Graphical travelogue of a 2017 train journey from Beijing to Moscow via the Trans-Mongolian & Trans-Siberian Railway.  I feel bad for the timing of this book, since it pretty much coincides with Russia becoming an international pariah, & also more suspicious of outsiders. I feel like not many Americans or other English speakers feel willing or able (or safe) to travel in Russia right now. That said, Border Crossings is full of great factoids & small details about the route, her travel experience, & the places she visited. Over half the book is about Fick's travels in China & Mongolia, which makes me wonder if her troubles with Russian border control on the Russian/Mongolian border soured her on Russia a bit. The food descriptions and illustrations were great, although they give me another reason I'll probably never visit Russia or Mongolia. I liked the section about the Moscow Metro, I wish there was more of it (maybe even a discussion of the secret Metro 2?). I found it interesting how non-standardized the various passenger cars on the Trans-Siberian Railway are. Some are plush & modern, some are old & warmed by coal stoves. Makes me interested in doing further reading about modern Mongolia. A question I am left with is if the carrot & cabbage salad that comes on the side of meals in Mongolia is the same carrot & cabbage salad that comes on the side of meals in Russia, & if it's the same as salat vitaminniy? 

Reminds me of a more snarky “[Place Name]: Then & Now”, or Roz Chast's Going Into Town. I like the references to Lisa Hanawalt, Tom Gauld, Kate Beaton, & Shannon n the Clams. My favorite sections were the ones about Kim's Video, Pneumatic Tubes, Ray's Pizza, the Incomplete Guide to Real Estate, the Subway, & the Long Walk at the end. I think I read the tap water one somewhere else (the Nib?). The streetscapes devoid of people remind me of the Men's Recovery Project video titled “the Humans” (similar to Crash Course), but less creepy. I'm dying to know the “too incriminating” & “salacious” story behind the $800/mo apartment in Greenpoint! This book is full of interesting facts, & so many are new tto me, such as what an “egg cream” is, & what duplex means in New York. I also appreciate Wertz's editorializing. 

Second of Renee Gladman's books about her fictional city-state of Ravicka. The City itself is probably the biggest character, exploring additional neighborhoods & districts. The Ravickians mostly follows the Novelist who the narrator of Event Factory starts seeking in the second half of that book. It's definitely a good idea to read The Ravickians right after finishing Event Factory. One of the themes in Event Factory is the untranslatablility of a language from the perspective of an outsider, & the Ravickians continues the same theme but from the perspective of a native writer whose words are being translated into english. The story of the mysterious crisis that is hinted at, but never resolved in Event Factory is continued & explored more thoroughly. Similar to Riddley Walker in that the question of “what is going on here?” constitutes a bit of a mystery, & thus makes good re-reading. 

Lighthearted story of teen life in late 70s Ivory Coast. Art reminded me of Dragman, I was Their American Dream, or Roz Chast's stuff. Since Aya pre-dated all of those, I have to assume that it was an influence, or perhaps shared some earlier influences. Has a lot of humor & it kept me guessing to the very end. The recipes & supplemental material at the end in the “Ivorian Bonus” section are worth looking at too. I'll have to find vols 2 & 3 now. 

Bleak murder mystery set in 1930s Mississippi. Depicts the horror of the racist regime of the time. I saw some of the twists coming, but not the one at the end. Overall, Incognegro felt very bleak, perhaps because of the current resurgence of proud white supremacists, nazis, what have you, or maybe just because of all the murders and lynchings going on in the story. In some ways, it reminded me of some of Cormac McCarthy Border Trilogy novels I've read, where someone goes to a place (usually Mexico) to right some sort of wrong, and ends up losing everything but still somehow surviving. The big difference is that unlike the McCarthy protagonists, the titular Incognegro isn't a fool, & isnt foolishly going on an adventure in Mexico, but is really going on “one last job” to to a place whose dangers he is familiar with. 

 Super readable history of slavery & racism in the United States featuring essays, poems, & short historical fiction vignettes. I'm not used to writing by historians who are actually good at writing, so I was surprised by how readable The 1619 Project is. The photos included were also great. The pictures of Carrie Elk & Annie Lowe Lincoln from 1904 on page 134 & of Bill Hurley from 1909 on page 164 look like they could have been taken in 2019. Hurley's picture especially looks like he's a television presenter. The biggest revelation to me in 1619 Project was how deadly hunger, disease, & violence made the time right after emancipation for formerly enslaved people. The essay about capitalism & slavery by Matthew Desmond was really good, & had a lot of interesting statistics about the economy of the antebellum United States. The essay about Music by Wesley Morris featured the most extravagant language of the whole book. 

 Upbeat cute seasonal graphic novel about the age old battle for a boys heart between the MacGuffin love interest & Chekhov's love interest. Very appropriate to read the weekend before Halloween. Predictable but still enjoyable. I appreciate how the fictional pumpkin patch has a whole hut (the succotash hut) for vegan options. Interested in looking for more by Hicks. 

 Great graphic history of the band Redbone. Situates them in context the Native American history (including AIM), the LA music scene starting in the late 1950s, & the 60s & 70s in general. Contextualizes a lot of the Native American politics of the 1970s. Makes me want to check out Redbone's 1st album. Supports my theory that if you dig deeper on any 1-hit-wonder, you'll either find it's either some band with it's own mythos that's still around & on it's 10th line-up, or it's the guy who did the Chipmunks. 

 Re-reading this because I saw the recent (-ish) movie adaptation, & wanted to see how they compared. It's a bit of a tricky question, because I'm still not entirely sure what Lowry was really intending to do with the movie, and as indicated by the intro by translator Burton Raffel & afterward by Neil Issacs of this edition, modern scholars are unsure of the meaning of the original poem as well. I enjoyed the intro & the afterward, in which they both complained about and mocked a wide range of scholars for their shoddy readings & interpretations of this poem. The afterward also had a good little guide to the general rhythm that the poem used. Unfortunately, my copy of this book is missing the 1st half of the intro, but I still enjoyed what remains. I also wanted to re-read Gawain & The Green Knight to remember if Gawain's Host in part 3 was playing the game with the goal of buggering (or being buggered by?) the illustrious Sir Gawain. In re-reading, I think not, but it certainly would have been an interesting turn of events (& one which should have been pursued in the movie, considering the other liberties taken). It would have been fun to have the original middle english text included, but one can't have everything. 

 Guy Delisle's memoir of a teenager working in a Quebec City paper mill during the 1980s. I really enjoyed the details in practically every frame. I liked the details about growing up and living in Quebec. Gives an indirect hint about how Delisle ended up supervising animation in North Korea (which he wrote about in Pyongyang). I would kind of like to read this again in the original French. I don't really know French, but it would be fun (and manageable with this book) to see the dialogue in the original language. I should check out the Franco-Belgian comics artists Delisle name-drops in the part about the library that opened near his house (Tardi, Moebius, Comes, Hugo Pratt, Munoz, Rochette, Lauzier, Gotlib).