BOOK REVIEW - Asterios Polp by David Mazzucchelli

I absolutely love book clubs. There are so many things right about them, but, in short, they rock because they serve up two wonderful pieces of joy: introductions to new books and book talk. One of my favorite book clubs is one that I am inconsistently a member of via my husband. It is called "Picture Books Anonymous" and it is held monthly at our comic book shop, Comic Book Jones in Staten Island. I love this club in particular because it is all about reading graphic novels. I wrote about the first time I attended a meeting last year for possibly my favorite graphic novel of all time, I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly, and ever since I have tried to at least be a satellite member by reading the books my husband brings home and attending meetings when I'm healthy enough to do so.

May's graphic novel was Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. While I hadn't finished the book by the date of the meeting, I was so enthralled by its introduction, I made sure I was in attendance. Now that I have finished the book, my next job is to make sure I share its magnificence with you.

It is so rare that one finds themselves experiencing a piece of art so perfectly suited to its medium as is the case with Asterios Polyp. This book, this story, this piece of artwork could only be truly shared as a graphic novel. The story is told wholly on each page through the dialogue, the art, the colors, the lettering, and the page layouts; and every single one of those pieces comes together to lift a possibly commonplace tale of a bad guy seeing the light on to a pedestal of artistry that is so deep only multiple exposures could begin to reveal its totality.

Is this a story about one man, Asterios Polyp? Is it about his marriage? Is it about life? Could it be about your life? It is not surprising, at all, to learn that David Mazzucchelli spent ten years of his life working on this book. As the reader delves deeper into the story Mazzucchelli's decisions and careful planning begin to weave into your psyche - certain colors stand for certain places, characters and moods; each character has their own lettering for their speech, and their speech bubbles continue to reflect their personality; the name of almost every single person is begging you to notice it even when it is something as simple as Hana... Nothing is left to chance.

We spent a little over an hour talking about this book in our book club and barely touched the surface. One could easily design a course around this book examining each layer and its intent. With that said, this book is not for everyone.

Although it is an Eisner Award winning book and most of the club agreed that this should be among the top two books we've ever read (if we ever get around to *officially* ranking them!), there were others who simply could not get into it. Here's my perspective on this: I am (at times) a deep reader and thoroughly enjoy layers upon layers of possible meanings within a text, a film or a theatrical production; there are others who seek these same entertainments only as a source of escapism and fun. If you are the latter (or are simply in the mood for the latter), Asterios Polyp may not be the book for your shelf. However, I must warn against this: do not attempt to know your true opinion of this book without reading it in its entirety. This story is not told in a linear fashion, but the only way to get all of it is to go from beginning to end. Read it through, then think on it and, perhaps, read it through again. I plan to. I have finished reading this book, but I am no where near done with it.

I highly recommend this book to graphic novel readers. If it is not already, I imagine it shall become part of the unofficial graphic novel canon of greats which include mentions of Maus and Persepolis. For those who are unfamiliar with graphic novels as a medium, this may be an interesting leap as a first read. It will definitely demonstrate all of the tools available within the design that every graphic novel writer and artist has at their disposal.

Have you read Asterios Polyp? If so, what did you think?

Are you a graphic novel reader? Why or why not? 

Write On Edge: My Distant Teachers

I am a writer. If you ask to see my credentials, I will show you all I have written. I did not say I was a published writer ...yet. To be a writer all it really takes is to set to the task of writing on a regular basis.

That is fulfilling, but, personally, I don't like to do anything half-assed and I know that I am on the steep end of the learning curve when it comes to all that is involved in the craft of writing. I did not study writing or even literature in college. I was a double major in Mathematics and Education. These studies have served me well, and, I believe they continue to serve me, but there is much I don't know about that which I spend my days doing now, and I am thirsty for knowledge.

Enter Write On Edge. This is a website often linked to from Rivera Runs Through It and discussed in passing. I was recently asked in an interview for the Carpe Diem blog what my number one favorite website was (besides my own). I nearly dismissed the question as unanswerable, until it occurred to me, I visit Write On Edge every single day. Here's just a piece of my answer:

I have gotten an incredible amount of inspiration from Write On Edge. This group has two weekly writing prompts that I try to participate in as much as possible. Those prompts, in part, are what inspired me to start Rivera Runs Through It so I would have a blog space to write creatively.

I realized that if I had a computer that could only access one website and nothing more, I would set it to http://writeonedge.com/ because I could sit by my computer with a notebook and some paper and still write, still learn and still grow as a writer only with access to their site.

It began with a quest for writing prompts and community. I sought out the two prompts a week from what was then known as The Red Dress Club, and let them unleash my creative juices. (Off My Trail  was the first post I wrote for the community, I am still so proud of it.) Then, as each prompt came with a word count, I began to learn about word efficiency. Through reading the posts created by other bloggers linking to the community, I began to see how many different angles one theme could be perceived from, which led to even more creative thinking. Finally, I started to read the posts in between the prompts that were filled with writing tips, experiences, lessons and the creation of a book club for writers.


