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June 30, 2014

Graphic Novel Review: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Published June 8th 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company
A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books.
This breakout book by Alison Bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings. Like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, it's a story exhilaratingly suited to graphic memoir form.
Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books.
When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescense, the denouement is swift, graphic — and redemptive.
Lately I've been reading a few graphic novels and comics, very simple and light. But Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is another level. Family drama. Death. Suicide. Homosexuality. This graphic novel tells the story about what is was to the author, Alison Bechdel, growing up in these circumstances.

It wasn't what I was expecting, I read the spanish edition and the cover is very bright. Maybe that's why I expected something light. But I get why it's considered a great graphic novel! It's very realistic...it must have been hard to write about her life. I read the first chapter and didn't really get me at first, but a few days later I started reading it again because I was curious and finish it in only a couple of hours. 

Totally recommended to anyone who wants to read a realistic and deep graphic novel. I'd like to read more from this author.


More about this book at Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository.

June 26, 2014

Spotlight + Giveaway: Lost in Starlight by Sherry Soule #StarlightSaga


Today author, Sherry Soule has some exciting news to share with us! She will be publishing a brand new upper YA series: the “Starlight Saga” (paranormal romance with a Sci-Fi concept) with scorching-hot character chemistry and exciting suspense has been published today, June 26, 2014!!!

To help promote this interstellar love story, “LOST IN STARLIGHT,” Sherry is doing this fun virtual release party and $20 Amazon gift card giveaway all day to share the book love.

ENTER TODAY ONLY!

Please buy your copy of LOST IN STARLIGHT on June 26th 2014!

LOST IN STARLIGHT

VOLUME ONE: Starlight Saga
High school reporter Sloane Masterson knows she has one helluva story when she witnesses hottie Hayden Lancaster bending forks with his mind.
Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to uncover the truth, even if it includes a little stalking. When the superhuman feats start to pile up and the undeniable heat rises between them, Hayden has no choice but to reveal his secret: he’s an alien hybrid.
They’re as different as night and day—she’s a curvy, purple-haired, horror junkie and he’s a smoking hot, antisocial, brainiac—yet the intense fascination between them refuses to go away. Even at Hayden’s insistence that dating each other is “off limits” and crazy dangerous, their fiery attraction threatens to go supernova.
Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über snobby extraterrestrials, and a psycho alien ex-girlfriend out for revenge. After a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating, Sloane must decide if their star-crossed romance is worth risking her own life....

Excerpt:

I’m suddenly aware that Hayden Lancaster’s blatantly staring at me. Hard to miss. His messenger bag is in one hand, and drumsticks stick out of his back pocket. I lift my hand in a hesitant little wave. He doesn’t return my gesture, just continues gazing at me through those thick lashes that frame his unique eyes. My head goes all woozy. Even my limbs feel jittery. Frustration and confusion are warring inside me for having any feelings for someone like him.
And what’s with the stare?
A wave of nervousness hits hard.
Is there toilet paper hanging out of my jeans? Food stuck in my teeth? Or have Frankenstein bolts suddenly sprouted from my neck?
Being on Hayden’s radar is a little unsettling. I admit there’s something about Mr. Puppy Hero’s rare smiles, lopsided with an edge, that draw girls to him like insects buzzing a bug zapper. For better or worse, no one can resist Hayden Lancaster. Not even me…

Random winner will be picked on June 27th 2014 and contacted by email. All prizes will be electronically delivered. Please review all terms & conditions before entering.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sherry Soule
Places you can find Sherry Soule:
Official Blog | @SherrySoule

Please add LOST IN STARLIGHT to your TBR on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20707942-lost-to-starlight 

Read the first five chapters for free on wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/story/14214838-lost-in-starlight-syfy-romance