Jane Eyre

I'm attempting to rectify some longstanding gaps in my literary education. This year's reading list includes Crime and Punishment, Tale of Two Cities, and Three Men in a Boat. And I've just finished Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

As a modern librarian, I "read" Jane Eyre in multimedia fashion. Most of it I either read in the free Kindle app on my iPod or listened to via a recording from Librivox, which produces free downloadable audiobooks of public domain literature. When I actually had time to sit in my living room, I read a hardcover copy from the library. Although I found the Victorian prose slow going at first, I warmed to the story and the character of Jane, particularly as voiced in Elizabeth Klett's wonderful reading for Librivox. Klett's Librivox works have a lot of fans.

I was ready for the prototypical gothic romance, the brooding Rochester, the star-crossed love. I wasn't expecting the proto-feminism, accompanied by deft attacks on religious hypocrisy and rigid ideas of predestination. Jane is a fascinating character with a terrific story, told by a skilled and insightful writer.

Having finished the book, I had to check out the screen treatments, and there are quite a few -- IMDB lists 21 different versions, including feature films and mini-series. So far, I've watched the 1944 Joan Fontaine & Orson Welles version, which was interesting, but at 97 minutes glossed over or elided some significant aspects of the plot and was not altogether satisfactory. Better was the 1983 BBC mini-series with Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton, which included sufficient detail and was well played by the leads.

I'm looking forward to seeing some other adaptations, and reading more by Charlotte Bronte. I'll probably re-read Jasper Fforde's wonderful Eyre Affair, the first Thursday Next novel, now that I'll understand more of the allusions.

Wisconsin Children's Book Awards

Leah Langby, chair, Children’s Book Award Committee, writes:

Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award goes to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book
The Children’s Book Award Committee of the Youth Services Section of the Wisconsin Library Association announces that this year’s winner of the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, published by HarperCollins.

The committee also selected the following Outstanding Books:

• Old Bear by Kevin Henkes, published by Greenwillow
• Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes, published by Greenwillow
• It's Not Fair! Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld (written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal), published by HarperCollins
• The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great by Gerald Morris, illustrated by Aaron Renier, published by Houghton Mifflin
• Monsoon Afternoon by Kashmira Sheth, published by Peachtree
  

The Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award winner receives a $1,000 award, funded by the WLA Foundation through a generous contribution from Worzalla Publishing of Stevens Point. The winner is also invited to attend the Awards banquet at the WLA Annual Conference.

The committee reported that it looked at about 80 titles this year. Committee members are Kate Fitzgerald-Fleck (Waukesha Public Library), Pat Freitag (Graham Public Library, Union Grove), Barb Huntington (DLTCL, Madison), Tom Hurlburt (Rhinelander District Library), Linda Jerome (La Crosse Public Library), Leah Langby (Indianhead Federated Library System, Eau Claire), Susan Pesheck (River Falls Public Library).

Go, Neil!

Wisconsin Literary Awards

Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards Committee Chair Ellen Jepson has posted the following to state email lists:

The Literary Awards Committee of the Readers’ Section of the Wisconsin Library Association has chosen What It Is by Lynda Barry as the winner of the RR Donnelley Literary Award, given for the highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author in 2009. What It Is appears at first to be an eccentric writer’s guide. In reality it is a densely-layered treatise on setting aside inhibition, following your dreams, and allowing your inner child to come out and play again. Lynda offers us insight into how she overcame self-doubt, as well as the doubts of others, to follow her muse, and in the process become one of America’s leading cartoonists. Part memoir, part writer’s guide, Lynda does a brilliant job of using her own experiences to illustrate that each of us has the power to create within us.

The RR Donnelley Literary Award is made possible by RR Donnelley Company of Chicago, IL through a grant to the WLA Foundation.

Two authors were chosen for their body of work as Notable Wisconsin Authors. Gene DeWeese is the author of multiple fiction titles for adults and children, including The Doll with Opal Eyes and Jeremy Case. Margaret Ashmun wrote fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books and her works include The Lake and the Isabel Carleton series.

