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[booknatter]

Books Read In 2019

Including novels, nonfiction, and graphic novels, not including picture books.

January:

Rio de Janeiro by Michael Sommers

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Vol. 2 by Hayao Miyazaki

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

The Secrets of Wiscombe Chase by Christine Merrill

Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery

The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman

February:

Kidnapped by Alan Grant (GN Adaptation)

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve

Once Upon a Regency Christmas by Louise Allen, Sophia James, and Annie Burrows

Mal and Chad: The Biggest, Bestest Time Ever! By Stephen McCranie

Taking the Mystique Out Of Learning Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Literacy Tutors by Ricki Goldstein

March:

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Saga Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaugha

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson

April:

A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine

Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm

Ms. Marvel Vol. 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson

Some Enchanted Evening by Alice Alfonsi

The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella

Saga Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, Vol. 1 by Brian Froud

May:

Pride and Prejudice by Stacy King (GN Adaptation)

First Year Out by Sabrina Symington

Empire in Brazil by C.H. Haring

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

June:

Incest: Families in Crisis by Anna Kosof

Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, Vol. 2 by Joshua Dysart

Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey

Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, Vol. 3 by Matthew Dow Smith

Just Jaime by Terri Libonson

July:

The Conquest of Brazil by Roy Nash

Midnight Angel by Lisa Kleypas

Sometimes a Rogue by Mary Jo Putney

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel

Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve

August:

Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery

The Thirteenth Princess by Diana Zahler

A Lady Becomes a Governess by Diane Gaston

I Love Him to Pieces by Evonne Tsang

Convenient Christmas Brides by Carla Kelly, Louise Allen, and Laurie Benson

September:

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson

Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare

Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff

October:

Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan

The Rake to Rescue Her by Julia Justiss

Ghosts of Saint John: 20 Tales of Strange Happenings in Canada's 3rd Foggiest City by David Goss

November:

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander

A Lady in Need of an Heir by Louise Allen

December:

To Sir Philip, With Love by Julia Quinn

Worth Any Price by Lisa Kleypas

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin

Rat Queens: Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

The Changeling King by Ethan M. Aldridge

64 books in total, 36 novels, 22 graphic novels, and 6 nonfictions.

[booknatter]

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman (GN Adaptation)

[Goodreads]

Part of me is surprised that I enjoyed this so much, considering that the whole “Girls are so inscrutable and mysterious, beyond the comprehension of us poor ol’ sensible boys!” trope usually just irritates me. But perhaps that’s why I got such a kick out of it, since the story takes that idea and runs with it into a place that’s far more literal and darker than the usual presentation.

The basic premise is that two teenage boys, Vic and Enn, crash a house party full of attractive young women. Vic, who is much more comfortable with girls than Enn, soon goes off with a girl called Stella, leaving Enn to try and make conversation with the other guests at the party. 

The twist, if you haven’t already figured it out, is that the other party guests are something inhuman- something like aliens or fairies or who-knows-what in human form. They’re incomprehensible and strange and inhuman not because they’re female, but because they literally aren’t human. I don’t think I’d say it’s an outright deconstruction of the Women-Are-From-Venus trope, but it’s a much more interesting take on things than one usually gets.

The graphic novel is an adaptation of a preexisting Neil Gaiman short story which I’ve never read and thus, can’t really judge as an adaptation, although having read some of his stuff before it definitely has that Gaiman flavor all over it, within both the premise and the presentation.

And the art is lovely, a bright, water-colored look that gives everything an interesting ethereal feel that compliments the nature of the story beautifully.

[booknatter]

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

[Goodreads]

It’s been many months since I actually read this book but I want to try and catch up on my reviews/thought posts, so!

While previous books in the series have focused on Eugenides, this book changes pace by centering around- and mostly being narrated by- Sophos. Sophos is a more serious and insecure character than Eugenides, which is one of the major factors contributing to the audience consensus that this book feels more pessimistic than the previous ones.

The basic plot is that Sophos, the heir presumptive to the throne of Sounis, lives in a villa with his mother and sisters and trains in the various skills expected of an upper class Sounis noble, while in the background his male relations are involved in military and political squabbles. Then a group of armed men attack the villa and burn it down, and kidnap Sophos. Sophos manages to escape them and winds up hiding out among a group of laborer slaves, where he is very tempted to stay instead of getting himself involved again with the dangerous and morally-tricky political situation. 

It’s probably not a huge spoiler to say that he puts himself back in the narrative- we wouldn’t have much of a book if he didn’t- and from there he journeys to gather what allies he can and settle the situation between Sounis, Attolia, and the Mede Empire.

