Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Michelle Smith

Ouran High School Host Club 9 by Bisco Hatori: B

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From the back cover:
In middle school, Tamaki Suoh must entice the coldhearted twins, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, to join his newly created Host Club. But in order to get them to accept his proposal, he must first best them at their own game.

Review:
I didn’t find much to get excited about in this volume. Tamaki’s cuteness was its saving grace, enlivening an otherwise ho-hum chapter about the twins’ induction into the host club and making tolerable a story about an insufferable princess who visited the school and issued many orders. In the course of this latter story, at least, Tamaki finally caught a glimmer of his feelings for Haruhi, and they shared a sweet moment together.

I probably liked the last Host Club chapter in the volume the best simply for its final few pages. They were incredibly adorable, and it’s for moments like this that I read the series. I just wish there were more of them.

Another of the “Love Egoist” short stories was also included, about a boy with a sunny disposition in love with a subdued girl, and I was enjoying it pretty well while I was expecting a bittersweet ending, but the actual resolution was kind of disappointing.

This series definitely has patchy success in terms of keeping the right balance between episodic stories and character development; it didn’t manage too well this time.

Sand Chronicles 1 by Hinako Ashihara: A-

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From the back cover:
After her parents get divorced, Ann Uekusa and her mother move from Tokyo to rural Shimane. Accustomed to the anonymity of city living, Ann can’t get used to the almost overbearing kindness of the people in her mother’s hometown. But when personal tragedy strikes, Ann discovers how much she needs that kindness.

Review:
This was really good, with an original structure that made the story feel special. It started with Ann around age 26, packing and getting ready to get married and move overseas. A memento from her past triggered some memories, and the rest of the volume featured Ann at age 12, then at 14. The setting was also original, taking place in rural and snowy Shimane rather than an urban environment. The essence of a small town was captured nicely, and I swear the snowy scenes really looked cold.

The first story dealt with Ann and her mother in their new surroundings, with Ann meeting some kids her age as well as an old friend of her mother’s, who provided some background information. In the second, she and her friends went on a camping trip, which might sound like a set-up for lame filler, but which actually provided many good character moments. There were some things about the stories I didn’t like, like the predictable outcome of the situation with Ann’s mom in the first story or her obnoxious romantic rival in the second, but they were greatly outnumbered by the things I did like.

I thought it was interesting that the second chapter dealt in part with Ann’s menstrual cycle. That’s a topic I’d never seen in manga before, so it was pretty cool to see a character discussing it with her good friend and just boosted the realism of the series even further. There weren’t any wacky hijinks here, just an “honest girl with a strong will” making her way through some painful times while attempting to cherish each moment of life. I’m looking forward to the next volume.

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey: B-

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From the back cover:
On a clear, sunny morning on the southern coast of England, the screaming gulls announce the location of a ghastly deed. The body of famous screen actress Christine Clay is found lying limp on the beach. Was it an accidental death, or murder? For Scotland Yard’s Inspector Grant, the case becomes a nightmare of too many clues and too many motives, as the world is full of people who wanted the movie star dead.

Review:
This really isn’t a big improvement over the last one. Coincidence still trumps actual investigation as a method for discovering facts. An example is the plucky girl who, convinced of someone’s innocence, goes off in search of an overcoat that will prove it. And just so happens to run into a lorry driver (at the first place she stops to inquire) who gave a lift to an itinerant china mender who’s well-known for nicking overcoats and boots. And whaddaya know, he leads her to the coat.

Two more holdovers from the first novel are the foreigner bashing (though less prevalent this time) and the idea of an actress so radiant that she outshines her leading men. The mystery itself is okay, I guess, though nothing really great. A couple of new characters are fun, though. I wouldn’t mind seeing Erica (the aforementioned plucky girl) again and crime reporter “Jammy” Hopkins is also a fairly interesting addition.

Another of Tey’s Inspector Grant mysteries, The Daughter of Time, has been much praised, but right now I’m having a little difficulty reconciling these first two books with something of such (alleged) calibre.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome: B+

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From the back cover:
“There were four of us—George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency.”

Three men, and a dog, in a boat on one of the prettiest waterways in the world—the Thames—in summer. Idyllic, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps, if George hadn’t insisted on camping, and if someone had remembered the can-opener, and if… well, maybe not idyllic, but certainly hilarious, as you’ll discover when you take the trip yourself with three men and their dog.

