Reading

Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. Between when I was talking about it last week and payday, I totally forgot my bonus was coming, so I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my balance today to pay bills!

2. It was very warm and sunny this morning when I walked up to the farmers market. I usually go around ten so that I can pop in the library, too, but this morning it was already seeming waaaaaay too sunny when I was doing my morning chores around eight, so since I didn't have anything urgent I needed to pick up at the library, I went earlier, around nine, and it was still so sunny and not particularly pleasant. But! At the stand that sells fruit leather that I've been frequenting recently, I spotted that they also had bottles of watermelon lemonade, nice and cold, so I got one of those to drink on the walk home and it was perfect! It reminded me of that delicious watermelon lemonade we were getting a bunch last year at DCA, but alas they don't have it this year. Adding the watermelon just makes it feel so much more refreshing.

3. Posing for her portrait.

Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden, Vol. 7

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/06/28/nia-liston-the-merciless-maiden-vol-7/

http://27.18096

By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

For those people who don’t enjoy seeing me trying to wring 500 words out of a review, you may as well stop now. The book is fine. The end. For those who really love seeing me struggle, welcome to my hell. This is primarily a tournament arc. I had enough trouble writing those up when I did manga reviews here, I don’t need to have to do it with light novels. Boy, that sure was a close fight. Boy, that sure was a one-sided fight. Repeat as needed. Even Nia doesn’t really have a huge presence in this book till near the end, mostly as she is (of course) not allowed to fight. She is there to film the show for magivision, though, so we do get to see some of her fighting rage come as she tries to get fighters to sit for an interview. Oh, and to take out dangerous assassins trying to kill her student.

Now that all the money has been raised and all the preparations have been done, it’s finally time for the fighting tournament. Which is a bit bigger than everyone was expecting. There are over 10,000 entries. Winnowing this down to 300 or so finalists is thankfully not Nia’s problem. Things are helped by dividing the preliminaries into weapons and no weapons tiers, but it’s still a LOT of fights. Some folks don’t know their own strength (Gandolph). Some folks have a very tough time f it (Fressa). Some folks are being overwhelmed by having to be the celebrity poster child of the entire tournament (Lynokis). And some folks are realizing that no matter what the outcome of this tournament, they’ll likely have to flee the country and start a new life somewhere else (Anzel). Needless to say, you can guess who the assassins are after.

One of the better things I liked about this was seeing folks realize how different a fight is when it’s under the pressure of a match, and especially when you aren’t actually supposed to murder your opponent. A few really strong folks end up losing as they struggle to not kill anyone, and Fressa manages to win her fight only because of that rule. Some fighters are going to get better fast. That said, Nia’s students are clearly a cut above the rest, and it shows – the comedic highlights of the book were Gandolph accidentally breaking the leg of his opponent by just putting up a chi defense, and Lynokis realizing that the adventurer she wanted to be like growing up is really just a violent thug, and one-shotting him in horror at her past self’s shallowness. The dramatic highlight is the finale, where we see an old assassin who is very very good at killing anyone he wants to but cannot fight against the horrors of normal aging. I wonder if we’ll see him again.

The 8th volume only came out in Japan last month, so it may be a bit will we get more. Till then, punching things, yay.

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/06/28/nia-liston-the-merciless-maiden-vol-7/

http://27.18096

Entry tags:

sam wilson. mcu. captain america: brave new world.

CANON: MCU. Captain America: Brave New World.
CHARACTERS: Sam Wilson | Captain America (Anthony Mackie).
ADDITIONAL INFO: 250 Icons
CREDIT TO:

inkonic

HERE @

inkonic

Entry tags:

disney

2025 Disneyland Trip #45 (6/27/25)

Welp, surprise Disneyland trip last night as there was availability and we decided to go down for dessert and parade.

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

all creatures great & small

much yelling

There has been A Great Squawking audible through the open windows for much of the last week. Yesterday A got to witness the source and then this morning so did I.

You see. There is a slightly scruffy, slightly scrawny magpie, which we wouldn't even necessarily have clocked as a juvenile if we'd seen it by itself? But we didn't. What we saw was it being attended by two actually filled-out adult magpies... up to and including it sitting back on its haunches and raising its mouth to the sky and continuing to yell until food was placed in it.

