Send-up of the super-rich elite of Southeast Asia, buried in a love story. Self-consciously alludes to satirists of the English upper-crust such as Somerset Maugham, & Evelyn Waugh. Every detail is intended to highlight the pomposity & profligacy of the world in which the story takes place. Also, there's a love story hidden in there somewhere. Much less of an advertisement for Republic of Singapore than the movie. Can't wait to read the sequel!

The sad story of Kossula, the last survivor of the middle passage, in his own words (mostly). The editor & author introductions, the endnotes, afterward, & glossary, include a lot of context for Kossula's life & story.

Seminal Shoah graphic novel. "Novel" is a bit of a misnomer, in that there seems to be no fiction in Maus, apart from the depiction of all the humans as animals. Not sure if drawing the characters realistically would have decreased or increased the visual horror. There's also a surprising amount of humor in Maus, especially in the parallel story of how Art got his father's holocaust survival story out of his father. I was sad we didn't get ever-suffering stepmom Mala's own survival story. Perversely makes me want to read more about the holocaust and other survivors.

Collection of stories collected by the author in Ukraine & Russia. Mostly pretty depressing, and often terrifying. I thought the Russia stories were even bleaker than the Ukrainian ones (and that's counting the ones about the Ukrainian war!).

Further adventures, with more explanation of what the hell is going on. Can't wait for a book version of these that collects more than 4 issues.

A book of the Author's pictures of stuff he saw in Tokyo in 2006. Lots of pictures of people, buildings, posters, consumer products, and more. His maps highlight the places to sit and draw. I also liked the loving depictions of the various police sub-stations of the different neighborhoods. It was an interesting choice, given the author's run-ins with the tokyo police (over his improperly salvaged & improperly parked bike). I never thought of Tokyo as a particularly bikeable place before, but Florent made biking around Tokyo seem doable (I'm a trains guy, so if I ever visit, I'll probably be taking the subway or the Yamanote line).

Comics account of Sacco's visit to Israel-Palestine in the early 90s. Some of the narration reminds me of the narration in a noir movie. Sacco speaks with young Palestinians swept up in the 1st intifada, with old folks who experienced the Nakba, with education & aid workers & volunteers, & with all sorts of people just trying to get by. Also discusses the media's effect on the conflict & the people. Sacco's detailed artwork is one of the best aspects of this book. Sacco's avatar highlights the ridiculousness of the journalists' intifada tour, and provided some needed comic relief.

A memoir of growing up in Mao's China, and adulthood from Deng Xiaopeng's China to today. The memoir reminds me of Soviet Daughter, in that it's about a person who lived through revolutionary upheaval, and eventually thrived. The last part which covers China's boom times kind of drags, maybe because making a lot of money is less fun and interesting to me than revolutionary socialist constructing, or maybe it was because the revolution had gone on without Kunwu, or perhaps because Kunwu feels limited in the commentary he can make on contemporary politics. A Chinese Life is also interesting because it provides the little guy's perspective & also the Chinese Communist Party's perspective of the disasters and successes of communist China.

More of Walter Mosley's crazy speculative fiction. These stories are good examples of what I think of as Mosley's "world-changing-hero" template: He introduces us to some normal seeming person, then some weird stuff happens to them, they discover a power (and a friend or friends) and then they change the entire world. It's a little predictable, it's a fun medium for Mosley's writing style & ideas. In this way, these stories are similar to Futureland (which I liked better), and Inside a Silver Box (which I didn't like as much). The man in my basement follows the formula more loosely, & I'm only mentioning it because it's my favorite Mosley novel I've read so far.

Memoir of the 1st black police officer in Colorado Springs, and his investigations of Klan activities there. Fascinating look into the world of the Klan and its connections to neo-nazis, survivalist militias, & the military. The author is very much a career cop, dedicated to color blind law and order & committed to public safety. The CSPD's surveillance of anti-racist organizations and organizations deemed communist was also interesting, even if it's kind of old news to me. It would be interesting to know how much the Colorado Springs PD kept watch over the white supremacists in their midst. To read Stallworth's tale, it sounds like they completely stopped paying attention to them once they wrapped up his surveillance operation. I'd like to know how unique was his operation? It sounds like his investigation was renowned in local law enforcement circles at the time, but were there other investigations like it later, and in other jurisdictions? Or did the drug war completely crowd out hate-group intelligence gathering? After his investigation was wrapped up, Stallworth and his investigative team were all reassigned to narcotics enforcement, which they stayed with throughout their careers. I would have rather their careers had included more harassment of hate groups and less prosecuting a pointless war on drug addicts. This story is fun & it's reassuring, but it's hard to be reassured in times like these.