Reading Wednesday on a Saturday

• What are you currently reading?
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. This is my first time reading this book; I read Parable of the Sower back in Summer 2012 I think.
While the story is still mostly told through Lauren's journals, there's now also some reflections by her daughter Larkin, writing way off in the future. Larkin's bitter about her mom caring more about Earthseed than about her, so she spends a lot of time criticizing her mother's decisions.
I'm torn with this as a writing method. On the one hand, it seems like kind of a lazy way to complicate your character/make the reader question their motives & decisions? But it also makes me really interested in Larkin.
I'm about halfway through, so [spoiler] just happened and things are sad.


• What did you recently finish reading?
Saturn Apartments, volume 5 - It's been a while since I read 1-4, but I still really love this series. IN THE FUTURE people have abandoned Earth & live in rings surrounding Saturn. The protagonist, Mitsu, washes windows separating liveable ecosystems from SPACE. He himself lives in a dark under-city where there are no windows - he can't afford to live by them. Washing windows in space suits is a dangerous job.
I <3 this series a lot. This would be a nice series for those just beginning with manga, I think. For locals, I've read all the volumes from our local library system.

Hawkeye #11 - PIZZA DOG I LOVE HIM

X-Men #2 - As I said on Twitter, idk who the fuck anyone is, but I'm enjoying this just the same. Are there any gr9 stand-alones about Kitty Pryde or Jubilee out there in the world?

Angel & Faith #23 (What You Want, Not What You Need part 3) - UMM I'm really digging everyone and it's all apocalypse-y now. GILES' AUNTS FOREVER.


• What do you think you’ll read next?
Hopefully more manga, as I have a pile of it checked out from the library ^^;;;

Chihayafuru s1 (episodes 1-25)

Chihayafuru is an anime about high school kids and a game/sport called karuta.

In karuta, there are 100 cards with poems written on them in hiragana. A reader sings out the poems & whomever touches the card with the poem being read on it first gets the card.
When people get super serious about this, they have different techniques - reaching super fast with their arms, developing amazing hearing/senses so that you can intuit what the next syllable's going to be before it's even read, etc.

The first few episodes are pretty heavy on backstory for the series' OT3, and then after that it's a series of recruiting team members, and karuta matches, with some character development on the side.
This is sports anime - each match is super intense and emotional, and Chihaya & the members of her team learn their opponents' strengths/weaknesses & try to beat them.

Because Chihaya is the protagonist, this series is considered a very rare josei anime.

In addition to the main OT3, I also really like Kana, who loves classical Japan & starts playing karuta because she loves the poetry/poets. She lectures her teammates on possible interpretations of the poems (hilarious because karuta players only learn the first 5 syllables or so of each poem - enough to grab the card & be done), and makes everyone wear hakama to their tournaments.

I'd totes read fic for this series, especially Chihaya/Kana, but also the OT3 friendship of Arata, Taichi, and Chihaya.
Tragically, this is yet another tiny anime/manga fandom. There are literally 12 fics over at AO3, ff.net has 49.
This anime is also based on an ongoing manga, & I'd like to check scans out for that at some point, see what the art is like.

Here's the opening sequence, which focuses on Chihaya surrounded by swirling hiragana characters (this was a great series for me to watch immediately after learning hiragana myself!!). It also shows the other important characters, & I like the song a lot, too, ^^

[The YouTube embed isn't working for some reason, so here's a link to the OP on YouTube.]

Now on to season 2, which just finished airing in Japan yesterday!

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Speaking of anime, meganbmoore watched Tari Tari and did a way better write-up than I did over here.