My most favorite book with pictures is Radioactive: A story of love and fall out. The book is by Lauren Redniss and is about the love and professional collaboration between Pierre and Marie Curie. The books is visually stunning AND it's deeply researched and so well written. It was adapted to a movie starring Rosamund Pike (who is just perfect in it). I could not recommend it any higher! Austin, make it a bookclub pick. Seriously, it is AMAZING.
Robert Gipe’s illustrated novel Trampoline is wonderful (and - worth mentioning, I guess, these days - was a book I handed everyone who mentioned Hillbilly Elegy back when the latter was everywhere)
Looking at the times list The Goldfinch is the only one that would be on my personal top ten. Another easy pick is Here by McGuire. Love the phrase “books that cracked my head open”/ “I didn’t know a book could do that” and Here was definitely that experience for me. I also can strongly recommend Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris where she recounts her journey of biking the Silk Road. Fascinating stuff in itself but her writing is so captivating and poetic. I also read it when I was traveling myself which I’m sure added to my experience of the book.
Of course your books were absolutely foundational to me as a young artist (and continue to be) so Steal Like an Artist definitely makes my list, and another really important and foundational one for me was Keri Smith’s How to be an Explorer of the World.
From more recent favorites I’ve got No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
And something by Sabrina Orah Mark (either Wild Milk which I loved, or her new book Happily- which I haven’t quite finished but it is absolutely phenomenal).
Toronto-based grade school teacher/comic Lunarbaboon. Digs deep into parenthood and the heavy emotions during this life stage and beyond. Fun illustrations and endearing dialogue!
Gareth Hinds is a family favorite graphic novelist. I was first hooked on his work when my teens and I studied Poe and got his Poe book. The art work is divine and the art for The Raven (pg 96!) still stands in my mind seven years later. His version of Macbeth is my personal favorite, though.
I was floored by Lauren Weinstein's Mother's Walk and Leela Corman's You Are Not A Guest. Smaller entries, and small press, which I've really enjoyed discovering. Miriam Katin's Letting it Go was also amazing - such loose, expressive drawings with no panels that really opened my mind to what's possible with graphic novels.
I'm reading "The Future is Arab", a graphic novel by Riad Sattouf in French (although sadly my French is not quite up to it). It's a childhood memoir set in France, Libya and Syria. It's brilliant. PS There is an English translation.
Thanks for mentioning him, I was about to. It’s an amazing saga. And I didn’t know it had been translated, hooray! We’re very lucky in France the illustrated comic book genre is really very dynamic and we’re blessed with a lot of very talented authors, Marian Sartrapi being one of them ✌🏼
RE graphic memoirs: I adore the “Mophead” books, a series of graphic mini-memoirs for kids of all ages by poet-scholar-artist Selina Tusitala Marsh (https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/authors-and-editors/s/selina-tusitala-marsh). Austin, you’d love her work! She describes her writing process as “led by line”: she starts with the drawn line on the page, and the storylines follow. Selina’s latest Mophead book, “What Knot You Got?,” teaches kids to untangle their own knottiest knots by drawing and writing their way through them.
I loved Chuck Palahniuk back in the day, so I should probably include something of his... Perhaps Rant or Pygmy His work has gotten a bit too dark for me in my old age. Though he and I are the same age!
What It Is by Lynda Barry blew my mind also (and continues to do so... it's cracked open on my drafting table at this very moment). Fun Home is a CLASSIC that I've read several times now... there's so much going on in that book. Another graphic memoir that came to mind that people need to know about is Tom Hart's Rosalie Lightening: a raw and shattering read.
I'm not a huge Chris Ware fan, but I do own his Monograph and I LOVED seeing and reading about all the different kinds of creative work he did before "making it".
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one of my all-time favourite books... I've read it three times. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion should be required reading. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is compulsively readable, and astounding at times. Sorry, just my staccato responses to the many things in your post causing synaptic flashes in my brain 🤓
Drawn and Quarterly is definitely my favourite publisher! I was in Montréal just last month and I stopped by, as I do every time I'm there (I used to live in Montréal, and go back every couple of years). As it happens, I bought a new copy of What It Is while there, because I'd given my copy away!
Oh dear---I don't want to over-hype it! I hate when things are over-hyped. I finally read "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" recently, after hearing waaaaay too much hype about it. I'd been wanting to read it since it was published. It was... good? Sure, it was a good read. But was it "one of the best books I've ever read" (a blurb by John Green on the front of the UK paperback edition)? I really couldn't say, because my expectations were so skewed by all the hype.
