Gord’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2017)

Gord’s comments from the Vampires, Weres and Fae! group.

This is just making me want to binge read both series honestly. I must show restraint and work on other books as well though.

*clears throat*

There is a crossover novella between Mythos Academy and Elemental Assassin coming out in September of this year. Excuse me for a minute...

*intense fan girl screaming from the far side of the warehouse*

I'm a wee bit excited shall we say

"oh no. please don't twist my arm and make me read one of my favorite series of all time early. please no, stop you horrible fiend"

Yeah, totally down for reading it early.

Oh boy, this is a hard one. There's challenging because I'm forcing myself to finish a bad book and an actual challenging book. If we are talking high school English class then hands down anything Shakespeare. I just could not get into Shakespeare and I have no interest of ever reading any of his stuff ever again. I also remember having a hard time with Lord of the Flies in high school. Well most of the reading in high school honestly. The funny thing is that as an adult I love Lord of the Flies.

Now as an adult I have read some pretty challenging books. Like the post mentions, Lolita. It was an amazing book that I hated every moment of, will never recommend, and will never reread. Then there is Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Now I can normally read some pretty vile books full of all sorts of horrid and disgusting things with little issue. This book was incredibly difficult to read because it was based on real events that were horrid. That line between fiction and real life was removed and the book became just a little to real for me.

It's a buzz kill because you get into that mindset "Whooo it's Thursday afternoon, only one more day until the long weekend, it's so close" and then reality sinks in and it just takes the wind right out of your sails.

I'm slipping into that weird pocket of time where I'm convinced it's Thursday. After thoroughly double checking multiple calendars it is indeed only Wednesday.

How is it only 9:30 in the morning? It feels like I've been at work now for easily a decade at least.

I've been watching Tulsa King recently and it's a pretty solid show. Stallone is great in the show and I'm finding myself more and more invested in the show.

I have to agree Belles, adulting sucks, especially when it's randomly thrust into our laps and we have to suddenly deal with things like your fridge. Glad you were able to catch it in time though.

Meels, ginger ale and soda crackers are a great combination for an upset stomach.

Brittany, hopefully you get well soon as well.

Nothing to see here, nothing at all

(view spoiler)[
I saved $770.27 this month bring my yearly total to $4,710.42. As I've said before it's the audiobooks and manga omnibus editions. Well, manga in general honestly. (hide spoiler)]

Ugggghhhhh I wish I had 15. I'm not saying that I would use them all in a month but man that would open up my options. Especially now that there is manga on Hoopla.

I just wish Hoopla let you borrow more than 5 items in a month. Normally that isn't a problem but lately it feels like everything I want to read is on Hoopla

Same, bring on fall and the cooler temps

After all my back and forth on what to listen to next for some reason I decided to listen to Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton. I'd post a link but this bug that has hit Goodreads is messing up the search function and I don't feel like scrolling through 100 pages of books trying to find the right one. Why did I pick this book? *shrugs* Couldn't tell you really. I know I have a soft spot in my heart for the earlier ones as they were some of the earlier books that I read when I was getting back into reading and it was the series that dragged me into urban fantasy. No Dresden, no Kate Daniels, none of those other series that I've enjoyed without this one.

I just ran my forecast for next month and I knew things would be busy but actually seeing the numbers... FML.

Another week and more reading has been completed. Forewarning here, there was a lot of manga that was read this week.

