“a movie queen could play the scene / of bringing all the good things out in me / but let’s be real”

Reading? Wednesday? I do that meme sometimes.

Finished silently:

Supergirl: Being Super, story Marino Tamaki, art Joëlle Jones -- Interesting take on her slice of the mythos, and the teenage material was excellent, but overall I came away feeling that it was a bit thin.

Finished aloud to Eaglet:

Stranger Things, Looniverse #1, David Lubar -- A mildly entertaining early-chapter-book contemporary fantasy surprisingly marred by slapdash illustrations.

Science Comics: Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers, story M.K. Reade, art Joe Flood -- which is as much about the history of paleontology as it is about dinosaurs themselves, making the series title all the more apt. Fortunately, Eaglet is older enough, and has seen from other books that our perceptions of dinosaurs have changed, that this was actually interesting. (Especially, let it be said, the frame that shows the butt-head Richard Owen with a literal butt-head.) 5 stars, would read again.

Catstronauts: Slapdash Science, story and art Drew Brockington, being the just published #5 in the series -- The storylines have been getting increasingly complicated with each volume, and the teambuilding exercises thread is something younger readers don't really have context for, but remains entertaining withall. Not quite as good as #4 though.

King Stork, story Howard Pyle, art Trina Schart Hyman -- Not my favorite of Pyle's stories, what with the wife-taming theme, and I have a huge resistance to the idea of his stories being re-illustrated by someone else -- but Hyman at least had the chops for the task. I am vastly bemused at how redonkulously sexy the princess is drawn. (Eaglet: “But that’s okay. If she wants to dress that way, that’s just up to her.”) Eaglet has requested multiple rereads, and I am hopeful that this is a gateway drug to more Pyle.

In progress aloud:

Greek Myths: Stories of Sun, Stone, and Sea, story by Sally Clayton, art by Jane Ray -- Read about half of the dozen or so stories, chosen at random by Eaglet, but their preference is my own retellings over these (which are wordier and less colloquial). Stories about "Greek heroes" have been regular requests for a couple weeks now, after the gateway drugs of Hercules's Labors and Orpheus. (I'm amused that the most confusing part of the story of Theseus in Hades is why he and Pirithous didn't just marry each other. Normalization!)

In progress slowly, for reasons:

Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century, Burton Watson, because it is making me be thinky about my translation practices, and Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature ed. Victor Mair, because it is a brick of a university survey course textbook. I do appreciate, though, that Mair found or commissioned recent translations throughout.

In progress slowly, because keeping current with translations:

Lady Cultivator, Phoenix Destiny, Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation, The Empress's Livestream, Rebirth of the Strongest Empress

DNF:

Seeking the Flying Sword Path, I Eat Tomatoes -- What the. I just dropped yet another of this guy's books, and I pick up another? I don't even. Whatever. Dropped this one, too, at around chapter 50 with a deep abiding Meh.

---L.

Subject quote from If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot.