The Way of the House Husband, volume 3

Today's post is on The Way of the Househusband, volume 3 by Kousuke Oono.  It is 160 pages long and published by Viz manga. The cover has the main character Tatsu on it hanging laundry.There is no foul language, no sexuality, and no violence in this manga. As it is the third volume in the series you need to have read the first two volumes to really get all of the jokes. The story is told in third person close to different characters that are around Tetsu so we see him the way they do. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- The Immortal Dragon, once the fiercest member of the yakuza, is now a married man devoted to supporting his loving wife—as a househusband! But when the gangster-turned-homemaker needs to make some quick cash to buy her a present, he turns to the only skills he knows…and gets his first part-time job! The cozy yakuza comedy continues!

Review-  Another hilarious volume by Oono.  We continue to follow Tatsu and his wife through their everyday life with Tatsu being over-the-top as he tries to be the best Lieutenant he can for his wife. The adventure that Tatsu and his wife get into vary in this volume from the cockroach returns to Tatsu's surprise birthday party and Christmas party with Tatsu as Santa Claus. The best part of the humor is watching Tatsu  be himself in these very normal circumstances and he is being so outside of the norm for everyone else. This manga has been accused of being a one joke manga. I personally disagree with it but even if it is just one joke it's hilarious and played very well. I cannot wait until volume 4 comes out and I can continue my adventures with Tetsu  and see what silliness he finds himself in. 

I give this manga  Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 2

Today's post is on My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 2 by Satoru Yamaguchi, Nami Hidaka (Illustrator), Shirley Yeung (Translator). It is 268 pages long and is published by J-Novel Club. The cover is a beautiful illustration of the three of the main characters. The intended reader is someone who likes fantasy romance novels with some very pretty pictures. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this novel. The story is in first person close of the character moving from chapter to chapter. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From Kindle blurb- After hitting her head on a rock, Katarina Claes regains the memories of her past life, and realizes that she's been reincarnated into the world the otome game she'd been playing. There's only one problem — she's the villainess of the game, who has only bad endings! From practicing with the sword to crafting fake snakes, Katarina has done her best to prepare for all the possible Catastrophic Bad Ends. Now it's finally time for her to enroll in the Academy of Magic, where the story of the game begins. Unfortunately she only finds more trouble there, starting with meeting the one who may spell her doom — heroine of the game! Join Katarina as she tries to avoid all the bad routes, only to end up getting entangled with them in ways she'd never imagined!

Review- We pick up right where the first volume left off with Katarina starting magic school. But Katarina will overcome with her usual over-the-top antics and optimism! She meets the 'heroine' Maria Campbell, who Katarina proceeds to charm her just like everyone Katarina meets. We have a real villain in this volume for Katarina to overcome and she does so by just being herself. The format is the same in this vole as with the first one with the first half of the chapter being from Katarina's perspective and the second from one of the other characters. The game ends at the end of this novel so I am very excited about where Katarina is going to go now that she is free from the bad ends of the game. I cannot wait to find out.

I give this novel a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this novel with my own money.

A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II

Non-fiction book review is on A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin. It is 309 pages long, including index, notes, and bibliography. Lucas and published by Little, Brown and Company. The cover is a picture taken from the game room where Captain Roberts and his wrens played the war-games. There is mild foul language, no sexuality and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket-  the triumphant story of a group of young women who helped devise a winning strategy to defeat the Nazi U-boats and deliver a decisive victory in the battle of the Atlantic.

By 1941, Winston Churchill had come to believe that the outcome of World War II rested on the battle for the Atlantic. A grand strategy game was devised by Captain Gilbert Roberts and a group of ten Wrens (members of the Women's Royal Naval Service) assigned to his team in an attempt to reveal the tactics behind the vicious success of the German U-boats. Played on a linoleum floor divided into painted squares, it required model ships to be moved across a make-believe ocean in a manner reminiscent of the childhood game, Battleship. Through play, the designers developed "Operation Raspberry," a counter-maneuver that helped turn the tide of World War II.

