April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Novels/prose books:

Romance:

Bourne, Joanna: My Lord and Spymaster
(This was definitely not as good as The Spymaster's Lady. I liked Jess enormously, and whatsisname, Hawke? But I never warmed to the male lead. And the idea that Jess, who was in every way a full partner in her father's business, would actually give up her very successful career there--I mean, she basically built the accounting system--to marry that prick left me with a sour taste in my mouth. It was quite the let-down after Spymaster's Lady).


Fantasy:

Turner, Megan Whalen: A Conspiracy of Kings
(GOD I was not expecting that ending. I can't really discuss it without massive spoilers but...wow, is this ever not how I was expecting things to turn out, not after The Thief, not even after Queen of Attolia, not even after King of Attolia. And yet...it feels like less of a stretch than it might have; it is in some ways a very organic development from things that happened in Queen.

Though I haven't heard anything about another book, I am expecting at least one more. I get a very strong feeling that Turner isn't done with this story).


Manga:

Anno Moyoco: Sugar Sugar Rune vol. 3
(Anno? You have a genius).

CLAMP: Wish vols. 1-2
(To be continued! Except not, I think? It somehow reminded me of a You Higuri manga, but nicer, because this is fluffy CLAMP, not horribly bloody death CLAMP. Anyway, it's toothless enough that I don't really care whether or not there's any more story, and whether I ever get to read it if there is).

CLAMP: RG Veda vol. 1
(I totally only picked this up in the library because of the storyline in Tsubasa with Yasha and Ashura, but reading it just made me more confused. Horrible bloody death CLAMP, obviously. I really liked the bit where they stand around casually arguing while the five-year-old gazes thirty feet up at where a dead woman has been impaled on the wall by a spear, her blood running in a great swath down onto the floor, then reaches out and puts his hand into her blood, tastes it, smiles, and has another bout of evil-spirit possession. At which point the adults start paying attention again. See? This is what happens when you leave children around the corpses of people who've been horribly murdered.

It doesn't really make any more sense than Wish--the events of the first half of the book could have taken all of ten minutes, for all the textual and visual clues as I had with regards to pacing and the passage of time--but it certainly is more interesting to look at. And Gigei was cool. Too bad she's also dead (like about 70% of all the characters, male and female, who appeared in this volume). Man, this thing has already exceeded the entire body count of Hamlet, and this is just volume 1).


CLAMP: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle vols. 1-17
(as I already said. God, I mean, this thing is captivating. I stand in great peril of it eating my brain).

Ishikawa Masayuki: Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture vol. 1
(I thought the germs would like, have personalities. I'm actually kind of glad that they don't; the personalities of the actual humans are interesting enough).

Mizushiro Setona: After School Nightmare vol. 10
(Okay, that was weird. But why not? It's not like the initial premise made a lot of sense anyway).

Ono Natsume: Ristorante Paradiso.

Tanaka Masashi: Gon vol. 6.

Unita Yumi: Bunny Drop vol. 1.

At this post, I've read 108 books/graphic novels/etc since my semester ended in May and I started keeping track. Graphic novels go fast! But right now, it's so hot, I can barely bring myself to read, and the library is closed for a couple of days because their air conditioning is busted and the second-floor stacks are a health hazard. Ugh.


Graphic novels:

Various: Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators
(I'm glad I didn't read this right after it came out. I knew none of these creators at the time, and virtually nothing about the French comics market. Since then, I've had the chance to read or at least look at the work of eight or nine of the seventeen creators, which adds something to the reading experience. It's a nifty concept, and I enjoyed it.

I mostly prefer the Japanese creators' pieces, I think because so many of the French ones end up feeling unimaginative: the French creator feels alienated by Japan, writes a short, probably autobiographical, about how alien Japan feels; most likely also describes and depicts Japanese women entirely in sexual terms. They each have their own styles, and they're cool and talented creators, but the repetitiveness of some of the contributions to this anthology bored me. So did the incessant sexualization of all the Japanese women.

I have to single out Aurelia Aurita as my favorite French author here--she's funnier and earthier than most of her peers in this anthology, much more lively and joyful and humble about her experiences; I found her story delightful. I've got to keep an eye peeled for any other work by her in English! Come to think of it, she's the only non-Japanese female creator in the book, which probably has something to do with how different her story feels...

The Aurita story is neck in neck with the Anno Moyoco piece for my favorite. Anno's is short, spare of words, and more of a mood piece than a narrative; it is utterly gorgeous in both art and feeling, and very different than anything else I've seen by her.

I also very much enjoyed the Matsumoto Taiyo and Igarashi Daisuke stories; Etienne Davodeau gets props for originality and for making me laugh. Twin brother indeed.

This is highly recommended; it is really worth tracking it down for a look, and I think it deserves a place in a good graphic novel collection).


Manga:

Nakazawa Keiji: Barefoot Gen vols. 3-4
(human beings are amazing...).

I'd probably update more often if I did these for manga, but my wrists are too crap for my to type that much.


Still watching:

Lucky Star:

Never underestimate the power of an easy joke. And I love Lucky Channel more than my hypothetical future offspring. They never write!


Dropped:

Terra E:

Alas, the art and the voice-acting were not awesome enough to overcome my inability to sit still longer than twenty minutes if I already know the plot. (I'm running into the same problem with Rurouni Kenshin; I've already read the first three volumes of manga, and the anime does take its time...I'm only willing to sit it out for the latter because I know there's another twenty-five volumes worth of story material after the stuff I've seen. Oro!)

Kami-chama Karin:

Okay, it takes more than a cute chibi voiced by Nakahara Mai shouting, "I AM GOD!" to make me sit still for longer than twenty minutes, even when I don't know the scanty plot.


Kinda on hiatus:

Naruto Shippuuden:

An ill-fated back up-hard drive reboot ate most of this. I'll probably download a few dozen episodes and watch them all over the course of a week between semesters of grad school, if they're crazy enough to let me in.


Picked up:

Hataraki Man:

This anime is my new boyfriend. Or something. It hits the same sweet spot as Tramps Like Us, only with less fist-shaking because I like the status quo boyfriend, dammit; the status quo boyfriend might actually remain the boyfriend. And it's shorter. Moyoco Anno has been vaulted into the lofty realm of josei manga-ka that I sort of worship and why aren't there more comics available in English about career-oriented women in their twenties? I don't want chick-lit prose novels, dammit, I want comics. And an acceptance letter from grad school.