Takahashi is one of my absolute favorite manga authors, so of course I agree with you. The broadness is part of the charm in a lot of ways, although I think all her series work a lot better as manga than they do as anime.

Takahashi is one of my absolute favorite manga authors, so of course I agree with you. The broadness is part of the charm in a lot of ways, although I think all her series work a lot better as manga than they do as anime.

There's a whole lot about the series that's awesome, really, not least that the aliens were all exceptionally weird looking — no bumpy foreheads anywhere. Did you ever read the Hork-Bajir novel? It was really great and complicated.

There's a whole lot about the series that's awesome, really, not least that the aliens were all exceptionally weird looking — no bumpy foreheads anywhere. Did you ever read the Hork-Bajir novel? It was really great and complicated.

I think the writing's probably pretty iffy, but they wrote a fairly limited number (for those huge Scholastic series, 54 is short) and I believe K. A. Applegate retained an unusual amount of control over how the plot developed. I know the series ended in a really dark way that was not what I would have expected, and…

I think the writing's probably pretty iffy, but they wrote a fairly limited number (for those huge Scholastic series, 54 is short) and I believe K. A. Applegate retained an unusual amount of control over how the plot developed. I know the series ended in a really dark way that was not what I would have expected, and…

No, sadly On a Pale Horse is awful. It's full of exactly the same creepy obsessions with women's bodies, intelligence, and undergarments as most of his other books.

No, sadly On a Pale Horse is awful. It's full of exactly the same creepy obsessions with women's bodies, intelligence, and undergarments as most of his other books.

Leaving On a Pale Horse alone is definitely for the best. I used that one for my attempt to revisit  Anthony and it has all the same problems.

Leaving On a Pale Horse alone is definitely for the best. I used that one for my attempt to revisit  Anthony and it has all the same problems.

My sympathies. I would have done the same in your position, but I have health insurance through my spouse's job, and we don't need me to find anything right away.

My sympathies. I would have done the same in your position, but I have health insurance through my spouse's job, and we don't need me to find anything right away.

Bitterblue was amazing. All three of the books take on really complicated moral issues with a lot of nuance. I think what I love them for best is the way none of the three protagonists gets a conventional "marriage and babies" romance. But wow, Bitterblue! It's a fantastic novel. I keep trying to talk about why and…

Bitterblue was amazing. All three of the books take on really complicated moral issues with a lot of nuance. I think what I love them for best is the way none of the three protagonists gets a conventional "marriage and babies" romance. But wow, Bitterblue! It's a fantastic novel. I keep trying to talk about why and…

Yeah, it's really pedantic. But when people talk about YA lit, they're typically  referring to the marketing category, and there are a lot of reasons that it's a useful distinction to make. For example, if you're combating the "YA lit is all shit and terrible and no one should ever read it" crap that gets spewed by…

Yeah, it's really pedantic. But when people talk about YA lit, they're typically  referring to the marketing category, and there are a lot of reasons that it's a useful distinction to make. For example, if you're combating the "YA lit is all shit and terrible and no one should ever read it" crap that gets spewed by…

Wow, a surprising number of the mentioned books aren't YA at all. (YA is a publishing category for books marketed to 12-18-year-olds, a lot of the listed books skew younger and a couple are adult novels.) Sure, all the stuff mentioned are great reads when you're in that age bracket, but only a couple of them are…

Wow, a surprising number of the mentioned books aren't YA at all. (YA is a publishing category for books marketed to 12-18-year-olds, a lot of the listed books skew younger and a couple are adult novels.) Sure, all the stuff mentioned are great reads when you're in that age bracket, but only a couple of them are…

How did this conversation get so far without anyone pointing out that most of the "good" or "classic" or "adult" works in the canon are the pop culture of previous eras? Shakespeare is full of jokes about farts, sex, and venereal disease for a reason, and it's not because he was trying to be "highbrow." The same goes…

How did this conversation get so far without anyone pointing out that most of the "good" or "classic" or "adult" works in the canon are the pop culture of previous eras? Shakespeare is full of jokes about farts, sex, and venereal disease for a reason, and it's not because he was trying to be "highbrow." The same goes…