July 2019 Wrap Up

To continue the theme I am on where I am actually remembering to do things (thanks to my planner I bought and actively use to remind myself of stuff I have to do...) let's do up our monthly wrap up. I didn't like the quarterly style much better than the monthly, so we're going back to monthly wrap ups. Let's get on with the books! I read 4 books in this month. 

#1: Captive Hearts in Oz #1 by Ryo Maruya

I love this. I found it while browsing the new arrivals section of BookOutlet. I am a big fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz series, and when I saw this book, I had to have it and read it. I was not sure what I was expecting. Not what I got. I thought it was just going to be The Wizard of Oz again. It's umpteenth iteration, only in manga form. No. That's not even close to what I ended up with. It's a whole new story. Dorothy does go to the land of Oz in a similar way, but it diverts from there into a slightly different story. It is told as if they are reenacting a book and the lion, scarecrow, and tin man are actual people with human faces. It was strange. Hayworth, the scarecrow, reminded me of Finnian from Black Butler with his looks, hat and ridiculous boundless strength. If they deviate at all from the original story (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), bad things will happen. Like really bad. So bad that they can cause irrevocable damage to the world. Dorothy and someone I think is meant to be the Good Witch of the North, Glinda is the Good Witch of the South, mess up horrifically and go “off plot” and cause the big bad thing to happen. It stops right when Dorothy is rescued by a new character who calls himself Zero. We don't know who Zero is. I was impressed by it and can't wait to get to the next volume to see what happens and if they get any further on their journey.


#2: Captive Hearts in Oz #2 by Ryo Maruya

Clearly I have issues. They make it to the Emerald City in this one where we learn a lot more things have gone off script than we first thought. The Wicked Witch of the East (a dude, go figure!) has not died under the house from Kansas. In fact, he was saved by some of his flying "monkeys" that turn out to be just people. Every single character is some form of people. This reads almost like it's a D&D/Pathfinder campaign based on the Wizard of Oz that went awry and Mr. Maruya just ran with it. We learn who Zero really is and it is a shock to me. I won't spoil it by telling you who he is. Then we learn what the big bad something that is going down is. Now, instead of just playing out Dorothy in Oz, they have to go about saving the Land. Oz himself sometimes even has to step in and help. I did like how in this one he is actually magical and that they got the shoes right. The Wicked Witch of the East did not have ruby red shoes. They were covered in bright white diamonds in the original, she was a princess after all. It gave the shoes a silver shimmer to them. This Dorothy gets silver shoes from the Good Witch of the North, who's name I cannot think of at the moment. I usually forget it. I loved this book and still can't help thinking of Finnian. I want to find volumes 3 & 4 and see if they actually do the thing and save Oz and the land.

#3: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

Genie Lo is one among droves of Ivy-hopeful overachievers in her sleepy Bay Area suburb. When she’s not crushing it at volleyball, Genie is typically working on how to crack the elusive Harvard entry code. But when her hometown comes under siege from hellspawn straight out of Chinese folklore, her priorities are dramatically rearranged. Enter Quentin Sun, a mysterious new kid who becomes Genie’s guide to battling demons. While Genie knows Quentin only as an attractive transfer student, in another reality he is Sun Wukong, the mythological Monkey King incarnate. Suddenly, acing the SATs is the least of Genie’s worries.

My favorite mythological Chinese figure is Sun Wukong. I have no idea why this is. I'm even playing a descendant of Sun Wukong in my current Pathfinder game who is a warrior monk looking for Wukong's mythical artifacts. I like to randomly just enter the Goodreads giveaways. What's the worst that's going to happen? I get a book I don't like and donate to my library for someone else to read. Anyway, I hadn't really looked at the synopsis for this before clicking those two fateful words on this site: ENTER GIVEAWAY. Yes, please. I got an email that I won and then read what it was about. I started this book the very minute it came to my door. I enjoyed every minute of it, though I thought Genie could have done with a little less complaining. I do have to agree though, with her first thoughts about why Quentin is obsessed with her. I thought it was the same thing she did. We were both wrong. I loved the way it was told and I cannot wait to get my paws on The Iron Will of Genie Lo so I can continue the series. 

#4: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever.

I'm not sure how I actually feel about this one. It wasn't bad, and I read it fairly quickly. However, it was a reread for me. Something I don't often do any more. We follow a girl and her father as they try to outrun their own past. Something that no one really can do. No matter how far or how fast, they will always be found. I didn't care much for Mo's character. He would rather have run from his fears than faced them. I felt bad for Dustfinger. All the poor guy wanted was to just go home. I understand that. There have been times where the only thought on my mind was how much I wanted to be at home. I don't think my situation was any way like his though. Meggie was cute. I wanted to hit Eleanor or whatever. I do still wonder whatever became of the boy, Farid. I don't think I'll read this one a third time. The plot was sort of like, they would do things that would just push the plot further. Not things that smart humans would do. I didn't understand why Capricorn's men would do some things they did even though the original threat of doing the things (burning, looting, other illicit things) had already passed and there was no reason any more to do these things. Perhaps one day I will move on to the next book in the series and find out what happens from there.