Reddit mentions: The best historical & biographical novels

Well here we are, the final episode! In lieu of my usual approach, I'm gonna do some overall final wrap up stuff:

• If you would like to continue, please read the Light Novel! There are 17 Volumes, with 2 more volumes being stories that take place in the future. You may find the books at Amazon (this is a U.S. Amazon link), Bookwalker, or other stores that sell books. As I said in the first episode thread, I highly recommend reading it. I fell in love with the series through the anime and I still read all of the volumes!
  
• There is a sequel to the Light Novel as well that has recently started called Spice and Wolf New Theory: Wolf and Parchment. Only the first volume has been officially been released in English, but there are three released overall so far. You may find it [here] (https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Parchment-Theory-Spice-light/dp/0316473456) (again a U.S. Amazon link).
  
• If anybody is looking for a similar show, allow me to recommend [Maoyuu Maou Yuusha] (https://myanimelist.net/anime/14833/Maoyuu_Maou_Yuusha), which is not as good as Spice and Wolf, but nails the whole historical romance vibe pretty well. I like to think of it as a lite version of Spice and Wolf, but if you enjoyed Spice and Wolf, you should enjoy it.
  
• I would like to thank frequent thread contributors /u/notathrowaway75 for his first time perspectives, /u/Durinthal for his wonderful manga comparisons, and /u/Caspus for his veteran perspective and discussion generation. I've been keeping an eye on the comments of you three and you've all been a bright spot in these threads. Thanks for toughing it out (almost) every thread through the whole two seasons with me.
  
• Extra special thanks to /u/Holofan4life. I am a long time lurker on /r/SpiceandWolf and you are by far the champion of that subreddit, and I have loved your contributions here. Keep up the good work, people don't tell you enough how amazing what you do is.
  
• Extra extra special thanks to /u/mpp00 for running these threads for 26 episodes. You did a great job and I can speak for myself that I really enjoyed the opportunity to watch this show with a decent sized group of people, as I never got the chance to do so before. Your hard work is much appreciated.
  
  Alright, with the administrative stuff out of the way, allow me to talk about the series as a whole a little bit before we depart.
  
  Holo and Lawrence are by fair my favorite pairing (and two of my favorite characters individually as well) in all of anime, with no small part of that being how real their relationship feels. There is no rushing, no suddenly being in love with each other, it's just a slow and deliberate build in their feelings for each other. Watching them overcome trial after trial as they both contribute to each others happiness and open themselves up to another is a real joy to watch and read. I hope that some of you new watchers fell in love with these characters as I did.
  
  The supporting cast is also wonderful, each with their own motivations and quirks that make them memorable as well as making their involvement in the story believable.
  
  The setting and world is well fleshed out and has a lot going on behind the scenes, and I like how things move even without the main characters. Very few shows give the characters situations that spawned from events out of their direct control.
  
  Future events and characters are very much worth reading the novels, and those of you craving more of our main duo will most certainly want to see how they continue from here. I honestly recommend reading all of them, but season 2 leaves off on novel 5. Go back and read 4 (as it wasn't covered in the anime), and then continue with 6.
  
  TLDR; Thanks to everyone who watched, I do hope that any of you who stuck around for the rewatch enjoyed the show. Please support the Light Novels if you enjoyed the series. Hopefully I'll see some of you around here as well. I may not be as wise as Holo, but I'll try to remember you all!

POLIS: The Trial of Socrates, Part I - Free download thru Sunday, 2/10

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NGZQMBG

POLIS: The Trial of Socrates is a three-part historical graphic novel that takes place in ancient Athens. It's the story of how one of the greatest free thinkers in the ancient world was executed by the era's most democratic city. It also tells the story of how his student Plato transformed from an aristocratic politician into the founder of Western philosophy.

What’s in it for me? Well, it was just published on Amazon, and the more people who download the book - even with a free purchase - and the more reviews it gets, the higher the ranking, and therefore the more people will eventually see it and potentially buy it. So just downloading the book right now will help me out. (And if you feel it’s worth a review when you get a free moment, that would be much appreciated too.)

I've been interested in Socrates as a rough-around-the-edges martyr to free thought and rational discourse for years. In this moment of political sectarianism and increasing reluctance to examine oneself and one’s assumptions, it’s more important than ever to look to the example of Socrates of ancient Athens. I wanted to adapt the story into a comic form to perhaps attract new people to the era and the history.

Thanks so much for your time.

Jave Galt-Miller Writer/Creator of POLIS: The Trial of Socrates

(Also, the link points to the US store. But it should be available in any worldwide market.)

