Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

After the by-my-count fifth* re-read, by way of a bedtime story, of Artemis: Wild Goddess of the Hunt by George O’Connor**, the following words popped into my head, sung to a possibly recognizable tune***:

Artemis, Artemis,
Doesn’t ever hardly miss.
Is she strong? Listen, bro,
The lady’s got a cyclops bow.
Look out — here comes Miss Artemis!

It’s going to take me a while to scrub this out of my brain, I just know it.


* I might have forgotten an iteration or three.

** The ninth of a projected twelve volumes of the Olympians graphic novel series, the whole of which has been repeatedly consumed by Eaglet (displacing all other channels for consuming Greek mythology). Favorite volumes are Hermes, Artemis, and Hera (because Heracles), with Poseidon being least liked. Eleven volumes are out, with Dionysus left to go. FWIW, I rilly like O’Connor’s takes on Persephone’s decision and Argus's downfall.

*** Mind you, Eaglet associates the tune more with the Squirrel Girl theme song than Spider-Man.

---L.

Subject quote from The Life and Death of Jason, William Morris.

For a Reading Wednesday of the day after being laid off:

Read aloud:

Cleopatra in Space #3: Secret of the Time Tablets, story and art Mike Maihack -- The plot thickens, as do the personal stakes. We have the next volume in hand but stalled out in the talky-talk story setup scene.

Charlie and Kiwi: An Evolutionary Adventure, story Eileen Campbell, various illustrators -- Technically a picture book, but it's a very long one so I’m counting it. Illustrates the basic ideas of how evolution works using an adorable kiwi stuffie with a time machine. Adult bonus content: the identity of Charlie’s great^n-grampa.

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot books #1 and 2 and 8, story Dav Pilkey, art Dan Sanat -- Eaglet is almost up for reading these by themselves, but they want the one-on-one time. That this much engaging story is told in this small a space is a tribute to Pilkey’s writing ability.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants, story and art by Dav Pilkey -- The original hit book, which had no story surprises given the Netflix adaptation, but it's interesting to see just how faithful the adaptation is to Pilkey's written voice. Remember that now. Of note: this copy is the 135rd printing of paperback.

Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny, story and art John Himmelman -- Awesome stories about an anthropomorphic martial arts student, which are more often about resolving conflict rather than overpowering it. Wise and humane and all of us love this thing. There are three sequels, none of them available at our library :-(((

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl volumes 1 & 8, story Ryan North, art Erica Henderson -- Speaking characters who are about resolving conflict instead of always fighting it out. The first volume is technically a reread aloud, but it's been a long time so I'm taking credit for this. I have the next couple volumes somewhere around here, but I can't find them, otherwise I wouldn't have skipped forward like this. Despite the talky-talk, Eaglet really enjoys the jokes pitched to their level.

Zoe and Sassafrass volume 7, Asia Citro -- Not the most engaging installment in the series, despite the gardening concerns. That there is no hypothesis & experimentation doesn't help.

In progress:

Night Ranger, Dark Blue Coconut Milk -- Reincarnated into a MMORPG fantasy adventure, western fantasy type. I don't usually want to read Asian takes on D&D tropes refactored through video games, since there's enough similarly diluted Western fantasy already available in English, but I was sick and fevered and needed brainless adventure. Despite many powerful female characters with their own agency, not great on that front, but the adventure has otherwise been entertaining. Up to chapter 231.

Gourmet of Another World (异世界的美食家), Li Hongtian -- Silly xuanhuan transmigration-with-system fantasy, with a protagonist given a tiny back-alley restaurant and the goal to become the God of Cooking. Does not interrogate the setup in any satisfying way, especially after exposure to The Empress's Livestream, but I was sick and fevered and needed brainless silliness. We'll see how well it keeps up the silly as the protagonist levels up and world opens out, but staying with it for now. Up to chapter 237.

Discoveries: Search for Ancient China, Corinne Debaine-Francfort -- Slender and heavily illustrated summary of our archeological knowledge of China through the Han Dynasty, as of 20 years ago. Getting visuals for certain broad currents was good, as was seeing the state of the terracotta warriors on discovery (as opposed to how they are displayed today), but as a way of boning up on history it wasn't the best.

DNF:

Emperor's Domination, Yanbi Xiaosheng -- With the protagonist's leveling up, he's had less need to be clever and just curb-stomps everyone. The bloodthirstiness is tiresome, his outpowered companions are losing their slivers of agency, and I dropped this at chapter 658.

---L.

Subject quote from A Channel Crossing, Algernon Swinburne.

