author:
DAVID B.

Graphic Novel
124 pages
NBM

For all the time that we humans spend dreaming, little is known about dreams or why we have them. Philosophers and scientists continue to be baffled by dreams and rightfully so as they tend to be so damn bizarre and usually without any discernable meaning.

In Nocturnal Conspiracies, author and illustrator David B. shares nineteen of his dreams (from December 1979 to September 1994) and the result is an interesting mess of ink and madness. One minute we are walking through a forest, and the next we are eating brains that taste like pate. Such is the way with dreams, and such is the way of this graphic novel.

While all of the nineteen dreams are as bizarre as they are distinct, macabre themes of death and war seem to be on top of David B.’s mind and a common theme throughout the novel.

Though entertaining and worth a quick read, Nocturnal Conspiracies doesn’t not really go anywhere. While it is interesting to get into someone’s psyche for a little while, the work feels incomplete and not nearly compelling enough to keep us caring.

author:
WILL STORR

Non-fiction
320 pages
Ebury Press

“Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage,” drones the impeccable Madeline Kahn in the classic 1985 film Clue. While others can attest to the post-nuptial state of physical relations, British writer and journalist Will Storr goes in search of life after death in this eponymous-titled nonfiction. Only his quest is a bit more than a search for ghosts and things that go bump in the night: Storr, an admitted lapsed Catholic and probable agnostic at best, seeks the supernatural with the notion that to believe in ghosts is to believe in life after death, ergo the existence of some spiritual higher being, whatever that may be.

Despite a massively weighty premise, Storr keeps the writing and the musing light, accessible, occasionally philosophical, and always entertaining as he goes through ghost vigils and hunts, television programs, bogus clairvoyants, haunted houses, the official Vatican exorcist, quantum physics-lite, and one truly terrifying encounter whose terror has much less to do with demonic possession than the religion involved. He reaches his own conclusions and is frank about it, though leaves very much open to speculation and interpretation by the reader.

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author:
STEVEN RINELLA

Non-fiction
259 pages
Spiegel & Grau

There is perhaps no other icon that is more symbolic of the American West than the Buffalo. It has graced our currency, our national parks and has even been protected by the U.S. government since the early nineteen hundreds after their prolific and near catastrophic slaughter of their species.

In American Buffalo, author Steven Rinella enters himself into a lottery in Alaska to win the opportunity to hunt Buffalo in the wild (and wins one of the coveted slots), embarking on a journey to take down the largest land animal in North America. While a good portion of the novel focuses on the actual hunt in the Alaskan wild, an equal length is dedicated to the history of the American Buffalo, from its arrival here in North America to its present numbers and questionable future.

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author:
OLIVIER KA

Graphic Novel
112 pages
NBM

In this touching story of trust and betrayal, Olivier Ka shares and relives a very painful memory from his past. With the help of illustrations from his friend Alfred, Why I Killed Peter explores childhood memories and the damage that can be done by those that we trust during the most innocent times of our lives.

Told in chapters from various points in Peter Ka’s life, we begin with his recollections as a carefree seven year old, living with his hippie parents and learning about religion and the deadly sins from his god-fearing grandmother. This dichotomy in ideology splits the young boy in two and becomes a recurring theme throughout the novel.

At the age of nine, Olivier is befriends his grandmother’s priest Peter, and their friendship blossoms as Peter takes Olivier under his tutelage, assuming the roles of friend, father figure, and confidant. When Peter does the unthinkable one night at summer camp, the young boy (now twelve) comes face-to-face with pure evil and spends the rest of the novel (and ultimately his life) coming to grips with what has been done to him.

This is not a happy story, and everyone is not okay at the end of the novel. But it does offer honest and sincere proof of the resiliency of the human spirit.

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