Combining vibrant novelistic storytelling with extensive research, interviews, and previously unpublished accounts, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy that, in the words of one admiral, "contributed in no small measure to the final defeat of Germany." Rich with unforgettable cinematic detail and larger-than-life characters, A Game of Birds and Wolves is a heart-wrenching tale of ingenuity, dedication, perseverance, and love, bringing to life the imagination and sacrifice required to defeat the Nazis at sea.

Review- A fascinating, narratively told story filled with interesting characters in the drama of World War II. The book begins at the end with Captain Roberts going to Germany to learn if he was right about how the Germans were using their U-boats and then backs up to take us back to the beginning, to Captain Roberts being discharged from the Royal Navy for health reasons. The start of the war no one believed that Germany had the ability to truly stop Britain from getting supplies but they quickly learned that the Germans did have enough U-boats and they were being led by a brilliant commander who believed in U-boats and their crews.  So Captain Roberts is brought back as he had been an instructor and knew more about U-boats than anyone else. Captain Roberts comes up with an ingenious plan of basically playing battleship. Roberts trained the young women who worked for them, they were called wrens,  in basic tactical warfare and they learned. They learned so well they began teaching Royal Navy ship captains and commanders on how to defeat and evade U-boats. This is a fascinating piece of almost forgotten World War II history, with so many women at the center of it. I'm glad that the story has been found and being told to new readers. If you were looking for a different kind of World War II non-fiction book, less about the battles or the concentration camps, then I highly recommend this book.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and  I borrowed this book from my local library

Sleeping Beauty, volume 3

Today's review is on Wake Up Sleeping Beauty, volume 3 by Megumi Morino. It is 192 pages long and is published by Kodansha Comics. As it is the third volume in the series you need to have read the first two to understand the story. The cover has the two main characters in a romantic embrace. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this manga. The story is told from third-person close of the two main characters moving as the story does. There Be Spoilers ahead.

From the back of the book- The Suffering.

As Shizu begins to venture outside more and more, her days are filled with new experiences. When she shows an interest in going to school, Tetsu and the spirits dwelling within Shizu come up with a foolproof plan to get her there. But when the two teens arrive on campus they bump into Tetsu’s old soccer team. Suddenly his carefully curated life begins to unravel and Shizu may be the only one who can save him.

Review-  We get to see more of what's driving Tetsu in this volume. We know that his family is struggling with finances but seeing him but seeing him give up his soccer which was so important to him was very moving. Shizu  Wants to see him happy again because she is finally starting to care about the world.  So with the help of his soccer team Shizu  helps him play one last game with them. This volume is more about character development instead of world development so I really enjoyed it. Tetsu and Shizu are starting to grow closer and that's good for her but it's making Tetsu’s life a little more difficult. This manga is very sad but I'm hopeful that the ending will actually be good because Shizu  it's starting to grow beyond what she thought she could be and more importantly what her family thought she could be. I look forward to seeing where she goes in the future volumes.

I give this volume at four out of five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.

In the Shadow of Spindrift House

Today's post is on In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant. It is 200 pages long and is published by Subterranean Press. The cover is shades of green with a house in the center and a woman standing water with tentacles coming up to her. The intended reader is someone who likes Lovecraft, horror, and playing with tropes. The story is told from first person close of the main character Harlowe. There is some mild foul language, talk of sex and sexuality, and no violence in this novel. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Nature abhors a straight line. The natural world is a place of curves and softened edges, of gentle mists and welcoming spirals. Nature remembers deviation; nature does not forgive.
For Harlowe Upton-Jones, life has never been a straight line. Shipped off to live with her paternal grandparents after a mysterious cult killed her mother and father, she has grown up chasing the question behind the curve, becoming part of a tight-knit teen detective agency. But “teen” is a limited time offer, and when her friends start looking for adult professions, it’s up to Harlowe to find them one last case so that they can go out in a blaze of glory.
Welcome to Spindrift House.
The stories and legends surrounding the decrepit property are countless and contradictory, but one thing is clear: there are people willing to pay a great deal to determine the legal ownership of the house. When Harlowe and her friends agree to investigate the mystery behind the manor, they do so on the assumption that they’ll be going down in history as the ones who determined who built Spindrift House—and why. The house has secrets. They have the skills. They have a plan. They have everything they need to solve the mystery.
Everything they need except for time. Because Spindrift House keeps its secrets for a reason, and it has no intention of letting them go.
Nature abhors a straight line.
Here’s where the story bends.

