A year ago I committed to sharing one book recommendation a month on the 20th. I tend to read at least a book a week, some weeks I read three. Picking a good book to share wasn’t hard until I discovered Amazon samples for my Kindle. Samples have changed the way I read. Each one is free three chapter preview. I find myself reading more and more samples, but buying fewer books. That’s because good samples end on a hook, leaving me desperate to buy the book while bad samples leave me wondering why anyone would bother.
It’s easy to eat up two or three hours on a dozen samples and not find something to read. Sometimes I read a sample so bad I give up on reading for a couple of days, like the one that claimed to be a ghost story about a teenage heroine who struggled with her father’s alcoholism. The sample turned out to be a historic piece written in archaic language by a girl pregnant with a demonic baby. That one drove me out of the virtual book store.
Thankfully I found myself in a comic book shop, and thus discovered this month’s read: a comic book. Not a fancy graphic novel with deep meanings and hidden allegories to the current political climate, but an actual slick fronted paper comic book. Despite its penny dreadful trappings the story – a young boy learns to be brave after the death of his grandfather – has really grabbed me.
It’s the Haunted Mansion’s story, and I don’t think you have to be fan of the ride (like me) to enjoy it. The second issue came out on the 20th, but the first is still available in most comic book stores. While the boy and his grandfather don’t come from the ride at all, most of the other characters and a good bit of dialogue do. I can’t wait to see how the story turns out and if the young man can muster up the courage to save his Grandfather’s ghost from being trapped in the Mansion forever.
I adore the Timothy Wilde series by Lyndsay Faye. It’s a great set of mysteries that teaches you more than a little about the history of the New York police department. It’s also a wonderful showcase for minorities including a main character with mental health issues. (warning this blog post has all sorts of spoilers for the series)
The first mystery, The Gods of Gotham, centers on a series of kidnappings where the victims are Catholic children forced to work as prostitutes. One of the children, Birdie, survives to become a part of Timothy’s life and her past is handled beautifully. In the third book as she starts dating, Timothy acts as an ersatz-father. He behaves exactly as any father would, without ever blaming or shaming her for her past.
The final novel, The Fatal Flame, brings Mercy’s mental illness to center as she and Timothy work together to solve a series of arsons. Mercy has taken in an orphan who is also mentally disabled; despite this the girl might be the key to solving the mystery. More importantly she’s a wonderfully developed character. The book is stuffed with them actually: sex workers who aren’t vilified or defined by their profession, recent immigrants who aren’t stupid despite not being assimilated yet, and as many different ethnicities and religions as there were in New York in the 1840s.
