A Winter Reading List to Get You Through the Cold Months
With all your holiday responsibilities, you're not about to crack open War and Peace. Luckily, there are enough light reads for your winter reading list.
Because you can only binge so much Netflix, but what with shopping, family, decorating, and procrastinating all of the above, it’s not like you’re about to crack open War and Peace or anything. You want to read something with pictures! Luckily, there are more than enough intelligent, entertaining graphic novels for your winter reading list.
Before Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) and Maria Qamar (@hatecopy and the recent Trust No Aunty)—all contemporary women cartoonists whose work you know, even if you don’t recognize their names—there was Lynda Barry. Her sad and sweet comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek, which ran in alternative papers from the late ’70s until 2008, foreshadowed the work of today’s women cartoonists by blending personal history and fiction with idiosyncratic art.
Of course, Barry wasn’t the first female cartoonist to create comics that are as likely to make you laugh as they are to make you cry, but since her 1988 novel is being reissued, we’re mentioning her. The Good Times Are Killing Me is more prose than graphic novel, but Barry still infuses this story of friendship and racial tensions in the ’60s with her instantly recognizable swirling style and voice. It’s an essential book for our moment, full of truth and music, and it’s a great reminder of Barry’s importance in the world of graphic storytelling. It’s always good to remember one’s history.
Start your winter reading list with this season’s releases or check out all our book recommendations and reviews
, Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) and Maria Qamar (@hatecopy and the recent Trust No Aunty)—all contemporary women cartoonists whose work you know, even if you don’t recognize their names—there was Lynda Barry. Her sad and sweet comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek, which ran in alternative papers from the late ’70s until 2008, foreshadowed the work of today’s women cartoonists by blending personal history and fiction with idiosyncratic art.
Of course, Barry wasn’t the first female cartoonist to create comics that are as likely to make you laugh as they are to make you cry, but since her 1988 novel is being reissued, we’re mentioning her. The Good Times Are Killing Me is more prose than graphic novel, but Barry still infuses this story of friendship and racial tensions in the ’60s with her instantly recognizable swirling style and voice. It’s an essential book for our moment, full of truth and music, and it’s a great reminder of Barry’s importance in the world of graphic storytelling. It’s always good to remember one’s history.
Start your winter reading list with this season's releases or check out all our book recommendations and reviews
[gallery ids="326309,326308,326307"]){kind=link}