Well Craig Thompson also did Goodbye Chunky Rice, Carnet De Voyage and Habibi. As far as themes and plot go they don't have a lot of similarities (except maybe Chunky Rice) but the art is phenomenal in them and Habibi works with the Quran much like how Blankets spends a lot of time talking about Christianity.

As far as autobiographical comics go though, I'd suggest American Splendour (specifically "Our Cancer Year", "Cleveland" and "The Quitter"), A Contract With God, and Love And Rockets (try "Maggie the Mechanic", its not for everyone though, it has some scifi in this book but that kind of fades away as the series progresses to focus more on the characters and their relationships).

If you want something that experiments with the format of a comic book a lot you might want to look into Asterios Polyp, Cerebus (Jaka's Story and Church and State I & II are the highlights there) and the works of Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan is a good starting point). As I said though, these books, while some of the most brilliant comics there are, are very experimental and as such it helps to have some grounding in comics before you give them a try. I'd actually go so far as to call all three of these even better than Blankets though and I thought Blankets was great.

I don't really know your tastes but here are a few if you likes.

• If you like Lord of the Rings or Nausicaa, maybe try out Bone by Jeff Smith. You can get the whole series in a single vol: https://www.amazon.com/dp/188896314X/

• If you like crime stories, check out Stray Bullets: Killers by David Lapham: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632152150/

• If you like historical adventure, maybe check out Cape Horn by Christian Perrissin, Enea Riboldi https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594650799/

• If you want a bit of real life/romance, check out The Nao Of Brown by Glyn Dillon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1906838429/

• If you like biography, maybe check out Alan's War by Emanuel Guibert

• If you like a taste of superpowers without superheroes and then throw in espionage, check out Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt. It's 6 vols but you really can't go wrong with it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1595827978/



Other great reads that can be easy to get into:

• Wild's End by Abnett and Culbard
  
• Daytripper by Ba and Moon
  
• Blankets by Graig Thompson
  
• The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins
  
• Noah by Darren Aronofsky
  
• Beautiful Darkness by Vehlmann and Kerascoet
  

Okay, so this one does not pertain to the philosophical and social issues, but this is still a stellar read in terms of the reality behind super powered people. I recommend it to anyone with an analytic mind who enjoys science fiction. I always watch scifi and read comics while speculating what the scientific basis could be for the fantastic things we see in these genres, and this book was gold to me when I received it as a gift in the seventh grade. In fact, I'm buying another copy now since I lost my old one.

Ok, it's a bunch of ebooks, usually in these bundles you get about 15 of them and the bundles cost $15 so $1 each.
If it's stuff like comic books it's usually around 40 items for a normal price for those are like $4-8 each, in the case of books for the more fiction style of books maybe the normal price is usually like $10-20 each, in this case it was 20-25 books so I guess the normal price is $15-20 each and in the case of stuff like the OReilly books the normal price per book is more like $30 and such, in like the Unity asset packs some of those things have a normal price of $50 and so on.

So like for $1:
https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Mythology-Explained-Legends-Goddesses/dp/1633538966 Kindle $12.49
https://www.amazon.com/How-Art-Can-Make-Happy/dp/1452153221 Kindle $9.99
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Why-How-Illustrate-Mysteries/dp/1452108226 Kindle $12.09
https://www.amazon.com/Underachievers-Manifesto-Accomplishing-Little-Feeling/dp/0811853683 Kindle $6.24
https://www.amazon.com/Crap-Dates-Disastrous-Encounters-Single/dp/1452114587 Kindle $4.99
https://www.amazon.com/K-Knifeball-Alphabet-Terrible-Advice/dp/1452103313 Kindle $6.00

I totally don't think ebooks are worth as much as physical books. A physical book takes much more distribution and work to generate and have a much nicer quality and accessibility though it do take up space. So in general I wouldn't buy ebooks at those prices but that's about $61.50 on Amazon to get those ebooks which Humble Bundle charged $1 for.

Here in Sweden were I live education is gratis and you even get a small amount of money to help get by for up to six years of university studies. Then again our taxes are very close to half of GDP and on work income the total taxation is about 3/4 of the income when you've paid all taxes including stuff like VAT and energy and so on. Our system allow people to get pretty useless degrees and our flat salaries and the political ideology make people demand a higher salary just because they have spent equal number of years at university or equal hours at the job not because what they produce was in demand and deserved that payment. So that's a bad system in that it doesn't produce what the market value and lower the production of usable goods and services and waste resources vs something more efficient but it could be solved by offering poor people a loan which they pay back once they have gotten a better job or whatever instead of just not educating them at all.
As an Indian or American citizen rather than a Swedish one a university degree would had cost money here too though. And the school you went to would unlikely had the same reputation as the finest American ones and not necessarily held the same quality. But for those living here their education is paid for by others taxes (which is about twice as large share of the GDP as in America.)

