Currently Reading: 09 to 23 February 2019

Currently Reading

- More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (44%) 
- Never Grow Up by Jackie Chan with Zhu Mo (29%)
- Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco (12%)
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (41%)
- IT by Stephen King (06%)
- Queen of the Star Pirates by Stephen Landis (13%)

- Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en (14%)

- The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (39%)

* * *

Managed to completely forget about Contemporary-a-thon and not read a single book for it this time around. I'll keep the books I came up with for it on my TBR list, which is as follows:

1: More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
2: A Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro
3: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
4: The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
5: The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro
6: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
7: Glee: the Beginning by ...? I forgot to write down the author?

I mean, I'm sad that I forgot about it, but it is what it is.

I've added another four books to the finished pile, bringing my pile of read books to 12/50 for the year. 

T5W: Book Boyfriends You Would Dump

I am clueless. I usually don't have book boyfriends (or girlfriends, as I swing both ways there)....so I ended up Googling best boyfriend books to see if I knew any of them from previously reading them. These are the ones I managed to come up with for the list: 

1. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James - I hate this series so much, he doesn't abide by his own rules of engagement for the contract. I wanted to punt him off the nearest cliff when he started basically forcing what's-her-face (I don't want to remember) to do things he wanted even though she was giving him hard nos. That man didn't deserve the redemption arc he got in Darker and Freed.

Yeah, at this point I have nothing. I don't do the whole "book boyfriend/girlfriend" thing. At least we got one, right?

Currently Reading: 27 January to 08 February 2019

Currently Reading

- Never Grow Up by Jackie Chan with Zhu Mo (29%)
- Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco (12%)
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (41%)
- IT by Stephen King (06%)
- Queen of the Star Pirates by Stephen Landis (13%)

- Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en (14%)

- The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (39%)

* * *

I am undecided at the moment if I want to do monthly book hauls. I'll probably still record them? Maybe just list them out in my final CR for any month. Too much work to write why I bought them. Sometimes I don't actually remember! So here we will do my list of books, in probable purchase order, that I got in January: 

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

Chinese Myths & Tales by Flame Tree

Lost in Tokyo by Garett Wilson

Z by Lizzy Gomez

Escape from Bondage by J.R. Marshall

Normal by Danielle Pearl

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Leo Loves Aries by Anyta Sunday

Murder by Misrule by Anna Castle

Siphon Magic by Alicia Babel

A Death Displaced by Andrew Butcher

Night by Elie Wiesel

More Happy than Not by Adam Silvera

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon 

Never Grow Up by Jackie Chan/Zhu Mo

The Man Who Would Be Sherlock by Christopher Sandford

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

My Hero Academia v1 by Kohei Horikoshi

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

1984 by George Orwell

The XY by Virginia Berger

I've already finished 4 of the books on that list. Not much progress, but progress all the same. There are some bookish read alongs, one from 1-7 February were we just read as much as we can and then 11-17 February is Contemporary-a-Thon that I have my TBR picked out for already.

There was another read-along, the FoxingFae February Read-Along, was just to read as much as possible from 01 to 07 February. I managed to actively finish 3 books. I got through two volumes of My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi, and then Leo Loves Aries by Anyta Sunday.

Speaking of My Hero Academia. I cam up with my main project for this year. A fanfiction titled: "Reflection" that is going to span about 75,000 words/39 chapters detailing something I thought of for no reason whatsoever. This tail will be an alternate universe (henceforth AU) one where we follow deuteragonist Bakugou during his transition from female to male. It was one of the many prompts that came up while I was working on my NaNoWriMo project last November.

I figure I would actually work on it during the entire year and not just for the three months of NaNo. Maybe it will reach over 100,000 words? Who knows!

T5W: Nostalgic Ships

Okay, this will be either really good or really bad. I very rarely even think about shipping when I am reading. I need to actually see the more subtle gestures and interaction between characters. So, aside from one, my book choices this week were all manga (and LGBT, I'm yaoi trash). Let's get on with the show~

1. Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi - I have two ships from this series. The first, my first ship ever, is Inuyasha x Miroku. I've always appreciated the dramatic irony of Miroku being gay. Part of his character was that he had to sire a child before his hand killed him, so he would hit on every female he saw. I thought, what if he was just trying to get this out of the way so he could be with a man? The other ship I have is Kagome x Sesshomaru. He always hated his father for taking a human partner and fathering his brother. Now he is falling for a human woman and can better understand Inutaisho. Plus, she's not afraid to yell at him. 

2. Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya - Hate me later, but my biggest ship from this was a tie between Yuki/Kyo, and Yuki/Kyo/Tohru. Yuki was ambivalent bordering apathetic for most of the series, because of reasons I won't get into here (spoilers), and Kyo was the opposite for similar reasons. Their "love" for each other and for Tohru helps spur them both into being better people. I know part of the ship is canon, and that makes me happy. 

3. My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi - Oh all the ships one can ship! Bakugo x Izuku, Todoroki x Izuku, Todoroki x Bakugo, Bakugo x Kirishima, Kirishima x Kaminari...then you have All Might x Inko, Aizawa x Present Mic, Aizawa x Midnight, Aizawa x All Might....I love one for different reasons. Anyone with Bakugo would balance against his explosive personality. Izuku would help him be more understanding and compassionate. Todoroki would help him learn composure and to think before he acts. Kirishima or Kaminari would help him relax and have fun, an alien concept for sure. All Might just needs some love regardless of the source. Aizawa as well!

4. Leo Loves Aries by Anyta Sunday - Yeah, my one non-manga choice, still gay though! Theo and Jamie were adorable. It is the pairing I had hoped for the second they introduced Jamie. He was someone Theo was familiar with from the start. I'm positive he had no clue that he was flirting with Jamie the entire time. So many things he said were painfully clear to everyone. I was so happy when they finally got together!

5. Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama - I don't remember what sparked my interest in this, by I've been reading the manga series. My top ships are Eren x Levi (Eren was 18 when they met! Joined the military at 15 and had to train for 3 years, making an Eren/Levi pairing weird, but perfectly legal by most standards), Eren x Jean because they are an odd couple, Eren x Armin because best friend slow burns are great, Armin x Jean because Armin brings out the best in pretty much everybody, and Jean x Marco because they are a cute pairing. I feel bad about Marco though. 

BONUS CONTENT

I couldn't settle on only 5 things I have ships from. So here are 3 more I thought of....

1. Yu-Gi-Oh by Kazuki Takahashi - A manga series I only own 5 volumes of (to put it in perspective, I used to own 32 volumes of Inuyasha) and I always picture Seto with either Yugi or Jonouchi/Joey because he can show them the level of power being a top duelist can bring and they can show him that it's not always about what you have, but the people you share it with. 

2. Seven Deadly Sins by Nakaba Suzuki - My favorite pairing from here is Ban and King because it's volatile and a study in contrasts. Ban is large, strong, and self-assured. King is small, relatively weak (without Chastiefol), and I think a bit emotionally stunted. They make for a wonderful odd couple. Especially with King repeatedly greeting Ban by spearing him through the chest. 

3. Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori - This one is likely to get me into the most trouble. Before now the worst I had were distant cousins, but now we are delving deep into no-no land. My favorite pairing from here is the infamous twincest that is Hikaru Hitachiin x Kaoru Hitachiin. They have a perfect chemistry. Probably because they practice it for shenanigans. They are far too in tune with each other. 

There we have my list for Nostalgic Ships. I know with the exception of a few, most are m/m. I can't help the way I am.