you wouldn't believe what once or twice I have seen
Hello! My friends!
How are y'all holding up? A few of you reached out to tell me things you'd checked out on my recommendations, and it made my week! Please always feel free to do so, or to mention things to me that you think I might like!
We had a mad windstorm come through last week and it knocked out power all over the county for the better part of a day. At my house, we had no power and no cell signal from 5am one day until 10am the next. I am too much a product of my generation: I lost my mind, a bit. I read 2 books, but not happily. Actual image of me:
Dog Thing
Mixed Media
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about book covers and illustrations. I find books aesthetically pleasing in general–I do read ebooks, but they’re not my first choice. I like having a volume to hold in my hands, I like reading something so often that the spine breaks a little and the book forever falls open to my most frequently revisited pages (do this with my books and you will find it is mainly kissing). And I love when a book looks as beautiful outside as it is inside. A well-designed layout, a banger of a cover illustration, and if there are interior illustrations?? Just marry me already, book. I will absolutely seek out a specific edition of a book, even if it’s out of print, if I find it particularly beautiful. Particularly if Leo and Diane Dillon had anything to do with it.
Chances are, even if you don’t recognize the Dillons’ names, you’ve seen their work. If you were checking books out of libraries from the 70s through the 90s, you were seeing the Dillons. They did a set of covers for the Narnia books, they did covers for the Time Quartet books.
I read a lot of picture books illustrated by them as a child (Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears was a particular fave–it won the Dillons their first Caldecott Medal), but really became aware of the Dillons in high school when I picked up Sabriel. The Dillons did the covers for all of the Old Kingdom books that came out before Leo’s death in 2012.
The Dillons were known for their versatility of style, but a Dillon work is unmistakable to me. Their lines, and color, the way they used light and darkness–it jumps out at me, always. Diane Dillon no longer works–theirs was a true collaboration; there is no Leo and Diane without Leo–but I would love to see a return to the Dillon style of book cover illustration. It’s a perfect fit for the fantasy genre. Leila Del Duca, the artist of the comic Sleepless, has been doing her best Dillon on the covers, and it truly elevates the series for me.
The Dillons’ body of work is much, much vaster than this small sample, and I urge you to look them up. I urge you to buy beautiful books, in general. (Oh, and read Sleepless.)
Star Wars Rebels has come to an end, and I am bereft. I wish they hadn’t stacked the episodes the way they did, airing 2 a night for 3 weeks instead of stretching the experience out a bit. But it’s done now. On the whole, I loved the show, and I loved the ending. I’d love to see more if they ever follow up on it. Season…5? of Voltron went up, and I watched it, and had a good time! It’s so hard to judge the quality of that show for me, they release it in these bizarre 6 episode “seasons” and it’s hard to keep track of, like…story arcs? But I still enjoy it, so I still watch.
I’ve been on a romance novel kick. Lisa Kleypas, who’s the only writer I keep up with from my romance-obsessed days of old, put out her newest book, Hello Stranger, and I gobbled it up. Kleypas encompasses the best of historical romance, I think: deft, funny writing, and incredible attention to detail. I know a lot about late 19th century medicine now. I also read An Unnatural Vice and An Unsuitable Heir by K.J. Charles. I preferred An Unnatural Vice because I’m always a sucker for a pairing made up of a cynic and a believer, but An Unsuitable Heir featured a nonbinary hero, a welcome first for me! I read the first volume of Again!!, a manga by Mitsurou Kubo, co-creator of Yuri!!! On Ice. It’s about 2 students who take a fall on their last day of high school and wake up on the first day. I found it completely charming. I read the 2nd volumes of both I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino, and Astra Lost in Space by Kenta Shinohara. They both continue to be very good.
I saw Annihilation, which ultimately I liked a great deal, although it took me a couple days to come to that conclusion. It’s a very weird movie. Beautiful, but weird. I watched the live action adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, and I liked it? It’s not a very good adaptation in terms of story, but a GREAT adaptation in terms of visuals. It looked exactly as it ought to. I thought the acting was fun and great. It’s on Netflix.
Lastly