One of my favorite graphic novels is Blankets by Craig Thompson. It's a coming-of-age story. It's just really beautiful in a way that I can't describe; it resonated with me strongly. Habibi is excellent as well--same author, different [darker] story. That one's super interesting because he ties in a lot of Islamic art and references. Please check out the reviews; I'm not good at writing my own :-.

In addition to these great recomendations, I really liked Habibi a lot.



Also, Nimona was just released in print and it's amazing. The first three chapters are still up online.



It's not quite what you asked for, but since there's so many great graphic novels already suggested, here are some other webcomics I like:

Paranatural

Bad Machinery

Gunnerkrigg Court

Adventures of Jonas
I really liked this one. It starts off a little rough, as the author is in highschool, and grows up with him. This is one of those things I read through and then immediately started over and read it again.

Octopus Pie
I like Octopus Pie because the protaganist is really relatable. She's in her midtwenties and doesn't really know what she's doing with her life.

HISTORICAL COMICS

If anyone's interested in some quality comic books about the high Roman era, and can read French (or Latin), Murena by Jean Dufaux is completely amazing.

http://www.amazon.com/Murena-Pourpre-lOr-French-Edition/dp/2871293732/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1368813912&sr=8-11&keywords=murena+jean+dufaux

Click on the "look inside" to check out the artwork, which is quite detailed. There's also a Latin version of the very first comic. I've been told the series is very historically accurate.

Also check out "Age of Bronze" series for what's been called a very historically accurate rendering of the Illiad, though the series remains tantalizingly incomplete.

http://www.amazon.com/Age-Bronze-Vol-2-Sacrifice/dp/1582403996/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368814052&sr=1-2&keywords=age+of+bronze

I'm also curious as to what our Norse historians here think of Northlanders, because of its clearly intentional anachronisms. The first book actually has a segment which is set in high byzantine Constantinople, so I'd be interested in getting opinions into how "accurate" its rendering of the street scenes are, although they seem based on and plucked from later Ottoman Istanbul.

http://www.amazon.com/Northlanders-Vol-1-Sven-Returned/dp/1401219187/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368814145&sr=1-1&keywords=northlanders

I know almost nothing about this, but I have some broad book recommendations in the vein of "read some non-fiction!"

Main thing to keep in mind as you read is that Arab ≠ Muslim ≠ Persian or any combination thereof. Differences between Sunni, Shia, Sufi, etc. Also, urban ≠ rural. And boring, everyday life doesn't readily lend itself to a narrative form.

Related Books:

• Persepolis, Persepolis 2, and Embroideries, about coming of age (upper) middle class life during and after the Islamic Revolution. These are graphic novels, and my mother swears that Embroideries (not directly related) is her church women's group exactly.
  
• Three Cups of Tea, panned for misuse of funds, but the whole book was about how bribery and paying your dues and understanding what local priorities were was essential to getting anything done in a tribal mountain culture.
  
• Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, again with "controversy," this time about immigration and religion. Still has a lot of background information about Islam in Somalia and Kenya.
  
• The Underground Girls of Kabul and I Am a Bacha Posh, about the (possibly new-ish) tradition of dressing girls as boys in Afghanistan. I haven't read these, but a friend is working from them for NaNoWriMo.
  
• Reading in Lolita in Tehran - I am hesitant to recommend this book because I hated it. It was billed as subversion and cultural voyeurism, but more than half the book ended up being half-baked literary criticism instead of Observations. This is also why I didn't like Some Girls: My Life in a Harem: It was supposed to be about a mind-boggling Indonesian harem/commentary on oil wealth and ended up mostly being about how much her life sucked because she was adopted.
  
  Some other recommendations: if you're on or close to a university campus, there's probably a Muslim/Arab/Persian student association that would love to answer your specific questions or give you advice. There are also subreddits like /r/dubai, but they're mostly expats. Just poke around and you'll find more though.
  
  Fictional, often-fantastical book recommendations about the Middle East would be Shadow Spinner, The Book of a Thousand Days, or Habibi.
  
