Aya: Claws Come Out

Aya: Claws Come Out
Author: Marguerite Abouet & Clément Oubrerie
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2024-02-06
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1770467394

Long-time creative team Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie make a stunning comeback after a lengthy twelve-year hiatus. The seventh installment in the Aya series takes us all back to Yop City—home to the hustle and bustle of the Ivory Coast. As Solibra’s newest intern, clear-eyed college student Aya finds an unexpected adversary in the beer giant’s brand-new head of HR. Her friend Moussa, heir apparent to the company’s CEO Mr. Sissoko vies for his father’s attention while struggling to tone down his tendency to party. After being outed, Albert must find a new place to stay and grapples with the realities of insufficient student housing. His old flame Inno discovers first-hand how difficult life can be for undocumented migrants in France. Back at home, Bintou navigates the ups and downs of newfound soap opera stardom. All the while, Didier just wants to take Aya out to dinner—if she can ever find the time. Now translated from the French by Edwige Dro, Aya and all her friends greet the bigger, bolder world of the 80s in true Abidjan style, delighting fans both old and new with vibrant but too often unseen depictions of middle-class life in Africa.

Bloodfall Arena

Bloodfall Arena
Author: J.A. Ludwig
Publisher: Babylon Books
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2020-08-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1948263653

Taken from her home. Forced to fight for sport. Will a magician’s thirst for adventure be quenched with blood? Aya Flandeen’s rare gift has always set her apart from the rest of her village. Though she yearns to venture into the outside world, she didn’t expect her journey to start with a brutal slave-trader’s raid. Revealing her powers to save the townsfolk, Aya’s heroism ends in disaster when she’s abducted and compelled to participate in a gladiatorial fight to the death. Aya barely survives the brutal combat thanks to a surprising ally, a mysterious young man who also possesses a magical gift. But when a cruel king drops them both into a savage tournament, her only chance lies in teaming up with fellow captives to oppose the deadly beasts and assassins. Can Aya lead a revolt and escape the violent contest? Bloodfall Arena is the first book in the Blood Magic fantasy series. If you like strong female characters, epic struggles, and mesmerizing worlds, then you’ll love J. A. Ludwig’s tale of self-discovery. Buy Bloodfall Arena and enter a realm you will never forget!

Aya: Life in Yop City

Aya: Life in Yop City
Author: Marguerite Abouet
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2021-06-10
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1770465588

Ivory Coast, 1978. It’s a golden time, and the nation, too—an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa—seems fueled by something wondrous. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet’s youth in Yop City. It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted 19-year old Aya, her easy-going friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It’s wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City. Clément Oubrerie’s warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet’s vibrant writing. This reworked edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in the lively world of Aya and her friends, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One. Drawn & Quarterly has release volumes four through six of the original French series (as yet unpublished in English) in Aya: Love in Yop City. Aya is the winner of the Best First Album award at the Angouleme International Comics Festival, the Children’s Africana Book Award, and the Glyph Award; was nominated for the Quill Award, the YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels list, and the Eisner Award; and was included on “best of” lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. Aya: Life in Yop City has been translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Dascher has been translating graphic novels from French and German to English for over twenty years. A contributor to Drawn & Quarterly since the early days, her translations include acclaimed titles such as Hostage by Guy Delisle and Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. With a background in art history and history, she also translates books and exhibitions for museums in North America and Europe. She lives in Montreal.

Aya's Fate

Aya's Fate
Author: Aila McLeod
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1646289986

Aya is a high elven princess living in exile on Earth after her home called OutWorld was taken over by Niburi and his servant Kear. Only just a child, Aya was saved by her mother, Queen Netara, when she was transported to Earth, leaving Queen Netara in the hands of Niburi. For years, Aya lived an ordinary life on Earth, and her identity was concealed from her by the Shiften people looking after her. That is until she started having vivid dreams of what she thinks is the future, and of a dark and mysterious man named Drako, a dragon prince also from OutWorld. The dreams persist and her attraction to Drako becomes stronger, and the truth unravels a destiny that would take her back to OutWorld and she would take back her home by defeating Niburi. Her dreams reveal to her the power that she possesses and help her in finding the Alphas, leaders of the Shiften people, diverse races of wolf, bear, panther, and dragon. Together, they must save Queen Netara and the enslaved Shiften and unite them to defeat Niburi's army of the dead. But Aya is not sure how, and it is only when she trusts the fate that is laid out to her does she truly see who she is meant to become.

