Amefurashi
Art and Story by Atsushi Suzumi
Translated and adapted by Elina Ishikawa
Published by Del Rey, imprint of Random House, Inc.
ISBN 10: 0-345-51248-0
ISBN 13: 978-0-345-51248-2
Review copy provided by publisher
Review by Linda Yau

The setting of this story is in a desert town, Gimmy is a teenage repair guy, and by mistake he loses his siblings as offerings to the local rain goddess. Sora, the goddess usually receives dolls as offerings, but follies occur. Gimmy messes up, but is determined to get his siblings back and that’s where the adventure begins. » Continue reading “Manga Review: Amefurashi”

Suggestive Eyes
Story and Art: Momoko Tenzen
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-045-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-045-7

Review by Kris

We all know that breakups are hard. Megumu Okazaki is a popular grad student who is trying to put his life back together after a heart-wrenching breakup. Hisashi Kina is a handsome 3rd year college student who seems to have fallen for Megumu. The two end up in bed together after Megumu runs into his ex. The problems arise when both Kina and Megumu have no idea what direction their relationship is headed. Do they love each other or is Megumu only using Kina as a rebound fling to heal his broken heart?

Another couple, professors at Megumu and Kina’s university, also makes an appearance in their own story. Kikugawa and Shibata attended the same college and now teach at said college together. Kikugawa is quiet and comes across as somewhat aloof. Shibata, on the other hand, is social, personable, and gets along with everyone. This is truly a sweet romance where opposites attract and that if you are truly compatible you can have long, fulfilling relationship.
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Suggestive Eyes”

Flesh and Grass
by Libby Cone
Available for the Kindle
Pdf copy provided by the author

Review by Lynn Loper

I was born in Delaware, and I’ve never lived anywhere else, but that doesn’t influence my opinion of Flesh and Grass. Until I read the book I had never heard of the settlement at the Hoornkill, and had no idea of the conflicts between the Dutch and Swedes and British and Marylanders and, finally, William Penn, over that area. It’s not loyalty to Delaware that made me like it so much.

This is an exciting story, full of human characters and people brought out of history books as living beings. I’m going to be doing more reading about Cornelis Plockhoy, and what happened in what we now call Lewes.

I especially liked the author’s use of other senses, smell and touch and taste, to describe not only how the main character interacts with the world, but to describe the other characters. I’ve seen sea grass in Lewes; now I can smell it, with an overlay of nutmeg and cinnamon. And I have to find out more about knitting stockings. This left me with a list of things to find out about, which is my criterion for a good story. This is a good story.

Jack London’s Dog
by Dirk Wales, Illustrated by Barry Moser
Published by Great Plains Press, Chicago 2008
ISBN: 0963245937
Review copy provided by publisher

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

This is the most charming children’s book I’ve ever read since The Chronicles of Narnia, which the movies do not do justice to! It’s a fictional account of what might have happened to the dog named Jack that author Jack London knew during his brief sojourn in Alaska during the Gold Rush of 1897. This is the same dog on which London based the character of Buck, the domestic dog who goes feral in his classic novel “Call of the Wild”. Dog lovers will adore this book, which gives such loving insight into a dog’s point of view about the behavior of humans. Even a cat lover like me will find it easy to get into Jack’s character and sympathize with him.
» Continue reading “Book review: Jack London’s Dog”

Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture vol 1
Story and Art by Masayuki Ishikawa
Translated by Stephen Paul
Published by Del Rey , imprint of Random House, Inc.
ISBN10: 0345514726
ISBN13: 9780345514721
Review copy provided by publisher

Review by Linda Yau

Imagine always having the ability to see micro-organisms with your naked eye. What would it be like? Would you embrace this ability, shun it, or would you learn to cope with it? That is how Tadayasu Sawaki lives his life. He stopped speaking about this unique ability, but learned to cope with it. Now the story begins with him starting as a freshman at an agricultural college with his friend Kei Yuki, and this is a story of their experiences. » Continue reading “Manga Review: Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture vol 1″

The Never-Ending Sacrifice
By Una McCormack
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2009
ISBN: 1439109613
Review copy purchased by reviewer

Review by Kathryn Ramage

“The author is supposed to be chronicling seven generations of a single family, but he tells the same story over and over again. All the characters live lives of selfless duty to the state, get old and die–and then the next generation comes along and does it all over again!”

“That’s the whole point, Doctor. The repetitive epic is the most elegant form of Cardassian literature, and The Never-Ending Sacrifice is its greatest achievement.”