Review:
Typically, things deemed “hilarious” rouse in me only a smile, but this book really did elicit a large quantity of giggles and one all-out cackle. This last, however, was the result of a bit of creative license taken by the fabulous narrator, John Rainer (who sounded like a cross between Sylvester McCoy and Ringo Starr—a compliment, I assure you!), where he added some panting sound effects to a bit of doggy dialogue. I seriously rewound it, like, six times and made other people listen to it, too. His performance was responsible for making this book even funnier than it ordinarily would have been.

The premise of the book was simple: believing themselves to be generally ill, overworked, and in need of rest, a trio of friends decided it would be beneficial to their health to have a jaunt up the Thames. What followed was a mix of travelogue, silly mishaps and escapades, random and tangential musings, and the occasional rhapsodic ode to nature. The majority of the time, these were entertaining—I particularly liked the segments on “delights of early morning bathing” and “disadvantages of living in same house with pair of lovers”—but occasionally, especially in the case of the rhapsodic odes, it got rather dull. It seemed the end was especially laden with these episodes and so, in consequence, dragged.

I was a fan of British humor to begin with, but I definitely enjoyed this book more than I’d expected to. I’ve heard the sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, isn’t quite as amusing, but I’ll probably check it out all the same. Rainer doesn’t appear to’ve recorded it, alas.

Hornblower During the Crisis by C. S. Forester: B

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From the back cover:
Although unfinished at the time of C. S. Forester’s death, Hornblower During the Crisis delivers a full measure of action at sea—the hallmark of this incomparably exciting series of historical adventures.

On the threshold of securing his first post as captain, Hornblower finds himself forced by the exigencies of war to fight alongside a man whom he has unintentionally helped to court-martial. And for the first time, Hornblower assents to engaging in espionage in his efforts to bring victory and glory to England in the Napoleonic Wars.

This extant fragment of Forester’s final Hornblower novel is followed by the author’s notes regarding the novel’s conclusion. Also included in this volume are two stories—”Hornblower’s Temptation” and “The Last Encounter”—that depict the great sea dog Hornblower in his youth and old age, respectively.

Review:
I liked what there was of Hornblower During the Crisis, but the best was probably yet to come. Hornblower had the opportunity for one daring exploit and to hatch one clever plan, but that was about it.

The short stories weren’t too exciting, either. The first, here called “Hornblower’s Temptation” but also known as “Hornblower and the Widow McCool,” initially reminded me a little of The Crying Game. Hornblower was appointed to oversee a captured deserter and, in his role as reluctant executioner, made a deal with the prisoner to convey a message to his widow. Things unfolded quite differently than expected, but since it all played out kind of like a Nancy Drew adventure game, the effect was less than amazing.

In “The Last Encounter,” Hornblower was 72 and was enjoying a post-prandial glass of port when a fellow turned up at his house claiming to be Napoleon Bonaparte. This story was short and kind of pointless, though it did have a couple of cute moments between Hornblower and his wife, Barbara.

If I’d been a Forester fan as he was writing, I surely would’ve been disappointed with this final collection of his Hornblower works. Happily, though, since I’ve switched to reading by internal chronology, I’ve got two further books to go that hopefully will be better than this.

Love*Com 2 by Aya Nakahara: A-

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From the back cover:
Risa’s getting really confused about her feelings for Ôtani—she doesn’t know if she wants to help him get back together with his ex-girlfriend or keep him all to herself!

Review:
I didn’t like this volume quite as much as the first, but it’s still really good. This volume hits several major holidays: Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day. At this rate, I wonder how we won’t be through with the characters’ high school years in just a few volumes. I hope this won’t be one of those stories where the author just keeps the characters in the same year even though the seasons are changing around them.

The Christmas story is my favorite of the volume. Nakao, one of the group of friends, has acquired tickets to see some obscure band on Christmas day, and only Risa and Ôtani are particularly keen to go, so they make arrangements to do so. Then Ôtani’s ex shows up and desires to impart a special message to him at a Christmas party. Risa encourages him to go, but then feels all lonely when her all friends have other plans and she’s left to attend the concert alone. Of course, Ôtani shows up at the last moment to keep his original promise. It’s a great moment between them.

A new character appears in the last two chapters: Haruka, a childhood friend of Risa’s who has a hero-worshipping thing going for her. He belittles Ôtani every chance he gets, and I thought it was pretty out-of-character for Risa not to curtail that sooner than she did. There’s some good stuff between Risa and Ôtani near the end of the volume, but I still like these chapters least.

