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[jenny_dreadful]

Of late, I mostly work and read. Right now, it's The Last Man by Mary Shelley. I'd just read Frankenstein and heard it this; it's set in the late 21st century, and is about the extermination of mankind through plague. I ordered it, curious about an 1820's imagining of the future, but the only technological advance is travel by hot air balloon.

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paprika, howl's moving castle, and some other books.

[verbminx]

Y'all, I realize this is like a month old, but I did not get to see Paprika. It was only open the same week that we saw the Harry Potter movie, and I couldn't coerce anyone to go twice in some week, esp when there was some other silly thing Tom wanted to see (ah yes - Once, which is supposed to be good but which didn't attract me much). I was disappointed, because I did see Tokyo Godfathers in the theater.

I read a bunch of DWJ books this summer. I know I've told everyone a million times that Howl's Moving Castle is one of my all-time fave books; I read it early on in seventh grade, when it was pretty new. But I hadn't read much of her other stuff. Howl's actually has a sequel -- thought it's difficult to figure out how it's a sequel until about halfway through -- called Castle in the Air. I haven't really been able to get into the Dalemark books as much as I've been told I should like them, but I read all the Chrestomanci books in the space of a couple of weeks and loved them (the writing could be better in Charmed Life - I don't think Gwendolyn is "round" enough, and she's just a little girl). The second Dalemark book and The Merlin Conspiracy are the only books of hers I haven't been able to get through, so far; I've read about 2/3 of what she's written.

Also, both of you have to read The China Garden by, er, Liz Berry, I think... you will like it. Oh! and if you like DWJ, you HAVE to HAVE to HAVE to read Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce - it's the most charming YA fantasy I've read in ages.

I'd half-recommend avoiding City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, for reasons ennumerated on my LJ. That is, it irritated me but you still might like it. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr is interesting, but ultimately another one of those teen-fairy-wish-fulfillment books (with a twist, at least). I didn't like Holly Black's Ironside (a similar teen fairy book) as much as I liked Valiant (which had gotten AWAY from the teen-fairy-wish-fulfillment thing). But neither of the two fairy books was awful.

Re: paprika, howl's moving castle, and some other books.

[verbminx]

Oh oh! aside from the Chrestomanci books, the books I enjoyed most of DWJ's in my read-a-thon over the last few months (since March, when I got in that accident) are the Derkholm books: Dark Lord of Derkholm (which is a social comedy/fantasy about colonialism) and Year of the Griffin (which is actually an academic comedy/fantasy: what happens when one of the characters from the first book goes away to college).

I do read books written for grown-ups, too, it's just that they mostly aren't as interesting. Mistress of the Art of Death was flawed, but still an interesting historical mystery. The Spell Book of Listen Taylor is for I don't know what age group, and a bit twee, but interesting. Broken for You - can't remember the author - is interesting too, and pretty well-written, though the plot relies a lot on coincidence. I have piles of books on my bookshelves that aren't getting read because I work too much; right now I'm trying to read short stories, but they disappoint me.

Oh, there's a recent book called Maledicte that seems to be pretty hilariously goth, if the cover is anything to go on.