5 graphic novels you need to request now right now

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
- PJ O'Rourke

I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to graphic novels. Not because I'm any good at picking them. (If anything, I'm absolute rubbish at knowing what to try next. It's because I have next to no filter when it comes to books. I will try anything and everything at least once, and sometimes this goes against me). It's more that I'm lucky enough to work with amazeballs people who, almost daily - by email, text, Facebook message, Twitter, and in person - give me suggestions. Totally unsolicited. Once they've given me one, I find a whole heapload more that I just have to read. Which results in a Top 5 list much like this one. My parents encouraged me to read comics as a child. They wouldn't just buy them, though, we'd also talk about them. I distinctly remember, as a 9 year old, falling in love with Peter Bromhead. Well, his editorial cartoons in the Auckland Star, that is. My parents noticed my interest, and so Bromhead would, often, be a part of our dinner conversation. We would discuss the point of the cartoon in relation to whatever current events were taking place both nationally and internationally at that point in time. I am lucky enough to work with people who do the same - recommend titles or writers and, afterward, want to talk about them. The other day, someone told me to give Marbles: mania, depression, Michelangelo, & me : a graphic memoir by Ellen Forney a try, so I've requested it already, and am impatiently awaiting its arrival. Once I've finished it, we'll catch up and trade opinions and thoughts. And, as is usually the case when I'm in the catalogue, I came across 5 other graphic novels that, really, have to be bumped to the top of my TBR list. Today's list is: 5 graphic novels you need to request now right now. Have I steered you wrong yet? (Don't answer that just in case I have). They're an unusual mix of books, too - cooking, fantasy, life in Jerusalem, love in a time of a galactic war, and aliens in Australia. I know, right? You're welcome!

What graphic novels are you reading right now?

5 unlikely tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

List by Danielle

"It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeater of the Saxons, Sovereign of all England!"

"Pull the other one!"

From Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I've been reading Sarah Zettel's Camelot series of late - four historical fantasy romances starring Gawain and his brothers, one book per knightly brother - and took a look to see what else we've got on the Arthurian myths and legends. Turns out: a whole heap! Though less graphic novels than I'd been expecting. Yes, we've got everything from gangland Arthur to high-school-teen Arthur, through muppet Arthur and Python Arthur to some actual historical retellings of the stories made famous by authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sir Thomas Malory and John Steinbeck. Yes. STEINBECK.

5 trips to the darker side of Fairyland

List by Danielle

'Ellum do grieve,

Oak he do hate

Willow do walk

If Yew travels late'

~ From Faeries

This is inspired in part by Scriven's fab selection of recent fairytales on the Auckland Libraries blog - including fairytale knits! - and in part by reading the wonderful Locus Award-winning The girl who circumnavigated Fairyland in a ship of her own making, by Catherynne M. Valente. I love fairytales, and I love it when authors take the old familiar settings, characters and motifs and make something dark and eerie and wonderful and new with them. I'm particularly fond of stories that give me a sense of the strangeness and power of Fairyland and its denizens. I think it *should* be scary - a trip to Fairyland should give you pause, should tempt and terrify in equal measure.

Also recommended:

• Wicked lovely, Melissa Marr's YA series - darkly beautiful, enjoyable if you've got a reasonable tolerance for angst and teenaged love triangles
• Erica Hayes' erotic Shadowfae series - flawed, and the characters aren't particularly likeable, but she has some nice imagery that gives you all the glorious tastes and scents of fairy life, alongside the crazy sights; especially in the stand-alone second book, Shadowglass
• Kissing the witch / Emma Donoghue - before she became uber-famous for the amazingly strong and unforgettable Room, Donoghue wrote this book of short interconnected stories that explore the relationships between female characters in fairytales
• Any anthologies from Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Victorian fairytales, French fairytales, fairytales in picture books... it's all good!

5 airship adventures for teens

List by Danielle

"Invention, my dear friends, is 93 percent perspiration, 6 percent electricity, 4 percent evaporation, and 2 percent butterscotch ripple."

~ Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Steampunk, wonderful steampunk! I've been reading my way through the YA category of this year's Locus Awards for sci-fi and fantasy, and two of the five books nominated this year have a distinctly steampunkish feel (though Ian McDonald's very enjoyable Planesrunner is actually 'electricpunk', taking place in a parallel universe where oil has never been used as a source of energy). All of the books below have plenty of adventure, interesting and imaginative settings, awesome steampunk technology and brave, smart, resourceful heroes and heroines. They're really good for readers who aren't scared of a little dose of science with their fiction - a little bit of 'how the rollercoaster works' alongside the whole rollercoaster ride. All that, plus - airships! Air pirates! Mid-air battles!

5 books shared between me and my valentine

List by Danielle

The eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.
~ Margaret Atwood

This is a shout-out for all of us out there who might not be celebrating a grand romance this Valentine's Day, but who have happy, bookish, geekish memories to treasure anyway.
Sharing books can be a real expression of love... there's the excitement you get when you stumble on something you think your sweetie will enjoy, because you know some of what ticks their fiction-lovin' boxes... the pleasure if you get it right, and they pick it up and run with it... the lingering discussions of favourite characters and plot points afterwards... the race for sequels, prequels, the author's entire back catalogue. Usually I'd end up in a queue for the library copy while he raced ahead with a stealthily purchased ebook, but he's a faster reader anyway, and he knows better than to spoiler me (though I swear he gave away at least one of the key events in A game of thrones without meaning to).
Here are just some of the books we've shared over the years.

5 tributes to Anne McCaffrey and what she's meant to us

List by assorted librarians

"Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there. "

"I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens. "

~ Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011

Bear with us, folks, this is something of a long post, but when we started to talk about the passing of Anne McCaffrey this week, turns out we had a lot of love for the lady and her myriad works, and a lot of words to try and share that. A lot of words, and one wicked tattoo, I might add. I love the way that we each - as teenagers, mostly - took something quite different from her books, and what we took means a lot to us still. Just remembering it brings a smile to our faces, and a flood of emails back and forth as we swap favourite characters, scenes and series.
Rest in peace.

Top 5 loveable rogues

List by Danielle

"I only got myself/And this big old world/But I sip that cup of life/With my fingers curled"
~ lyrics from Thomas O'Malley Cat, from the Aristocats

This list was inspired while watching tv with the kids over breakfast; (trying to avoid) watching Alvin and the Chipmunks: the squeakuel, to be precise. (I have just requested the soundtrack on the urging of my eager 5 year old, and am full of inner glee that I'm not the one who drops her off to school, which is when it'll get played.) High point of the morning's viewing was noticing that Zachary Levi plays the 'hapless human' in this round of chipmunkish hijinks; also known for his TV role of Chuck, you might know him better as Flynn Rider (or should that be Eugene Fitzherbert) from the recent Rapunzel flick, Tangled.

When I saw Tangled, I thought that Disney (and Zachary Levi) had really got it right - he was the epitome of 'loveable rogue'. Full of equal amounts of eye-twinkling charisma and the ability to really irritate, flippant even in the face of certain danger, pulling chaos behind him like a kite, and bursting with schemes and plans and a passion for life. He might take a cynical view to humanity in the abstract, but when he finds that one special person to infiltrate his well-guarded heart, he would risk anything to protect them. I think that's where the 'loveable' part comes alive for me - watching someone with a serious survival instinct battle with the ferocious loyalty and compassion lurking deep down.

Tosca, feel free to step in if I sound too much like I'm writing copy for the back of a Silhouette title!

Loveable rogues. SIGH.

Top 5 wild, weird Western crossovers

List by Danielle

"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say."
~ The first line of 'The knife of never letting go', by Patrick Ness

Wikipedia goes into loving detail about some of the newfangled flavours of Western out there, from the Weird West or Science Fiction Western (which seems to have a more historical setting, albeit one that plays fabulously fast and loose with real history, see 'Cowboys vs Aliens' or Cherie Priest's award-winning steampunk westerns) to the Space Western, in my heart always associated with by Joss Whedon's wonderful (and forever shiny!) 'Firefly' and 'Serenity'. Okay, the boundaries of these sub-genres are as fluid and fiddly as most genre distinctions seem to be, but the lists of films, TV, graphic novels and books cited show that there's some exciting storytelling to be exploring, out on the frontiers.