An erratic Wednesday reading post:

Read aloud:

Ocean Renegades!, story and art Abby Howard -- Volume 2 of a series, covering the evolution of life before dinosaurs, visited by a "science magic" time machine that has mysteriously moved from a paleontologist's recycling bin to a trash can at an aquarium. Very detailed and fun, and I learned a lot myself. Being able to connect several animals to ones seen in Ponyo helped Eaglet, but it's dense enough they don't want to read it again (at least for now).

Monkey King volumes 12-14, adaptation Wei Dongchen, art Chao Peng -- Eaglet finds the volume with canonical m-preg (Sanzang and Pigsy) hilarious, despite grumpiness at Sanzang's claim that men can't get pregnant ("Some men can!") and that episode has been reread (and recreated in play) a few times. The volume that opens with a dream and a time-skip was … confusing.

Dragon Masters books 5-12, Tracy West -- Yeah, we kinda binged when we found out there were more volumes, most of them ending with cliffhangers. Thank you, public library. We need volume 13 because cliffhanger -- and yes, it's already on hold.

Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild and For Whom the Ball Rolls, story and art Dav Pilkey -- Which catches us up to date with the series. I still think A Tale of Two Kitties is the best, but the latest does a good job of putting an existential issue in concrete kid-level terms.

DC Super Hero Girls: Spaced Out, story Shea Fontana, art Agnes Garbowska -- On the one hand, it's yet another iteration of New Green Lantern Jessica Cruz Needs to Grow Her Confidence; on the other, her woobie-ness isn't dwelled upon long, and we get a nice focus on Supergirl's past and character. A solid but not outstanding entry in the series.

In progress:

Godly Empress Doctor (神医凰后), Su Xiao Nuan (苏小暖, which I read as "under-warmed basil" lol) -- Xuanhuan romance. Yes, it's a kitchen-sink of stock characters and standard tropes, but instead of yet another revenge-fantasy, the author uses them for comedy gold, especially in the first 150 chapters. Very much making sure coincidences do NOT favor the protagonist, especially when it's more funny to cross her. Caught up with the old translation at chapter 278 (a new, licensed translation is up to around chapter 140-odd, last I checked, but should catch up soon).

Chaotic Sword God, Xinxing Xiaoyao -- There's nothing here but a ridiculous adventure story, with no psychological or moral depth, but it's less offensive on most axes than the average xuanhuan, so it's been my default brainless entertainment for a while. Up to chapter 715.

Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair -- Still working through this unsystematically, but having a blast in the prose sections, including generous selections from genres I've had little exposure to from smaller anthologies. Joke books, vernacular (as opposed to classical) language short stories, and so on. Worth getting, this thing.

Plus keeping current on a couple webnovel translations.

Finished:

Some Fruits of Solitude, William Penn -- A collection of maxims about the conduct of a good life, arranged into something of a continuous argument. It has the pithiness needed for the genre, but with a decidedly Quaker bent. Not indicated in the text itself: the solitude was during one of his imprisonments for religious controversy.

DNF:

Enchantress Amongst Alchemists: Ghost King’s Wife (絕色丹藥師：鬼王妖妃), Xiao Qiye (萧七爷, "miserable seventh elder") -- Xuanhuan romance with transmigrated protagonist that made me increasingly queasy with its growing preoccupation with sexual violence and sexualized violence. Chucked this otherwise typical revenge-fantasy fodder a little after chapter 200, which was way too late.

Empress of Forever, Max Gladwell -- I was enjoying it, but very slowly, and if I haven't managed to read 10 chapters when it comes due at the library, it's time to admit it ain't happening at this time.

---L.

Subject quote from Space Oddity, David Bowie.

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.

Been a while since a Wednesday Reading post. It's been … busy.

Finished:

Dogman Unleashed, Dogman, and Dogman and Cat Kid, story and art by Dav Pilkey, being numbers 2, 1, and 4 in a series by the author of Captain Underpants -- Read aloud to Eaglet, and reread. The humor in these works Really Well for kindergarteners, even better than Super Diaper Baby. (And apparently first-graders, judging by the Dogman themed birthday party we attended.)

Mission Moon, Space Station Situation, and Race to Mars, story and art by Drew Brockington, being numbers 1, 3, and 2 of the CatStronauts books -- also graphic novels, also read and reread aloud. Quite entertaining, reread immediately, and now I need to put other book on hold at the library.

Dragon Masters, a four-book early chapter book fantasy series by Tracey West -- Birthday gifts Eaglet hasn’t read yet, as they’ve been interested in other things (see above), but I was curious. I suspect these will do better with readers who haven’t yet explored the genre expectations.