Love*Com 1 by Aya Nakahara: A

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From the back cover:
Risa Koizumi is the tallest girl in class, and the last thing she wants is the humiliation of standing next to Atsushi Ôtani, the shortest guy. Fate and the whole school have other ideas, and the two find themselves cast as the unwilling stars of a bizarre romantic comedy.

Rather than bow to the inevitable, Risa and Atsushi join forces to pursue their true objects of affection. But will their budding friendship become something more complex?

Review:
This is really good! It’s almost got kind of a Marmalade Boy vibe to it somehow, though I can’t really explain why. Maybe ‘cos it’s romance-centric without some other plot figuring in, too.

I like both the lead characters. They think and act the same way, and like the same things, and I’m surprised how much I actually want to see them end up together, though I hope it takes a long time. In this volume, they initially attempt to help the other secure the affections of a crush, but when the crushees take a liking to each other, they transfer their efforts to getting those two together so they can just move on, already.

The art is also neat. Sometimes it’s not super pretty, and hands can be a bit big, but there’s a lot of variety and subtlety in facial expression that I appreciate. Nakahara also draws some really cute hairstyles.

Onward to volume two!

Shade’s Children by Garth Nix: B+

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From the back cover:
In a brutal city of the future, human life is in the hands of the evil Overlords who have decreed that no child live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest—his brains and muscles are used to construct machine-like creatures whose sole purpose is to kill.

The mysterious Shade—once a man, but now more like the machines he fights—recruits the few children lucky enough to escape. He gives them food, shelter, and the training they need to fight the Overlords. But Shade’s sent many children out on missions—and fewer of them are coming back.

By luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade’s children—Ella, Drum, Ninde, and Gold-Eye—have come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords’ power—and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become…

Review:
My friend at work loaned this to me many months ago, and I’ve finally managed to read it. Happily, it was good, so polite dissembling on that point won’t be required.

I definitely enjoyed the book. The Overlords were really creepy and neat, and there were some good surprises along the way. I particularly liked Ella; she kind of reminded me of Buffy at times. She even pondered using a rocket launcher against her foes!

But… I wanted more. I wanted to see more of society both before and after this Change occurred. I wanted to see more of the rest of Shade’s Children (both past and present), to see more missions, to delve more deeply into the characters. Gold-Eye is kind of the protagonist, for it was through his newbie eyes that Shade’s organization was revealed to the reader, but he had the least personality of the four kids. He liked girls. That was about it.

Ultimately, although Shade’s Children afforded more of a glimpse of a world rather than its exploration, it was still completely worth reading and made me want to seek out more by Nix. Thanks, work buddy!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: A+

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From the back cover:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Thus memorably begins Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of the world’s most popular novels. From the initial friction between the opinionated Elizabeth Bennet and the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy, this witty comedy of manners dips and turns through its interlocking plots to reach an immensely satisfying conclusion.

Filled with highly entertaining dialogue, Pride and Prejudice is, in the words of Eudora Welty, as “irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.”

Review:
There isn’t much that I can say in praise of Pride and Prejudice that hasn’t already been said often and better. So, instead I shall just enthuse on various things.

I love that Darcy secretly despises those who constantly court his approval, and loves Elizabeth for her liveliness of mind and playful, unaffected manner.

The writing is snarky and very cleverly wrought, with sentences like: “Their indifference towards Jane, when not immediately before them, restored Elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her original dislike.”

I adore Mr. Bennet, especially his amusement in the foolish behavior of others. Best line (occurring in a scene where his wife expects his cooperation in furthering her aims): “Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”

There are many great scenes, but my favorites are possibly those at the Netherfield ball, where most of the members of the Bennet family behave in a highly embarrassing fashion and where Darcy and Elizabeth have a conversation about Wickham whilst they dance. I also quite enjoy his bungled first proposal.

The minor characters are often very amusing. They’re also capable of grating on the nerves, though, especially Lydia and her absolute lack of repentance after her scandalous behavior with Wickham.

So, I find I concur heartily with the quote above. “Nearly flawless,” indeed.