Overall very good- it’s MWT’s Thief series, so if you liked prior books you will probably like this one as well.

[booknatter]

Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm

[Goodreads]

Super Amoeba is about a comics-and-junk-food loving everyboy in grade school named Squish and his friends Peggy and Pod, with the overall conflict in the book arising from a bully called Lynwood who intimidates Squish and is threatening to eat his friend Peggy. The bit about eating will probably make more sense when I note that the story takes place on a microbiological level- Squish and Pod are amoebas and Peggy is a planarian.

The art is cute and the book has some charm and humor to it, but not quite enough for me to get particularly into it. I’ll probably be giving further books in this series a miss, but one might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt considering I’m not exactly the target audience here.

[booknatter]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz adapted by Eric Shanower

[Goodreads]

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, primarily because it’s a very faithful adaptation of the original Wizard of Oz book, which in and of itself I am fond of due to its sort of gentle absurdity mixed with the occasional horrifying moment. If you liked the original book then this is a fine adaptation, but if you disliked it then you probably wouldn’t enjoy this either. And if you’ve never read the original and don’t know how you’d feel about it, well, this might still be worth checking out if you feel a comic book is less commitment than an outright novel.

I’ll also comment on the illustration work of Scottie Young, which I initially wasn’t quite sure of, but which rapidly grew on me.

Scottie Young’s scratchy sort of style is pretty different from the classical illustrations of Denslow et. al but it works surprisingly well, injecting Young’s own kind of whimsical charm to the characters and places. It manages to again, be very different from older interpretations while still having a good understanding of what makes the original so well-loved, which is always a bonus in adaptations.

[booknatter]

More Detailed Overview

January I started reading Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series. Still haven’t finished all the books that are out right now- it’s not mind blowing but it’s a good series and one I’ve wanted to read for literal years so I suspect part of me is procrastinating it being over.

Favorite books from this month would probably be The Tale of Despereaux, Mary Coin, and the Martian.

February, started on Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and was thwarted the rest of the year by being unable to find volume two in my library. :( Also read Enchanted, which was the first book in a series which I sorta liked but was not interested enough in to pick up more of. Might change my mind though.

Favorites would probably be Castle Waiting and A Long Way From Chicago. Had mixed feelings about Flipped due to its portrayal of a character with brain damage.

March, started on Maggie Stievater’s Raven Cycle series. Have been enjoying it, but haven’t been able to find the last book in the series yet. 

Favorites from this month would be Zita the Spacegirl (also a series) which was cute as hell, and The Last Unicorn. Read Cardboard and sorta liked it at the time but then found out the author is this homophobic conservative dude so, sort of a bad taste in my mouth there?

April, read the Rapunzel’s Revenge series (liked it) and read the first Flight anthology which was interesting but I didn’t get interested enough to seriously look into the other anthologies as of yet. Besides Rapunzel’s Revenge I also liked Marcelo in the Real World.

May, kept reading Richard Peck’s Long Way From Chicago series and Raven Cycle. Favorites from this month would probably be A Single Shard and A Brief History of Montmary.

June, started reading the WondLa series and Megan Whalen Turner’s Thief series. (Gonna ping @pangurbanthewhite here because I honestly think you might really like the Thief books. ‘ware spoilers though because this series likes plot twists.) Besides the series I kept on with and started I also enjoyed Goose Chase. Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths isn’t the sort of story you enjoy but it also stuck in my head.

July, started Holly Black’s Curse Workers series, which impressed me by the plot summary leading me to expect I would be slightly repulsed by the protagonist and instead by the end of the book I was like “PROTECT CASSEL SHARPE 2K17.″ Reread Ella Enchanted and it continued to be a comforting childhood book. Wound up reading the most books this month out of the whole year, possibly because July tends to be my favorite month of the year in general.

August, by comparison read very little. Started up Lumberjanes and enjoyed the Queen of Attolia, but the new/nonseries books I got weren’t as interesting.

September, discovered that my library now has a copy of Mouse Guard after me having given up on them having it months ago. Not too into the genre of fantasy that it was but it wasn’t bad. Started reading Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, also enjoyed The Storm in the Barn.

October, least amount of books read this month, but I enjoyed pretty much all of them. Would probably be most likely to throw Farthing into people’s faces while making enthusiastic noises.

November, picked up the pace again. Especially enjoyed Bloody Jack and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and also liked Zeus: King of the Gods. Read some fluffy contemporary romances on the side.

