Two by Niffenegger
I have been very irresponsible on posting book recs, so now you get two for the price of one.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: Wow. Just wow. It's so sweet and sad and lovely and *inventive*. You must read this now. (Please ignore that miladygrey said that when she sent it to me for my birthday eight months ago and I just now finally read it. I'm not ungrateful, just inexcusably lazy.) Half the books in any store have someone quoted on the back saying "I couldn't put it down!", but we all know that's rarely true. This is a book that I sincerely hated to leave and started getting sad when I realized how few pages were left.
All of this amazement led to me pick up another of her books, The Three Incestuous Sisters. Yes, I know it sounds like some weird fetishy erotica novel, or perhaps a bad smutfic, but you *must* trust me on this. I was a bit surprised when this rather large hardback appeared in the store next to TTW not long after I had begun to read it, and was briefly taken aback by the title. Then I took a quick peek at a couple pages and saw pretty shiny art and quickly took it home on checkout. I can't say much about the plot without giving it away because it is "a novel in pictures", so its depth doesn't really come from the words, or even at times the basic plot. In the afterword, Ms Niffenegger says "...imagine a silent film made from Japanese prints, a melodrama of sibling rivalry, a silent opera that features women with very long hair and a flying green boy. I never try to explain what it means; you can find that out for yourself." That about sums it up for me: you know some of what is going to happen, but it is still surprising in places.
alabama_e and valiszebra will appreciate this as they know people who do this sort of thing and how much effort it takes. (Personally, if I had gone through all that work and revision and drawing and revision and etching and watercoloring, I would have done an original edition larger than ten. Once all that is done, I'd think all the basic sewing and rounding and binding and pressing would seem like nothing. But her baby, her prerogative.) I very nearly bought it to make a Statement to the world that there is a market for artist's books among good, sensible people who are sadly incapable of paying $300+ for one but will gladly pay a regular hardback price for something lovely - and bound better than Harry Potter. Alas, I am broke and also have no good place to put it. It will probably be my present to myself when I get a real job. If you have no money, at least go sit in a bookstore and read it through. It won't take very long, unless you spend hours marveling at the art and the talent and patience it must have taken.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: Wow. Just wow. It's so sweet and sad and lovely and *inventive*. You must read this now. (Please ignore that miladygrey said that when she sent it to me for my birthday eight months ago and I just now finally read it. I'm not ungrateful, just inexcusably lazy.) Half the books in any store have someone quoted on the back saying "I couldn't put it down!", but we all know that's rarely true. This is a book that I sincerely hated to leave and started getting sad when I realized how few pages were left.
All of this amazement led to me pick up another of her books, The Three Incestuous Sisters. Yes, I know it sounds like some weird fetishy erotica novel, or perhaps a bad smutfic, but you *must* trust me on this. I was a bit surprised when this rather large hardback appeared in the store next to TTW not long after I had begun to read it, and was briefly taken aback by the title. Then I took a quick peek at a couple pages and saw pretty shiny art and quickly took it home on checkout. I can't say much about the plot without giving it away because it is "a novel in pictures", so its depth doesn't really come from the words, or even at times the basic plot. In the afterword, Ms Niffenegger says "...imagine a silent film made from Japanese prints, a melodrama of sibling rivalry, a silent opera that features women with very long hair and a flying green boy. I never try to explain what it means; you can find that out for yourself." That about sums it up for me: you know some of what is going to happen, but it is still surprising in places.
alabama_e and valiszebra will appreciate this as they know people who do this sort of thing and how much effort it takes. (Personally, if I had gone through all that work and revision and drawing and revision and etching and watercoloring, I would have done an original edition larger than ten. Once all that is done, I'd think all the basic sewing and rounding and binding and pressing would seem like nothing. But her baby, her prerogative.) I very nearly bought it to make a Statement to the world that there is a market for artist's books among good, sensible people who are sadly incapable of paying $300+ for one but will gladly pay a regular hardback price for something lovely - and bound better than Harry Potter. Alas, I am broke and also have no good place to put it. It will probably be my present to myself when I get a real job. If you have no money, at least go sit in a bookstore and read it through. It won't take very long, unless you spend hours marveling at the art and the talent and patience it must have taken.