A Quiet Pursuit

With TV done for the summer--the sole exception being Eureka, which starts again soon--my media diet will likely be turning back toward movies and printed matter. Here's what I read recently:

• Little Women (audiobook; re-read for the umpteenth time)
• Kate Reading is a fantastic reader, whether she's reading this classic or one of Robert Jordan's gigantic fantasy epics. And if her name isn't a stage name for her audiobooks... that's just some ridiculous Fate, there.
  


• New Spring by Robert Jordan (audiobook; re-listened for the second time)
• See above for the excellent reader; one of RJ's best novels.


• I, Coriander
• Read by Juliet Stevenson (aka the annoying Mrs. Eliot in 1996's Emma, and Kiera Knightley's mom in Bend it Like Beckham), who does so fantastically. A great fairy tale set in Olivery Cromwell's England.


• American Born Chinese by Gene Yang (graphic novel)
• I read this because I'd heard it was simply fantastic, and I saw some of Gene Yang's original art while in San Francisco. But nothing prepared me for the complete amazing-ness of this book or its gorgeously simple art. It ties together three seemingly disparate stories into a genius whole in a way that reminds me (in its genius execution, not in content) of the final sequences of Moore's Watchmen, where the art and the words tie together into this exquisitely-planned whole. Definitely on my need-to-own list now.


• Kristy's Great Idea (graphic novel)
• Yes, I read a Babysitter's Club graphic novel. Sorry, I'm not ashamed--I loved this series in middle school, and though I roll me eyes at them now, the graphic novel version is simply charming. The script has been slightly updated--but not annoyingly so--and the art is, like Gene Yang's, very clean and simple, and immensely appealing. I wouldn't mind owning it, and I plan on reading the next one when it comes out (even though I learned The Truth About Stacey fifteen years ago).


• To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel
• Yes, it's been a month for girl-y comics--well, I am a girl, after all. This one's gorgeous and poetic, and brought back the decade I spent in ballet classes. It also gave me a strong desire to re-watch The Company, a similarly poetic movie about a ballet company.