We have also got to watch it hop around in important little circles, intermittently pecking disconsolately at the ground, because apparently this is how the grown-ups make food appear!!! and it has not yet quite managed to work out why It's Not Working for baby, who is a Good Brave Baby who is doing All The Right Things and yet??? no food?????

And now that we have matched the yelling up with the culprit, I am grinning every time I can hear it, not just when it's visible. :)

Entry tags:

PINCH HITS AVAILABLE AT CASEFIC EXCHANGE (DUE FRIDAY 18 JULY).

caseficexchange is looking for pinch hitters to fulfil requests that include anime and manga fandoms.

PH 4 (comic, fic) - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga), 鴨乃橋ロンの禁断推理 | Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri | Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective (Manga), NoPixel (Web Series)

PH 13 (comic, fic) - 終ノ空 remake | Tsui no Sora Remake, A Girl Corrupted by the Internet is the Summoned Hero?!, Tsukihime (Visual Novel & Anime)

The pinch hits are currently due Friday 18 July at 11:59pm Eastern time.

The exchange requires a completed work of a minimum of 3,000 words for fanfiction or a minimum of 10 panels for a comic. (We also allow a recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags, but these requests are not asking for podfic.) Works must include a fandom, character/ship and be of a medium that the recipient has requested. You must have an AO3 account to participate.

If you would like to claim, please comment on the pinch hit post. Thank you!

Current Mood: nostalgic

Entry tags:

From space girls to catgirls

What a lucky guy

Finished Episode 2 of the Dirty Pair series and will continue it as much as I get the time to do do so.

Speaking of Anime watching, am also resuming All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku (say that ten times fast,) which I haven't got to finish it ever since I owned a VHS tape with a couple episodes long ago. That's something I need to rectify.

Also trying to finish Patlabor the Mobile Police to move on to other series like Dr. Stone and the last season of My Hero Academia. There are other series I'm eyeing but for now, I'm trying to finish what I had watched before in order to move forward.

Entry tags:

Misc Books: Helene Hanff, Lauren Tarshis, Stuart Turton

84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff

A sweet epistolatory memoir consisting of the letters written by a woman in New York City with extremely specific tastes (mostly classic nonfiction) and the English bookseller whose books she buys. Their correspondence continues over 20 years, from the 1940s to the 1960s. It's an enjoyable read but I think it became a ginormous bestseller largely because it hit some kind of cultural zeitgeist when it came out.

I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, by Lauren Tarshis

The graphic novel version! I read this after DNFing the supposedly definitive book on the event, Dark Flood, due to the author making all sorts of unsourced claims while bragging about all the research he did. The point at which I returned the book to Ingram with extreme prejudice was when he claimed that no one had ever written about the flood before him except for children's books where it was depicted as a delightful fairyland where children danced around snacking on candy. WHAT CHILDREN'S BOOKS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

The heroine of I Survived the Great Molasses Flood is an immigrant from Italy whose family was decimated in a flood over there. A water flood. It's got a nice storyline about the immigrant experience. The molasses flood is not depicted as a delightful fairyland because I suspect no one has ever done that. It also provides the intriguing context that the molasses was not used for sweetening food, but was going to be converted into sugar alcohol to be used, among other things, for making bombs!

My favorite horrifying detail was that when the giant molasses vat started expanding, screws popped out so fast that they acted as shrapnel. I also enjoyed the SPLOOSH! SPLAT! GRRRRMMMMM! sound effects.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton

A very unusual murder mystery/historical/fantasy/??? about a guy who wakes up with amnesia in someone else's body. He quickly learns that he is being body-switched every time he falls asleep, into the bodies of assorted people present at a party where Evelyn Hardcastle was murdered. He needs to solve the mystery, or else.

This premise gets even more complicated from then on; it's not just a mystery who killed Evelyn Hardcastle, but why he's being bodyswapped, and who other mysterious people are. It's technically adept and entertaining. Everything does have an explanation, and a fairly interesting and weird one - which makes sense, as it's a weird book.

[ SECRET POST #6749 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6749 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 40 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #967 ]

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #967 ]

The first secret from this batch will be posted on July 5th.

RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

The Manga Review: Saturday Morning Cartoons

Posted by Katherine Dacey

https://mangabookshelf.com/2025/06/28/the-manga-review-saturday-morning-cartoons/

https://mangabookshelf.com/?p=85041

If you’re a teacher, librarian, or parent, this week’s newsletter is for you! To celebrate Pride Month, manga experts from around the web have been highlighting great, queer-friendly titles for young adults. The all-librarian staff at No Flying No Tights, for example, just compiled an excellent list of nine LBGTQ-friendly titles for older teens that touch on many aspects of the queer experience, from first love to gay marriage and gender dysphoria. For readers more interested in queer-friendly manga for women, Alex Henderson has a short but thoughtful list of yuri titles that run the gamut from After Hours to She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat. Also worth a look is Cy Catwell’s in-depth discussion of Run Away With Me, Girl, about a pair of young women who buck societal expectations about love, marriage, and family to find their own pathway to happiness.

NEWS AND VIEWS

File this under It’s About Time: Dark Horse announced that it will be publishing a new, deluxe edition of Lone Wolf and Cub with unflipped pages and oversize trim. Look for the first volume in March 2026. [ICv2]

In other licensing news, Graphix will publish Spider-Man: Shadow Warrior, a manga that finds Peter Parker and friends transported to feudal Japan. The title, which is aimed at elementary and middle-school readers, arrives on shelves in September. [ICv2]

What LBGTQ+ manga would you like to see make the leap from print to screen? [Anime Feminist]

Once again, Jocelyne Allen highlights a manga that isn’t available in English, but really ought to be: Cats~Yojo-han Bura Bura Bushi~. [Brain vs. Book]

Lace up your skates: Deb, David, Chip, and Christoper debate the merits of Dogsred, a melodramatic sports manga from the creator of Golden Kamuy. [Mangasplaining]

REVIEWS

The latest Reader’s Corner covers everything from seventh volume of My Girlfriend’s Child to the first installment of Kaiju No. 8: B-Side… Giovanni Stigliano gives high marks to Neighborhood Craftsmen: Stories from Kanda’s Gokura-cho… and if you have a young cat lover in your house, check out A Library Girl’s review of A Man & His Cat Picture Book: Fukumaru and the Spaceship of Happiness.

New and Noteworthy

BONDS (Giovanni Stigliano, Asian Movie Pulse)
The Colour Out of Space (Edward Picot, Broken Frontier)
Guardian: Zhen Hun, Vol. 1 (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Lycoris Recoil Official Comic Anthology: React (Danny Lee, Asian Movie Pulse)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
Not So Shoujo Love Story, Vol. 1 (AJ Mack, Yatta-Tachi)
Otonari Complex, Vol. 1 (AJ Mack, Yatta-Tachi)
Silkscreen (AJ Mack, Yatta-Tachi)
Snegurockka of the Spring Breeze (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
Teppeki Honeymoon, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
Watari-kun’s ****** Is About to Collapse, Vol. 1 (MrAJ Cosplay, ANN)
A Witch’s Life in Mongol, Vol. 1 (Claire, Beneath the Tangles)

Complete, Ongoing, and OOP Series

Adults’ Picture Book: New Edition, Vol. 3 (Mark Thomas, The Fandom Post)
Aria of the Beech Forest, Vol. 1 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
Call of the Night, Vol. 20 (King Baby Duck, The Boston Bastard Brigade)*
Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 2 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
The Gay Who Turned Kaiju (AJ Mack, Yatta-Tachi)
Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 25 (King Baby Duck, The Boston Bastard Brigade)
Jungle Juice, Vol. 5 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Edition, Vol. 5 (SKJAM! Reviews)
Let’s Do It Already, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
Oshi no Ko, Vols. 9-10 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)
Pink Candy Kiss, Vol. 2 (Eleanor Walker, Okazu)
Rainbows After Storms, Vol. 3 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)
The Shiunji Family Children, Vols. 2-3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
A Star Brighter Than the Sun, Vol. 2 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 1 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
Suzume, Vol. 3 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School, Vols. 15-16 (Noemi10, Anime UK News)
Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood, Vol. 3 (HWR, Anime UK News)
The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 13 (King Baby Duck, The Boston Bastard Brigade)
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Vols. 5-6 (luce, Okazu)

* Final volume

https://mangabookshelf.com/2025/06/28/the-manga-review-saturday-morning-cartoons/

https://mangabookshelf.com/?p=85041

Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. We had an award ceremony for one of the stores today and I got some cakes for the ceremony and they were really good. Would definitely get from that bakery again.

