oh dear

I took a couple weeks off! Also my daughter Beatrice just turned 11 which coincides with the eleventh year since I graduated from comic book school and 17 years since I had a cigarette, which coincides with the time when Sara and I started dating. So far so good!

This weeks Rec:

Goldfinches by Mary Oliver and Melissa Sweet 

This book is a balm. I don't know anything about the poet Mary Oliver but a wonderful friend I used to work with at the bookstore (someone should give this book to Efton if he's still there) was really good at selling Mary Oliver books so I always assumed she was really good.

This is an adaptation of one of Mary Oliver's poems about goldfinches, and if you're anything like me you've been spending a ridiculous amount of time recently watching goldfinches. We are birdfeeder people and there have been so many. On gray rainy days they are like little popping bright lights. Incredible animals.

The book itself is stunning. Melissa Sweets art and layouts are part read-aloud picture book and part field guide and part art journal. It's immersive and transports the reader into wonderful nature scenes. It's also just an excellent vessel for a good poem.

Honestly I struggle with poetry in my life. I find it very hard to just sit down and read a poem and absorb it. However, an illustrated poem almost always works for me and I find it is a very similar experience to reading a short comic. I like how both art forms can deliver a huge experience in a relatively tiny package. I find that really compelling.

Anyway, thanks for being here. Love ya.