Review- This novel was very well-written, playing with some interesting tropes, but something about it just fell flat for me. Harlowe Upton-Jones wants to keep her friends together and thinks that if they solve the mystery of who owns Spindrift House and get the money for doing so, they will not need to get adult jobs or move away. But Spindrift House has been waiting for Harlowe and once they walk into the house nothing will never be the same. Grant plays with the teen detective tropes well; with the smart one Harlowe, the fighter Addison, the anxious one Kevin, and the one with common sense Andy. They know they roles and they stick to them. But Spindrift House does not care what roles the teen played, only in who they bring with them. This is not really very scary story at all, it is more just an interesting haunted house story. I would have liked the house to be present in the whole story but it only really comes to talk in the end and those are the best scenes in the book. It would be interesting to see more of this world because I wanted more from this novel but it ending is just fine. If you like Grant and Lovecraft then you try this novel.

I give this novel a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

Fighting Words: The bold American Journalists Who Brought The World Home Between The Wars

Today's nonfiction characters are Fighting Words: The bold American Journalists Who Brought The World Home Between The Wars by Nancy F. Cott.  It is 402 pages long and is published by basic books. The cover is blue with an old style spiral notebook in the center. The intended readers is someone who's interested in It has to be, journalistic history, and the lives of four journalists over the course of the 1920s and 30s. There is mild foul language sexuality and discussion of violence in this piece.  There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket-  At a time when print media reign supreme and newspapers were legion, a crop of young Americans impulsively left their homes to reinvent themselves as foreign correspondents. Dorothy Thompson, John Gunther, Vincent Sheehan, Rayna Raphaelson adopted the power of the press as their own as they travel the globe. In the tumultuous decades following the first world war, they confronted political challenges that still reverberate today-  democracy vs authoritarianism, global  responsibility versus isolationism, press  objectivity versus propaganda. By the early 1930s that they were in anti-fascist Vanguard, keenly aware of Hitler's impending Menace, alerting Americans to political urgencies far away. They were recalibrating their intimate lives with lovers and spouses at the same time, navigating sexual passions and frictions. Their experiences trace the development of not only International journalism but also the making of the modern self.

A riveting group portrait of four extraordinary Americans abroad the Golden Age of foreign correspondents, Fighting Words shows how these youthful cosmopolitan's reshaped America's sense of its role in the world.

Review-  An interesting, well-written, in-depth look at the lives of four people I knew absolutely nothing about. Cott gives the reader excellent insight into her four subjects by following them from their childhood to their deaths but the main focus of the book is on their reporting work during the 1920s and 30s. All four traveled the globe, some of them more than once, and they wrote about their experiences and the world that they encountered. With first-hand documents be that their personal journals or articles that they wrote, we see the world that they saw and experience it with them. At times the book can be slow going as there are many details, but in the end I found it very worth my time and I learned quite a bit about American journalism and four of the people who innovated with it. I do wonder why she decided to write one book about these four people instead of concentrating on one as any one of them would make a fascinating biography but that was my only complaint. The writing is engaging and interesting, the people themselves are fascinating, and this is a good non-fiction book.

 I give this book a 4 out of 5 Stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

Gunparade March volume 1

Today's book review is on Gunparade March volume 1 by Hiroyuki Sanada. It is 204 pages long and is published by ADV Manga. The cover has the two main characters on it looking at the reader. The intended reader is someone who likes manga stories with mechs in them and unearthly monsters.There is mild foul language, mild sexuality and mild violence in this manga. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

 From the back of the book- The Beginning of the End?

