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  • Books, DVDs, Environment, GLBT, New, Sci Fi, Simon, Space: The Final Frontier, anime

    New Books! New DVDs!

    12.06.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    There are only a handful of new books this week. There’s a stack of DVDs though! Quite exciting for anime fans!

    Here are the books.

    Here’s How I See It: Here’s How It Is, by Heather Henson (270 pages) – The remarkably named Junebug wants to be an actress, but at the age of thirteen she’s still a stagehand at her parents’ playhouse. She feels like she’s becoming the perfect stagehand – this isn’t necessarily good, as it means she feels invisible!

    First line: ‘Here’s how I see it: everything is going to be okay, just like Dad said.‘

    Ship Breaker : A Novel, by Paolo Bacigalupi (326 pages) – In the grim, grim future (teens like dystopian novels!) Nailer, a teenaged boy, strips beached oil tankers for their copper. He stumbles across an ‘exquisite’ clipper ship beached in a hurrican and must decide between stripping it for parts or helping out the sole survivor (she is rich and beautiful!)

    First line: ‘Nailer clambered through a service duct, tugging at copper wire and yanking it free.‘

    Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me : A Novel, by Kristen Chandler (371 pages) – KJ lives in Montana, near Yellowstone park, where introduced wolves are splitting the community. Is she for them or against them? Do I mean the wolves, or the community? Yes to both!

    First lines: ‘Wolves don’t actually howl at the moon. Mostly they howl at each other. I’m a girl, so I get that.‘

    The Carrie Diaries, by Candace Bushnell (389 pages) – Carrie Bradshaw is the main character in the Sex And The City TV series and films. This book is her ‘diary’ from when she was a teen in Connecticut in the early ’80s, and before she went to New York.  

    First lines: ‘They say a lot can happen in a summer. Or not.‘

    My Worst Best Friend, by Dyan Sheldon (303 pages) – Grace and Savanna are besties! Even soul sisters. But sometimes friendships can turn sour.

    First line: ‘The way I saw it when I was in high school, even though there were still millioins of different life forms left on the planet, there were basically only two kinds of girls: Those Girls and everyone else.‘

    Out of Shadows, by Jason Wallace (277 pages) – This is set in Zimbabwe, in the early ’80s, just after independence. Robert is new to the country, and finds that some of his classmates are keen for the country to return to the old, white-led past, at any cost.

    First line: ‘Go ahead, shoot, I thought, because I was thirteen and deperate and anything, absolutely anything, was better than the fate to which my parents were leading me.‘

    Here are the new DVDs! We have added the newest Bleach DVDs (volumes 16 to 20), and we’ve also got the first Bleach film, Bleach : Memories of Nobody. (There’s talk of a live-action Bleach film, btw.) We have added a couple of Ghost In The Shell : Stand Alone Complex DVDs to the YA collection, and the entire first series of Tsubasa in one, six-disc boxed set. Boxed sets of shounen-ai classic Gravitation  and FLCL (pronounced ‘fooly-cooly’) are also in. As well as! Death Note  : Relight 2 (highly recommended), the first three Bakugan DVDs, a couple more Dragonball Z movies, the 2001 OVA of Spirit of Wonder, and the complete series of the French-Japanese animation, The Mysterious Cities of Gold (which came out in 1982, when Carrie Bradshaw was in high school).


  • Movies, New, Simon, anime

    A picture of some new DVDs we’ve bought

    14.04.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    newdvds

    (they’re not catalogued yet, but will be soon)


  • Library, Simon

    Stuff (for the teen age)

    23.03.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    Stuff for the Teen Age is the New York Public Library’s list of the best stuff for teens from that year. You should take a look! We have some – if not most  – of it. True, the list includes Xbox games, Justin Bieber, and a whole load of manga*, but we have the books and many CDs covered.

    They also have a blog you should add to your RSS feed (along with this blog).