When I read (and fell in love with) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay the first time, I did that thing where for a period of time I bought it for everyone I knew for every possible occasion. Suffice it to say that no-one exclaimed to me that it was THEIR FAVOURITE BOOK EVER! Haha. I mean, it won the Pulitzer Prize, so we know it's not trash. But not everyone will necessarily love it as much as I did.
I started reading it for the third time in November 2016, on the night Trump was elected. My husband was away on tour, and when the news came out I became distressed and didn't know what to do with myself. I started re-reading it as a bid for comfort. I don't remember how well it worked 🥲
At the risk of over-staying my welcome, I have an aside about Chris Ware, who I actually met back in 2011. A close friend of mine died, and in 2011 my husband and I travelled to Chicago for the memorial. My friend's wife had originally asked me to make the program for the memorial, but at some point politely asked me if I'd mind if Chris Ware made it instead. I'm not sure how well my friend had known Chris Ware... evidently well enough that Chris was designing the program for his memorial. At any rate...thank God he did. It was an understated letterpress design, and it was beautiful. Chris Ware also was understated, and shy. He seemed very, very nice.
My most favorite book with pictures is Radioactive: A story of love and fall out. The book is by Lauren Redniss and is about the love and professional collaboration between Pierre and Marie Curie. The books is visually stunning AND it's deeply researched and so well written. It was adapted to a movie starring Rosamund Pike (who is just perfect in it). I could not recommend it any higher! Austin, make it a bookclub pick. Seriously, it is AMAZING.
Illustrated Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen & Daniel Casanave, sort of an adaptation. As is On Tyranny - Tim Snyder & Nora Krug.
Robert Gipe’s illustrated novel Trampoline is wonderful (and - worth mentioning, I guess, these days - was a book I handed everyone who mentioned Hillbilly Elegy back when the latter was everywhere)
Looking at the times list The Goldfinch is the only one that would be on my personal top ten. Another easy pick is Here by McGuire. Love the phrase “books that cracked my head open”/ “I didn’t know a book could do that” and Here was definitely that experience for me. I also can strongly recommend Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris where she recounts her journey of biking the Silk Road. Fascinating stuff in itself but her writing is so captivating and poetic. I also read it when I was traveling myself which I’m sure added to my experience of the book.
Of course your books were absolutely foundational to me as a young artist (and continue to be) so Steal Like an Artist definitely makes my list, and another really important and foundational one for me was Keri Smith’s How to be an Explorer of the World.
From more recent favorites I’ve got No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
And something by Sabrina Orah Mark (either Wild Milk which I loved, or her new book Happily- which I haven’t quite finished but it is absolutely phenomenal).
Unrelated, but this made me think of you, Austin: https://lithub.com/meet-the-writers-who-garden-against-time/
Toronto-based grade school teacher/comic Lunarbaboon. Digs deep into parenthood and the heavy emotions during this life stage and beyond. Fun illustrations and endearing dialogue!
The absence of poetry from the NYT list is mind boggling to me
Gareth Hinds is a family favorite graphic novelist. I was first hooked on his work when my teens and I studied Poe and got his Poe book. The art work is divine and the art for The Raven (pg 96!) still stands in my mind seven years later. His version of Macbeth is my personal favorite, though.
I was floored by Lauren Weinstein's Mother's Walk and Leela Corman's You Are Not A Guest. Smaller entries, and small press, which I've really enjoyed discovering. Miriam Katin's Letting it Go was also amazing - such loose, expressive drawings with no panels that really opened my mind to what's possible with graphic novels.
I'm reading "The Future is Arab", a graphic novel by Riad Sattouf in French (although sadly my French is not quite up to it). It's a childhood memoir set in France, Libya and Syria. It's brilliant. PS There is an English translation.
Yes
Thanks for mentioning him, I was about to. It’s an amazing saga. And I didn’t know it had been translated, hooray! We’re very lucky in France the illustrated comic book genre is really very dynamic and we’re blessed with a lot of very talented authors, Marian Sartrapi being one of them ✌🏼
RE graphic memoirs: I adore the “Mophead” books, a series of graphic mini-memoirs for kids of all ages by poet-scholar-artist Selina Tusitala Marsh (https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/authors-and-editors/s/selina-tusitala-marsh). Austin, you’d love her work! She describes her writing process as “led by line”: she starts with the drawn line on the page, and the storylines follow. Selina’s latest Mophead book, “What Knot You Got?,” teaches kids to untangle their own knottiest knots by drawing and writing their way through them.
