 | Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $0.01 i thought this book would be about something else. it took me awhile and the protagonist really annoyed the hell out of me. but i thought about it for awhile afterwards, so maybe it was worth it.
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 | Rent Girl by Michelle Tea
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $10.00 michelle tea is awesome. michelle tea + graphic novel=two great things that go great together.
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 | Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $3.48 first graphic novel i read this year. this book has received a lot of accolades. for good reason. intelligent, well drawn.
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 | Rose of No Man's Land by Michelle Tea
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $0.01 have you read tea's work? passionate mistakes and intricate corruption of one girl in america, chelsea whistle, valencia, and so on? if not, stop reading this list and go do so. and if she's reading in your city, go and see her. you wont regret it. this is her first non-memoir material, i think. it's not as good as incredibly true...or valencia. but still, noteworthy.
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 | Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society by Inga Muscio
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $3.96 i still think about this book a lot. took me a really long time to get through. but funny as hell. beautiful in spots. and you'll learn something. i was sad when it ended, really started to like hearing the author's voice.
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 | The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life by Mike Albo
Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $0.59 pretty funny.
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 | The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male by Max Wolf Valerio
Buy new: $10.00 / Used from: $5.00 one of the better works about gender i've read.
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 | Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas by Chuck Klosterman
Buy new: $16.50 / Used from: $4.99 i like chuck k. most of the time. you could see how he could be an insufferable prick sometimes though. but he had me at hello.
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 | Blankets by Craig Thompson
Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $14.89 great. i still miss reading this book. i genuinely looked forward to sitting down with it. good meditation on childhood, first love, power of family, etc.
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 | Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield
Buy new: $15.61 / Used from: $4.00 one of my favorites of the year. funny in parts. beautiful in parts. i still think of moments in this book quite often. recommended highly.
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 | The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
Buy new: $15.61 / Used from: $0.73 i was a little disappointed in this book. well drawn characters but not much plot. i was left a little empty for some reason at the end.
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 | The Best American Comics 2006 (Best American)
Buy new: $14.96 / Used from: $3.59 i like this series. this was a cool way to find artists i didnt know. plus reading harvey pekar's intro was a bonus.
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 | The Acme Novelty Datebook by Chris Ware
Buy new: $29.16 / Used from: $16.14 dude's obsessed with sex. i liked some of his work that i'd been reading around. so picked this up. his ironic hipster self deprecating intro kinda got on my nerves, but i ended up finding this work fascinating. early sketches. his musings on his dreams. his nostalgia for his midwestern childhood. i liked this one.
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 | But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous by Jancee Dunn
Buy used from: $1.45 really funny. i just really had a good time reading this one. remember jancee's days from mtv2. i did, and then revisited them on you tube. ah, the 90s...
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 | Good-bye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $6.93 im kinda meh about this one. it was ok. my least favorite work by thompson, though i know many people love this one.
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 | Carnet De Voyage (Travel Journal) by Craig Thompson
Buy new: $13.45 / Used from: $4.99 beautiful. also a surprising portrait of loneliness.
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 | The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $0.01 sometimes this veered into oprah book club, tv movie territory. also, the author didnt seem to trust us to get symbolism or irony--she'd make sure that we got it in clumsy ways. also, the ending was disappointing. however, the book held my attention. it got me thinking about secrets and what people have the right to know and what we have a right to keep secret.
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 | Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Buy used from: $6.91 had been wanting to read this book for awhile. saw the movie first. thus it was interesting to compare sean penn's interpretation with krakauer's book. this is not just a book about chris mccandless, its also about the draw of the wild and those who have done it before. good read.
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 | Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $10.00 one of my favorite graphic novels so far. character development was top notch here. dialogue was real. i want to be friends with alice kim.
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 | Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin
Buy new: $13.60 / Used from: $9.25 promising premise right? its like the hipster get togethers where people read their diaries and drink pbr that sound fun to go to but i havent made it yet. like salon of shame here in seattle. but leslie is like all the trust fund hipsters i hated when i lived in nyc (you'll especially see this near the end), so when i finished i couldnt help but think, why did i read this book?
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 | Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir by Shalom Auslander
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $2.39 god as a prick in all faiths. moving beyond early childhood religious forcefeeding and being tossed away foreskin, but being able to move on and rejoice in your foreskin-ness. and how shalom used his yarmulke to steal from macys. funny stuff.
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 | Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $7.84 three of tomine's works put together. nothing earth shattering. very similar, alienated lonely protagonists in each of the three stories. his skill at transitions that was really evident in shortcomings is on display here too. if you like tomine, go for it.
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 | Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic. by David Nadelberg
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $1.93 i've read a lot of fluff this year, i'll admit it. my second book about people revisiting their old diaries! next year i shall read bleak house! this was pretty good. was kind of heavy on rich kids from the nyc suburbs. i especially liked the young gays old diaries, more of that please.
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 | A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $3.34 one of my favorites of the year. it felt weird to be reading a mass market paperback proclaiming its identity as a new york times bestseller, but i loved this book! really funny--especially at the beginning--and conversational. made me want to hike the pacific crest trail (west coast!)--maybe in 09!
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 | The Best American Comics 2007 (The Best American Series (TM))
Buy new: $14.96 / Used from: $4.95 this is edited by the it-guy of comics right now chris ware. his intro was smart but a lot of the inclusions i couldn't get through. newish to me favorites: lauren weinstein, gabrielle bell, jeffrey brown, jonathan bennett, miriam katin and dan zettwoch. the more experimental stuff i didnt like--maybe i'm too old. that's 25 for the year!
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