What I Read -- The Best We Could Do

The Best We Could Do ticked two boxes for me.  It was my graphic novel pick for my 2021 reading challenge, and it was my postal book club assignment from K.  Love it when I can get two birds with one stone!  (So what if I picked it for my reading challenge because I knew it was my postal book club book -- no rule against that!)

As I said in my notes on this book which are being mailed back to K, one of my struggles with graphic novels is that I tend to read them too quickly.  I normally read at a snail's pace, so I think I get excited that I'm making such quick progress and just want to keep plowing through.  I forget that the pictures are part of the story and I really should spend some time looking at them.  In a good graphic novel, they add a lot.

I suffered the "joy of speed reading" fate with this book in a big way.  It's too bad, because even having done that I can see how it was a touching story of struggle and family, and I feel like I missed out on some of the poignancy of it by not spending enough time with the illustrations.  Even so, though, it managed to mostly make its points.  I probably could have done without the few opening and closing pages which are used to frame the story, and just taken it as an autobiography of a family, but I can see how that is meaningful to a certain reader.  If you've read it, and you know me, you know what I mean.

Still, if you're into this sort of story, it's worth the two days it took my turtle self to get through it.  For most people, it's probably an hour.