Book Logging
Sep. 27th, 2016 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckBera the One-Headed Troll - I didn’t entirely like the art in this graphic novel, but the story moved along at a good pace, and I liked the characters a lot. Bera is a troll farmer who lives on an island. One day, she rescues a human baby and decides to try to take the child back to a human community. Nothing she finds is exactly what she’s expecting.
Case Closed 24-25 - Volume 24 has actual story arc development. I’d forgotten what that looked like. I can see why many fanfic writers would rather speculate about the Black Organization and all of that than try to do casefic, though. Canon covers case related stories pretty thoroughly, spends 95% of its time on those. I’m not convinced that the Black Organization as presented in canon would actually be able to function, though. I’m not sure how I’d restructure/rework it to make it seem more likely to me (and I really don’t think I want to try to write fic for this fandom anyway). Volume 25 acknowledges that Ran (Rachel) isn’t even remotely stupid. I’m sure that, in volume 26, they’ll find a way to prove to her that Conan isn’t Shinichi (Jimmy). I’m a little iffy on the whole not telling people so that they don’t get killed. I’m pretty sure that the Black Organization would kill all of them, whether they know anything or not, just to be sure. There are any number of characters in the story who I wouldn’t trust with the secret because they couldn’t keep it, but Ran? I think she’d do better than Hattori (Harley). She’d treat Conan a little differently, yes, and that might be a problem (and a better reason not to tell her than “She’ll die!”).
Case Closed 26-27 - I was right. The story worked in v.26 to prove to Ran that Shinichi and Conan are not the same person. I still don’t buy the reasoning for it being necessary. V.27 ended with a cliffhanger. I’m not used to that with this manga.
Castle, Jayne. Illusion Town - As usual, if you’ve read any of the author’s other books, you pretty much know where this story is going. But I still really like a romance where the hero and heroine like and respect each other and each lets the other do the things they’re good at. I think there was less explicit sex in this than usual (possibly this is a trend with the books the author writes under this pseudonym. I’m not sure).
Doner, Michele Oka. Into the Mysterium - This was not properly a book, in my opinion. The library cataloging record said it was a collection of undersea photographs, so I assumed a book of such. What I got was a folded, cardboard thing in a very difficult to open box. The folded thing had about thirty photos, all of which looked like they were of dead, bottled specimens.
New Teen Titans Archives 1 - I initially had problems with this because I haven’t read this sort of thing in quite a long time. I found the art off putting, and I kept having a bit of disconnect based on being used to other versions of most of the characters. Kid Flash and Changeling bothered me a lot because they struck me as hugely sexist and at least borderline harassers. I think this may, at least in part, be a this-is-from-a-different-time thing. I came to quite like Raven, and I had no pre-existing ideas about Wonder Girl, so I was okay with her.
The New Teen Titans: Games - I liked the art in this one better. I also liked the way the characters interacted with each other a lot more.
Rose’s Are Red, Violet’s Are Blue and Other Silly Poems - Illustrated by Wallace Tripp. I really liked the illustrations, but I thought the selection of poems was kind of odd. A few were things I’d not have labeled as ‘silly.’ I suspect that a better description for the selection process would be to say that these are poems Tripp had clear ideas about illustrating. The book is quite short, too. Basically only worthwhile if one really likes Tripp’s art. I’m not sorry to have it, but I’m also not satisfied with it.
Steam Park - Eh. This was not my sort of thing. First, it was all pictures. Second, it was pretty much horror all the way through. It was, however, only about thirty pages long.
Sweaterweather & Other Short Stories - This is a collection of Sarah Varon’s early comics. It was a pretty quick read. If it hadn’t been, I probably wouldn’t have finished it because I didn’t entirely connect to it.
Teen Titans, Go! Party, Party! - Every bit as silly as the TV show and just what I needed the day I got it from the library. This book was a collection of a lot of different short bits, between four and ten pages each.
Yoko Tsuno: The Curious Trio - I think I’d have loved this if I’d found it as a child. At 49, I found it too short/shallow. I wanted more character development and found the adventures less compelling because I didn’t feel like I knew who the characters were. The US translation of this series considers this vol.7, but in the original, it’s vol.1. That’s actually fairly obvious as it introduces the characters. Our library has five or six of these. I’ll try to figure out which one comes next and try that.
Started but not finished:
Balogh, Mary. Only Beloved - I think this one would normally have worked well for me, but right now I seem to be wanting books that are fluffy and angst free, so I got really annoyed when, a few chapters in, there was suddenly a conflict introduced. I had been enjoying the book up to that point, so I think I need to go find some tooth rottingly sweet curtain fic or something.