December, nearly finished with the Thief series, might outright be finished if my library doesn’t have a copy of Thick as Thieves. Read a bunch of graphic novels I enjoyed (have a great appreciation for Eric Shanowner’s Wizard of Oz especially due to how accurate it is to the book) and was also very impressed with The Lost Conspiracy. The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie isn’t as id-candy for me as some romance novels but I thought it had a good portrayal of an autistic man as a romantic lead.

[booknatter]

Books Read In 2017

Including novels, nonfiction, and graphic novels, not including picture books.

January:

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas

The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

The Sense of Reality: Studies In Ideas and Their History by Isaiah Berlin

For Today I Am A Boy by Kim Fu

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Smile by Raina Telgemeir

Mary Coin by Marisa Silver

The Stonekeeper’s Curse by Kazu Kibuishi

The Martian by Andy Weir

February:

The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

The World In 2030 A.D. by the Earl of Birkenhead

A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck 

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

A Fine Passion by Stephanie Laurens

Sisters by Raina Telgemeir

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

March:

Zita the Space Girl by Ben Hatke

Cardboard by Doug TenNapel

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History by M.M. Bober

The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

April:

The City and the City by China Miéville

Pandemonium by Chris Wooding

Flight Volume 1

Prince of the Elves by Kazu Kibuishi

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale and Nathan Hale

Across the Sea of Suns by Gregory Bedford

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale and Nathan Hale

May:

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Blood Price by Tanya Huff

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Hildafolk by Luke Pearson

Tales of the Madmen Underground by John Barnes

Owly: The Long Way Home and the Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton

A Brief History of Montmary by Michelle Cooper

June:

Batman, Volume 1, The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder

The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

Korgi, Book 1: Sprouting Wings by Christian Slade

Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee

Legends of Zita the Space Girl by Ben Hatke

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Jellaby by Kean Soo

Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

July:

Owly: Just a Little Blue by Andy Runton

The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas

Princeless: Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley

White Cat by Holly Black

Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Korgi, Volume 2, The Cosmic Collector by Christian Slade

Escape from Lucien by Kazu Kibuishi

An Acceptable Time by Madeline L’Engle

The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs

Jellaby: Monster in the City by Kean Soo

August:

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson

September:

Red Glove by Holly Black

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Peterson

Forbidden Captor by Julie Miller

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Pluto Vol. 1 by Naoki Urasawa

The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

A Flight of Angels by Rebecca Guay

October:

Multicultural Dynamics and the Ends of History by Réal Fillon

Pluto Vol. 2 by Naoki Urasawa

Reading Comics by Douglas Wolk

Farthing by Jo Walton

November:

Lumberjanes Vol. 2: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevenson

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre

Stranded with the Navy SEAL by Susan Cliff

Caroselli’s Christmas Baby by Michelle Celmer

Zeus: King of the Gods by George O’Connor

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Hendrix

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

December:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz adapted by Eric Shanowner

Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman

The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

95 books in total, 59 novels, 41 graphic novels. 7 nonfictions.

[booknatter]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

[Goodreads]

Collection of the Sherlock Holmes short stories. I had never actually read any Sherlock stories before this, but it was sort of one of those things I’d always been meaning to check out properly and when I found the collection at a secondhand store I figured that was as good an excuse as any. 

I found these to be great fun! I mean, it was fully understandable reading these just why it became such a classic. 

Some loose thoughts and observations made while reading it:

I always had the vague idea from what other people said that BBC Sherlock had Done Irene Adler A Great Wrong but after actually reading A Scandal In Bohemia boy did that sink in.

I thought the amount of Enormously Gay Watson is for Sherlock had been, in the ways of slash fandom, quite exaggerated, and then around the time I was reading Watson’s enraptured description of Sherlock listening to music I realized okay, Watson really does love Sherlock 510%

I also thought the accounts of the absurdly specific deductions Sherlock could get from the tiniest details on people were exaggerated, but I was very wrong!

On the other hand, I was surprised by the number of stories where Sherlock Figures Out The Truth, but is still unable to really help anyone or otherwise do anything about it. An innocent woman remains deceived, a man is killed despite consulting Sherlock for help, a mysterious villain gets away- there are stories where the victims come out on top, but it’s not guaranteed.

[booknatter]

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Hendrix

[Goodreads]

I had somewhat mixed feelings about this book even just coming in, owing to my own history with the story of Cinderella and with fairytales in general. 

