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.