I have recently gotten into graphic novels. It’s kind of an intimidating hobby to get into; there are just so many to pick from that it’s hard to know where to begin. I won’t pretend to be an expert on the subject but if it’s an expert you want, come to Lemuria and talk to Hunter; he’s our resident comic book guru. However, I can recommend a few graphic novels to get your feet wet. My first graphic novel was the Lumberjanes, written by Noelle Stevenson and Shannon Watters. This is a fun series centered around a camp for girls, specifically the girls of the Roanoke Cabin. Throughout the series ..read more

Here are a few more titles you’ll find in our Graphic Novel section right now: God Country: written by Donny Cates, art by Geoff Shaw God Country has one of the most fascinating concepts I have seen in a while. It tells the story of Roy Quinlan and his family, particularly his father Emmett, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. However, everything changes for the Quinlans when a magic sword falls from the sky in West Texas, and comes into Emmett’s possession. As long as Emmett is holding the sword, his Alzheimer’s is cured and all of his memories of his family return. However, the godlike beings ..read more

Navigating middle school is tricky terrain, even under normal circumstances. Imogene, who goes by Impy, is entering middle school for the first time after growing up living in the Florida Renaissance Faire with her annoying little brother and her parents as cast members at the faire. Now that she is old enough to train as a squire, she can’t wait to participate in the jousting, human chess match, and other knightly duties. But first, she has to enter a place more dangerous than a dragon’s lair: middle school. It is not the idyllic pace she imagines it to be. It’s filled with mean older kids, l ..read more

The graphic novel is a strange beast. Though I’m not as well versed in them as our beloved Hunter is, I still enjoy reading them. Most of the graphic-format books I’ve read have been about superheroes:  Batman, the Green Lantern Corps, Daredevil. And, in a way, March fits that bill, too, though both the hero and enemies are too real. March is the three-part memoir of civil rights icon Senator John Lewis, co-written with his communications aide Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell.  The narrative begins on the inauguration day of President Barack O ..read more

Graphic novels. We’ve still got them. All kinds, I promise. Here’s a few more recommendations that you’ll find on our shelves, this time from big publishers Marvel and DC: The Omega Men:The End is Here by Tom King DC Comics What happens when you give one of the top comic book writers around a super-obscure team of charactersfrom DC Comics’ vault? You get one of the best series to come out of DC in the last few years: The Omega Men. The book was originally marketed as a Green Lantern spin-off, but the appeal is much broader than a simple superhero story. King takes a st ..read more

Graphic novels. Lemuria has them. Don’t believe me? Come by the store and find out. Don’t know what to read? Here are some recommendations for a couple of really great graphic novels from that last few years. Huck Book 1: All-American Mark Millar, a Marvel Comics veteran, has since said that his inspiration when writing Huck was the film Man of Steel, which he felt portrayed a very depressing, serious version of the superhero-archetype. The eponymous character of Huck is his response; a simple small-town handyman with Superman-esque powers, an optimistic attitude, and ..read more

Okay. If you like illustrations and you like dogs….man, oh man, have I got a book for you! As some of you may know, before I started working at Lemuria I was an adoption coordinator for a humane society. With that being said, I’m pretty into animals. Cats, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, whatever…I like them all. While I was working at the humane society, I was around about 150 animals every day. I currently have one dog, two cats, and one foster dog. So, right now I’m only around four a day. When I’m with my dog or cats, I’ll find myself wondering what they’re thinking about or trying to tell m ..read more

Original to TwentybyJenny.com. By Clara Martin. Earlier this week, Gene Luen Yang was appointed the National Ambassador for Children’s Literature. Having heard Yang speak at the Children’s Book Festival in Hattiesburg in April of 2015, this news comes as a delight. His presentation was engaging, made everyone laugh, and I’ve never seen so many librarians queue up to buy a graphic novel. They were sold out minutes after his speech. With his friendly demeanor and an innate ability to teach, whether it is about the history of superheroes in comics—Superman was also an alien immigrant—or teaching ..read more

This year was a doozy. I consumed everything from nonfiction about animal consciousness to the modern classic Fates and Furies by Lemuria’s new best friend, Lauren Groff. I can’t even get into the second paragraph without telling you that The Godfather was hands down my favorite read of the year. You can read my blog about it here. I had the chance to sit down and talk to Garth Risk Hallberg about his meteoric rise in the literary world. Jon Meacham made me cry. I personally made the move from the hub that is Lemuria’s front desk to the quieter fiction room, where ..read more

If you’ve missed it, comic books have grown up over the last decade. It’s no longer the world of caped crusaders and villains with daddy issues. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good arch nemesis like the next guy, but more and more I find myself turning to comic books for the same thing I find in a novel. But with pictures. The landscape of Alex + Ada is a familiar trope. It’s the future and artificial intelligence has been achieved but with disastrous results. The robots rebelled (eg iRobot, Bladerunner, Battlestar Galactica etc.) and are now, for safety’s sake, re ..read more