By Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédéric Lemercier
Read: October 2009
Rating: Wow
There’s no other word for it than, “Wow.” Every few pages, there it is again–Wow.
Didier Lefèvre was a photographer, who became involved with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In 1986, he accepted an assignment to enter Afghanistan with an MSF mission, to document their journey [...]

By Hergé
Read: September 2009
Rating:
This was the very first Tintin book I ever got my hands on. So there’s nostalgic attachment to it.
Published in 1936, the squabbling countries make speeches to… The League of Nations! Funnily enough, there’s not mention of communism, at all. But I suppose that wasn’t so much on the public radar until [...]

By Hergé
Read: September 2009
Rating: Transitional
One can definitely feel the transitional quality of this volume. It FEELS like a Tintin book, but the story is quite choppy, and for good reason–originally, it was running as a serial. There is a consistent story arc, but it’s not like later books where everything is geared toward that one [...]

By Sarah Ellerton (art) and Bobby Crosby (writing)
Read: May 2009, ongoing
Rating: Wow
Read it at:  http://dreamless.keenspot.com/
Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother reviewing a comic that only has about a dozen pages, but my dearest Sreyaduck has been begging me to read this one. You should as well. 
The art is beyond fantastic. Each panel is like a full [...]

by Fred Gallagher
Read: Continuously, reread May 2009
Rating: Brills
Get sucked in: http://www.megatokyo.com/
If you’ve been reading webcomics for any period of time and haven’t come across Megatokyo you’re not surfing the right comics. Ever seen the Sad Girl In Snow trope? This is where it was born.
Megatokyo is a lot of things, on a lot [...]

By Gina Biggs
Read: Continuously, reread April ‘09
Rating: Squee
Read at http://redstring.strawberrycomics.com/
I’ve been reading Red String for quite a while. The concept piqued my interest right away. Old Japanese myth/folktale says that true lovers are connected by a red string. Miharu wants to believe in true love, but her parents have arranged a marriage for her. When [...]

By Lisa See
Read: January 2009
Rating: Lovely
Set in China during a time of transition, the novel is a story of love, and voice. Peony
Definitely an improvement over Snow Flower, in that the language doesn’t have as many weak spots, and the historical fact conveyed is much, much smoother. Oddly enough, the voice is strongest at the [...]

by Kobo Abe
Read: May/June 2008
Rating: UGH
This was recommended to me for my senior capstone project. I dutifully made it to the end, but gawd was it painful. Exemplifies all that I hate in a certain kind of writing, usually seen in short stories. Only this was longer. Unjustifiably so, in my opinion.
Junpei (sadly, not the [...]

By Lisa See
Read: January 2009
Rating: Absorbing
This is a book I wanted to get my hands on quite a while ago. I found it, and a sister book, Peony in Love, at the Princeton Library sale.
Two girls, matched in age, names, sizes, and signs, form a friendship through a traditional contract. This relationship, laotong, is meant [...]

Translated by Ivan Morris
Read: November 2008
Rating: Most delightful.
I think I like Sei Shonagon herself more than I like her writing. She’s a fantastic character in and of herself–willful, witty, clever, eager to entertain, proud, and quick to judge. All of this comes across through her own recounts of her days, which are honest in that [...]

By Alison Fell
Read: July 2008
Rating: Humn.
I bought this one for $1 at Strand, and so I can’t complain about the price. I was pretty pleased with it at first, titillated on my train ride home, but I stopped about midway through for some reason with the intention of picking it up again when I was [...]

By Arthur Golden
Read: high school, January 2008
Rating: Lovely
A lot has been said about MoaG, so I’m not going to give it a huge, thorough review. What I am going to say is that it is wonderful.
The settings are thorough. The culture feels alive and natural. You sympathize with the characters and want so much for [...]

By Naomi Novik
Read: September 2006
Rating: Faboo!!
Every so often, the grocery store rewards my endless browsing with a shiny pearl. This is some of the coolest stuff you could ever present to me: Historical novel. With dragons. !!!!! of JOY! Some of the only ”traveling” books I have ever liked!
And you know it’s good, [...]

By Bette Bao Lord
Read: August 2006
Rating: Honorable
Strand Books has stands outside their stores with lots and LOTS of carts housing $1 books. Last time I visited I skipped them and went straight for the “5 for $2″ paperbacks. (Yum.) In amongst the really trashy romance and outdated guides to New York restaurants I found a [...]

By Indu Sundaresan
Read: August 2006
Rating: Lackluster.
I love historical fiction. I love romance. And I love Philippa Gregory, despite not always liking what her characters do. So I should be able to get through a book like this, right? I’m still barely a quarter of the way through, and I’m putting it down. I [...]

These books are huge. Undeniably huge. This is my most popular post, and I am just as excited as everyone else for The Sweet Far Thing (Book #3!) to be released on December 26th. I’ve pre-ordered as an Xmas gift for my mom.
A film is also in production, and you can get [...]

By Judith Tarr
Rating: Ixcelsiooor!
Read: June 2006
This one came from Strand Books, my beloved second-hand goldmine. The description was interesting, the cover art is gorgeous (her neck piece looks like mother of pearl) and the story is well-told and thoroughly unusual. Very good.

By William Gibson
Don’t send the nanotech after me! Amazon.com
Rating: Evasive.
Read: Freshman year (00-01), reread march 05

There are two people who may be upset that I did not enjoy Idoru, but I’m afraid I have to be honest. I found Idoru to be scatter-brained and evasive. I’ve never been a fan of books that follow two [...]

Story by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir & Art by Shiei
Read a sample online: Amazing Agent Luna
Rating: Fun.
Read: Tonight!
NOTE: Amazing Agent Luna is manga- a graphic novel, rather than prose.
This has all the makings of a really enjoyeable shoujo series. The characters are well-defined, the art is fantastic, and the story is certainly different. Because [...]