Cat Girl’s Day Off, Kimberly Pauley -- Reread of YA fluff with superpowers Talents, where the titular protagonist is the middle kid of a hyper-Talented family who can … talk with cats. It remains a light-hearted entertainment.

In progress:

Zita the Space Girl, story and art by Ben Hatke -- Reread (after a few months) to Eaglet.

Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation, Fiery Moon -- Now up to chapter 1020-odd, with about 150 more translated to go, at which point the story won't have quite reached halfway -- srsly, this thing is humongoidjous, even more than I expected. (Not short chapters, either -- a typical one is 2000 words, give or take, in translation.)

Rise of Humanity, Zhai Zhu -- A few hundred chapters had built up, so dived in again. Completely ridiculous story and not as good with female characters as Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation, but it’s the entertaining kind of ridiculous -- and what’s being done to Chinese mythology and legendary history is interesting. Up to chapter 581, at which point the protagonist has just set out to hunt down some gods, a crowning moment awesome enough I wanted to savor before diving onward (there's another 100-odd chapters translated at the moment).

Plus I'm still keeping up with The Empress’s Livestream and Phoenix Destiny.

There were a couple DNFs in there, I'm pretty sure, but I don't remember what. Entirely forgettable xianxia, apparently.

---L.

Subject quote from Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation, Fiery Moon. (For the peng and kun, Wikipedia has the basics)

Okay, so it's been a while again since my last Reading Wednesday accounting ...

Finished:

Mighty Jack and Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, story and art Ben Hatke, being both books of a duology in the same universe as Zita the Space Girl -- Read aloud to TBD, who snorked them down even more enthusiastically than Zita and demanded immediate rereads. Learning that Hatke's next book, Mighty Jack and Zita the Space Girl, will be published shortly before their birthday prompted squeals of delight. (NB: It has since been pushed out to next September, the same day as the next Hilda book.) Like Zita, there's a good blend of thematic meat with the adventure, here refracted through a folkloric lens instead of space opera. Note that Jack is in his early teens, instead of Zita's unspecified pre-teens -- though the age difference does not seem to have been a barrier.

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, story and art Dav Pilkey -- Another read-aloud, snorked-and-reread graphic novel, this one a spinoff from Captain Underpants. Amusing potty humor abounds. Reread a few times.

My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder, story and art Nie Jun, tr. Edward Gauvin -- Another read-aloud and reread graphic novel (and TBD immediately started demanding bedtime stories about the characters). Four magic-realist stories about a young girl with mobility issues being raised by her grandfather in a Beijing hutong (traditional neighborhood). Lovely, lovely stuff, and the atmosphere reminds me of a certain manga (such as Aria). FWIW Yu'er's disability does cause issues but is not linked to any magic.

Monkey King volume 8, adaptation Wei Dongchen, art Chao Peng -- Another manhua read-aloud. This installment covers the adventure of the Gold- and Silver-Horn Kings (chapters 33-35 of Journey to the West), and treats Pigsy with all the dignity he deserves. (Yes, that's a joke.) Looking for more, yah.

The Magic Tree House volumes 1-2, Mary Pope Osborne -- Also, yes, read aloud to TBD. If these stick -- not a given, as there's some ambivalence -- this series should last us a while. Of course, it didn't hurt that they're already interested in the subjects of these two volumes, namely dinosaurs and medieval European knights. (I've not been noting down all the books about castles, knights, arms, and armor we've gotten through.)

Plus as part of Yuletide research, a few translations of Gilgamesh materials -- the ones of note being the two from Penguin Classics, the recent Andrew George version with All The Fragments and the older N. K. Sandars version synthesizing the fragments to date into a unified prose narrative. In fact, I didn't actually finish any other translations, as these two were clearly better for both reading and fic'ing purposes.

And bunches of Yuletide 2018 fics, to be partially noted in a recs post when I've digested more.

In progress:

My Disciple Died Yet Again (我家徒弟又挂了), You Qian (尤前) -- Comedy xianxia, in which a contemporary woman is reincarnated into a fantasy world ... several times over, each time as the disciple of the same cultivation master, one so old and detached from the world as to be an active danger to her. Genre-savvy gamer protagonist for the win, which means lots of skewering genre conventions. Entertaining popcorn. Up to chapter 36 (of 393).

On hold:

Genius Doctor: Black Belly Miss (絕世神醫：腹黑大小姐), North Night (夜北) -- LCD reincarnation xuanhuan with an amusing if overpowered female protagonist and an irritating if even more overpowered love interest. Very short chapters made for quick munching in times of little brain. Unfortunately, most characters are not very realized except as props for increasingly elaborate and unrealistic revenge fantasies, and the growing grimdark details have been leaving enough bad taste in my mental mouth that I switched at chapter 1225 (out of over 2000 translated, 3123 total) to ...

