Cairo by G. Willow Wilson

Cairo by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by M. K. Perker*

This graphic novel is an odd but fun mixture of humor, action, politics, religion, and magic. Although I don't think it quite came together, it was still a refreshing read for me.

I first heard about Cairo on Book Blather, and I was immediately attracted to its promise of mixing Egyptian folk tales with modern-day Cairo. Ashraf is a drug smuggler who gets into a bit of trouble when he takes a hookah from a warehouse. Unbeknownst to him, the hookah belongs to the wizard, Har, and he really wants it back. So he kidnaps Ali, Ashraf's childhood friend and almost-brother-in-law, plus some random American chick named Kate, and ransoms them for the hookah. Shaheed, a "Lebanese-American," also gets involved when Ashraf sells him the hookah for twenty dollars.

This graphic novel starts off with a surprising amount of humor, which luckily balances out the fact that it's also quickly obvious which folk tale the book is ripping off of (psst, it's Aladdin). There's a lot more than that going on in novel--some Ancient Egyptian legends are brought into it, which at first seems really cool but winds up being kind of awkward; there's talk about cultures coming together peacefully and forgiveness; and there's some pro-religion stuff, as well--only featuring the Qur'an. I have to confess that caught me a bit off guard--one isn't often confronted with Muslim evangelicalism in the US. I'm not sure it serves much of a purpose, but it's very brief.

As for the art, to tell the truth I was disappointed. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and elegant, but the illustrations inside don't live up to that. There were a few moments of true artistry that caught my eye, especially towards the end of the novel, but most of the panels were busy and scribbly, and quite literal.

Story-wise, the beginning was very promising and there were parts that I thought were really cool. It just didn't all come together in the second half. And even though I think the author's heart is in the right place, from an ideological standpoint I have to say the conclusion to the tale undermines all the talk about how being a suicide bomber is, like, really not a cool idea, and violence doesn't solve problems. But like I said, overall I was entertained. And I actually did appreciate the change of pace reading a graphic novel with a lot of action, like this one, gave me.


*knil setaicossa nozama na s'ti

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Uno, Dos, Tres, Hecho!

Bloggiesta is over, and I have to say I didn't get much done.  Woe is to me.  But!  I did get a new blog theme for 2010 up, and it is beautiful!!!  Thank you so much to Drea from Book Blather for helping me with the HTML for it.  So in case you visited today and said to yourself, "Wow!  It looks like someone knows what they're doing."  Yeah, that would be Drea. :)

Beth from Beth Fish Reads gave us all a mini-challenge to clean up our labels so they're more user-friendly.  I didn't really accomplish this for the whole blog, but I did add labels to my old posts here, so people can find them.  I kind of went label-crazy for a few months there, but people will just have to deal with it.

Chelle from Tempting Persephone (great name for a blog, by the way) challenged us to feature the best posts on our blog.  However we defined "best" was up to us.  This was pretty difficult, as you can probably imagine.  But I picked out several favorites: 

• One of my favorite reviews here is still Drood by Dan Simmons.  Not just because I was really proud of myself for finishing it, but I think it's one of my better reviews, even if the formatting is all screwed up. 
  
• I also enjoyed reviewing Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick for the sheer WTF value that is that book.
• Symbol or Fraud was another early post I did that was a response to a Booking Through Thursday meme.
• A Short History of Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy in Art is ironically titled, since it is an insanely long post.  In fact, it might the longest post I've written so far.  I'm quite proud of it, though, even though no one wants to read the whole thing.
• My post about the art history shout-out on True Blood still gets comments.
• And Why I Don't Rate My Reviews is basically a manifesto of what my goal is when writing reviews.

And finally, Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelves posted a great mini-challenge on a way to brain storm for post ideas!  Here is what you do:

1. Set-up:  Get a piece of paper and draw five
   circles vertically along the paper.   In the circles, write the titles
   of your last five blog posts.
2. Extend Your Posts: Take each post and brainstorm
   ways the post can be extended.  Answer a comment left on a previous
   post. Expand upon your answer. Expand upon an idea or opinion that you
   may have briefly mentioned in the previous post.  For each idea draw a
   line out from the circle, draw a square (or use a different color) and
   write the idea inside of it.
3. Extend Further: This step is optional.  Expand upon the topics you have come up with and you’ll end up with even more post ideas!