2009 Outstanding Achievement awards for 2008 publications include the following ten titles by Wisconsin authors. They are:

• Anthony Bukoski - North of the Port: Stories
• Lauren Groff - Monsters of Templeton
• Sharon Kaye - The Aristotle Quest: Black Market Truth
• David Maraniss - Rome 1960: the Olympics that Changed the World
• David McGlynn - The End of the Straight and Narrow: Stories
• Rachel Pastan - Lady of the Snakes
• David Rhodes - Driftless
• Michael Schumacher - Wreck of the Carl D.: a True Story of Loss, Survival, and Rescue at Sea
• Lori Tharps - Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love, and Spain
• Jean Wilkowski - Abroad for her Country: Tales of a Pioneer Woman Ambassador in the U.S. Foreign Service

2009 Outstanding Achievement in Poetry awards for 2008 titles include the following four titles:

• Matthew Guenette - Sudden Anthem
• Judy Roy and June Nirschl - Two Off Q: a Conversation in Poetry
• Austin Smith - In the Silence of the Migrated Birds
• Ron Wallace - For a Limited Time Only

The 2009 Literary Awards Committee members are: Ellen Jepson (chair), Jean Anderson, Susan Belsky, Anne Callaghan, Caroline Haskin, Brian Kopetsky, Amy Lutzke, Rhonda Puntney, Deb Shapiro, and Cece Wiltzius.

For more information about the work of the Literary Awards Committee, go to
http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/readers/WLAC/lac.html

1776 by David McCullough

This is a military history of the first full year of the American Revolution, the year the nation was born. Most Americans remember July 4, 1776 for the Declaration of Independence, and they may know that Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas. But 1776 was an eventful year. Quoting a wide variety of firsthand accounts and letters, McCullough brings a long, costly and difficult year of military campaigns to life. From the words of sources on both sides of the struggle, the Americans and British are humanized.

As much as anything, this is the story of George Washington's on-the-job training as commander of the Continental Army. In covering the three major campaigns of 1776, in Boston, New York and New Jersey, McCullough tells stories of courage, luck, blunders and betrayals. But in the details of battles and the struggles of soldiers, a nation emerged and a national character began to form. Unlikely heroic leaders emerged, like Nathaniel Green and Henry Knox. Their stories are ours; McCullough melds them into a fascinating and important story.

Library Journal does Urban Fantasy

Recommended article: the June 1 issue of LJ has a terrific overview of urban fantasy literature: The City Fantastic by Nanette Wargo Donohue. There's an introduction and a fairly extensive annotated bibliography. Sections of the essay include:

• Introduction
• Folkloric tradition
• Vampires, werewolves, & fairies
  
• Genre confusion
• Shape-shifting formats
• Collection development resources
• Core titles in two areas (see full article for all titles & annotations)
  
• Traditional Urban Fantasy
• Bull, Emma. War for the Oaks
  
• de Lint, Charles. Dreams Underfoot
• Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere
• Contemporary Urban Fantasy
• Briggs, Patricia. Moon Called
• Butcher, Jim. Storm Front
• Hamilton, Laurell K. Guilty Pleasures
• Harris, Charlaine. Dead Until Dark
• Harrison, Kim. Dead Witch Walking
• Vaughn, Carrie. Kitty and the Midnight Hour
• Web Sites
• Fangs, Fur, & Fey
• Urban Fantasy Land
  

Asian Cinema: a Field Guide

This useful reference guide, published in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, gives a good overview of the scope of Asian cinema and the works of prominent directors. The author, Tom Vick, does Asian film work at the Smithsonian, and this 274 page guide, published in 2007, provides a timely introduction to a subject of increasing interest.

While many Americans are familiar with major Chinese and Japanese film-makers, well established and influential here, other noted artists are less familiar. The book provides general coverage of more familiar subjects, but devotes more individual attention to those about whom less is known. There is also an emphasis on films that are available in the U.S.

Separate chapters deal with China, Japan, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Iran, Taiwan, South & Southeast Asia, and Central Asia & the Middle East. There is a good index and bibliography.

At a time when the world seems smaller, and American attention is often drawn to Asia in negative ways, this book points to another dimension of the many peoples and cultures from Turkey to Japan.

