Junk Journal Week Seven

Day 1 of #100daysofcreativity

Since I caught up on these weekly journals, I had some time to both work on the art and the text over time. The page on the left has a quote from the title story in Bradbury's collection The Illustrated Man that I liked. The page on the right has  a bookmark my wife brought home from the Stockton University library and a list of the books I bought and read this past week.

Let me say a word about some of the reading.

I am trying to read one short story collection per week. This week I read two very good ones.

Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed. Ahmed, rather than creating another modern version of the Arabian Nights, centers Sherazad as the hero of the stories -- and there are many episodes and sub-episodes in this elaborately plotted novel. Her language leans toward sentences with many words; here is an example:

A small excited smile pulls at Shahryar's mouth as he urges his horse to speed. It's hard not to share his anticipation. We have survived mountain and desert, caliphal courts, and camp fever to join Saladin -- a man marked by destiny and respected by all -- from Caliph an-Nasir, who is hard-pressed to respect anyone, let alone a Kurdish upstart, to the Frankish barbarians, who see in Sultan Saladin's storied courtliness a glimmer of their own chivalric codes (p. 198).

 I would have enjoyed the book if it was about twenty percent shorter.

Champions is a Marvel comic book featuring a number of superheroes. My friend Rand recommended the series, at least the ones written by Mark Waid when I told him I was curious to read Spiderman but did not know where to start. I enjoyed the books even though I rarely read comics about superheroes; things published by Drawn & Quarterly are the sort of comics I read more often.

The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown is the third in the series. This book is not quite as good as the first one, but it is a satisfying read. The art is also delightful. If you rarely read middle grade novels, then The Wild Robot is a great starting point.