The Iron Hunt (Amazon | Powell's) by Marjorie M. Liu
The cover gives the basic feel of the story - tough female protagonist, tattoos, dark. Not accurate as far as either her style of dress or tattoos goes, but a woman who covers herself from head-to-foot in clothing to hide the fact that she's tattooed everywhere but her face doesn't convey well on covers.
This is book one in an urban fantasy/paranormal series, but it feels like it should be a later book to me. I'm all for hitting the ground running, but there were references to past adventures that made me stop several times and remind myself I hadn't missed a previous book in the series. I have since found out there was a short story previously set in this universe, and I hope it doesn't involve any of the questions that made me stop and go "wait, did I miss something?" because that would be very annoying.
( The cover copy seems to have little to do with... )
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Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Amazon | Powell's) by Beth Fantaskey
"It's like Twilight but it's actually good."
Yes, yes, it is. Though I think some of the 'actually good' falls down a bit towards the end.
Jessica is a normal-ish rural Pennsylvanian teenager. Her parents appear to be a cross between hippies and academics, but they do well by her. She is adopted, however, from a family of Eastern Europeans her mother did anthropological research on before said people got lynched and burned by the locals. Jessica is heartily embarrassed by where she came from, because apparently her birth family were blood-cultists, and you can totally see where this is going, right?
( Yes, Jessica is a young vampire. )
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A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine (Amazon | Powell's) by John K. Nelson
Nonfiction I picked up while browsing the Religions section of Barnes and Noble randomly. It does exactly what it says on the cover, focusing on the Suwa Shrine in Nagasaki. From the copyright date, the book was published in the mid-90s, and I think the author did his year with the shrine in the late-80s or early-90s. So that's something to keep in mind.
( It's divided into five sections. )
The cover gives the basic feel of the story - tough female protagonist, tattoos, dark. Not accurate as far as either her style of dress or tattoos goes, but a woman who covers herself from head-to-foot in clothing to hide the fact that she's tattooed everywhere but her face doesn't convey well on covers.
This is book one in an urban fantasy/paranormal series, but it feels like it should be a later book to me. I'm all for hitting the ground running, but there were references to past adventures that made me stop several times and remind myself I hadn't missed a previous book in the series. I have since found out there was a short story previously set in this universe, and I hope it doesn't involve any of the questions that made me stop and go "wait, did I miss something?" because that would be very annoying.
( The cover copy seems to have little to do with... )
-
Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Amazon | Powell's) by Beth Fantaskey
"It's like Twilight but it's actually good."
Yes, yes, it is. Though I think some of the 'actually good' falls down a bit towards the end.
Jessica is a normal-ish rural Pennsylvanian teenager. Her parents appear to be a cross between hippies and academics, but they do well by her. She is adopted, however, from a family of Eastern Europeans her mother did anthropological research on before said people got lynched and burned by the locals. Jessica is heartily embarrassed by where she came from, because apparently her birth family were blood-cultists, and you can totally see where this is going, right?
( Yes, Jessica is a young vampire. )
-
A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine (Amazon | Powell's) by John K. Nelson
Nonfiction I picked up while browsing the Religions section of Barnes and Noble randomly. It does exactly what it says on the cover, focusing on the Suwa Shrine in Nagasaki. From the copyright date, the book was published in the mid-90s, and I think the author did his year with the shrine in the late-80s or early-90s. So that's something to keep in mind.
( It's divided into five sections. )
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