Walkin’ Butterfly by Chihiro Tamaki
Walkin’ Butterfly is one of the first books from Aurora Publishing. As someone who’s wished for more josei manga to read, I figured I had to check it out.
Michiko has cripplingly low self esteem because she’s freakishly tall. Her main hobbies are working on motorcycles and occasionally indulging in [...]

Well, I haven’t been blogging much recently, and I’m not likely to anytime soon, because I will be otherwise occupied:

Thing 1 & Thing 2 are identical twins, and were both around six and a half pounds.

Lyle reports that someone’s picked up the rights to make an American version of Silent Library. You can watch some clips of the original Silent Library on YouTube.

I spent a bunch of time rereading books this month, because it is too hot outside to go to the library or a bookstore.
Books
The Looking Glass War by John le Carre
Of Darkness, Light and Fire by Tanya Huff
Secret History of the Pink Carnation, Deception of the Emerald Ring, Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren [...]

I was randomly clicking through the cable channels the other day, and came across an episode of a show called “Style By Jury” that featured a makeover for a librarian. I only caught a few minutes, but it looked like a stylist was telling the librarian that her wardrobe was “overdue.” I stopped watching when [...]

Ragnell points to this handy chart that lists the changes the movie folk are making in their version of The Dark Is Rising. I’m not sure if I’ll want to see the movie - maybe only if I’m going with someone else whose read the books so we can heckle the whole thing like Statler [...]

My Heavenly Hockey Club by by Ai Morinaga (amazon.com)
Hana is a heroine after my own heart. She dedicates her life to eating and sleeping, to the extent that she studies diligently to get into a competitive high school located a few feet away from her house because she wants to cut down on her [...]

Books
Last Life by Claire Messud - For some reason this book about a French family and Algeria took me months to read. I’d read a chapter or two, and put it aside for several weeks. It was well written, but I didn’t find any of the characters very sympathetic.
Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain [...]

One of the weirdest things about my condo was the old owner putting in a fake wine bar where the hallway closet used to be. You don’t get the full effect in this photo, but you can get the general idea: there was a shelf around chest high, another shelf with plastic wine glass holders, [...]

Austenland by Shannon Hale (amazon.com)
This book was not very good, for a variety of reasons. I guess I had high expectations because I enjoyed reading Princess Academy, so I was hoping that Shannon Hale’s first non YA book would be a fun summer read. It ended up being merely okish.
One thing that I thought was [...]