True Love 101 discussion

Slightly embarrassed laugh. I think I'm out of this one. I can't get a copy in time. I'm going to try a few book stores and hopefully they have a paper version, but unfortunately failing that, I'll have to order from the U.S. and pay $30 dollars in shipping if I want to have any hope of getting it in time.

Aww, that's such a bummer!!!

ceiling cat says oh hai!
like I waz lying in bed jes reading my latest kittie calendar when ceiling cat says, 'hey yuz...I is sending yuz the word and the word is pdf. I wants yuz 2 like put on your magics glasses an yuzzing like cal-abah makes the word 2 a mobi.'
an I did, an it waz da bom.

LMAO!! Well, that's pretty Magical!

Oh dear lord. I feel like I need to go old school and bring this back. (don't click if you're not a fan of sex jokes)
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

And a translator has been provided for Ian.

What he meant to say was : he will be reading the book because he has procured a copy.

Finished Bitter Night. Can't wait to see what you guys think.

This is on my list but with Kate Daniels I'll maybe be pushing this one back to the end of the month, lol.

I'm at 15%...and enjoying it...not much else to say at the moment.

So...her names Akemi (Japanese name), she's the daughter of a geisha (Japanese female artisan)...and she described as Chinese.

Really?!

I guess I can kind of see it in the cover art.

Ian - That is one of the things that bothered me! I thought the name was very Japanese though the (view spoiler)[quote she said, "pook gai", is Chinese (hide spoiler)]. It just did not match up, along with the geisha description. The Chinese have had a longstanding negative view on the Japanese and I thought that this was a pretty big thing to mess up. If you're going to have side characters like that, please research their culture before you delve into it.

Wendy - Akemi isn't the heroine, just a subcharacter.

Courtney wrote: "If you're going to have side characters like that, please research their culture before you delve into it."

One of the things I do almost compulsively is look at the compare books thing to see if folks have read Memoirs of a Geisha, and I check to see how they rated it. It's just one of those funny things because most people I know rated it highly while I gave it 1 Star because I was kind of offended at how Arthur Golden described the floating world. It's an example of a little information is a dangerous thing.
And then when they made the movie they cast Zhang Ziyi as the lead...brilliantly talented actress, but Chinese. Harks back to casting Micky Rooney as a caricature of a Japanese person in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Curt Jurgens as the Chinese love interest in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

The whole "any Asian will do" attitude that was prevalent in Hollywood until not so long ago is kind of funny but I kind of expect better now.

I have a story...I was in Chinatown....actually I have two stories. I was in Chinatown and I saw this manscaped guy walking down the main mall wearing a really tight black sleeveless t-shirt with a huge chinese character on the front...the character was 女　　
I just laughed and shook my head...he could get away with that almost anywhere in Sydney...but Chinatown? I find the t-shirt in this video really funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC_ycD...

Oh second story...I was in Chinatown...and was approached by some Mormon missionaries. I didn't want to speak to them so I basically just threw out a few random phrases of Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese...mashed them all together and pretended I didn't speak English. The funny thing is, I imagine if they were sent to Chinatown they probably spoke Cantonese so they might have been onto me when they heard gong hei fat choy.

Just finished an hour ago. I thought it was pretty good. It occasionally felt a bit like D&D (view spoiler)[(collecting hags and magical weapons...powering up with angels) (hide spoiler)]....the ending felt a little clunky and seemed to stretch on a little longer than it needed to but overall I enjoyed it.

I will be reading this but it won't be for at least a week or longer. But I can't wait to compare notes. :)

I love that you managed to come up with a D&D reference.

Stacia ~ Vixen of Variety wrote: "I love that you managed to come up with a D&D reference."

It might be a little unfair. I just couldn't quite find the words for what I wanted to say. These guys take hit points and then they eat and they heal...they pick up stuff along the way which they can use in their quest. lol...I kind of felt there should have been three little red hearts in the corner so I always knew what their health was.

But it was still very good. The book kept me interested till the end with only a couple of small miss-steps.

My library has a copy and I've started it...40 double cheeseburgers and only 1 Coke?! (view spoiler)[It makes sense how using magic would burn thru so many calories and they need to fuel up. Must be nice. Maybe. (hide spoiler)]

I'm still listening to Discovery of Witches on my ipod and just finished Spider's Bite - so far Bitter Night feels like a combination of the two - witches and assassins. I like how the location is So. Calif, which I'm familiar with. Yay, Julian!

Gah. The month is almost over. I am still going to try and read this, even if I'm a little late.

Stacia, you wouldn't be verra far behind me since I've only finished ch 1.

I'm going to leave this topic in the group read folder for a few more days, since I know we have Lisa in progress and I might read it as well.

Thanks Stacia :D

I kind of felt there should have been three little red hearts in the corner so I always knew what their health was.

Haha, pretty good! Sorry I missed this one. Sounds interesting. I agree that lumping anything Asian with eachother is... Well, just ignorant.

An ignorance I shared not so long ago. I was enlightened after reading Tales of the Otori. My brother in law, who recommended the series, kept trying to convey to me there was an obvious difference between say the Chinese and The Japanese, but in my limited life experience with anything Asian, I could not see it. Now it's so obvious to me.

Not sure if going back and forth or mixing of the two cultures in this story would drive me crazy..?

I didn't see any mixing of cultures (Japanese or Chinese) in this book because Akemi was a side character and barely in it. It was just magic or non-magic, but mostly magic. And like Ian said about the D&D feel, I got that feel too but I've only played Star Trek Old Republic with the kids. I'm guessing the author is a gamer? There were times I skimmed thru because it got too wordy and/or repetitive and/or I just didn't care. Has anybody read beyond book 1? Does it get better? Sure, most series improve after the first book but not all.

Lisa wrote: "Does it get better?"

I haven't but I've heard that it's not too bad but the series ended badly. Apparently something to do with some issues she was having with her publisher...not really sure what the story is.

Then I'm not sure if I'll continue with this series because I've already finished a series that ended badly. Don't need a repeat of that!

The things I liked about this book: The location, like I mentioned earlier because I'm familiar with the places. (view spoiler)[The humor near the end - wish that there had been a bit more of it and earlier. My fav part was when the Shadowblades and Sunspears were naming things that they wouldn't miss when they died. The cook, and wished to have seen more of her and to witness her revenge via burned food, etc. That Max got her name from Mad Max and not a shortened Maxine because she didn't seem like a Maxine. Thor. Scooter and I guess we have to read book 2 to find out what's the deal with him? Geez. (hide spoiler)]

Thanks Lisa. Your comments helped me decide as to whether or not I read this anytime soon. I'll keep moving forward with my reading list....