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118th out of 178 books
—
45 voters
Make Me a Woman
Charmingvignettes about being young, Jewish, and single
It’s easy to understand why Vanessa Davis has taken the comics industry by storm and is poised to do the same with the world at large—her comics are pure chutzpah, gorgeously illustrated in watercolors. No story is too painful to tell—like how much she enjoyed fat camp. Nor too off-limits—like her critique of R. Crumb...more
It’s easy to understand why Vanessa Davis has taken the comics industry by storm and is poised to do the same with the world at large—her comics are pure chutzpah, gorgeously illustrated in watercolors. No story is too painful to tell—like how much she enjoyed fat camp. Nor too off-limits—like her critique of R. Crumb...more
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published
September 28th 2010
by Drawn and Quarterly
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Jul 23, 2011
Angela
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Angela by:
Vonjonkman
Shelves:
read-in-2011
I received Make Me a Woman as a gift yesterday, from a friend who told me that the book "exists on the overlap of the Venn diagram of you and Kate Beaton." Well, that sounded wildly appealing, and I opened the package the moment I got home from work.
I ended up becoming so engrossed that I finished the entire book before I even took my shoes off or had a glass of water. Her style is, indeed, reminiscent of Beaton's, combining a loose, casual style with well-rendered, precise facial expressions an...more
I ended up becoming so engrossed that I finished the entire book before I even took my shoes off or had a glass of water. Her style is, indeed, reminiscent of Beaton's, combining a loose, casual style with well-rendered, precise facial expressions an...more
There is this moment in "Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself," the five-day conversation between David Foster Wallace and David Lipsky, where DFW tells the latter that he can't wait to read his novel "Art Fair" so he can see the way his brain works.
I've been unable to get that out of my head since I read it, and now through everything I read I'm conscious of being inside the writer's head. This is especially a treat in Vanessa Davis's collection of comics "Make Me a Woman," an autob...more
I've been unable to get that out of my head since I read it, and now through everything I read I'm conscious of being inside the writer's head. This is especially a treat in Vanessa Davis's collection of comics "Make Me a Woman," an autob...more
All the pictures of a big-boned beautiful woman made me think of Maggie Chascarrillo; but then there are Maggie-esque parallels in Davis's sense of adventure, her openness to new ways of experiencing her world -- whether through attending fat camp, riding on the back of a douchebag's motorcycle, or moving to Santa Rosa from Brooklyn -- and in her ability to roll with uncertainty. Presented as autobiography, the book's lack of premeditated structure -- it compiles short pieces Davis produced for...more
I'm not sure how all of these "teen girl/adolescence/coming of age" graphic novels made it to the top of my reading list at the same time, but it is what it is. I must have gone through some "top 10" list I don't remember. Regardless, I really liked this one. It took me a long time to start this book due to said reading list, but once I got started it was hard for me to stop. This autobiographical graphic novel is part full-color anecdotes and memoir, part daily diary format done in pencil sketc...more
This may be my favorite book of the year. In fact, yes, I do believe it is. Vanessa's comics are intimate, intelligent, humorous and even educational (if you're like me and don't know a lot about Jewish customs). Her illustrations are casual but absolutely perfect, and each page is jam-packed with so much eye candy that, even though I was tempted to just tear through this book, I forced myself to pore through it delicately, savoring each panel. And the comics, although they came from disparate o...more
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Dec 06, 2010
Raina
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
adult,
biographical,
graphic-memoir,
graphicnovel,
nonfic,
realistic,
short-stories,
feminist
This is a rather amazing collection of sketches and completed comics created by Vanessa Davis. She's close to me in age, so I appreciated her perspective on growing up as a woman in the world. She also talks a lot about being part of the Jewish culture, and the book starts with her bat mitzvah. She ends with a comic about feeling restless, needing to settle down, and decide what she's going to do with her life. The title "Make Me a Woman" is very appropriate. It's also neat to watch her go throu...more
A review misled me. I expected coming of age, but found hard to follow journal doodles that jump all over.