Top 5 much loved fairytale reboots

List by Danielle and friends & family

"Fairy tales were not my escape from reality as a child; rather, they were my reality -- for mine was a world in which good and evil were not abstract concepts, and like fairy-tale heroines, no magic would save me unless I had the wit and heart and courage to use it wisely."
~ Terri Windling

Like a lot of fantasy readers, I grew up devouring fairytales and folklore, and practically haunted the 398s in my local and school libraries. (To this day, it's the one Dewey number that I could find in the dark, the path to it is just engraved on my brain somewhere.) There's a lot of magic to be wrung out of those deceptively simple stories, plenty for writers to explore and readers to latch onto - heroes and heroines taking destiny into their own hands, adventures into unfamiliar realms, happily ever afters.

Me, I loved the sparkliness... girls transported from their own mundane lives to palaces full of gems, through forests of trees with glittering leaves, wearing gowns of gold and silver... SIGH. That said, one of the most moving (though least sparkly) reimaginings of the 'girl meets palace' storyline that I've read recently was in Margo Lanagan's Tender morsels, where a transformed hut with straight walls, clean floors and sturdy furniture - and absent an abusive father - is the most incredible gift for Lanagan's heroine.

Here below, inspired by Annie and Teigs' brilliant lists of late, my mum and my co-worker Julia have helped put together a list of the five retellings that have meant the most to us, over the years.

Top 5 fractured fairytales

List by Annie, Central Library

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
~ Albert Einstein

Annie is one of the stars behind Auckland Libraries' Teen blog, and she recently posted an introduction to fairytales, fractured and otherwise, as well as linking to an earlier selection of fairytale retellings reviewed by fellow librarian Teigs. Here are some of her favourite older titles.

Top 5 items I nicked from Manukau Library's new books trolley

List by Tosca

'I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.'
- Woodrow Wilson

When I'm in need of inspiration or timeout (not like the naughty corner/naughty step kind of time out, though) I sneak away downstairs and raid their collections or their new books trolley. I find that I am greatly in need of inspiration this month. Ordinarily, I am full of words that are clamouring to be given voice here in this blog, but August seems to be a solemn month for me. As a result I have posted very little. I spent some of the last couple of weeks fretting about how hard I'm finding it to write posts that are engaging and funny or even relevant. And then last night I decided to let it run its course. After all, it doesn't mean I love books any less :) So today I offer up a simple post that is less about my sense of humour and all about the books: top 5 books I nicked from Manukau Library's new books trolley that are well worth the mention. Many thanks to Shanta for letting me ooh and aah over the trolley and 'borrow' a stack of new books for the day.

Top 5 novels where life is a game

List by Danielle

Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.
~ Charles Lamb

I'm halfway through the second book in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy at the moment. Maybe it's just one of those moments where you find the right book at the right time (often after a string of less-satisfying reads), but it's almost unputdownable. I'm not kidding, my hubby has to bully me to go to bed at night because I keep telling myself, just one more chapter, just one more chapter, what the...?! okay, just one more chapter.

It's Collins' conflicted characters and her understated approach to the vastly emotional subject matter that I'm really enjoying, but there's something about a story built around a game that just appeals (all you other roleplayers in the house say howdy). There are more than a few great reads out there that play with the idea of life as a game - here are some of my favourites.

Top 5 most requested titles for July 2011

List by Natalie and Tosca

Books are immortal sons deifying their sires."
- Plato

Shortest intro from me ever, ever, ever: Lots of you want to know what Paul Henry was thinking :P

Top 5 most requested titles for June 2011

List by Natalie and Tosca

Kia ora and gidday! Today's post is a simple one that serves only to share our top 5 most requested titles for June 2011. Enjoy :)

5 books I wouldn't have noticed if not for Good Reading magazine

List by Tosca

"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."
- Kenko Yoshida

I spent the weekend and Monday sick with germs and I can say, hand on heart, that I make a terrible patient. I'm the sort of person who likes to be ill loudly and in full view of anyone else unlucky enough to be in the house with me at the time. I will park myself up on the sofa in pyjamas and with a blanket and generally wallow in my misery. An act which involves lots of sniffling and moaning about how hot my head is and how my throat hurts and that my eyes won't stop watering... The whole litany of ills. It's not much fun for anyone but I do like to milk the drama for all it's worth. One thing I've noticed, though, is that time stretches i-n-t-e-r-m-i-n-a-b-l-y long when you feel awful. And there's only so much daytime tv a person can take. Thankfully I had umpteen back issues of Good Reading to keep me sane. In a rare moment of pity I decided to hole up in my room to generally ooh and aah over each magazine and make notes about what I wanted to request. And here they are in this list of '5 books I wouldn't have noticed if not for Good Reading magazine.'

