Empire of the Sun, JG Ballard

Since seeing the film of the same name starring and introducing Christian Bale, I have been interested in this story.  I read it this summer, after realizing that I have it in our school library.

It is the story of a boy in Shanghai, as the war starts and the Japanese invade.  He is separated from his parents and ends up in a camp nearby.  It is hard to read because it is frank and realistic.  Jim is a great character, strong and resilient.  It must be the story of the author, as there are so many details that only one who has lived that particular experience could re-tell so well.  I liked it a lot, but at times wanted the war to end so that Jim could get back to his parents and to a life worth living.  Jim loved the war though, and all the weird things that happened, but the starvation and violence takes it toll on him as it does the reader.

Chew, by John Layman, Rob Guillory

Chew is fantastically weird, and great.  There is also a board game.  Tony Chu is a cop with a special power, that is he can sense and feel everything that has happened to any food.  For instance if he eats a piece of kale, he knows how it grew and was cooked, -its life story.  As a cop, this works well because he just has to taste a body part or bit of blood of the victims he finds, and he can solve the case.  Gross!  But great and darkly funny.

Mouse Guard

Mouse Guard by David Petersen is a beautifully and intricately illustrated comic for young people, simple old European themes of heroism and chivalry make it fun.

Huck

    Huck is a lovely story about a kid with special powers of kindness.  Its the first comic I have read in a while, sweet story.

My Name is Lucy Barton

This is Pulitzer Prize winner (Olive Kitteridge) Elizabeth Strout's novel of a writer who spends 9 weeks in the hospital thinking and reminiscing about her life.  When her estranged mother comes to visit, the writer remembers her upbringing in poverty.  There is very little plot or outcome, certainly not a linear story-line to recant here.  You could read this book starting at almost any point and ending whenever, well, as I did.  I started at the first page, then after about page 30, wondered aloud what was going on?  I flipped forward about 70 pages, got very interested, finished it and then went back to read it completely. I liked the book, for the small but important messages of the meaning of kindness, loneliness, relationships etc.