A Fan's Playground

The last Squirrel Girl :((((( What a gift this series has been. And honestly if it has to end I'm glad it could end with intentionality instead of just withering away. The specific story being told by this volume doesn't excite me as much as some, but it was still a delightful read, and I am so glad that the series ends by affirming the primary importance of the friendship between Doreen and Nancy. I love them so much.

Squirrel Girl continues to be the actual best!

The first issue in this volume is a self-contained story about time travel and I ADORED EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. Also this is the second time now that The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl has told a time travel story involving Doreen and Nancy's elderly selves being each other's Most Important Person and I am so here for it.

The rest of the volume covers Squirrel Girl's part in some title-spanning Marvel Comics event, and like, whatever about the event, but the Squirrel Girl story was charming. I loved the stuff about Ratatoskr and Doreen's team-up, and Loki's presence is always a delight. And the whales' reactions to Rachel!! Amazing.

I recently caught up on Squirrel Girl trades that are out so far! Which means I've now read volumes 6, 7, and 8 and am up to the equivalent of issue #32.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 6: Who Run the World? Squirrels, by Ryan North

( Read more... )

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 7: I've Been Waiting For A Squirrel Like You, by Ryan North

( Read more... )

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Volume 8: My Best Friend's Squirrel, by Ryan North

( Read more... )

At any rate the world doesn't stop having good books in it just because everything else is horrible.

Here's a collection of short book thoughts about some books I liked, that aren't substantive or spoilery enough thoughts to get their own posts.


The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex

A reread. Still an impressively successful and delightful book! A kid's book about alien invasion(s), told from the point of view of a young biracial girl, with the conceit that it was written by her for a school project with a goal of it ending up in a time capsule. Tip is a really engaging narrator, and the themes the book is addressing are all well handled, and it's just all SO GOOD. I have a lot of feelings.

Also http://archiveofourown.org/works/1087542 is pretty much exactly right for what happens after the book imo. I love this fic. (though really I ought to read the ACTUAL Smek sequel at some point I think. There is one now!)


Quilting: Poems 1987-1990, by Lucille Clifton

An interesting collection of poems written by an African-American woman. Worth reading, though I have nothing to say about it because I'm not comfortable enough yet with poetry to have the words to describe it.


Dogsbody, by Diana Wynne Jones

A well written and charming book, as is to be expected from DWJ. I'm not the right audience for it, since I don't particularly care one way or another about dogs, and our main character is fairly thoroughly a dog for much of the book. But DWJ is a good enough writer to keep me invested despite this, and I did care an awful lot about Kathleen!


The Emperor's Soul, by Brandon Sanderson

A reread. I still love this book. But do I have anything else to say about it that I didn't say last time? No.


The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now, by Ryan North, art by Erica Henderson

A total delight, just like the last two Squirrel Girl tpbs! I love Ryan North's sense of humour, and Erica Henderson's art is perfect for the story. Doreen and her friends are all amazing, and I love just about everything about this book.

However. The last two issues in this collection are a two-part crossover with Howard Duck. The first part (done by the Squirrel Girl team) was just about as good as the rest of the series but the second part (done by the Howard Duck team) I just wasn't as into. It wasn't as funny or as charming, and I didn't like the art as much, and I just didn't care as much. It's too bad that this is the note the book ended on, because the rest of the book had me gleeful all the way through.

This year for the first time I kept track of all the books I began reading, so that I would have a record of how many books I abandoned over the course of the year! This list is not particularly comprehensive, I think, as I didn't always do a good job of remembering to write down when I began a book. But it's a start! Maybe next year I will be better at it.

( 1. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas )
( 2. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, as translated by Fahnstock and MacAfee )
( 3. The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James H Cone )
( 4. Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich )
( 5. Profiles of Radical Reformers: Biographical Sketches from Thomas Müntzer to Paracelsus, ed. Hans-Jürgen Goertz )
( 6. Leave It To Psmith, by PG Wodehouse )
( 7. To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure, by Ryan North, William Shakespeare, and YOU )
( 8. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne )
( 9. Sugar: A Bittersweet History, by Elizabeth Abbott )
( 10. Recovering Jesus: The Witness of the New Testament, by Thomas Yoder Neufeld )
( 11. Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School, by John L. Ruth )
( 12. a book of Russian history from the 60s (forgot to note title/author) )