i love good non-fiction. but i need a bit of story here and there. and, lately, i’ve been craving some fiction. this week i finished , by Audrey Niffenegger. it’s a very creative story of a man with a chromosomal abnormality that causes him to time-travel (mostly back in time, some foreward) spontaneously. sounds like science-fiction, i know, but that’s not really the tone. it’s primarily a love story, with strong themes of longing and waiting and life-values. karla yac had read it, and found it reflected so much of her mike-stuff. i saw that in the first chapter, but then didn’t see it again for much of the book. but the last chapter just about slayed me!

then, i read three illustrated books. i love illustrated books (i suppose you can call them comics — but they’re full books, novels with full illustrations). a month or two ago, time magazine had a list of 5 illustrated books they were highly recommeding, so i bought three of ‘em:
, by Daniel Clowes. a collection of odd little people in the fictional town of ice haven, all trying to find a bit of meaning in life. really enjoyable.
by Jason. the weirdest of the group, in terms of illustration. his “human” characters all have animal heads — mostly dog heads. i suppose you could call this book a murder-mystery. but what i really enjoyed (in addition to how much emotion and lack-of-emotion the author/artist can convey in the line-drawn face of a dog!) was the — warning, this is going to sound pretentious — humany of the characters, specifically, the goodness of the characters.
and, my favorite of the three was , by Manu Larcenet. it’s also the longest of the three (which gives a bit more space for character development). the illustration is fantastic — really adds to the book. there were many pages where i enjoyed just staring at the drawings for a while, as you would in a museum. it’s the story of a nominally-depressed guy named marco (hey!) who’s trying to find his way, amidst a struggling photography career, a dying father, deep questions about good and evil and redemption and change, and a tempermental cat. i highly recommend this book.