Best of
Slice-Of-Life

2004

Chi's Sweet Home, Volume 1


Kanata Konami - 2004
    When we found Chi it was clear to us she was completely distraught as she longed for the warmth and protection of her mother. Feeling sympathy for the little furball, we quietly whisked her away inviting her into our small apartment home... where pets are strictly not permitted. While we dread parting with her, there is no way she can stay.Little Chi is a happy and healthy litter-box trained kitten. And while she can be a little bit of a handful, she has been a great source of joy in our lives and a wonderful companion to our young son. Living with Chi has completely changed our lives, and we are sure she will have the same impact with whomever gives her a good home.

Lady Luck's Map of Vegas


Barbara Samuel - 2004
    The long-distance romance suits India just fine: Though Jack is the only man who has ever made India feel truly alive, she doesn’t want things to get too serious. But then her father passes away, and India must honor the promise she made to him: to look after her mother when he’s gone. Suddenly India finds herself back in Colorado Springs with the woman who both intrigues and infuriates her. Eldora is sixty something and exquisitely gorgeous, but her larger-than-life personality can suck the air out of a room. True to form, Eldora throws India a curveball, insisting that they hit the road to look for India’s twin, Gypsy, a brilliant artist who lives a vagabond’s existence in the remote mountain towns of New Mexico. It looks like India can’t avoid her mother’s intensity any longer, especially after she discovers stunning secrets from Eldora’s past. Thirty years ago, Eldora regaled her twin girls with glamorous stories about her days as a Las Vegas showgirl– stories of martinis and music at the Sahara, back when Frank and Sammy ruled the town. But the story of how she really ended up in Sin City, and the unsavory life she’d run from with her daughters in tow, is full of details she’s never seen fit to share–until now. As mother and daughter sail down Route 66, the very road Eldora drove those many years ago, looking for Gypsy, while passing motels, diners, and souvenir shops, Eldora must relive a lifetime of memories that have tormented her before she can put them to rest once and for all. . . . Award-winning author Barbara Samuel brings us a heartfelt story of second chances and unexpected detours. As two women come to terms with themselves and each other, the past unravels and the future spreads out before them like the open road.

Planetes, Book 4.2


Makoto Yukimura - 2004
    recommended for all collections and especially for teen and adult fans of Alita and Cowboy Bebop." -Library Journal *"As hard science fiction, and as human drama, Planetes is a manga at the peak." -Scott Green, Aint-It-Cool-News.com *"Planetes Vol. 1...got me first interested in science-fiction at a young age. Planetes is not one that you want to miss. I absolutely cannot wait for the next volumes of Yukimura's masterpiece." -Greg McElhatton, iCOMICS.com Fee decides to spend more time with her family and questions whether she'll ever return to space. 500 million miles away, Hachimaki is at the threshold of a new era for mankind as the crew of the Von Braun finally reach Jupiter. Back on Earth, the engineer of the Jupiter Mission, Weiner Locksmith, becomes haunted by the deaths of all those who lost their lives in pursuit of his vision.

Planetes, Book 4.1


Makoto Yukimura - 2004
    500 million miles away, Hachimaki is at the threshold of a new era for mankind as the crew of the Von Braun finally reach Jupiter. Back on Earth, the engineer of the Jupiter Mission, Weiner Locksmith, becomes haunted by the deaths of all those who lost their lives in pursuit of his vision.

This Time


Rachel Hauck - 2004
    Twelve years earlier the handsome athlete broke Belle's heart by deserting her minutes before their wedding ceremony. Burke's retirement from professional football brings him home to Haskell for good. While his new career in life is uncertain, he knows he must deal with his hurtful actions toward Belle. A mountain of unspoken words looms between them and only the grace and peace of God can help them overcome. Seeing Burke stirs the love and pain Belle still has hidden in her heart. As they rebuild their friendship and rekindle a lost love, Belle must choose to forget and trust him once more. Will their desire for love overcome the devastation of the past? This time, will their love last?

Most Magnificent Mosque


Ann Jungman - 2004
    As punishment, the boys are forced to work in the mosque gardens, where they develop a deep sense of the building's beauty and significance. Years later, when the Christian king threatens to demolish the Islamic mosque and build a church in its place, the three friends reunite to hatch a plan to save the great mosque. Ann Jungman's moving story and Shelley Fowles's captivating images show how cooperation and respect for others can lead to great things.

Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte


Robert L. Herbert - 2004
    High, low, mass, and popular cultures meet in mutual delight, continuing to revel in the mysteries of that Parisian Sunday."—from "The Park in the Museum" by Neil Harris "Bedlam," "scandal," and "hilarity" were among the epithets used to describe the effect of what is now considered Georges Seurat's greatest work, and one of the most remarkable paintings of the nineteenth century, when it was first exhibited in Paris in 1886. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, an extensive landscape peopled with over forty figures, took the artist almost two years to complete. This sumptuous book, created to accompany a major exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, provides a fascinating, in-depth examination of the gestation, execution, and influence of Seurat's masterpiece. La Grande Jatte has been part of the Art Institute of Chicago's collection since 1926. Bringing together all known studies and drawings directly related to the painting, this volume provides a visual and contextual survey of Seurat's working methods and aesthetic priorities, as well as the evolutionary process that culminated in his singular achievement. Included are more than fifty-five preparatory works, ranging from rich conté crayon drawings to oil sketches on small wood panels to larger studies painted on canvas. In their quantity, intricacy, and variety, these works reveal a compositional process that harks back to Old Master traditions and methods, which had been largely abandoned by Seurat's immediate predecessors, the Impressionists. The many studies attest to the artist's ambitions for his masterpiece and open up a broader context for understanding the work. Seurat scholar Robert L. Herbert makes new revelations about the painting's relationship to its preparatory studies, stressing Seurat's empirical craftmanship. He compares La Grande Jatte to paintings by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Signac and analyzes the ways that twentieth-century critics, including Meyer Schapiro, T.J. Clark, and Linda Nochlin, have viewed the picture. He proposes that the enduring fascination of the famous canvas comes from Seurat's mixture of fashion and irony. Also giving new perspectives in this book, the noted cultural historian Neil Harris charts how and why La Grande Jatte attained its revered status at the Art Institute of Chicago and throughout the United States. Additionally, the exhibition's cocurators examine the painting's place in the museum's collection. Essays by Art Institute conservators show how Seurat transferred and altered figures from studies to final canvas and elucidate the exact nature of his pigments and brushwork. Color scientist Roy Berns traces the efforts to digitally recapture the original hues of Seurat's time-altered masterpiece. A landmark publication, this book provides dazzling proof of why La Grande Jatte is among the most frequently reproduced paintings in the world and why it continues to fascinate scholars and art lovers today.

Eien no With


Saya Miyauchi - 2004
    

Petite Forêt T01


Daisuke Igarashi - 2004