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane: A-

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From the back cover:
When Jimmy Marcus’ daughter is found murdered, his childhood friend Sean Devine is assigned to the case. His personal life unraveling, the investigation takes Sean back into a world of violence and pain he thought he’d left behind. It also puts him on a collision course with Jimmy Marcus—a man with his own dark past who is eager to solve the crime with brutal justice.

And then there is Dave Boyle, a man who hides monstrous secrets beneath a bland facade—secrets his wife, Celeste, is only beginning to suspect. As the race for a killer heats up, all are pulled closer toward an abyss that will force them to face their true selves—and will mark them as irrevocably as the past itself.

Review:
Mystic River was darkly riveting and well plotted. It was also depressing and disturbing. I was most freaked out by one character’s desperate thoughts while contemplating a very imminent demise; it trod too near things I try very hard not to think about. The whole tale was a tragedy and, while I appreciated how everything fit together, I was relieved to finish it.

It didn’t read like the average mystery story, though I must admit that most mysteries I’ve read are British and maybe a bit erudite in tone, and this was anything but. It was gritty—full of criminals, misery, profanity, and lots and lots of beer—but still thoughtful. So many important things were unspoken, in fact, that it left me wondering how on earth the film adaptation (which I haven’t seen) managed to convey what was going on in the characters’ heads. Even characters who weren’t likeable were still vivid. All that said, however, I thought the truth behind Katie’s murder was disappointing; it felt like Lehane fell back on a stereotype.

I did like it, though I’m not sure it’s the kind of book one can truthfully claim to have enjoyed. And I’d read more by Lehane. But right now, I’m left with a craving for something utterly fluffy.

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman: B+

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From the back cover:
“Beware the seven blessings…”

When she first utters these words, sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart doesn’t know their meaning. But when an employee of her late father hears them, he dies of fear. Thus begins Sally’s terrifying journey into the seamy underworld of Victorian London, in search of clues that will solve the puzzle of her father’s death. Pursued by villains and cutthroats at every turn, she at last uncovers two dark mysteries. One involves the opium trade; the other, a stolen ruby of enormous value. Sally soon learns that she is the key to both—and that it’s worth her very life to find out why.

Review:
This made me cry, dangit. I swear, I am such a sucker for kind fathers. It’s ridiculous.

Anyway, it took me a little while to get into this book, because there were a few mysteries going on simultaneously and nothing really made sense for a couple of chapters. Sally’s coolness as a character really only emerged once she’d left the care of a distant relation and come to live with a photographer and his sister. Their business was in financial straits, and she delighted in devising ways to get it back on track. I loved that she was a competent girl who excelled at bookkeeping and numbers. The supporting cast were also lively and fun, and I snickered more than once.

Anton Lesser narrated the audiobook and he was fabulous. He had distinct voices for each character, and I’ve never heard a man achieve such a realistic voice for a woman as he did for Mrs. Holland. It really added a lot to the experience.

The actual mystery was a little too Holmesian for my taste, what with secret societies, sparkly jewels, and ties to the Mysterious East. I also didn’t like the use of opium as a means to impart revelations upon the heroine. Still, I enjoyed it well enough to continue on with the series. The library has two more narrated by Lesser, so I will definitely be seeking those out.

Hornblower and the Hotspur by C. S. Forester: A

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From the back cover:
April 1803. The Peace of Amiens is breaking down. Napoleon is building ships and amassing an army just across the Channel. Horatio Hornblower—who, at age twenty-seven, has already distinguished himself as one of the most daring and resourceful officers in the Royal Navy—commands the three-masted Hotspur on a dangerous reconnaissance mission that evolves, as war breaks out, into a series of spectacular confrontations. All the while, the introspective young commander struggles to understand his new bride and mother-in-law, his officers and crew, and his own “accursed unhappy temperament”—matters that trouble him more, perhaps, than any of Bonaparte’s cannonballs.

Review:
It took me over a month to finish this, and I’m not sure why since I really did like it a lot. It might’ve been because the problems faced by Hornblower and crew were often exhausting. Like the weeks of raging storms they endured as their supply of drinking water dwindled away, culminating in a mad dash to port in unfavorable winds, necessitating all sorts of changes in navigation and sails. When they were finally free to collapse into heaps, I too went ‘phew’ and wanted to have a bit of a rest.