Fairytales are of a particular interest to me, I love meta stories-about-stories, and the Disney Cinderella was a favorite movie of mine growing up, but I tend to be a bit “eh” about adaptations of Cinderella, especially ones that try to be commentary on the story, since I feel that 1) Cinderella is a story we’re oversaturated in mediocre adaptations thereof and 2) Many commentaries or deconstructions of fairytales, especially Cinderella, tend to feel very shallow and much less interesting than a straightforward retelling would be. Featuring such tired tropes as “What if the Prince was a JERK or DUMB or a DUMB JERK” and “Cinderella’s too passive! What if she was feminist and knew KUNG FU?” Or whatever. Maybe add in some “Let’s take it back to its GRIMM roots by cutting someones head or toes off.”

So needless to say the summary of this didn’t look too promising to me as it basically sounded like “Cinderella gets her happy ending only to discover that being a Princess is BORING and involves a lot of pointless things like NEEDLEWORK and DIPLOMACY. And her Prince is BORING! Shows what you get for getting engaged to someone after one date! Now Cinderella must escape to a more exciting life of MARRYING A CUTE, DIFFERENT BOY!”

Actually reading the book, the general writing was more interesting and less shallow than I was afraid it was going to be, but I’m still not enthralled- more details (and spoilers) under the cut.

First off, the book is waaaaay more horrifying than the summary made it sound, which really works in its favor since I actually rapidly gave a shit about Ella getting away from the palace environment. The palace is less “boring” and more “boring on top of psychologically torturous due to Ella having little to no freedom to move around or make decisions like ‘lighting the fire in my own room because I was cold’ without potentially severe consequences.”

The principal antagonist is Madame Bisset, Ella’s decorum instructor, who’s the primary person trying to mold Ella into the doll-like caricature of princessdom she’s expected to be, and when bullying and lectures aren’t enough to make Ella give in she goes as far as to have her imprisoned and starved and threatened with rape at the hands of a prison guard. 

(Meanwhile, the King and Queen are hardly mentioned, and the Prince himself... I’m not quite sure how to describe him. He’s a bit like Gaston from the Beauty and the Beast Disney movie, only with barely any self-motivation- he takes initiative in tormenting Ella like once, but otherwise is shown to be an essentially empty person, following the bidding and desires of his advisers and having no understanding of anyone.)

Madame Bisset is absolutely reprehensible no doubt, though she’s a little more interesting as time goes on both due to being a much more credible threat than I thought she might be and the tidbit of backstory we get on her having originally been a poor commoner, though her backstory isn’t expanded upon. Admittedly, probably for the best- the book is told exclusively through Ella’s POV and I definitely wouldn’t care about prodding into More About Madame Bisset’s Deal if I was in Ella’s situation because hello, got an escape from an abusive hellhole to plan.

Anyway, yeah- Ella is a sympathetic character, the main villain is effective, but everyone else were varying degrees of “eh” to me.

It’s probably as an examination of the Cinderella story that I’m most conflicted, because there’re a couple of interesting bits in it but I feel like it doesn’t quuuite rise above the flavor of mediocrity I ranted about earlier in the post. The conclusions it seems to reach are “People like the Cinderella story because it ends happily ever after when real life generally doesn’t” and “Happiness in life is something you earn, not something that can be granted to you,” some of which has merit to it but it gets bogged down along the way by things like “The Cinderella story is SILLY because it involves MAGIC and MAGIC ISN’T REAL” and things like the distastefully-and-unconvincingly written Quog (earlier mentioned prison guard/serial rapist, talks like a cartoon caveman. Author, why.)

It’s a readable enough book, but I don’t think I’m interested in picking up the other books in the series.

[booknatter]

Stranded with the Navy SEAL by Susan Cliff

[Goodreads]

Contemporary romantic thriller novel. Cadence “Cady” Crenshaw is a professional chef working on a cruise ship a little while after a breakup with a crappy ex. Logan Starke is a Navy SEAL who was hired to be the bodyguard for a former president’s daughter while she went on the cruise, only for her to cancel the trip- so instead he’s using it as a vacation, basically.

The two of them meet at the ship’s bar and it’s pretty much lust at first sight. They head back for Logan’s cabin for a casual fling, only for them to be ambushed by a bunch of terrorists who kidnap Cady and throw Logan overboard. Logan manfully swims after Cady and the terrorists (who have confused Cady with the former president’s daughter) and manages to rescue her, but they’re left in adrift in a raft for a few days before they finally reach a deserted tropical island.