–Dr. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, The Wire

The classic Cardassian novel, The Never-Ending Sacrifice by Ulan Corac, opens with a dedication “For Cardassia,” and exemplifies the Cardassian ideal of unwavering dedication to the homeworld and placing the needs of the State above personal considerations. As noted by Dr. Bashir’s and Garak’s discussion above, the plot is extremely repetitive and some readers, particularly human ones, might find it a dreadful bore. Fortunately, Una McCormack’s novel of the same name is neither.
» Continue reading “Book Review: The Never-Ending Sacrifice”

Women are Crazy, Men are Stupid
The Simple Truth to a Complicated Relationship
By Howard J. Morris and Jenny Lee
Published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2009
ISBN: 9781439109748
Review copy provided by publisher

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

Oh boy, talk about Venus and Mars! This literary labor of love was written by a co-habiting couple in Hollywood, both writers of popular TV situation comedies, both divorced, both crazy about each other, but not so crazy about the little differences between men and women that keep popping up whenever they try to have a serious discussion.
» Continue reading “Book review: Women are Crazy, Men are Stupid”

Oishinbo A la Carte – Japanese Cuisine (vol. 1)
Story by: Tetsu Kariya
Art by: Akira Hanasaki
Published by the VIZ Signature Imprint of VIZ Media
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-4215-2139-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-4215-2139-8

Review by Kris

Food… its something that we all need. Not only do we need it to sustain life but it also is very important to society. We all have dishes that are essential to our culture and one mention of these meals people immediately know where that food comes from. Scotland has Haggis, Russia and borscht goes hand in hand. When you think of Italy pasta comes to mind and where would America be without its apple pie. Even though food is essential you wouldn’t imagine making an entertaining manga out of it. Well it has been done, and done very well.

Oishinbo A la Carte focuses on the Teito Times and their project called the Ultimate Menu. Shiro Yamaoka and Yuko Kurita are the two employees in charge. It turns out that Yamaoka is the son of renowned gourmet and famous artist Yuzan Kaibara. Yamaoka and Kaibara have been estranged for many years and the two don’t get along. They have very different views on how gourmet food should be approached. Yuzan feels that only those with culture and discriminating taste should be recognized as gourmets. Yamaoka feels differently. He feels that everyone should be able to enjoy good food and that gourmet meals can be found everywhere, not just in super fancy and expensive restaurants.
» Continue reading “Manga Review: Oishinbo A la Carte – Japanese Cuisine (vol. 1)”

Hey, Sensei?
Story and Art: Yaya Sakuragi
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-047-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-047-1

Review by Kris

Written in the corner of a test Tomohiko Isa catches the note “I love you, Sensei” from one of his students. Isa is a stoic high school math teacher. The surprise comes from who left the note, male student Takashi Homura. Homura happens to be the younger brother of his college girlfriend. It was in this relationship that Isa discovered that he was gay and he figured that Homura was using this as a way to get back at him. Bombarded by Homura’s constant sexual attacks he discovers that Homura’s love confession was in fact real and had no idea that Isa was gay.
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Hey, Sensei?”

Exotic and Delicious Fate
Story and Art by Ryoku Tsunoda
Published by Juné, imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN10: 1569700745
ISBN13: 9781569700747

Review by Linda Yau

Kaoru Miyagi is a bartender who found luck when an elderly benefactor gave him a job at the branch Tachibana restaurant. Fast forward eight years later, he is the manager of the restaurant. Enters the restaurant’s newest chef, Kasuga, and he is very interested in Miyagi. Kasuga also knows of Miyagi’s past that definitely changes his world, when reality comes to light.
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Exotic and Delicious Fate”

Manhattan Love Story
Story and Art: Momoko Tenzen
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-038-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-038-9

Review by Kris

Manhattan Love Story is a collection of related vignettes tied to a midtown flower shop. Dan “Diamond” Loving is the manager of a flower shop in midtown Manhattan that is owned by his lover Rock Melville. Rock is a powerful CEO and is rather busy so the time that the two of these men is few and far between. They love each other but Dan has a hard time dealing with not being able to see his lover as often as he would like.

We also get stories featuring Dan’s employee Kanan who falls in love with a Japanese high school student who is in town visiting family, Kenji’s (the Japanese high school student) nephew falling for his teacher, and Rock’s secretary Jessie is dating an old college friend of Rock’s. Jessie met Louis at a bookstore he was working at. This is the couple that adorns the front cover.
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Manhattan Love Story”

Princess Princess Plus
Story and Art: Mikiyo Tsuda
Published by the DokiDoki Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-090-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-090-7

Review by Kris

There is a somewhat strange tradition at the all-boys Fujimori Academy. Instead of having a more traditional style of mascot (you know something along the lines of Jaguars, Cougars, Spartans, Bees, etc.) they have the Princesses. A few of the prettiest boys are chosen to dress in drag and cheer on the various clubs on campus. Mikiyo Tsuda introduced us to the Princesses in her series Princess Princess and continues the concept in Princess Princess Plus.
» Continue reading “Manga review: Princess Princess Plus”

Secret Moon
Written by Siira Gou
Art by Satou Tomoe
Published by Juné, imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN10: 1569706166
ISBN13: 9781569706169

