Recent reading
Gah, why do I always end up with a huge list of books just because I don't feel like writing about them right after finishing them :P.
Well, here's the latest reading again, all of them have been finished this month.
I got (124.) the Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling edited anthology Black Swan, White Raven of stories based on fairy tales at Finncon and started reading it on the bus while coming home from my mother's.
I've really liked the books in this anthology series, this one included, because I like fairy tales and have always been interested in different versions and revisions of them. I might still finish doing my MA degree one day (on a hiatus right now), and I've always known that if I do that, my thesis will be about rewritten fairy tales.
I very much liked the first book in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, so I ended up borrowing the two next books in the series from my friend as well. The main protagonist is a werewolf who runs a popular radion show. One day she is exposed as a werewolf live on radio when an assassin comes after her, but survives the situation. In the second book, (125.) Kitty Goes to Washington, she is summored to attend Senate hearings investigating the funding and methods of the Center for Paranatural Biology. Politics and a tense situation between humans and paranormals don't make her visit to Washington D.C. that pleasurable, even though there are some nice moments for her as well.
In the third book, (126.) Kitty Takes a Holiday she is still recovering from everything that happened to her in the previous book. Then a friend is infected by the lycanthropy virus and she has to help him with his new situation the best she can, while still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life after all that's happened to her in a very small amount of time.
I quite like this series and can't wait to read the next one as well!
I finally got my copy of book 12 of (127.) Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower. This manga is really good and I can only say one again that Sunako is such a great character! I loved her day out with the girls. Her cockroach killing technique looks really awesome! And I loved the way she and Kyohei ended up working together in the video rental store :).
A couple of small smile inducing moments were also Sunako remembering "Suzuki Market's precooked croquettes", which immediately reminded me of Yamada Taro Monogatari and Taro's quest to get korokke for his sister. Remembering this, I was really giggling when during the school festival, there was a sign on the wall of the school the building advertizing a "Cafe Arashi" :D...
Mick Takeuchi's Her Majesty's Dog is another very enjoyable read. Book 5 (128.) has Hyoue and Amane returning to their home island, in order to figure out what to do about the binding Hyoue inadvertently broke in the previous book. There is a also an utterly awwww! -inducing look at the way they first came to be together when Amane was still a small child.
I liked the story about extra art lessons in book 6 (129.), but also the way Amane is confused and can't figure out why Hyou has changed his attitude towards her. Poor girl, she is just so totally oblivious at times!
(130.) Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking was yet another recent urban fantasy story with witches, vampires, etc. appearing in the normal world. Though the world-building wasn't always that consistent, I enjoyed it.
Rachel Morgan is a with who has just finally decided to retired from the I.S. the organisation policing the supernaturals. But when she leaves the agency, she has to survive the price put on her head, her new partnership with a vampire and figure out how to somehow get rid of the contract on her. There is a lot of fast-paced action, some indications of a possible future romance, some human/supernatural politicking and some intriguing mysteries. This looks like the beginning of yet another series and I might be interested in reading some more books in the series, though I did like Carrie Vaughn's Kitty books more.
On other news, while waiting for some stuff to download I meant to watch only a few episodes of Kurosagi, but, of course I couldn't stop with only a few :P. Now I'm already over halfway through yet another rewatch of the drama, but it's just so good!
I think episode 7 is still my favourite because it has so many nice moments in it. I love the warm and caring relationship that is shown between the old couple and the wife's grief and doubt over the money left behind by her husband. Kurosaki's battle against the psychic shirosagi is really so much fun and then there is, of course, the moment when Tsurara figures out that Katsuragi is the one selling information to Kurosaki... And the near-hug.... *swoons*
Well, here's the latest reading again, all of them have been finished this month.
I got (124.) the Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling edited anthology Black Swan, White Raven of stories based on fairy tales at Finncon and started reading it on the bus while coming home from my mother's.
I've really liked the books in this anthology series, this one included, because I like fairy tales and have always been interested in different versions and revisions of them. I might still finish doing my MA degree one day (on a hiatus right now), and I've always known that if I do that, my thesis will be about rewritten fairy tales.
I very much liked the first book in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, so I ended up borrowing the two next books in the series from my friend as well. The main protagonist is a werewolf who runs a popular radion show. One day she is exposed as a werewolf live on radio when an assassin comes after her, but survives the situation. In the second book, (125.) Kitty Goes to Washington, she is summored to attend Senate hearings investigating the funding and methods of the Center for Paranatural Biology. Politics and a tense situation between humans and paranormals don't make her visit to Washington D.C. that pleasurable, even though there are some nice moments for her as well.
In the third book, (126.) Kitty Takes a Holiday she is still recovering from everything that happened to her in the previous book. Then a friend is infected by the lycanthropy virus and she has to help him with his new situation the best she can, while still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life after all that's happened to her in a very small amount of time.
I quite like this series and can't wait to read the next one as well!
I finally got my copy of book 12 of (127.) Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower. This manga is really good and I can only say one again that Sunako is such a great character! I loved her day out with the girls. Her cockroach killing technique looks really awesome! And I loved the way she and Kyohei ended up working together in the video rental store :).
A couple of small smile inducing moments were also Sunako remembering "Suzuki Market's precooked croquettes", which immediately reminded me of Yamada Taro Monogatari and Taro's quest to get korokke for his sister. Remembering this, I was really giggling when during the school festival, there was a sign on the wall of the school the building advertizing a "Cafe Arashi" :D...
Mick Takeuchi's Her Majesty's Dog is another very enjoyable read. Book 5 (128.) has Hyoue and Amane returning to their home island, in order to figure out what to do about the binding Hyoue inadvertently broke in the previous book. There is a also an utterly awwww! -inducing look at the way they first came to be together when Amane was still a small child.
I liked the story about extra art lessons in book 6 (129.), but also the way Amane is confused and can't figure out why Hyou has changed his attitude towards her. Poor girl, she is just so totally oblivious at times!
(130.) Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking was yet another recent urban fantasy story with witches, vampires, etc. appearing in the normal world. Though the world-building wasn't always that consistent, I enjoyed it.
Rachel Morgan is a with who has just finally decided to retired from the I.S. the organisation policing the supernaturals. But when she leaves the agency, she has to survive the price put on her head, her new partnership with a vampire and figure out how to somehow get rid of the contract on her. There is a lot of fast-paced action, some indications of a possible future romance, some human/supernatural politicking and some intriguing mysteries. This looks like the beginning of yet another series and I might be interested in reading some more books in the series, though I did like Carrie Vaughn's Kitty books more.
On other news, while waiting for some stuff to download I meant to watch only a few episodes of Kurosagi, but, of course I couldn't stop with only a few :P. Now I'm already over halfway through yet another rewatch of the drama, but it's just so good!
I think episode 7 is still my favourite because it has so many nice moments in it. I love the warm and caring relationship that is shown between the old couple and the wife's grief and doubt over the money left behind by her husband. Kurosaki's battle against the psychic shirosagi is really so much fun and then there is, of course, the moment when Tsurara figures out that Katsuragi is the one selling information to Kurosaki... And the near-hug.... *swoons*