laceblade: fanart of Ohana smiling at viewer, Yuina winking while putting her hands on Ohana's arm (Hanasaku Iroha: Ohana/Yuina)
laceblade ([personal profile] laceblade) wrote2013-04-03 07:37 am

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 [community profile] 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.
liseuse: (Jessica looking fierce (Suits))

[personal profile] liseuse 2013-04-03 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Vronsky & Anna are hanging out in Western Europe, having booked it after her traumatic pregnancy
This summation made me cackle in glee!

Awww, I like the Levin chapters, probably more than the Anna chapters. But, this is entirely because I read Anna Karenina for the first time whilst also studying Russian agricultural/political history, and we'd just got to the point in time Levin is experiencing, so everything collided with great serendipity.

I am so behind on comics, it isn't even funny. They're just sitting in a pile looking at me balefully.
liseuse: (Default)

[personal profile] liseuse 2013-04-04 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, you don't have to be interested in the politics bits! I know someone who didn't read any of the peace bits of War and Peace because they found them so boring.
rilina: (Default)

[personal profile] rilina 2013-04-03 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm really enjoying Young Avengers, but if you're wondering why Loki is a kid, you might want to read Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery. It's definitely not absolutely necessary (all you really need to know for YA is Loki died at one point during some big Marvel event, and was resurrected as a kid), but it definitely add layers to the characterization.
jesse_the_k: Two bookcases stuffed full leaning into each other (x1)

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2013-04-03 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm cranking through Cyteen, and the first parts are about heinous universal (as in large star system) political shenanigans and conspiracy. Which I won't be able to understand until there's more context, but might make you groove like a 78 platter.
oyceter: teruterubouzu default icon (Default)

[personal profile] oyceter 2013-04-03 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh Venus Capriccio, I liked you so much in the beginning, and then you let me down =(.
coffeeandink: (Default)

[personal profile] coffeeandink 2013-04-03 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I hate the ending of Children's Crusade SO MUCH.

Like Oyce, I thought Venus Capriccio ended poorly.
mako_lies: Lebreau (Default)

[personal profile] mako_lies 2013-04-03 10:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Ummm okay, I can't comment on the Children's Crusade, but I can say that I would super recommend the new Hawkeye? Because Kate Bishop is amazing, and her and Clint's interactions are just awesome. Seriously, I'm just really enjoying the new Hawkeye xD

And as for the new run of Young Avengers, I'm still not super sure about it, either? Issue 3 was sort of nice, because we got to see more of Miss America, but nothing is super clear yet? IDK, I'm kind of waiting and seeing, too, though I think issue four is going to go back and deal with Kate and Marvel Boy (I think that's who he is? I can't remember right this second, xD).
liseuse: (Default)

[personal profile] liseuse 2013-04-04 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I second the rec for the new Hawkeye. It and Saga are currently vying for "favourite comic I am currently reading".