"Peshawar's beautiful -- a true city of the East, teeming with people, noisy, polluted, with nonstop traffic. BRRRMMM, BRRRMMM." ~ from Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefèvre's The Photographer |
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| In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan and Caren ZuckerIn 1943, Donald Triplett of Forest, Mississippi was the first person to be diagnosed with autism. This comprehensive history of the condition by journalists John Donvan and Caren Zucker traces Triplett's story (which has a positive outcome) and those of many others. The book describes unfortunate early approaches to autism and includes recent advances in diagnosis, education, and social inclusion, offering hope for people with autism and their families. For more on current views of the subject, try Steve Silberman's accessible and richly detailed Neurotribes. |
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| Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.Author Eddie Glaude, chair of Princeton's Center for African American Studies, clearly and accessibly discusses race in contemporary American society, pointing out that African Americans suffered disproportionately from the 2008 recession and have yet to recover. Glaude argues that the main problem in U.S. racial inequities stems from white people's ignorance of the conditions in black communities as well as habitual assumptions that white people have more value than blacks. Democracy in Black calls for major changes in social and political thinking in order to work towards racial equality. |
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| City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp by Ben RawlenceIn the desert of northern Kenya, half a million refugees live in the Dabaab camp, where they are relatively safe from Somalia's civil war but beleaguered by crime and living in miserable conditions. In City of Thorns, author Ben Rawlence relates what he learned during four years of working there for Human Rights Watch. Offering a moving portrayal of individual lives while painting a broader picture of the region's political situation, Rawlence lays out a riveting analysis of a major human rights disaster. This is a "significant, timely, and gloomy tale," says Kirkus Reviews. |
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| The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefèvre; design by Frédéric Lemercier; translated by Alexis SiegelIn a riveting compilation of photographs by Didier Lefèvre and illustrations by Emmanuel Guibert, The Photographer recounts Lefèvre's dangerous 1986 round trip between Normandy and Afghanistan as a documentary photographer for Doctors Without Borders. Lefèvre's photographs provide most of the storytelling, while his text and Guibert's drawings fill in context, supply information where relevant photographs are unavailable, and transport readers to the middle of Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. The French-language edition of this account of life in a war zone won a Bédélys Prize in Canada and was a European bestseller. |
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| The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnellThis graphic novel adaptation of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" offers more than an illustrated version of the speech. Author Jonathan Hennessey breaks the text down into phrases and connects them to the Battle of Gettysburg and to the historic political and social issues of the Civil War. Through this analytical presentation and Aaron McConnell's illustrations, readers can appreciate the impact of the battle and the significance of this speech in the context of American history. For another revelatory graphic presentation of a historic American document, read the authors' The United States Constitution. |
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| Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me by Harvey Pekar and J.T. WaldmanHarvey Pekar, widely acclaimed for using the graphic novel format for biography and history, grew up in parallel with the creation and development of the State of Israel. This posthumous memoir depicts Pekar and artist J.T. Waldman exploring the history of Israel from biblical times to the present. Though Pekar's parents were strong Zionists, he disagreed with Israel's treatment of Palestinians and its relationships with neighboring Arab nations. Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me intertwines Pekar's life story, Israeli history, and conversations between Pekar and Waldman. Booklist calls this a "canny treatment" of the controversy over Israeli policies. |
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| Footnotes in Gaza by Joe SaccoIn Footnotes in Gaza, award-winning comics journalist Joe Sacco relates how he sought out refugees who witnessed the 1956 massacres of Palestinians in the Sinai villages of Rafah and Khan Younis. Interweaving the survivors' accounts with his depiction of life in Gaza in 2003, he also vividly portrays the risks he took to collect the interviews. Sacco's photo-like exterior details and cartoon-style renditions of people and interiors add visual impact this gripping account, which presents the first full report on the events of 1956 and brings home to readers the realities of life in contemporary Gaza. |
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