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What I Just Finished Reading
竹光侍 3 - 松本大洋 (Takemitsu-zamurai vol. 3 - Matsumoto Taiyo)
Matsumoto is just a master - his artwork imbues the characters with such life that when terrible things happen, you cry.
These Heroic, Happy Dead - Luke Mogelson
I’m not quite sure what to say about this book. The writing is solid – often poetic – and Mogelson does a phenomenal job of showing, not telling. But for some reason, it just didn’t do it for me. This may be because although Mogelson is a talented writer, the story he tells (over and over) of men hopelessly broken by war has already been told (over and over) by myriad other authors. To be sure, Mogelson tells this story well. I just wish he could have also told a story or two about the women who fight in these wars, or any veteran who came out the other end without being fully crushed by the experience.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
Reading very slowly now, as I’m approaching the Great Avar’s state visit and midwinter, collectively my favorite arc in the entire novel.
Sir Lancelot the Great - Gerald Morris
This is perfect bedtime reading. I’m far older than the audience for whom Morris is writing, but there are genuinely delightful scenes throughout.
Myth-Making and Religious Extremism and Their Roots in Crises – Arthur G. Neal and Helen Youngelson-Neal
This is a dense book so progress is slow, but I’ve found a lot of food for thought thus far. Subject-verb disagreement abounds – a strange quirk I’ve noticed in other books published by McFarland.
Washington’s Spies – Alexander Rose
I’m also talking this one very slowly, enjoying Rose’s descriptions of the colonial period and the patriots and crown loyalists who populated it.
神隠し - 佐伯泰英 (Kamikakushi – Saeki Yasuhide)
Being the story of Akame Kotoji a master swordsman and former samurai who now makes his home in Edo as a knife-sharpener. Eighty pages in, we’ve learned that Kotoji has a common-law wife named Oryo, and a son who is actually not his but the child of Kotoji’s erstwhile assassin (whom Kotoji killed first), to whom Kotoji is teaching kendo so that said son can kill him and avenge his birthfather when he reaches his majority (PS: good lord, Japan). One day, the grandfather of Kotoji’s landlord disappears in the blink of an eye from the crowded family residence (the “kamikakushi” of the title), but Kotoji wonders whether something other than the supernatural is to blame.
竹光侍 4 - 松本大洋 (Takemitsu-zamurai vol. 4 - Matsumoto Taiyo)
In which we will learn something of Soichiro’s backstory.
세상에 없는 아이 - 김미승 (Sesang-e Eomnun Ai - Kim Misung)
Our protagonist has recently saved an important man from drowning, and is about to be kicked out of her house by her father for her troubles. (She neglected to bring home any firewood, what with all the life-saving.) I sense a “virtue belatedly recognized and rewarded” payoff on the horizon.
What I'm Reading Next
Chances are good I’ll return to some of the yet-unfinished volumes from Wednesday reviews past.
これで以上です。
竹光侍 3 - 松本大洋 (Takemitsu-zamurai vol. 3 - Matsumoto Taiyo)
Matsumoto is just a master - his artwork imbues the characters with such life that when terrible things happen, you cry.
These Heroic, Happy Dead - Luke Mogelson
I’m not quite sure what to say about this book. The writing is solid – often poetic – and Mogelson does a phenomenal job of showing, not telling. But for some reason, it just didn’t do it for me. This may be because although Mogelson is a talented writer, the story he tells (over and over) of men hopelessly broken by war has already been told (over and over) by myriad other authors. To be sure, Mogelson tells this story well. I just wish he could have also told a story or two about the women who fight in these wars, or any veteran who came out the other end without being fully crushed by the experience.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
Reading very slowly now, as I’m approaching the Great Avar’s state visit and midwinter, collectively my favorite arc in the entire novel.
Sir Lancelot the Great - Gerald Morris
This is perfect bedtime reading. I’m far older than the audience for whom Morris is writing, but there are genuinely delightful scenes throughout.
Myth-Making and Religious Extremism and Their Roots in Crises – Arthur G. Neal and Helen Youngelson-Neal
This is a dense book so progress is slow, but I’ve found a lot of food for thought thus far. Subject-verb disagreement abounds – a strange quirk I’ve noticed in other books published by McFarland.
Washington’s Spies – Alexander Rose
I’m also talking this one very slowly, enjoying Rose’s descriptions of the colonial period and the patriots and crown loyalists who populated it.
神隠し - 佐伯泰英 (Kamikakushi – Saeki Yasuhide)
Being the story of Akame Kotoji a master swordsman and former samurai who now makes his home in Edo as a knife-sharpener. Eighty pages in, we’ve learned that Kotoji has a common-law wife named Oryo, and a son who is actually not his but the child of Kotoji’s erstwhile assassin (whom Kotoji killed first), to whom Kotoji is teaching kendo so that said son can kill him and avenge his birthfather when he reaches his majority (PS: good lord, Japan). One day, the grandfather of Kotoji’s landlord disappears in the blink of an eye from the crowded family residence (the “kamikakushi” of the title), but Kotoji wonders whether something other than the supernatural is to blame.
竹光侍 4 - 松本大洋 (Takemitsu-zamurai vol. 4 - Matsumoto Taiyo)
In which we will learn something of Soichiro’s backstory.
세상에 없는 아이 - 김미승 (Sesang-e Eomnun Ai - Kim Misung)
Our protagonist has recently saved an important man from drowning, and is about to be kicked out of her house by her father for her troubles. (She neglected to bring home any firewood, what with all the life-saving.) I sense a “virtue belatedly recognized and rewarded” payoff on the horizon.
What I'm Reading Next
Chances are good I’ll return to some of the yet-unfinished volumes from Wednesday reviews past.
これで以上です。
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