I did not intend to write about the Write On Edge community today as I sat down before my computer. My intention was to write about and review the book I finished yesterday, The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith. The book taught me so much about writing, research and observing life, but I would never have read this book if not for Write On Edge. It was the selection for our current book club. We will be discussing the first three chapters tonight on Twitter at 9:30pm EST (use hashtag #writeonedge if you want to join the discussion).

The other two books we read as a group were On Writing by Stephen King and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. With each turning page I feel more connections being made, more dendrites growing and a new skill is blossoming at my fingertips.These are incredibly exciting reads for me. So, just as I wrote about On Writing and as I reviewed Bird by Bird, you can be certain you will be reading my reactions to The Memoir Project, but it appears that story was not for today. Today's story is about my distant teachers, the wonderful people behind the scenes at Write On Edge and the community of people who participate there as well.

Today's blog post is a long overdue Thank you to a community that probably has little to no idea what a large impact they have had on me.

Do you participate in an online community?

How have they helped you grow, learn or just share in your time with them? 

For fellow writers, where do you find your inspiration and your education?

 

Nicolae: The Rise of the AntiChrist by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The following post is taken directly from my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

Nicolae: The Rise of the AntiChrist by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Book Three in the Left Behind series. The Tribulation Force has now experienced the beginning of WWIII and the end of peace. It seems the AntiChrist now knows the true allegiance of all of the characters and will soon break all ties. While his true nature has not yet been publicized, more people are turning to the way of Christ. The novel ends with another cliff-hanger. The "Wrath of the Lamb" hits Earth in a world-wide earthquake to mark the end for more tribulation saints.

Dated: 02/18/03

I was obviously enjoying this series when I was reading, but somewhere along the line, I stopped reading it (I think this was the last book I read). Has this ever happened to you with a book series?

A Girl's First [Book] Love

Where It Began 
 
The book had a sort of lime-green border with a picture of  a kid in a multicolored striped shirt standing next to a tipping fishbowl on a small table. The story had something in it about a turtle and a kid in the fourth grade. That is pretty much all I could remember of the details of Judy Blume's book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

The experience of reading the book, on the other hand, stuck with me all these twenty-five years later. I remember asking to go to bed early to read. I remember "sneak reading" using the light in the bottom of my bedroom lamp that served as my night light. I remember falling asleep with this book on my head and my parents telling me about it the next day! I remember, for the first time ever, laughing out loud from a book.

Why This Book Is So Important

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothinghas always played a significant role in my life as a reader because I do believe it was with this book that I first fell into what I like to call "book love." Reading that book, on my own, has counted as my earliest memory of wanting to rush everything just to get back to my book! I have sung its praises for this reason for as long as I can remember, but would always come up short when people would ask seemingly simple questions like

• What was the book about?
• Why did you like it so much?
• What was so funny about it?

I did not know how to answer any of these questions! And, for the sake of full disclosure here, I will admit that this kind of thing happens to me all of the time (this is why I love keeping a Reading Journal or being a part of book clubs, both help me jog my memory)!

Mission: Reread
 
For years my absent-mindedness did not bother me in the least. However, in the last year or so (probably because I have a lot more time to just think about things) I got to wondering what really hooked me. I wondered how Judy Blume managed to captivate me without magic, fantasy or having characters stuck on some deserted island. About a month ago, I decided to find out; I decided to reread the book.

Sounds simple. I thought it would be, but, strangely, there were a couple of obstacles in my way!

• First Stop: My iPad. Well, that didn't work. This book was not distributed in digital form and I haven't been able to read a printed book for about two years. However, I thought about this conundrum for a little while, and realized something: I don't work anymore. I don't have kids. If a book sends me into a headache-spiral of hell, then we'll have to order dinner in! In other words, there was really no reason for me not to at least try to read the printed book.
• Second Stop: My Barnes and Noble. Right up the block, I charged right into the children's section. There were no copies of the book.
• Third Stop: Borders in the Mall.  Guess what? No book. The salesperson told me that the children's section was the first to get wiped clean (that made me kind of happy...).

The book, in my hand finally!

Looking back now, I have no idea why I didn't go to the library. I guess I got so used to not being able to get anything there that it really got riped from my radar completely.

• Fourth, and Final Stop: Barnes and Noble in Brooklyn.  I had to go down to the Board of Education to do some paperwork that made me pretty miserable, checking out the B&N across the street was just about the only ray of sunshine in my day, and boy did it pay off! They had the book!! Finally!!