Grossman, Anne Chotzinoff and Lisa Grossman Thomas. Lobscouse & Spotted Dog - This is a recipe book that focuses on trying to recreate recipes for Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books. I read a fair bit of this, but mostly I just opened the book and read whatever I found. I haven’t read any of O’Brian’s books as they seem like a bad idea for someone with a phobia of deep water. I’d have liked this better, found it more interesting, with more commentary on why the recipes were constructed the way they were.
Kirkwood, James. P.S. Your Cat Is Dead - The style simply didn’t work for me. I also felt like I was looking at a snapshot of a place I had no interest in visiting. I could tell some things were meant to be funny, but they mostly didn’t work for me.
The Sculptor - Eh. Just didn’t catch me. I think my tolerance for characters like the main character is pretty low at the moment. I got maybe twenty pages in and had zero sympathy for him and zero interest in what he might do.
Shawl, Nisi. Filter House - There was a hold on this, so I had to take it back before I was done with it. I very much liked what I read, but I could tell that I was missing a lot. Things were very dense and not defaulting to my cultural assumptions (not a bad thing). I also found myself getting anxious over any tension in the story so that I couldn’t finish anything longer than about ten pages. I will try again because it was very good. Also, my brother’s girlfriend is Ms Shawl’s cousin, and I want to have an intelligent opinion the next time we talk.
Templar - I’m pretty sure this graphic novel was a GoodReads recommendation. It was not, sadly, a good match for me. I know just enough about the end of the Templars not to want to spend that much time getting to like characters who are doomed. This is pretty purely historical fiction, based on the bits I read.
Vowell, Sarah. LaFayette in the Somewhat United States - I got the audiobook from the library. I think I may have to try it on paper instead. The author read most it herself, and I found her voice grating. I made it through two thirds of the first CD but just couldn’t go further even though I was interested.
The Woods 1 - This was too violent for me. I also was more interested in seeing what the adults in the situation would do than I was in seeing how the kids would step up when the adults failed. I’m kind of curious about the ultimate shape of the story, but I don’t want to fight my way through to find out.
Wright, Susan. To Serve and Submit - Tedious. I tried opening it here and there to see if anything would catch me, but nothing did. I just got annoyed at the Pagan=good and Christian=bad stuff (it wasn’t called Christianity, but the name was close, and that was obviously what it was).
Case Closed 24-25 - Volume 24 has actual story arc development. I’d forgotten what that looked like. I can see why many fanfic writers would rather speculate about the Black Organization and all of that than try to do casefic, though. Canon covers case related stories pretty thoroughly, spends 95% of its time on those. I’m not convinced that the Black Organization as presented in canon would actually be able to function, though. I’m not sure how I’d restructure/rework it to make it seem more likely to me (and I really don’t think I want to try to write fic for this fandom anyway). Volume 25 acknowledges that Ran (Rachel) isn’t even remotely stupid. I’m sure that, in volume 26, they’ll find a way to prove to her that Conan isn’t Shinichi (Jimmy). I’m a little iffy on the whole not telling people so that they don’t get killed. I’m pretty sure that the Black Organization would kill all of them, whether they know anything or not, just to be sure. There are any number of characters in the story who I wouldn’t trust with the secret because they couldn’t keep it, but Ran? I think she’d do better than Hattori (Harley). She’d treat Conan a little differently, yes, and that might be a problem (and a better reason not to tell her than “She’ll die!”).
Case Closed 26-27 - I was right. The story worked in v.26 to prove to Ran that Shinichi and Conan are not the same person. I still don’t buy the reasoning for it being necessary. V.27 ended with a cliffhanger. I’m not used to that with this manga.
Castle, Jayne. Illusion Town - As usual, if you’ve read any of the author’s other books, you pretty much know where this story is going. But I still really like a romance where the hero and heroine like and respect each other and each lets the other do the things they’re good at. I think there was less explicit sex in this than usual (possibly this is a trend with the books the author writes under this pseudonym. I’m not sure).
Doner, Michele Oka. Into the Mysterium - This was not properly a book, in my opinion. The library cataloging record said it was a collection of undersea photographs, so I assumed a book of such. What I got was a folded, cardboard thing in a very difficult to open box. The folded thing had about thirty photos, all of which looked like they were of dead, bottled specimens.
