Naomi Hirahara - Gasa-Gasa Girl
Charles Yu - Third Class Superhero
Iceberg Slim - Death Wish
Henning Mankel - The Dogs of Riga
Garrett Mattingly - The Armada
P.G. Wodehouse - Right Ho, Jeeves
David Rakoff - Don't Get too Comfortable
C.S. Forester - Ship of the Line
Rudyard Kipling - Captains Courageous

Gasa-Gasa Girl is the second (of three so far) in a series of mysteries featuring the 70-year-old Mas Arai, a japanese gardener in southern california who came to the states after surviving Hiroshima. Apparently, her first book (her first novel anyway; she seems to have written some biography/history about japanese-americans) was quite good; this one was entertaining enough, though not especially memorable. Mas is a good character though, taciturn, stubborn, and observant. The one thing that bothered me about the book is Hirahara's rendering of Mas's accent/dialect, which didn't sound right to my inner ear. Still, I intend to try more of her books.

Third Class Superhero was a random bookstore find (I was in the Ys looking for more Yoshimura) and I was pulled in by the premise of the title story: a guy who's a pretty useless superhero ("moisture man") and is trying to prove himself and get his good guy card. The premise is good and there are some funny bits, but it doesn't end up going much of anywhere. Which is true of a lot of short stories I suppose. Short stories aren't my favorite -- I prefer a weighty tome full of complicated confusions and doublecrosses. Yu's stories are pretty good, including some moments of hilarity; they make good snacks anyway.

I picked up the Iceberg Slim book because I've heard of his "Pimp" book and just grabbed this one at random. I read about ten pages and couldn't go on. It's just dumb and amateurish.

I've read a couple of Henning Mankell's books about Swedish policeman Kurt Wallander, and they're good, fairly engaging police procedurals. Kurt's a good character. This one, the first of the series I think, was all right, fairly entertaining.

The Armada was the story of the British defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588. It wasn't just the story of the actual pursuit and battle (such as they were) but of all the political tensions leading up to the armada's journey and defeat. It was fascinating stuff, and I learned a little about a lot of things that I want to know more about (e.g.: how did the Spanish come to be in charge of the Netherlands, and what the heck is the history of the Netherlands anyway?). I've never read a whole lot of historical stuff, but The Armada is one of several books I've put on my wishlist lately inspired by things like the movie Elizabeth and all those O'Brian books. I'm looking forward to ingesting a lot more history, if it's written as well as this was.

I started (re)reading "Right Ho, Jeeves" but a little ways in I realized I'd read it so many times I could almost recite it, and I just didn't feel like going through it all again, what with the various plots and schemes and grammar-school awards ceremonies.

David Rakoff rules. He's inevitably compared to David Sedaris, both being gay semi-autobiographical humor-essayists named David with voices tinged with ennui who appear occasionally on "This American Life". And if you like one, you'll probably like the other. This David is a bit less slick/polished than Sedaris, a bit more serious; this book gets a bit political as well, which I don't remember from his last book. It's laugh-out-loud funny in places, but its humor tends to be more wry and dry.

Huh huh, he said 'hornblower'.

I think I may have read some Kipling when I was young, but I don't really remember. I'd been meaning to try him out for a while, and, since I've been on a naval kick lately, I went for this one. It's not really a naval adventure, being about a spoiled rich boy who falls overboard from a cruise ship and is rescued by a small fishing ship. He spends the rest of the year with the fishermen, learning much about life and himself, coming of age, etc etc. It was actually pretty good, due to a good simple story with good characters. I was a little put off by the dialecticized dialogue (mostly new england accents, but the fishermen hail from various places), which usually sort of annoys me. but other than that, good times.