Book Love All Over Again
 
I made for really bad company on the trip home that day. I read on the train and on the ferry, and, you know what? A couple of times I even laughed out loud just like I did the first time I read the book!

I remembered so little of the story, but I could instantly see why this book was so right for me when I was a child:

• It was set in New York.
• The protagonist, Peter, had a little brother, Fudge, that was really, in so many ways the center of his whole world.
• Peter tries to be polite and "grown-up" and wishes Fudge could just do the same.
• Fudge likes to be involved in whatever Peter is doing.
•  Peter has to do things like get a pair of shoes he doesn't want to ever wear just so his little brother will want them too!
• When Peter's dad is left alone to take care of the kids, he kind of has no idea what he is doing .

It goes on, but, in short, I must have loved this book because Fudge was the extreme version of my own little brother and Peter's whole family could have been some alternate version of my own (some day I'll have to write a blog post about my dad's Macaroni and cheese debacle!. In fact, in my memory of this book the protagonist was a GIRL - talk about relating to a character!

I had an absolute BLAST rereading this book. I'm so happy I finally did it and I believe this reread will be marked in my memory with the same level of importance in this reader's life as the first read.

Why Rereading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Was One of the Best Things I Have Done THIS YEAR:

1. The book held up. I was so worried the book just wouldn't be as good. I feared that my memory has placed it on some beautiful, impossible pedestal of worthiness that I would not be able to appreciate as an adult. Those fears were unfounded, Judy Blume is that good.
2. The book captured a time. As I rad through the pages of this book, I felt as though I was transported in time, back to the 1980s, remembering the carefree joy of my childhood, the love of my family and the interesting kinds of worries I carried as a big sister. It was strange that this book took me there, but it was also so magical.
3. I READ A PRINTED BOOK. I'm not entirely sure I made that large enough for you, but, for the first time in two years I read words, off a page and didn't need days of rest in between. Now, grant it, the book took me much longer to read than a 110 page children's book should, but WHO CARES?!

She Lived Happily Ever After...

I held a book.
I turned pages.
I smelled the paper.
I could touch the words.

I READ A BOOK.

It was beautiful, and, for that, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing shall forever be remembered as my first and truly faithful book love.

This book introduced me to a world of wonder when I was younger that I will forever be grateful for. I was always the girl with a book - on my nightstand, in my backpack, in my pocketbook, by the pool and under my desk. I don't know how long it would have taken me to discover that world had I not found Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, or if I ever would have. Judy Blume simply showed me how enjoyable reading could be.

Some 25 years later, due to what seemed like a bunch of obstacles for no reason, this book brought me back from a hibernation I wasn't sure I would wake from. Since reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, I have read four other printed books and I am on my fifth. I am getting faster and tomorrow I am going to the library! I couldn't be happier. Reading the story brought back the joy of my childhood, but being able to read the book has revived the joy in my adulthood.


I take it word by word, page by page and book by book. Some days are easier to read than others, but hope is restored!

What was your first "book love"?

What was your last book love (I'm always looking for something great to read!)?

The term book love comes from Steve Leveen's book,

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life 

I highly recommend the book!

My Book Is On TV!!

This post was written in response to a writing prompt for  RemembeRED from The Red Dress Club. This week's prompt is as follows: 
TV is something that people either watch a lot of or have definite feelings about. This week, we want you to think about tv show from your past. Maybe you watched it, maybe you didn't and it was just something that everyone else talked about.

What feelings does the show evoke? What memories does it trigger?


Stories. They are my passion. Whether I hear them, read them, watch them or create them - at all levels I have always loved them. This is the story of when I first began to understand that a story can be more than just words in a book.


It was 1986. I was ten years old.


I loved the Mets, the outdoors, playing softball, my family (especially my six-year old brother), and I loved books.


My school was involved in the Troll Book Club. When we got a catalog I'd come home with my favorite selections circled to show my parents and begin the ritual of begging for books. This is how I got The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. When I read the book I was captivated - it was fun, hilarious and I loved Ralph. The book was such an adventure. I told my brother about it explaining how this little mouse would ride around on a little motorcycle and I would see his eyes light up. "I can't wait until you can read this!" I would tell him. At school we'd talk about it too. We all loved Ralph.

Of course, in the bumbling brightness of childhood all things fizzle and new things captivate. Ralph was remembered, but no longer center stage. Then, a little more than a week after the Mets World Series win, my brother and I shuffled down to the basement to watch the ABC Weekend Special. That week's special was called "The Mouse and the Motorcycle"!
 

I had never seen a book becoming a movie. On the screen I saw my visions, my imagination, the pictures, the movements - all there to share with everyone. My brother could now share in this fantastic story with me. He understood what I loved about it, he could SEE how Ralph could ride a motorcycle - not a BIG one like people ride, but a mouse-sized motorcycle.

