ewein2412 | Network

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2026/02/10/new-game-plus-after-defeating-the-last-boss-all-these-beautiful-problematic-girls-in-the-first-town-have-gotten-really-attached-to-me-vol-1/

http://27.18850

By Touwa Akatsuki and Falmaro. Released in Japan as “Last Boss Toubatsu Go ni Hajimeru Nishuume Boukensha Life: Hajimari no Machi de Wakeari Bishoujotachi ga Mechakucha Natsuite Kimasu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kamishiro Taishi.

Just the title should tell you that we’re in old, familiar territory. First of all, this is from the author of ridiculous OP harem battle light novel The World’s Strongest Rearguard, whose anime is out soon. More importantly, there are levels and classes and stats, though thankfully a lot fewer stat screens than Rearguard ever had. New Game Plus is what some games have where, after finishing the game, you get to start over at Level 1 but you get to keep all your old gear and skills. In return, there’s stronger everything. That’s essentially what happens to our main character here. He also gains a bevy of new party members, who dominate the cover art. (He’s in the upper left corner. You’ll have to squint.) They’re fanservicey as hell, and all fall in love with him immediately. But don’t worry. Just like Rearguard, nothing will actually happen. This is about comfy rather than horny.

A young boy, Crow, is a thief. Who has no mana, unlike almost everyone else in the world. Naturally, he’s abandoned and lives in the slums. Fortunately, he can make friends and allies, even though he longs to be a magic user. Years later, he is Level 100, and he and his three level 100 party members (all gorgeous women) face off against a demonic dragon. They win, but Crow dies taking a curse meant to kill their swordfighter. He wakes up (sigh) talking to a goddess, who says he can be resurrected, and change his class. He immediately wants to be a Sage, the most powerful magic class. Now called Might, he’s back in the starter town he grew up in, and also looks 15 again rather than in his late 20s. But… he’s a sage! He can use magic! It’s just he’s Level 1 again. But… as he finds out, he’s still as strong as he was before.

If you’re looking for serious and deep, flee. If you’re looking for a long-running, consistently released series, flee as well – this had two volumes and then stopped, the author seems to be like that. If you’re looking for goofy fun with really likeable girls, some gratuitous fanservice, and an immediate found family, this is for you. If you’ve read Rearguard, no, he doesn’t have magical orgasm powers when his party sleeps like Akihito does. That said, I’m going to append a “yet” to that, because we also see him drawing out the girls’ secret hidden powers by kissing their hands. He can see locks on people’s chest that break when they fall in love with him, and he is breaking locks left and right, because he’s nice, powerful, polite, and doesn’t leer. Much. As for the girls, there is blue-haired swordfighter with a rather poorly hidden secret, her friend who claims to be a paladin but see previous secret, and an awkward mage with a large hat, small bust, and love of making her own homebrew potions rather than following the recipe. They’re all great, and funny. Might? You know what Might is like, you’ve read these. He’s a potato-kun. But a nice one. Kazuma wishes he were this guy, but Kazuma is more entertaining.

Again, this series has one kind of audience: those who like fantasy books with cute girls who like a nondescript hero. It’s a must for Rearguard fans, though, despite not having Best Lizard.

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2026/02/10/new-game-plus-after-defeating-the-last-boss-all-these-beautiful-problematic-girls-in-the-first-town-have-gotten-really-attached-to-me-vol-1/

http://27.18850

squidgestatus

From what I can tell, we were subject to some sort of attack that crippled the SquidgeWorld server. As such, we've banned the offending IP addresses that were sending thousands of requests per second (designed to overwhelm the server and bring it down), and have re-started the server. We went down about 11:30am Pacific Time, and should be up by 1pm Pacific Time.

Coincidentally, we got the usual "you rape fetisists and pedophiles!" abuse this morning, so more than likely the antis are behind the attack.

alfreda89

"Welcome to the Sexy Public Servants Charity Calendar, where True Love is Only a First Responder Away."

How about an omnibus of *four* complete novels about the Sexy Public Servants Charity Calendar guys? Expect Hallmark sweet with some spicy heat. 🌸

It's THE CALENDAR HEROES by Michele Dunaway, now in #ebook at #BookViewCafe & other fine ebook establishments.

#ContemporaryRomance, #FirefighterRomance, #FirstResponders, #ManOfTheMonthCalendar, #Paramedic, #PoliceOfficer, #SweetWithAHintOfSpice, #TheCalendarHeroesSeries

https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc-announces-the-calendar-heroes-by-michele-dunaway/

*This is a test of how does the new Create HTML work with a post like this.... May be under construction!

