Black Cat By Kentaro Yabuki

Before the actual post I will apologize for the lateness, so sorry.

Black Cat by Kentaro Yabuki is a very good book. It is about a man named Train Heartnet, who used to be a "eraser" (assassin), for a company called Cronos which secretly controls 2/3 of the government. After a mysterious girl named Saya Minitsuka entered Trains life, he gave up being a eraser and became a "sweeper" (bounty hunter). Now it's a few years later and Train is working with his new partner Sven Vollfied on a mission to stop a man named Torneo Rudman from creating an all powerful bio-weapon. It/Her name is Eve, a 10-ish year old girl with a organ in her body that creates "nano-machines", little devices that able her to transform into most anything she wants to, with enough concentration. When Train and Sven are going to break into Torneo's mansion they run into a "self- employed thief for hire", named Rinslet Walker. They start working with her and that leads to an unexpected friendship with Rinslet and Eve.

I think one part in this book that I found a little creepy is the first few times you meet Eve. Since Torneo raised her to be a killing-machine, whenever she's going to kill someone she goes up to them and asks them if they want to play tag. She'll say that, then she'll proceed to kill them shortly after. That always freaked my friends and I out, even enough that one of my friends said that she "Will never, ever, ever, ever, ever play tag ever again." (well, you know something like that).

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan is an extremely good book. It is about three boys from the town Two Rivers, named Rand, Perrin, and Mat. It all starts one day when the three of them are just doing all their farming duties, and they all see this mysterious black almost ghost like figure, called a Fade. Then half human-half animal creatures, called trollocs, started attacking their village, Emonds Field, one of the Two Rivers villages. After those attacks two strangers, named Moraine and Lan who happen to be an Aes Sedai (a woman who can touch the "woman half of the True Source") and her Warder (man who protects their Aes Sedai), come and tell Rand, Mat, and Perrin that they were being pursued by the Dark One. Joined by Egwene, an adventures village girl, and Nynaeve, their village "wisdom", they set off on an adventure to "The Eye of the World".

My favorite character is probably Perrin. I guess I like him because I think that Rand is to Main-Character-y and that Mat is just plain boring. Actually he's  my favorite main character, my real favorite character is Nynaeve. I like her because she's so to-the-point about stuff and she is about the only person who Rand, Mat, or Perrin will always listen to. My mom says that she's "strong willed" and that some people like that in a character, and some don't.

I hope you love this book as much as I did!

Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games by Susane Collins is a very good book. It is about a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen, who was chosen (or was she?) to go into the annual Hunger Games. The back story of Panem (where Katniss lives) is that the people of north America got into a huge war, and one group won. They turned North America into a shining Capitol with 12 towns circling it (13 "districts" in all).  The Capitol is called District 1 and the inner most ring is District 2, and they go in numerical order 1-13. The lower number district you are, the poorer you are. When the districts tried to rebel against the Capitol, they destroyed the 13th district and started hosting these games called the Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games one boy and one girl from each district must go into the "arena" and fight each other to the death. When the 74 Hunger Games starts, you can be sure that her life was never the same again.

My favorite character is Gale. He's Katniss' friend from district 12. I think I mostly like him because all my friends will at some point in time come up to me and ask me "Gale or Peeta?" (comparison: "Edward or Jacob?" I personally think Peeta is a jerk. I think that I don't like him because of all the kissy-uppy things he does during the book. Like, confessing his love to Katniss at the most inappropriate times. Also a thing to note is that my mom didn't want me to read this book. So if you think a parent would have a problem with it, CHECK WITH THEM FIRST. This book is very violent and some stuff happens in the 2nd and 3rd books that caused my mom to say no.

I hope you like this book as much as I did!

Fullmetal Alchemist By Hiromu Arakawa

This post might be on more material than the first book contains.

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa is a manga with highly addictive qualities. It is about two brothers, Edward (Ed) and Alphonse (Al) Elric who live in a different world where alchemy exists, and the technology isn't as advanced as ours. It starts with Ed and Al walking through a desert and finally finding a thriving desert city (in the middle of nowhere), called Liore. The people told them that the city was a dump until Father Cornello came and got them on "The Sun God, Lito's" good site, thus him being able to preform "miracles". Ed and Al's back story is that they grew up in a little town in the suburbs. Their dad left when the were young, and they spent most of their time at their dad's friends house with a childhood friend, Winry. When their mom died they tried to bring her back to life, costing Ed an arm and a leg (literally). It took Al's body resulting in him turning into an empty suit of armor.

My favorite character is probably Al. I like him because he's a cute little kid, when he has his body. When he's a suit of armor, he keeps his brother from doing anything too stupid. I also like Winry, who supplies Ed with regular "auto-mail (artificial limb)" check ups and comes on a few of their adventures to assist them. Her parents were both doctors in "The Ishvalan War" and they got killed, causing great grief for Winry. My favorite part of the physical books is the extras. They're normally about some part of the book that could be made fun of or misunderstood, causing the ability to be made fun of. My favorite one is when they make fun of Ed for being short, so what happens is Ed finds a genie and he wishes to be taller. When it refuses to do that Ed gets very mad and tries to combine all his wishes to make him at least "a few centimeters taller".

