Animals with Lots of Legs; Heads or Tails.

( Jellyfish floating and bobbing -like ghosts or handkerchiefs in the wind- in the green water's of Puget Sound, Mid-July 2013.)

  The other day I went to the downtown library and had the good luck of finding three graphic novels that I was really excited to read! The first one I finished reading was 'Heads or Tails' by Lilli Carré . 'Heads or Tails' is a collection of illustrated stories. It was fantastic! Lilli Carré's stories are playful and humorous around the edges, but also really poignant and thought-provoking. A perfect example of this is in her story 'Wishy Washy' about a floral arrangement judge who experiences a life-altering collision. A lot of her stories have a very calm melancholy under a story that may seem simple (only at first glance), such as in the story 'Too Hot to Sleep' about hot summers and youth. Other stories are infused with melancholy but this is offset by a subtle whimsy (such as in 'The Carnival' which was my favorite story in the collection). The stories in 'Heads or Tails' also are often delightfully odd and sometimes eerie, such as in the story 'The Thing about Madeline' about a woman who meets her doppelganger. One thing that all the stories have in common are that they are beautiful and full of heart. I also love Carré's illustration style. It is a very unique style that is distinctly her's. I love the way she draws people and all her attention to texture or small details. 

 I read another book by Lilli Carré a while ago called 'The Lagoon' that I also recommend. 'The Lagoon' is one long story rather than a collection of many short ones, but it is delightful and wonderful in the same way that Carré's shorter stories are.

(I came back to my car after work one Fall day to find this spider had built a beautiful and quite large web between my car and the garbage can I was  parked next too. She had also caught herself the risky meal of a bee. I was very impressed with all this spider had accomplished while I had been at work. She had built herself a home and caught herself a meal, and now I was going to have to destroy it by driving away.)