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: An ancient seabed

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: tired

lb_lee

Mori: we are still plugging away at Thunder Shaman: Making History With Mapuche Spirits in Chile and Patagonia by Ana Mariella Bacigalupo. It’s super interesting and opening our mind in all sorts of cool new ways, but it’s really dense and about a people we had never known about prior, who have a vastly different cultural context, so we have to take constant breaks to just think about it. (Also this book really could’ve used a glossary; we’ve had to handwrite our own in the blank pages and have filled two already.)

The chapter we are on now talks about Mapuche ideas of text and books as ritual objects, and written law and documentation as sorcery to be countered and appropriated. And at first I went “what?” But then I thought about how the legal disability system controls the romantic relationships, job potential, and finances of those it identifies, how it fucks with the heads of those under it, and I went, “hey, you know... where’s the lie?” There’s a lot of talk about subverting the colonial legal system as acts of countersorcery, how the Mapuche make their own counterhistories not recognized by the state, and it got me thinking about how we’ve used story ourself.

Even as it was happening to us as kids, large swathes (the most IMPORTANT swathes) of our life was deemed “not real.” The concept of reality, objective fact, was used as a tool to control and harm us: crazy child can’t be trusted! And if it ever became our word against our attacker’s, we insta-lost because of who we were, no matter the circumstance. Sorcery indeed!

We couldn’t say directly what happened or was happening to us, because then we’d get caught and it’d get erased. But we could make our own twist on being unbelievable narrators: we could write fiction! And we could imbue it with all the shadow narrative of our truth that we could, interspersed with loads of nonsense, distraction, and noise, so nobody would suspect. We were, to the best of our ability, keeping our own history safe for our future selves. Though lots of sifting and salt is required, we still rely on those shadow histories today for records work! We have found ways not only to hang onto our “fake” history, but to spread it around so other people can use it and hang onto it too! So many of our comics and zines are just us trying to keep our life from getting derealized out from under us again!

And much like how the Mapuche aren’t above trying to use the legal system and its documents to their own purpose, we too use “real” records: dated photos, medical records, school calendars and report cards, etc.

We never considered this a battle of sorceries, but it’s a fascinating new lens with which to look at this stuff. Because if our digging around in archives has taught us anything, it’s that derealization, that erasure and erosion of history and reality, is constant. What gets buried, or retracted, or forever prefaced with “alleged” “identified as” or “perceived as,” what gets endlessly converted into symbolic metaphor instead of flat statement... it’s here all the time, and it affects us. I do believe that an objective reality exists, though I dunno that any one human can perceive it, but what becomes “history” and what becomes irrelevant footnotes is about way more than that objective truth. It’s so much harder than that (or the reverse of believing whatever damn fool thing your brain tells you no matter what).

We’ll probably post more about this book; I think Rogan was like, “I’ll do one big post when I’m done,” but there are so many angles and things to pursue in this book, that ain’t gonna happen. I didn’t even TOUCH the Mapuche concept of multitemporality and how it’s affected our ideas on memory work yet!

Current Mood: enthralled
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/13887.html

rolanni

Tuesday. Sunny and pretty dern cold. Trash and recycling are at the curb. The chickadees and the titmice that dined with us yesterday told their friends down at the bar and this morning we also have cardinals and mourning doves. I haven't seen any other interest, but I fear mine will have to be a pop-up diner.

Breakfast was stir-fried leftover veggies and rice. After I finished stir-frying, I removed the veggies to my bowl, cracked an egg into the frying pan, scrambled it around and added it to the bowl. Worked out well. Lunch will be soup today (yesterday, I decided on fish and the veggies of which I had leftovers this morning).

I really should leap right into the taxes, but -- when I was sitting with the Happy Lite this morning with Firefly on my knees, I read an article about marriage proposals and how they remain the last stage for the Grand Gesture in Romance (which is not true, actually, unless no one's doing epic weddings anymore?) -- the man down on his knees, his intended shocked, and charmed, and if she hadn't been exactly in love, this Lovely Gesture is the final nudge, because of course one must say yes! And how you film it and post it on Insta for all your friends to see. And how they're getting more and more over the top, because nothing says "I love you" like putting somebody into a spot where they don't dare spoil the spectacle.

Trés romantique.

I, of course, never intended to get married, and nor did Steve, having done that once and found it not to his taste. We did have, as I may have said once or twice, an instant connection, and I was prepared to share a household and cats with him forever, because we worked, snapped into each other like Legos. We decided to marry as a practicality, to ensure that, if I fell ill (again), I would be assured of someone who actually cared about what happened to me out there taking care of the details.

When I did fall ill, I couldn't even talk to Steve at his temp-agency job to tell him where I was, because I wasn't his wife. The receptionist at the agency did take a message, though.