Time travelling

I've been spending a lot of time in the early 19th century lately. Without premeditated intent, I've found a pattern in recent reading and viewing:

• Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian (book & audiobook)
• Sense and Sensibility (PBS Masterpiece TV)
  
• The Jane Austen Book Club (DVD)
  
• Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
  

Patrick O'Brian's rich legacy of Aubrey/Maturin novels was most famously developed into the film Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World. The story of two friends -- the bluff, hearty, Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, and the Irish-Catalonian naval surgeon, natural historian and spy Stephen Maturin -- follows them through the Napoleonic wars, the War of 1812, and other adventures.

It's been said that O'Brian writes about what the men were doing while Jane Austen's heroines anguished over matrimonial prospects. Indeed the second and third Aubrey/Maturin books humorously and successfully satirize Austen. But O'Brian shines in the painstaking historical detail, the period language, and above all in action sequences. I'm currently in the eighth book of the series, but the sixth, Desolation Island, was the beginning of a three book story arc and contained stirring battles that almost redefine the term "page turner."

O'Brian's work is also well served in audiobooks with the work of excellent narrators, John Lee and Patrick Tull. Each brings different strengths, but both make it a joy to listen. Lee's work on Desolation Island makes it difficult to stop listening, with fine voice characterizations and narrative power.

Sense and Sensibility, a two part-adaptation on PBS' Masterpiece, is one of the finest screen translations of Jane Austen. Written by Andrew Davies, who famously adapted Pride and Prejudice as a mini-series, this new production holds its own with Emma Thompson's wonderful 1995 feature film. Wonderfully produced, cast, acted and filmed with strong direction, this is a must see for Austen fans.

The Jane Austen Book Club, the film of Karen Joy Fowler's novel, is fun and entertaining chick-flick stuff. But with a large ensemble cast, the screenplay does not have room for deep characterizations, and the movie feels light-weight. The cast turns in good performances as a group reads Austen's novels and applies them to personal problems, but the whole seems contrived.

Empire of Ivory, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. I read the first books in Naomi Novik's fantasy series awhile back and enjoyed them, but thought they were fairly predictable. The premise is goofily engaging -- what if the British and French employed fighting dragons during the Napoleonic wars? But the result was engaging but slight.

During the four books of the series, however, Novik has continued to develop larger themes. And now she kicks it up a notch in both seriousness and imagination. She continues to use human exploitation of dragons as an analog for the 19th century slave trade. Here she mixes in the discovery of a hidden, advanced pan-African empire that threatens European dominance. In the earlier books, dragons sometimes seemed curiously tacked on to world history as we know it. Novik has gotten bolder, giving her secondary world a stronger narrative life.

GN shorts

I've been reading a lot of books and watching a lot of films lately -- I just haven't been writing about them. Here's a piece of catch-up:

Graphic novels & comics

• All-star Superman (vol. 1) by Grant Morrison (writer) & Frank Quitely (illus.) is a nice re-imagining of the archetypal superhero, creatively written with some nice twists, well-drawn with clean, strong lines and sophisticated coloring. Worthwhile for anyone who enjoys the DC mythos.
• Mouse Guard (vol. 1: Fall 1152) by David Peterson is a comic book for all ages. Halfway between the Knights of the Round Table and Brian Jacques' Redwall books, this is an entertaining adventure parents can share with kids.
• Avalon High - Coronation (vol. 1: the Merlin Prophecy) by Meg Cabot, is a disappointing manga-style sequel to Cabot's Avalon High Arthurian romance novel. There's a lot of re-hashing of the original novel, and the artwork seems uninspired and occasionally confusing. Which might be why it's taking a whole year to bring out the second volume. Too bad, because the original book was light fun -- here's hoping Cabot can adapt her writing to the medium and that the drawing shows improvement.
• Monster (vol. 1) by Naoki Urasawa is a terrific read, and I'm looking forward to catching up with subsequent volumes. A medical and crime thriller reading something like Grey's Anatomy meets CSI, this story of a brilliant Japanese surgeon in Germany who unwittingly helps launch a serial killer, this 18 volume series is rated as the overall best manga on Anime News Network.
  
• Flight (vol. 1) - various authors and artists - this is the first installment of an award-winning international anthology, showcasing a broad variety of short works with a common theme of flight.
  
• Phoenix (vol. 7) by Osamu Tezuka [Civil War, part 1] is not one of the stronger entries in the long-running and diverse epic of loosely associated stories. But it still entertains.
  