Sounds simple, right?  I tried this exercise and here's what I came up with:

Books--I Do Not Haz Them

• Giving books to non-readers
• Review of the Sharon Shinn book I got (after I read it, of course)
• Gift cards versus getting actual books: is one better than the other?

Two Classic Film Reviews

• Review of 500 Days of Summer
• The awesomeness that is Peter Lorre
• Read Maltese Falcon and compare it to the movie
• Women's roles in film (pretty broad, I know)

Harry Potter and the Kid Who Cried Wolf

• Review of the next Harry Potter book I read
• Is JK Rowling the 21st-century version of Dickens?
• Dumbledore: how evil is he?
• How long is too long for a book?

The Dickens With Love by Josh Lanyon

• The next m/m book I read reviewed
• DNFs from m/m month
• M/M books-romantic?

Art History Challenge Update

• Basically reviews of the books I'm planning to read for this, haha.
• Updates on other posts participants have written.

This was really fun!  I have to recommend this to all the bloggers out there--I really did get some promising post ideas.  Thanks, Jenn.


Thus ends another Bloggiesta.  I blogged for about 13 1/2 hours, completed three (ish--give me a break Beth, please?) mini-challenges, and retooled my blog.  I know I did a lot less than some people, but I'm very happy with what I accomplished.  I can't wait for the next Bloggiesta!  Thank you again to Natasha from Maw Books for hosting it.  Hasta la próxima, bloggers!

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The Polar Express

Today I'm guest-posting at Drea's blog, Book Blather. I'll be reviewing the warmiest, fuzziest children's Christmas book ever, The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg*.

So stop by and check it out!


*I made the van lowercase just for Bookalicious

Bloggiesta Wrap Up

The Bloggiesta, hosted by Natasha at Maw Books, is officially over!  To refresh your (and my) memory, here were my goals for the 48-hour blogfest:

• Catch up on the posts I have ideas for.  Done!  I wrote and posted one of my to-do entries on my personal blog (e-mail me if you want the link).
  
• Do my first author interview!  Done!  My interview with Simone Elkeles is finished and will publishes here soon.
  
• Try to make my blogspot site look nicer than it does now.  I made some changes to blogspot; not sure if it looks that much better, though.
  
• Write up reviews.  I wrote two reviews.
  
• Try to figure out who I'm following on twitter that I'm not following on GR, and vice versa.  This did not get done.
  
• Do an update for my blog challenges.  I wrote one challenge update.
  
• I might get adventurous and experiment with doing a vlog entry, but we'll have to see how it goes.  Nope, didn't happen.
  

I clocked in over 27 hours of blogging during the Bloggiesta.  During that time, I wrote a total of six posts (seven including this one) and completed 9 mini-challenges (I only half-completed 3 mini-challenges, for various reasons).  Here are the ones I managed to completely finish:

• Emily from Emily’s Reading Room - Are you talking about me?
• Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food - You have a blog?  So tell me about it.
• Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile - Get listed.
• Jen from Devourer of Books - Wow. I wrote that when?  Let’s update.
• Amy from My Friend Amy - I need a friend.
• Michelle from GalleySmith - Anchor text.  You mean there’s a way this *should* be done?
• Andrea from Book Blather - Authorities?  What authorities?
• Ruth from Bookish Ruth - You’re going to analyze what?

Hmm, that's actually only eight, but I'm too tired to figure out where and why my counting is off at this point.  Anyway, the mini-challenges were great!  They were all about improving your blog, blog traffic, and connecting with other bloggers.  My favorite was probably Book Blather's challenge about reading blogging tips.  I not only learned about, but got an idea for a post!  I wanted to do all the challenges, but I simply ran out of time.

Overall the Bloggiesta was successful for me.  I didn't get everything done that I wanted to--there are still reviews to do, reading challenges to update, etc.--but I think I did pretty well overall.  Plus, it was just plain fun!  I loved learning from and talking with the bloggers who were part the challenge.  Thank you everyone for helping, chatting, and talking about ice cream. :)

And huge kudos and thanks to Natasha at Maw Books for hosting this challenge!  It was great experience and I can't wait for the next Bloggiesta!  If you get the chance, definitely join in.

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