Eve

Eve
Author: Elissa Elliott
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2009-01-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0440338255

BONUS: This edition contains an Eve discussion guide. In this mesmerizing debut novel, Elissa Elliott blends biblical tradition with recorded history to put a powerful new twist on the story of creation’s first family. Here is Eve brought to life in a way religion and myth have never allowed–as a wife, a mother, and a woman. With stunning intimacy, Elliott boldly reimagines Eve’s journey before and after the banishment from Eden, her complex marriage to Adam, her troubled relationship with her daughters, and the tragedy that would overcome her sons, Cain and Abel. From a woman’s first awakening to a mother’s innermost hopes and fears, from moments of exquisite tenderness to a climax of shocking violence, Eve explores the very essence of love, womanhood, faith, and humanity.

The Hard Tomorrow

The Hard Tomorrow
Author: Eleanor Davis
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2021-04-22
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1770465138

"The gorgeous and empathetic story of one couple's search for hope and a peaceful future Hannah is a thirty-something wife, home-health worker, and antiwar activist. Her husband, Johnny, is a stay-at-home pothead working—or ""working""—on building them a house before the winter chill sets in. They're currently living and screwing in the back of a truck, hoping for a pregnancy, which seems like it will never come. Legs in the air for a better chance at conception, Hannah scans fertility Reddits while Johnny dreams about propagating plants—kale, tomatoes—to ensure they have sufficient sustenance should the end-times come, which, given their fragile democracy strained under the weight of a carceral state and the risk of horrible war, doesn’t seem so far off. Helping Hannah in her fight for the future is her best friend, Gabby, a queer naturalist she idolizes and who adores her. Helping Johnny build the house is Tyler, an off-the-grid conspiracy theorist driven sick by his own cloudy notions of reality. Told with tenderness and care in an undefined near future, Eleanor Davis's The Hard Tomorrow blazes unrestrained, as moments of human connection are doused in fear and threats. Her astute projections probe at current anxieties in a cautionary tale that begs the question: What will happen after tomorrow?"

Kendo

Kendo
Author: Chris Mooney
Publisher: Author House
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2005-03-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1452029237

Meet Chris and Elliott. Both are hard working American students in high school. Both live normal lives like everyone else. Ya, right. After being accepted into one of the most prized private schools in Japan the two find themselves involved in an adventure that will rock the rest of their lives. Not only are the two not your average students, they are both exceptional martial artists with powers passed down for centuries, powers that both shock and baffle their exchange family’s daughter, Yui. Add a little humor, a pinch of romance and a butt load of martial arts action and you’ve got one of the greatest martial arts epics of all time.

The Stars Askew

The Stars Askew
Author: Rjurik Davidson
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2016-07-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429945125

The Stars Askew is the highly anticipated sequel to the New Weird adventure begun by talented young author Rjurik Davidson. With the seditionists in power, Caeli-Amur has begun a new age. Or has it? The escaped House officials no longer send food, and the city is starving. When the moderate leader Aceline is murdered, the trail leads Kata to a mysterious book that explains how to control the fabled Prism of Alerion. But when the last person to possess the book is found dead, it becomes clear that a conspiracy is afoot. At its center is former House Officiate Armand, who has hidden the Prism. Armand is vying for control of the Directorate, the highest political position in the city, until Armand is betrayed and sent to a prison camp to mine deadly bloodstone. Meanwhile, Maximilian is sharing his mind with another being: the joker-god Aya. Aya leads Max to the realm of the Elo-Talern to seek a power source to remove Aya from Max's brain. But when Max and Aya return, they find the vigilants destroying the last remnants of House power. It seems the seditionists' hopes for a new age of peace and prosperity in Caeli-Amur have come to naught, and every attempt to improve the situation makes it worse. The question now is not just whether Kata, Max, and Armand can do anything to stop the bloody battle in the city, but if they can escape with their lives. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Aya of Yop City

Aya of Yop City
Author: Marguerite Abouet
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2009
Genre: Comic books, strips, etc
ISBN: 0224087479

"For the residents of Yopougon, everyday life is good. It is the early 1970s, a golden time work is plentiful, hospitals are clean and well equipped, and school is obligatory. The Ivory Coast is as an island of relative wealth and stability in West Africa. For the teenagers of the town, though, worries are plentiful, and life in Yop City is far from simple. Aya tells the story of its nineteen-year-old heroine, the clear-sighted and bookish Aya, and her carefree and fun-loving friends Adjoua and Bintou. Navigating meddling relatives and neighbours, the girls spend a last summer of their childhood on the sun-warmed streets of Yop City sneaking out for dancing at open-air bars, strong solibra beer, chicken in peanut sauce and avoiding at all costs the scandal pages of the Calamity Morning . Aya is a captivating, colourful and hugely entertaining portrayal of an Africa we rarely see, spirited and resilient, and full of the sounds, sights and smells of a prosperous town and its varied inhabitants."