Tim Lieder

39. Komi Can't Communicate vol 1 by Tomohito Oda - I'm actually quite fond of this book although it's got some strange relationship with modern technology. Mostly due to the fact that Komi is so shy that she can't even make small talk but she can write down the words. Which brings up the fact that she should have an online presence. The introvert/extrovert dynamic almost reverses online. My online presences is all over the place but see me in person and I'm fairly unassuming. Granted that's a lot of ADHD where I'm not very comfortable around neurotypical people, but also I'm shy. Way back when I was first blogging on livejournal, I surprised people by being nice in person. Anyhow if Komi can't talk to people except to write things down, why doesn't she blog or use social media? But beyond that this is a sweet book about a very shy girl wanting to make friends and how her reticence makes people think that she's stuck up. Also there's a trans character so bonus.

40. The Society of Timid Souls or How to be Brave by Polly Morland - This is one of those light tourism of a dynamic books. Morland was a journalist for years so in this book she applies all of her experience to the topic of fear and bravery. So she can talk about performance anxiety, genocide and soldiers. It's an interesting take on many topics. It's one of those books that you enjoy reading and forget about in a few months. But the material about the genocide in Bosnia is seriously not going to go away (especially since those 1/6 motherfuckers were ready to start it up here).

41. Frankenstein: The Graphic Novel adapted by Jason Cobley and Declan Shalvey - SHalvey has a credit for line work. Not artist. Not pencils. Line work. Maybe it's a British thin but it feels appropriate that the artist would get very little credit. THe whole book is perfunctory with a Classical Comics label slapped on so it's like those 60s classic illustrated comics that were more important as Cliff NOtes than actual entertainment. I also forget that Victor has another brother besides William.

52. Frankenstein by Junji Ito - This is the year I discovered Junji Ito and my life was much better for it. His creepy art is so fucking hilarious and unsettling and he's also got a twisted sense of humor. That said, the adaptation of Frankenstein was not my favorite. He did make the monster (Adam Frankenstein) really unsettling. Most Frankenstein adaptations don't really make him unsettling. He looks a little ugly but the kind of ugly that most people would sympathize with. The Christopher Isherwood television movie "Frankenstein: The Real Story" even made a great deal about Frankenstein TURNING ugly. Like he was beautiful when he first started out but then started rotting and that deterioration made him crazy. In this version it's just Junji Ito making him out to look like a rotting corpse. He does take a great deal of the blame off of Victor by having Victor actually make a bride (who rejects Adam) and then Adam is the one that freaks out and keeps up the revenge.

The other stories are beautiful disgusting Ito. There's one where everyone's necks get long and one where people keep coming in from another dimension to bury bodies. The bog one is bizarre and Pen Pal is a rare psychological horror story where a boy meets a girl who keeps writing letters to pen pals who may or may not be imaginary (and when she stabs herself it could be delusional or just pissed off ghosts who don't want her talking to other friends. The unsettling thing about this kind of horror is that it's not the fault of the person being attacked. She is haunted by ghosts who want to be her friends and her only friends). The doll one has the dead daughter becoming a doll - and then getting all twisty and creepy in the Ito style.

But what I really love is the last story about his mom's dog. It's the same joke as Cat Diary where he draws a tender little sentimental story about pets but in the most horrifying way possible.

53. Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin - I have to confess that I really love Martin's side projects and delving into the history of Westeros. Sure, I would love it if I could be reading Winds of Winter (or even Here's Looking at You, Spring) right now, but these prequels are great fun. I especially love the way he uses the dry historical style in order to tell some of the most batshit crazy stories of people running off on dragons and coming back with worms coming out of them or the Dance of the Dragons itself. About half of the book is material that I've already read including the initial invasion and the Dance. But the material about the ruling of Jaenerys is pretty cool as is the ending where Aegon III goes form a scared kid ot a king willing to kick his advisors to the curb (especially as they were the ones who were using him for power games).

A side note- I really hope that the prequel is set in a science fiction universe with really cool technology and flying cars and since it's 5000 years before Game of Thrones, it NEVER says how all of this was lost. Kind of like how no one really knows how advanced the Bronze Age was, only the world was not in any state of stability until at least a 1000 years later.

54. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan - Ok, I've already stated that almost every Amy Tan book has the same elements but damn, I could read all of them. You got the American daughter exasperated by her mother, the obnoxious busybody aunt and the really hardcore backstory about life back in China. In this one, the mother's story is the majority of the book and her marriage to an abusive husband almost gets really old as this guy is just terrible. Every single thing is a lie or a method of bullying. It makes me think that Amy Tan or someone she knows really well has been with an abusive spouse and there's nothing redeeming about him. This is still a beautiful book even for being her second one and I got a little weepy when it got to the point where the mother and Aunt Helen's relationship was most well known. I have criticized Maxine Hong Kingston for being a misery tourist, selling the worst Chinese experience to sympathetic white audiences (consquently many an Asian man has been attacked in order to "save Asian women" because of the stereotypical manner that Kingston plays into). THis has a great deal of that misery tourism going on. It was her second book but it's way more redemptive and warm than Kingston's awful shit. I know I should not compare one Asian woman writer to another especially when they were the only two around.