• DC: the New Frontier (2 vols) by Darwyn Cooke is a retelling of the CD mythos from WWII through 1960. By viewing super-hero characters and the Justice League as metaphors for empowerment and social change, Cooke tells a compelling story through a lengthy series of anecdotes. He includes McCarthyism, Ku Klux Klan lynchings, Edward R. Murrow and Richard Nixon, before building to a climactic battle that seems like standard Justice League stuff but for the strong character development that runs through the story. But he concludes with a powerful denouement.
  

Cybils Winners

The Cybils winners were announced a few weeks ago. Check 'em out! Read 'em all! Thanks to Jennie at Biblio File for the reminder!

Cybils Graphic Novel Finalists

The Childrens' and YA Bloggers Literary Awards finalists for 2007 have been announced. I'm going to touch on a couple of my favorite categories here, but encourage anyone who appreciate literature for kids and teens to check out the Cybils. It's encouraging to see recognition of quality graphic novels. Annotated listings and more are available on the Cybils website.

2007 Graphic Novel Finalists

Teen/Young Adult:

• The Arrival written and illustrated by Shaun Tan - Arthur A. Levine Books
• Flight Volume Four edited by Kazu Kibuishi
• Laika written and illustrated by Nick Abadzis
• The Plain Janes written by Cecil Castellucci; illustrated by Jim Rugg
• The Professor's Daughter written by Joann Sfar; illustrated by Emmanuel Guibert

Elementary/Middle Grade:

• Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin; illustrated by Giovanni Rigano and Paolo Lamanna
• Babymouse #6: Camp Babymouse written and illustrated by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
• The Courageous Princess written and illustrated by Rod Espinosa
• Robot Dreams written and illustrated by Sara Varon
• Yotsuba&! Volume 4 written and illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma

Genre bending: Avalon High by Meg Cabot

The heroine of Avalon High has it tough. Transplanted into a new life and school when her parents take a sabbatical, she is forced to spend days floating in her pool, be a track star and hang out with the most popular kids.

Ok, maybe she doesn't have it so tough, but she still has a lot of problems, which are slowly revealed in this entertaining novel. Actually, it doesn't take a whole lot of figuring out, though Meg Cabot wisely saves a twist or two for the end of the book.

OK, I like young adult novels as a class, but it is seldom that I find myself reading a girls romance story. Fortunately I was reassured by my favorite YA librarian: "It's okay, Dad, it's pretty geeky."

And geeky it is, as Cabot nicely fuses the classic YA problem novel, romance and fantasy, and manages to turn the blend into a page turner rather than a hodge-podge Cabot show a nice sense of pacing and the book is quick and fun.. Hey, I'm a sucker for Arthurian fiction, and rather fond of the Tennyson poem "The Lady of Shalott" that Cabot uses for chapter epigraphs.

Next, please

• Mystery
• Fantasy & science fiction
• Humor
• Literary allusions

Roll 'em all into a smooth ball, and what you have are Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next stories (and the spin-off Nursery Crime series). The stories are set in an alternate world where England is still fighting in the Crimea in 1985 and was occupied by Germany in WW II, time travel is not unknown, and where people have genetically engineered dodo birds as pets.

Thursday begins her career in The Eyre Affair, fighting a nefarious villain who kidnaps Jane Eyre right out of her book, forcing an abrupt ending in every existing copy. In order to set things aright, Thursday has to enter the novel and get personally involved with the plot and characters. This device proves so successful that in subsequent books she moves into the fictional world full-time, as an agent of JurisFiction, the policing agency of the fictional world. As a trainee in fiction, she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Havisham proves not only feisty, but pursues a longstanding rivalry with the Red Queen and is addicted to high speed motorcars and wont to getting into races with Mr. Toad.

You get the idea: books within books, etc. As the Fforde Ffan Club FfAQ says "there are a lot of jokes that play upon jokes that have played upon puns that travel from book to book". Suffice it to say that there is one laugh-aloud moment after another. The books are well-suited to anyone who enjoys mystery, SF and humor based on literature. Indeed, there are so many literary allusions, one never knows how much one is missing! You don't have to have read Jane Eyre, etc. to enjoy these books, but it helps.

