delivers exactly what it promises, and it was fun to hear his takes and certain stories and types of stories, most of which I had read. For years I had wanted to reread Beezus and Ramona and did, and picked up a Beartix Potter book for the first time. I recommend this book to all who like children’s books, and who doesn’t? It will take you back to a magical time.

As a side note, I’m started a new thing this year: every Monday I’m reading a children’s book to my high schoolers at the start of the period. Why? Because it sounded fun.

Here are the rest of the books I read that I can remember:

• It Happened in Boston?, Russell H Greenan (reread)

• Space, James Michener

• Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut (reread for the umpteenth time)

• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson (reread)

• Precious Rubbish, Kayla E.

• How Things are Made, Tim Minshall

• Impossible Creatures, Katharine Rundell