  Honestly, the thing that stuck with me the most as a chemist was that one of the other grad students was from Golan Heights and prior to moving here had to work through his entire master's thesis without an NMR (the most common chemistry instrument that is used to "prove" pretty much everything) because a blockade stopped his university from receiving liquid nitrogen (which is used to keep the magnets in NMRs and medical devices like MRIs running). He found almost any touching or joking by a girl very uncomfortable, but was always polite. Other Muslim chemist friends just seemed French. Because they were.

If that's the case I would also highly recommend Craig Thompson's other works - Goodbye, Chunky Rice and Carnet De Voyage. They are not quite as awesome as Blankets, but there are wonderful. His forthcoming Habibi is getting good early buzz as well. I've got it on preorder, of course. After Blankets I'll buy anything Thompson puts out for quite some time.

One of my favorites on my shelf is "Studio Space," published by Image Comics. Just a collection of interviews and photographs, but it's a fascinating glimpse behind the veil of modern comic illustrators. My favorite chapter is Mike Mignola's.

When it comes to fiction, this is a really good three part comic about Katanga (and Congo):

https://www.amazon.com/Katanga-1-Diamonds-Fabien-Nury-ebook/dp/B07CZ25N61/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=katanga+comic&qid=1564588925&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Recently taken an interest and Africa and really enjoyed it.

The Big Book of Urban Legends: 200 True Stories, Too Good to be True! ?

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Urban-Legends-Stories/dp/1563891654

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

This is a graphic novel, but Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return deals heavily with this issue. Persepolis should be required reading, of course. In the same vein, stories from the same author's book, Embroideries, should also meet your criteria.

Longer shots:

• Some parts from Ayaan Hirsi Ali's books (autobiographical).
  
• Reading Lolita in Tehran (circumstantial - the book is more about literary criticism than the Iranian Revolution)
  
• Habibi, another graphic novel where a Muslim child bride in a post-apocalyptic Middle East falls in (different sorts of) love with a slave boy.

Oh his art is really good.

I have no idea though how he is going to keep up with that tattoo, redrawing it every scene :o

​

Regarding super powers / ability... You know, there's a book that made see these things very differently after reading it. "The Science of X-Men" was very interesting to me to consider different points of the subject.

It's not just "magic" and "fantasy" explain everything. There could be something more behind it all, also there's a documentary about american obsession with super heroes, but I forgot how it's called.

I also have these novels, but haven't had a the chance to read them yet.

Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye

It's Superman! by Tom De Haven

It doesn't seem like many people are paying attention to 1337_n00b's clarification comment, so I guess I'll write about it a bit.

For a while I'd buy little self-published books, particularly after visiting some shops in Montreal and enjoying their local work. I would try to hit a couple good comic stores every time I visit a new city, which lead to some good stuff and a lot of bad stuff.

What killed it for me was having a friend bring me some local comics back from Dublin. They were just terrible, worse than most webcomics you decide not to read after being interested in their banner ads. They left such a bad taste in my mouth that I was discouraged from exploring local stuff anymore.

The last closest book I picked up to an indie was Justin Madson's Breathers. I don't know if it counts though, since it was a webcomic first, and it got a pile of publicity for years before the trade was released. At least it's self-published? It was pretty good, but I can think of five more popular books that cost less and are better off the top of my head.

Beautiful graphic novel all about it

Laika https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1250050626/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_mdSGub1EZNB5M

I’m pretty sure I read a comic about this in The Big Book of Urban Legends as a kid, and that was published in 95. The story itself is probably much older.

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Urban-Legends-Stories/dp/1563891654

Jeffrey Brown writes some like that. They're mainly autobiographical graphic novels. I remember "Unlikely" being like what you're looking for.

A lot of the old British comic strips were about WW2. Some are now available in TPB.

[Darkie's Mob] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darkies-Mob-Secret-War-Darkie/dp/1848564422)

[Johnny Red] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Johnny-Red-Falcons-First-Flight/dp/1848560338/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396980942&sr=1-3&keywords=johnny+red)

[Major Eazy] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Major-Eazy-Heart-Iron-1/dp/1848564414/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396980990&sr=1-1&keywords=MajoR+Eazy)

All from the 70's / 80s so maybe a bit dated. There's also a lot of the old "Commando" one-shots republished in TPB collections.

More recently Garth Ennis has done [Battler Britton] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battler-Britton-Garth-Ennis/dp/1845765605/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396981093&sr=1-1&keywords=battler+Britton) and several volumes of [Battlefields] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battlefields-Tankies-Dynamite-Carlos-Esquerra/dp/1606900757/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396981143&sr=1-7&keywords=garth+ennis+battlefields)

Don't know if that helps at all.

