April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Romance:

Beverley, Jo: The Rogue's Return
(Better than Dangerous Joy; not as good as The Secret Wedding).


Mystery:

Stout, Rex: Three for the Chair
(includes "A Window for Death," "Immune to Murder," and "Too Many Detectives").


Graphic novels/comics:

Cooke, Darwyn: Parker: The Hunter (based on Richard Stark's prose novel)
(Umm. Great art. Icky, kinda misogynistic story).

Barnes, Bill, and Gene Ambaum: Reader's Advisory : Unshelved 7
(I bought this at ALA Midwinter, along with a truly fabulous "What Would Dewey Do?" shirt. It's autographed by Bill and Gene! The book, not the shirt, that is.

The forecast: scattered humor).


Manga/Manwha:

Azuma Kiyohiko: Yotsuba vol. 7.

KookHwa Huh, writer, and Sujin Kim, artist, Pig Bride vol. 1.

Urasawa Naoki: 20th Century Boys vol. 6.

Yazawa Ai, Nana vol. 20
(Aaaand there's that spoiler omg).

Yoshinaga Fumi, All My Darling Daughters.

Yoshinaga Fumi, Ooku vol. 2
(sob. ...sorry, I can't help it. For some reasons, the stories in this series make me want to cry my eyes out and keep me from sleeping at night. Frickin' Yoshinaga).

Novels/prose books:

Heyer, Georgette: Envious Casca, The Unfinished Clue
(Heyer's Handy Tips!, aka, Things I Have Learned from Georgette Heyer's Mystery Novels:
--Never throw a house party if you're a mean old bastard; you're sure to be murdered within a hundred pages.
--But! If you're an attractive, clever, forthright, and self-possessed single woman, the police investigations following these inevitable murders are a great place to pick up a worthwhile spouse).


Graphic novels:

Ware, Chris: Jimmy Corrigan, or, The Smartest Kid on Earth.

Appollo, writer, and Lewis Trondheim, writer and artist: Bourbon Island 1730.


Cooke, Darwyn, et al: Will Eisner's The Spirit vol. 2
(No, I'm not planning to see the Miller film adaptation. Yes, Kyle Baker was very funny on that subject. No, it didn't change my mind about Frank Miller being a poor match for the material.

Recent movie adaptations of comic books I haven't seen and have no interest in: The Spirit, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Hellboy 2, The Hulk.

Forthcoming movie adaptations of graphic novels/comics I will have no interest in when they come out: Astro Boy, Captain America, The Avengers, Watchmen, Wonder Woman, Wolverine, Thor, any further entries in the Superman, Spider-Man and Batman franchises, any adaptation that falls short of the standard set by, say, Persepolis.

The best film adaptations of comic books tend to be no better than okay, and the worst are painful or outright insulting. I'm done with them, and I'm at peace with that).



Manga:

Ninomiya Tomoko: Nodame Cantabile vols. 13-14
(speaking of adaptations, I curse Hollywood's evil and unscrupulous money-grubbing use of DRM to create and enforce regional coding, which makes it impractical for me to import DVDs of the brilliant, hilarious live-action adaptations of this comic, even though no one in North America has any financial investment in or motivation to distribute it in this market, and this rarity, a truly worthy adaptation, is thus almost totally inaccessible to me in any legally sanctioned format. Stupid fuckers).