I yelled up the stairs to my parents. I told them they had to come down and see it as I held the book in my hand. I flipped through the pages as the movie went on - I couldn't believe it was happening - the words had become pictures. 

My parents were amused by my excitement and told me about all of the other movies I had already seen that were books first: ALL OF THE DISNEY MOVIES, The Wizard of Oz,  and even TV shows like The Little House on the Prarie!


How did I miss this? Every time I had seen a book with a movie title, I thought the book was made after the movie - I had it backwards! This was wonderful! As I sat with my book on my knee, imagining all of the universes I had visited through my pages coming to life on the screen, my brother sat on the floor with a toy motorcycle zipping it through the legs of the chairs, the table and throughout the house.

"It's just like you said, Nicole!" He was right, because it was just like I had imagined.

My book came to life. Someone read the book, imagined Ralph and then MADE HIM - not like Beverly Cleary did, which was the first act of creation, but made a physical, photograph-able, talking, moving form of him - just like when I drew him, but 1,000 times better! And, according to my parents, this was happening all the time.


One thing was for certain: I would never read a book the same way again.

A Book Club for Giants

This is not my husband.

My husband is a comic book guy. Wednesdays are important here - that's the day new comic books come out for those who are not in this literary loop.

As part of his fan-dom, my husband has joined a Graphic Novel Club in our fabulous local comic book store, Comic Book Jones. It has been great. He has been finding out about new books he wouldn't have picked up himself, and then he gets to chat with some like-minded souls about them once a month.

Last month, he told me, "You're not going to believe this, but the next book the group is reading is I Kill Giants!" I was overjoyed! This was my book. I had been championing it in this house all year! I bought it for my husband six months earlier with strict instructions: "You MUST read this." With the club's selection, I knew he finally would!

As the date crept closer, my husband said that I should join him at the next meeting since I had such a great appreciation for the book. I decided that would be right up my alley (I love book clubs!). Then some exciting news broke:

The author, Joe Kelly, would be coming to the meeting! 

That was pretty awesome. I met him back in October at NY ComicCon right after I first read I Kill Giants. I had already told him how grateful I was for his book, how wonderful it was and I had already asked him how he knew about all that he wrote, but my husband was not with me and Joe Kelly is a super cool guy!

The day finally arrived this past Sunday and it was awesome. First of all, Comic Book Jones is simply the coolest comic book store EVER, so it is always fun to just be there. Then the book club is pretty sweet as well. Joe Kelly was a little late, so I got the best of both worlds - regular book club chat with fellow readers about an amazing book and then a fantastic and surprising Q & A session with our special guests.

Oh yes, that's right, I typed GUESTS, as in plural. There were three and they were all AMAZING!! We had Joe Kelly, the author of the book, his daughter Claire, who was the inspiration for the protagonist in the book and JM Ken Niimura, the artist!!! Incredible Surprises (Ken does not even live in the US!)!!

JM Ken Niimura talking with a fellow book club attendee.

Joe Kelly and his daughter, Claire

For you Fellow I Kill Giants  fans out there, here is some cool "behind the book" stuff that I learned from our time with the team:

• Joe had written the script for the book and held onto it for years. He actually had thoughts of it being a movie before being a comic book. He also said that the movie idea was still floating, but he won't ever let anyone "mess" with this particular story (I think he saw the panic in my eyes!).
• Joe and Ken met in a comic book convention in Europe where they were placed at signing tables next to each other. It was because of that placement that Joe saw Ken's art and proposed his book to him.
• Claire had no idea she was the inspiration for Barbara Thorson until years after the book was published.
• The creation of the book was a labor of love on both writer and artist's part. They both took their time with it and are grateful to have worked with Image on this product. (We all agreed that the passion was evident throughout the book.)
• Ken designed everything in the book from the panel layouts to the paper choice and covers of all of the issues. 
• Joe was fascinated by Ken's technique. At one point midway through the process he excitedly asked Ken to see a page of I Kill Giants - it was then that Ken showed him that he does not work that way. Every single panel had its own full-page sketch. It was only later that each image would be uploaded and re-sized to fit into the design.

...there's more. Of course we talked about the story - what inspired it, why certain choices were made, what we thought of certain parts and what the original intent was - but I can't write about all of that stuff without ruining the story for you! Instead here are a couple more pictures from the day:

Blurry Ken (not my greatest photography!)

Joe signs my husband's book.

My super-cool signed book, now complete with a sketch of Barbara by Ken.

To understand my passion for this book, my need to meet Joe Kelly at New York Comic Con to tell him, and to see why the Comic Book  Jones book club agreed this is the best book they have read to date then there is only one thing you can do: GO READ I KILL GIANTS! If you need more convincing, here is my review of the book.

Have you read I Kill Giants?

Have you ever had the opportunity to meet the author of one of your favorite books? How was it? What did you say?