Well, i haven’t gotten back into my daily habits yet, but I have managed to at least pick up a book more often than in the previous few weeks.

  • The Legion of Super-Heroes Archive Volume 5 (DC Comics)

    Continuing to work though the LSH archives, I found the stories trying to pick up a bit as we get firmly into the Jim Shooter era. Shooter is, of course, one of those legendary success stories that all of us dream about: he sold his first story to DC when he was thirteen and made such an impression that he was invited to write for the book regularly afterwards. The biggest improvement of his writing over previous LSH fare was his ability to write a group of teenager who actually sound like teenagers of their day.

    The plots are still silly, but I started seeing a little bit more variety here, and started to see a bit more of the spark of “early legion” that everyone talks about when they rhapsodize about this era of the title. Very enjoyable.

  • Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

    I absolutely adore Tove Jansson’s Moomin books, and have been idly recollecting them as I happen across them. deidrecorwyn handed this one back to me along with a small stack of books of mine she had unearthed from her recent move that she was sure belonged to me, so I picked it off the shelf to re-read.

    To be honest, I adore this one a little less than the other two that I still have in my collection, though I don’t think the fault is really Jansson’s. Elizabeth Portch translated this one, and the other two were translated by Thomas Warburton, who has a better ear for Jansson’s whimsical characters, and has a lighter touch with phrasing that really makes them dance. Portch does an adequate job, but it doesn’t sparkle as much as some of the other Moomin stories.

    Having said that, what a delightful read! I neither have nor intend to have children of my own, and I have very few regrets about that decision, but one of the few I have is that I won’t have as many opportunities to read these stories outloud to a young person hearing them for the first time. I think I must remember to take them with me the next time we visit Don and Dina, or better yet, find a set of them that I can take and leave with little Kailyn and Connor.

    If you love good, whimsical children’s literature, and have never read the Moomin books, do yourself a favour and go grab one now. My personal favourite is “Moominpappa’s Memoirs” (which I read originally under the title “The Adventures of Moominpappa”).