More Book Binges and More Health Updates

My mom is doing better health wise. She's had some stomach issues but her strength is to the point that with the aid of a wheeled walker she's zooming about right now. She's still not home, though, and there's still no word as to when she's going to be able to leave the live in physical rehabilitation center and return home. She's a little frustrated about that, as am I. She's considering telling the nurses there not to let dad see her since every time he comes in he starts complaining about things at home and pissing and moaning about how he thinks he's not feeling all that well. Considering he rarely gets more than the occasional sniffle and if he gets convinced he's really sick if he gets anything more than that he's actually doing better than I am, and worlds better than my mom. He's convinced his case of trigger finger is something very terrible and that the shoulder he strained a bit at work is even worse. There's mom recovering from open heart surgery and pretty weak, her restless leg syndrome coming back with such force it's causing full body twitches as well as her migraines (which she managed to go for two years where she only had one slight one before this) and he's trying to get pity from her. I'm recovering from a stress-induced anemic episode and fibromyalgia flareup as well as being off my main medication for now since my insurance stopped covering it and he's griping I'm being lazy because he's getting so much more done at home than I am.

On a brighter note, my birthday was a few days ago. I'm now the big 30. It kind of makes me feel old now, remembering hearing all my friends when I was little talking about not trusting anyone 30 or older. Granted, I'm still a big kid at heart and because of that part of me really feels my physical age doesn't fit me. I was even happy to hear someone tell me I didn't look over 18 when mom told one of the nurses where she is how old I was now. My birthday was a very simple affair with a small chocolate cake and only my mom and dad around to celebrate. My mom had gotten my gift for me months earlier, a wonderful ring with a decent sized cushion cut teal sapphire (it was a created one, tho, cheaper than a naturally made one, but still a real one instead of a simulated one) accented with high quality diamonique and on a 14 karat gold band.

I celebrated on my own last night with a nice small glass of amaretto and a little book binge, ordering several novels I've been wanting online. I'm really loving Viz's new Haikusoru imprint of Japanese sci-fi and horror novels so I ordered The Lord of the Sands of Time and having been secured as an Otsuichi fan after reading Zoo from that imprint I ordered Calling You, another of his short story anthologies (this one was picked up by Tokyopop around the same time they picked up GOTH, also by him and a very good read). I also ordered the first Shakugan no Shana novel, as a while back I accidentally picked up the second instead of the first, Guin Saga volume 4, and the second Haruhi Suzumiya novel in hardcover. To make the order enough to get free shipping and handling I also ordered Armitage III: Dual Matrix finally, the limited edition version with the figure of Naomi Armitage done by Toys. It was on special and only cost $9. I separately preordered the fourth Twelve Kingdoms novel since it's still listed in hopes it really is still coming out. I also don't want to risk missing out on the hardcover version since the hardcover printing of the third volume was pretty limited.

As for the Haikusoru titles, I'd have to say I'd REALLY recommend Housuke Nojiri's Userper of the Sun. It's a wonderfully intelligent sci-fi novel that starts off in what was, at the time it was written, a five minutes into the future setting (the novel was written in 2002, the first date in the novel's timeline is November of 2006). It starts with the observance of a strange structure observed forming on Mercury, which eventually becomes a ring surrounding the sun and causing massive climate changes on Earth. It deals a lot with how humanity would react to an alien structure forming in our solar system, the potential of first contact, and different forms of intelligence in lifeforms and the problems that could be inherent to communicating with different forms of intelligence. Even if you're not a fan of foreign literature it's a good read, as a good chunk of the book is set in North America, where the Japanese protagonist moves so she can work with the main group studying the ring.

As for Zoo, I wasn't overly impressed by the title story, but some of the other stories in it were great. "Find the Blood!" was a good murder mystery and I especially liked the final story, "Seven Rooms." "Words of God," a story about a guy with the ability to use words to influence living things, had a fascinatingly morbid ending, but "The White House in the Cold Forest" struck me as more morbid and less fascinating. "Song of the Sunny Spot" was more sci-fi than horror and a very interesting look at emotions and humanity and what separates that from artificial facsimiles of humanity as well as life, death, what death means, and the bittersweet side of both life and death. "SO-far" was a very trippy psychological tale that masquerades as a ghost story and a very interesting ending I really can't describe without spoiling the story. There were other stories included, but those are the ones that stood out to me the most.