Just a thing to note, if you want to watch the anime, there are two series. The first one is the english one, which only goes up to a certain point (no, I'm not telling you when) then takes a very sharp turn, and ends. The second one, which is titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, seems (I haven't seen it) to stick to the manga more than the other one does. Seeing as the manga is still going on, I don't know if the second series is still going or if it stopped. So, what I find interesting is that I think this is the first book that I know of that has two T.V. series, two movies about what happens after the first T.V. series, a game, an app, and a series of written books based on it.

I hope you like this book as much as I did!

This series is still coming out and I think they are up to book #27.

Keep an eye out for the others!

Post Themes

Just as a heads up, I'm probably going to be doing a lot of posts on manga right now because:
1)I'm helping a friend learn to read English, and I think manga is a good media.
2)I like them.
3)MY BRAIN NEEDS A BREAK FROM ROBERT JORDAN!
So, I'm going to have many posts on manga in the near future.

The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch is an extremely funny book. It is about a girl named Cassandra (Cass) and a boy named Max-Ernest who go on an adventure that brings into account the fact that most people can't keep a secret. The book begins with you meeting Cass, a survivalist, who carries around a back-pack that contains everything you would ever need in the case of an natural disaster (volcanoes, floods, radio activity, etc.). When a real estate agent gives Cass' uncles a box from a dead woman's home she makes a very interesting discovery. Along the way she meets a kid named Max-Earnest (named that for specific reasons) who seems to be an allergic to everything book-nerd, who helps Cass greatly over the course of the book.

My favorite character isn't in the first book (Yo-Yoji), so I'm going to write about my second favorite character, Pseudonymous Bosch. I know, I know, he's the author, allow me to explain. During the book, he makes all these really funny comments about what the kids are doing at that point in time. Also, he makes some pretty amusing footnotes on the bottom of the pages. Also, in the beginning of some of the books, it has a little bunch of pages that are mostly him going "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate.....". Also in the first few books he has an appendix that has a lot of things that he mentions in his footnotes. My favorite thing in the appendix is the recipe for Cass' banana chocolate chip trail mix. I never tried it, though it sounds really good!

I hope you like this book as  much as I did!

Keep an eye out for the sequel, If You're Reading This, It's Too Late!

Destiny's Hand By Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, Art By Melvin Calingo

Destiny's Hand by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir (Art by Melvin Calingo) is a wonderful manga. Destiny's hand is about a girl-pirate, named Olivia, and her crew. For this post I'm going to give you character bios, to help you understand the story better.

Olivia: She's Captain Belaine's (see: Captain Belaine) favorite of the crew and the only girl pirate you'll ever meet. It all started when Olivia was 13 and she was on a ship going to Volroux to get married to a man she didn't like, and on that trip her ship gets attacked by the Destiny's Hand. When the pirates come on to her ship they tie every one else up and then Olivia takes one of the pirate's swords and tells them that they would fight for her fathers life. She ends up winning that fight then asking if she can join their crew, after that the captain says that she can join them. The book time-lapses to three years later after they tell you that back-story. Olivia is the ring-finger of Destiny's hand (you'll find the meaning of that when you read the book, as with all the others). The ring finger is the finger of future.

Captain Belaine: He's the captain of Destiny's Hand, and currently part of a dying breed, gentlemen pirates. If anyone ever passes by his boat they know to strike their "colors" (meaning they surrender). Captain Belaine takes over the ship, takes your cargo, ties you to the main-mast, then returns you to the nearest port while telling you pirate stories along the way (it's much better than the alternative). At the beggining of the book he delivers the news that he's dying and he tells his crew to look for The Devil's Eye, a magical object that Captain Belaine wants to be found under his name.

Badru: He's a foreigner from the outer islands who is extremely loyal to Captain and helps aid Olivia on a very important errand. Badru is the biggest person on the crew and used in many threats, so it seems. Badru is the pinkie finger of Destiny's hand, the finger of promise and loyalty.

Diego: He's loyal to Captain Belaine, but when Olivia starts to give the orders Diego doesn't cooperate. Diego is more like the new "version" of pirates. Meaning that he's more prone to violence than anyone else on the crew is. Diego is the middle finger, the finger of aggression and discipline.

Fredrick Matthau: The crew would be lost without him to guide them through the wide, open sea. Matthau seems to be the only person (besides Belaine) who knows Captain Belaine's history with the Governor of Vickensburg, and the lady (Lady Kate) that the boat's figure head is fashioned after. He is the thumb of Destiny's Hand, the finger that leads the rest.
Elias Houghton: He is the Governor of Vickensburg's son, or so it seems. As the book goes on you find out some interesting things about his past, that may or may not include Captain Belaine. Elias is the index finger of Destiny's Hand, the finger that will point the way to the Devil's Eye.
Wyatt: He's just a little boy who snuck onto the boat when they were at port. He's been living in the crow's nest ever since he snuck on, and he's just been helping the crew with all their jobs, because everyone knows that he who eats, works. 
Owen Galviston: He's a journalist who came onto the ship to write a biography about the Gentleman Pirates (Yes... that's all I have to say about him).

Keep an eye out for the sequel, you're going to want it.

Sorry, this post is kind of long!