2. This evening after I got home Carla asked if I'd be interested in going down to Disneyland for an after dinner trip and even though we just went yesterday, I decided going tonight and then having Saturday and Sunday just for staying home and resting would be nice, so we went down there tonight and had dessert and watched the parade. I'm super tired now but I had a great time.

3. It's the weekend!

4. Yawn!

Current Mood: nostalgic

Entry tags:

Watching Dirty Pair

Up till now I've only watched the OAVs and the reboot Dirty Pair Flash which didn't attract me as much as the old timy whimy series. I never even knew a series existed until I stumbled into them on youtube. I gotta say there's a lot of what you can learn from here which potentially connects to said OAVs, and the 80s scifi feel of its phenomenal.

Dirty Pair is a gallant guilty pleasure of mine.

Laser Danger

https://xkcd.com/3108/

To combat the threat, many airlines are installing wing-mounted spray bottles.

https://xkcd.com/3108/

Lady Rose Just Wants to Be a Commoner!, Vol. 3

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/06/27/lady-rose-just-wants-to-be-a-commoner-vol-3/

http://27.18092

By Kooriame and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Lady Rose wa Heimin ni Naritai” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.

Content warning: this book is filled with suicide ideation, and has several attempts near the end, though none are successful.

I know that it’s not economically feasible and would not be popular, but sometimes when you get a light novel series like this I wish that it could have been one 800-page book. Or at least have all three come out on the same day. Because this third and final volume of the Lady Rose series really requires you to remember everything from the first two, and the series rewards going back and checking on certain scenes over and over again. That said, if you did what I did, and read the books as they came out, and tried to recall what was going on, you should still be okay here. Fii’s story is done, and she doesn’t even play a major role in this book till near the end. Unfortunately, that’s just in person. In the background, Fii trying to escape her noble life and become a commoner turns out to drive a heroine to dark, depressing thoughts. And that’s just when she’s five years old.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but our protagonist is hit by a truck (while pushing a girl out of the way of the same truck) and winds up in the world of Savior of Nations: Lady Rose. She is THRILLED. She doesn’t even care that she’s in the body of the villainess, Liliana. This means that she gets to see her favorite character, SETH! Immediately deciding to learn reading, writing, and proper etiquette, despite the reactions of her father and servants, she does succeed in meeting Seth, as well as Melvin, who she declares a “friend of convenience”. Unfortunately, when Liliana turns five, Felicia arrives on the scene, and Liliana gets an immediate lesson in the difference between one who tries her hardest and one who is simply perfect. Unfortunately, over the next ten years or so, this means that Liliana gradually loses her grip on reality.

The first few books already had a tinge of psychological horror. With this third book, it goes beyond tinge and gets into the deep waters. I haven’t seen a light novel get so far down the path of fucked-up narration since I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!. Even when Liliana begins to realize the possible cause for her mindset… grief at her happy, loving life being cut senselessly down by a truck… she rationalizes that it’s too late now. The bulk of this book is Liliana trying to find a way to die. Fortunately, we know how that goes, as we read the second book, but still. This book also has a few surprises in store – notably one of the busiest Truck-kuns I’ve ever seen in an isekai – but for the most part it is best when focusing on Liliana’s desperate attempts to fix things, then fix everyone but herself. The one flaw is the almost total lack of Seth. The author says that having Seth in the book more would have given away the twist, and yeah, I guess, but I still think the impact of the end might have been better if he’d had a larger presence.

This series is now done, though I do wish we’d seen the stories that were only suggested where she apologizes to her maids. Liliana’s inability to really read people at all has affected her maids more than anyone else, and I hope they get some comfort and relief. As for Liliana herself, I think things will be fine now. She’s had magic bread, after all.

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2025/06/27/lady-rose-just-wants-to-be-a-commoner-vol-3/

http://27.18092

Entry tags:

on pain of pain

some good things!

