Finished "Fallen". Turns out it wasn't the last book in the series, which I kind of thought it would be - but it was pretty good, and the series has kept me somewhat occupied while waiting for the next Dresden Files book (been AGES since the last one, and it's most likely coming next year - I can't wait!)

Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto, Vol. 1
Manga (Slice of Life Comedy)
Author (Story and Art): Nami Sano

The story's focus is around the student known by his family name Sakamoto. Sakamoto is the guy girls want to be with and guys want to be, save for the few who can't stand his unflappable being. He usually plays the role of fall guy, defender of the class, morale booster, peace keeper. His conservative, but pretty boy looks deceive, but he pulls off the techniques in the coolest manner.

The chapters are presented as individual separate stories and are loosely connected.

There Are No Sad Dogs in Heaven. I needed that sort of comfort this week.

TG's new R&K series of cliffhangers galore, quite obviously (all of them have ended with cliffhangers so far), and the next book isn't coming out until mid-January, which is really annoying because I am certain that one will also end in a cliffhanger, and the next book after that comes out in May. *frustration levels rising*

I can haz both books nowz? ME WANTZ!!!!
No?
Oh, well... *sadface*

I read half the book before going to bed last night, and my imagination kind of took the current story, jammed it together with another of TG's stories (which is a standalone with ties into the overall universe), and made a very interesting spinoff. I was very entertained - but can't remember much now, unfortunately. It seemed good, though.

The Legend of Drizzt: Homeland by R.A. Salvatore

Someone kept recommending this book series to me and I finally started reading it. I'm about halfway through this book and plan on continuing with the rest since I am really enjoying it. Dungeons & Dragons huh, maybe I've been missing out? I'm happy to get back into reading again as it has always been one of my passions.

Also, whenever a new chapter comes out for the manga Beastars I read that. And there's quite a few other books I'm reading of various subjects. Which reminds me, I haven't really checked out that Bob Ross book yet.

How God Changes Your Brain by Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman. It's about he intersection of spiritulity and neuroscience. Quite early in the book.

I am getting through books quickly at the moment; yesterday I finished The End and Other Beginnings, a series of short stories by Veronica Roth about how the way relationships start can be understood through their apparent end. It was a good use of some original sci-if concepts, though it tended to be obvious what the twists would be when she used them (a couple did not, and those were the stronger stories). It was aimed at young adults, but not-so-young adults may find it interesting too.

The title kind of intrigued me... but from the description it sounds more like they're basing it on quasi-science and wannabe positive benefits, with some actual (but halfway unrelated) actual science thrown in, rather than a proper scientific view with both positives and negatives, so I think I'll skip it.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to read. I'm kind of waiting to order the next books in a couple series, but they don't come out until January. I am in the middle of a quick re-reading of a series, and I also got a lot of books yesterday, so I'll probably start one of those.

The Art of Racing in the Rain. I enjoyed the movie and many people told me they liked the book. It's very sweet and funny.

Just started Agatha Christie's 1940's omnibus which has 4 storeis: N or M?, Towards Zero, Sparkling Cyanide, and Crooked House. Shame they're not Poirot stories though cos those are always the most entertaining ones.

The Witcher. It's a pretty good series, even if it does have a lot of details.

Agent running in the field by John le Carre. Recommended by several critics (eg., here) but a disappointment to me, far from the level of most of his previous books - seems not quite finished. I guess he felt hurried but I think he should just let it lie for a while and then have another look at it.

Perhaps you should try it but I just can't really recommend it.

Well, I've more or less gotten back into the Witcher series. I'm starting from the beginning, and I would LOVE to finish it, but classes kinda got in the way. One of my teachers wants me and the rest of the class to write a review of one of the books he wants us to read.

I'm reading The Book of Death. It's part of the Bourbon Kid series.

I just finished a few so I'm gonna do a mass review lol
1. The Terror by Dan Simmons. Of the bunch, this was one of my favorites. It's a dense historical horror about the HMS Terror and the doomed Franklin Expedition with a monster twist. There was a huge cast of a dozen or so characters, with another dozen or so we are meant to keep track of in the background, but each one felt distinct and fleshed out, like they were real people. The main character was developed pretty amazingly to the point where I was surprised to be rooting for him, being a racist Victorian explorer and all. He also goes through so much growth, it's kinda amazing. There's also this one chapter with the POV of a sailor that was especially horrifying (small spoilers) since he was trying to scream, but voiceless, which I found to be viscerally terrifying, like feeling my own vocal chords tighten up when I needed them.

2. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo. This one is so tonally different from the last one, being a YA/fantasy/romance retelling of the Little Mermaid. Essentially the mermaids here eat the hearts of men and our Prince Eric is a mermaid hunter. It's a standard enemies to lovers YA adventure, but it was executed pretty well. I didn't find it to be anything outstanding, but it wasn't awful. The characters weren't as full as the Terror, but the narrative and genre doesn't really require that so I don't mind it too much. I do think it moved kinda quickly and I would've preferred it to slow down a bit and have some quiet moments to get to know the characters more.

3. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. This one is a literary novel and sequel to the award-winning Olive Kitteridge. I loved the original and it's not really a story, but a journey through a small New England town where it depicts life. It's pretty somber throughout and sad. There's a lot of themes of not having the drive to live anymore, or how being old sucks, etc. I think a Goodreads review summed it up pretty well: "if this book is representative of what truly happens with the ravages of age, maybe we're better off dying quickly and young." but I still loved it and how it used motifs and themes throughout. The first book is honestly beautiful. The second book though, I'm not so sure if I like as much. The first one spanned multiple decades to really get to know the titular character's life and struggles and understand why/how she is and the facets of her. The second one was mostly a bunch of sad old people and I felt the quote probably applies more to the second book than the first. I also couldn't find as strong a theme or motif in the second one, but I read it pretty quickly and only once.

4. Blindsight by Peter Watts. This is a hard, very, very, hard sci fi horror that explores themes of consciousness and trans-humanism. The author also wrote a small piece about a real pair of conjoined twins a while back, wondering if they could be the key to what is consciousness and how we experience the world. They experienced the same stimuli and sometimes exhibited similar behavior, but the family insisted they were individuals, but Watts was convinced the family was too close to make significant observations. Anyways, this book is a first encounter book where aliens have essentially scanned the Earth and a small team was sent to investigate out in space. I want to like this book so much, but I just can't. It's got interesting themes and ideas, like how life can be intelligent, but not sentient, or what if art, language, music, etc. were unique to humans? And, like, the horrors if universe was teeming with intelligent life, but none of it sentient, none of it making art, creating literature, none of it thinking the way we do. There's even a cool protagonist who was programmed not to feel, having half his brain cut out, but still. There's just so much science jargon and shifting perspectives to the point I didn't really even know what was happening in the first half.

Books I'm planning on reading:
- Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, a world-heavy fantasy, but I felt the characters were a bit flat and the prose a bit dry, but I heard it gets better.
- Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which seems to be pretty similar to Blindsight, exploring the ideas of first contact and if we should even be attempting to send out signals yet. The whole premise is that if the universe is a dark forest and each civilization is a hunter, it's in each civilization's best interest to destroy other potential civilizations before they get destroyed. Apparently Obama even read and loved it.
- Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett, pretty much a rom-com YA romance as a book. Two high schoolers get lost in a forest, they fall in love, etc. I'm planning on using this as a lighter read between heavier books lol.

How to win friends and influence people.
And after that, The shack

Nikolaj Gogol, collection of his St Petersburg tales.

I just finished https://www.amazon.com/Outcasts-Tim...r/dp/1643130323.
It was pretty good. I'm more a fan of his non-fiction (I rarely read fiction) but it has a historical theme/time travel theme so it was okay.

If you like nonfiction about life in various stages of British history, customs, manners, ways of living you'll want to read his books.

Please Tell Me! Galko-chan
Genre: Slice of Life
Format: Manga
Story and Art: Kenya Suzuki

The story revolves around a busty, sharp tongued Jersey Girl type who actually is very sweet and likes to cook and watch movies with her friends. Of course, a number of topics in the one page comics are tawdry, mostly stuff teenagers egg each other on with, bodily functions mostly.

But there is more than just dirty jokes, there are short stories where the test of the girls' friendship is on the line and there are observations from Galko about the movies she's watched and many are real movies that are well known worldwide (Castaway starring Tom Hanks is referenced in one of these books.)

I bought the first four volumes. I didn't get the 5th one (out of money) but a 6th volume will eventually release.

Edit: Eventually got the 5th volume. Accounting error in my favor.

i’m reading Ito Junji’s manga adaptation of Dazai Osamu’s novel “No Longer Human”. “No Longer Human” was likely Dazai’s actual suicide note immortalized, so unlike some of Ito’s other horror works that involve monstrous worlds, the monstrous world in this one is instead in the protagonist’s mind.
i got my hands on a physical copy (which is hard to find around here) as well as a copy of my beloved Uzumaki, also by Ito — he’s one of my fav mangaka haha.

The Cult of Osiris by Andy McDermott

I've read like three pages so far mostly because its due back at the library tomorrow and I've extended it several times since I borrowed it

@Noa1500 Is it good enough so far to extend again?

I just re-read an English translation of Candide- I love it so much!

@simsample I have no idea, I only read like 6 pages

I'm rereading Why didn't they ask Evans? by Agatha Christie because Agatha Christie

Cook Anime by Diana Ault

It essentially shows how to cook actual dishes featured in anime and manga.

In the vain of Binging with Babish, but the dishes are realistic for the sake of realism.

The anime that featured the dish famously is seen at the beginning of the recipe and a list of anime that also featured each dish is listed at the end of the recipe.

Just finished "Battle Ground" by Jim Butcher.
(But also *sad face* because something really bad happens in that one, and all you really want to do after reading that book is to give that beaten-up wizard a good, long hug - not that he hadn't already gotten several hugs by a freakin' sasquatch - but yeh know... and hope that 'fairy godmother' played nice with the gift - How much damage can a mini-Elsa do (when there's already a medium and XXXL-powered one running around in town)? Sheesh... Let's just hope she had some fun and that nobody got hurt )

In fiction novels I'm in the half of my revisit to Dune Saga by Frank Herbert, currently re-reading God Emperor of Dune, after I finish Chapterhouse: Dune my next revisit will be to Terramar saga by Ursula K. LeGuin, on other kind of books and other hours I'm re-reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.