Best Sculptor's Wondrous Acacia Tower of American Dingo Runaways

[maribou]

Best American Comics 2007, edited by Chris Ware and Anne Elizabeth Moore
While I am still extremely dubious about the whole 'Best American' claim, especially for this particular series, this was definitely a solid anthology. I liked it a lot better than last year's collection - almost all the stories worked for me.
(107/300)

Sculptor's Daughter, by Tove Jansson
Dude! It's an early childhood autobiography by the author of the Moomin books. How did I not know this book existed? *swoons dramatically* And it's very very keen, indeed, in much the ways I would've expected. Hurray for Interlibrary Loan! (I'm not bothering to link to Amazon because it currently starts at $630 on there, and geez! It's not *quite* that awesome.)
(108/300)

Tower of Dreams, by Jamil Nasir
Very nifty near-future scifi with some fantasy around the edges. Mostly takes place in the Middle East. Shiny enough that I have already checked his most recent novel out from the library, & am looking forward to reading it.
(109/300)

American Nerd, by Ben Nugent
I could give you a very nerdy list of all the flaws and misgeneralizations in this book and explain how I think it was a great effort but it would've been so much better if only he had done things more the way I think he should have done them. But I won't. Because honestly? I couldn't put it down and it had a lot of good and interesting things to say, and as a bonus, mostly said them by way of intriguing biographical sketches of people the author knows. So, yay book!
(110/300)

Runaways 1, by Brian K. Vaughan
Fun set-up for a series about teens w/ superpowers who are trying to keep their supervillain parents from various acts of dastardy.
(111/300)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
Large swathes of this book are absolutely amazing, and I would recommend this book based on those. But the narrative voice drove me up a wall more than once, generally by (I think deliberately) introducing the clunkiest POSSIBLE metaphors at the most emotionally/dramatically intense moments. ARGH. Painful. Overall, definitely worth reading.
(112/300)

Acacia, by David Anthony Durham
This fantasy novel starts out in enjoyable-but-kinda-sleepy historical fashion, but once it revs up, holy smokes! I couldn't put it down! I really like that it's complicated and gritty.
(113/300)

Dingo, by Charles de Lint
I don't have much patience for a narrator that doesn't figure out the Shocking Revelation that I saw coming from 80 miles away until he has it all laid out for him, like 50 pages into the book, and even then, is dubious about it. However, said narrator hadn't read ANY de Lint novels, and I've read an awful lot of them :P. Other than grinding my teeth a bit waiting for the actual story to get underway, I did like this. It was satisfying, just not unpredictable.
(114/300)