Read in April

This is the month every year when we all think we should be happy about new life and rebirth and all that jazz, but actually find ourselves tormented by mudslides and floods and tornadoes and school projects, leaving us tried and cranky. But, if we're lucky, we can read some good books along the way. I did, and these are them:

• Dave Barry, I'll Mature When I'm Dead (4/4)
  
• Jasper Fforde, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (4/6)
  
• E.C. Segar's Popeye, Vol. 4: "Plunder Island" (4/7)
  
• Steven Brust, Tiassa (4/8)
  
• Robert Silverberg, Musings and Meditations (4/14)
  
• Michael Chabon, The Final Solution (4/16)
  
• Pascal Girard, Reunion (4/18)
  
• John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation (4/19)
  
• Berkeley Breathed, Bloom County: The Complete Library, Volume Two: 1982-1984 (4/23)
  
• Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (4/24)
  
• Vera Brosgol, Anya's Ghost (4/25)
  Reviewed in my graphic novel column for the August issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine.
  
• Shaun Tan, Lost & Found (4/27)
  Reviewed in my graphic novel column for the August issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine. I also posted a somewhat different review on Amazon, since I got the book, oddly enough, through their Vine program.
  
• John Banville, The Infinities (4/28)
  
• Usamaru Furuya, Lychee Light Club (4/29)

Looks like I've read a number of books -- and, better yet, nearly all of them were notably good in one way or another. (Fuzzy Nation is a softball and a throwback, but that's what Scalzi does, and he does it well here. Reunion was a bit disappointing, too, but I'm still working out why.) So my input is fine, but my output is way down the past few weeks. I can claim pressure of work -- my company's fiscal year ended one minute before this post goes live, so there were certain activities going on these past few weeks -- but that's old and tired and not entirely true. A fuller explanation would include the words "Lego," "Star," and "Wars" and the roman numeral III.  

As always, though, I'm going to ignore the evidence of the past and claim that I plan to do better this month.