(no subject)

[flemmings]

Actually did stay up late enough (studying kanji; hush, it's à chacun son goût) that the fireworks down by the waterfront drew my attention. Went to crane at the distant sparks from the study window, even though the clouds were so low-hanging that the CN Tower's lights were invisible. Recall that ten years ago was exactly the same: mild wet and overcast, but the fireworks were more spectacular then.

(I can see the tops of the lakeside fireworks, two miles away and change, only because TO is built on a gentle hill and I'm at the point where it just starts to get steep. Three blocks away I'd have an even better view.)

Japanese

So wa reirei no yuki ni mai
-- happy Taishou days

Nine Doors of Night
--Hatsu Akiko's unconsidered trifles. Pleasant, as such trifles are, but no high points in this volume.

Heisei Ghost busters 2 & 3
--wish I'd finished 4 as well, of this annoying and random Onmyouji meets the modern world manga that's been bugging me for six years now

Onmyouji 5
-- not a conscientious 'look up all unknown terms' read, but a fast plow-through to the essentials. This may be the only way to read Okano and stay sane. As witness

Youmi Henjou Yawa 4
-- weeps

That architect manga

English

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
--present from kickinpants. I love epistolary novels as long as they aren't written by Richardson. Could have wished for more book chat, myself.

Unseen Academicals
-- happiness

Death at Apothecaries' Hall
-- written under the pseudonym of Deryn Lake by Dinah Lampitt, 'a well-known historical novelist.' I suppose her historical novels are as badly edited as her mysteries. Not sure what to make of this one. Some stylistic infelicities, some inattention to language (but not on the Philippa Gregory level), an unlikely number of corpses and a less than unguessable mystery. But I still couldn't put it down, and its atmosphere stayed with me for days.

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor
-- reading the later ones first spoils one big plot twist, but the twist was masterfully set up and the voice sounds to my ears spot on. Hadn't realized she got the idea first when she was pregnan and kept hearing Jane Austen's voice in her head. Wonderful are the ways of creation because no other mother of my acquaintance has ever channelled a dead author.

Comments

[nekonexus.livejournal.com]

From our angular, between-the-highrises view of the fireworks: it looked like they were burning down City Hall, or at least had erected a giant bonfire in the Square. The fireworks seemed to be only red, and reflecting a nice haze back off the misty rainclouds. There was no Tower. :p

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I wondered if it might be at City Hall, but I'd have thought there wasn't enough distance between launch site and crowds to satisfy the Fire Marshal. Which shows what I know.

The Tower does have a way of disappearing from time to time. No great loss.

[nekonexus.livejournal.com]

The safety distance thing has had us curious, too, since they've been doing these nearly every saturday night fireworks things since mid-december. It's odd, but it certainly seems to be in front of City Hall. *scratches head*