The world changed in 1945-  and not for the better. And otherworldly Invasion Beset the battle-weary inhabitants of Earth at the close of the Pacific War. Droves of phantom beasts sought to annihilate the human race, but when faced with a common enemy, the nations of the world pulled together and fought back. 50 years later, these Alien Invaders continue to menace Humanity, pushing them even closer to Extinction. A major assault decimated the Japanese military, thus forcing it's good citizens to pay the ultimate price-  enlist their teenage sons and daughters so that the human race can have a chance to survive. This is the story of the humanoid walking tank unit 5121, a group of teens who, rather than lead lives of ordinary high school students, take up arms to ensure the survival of mankind. The battle for existence begins here, and Gunparade March. 

 Review-  This is a slow to start manga with a lot of world-building and some character building but not enough  for the depth of the story. The basic premise is that teenage children are piloting Mecha robots to fight monsters, that's a good premise but there are so many unanswered questions in this first volume that the last two volumes are going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting. We don't understand who's pulling the strings to put these kids on the front lines or why, we don't understand where the Phantom Beast came from or even what they really are.  We have two main characters; one is a young man who has chosen to join the mecha unit for unknown reasons and the other is a young woman who joined it because she wants to uphold her family's high ideals. The monsters are interesting and I look forward to learning more about them. The action scenes are fast and but not very clearly Illustrated so there is some confusion about what's really going on. I hope that that is cleared up in the later volumes. As the series is only three volumes long I'm not sure how much they can do in the next two volumes to help clear up these concerns. I would recommend this manga if you are a fan of Mecha anime.

I give this manga Three stars out of Five. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.

Summer of Fear

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Today's post is on Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan. It is 256 pages long and published by Little, Brown, and Company. The cover has a faceless red-haired girl on it with the title in the center of her face. The intended reader is someone who likes young adult horror. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and mild violence in this novel. The story is from first person close of the main character Rachel. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- From the moment Rachel's family takes in her orphaned cousin Julia, strange things start to happen. Rachel grows suspicious but soon finds herself alienated from her own life. Julia seems to have enchanted everyone to turn against her, leaving Rachel on her own to discover the truth.
A wax figure and a photograph are all the evidence Rachel has, but she soon suspects that Julia is a witch. But how can she prove it when she has more questions than answers? One thins about Julia is certain- she is not who she says she is, and Rachel's family is in grave danger.

Review- An average young adult horror novel not bad but if you are looking for a real scare then this one is not for you. The writing is fine, the characters are believable but the horror just did not stick with me. Julia is odd and acts strange but I did not find her too scary. Rachel was sympathetic but I would have liked to see she really deal with something horrifying. I wanted more from this novel than it has. If you are looking for a good intro horror novel then you should give this one a try.

I give this novel a Three out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America's Most Dangerous Cults

Today's nonfiction post is on Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America's Most Dangerous Cults by Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr. It is 411 pages long and is published by Hanover Square press. The cover is a faded out painting of what looks like a field with the title dominating the cover of the book. The intended reader is someone who's interested in true crime, religious cults, and the thin line where they cross. There is foul language, descriptions of sexual abuse and assault, and far too much violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book-  An explosive investigation into the Word of Faith Fellowship, a secretive Evangelical cult whose charismatic female leader is a master of manipulation. 

In 1979, Jane Whaley, a fiery preacher with a thick Southern drawl, attracted a small group of followers- twenty-two men and women drawn in by her passion and her promise that through prayer and deliverance, they could turn their lives around.

In the years since, Whaley’s following has expanded to include thousands of congregants across three continents. In the eyes of her followers, she's a prophet- to disobey her means eternal damnation. It could also mean hours of physical abuse. The control she exerts is absolute: she decides what her followers study, where they work, whom they can marry- even when they can have sex.

Broken Faith is the meticulously reported story of a singular female cult leader, a terrifying portrait of Life inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, and the harrowing account of one family who escaped after two decades. Based on hundreds of interviews, secretly recorded conversations, and thousands of pages of documents, Broken Faith offers both a cautionary tale and a deeply emotional examination of Faith, resilience, and family. It's the story of an entire community's descent into darkness- and for some, the winding journey back to the light. 