    * We’re getting in a lot more manga and anime soonish though


  • DVDs, New, Simon, anime

    New Anime

    28.10.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    More new anime has arrived (I mentioned it earlier but now it’s in the catalogue). We have the final disc of the Mushi-Shi series, which is a slow series but well worth watching in its entirety; volumes 1 to 7 of Fullmetal Alchemist; volumes 1 to 3 of Ranma 1/2; and the final three discs in the infinitely awesome Samurai Champloo series, which is now all in the YA area.

    Here’s a complete list of anime based on a manga series held by the library. Here’s a list of anime movies, and here is a list of anime television series.


  • DVDs, New, Sci Fi, Simon, anime

    New anime

    18.09.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    Yes! More new anime, and it’s on the catalogue so you can reserve it now. We have the first fourteen DVDs of Bleach : Agent of the Soul Reaper, which is pretty exciting (it’s very good) (website) and My-HiME : My Otome,  which can be read about on Wikipedia (or through the official website in Japanese).  Both series should be available from next week.

    Some of the others we will be getting are mentioned in this previous post.

    (All of the Samura Champloo series will soon become available through the library, although probably as an adult DVD only.)


  • DVDs, New, Simon, anime

    New Anime we will get soonish

    20.08.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    We (the library) have purchased some new anime series. But they’re not quite ready for the catalogue yet! They are in the building though. (DVDs and CDs aren’t entered into the library catalogue until they’re ready to be issued. Books are catalogued as soon as they’re ordered.) They shouldn’t be too far off, and then you can reserve them.

    These are the anime we’re getting (links lead to the v. handy Anime News Network):

    Ranma 1/2  - all seven series.
    Fullmetal Alchemist 
    Bleach -     (intended for the adult DVD collection, but we hope to wrangle some YA copies.)

    Good news.


  • DVDs, New, Simon, anime

    Mushi-Shi

    24.07.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    We have a new anime series available in the YA area. (Quite timely, as we’ve just separated the anime out from the other animated DVDs.) Mushi-Shi is about Mushi, supernatural creatures that aren’t noticed by most people, and Ginko, a Mushi master, who is researching them and helping out people who suffer from a case of Mushi infestation. The series has won loads of awards. There are five DVDs containing the first 20 episodes; the last disc isn’t quite here yet.

    Here’s the official website, here’s one in English, and here’s a link to the library catalogue so you can check availability and reserve them.


  • Crafts, DVDs, Simon, Top 10

    Top 10 : Japan (トップ 10 : 日本)

    10.07.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    Tomorrow (the 11th of July, from 1pm at the Town Hall) is the Japanese Festival (as mentioned here) and, with that in mind, here’s our Top Ten Japanese-related material (mostly) in the YA area. In no particular order.

    1. Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children (ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン) – This is based on the highly-regarded console game, and although it might be a little incomprehensible if you’re not familiar with Final Fantasy it’s still a spectacular CGI film. (Website.)

    2. Kino No Tabi (or Kino’s Journey : The Beautiful World, キノの旅), by Keiichi Shigusawa – This is the first in a series of novels about Kino, who travels through many unique lands with her talking motorcycle. That might sound a little twee, but the story looks at some pretty profound themes. We’ve only the first book, for now (sadly).

    3. Anything by Studio Ghibli Inc. (株式会社スタジオジブリ) – The films produced by Studio Ghibli are some of the best out there. Most people have seen Spirited Away (the first anime to win an Academy Award), but Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle are definitely worth the 50c rental fee. And Ponyo (trailer) is at this year’s Wellington Film Festival (on the 17th and 19th of July).

    4. Tekkon Kinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート) – Another anime that I highly recommend; it’s stylistic and lush to look at (the backgrounds are works of art). The story – about two orphans who take on the yakuza – is multi-layered and moving. (Trailer.)

    5. Usagi Yojimbo : Volumes 1- (兎用心棒), by Stan Sakai - This epic comic series is about Usagi, a samurai who happens to be a rabbit (everyone is some sort of animal). He’s modelled on the real-life samurai/swordsman/writer/philosopher, Miyamoto Musashi, whose life truly was epic. The 23rd volume is due out later this month.

    6. Number9Dream, by David Mitchell – Grimm recommended this book, about 19-year-old Japanese student, Eiji, who has come to Tokyo to search for his father. There’s an excerpt to read here. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001.