... Insanely Pampered Wife: Divine Doctor Fifth Young Miss (爆宠狂妻：神医五小姐), Shan Gumu (扇骨木), a reincarnation xianxia with an amazing number of identical story elements with Genius Doctor, remixed into more of a pure-fun adventure yarn. Would still be reading it (despite the sloppy translation) if I hadn't run out of chapters at 353. (ETA: At which point, the Fifth Young Miss is not only nowhere near close to being a wife, pampered or otherwise, but has been living the entire book disguised as a young man for Reasons, and even sometimes acting the beard for her best female friend to keep her from unwanted attentions.)

Which means Phoenix Destiny remains the only xianxia I've been keeping up with chapters as they release, currently chapter 193. Best female protagonist Chinese fantasy I've found yet. ETA Annnnd a couple more chapters just dropped --- with a freaking Monkey King joke YESSSS FTW.

---L.

Subject quote from anyone lived in a pretty how town, e.e. cummings.

A bit here, a piece here, and pretty soon it starts adding up to real linkage.

Photograph portraits of Star Wars characters and superheroes as 16th-century Flemish paintings.

A gallery of wet and generally grumpy about it owls. (via?)

On acceptable spellings of Hanukkah from a linguistics standpoint. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from The Earthly Paradise, Bellerophon in Lycia, William Morris.

Reading report on a Reading Wednesday, what a concept.

Finished:

DC Super Hero Girls: Out of the Bottle, Shea Fontana story, Yancey Labat et al. art -- Another read-aloud to TBD. Not the best volume in the series, but still quite entertaining with a clever resolution, and a reread was immediately requested.

Ivy + Bean: One Big Happy Family, Annie Barrows -- #11 in the series (just out -- the first in five years), read aloud. Again not the best in the series, but I always enjoy the Ivy-focused stories (I love a good quiet weirdo) -- though I note that TBD didn't snork it down, but instead returned to it over a couple days.

The Talented Clementine, Sara Pennypacker -- #2 in the series, audiobook. Third graders are harder for a kindergartener to relate to than second graders like Ivy + Bean.

In progress:

Way of Choices, Mao Ni -- Completion of the translation was a good signal that it was time to return, so I'm bounding along again. It really is the best-written (and most interesting) xianxia I've read, with several compelling characters and conflicts. The perils are not just those faced in battle. One thing that strikes me: many long-running xianxia/xuanhuan novels raise the stakes by expanding the stage spatially, but here the author does it by peeling back layers of history, both recent and deep, thus revealing more contexts and schemes -- and when a climax comes, it can roll up a whole lotta those tensions over a strikingly large episode. At 661 out of 1183 chapters.

Pogo volume 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder, Walt Kelly -- A gift to myself in memory of a childhood spent consuming my parents' collections. This covers the first two years of the syndicated newspaper strips, so Kelly is still honing his material and technique, with the political satire still to come -- but it's still wonderful to revisit. I have volume 2 waiting for after I slowly work my way through this one. Am a little less than halfway through, having read the first year of daily strips (but not the separate Sunday strips).

On hold:

Chongfei Manual, Feng He You Yue -- Paused at chapter 91 from the reservations noted in my previous update plus returning to Way of Choices.

Plus poetry from various anthologies, mostly in bed as I wind down.

---L.

Subject quote from We Have Met the Maestro, and He Is Walt Kelly, Benito Cereno.

Wednesday Reading report time.

Finished:

A Sailor's Garland, ed. John Masefield, a 1906 anthology of sea poems edited by a future Poet Laureate who'd spent a few years as a merchant sailor before turning to writing. A lot of good stuff here, including bunches I'd not met before. I would have preferred fewer ballads about British naval battles, though it's certainly in character for the period to run so many, and in general the focus is more on sailors than the sea itself. The generous selection of chanties was an excellent choice for closing it out.

Just Princesses, script Crystal Velasquez, art Manuel Preitano -- I liked the art and the story reaches for some good if predictable things about gender roles, but the ending completely flubs the stepsister's arc -- and since that had been bearing all of the story's moral weight, ultimately the story is not successful.

Clementine, #1 of a series, Sara Pennypacker -- Another chapter book first heard in audiobook and now read aloud. Third-grader Clementine is having a not-so-good week. Okay, fine. It's a very bad week, starting with getting blamed for helping a friend cut off her glue-tangled hair. Great voice, this one. My favorite detail is that we never do learn her little brother's name -- Clementine always calls him various vegetables on the grounds that she got stuck with a fruit name and he didn't. Clementine's panic about not fitting in seems to have gone completely over TBD's head, but they liked it nonetheless. We've just started book #2.

