Ghibli, Goshawk, Love Stage!!, Apple Blossoms, and Idol Dreams

[badtzphoto]

• Anime and movies: Ghibli weekend, all rewatched
  
  1. Howl's moving castle
     - sigh, so good.
  2. Castle in the Sky
     - ditto.
  3. The Secret World of Arrietty
     - ditto.
• Chapter Book:
  
  1. The Goshawk by T.H. White
     - borrowed from bpl
     - read by Simon Vance
     - I had thought it was fiction and some sort of adventure story. It turned out to be a non fiction book, detailing the author's journey of training hawks. I was almost giving up after 2nd cd, not because it's not enjoyable, but the main reason is I don't care about the art of Hawking :) I went on because I kept forgetting to change the cd in the car. To be fair, I could just listen to the books I have on my phone. Anyway, I enjoy the author's writing style and ended up enjoying the journey.
     - I learned a few things, too. Some small birds can be hazardous to airplanes. So in WWII, the British Air Force had a platoon of hawks to clear the airfield of these birds, and the officers were their trainers. The art of hawking is still alive and well in the US as of the time the book was written in 1951. The art of hawking was very popular during feudal time in Europe.
• Manga:
  
  1. Love Stage!! 4 story by Eiki Eiki, illustrated by Taishi Zaou - ebook/pdf format
     - Izumi's professional life started.
  2. Scent Apple Blossoms 3 - the end by Toko Kawai - ebook/pdf format
     - Office workers and sake making business. Fast read. Nice supporting characters.
  3. Idol Dreams 1 by Arina Tanemura - viz ebook
     - The art is clean and beautiful, the story is interesting.
     - I'm team Tokika.
     - I'm a bit bugged about the premise. I don't see why being a 31-year-old virgin should be as a bad thing. Some people are just late bloomers. Anyway, I just turn a blind eye on that and hope that she'll grow to be confident as well as comfortable with herself.

Hakusensha's December release is available here:
• ラストゲーム (Last Game) 9 by Amano Shinobu
• うそカノ 6 by Mikase Hayashi, licensed in France, I've read volume 1
• 朝まで待てません 1 by Meca Tanaka, a new series!
• Kamisama Kiss 23 by Julietta Suzuki, licensed by Viz, 2 versions, regular and dvd bundle.
• アンのマゴマゴ図書之国 3 by Tachibana Higuchi, author of Gakuen Alice
• 桜の花の紅茶王子 (Tea prince ...) 5 by Nanpei Yamada
• in JACK out 1 by Nanpei Yamada, a new series!
• Idol dreams 3 by Arina Tanemura, licensed by Viz, 2 versions, regular and cd bundle.
• Collector's edition of Fruits Basket 5 by Natsuki Takaya.