Query: Have you heard of Good Reading magazine? Do you request a lot of what they recommend? Did you know that you can access Good Reading via our Digital Library?

Top 5 punny titles

List by Annie

"The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes."
- William Davis

Sometimes you just have to laugh. Authors – and editors – obviously love playing with words, and this selection of titles proves it.

Honourable mention:

Reign check Michelle Rowen

Top 5 best fantasy movies of all time (according to Talitha)

List by Talitha

"Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination."
- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

I have no clue what my top 5 fantasy movies of all time would be. It is something I've often considered, though. I just don't think I'm disciplined enough to be able to make up my mind as to possibilities. There's too much choice. Or maybe I'm not opinionated enough. (Yeah, right!). A quick and dirty use of my Google-fu skills showed me what I'd guessed already, that there isn't one comprehensive list and nor are any two lists the same. They sure do make for interesting reading, though. And that was how I came across Talitha Linehan's Fantasy books and movies site and had fun noseying through everything. Talitha's The 100 best fantasy movies list led to much discussion around our dinner table and everyone had more than their ten cents worth of agreeing and disagreeing. One day we're going to have a quiet night actually eating instead of arguing and gesticulating with forks and peas. One day. So...here are Talitha's top 5 best fantasy movies of all time (and a slew of honourable mentions) here for all y'all.

Query: What would you have as your top 5 best fantasy movies of all time? Caring is sharing, people :)

Top 5 most requested titles for May 2011

List by Natalie, Tosca

"A good book is always on tap; it may be decanted and drunk a hundred times, and it is still there for further imbibement."
- Holbrook Jackson

Good morning, good morning! I'm hopped up on chocolate and so you're all wonderful, wonderful and the world is a beautiful, beautiful place where, apparently, I repeat everything twice, twice :) All chocolate-weirdness aside, it is a beautiful day. Rain or no. Just a quickie post for today where we list the top 5 most requested titles for May. And can I just say YAY to Jeff Kinney for having two junior fiction titles in the top 5 and 1 as an honourable mention!

Honourable mention:

Greg Heffley's journal by Jeff Kinney - Diary of a wimpy kid series, book 1

Belle by Lesley Pearse

The fifth witness : a novel by Michael Connelly - Mickey Haller series, book 4

Accidentally overweight : solve your weight loss puzzle by Libby Weaver - nonfiction

The villa girls by Nicky Pellegrino - NZ author

Top 5 magical regencies

List by Annie

Top 5 Magical Regencies

What’s not to like? Regency period detail – either romance, or Napoleonic War epics – mixed with fantasy elements. Bliss.

Top 5 dragons

List by Annie

"People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based...what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?"
- Anne McCaffrey

For centuries dragons have held our imaginations – whether as destroyers or protectors.

For that reason, there are so many dragon stories out there, it’s really hard to pick just a few… so I haven’t picked a top 5, more a selection sorted by age / reading level, with a few honourable mentions.

As a young teen, my reading-teeth were cut, as it were, on Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels. (Don’t get me started on the whole fantasy / science-fiction argument with these. Yes, they are dragons. But...they are dragons, genetically modified by humans who have travelled to their planet on space ships.)

Even before this intro, one of my fav books, and a comfort re-read, was Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning. (It nearly made the final list, but we have so few copies around, I didn’t think it was fair.)

Knowing my mother (she who introduced me to McCaffrey in the first place), if there had been any dragon picture books around, I would have had those, too.

Working from younger to older – with the understanding that anyone from that age and up should read it. Picture books should be enjoyed by all. As I pulled the list together, I realised that I’d managed to pick humorous stories. That’s the way it goes sometimes… so slightly more serious books became honourable mentions.