NY Times Gift Suggestions

The holidays are a great time to gather reading recommendations and gift ideas. Almost every publication has round up on best books of the years and/or gift guides

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The New York Times has several lists:

The Book Review’s Top 10 books of 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/books/review/10Best-t.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Michiko Kakutani's 10 Favorite Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/2008holidayKakutani2.html?ref=arts

Janet Maslin’s 10 Favorite Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/2008holidayMaslin.html?ref=arts

100 Notable Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?ref=arts

I haven’t delved too deeply into any of the “adult” lists, but was not wowed on my first pass through. I would like to read Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, which is currently with a stack of books I meant to read this year.

I also bought: Lincoln: The Biography of A Writer for my dad after reading about it. According to the Times, “This resonant biography looks at the role that Lincoln’s avid reading of the Bible, Shakespeare and other works played in shaping his gifts as a writer, and how his literary skills in turn helped him articulate — and promote — his vision of a new America rising from the ashes of the Civil War.”

Kids:

Best Illustrated Children’s Books 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/11/06/books/20081109ILLUSTRATEDBOOKS_index.html

Notable Children’s Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/KidsNotable-t.html?ref=arts

Morsels

CNN has an article on Ten Cent Plague, “The pictures that horrified America.”

CNN: “However, the keepers of the boundaries pushed back, Svitavsky says. In those Red Scare times, "Adults were fearful [of works that questioned the establishment.] ... Comic books were believed to be an underestimated, unpatriotic tool to get at kids."

The children, Hajdu says, illustrated the tension of the times. Some had tried to hide their collections; others had energetically taken part in comic-book burnings. He interviewed many of them, now grown-ups in their 60s or 70s. "It was harrowing to listen to them," he said.”

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/05/08/comic.books/index.html

The Comic Books War

I haven’t done much reading this week so I’m a little behind on my reading “schedule.” In the “to read” pile is The Ten Cent Plague.

It’s hard to imagine people burning comics, but apparently in the 1950s, a battle was raging over comics. NPR’s Talk of the Nation interviewed David Hajdu about his newest book. According to Hajdu, more than 100 laws were passed across the country restricting or outlawing the sales of comics. One listener emailed NPR recounting how her father burned her comic books in a bonfire.

The comic book industry was almost wiped out due to the controversy. On the surface it would appear comics are viewed very differently now what with Family Guy, The Simpsons, the popularity of the Cartoon Network and comics/graphic novel inspired movies like X-Men and the Fantastic Four.

Here’s an excerpt from Hajdu’s book:

Churches and community groups raged and organized campaigns against comic books. Young people acted out mock trials of comics characters. Schools held public burnings of comics, and students threw thousands of the books into the bonfires; at more than one conflagration, children marched around the flames reciting incantations denouncing comics. Headlines in newspapers and magazines around the country warned readers: "Depravity for Children — Ten Cents a Copy!" "Horror in the Nursery," "The Curse of the Comic Books." The offices of one of the most adventurous and scandalous publishers, EC Comics, were raided by the New York City police. More than a hundred acts of legislation were introduced on the state and municipal levels to ban or limit the sale of comics: Scores of titles were outlawed in New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and other states, and ordinances to regulate comics were passed in dozens of cities.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89914205&ft=1&f=1032

(There’s also a photo gallery with images from the book that’s worth checking out at NPR.)

Splurging in Harvard Square

Last night I saw Cheryl Wheeler at Club Passim. It's first show I've ever seen inside Club Passim (I saw Richard Thompson at a Club Passim event, but it was the show was in a larger venue.) What a great place to see a show. It's a very intimate setting. Cheryl is also a great storyteller. She told so many funny and sweet stories.

Before the show, I went on for me what was a mini-shopping spree. I went to the Coop and bought The Ten-Cent Plague and Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends. The picture does not do Chabon's cover justice. There's three separate flaps making up the dust jacket. I read about both books on Pop Candy. After she wrote this about Maps and Legends, how could I not add it to my wish list.

"Each time I hang out with his work, I feel like I'm a better person for it."




There might have been some frivolous purchases too! I stopped in at Tokyo Kid and bought two Fruits Basket plushes. Here's Nisa with Shigure.