Review-  This is a very difficult book to read because of content not writing style. As I was reading it I had to read it one chapter at a time and then take a break. It is difficult and heartbreaking to read the stories of the survivors of this cult. Weiss and Mohr do a wonderful job of reporting the survivors' stories, with huge parts of it being told directly from them to the reader. We follow Jane Whaley from the wife of a preacher to being the head of a cult that goes across continents and has thousands of members. This book shows how easy it is to be taken into a cult and then be unable to leave when you discover what exactly you have been involved in. I do recommend this book, but I do also caution the reader. It is difficult to read, it discusses frankly difficult topics, and unfortunately at the end the villains are still free. But if you are interested in cults you should give this book a look.

 I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

Skip Beat!, volume 16

Today's post is on Skip Beat!, volume 16 by Yoshiki Nakamura. It is 210 pages long and is published by Shojo Beat. The cover has Kyoko and Ren on it locked in an embrace. As it is the sixteenth in the long running series you need to have read the first fifteen to understand the story. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this manga. The story is told from the third person close of Kyoko and at time Ren. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- Saving Kyoko from Reino's attack has finally knocked some sense into ho's head, and he realizes how much he cares for her. But before he can declare his devotion, Ren shows up to ruin the moment. Both men realize that Kyoko has no idea of true feelings for her and begin a secret battle for her affections!

Review- After the previous volume intensity, this is a much calmer volume with all the drama being from Ren and Sho. We do see Reino but he does not intact with Kyoko and that made me happy because Reino was very creepy to her and I was really uncomfortable with their interactions. Ren and Sho both realize that they has feelings for Kyoko but I am not sure about how genuine Sho's feelings are or that they are romantic feelings. Ren on the other hand, his feelings are romantic and he is struggling with his feelings for Kyoko. That is really the plot in this volume. Not much plot movement but lots of character development so I enjoyed seeing Ren deal with his feelings after running from them for so long. Kyoko and Ren have some growth in their relationship and I am looking forward to seeing what is going to happen next.

I give this volume a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.

The Way You Make Me Feel

Today's post is on The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo. It s 336 pages long and is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The cover is light blue changing to pink as it goes on with the main character Clara on it. The intended reader is someone who likes young adult romances. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and no violence in this novel. The story is told from first person of Clara. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Sixteen-year-old Clara Shin doesn't take life too seriously, but when she pushes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra. Clara was supposed to go on vacation to Tulum to visit her social media-influencer mom; she as supposed to spend lazy days at the pool with buddies. Being stuck in a sweaty Korean Brazilian food truck all day, every day? Worse still, working alongside her nemesis, Rose Carver? Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined.
But as time goes on, it turns out that maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) who's crushing on Clara is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad's business. What is taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?

Review- Another cute story from Maureen Goo. Clara is a prankster but her friends are the ones behind the plot of this novel. As a joke she gets nominated for homecoming queen and wins, she pulls a classic prank. Of course things get out of hand and she gets stuck working off her fine with her dad. Clara does change over the course of the summer but at times I felt that it was being forced on to her, like when she is blamed for winning the prom queen thing, when she did just did what everyone else was doing. But that was my only small complaint with this novel. I really liked all the characters, the plot was good, and the honest look at how fast people can change was refreshing and fun. If you liked Goo's first novel then you should definitely read this one.

I give this novel a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

Night Shift

Today's review is on Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow. It is 227 pages long and is published by orbit. The cover is purple with the main character in the center looking tough. It is the first in the Jill Kismet series. there's foul language, very mild sexuality, and in this volume. The intended reader is someone who likes gritty Urban fantasies, strong female leads and creative worlds. The story is told from the first-person perspective of Jill, the main character. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- Jill Kismet. Dealer in Dark Things. Spiritual Exterminator. Demon Slayer.

Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night.

Not everyone tries.

But Jill Kismet is not just anyone.

She's a Hunter, trained by the best - and in over her head.

Welcome to the night shift…

Review- A wonderful first novel in a series by Saintcrow. Jill Kismet is the Hunter for the city of Santa Luz. And she has a very busy night life. Her night goes from stopping a Trader, someone who trades in human flesh to the underworld to the brutal slaying of five police officers and werewolves hunting one of their own. Kismet is an interesting character. She is flawed, difficult, but ultimately her heart and her mind are in the right place. She understands that her sacrifices may not earn her a place in heaven but they keep others out of hell. Saintcrow loves to write these kinds of characters, women who are difficult, women who are not easy to understand, or like. Ultimately her characters are more than their difficult characteristics; they are heroes who are just doing the best they can with what they have and the dark worlds they find themselves in. I will be interested to see where Kismet and her, probably new lover, Saul Dustcircle go in the next volume. 

