'Jerusalem'

Raided the bff's bookshelves and found this one in English- Guy Delisle's travelogue in graphic format, 'Jerusalem- Chronicles from the Holy City'. It chronicled the year of 2008 living in the city as a stay-at-home-Dad to his two children with his partner. He follows his partner to her new appointments and tenures at the different cities across the world. He writes in French, so the translated copies are most helpful. (Read reviews here, here, here and here.)

I had enjoyed the illustrator-author's earlier two books written when he was in those cities, titled 'Shenzhen' and 'Pyongyang'. I like his straightforward presentation and uncomplicated drawings. And in 'Jerusalem', I particularly admired his neutrality in the matter of depicting arguments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He doesn't really flesh out his stand or sympathies in this matter, which is important to me because I don't want to get into a discussion of this issue with a book, real-life humans or online trolls. Don't want to take a position on this because I don't have the deep historical understanding of the history of the region, and it's really not my place to comment on current day politics that goes far into the history of the religion, shared holy ground and whatnot. I don't know the Bible well enough to enter in a discourse about deserts, King Alexander, Luke and Philip. Then, there's the whole other thread on Bethlehem, the City of David, and Jerusalem.

See. So I would rather prep a pot of rock oolong (yes, I brought tea leaves and a gaiwan), sit back, put my legs up, and simply enjoy the Delisle's illustrations and factual records of everyday sights and experiences in the city in 2008 when the political and military tensions were at a minimal.