Our Favorite Media of April 2016!

[helloladies]

Captain America: Civil War -- (I am in the UK so this is eligible to be in my April picks!) I don't want to give any spoilers, so I'll just say that for the most part, I really enjoyed this! They juggled a lot of balls fairly well, dealt with the fall-out of the Avengers' activities in a way I've been hoping for since the first movie, and spent a lot of time punching me in the heart. I have longer, spoiler-fuelled thoughts on my journal if anyone wants them (I have Opinions on how certain character arcs were resolved), but for the most part... This is the movie I wanted Age of Ultron to be, so I'm happy with it? — Susan

City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett — A worthy follow-up to City of Stairs, which I also liked a lot. The central character, Turyin Mulaghesh, is an older (50ish) military woman; she was a secondary character in the first book, and I was excited to learn more about her story. — KJ

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold — The lastest book in the Vorkosigan Saga finally gets us back to Cordelia's point of view, and not a moment too soon. An appealing love story about adults learning who they want to be after a major life change, along with fascinating questions about how biotech (in particular reproductive technology, a major theme throughout this series) affects people's lives. — KJ

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn — I had complicated feelings about Gone Girl as I was reading it, probably enough that I might write a full review of it, but in the end I did end up enjoying it. The writing was fluid, the antagonist was interesting, and it made some fascinating use of gender roles and gendered tropes. I struggled a bit with the gendered tropes, and will likely work out my thoughts in the aforementioned reviews, but in the end I can't deny that I largely enjoyed the book. — Ira

Library Wars: Love and War Volume 15 by Kiiro Yumi — I talked about how much I enjoyed this in Eight Book Minimum, but to sum up: this was almost exactly what I wanted from the end of this series! It has Kasahara all grown up and being amazing at her job and willing to do whatever it would take, and finally some emotional honesty. I loved it and now I want to reread the whole series. — Susan

My Love Story!! by Kazune Kawahara & Aruko — While visiting Portland, rozurashii recced this manga to me. I am so glad because it is so adorable. Takeo Goda is a massive dude with a super cool and attractive best friend, Sunakawa, and Takeo is used to all the girls he likes preferring Suna. So when they meet Yamato on the train and after Takeo saves her from a creep, he fully expects her to fall for Suna and does his best to hook them up. The delightful and adorable twist: she only wants to date Takeo. They get together super quickly and it's multiple volumes of them being cute and sweet together. It's got lots of great friendship moments, as well, and a few nice family touches, too. I gobbled all seven volumes my library had available in a week and I sort of want to reread it because it was so emotionally satisfying. *sparkles* — Renay

Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 1: Vader by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca — As expected, even Captain America: Civil War could not unseat the hold Star Wars currently has on me, so I’m still all Star Wars all the time right now. Letting Kieron Gillen tackle Darth Vader is a genius move, and everything here—from the pitch perfect dialogue to the emotional moments to Dr. Aphra to Palpatine being a mad scientist of a Sith Lord—is gold. The art is so reference-heavy that it leans towards the grotesque, in my opinion, but it’s hardly a deal breaker. Not when Creepio is basically canon! — Clare

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception — These games are not perfect by a long shot (We can start with "Ask Me About My Feelings On The Colonialist Implications Of Looting the Treasures Of A Country And Then Blowing It All To Hell," and move on through the long list of articles discussing the way these games handle race), but the emotional core of these games gets me right in the heart. The characters are charming, and the relationships between Nate, Elena, and Sully (and the rest of the team) is so well done and filled with emotions by the end of these games that I'm pretty willing to forgive most of its flaws and the entire first game? — Susan