One big bummer about life is that each of us seems to get only one. More than 8 billion examples of how things could have gone differently, and there's still no swapping that receding hairline, substandard upbringing — you name it — for a more desirable model.
Unless you're playing a video game, of course, where you've got as many lives as the game allows. But this week, in addition to a lively graphic history of the medium, there are also more analog options on the publishing calendar for the luddite-inclined: a biography of a bird detective, say, or a novel set in Nigeria that's bursting with perspectives.
You've got some good opportunities to dabble in others' experiences, in other words. Just make sure to stick to the shade when you bring your book outside. Because, like it or not, this old mortal coil is all we've got until further notice.
The Age of Video Games: A Graphic History of Gaming from Pong to VR and Beyond, by Jean Zeid, illustrated by Emilie Rouge, translated by Jen Vaughn
Since Pong, granddaddy of them all, began gobbling coins more than half a century ago, video games have lived on change, and not just the kind that buys another round at the arcade. Now settled into respectable (and exceptionally lucrative) middle age, the industry has retained an insurgent's propensity for constant revolution – in technologies, playstyles, producers, you name it. How lovely, then, for noobs and old-timers alike to have this visual chronicle sorting out its sometimes-chaotic evolution, from an author, illustrator and translator whose love for the medium — and nostalgia for its sundry eras — shines through virtually every panel.
Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar, by Katie Yee
Don't worry, you probably haven't heard this one before. The title of Yee's debut novel invokes the flat humor of a canned joke in order to unravel it, one hard-earned grief after another. Now, that's not to say Yee's book isn't funny, just that the comedy is inseparable from the tragedy that pulls its plot forward. Suffice to say that the eponymous Maggie has a twofold significance: It's the name of the woman for whom the narrator's husband leaves her, and it's also what the narrator calls the cancerous tumor that she discovers not long afterward. Talk about a punchline that punches below the belt.
Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource, by Sam Bloch
It's not often that the title of a book — especially one focused on the effects of our warming planet — can elicit a visceral sense of relief on sight. But then, perhaps that's the genius of releasing a book named Shade in the swelter of late July. It's also another compelling point in favor of journalist Bloch's central argument — that shelter from unbridled sunlight is a public health imperative, as critically important as it is increasingly hard to find in modern cities. Bloch's conversation-starter draws examples from history, city-planning and social policy to make his case and offer some tentative solutions going forward.
The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne, by Chris Sweeney
It's possible that for many folks, the unlikely phrase "forensic ornithology" conjures some disquieting mashup, like CSI: Audubon, rather than the pleasant visage of Roxie Laybourne. And that's fair — after all, it wasn't until the late researcher pioneered the field that it could even be said to have existed at all. This "Miss Marple of Eiderdown" spent decades identifying and explaining the bird feathers left behind at crime scenes, on poaching sites and perhaps most importantly, in the engines of downed airplanes. In this biography, Sweeney, a freelance journalist, explores how Laybourne's dogged determination proved pivotal in helping authorities understand and prevent the dangerous collisions between birds and airliners.
Necessary Fiction, by Eloghosa Osunde
Pity the poor fool who has to explain Osunde's fiction in a tidy, pithy package. The task not only presents a challenge, in some ways it misses the point entirely. The Nigerian author and artist hasn't shown much interest in the kind of traditional plot that arcs from introduction to denouement. Instead, in Necessary Fiction as in Osunde's debut, Vagabonds!, the subject isn't so much a single protagonist as the roiling sea of personalities that shape day-to-day Lagos. Unabashedly queer, complicated and occasionally outright hopeful, Necessary Fiction finds in its host of characters the grace of found families and how they help outsiders survive.
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