Hyperbole and a Half

Hyperbole and a Half is a blog made book about life as an introvert and sometimes a selfish person.

This very comical book with hand/Paint drawn pictures accurately describes many differences feelings that go through many peoples heads.

I first picked this book up from a friend when I was trying to figure out what depression was like. I don't have depression, but many of my friends do and to try to understand what they are going through. I was directed to this book. So originally I read the chapters called Depression 1 and 2 and was very much enlightened. Allie Brosh explains very well, with humor as a bit of swearing, how devastating it can be.

This second read (a full read this time) I found that I enjoyed the rest of it. There were humorous chapters about her dogs  and dealing with things you can't rally change. Dogs are a great metaphor for her life and the lack of control she feels she has.

I'd suggest this book to pretty much all extroverts who have introverted friends. Certain chapters would be more helpful for understanding, but they are all entertaining.

My only caution would be the language. She tends to swear a lot more than I originally though.

A Certain Scientific Railgun

A Certain Scientific Railgun is a manga based in "Academy City," what once was Tokyo but has become the base for all espers--or those who have psychic abilities. The story follows Misaka, a middle school girl who is already one of the top seven espers in the city and is super powerful. She has friends who are in Judgement, an esper focused police force, but somehow she ends up being in the middle of everything.

Over the course of the first ten volumes (70 chapters) *there are actually twelve volumes but two of them aren't in english yet, and I can't read Japanese :/  ), there are three story arcs that for a while seem like they don't correlate, but then somehow kind of do. The first (in volumes 1-3) we get to know the characters and find out that there is something called a "Level Upper" which can make the abilities the espers have go up a "level" and become more powerful. However what the public doesn't know is that after a few days you fall into a coma that is really hard to come out of. When they find the culprit, a major battle ensues, and Misaka finds that there is more to Academy City than she thought.

Arc two (4-the first half of 7) turns dark. Like rather gory dark. So much so that if it didn't lighten up I was going to put it down. Volume 4 is probably the darkest and most gory, but then once the reader understands what is going on, they step back from the gory and  become more investigative and they find that scientists in Academy City are making clones of Misaka. The plan is for 20,000 of them. However, already about 10,000 of them have been killed already. What is going on!? Stay tuned to find out.

Arc three (7.5-10) corresponds with a citywide festival, every good anime/manga needs at least one right? But now that Misaka has the clone thing under control, they are disappearing and people are after her. So many people with unknown agendas and suddenly none of her friends remembers her. It's as if the whole city is out to get her.

It's because they pretty much are. Of course.

Overall, it was okay. There were moments of "yuri" and moments were girls had no clothes on (though nothing drawn that would be porographic, but might make some uncomfortable) and the battle scenes seemed to last novels. Volume 5 consisted of mostly two fights. They happened in different stages, but it was long. She fought. "Yay!" Can we move on now? Some of the fights were pretty cool, but others seemed to drag on. Easy in a manga to skip, I guess.

At the beginning it teased a romance between the only boy mentioned in the series and Misaka, but almost nothing happened. It almost seemed out of character for her to even be talking with the guy at all. But he is needed at the end so I guess he has to stay around because of what he does.

At the last climax, which I was really into and was really cool, we jumped between characters because Misaka is incapacitated... kind of... and the only reason they were able to get out of the mess was odd. While I got how things started to collapse for the bad guy, I felt like it was too easy. I mean the girl who finally took out the bad guy had a heck of a time doing it, but I saw how it was going to be done a volume before it actually happened. But then the bad guy died (is he actually dead?) and things calmed down real quick and it was weird. Maybe the next two volumes, that I can't read, work things out, but this just felt weird. It summed up, but it felt unfulfilling.

This one I probably wouldn't read again, but for those people who really like blowy-uppy books, you'd probably like it. I have a feeling this series was meant for boys. Fight/action scenes, obnoxiously big boobs, sometimes naked girls, a little girl loving girl thing... Yeah. Misaka was a very powerful main character who could take on the world... But there were a bunch of questions I feel were left unanswered or were given a quick <insert answer to major problem here> moment. Eh, yeah. Probably won't read it again or the remaining volumes.

Her Royal Spyness

I was in the mood for a good mystery novel, so because GoodReads recommended it I gave it a shot.

Set in 1930's Great Britain after the start of the Great Depression and after a father who was really bad at keeping a hold of his money, Georgie finds herself at 21 years old rather penniless. She is unmarried and can't get a job because she is still considered nobility at 34th in line for the thrown. She leaves her Duke of a brother up in Scotland, where their duchy is, and adventures by herself to their townhouse in London. Seriously by herself. Previously she had always had maids and cooks and butlers, but now she is alone in the house with no servants to help her and she has no idea what she's doing. Doesn't know how to make a fire, cook many things, and has no income because she is still a Lady and should be married off by now, but she's not. She gets a friend that she knew from a French Boarding school she went to, to help her out, but times are hard all around. She gets a job under a fake name, meets an Irish boy who crashes weddings for free food, and yet still gets invited to Buckingham Palace for tea with the Queen. Ah, the life.

Not much of a mystery (not until 130 pages into the book...I'm not very happy about that one) until her brother shows up in London telling stories of how a Frenchman wants to take their family home in Scotland because of their deceased father's gambling debts. "Binky" (oh the names in this book) and Georgie are the only ones townhouse and then suddenly this Frenchmen turning up dead in their bathroom, Binky is suspected for the murder and Georgie has to find out who did it before her brother gets hanged.

*dramatic theme music*

I was not so pleased with this one. I almost expected it to be her first mystery novel, but after a quick look, it's not. It took a long time for the mystery to actually start and spent a lot of unneeded time setting things up. It seemed as though "for reasons" or "for the plot" were the only reasons some of the things happened. Did she really need to go and actually talk to the Queen except to the big reveal at the end? Her non-royal grandfather was a detective in his younger years and so he has the "in" with a few people that she couldn't get to. She actually acted rather dumb at times, not just because she's naive and doesn't know how to build a fire, but with people too. The "I think it is this person" moment at the ended changed very quickly with some people who had barely been introduced.

I did finish it because I wanted to see who had done it, but I called that it was who it was from a while before and his motive. I'm not much of a mystery reader and I prefer to not make too many conclusions and see how the book plays out, but it seemed very "no duh" toward the end. Also the reason why everyone is at the party at the end whom she suspects is rather odd, weird, and probably shouldn't have happened. It felt like a "hot potato" moment where the author said "I guess I'll do this." But the potato ended up smashing into the concrete. Why the bad guy did it and how he did it was good, I'll give her that. Though there are so many mystery shows and books out there, it's been done before. Nothing new, nothing "Wow! What!?" But it was alright.

I didn't so much like Georgie as a character. She's the airheaded, naive, clumsy girl that is okay for those cheeky high school girl books, but it seemed like a cop out here. She had very little personality besides that and loving her family. She felt flat though.

There was also a lot of talk about sex. Anytime her friend Belinda or her mother was in the scene is almost always was illuded to or mentioned outright. Good on her for keeping her virtue intact but her only reasons were for keeping with tradition; if that's her only reason for keeping it though, it'll be taken in later books. Everything else that people did when they weren't working was only going to a club/gambling den or sleeping around after that party. I was getting ready to skim a steamy scene , but then nothing happened and she walked home.

Also the way that the book was portrayed was odd. First person, okay. But then it had all these dates and places at the beginning of each chapter almost like it was a journal entry, but nothing ever illuded to that it was an actual journal or diary. Some of the chapters happened in the same place or on the same day, and the only difference between chapters was for a "pause for dramatic effect" which didn't fit. Not a journal, but like a journal, not still not one. It was weird. She could have introduced  April 1930's Great Britain at the beginning and left it at that, but then to abruptly tell us again where and when we were was weird. The readers are following along, we should know where we are at without it being telegraphed at the front of 30 chapters.

Over all, it was weird. I might read another in the series to see if it is any good and let this one be an "introduction into Georgie's world" but it'll be a while.

Maid-Sama Part 2

I was able to find the last half of Kaicou Wa Maid-Sama! (The Class President is a Maid) and I loved it. Not only now is Misaki wanting to keep her working life and school life separate, but now there are deeper feelings between Usui and herself that she has to face as well. He also isn't all that he appears, beside the charming, annoying, good at everything, guy that he is.

Misaki is introduced to Usui's half-brother and glimpses of his background. Now there is trouble with social standing not only with Usui's past but the Student Counsel President of the other (very much annoying), rich school (I'm not even going to try to spell it, sorry).

I believe I read somewhere that Usui got an award for being the best love interest or something along those lines. I'd completely agree. He is charming, funny, again annoying, cheeky, and does his best to show Misaki that he loves all sides of her: maid, president, and simply herself.

This is a great, lighthearted read that I was fun to enjoy. It made me laugh a lot. I wouldn't mind buying the whole series.

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None is one of the most well known books to date. It is probably Agatha Christie's crowning jewel of her career and for very good reason.

For those who didn't have to read it in your eighth grade class, it is about ten people who get coerced onto an island. They believe it is for a simple party for the weekend, a little vacation. But then they hear a strange voice condemning them all for murders they've committed in the past. At first they are all astounded, flabbergasted, and shocked, but that is just the beginning. People start dying. At the beginning, a simple poisoning, but as the night closes and a new day begins, it becomes more and more gruesome. Who is killing them? Someone else on this small, remote island? One of the guests? They all begin killed off. Paranoia sets in. Everyone is on edge. Who is the murderer?!

I read this in eighth grade in my English class. I was engulfed in the novel so much that when I saw the computer game in the store (with the novel attached) I bought it up so fast. The game and the book have different murderers, but the story is remarkably the same. They have made many movies and mini series about this books and I can't wait to see more than just the 1945 version.

Even if you don't care for mysteries, much like myself, you'll enjoy this one. It isn't the "Detective Novel" that consists of a fair amount (if not most) of the mystery novels out there. It is different and a good intro to Christie and mysteries in general. Everyone should read this book.