These stories make you want to read others to find out what you're missing. Librarians, among others, should love these! Does anyone have a copy of Shadow the Sheepdog?

As of this writing, the novels involved are:

Thursday Next

• 1: The Eyre Affair
• 2: Lost In A Good Book
• 3: The Well Of Lost Plots
• 4: Something Rotten
• 5: First Among Sequels

Nursery Crime

• 1: The Big Over Easy
• 2: The Fourth Bear

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I expect that librarians should be recommending books and that doctors should be keeping us well, but it doesn't always happen just that way. After I told my doctor about a recent trip to Transylvania, he said "wait a minute, I've got a book for you to read." And ducking into his office he returned to the exam room with Kostova's The Historian. He had just finished it and told me to keep it as long as I needed to (and it's a long book).

This wasn't the first time somebody had recommended the book, but this one felt like fate. Who am I to go against my doctor's recommendation? I didn't know that much about the book beyond the blurb, but I soon realized it was a vampire story -- a Dracula story, to be precise -- with a lot of history thrown in. By the time I got to the undead librarians, I was hooked.

This is a good book, and a lot of its charm comes from its settings. Much of it takes place in libraries, but the locaitons vary tremendously, from the U.S. to Britain to Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Turkey. The combination of travelogue and history woven into a suspenseful vampire story makes a fascinating read. Though one chapter reads like an extended history lecture, interest in the narrative rarely flags. Flashbacks within flashbacks can occasionally be a bit confusing in remembering who the point-of-view narrator is, but confusion is rare and the device adds a lot of interest and variety. I talked up the book around the house and it became one of the rare titles that Marsha & I both read and enjoyed.

I read much of this in print, but also listened to a lot of the unabridged recorded version on my iPod. The recording alternates between two readers, who change with female and male narration in the text. Both readers do an outstanding job with a large number of characters and accents appropriate to many nationalities.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys historical ficiton, horror, speculative fiction, travel stories or undead librarians!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

This is a magical book. As magical as stories, as picture books, as silent films -- because it's all of them at once and a terrific read to boot.

Brian Selznick has written a story accessible to older children but able to grab adults. The story unfolds both in words and pictures, and Selznick's genius is that the pictures are not normal illustrations, but long sequences of double page spreads that immerse the reader into a virtual silent film. As the story goes on, the technique grows increasingly natural and fitting.

The novel tells of young Hugo Cabret, secretly living in the Paris train station in the 1920s and eking out a living by petty theft. Hugo's life seems a tragedy, but is filled with small mysteries, as are the lives of the people he encounters.

Anyone who enjoys a good story and picks up this book will likely be hooked in a few minutes. It's a quick read, both moving and entertaining, and would be a good piece of historical fiction for reluctant readers.

Best Old Movies for Families

I stumbled across this film guide from Boston Globe critic Ty Burr while browsing at the library. I'm glad I found it: it's a worthwhile read for film buffs as well as parents. Subtitled A Guide to Watching Together, and using anecdotes from the author's experiences with his children, the book provides an accessible and useful guide to parents who want to spend quality time with their kids and introduce them to good movies.

In the introduction Burr relates how his daughter wanted, and got, a Katherine Hepburn party for her ninth birthday, complete with a screening of Bringing Up Baby. He goes on to list starter films for various ages. Additional chapters explore various film genres. An appendix lists films recommended for various ages.

The emphasis is not on protecting your kids from movies that don't have family values, but exploring good films with your family. Entertainingly written, with something for every movie buff, this is highly recommended.

Literary Curiosa & fun

Literary Curiosa is a librarian's "Blog for discussion of bizarre books." Since librarians get a surfeit of bestsellers and ordinary books, we get happy every time we find a strange, interesting, unique book like Wisconsin Death Trip or An Exaltation of Larks.

The new Literary Curiosa blog is a fun place to explore and discuss interesting titles. It puts me in mind of another literary pursuit: first lines of novels. A great place to explore this is the American Book Review's list of 100 best first lines.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

This is simply the best graphic novel I've read in along time. Gene Luen Yang weaves three tales in a character study that illuminates Chinese tradition, racial stereotypes and problems of Asian-Americans in our melting pot society.