Having just finished Northlanders Vol. 2 this is incredibly timely. Thanks!

Parchment Vol 1 is actually available for pre-order on Amazon.ca right now. I'm guessing that if you order all of it at once, including the pre-order, you'll still only get charged for shipping once by Amazon (this has happened to me before with pre-ordering books there in the same order as books I'm buying immediately, I don't get charged twice for shipping even though I'd be functionally getting two shipments). If you can afford the over $100 it'll set you back for all of it, I say it's a good idea.

There is a very well-done graphic novel about Quanah and Cynthia called Comanche Moon by Jack Jackson, who is probably the most serious combination of cartoonist/historian I've ever read. He has a couple other history of American West type comics that are worth checking out, too.

EDIT: Changed Quanah Parker to just Quanah.

Yep! This one

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Urban-Legends-Stories/dp/1563891654

Snopes actually use illustrations from it for some of their earlier articles.

There's a graphic novel by Garth Ennis (same guy who wrote Preacher and The Boys) about them I keep meaning to request from my library:

https://www.amazon.com/Night-Witches-Garth-Ennis/dp/1682473902

It's called "The Big Book of Urban Legends." Forgive my link, I'm on my phone.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1563891654/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Have you tried Amazon?

Spice and Wolf 19 - https://smile.amazon.com/Spice-Wolf-Vol-light-novel/dp/1975300122
Wolf & Parchment 1 - https://smile.amazon.com/Wolf-Parchment-Theory-Spice-light/dp/0316473456/

The Big Book of Urban Legends?

Do you mean this? https://www.amazon.com/Habibi-Pantheon-Graphic-Library-Thompson/dp/0375424148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538804647&sr=1-1&keywords=Habibi

Blankets or Habibi

http://www.amazon.com/Superman-High-Flying-History-Americas-Enduring/dp/1400068665

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Boys-Adventures-Shuster-ebook/dp/B009E7QC2A

http://www.amazon.com/Superman-Unauthorized-Biography-Glen-Weldon/dp/1118341848/ref=pd_cp_b_1

Oh I know of this. There's a mention of it in the Big Book of Urban Legends.

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Urban-Legends-Stories/dp/1563891654

I think this was the book.http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743487257?pc_redir=1405441125&robot_redir=1

What did you think it was a cameo of? It's not Spice and Wolf.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316473456/ref=mp_s_a_1_1

Nope. It's literally the FRONT COVER OF THE BOOK. It's also a new series. I spoiled nothing.

https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Parchment-Theory-Spice-light/dp/0316473456

That's like spoiling Jurassic Park because it has a dinosaur on it.

I'm not calling you a liar, buuuut...

Seriously, the "fiancé fucked a black stripper, baby came out black" is an urban myth just as old as "The Hook" or "The Choking Doberman." It's been covered in a few collections of urban myths, including this one, which I own. The fact that it's "one of your dad's friends" makes the story that much more dubious.

Habibi by Craig Thompson (and Blankets, for that matter). A visually stunning story of 2 child slaves attempting to reconnect and survive, set in an approximately modern, unnamed 3rd world country. Very much an exploration of sex and love.

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison. Incredibly strange story of a group of 90's counter-culture anarchists looking to overthrow the literal dark forces that are attempting to control the world. Something of a "What if every conspiracy theory was true?" It sounds right up your alley, as it explores class, race, gender, and sexuality through the group's unique perspective. It has a little bit of a slow roll, but begs to be picked up after around 100 pages. I've linked the omnibus, which is a bit unwieldy, so you may prefer to collect it by volumes.

Black Hole by Charles Burns. A physically deforming STD begins to infect high school students in a suburban town. This book is an uneasy, beautiful reflection of high school cruelty.

Epileptic by David B. A sad autobiography of growing up with an epileptic brother who does not get the medical attention he needs. The book is translated from French and takes place in small town France. David B. pulls no punches, this story is honest and heart-breaking, interesting not only for the stark look at a misunderstood disorder, but for the brutal confrontation with David's childhood.

I'll also second Asterios Polyp and Transmetropolitan.

But you said yourself that the author rejects the term. The point about prose novels starting out serial is valid and totally solid though.

I think you might be surprised by the quality of some graphic novels though. Habibi, Tardi's 'It Was the War of the Trenches' & 'Goddamn This War!' , Fun Home, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, This One Summer