The two of them must then struggle to survive and set up their life on the island while resisting their desire for one another, which starts rapidly transforming into a deeper romantic longing on both sides.

Not bad, though not my favorite romantic couple dynamic- I felt like there was a little too much emphasis on sexuality for my rather asexual tastes and I also felt they weren’t quite in accord enough. And while I found Logan inoffensive he wasn’t particularly endearing either? But I did appreciate his ability to swim through the ocean and fight off a bunch of armed men while concussed. And despite my “hmm” about the couple I did find their resolution suitably satisfying.

[booknatter]

A Hero For WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

[Goodreads]

Sequel to the previous book in the series, The Search for WondLa, and pretty much the entire plot of this is huge spoilers for the last one.

In this book, Eva Nine travels to the hidden human city of New Atticus, hoping to find her true home once and for all, but discovers instead that New Atticus is something of a gilded cage. The immortal ruler of New Atticus keeps the truth about the outside world from its inhabitants, who are biased against the few humans who live outside the city, content to wallow in shallow pleasures and ignore the strict curfews and how absolutely everybody is kept careful track of. Things are further complicated by spoilers:

The presence of Eva Eight, Eva Nine’s long lost older sister who, while she has been waiting for her sister for years and years and instantly loves her the moment they meet, is hurt and bitter over her own past and generally has a bunch of psychological issues.

Alongside her sister, Eva Nine discovers that the ruler of New Atticus has a plan to invade the rest of Orbona in order to gain control over a hidden terraforming device, and is being assisted by an evil seer with a monstrous plan of his own.

Generally enjoyable. Found the False Utopia setting most of the story is set in to be less compelling than the roadtrip-through-alien-environment of the previous book, but it builds well upon what the previous book established.

[booknatter]

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

[Goodreads]

Set in the 1700s, Bloody Jack is an adventure story about an orphaned girl called Mary Faber. Mary lives on the streets of London after the traumatic death of her family, stealing and begging in order to survive along with the other members of her street gang and trying to dodge Muck, a local bully boy who sells corpses to the physicians for dissection. Eventually she leaves this life behind and disguises herself as a boy, calling herself Jacky. She is able to get a position as a ship’s boy with a crew that hunts pirates for the British government, due to her ability to read, and the rest of the book is chiefly occupied with her experiences as a member of the crew as she learns how to be a sailor while keeping her identity under wraps.

It’s apparently considered a children’s novel (it was shelved there in my town’s library) although it contains a lot of heavy and disturbing subject matter; there’s a subplot involving a sailor on the ship who’s a pedophile with his eye on the ship’s boys, for example. It’s more of a middle grade novel I guess?

(I’ll also spoil another note here that the protagonist is assumed to be a queer boy for a while and treated with disgust and ostracized by other characters, something people might find triggery. Not to mention, Jacky doesn’t earn the nickname “Bloody Jack” for nothing.)

Anyway, the protagonist herself is a delight in my opinion- she’s an absolute rogue who’s not above tricking or lying into getting what she wants but she also considers herself cowardly and doesn’t like to kill, and she can be emotional and romantic despite her cunning nature. And she goes through a lot of crap but always keeps moving forward, and her narrative voice really helps to keep all of it engaging.

[booknatter]

Lumberjanes Vol. 2: Friendship to the Max by Various

[Goodreads]

Second volume of comics set at a girl’s summer camp for Girl Scouts-expies, focusing around a quintet of friends and their long-suffering camp counselor as they go on adventures and get involved with the various bizarre and supernatural residents in the area. In this volume there are velociraptors, Greek mythology, a shapeshifting bear woman, and an over enthusiastic game of Capture The Flag. Mostly humorous but with some relationship drama between the girls. Pretty cute, though I don’t think I enjoyed this quite as much as the previous volume for whatever reason. (That reason may have been me mostly reading this when I was very tired.) 

Thought the plot with the Greek mythology tied up some things faster than I expected though once I thought it over I realized that a lot of the weirdness the girls have encountered so far wasn’t related. At least one romance seems to be developing.

[booknatter]

Farthing by Jo Walton

[Goodreads]

Farthing is an alt-history murder mystery set in an alternative version of England in 1949 in which the British negotiated peace with Nazi Germany eight years ago. The two main protagonists are Lucy Kahn, a young woman married to a Jewish man despite her upper-crust British background, and Inspector Carmichael, a gay policeman from Scotland Yard investigating the murder that Lucy’s husband is being framed for.