The characteristics that have made the other Hornblower books so enjoyable were present here as well: interesting and endearing characters, daring exploits coupled with “inexhaustible ingenuity,” and access to the title character’s fascinating thought processes. There were a couple of things that bugged me, but they weren’t major. One was the lack of a map, since the details of a certain bit of French coastline were of particular importance, and the other was the treatment of Hornblower’s seasickness. I’m not sure about this, but I believe that in the other books I’ve read (written earlier, occurring chronologically later) he’d suffer for the first few days at sea and then be fine afterwards. Here, it was a recurring problem.

I learned some new words from this book, but none were as potentially amusing as “ullage,” which means “the amount that a container lacks of being full.” So, next time you open a bag of potato chips to find its contents woefully scant, astound your friends by proclaiming, “What an abhorrent surfeit of ullage!”

Well-Schooled in Murder by Elizabeth George: B+

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From the back cover:
When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whateley goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad’s housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child—and then, tragically, for a child killer.

Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers’s cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew’s death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds—and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making…

Review:
While I did enjoy this book, and felt that the mystery was probably the best in the series so far, it had some pretty significant flaws that ultimately kept it out of the “A” range.

In the previous two books, it had been the personal lives of and interactions between the main detectives that I enjoyed best, with the case itself a distant second. Not so with this installment. I appreciated the decision to show Lynley and Havers working together quite companionably now; any further angsting about possible insuitability would’ve been frustrating; the time was right to move away from that theme.

Doing so, however, left a hole that ended up being only partially filled. There’s a subplot involving Havers’s family and also one involving a couple (friends of Lynley’s) who’ve suffered a chain of miscarriages. The former was okay, though its outcome was predictable, but the latter appeared so sparsely that when it did intrude upon the narrative, it was annoying rather than affecting.

The case itself offered many twists, and though I had a gut feeling about the culprit relatively early on, I was still swayed into suspecting various folks at various times. I thought it got a little convoluted near the end, but otherwise it was good.

Hikaru no Go 11 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata: A

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From the back cover:
Hikaru’s classmate Ochi has won enough games to guarantee his place among the top three players who will pass the pro test. Hikaru, on the other hand, still needs to win more games, and he’ll soon face his friend Waya and Ochi himself, who has been preparing for their match with Akira’s help! When the dust clears, who will be left standing?

Review:
The pro test concluded with this volume. I really enjoyed the match between Hikaru and Waya, and how when Hikaru got stuck, he asked himself what Sai would do in a given situation. There was more focus on Sai this volume than there has been of late, as he began to realize how much Hikaru has improved and how he is becoming a capable stand-in for Sai himself.

I would’ve liked to have seen more of the match between Hikaru and Ochi, after all the set-up it received, culminating in a confrontation wherein Hikaru learned that Akira had been training Ochi nightly and deduced that it was all Akira’s attempt to gauge Hikaru’s strength through Ochi. There was a really cool panel where Ochi and Hikaru were sitting at the board with Akira and Sai behind them, respectively. But alas, much of their match happened off-camera. That said, I really liked that it was from Isumi’s perspective that we learned the result, since it meant the end of his chances of passing this time around.

The volume finished off with Hikaru doing some nostalgic eavesdropping on the middle school Go club to which he used to belong and with his mom wondering whether she ought to fret about his unusual profession. Little touches like these are what make this series truly excellent. I’m sad that I now have to wait until May for the next installment.

Hikaru no Go 10 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata: A-

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From the back cover:
The main round of the pro test has begun. Everyone’s feeling the pressure—no one more so than Hikaru’s friend Isumi, who has failed the test twice before. Fighting off his feelings of self-doubt, Isumi faces his next opponent, who turns out to be Hikaru. But a careless mistake lands the pair in an awkward position!

Review:
This entire volume was full of pro test goodness. Placements shifted a bit throughout these chapters, but it was always clear who was ahead and who’d fallen behind. The complete chart of each player’s wins and losses was also included at one point, which was neat to see. I liked that the focus wasn’t solely on Hikaru.

Once again, though all of the pro test stuff was great, my favorite chapters were those where Akira is dealing with his “fixation” on Shindo, as Ochi (who received a couple lessons from Akira) put it. I particularly liked the last chapter, where Akira recreated his first game against Sai for Ochi to explain his obsession. Ochi was appropriately astonished.

The art was really great, too, though that’s not unusual. I was struck again, though, by the variety among the character designs. No one looked the same, but Obata didn’t need to resort to unrealistic gimmicks to distinguish between characters. This series also has a lot of just average-looking people in it, which is something I appreciate.