April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Novels/prose books:
Bierce, Ambrose: Fantastic Fables
(hmm. Lots to be said. Aesop's Fables, as written by a sophisticated late 19th century cynic; cynicism palls really, really fast. It's interesting, but at least from my perspective, not entertaining).


Romance:
Heyer, Georgette: The Talisman Ring
(I liked it! As I generally do with Heyer. She's very good, you know).

Sutherland, Peg: Queen of the Dixie Drive-In
(When telophase shipped this to me lo those many months ago, I meant to do an in-depth snarky review of it in lieu of payment. But I never got around to it, and then school happened. I think it was mostly okay? The prose didn't send me screaming and it wasn't hugely misogynistic or anything).


YA:
Jones, Diana Wynne:
The Game (way too short, but a good read. Loved the bit with the pork chop, and also how well the reveal worked with the prior characterizations; Jones always does that kind of thing well. There's a little part of me that keeps waiting for her to do some kind of truly pan-mythic story, but maybe that's not fair, especially at this point; she's a basically Western Civ gal, and I know that. And she does pretty good stuff with Greco-Roman/Western European/British Isles mythology; it's not as if she's stagnated with it).
The Spellcoats (reread),
Conrad's Fate (reread),
House of Many Ways (reread),
--totally meant to go on in more detail about all these rereads, but, as I said, school happened.


Light novels:
Ono Fuyumi:
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
(I wanted to love this, and Yoko, as much as bookelfe did, but I didn't. I felt better about that after I went back and reread her post on it, and her comments about why she identified so strongly with Yoko--identifying with a character is always YMMV, and I'm not that person. But I totally get the bit about it subverting fantasy tropes. It's fascinating for that, and the more I go back and look at it, the more I like the structure and plot. The prose of the translation is unimpressive, but the story is good).

The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind
(awww baby kirin. And, while reading this book, I found myself suddenly hugely in love with the entire universe--reading the second book made me love the first more, and made me desperately want more of the entire world, and all the characters. I begin to get used to Ono's mind, and I like it).


Graphic novels:
Foglio, Phil and Kaja: Girl Genius book four: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams (holds up well on a reread).

Warren, Adam: Empowered vol. 5 (awwwwww fuckity.
But I'm relieved. I expected to cry a hell of a lot more than I did. I am simply grateful that I didn't cry more than I did. I think this series will eventually rip my beating heart from my chest and set it on fire, because that's what Adam Warren does to your heart. And you then say, "thank you sir, may I have another? Because I adore your clever writing, even though you obviously want to hurt me.")


Manga:

Akino Matsuri:
Genju no Seiza vols. 6-7 (was that another PSOH ref with the kirin? Say it's so, Akino!).
Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo vol. 5

Mori Kaoru: Emma vols. 8-9 (oh shit the Meredith bedroom scene was so hot! There is no sex, although there is sexiness, but the intimacy--emotional and physical--is so pure and tangible I kept having to put the book down and go oof).

Ninomiya Tomoko: Nodame Cantabile vols. 15-16.

Otsuka Eiji, writer, Yamazaki Housui, artist: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 9

Takaya Natsuki: Fruits Basket vol. 22

Umino Chica: Honey & Clover vol. 4.

Urasawa Naoki: Pluto vol. 5 (and here I'd just boasted to my LCS guy that I knew everything that was gonna happen because I didn't see Urasawa deviating from the basic structure of the plot as outlined in Tezuka's The Greatest Robot on Earth. So far, he hasn't, but this is fucking Urasawa, man. He's a master of suspense. He will surprise you, and he will make you hang. And he'll do it well. It's why he's awesome and we love him.

Urasawa Naoki: 20th Century Boys vol. 4

Watanabe Taeko;
Kaze Hikaru vol. 11

Novels/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.

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).