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The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal vol 1: Poor Boys and Pilgrims, EK Weaver
Okay this was cool.
The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (henceforth referred to as TJ and Amal) actually started life as a webcomic, which as far as I know is both complete and available for free at that link. But because my brother loves me, he bought me the first volume in print, which contains the first six chapters. Thanks, Tim! Love you too.
TJ and Amal follows our two heroes on a roadtrip across the country, a roadtrip drunkenly entered into after Amal came out to his parents and got disowned and understandably got drunk. He's on his way to see his sister's graduation. TJ's reasons for traveling are a little more obscure. But our heroes get to-- Reno, I think, in this first volume, and are already into each other.
It's funny and clever and heartbreaking at the same time, with great art and interesting notes in the back. I found it occasionally confusing and a bit slow to start, but once we actually got onto the roadtrip I started having a lot of fun. I'd definitely recommend this book.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 3--fascists have problems. Amal is brown and our boys are both at least into dudes generally and each other specifically. I kind of question TJ's hair though.
Habibi, Naomi Shihab Nye
Habibi is the story of Liyana Abboud, a fourteen-year-old American girl transplanted to Palestine when her Arab father decides to return home and bring his family with him. With her brother, grandmother, new friends, and even a budding relationship to Omer, a Jewish boy she meets in Jerusalem, Liyana begins to settle into her new home, and to question the assumptions that her neighbors and her family make.
This is a children's book about the Middle East sooooo it's a little simplistic, I think. The situation is extremely complicated, and Nye seems to boil it down to "why can't people get along and love each other," which... well, I mean, yes on the one hand, but on the other hand, she brings it up: Liyana's Palestinian family was evicted and lost all their assets when Israel was created, but Omer's family lost a bunch of members in the Holocaust, and will do anything to prevent that happening again. And even that's simplifying the situation. So, idk. I liked the book, I sympathized with Liyana, and I thought it was well written-- Nye is a poet, and it shows-- but man. It just seems really simplified to the point of absurdity.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 4--fascists have major problems. The only white person is Liyana's mom, and it is all about love conquering hate. Plus Jewish AND Muslim people are presented as sympathetic. The main characters are American, which is the only thing that prevents this from being a hat trick.
Agnes of God, John Pielmeier
I picked this up because it looked interesting and it... was? I'd rather have seen it staged, I think.
Agnes of God is a play in which the titular Agnes, a nun, is accused of murdering her baby. The main-ish character, Doctor Martha Livingstone, is called in to assess Agnes's sanity or lack thereof, but Agnes's Mother Superior determinedly tries to keep them apart. Is the Mother Superior hiding something? Who got Agnes pregnant? And who really killed the baby?
The play is a bit difficult to follow in writing, but I can see how it would be staged, the Doctor kind of monologuing and fading into and out of flashbacks. It's kind of about faith and kind of about science and the interplay between the two, and kind of about saints, and kind of about femininity. Anyway. You learn a lot about Agnes over the course of the play, but I think the Doctor is really the main character.
There's a lot of fucked-up stuff in here, by the way, including infanticide, rape, incest, and child sexual abuse, sooo... be aware.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 3--fascists have problems. There are zero men in this play and everyone's Catholic. Or an atheist.
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