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.