Maus

i just finished reading a book that is worth mentioning here. it's called The Complete Maus and it's a graphic novel; meaning it's told with pictures or, more specifically, comic strips. however, the story is not the typical light-hearted material that is usually told through cartoons. it's about WWII and the Holocaust and it's pretty incredible. the idea alone is very intriguing and in some ways a bit shocking (portraying the horrors of the Holocaust through the same medium as Calvin & Hobbes?). but Art Spiegelman, the author and son of an Auschwitz survivor, creates a brand new way to experience a story we've heard several times before and does so with a reverence that is atypical of the cartoon genre.

so before this starts to sound too much like an unsolicited customer review on amazon.com i'll stop and simply say: i liked it - you might too.