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places -3
I was going to listen to something else this week but I just wasn't in the mood for it and settled on this. Yes, it's another nonfiction which is odd for me but it's what appealed to me. This was a study into various ghosts of America and the history behind them. Now the author tried to say that he was unbiased and was going to present both sides of the case. Which he kind of did in the beginning but as the book went along it became more and more obvious he was clearly a skeptic. Overall I thought that the book was interesting and it gave you some interesting history to some famous haunted places. It also dove into how those stories changed over time to fit various narratives and concerns for the time the story was told. By the end though the book started to feel more than a bit repetitive and I was struggling more and more to stay focused. Part of that could be due to the narrator though. On the surface the man has a voice made for audiobooks. He has this nice voice that is pleasant to listen to. Or that is until you start to notice all these weird quirks. He loved using voices for various witness statements so he was constantly slipping in and out of various voices and random through out the book. He also has this weird way of pronouncing W words and in particular WH words. To the point I felt like I was in that episode of Family Guy about Cool Whip. I didn't notice it at first but once I did I couldn't stop noticing it. Especially when the book got into a section about slavery and the word "white" was bantered around every few words. It bugged me to end.

Now for the manga

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 4 -4 Stars
More of this interesting story. It was a bit frustrating as this was the last of the series I had from the library and it ended right before one of my favorite parts from when I was reading the fan translations. Needless to say I have the next three volumes and I now just need to catch up on my other reading so I can get back to this.

Orochi: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 2 -3 Stars
I really want to like this series more than I am but it just doesn't have the punch of other Japanese horror manga that I am reading. It just feels like "classic" horror stories which makes sense consider this was originally serialized from 1969-1970. A great example of this is the final story in this volume which is essentially a retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. You know how the story is going to end as soon as you start reading because the story has been done so many times before. Don't get me wrong, this book is not bad and I was entertained but it lacked the punch and the chills of others that I have read.

Princess Jellyfish 2-in-1 Omnibus, Volume 8 -4 Stars
Princess Jellyfish Vol. 9 -3 Stars
This will be more of a review of the whole series but it will include these last two volumes. I started this series in an attempt to branch out into different demographics of manga. This was a highly praised Josei (manga for adult women) manga that I've been curious about for a while now. In the beginning I was really involved in the series. It's a story about an apartment building of otaku women (basically nerdy shut in types) who are facing the possibility of losing their building to redevelopment. Through the help of a cross dressing man they create a fashion brand to raise money to buy the building for themselves. This is a super simplified version of the story and there is a lot more to it than that. There is some romance, some character development and growth, there is humor. It was a slow moving story but I was fine with that. Then everything changed with essentially the last big story arc. Our MC, Tsukimi, signs herself into a deal to save the apartment building in exchange for her leaving and moving to Singapore. I was really on the fence about this arc as it felt like such a big change for the series. I wasn't willing to write it off yet as I was very curious about where things were going. It felt like things were getting set up for something interesting. Then the author threw it all out the window. It felt like the author just had enough of the series and wanted it to end. Suddenly that slow pace has a jet engine strapped to it and we are off to the ending. All that set up for the big story arc, who cares, wrap it up, get back to Amars. Back at Amars, streamline the story to the final goal, bring all the characters from the story for one last appearance, and done. The ending of this just felt so rushed and middle of the road. It felt like it was created to try to appease the fans without committing to any for sure resolution. There is a confession but there is no response to it and everyone just ends up living happily ever after in Amars. It's not a bad ending but it just doesn't feel fulfilling. I'm sure this isn't just me but I wanted some resolution to things. The romance angle, the fashion story angle, the whole last story arc that just got ended, etc. A great example of this is a character from the final arc called Hwa-Young. She was built up to be a very important character to our "villain" of the arc who has been with him since childhood. Once that final story arc starts getting bulldozed towards the conclusion she essentially yeets herself from the story to never be seen again and no one has any reaction to this at all. The guy who she stood beside for almost her entire life, nothing. Tsukimi, who Hwa was taking care of in Singapore, nothing. She was just gone from the story never to be seen again. She didn't even get an appearance at the final event where every other character gets an appearance. The ending just felt like a bit of a stumble in it's rush to wrap everything up.