I loved the illustrations in the The Rime of the Modern Mariner by Nick Hayes.
https://www.foghornhayes.com/modernmariner
Books in the 21st century
Just Kids- Patti Smith
Pretty Much Everything- Aaron Draplin
Day out of Days-Sam Shepard
The Prospectors-Sam Shepard, Johnny Dark
Calypso-David Sedaris
Diaries-David Sedaris
I loved Chuck Palahniuk back in the day, so I should probably include something of his... Perhaps Rant or Pygmy His work has gotten a bit too dark for me in my old age. Though he and I are the same age!
Some not yet mentioned:
Graphic Novels
Igort: Japanese Notebooks, Kokoro
Guy Delisle, Pyongyang
The Rest of the World
Christina Lamb: The Sewing Circles of Herat, Small Wars Permitting, I am Malala, Farewell Kabul
The Other Rest of the World
Menno Schilthuizen, Nature’s Nether Regions
Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire
Dan Saladino, Eating to Extinction
Stories
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus (+ all of her writing; akin to Chinua Achebe)
M.R. Carrey, The Girl With All the Gifts (best read without knowing *anything* about this book)
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Life
Kathrin Passig & Sasche Lobo, Dinge geregelt kriegen ohne einen Funken Selbstdisziplin
Marie Kondo, Magic Cleaning (yes I dare)
Jeff Potter, Cooking for Geeks (1st ed only)
This exercise is encouraging: More than usual I’m noticing *when* books are from, and there are already *so* many good books in the 21st century.
Some books feel so classic that I’m surprised they’re this young. Like Reading Lolita in Tehran.
What It Is by Lynda Barry blew my mind also (and continues to do so... it's cracked open on my drafting table at this very moment). Fun Home is a CLASSIC that I've read several times now... there's so much going on in that book. Another graphic memoir that came to mind that people need to know about is Tom Hart's Rosalie Lightening: a raw and shattering read.
I'm not a huge Chris Ware fan, but I do own his Monograph and I LOVED seeing and reading about all the different kinds of creative work he did before "making it".
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one of my all-time favourite books... I've read it three times. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion should be required reading. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is compulsively readable, and astounding at times. Sorry, just my staccato responses to the many things in your post causing synaptic flashes in my brain 🤓
Drawn and Quarterly is definitely my favourite publisher! I was in Montréal just last month and I stopped by, as I do every time I'm there (I used to live in Montréal, and go back every couple of years). As it happens, I bought a new copy of What It Is while there, because I'd given my copy away!
+1 for Rosalie Lightning.
Yessssss
3 times?!? Okay I’m going to finally read it
Oh dear---I don't want to over-hype it! I hate when things are over-hyped. I finally read "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" recently, after hearing waaaaay too much hype about it. I'd been wanting to read it since it was published. It was... good? Sure, it was a good read. But was it "one of the best books I've ever read" (a blurb by John Green on the front of the UK paperback edition)? I really couldn't say, because my expectations were so skewed by all the hype.
When I read (and fell in love with) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay the first time, I did that thing where for a period of time I bought it for everyone I knew for every possible occasion. Suffice it to say that no-one exclaimed to me that it was THEIR FAVOURITE BOOK EVER! Haha. I mean, it won the Pulitzer Prize, so we know it's not trash. But not everyone will necessarily love it as much as I did.
I started reading it for the third time in November 2016, on the night Trump was elected. My husband was away on tour, and when the news came out I became distressed and didn't know what to do with myself. I started re-reading it as a bid for comfort. I don't remember how well it worked 🥲
At the risk of over-staying my welcome, I have an aside about Chris Ware, who I actually met back in 2011. A close friend of mine died, and in 2011 my husband and I travelled to Chicago for the memorial. My friend's wife had originally asked me to make the program for the memorial, but at some point politely asked me if I'd mind if Chris Ware made it instead. I'm not sure how well my friend had known Chris Ware... evidently well enough that Chris was designing the program for his memorial. At any rate...thank God he did. It was an understated letterpress design, and it was beautiful. Chris Ware also was understated, and shy. He seemed very, very nice.