The three stories tell about a young boy who moves to a new school where he's subjected to prejudicial bullying, the mythical Monkey King -- a major figure in the Chinese story "Journey to the West", and a teenager embarrassed by visits from his totally stereotypical cousin. By the time I was halfway through, I knew I liked Gene Yang's writing and drawing -- a lot. Not only did the stories grab me and pull me in, not only did he create believable three-dimensional characters, but he gave one of the best and most accessible retellings of the story of the Monkey King that I'd ever encountered. It wasn't until I started writing this review that I found Yang's tribute to the artistry and influence of Osamu Tezuka. Interestingly, for his day job, he teaches computer science in a Catholic school. This guy's a real talent; I'm going to look into getting his other works for our library collection.

American Born Chinese won the 2007 Michael Printz Award for a book that "exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature." Highly recommended.

DK Eyewitness Companions: Film by Ronald Bergan

As a film fan and a reference librarian, I've always been sad that the wonderful Oxford Companion to Film was never updated. The 2006 DK Eyewitness Companions series book Film by Ronald Bergan, corrects that deficit to a large extent. As reference books go, it's a browser's delight -- though far from comprehensive. As browsing film books go, it's a great reference tool.

The 500 plus pages are divided into color-coded sections, with a tab index isdie the front cover. There's also a detailed table of contents and index. Sections include:

• The Story of Cinema (history)
• How Movies are Made (from pre-production through promotion & distribution)
• Genres (with recommended film titles)
  
• World Cinema (with recommended film titles)
• A-Z of Directors (with recommended film titles)
• Top 100 Movies
  
• Reference (lists of awards, polls, box office, plus glossary & index)

As is typical with Dorling Kindersley, the illustrationns are a high point, and well-suited to a book about a visual medium. Numerous sidebars (also indexed), cover subjects such as prominent actors, studios, and other noteworthy items. If all of these were in a single alphabetical sequence and the lists of people and films were greatly expanded, the information content would be comparable to the old Oxford Companion. As it is, the breadth impresses more than the depth. But it's a fun book and would be good in the home of any movie buff and in the circulating collection of most libraries.

Nodame Cantabile by Tomoko Ninomiya

Nodame Cantabile gets points for being different, at least for North American readers. In Japan, we hear, they have manga for almost every kind of interest. But it seems pretty unusual to run across a romantic comedy set among students at a university devoted to classical music. Even more surprising, the plotlines often seem to have more to do with the music and performance than with romance.

Noda Megumi, or Nodame, is also an atypical heroine: she frequently behaves annoyingly, has poor personal hygiene, lacks most social graces, and has unrealistic expectations of herself and others. However, this makes her a marvelous foil for the other main protaganist, the talented, arrogant and phobic Shinichi, whom Nodame loves unrequitedly. The eight volumes published thus far explore their relationship, their friends, their progress in school and their music.

It's fun and lightweight reading, but wiht a quality that makes it easy to understand why it has become wildly popular in Japan. There is a live action TV series based on the manga, and many recordings of musical selections taken from or inspired by the books.

Because the books do deal somewhat with adult relationships, our library put them in adult ficiton rather than the YA graphic novel collection. Recommended!

Strangers in Paradise: Adieu, Katchoo

I just finished reading issue #87 of Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise, which will end this May, in just three more (or Moore) issues. Dang, it was good -- I hate to see this story end, but the fact that it's ending shows its strength, and the stregnth of author-driven independent comics.

The series has grown and evolved over it's run, and the characters have grown as Terry Moore's writing gained depth. Sometimes maddeningly complex and elusive, and impossible to classify, SiP is ultimately a human drama. The story of tragic, angry Katchoo (Katina Choovanski, pictured above left in an image beloved of librarians) and sad, funny Francine, as their relationship weaves in and out of other lives is a fine read. I really knew this comic was unique when my local comic shop proprietor told me that a prominent minister and the library director (yrs truly) were the only two people in town reading this title regularly. But patience is rewarded for the reader and the collected volumes make the complex story easier to follow than the monthly issues.

This is what I mean when I talk about graphic novels, because this is truly a long, complex engaging novel. Now if I can just get the catalogers to stop putting this stuff in nonfiction :-)