I will pass lightly over the Utter Horror that I felt, sick, so very sick, when my mother walked into my hospital room.

The agency got my message to Steve, and he did eventually arrive. At which point my mother did one of the most humane things she had ever done for me. She told the doctor, "He'll take care of whatever you need." -- and left.

When things were less fraught, and I was recovered, Steve and I talked this event over, and I said, "I don't ever want that happen again. Do we need to go to a lawyer and get something written up to say that you'll speak for me?" And he said, "Let me think about it."

A couple days later, when I came home from work, he poured me a glass of wine, and handed me a carved wooden box.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Open it," he said.

So I did.

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: contemplative

osprey_archer

In 2005, my family went on a three week trip to Australia and New Zealand, on which I embarked determined to bring back gems of antipodal literature.

Unfortunately, I was not very internet savvy at that point, so I didn’t successfully manage to search for the titles of these gems. Presumably I could have asked the booksellers, but this literally didn’t occur to me until I was writing this post, so clearly that was a non-starter.

So mostly I purchased the complete works of Isobelle Carmody, plus some of Lynley Dodd’s Slinki Malinki books (happy to report that my niece now enjoys them). But I did consider Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Does My Head Look Big in This?, before concluding that this book would obviously make it to the United States before long.

I was correct! The book made it to the United States within a year or two after that trip. I proceeded not to read it for another twenty years.

But finally I have read it. At this point it’s kind of a period piece of my own youth. CDs! DVDs! Young people who use their cell phones to actually call each other! Be still my beating heart.

But also, the character who is so relentlessly fat-shamed by her mother and her classmates that she informs our heroine that she wishes she could become anorexic. Unable to achieve this fatal disease, she instead takes up smoking. She ultimately gives it up when she gets a boyfriend who likes her curves, but still. Oh, 2005, how I don’t miss you. What an awful year. Awful decade in fact. Sometimes I feel like an old curmudgeon shaking my metaphorical cane at The State of the World These Days, so it’s cheering in a way to be reminded that I hated the world when I was a teenager, too.

“But Aster,” you complain. “The actual book? Do you have any thoughts about Does My Head Look Big in This?”

Well, to be honest, the book also reminded me that I had a tortured relationship with contemporary YA even before its Twilightification. It also seemed to me that the move from children’s literature to YA echoed the arc of Fern’s character growth in Charlotte’s Web: at the start she saves Wilbur the runt pig and spends hours listening to the talking animals, but at the end all she cares about is some stupid boy who took her for a ride on the Ferris wheel. It’s a shift from wonder and possibility and talking animals to boring romance and clothes and makeup (or boring sports if the main character is a boy).

As an adult I have more tolerance for this sort of thing, but I suspect that in my youth I would have been horrified that our heroine starts wearing the hijab full-time and still spends most of her time thinking about clothes and makeup and boys. To my seventeen-year-old mind, the chief benefit of wearing the hijab would be never having to think about any of those things ever again! Or at least until you’re ready to get married. (I recognize that this is not how it actually works, but it’s still what I would have thought.)

So in fact it’s a good thing that I waited 20 years to read the book, because I probably would not have much appreciated the book in 2005. But in 2026, it’s given me a nice wander down memory lane.

mangabookshelf_feed

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2026/02/10/duchess-in-the-attic-vol-5/

http://27.18847

By Mori and Huyuko Aoi. Released in Japan as “Yane Urabeya no Kōshaku Fujin” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by piyo.

So you’re a writer and you have a problem. You’ve introduced a naive idealist who has no idea how the real world works, and who tends to be easily led. Over the course of the book, your lead character manages to educate them on how things should be done and how they’re the ones to do them. Which is great, now the character knows better and is ready to contribute to society. And yet, your book can’t really happen when everyone is being relatively savvy. It’s time to introduce relative of naive idealist, who’s twice as bad and twice as stubborn. If your book is for guys, be sure to make the second character a woman, preferably blonde. If it’s for girls, then be sure to make him handsome but dumb. So dumb. We want to be able to see the wind whistling through his head. And if you really want to go all the way, just make him a trainspotter. Sure, American readers might not get the type. But Brits sure will.

Opal is back in Lumeon, there to celebrate Ellie becoming the new grand duke. Unfortunately, while Opal now knows that Ellie has grown up and is ready to become a fine ruler, this has not filtered out to anyone else in the country. As such, Opal and her brother Julian (Claude, alas, stays home this book to take care of the kid) do their best to show how Ellie has changed and make the path to her… whatever coronation is for dukes… easier. Julian is also there to be a sexy noble hitting on Ellie and romancing her, because they still don’t know who was behind her kidnapping in the last book. The prime suspects are her uncle, who doesn’t really have a motive, and her cousin, who is… well, see paragraph above. As such, the bulk of this book is a mystery rather than a thriller as Opal and Julian try to work out the why and how of all the cunning plans the enemy has.

