April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Novels/prose books:

Austen, Jane: Persuasion
(Now I can't cancel my Netflix account, dammit; I have to see the BBC adaptation of this. Tangentially, I caught about half of the Pride and Prejudice movie while I was driving down to Austin, and was reminded that it's my favorite-ever adaptation of that book; seeing it just makes me feel happy, with the warmth and the romance and the livestock running around the yard of the Bennet house. It's so gloriously of the physical world of early 19th century English country life, and Keira Knightley is Elizabeth, and I don't care what anybody thinks).



Manga:


Banno Negi: S.S. ASTRO
(it's like Azumanga Daioh only focused more on the teachers instead of the students, not as good, more fanservice-y, and with more lesbianism, or at least more of the sexual aspect of lesbianism, if that doesn't sound totally wacked. It's fun! I liked this far better than the other school days setting 4-panel komi manga I picked up; l that one was about students who were drawn so more I actually felt uncomfortable. And it's nice to read about adults).


Mashiba Shin: Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector
(one of the mysterious-little-shops manga meganbmoore listed; I've actually been meaning to check it out for awhile, but it was the mention of the Taisho-era setting that caught my attention. I've been fascinated by early 20th century settings for awhile, and after reading Murder Most Modern, Taisho Japan particularly. The art is very good, although the character designs are very generic. I was just looking at volume 2 of Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo and remembering how much I love Akino's stringy profiles, and her unique, distinctive style of drawing. This is pretty, but the characters are very bland and generic looking; combine that with writing not as subtle or clever as it needs to be, and it ends up unmemorable.

I dig the setting and the premise,though, so I might follow it. I doubt the designs will change much, but the writing could improve).