New York Public Library Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2024

American Library Associate Top 10 Best Graphic Novels for Adults of 2024

Starred Review from Publishers Weekly. "It's a revealing visualization of a rare, 'depersonalizing' condition and how Sweeney finds 'drops of disabled joy whenever I can.' Sweeney's subtle and elegant art reflects the nuance of her moment-to-moment struggle."

An evocative and heartfelt graphic memoir about the challenges of living with a progressive disability.

When Maria Sweeney was young, she kept count of her broken bones. As she grew older, she stopped. Living with Bruck syndrome, a rare progressive condition that gives her very brittle bones and joint abnormalities, meant that those numbers climbed and climbed.

Today, she struggles every day, living in an often-inaccessible world. As an ambulatory wheelchair user, ordinary actions like entering a building, sitting at a café, or holding a cup of tea can be drastically different for her than for others.

With lush illustrations, Maria tells the story of her lifelong struggle to obtain care in an increasingly complicated and disinterested US healthcare system. But for every step that presents a struggle, there's also beauty, friendship, art, and growth. She documents the relief she's found in alternative therapies, particularly medical marijuana; in loving community and chosen family; and in nature and her creative practice. A powerfully understated critique of our modern world, Brittle Joints offers a generous, expansive look at how to live and love amidst the challenges of survival.

“This visually spectacular book offers a powerful dive into the depths of fear and trauma and a reminder that the impact of violence spreads far beyond the official victim.” —Rebecca Solnit, author of Orwell's Roses and Hope in the Dark

When someone is murdered next door, it changes everything about the way you live your life.

When Hugh was ten years old, he walked home from school to find his friends next door crying outside – they had just come home and discovered their mother’s body. She had been murdered.

Now an adult, Hugh has a happy social life and a successful career as an artist in Oakland, California. But even so he is plagued by anxiety, anger, and panic attacks. As he attends therapy and looks back on his childhood, he comes to realize the trauma and stress that the murder next door had on his life, and how it still affects him today.

Does trauma ever go away? Or does it just hang around, in the backs of our minds forever? This thoughtful, powerful memoir explores how one event in childhood can make a permanent mark on someone’s life.

A powerful and impassioned collection of essays on the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, written in real time during the annihilation by a leading scholar of Islamophobia.

All the world's eyes are now on Gaza and Palestine. Arab and Muslim-American law scholar and author Khaled A. Beydoun shares his expertise and his perspective on the conflict in essays he wrote during the year following October 2023, accompanied by over sixty pieces of art created by Palestinian political cartoonist, Mohammad Sabaaneh during the same time period.

Since October of 2023, the world has been watching as a horrific siege has been waged in Gaza. A devastating bombing campaign carried out by the Israeli military in response to a Hamas attack on Israeli civilians. We have witnessed the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and our hearts are breaking. Eyes on Gaza is Khaled A. Beydoun’s attempt to process what we have been seeing.

Beydoun opens our eyes to the historic events and the political motivations which impact the decision making of the leaders involved, as he shares his own story and his father's story as Arab Muslims in America. He offers his expert perspective on events as they have unfolded. This book combines personal narrative, contemporary history, and thoughtful reporting to shine a light on the horror in Palestine today. 

Winner of the 2022 Palestine Book Award

“An artistic triumph that will stand as an enduring testament to the spirit of the Palestinian people. Mohammad Sabaaneh is a master.”--Joe Sacco, winner of the American Book Award for Palestine

What does freedom look like from inside an Israeli prison?

A bird perches on the cell window and offers a deal: “You bring the pencil, and I will bring the stories,” stories of family, of community, of Gaza, of the West Bank, of Jerusalem, of Palestine. The two collect threads of memory and intergenerational trauma from ongoing settler-colonialism. Helping us to see that the prison is much larger than a building, far wider than a cell; it stretches through towns and villages, past military checkpoints and borders. But hope and solidarity can stretch farther, deeper, once strength is drawn of stories and power is born of dreams. Translating headlines into authentic lived experiences, these stories come to life in the striking linocut artwork of Mohammad Sabaaneh, helping us to see Palestinians not as political symbols, but as people.

One queer person bravely and creatively uses therapy to navigate the healing from the trauma of a past sexual assault

One day, during an ordinary early-morning run, Cara’s watch dinged with a Facebook friend request. But when they checked the message, the photo slammed them backward in time and froze them in fear. Their rapist wanted to “friend” them.

Cara always had a long to-do list; always had many projects; always was busy. But as their rapist continued to send friend requests and tried to reconnect with them, they began to lose their grip on their work, projects, and relationships. But then Cara connects with a therapist who guides them through a long but powerful process of healing. And Cara works to desensitize, reprocess, excavate and relive the old wounds in order to move past them and heal.