Reading List part 1

Robert Rankin - Waiting For Godalming
Stuff and nonsense reign supreme as Lazlo Woodbine and Barry the faithful Holy Guardian Sprout that lives inside Woodbine's head are called upon to solve "The greatest case that ever was": Who Killed God? Was it His wife, Eartha, or one of His children Jesus, Colin or Christene? Rankin (Snuff Fiction, etc.), an outrageous British humorist often compared to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, strikes a singular chord in this winsome tour-de-farce. Using a slippery stream-of-consciousness narrative style, Rankin parodies everything from current British and American culture to 1950s private-eye novels. Woodbine is a "lone-walking, smart-talking, pistol-packing" London PI who reluctantly teams up with his brother, Icarus Smith, and a midget named Johnny Boy to uncover a sinister plot devised by demons who aim to take over the world. In the process, the three men bust up a brainwashing operation run by the Ministry of Serendipity, converse with Jesus and engage in multiple car chases. This madcap spoof is more charming than sacrilegious, and fans of SF, mysteries and Monty Python will be heartily entertained.

Ellen Feldman - The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank
Feldman pens a deeply affecting, unsettling look into the soul of a man whose attempts to bury his past cannot prevent it from seeping into his present life. Anne Frank and Peter van Pels shared an awkward first love in the Amsterdam annex where they lived in hiding. In Feldman's novel, Peter has emigrated to America and, as he promised Anne he would do, completely denied his persecution in the Holocaust and his identity as a Jew. The happiness and safety of his new life confounds him: he has a beautiful wife (who is herself Jewish), lovely children and a good job. But when his wife begins reading Anne's newly published diary and later attends the play and the movie, Peter begins to spiral into flashbacks, paranoia and guilt as he questions who he is and where his responsibilities lie. The true story of the controversy over the authenticity of the diary and its stage and screen adaptations is woven into Peter's own struggle with the truth and its consequences, and Feldman convincingly takes readers into the horrors of the Holocaust and the effects on its survivors. The only thing missing is a portrayal of Peter's relationship with Anne herself. A psychologically gripping tale, this will cause readers to think about the price of safety and the complex obligations of memory.

Haruki Murakami - After Dark
The midnight hour approaches in almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realize they've been acquainted through Eri, Mari's beautiful sister. The musician soon leaves with a promise to return before dawn. Shortly afterwards Mari will be interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client, the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese requests her help. Meanwhile, Eri is at home and sleeps a deep, heavy sleep that is "too perfect, too pure" to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporfic state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth - a sleeping beauty. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00 a faint electrical crackle is perceptible, a hint of life flickers across the TV screen, though the television's plug has been pulled. Murakami, acclaimed master of the surreal, returns with a stunning new novel, where the familiar can become unfamiliar after midnight, even to those that thrive in small hours. With "After Dark" we journey beyond the twilight. Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?


All these books are awesome in their own way, Rankin is always a laugh, Feldman encourages the reader to think and Murakami is absolutely the best writer from Japan I know.

Comics
Brian Azarello + Eduardo Risso - 100 Bullets:9/ Strychnine Lives
In the ninth collection of the Eisner Award-winning series, the mysterious Agent Graves offers 100 bullets and immunity to everyday people to carry out their innermost desires of vengeance. More pieces of the mystery of the Minutemen and the organization that created them start to come together.With the Houses of the Trust warily circling one another, the remaining Minutemen continue to pick their sides and set their own battle plans.

Bill Wingham + Mark Buckingham - Fables:7/Arabian Nights (and Days)
When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. These magical characters now disguise themselves as normal citizens and have created their own peaceful and secret societies in modern-day New York and around the world. When wayward fables from Arabia arrive in Manhattan at the exclusive luxury apartment building called Fabletown, a culture clash of dire proportions arises that must be defused before blood is spilled.

Various Artists - Flight 3
With truly stellar art from masters of the field, this fantasy anthology is a must for comics connoisseurs and a delight to readers who like pretty stories. Fanciful tales of children, monsters, fairy-filled forests and imagined worlds create an enchanted escape. Some of the stories are entirely wordless, while others are told from a child's point of view. Tony Cliff's "Old Oak Trees," recounts how the author's grandmother found a sort of "Wind in the Willows" gang of talking animals who live and love and play cricket in the local woods. Ben Hatke's "The Edge" follows two brothers who find out who really lives at the edge of the world. Kean Soo's almost heartbreakingly winning "Jellaby" is an account of a girl and a monster at a tea party. Multiple Academy Award–nominee Bill Plympton tells the story of "The Cloud," a little puff of vapor who just wants to float into representational shapes, but is squelched by its elders. Editor Kibuishi's contribution is also charmingly drawn but far from lighthearted; it details what happens when boys playing soldiers turn into men. Flight mixes the influences of comics, animation and classic children's illustration into a timeless fantasy.

Tony Millionaire - Billy Hazelnuts
When the mice infesting a woman's kitchen tire of her efforts to rout them, they create a tough guy homunculus from foul-smelling garbage and turn him loose as their protector. Originally possessing a head full of houseflies, the garbage creature is discovered by Becky, a plucky kid scientist who swaps hazelnuts for the houseflies—thus the sobriquet Billy Hazelnuts. Together, they embark on a dreamlike series of adventures. Bolstered by extraordinary artwork reminiscent of woodcuts crafted by a madman, this narrative evokes the anything-goes child-logic found in darker fairy tales and the Oz stories with a pinch of Lewis Carroll thrown in for the sheer bizarreness of it all. Millionaire sweeps the reader along with the protagonists through encounters with a seeing-eye skunk, a search for where the moon disappeared to and a blistering sea battle between a matter-expanded toy replica of Noah's Ark—complete with two-by-two animals at the helm—and a flying pirate ship crewed by robotic buccaneer alligators. Millionaire is known for his dark yet wistful comic strip Maakies with this irresistible cornucopia of unbridled imagination run rampant, he has created a book with the eerie familiarity of a classic children's tale and solidifies his reputation as one of contemporary comic's great visionaries.

Though the new volume of 100 Bullets is quite good Fables 7 and the new Flight are my favourite comics from this list. The writer of Fables did a great job pushing the bounderies between his fairy tale characters and real life by sending some Arabian Fables to the Us which almost causes a war. Flight is just amazing for its showcase of very diverse talent.