Anime Review: My Love Story

Anime Review: My Love Story Takeo Goda is a freshman in high school, but you’d never guess it to look at him.  He’s over six feet tall and built like a truck.  His heart is as big as the rest of him, and Takeo often helps others in need.  Unfortunately, he’s not exactly handsome, and… Continue reading Anime Review: My Love Story

Book Review: Ready Player One

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Wade Watts is a gunter.  That’s short for “Easter egg hunter,” which has nothing to do with the holiday.  Born into grinding poverty as the child of refugees in the energy-starved dystopian future, Wade was orphaned at an early age and put into the hands of a neglectful… Continue reading Book Review: Ready Player One

Audio Review: If We Were Villains

Audio Review: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio Eleven years ago, seven drama students entered their fourth year at the prestigious Dellecher Classical Conservatory.  Now, a decade after the end of that school year, one of those students, Oliver Marks, is being released from prison.  Former police detective Colborne has never entirely bought the official… Continue reading Audio Review: If We Were Villains

Book Review: Tuesdays With Morrie

Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom In 1995, there was fighting in Bosnia, O.J. Simpson was on trial for murder, and a man named Morrie Schwartz was teaching his last class about life.  It met on Tuesdays, and the student was sportswriter Mitch Albom.  Twenty years before, Mitch had been Morrie’s student in… Continue reading Book Review: Tuesdays With Morrie

Anime Review: Erased

Anime Review: Erased (Japanese title Boku Dake ga Inai Machi “The Town Without Me” or “The Town Where Only I Am Missing”) The year is 2006, and Jun “Yuuki” Shiratori is on Death Row for the abduction and murder of three children back in 1988.  Very few people still believe that he’s innocent, considering the substantial circumstantial… Continue reading Anime Review: Erased

Magazine Review: Haute Dish Spring 2016

Magazine Review: Haute Dish Spring 2016 edited by Debby Dathe This pun-titled periodical is the thrice-yearly organ of Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  It features the artistic (mostly photography) and literary talents of the students there.  This issue is thin compared to most college literary magazines I’ve seen, and the written contributions short–the… Continue reading Magazine Review: Haute Dish Spring 2016

Comic Strip Review: Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 3: Reason

Comic Strip Review: Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 3: Reason by Thomas Siddell After Antimony “Annie” Carver’s mother Surma dies, her father Anthony drops her off at her parent’s alma mater, a strange boarding school called Gunnerkrigg Court.  The court is an enormous place, looking rather like an industrial city, but large portions of it seem to… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 3: Reason

Book Review: Classic American Short Stories

Book Review: Classic American Short Stories compiled by Michael Kelahan This book is more or less exactly what it says in the title, a compilation of short(ish) stories written by American authors, most of which are acknowledged as classics by American Lit professors.  The stories are arranged by author in roughly chronological order from the… Continue reading Book Review: Classic American Short Stories

Manga Review: Platinum End 1

Manga Review: Platinum End 1 Story by Tsugumi Ohba, Art by Takeshi Obata Have you ever looked at the world around you and thought, “Wow, God’s not doing a very good job.”?  Perhaps you have even succumbed to hubris and thought you could do a better job if you, personally, had God’s power.  As it… Continue reading Manga Review: Platinum End 1

Manga Review: Futaba-kun Change! Vol. 1

Manga Review: Futaba-kun Change! Vol. 1 by Hiroshi Aro Futaba Shimeru is a junior high school student whose voice has recently changed, and has started noticing girls, especially his pretty classmate Misaki.  One day, a wrestling club teammate gives Futaba a girlie magazine, and the young fellow retreats to the boys’ room to read it.… Continue reading Manga Review: Futaba-kun Change! Vol. 1