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Having just received the copy of Marianne Mancusi's Razor Girl I won at magicnoire 's LJ, I realized that I've won both of Mancusi's books there. I should actually pay money for one of her books soon. (Note: Moon Gazer is one of the extremely few things I've read in first person present tense where that was actually a benefit for the book, not a drawback. Though it did still make me twitchy.)

*goes off to unpack CMX box*

Magic Knight Rayearth II Vol 1

( spoilers have almost too many new characters to keep track of )

Is it just me, or does Clamp draw the girls as chibis more and more each volume, not to mention draw Hikaru with cat ears even more?

The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine

the Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales is a collection of six novellas parodying-sometimes lovingly, sometimes harshly-a number of fairy tales. Set in the kingdom of Biddle and following the royal family all the way from the greedy prince who made the girl who spat pearls and gems talk herself sick to the baker’s boy with the golden goose who made the princess laugh, it begins with the fairy Ethelinda almost ruining a kind girl’s life with her gift, and ends with Ethelinda finally giving a good gift.

The first story The Fairy’s Mistake, is very similar in feel to Levine’s full length YA fantasies, but the other stories lean away from the more serious, harsh conditions she normally puts her heroines through, and are more into poking fun at fairy tale tropes and character types. The strongest theme in the book is showing how irritating the normal personality traits attributed to characters in fairy tales are in their purest forms when you’re someone who has to live with them. I’m especially fond of Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep, where the gifts given to Sleeping Beauty at her christening make her so smart that she becomes a talkative know-it-all and plots to prick her finger at the most opportune time possible.

It didn’t hit me the way Ella Enchanted and Two Princesses of Bamarre did, but this was a lot of fun.

manga: Tactics Vol 1

Ichinomiya Kantaro is a young man who has seen ghosts and spirits since childhood, and has studied folklore his entire life. He’s learned how to bind goblins (I’m thinking this is a mistranslation of something) by using their names, and-after a near death experience at the hands of a demon as a child-has devoted his life to finding a legendary goblin who eats demons. His other lifelong quest is to bring world peace to the supernatural being of Taisho Japan. Or something along those lines. His chief assistants are Yoko, a fox demon who worries about both money and Kantaro’s materialism, and Haruka, the legendary demon eating goblin himself, freed from a hundred years of imprisonment.

Haruka has been designated the Fan Service Victim, and is forced to regularly wear suits and various traditional outfits, either neatly put together or en deshabille. Sometimes while chained and/or caged. I don’t know. It isn’t the same if it isn’t Clamp, You Higuri, Kaori Yuki, or wuxia. He is also quite put out with Kantaro’s machinations and forcing a legend like him to do his dirty work (especially since he never catches on in time) and is already starting to subconsciously reconsider his former wicked ways to live up to the idealistic expectations of The Princess his master. Yoko is training him to be a gigolo so they won’t be thrown out on the street.

I feel I should be a lot more in love with this first volume than I am. I’m amused by Haruka and Yoko and neutral about Kantaro, but none of them really grab me yet. I like the story and the setting, but they aren’t done in a way that engrosses me, at least at this point. Still, it fulfilled my primary requirement, which is that it entertain but not annoy me, so I’ll check out a bit more.

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So, for the first time in months, I am in the mood to make icons.

For the first time in-well, not quite as long, but not likely to return for a while-there is overtime at work. Except for Sundays (which have been church-work-church[and that's church nursery]) I've been working 11-12 hour days.

This does not leave one with the brainpower to be creative! Or even make bases! (Or have any political opinions on recent stuff, or look into anything in any meaningful way, though I have read people's posts on the subjects.)

Life, it is mean.

Possibly spent most of Labor Day-aside from lunch with family- sprawled on her body pillow on her living room floor, watching random plotless movies and rereading pertinent parts of various manga.