Found, 2; Lost, 1; Still Missing, 1

So my autographed American Gods showed up in the basement rec room, cleverly hidden under stacks of video and DVD boxes. And my floppy sun hat (actually a white cotton canvas fisherman's hat, styled like an Aussie bush hat) showed up neatly folded in one of the many pockets of my go-to-work totebag.

In the other hand, the bent-handled cheese knife is still at large (perhaps still keeping company with telophase's missing scissors?), and the gremlins have now kidnapped Saiyuki vol. 9, which pisses me off because I was in the middle of a re-read!

>sigh<

Fruits Basket, vols. 8-10 (Natsuki Takaya)

Takaya-sensei continues to hold me in thrall, no matter how cynical I try to be. Here I should confess that I'm not terribly good at "cynical" actually.... just one big bleeding heart, that's me. But I am allergic to emotional manipulation, and she does resort to it sometimes. But mostly, she earns her heart-warming scenes and lines honestly, as genuine payback from the characters' worries and traumas.

The playful little intro to every volume, with Tohru cheerfully telling about the Sohma curse in a way that implies it's all fun and games, is beginning to grate as the story gets darker and darker. We learn more about what it's like to be a teenaged Sohma in love - and it ain't pretty. The situation of the adult Zodiac members is just as bad, even though they can control themselves better, and we witness some more of that as well, including more details about Hatori's tragic romance of several years ago. More revelations about horrible Sohma parents are balanced with increasing tenderness of all sorts among the characters as the Sohmas and Tohru and her friends get ready for and start their summer vacation. Volume 9 also includes Hanajima's backstory and a funny little extra about the teens waiting out a rainstorm and whiling away the time by telling spooky stories.

( Read more ... with spoilers! )