bookblogging
Jun. 12th, 2008 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeNovels/prose books:
Jones, Diana Wynne: House of Many Ways
(Yay! Diana Wynne Jones! Oh, how I love Diana Wynne Jones.
I don't think it's as clever a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle as Castle in the Air, but it's always a sublime pleasure to read a Diana Wynne Jones book I haven't already got memorized. I liked Charmain almost much as I liked the protagonist from The Pinhoe Egg whose name I have impressively already forgotten. That kid was awesome, though. Charmain's for Waif reminded me of the Pinhoe Egg kid's love for the egg; I get swoony over close, loving relationships with intelligent pets, especially dogs. I am also jealous of the Breakfast/Morning Coffee/Afternoon Tea magic, even though I enjoy cooking and don't mind the effort involved.
Charmain's such a gimme character--a red-headed, lazy bibliophile with a dog who just wants to be left alone so she can sit around looking at the hydrangeas, eating pastries and reading? Dude, what a stretch.
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telophase, I wish there'd been more Howl (and more Sophie, too), but considering how rarely Jones writes sequels in her dozens of novels, I'll take what I can get).
Graphic novels:
Clowes, Daniel: Ghost World
(this was badly over-hyped to me. I assume that a great part of the fuss--aside from the fact that it was made into a movie, which is sadly overvalued by far too many people who read comics--comes from this having been published in 1993, when I assume it was in scant company.
Everybody in it is a jerk; I'm surprised it wasn't published by Drawn and Quarterly. No seriously, though, this "real people talking and acting like people really do" thing? Some people do talk like that, yes, and some people do live pointless lives of random, petty cruelty and have small, sad dreams. But that is only a part of the human experience. If I read this straight off of having read one hundred and eight Superman/Batman book, I might have been impressed by this; I probably even would have enjoyed it for its difference. But I didn't. And I'm bored to death by petty nihilism guised as authenticity).
Rucka, Greg, author, Steve Lieber, artist: Whiteout: Melt
(now with spies! I do love a well-drawn mystery. Note how skillfully Lieber avoids drawing Carrie's right hand until Carrie thinks about her hand. Awesome).
Jones, Diana Wynne: House of Many Ways
(Yay! Diana Wynne Jones! Oh, how I love Diana Wynne Jones.
I don't think it's as clever a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle as Castle in the Air, but it's always a sublime pleasure to read a Diana Wynne Jones book I haven't already got memorized. I liked Charmain almost much as I liked the protagonist from The Pinhoe Egg whose name I have impressively already forgotten. That kid was awesome, though. Charmain's for Waif reminded me of the Pinhoe Egg kid's love for the egg; I get swoony over close, loving relationships with intelligent pets, especially dogs. I am also jealous of the Breakfast/Morning Coffee/Afternoon Tea magic, even though I enjoy cooking and don't mind the effort involved.
Charmain's such a gimme character--a red-headed, lazy bibliophile with a dog who just wants to be left alone so she can sit around looking at the hydrangeas, eating pastries and reading? Dude, what a stretch.
Like
telophase, I wish there'd been more Howl (and more Sophie, too), but considering how rarely Jones writes sequels in her dozens of novels, I'll take what I can get).Graphic novels:
Clowes, Daniel: Ghost World
(this was badly over-hyped to me. I assume that a great part of the fuss--aside from the fact that it was made into a movie, which is sadly overvalued by far too many people who read comics--comes from this having been published in 1993, when I assume it was in scant company.
Everybody in it is a jerk; I'm surprised it wasn't published by Drawn and Quarterly. No seriously, though, this "real people talking and acting like people really do" thing? Some people do talk like that, yes, and some people do live pointless lives of random, petty cruelty and have small, sad dreams. But that is only a part of the human experience. If I read this straight off of having read one hundred and eight Superman/Batman book, I might have been impressed by this; I probably even would have enjoyed it for its difference. But I didn't. And I'm bored to death by petty nihilism guised as authenticity).
Rucka, Greg, author, Steve Lieber, artist: Whiteout: Melt
(now with spies! I do love a well-drawn mystery. Note how skillfully Lieber avoids drawing Carrie's right hand until Carrie thinks about her hand. Awesome).