PTSD Radio 1 (Vol. 1-2) -4 Stars
How do I even begin to explain this bizarre trip into Japanese horror. This isn't a flowing narrative of interconnected stories. This is just a series of vignettes that may or may not be interconnected with the other stories. This feels like everything that just unnerves me about Japanese horror. Nothing is really explained, it just happens. There is no saving you once you have been targeted. Run, hide, pray, it matters not what you do because you are already screwed. Then there is that body horror. Twisting human features into something just horrifying that just unsettles me. Like this charmer:

That is also tame compared to some of the other things that you will see in this as well. Then of course it has that other essential Japanese horror element, hair. A lot of this horror revolves around hair and let me just tell you it's unsettling. Just writing this up and thinking of the book is giving me the chills. Needless to say I am reading on.

Fist of the North Star, Vol. 9 -3 Stars
More of the muscle bound men punching holes through anything, anyone, and everything with a melodramatic story somewhere around here. I'm going to be honest here I'm kind of done with this series. I heard about how great this series was and how influential it was to media in general. I can't deny it's influence but I'm just not feeling the story anymore. Characters that are supposed to be dead aren't. Everyone is someones else's brother/sister/lover/etc and revenge must be had, etc, etc, etc, etc. It was an interesting journey with this series but I think this is where I get off.

Dinosaur Sanctuary, Vol. 1 -4 Stars
Essentially this is Jurassic Park meets a slice of life manga and I'm onboard for it. This was one of those random snags from the library and I'm glad I found it. Basically in the late 40's dinosaurs were found to still be alive on this remote island. Thanks to science they were able to breed them and increase their population. These dinosaurs now live in parks where tourists can come and visit them. Our story follows a young woman who is starting her first day as a dinosaur keeper. A person responsible for taking care of these giant creatures. You get to follow her and see what her job entails while learning more about dinosaurs. The author has professional advice on dinosaurs so this is well researched and that professional gives little lectures between each chapter. Giving you a glimpse into the scientific world of dinosaur research and what they do. This is just a fun read and I want more.

The Evil Secret Society of Cats, Vol. 1 -3 Stars
Do you like cats? Do you have a cat? Do you like looking at cat pictures or watching cat videos? Then you are already a member, probably unknowingly, of the Evil Secret Society of Cats. This manga is a four koma (four panel) gag manga about a secret society of cats and their plans for world domination. It explains all those weird and quirky behaviors of our beloved cats as actually secret and nefarious plans of this secret society. It's a fun little manga but it does suffer from the usual problem of four koma or any other internet comic. It's great as a daily quick read but as a full length book it gets a little repetitive and ultimately kind of boring as it's essentially the same joke over and over. That being said if you like cats and like reading cat manga I'd recommend this one for you. It might just open your eyes to the evil plans around you.

Up next
For audiobooks I have no flipping clue honestly. I need something for my walk tomorrow but everything I want to read isn't available as an audiobook through my library, has a wait list, or only available on Hoopla where I've maxed out my borrows for the month. Nothing on Libby is speaking to me as it all feels like super serious books. I'm at the point where I'm thinking of just buying something on Kobo. I'm only hesitating because audiobooks are generally $25-30 which for someone who relies on the library seems kind of steep.

For normal books I'm going to be reading and

I'm in a quandary. I'm finishing my current audiobook today and then I've got nothing. It feels like anything I want to listen to isn't available as an audiobook, not available now through the library, or over on Hoopla where I've already maxed out my borrows for the month. I'm to the point where I'm thinking of either buying the next Peter Grant book or Skinwalker and just listening to them since my library doesn't have them.

Done with this day and done with this week. I swear everything I touch or I am just in the general vicinity of seems to go to hell.

I'm listening to Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places currently and I feel like I'm stuck in that one Family Guy episode. The narrator has this weird way of pronouncing his W's and now I can't stop noticing it. At first I thought it was limited to WH words like white (there was a whole chapter on race and ghosts so it got said a lot) but then I noticed him doing it for other words as well. Walk is now whalk and it's just weird. I don't know if this is his natural speaking voice, a bit he is doing, a voice he is trying to do (he switches up for various parts), or what but it is weird.

I've seen a few images of Tater Tot and he is adorable but he looks so done with the everyone and everything.