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And Then There Were Crumbs by Eve Calder and Christa Lewis (Narrator)
Art Matters by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 1: The Neighborhood by Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora (Illustrations)
Blue-Ribbon Henry by Mary Calhoun and Erick Ingraham (Illustrator)
Claws for Alarm by Cate Conte and Amy Melissa Bently (narrator)
Coached in the Act by Victoria Laurie
Death by Hot Apple Cider by Alex Erickson
The First Misadventure by Doreen Cronin and Kevin Cornell (Illustrations)
Ghostal Living by Kathleen Bridge and Vanessa Daniels (Narrator)
Gladys the Magic Chicken by Adam Rubin and Adam Rex (Illustrations)
Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett
Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala and Danice Cabanela (Narrator)
Honey Roasted by Cleo Coyle and Rebecca Gibel (Narrator)
Hot and Sour Suspects by Vivien Chien
Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Yas Imamura (Illustrator)
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
One True Loves by Elise Bryant
Orlando by Virginia Woolf and Clare Higgins (Narrator)
Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares by Tehlor Kay Mejia
The Princess in Black and the Giant Problem by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and LeUyen Pham (illustrator)
Private I. Guana: The Case of the Missing Chameleon by Nina Laden
Spirits and Sourdough by Bailey Cates
Steeple, Volume 2: The Silvery Moon by John Allison
The Suicide Murders by Howard Engel
Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon
With Lots of Love by Jenny Torres Sanchez and Andres Ceolin (Illustrations)

Miscellaneous
February 2022 Sources

February 2022 Summary

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5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

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Beat the Backlist 2023

Canadian Book Challenge: 2022-2023

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Art Matters: 03/23/22

Art Matters

Art Matters by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell is a slim volume containing four essays about the creative process. They are: "Credo", "Make Good Art", "Making a Chair", and "On Libraries."

I've had this book since it was first published. I bought it more for the Chris Riddell illustrations. I had finished reading his Ottaline series. I had also recently started following him on Instagram and had seen him publish pieces that eventually became pages in this collection.

Despite all that, it wasn't the right time to read the book. That is until January 1st, 2022. We are entering our second year of life during COVID. The world is in flux and with Omicron spiking and the reality that at least temporarily we'd be on lockdown again, it was finally time.

The essays, though, weren't the uplift I was hoping for the new year. Gaiman describes a world that no longer exists. He describes the chances he took that got him where he is. These tricks won't work for the majority of the readers. They certainly won't work for marginalized artists at the scale they have worked for him.

Three stars

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