Graphic as in illustrated, like a graphic novel. I have read Maus, Persepolis, and Passing for Human. I’m currently reading The Shape of Ideas by Grant Snider. I’m planning to read some of Susan Branch’s travel books once my friend is done with them and sends them to me.
I don’t have a preference regarding topic, so long as it is non-fiction. I’m also okay with something in a bit of a gray area, like a conceptual/creative graphic memoir that has fictional elements but is ultimately about a true story. I do enjoy politics, geography, travel, and personal narratives (I’m very open and flexible on this front).
My main preference is a book where you think the illustration and layout really changes the experience of reading it and is impactful to the story.
by lacroixqat
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I love Alison Bechdel’s **Fun Home**, which is a memoir of her dysfunctional childhood in a funeral home, discovering her sexuality, and her closeted father’s affairs and eventual suicide.
Absolutely read Allie Brosh’s books if you haven’t.
My go-to rec is Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, which is excellent and insightful.
I have a massive graphic memoir sitting on my TBR right now called Climate Changed: A Personal Journey Through the Science by Philippe Squarzoni. I haven’t started it yet but it looks interesting and well-researched.
Graphic nonfiction I have read:
I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation by Natalie Nourigat – as someone who will never hold this job, I thought this was a really cool look at the industry and how the author got into it
Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole J. Georges – it ends the way animal memoirs do. I needed tissues.
Be Prepared by Vera Brogsol – a fun memoir of summer camp for middle grade audiences
Algeria is Beautiful Like America by Olivia Burton – a memoir/travelogue
We Served the People: My Mother’s Stories by Emei Burrell – the author’s mother’s time during the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Almost American Girl by Robin Ha – the author’s experience moving to the US from Korea as a child
Spinning by Tillie Walden – a coming of age memoir as a young figure skater
The Fire Never Goes Out by ND Stevenson – based on Stevenson’s diaries
Not Funny Ha-Ha: A Handbook for Something Hard by Leah Hayes – two women’s experiences with abortion, with an educational component
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei – based on the author’s experience in a Japanese internment camp as a child
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui – a memoir of moving to the US from Vietnam in the 1970s
Waves by Ingrid Chabbert – technically fiction (I think, it’s been a few years) but based on Chabbert’s experience with miscarriage