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larryhammerWhat I've recently finished since my last post:
Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu by Emily Arnold McCully - The story of Shaolin nun Wu Mei and her student Mingyi, better known to history (but not the text) as Wing Chun. Yes, it's a wuxia picture book -- by a Caldecott winner with a lovely watercolor style. The treatment of history is a bit odd, as it includes the Manchu invasion but ignores the suppression of Shaolin. As a picture book, though, it is quite fine.
Kaze no Stigma volume 6 - This is, alas, the last of the series -- just as the main Big Bad has shown up.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookelfe recently mentioned, in a post about Psmith, the concept of a Troll Hero -- specifically the aristocratic British version of same, such as Peter Wimsey, Lymond, and, well, Psmith. In TV Tropes terms, however, I think these are all actually Gadfly Heroes: they don't do the upperclass irritant out of malice but either amusement or by way of provoking clues. Kazuma, though, is very much trolling for malice, especially when it comes to the Kannagi family that disowned him -- them, he's out to burn. While still amusing the reader, of course.
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk volume 4 - Still in the (first) tournament arc, and not yet done -- it ends in the middle of the firt semi-final bout. Still entertaining, though I still like it best when it focuses on the protagonist and his partner (especially over the politics around the other five magic fighting schools of the six-sided Asterisk).
Tokyo Ravens volume 1 by Kôhei Azano - Contemporary fantasy with weaponized onmyôdô as the magic system and a seemingly powerless scion of a once-powerful family as the protagonist. This volume starts slowly but resolves neatly, has a tediously typical tsundere childhood friend with more interesting depths than usual, and features a more than usually dense protagonist, though he at least he's good-natured about it. Plus there's signs of the series getting potentially interesting -- not the least being a tentative acknowledgement that Something Awful Happened during WWII. The next volume looks to involve attending Ye Magicke High School, though, so we'll see.
Plum Blossom: Poems of Li Ch'ing-Chao tr. James Cryer, containing all 40-odd poems generally agreed on as hers plus a dozen of the dubious poems the translator felt were most like the canonical works. Li Qingzhao (to pinyanize her) is arguably China's best female poet, active at the end of the Northern Song and start of the Southern Song dynasties, writing mostly ci -- which are strictly patterned stanzaic poems written to existing (now all lost) tunes. You can't tell that by the treatment here, as Cryer turns them in the a wash of short-lined free verse, all of which sound more or less alike. Meh. The ink brush illustrations are, however, delightful. (This is, btw, another book from the library of Endicott West.)
Lots of random-walk articles from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which has grown into a substantial resource over the last decade. The two main walks started with Margaret Fell and Theodore Adorno -- though set theory may set me on another.
What I'm reading now:
The World's Best Poetry ed. Bliss Carmen, volume V - A 1904 anthology much on the same lines as the more famous Home Book of Verse, which I thought I had posted about a few years back, but I cannot find it. Hmph. Anyway, this is an American-created multivolume compendeum of verse, organized thematically -- volume V being the nature verse, which I tend to start with for this sort of thing. (Always skip the section of poetry on childhood, especially if that's at the start.) I'm not liking the selection quite as much as the equivalent section of Home Book of Verse (link to Gutenberg text), but it's still quite readable.
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Severall Steps in My Sickness by John Donne - Christian devotional writing by John Donne at the height of his abilities as a preacher -- the personification of Rhetoric must have been proud, though Montaigne's opinion of this adaptation of his methods cannot be guessed at. This is best known, of course, for its examination of existential insularity and ontological campanology.
What I might read next:
i hate this question
---L.
Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu by Emily Arnold McCully - The story of Shaolin nun Wu Mei and her student Mingyi, better known to history (but not the text) as Wing Chun. Yes, it's a wuxia picture book -- by a Caldecott winner with a lovely watercolor style. The treatment of history is a bit odd, as it includes the Manchu invasion but ignores the suppression of Shaolin. As a picture book, though, it is quite fine.
Kaze no Stigma volume 6 - This is, alas, the last of the series -- just as the main Big Bad has shown up.
bookelfe recently mentioned, in a post about Psmith, the concept of a Troll Hero -- specifically the aristocratic British version of same, such as Peter Wimsey, Lymond, and, well, Psmith. In TV Tropes terms, however, I think these are all actually Gadfly Heroes: they don't do the upperclass irritant out of malice but either amusement or by way of provoking clues. Kazuma, though, is very much trolling for malice, especially when it comes to the Kannagi family that disowned him -- them, he's out to burn. While still amusing the reader, of course.Gakusen Toshi Asterisk volume 4 - Still in the (first) tournament arc, and not yet done -- it ends in the middle of the firt semi-final bout. Still entertaining, though I still like it best when it focuses on the protagonist and his partner (especially over the politics around the other five magic fighting schools of the six-sided Asterisk).
Tokyo Ravens volume 1 by Kôhei Azano - Contemporary fantasy with weaponized onmyôdô as the magic system and a seemingly powerless scion of a once-powerful family as the protagonist. This volume starts slowly but resolves neatly, has a tediously typical tsundere childhood friend with more interesting depths than usual, and features a more than usually dense protagonist, though he at least he's good-natured about it. Plus there's signs of the series getting potentially interesting -- not the least being a tentative acknowledgement that Something Awful Happened during WWII. The next volume looks to involve attending Ye Magicke High School, though, so we'll see.
Plum Blossom: Poems of Li Ch'ing-Chao tr. James Cryer, containing all 40-odd poems generally agreed on as hers plus a dozen of the dubious poems the translator felt were most like the canonical works. Li Qingzhao (to pinyanize her) is arguably China's best female poet, active at the end of the Northern Song and start of the Southern Song dynasties, writing mostly ci -- which are strictly patterned stanzaic poems written to existing (now all lost) tunes. You can't tell that by the treatment here, as Cryer turns them in the a wash of short-lined free verse, all of which sound more or less alike. Meh. The ink brush illustrations are, however, delightful. (This is, btw, another book from the library of Endicott West.)
Lots of random-walk articles from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which has grown into a substantial resource over the last decade. The two main walks started with Margaret Fell and Theodore Adorno -- though set theory may set me on another.
What I'm reading now:
The World's Best Poetry ed. Bliss Carmen, volume V - A 1904 anthology much on the same lines as the more famous Home Book of Verse, which I thought I had posted about a few years back, but I cannot find it. Hmph. Anyway, this is an American-created multivolume compendeum of verse, organized thematically -- volume V being the nature verse, which I tend to start with for this sort of thing. (Always skip the section of poetry on childhood, especially if that's at the start.) I'm not liking the selection quite as much as the equivalent section of Home Book of Verse (link to Gutenberg text), but it's still quite readable.
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Severall Steps in My Sickness by John Donne - Christian devotional writing by John Donne at the height of his abilities as a preacher -- the personification of Rhetoric must have been proud, though Montaigne's opinion of this adaptation of his methods cannot be guessed at. This is best known, of course, for its examination of existential insularity and ontological campanology.
What I might read next:
i hate this question
---L.
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Date: 19 March 2014 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 March 2014 08:16 pm (UTC)