Review by Linda Yau

After years of living abroad, Viscount Akihiro Tomoe moves back to Japan where he lives with his servant, and has enough business and money so that hardly anyone questions the front that he has. He is a vampire and shares the allergies of a vampire in only be able to go out after dark, but what sets him apart from being a vampire, is the fact that he doesn’t have any fangs. He is living what he believes to be a monotone life. One night after checking one of his many businesses, he sees a fight between a young man and some street thugs. » Continue reading “Yaoi Novel Review: Secret Moon”

Boys Love
Story and Art by Kaim Tachibana
Published by Doki Doki Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN10: 1569700885
ISBN13: 9781569700884

Review by Linda Yau

Mamiya is a magazine editor who has his first high profile feature on famous teen model Noeru Kisargi. He was quite enthused to get the job, but then he meets the model, and it goes down from there. Mamiya learns that Noeru lives a very irresponsible and tormented life with underage drinking or sleeping with random men. He is in other words a jerk. » Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Boys Love”

Clan of the Nakagamis – The Devil Cometh (vol. 2)
Story and Art: Homerun Ken
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-033-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-033-4

Review by Kris

Everyone says that their family is crazy (believe me I’ve used that excuse a time or two) but in the case of the Nakagamis, they are truly crazy. You have a family obsessed with the middle son Tokio, an older son who is a cross-dressing shojo artist, and a younger brother who is somewhat gullible when it comes to his older brother. But the siblings are just the tip of the iceberg. The mom and dad are eternally youthful and look much younger than their children and the grandfather is the youngest looking one out of the bunch, if you didn’t know any better you’d think he was around the age of ten or so. If you’re interested in checking out reviews for the first volume you can read mine or a great male perspective by Tom Good.

Things seem to going OK with Haruka Iijima and Tokio Nakagami but they aren’t moving fast enough for Iijima thanks to the butting in of the rest of the Nakagami clan. But an ominous wind blows in the son of the head of the family and president of the Nakagami Group, Hibari Nakagami. It seems weird to the rest of the family that Hibari just shows up out of the blue to collect Grandfather Mitsuru (the ten-year-old looking grandpa). But instead of leaving with Grandfather he seems to have taken Tokio’s heart with him leaving Iijima, and the rest of the family worried. Only they’re worried about different things, Iijima feels that Hibari is taking his beloved sensei away from him, and the Nakagami clan figure that Hibari is using the fact that Tokio once had a thing for him to take advantage of him and his youthful appearance. Will Iijima and the rest of the Nakagamis be able to rescue Tokio before anything horrible will happen to him?
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Clan of the Nakagamis – The Devil Cometh (vol. 2)”

Hey, Class President! vol. 1
Story and Art: Kaori Monchi
Published by the 801 Media, Inc. Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-934129-30-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-934129-30-2

Review by Kris

For any yaoi reader you know that when you have an all-boys school there is going to be hooking up. In Kaori Monchi-sensei’s Hey, Class President! there is plenty of sex to go around.

Kokusai and Chiga have been in the Judo club together but recently Kokusai has been elected as class president. It seems that the school’s tradition in to elect the most wanted guy. And that guy is Kokusai. Kokusai gets to select his vice president and that lucky soul is Chiga. Chiga doesn’t understand why on earth anyone would want to elect Kokusai as the class president. He’s slow and clueless to things that are going on around him. He’s a stalker and pervert magnet and he’s always being groped by strangers on the train. Now that Chiga is in the picture he keeps creeps at bay. Chiga is a known womanizer and never has a shortage of girlfriends but since he can’t seem leave Kokusai alone he finds himself attracted to Kokusai as well. What will happen to these two?
» Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Hey Class President! vol. 1″

A Touch of Dead-Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories
By Charlaine Harris, published by Ace Books a/k/a The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Group
Copy purchased by reviewer
ISBN: 0441017835

Reviewed by Ida Vega-Landow

For those of you who can’t get enough of Sookie Stackhouse, this slim volume contains five short stories about our mind reading heroine by her intrepid creator, Charlaine Harris, the Southern belle with the macabre sense of humor. This book is for those who wonder what Sookie does between books—I myself have often wondered when and how she found out about her cousin Hadley’s death before she went to New Orleans to settle her estate in “Definitely Dead”—and whether Ms. Harris can tell a complete story about Sookie without it being book length. Happily, she can do so, with the humor and solemnity we’ve come to expect from the creator of the Southern Vampire series.
» Continue reading “Book review: A Touch of Dead-Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories”

Roanoke, A Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue
By Margaret Lawrence
Published by Delacorte Press, February 2009
Copy supplied by the publisher
ISBN: 0385342373

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

If you’re looking for a good mystery to read during this Season of the Witch, I recommend “Roanoke”, which is about the first, failed English colony in America. Nobody really knows the ultimate fate of the little group of Englishmen and women who settled on Roanoke Island back in 1585. It’s now a thriving city in the state of Virginia, but back then it was a backwater island up the windswept coast of the Carolinas, past Cape Feare, inhabited by the Secota Indians.
» Continue reading “Book review: Roanoke, A Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue”