I love Lisa Brown's art style and her literary humor is on point. Great fun for any English nerds or book lovers.

Very cute. Would be fun for literature lovers and book club participants. Might appeal to teens as well.

If you appreciate dry wit and brevity, Long Story Short may be to your tastes. Even if you haven't read all of the titles reimagined by Brown, you'll likely get a laugh at the key takeaway that she chooses to highlight.

A gorgeously drawn graphic novel with an interesting narrative, plot, and concepts. Definitely recommended for fans of this genre.

I love things like this. Lisa Brown hilariously encapsulates all the classics in short comics - most are 3 panels as the title suggests, but some were only 1 or up to 6. I haven’t read (or watched movies) for all of the books she covers, but the majority I was familiar with and many had me laughing out loud. On the flip side, of course, there were a few that I would’ve picked a different direction to go in (Gatsby - I don’t remember the part about the shirts!) but that didn’t mean they were any less fun :-)

I was expecting funny send-ups of classic novels in a Kate Beaton style, but it was largely just a quick two-sentence rundown of what the book was about. Sadly, lacking much originality or charm.

Long Story Short would be the perfect gift for any English teacher (or English major)! It's an enjoyable book to page through, with humorously concise summaries (three panels, to be exact) of some of the world's most-read, most-loved, and most-loathed classics, divided into chapters including Female Trouble, War is Hell, and Jeepers! Creatures! In true librarian fashion, I particularly enjoyed the presence of TWO indexes: one by title and one by subject! Sample subject categories include "Age, Coming of" and "Love, Unrequited." I also appreciate how Lisa Brown varies her artwork style to suit each book she depicts; at first I thought a number of different artists contributed to this collection, but it's actually one very talented author/illustrator. A page called "How to Write Your Own three-Panel Book" would make for a fun classroom activity, giving artistic students a chance to shine.

My thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for an eARC copy of this book.

A book about books? About literature in specific? In three or so pictures? SIGN ME UP!

Unfortunately, the breakdown/analysis provided by the artist didn't work for me for many of the works depicted. Some were completely the opposite of what I had envisioned, a few hit the nail on the head and the rest were kind of "meh".

The artwork was consistently good, but viewing older works through the lens of now just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Now, this is all my personal opinion and my opinion obviously differs from that of the author on the interpretation of the works in this book. I am sure there are many out there who have similar opinions to the author and they will love the book. Nothing wrong with that, I am just not one of those people, unfortunately, which made this book more of a dud for me than I had expected.

For me, this is a 2 star read. Not saying it will be two stars for all, just for me which makes me sad. I was excited to receive this via NetGalley and am sorry it didn't work out for me.

This book is genius! I’m definitely buying a physical copy for my classroom. I was cracking up and sharing them with my wife as I read. I have read this one three times already!

graphic micro-summaries of classics - this is a quick book to flip through; it's amusing to see which stories you recognize, and some which you maybe should revisit (or not, it's up to you).

It’s mostly just one sentence summaries of great novels. Not anything earth shattering, but worth a quick read.

I could see myself using "Long Story Short" by Lisa Brown in high school ELA classes to give my students an extremely short summary of a book. A lot of "classic" books are often hard to understand, and the information is often super detailed, and the three comic strip illustrations give a general rundown of what actually happened in the book. This book could also be used to entertain students while also letting them understand the book's main plot. I would highly recommend getting this book for my school library if working as the school librarian for a high school, as many of the books summarized are often taught in ELA classes.

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. Some of the comics were really good, but most of them were executed poorly. Overall they were very hit or miss and I think this concept has been done better by other authors/illustrators.

The illustrations and chosen scenes are charming. Great starting point to talk about the interaction of images and words within comics/graphic novels with adults. If you have a book club, maybe share it with them to see their reactions. For all ages, it would be fun to challenge people to draw or write 3 panel or 1-3 sentences about a work to sum its essence, theme, mood, or plot.

I have long loved Lisa Brown's three-panel comic summing up Moby Dick, so I was delighted to see a full book of her abbreviated works of literature. Some of the strips work better if you have, you know, actually read the book. For those comics where I hadn't, it just made me want to read the books even more.

This book will be right up teenager's alley--stories told in just 3 comic panels? Will it help me write my paper on "To Kill a Mockingbird?" This book is meant to appeal to satire-loving folk that can get a good chuckle out of a book distilled down into it's most simplistic form. As librarian and a book lover, my tendency is to point out that the oversimplification of plot is a travesty! But it's not meant to be accurate, it's meant to be funny.

There was nothing wrong with this collection. The idea is clever - retelling an entire novel in just three panels. I chuckled at a few. I liked how the novels were grouped by theme. There was also an interesting mix of literature, both classic and contemporary. It was a pleasant read.

.However, I don't know that it went beyond that for me. It seemed to lack a consistent tone - in some, the author seemed somber and reverential towards the subject and in other it seemed like she was looking for the punchline. This lack of continuity wasn't terrible, but it made it hard for me to see this as something other than a clever experiment

I was hoping to like this book, but alas, "the long stories short" are neither witty nor accurate. A disappointment.

I found this to be a very interesting concept with a very hit-or-miss execution. The understanding and enjoyment of the comic really hinged on whether or not you were familiar with the original work, and not just a casual understanding of the basic idea. Some I found clever or amusing but most I was just confused by. This book really reminded me of "Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn't" by John Atkinson which i found to have done a much better (and funnier) job of the same idea.

I understand what the author was going for in trying to simplify classics in three panels, but the execution was all off and sometimes downright offensive.