Jun 11, 2011
Shavon McKinstry
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Indie comic fans
Shelves:
comics
Make Me a Woman is perhaps one of the most relatable and charming autobiography comics I've ever read. Instead of the usual post-action memoir, Vanessa Davis' book consists of a collection of diary sketches and previously published watercolor pages. From Davis' sometimes confident, at times wary religious identity (something that does seem to be very prevalent in autobio comics) to her worries on life and whether cartooning is her best career choice... Everything about Make Me a Woman just seem...more
Fun sketches of growing up awkward, with stories we can all relate to, whether we're female or Jewish or none of the above. That constant nagging feeling that we've got to "get it together" and grow up, that other people seem to have figured it out and we're left behind? You'll find that here, as well as stories of personal triumph over evil and annoying personalities, transitions of age and place (moving from New York to Santa Rosa), and little scenes of daily life, all interspersed with dancin...more
Ok, yeah, I read half of this before work today and then the rest at lunch, so I think that means I enjoyed it. I like that the beautiful in-color comics are interspersed with sketchier smudgy ones that seemed to have been drawn with mechanical pencil. I thought a few of the stories ended a little abruptly, or I wished that there had been a little bit more there, but overall I enjoyed them for what they were. The last one in the book, in particular, was a favorite (and the tube socks on the end...more
NO THANKS. I am always looking for good autobio comics from female perspectives, but Davis's comics anthology,although beautifully cartooned and water-colored, is so bougie and alien to me. She doesn't express her own anxieties in any depth at all and does not make me care for her petty problems. And that's what's wrong with this book: petty problems should make the reader sympathize and relate to the writer. They should instill humor through pathos-that's one of the main reasons I read autobio...more
Whatever it was that Kiss & Tell was missing, this had a good dose of. The drawing are again crude/raw* and the experiences are normal and in fact well-worn is this genre. But somehow this book was far more compelling. I could be the experiences themselves that I empathized with more or the craft of story telling was just better.
*Though, I suspect this was a stylistic choice, as opposed to the illustrations in Kiss & Tell which I suspect are the best that illustrator can do.
*Though, I suspect this was a stylistic choice, as opposed to the illustrations in Kiss & Tell which I suspect are the best that illustrator can do.
Reading Davis' autobiographical comics is like going on staycation. It's easy to get sucked into her stories and beautiful art, and take a break from your own thoughts and memories. But her writing is so relatable and articulate that they're not very far away. I couldn't help but compare my own story, decision making process, and artistic style with hers. A unique, exciting, lovely read.
My hometown buddy, Vanessa Davis strikes again with more reflections, relatable questions, and insightful ideas about finding a place and fitting in, two of my favorite themes. Spaniel Rage is still my first choice, which has a sort of cohesion that isn't in MMaW. At once, this book feels vicarious, voyeuristic, and narcissistic. Best of all, Vanessa inspires me to continue writing.
Once this picked up (1/4 of the way in), it got really good! Reminds me very much of other, similar comic writers: female, late 20s-early 30sish, quirky, urban, hipsterish (The Hairpin's "League of Ordinary Ladies" comes to mind), but fortunately I really love that style! Vanessa Davis' take is sweet and affecting, and she reminds me of so many of my friends.
I love Vanessa Davis's watercolours - I requested a new set of them for Christmas on the basis of reading this book. The stories are very personal and affecting, sometimes a little light, but made me long to be in New York City - that on top of Patti SMith's memoir. I found the Jewish memoir great as well, although I found the frequent mention of Israel without a critique of the Israeli state a little unsettling.
A beautifully assembled collection of autobiographical comic strips. I felt that the stories in this collection were a bit scattershot, but Davis is clearly quite talented, and someone I would be excited to see tackle a long-format project somewhere down the line. I love the way she uses cursive handwriting- it makes you slow down to appreciate her narrative.
This is entertaining... a kind of graphic novel memoir of sorts pieced together by various published pieces from zines, her journals, lots of sort of disconnected stuff... fun and interesting and sort of journalish in the way it jumps around, more like a collection of brief comic insights than a sustained story, but that's okay, it was fun.
