Book description: Amusing and absolutely appalling things happen on the way to the gallows when murder meets Lord Peter Wimsey and the delightful working-class sleuth Montague Egg. This sumptuous feast of criminal doings and undoings includes a vintage double identity and a horrid incident of feline assassination that will tease the minds of cat lovers everywhere. Not to be … [Read more...] about Hangman’s Holiday by Dorothy L. Sayers: B-
Short Stories
Unsophisticated and Rude by Momoko Tenzen: B+
Unsophisticated and Rude is a collection of five boys’ love tales from Momoko Tenzen. Unlike most compilations in this format, all of the stories are enjoyable and demonstrate an impressive ability to establish unique and compelling characters within a limited number of pages. The first two stories—“Unsophisticated and Rude” and “Pretender”—are the best, offering additional … [Read more...] about Unsophisticated and Rude by Momoko Tenzen: B+
The Happiest Days of Our Lives by Wil Wheaton: B+
From the back cover: Readers of Wil Wheaton's website know that he is a masterful teller of elegant stories about his life. Building on the critical success of Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek, he has collected more of his own favorite stories in his third book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. These are the stories Wil loves to tell, because they are the closest to his heart: … [Read more...] about The Happiest Days of Our Lives by Wil Wheaton: B+
On Bended Knee by Ruri Fujikawa: B-
On Bended Knee is a collection of short stories featuring professional adults (pediatricians, chefs, professors, et cetera) linked together by, as the back cover points out, the common theme of learning to accept one’s true feelings for another. Although too brief to achieve greatness, each story is a pleasant enough read and all are free from the nonconsensual scenes that … [Read more...] about On Bended Knee by Ruri Fujikawa: B-
The Loudest Whisper: Uwasa no Futari 1 by Temari Matsumoto: D
The Loudest Whisper tells the wholly unremarkable tale of school friends Aoyama and Akabane as they experiment with acting like a couple (since rumors at school pair them up anyway). There’s nothing distinctive about the characters or the plot, resulting in a shallow and unsatisfying read. Only 67 pages of this volume are devoted to the main series; the other two-thirds is … [Read more...] about The Loudest Whisper: Uwasa no Futari 1 by Temari Matsumoto: D