Enjoyed this overall; I liked our protagonists (especially Lucy, who is very thoughtful and sympathetic and felt rather human to me, but there were several characters I gave a damn about) and was anxious over the problems they had, and I was interested in the truth of the mystery. 

Spoilers below the cut.

It’s not a very uplifting read though: The villains never come to justice and Carmichael’s ideals are very neatly shattered in the final chapter of the book. There’s a bright spot in that the Kahns at least got out of Britain with their lives but other innocent people have died over the course of the political schemes of the villains and the country is turning towards fascism. So maybe skip if you want something light. Otherwise, it’s a good, tense book.

[booknatter]

Reading Comics by Douglas Wolk

[Goodreads]

Reading Comics is a nonfiction book about comic books, focusing specifically on the North American market and history as, by Wolk’s own admission, that’s what the author is primarily aware of. The first half of the book is an overview of the history of the area of comics we’re focusing on, going over periods from roughly the 1930s to the 2000s, as well as Wolk’s commentary on the culture around comics.

The second half is a collection of chapters, each focusing on the work of a single creator or creators whose works can be connected somehow. (e.g. two halves of a brother/brother team, or an artist clearly inspired by an earlier one.) Wolk describes the notable works of these creators and what they do well and don’t, various bits of their work history, whatever he seems to find interesting and relevant for discussing the creators.

The blurb seems to imply it’s a good starting book for total newcomers to the subject; while I’m no Comic History Old Guard I do consider myself familiar enough with the subject that I can’t speak for that point. But comics and comics history are almost a special interest of mine, so I cheerfully enjoyed myself the entire time.

[booknatter]

Pluto Vol. 2 by Naoki Urasawa

Be forewarned that this is a series that deal with murder and violent warfare; though most of the victims involved are robots and it isn’t particularly gory most of the time it still might be upsetting for some people.

[Goodreads]

Science-fiction/murder mystery manga. The series is apparently a retelling of an old classic Astro Boy story arc, told mainly from the perspective of a character who was a side character in the original- I’ve never actually read any classic Astro Boy (I presume this is a huge shame) but as a result I affectionately think of this as “Naoki Urasawa’s Astro Boy fanfiction.”

The last volume basically sets up the mystery: In a futuristic society where humans share an uneasy coexistence with robots who are coming into their own as ordinary citizens in their own right, various famous robots are being killed and mutilated by being given "horns.” A robot detective named Geischt investigates and comes into contact with other characters that the killer may be targeting including, at the end of the first volume, Atom, the world’s most famous and advanced robot.

In this second volume Atom joins in on the investigation, the body count increases, and we begin to realize that the murders are probably tied into a war from several years ago that many of the victims were involved with. Various shady menacing figures menace shadily, and Geischt begins to suspect he and his wife may have had their memories tampered with.

After thinking about it I believe I enjoyed the second volume a bit more than the first- the pacing is better, as the previous volume devoted a healthy chunk to exploring the character of one of the victims prior to his death and it felt like the main mystery narrative ground to a halt while that was going on. Volume 2 feels much more focused, while developing the mystery at a somewhat sedate pace.

[booknatter]

Multicultural Dynamics and the Ends of History by Réal Fillion

[Goodreads]

Hopefully I have the accent on Mr. Fillion’s name right- I distinctly remember there being one in his first name despite how the goodreads page has it.

Anyway, this book is a nonfiction, history/philosophy/theory-of-history one and the basic premise is that Fillion takes the observation “Our world is becoming increasingly multicultural” and the question “In light of that, where are we headed?” And basically prods at these thoughts in various ways. 

When I was describing what the book was like to my mother she commented that philosophy tends to turn into discussions of semantics, which is kind of how this book felt? Fillion takes the “In light of the increasingly multicultural nature of our world, where are we headed?” question and rather than immediately go for an answer he lingers over questions like “What does ‘multicultural’ really mean?” “What defines ‘our world?’” “What is history/the philosophy of history?”

He ties in his various thoughts on the subject with tidbits of relevant theories from philosophers Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel, and Karl Marx- though once he gets around to Marx, Fillion tends to actually talk more about the co-writings of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, a pair of philosophers whose works apparently sort of try and continue where Marx left off- and the book is roughly structured by which aspect of the guiding question and relevant philosopher we’re talking about now.

I found most of the writing kind of flew over my head but that’s absolutely nothing new for me and philosophy, though I am pretty sure that it’s not just my own ignorance that lead me to find the book kind of... rambling. Despite this, I did find it to be a pretty breezy read- probably helped by it being only 150 pages long, putting aside the introduction, citations, and appendix.