I don't normally read graphic novels, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. I love Davis's drawings and it felt almost like I was reading her journal. At times, I was a little lost, unsure of what I was to take from some of the pieces, but I loved the overall arc of her life that was covered and to see her develop.
This is Vanessa Davis's most recent book, which just came out in July.
Vanessa does autobiographical comics, which are sweet and also poignant. There are stories of her being teased mercilessly while in school. Stories of her family, lovers and filled with the type of self doubt we all feel at times.
A good read!
Vanessa does autobiographical comics, which are sweet and also poignant. There are stories of her being teased mercilessly while in school. Stories of her family, lovers and filled with the type of self doubt we all feel at times.
A good read!
I only gave it three stars, but I liked it more than that. I am not sure if it has total mainstream appeal, but who cares? I guess my only complaint was that certain bits required intense rereading to get the gist, something that i would have massaged a little bit more if it were my own comic auto-bio.
I liked this one better than the other, because there's more narrative, but she does do the one-panel diary sketch exceedingly well, and I love that they're in lead pencil. But I wanted to know more about these moments. I could pretty much relate to everything in this comic.
Oct 18, 2010
Callie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of Jeffrey Brown, Ariel Schrag, and Esther Pearl Watson
Recommended to Callie by:
me!
Anything Vanessa held back in Spaniel Rage is all here for the taking. And more.
We are completely swallowed in by Ms. Davis's world and my is it a hilarious and spectacular place to be. This was the perfect read for a rainy Sunday afternoon. I layed in bed all day and repeatedly found myself laughing out loud at parts, then tearing up at others. By the time you're finished, you feel like you've just read one of your bestie's diaries. One that somehow encompasses their entire life, to date. The...more
We are completely swallowed in by Ms. Davis's world and my is it a hilarious and spectacular place to be. This was the perfect read for a rainy Sunday afternoon. I layed in bed all day and repeatedly found myself laughing out loud at parts, then tearing up at others. By the time you're finished, you feel like you've just read one of your bestie's diaries. One that somehow encompasses their entire life, to date. The...more
Vanessa is adept at taking seemingly mundane details and turning them into something warm and engaging and often times hilarious. Her art is fluid and all of her characters are cute in the best way. I hope she puts out a new book soon. Vanessa is magical! I love her.
I loved this book. It felt really familiar to me. I can see why many people will not like it because it isn't a "graphic novel" in that it does not have a storyline. It's basically like reading a very polished sketchbook/diary. So if you're into that.
This was an interesting collection of autobiographical comics, which I picked up at the library. Not so much a linear story as more random pages from sketchbooks, which made it a bit more confusing for me. I often thought, "OK . . . so what?" Sometimes, the author would write a "good" topical piece, in color, with shades of Lynda Barry's style -- though it didn't work as well for this author! I did feel compelled to keep reading it, though, and some of the drawings were quite good. My husband sa...more
A sketchbook diary of a coming of age Jewish woman.
Overall I found it enjoyable, but towards the end I lost interest. Probably my own fault for trying to finish it in one sitting (it's longer and more dense that it appears).
Overall I found it enjoyable, but towards the end I lost interest. Probably my own fault for trying to finish it in one sitting (it's longer and more dense that it appears).
This never really drew me in and I could only tolerate it in small doses. The artwork didn't blow me away either. I can think of a number of other memoir/slice-of-life authors that are much more engaging and interesting.
I love autobiographical comics - this one was good but didn't make me go "GAAAH THIS IS SO AWESOME" like some do.
Still worth a read, though :) Some lovely diary-style comics, too.
Still worth a read, though :) Some lovely diary-style comics, too.
it was a bit messy, sort of hard to read at times. there were some drawings that were so detailed and beautiful that it surprised me - I mostly noticed this with beards. I love the colouring too, when it's there.
also, it made me smile to see that she was watching "gilmore girls" in one her sketches.
also, it made me smile to see that she was watching "gilmore girls" in one her sketches.
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“I can’t believe ‘D’ talked to me like that. I can’t believe Zach has a girlfriend besides me. I miss Tad. I wish I had been born a fucking tiger all muscle and stripes and furry and I wouldn’t give a fuck about this garbage.”
—
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