The more I hear about the literary novel A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, the more it sounds like beautifully written fanfic. It’s about four friends, but it centers upon one of them who has a dark past. I read the wikipedia entry for more plot details, and it's just…so….over-the-top. ( “spoilerish?” )

Can I say that this delay of the last episode of Kekkai Sensen is utterly ridiculous? I’m not so invested in the series that I care a lot, but it’s so irritating because it's just one more episode! Unless the ending is spectacular, I can’t imagine people being super happy about this. :P ( Read more... )

Takao Riichi has written two books that have utterly delighted me in the past year. I read the first one sometime last year but never talked about it because I didn't think I could do justice to my love for it. But I just read another book that also made me squee in happiness, and I just need to share.

First, the book I just read. It's called Oni ( Read more... )

It never hurts to call companies to see if you can get a better deal. I recently looked at the phone/internet bill and was struck by how high it was, so I called the cable company for a price to switch internet over. I then put off calling the phone company to see how much just having landline service would cost because they have crap hours ( ( Read more... )

I’ve been reading the series Youma na oresama to geboku na boku written by Fushino Michiru and illustrated by Yuzuki Ichi (I’m up to book 5 now, will read the other four if my MIA order comes in or I give up and reorder the damn books...) and have been enjoying them, more or less. Haven’t felt a burning need to write about the series mainly because ( Read more... )

So. I read a lot of Yoshihara Rieko. I suppose she's still best known for Ai no Kusabi, which I personally thought was crap. The series I've been following over the years are Kusare-en no Housoku (about a trio of childhood friends, two of whom are lovers) and Nijuu Rasen (about incest, among other things). I recently got the newest volume of Nijuu ( Read more... )

Holy shit! I got one of those recommendation emails from Amazon Japan. The cover art was pretty so I clicked the link…I'm reading the blurb and thinking…This sounds familiar. I look at the author and the name is in katakana…I sound it out and realize it's Lynn Flewelling! No wonder the blurb sounded familiar. I didn't make an immediate connection ( Read more... )

Anne of Green Gables is featured in a blog post at Publisher's Weekly called When a Cover Can Ruin a Book. My god, that cover is awful. The points in the post are excellent, too. I've seen criticism about the new cover for Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar as well.

I am enjoying all the hoopla surrounding Pride and Prejudice's anniversary. One of the best ( Read more... )

I was reading a novel featuring police officers which I enjoyed muchly, and it made me think about other novels with police officers I've liked. It led me to do the round-up below (with links to more detailed posts when they exist):

Kouban e ikou by Ioka Itsuki and illustrated by Sakuragi Yaya is about an officer assigned to a koban who gets ( Read more... )

Pure awesome: CATZILLA.

Not as awesome because nothing is as awesome as CATZILLA: I also heard a fun interview of a guy who wrote an article in The New Yorker last month about Mary Renault (listen here) that makes me want to go to the library to find this issue to read the actual article. I remember discovering Mary Renault in college and reading ( Read more... )