Everything but the kitchen sink
It occasionally gets annoying when I'm too tired or lazy to do immediate comments on the books I read, because then I have this huge backlog to comment on, like today:
Books
(26.) Margery Allingham's The Fashion in Shrouds was a nice old school mystery in her Albert Campion series. I hadn't read any of her mysteries before this, but I have a couple of others waiting on my TBR list. It's easy to see why her books are compared with Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, as the heroes in both are pretty similar, but it was an enjoyable read anyway.
I quite liked (27.) Diane Duane's Stealing the Elf-King's Roses. It's an urban fantasy/sf novel with alternate worlds, a plot to destroy the elves and one courageous woman who is determined to find out the truth behind a recent murder. In the course of her investigations she and her partner stumble across a plot which has major ramifications for all the worlds.
(35.) Patricia Briggs's Moon Called is yet another paranormal romance/urban fantasy which I borrows from a friend but I liked her world and would probably like to read more book set in it. I liked the combination of European mythology (werewolves, witches & vampires) and Native American mythology (skinwalkers, shamans) in it. A good indication of how much I liked it is that I meant to read only a bit before going to sleep last night (yeah, yeah, famous last words and all...) and ended up reading it all the way through in one sitting :).
Manga
I did binge on Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower, books 4-8 and 10 (28.-32., 36.) during the weekend. The series continues to be as much fun as ever. What I really like about this manga is the message that thought the four boys do their best to change Sunako into a proper lady, she doesn't want to change and is actually much more awesome and wonderful when she is her strange horror-loving self.
Even the boys can see it, but since they accepted the project from their landlady, they do make an effort every now and then to transform Sunako. Well, some moderation of her behaviour might be to the good (like when she goes digging for corpses under the cherry trees :).
I liked their visit to Hokkaido in book 6 and seeing Sunako 'in the wild' *g*. Her friend's story (the abominable snowwoman's granddaughter) was yet another one the emphasized the need to stay true to your self and not to try to do just about anything to please others who are not happy with they way you truly are. I love how scary Sunako can be at times, especially when she's protecting her friends.
If one looks at the series, it's very clear to see that Sunako also has all kinds of accomplishments that a real lady traditionally ought to have: she's an eccellent cook (and actually loves cooking), takes very good care of the household, plays the piano beautifully, is smart, can dress up beautifully (if she feels like it), and so on. It's not that she couldn't be the lady her aunt wants her to be, it's more that she just doesn't see the point in doing anything like that.
I also like it that however much Kyohei and Sunako might want to deny it, they really are very compatible together. Just look at the blind date practice in book 4 where they end up going to the games arcade, or the way they always compete with each other. Kyohei seems to be the only one who can curb some of Sunako's worst excesses every now and then, and like the other three say to Sunako in book 10, they are very open with each other and say anything to the other.
It's a pity my manga dealer was out of book 9, because I would have loved to have seen the scene where the two of them were locked in the same room :D.
Books 8-10 of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist (33.-34., 37.) were also among my manga pile for the weekend (and early this week). The plot is really thickening and I can't wait to read more. I wonder how long it's going to take for Col. Mustang & co. to figure out that King Bradley is one of the homunculi.
Heh, Barry the Chopper's crush on Lt. Hawkeye was amusing, as meganbmoore mentioned in her comment to an earlier post of mine, as was Col. Mustang's initial reaction to it. I also loved it how Hawkeye completely collapsed when she thought Mustang was dead in book 10.
Poor brothers, finding out about Col. Hughes's death in a newspaper story, because everyone was too afraid of their reaction to tell them about it. The way Maria Ross was framed was very dodgy and I thought there was something very suspicious about her "death" in Book 9, and was glad to see my suspicions confirmed in Book 10.
So, is the Elric brothers' father the mysterious "father" behind the homunculi, because he sure looks an awful lot like the guy who has been pulling the strings? His full face was never shown, but the beard was exactly the same and Hohenheim showed up again pretty soon after the "father" moved out of his secret lair.
Doramas
And on brief final note, I finished watching the historical fantasy mini Satomi Hakkenden last night. It was great fun, though the occasionally total gibberish subs sometimes made it a bit hard to understand what was going on :). I think I'll continue in a Takki mode and continue watching Majo No Jouken or start on Taiyou No Kisetsu (or Season of the Sun) which I've been slowly downloading during the past week.
Music
Still one more unrelated observation: while browsing Yesasia today, I noticed that Huang Yida's third album is coming out in a few days. Below is a MV of one of his new songs. I think I'll do some music shopping the next time I order something from Yesasia.
