The Night Bookmobile and The Adventuress Reviews

The Night Bookmobile
by Audrey Niffenegger
From Goodreads:

Audrey Niffenegger, the New York Times bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, has crafted her first graphic novel after the success of her two critically acclaimed "novels-in-pictures." First serialized as a weekly column in the UK's Guardian newspaper, The Night Bookmobile tells the story of a wistful woman who one night encounters a mysterious disappearing library on wheels that contains every book she has ever read. Seeing her history and most intimate self in this library, she embarks on a search for the bookmobile. But her search turns into an obsession, as she longs to be reunited with her own collection and memories.

The Night Bookmobile is a haunting tale of both transcendence and the passion for books, and features the evocative full-color pen-and-ink work of one of the world's most beloved storytellers

My Thoughts: I loved, loved, loved this book!  It's a little darker than I thought when I first picked it up (I read it during a Readathon) but I loved the concept behind this book.  The idea that there is a caretaker out there, stalking a bookmobile full of all the books I've ever read fills me with longing.  I want to visit my bookmobile, I want to spend hours re-reading the books that made my childhood so special, and to finally be able to update my Goodread "read" list.  I wish I'd kept track of all the books I ever read, but I've only been doing it for the last three years (actually February 20th of 2008).  I think The Night Bookmobile is a must for any book lover.


The Night Bookmobile gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The Adventuress 
by Audrey Niffenegger
From Goodreads:

The author of the New York Times bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife returns with another evocative “novel in pictures,” the much-anticipated follow-up to 2005’s The Three Incestuous Sisters. The Adventuress follows the dreamlike journey of an alchemist’s daughter. After she is kidnapped by a lascivious baron, she turns herself into a moth and flees to the garden of a charming butterfly collector named Napoleon Bonaparte. The story of how the two become lovers, and how their affair ends in tragedy and transcendence, is told through Niffenegger’s spare prose and haunting aquatint etchings. With a stunning and distinctive visual style reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey, this gothic romance packs the emotional heft of the world’s great fairy tales. It will delight fans of the author’s previous works and enchant an entirely new legion of readers.

 My Thoughts: I originally checked this out for a Readathon but never got around to it. It would have made a great, easy read for the late hours, since it reads like you're having a dream. While I didn't end up loving this as I do The Night Bookmobile (which I did read during Readathon), The Adventuress has some wonderful images- I especially like the cocoon and moth drawings. I still need to read a novel by Niffenegger and I look forward to more of her works.

The Adventuress gets a Midnight Book Rating of: