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Showing posts from December 1, 2008

Best-Loved Books of 2008, #1: Favorite graphic novel mystery/suspense

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Shop Indie Bookstores Incognegro by Mat Johnson (Bonus: December is National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month ! ) My favorite kind of book is one that both moves and challenges me, taking me on a thrill ride of story and character. Mat Johnon’s new graphic novel rides that dangerous edge between heavy issues and heavy-hitting action, with the story of a black man passing for white in the lynching-plagued 1930s South. It pulls it off in the way only a comic can (and a black and white comic at that), and manages to work gender politics, family dynamics, and some darned funny dialogue into a suspenseful mystery. An important (and enjoyable) moment in the history of literary comics. And then there's the bonus: African American author Carleen Brice is hoping to use this month of gift giving to start a movement to get some classics and new favorites out of the "African American Literature" section and into the hands of non-black readers.