Manga Review: Bungo Stray Dogs 01

Manga Review: Bungo Stray Dogs 01 Story by Kafka Asagiri, Art by Sango Harukawa Atsushi Nakajima has had a rough life growing up in an abusive orphanage. When the orphanage was attacked by a tiger that wrecked the place, the people who ran the home decided that Atsushi was somehow responsible and kicked him out.… Continue reading Manga Review: Bungo Stray Dogs 01

Manga Review: Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 1

Manga Review: Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 1 by Izumi Tsubaki Confessing your love to your high-school crush is always a nerve-wracking experience. It’s possible that your beloved returns your affections, but more likely you will receive a flat “not interested”, or “buzz off” or perhaps she will laugh in your face and tell you you are… Continue reading Manga Review: Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 1

Book Review: The Railway Children

Book Review: The Railway Children by E. Nesbit Life takes some odd turns. For example, one day you’re an adorable trio of children living a comfortable upper-middle class life in London. The next, your father is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit and you have to go live in a much less impressive house out in… Continue reading Book Review: The Railway Children

Comic Book Review: Peter Pan and the Language of the Dead

Comic Book Review: Peter Pan and the Language of the Dead by various creators Bento Comics is a collective of comics creators who do print-on-demand and ebook sales, and have made several themed anthologies. This is their 2012 offering, based on the theme of, well, Peter Pan. “An Awfully Big Adventure” written by Fehed Said and drawn by Svetlana Chmakova is a dialogueless tale of a man in… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Peter Pan and the Language of the Dead

Book Review: The New Adventures of Ellery Queen

Book Review: The New Adventures of Ellery Queen by Ellery Queen Ellery Queen was the shared pen name of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, as well as the main character of the mystery stories they wrote. Starting with The Roman Hat Mystery in 1929, they wrote many novels and short stories about a brainy mystery writer solving crimes (and then writing about them in the third… Continue reading Book Review: The New Adventures of Ellery Queen

Book Review: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Book Review: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin On Alice Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, there is a bookstore, Island Books.  It isn’t doing so well right now.   Owner A.J. Fikry was never the most sociable of people, and he’s gotten downright surly since the death of his wife Nic.  Sales… Continue reading Book Review: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Manga Review: Bakuman. Volume 11

Manga Review: Bakuman. Volume 11 story by Tsugumi Ohba, art by Takeshi Obata Moritaka Mashiro’s uncle was a one-hit manga creator whose work appeared in Weekly Shounen Jump back in the day.  After the end of that series, he worked himself to death trying to come up with a new hit.   Warned by this example,… Continue reading Manga Review: Bakuman. Volume 11

Book Review: The Inimitable Jeeves

Book Review: The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse Bertie Wooster may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, as he will sometimes admit.  But compared to some of his friends among the idle rich of England, Bertie’s a model of intellect and common sense.  For example, Bertie knows that keeping his valet Jeeves in… Continue reading Book Review: The Inimitable Jeeves

Magazine Review: Lapham’s Quarterly: A History of Fake News

Magazine Review: Lapham’s Quarterly: A History of Fake News edited by Lewis H. Lapham This is a “special issue” in addition to the four that this magazine normally puts out in a year.  The subject matter is topical as there has been an avalanche of “news” that is in fact not truthful, while certain politicians and… Continue reading Magazine Review: Lapham’s Quarterly: A History of Fake News

Open Thread: Minicon 53

Open Thread: Minicon 53 As noted in my previous con reports, Minicon is a yearly science fiction convention set on Easter weekend.  While Minicon 50 was a few years ago, this year is the closest to the Fiftieth Anniversary of the first Minicon, so it had the subtitle of “The Pedantic One.”  This year the… Continue reading Open Thread: Minicon 53