    7. Naruto : Volumes 1- (ナルト) – Naruto Uzumaki is a young ninja-in-training. He also has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within him, which means that if he can control it he can be a pretty powerful ninja. There are at least 45 in the series (held at the library, anyway) so there’s a lot to keep you going. Failing that, there is …

    8. all the other manga we have. Which is loads.

    9. Aranzi Aronzo’s books, Cute Stuff and The Cute Book. Aranzi Aronzo is a Japanese company that specialise in ‘cute, strange, cool, silly, a little bit horrible, stupid and comfortable’ design, and these two books show you how to make some very, very cute (kawaii, or Japanese cute) felt toys. Cute! They have a website.

    10. Sushi for Dummies, by Judi Strata – Knowing how to make sushi (寿司) is one of those skills that everyone should know, as it’s a) delicious and b) healthy as anything, and c) pretty easy to make. This book isn’t in the YA area but we must include it in this list anyway.


  • DVDs, Fantasy, Movies, Simon, anime

    Avatar

    29.06.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    Grimm embedded the trailer to the Avatar film (The Last Airbender) last week, and as I liked it I decided to get out the award-winning and highly-rated Avatar : The Legend of Aang DVDs to watch a couple of episodes. I ended up watching sixteen episodes over two days – it’s that good. So very, very good. If you like Studio Ghibli films you will like Avatar (obviously inspired by Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and so on). There are three series in total, but only the first series is available on DVD; the final two have only been released in the US, unfortunately, so it will be a while before we can watch them.

    In the meantime you can visit the official website, which has games, clips, weekly comics, and so forth. The UK site has some similar content, but some of it is different. There’s an Avatar wiki. There is a browser-based MMO called Avatar : Legends of the Arena that is free-to-play.

    The film, The Last Airbender, has a fansite (the official site is here).


  • Books, DVDs, Manga, Music, New, Simon, anime

    New books, CDs, and DVDs

    28.11.08 | Permalink | Comment?

    There’s not a lot of new material this week, so I’ll bundle it all up into one post. First up; new books!

    Fruits Basket #21, by Natsuki Takaya (181 pages) - The Sohma family are each possessed by an animal from the Chinese zodiac, and if they’re hugged by the opposite gender (or get stressed out) they turn into that animal. Fruits Basket is one of the best-selling shōjo manga in the world; ’shōjo manga’ is manga marketed towards teenage girls.

    Kekkaishi #14 (and #15), by Yellow Tanabe (162 pages) – Kekkaishi are demon-hunters who use magic to create barriers in creative and interesting ways. This is shōnen manga, which is manga marketed for boys between 8 and 18.

    The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine, by April Lurie (211 pages) – Fifteen-year-old Dylan’s life is in shambles; his mother may have run off, his father is never home, his older brother hangs out with his loser band, and he – Dylan – has just been caught shoplifting underwear. Also, his best friend is shooting a documentary about him and she (unfortunately) wants to remain his friend.

    Finnikin of the Rock, by Melina Marchette (398 pages) - This is the latest from the author of Looking for Alibrandi, (a very popular book still, fifteen years after its publication). Finnikin of the Rock is a character-driven fantasy novel. ‘A long time ago, in the spring before the five days of the unspeakable, Finnikin of the Rock dreamt he was to sacrifice a pound of flesh to save the royal house of Lumatere.‘ How’s that for a first sentence?

    New DVDs!

    Jane Eyre (M rated) – A retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel from the BBC.
    Appleseed : Ex Machina (M rated) – This is the sequel to the pretty-good-but-not-as-good-as-the-manga-I-thought film we also have in the YA DVDs. Reviews suggest that the CGI is fantastic, although the story lets the film down. I shall watch it this weekend (and compare it to Final Fantasy : Advent Children, the best CGI film ever).

    New CDs!

    Now That’s I Call Music 28 – Various. There are three things in life that we can’t get away from; death, taxes, and Now That’s What I Call Music compilations. This CD has eighteen tracks.
    Funhouse – Pink. This is Pink’s fifth album. She may be touring NZ next year.


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