Yes, we again open in an attic to make the title work, but once again, it’s just as a nostalgic show – Opal does have her life threatened twice in this book, but both times it’s in the open, so attics are not in play. I did call this book a mystery, but the mystery is not really that hard – hrm, could it be the guy who’s always looking shifty and evil? – so the real reason to enjoy this is to see Ellie continue to gain experience and confidence, her cousin Michael be dumb as a stump (his obsession is trains, but as Opal soon shows, he’s not an expert on them either), and Julian be a charming asshole most of the time, usually on purpose to incite others to show themselves. As with Book 1 and Book 3, you could theoretically end the series here, but technically Ellie isn’t in power yet, so I’m sure Opal will be back soon.

This continues to fit the definition of “solid”.

https://suitablefortreatment.mangabookshelf.com/2026/02/10/duchess-in-the-attic-vol-5/

http://27.18847

sholio

So I read the fourth book in this series (by accident, not realizing it was the fourth) a couple of years ago, and stalled out on book 1. After reading the SCP Foundation book last week, I decided there would never be a better time for a cosmic horror-comedy book I already owned - and I was so right, I marathoned the entire series this past week and absolutely loved it. There's a new book coming out in 2026 and I cannot WAIT.

These books, and especially the first half of book 1 (by far the weakest part of the series), are dudebro-ish and sometimes very early-2000s deliberately transgressive humor (i.e. South Park - this gets MUCH less as it goes on, but never really goes away), and they are sometimes lovely and insightful, and sometimes just incredibly stupid, and I can see why someone would bounce off them, especially considering how I struggled to get through the early parts of book 1. But after four books, I love these characters so much that I will follow them anywhere. Even through the stupid parts!

These books, especially the first one, are primarily narrated by Dave, a slacker dudebro in the general style of early 2000s movies etc (this is very clearly in the style of the Kevin Smith movies, South Park, and other things of that era). Dave is a depressed loner working at a video store whose best and only friend is John, a Bad Idea Friend who takes every drug he gets his hands on, belongs to a shitty band, and drags Dave into a never-ending series of terrible, terrible life choices.

The plot-relevant one of these is taking a new drug sweeping their depressed Midwestern town of [Undisclosed], a drug which looks like mobile and intelligent used motor oil. It turns out that it kills most of the people who take it, but they are among the few survivors, and are suddenly able to step outside time and space, and see everything going on their small depressed Midwestern town -- all the ghosts, all the cosmic entities. They can uncontrollably travel in time, they can freeze time, and they're swept up in an attempt to fix a series of goddawful cosmic horror rifts in time and space that are wrecking their whole dimension.

The third member of the group is drawn in during the first book when she becomes a victim and later a friend: Amy, who was shattered physically and emotionally in a car accident, and then comes to the attention of cosmic horrors; starts off as one of the people they're trying to help, and gets sucked into weird spacetime shenanigans with things that she (unlike John and Dave) can't actually see. It's with Amy's introduction that the first book feels like it really kicks off and gets good.

The body count is high and gory, there are tons of gore and grossout humor and some incredibly soft, emotional and deeply affecting moments as well. This is a series where

some spoilers for one of the books

the big dilemma can be how do we kill some giant extradimensional maggots that pretend to be adorable human children, who everyone else sees as adorable human children, while they munch gorily on their caregivers and no one else can see it ... or maybe it's the realization that the hideous maggots are also children, deserving of care and consideration as any other children, and maybe the people you need to stop are the government agents coming to kill them.

If whether the dog dies is an important factor in your reading or viewing, please click

this spoiler

there is a dog, and the dog dies.

These books are so hard to rec, because you have to slog through the worst part of the series (the first half of book 1) to get to the almost transcendentally good late middle of book one; it can be lovely enough to make me cry or just spectacularly stupid within a chapter or two. A lot of stuff is brought up and then never explained. But sometimes the explanations made me put the book down and have feelings for a while. It made me laugh a lot. There are so many bodily fluids and terrible bodily function jokes. Some of its best moments involve the characters being forced to contend with the fact that life is complicated and stupid and cruel, and the best thing you can do, maybe the only thing you can do, is to simply be kind, and make the kind choice, if that's the only choice you have to make.