Ratpunzel, Hamster Princess #3, Ursula Vernon -- Another fun fractured fairy tale in chapter-book form. This one gets the story moving faster than #1, which is a plus. Querk!*

(Did you know that it is very hard to not insert a K. after Ursula when typing quickly? Because it is.)

In progress:

Of Mice and Magic, Hamster Princess #2, Ursula Vernon -- Yes a little out of order, because anachronistic library reserve system. This time, it's the 12 Dancing Princesses getting fractured. Querk!**

Assassin Farmer (捡枚杀手做农夫, more literally "Picked up an Assassin to be a Farmer"), Xi Zhen (席祯) -- This is technically somewhere between xuanhuan and pseudo-historical, but I hesitate to use either label as the defining genre is actually sweet romance, making the exact setting irrelevant. The main couple are a master embroiderer transmigrated from Republican Era China (nice genre variation there) and a socially awkward ex-assassin left for dead by his former employers. Is it fluffy? Yes, Dear Readers, it totally is -- not a whiff of a revenge plot within 200 li. At 62 chapters, the translation is a little less than ⅓ in, coming about 2 chapters a week, so if starting something unfinished is a problem, you might want to hold off. If you're looking for diabetes-inducing slice-of-life fluff, though, this is The Stuff.

On hold:

Jun Jiuling (君九龄), Xi Xing (希行) -- Pseudo-historical webnovel (specifically, Ming Dynasty template with an AU imperial family and no foot-binding;*** the opening is concretely set in southeastern Shanxi province) with a transmigrated female protagonist, but who she was before her previous death is held back for a while, which is an interesting change -- we don't even get confirmation that there was a transmigration until chapter 10, though it's hinted at before then. In further genre variations, the transmigration involves no time or timeline hopping, the immediate stakes are not Imperial, the protagonist's goal isn't revenge -- the "new" Miss Jun's initial focus is on survival and establishing a safe place for herself -- and the ways she is not the person she once was is more obvious than typical and treated more realistically. The writing is vivid (though the first 2-3 chapters are a bit confusing, at least in translation) and the slowly unwrapped mysteries are compelling. Recommended. Caught up with the translation at chapter 221 (out of 800-odd).

DNF:

The Daily Life of the Immortal King, Kuxuan -- This, oh dear gods and goddesses above, is the unholy offspring of a futuristic xianxia and a Japanese school-life comedy -- with all the LCD tropes of both parents. Its only redeeming feature is that the MC's ludicrous overpoweredness is treated as the source of comedy it is, as he attempts to live an anonymous high school life. I read a couple dozen chapters with the fascinated horror of watching a train wreck in slow motion, and regret every minute wasted.


* Which is Quail for "We liked it."

** Which is Quail for "Onward!"

*** I've yet to meet foot-binding in any flavor of Chinese historical novel, including wuxia. I may be looking in the wrong places.

---L.

Subject quote from Adonais, Percy Shelley.

Reading Wednesday, with actual reading yay. This isn't a huge list, but there's a doorstop in the works.

Finished:

Erotic Poems ed. by Peter Washington -- the hodgepodginess is delightful: Tennyson sandwiched between Baudelaires. Recommended still. If you do read it, be aware that the last poems are all about the fire gutting out, so plan when you read it accordingly.

Villanelles ed. Finch & Mali -- a morning in a hammock in a ponderosa forest gets me to the end. Good stuff, both the older and contemporary workings of the form. Recommended.

Plus various poetry anthology readings not otherwise noted.

In comics: 1) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and the Great Lakes Avengers, a compilation of a four-issue arc plus some specials (including her first appearance, as a teenage Iron Man fangirl). Oddly dark, but fun when Squirrel Girl herself is onstage. 2) Super Hero Girls: Summer Olympus, words by Shea Fontana, art by Yancey Labat -- a couple times through, reading it aloud to TBD.

In progress:

Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations: Volume I: from Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty ed. by John Minford & Joseph S.M. Lau -- a thick brick to match the long title, being 1130 pages plus preface and appendices. Found this browsing in the library, and we'll see how far I can get before I run out of renewals. I am very much enjoying the sheer SCOPE: it starts with oracle-bone and bronze-ware inscriptions, which are even more interesting than expected. (Note: volume II seems not to have been published? If so, BOO HISS!) Am less than 20% in, which still covers a lot of ground.

---L.

Subject quote from "Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti.