Lynda Barry – Cannonball Read 17

It is an exploration

What Is It? by Lynda Barry

January 23, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

CBR16SweetChallenge #New (new author, new style of writing/art) What Is It? is not my usual read for several reasons. But I knew the main reason was going to be that the cover was telling me this. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you can, especially when it looks like this. Lynda Barry’s work gives off a vibe of “old school gross-out.” It is as if the era of Mad Magazine and others like that threw up in realistic-abstract collages. […]

“When you get older, you may never have anyone sing to you personally again, but go all over the world and I bet you can’t find one baby that has never been sung to.”

The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry

February 12, 2023 by GentleRain Leave a Comment

Lynda Barry’s other near-perfect YA novel, The Good Times Are Killing Me, marks my completing re-reading her non comics work, as I read and reviewed Cruddy last year. I do think Cruddy is a singular work of genius, but this novel is a close second and one that I find deeply moving and beautiful. It’s a short book, only 131 pages, but Barry manages to pack a lot of emotion and layered, thoughtful commentary on growing up, friendship, systemic societal racism, and the power of […]

“When the thing that is scaring you is already Jesus, who are you supposed to pray to?”

Cruddy by Lynda Barry

June 13, 2022 by GentleRain Leave a Comment

Lynda Barry is best known for her comics work, but I also really love her two illustrated novels (Cruddy and The Good Times Are Killing Me), which it seems to me are somewhat overlooked (or maybe I was too young when they came out to notice their cultural impact). All her work deals with outsider teens who are dealing with abusive parents and societal alienation with no one to help them. Cruddy is a very bleak, blackly comic novel. I like the journal-type format that it uses, as […]

Stop thinking and start creating!

Making Comics by Lynda Barry

January 18, 2021 by Tereasa 2 Comments

Part comic book, part course curriculum, and part self-help book, Making Comics by Lynda Barry can show and teach you to see stories in simple drawings. And how to make those drawings yourself! Lynda Barry is a cartoonist, author, and teacher, and Making Comics reads as if you were a student in her comics class. Barry teaches us how to draw without judgment by showing us that the drawings we made as kids were simplistic – but we knew what they were! That yellow circle […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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