Went on an Adventure to post a lost item back to someone (hopefully in time for the next thing they want it for...), and was rewarded with DUCKLINGS.
Not too warm to achieve fallback dinner of I Don't Know, Bake A Potato, with the result that we finished the lurking salad leaves and also stuck some of the cook-from-frozen pasteis de nata into the oven once potatoes were done.
Ridiculous organic greengrocer had an option on sending us rainbow chard this week, which means I might actually manage to cook one whole new recipe this month (!), which was otherwise... not looking likely. (I have been comprehensively failing to sow any, but there we go.)
Went fossicking in sofa to try to at least rationalise my horrid piles. Found one (1) of the two (2) fancy watch chargers I own, and not the one I was expecting to turn up (because I thought I'd probably mislaid it in a field), which hopefully means that given a leeeetle bit more fossicking I might even find the second.
Really enjoying playing with pens for the purposes of making notes on the pain reading. (Today has been Mindfulness for Health, with detours to read up more on the gate control and [neuromatrix] theories of pain; I was surprised that Model First Proposed In The 1960s is still apparently more-or-less the best we've got for "how the fuck does psychology and emotional affect and other sensory input actually affect how pain is experienced?")

[ SECRET POST #6748 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6748 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Entry tags:

ebooks,
sales

Ebook sale, today only, Friday 27th

This one has multiple genres.

Books for sale, mostly $1 to $3

Hit the "Genres" button at the top of the page to narrow your search.

Happy reading!

ETA: Jesse_the_k notes that "This is a meta-search engine, compiling deals from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google and Kobo." I didn't realize that was note-worthy, but yeah. Whatever platform you use to read, you're covered.

Epilogue p16

https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com/post/787477275385937920

•LATEST UPDATE HERE•

Elka is very sensitive. Good thing she thought better of bringing along that Get Well card she had everyone sign back at the depot, the one that said: “YOU’RE OUT OF THE ARMY NOW LOL!”

Check out the print book ANNOUNCEMENT if you missed it! :D

After over 15 years, Unsounded finally has a publisher! The comic is going to be put to print by Iron Circus Comics, a very cool company that’s done webcomics as illustrious as Rice Boy, Lackadaisy Cats, and TJ and Amal. Pretty rad, right? Our tiny baby has finally grown up, and it’s all thanks to you, readers. Your support all these years helped the comic reach its end, and that’s really what got a publisher to consider it. So thank you.

Now, please, please head over to the Kickstarter campaign page, and give it a follow! The campaign will be launching in a bit over a month. There’ll be LIMITED bonus goodies - including commissions and free shipping - but you’ll have to act fast once it launches! Let’s get lots of followers on there before then, it makes us look sick and cool.

There are some crucial logistical things for current readers to know though. The most important one is these two books are NEW COMPILATIONS. They do not sync up with the old self-published books, and the old shop is coming down this weekend. Those old books are beloved, but now outdated. The NEW books - in addition to having new covers and newly retouched art - are LONGER. Volume 1 contains chapters 1-4 as well as a Duane in Sharteshane bonus comic (this is the old v2 comic). Likewise Volume 2 is LONGER, containing chapters 5-8, a newly illustrated Tainish guide, and a brand new Knock and Anadyne comic.

I had no choice but to recompile the books, my darlings. In order to get the entire massive story into 6 books, I had to squish more into the early volumes. I know it’s a little disappointing, please don’t be too mad at me. Compromises had to be made in order to ever see the entire story in print. I wanted to also publish a third book at this time, and even did a rad new cover for it to try and sell it to the publisher, but there simply was not room in their schedule for 3 huge books this year. To get the rest of the books, we have to make sure these first two sell well! So please consider purchasing them when the campaign starts. I really busted my ass to make them worth it for you! Even as I’ve been drawing the final chapter and epilogue the past year, I’ve been working on these books :)

So! Contact me on Tumblr if you have any questions! And please follow that preview page so you’ll know when the crowdfund launches! Thanks, everyone! :)

-Ashley

••••••••••••
Discuss the comic on Discord or Reddit

https://unsoundedupdates.tumblr.com/post/787477275385937920

Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. I had a nice birthday! Other than going to Disneyland, we didn't really do anything, but Disneyland was fun. And it was nice not having to go to work, though I kept thinking it was Saturday and now I have to go back to work tomorrow (boo).

2. I got a little storage cabinet to organize all our extra legos. The sets usually come with an extra piece for all the small ones. I guess they figure those are most likely to get lost. Up until now we've been putting them in ziploc baggies with the name of the set they belong to, but that's gotten out of hand and also they don't need to be separated by set. I just started sorting them out today and I imagine that will take some time, but it should make everything more organized and save on space once it's done.

3. Love those big Chloe yawns!