mozaikmage

I read 11 books in January and they were mostly graphic novels and things that came off library hold in this time due to me trying and failing to read The Brothers Karamazov. I have extended my library hold on the Garnett translation Three Times. I’m still less than 50% through. I keep cycling between the translation and the original because the Russian language has evolved less since the 1800s than English has so sometimes Garnett’s Victorian English is harder to read than the original, but then the original has a lot of words I don’t know either (mostly to do with the church stuff). It’s harddddd but I want to stick with it because I’ve already given up on it on two previous attempts and I can’t let my Russian-American complex get to me!

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Hm. I don’t think Murakami is for me. I read Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World when I was in high school and the only thing I remember about that one is his obsession with the girl’s earlobes, so I thought I’d try something else of his and. I just don’t think the lesbian-confession scene was necessary, first of all. It was easy to read though, and compelling even though the main character was annoying.

Solanin and Solanin Epilogue by Inio Asano
I don’t remember what the impetus was for me to read all of Solanin now but I ended up staying up late to finish it in one sitting because Oh My God, Inio Asano is a genius and no WONDER late-2000s webcomics were like this if they were all reading this then. I can see its influence on Scott Pilgrim and Octopus Pie. This might’ve changed my life if I’d read it in high school, it already kinda changed my life now. I want to make something that makes people feel like this. I finished reading it past 1 in the morning and I just wanted to run laps screaming, somehow? Crazy work, Asano-sensei! If I ever meet him I will cry. I knew it was going to be good because of how people talk about it (and because I’ve read other Asano comics), but I didn’t know it was going to be THAT good, even twenty years after it first came out!! Aaaa!!!

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

Gimmicky, but some of the twists did get me, even though most of the mysteries and solutions required me to suspend a lot of disbelief that more than one person in this world would ever think of that. And a quick read! I put a hold on the sequel.

Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell

Got it from the library and liked it enough to consider buying it. Helped me revise my draft. The craft advice was really practical, and the draft ideas were interesting and new to me.

On Her Terms by Amy Spalding

Finally, a genuinely unconventional F/F romance! The lead is in her mid-thirties, bisexual, and just ended her first and only long-term relationship with a man. There’s a stupid fake dating scheme that doesn’t need to happen, a destination wedding to a town an hour away, and a happy ending without marriage and kids, thank god. The lead’s brother and friends were kind of annoying, though. I think I liked the first book in the series better? I skipped the middle book by accident and then refused to check it out even though it’s ready to borrow on Libby because I am still fighting for my life against The Karamazovs.

The Pervert by Remy Boydell, Michelle Perez
I liked it... I liked the art. I remember a lot of people were talking about this book when it was new. I think it still hits now. It would be cool to see Boydell and Perez in conversation with Torrey Peters. I do want to see more of Boydell’s work, the watercolors here are so delicate and evocative... I kinda want to do a watercolor comic...

The Demon of Beausoleil by Mari Costa

Full review here~!

Thirst Trap by Grainne O’Hare

I liked it! Funny, reminded me of Derry Girls because it’s a group of female friends in Northern Ireland. It was funny how one was gay one was bi and one was straight, and they all had relationship problems going on. I enjoyed reading it.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Dark Academia but with a literary-sounding narrative voice that reminded me of Prep or Elif Batuman’s autofiction. Thoughtful worldbuilding, good sentences. Kind of wish Catherine House was real and I could’ve gone to school there. Pretty good, honestly, but probably would’ve benefited from more literary marketing instead of the dark academia-style cover it’s got going on right now. I was not expecting it to be as good as it was based on that cover, sorry.

I Want To Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die, Volume 13 by Umi Shiina

Got the notification this book was out and dropped everything to read it. One More Volume in English remains... MAN. I have written about Aono-kun previously here. It’s still great! Goddamn!! I love comics!!!

Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani

Grabbed this from the new releases table at the library right before The Big Snowstorm in case we lost power and I was bored, lol. Read most of it while snowed in. Sets up a lot of interesting things and then goes with the boring ending... Kind of funny at times, mostly just made me feel bad for the narrator. As always, I liked the diaspora stuff because #relatable. The dude was kind of boring. I think I liked it more than I was bored by it. The jokes helped.

My girlfriend and I have started playing Z. A. T. O//I Love The World and Everything In It and it’s good so far. Namedropped my beloved A Hundred Years Ago Ahead <3. On Ferry’s tumblr she mentioned she was originally inspired by Sorokin’s short story падеж, so I read it and was relieved the final conception of the story changed to not be inspired by that, and then I read another Sorokin short story to confirm that Sorokin is Not My Thing. Very gross, grim, visceral. My mother was right when she said he was мрачный.

Mostly a good reading month, save for my Karamazov struggles. I’ll get to the end of that thing eventually!

Personal Project Update: I am about halfway through my next First Chapter Study, approaching it a little differently than the first two. Hopefully I’ll be done and ready to report on it next week!

Oh also also I wrote a sports anime listicle for The Beat because a managing editor pitched it in the Slack and I was like “this is my pitch, it was made for me.” Read it here.

I finally watched Heated Rivalry (EXTREMELY impressed by Connor Storrie’s accent in Russian, he sounds better than some Russian-American kids I’ve known growing up here!) and I have read some interesting articles that summarize the constant treadmill of fujo discourse Heated Rivalry accidentally pulled forward into the mainstream. This one’s by noted BL Scholar Thomas Baudinette, this one is about queer readings of shonen manga. Interesting stuff!

Thanks for reading!