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What I've recently finished since my last post:
Poems of Places volume 23 -- ah, India. Maybe one day I'll find a Desi-written and -edited anthology of poetry in English. Which this is decidedly not. The brief China portion also has very little translation, though it includes a surprisingly decent version of "Mulan"; in contrast, the bulk of the even smaller Japan is translations, but their quality is ... not good.
AKICOLJ question: ANY RECS for an Indian poetry anthology?
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volumes 11-14 + epilogue by Hitoshi Ashisano (reread). As usual, the final volume is an escalating series of sucker punches in the gut, all while retaining the series' signature gentle, cosy-apocalypse tone -- which adds to the effect. The kicking, though, actually starts at the end of volume 13 with the first explicit acknowledgement of just how much time has just been passing. So, so good, this series.
H2 volumes 1-34 by Mitsuru Adachi, a binge reread of one of his three great series (the other two being Touch and Cross Game). I hadn't meant to do more than peek at something in passing and got sucked in. Series summary in this post about Adachi's works. What strikes me this time is that the symmetry is almost too rigid: one of the two female lead's agency is taken away essentially because the other female lead is indecisive -- if one is in stasis, the other had to also not move, but no character-appropriate reason for her doing so is not given. Still, a very good and emotionally smart manga. Highly recommended. (But not as much as Cross Game. Which, come to think of it, also has a major female character forced into stasis by structural considerations.) Note: minimal knowledge of baseball is needed as Adachi explains enough on to convey the emotional importance of what's going on, which is what matters, and indeed at his best the sports action is a vehicle of character interactions rather than being the main story.
Other manga include: 1) 7 Seeds volumes 1-6 by Yumi Tamura -- these also being rereads, as I'm catching up by starting over in the beginning. Post-apocalyptic science fiction serialized in a magazine aimed at younger adult women, so it's as much about the memorable characters and relationships as the survival stories; strongly recommended. 2) Aoi Hana aka Sweet Blue Flowers volumes 1-8 by Takako Shimura, also a partial reread + finishing the series.
What I'm reading now:
A Dream of Red Mansions, of course, though I seem to have read only a single chapter since last post. Oops. Also still reading Legend of the Condor Heroes by Louis Cha, also not getting very far. My bad. Plus about the first half of Ichiban Ushiuro no Daimaô volume 7 before DNFing it into the bitbucket this morning. Not a good couple weeks for prose.
For Poems of Places, I'm skipping the Africa volume for now, even though the bulk of it is really All About Egypt, because it looks potentially even more dire than India, and looped back to the start and the British Isles, which I skipped over: volume 1 is England A-F. (For the record: four volumes of England, one of Ireland, and two-point-five of Scotland, with the other half Scandinavia.)
And continuing volumes of 7 Seeds.
What I might read next:
Once I finish Condor Heroes, probably The Sword and Exquisiteness by Gu Long. Otherwise, whatever catches my fancy.
---L.
Poems of Places volume 23 -- ah, India. Maybe one day I'll find a Desi-written and -edited anthology of poetry in English. Which this is decidedly not. The brief China portion also has very little translation, though it includes a surprisingly decent version of "Mulan"; in contrast, the bulk of the even smaller Japan is translations, but their quality is ... not good.
AKICOLJ question: ANY RECS for an Indian poetry anthology?
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volumes 11-14 + epilogue by Hitoshi Ashisano (reread). As usual, the final volume is an escalating series of sucker punches in the gut, all while retaining the series' signature gentle, cosy-apocalypse tone -- which adds to the effect. The kicking, though, actually starts at the end of volume 13 with the first explicit acknowledgement of just how much time has just been passing. So, so good, this series.
H2 volumes 1-34 by Mitsuru Adachi, a binge reread of one of his three great series (the other two being Touch and Cross Game). I hadn't meant to do more than peek at something in passing and got sucked in. Series summary in this post about Adachi's works. What strikes me this time is that the symmetry is almost too rigid: one of the two female lead's agency is taken away essentially because the other female lead is indecisive -- if one is in stasis, the other had to also not move, but no character-appropriate reason for her doing so is not given. Still, a very good and emotionally smart manga. Highly recommended. (But not as much as Cross Game. Which, come to think of it, also has a major female character forced into stasis by structural considerations.) Note: minimal knowledge of baseball is needed as Adachi explains enough on to convey the emotional importance of what's going on, which is what matters, and indeed at his best the sports action is a vehicle of character interactions rather than being the main story.
Other manga include: 1) 7 Seeds volumes 1-6 by Yumi Tamura -- these also being rereads, as I'm catching up by starting over in the beginning. Post-apocalyptic science fiction serialized in a magazine aimed at younger adult women, so it's as much about the memorable characters and relationships as the survival stories; strongly recommended. 2) Aoi Hana aka Sweet Blue Flowers volumes 1-8 by Takako Shimura, also a partial reread + finishing the series.
What I'm reading now:
A Dream of Red Mansions, of course, though I seem to have read only a single chapter since last post. Oops. Also still reading Legend of the Condor Heroes by Louis Cha, also not getting very far. My bad. Plus about the first half of Ichiban Ushiuro no Daimaô volume 7 before DNFing it into the bitbucket this morning. Not a good couple weeks for prose.
For Poems of Places, I'm skipping the Africa volume for now, even though the bulk of it is really All About Egypt, because it looks potentially even more dire than India, and looped back to the start and the British Isles, which I skipped over: volume 1 is England A-F. (For the record: four volumes of England, one of Ireland, and two-point-five of Scotland, with the other half Scandinavia.)
And continuing volumes of 7 Seeds.
What I might read next:
Once I finish Condor Heroes, probably The Sword and Exquisiteness by Gu Long. Otherwise, whatever catches my fancy.
---L.