Just saw (via bookslut, a site I should really add to my Elsewhere section) that fabulous cartoonist Posy Simmons has a regular feature in the Guardian: Literary Life. That link is to the archive, which I’ll be happily working my way through now.
Archives for February 2004
You are currently browsing the Sara Ryan weblog archives for February 2004.
Why I Love The Internet, #483. I’d say there’s fodder for a whole short story collection at this site.
has written a very cool book on a topic that isn’t often treated with understanding or respect, and she’s managed to do it without being prurient or sensationalistic. However, when you look on the back of the book to find out about it, and read the quotes from other people who liked it, you see [...]
I was at a school, telling some kids about a bunch of new books. (It’s not really booktalking per se when they’re first graders.) One of the books was The Essential Worldwide Monster Guide. After I’d read a couple of the poems, a girl raised her hand. “Do you know that there are spirits all [...]
Finally got my hands on the first two issues of Likewise, Ariel Schrag’s comics memoir of her senior year. I’m really glad I did. Her work is always a great reality check for my writing, as well as being enjoyable for its own sake. Wish she’d hurry up with the next six issues. (And that [...]
After dirtylibrarian posted about it, some time back, I checked out Race: the power of an illusion from the library. It’s extremely worthwhile. Thought-provoking, depressing, very very well done. The filmmakers do a superb job of setting out how American society has been racialized, including the pseudoscience that was used to justify racial inequalities, and [...]
I went to high school with Danit Brown. She’s now editing the Indiana Review, and she’s done an issue in comics form. How excessively cool.
Okay, I know that the word “incredible” appears in all of the titles of his books of cross-sections. But still, every time I see this in the library catalog: Biesty, Stephen. Stephen Biesty’s incredible body. I crack up. But of course, the case could certainly be made that: Ryan, Sara. Empress of the World. displays [...]
“Nuances of gay identities reflected in new language” The term I ran across a while ago, which I haven’t seen again and so it may be used by just one person, is “robot.” Not sure what perceiving oneself as “robot” would imply…
Just found out that Empress was banned from a middle school in Texas last year. You can download a PDF copy of the report from the ACLU of Texas which has all the banned and challenged titles, as well as the ones for which a decision is still pending. There’s also an html table which [...]