Edit: Fixed a couple typos.
Books
(26.) Margery Allingham's The Fashion in Shrouds was a nice old school mystery in her Albert Campion series. I hadn't read any of her mysteries before this, but I have a couple of others waiting on my TBR list. It's easy to see why her books are compared with Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, as the heroes in both are pretty similar, but it was an enjoyable read anyway.
I quite liked (27.) Diane Duane's Stealing the Elf-King's Roses. It's an urban fantasy/sf novel with alternate worlds, a plot to destroy the elves and one courageous woman who is determined to find out the truth behind a recent murder. In the course of her investigations she and her partner stumble across a plot which has major ramifications for all the worlds.
(35.) Patricia Briggs's Moon Called is yet another paranormal romance/urban fantasy which I borrows from a friend but I liked her world and would probably like to read more book set in it. I liked the combination of European mythology (werewolves, witches & vampires) and Native American mythology (skinwalkers, shamans) in it. A good indication of how much I liked it is that I meant to read only a bit before going to sleep last night (yeah, yeah, famous last words and all...) and ended up reading it all the way through in one sitting :).
Manga
I did binge on Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower, books 4-8 and 10 (28.-32., 36.) during the weekend. The series continues to be as much fun as ever. What I really like about this manga is the message that thought the four boys do their best to change Sunako into a proper lady, she doesn't want to change and is actually much more awesome and wonderful when she is her strange horror-loving self.
Even the boys can see it, but since they accepted the project from their landlady, they do make an effort every now and then to transform Sunako. Well, some moderation of her behaviour might be to the good (like when she goes digging for corpses under the cherry trees :).
I liked their visit to Hokkaido in book 6 and seeing Sunako 'in the wild' *g*. Her friend's story (the abominable snowwoman's granddaughter) was yet another one the emphasized the need to stay true to your self and not to try to do just about anything to please others who are not happy with they way you truly are. I love how scary Sunako can be at times, especially when she's protecting her friends.
If one looks at the series, it's very clear to see that Sunako also has all kinds of accomplishments that a real lady traditionally ought to have: she's an eccellent cook (and actually loves cooking), takes very good care of the household, plays the piano beautifully, is smart, can dress up beautifully (if she feels like it), and so on. It's not that she couldn't be the lady her aunt wants her to be, it's more that she just doesn't see the point in doing anything like that.
I also like it that however much Kyohei and Sunako might want to deny it, they really are very compatible together. Just look at the blind date practice in book 4 where they end up going to the games arcade, or the way they always compete with each other. Kyohei seems to be the only one who can curb some of Sunako's worst excesses every now and then, and like the other three say to Sunako in book 10, they are very open with each other and say anything to the other.
It's a pity my manga dealer was out of book 9, because I would have loved to have seen the scene where the two of them were locked in the same room :D.
Books 8-10 of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist (33.-34., 37.) were also among my manga pile for the weekend (and early this week). The plot is really thickening and I can't wait to read more. I wonder how long it's going to take for Col. Mustang & co. to figure out that King Bradley is one of the homunculi.
Heh, Barry the Chopper's crush on Lt. Hawkeye was amusing, as meganbmoore mentioned in her comment to an earlier post of mine, as was Col. Mustang's initial reaction to it. I also loved it how Hawkeye completely collapsed when she thought Mustang was dead in book 10.
Poor brothers, finding out about Col. Hughes's death in a newspaper story, because everyone was too afraid of their reaction to tell them about it. The way Maria Ross was framed was very dodgy and I thought there was something very suspicious about her "death" in Book 9, and was glad to see my suspicions confirmed in Book 10.
So, is the Elric brothers' father the mysterious "father" behind the homunculi, because he sure looks an awful lot like the guy who has been pulling the strings? His full face was never shown, but the beard was exactly the same and Hohenheim showed up again pretty soon after the "father" moved out of his secret lair.
Doramas
And on brief final note, I finished watching the historical fantasy mini Satomi Hakkenden last night. It was great fun, though the occasionally total gibberish subs sometimes made it a bit hard to understand what was going on :). I think I'll continue in a Takki mode and continue watching Majo No Jouken or start on Taiyou No Kisetsu (or Season of the Sun) which I've been slowly downloading during the past week.
Music
Still one more unrelated observation: while browsing Yesasia today, I noticed that Huang Yida's third album is coming out in a few days. Below is a MV of one of his new songs. I think I'll do some music shopping the next time I order something from Yesasia.
Edit: Fixed a couple typos.