100 books like Gemma Bovery

A wild reimagining of Dante’s Purgartorio featuring Gary Panter’s character Jimbo, a punk everyman he created in the 1970s. Panter is known for drawings that are organic, energetic, and intense, and here his oversized page designs are especially concentrated, decorative, and hypnotic. His commitment and obsession are palpable, and there’s a lot to unpack and explore. While following the outlines of Dante’s story, Panter mixes in literary and pop culture references (from Aristophanes to Frank Zappa) to immerse you in his world. 

There’s no shortage of worthy graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare, but Wimberly’s is a standout. His remix of Romeo and Juliet focuses on the supporting characters and moves the setting to 1980s Brooklyn. Hip-hop and graffiti culture commingles with the swordplay. Wimberly samples Shakespeare’s text in his dialogue, and he adds dynamic page layouts, vivid character designs, and evocative colors to reinvent the tale.

This is a great introduction to the Taoist philosophy of Zhuangzi, as rendered by Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai. These short comic strips are instantly inviting, and rendered in an animated, funny style that feels effortless. Tsai emphasizes the humor and subversive qualities of the original text, but his approach is reverent, too, as he lays out Zhuangzi’s deep lessons on each page.

This hefty collection of Ray Bradbury adaptations is also a great representation of a beloved era of American comic books. These 1950’s stories were first published by EC comics in their titles Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, and more, which featured short (6-8 page) stories illustrated by some of the best cartoonists of the day: Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, B. Krigstein, among others. Many were written by Al Feldstein, who also adapted the Bradbury fantasy and science fiction stories reprinted here. They’re well-crafted stories with ornate art; you can see the loving care invested by the creators. The comic books were originally printed in garish color (which has its charms), but the black and white reproductions in this volume show off the meticulous brushwork and unique styles of the artists. 

This comic book is one of the difficult books for the author, unless he is a lover of the work and immersed in its details.

The story is romantic, and takes place in almost one place. Nevertheless, the writer succeeds in not leaving us an opportunity to get bored, especially with the charming Gibrat drawings, which resemble a group of artistic paintings.

The historical background here is the Second World War, and the period of the Nazi occupation of France, which is of the type of war romance, the story of Julien who survived a train accident, to spend a year waiting for a deferred death, in which he recalls his love story with Cecile, and in this year the fates change many persons.

I liked this comic so much when I first read it that I translated it into Arabic, and I recommend you to read this comic.

First published in 1959, some 15 years after the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, Cornelius Ryan’s book stands as a classic narrative of that amphibious assault. Writing in the vivid prose of an experienced journalist, Ryan also conducted research like a seasoned historian. He interviewed combatants of every nation and rank and sent questionnaires to many others. I feel like I am in the thick of the fight alongside Allied soldiers in the landing craft approaching the beach and with Germans hunkered down in the fortifications trying to stop their amphibious assault. Throughout his narrative, Ryan blends analyses of the good and bad decisions made by both sides.   

Published in time for the 50th anniversary of D-Day (Operation Overlord) in 1994, Ambrose’s 656-page tome covers the broad scope of the massive, history-changing operation, with special attention paid to the parachute and glider operations. The author details the overall planning of the air-and-sea operation—and analyzes why the most carefully planned invasion in history nearly went terribly wrong. This is the ultimate history of the battle that changed the outcome of World War II.

Terry Copp is one of Canada’s foremost military historians and his towering knowledge is on full display in this brilliant study of Canada’s role in the 1944 Normandy Campaign. Copp interviewed dozens of veterans and visited Normandy some 20 times to walk the ground and see the unfolding of the battle through the men’s eyes.

Fields of Fire redresses an imbalance in our understanding of Canada’s battlefield performance in Normandy that several leading international and some Canadian scholars feel was underwhelming. But not Copp.

He minutely and compellingly re-examines and convincingly contextualizes Canadian generalship, the terrain over which the men fought, the nature of German defences, Canadian casualties of 18,000 in just ten weeks, including psychological casualties due to battle exhaustion, and other factors that oblige us to assess the Canadians’ performance more positively.

He is palpably proud of these men’s achievements and deeply sensitive to the cruel fates of… show more.

One of my all-time favorite books; it inspired me to become a military historian. Through extensive interviews with the actual participants, Ambrose detailed how gilder-borne British commandos pulled off a nearly textbook example of how to take an enemy-held bridge. Whenever I lead tours to Normandy, I always make sure we stop at Pegasus Bridge and recount the valor of the British troops who performed what many said was impossible.

Why two books instead of one. Well, because the two are equally excellent accounts that taken together span the combat service of a young Canadian artillery forward observation officer (FOO). The life span of many FOOs was short, the long antennas of the wireless sets they carried out front with the advancing infantry to call in artillery support were magnets for Germans snipers. But Blackburn beat the odds and survived to write this remarkably frank and honest memoir of eleven months of almost constant battlefield action. Over this course of a journey from Normandy through Belgium, the Netherlands, and into northwestern Germans in the final push, the reader feels literally by Blackburn’s side and inside his thoughts and emotions. From early confidence in his abilities and training to a slow descent toward fatalism and a simple grim determination to survive, Blackburn’s journey is both highly individualistic and simultaneously an epic… show more.