Sometimes defeating the apocalypse cultists means sitting down with them and understanding their heartbreaking loneliness and convincing them to walk away because you can be the person who turns them around and becomes the only person in their lives to ever believe in them and tell them that they can be something better than this.

... And sometimes it involves a triple-barreled shotgun and a plan involving a room full of fake silicon butts. That's what this series is like.

( A spoiler from book 4 )

tamaranth

2026/018: Tools for Life: 10 Essential Therapy Skills Everyone Should Know — Dr Kirren Schnack

Our environment can influence the way our genes are expressed through a process known as epigenetics, with both positive and negative experiences influencing how our genes work... nature and nurture are constantly working together, reminding us that who we are is not set in stone. [Chapter 1]

Read by the author, who has a warm and restful voice, this is an overview of some common psychological issues and how to address them. There are ten chapters, ranging from 'How You've Become Who You Are' (which examines the role of genetics, culture and trauma in shaping personality, and discusses attachment theory) to 'Healing from the Pain Caused by Others' (which focuses on relationships ending, forgiveness and closure, and how to move on).

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm

asianjunkie_feed

Posted by IATFB

https://www.asianjunkie.com/2026/02/09/conspiracy-nut-claims-utada-hikaru-planned-charlie-kirk-getting-murked-which-might-outdo-the-iu-theories/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=conspiracy-nut-claims-utada-hikaru-planned-charlie-kirk-getting-murked-which-might-outdo-the-iu-theories

https://www.asianjunkie.com/?p=276762

In crazy-ass-shit news, remember those people who are convinced IU is some kind of secret operative? Well, apparently there’s a Japanese version now and it involves Utada Hikaru. Yes, a couple weeks ago a Hikki stan made a shitpost about them commenting on Victoria Beckham family drama, and they got a reply from an absolutely …

https://www.asianjunkie.com/?p=276762

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: amused

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3205/

This dating is corroborated by the presence of stone tools at the site, rather than earlier and less effective helium ones.

https://xkcd.com/3205/

torachan

1. Got my teeth cleaned today and since Carla was awake before my appointment (which was at 8:30am), she was able to drop me off so I could just walk home. The dentist is a good walking distance away, but with my appointment being on the early side, I wouldn't have had time to cool off once I arrived, and I didn't want to risk being hot and/or sweaty and having to get right in the chair. But I did get a nice walk on the way home, though, and it was fully overcast, which is definitely my preference for walks.

2. Since the dentist appointment was a good excuse and I didn't really have a pressing reason to go into the office, I just worked from home today. I think I'll have to go in every day the rest of the week, so it was nice to stay home today.

3. I love these sunny window shots!

lb_lee

Mori: Rawlin, alone amongst all of us, never changed her hairstyle... until now! And I did doodles because my girlfriend is cute and pretty.

( Pictographic proof behind the cut! )

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: the Orion Experience - "Someone, Somewhere, Right Now"
Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/13693.html

mangabookshelf_feed

Posted by Sean Gaffney

https://mangabookshelf.com/2026/02/09/pick-of-the-week-cats-beasts-and-wanderers/

https://mangabookshelf.com/?p=87332

SEAN: The new season of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has reminded me how much I enjoy it, so the new volume of that is my pick for this week.

MICHELLE: Having really enjoyed Sakae Kusama’s The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency, I am picking Wandervogel this week!

ASH: I’m curious about that one, too! And I agree that A Good Day Starts with Cats and Books, but I’m going to make The Beast King: Master of Medicines my pick this week. I tend to like these sorts of healing stories.

ANNA: I’m going to go with A Good Day Starts with Cats and Books, for the title alone!

https://mangabookshelf.com/2026/02/09/pick-of-the-week-cats-beasts-and-wanderers/

https://mangabookshelf.com/?p=87332

squidgestatus

In the last couple of weeks our image hosting seems to be being taken over by porn hosting and such. Everyone should know that we are here for fandom - whether that is NSFW or not. So yes, we allow nude images and such. But we seem to have been taken over by a few users who only post "porn for porn's sake". What does this mean? They're screenshotting porn movies, etc., to use it for their personal or shared "spank bank." NSFW image hosting is allowed - as long as it's fandom related.

Because we've had so many problems lately, signups for image hosting are currently disabled. If you want an image hosting account, you're going to need to fill out a request. Simply click on the link for support and let us know you want an Image Hosting account. You need to submit the following in order for it to be approved:

Your desired username

Your desired email address (if it's not the one attached to your request)

Your role in fandom and/or just a statement saying you will use your Image Hosting account for fandom reasons.

Next, FenRecs.com is still down. We believe we have a hosting company, and they answered all our questions. Now it comes down to timing. I hope to have FenRecs.com back up and running by the end of the month.