Easily the best book I've read in the past several years is Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. A trans violin prodigy, faustian bargains, aliens, and doughnuts.

For light reading I just went through all of the Dortmunder books from the library. He's kind of a sad-sack and all his heists go wrong. In the early books the characters age but at some point in 70s he just froze them and let the world change around them. They're great to read after something heavier.

I read the first 2 of the Japanese weird house books. I don't normally read murder mysteries but they were pretty good. I'll get the 3rd from the library at some point.

Based on a recommendation from Daniel O'Brien (remember him from Cracked when it was good?) I read The Getaway which is a crime novel from like the 50s. It was fine enough for most of it but ho boy the ending is something else. It turns into a completely different book.

Like a lot of people I got sucked into Dungeon Crawler Carl. You either tear through them or hate them.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown has a neat concept.

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story is a great graphic novel memoir

Ryan North's comics continue to delight.

I gave The Dog Knight as a gift but haven't read it myself yet. But I've heard lots of good thing.

If that's the new Achewood then I think it means that I am correct not to read the actual new Achewood, because it's not for me.

Oh that reminds me of an author I was very happy to discover fairly recently - Manly Wade Wellman, who wrote a lot of midcentury Weird Tales-type short stories including a bunch set in Appalachia featuring a character called Silver John. Most of his stuff is out of print but there's a good new edition of those stories called John the Balladeer published by Valancort Books. If this sounds even slightly interesting to you, check it out, you will not regret it.

I remember being a fan of Wendell Berry's poetry when I was in high school and had a far greater tolerance for actual literature. When he died I was surprised to learn he had still been alive and I also am not sure I even knew he wrote novels. So that's how ignorant I am!

Anybody else read Wendell Berry? I picked up a Port William book that I don't think I had read before in honor of Wendell's passing. Great stuff and set; n the neighborhood. Port Royal which Port William is closely based on; s about 20 minutes from me.

Also listening to a series of pre-WWI detective novels on Librivox. They're about Hamilton Cleek, "The Man of 40 Faces." Fun.

let's revive the book thread!!

You should all read the manga series I'm editing, Dinosaur Sanctuary. It's about a struggling dinosaur zoo and the depictions of zookeepers and keeper work are perfect. It includes essays by a real dinosaur scientist who is advisor for the series. It's really incredibly well done.

ok what have you read lately that I should read?

I think the best new arc was Teodor working for Tina's agency?

maybe you're not cool enough to know about them, inev

In a classic InEv story, there’s a woman on my block who had a baby at the same time as us… who I knew in high school back when I first started posting on the board. She is from Kansas but was childhood friends with my high school friend and we used to be in group AOL Instant Messaging chats. It is a 100% coincidence that we live on the same block, although I did recognize her building when we looked at our apartment.

This is relevant because I discovered she has all the achewood books and says she and her husband have loved it since high school. I have to have introduced her to it, right?

She said she didn’t know he was making new ones, either.

This may make me sound like someone from my parents’ generation, but if I never heard about this and nobody I follow online has ever mentioned this, how good could they be?

yeah, that's exactly what it's like. I guess, if I wanted to read it just for nostalgia, I'd re-read the old strips. If I am going to read the new ones, it has to be because it works for the present moment.

I dunno, though, if people really start posting on this board again I might do it out of curiosity. maybe you can go home again? in some little ways?

I intend to go back and catch up.  Someday.  But it's kind of like trying to catch a particular time in a bottle.  Feels painfully nostalgic.  But I'm a sucker for nostalgia.