Let’s talk about things that I love. Books. I love books. Last time I wrote about the children’s books that are rocking our world lately. Now it’s my turn! I have so many graphic novels and coffee table books that I adore. Here are the ones I own that I keep going back to.
1. City of Glass: Douglas Coupland’s Vancouver. A gorgeous love letter to Vancouver. This is not, I repeat not, a guide-book but a realistic look at Vancouver’s insides. The writing is genius, of course, and the photos are gorgeous. Worth a read if you want to really know Vancouver.
2. The Wes Anderson Collection: Matt Zoller Seitz. If you are a nerdy Wes Anderson fan (my hand is definitely up), then this is the book for you. With interviews, photos of Wes Anderson’s process, inspirations and behind the scenes it has everything you could want. It chronicles his film career from Bottle Rocket to Moonrise Kingdom. I could look at this book for hours. *happy sigh*
3. Jane, The Fox and Me: Fannie Britt, Isabelle Arsenault. If you love Jane Eyre and hate bullies then read this. Basically it was as if the authors had crawled in to my past and pulled out my experiences and memories. This girl is painfully shy, doesn’t fit in and feels woefully insecure. It felt comforting to read this book and realize my experience had been shared. I have read this one over and over. My favourite drawing is the one where she feels most alone. The way it is drawn just conveys every lonely feeling I have ever had. It is the third illustration that I posted above.
4. Comic Book Tattoo: A Collection of Various Artists. Comic Book Tattoo takes Tori Amos’ songs and converts them in to graphic art. It is a gorgeous collection. Each song is done by a separate artist so you get completely different feels. There is everything from joyful looking cartooning to sombre pencil sketches. It is also each artist’s personal look at what the song means to them so a peek in to their heads, if you will.
5. Go the F*ck to Sleep: Adam Mansbach. Everyone has heard of this book but did you realize the illustrations are super gorgeous? Every year for our Santa stocking my husband and I pick one thing for each of the 5 senses and this one was for sight.
6. The Black Apple’s Paper Doll Primer: Emily Winfield Martin. This is a new addition to my library!! I got it at the cutest local store. (Dick & Jane’s in Calgary, AB, Canada. If you live nearby I recommend it). I saw this book and fell in love. If I met this girl we would be great friends very, very, very fast I bet. I love the lists beside each character and her recommends on how to use this book. It is for the little girl in me that never grew up and I LOVE the drawing style. I feel ripped off that I didn’t know about Black Apple Books prior to this. Plus in the back are craft ideas for stationary, mobiles and the like. Just mega cuteness presented in a very clever way.
7. Kill Shakespeare: Del Col, McCreery, McCleod. The Shakespeare nerd in me was overjoyed when my Husband brought this home as a surprise gift from Comic Con. It combines characters from different plays and the artwork is gorgeous. It has a really exciting story and the dialogue is extremely well-written.
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