This was a Good Book. It was funny, sad, and inspiring. Best of all, it was true. There should be more people like Evelyn Ryan.

I enjoyed reading this book about trying to make a new life back home. I especially like Linda's observations about her relatives and other Islanders.

In the sequel to Persepolis, she returns from Europe to Iran. She decides to live with the totalitarian regime in order to be near her family. This book is great at showing the pattern of the dictatorship and the mind control. It's amazing how they got the courage to live their lives under the regime the way they did.
Like Persepolis, I found the graphic novel format to be really interesting. Her pictures add so much to the story with minimal text.

The second installment of Satrapi's life story is poignant, honest, funny, sad, and everything you can think of. A graphic novel set that is worth your time - it won't be long - you can zoom through it!

Finished 2/25/07.

Very different from its prequel. Tough to call one better than the other. While Persepolis 1 takes us through the fall of the Shah and into the Iran-Iraq war, allowing us to see Iran spiral into disarray, Persepolis 2 is a journey in the opposite direction. Sartrapi goes from being afraid, alone, and abroad to coming of age, coming home, and coming to terms with her own identity as an Iranian. The two books are equally grand in scope and important, and neither is complete without the other.

Well, I saw lots of reviews that said skip it - but I have to really read it for myself. And I thought it was a perfect way to end the series of her life. It had enough tie-ins to the previous books - but COULD be ready singly if you really had to. I enjoyed it and found it endearing, and I hate the idea of having children. Just read all three books ok?

Started: 7/16/09
Finished: 7/16/09

Book Blurb

    "Jen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites aren't party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilletos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly funny and infinitely entertaining...
    Whether she's reporting rude neighbors to Homeland Security, harboring a crush on her grocery store, or fighting - and losing the Battle of the Stairmaster, Lancaster explores how silly, strange, and not so fabulous real city living can be. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss her big, fat, pink, puffy down parka."

Personal Review:

    I was, quite literally, laughing out loud while reading this memoir. Jen Lancaster is irreverant, foul-mouthed, opinionated, self-centered, and just as the subtitle says, a self-indulgent, surly, ex-sorority girl. I don't personally agree with her political views, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this book. I read it in one sitting, and as soon as I finished, I called my sister to recommend it and my husband just to laugh about it (he so didn't get it). I can't wait to read the rest of her books.

This was a serendipitous find at St. Phillip's Bookstore in Oxford. It's translated from the Irish languge and is about growing up in Blasket Island off the western coast of Ireland near Dingle--which we had visited a few years ago. The story is set in the early 20th century and today the island is almost deserted--unless it has revived since 1933. The tone of the language is soft and musical. "Och, tht's talk in the air." "A fine day, Padig." "It is, thanks be to God, and a good day on the sea."

I think Maurice O'Sullivan wrote just this one book. He died in 1950 while "bathing".