James Davidge -- Night Table Recommendations

Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010 at 9:23am

After recently reading Julian by Gore Vidal which chronicles the life of the Roman emperor, I find myself exploring even earlier times with The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon. Telling the tale of Aristotle's tutoring of a young Alexander the Great, I am in constant awe of how she can communicate the feeling of a moment with concise sentences.

Before bed-time I often enjoy a good graphic novel. Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli is engaging, intelligent and one of the few graphic novels that my wife has really appreciated. For almost two years I have been pouring over KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art, the compendium to the excellent Vancouver Art Gallery exhibit. Waiting on my nightstand to be read right now is Neil Young's Greendale, a graphic novel by Joshua Dysart and Cliff Chiang that is inspired by the legendary musician's concept album.

I tend to also have a few non-fiction books around and pick at them in various ways. Titles at the top of the pile include Douglas Copeland's distinctly written biography of Marshall McLuhan, Wade Davis' in-depth study of the wisdom of various ancient cultures in The Wayfinders and Florin Diacu's account of a potentially significant error with our chronology in The Lost Millennium.

Standing out as fun and moving books to read with my daughter is the Ella the Elephant series by Carla D'amico and Steve D'amico.

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James Davidge is the author of the five-novel Driftwood Saga, which chronicles the magical efforts of a young girl as she tackles many global issues including child labour, illegal whaling, aggressive logging and the military industrial complex. He has also recently released two graphic novels - The Duchess Ranch of Old John Ware with illustrations by Bob Prodor and Mathemagick & Mystiphysics Volume One: The Probabilities of Pandemonium with illustrations by Jesse Davidge. James lives just outside of Calgary where he teaches at the Willow Park School for Arts-Centred Learning. He will be appearing at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg Thursday July 29th to read and sign from his work. Find out more information here.

Categories: Reviews, Authors, Graphic Novels