 I give this volume a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money. 

The Dictionary Wars: the American fight of the English Language

Today's non-fiction book review is on The Dictionary Wars: the American fight of the English Language by Peter Martin. It is 358 pages long including index and bibliography and is published by Princeton University press. There is no foul language, no sexuality and no violence in this book. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of American Dictionary making. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket - A compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of  English.

In The Dictionary Wars, Peter Martin recounts the Patriotic fervor in the early American Republic to produce its definitive National dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into the battle among lexicographers, authors, Scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language.

The overwhelming questions in The Dictionary Wars involved which and whose English was truly American and whether a dictionary of English should attempt to be American at all, independent from Britain. Martin tells the human story of the intense rivalry between America's first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, who fought over who could best represent the soul and identity of American culture. Webster believed in American Dictionary, like the American language,  ought to be informed by the nation's republican principles, but Worcester thought that such language reforms were reckless and went too far. Their conflict continued beyond Webster's death, when the ambitious Merriam Brothers acquired the publishing rights to Webster's American dictionary and launched their own language wars. From the beginning of the nineteenth Century to the end of the Civil War, the dictionary wars also engaged America's colleges, libraries, newspapers, religious groups, and state legislatures at the pivotal historical moment that coincided with the rising of literacy and the print Revolution.

Delving into the personal stories and national debates that arose from the conflict surrounding America's first dictionaries, The Dictionary Wars examines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a Nation. 

Review- An interesting historical book about interesting but very dramatic people. The reader starts out following Webster at a young age all the way until the end where the Miriam Brothers have won the Dictionary Wars but at the cost of Webster's vision. Matrin has records, personal letters, and other first-hand documents that he uses to reconstruct the drama that surrounded Webster and his dictionary from when he first began to build it to what we would consider the modern Webster's Dictionary today. Webster had a vision that an American Dictionary would be wholly unique from all other English dictionaries in the world. He justified that by saying America was a wholly new nation set on wholly new ideals but he was not the best Lexicographer and his dictionary suffered for that. Worcester was the much better and solid scholar of the two men but he was a more retiring personality and only wanted to make his dictionaries and spelling books for children.The clash of the two personalities over the building of America's dictionary was intense and at times absurd. the sniping and fighting language in the letters between each other and about each other to other people was quite funny and the reader should delight in reading these two scholars tear each other apart over the meaning of a word. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the history of dictionary making or Noah Webster or Joseph Worcester.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

That Wolf-Boy is Mine!, volume 3

Today's post is on That Wolf-Boy is Mine!, volume 3 by Yoko Nogiri. It is 176 pages long and is published by Kodansha Comics. The cover has Aoshi the tanuki on it. As it is the third volume you need to have read the first two volumes to understand the story. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this manga. The story is told from third person close of the two main characters. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- Just Friends.
After Rin shares profound insights with Komugi about her crush, she learns it's easier to bottle up her feeligns for the wolf-boy, Yu. As Komugi gets to really know Rin the fox, hos cold exterior slowly melts away- and Yu can't help but be concerned. In order to let someone new into his heart, Yu struggles to confront his emotional trauma fro the past. but by the time Yu realizes his true emotions, somethings unthinkable has happened to Komugi...

Review- More drama in this volume with Komugi being confronted by the boys teacher who wants her to go away. She is causing trouble without meaning to and he wants to make things go back to the way they were before. Komugi does have the chance to leave but she wants to stay when she discovers that she and Yu met when they were children. So the answers to the future are in the past and Yu must deal with his past in order to move forward. But drama at the end with Komugi losing her memories and what is Yu gong to do now? This volume is all about plot with some character growth. With one more volume I am curious about how everything is going to end up.

I give this volume a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.