September 2018

RHC 2018: The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

This post is part of a series in which I describe the twenty-four books I read in 2018 for Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge. 

Task: Read a comic written or drawn by a person of color.

When I became a parent, in between the tectonic shifts in my hormonal makeup, sleep deprivation, and adjustment to having such a strange and tiny new housemate, I thought about my own parents a lot. Like me, both of my parents had a lot of life before any of their three children showed up. But they were also devoted, loving, wonderful parents – to the point that it’s hard to think of them as anyone other than Mom and Dad. Parental identity is a hell of a thing, and finding yourself in that role is an incredible empathy builder for the people in your life who took it on for you.

Thi Bui’s graphic memoir The Best We Could Do begins with the birth of the creator’s son in 2005 while her mother waits outside her room. The first few pages cover that hallucinatory time in the hospital after the birth. After Thi’s mom leaves, Thi thinks, “A terrifying thought creeps into my head. Family is now something I have created – and not just something I was born into.”

RHC 2018: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

This post is part of a series in which I describe the twenty-four books I read in 2018 for Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge. 

Task: Read a book with a cover you hate.

Alternatives: Read a western, read a sci fi novel with a female protagonist written by a female author. 

I feel like a jerk for choosing this book for this task. To be fair, “hate” is a strong word here – I mostly just wanted to read Trail of Lightning and this was the closest task I could get to it.

However, I really don’t care for novels with illustrations of the main characters on the cover generally. It makes me feel like my toes are being stepped on by forcing a picture into my head. I read comics when I’m feeling like engaging that side of my brain (and I love comics!).That said, it’s worth noting that the characters on the cover of this book are Native and that I definitely should not be complaining about the appearance of badass women of color showing up on book jackets. Also, to be clear, Maggie isn’t hypersexualized or out-of-proportion or anything, so it could be much, much worse. So apologies to the artist – this is strictly a personal taste thing, and if anyone even remotely connected to this book sees this, just, you know, ignore me, my grumpy old person-ness, and my weird hang ups about seeing characters before reading about them.

Like I said, I really wanted to read this book, and I was not in any way disappointed.