In times of darkness, books provide me comfort. I picked this up after it was recommended in NPR’s book concierge as a best book of 2017 and finally got around to reading it. I took a lot of history courses in college that studied Asian and Middle Eastern cultures because so much of what we are taught is centered on US and European History. I have always been interested in Japanese history and culture. My Brother’s Husband tells the story of Yaichi, a stay-at-home dad […]
Evil Little Girl Corporate Villain vs God
I’m going to be upfront: I like the graphic novel version of this story much better than I do the light novel. I saw this Tanya the Evil series on Crunchyroll (but haven’t watched it yet), and the premise looked interesting, so when I saw the books I figured I’d try those. If I hadn’t read the manga first, I would have given up on the series. The light novel version is just too confusing and monotone; it shifts between perspectives at random intervals and […]
Best Christmas present EVER!
I found out about this book from one of my close friends last year but I completely forgot about it until recently. I found it in a Barnes and Nobles and thought that the cover looked really cool and that I heard good things about it previously. When I found it I asked my mom to put it on my Christmas wishlist and I was so happy when my grandparents gave me it for Christmas. There are a total of 13 books in the series and I intend to […]
There’s more to that Studio Ghibli film…
My introduction to Nausicaä was the 1984 Studio Ghibli film of the same name. I didn’t see the film until about ten years ago when I began collecting all the films of Hayao Miyazaki. My daughter and I enjoy watching Miyazaki stories, and I have an appreciation for his strong female characters. I had no idea that the movie was only a fraction (about two chapters) fo the story and world of the Valley of the Wind. I purchased this two-volume case-bound collection on a whim – our local […]
Fighting Demons with the Power of Music
The Magia the Ninth series has a thoroughly ridiculous premise, which is why it’s so much fun. It’s also only 2 volumes which makes the end pretty open-ended. I found myself wishing for maybe one or two more volumes to fill in a few of the many gaps. Basically a high school student whose parents were killed by a demon runs into the head demon hunter of the Church of the Masterpiece, Ludwig von Beethoven (cranky, ambitious, powerful, but maybe nice too). Beethoven, along with […]
7 Princes- Really 6- Indiana Jones style
The Seven Princes of the Thousand Year Labyrinth looks like an entertaining fantasy-mystery series. The basic premise is that seven different attractive young men wake or end up in the Castle-of-the Thousand-Year-Labyrinth. They are candidates to be the next emperor, since hereditary monarchy was outlawed centuries ago, and they can’t leave the castle until they decide among themselves who will be the next emperor; everyone else becomes the ruler’s new advisors.. Ewan is the main character and he looks like a naïve country boy, while […]