cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
cerusee ([personal profile] cerusee) wrote2008-06-27 12:01 am

bookblogging

Graphic novels:

Avi, author, Brian Floca, artist: City of Light, City of Dark
(so very, very excellent. I amused myself by trying to translate the bits of Spanish dialogue without looking at the English captions for them. I didn't do very well, but I appear to have remembered more of my high school Spanish than I realized.

YA plot structure is so recognizable! I think I would have identified it as being a YA book even if I hadn't seen Avi's name on the cover).


Sabatini, Rafael, author, Various: Graphic Classis: Rafael Sabatini
(I haven't read any Sabatini before--don't look at me like that; I wasn't an English major--and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked his style. Very fun stuff).


Bell, Gabrielle: Lucky
(or, when slice-of-life gets whiney.

Sorry, that's not fair. I did really like it, but I constantly wanted to shout at the boyfriend, "Just pick an apartment and stay in it! I'm tired of reading about the author helping you move and you deciding to stop checks you wrote to innocent tenants who thought they'd found a roommate, you jerk." Maybe it's a New York real estate thing, where you have to move fast and put down a deposit on an apartment you want to rent ASAP lest you lose it, but I really disapprove of writing checks in bad faith, particularly when it's done habitually).


Manga:

Hirano Kohta: Hellsing vol. 3
(Doing wonders for the image of the Catholic church, those side stories are).

Watase Yuu: Absolute Boyfriend vol. 4
(I can no longer remember whether I read volume 3. I might have. I dunno.

This is not gonna go down in history as my favorite Watase manga, but man, I always dig her style. I'd rather be reading Ceres, it's just never at the library when I'm there).
octopedingenue: (Default)

[personal profile] octopedingenue 2008-06-28 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
Absolute Boyfriend I wanted so very much to like, but it ended up making me flail angry must-write-essay hands about Robot Sex. (watase: UR DOING IT WRONG)

City of Light, City of Dark is out of print and so un-orderable for my little bookstore. This makes me VERY CRANKY!

[identity profile] cerusee.livejournal.com 2008-06-28 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
AB is the sort of thing that looks good compared to the dozens upon dozens upon dozens upon dozens of bad manga and comics I've looked at in my time, but looks very bad compared to the other stuff actually on my shelf.

Out of print? Really? Bummer.
octopedingenue: (Default)

[personal profile] octopedingenue 2008-06-28 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
AB is shorter and more readable than Chobits, I'll give it that.

Out of print! Not hard to find secondhand, but no longer available in new retail. It makes no sense. There should be a Never Allowed To Go Out Of Print clause in books that accept the Newberry Medal; I would gladly trade COLCOD for Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon.

[identity profile] m00nface.livejournal.com 2008-07-03 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
Basic question time: What is YA plot structure?

[identity profile] cerusee.livejournal.com 2008-07-03 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
Man, I don't know, but like smut, I know it when I see it.

A bildungsroman, maybe?