Wednesday Reading Meme
I had sort of planned to read more comics today before posting, but I have a lot to today, & I think it's better I post now!
• What are you currently reading?
Anna Karenina. I read the first 12 chapters of Part 5 on the bus yesterday.
At this point, I guess I should warn . Not much going on just yet?! Levin and Kitty got married. Vronsky & Anna are hanging out in Western Europe, having booked it after her traumatic pregnancy. Still feeling 100% bored by the Levin chapters. Very glad that someone gave me a content warning for the rest of the book, but I'm kind of waiting in suspense for it to happen & wondering if I won't be able to attend when my book club discusses it -___-
• What did you recently finish reading?
Avengers: The Children's Crusade, which basically focuses on the Young Avengers, except when it doesn't. UMM. Overall, I liked reading about the Young Avengers kids & their interactions with each other. But this focused a lot on Dr. Doom and the Scarlet Witch, and Magneto was around for a while until he wasn't and it was just like, I DON'T CARE?! AND WOLVERINE, HOW COME YOU'RE SUCH AN ASSHOLE?! Is Wolverine always an asshole?! I don't even know.
So...yeah. It was okay. It was neat for the Hawkeyes to be together again. I now feel prepared to read the current Hawkeye series (involving both Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) and the NEW Young Avengers series that just started.
THAT ENDING, THO.
...I don't really know where to go next with my foray into U.S. superhero comics. I guess I should catch up with Batwoman & see if I still like it or not.
(current series) Young Avengers #1: What happened to Hulkling's earrings?! Why is Loki here? Is he a teenager, too? LOKI WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Most of what I feel after reading this first issue is unease. Maybe I don't want this to be on my pull-list after all?
Young Avengers #2: omggggggg...so the recap is done by spoofing Tumblr. Pictures from last issue, with captions. Also with Tumblr tags, like, #SO MANY FEELS or #oh billy
Overall I liked #2 way better than #1! The overused metaphor of, "Our parents can't even UNDERSTAND that everything's totally fucked up & life makes no sense!" might get old fast.
Venus Capriccio, volume 1 by Mai Nishikata - So, Thursday evening I found myself at Half-Price Books, & they had about a billion volumes of manga, lots of it shojo. I was steered clear of some faily ones by a friend, & decided to put some on hold at the library. But I did buy 3 volumes of Venus Capriccio!
This is a cute little shoujo. The protagonist is Takami, who's tall & a tomboy. Her childhood friend is a boy named Akira, whose good looks almost make him look feminine. They met as children when Takami's parents had her start taking piano lessons in an attempt to feminize her.
While other people in the series (parents, potential love interests) try to tell Takami & Akira how to properly perform their gender, they never do it to each other. A lot of shoujo manga tropes get subverted here, & I kind of really, really love it.
Example: Early on, Akira has confessed his feelings for Takami, & she isn't really sure how she feels about it - does she like him back?! etc. But then a potential rival shows up who declares that she loves Akira more. She's also much shorter than Takami, dresses in skirts/etc., and expresses her femininity way differently than Takami does.
Rather than having an all-out cat fight or long-standing grudge, these two end up respecting each other. Takami actually wipes a tear away from her rival (in love)'s cheek - sort of like a stereotypical dude in shoujo manga!
Anyway, I love this, & I love it too when the characters play the piano. It makes me want to play again, too!
This manga was released in the US by CMX, a company that put out a lot of great shoujo. I miss CMX.
• What do you think you’ll read next?
I need to burn through parts 5 & 6 of Anna Karenina so that I can also get through the first part of C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen, which we're reading for
beer_marmalade.
I also just picked up Avatar the Last Airbender: The Search, part 1, & I expect I won't make it through the week without devouring that.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. You can comment here or there.
There are <
> comments on this post at Dreamwidth.
• What are you currently reading?
Anna Karenina. I read the first 12 chapters of Part 5 on the bus yesterday.
At this point, I guess I should warn . Not much going on just yet?! Levin and Kitty got married. Vronsky & Anna are hanging out in Western Europe, having booked it after her traumatic pregnancy. Still feeling 100% bored by the Levin chapters. Very glad that someone gave me a content warning for the rest of the book, but I'm kind of waiting in suspense for it to happen & wondering if I won't be able to attend when my book club discusses it -___-
• What did you recently finish reading?
Avengers: The Children's Crusade, which basically focuses on the Young Avengers, except when it doesn't. UMM. Overall, I liked reading about the Young Avengers kids & their interactions with each other. But this focused a lot on Dr. Doom and the Scarlet Witch, and Magneto was around for a while until he wasn't and it was just like, I DON'T CARE?! AND WOLVERINE, HOW COME YOU'RE SUCH AN ASSHOLE?! Is Wolverine always an asshole?! I don't even know.
So...yeah. It was okay. It was neat for the Hawkeyes to be together again. I now feel prepared to read the current Hawkeye series (involving both Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) and the NEW Young Avengers series that just started.
THAT ENDING, THO.
...I don't really know where to go next with my foray into U.S. superhero comics. I guess I should catch up with Batwoman & see if I still like it or not.
(current series) Young Avengers #1: What happened to Hulkling's earrings?! Why is Loki here? Is he a teenager, too? LOKI WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Most of what I feel after reading this first issue is unease. Maybe I don't want this to be on my pull-list after all?
Young Avengers #2: omggggggg...so the recap is done by spoofing Tumblr. Pictures from last issue, with captions. Also with Tumblr tags, like, #SO MANY FEELS or #oh billy
Overall I liked #2 way better than #1! The overused metaphor of, "Our parents can't even UNDERSTAND that everything's totally fucked up & life makes no sense!" might get old fast.
Venus Capriccio, volume 1 by Mai Nishikata - So, Thursday evening I found myself at Half-Price Books, & they had about a billion volumes of manga, lots of it shojo. I was steered clear of some faily ones by a friend, & decided to put some on hold at the library. But I did buy 3 volumes of Venus Capriccio!
This is a cute little shoujo. The protagonist is Takami, who's tall & a tomboy. Her childhood friend is a boy named Akira, whose good looks almost make him look feminine. They met as children when Takami's parents had her start taking piano lessons in an attempt to feminize her.
While other people in the series (parents, potential love interests) try to tell Takami & Akira how to properly perform their gender, they never do it to each other. A lot of shoujo manga tropes get subverted here, & I kind of really, really love it.
Example: Early on, Akira has confessed his feelings for Takami, & she isn't really sure how she feels about it - does she like him back?! etc. But then a potential rival shows up who declares that she loves Akira more. She's also much shorter than Takami, dresses in skirts/etc., and expresses her femininity way differently than Takami does.
Rather than having an all-out cat fight or long-standing grudge, these two end up respecting each other. Takami actually wipes a tear away from her rival (in love)'s cheek - sort of like a stereotypical dude in shoujo manga!
Anyway, I love this, & I love it too when the characters play the piano. It makes me want to play again, too!
This manga was released in the US by CMX, a company that put out a lot of great shoujo. I miss CMX.
• What do you think you’ll read next?
I need to burn through parts 5 & 6 of Anna Karenina so that I can also get through the first part of C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen, which we're reading for
beer_marmalade.
I also just picked up Avatar the Last Airbender: The Search, part 1, & I expect I won't make it through the week without devouring that.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. You can comment here or there.
There are <
> comments on this post at Dreamwidth.