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Category Archives: Sage Stossel
Graphic Novel STARLING
Click here to read Starling at the StarlingComic.com website.
“If Jane Austen had written this–and in an alternative universe, she could have–it might be called ‘Capes and Coffeebreaks’… The delightfully complicated and cannily crafted plot interweaves Amy’s romantic uncertainties with her super-heroic adventures… This whimsical romantic comedy injects welcome humor into the superhero genre… and will probably appeal more broadly to fans of Dilbert, too.” Library Journal
“The plot is structured very well, with genuinely surprising twists…. Just the right balance of conflict and lightness of touch…. Starling shows what super-hero comics once could do, and perhaps could do again.” Matthew David Surridge, Black Gate
“A well-told, charmingly different kind of superhero story. I inhaled it in one gulp!” Jeremy Dauber, author of American Comics: A History
Why Superheroes Still Can’t Have it All (Atlantic interview with Sage Stossel).
The Anti-Heroine (Harvard Magazine May-June 2014). Starling can handle thugs and palookas, but not daily life. By Craig Lambert
“A book straight out of the age of ‘New Girl,’ ‘Sex in the City,’ and ‘The United States of Tara,’ in which we are drawn to watch a female protagonist for her flaws or peculiarities, not in spite of them… [Starling] pokes intently at the glass ceiling that hangs, weirdly enough, over comics as well as other parts of our culture.” The Boston Globe
“A winning story about overcoming adversity, finding oneself and even having a shot at achieving true love, all lovingly ladled out in a savvy, self-deprecating, droll, artfully humorous manner…”
UK Comics Review
“The sweetest book about trying to make life work, which all of us have trouble with. Even though we can’t generate electricity with our hands like Amy does.” “7 Outstanding Comics About Being a Hero,” Planet Jinxatron (Other comics selected in this review include Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag, Red Sonja: The Art of Blood and Fire by Gail Simone, The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang)
“Humorous and touching… Three pages into the graphic novel and I was already hooked by Stossel’s heroine.” The Retroist
“Hilarious and uplifting… Stossel’s soft washes of color and zippy dialogue make Starling more than just a superhero comic. Amy’s juggling of her family, personal and work lives echoes every modern woman’s struggle to have it all without letting anyone down.” Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness (Starred review)
“Starling is an imaginative superhero with a unique take on the world… The situations she gets into only make you love her more.” Games Fiends
“A fun read and a good bet for fans of Sex and the City and any young women in need of a superhero like themselves.” Bookbitch.com
“I loved it… Reminds me of James Robinson’s masterpiece, Starman, about a reluctant hero taking on the job after his father retires and his brother is killed.” Gene Ambaum, Unshelved
“A funny, intelligent and engaging superhero story … Utterly charming. Warmly recommended.” Sembtext: Goran Semb
Interview with Sage Stossel at the Graphic Novel Reporter.
LA Times interview with Sage Stossel.
LitReactor: Ten Questions with Starling author Sage Stossel by Leah Rhyne.
Newsarama: STARLING: Sibling Creators & Their Anxiety-Filled Superheroine by Zack Smith.
Four Questions with Sage Stossel by Molly Parr.
“Hilarious… A realistic, relatable female superhero.” Feminist Texican Reads
“Stossel’s plotting is excellent as she slips in necessary items on several occasions without the reader considering them anything other than incidental details, and the way Starling’s messing up her own life while attempting to help others proves a compulsive guarantee of the pages turning. The constant tension from the halfway point is excellently sustained because Stossel has by then established Amy as an essentially likable woman who makes the occasional error of judgement.” Ian Keogh, Slings and Arrows
“Funny and lighthearted–a good read.” —Rambles.net
“A superhero comic for people who don’t read superhero comics … Rated teen and up, but it’s a good pick for adults, too.” —Geek Dad
“A terrific choice for readers searching for a low-key superhero comic and for DC fans (and Marvel fans) fed up with how their favorite superheroines have been treated.” —In Bed With Books
Comics Juice, Celebrating the Golden Age of Graphic Novels: Great Graphic Novels, Superheroes category
“Utterly engaging and entertaining…a fantastic book.” —Bookshots
Order the book from Amazon.
Radcliffe Quarterly Book Reviews by Sage Stossel
Intuition
by Allegra Goodman
The Peabody Sisters
by Megan Marshall
The Emperor’s Children
by Claire Messud
Liars and Saints
by Maile Meloy
The Whole World Over
by Julia Glass
Something Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America
by Laura Shapiro
Imperial Reckoning
by Caroline Elkins
[Also see Atlantic Interview with Caroline Elkins]
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
The News from Paraguay
by Lily Tuck
A Changed Man
by Francine Prose
The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
by Margaret Atwood
Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families
by Leslie Morgan Steiner
Dispatches from a Not-so-Perfect Life
by Faulkner Fox
My Father Is a Book
by Janna Malamund Smith
A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
by Catherine Allgor
The Hazards of Good Breeding
by Jessica Shattuck
Tolstoy Lied
by Rachel Kadish
The Secret Daughter
by June Cross
A World Apart: Women, Prison, and Life Behind Bars
by Cristina Rathbone
The Tequila Worm
by Viola Canales
Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s Changing Lives
by Anna Fels
This Side of Married
by Rachel Pastan
I Had Brain Surgery, What’s Your Excuse?
by Suzy Becker
No Hair Day
by Elsa Dorfman
Inheritance
by Lan Samantha Chang
Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn from Myths
by Mary Lefkowitz
Making an Exit
by Elinor Fuchs
Quirky Kids
by Perri Klass and Eileen Costello
The Unsayable
by Annie G. Rogers
Pearl
by Mary Gordon
Truth, Torture and the American Way
by Jennifer K. Harbury
North of Ithaka
by Eleni N. Gage
Mistress Bradstreet
by Charlotte Gordon
The Other Insect Societies
by James T. Costa
Once Removed
by Mako Yoshikawa
Also, at The Atlantic.com…
The Best Book I Read This Year: Adam Goodheart’s 1861
Also see:
* Atlantic interviews by Sage Stossel
* More Atlantic and Atlantic.com writings by Sage Stossel
More Atlantic and Atlantic.com writings by Sage Stossel
Facebook Groups: World Leaders
Hugo Chávez and Hu Jintao are now friends.
Understanding Afghanistan
Perspective on a nation in conflict
The Craft and Craftiness of Henry Kissinger
Articles by Seymour Hersh, Robert D. Kaplan, and others assess Kissinger’s career and legacy.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Islam
Can democracy take root in a predominantly Islamic part of the world?
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Americans today are finding new inspiration in Julia Ward Howe’s anthem—originally published in The Atlantic in 1862 to rally Union troops.
Also see:
* Atlantic interviews by Sage Stossel
* Radcliffe Quarterly Book Reviews by Sage Stossel
Atlantic Interviews by Sage Stossel
A conversation with Jules Feiffer
Jules Feiffer talks with Sage Stossel about cartooning and his new memoir Backing Into Forward
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Introverts of the World Unite
Fellow introverts Jonathan Rauch and Sage Stossel discuss Rauch’s overwhelmingly popular essay in the March 2003 Atlantic, which may have unwittingly touched off an Introverts’ Rights revolution
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
A Kinder, Gentler Overclass
A conversation with David Brooks, the author of Bobos in Paradise, who explains why bourgeois bohemians are here to stay
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
A Reader’s Revenge
A conversation with B. R. Myers, the author of A Reader’s Manifesto, who argues that the time has come for readers to stand up to the literary establishment
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Loyal Catholic
A conversation with Garry Wills, the author of Why I Am a Catholic, who talks about faith, scandal, and the importance of constructive criticism
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Crying in the Kitchen Over Princeton
A conversation with Gregg Easterbrook on why the college-admissions process need not be a confidence-shattering ordeal
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Science of the Palette
A conversation with Philip Ball, the author of Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color, about the intersection of art, science, and creativity
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
What Makes W. Tick?
A conversation with historian and journalist Richard Brookhiser, who weighs in on George W. Bush–his management style, his mean streak, his religiosity, and his recovery from alcoholism
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Towards a New Urbanism
A conversation with the authors of Suburban Nation who tell Gore and Bush to listen up—the antidote to sprawl is good old-fashioned town planning
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Joy of Style
A conversation with Virginia Postrel, the author of The Substance of Style, who argues that we should count ourselves lucky to be living in “the age of look and feel”
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
It’s Not Easy Being Mean
A conversation with Mark Bowden, who talks about the strange life of Saddam Hussein and why his downfall is inevitable
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Pulling Back the Curtain
A conversation with Presidential historian Robert Dallek, who discusses new revelations about President Kennedy’s serious health problems and his efforts to keep them hidden
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Story of a Magazine
A conversation with Robert Vare about why he loves magazine journalism, what makes The Atlantic distinctive, and the challenges of whittling down a “best of” collection of Atlantic writings
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
In the Line of Fire
A conversation with Robert Kaplan, who joined U.S. Marines as they stormed Fallujah
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Softer Side of Ashcroft
A conversation with Jeffrey Rosen, who argues that it’s not social conservatism but a quest for popular approval that drives John Ashcroft’s public life
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Disease of the Modern Era
A conversation with Alston Chase, the author of Harvard and the Unabomber, who argues that we have much to fear from the forces that made Ted Kaczynski
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
In Search of Mr. Right
A conversation with Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, the author of Why There Are No Good Men Left, who discusses the challenges facing today’s single women, and argues that the contemporary courtship system needs to be transformed
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
All People Are Crazy
A conversation with P. J. O’Rourke on the Middle East, the universality of the absurd, and his beef with Mark Twain
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Inside the Ruins
A conversation with William Langewiesche, the author of “American Ground,” on life at the World Trade Center site after the towers fell
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Life (and Death?) of Cloning
A conversation with Kyla Dunn about the state of therapeutic-cloning research and why it shouldn’t be banned
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Asylum on the Hill
A conversation with Alex Beam, the author of Gracefully Insane, who probes the rich past of McLean Hospital, a mental institution renowned for ministering to prominent, creative, and aristocratic patients
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Back to School
A conversation with Elinor Burkett, who at age fifty-five became a member of the class of 2000 to report on high school through a journalist’s eyes
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Hearts of Strangers
A conversation with Ruben Martinez, the author of Crossing Over, who describes the Mexican migrant experience, and reminds native-born Americans that they, too, were once strangers in a strange land
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
A Tale of Two Murders
A conversation with Philip Gourevitch who, in A Cold Case, tells the story of three men from three very different moral universes, linked by a decades-old crime
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Soul of a New Flying Machine
A conversation with James Fallows, the author of Free Flight, who argues that the next generation of small planes could usher in a new age of travel
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
The Secret History
A conversation with Caroline Elkins, the author of Imperial Reckoning, about unearthing the sinister underside of Britain’s “civilizing” mission in Kenya
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Street Life
A conversation with Elijah Anderson, who talks about his new book, Code of the Street, and the importance of looking honestly at life in the inner city
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Drawing Without a Licence
A conversation with Edward Sorel, whose sharp-witted illustrations, instantly recognizable, have appeared in many of America’s best-known magazines
[Continue reading at The Atlantic.com]
Also see:
* Radcliffe Quarterly Book Reviews by Sage Stossel
* More Atlantic and Atlantic.com writings by Sage Stossel