Alice in the Country of Hearts

Alice in the Country of Hearts was just something that I picked up at my local library. There are often a lot of little treasures hidden there that you'll actually very much love.

This particular  manga was alright in my book. Partially because I was set for a two volume series that ended up being a lot longer. Not only does Alice visit the Country of Hearts, but further on in the story she goes to the Country of Clovers and Diamond. My library didn't have those soooo this is part one of my Alice report to you all. I will have to wait to get the rest of the series at my library before I can tell you more.

This, of course, is a retelling of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. As in that book, there are many strange things that happen; this being a manga means that even more odd things happen. Here, Alice follows the White Rabbit, Peter White, down the rabbit hole and turns human with bunny ears. He kisses her, making her drink some kind of "medicine" (no tag that says "Drink Me" on it though) that magically forces her to stay in the Country of Hearts. He wants her to desperately fall in love with her and of course it backfires on him and she hates him passionately.

She finds that the land has four boundaries: the Palace (where Peter White and the Queen of Hearts lives), The Amusement Park (where the Cheshire Cat and his boss lives), The Mafia mansion (the mafia run by the Mad Hatter and March Hare, and guarded by Tweedle-Dee/Dum), then in the center of it all is the clock tower where the Clockmaker lives and repairs clocks.

Not everything is as nice as the Lewis Carroll novel. Life is not considered precious. The residents of the land magically turn pretty much anything into guns and constantly try to kill each other. When people die, their body dissolves and all that is left are clocks. The Clockmaker repairs them and they get formed into humans again. There is also a segregation between "those with duties" and those who don't. Those who do have duties have differential faces while those who don't, don't have a face at all. Which can make taking life that much easier. Another problem Alice discovers is that everyone, who has a duty, is falling in love with her. Not romantically all the time, but they love her like a curse or something because she is an "outsider." And slowly she is forgetting that she wants to go home. The end of this particular set of books ends with her playing a game and probably heading to the Land of Clover (as the next set of books is titled).

Overall, it was alright. The adaptations for the novel is intriguing and the characters are different enough to be mostly new while still sticking to the names and likes of the original characters they were based on. I was hoping for a contained novel, which wasn't what this was. If I'd known there was more when I first started it and wasn't left hanging like I am, I would have enjoyed it more. I will ask my library to get the next volumes and I'll finish the series, because there is hope for it. But right now I'm put off. :/

I really like Cheshire, though. He is genuinely caring and kind to her. The Clockmaker has his cuteness. The other characters have their own personalities which you will have to discover for yourself, but I really like the Cheshire Cat. I mean, he has a piercing in his tail of a dead fish. Sounds slightly gross, but it's quirky and give him a fun personality.

Realms of the Gods

This one, even though this is the end of the series where the large climax and final judgements are made, is my least favorite of The Immortals series by Tamora Pierce. The mood of the novel changes so dramatically, so very quickly. It is the darkest of the books and it starts out dark from the first pages and it ends dark again.

In the story, Ozorne got away and has amassed a giant army with the help of the Goddess of Chaos (whom probably should have been introduced previously, but wasn't) and has been causing a lot of havoc in Tortall. When Numair and Daine go out of the fort they were defending, they find that the Skinners are too much for either of them to handle and are only saved by Daine's mother and father and taken to the Realm of the Gods. Finally reunited with her mom and finally really meeting her dad, she still finds it weird and feels she doesn't know this woman who is now the Green Lady. Also, knowing that her friends are still in trouble back home, Daine wants to get back home to help. So her dad gives her a map of the Realm and sends her on a journey to the dragons, because they can't send her back themselves.

In my opinion, this journey seems a little unneeded. We do get introduced to Gold Fleck and the other darklings, Numair and Daine finally tell their feelings (which I will get to in a moment), and they meet up with Stormwings from previous books. However, the whole Hero's Journey that happens I think should have been done differently. The glimpse that we got of the realm was small and all they did was travel through it. Nothing they did their enhanced or hindered the people in the other realm, except for when they sent other Lesser Gods away to help out. Daine and Numair didn't do much. I feel like they should have been able to do something besides let things get steamy. In this Realm we got to know the Dream God who let them know what was going on in the human realm. this seemed like a cop-out to me. "Here have information, but not enough that I have to get too into it." :/ Come on. Make your book a little thicker and give us the actual fear that people were feeling. If you're going to have it be dark, give us chances for happiness too. In the other books there was humor and laughing even at just small parts. Give us the people we spent time with and got to know... In the end, I thought it was boring. Unneeded or needing to be advanced.

For the relationship between Daine and Numair, it was the only thing that grew on their journey. There were small things that Pierce did to say, Numair kind of likes her. But this was the first book that actually had him show any affection and after these small moments, he's kissing her face off and things start getting steamy. Pierce should have done a few more tell tell signs of it in book three, more than just telling the crown prince off. I think it would have been more believable.

Pierce got much better at setting than when she first started, I'll give her that. But it took me longer to finish this one than the others. It finished off the series and wrapped everything up, even with the God and their own battles, but I'm dissatisfied with it.