June reads

I read a mix of things in June: a sprawling family saga, a Shakespeare play, a book on physics, a contemporary YA novel, and lots and lots of manga.

• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese—I read this on the recommendation of my mother-in-law, and I wasn't disappointed. It's a long, complex story centering around a set of identical twins born in Ethiopia in the 1950s to an Indian nun and a British doctor, but raised by neither. In-depth characters and a wonderful sense of place, but a bit too graphically violent for me at times.
• Fruits Basket, Volume 14 by Natsuki Takaya—I think I'm falling out of love with this series, because I didn't like this volume or the one that precedes it. I still love the earlier volumes of the series, but the newer ones (in my opinion) focus too much on uninteresting characters, and certain plots—like the Sohma children being rejected by their parents—are being done to death.
• The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare—It's Shakespeare! Yay! And this is a weird one—seriously troubling stuff intermixed with the usual Shakespearean comedy routines: disguises, gender swaps, weddings and trickery. Gives some unsettling insight into the extent of anti-semitism in Europe in the 16th Century.
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green—A novel about a former child prodigy who's just been dumped by a girl named Katherine for the 19th time, and his quest to find a formula to explain and predict romantic relationships while on a road trip with his best friend. I learn a lot of interesting facts reading John Green novels, which is always a plus. That being said, this novel didn't quite do it for me. I did like a lot of things about it, but at times I found the main characters just on the wrong side of the line between funny and annoying. That being said, at 27 I'm not exactly the book's target audience—ten years ago I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.
• Doll, Volume 1 by Mitzukazu Mihara—A creepy manga series of short stories set in a future where people keep humanoid animatronic "dolls" as servants, companions, and sometimes something more sinister. Unsettling and well-written—I really enjoyed it.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow, Volume 1 by CLAMP—A manga about an elementary school girl called Sakura who has magical powers. My local library accidentally ordered this in for me instead of the original Cardcaptor Sakura. Since it was there already, I read it. I liked the characters but felt I was really missing something by not having read the original first.
• Uzumaki by Junji Ito—Another creepy manga, recommended to me by a Scottish dude I work with at the library. This one is about a town that's haunted not by a ghost, but by a pattern—the spiral. Super scary and horrific, with a few scenes of pretty graphic violence. Unsettling yet un-put-downable.
• Relativity: A Very Short Introduction by Russell Stannard—A short nonfiction book about Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. Lots of neat but pretty confusing facts about gravity and space-time. A quick read and worth it if you're at all interested in physics.
• Cardcaptor Sakura, Volume 1 by CLAMP—A fun manga about Sakura, a school girl who has to capture escaped magical cards before they wreak havoc on her town. Loved the characters, especially Sakura—a confident ten-year-old who is great at sports—but I felt the card-capturing scenes were a bit repetitive.
• Bakuman, Volume 3: Debut and Ungeduld by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata—I continue to enjoy this manga series about two young boys who are trying to make it in the manga business. Lots in here both about the creative process and the publishing process for manga, and in the course of the story I'm learning a lot about Japanese culture, too.
 

So, what have you been reading lately? Do you tend to stick with one genre or format, or are your tastes more eclectic? Let me know in the comments!