New Teen Titans Archives 1 - I initially had problems with this because I haven’t read this sort of thing in quite a long time. I found the art off putting, and I kept having a bit of disconnect based on being used to other versions of most of the characters. Kid Flash and Changeling bothered me a lot because they struck me as hugely sexist and at least borderline harassers. I think this may, at least in part, be a this-is-from-a-different-time thing. I came to quite like Raven, and I had no pre-existing ideas about Wonder Girl, so I was okay with her.
The New Teen Titans: Games - I liked the art in this one better. I also liked the way the characters interacted with each other a lot more.
Rose’s Are Red, Violet’s Are Blue and Other Silly Poems - Illustrated by Wallace Tripp. I really liked the illustrations, but I thought the selection of poems was kind of odd. A few were things I’d not have labeled as ‘silly.’ I suspect that a better description for the selection process would be to say that these are poems Tripp had clear ideas about illustrating. The book is quite short, too. Basically only worthwhile if one really likes Tripp’s art. I’m not sorry to have it, but I’m also not satisfied with it.
Steam Park - Eh. This was not my sort of thing. First, it was all pictures. Second, it was pretty much horror all the way through. It was, however, only about thirty pages long.
Sweaterweather & Other Short Stories - This is a collection of Sarah Varon’s early comics. It was a pretty quick read. If it hadn’t been, I probably wouldn’t have finished it because I didn’t entirely connect to it.
Teen Titans, Go! Party, Party! - Every bit as silly as the TV show and just what I needed the day I got it from the library. This book was a collection of a lot of different short bits, between four and ten pages each.
Yoko Tsuno: The Curious Trio - I think I’d have loved this if I’d found it as a child. At 49, I found it too short/shallow. I wanted more character development and found the adventures less compelling because I didn’t feel like I knew who the characters were. The US translation of this series considers this vol.7, but in the original, it’s vol.1. That’s actually fairly obvious as it introduces the characters. Our library has five or six of these. I’ll try to figure out which one comes next and try that.
Started but not finished:
Balogh, Mary. Only Beloved - I think this one would normally have worked well for me, but right now I seem to be wanting books that are fluffy and angst free, so I got really annoyed when, a few chapters in, there was suddenly a conflict introduced. I had been enjoying the book up to that point, so I think I need to go find some tooth rottingly sweet curtain fic or something.
Grossman, Anne Chotzinoff and Lisa Grossman Thomas. Lobscouse & Spotted Dog - This is a recipe book that focuses on trying to recreate recipes for Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books. I read a fair bit of this, but mostly I just opened the book and read whatever I found. I haven’t read any of O’Brian’s books as they seem like a bad idea for someone with a phobia of deep water. I’d have liked this better, found it more interesting, with more commentary on why the recipes were constructed the way they were.
Kirkwood, James. P.S. Your Cat Is Dead - The style simply didn’t work for me. I also felt like I was looking at a snapshot of a place I had no interest in visiting. I could tell some things were meant to be funny, but they mostly didn’t work for me.
The Sculptor - Eh. Just didn’t catch me. I think my tolerance for characters like the main character is pretty low at the moment. I got maybe twenty pages in and had zero sympathy for him and zero interest in what he might do.
Shawl, Nisi. Filter House - There was a hold on this, so I had to take it back before I was done with it. I very much liked what I read, but I could tell that I was missing a lot. Things were very dense and not defaulting to my cultural assumptions (not a bad thing). I also found myself getting anxious over any tension in the story so that I couldn’t finish anything longer than about ten pages. I will try again because it was very good. Also, my brother’s girlfriend is Ms Shawl’s cousin, and I want to have an intelligent opinion the next time we talk.
Templar - I’m pretty sure this graphic novel was a GoodReads recommendation. It was not, sadly, a good match for me. I know just enough about the end of the Templars not to want to spend that much time getting to like characters who are doomed. This is pretty purely historical fiction, based on the bits I read.
Vowell, Sarah. LaFayette in the Somewhat United States - I got the audiobook from the library. I think I may have to try it on paper instead. The author read most it herself, and I found her voice grating. I made it through two thirds of the first CD but just couldn’t go further even though I was interested.
The Woods 1 - This was too violent for me. I also was more interested in seeing what the adults in the situation would do than I was in seeing how the kids would step up when the adults failed. I’m kind of curious about the ultimate shape of the story, but I don’t want to fight my way through to find out.
Wright, Susan. To Serve and Submit - Tedious. I tried opening it here and there to see if anything would catch me, but nothing did. I just got annoyed at the Pagan=good and Christian=bad stuff (it wasn’t called Christianity, but the name was close, and that was obviously what it was).
