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Juxtaposer

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Juxtaposer lets you combine multiple pictures into creative and fun photomontages quickly and easily...

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Get a great guitar or bass tones through your mobile device with the hottest guitar app! JamUp is an...

Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Rusty Brown in Books

Aug 6, 2020

Rusty Brown

Chris Ware | 2019 | Comics & Graphic Novels

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Just look at what a beautiful object this book is! It gets better on the inside, too. The detail and creativity is immense; the dust cover unfolds into a gorgeous mosaic, with puzzles, and even the copyright notes have a little Easter egg snuck in there. Every satisfyingly thick page of it is dense with ideas and art of admirable quality. It’s heavy and well made. Simply, one of the nicest books aesthetically I’ve ever owned.

I don’t have a big history of reading graphic novels. In fact I can count them on one hand: this one, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Persepolis. But what I see I like. There is something extra on the storytelling that is the best of both a book and a film – like a film unravelling at the pace of a book, with your imagination made into still images. I love the possibilities of them! There really isn’t anything you couldn’t do with it given enough imagination. I must try a few more as I go through life.

Rusty Brown, by Chris Ware is rich, melancholy, sometimes downright sad, but always truthful. Nothing is exaggerated, only presented, as we see snapshots of all the children and teachers that live in a small American town. They are dealing with regret, nostalgia, self-esteem, bullying and secret Joys, but in a mundane way as the routine of life plays out around them. Yet it manages never to seem bleak or hopeless, as enough moments of beauty keep everyone afloat.

There is a hint of subversive politics going on under the surface, but no more than issue flitting through Chris Ware’s mind; there’s no agenda or propaganda going on. He’s basically showing us a place he knows and saying, huh, what do you think of this. It made me laugh out loud many times, and cry at least twice. Remarkable work.

Both this artist and graphic novels in general are now very much something on my radar to learn more about and enjoy. If you haven’t ever really tried, I recommend Rusty Brown Chris Ware whole-heartedly as a starting place.

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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Four Days of You and Me in Books

May 7, 2020

Four Days of You and Me

Miranda Kenneally | 2020 | Humor & Comedy, Romance, Young Adult (YA)

5.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I hate writing less-than-positive reviews, especially for authors I typically enjoy, but this book was not a favorite of mine. It's told across Lulu and Alex's four class trips (one per year) with flashbacks to other times. I simply could not warm up to Lulu or Alex. Honestly, of the two, I probably liked him better, but we don't hear his side. It took nearly half the book for the story to engage me even a little bit, and I thought about giving up, but for some reason, I have a tough time just stopping a book.

Now, I read YA a ton, so it's not that I don't enjoy YA novels. I read one right after this and *loved* it. But I found this story way too simplistic, and I feel like teens would too. There is so much better YA out there--for all of us. The book just felt simplistic in its writing and the "will they / won't they" storyline was boring. I did not care if they did or not. Honestly, there was a side plot about Lulu's gay best friend Max that was much more interesting--I would have rather read about him!

Supposedly Lulu is an artist/writer and that's her thing, but that felt forced. Mostly, the book felt about a girl (and her friends) all trying to find boys to like (and like them back). That's what they cared about and talked about. I felt no huge connection between Alex and Lulu and hence no reason to root for them to choose each other. They didn't feel destined for one other, as most couples do in a good romance. The story does pick up a bit near the end, but by then, I just felt burned out.

So maybe this story would resonate a bit more with a teen set (and it should be an older teen set, due to language and themes), but there are a lot of other better books out there. Now, others seem to enjoy this more than me, so maybe I just got caught in a bad mood. 2.5 stars for me, though.