Manga Review: So Cute It Hurts Volume 2

Manga Review: So Cute It Hurts Volume 2 by Go Ikeyamada Recapping from Volume 1:  Megumu and Mitsuru Kobayashi, fraternal twins, have been impersonating each other at their respective schools in an effort to get Mitsuru to not fail history.  As a side effect, each of the twins has fallen in love with someone at… Continue reading Manga Review: So Cute It Hurts Volume 2

Magazine Review: Phantom Detective #2: Dealers in Death | The Yacht Club Murders

Magazine Review: Phantom Detective #2: Dealers in Death | The Yacht Club Murders edited by Anthony Tollin. The Phantom Detective was wealthy playboy Richard Curtis Van Loan, who became bored with his civilian life after serving in World War One.   His friend, publisher Frank Havens, suggested he put his brains and assortment of interesting… Continue reading Magazine Review: Phantom Detective #2: Dealers in Death | The Yacht Club Murders

Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Six

Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Six by Makoto Yukimura To recap if you haven’t read the previous reviews:  It is the age of Vikings.  After the murder of Thorfinn’s father, he dedicated his life to revenge on the man who did it.  That didn’t end as he had hoped, and Thorfinn is now a slave on… Continue reading Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Six

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter edited by Mary François Rockcastle. This is the latest volume of Hamline University’s annual literary magazine, which I picked up at the Rain Taxi Book Festival.  The subtitle comes from one of the poems in this issue, “Is This What Poets Do?” by Elizabeth Oness.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter

Manga Review: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 14

Manga Review: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 14 story by Eiji Ohtsuka, art by Housui Yamazaki It’s finally out!  To recap for newer readers, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is five students at a Buddhist college that each have skills or talents related to the dead.  They form a small firm that fulfills the last… Continue reading Manga Review: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 14

Book Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau

Bela Lugosi as "The Sayer of the Law" in "The Island of Lost Souls", a movie based on this story.

Book Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells Edward Prendick, a young man of independent means, decides to take a natural history sea voyage (ala Charles Darwin) aboard the Lady Vain.  Somewhere in the Pacific, that ship crashed into a derelict and was lost.  Prendick and two other men managed to escape in a… Continue reading Book Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau

Book Review: A South Dakota Country School Experience

Book Review: A South Dakota Country School Experience by William E. Lass By happy coincidence, shortly after finishing my review of a school book used in South Dakota country schools, I have found a book about being a student in one of those schools. Mr. Lass is a historian who attended eight grades at Emmett… Continue reading Book Review: A South Dakota Country School Experience

Book Review: The Curious Case of the Jeweled Alicorn

Book Review: The Curious Case of the Jeweled Alicorn by Michael Merriam. We open in media res, as Arkady Bloom’s assignation with Countess Moretti takes a dangerous turn.  It seems that in addition to being a minor court poet, Bloom is also an agent of the Crown’s Supernatural Intervention Agency, and the Countess has stolen the… Continue reading Book Review: The Curious Case of the Jeweled Alicorn

Book Review: Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing

Book Review: Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing by Lynda S. Robinson Lord Meren wanted two things from his trip home to his estate at Baht.  First, to enjoy some rest and relaxation with his children, far from the politics and dangers of the court.  And also to complete a secret task for his friend… Continue reading Book Review: Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing

Book Review: In the South Dakota Country

Book Review: In the South Dakota Country by Effie Florence Putney This is a history of South Dakota written for grade school children in the 1920s, when the frontier days were still in living memory.  (Indeed, my mother was educated in a one-room schoolhouse some years later.)  This was before Mount Rushmore and Wall Drug,… Continue reading Book Review: In the South Dakota Country